Treasure Town ~ Marowak Dojo

[kyeugh]

Lauchs walked into the empty room, his footfalls echoing off the sturdy walls. He gave the area a quick survey. It wasn't totally dissimilar from the places he'd trained in at home, though those areas had been built by and for men or fetch'd, so they were quite a lot larger than this. Still, given his diminutive form, the facility would serve him well despite its size.

The training area was strewn with unworked wood and not much in else the way of training equipment, but it seemed the marowak who ran the place had spared no expense decorating it in a fabulously narcissistic manner. No training equipment simply meant no solo training, so he'd have to find a sparring partner to drill with. No problems there, Lauchs thought, so long as he could find someone...

"Hello?" he called, his voice echoing just as his footfalls had. "Anyone around?"

 

[Tanuki]

Soon to take her place off the arena, Zane went to take her place on the arena. He looked down on Brisa with the same confidence he had when there were ten-thousand volts on his shoulder. He couldn’t admit he didn’t know how to fight.

Ready as he’d ever be, he brought his right foot back and balled his hands up into fists, properly covering the side of his claws that could do any damage in favor of punches. If there was any doubt he was once a human, it was probably gone by now.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know any human martial arts either. He brought his fists as close to covering his face as possible without blocking his vision entirely. His left leg was primed to spring up and defend his groin if the need so arose.

 

[Virgil134]

"Alright, looks like we're here!"

Cabot entered the dojo alongside Owen and looked around the building. The structure had certainly been in better shape, but it at least seemed to be in good enough condition for them train. He looked off to the left where he saw Brisa and Zane wrapping up their battle as Curio and Lauchs watched, while to his right was an empty battlefield, prompting him to turn back to Owen.

"Seems like some of the others had the same idea as us," Cabot said. "I think we can use that empty field over there, though."

 

[Fusion]

Vix floated from the beach to the dojo, not really knowing where else to go and remembering that a bunch of others went there first. It'd be a good chance to meet the rest of the team proper. Assuming they weren't too beat up from beating each other up.

"Is anyone still in here?"she asked as she floated inside. "And preferably alive? Or un-alive? Whatever a ghost pokemon is."

There was, obviously, a rather large someone still inside. Pretty unceremoniously laid out on the floor. White and red fur with some bruises somehow visible. Vix floated over to the fallen behemoth's side, only mostly worried. "You alive big guy? Or are you sleeping? Hibernating? You're probably hibernating."

 

[Chibi Pika]

A Litten slunk in through the entrance to the dojo when no one was looking. Her ears caught the sound of several voices, but they were muffled. Most likely coming from a room in the back. She had the training room to herself, for now. Good thing, because hoooooly shit did she need to burn off some steam.

Nice going at the beach, dumbass. Now everyone's gonna think you're completely nuts. Or worse, they'll feel sorry for you.

Well, if they did, she'd just tell them to piss off, what else?

Anyway. Time to tire herself out until she didn't have the energy to care about shit like that anymore. And this tiny, weak cat body wasn't exactly gonna get stronger on its own. So Starr took position in front of one of the training dummies. This still didn't feel natural. She wanted nothing more than to throw a good solid punch, but she wasn't exactly equipped to do that. Instead, she lunged, muscles firing like springs, claws flexing, lashing out, raking across the surface of the dummy. She leapt back just as fast, observing the damage. Three tiny lines were etched into the surface.

"Pathetic," she muttered. All the more reason to keep doing it over and over until it wasn't.

 

[Ambyssin]

"So, this is a dojo, hmm?"

Necrozma floated in, arms slopping dragging across the ground and kicking up dirt. He was expecting something more... impressive. But there were no mats or scrolls depicting important fighting techniques. Though given how primitive the architecture of this Treasure Town locale was, perhaps he should've tempered his expectations. Still, to find a broken thing with cooked rice strewn all around it? Did the owner abandon this place in the middle of a meal?

... no, wait. There was a trail of rice heading toward a corner. And there was a small aura. Fire-type. Whatever. It wasn't his problem if one of his allies didn't know how to cook without blowing something up. Perhaps we can try to cook the giant magikarp? If we can build a big enough bonfire while it's sleeping...

 

[Chibi Pika]

<><><><><><><><>

Starr's body was tense as she walked into the dojo ahead of everyone else, followed by her opponent, and then the gaggle of people who'd come to stare at them.

This was stupid. It wasn't like she couldn't see that. Staking her pride on a pointless fight in a brand-new body that she wasn't remotely used to yet. It was stupid, and yet there wasn't a single inch of her that didn't want to smack that smug look off the Riolu's face. And it's not like Starr was bullshitting when she'd said that it'd be useful. She desperately needed to learn how to fight in this body, and this was as good a time as any. Before the overgrown sushi duo made their way here.

...Jade would still say that this was a bad idea. Well... Jade wasn't here, was she?

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa watch Curio and Starr leave, now on perfectly amicable terms having done each other some injury. She hesitated, not sure whether to stick by Curio's side, exchange some more verbal blows with Starr, or find some peace and quiet to be alone. She actually wanted to fight. Fight Starr, really. Or Curio. Either one. She stared at her paws, wondering why they seemed to itch so. She still felt weird.

"Excuse me?" came a voice.

Oh, the roselia --

"Cynthian?" she asked, raising her head to meet his eye. "How can I help you?"

"Hi!" he said, waving a bepetalled appendage at her.

She gave a nod and stared, awkwardly awaiting a question. She didn't know what to expect. After all, it wasn't like he was going to ask to fight her.

 

[Namohysip]

Those who elected to return to the dojo were not alone. A curious creature was in the middle of the main battle arena, though it was hard to tell precisely what. It was huge, at least seven feet tall... But it was also covered in blankets. Had he taken them from the living quarters? He had gathered them all from supplies and piled it high until it was completely hidden inside, shuffling around and giggling. It was a masculine voice, but too high for its size...

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave had spent the time since the battle against Sushi and Sashimi mostly sullenly following along, asking questions, trying to figure out the mechanics of this world, which with the whole speech about dungeons were beginning to sound increasingly like... maybe not a board game, but a video game.

Something kept weirdly itching in his brain, probably another creepy Pokémon instinct. He kept thinking of staying on the sidelines during the fight, doing the most strategic, useful thing, and it bothered him, nonsensically. He'd been probably the most useful fucking person there and still some stupid dog braincell was there pulsing away going but you didn't even attack it! Not even once!

Fuck. He couldn't wait to be human again and not have to deal with this shit.

Maybe he could shut it off by beating up some training dummies? Maybe? He entered one of the training rooms and stared at the dummy, feeling fucking stupid to even be here. What, was he supposed to just tackle it? He didn't want to bodily throw himself into a solid object. He supposed the brainless Pokémon hormone drunkenness didn't kick in if there wasn't an actual opponent. It fleetingly occurred to him maybe it'd help if he was just, you know, actually drunk.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Returning from the encounter with Darkwhite at the Guild, Brisa prowled into the dojo spoiling for a fight.

"Anyone around who fancies a scrap?" she called. "I could do with a battle!"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa burst into the battlegrounds with radiant light still lingering around her eyes. Everything looked so sharp and vibrant. She was bursting at the seams to try out this power in combat.

"Don't dawdle, Curio!" she called, her voice still reverberating in her ears.

 

[windskull]

Day 15, Early Noon

They really did a number on this place, huh?

Nip stood in the center of the training room, eying the crater left behind. Though the details were lost to him, he'd heard that some of the other members of the group had caused the damage while training. He winced ever-so-slightly, wondering how the marowak owner felt about it.

He turned his attention away from the damage and instead focused on himself. While his search for a sparring partner had been fruitless thus far, he was certain that someone would come up to the dojo sooner or later. And while he waited, he'd just try to figure out his newfound power by himself.

 

[windskull]

Day 16, Late Morning

Despite everything that had happened yesterday, here he was again, standing in the middle of the damaged dojo. After everything that had happened yesterday, he'd elected to stay out, wandering around till well after dark, returning to the dojo after most of the others had gone to sleep. Though he still felt uneasy about everything that happened at the marketplace, now that he had time to sleep on it he'd had time to stuff that away into some corner of his mind where he wouldn't think about it. Not now, at least.

He turned his attention to one of the training dummies, scraping his claws together. Don't think Sq- about the shade, think about training. He needed to figure out how to call on his radiant powers before something even more serious than a rampaging garchomp went wrong.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Morning, Day 20.​

Fixing things with Starr. That surely couldn't be so hard, could it?

Nearly a week since her fuck-up. Four days since she'd seen Curio. Two since that conversation with Astrid. The dojo had been repaired, well enough, but there was still no sign of repairs on her friendship. And every day she worried if it was becoming too late to start.

Brisa took her usual booked slot in the dojo, bruises be damned. She still felt battered from her recent battle with Astrid and Cabot, but she'd refused to go to the clinic again so soon. She could still do low intensity training and make use of the healing items available. She tested out attacks on dummies, exercised, even meditated a little. It was something new she was trying out.

There was something else new she meant to try out. Starr's slot was after hers, with a five minute gap to be certain they wouldn't bump into each other. It was a stupid little arrangement, meant to keep them from aggravating each other, but all it did was make Brisa want to stick around and fight. Today, though, with her mind on her mistakes...

As it turned out, meditation and gentle exercises were a great way to let her mind chew itself up. In this case, she ended up thinking over how bad an idea it was to try to apologise to Starr. So she worked harder, like she always did, training until she felt and looked a mess. By the time it was over, she had about as much anxiety as she’d had when she’d arrived. At least she’d stopped it getting any worse. She would go ahead with her plan: hang around after her session, take steady breaths, chew imitation jerky. Starr would be along shortly.

She'd clear the air, and then they'd have no more of this stupid feud. She'd bet on it.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

It was like only the two of them were real.

Brisa made a sound that was somewhere between the word "alright!" and a battlecry.

This was too personal for a shock.

This warranted teeth.

She charged forward, unheeding of her tired body, her living lightning at her mouth.

 

[Ambyssin]

It had been a frustrating time and a number of failures and wasted cheri berries — not that Bahamut could taste them anyway — but he finally reached a point where he had a sufficient amout of working cheri incense.

Bahamut had pooled it all into an appropriate container. He hoped the kecleon hadn't lied to him and sold him a dud.