Air Continent ~ Bone's Abode

[Tanuki]

Zane’s head didn’t have enough ram for any of this. Only sparse snippets of their conversation even went through to him. He couldn’t admit Vix was right, but the thought of memories returning shot a bleak hole through his already bleak plan. Remembering a world where he ran everyone away, pitted himself in infamous isolation sounded like a fresh, new Hell.

It wasn’t fresh or new, though. He had plenty memories of such a world. Jolt’s. He was a monster. The very sight of him invoked contemptuous looks, screams, swears, a frying pan he could still feel smashed into his skull, because that was who he was. Whatever stupid voice sent him knew that when it made his form.

He was made to be hated. No amount of community service, rescues, or any selfless act would keep them from running him out of town. He got what he deserved. Some people were born to be hated; fighting it was pointless.

“Strategy?” He thought he heard someone ask him about his at some point. “Don’t have much of one. Just a really punchable face.” He smirked. “Call it talent. People get a kick out of beating me senseless, and I’d rather they hit me than someone who can actually fight.”

 

[Fusion]

"That's a pretty good strategy, actually. Even if it's usually at one member's expense, keeping casualties to a minimum is one of the better ways to play a battle," Vix nodded. If her powers were coming in the way she thought they were, she'd be able to keep Zane from getting knocked out as fast. A damage sponge turned into a tank via magical wax...

That sounded better when she didn't exactly think about it.

"I might be able to help you with that, Zane. Maybe even Jaro too. My wax has some defensive capabilities, and seeing how both of you rely on getting hit, surely that'd be of some use to you guys."

 

[The Walrein]

"Uh, I don't know if I'd call just 'having a punchable face' a 'strategy', exactly, but maybe if you combined it with some moves like Protect or Counter, that would count? Or if you used Taunt to draw even more attention. Not sure if you've already been doing that, though..."

Jaro thought for a moment on Vix's power. "Can you asphyxiate people by covering them in wax? That could be a powerful tactic." Although a rather unsettling one, to be honest. "As for using it defensively... oddly enough, my Bide strategy actually works better when I take more damage from hits, so you'd probably be better off using it on someone else. Although, if I decide to just absorb hits for people, the wax armor would be useful for me, then."

 

[Tanuki]

What the hell was Jaro talking about? Taunts? That’s all Zane did during battle. Did he really think Zane had the battle knowledge to counter an attack? What planet did he come from? Protecting was the entire point of taking hits for the team!

Zane couldn’t help the disbelief dripping off his expression. Instead, he turned to Vix, keeping a confused stare on Jaro. “Thanks, but no thanks. Save your wax for the people who deserv—need it. Without the DPS, we don’t stand a chance.”

 

[Fusion]

"I'll have to see if I can choke someone with my wax, actually. Not that I'll find any volunteers," Vix snickered. No willing volunteers, at least. Good thing she didn't say that out loud.

"And using a wax shield on the guy taking all the hits is exactly the thing we need to keep the DPS alive. If you can take more hits, then no one else will have to worry about taking them," she said. "We might not stand a chance without the DPS, but we'll be even worse off without our cherished 'punchable face.'"

 

[The Walrein]

Great, sounded like Jaro was out of the loop about something again... "Wait, who or what is 'the DPS'?" he asked. "Uh, aside from that, I do think that it's wise to spread out our boosting moves to a certain degree - makes it harder to effectively disable all of us at once."

 

[Tanuki]

Zane felt like Jaro came from an entirely different plane of existence and soon realized that was because he did. Hell, Zane had no idea where he heard the term either, just used it when it came to mind. “DPS, y’know? Stands for damage per second, used commonly first in rpgs, though it’s used in most team-based games now. Ever played...”

By an act of some divine being, Zane gained half an ounce of self-awareness in that moment. No, Jaro hadn’t ever played any video game and probably didn’t know what one was. He was a pokémon. Zane didn’t even know why he knew what a video game was. Dear God, was he a nerd before he was a zangoose? “D-damage dealers. The ones who put constant pressure on the enemy team by dealing consistent damage.”

 

[The Walrein]

"Ah, I see," Jaro said, though he wasn't sure he entirely got it. Damage per second? Were Pokemon from wherever Zane (and Vix) came from expected to land a damaging blow every single second during combat? That seemed rather improbable. Maybe there was some legend about a warrior who could do that, and everyone was expected to try to emulate her? And what were 'rpgs'?

Perhaps the problem was that Jaro hadn't really gotten to participate in any of the team-based war training games in his tribe, as it seemed like Zane had. There were a few basic strategies the Jigglypuff used when fighting in groups; one was to have everyone spread out as much as possible and all Sing in chorus. It would be easy enough to disable one or two Jigglypuff before the song took effect, but hard to wipe out everyone. The second was simply to have everyone blast the foe with Round, while the third was to have someone use Rollout while others sang directions to them, since it was very hard to aim accurately when constantly spinning around like that. None of these were strategies Jaro could help with, due to his tone deafness and inability to sing or learn sonic attacks. It was quite probable, in fact, that there could be very many references and terminology related to team tactics Jaro never learned about, then.

"I think I get the point you were trying to make earlier, now. If we can't keep at least some 'mon who can land solid blows standing, we'll have no way to win the fight. But Vix also has a good point - it's probably better to stop those people from taking injuries at all if possible, rather than trying to just mitigate the harm done to them, so it might be wiser to use defensive boosts on our distractors. Although, I guess it gets more complicated if the enemy has attacks that can hit all of us at once, like what Lugia was using..."

Jaro thought another moment. "Actually, wait, Zane, why aren't you one of the 'damage dealers'? I guess having a 'punchable face' helps with drawing attention away, but, otherwise, your species seems a lot more suited to offense. You're really tall and, by the moon, your claws are huge! And on the other foot, you don't seem to have any armor or anything else that would let you absorb attacks. Do you think it might make sense to try out being a direct attacker?"

 

[Fusion]

"You could use all that pent-up aggression on our enemies," Vix point out.

'Instead of snapping at your teammates, cough cough wink.' Of course she only said that in her head, and had to stop herself from actually coughing.

"And it is true that we'll have to watch out for attacks that can hit everyone. And it wouldn't be so hard to imagine that someone could attack us and take away all our boosts too. Hopefully that won't be the case, but we'll work through it somehow," she hummed. It would be nice if the entire team could discuss this, but she was not going to be the first one to bring everyone together for a strategy meeting. What would they even actually talk about? Some of them hit hard, some of them boost the others. Yeah, there's the intricacies of battle, like when and who to hit, and where, and the possible abilities their opponents might have, or the strategies they'd work with...

It took her a moment to realize she had went on a mental tangent, clearing her throat and pretending nothing happened. "A-Anyway, um, yeah, Zane would be good at attacking and drawing attention away from the others."

 

[Tanuki]

Zane chuckled when Jaro suggested it and burst out laughing when Vix said the same. “Yeah, sure, big claws!” he cackled, brandishing his weapons to the world. He almost couldn’t stop laughing, but managed to calm himself down eventually.

He needed that a lot more than he expected. “These don’t do much in a world where breathing fire and conjuring tsunamis are on the table.” His eyes rolled of their own accord, but he didn’t even attempt to stop them. He shook his head.

They were trying to help, though they were oh so misguided. “I’m a normal,” he said flatly, a smirk the only remnant of his laughing fit. “I can’t learn moves.”

 

[Fusion]

Alright, Zane obviously doesn't know himself. Like, at all. He's a human after all, and from the sounds of it, he doesn't have anyone experienced enough to teach him properly. It was also pretty clear that she wasn't gonna get through to him normally. She could try some of those "sentence enhancers" everyone else is so keen on using, meeting aggression with aggression. Surely it'll end well.

"Bullshit," Vix said, blunt as a boulder. "One, you could tear half the team to pieces with those claws. It's hard to breath fire or conjure tsunamis when you've been sliced and dice to pieces. Two, you yourself could breath fire, although it's a bit hard to learn it. Sometimes. Varies from Zangoose to Zangoose, according to my mentors."

Ok that felt harsh. Funny seeing how the others would probably call her tame. "Normal types only have one weakness, and they can learn an absurd amount of moves from an absurd amount of type! Why would one singular type be excluded from learning moves of other types? Why would you be excluded from using the same powers as others of your species?"

 

[Tanuki]

Vix was quite eloquent in her speech, so Zane decided to respond in kind. “Bullshit.” He held that same all knowing smirk that betrayed he knew absolutely nothing at all. “Dragons can breathe fire because they’ve got, I don’t know, fire glands or whatever. People can’t just conjure fire out of nothing. Conservation of mass or energy or whatever.”

 

[Fusion]

Vix took a deep breath, pressing her hand nubs together. In one clean motion, she pointed them both at Zane. "Boy."

 

[The Walrein]

Normal types not being able to learn moves? 'Conservation of mass or energy'?

"Zane, uh... I think that whatever world you were in previously-" (Jaro was revising his assumptions about what hearing Zane saying he used to live in this place could've meant) "- might've been really weird compared to this one," Jaro said. "I mean, in my world wind could only come from Pokemon, and it didn't change temperature throughout the day, and there weren't anywhere near as many different species, and there were no such things as badges or orbs or whatever. Maybe in your world, it was how moves worked that was really odd. I mean, I can copy pretty much any move with Copycat, and I don't need to suddenly grow new organs inside me to do so, so I don't think that's really related to it." At least Jaro didn't think that caused organs to grow inside him.

 

[Fusion]

"Also I'm a fucking candle, Zane," Vix said with a smirk rivaling Zane's. But in her case, she actually did know what she was talking about. "Do tell me how a candle is able to float and shoot fire, no, beams of sunlight. What 'organ' do I have? By your logic, the only one who should be able to do anything substantial on our team, is, like, Bahamut."

Being snarky wasn't exactly what she had in mind for this, but come on. There's regular science, then there's battle science, and the two rarely overlap. Vix didn't bother bringing that up, as she doubted either of the two with her would be able to wrap their heads around it, even if she tried to explain it "as simple as possible." Either that or she just did not want to get into it. At all.

"If you want proof, let us teach you some things. I know a lot this stuff, and Jaro is more close to you than I am in terms of moves we can learn."

They would also be the only two who would willingly try and help him out, apparently. A sad truth, but a truth nonetheless.

 

[Tanuki]

“Well, sure, you can do stuff like that,” Zane said with a shrug to Jaro. “You’re a...” what type were jigglypuff? “A special type.”

Vix clearly thought she knew better than Zane, but the fact she did held no bearing on Zane’s confidence. “You’re a ghost, duh,” he eloquently explained. “You’ve got souls and stuff to work with. The spiritual realm or whatever. I’ve just got claws, fangs, and fur.”

He remembered exactly after stating that the time he’d called a blue forcefield around himself. In battle, no less. That wasn’t quite normal, but neither of them were bringing it up, so he wouldn’t either. Being right took obvious precedence over improving his battle potential.

 

[Fusion]

"Zane, I'm not a ghost. I'm a candle. Made of wax, with a lit wick, and I guess I have eyes. I don't work with spirits, and spirits certainly don't channel sunlight into rays of sun-made death," Vix rolled her eyes. "And you are entirely the fact that there are other pokemon with just 'claws, fangs, and fur,' as well as moves revolving around 'claws, fangs, and fur.' Ever heard of Crush Claw? Thunder Fang? And while not directly involving fur but is mostly used by fluffy animals, Cotton Guard?"

"What about the most basic move, one used to protect one's... self." An idea was forming in her head. A dangerous idea, yes, but it would only be a danger to Zane if he keeps being stubborn about what he can and can't do. Although, it might not be the best time to try it out. "There are more moves than I can count, and if you really, honestly believe that you can't learn any of them, I'll be happy to teach you otherwise."

 

[The Walrein]

'Special type'? Jaro decided not to go into it. (Additionally, what was Vix on about with animals being able to use moves? He'd have to ask her about that later). "As Vix said, there are moves you can do just involving claws, like Scratch. That's different from just like scratching someone without using a move; it's more effective, and you can feel the move being channeled through you. Some of those kinds of attacks can be quite strong; I think Cabot was mostly just using some sort of headbutt attack in the first fight, and that was pretty effective.

Also, I'd be really surprised if you didn't know any moves right now, actually - at least on my world, everyone was born knowing one move, and it was said to be impossible to forget all of your moves. I've got a funny feeling that maybe you've actually been using the Taunt move without knowing it? Like, if I aimed my Copycat at you while you tried to taunt something, I could tell for sure whether you're using a move or not. Want to try that out?" Jaro focused his Copycat at Zane just in case he went through with it and fired back an insult or something.

 

[Tanuki]

Zane raised a brow at their silly facts and logic. He knew better. If he could learn moves, he would have learned one. Still, he could at least humor the ‘puff. “Sure, I’ll take your bet,” he said with half a glance at Jaro before standing up to look Vix over.

His eyes grew clinical. He scanned every inch, from base to flame, and searched his memory for the strongest sources of embarrassment. Not too harsh, though, he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

It gave him a bit of an odd thrill. A tingle went up his spine, and he even felt a bit of that ever elusive energy in his gut. “Just a candle’n wax? Well then, why don’t you mold yourself into a pretty lil zoroark so you can suck face with Soda?”

Zane used Follow Me!

 

[The Walrein]

Yup, there it was - the distinctive signature of a genuine move...

Jaro used Copycat! Jaro used Follow Me!

Jaro involuntarily drew in air and inflated, taking up more space. Looking at the immediate surroundings, a few words came to mind - "Hey Zane, being wax is one thing but having bones is worse! Look how big I can get 'cause I don't have any stupid hollow rocks stuck in all my limbs!" Okay, so maybe they weren't very good words, but Jaro was new at using this move...