Chapter 0 - The Game

After Iris' explanation, Shossk turns his attention to the dartrix for a moment, who looks back at him, before turning his attention towards no particular point in the sky.

"Wwhat moves does this creature know?"  Shossk asks upward, taking the most direct course of action.

Shossk
As Shossk asks the question of the air he hears a list of words sail through his skull. “Tackle.” Shossk inherently understands that this is a Normal type move that deals damage physically. Next the word “Leafage” pops into his head along with the understanding that it is a Grass type Physical move. The word “Air Cutter” Pops into his head, A Flying type Physical move. Then “Peck” a Flying Physical Move. Then “Astonish” a Ghost Physical move. Finally the move, “Razor Leaf” a Grass Physical Move, pops into his head. After each the idea of how strong or weak each move is flows past, the concepts and numbers flowing with them.

Yoko
The sheet pops into Yoko’s head once again; it shifts to one side showing the word “Cosplayer” below which there are several sub classes “Backpacker” and “Fashionista”. The sub classes in turn show individual abilities that they give.

Layl looks over at Nacht, so he had powers like that too? Might as well ask him to show off his stuff. "Show me what you got, Nacht!" She would trust Iris that he wasn't too young to fight.

Nacht turned towards Iris himself, giving her smirk towards her before he turned straight to Layl, getting in a battle stance and running at Layl. Layl tensed up, readying herself for the assault coming her way, it could be very powerful. Nacht skid to a halt right in front of her, before staring up at her with sad eyes as tears started spraying pout of his face and he let out a mournful cry.



Layl was shocked and appalled, She didn't mean to hurt his feelings. "I-I I'm sorry Nacht, I didn't mean to push you like that, Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right!" She ran forward to hug the poor guy as he cried in her arms, This was awful! She couldn't believe that she had pushed him so hard. She began to pet him on his head trying to soothe the little guy.

Shossk nods at Iris, then turns to ask the empty air another question. "Howw often can this creature's Movess be used?" Presumably information will flow into Shossk's head once more to let him know that the owl can use all of its Moves 'at-will', there is no limitation.  If it wanted, the dartrix could keep throwing razor sharp leaves all day.

Shossk looks down at his dartrix again. With his trainer looking again, he throws another brace of leaves to cut up some more grass, just to make sure. "I wish to ssee your other Moves," Shossk interrupts the owl's show. "Sshow me your Tackle next."

The pair take a minute or two to go down the dartrix's list of Moves, from the mundane Tackle and Peck that function exactly as their names imply, to the more interesting. Of note there was 'Astonish', a Ghost-type Move that caused the dartrix's wing to turn partly ethereal as it quickly struck the training dummy. 'Air Cutter' led to the dartrix summoning a small gale, and the dummy seeming to receive small cuts from the wind itself.

The demonstrations of the dartrix's Moves over, Shossk nods at the owl and turns to Iris again. "You knnow of these creatures. Do you know tthe particulars of this one?" Shossk asks, gesturing to the owl.

Iris turned to Shossk and then to Yoko as both asked her questions. Shossk asked about a Pokemon she knew even less of than Zorua. She had never seen a Dartrix before. Actually, she wasn't even sure if she heard of Dartrix before, but her mind told her that the Pokemon was, indeed, native to her world. Yoko, meanwhile, asked a question she wasn't quite sure how to answer. Her first reaction was to shrug in a, "I dunno. What do you think?" manner but she held the urge back in favor of being more reasonable.

She began with the easier question. After some concentration, information on Dartrix's category floated into her head. "Dartrix is categorized as the Blade Quill Pokemon," Iris let Shossk know, "Ah, and they generally dislikes getting dirty."

"As for You-ko," Iris punned, a hand scratching her head as she tried to figure out how to handle Yoko's question. It was easy enough to solve if she simply channeled the Remoraid. The whole shrugging thing would have mostly just been a joke... of some sort. That, and... Iris wanted to tone down on the channeling for now. From what she knew of the move Lock-On, though, it certainly looked like the Remoraid was doing it right, so her answer was, "Well, Lock-On is a move that guarantees the next hit. Your Remoraid looks focused. If Bang has any low accuracy moves, you should ask him to use it next. If not, then try struggling. Struggle is generally not as accurate as most moves. At least, I know I avoided using it whenever I could. Oh, by the way. Struggle is how a Pokemon attacks when it isn't using any moves."

While Yoko figured things out, Iris glanced over to make sure Layl and Nacht were doing okay. Watching everyone with their Pokemon definitely made Iris miss her own team. It sort of tempted her to bring her own Zorua out... but only sort of. She would sort out her problems with her Zorua when they were alone and probably in the kitchen so the Pokemon could eat something. Right now, she felt busy enough just answering everyone's questions, let alone settling her own.

"Hmm," Shossk acknowledges, glancing at the dartrix. The owl just looks at him expectantly.

"Wwhat of orders and Type mmatchups?"

Shossk's head rises marginally. "I amm familiar with thiss strategy. The lleader of my party directs us inn combat. He focuses our sstrikes and combines our efforts to bee more efficient." And while Torvin didn't do the most damage himself, he enabled the main damage-dealers, usually Veska and Shossk, to strike more accurately and more often. It was an indirect form of offense that proved more effective than Torvin simply being a more skilled combatant himself.

Wasting no time, Shossk turns to his dartrix. Rather, he would like not to waste time, but Shossk had never given combat orders before. He certainly wasn't a skilled commander like Torvin. Instead of giving orders, Shossk opens his mouth, blinks, then closes his mouth again.

Instead Shossk faces the training dummy, leaving the dartrix tilting his head. The immediate question that came to mind was 'what would Torvin do in this situation?' Though that question was irrelevant. Shossk was not Torvin and lacked his skill. The question then becomes 'what would Shossk do in this situation?' He would fire his bow at the enemy himself. However, that defeats the purpose of this training. That must be the wrong question, then. What would be the right one? What order would Shossk give to another to make them more effective?

Shossk suddenly turns back to the dartrix. The question wasn't 'what would Shossk do', it was instead 'how does Shossk fight?' "You mmust strike where the enemy iss most vulnerable. Aimm your Razor Leaf for the head and neck."


The dartrix blasts off from the ground to swoop in towards the dummy again. This time, though, the razor sharp leaves he fires from his wings all hit their mark. A half-dozen leaves embed themselves in the dummy's blank face and another half-dozen cleave straight through the neck, leaving the dummy's head tilting precariously with what little material connects it to the body.

The dartrix falters and drops to the ground, head spinning to Shossk with wide eyes in amazement.

Shossk blinks, too, not responding right away. The creature had followed his directions, and the results were immediate and impressive. A subtle... warmth? A pleasant and uplifting feeling crept into Shossk's inner being. It was similar to satisfaction and also similar to the contentment one feels when receiving praise.

He nodded at the dartrix. "You have done wwell," he compliments the dartrix flatly.

The dartrix turns a little away and waves Shossk away with a wing, happily. Psh, it was nothing, really.

Shossk blinks, not really understanding the dartrix's beheavior.  He then turns to Iris. "Iss that what you intended?"

Iris was actually clapping after that show by Shossk and his Dartrix, clapping and smiling while her eyes remained wide with surprise. When Shossk had started giving orders, she had put aside thinking so that she could watch what Shossk was doing. She was not disappointed. "I'm impressed, Iris admitted in congratulations, "An attack like that, we would call it a critical hit where I come from. Well, more like crit, which is a shorter way of saying it. They're hard to pull off, and you need to be lucky, but it looks like your Order style focuses on hitting that sweet spot." That wasn't the only reason why she was impressed. Shossk had managed to figure out his style of Orders and how to give them without Iris having to figure out how to explain it. She was grateful that was the case.

"Fake Tears? Really? That's a move?" Layl was far more confused than angry, in fact she was just annoyed that Nacht had tricked her, but she had asked for it. "Why are Fake Tears a move? Just...why?" She muttered to herself. Layl understood that it's effect had a point, but why was crying an effective way to weaken your opponent? Especially if you're enemies, It would stop herself in a fight, but why would it effect someone evil at heart? Layl tried to process this information but she just couldn't figure it out.

She put him down and gave him a pat on the head,She had asked for it, after all, so she had no right to complain. Most of his moves seemed pretty normal, Scratch and Fury Swipes being just claw attacks and Pursuit having an interesting extra effect. The Dark typing concerned her, but she was far more concerned with her own Shade Caller than his affinity. You can't help if you're naturally good at it, after all. "If what the statistics say in my head are right, your moves are stronger than mine, so I guess we can fight together, What do you say?"The little guy responded with a loud Yip and wagging his tail. She took that as a yes.