generalflirt | Appointments Post ( II )

"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.

We would! [ Ikki chimes in cheerfully, although her attention is mostly on Soren, who definitely looks less than happy with this turn of events. Ikki seems to be the only person in this little group who actually has no issues of any sort with anyone else, and the look Soren gave her for saying she'd like the help was a little bit annoyed.

She did realize that Chien and Soren thought of Masaomi and Linda as rivals and/or some sort of enemy ("selfish jerk" had come up in conversation before) but Ikki herself didn't really have any particular dislike for either. She'd told Linda at the beach that she was amazing, and that hadn't really changed, even if she'd always landed more on the side of rooting for Soren.

...She should probably say something, huh? ] Soren?

[ ugh fine okay give him a second. This is a one-time thing Linda. 8| Only because the airbending buddy asked. ]

[Whatever bro. She folds her arms before sighing and dropping to the ground in front of Soren. She waves a hand at him.]

Soren, how about Mimic first. That'll take longer anyway.

[Because Mirror Move and Mimic are almost identical except for a slight nuance. Mirror Move is an immediate copy of the last attack the opponent threw at you. It could be used on the fly and changes based on what the enemy does. The goal of them move is to throw something right back in the enemy's face.

Mimic, meanwhile... is meant to mimic an enemy's move so temporarily learn it.]

I'm not going to tell her to attack, but try to mimic what she does.

[Working as he thinks he understand this move, when he makes a hand motion to Linda to tell her simply charge up her electricity to ready for a thundershock or spark. He's not sure (given type weaknesses) Soren can actually mimic the charging or not, but if it does he should be able to coat himself in a faint glow and manipulate his internal energy to emulate the charging to make his own thundershock.

...Linda, at least, thinks that this'll hurt him though. Hence why she smirks nastily at him while she's sparking lightly]

[Katara just watches carefully.]

[ That little smirk doesn't catch Ikki's eye - she's focused on Soren entirely - but Soren himself sees it. That's why he doesn't really think it through too much - if that would have even helped - but follows what Masaomi said, attempting to mimic the pikachu.

He does begin to start glowing, but then there's a squawk and the energy abruptly fizzles out. Ikki takes half a step forward before stopping - never go near someone who lost control of their bending - and hovering anxiously, while Soren himself is stunned for a few moments. ]

Soren! Sifu, what happened?

A limitation in the move, I guess... [He frowns. He was probably being rude to Soren, doing that. Linda looks proud that Soren couldn't handle her power. Haha.

Masaomi isn't really looking at the scene now, instead fiddling with some dials over here]

You see, mimic is a move where a pokemon tries to change their own energy to use other pokemon's moves. In theory, Soren should have been able to copy Linda's electricity, and possibly even produce his own Thundershock.

[And now he turns to face the bird and the two girls] But, it's harder for him to copy an electric move. Do you know why, Ikki?

[Let's see if Chien ever mentioned weaknesses.

...Fortunately, this was only a small jolt. Soren probably ~~lost 20 or 30 HP~~ was comparatively barely hurt. Linda, for her part, stops her charging through. She tilts her head at the bird and makes a little piii sound. It's a rough questioning, but she's asking if he's alright? ]

[Still just here, listening, watching.]

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

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