"I haven't seen any of the flutes they make before either. I've read a lot about them though. Interesting stuff. They can repel pokemon, bring them closer, bring them back to their senses...I'm not sure what makes them so special, but only talented craftsmen can make something like that."
Nathan then turns to the survivalist. "Thank you for the demonstration of your flute crafting and playing, sir. It's a beautiful piece of work."
Sealing the plant away with an audible click, Vincent, double, than triple bags the little flower for good measure, before packing the bundle away into a side pocket in his bag. Noting the agitation of Nathan's Ralts, he plods over and bends down to the stubby Feeling Pokemon.
"Hey there little guy. You look stressed." He smiles.
"Not much I can do about that myself, but since Nathan and myself will be working together for at least a bit, I'd like you to know I'll be watching his back while I'm here. I don't know the details myself and I won't pry, but I know enough to guess your first meeting wasn't pleasant." His voice is calm and his tone gentle as he mentions this.Â
"I won't promise I'm the most reliable of sorts, but as long as I'm going to be around, I'll keep an eye out for you as well. So do try to fret a bit less, little guy. It doesn't suit you."
Winston has padded over and plonked himself down next to the Ralts.Â
"You two haven't really been properly acquainted, but this is Winston. Don't worry. He's friendly. And doesn't bite." Vincent gives the growlithe a narrow stare. "Other people, anyway."
The little dog coughs a mouthful of soot, then gives a happy little yap.
"Brat." He reaches over and scratches Winston behind the ears affectionately.
Ralts is happy to have a lot of company around, but is...a little upset that Vincent has taken the flower. He isn't stressing too much over it though since Nathan isn't currently.
"Well, guess we better wait for the others to show up, Vincent. We'll deal with the flowers later. Let me just tell everyone I got the ponyta under control in the meantime."
Nathan pulls out his pokedex once again, ready to type a message to Larry, Ventus, and Shiva. "Found and captured ponyta. Mission accomplished. Vincent and I are in the ash field with the daisy meadow. And a survivalist who knows how to make glass flutes."
He puts his pokedex away and faces Vincent and the pokemon. "Alright, that's done. Guess we just wait for the others to get here. In the meantime, I guess we can talk about those self defense lessons?"
"Bit of formality really. I'm not particularly 'teacher' material by a long shot, Nathan. I think you should have noticed by now." Vincent gestures down to his right leg. Now his expression is sombre, his eyes serious and piercing. "What do you gain from learning to fight? And in return, what do you give up? I didn't give this much thought earlier when I made the offer, which sort of shows how screwed up I am, but I'm not going to sugar coat this for you."
"Once you learn to defend yourself and by extension others, you gain agency. That's terrifying. You can't throw your hands in the air and walk away from a situation saying 'I don't know how'. That excuse is dead the moment you learn to throw a punch. It might be too big for you or the odds too great, but now, it's up to you to assess those odds, make the decision, and live with the consequences - good or bad, rather than letting fate blow you along like a tumbleweed."
He reaches down and points to his bad leg.
"And that's the way the world works. there's always something bigger than you. Someone faster, someone stronger. Someone who is going to find a way to grind your face into the dirt the moment you wind up for the swing. It's not the world being unfair anymore. It's not his fault for being better. It's you not being good enough to defend yourself. It's yours for thinking that violence was the solution. You're responsible for what you do and how you do it. You're responsible for what you do and how you do it."
"I don't think you'll turn me down, Nathan. You wouldn't have asked if you didn't think it was necessary. But I wanted you to know what you were getting into before you asked again." He reaches out his hand in the offer of a handshake.
"Offer is still open. All you need to do is seize that agency and ask."
(04-27-2017, 05:53 PM)Dies Irae Wrote: [ -> ]Vincent lets out a sigh of relief as Nathan finally gets the Ponyta under control. Still, what he's witnesses just opens up more and more questions.
"That was fantastic, Sir." Vincent can barely stutter out, having seen the survivalist in action. He's been beside the survivalist the entire time, but he's still not sure of the significance of what he's just witnessed.
"But... what... what did you just do? What is that flute... How?" He's still struggling for words. His brain clearly recognizes what's it's seen and the correlation, and potential causation are obvious, but the sheer... for the want of a better term... mysticism... is beyond what he really comprehends. "What are these... Deyo anyway?"
"YOU DO REALISE YOU CAN ACTUALLY POLL THE AUDIENCE, CORRECT?" The 'officer' leans forward and asks icily.
Good point.
Leaning down using his cane to support himself and careful not to overbalance, Vincent uses his Pokedex to snap several close-up photos of the odd flowers growing among the daisies. Cycling through the function, he sends the pictures along with a descriptor of the plants, the location found and the color of the organisms to Professor Mallorn with a request for further information.
"That flowes is Deyo. I c u r on rt 1. Deyo grows ONLY near old meteor striker. Worth $$. Good 4 medicines n tech. Only shoots up above ground rarely. Not much known about it. Dont waste it. If nothing else I give u 1000$ a bushel."
"As much as you might not like it though, I am going to take you up on the offer. This, 'Almanac,' whoever they are, may have harmed Ralts. If they did, I can't just let that stand. Particularly if they've been doing similar things to other pokemon. Since you don't know, let me tell you why I want to go after them first.
"As I'm sure you heard in the lab, Almanac's book has data in it concerning cruel and unknowable information about the pokemon listed within it, including ralts. Since Mallorn didn't tell you how I found Ralts, I'll tell you now: I found Ralts a year ago in that forest at the base of Mt. Molten. He was bruised, battered, beaten, and barely recognizable as a Ralts. Someone had done something horrible to him, and then seemingly left him there to die...it was a miracle I managed to get him back to a pokemon center for treatment..." Ralts and Nathan both shudder at the recollection of that day. Neither wanted to remember that situation. Swiftfire nervously shuffles around as well. She remembered that day too...the amount of worry Nathan had felt then had been infectious...
"If they're doing unspeakable experiments that result in that on pokemon and publishing the results in that book of theirs, there's no way I'm standing around and doing nothing. My pokemon and I will need to defend ourselves, whether we find them or they find us...just imagine what might happen if they find out Ralts is still alive and someone knows what they do with their experiments when they're done with them...like it or not, I've apparently gotten myself involved in something big. And I don't want to go down without a fight." Nathan grabs Vincent's hand. "I don't want to do it very much either, but I think it's necessary considering the situation." Nathan's stare is intense as he looks at Vincent. He's determined to see this through.
"Good. Then in return you should know that I'm no longer entirely stable as a Cop. Courtesy of my time on the Force, there's a forty-eight hour hole in my memory. Trauma induced amnesia from an accident, they tell me, though nobody's been willing to tell me what happened since the day. It's taken nearly two years to get back into some level of physical shape and all the shrinks tell me my head isn't entirely screwed on right just yet. Favor for a favor, Nathan. Now you know."
This is the first time he's talked about openly with anyone. "It's irrelevant information, but it should go some way to explaining my disposition. But yes. That call to serve and protect - it's still there"
"Ok. More to the point. Most Police Officers out there train for standard Hapkido disarming techniques. Their baton training's a variant of Tonfa with a focus on subdual and defense. It's what I trained for starting out, but I've gone my own way since leaving the force. What I currently practice is an archaic street fighting style known as Bartitsu."
"It also applies to how I train my 'Mons, really. Most police work calls for fast take downs. Bartitsu's different on some level in focus, but the principles are the same. A fight is basically a dance and your opponent is your partner. Your moves are focused on what they do and the two of you are moving in concert since you need to read them and react accordingly. Difference being of course that you want to disrupt his motion and generally offset his equilibrium. Keep them off balance, blind them or just use the red fog to keep them from thinking straight. Hamper that flow and you dictate the pace of the fight."
"That's the first step. Once your opponent is off balance, you've got the tempo. That's when the real work starts. Once you've got a read of your opponent's strengths, this is where you need to match them to your own. If he's tough and slow, dodge around him. If he's fragile, smash him with big hits. Fight with your head before your hands. Find his weaknesses and match your strengths to them."
"Then it's time for the killing, so to speak." He gestures to his face, neck and groin. "Everyone has weaknesses. Even Pokemon do. The eyes, the neck, joints... If you're going to finish the fight, subject those areas to force and do so cleanly and the target will drop."
"It's simple advice. Nothing that you couldn't find out of a book, but the basics are always the most important. Notice I've told you nothing about forms, or combat styles yet, but I want you to think about these three basic ideas. The first is to offset equilibrium. The second is to keep the target off balance by neutralizing their strengths and playing up their weaknesses. The final is to finish things cleanly by going for vulnerabilities. It's what's worked for me so far and losing sight of these, whether by getting cocky or trying something flashy has always come back to bite me."
"If you'd like, I could show you some basic forms and strengthening exercises, though we'd need space to practice. Point is. That's really secondary." He reaches over and taps the side of Nathan's head. "What will get the process started faster than any other is you internalizing that."
He smiles.
"Questions?"
Nathan takes a moment to process what he's just been told. It makes sense. Play your strengths, exploit weaknesses, and end it fast when an opportunity arises. "No questions for now. I'll make sure to give it some thought. Now, as for that practice...let's put that on hold for a bit. I believe he..." Nathan glances over at the survivalist in the pause "...just mentioned that those flowers have uses. I'm interested in hearing more of that while we have his attention."
Nathan turns to the survivalist again.
"I'm very sorry I interrupted that conversation you were having with Vincent, sir. Now, what did you call those flowers? Day-oh? I'd be interested in hearing what you know about them." Ralts perks up when the topic shifts to the flowers again.
As Larry pick's his Pokemon he thought "who needs some work." Larry knew ekans has seen combat more than oshawott and abeja, and oshawott had done some fighting before so Larry chose abeja "ok abeja time to see what your made of!" As Larry sent out the weedle he noticed that Rachel wasn't with her nidorina that she got back in tenno. "Rachel is that your new starter? Did you get it from professor malion? Was there a other professor here?" Larry asked, as he got ready to battle he soon realized something he can't use poison moves "wait a minute I got to pick another Pokemon" and swaped abeja with oshawott. "ok lets start."
(04-27-2017, 03:43 PM)Lord Windos Wrote: [ -> ]He looked at the flower in apparent wariness, not wanting to get any closer to them without some industrial grade herbicide. He noticed it oozing out a strange fluid that was entrancing Raphael. He immedianlty flicked out his Pokeball and returned it to his Pokeball, shielding it from the effects of the dubious plant. Turning towards Shiva, he was about to tell her to recall her Pokémon, when he gaped at her. In her uncovered hand was that very flower. "SHIVA, DROP THAT FLOWER NOW! ITS ENTRALLING OUR POKEMON, AND I DONT KNOW WHAT IT MIGHT DO TO US!" He shouted, quite urget in his desire for her to get rid of the flower. It appears that Cottenee was covered in its sap, so it need to be washed ASAP .
Oh. So it
were these flowers that terrified him.
Quite disturbed by his sudden and intense reaction, she needed a moment to realise what he wanted. "OkayOkay!
We will NOT take them with us..." She immediately placed those flowers down to the ground ('placed', not 'threw' - in her eyes, they were too precious to be slapped to the ground)
and backed two steps away from them to be closer to Ventus, who seemed quite eager to have as much distance between him and these flowers as possible.
However, she's keeping that second Ranc Berry flower she picked up just before. Maybe later she will be able to gift it to Raphael.
She then gave him an expression that clearly showed that she didn't quite understand what's so bad about those particluar flowers, and what he meant by 'entralling our Pokemon'.