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May 31, 2023 21:25:23 GMT
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Post by Raven on Oct 14, 2016 3:29:36 GMT
Around the time Sandy indicates that it's getting dried out itself and can't help anymore, the doors finally unseal, though not before a few final jets of fire sap most of the remaining moisture out of the air.
While you and Sandy managed to prevent the worst cases from having lasting harm done, most of those still remain either unconscious or just lying on the floor because they haven't the strength to stand. One poor sap tried to leave early and was the unfortunate discoverer of a lovely trap in the form of an electrified door handle. The electricity lasted just long enough to deter anyone from trying to open the doors leading out.
At long last, the Lady of Fire returns to the main room. She looks around at how few still stand and frowns in disappointment.
"Those of you who are still awake, congratulations. You've passed the entry trials and will be accepted into my Branch of the Guild. Things only get tougher from here. For the rest of you..." She pauses a moment to stare them all down.
"Collect the unconscious ones and have them brought to the infirmary. The healers will take care of them."
To wrap up her announcement, she says to those leaving: "Don't come back. You haven't the stamina for the kind of work we do here."
After the room is cleared of approximately half of the up-and-coming Adventurers (which is half of the amount that passed the battle trial), she looks directly at you and motions you forward. People look on fearfully, fearing that you might be disqualified or something for using your Mudkip to 'cheat' the trial. Instead, she actually smiles a little.
"What is your name, Monkey Boy?"
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Post by carnackiArdent on Oct 14, 2016 3:42:10 GMT
Clay murmurs another word of thanks to Sandy before recalling him to spare him the hot, dry air, then approaches the Lady of Fire when she gestures to him.
"Name's Clay." He might be better off than some of the others in the room, between Sandy's help and his experience with heat, but an hour in an overheated room has still drained a lot of his bravado. That small smile surprises him, though, and he manages to muster up the strength to give one back and bow to her.
Of course, if the smile's for some other reason and he is going to get kicked out for cheating, he has absolutely no regrets.
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Post by Raven on Oct 14, 2016 4:00:02 GMT
"Pretty clever tactic, Clay, using a Water Pokemon to cool yourself off. Most people don't think that far ahead. This test was about endurance, but that doesn't mean I wasn't watching for someone to try and be smart. To out-think the test. I bet you're feeling pretty full of yourself over that."
She lets the words hang in the air for a few moments before continuing.
"First, you practically challenge me to single combat upon arriving. Then, you defeat Ashley in battle, despite her Pokemon having better training than most. Finally, you use your Mudkip to your advantage in a literal Trial by Fire. You intrigue me, Monkey Boy, so I think I'll let you stay. Only time will tell if you can handle the trials that are in store for everyone in the future, but for now you all are dismissed. There are dormitories in the back where you can rest. Newbies like yourselves are all in the same dorm, separated by gender."
With that, she turns and leaves, headed into a separate hall that must be for advanced students and the like.
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Post by carnackiArdent on Oct 14, 2016 4:21:13 GMT
Well, it seems like he's earned some praise. Rather grudging praise, admittedly, but that's still pretty nice for his first day under somebody who seems to be pretty harsh on new recruits. Luckily, he's too tired to make a cocky remark back to her.
It's only when he's heading towards the dorm with the other students who are still mobile that he realizes he didn't actually outright say his family were Infernape. Apparently either calling his family a "troop" tipped her off, or she's been hearing about him from Master Nob or someone. Or maybe just saying he grew up in the wild and having a Chimchar by his side did it; either way he's pretty sure she started calling him Monkey Boy before he called Fan 'sis' in front of her.
Once he's managed to stake out a place to sleep, he lets Fan and Sandy out to sit on it. Great job today, you two. He doesn't really care if he gets funny looks for making Chimchar noises at them. I'm gonna find some water for Sandy. Hang tight and save my spot, okay?
If a source of water isn't immediately evident, he'll go bug one of the other boys in the dorm. "Hey, you know where I can get some water for my Mudkip? Poor guy's parched."
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Post by Raven on Oct 14, 2016 5:08:06 GMT
The other boy suggests that you can go find a pond outside, or ask one of the officers (higher-ranked Guild Members) in the Water Branch if your Mudkip can hang out in their pools for a bit.
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Post by carnackiArdent on Oct 14, 2016 5:40:45 GMT
"Thanks!" Clay returns to his bed to pick up Sandy and let Fan clamber onto his shoulder again. He leaves his staff laid across the bed to make sure nobody steals it while he's gone. Let's take a little walk, guys. We'll head back out to the pond. It seems like that would be easier than trying to find the Water Branch and bugging somebody about using a pool - all they need is some time for Sandy to rehydrate, after all.
He slips out of the dormitory with his load of Pokémon and starts heading for an outside door in search of a pond. Hopefully nobody objects to this idea. Not seeing any particular need for sneakiness, he hums tunelessly to himself on his trek to the water.
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Post by Raven on Oct 21, 2016 1:15:34 GMT
The guy looks at you funny for a moment, then realization dawns on him. "OH! You're that guy from yesterday. The one who tried to call out Lady Ashandra. Well, everyone has a special mission today: Find a Fire Type Pokemon and bring it back here for inspection. The rarer or more powerful, the better. It also can't be one that you already have on your team. I don't know about you, but after I get me some food, I'm headed South. I have it on fairly good authority that a herd of Wild Rapidash pass through there this time of year, and they often have young Ponyta with them."
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Post by carnackiArdent on Oct 21, 2016 1:45:30 GMT
Well, that tells Clay a few things, one of which he already knew: "Lady Ashandra" has it in for him. He isn't sure yet if he's actually made her angry or if he's just put himself at the top of her "prove yourself" list, but either way it spells interesting times for him.
"Thanks!" He gives the guy a friendly smile. He was half expecting Lady Ashandra to have told everybody not to let him in on it. "Name's Clay, by the way. Thanks for the, um... what's the word, starts with a 'tuh' I think." It always frustrates him when he loses words like that. "Anyway, I'll keep it in mind."
He's not entirely sure he wants to poach the guy's idea but it's a good thing to keep in mind if he can't hunt down something else. In any case, getting food before heading out sounds like a pretty good plan, too. Clay burns through energy like crazy even if it isn't quite as literal as his relatives. So it's time to head to the dining hall, new Poké Tome in hand.
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Post by carnackiArdent on Jan 13, 2017 20:09:26 GMT
After that excellent battle and a very nice lunch, Clay heads back into Saffron City. Food makes everybody feel better, but Fan and Sandy are still pretty beat up from that battle. Memo to him, those duck things are stronger than they look. He's got some medicine, but he's also got more money than he's seen in one place before, and figures his friends might appreciate a real healer - especially since Sano and Rei and their first aid kits aren't around.
So he heads back to the guild, in hopes that either he can ask the people in the healer-y place infirmary to look after them or have them direct him to somebody who can if they're too busy.
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Post by Raven on Jan 13, 2017 21:14:08 GMT
The guild infirmary has special staff on hand to take care of Pokemon, for a small fee.
(2 injuries or less is 50 crowns. 4-5 is 70, and Heavily Injured (6+) is 100.)
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Post by carnackiArdent on Feb 8, 2017 4:22:19 GMT
Sometime in the afternoon Clay wanders back into the Guild Hall. He looks a bit of a mess, still showing evidence of his unfortunate encounter with electrical rodents, and he's only carrying one Pokéball on him with the healers seeing to the others - and boy did he ever get an earful about the condition they were in from said healers.
He spins Flower's ball in his hand for a moment before calling the little candle out, mostly just for the company. What a day, huh? Gonna run with just you and Red Child tomorrow, give sis and Sandy a break. But that's tomorrow.
He finds a relatively out-of-the-way spot and flops down to people-watch, wondering if anybody interesting will walk through.
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Post by carnackiArdent on Jul 12, 2017 0:56:45 GMT
Clay finds a small pond marked "salt-water" and pops the Carvanha out of its apricorn so he can have a talk with it. "Okay, let's you and me get to an understanding here. I'm gonna be honest, I'm not real wild about your attitude. Yeah, sure, we were in your territory, but you can't just chomp on people outta nowhere." Clay isn't entirely sure if Carvanha even do territory, and is frankly not being terribly polite, but he did kind of have a bad first impression of this fish. "Hi there-" "CHOMP!"
He pauses and considers the issue, and also the Carvanha's teeth. "You're pretty strong, but I have a lot of strong friends. So, what are we gonna do here? I can try and find you another human to train you, if you want. You can get strong a lot faster that way than by yourself. Or if you feel like staying with me, we can work something out. Or I can let you go, but that's not gonna happen today, 'cause it's a long walk back to the ocean, so you'd be stuck waiting. What do you think?"
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Post by Raven on Jul 12, 2017 1:12:52 GMT
The Carvanha informs you that biting is how it learns about things. Territory notwithstanding. You were new, so it had to see what you were. When you hit it back (and sent out Sandy) instead of fleeing, it took that as a challenge and gave you a fight. It seems to give you a look like 'What were you expecting? I'm a fish with many teeth.'
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Post by carnackiArdent on Jul 12, 2017 1:23:23 GMT
Clay sighs. Yeah, he guesses he should have figured that. "Okay, fair enough. In my defense, I don't know a lot of fish. The way I saw it, I said 'hi' and you came out of nowhere and started chomping on Sandy without saying anything. And you have really big teeth. But yeah, you have a point. Look, if you wanna stick around, we can try it out, but it's gonna take some work. Or, like I said, we can find you another trainer. What do you think? Want to try and make this work?"
Clay probably looks really funny crouching next to a pond and making bubbly fish noises, but the Guild is probably just going to have to get used to that, because Clay talking to Pokémon is not going to stop being a thing that happens.
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Post by Raven on Jul 12, 2017 1:32:13 GMT
It says that you're strong enough to fight it, so you must be strong enough for it to follow as well. That seems to be as close to "I'll stick with you" as Carvanha can/will say.
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Post by carnackiArdent on Jul 12, 2017 1:38:41 GMT
Clay looks slightly dubious, but he guesses this is just how this particular Carvanha is. "Well, if you're not leaving, you're gonna need a name I can call you in human. It's a thing humans do and it'll let you know I'm talking to you even in human. Hmm... what would you want to be known for?"
Clay's pretty sure he can't just carry on calling him 'Carvanha' or 'that fish'. It's like if somebody was talking to his whole troop and called them all 'Chimchar'.
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Post by Raven on Jul 12, 2017 1:41:05 GMT
Carvanha seems nonplussed. If you must have something to call it in human speech, it wants to sound fierce and powerful.
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Post by carnackiArdent on Jul 12, 2017 1:56:17 GMT
Clay's first impulse is to name him 'Fang', but he's pretty sure all Carvanha would probably be named Fang if they could get away with it. After a moment, he says, "Missile. It means those things humans throw to hit stuff far away. So you're fast, and you're dangerous. How's that sound?"
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Post by Raven on Jul 12, 2017 2:00:32 GMT
It seems to agree with this based on the excited gnashing of teeth. Or maybe it's hungry. Clay's not good with fish yet.
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Post by carnackiArdent on Jul 12, 2017 2:07:07 GMT
"Great! Let's go put you to the test!"
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