generalflirt | Appointments Post ( II )

[ Soren's definitely eager to get going! Y'all talk too much. 8| ]

Sifu set up my pokedex, though, with "sync". [ IT BEEPED A LOT, KATARA. Here let her show you it although you have seen other ones before this is clearly still exciting. ] It's a secret diary an' encyclopedia!

Sifu, huh?

[A slightly warmer (if assessing, measuring) glance at Masaomi, and Katara smooths down Ikki's hair and moves to take the pokedex.]

Let's see.

[There's a sincere smile on his lips as soon as Ikki says "Sifu." He's also collecting Linda's Pokeball and pulling up close to his face. special pokeballs end up slightly see through at close examination and the miniaturized pokemon can be seen then. So he's confirming Linda's okay.

Hopefully Ikki can point it at Soren and they can accomplish what more needs to happen]

[ Demonstration time! ...The demonstration is really just pointing the dex at Soren, who is always more than happy to strike a pose.

Yep, there's the entry about Soren, again. Ikki has successfully mastered pointing something at other things. ]

These are the names of all his airbending tricks! And also other things!

[Katara sees that smile and... hoooo boy. She should have grabbed Aang and asked him to come too. Training a creature to fight is... well... it's always been a little disturbing to her on some level, but for Aang... and Ikki being his legacy, the legacy of his people... and this bringing her closer to Masaomi... oh boy.

She returned her attention to Ikki with a smile her granddaughter (!?!!) never failed to illicit.]

Airbending tricks, huh? [Katara points to the one at the top of the list.] What's this one do?

[What don't mind him, he/this is totally cool. He doesn't send Linda out though - her rivalry with Soren would probably needlessly confuse the situation. He just stands aside here, willing other people to finish their damn dome sessions]

"Peck" isn't really like airbending, actually. Soren showed me some of them while you an' Masaomi were talking, and that one was like -

[ HAND GESTURES. But, well, that's...sort of useless, so she glances inquiringly at Soren, who is more than happy to do something other than listen to all the talking.

...Peck is pretty self-explanatory, really, but wow isn't that cool man. ] ...Like that!

[Katara makes an appropriately impressed noise.]

Wow. What else can he - she? - do?

Most of his forms - Soren's a boy! [ He is, and looked a bit offended about the she remark. As...much as a bird can look offended, if you just met the pokemon recently. Ikki notably says "forms" instead of "moves", but she's also calling them airbending, so. ] - anyway, most of them are airbending. A few aren't, but "Rest" is a healin' form! ...And also makes Soren sleep?

[ She just. Glances over at the bird, who nods. Welp. ] Anyway, the thing he learned most recently was - actually, I don't think it was any of these moves.

Well, it was, but from what he showed me just now, I think they were doing two at once? [ There's a trill of agreement, and Ikki frowns at the list, not upset, just thinking about it. She's trying to picture the demonstration she got, the first day she came back. ] ...I'm gonna guess it was, um, "Aerial Ace" an' then "Air Slash"?

[ Partial points. There's also an "Agility" in there, but Chien never really talked about the moves in name. The names don't sound as interesting as they look in action, anyway, and Ikki's known the best way to get Soren to airbend for her for a while (the rare times he doesn't start off doing it first): flatter him and ask nicely. ] Soren, Katara reaaaaaaaally wants to see that one, an' so do I! Pretty please?

[ WELL SINCE YOU ASKED SO NICELY no he'd do it anyway look at this guys he is so cool. The Swellow takes off upward into the sky, looping around in the clouds and cutting a particular one down smaller and smaller with each pass. The Agility and Aerial Ace combo means he's moving as fast as he was the first time Ikki saw this trick - Chien had been emphasizing speed training - and the cloud meets an untimely end at the hands of an Air Slash.

Cloud demolished, Soren glides back down to the three humans on the ground, clearly waiting to be praised for his awesome skills.

Ikki, at least, obliges the way she normally does for his feats - clapping and laughing. ] I've been practicing to see if I can get that slash down but I haven't got it yet! You're amazing, Soren! I bet you'd get more from it if you did a dive while you did it, though. You go reaaaaaaaaally fast then, and if you do something while you drop, it goes more! I blew all the leaves off a tree once! ...And then I got in trouble, so actually, maybe you shouldn't do that...

[ Advice from a crazy airbending child who has jumped off a sky bison before, y'know, no big deal. If noting else, Ikki's pretty secure in what to do when you're in the air. ]

[Um. Wow, okay. Katara observes all this with her usual wary attention when it has something to do with her granddaughter, but it's easy to see the way that Soren is relating to her... and vice-versa.

Hmm.]

That's definitely very impressive. But you're right, Ikki, it is usually better to preserve the leaves on trees.

That's what mommy said, yep. [ She passes the pokedex over fully. ] Anyway, that's the whole list there!

[That move combination... that was Agility (he recognized the blurring motion as Soren's speed dramatically increased) comboed with some aerial aces and moving into an air slash, huh...

He watched that and identified three or so shortcomings in it he thinks he and Linda could exploit, but more importantly, one of the rooms opened up. He snaps his finger to have them hurry over to get dibs on the console with him. Pointing in that direction, he starts to head over]

But do you know what all those moves do, Ikki?

[Thoughtfully, Katara follows along.]

[ Ikki joins the procession, still not completely sure how the battle dome works, anyway. ]

Mm, the airbending ones, kinda? I read the descriptions of a few but I'm not sure what they're talking about sometimes.

I'm going to need to take a while to program this, so while I do-

[And he's at the console now. With his hand on it, he turns now to Ikki to give her... not a stern look, but a look he hopes implies "concerned senpai"]

-Ask Soren to demonstrate them as best he can. It's important you know what your partner is capable of so you can think of new strategies together. And if you're still confused, I'll see if I can't help you out, okay?

[Katara glanced around at the machinery.]

He can demonstrate over there [a nice safe distance away].

'Kay. [ Ikki just nods, although she glances over at Katara first. ] Are you gonna help Masaomi, or go with me?

As pleased as I would be to have Katara beside me as long as possible, I don't really need her help for this one. Why don't you go together?

[Because I think Katara ought to see Soren and Ikki bonding]

[Katara rolled her eyes lightly, though it was with a sick and twisty feeling in her stomach.]

I'd be happy to watch.

[ That earns Katara a huge smile from her granddaughter, who reaches out to take her hand in order to tow her over to the area away from the delicate machinery. Soren follows, settling down and watching them expectantly. ]

Okay, so! Focus Energy? Focusing your energy for...what? [ She scrolls to that entry and there are definitely words about hit ratios (what is a ratio?) and such, but they're pretty much nonsense to Ikki. She ignores the nonsense in favour of Soren, figuring he'll know what it means better than she will, anyway.

He does! And it takes only a second to figure out a way of showing the two benders, because hey this is fun. The first thing Soren does - facing away from the machines - is what Ikki recognizes at this point as Air Slash. He'll just check over his shoulder that they saw that. Were you guys watching? Cool, right? Yep, he's got that down.

Then there's a move she hasn't seen, which consists of a sort of...light shimmery thing? Uh. Soren seems to be concentrating, and it takes about as long as the last move did. Ikki's about to ask another question when he does Air Slash again - and it looks a bit more oomph-y. ]

...Ooooooooh. So it...focuses you for another airbending thing...?

[He's still somewhat offput that she is referring to it as "airbending." But hey, she's seven. Lalala, programming over here. He'll have to lecture her on types later]

[Hmm hmm.]

It does look like he's focusing his energy to apply the move with even greater power - it's probably got something to do with gathering his chi to a certain point.

[ SHOCKINGLY, no one has ever tried to lecture Ikki on pokemon types. Chien just sort of. Went with her "airbending" terminology. ]

Like meditating! [ Well. Kinda. Usually that does not happen before during or after any meditation she's familiar with, but. ]

"Mirror Move" an' "Mimic" are two other ones that seem weird. [ "weird" meaning "I have no idea what they're actually supposed to do". ...Unfortunately for Soren, those moves aren't really demonstrable solo. ]

Soren, would you mind playing with Linda a bit to demonstrate those?

[Still at the console... Those two moves - he looked into them after his battle with Chien, and now he reaches to his pocket, kisses the pokeball and pops out Linda.

Linda appears in a flash of red light. She normally would be okay with being in the ball this long, but right now to be confronted this ugly sack of feathers?! And she wasn't even allowed to shit talk him? That's infuriating. So when she appears out of the ball she immediately Magnet Rises in the air to get comparatively above Ikki, Soren, and Katara to adopt a haughty, imperial, pose.

...To her credit though, she doesn't yet attack. Even if she's looking down her nose at Soren right now and sort of wants to. Less because she hates her rival there, and more because she wants to re-assert her dominance after all the praising she's been hearing through her ball]

[Another internal sigh at Linda's attitude, and Katara wonders just how this would impact Ikki training Soren.

But, you know, she knows how to deal with this.]

We'd really appreciate the help, Linda.

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october 4th /slides back in Ikki -> Masaomi -> Katara

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