2024-02-03: Pokemoon Tips
- Log: 2024-02-03 Pokemoon Tips
- Cast: Lan Lilac, Blue Oak
- Where: Viridian City - Emerald Way
- Date: February 03, 2024
- Summary: Blue helps Lan realize what she's lacking as a Pokemon Trainer.
by making her cry
=======================<* Viridian City - Emerald Way *>======================== Viridian City is a city of many importances; it is the major commerce and logistics hub within the Emerald Cape province, providing primary access to the western reaches of the Kanto region. It's of no surprise, then, that it sports an expansive and well-developed commercial district, with Market Way providing a wide variety of shops and goods for all walks of life. Lush and adorned with nature, Viridian's residents enjoy a spacious and relaxed environment, with most living in medium-density apartment blocks three to four stories high. The market is most recently memorably featured in the hit single by sensational Nedean-pop band 2BA, "I'm on the Road to Viridian City." BGM: Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee & Pikachu! - Pewter City - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGrGjO5F6ZM
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It is a beautiful day in Viridian City, and Lan is a terrible Pokemon Trainer.
No seriously, she's not good at it at all. She's never really had to teach anybody anything before! And she didn't even know that Pokemon existed a month ago. So if she's getting most of her knowledge from a book, it can't really be held against her, right? It's the right thing to do for the Lunatone that's traveling with her. She sees people and Pokemon working together, more or less in harmony, all over the place!
And every Battle Girl she's challenged to a sparring match has sent their Pokemon out first, and Lunatone loses as many battles as it wins.
Lan wins a few more of her own battles than she loses, but that's just because she learned quickly that nobody wants to fight a Visitor that uses bullshit alien magic attacks. So she's been stuck with purely physical moves, but at least it's been great for her footwork!
She's sitting on a bench in the shade of a tree on a not-too-busy Viridian street, with her nose stuck in a book. She looks... very concerned. Lunatone is floating over her shoulder, also looking at the book.
It's about the worst title a beginner could have chosen. C. DIBBLER'S E-Z GUIDE TO TOTAL POKEMON MASTERY! the cover proclaims in large, flashy font. That guy got busted two years ago for selling fake supplements!
<Pose Tracker> Blue Oak has posed.
Blue Oak is not normally one to offer people advice out of nowhere. You can get consultant money for that! As the youth walks with two sandwiches in hand, feeding one to his Alakazam he took on a walk, he stops.
His eyes scan over to the bench as he looks for somewhere to sit, and he sees the book cover. C. Dibbler, the laughing stock of Pokemon Trainer Self-Help. He has books still? People still buy them?! His eye twitches as he hands Alakazam his sandwich, with the Pokemon telekinetically lifting the book to continue reading.
How to approach this, Blue wonders, before cutting the Gordian knot. "Hey, you! Foreigner! Who sold you that book? You should get your money back before you get your Pokemon hurt!" A pause, as he takes a bite of his hoagie.
However, after his outburst, Blue realizes she's probaly reading it because she needs help, so he inhales, exhales, and mildly calms himself. "Dibbler's a scam artist. We busted him two years ago, the stuff he was peddling was more poison than assistive. His exercise techniques lead to strain in your Pokemon and his battle advice is just flawed when labbing it. I ran the techniques through some paces to help out the League and they just, man, they sucked."
Alakazam continues to read his book, flipping a page with one careful finger.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan, on the other hand, will offer advice whenever, wherever. Especially if it's inconvenient or unwanted. Not on purpose: she's just got That Kind Of Nature. She's helping, she swears!
'Hey you! Foreigner!' She looks up, the accursed tome lowering a few inches to reveal more of her face. She's probably ten years older than him, a Real Adult or whatever passes for one out there in space. But she's wearing sporty Nedian clothes: a scarlet zip-up jacket over a turquoise camisole and black skort, with some RUNNING SHOES for good measure. "Huh? Wait, it's really that bad??" She sticks her finger in it to mark her place before turning it over to look at the back cover. "But it has all these good things to say about him on the back..."
Lan is not familiar with a publishing industry that actually uses blurbs to sell books, and thus couldn't spot a paid promotion if it bit her.
She sighs, and closes the E-Z GUIDE. "Are you a police officer like Jenny? Or... well, I guess you're a little young..." Hey, they send kids out into the world by themselves way younger than Lan's own village does, maybe a teenager could be a seasoned detective or something! Lunatone floats down from its spot hovering over her shoulder and spins once in greeting, making a noise that sounds like pebbles scattering down an incline. "Oh, right. I'm Lan Lilac. And this is Lunatone. A Lunatone. Uh..." She looks at her Pokemon briefly, as if she isn't even sure of what to call it.
Is... is she that new?
"What's 'labbing'?" she asks next, because of course she does.
<Pose Tracker> Blue Oak has posed.
"I'm not a cop," Blue thumbs his nose. "I'm a Champion-class trainer. Way cooler. Maybe you've seen my commercials? With the burger shop?"
He flashes a grin and a thumbs-up. "Tauros Tom's Burger Joint! Get the Super Pounder today!"
"Blue Oak," he introduces himself, looking over her Lunatone skeptically. "You didn't name him?" He thumbs over to Alakazam. "This is Magician. He's an Alakazam. I've had him since I was ten."
The labbing comment gets a sigh. "Let's forget about that for right now. How... how much do you know about Pokemon? What are you feeding 'em? What's your workout regimen?"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Champion," she echoes. There's at least some recognition there, although gods only know if she truly grasps its cultural significance quite yet. "So you and your Pokemon're really strong, right?" Lan perks up. So that means he must know what he's talking about when it comes to the book being bad. "I guess at least I'm not out a lot of money. It was on an outside sale table and everything." Alongside many other books, none of which looked like the five-gella novels that she and Gwen trade back and forth.
But his family name is familiar, at least. "Are you related to Professor Oak? I've been to his lab... oh," she seems to realize. "Labbing."
His Alakazam gets a friendly nod and a cheery little wave. "Hi Magician! It's nice to meet you too. And... it's kind of complicated." She glances over at her Lunatone, and reaches out a hand to pet along the rocky curve of its surface. "He's not really 'mine'. We uh... he was all crazy, because another Pokemon was making all the Pokemon in a cave system go wild? So I caught him in a Pokeball to stop him from attacking everybody and then I didn't get a chance to let him out until way later, and it wasn't the right cave system then, so when we go back to the right cave he can go home if he wants..."
Her eyebrows knit together, though, and her fingers go still. Lan clearly doesn't want that. But does the Lunatone? Its expression is hard to read.
"Oh, uh! I know that they're creatures blessed with Symbology, and they generally like people and want to partner up with them sometimes, and they have different types? And some types are strong or weak against other types? There was a chart," she tries to explain, hands gesturing vaguely. "At the Pokemon School." So she at least took advantage of the basic lessons! "And I got Rock Chow, and he gets little bits of my food sometimes. And so far I'm up to five pushups with him sitting on my back, but I can't do a sixth yet."
<Pose Tracker> Blue Oak has posed.
"Yeah, he's my gramps. And no, that's the wrong labbing." Blue replies about his grandfather, listening to Lan's story about the Lunatone. "If you caught him, he's yours until you release him. ...wait, do you think he's just floating around you because he has to? Dude. Dude."
Blue sighs, taking a moment to finish his sandwich, washing it down with a water bottle, before continuing. "Dude. He's with you because *he likes you*. There's many cases of unruly Pokemon after being caught, and he doesn't seem to be it."
Alakazam floats the book into Blue's bag, stepping up to Lunatone. He makes a noise, thinking, before nodding to Blue in agreement.
"Okay, Magician agrees with me, because I'm always right. I mean, if I asked him to come with me instead, what do you think he'd say?"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"He doesn't have to do anything!" Lan protests. "He's just--!" He's just helping her out. He's just tagging along for now. Until she takes him home. Until he can go back home, like Lan can't. Lunatone will go home and Lan will be happy for it.
"He's just hanging out with me for a while," she continues, voice a little strangled. Lunatone floats closer and sinks onto the bench at her side. "So he can..." She sniffles, and swipes her knuckles across her nose. "So he can...!" Her lip wobbles.
She doesn't want Lunatone to go with Blue! It's selfish of her (it's normal of her) but she doesn't! "It's importaaahaaaaaaaaaaaant...!" she wails, but clenches her hands into fists and straightens her back and wills the tears not to fall. "It's important that he gets the choice! I don't know what he'd say!" Lunatone leans against her side, and Lan pulls him onto her lap. He's small for a Lunatone, but still the size of a really awkwardly enormous throw pillow.
That's the problem, isn't it? Because she's been preparing for Lunatone to leave, Lan hasn't opened her heart to him. Because she doesn't want to be hurt again. So of course she can't understand him.
She scrubs at her eyes with a fist. "Geez, all I've done this week is cry on people... I'm sorry!" Lunatone closes its visible eye and hums a single quiet, droning note. It takes her a second to put herself back together, but Lan does. Sniff! "Sorry, sorry... Thank you, Blue. Thank you, Magician."
<Pose Tracker> Blue Oak has posed.
The crying as Lan determines that Lunatone must make his own decision, while clearly not wanting to give him up, causes Blue to sigh. He considers ramming the point into her head, but that won't teach her anything. She needs to understand her bond herself.
Thinking, he looks down to his Pokeballs and gets an idea.
"Look at me!" The second she makes eye contact, he smirks. "I'm challenging you to a one-on-one battle. Not right now, because I'd wipe the floor with you, but I'll give you time to train your Lunatone. Gimme your contact info, I'll reach you when I'm ready. If you refuse, you'll be in big trouble!"
"Alright? So you better make sure you have a serviceable fighting spirit. Go ask around! Ask your friends! Tell them you're battling Champion Blue!"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
See what Lunatone has to put up with???
Blue would probably have to spend a long, long time and far too many of his own braincells to get his point across the straightforward way. But the method he chooses instead is nothing short of inspired. "Huh?" she looks up, and their eyes meet. Hers are pale lavender and earnest (and right now they're kind of red and watery but she's trying, damn it), and she doesn't look away from him. Lan understands the weight of a warrior's challenge!
Her lip wobbles again, but her mouth curves back into a shaky smile. "I, I accept your challenge! I'll never back down!" She's a Baskar shaman! She's a daughter of Little Firelight! She's Lan Lilac, and Rigdobrite chose her, and Lunatone apparently chose her, and she can't let them down now.
She fumbles in her hip pocket for a very simple phone and hands it over to him. "They wrote the number on the back," Lan tells him. "We'll train hard. Promise."
<Pose Tracker> Blue Oak has posed.
"You better." Blue pulls out his phone and places Lan's number in it, before turning around to walk away. "Don't disappoint me! I'm expecting a good fight."
Alakazam nods, walking with him.
"Smell ya later!" Blue shouts without turning, moving to finish his trip in Viridian.