Determined to Help, Determined to Fall

Mission Details:

The Frozen Stream, a rather dull area of the Icy Lands named for the continuously frozen stream that ran through it.  Of course, it wasn't JUST a stream, since streams weren't very big.  The stream flowed into the Descant River, though, so of course it was the most noteworthy feature of the area.  It also happened to be the most fun part of the area.... if one was an Ice-Type, that is.

Sova was a bit excited to be back here, since the only other time he'd ever been to the Frozen Stream was when he was an eevee and it was.... less than fun.  Now, though, he was an Ice-Type with a body so well-adjusted to the cold that he could probably swim in the water under the sheet of ice covering the stream.  The swablu with him probably didn't enjoy the cold nearly as much, but at least a bird could fly over the stream and not risk breaking the ice and falling in.  Though, honestly, he doubted someone as small as Varda could even break the ice with weight alone.

The little bird probably wasn't enjoying being in such a cold place and the glaceon knew it, but he never asked for help.  Varda had offered.  Actually, Varda had insisted.  It wasn't like he was bad company either, the swablu was fairly nice and not annoying.  He even liked to give out compliments, so the glaceon wasn't going to complain.  Sova was just glad he didn't have to put up with someone like William following him.  That gengar agitated him to no end.

"So, how're you feeling?", he asked, rather rhetorically since he knew Varda was probably not enjoying himself.
He looked around for any sign of the stream, but it was currently snowing, which obscured vision a bit.  If the stream was nearby, he couldn't see it.  He could see a few trees though.  He was content with just staying here, but he wanted to get to the stream to practice skating on ice.... and they had a mission to do there, that was important too.

(Ninja Edit - 38 energy)

The snow was falling in the icy land, covering both the sky and the ground in a thick blanket of fresh snow. Luckily there was no wind to turn it into an awful blizzard, almost making the snowfall a pleasant scene. The Pokémon that were used to the cold would of course be quite happy in this weather. Those that weren't... Well, even the excitement of snow didn't change the fact that it was very cold. And unfortunately for him, Varda wasn't very used to the cold. Right now he was quite happy to have wings as to not freeze his little bird feet in the snow, their footsteps being swallowed by the snow in any case. Sova, however, seemed unaffected.

Perhaps the Swablu hadn't planned this all out all that well, but honestly, he never really did. Planning far ahead – or planning at all – wasn't really his area of expertize. A while ago they both had been at the Guild, enjoying its warmth, but Varda had noticed the familiar Pokémon and of course rushed to him. It became apparent that Sova was taking a mission, and as they had done one before together and the bird was a helpful sort of Pokémon, he really wanted to help, too! He just had managed to miss some key details about the mission. Mainly, the freezing land where they had to travel to.

"Brr!" Varda shuddered from the cold as the other Pokémon asked how he was feeling, but the smile had not disappeared from his face. The bird flying by Sova's side did his best to fight the cold, his feathers fluffed up to protect him – and honestly, currently he felt like he was twice his usual size, made purely out of feathery fluff!
"It's a bit cold!" The little bird chirped out the obvious, his breath visible in the cold air and coming out as steamy puffs from his beak. As he looked around, he couldn't really see much... Just some small, leafless trees, and white. Snow. There was snow everywhere. He thought that there was supposed to be a stream here somewhere, but...

"So... We were looking for this 'Sneasel' thing, right?" The Swablu tried to recap their current mission, not wanting to mess everything up by getting some detail wrong. As he flapped his wings in thought, he quickly looked back at Sova and opened his beak again.
"How do they look like? Are they big?" He chirped, not having seen one of those before. Well, perhaps he had seen one at the Guild at some point, but he hadn't asked all the Pokémon there for their species, so he was unsure...


Current Energy: 19 (37 -18 from entering)

Sova chuckled at the swablu's response.  Of course it was cold, but he wondered if Varda was doing okay.  He had gotten rather used to carrying others, so if the bird needed a rest, he preferred to not wait until his companion was falling out of the air to know about it.  Actually, he'd had to carry someone in this area before, when he was still an eevee.  Thinking back on it, he realized he'd started being a knock-off gogoat really early in his life....

He had to think for a moment about how to reply to the swablu's question.  He knew how a sneasel looked; he knew how most things looked to an extent, even some that he'd never seen, due to his parents' teaching and his own studying.  Describing something was just difficult, even though he knew what he was describing.  But he had to at least try. When he finally had a good idea of how to go about explaining the odd appearance of a sneasel, he spoke up.

"Well, lets see....  They aren't very big, at least for something of their body type.  They're bipedal and their main color is a dark, dull blue.  They've got big claws and red feathers as a tail.  They've got one of those feathers on their heads too, on the left ear.... or maybe it IS the left ear, I'm not really sure about that part.  That feather's a LOT bigger on the guys, though; and it just so happens that the sneasel we're looking for is a guy.", he explained.

After a moment, the glaceon realized his description may have been a bit complicated.  He decided to quickly think of a revised, shorter version to give Varda more simple traits to look for.  "Just look for a bipedal blue thing with a few red feathers on it.", he reiterated, hoping he hadn't confused the swablu too much already.

Varda closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to picture the description he was being given of the Sneasel they were looking for, but as he was flying, that only caused him to momentarily get off-course, almost crashing to the ground. The little bird quickly opened his eyes and flapped his wings quickly to maintain his straight posture. He almost forgot that he couldn't keep moving with his eyes closed! Everything was fine now however, and Varda glanced in Sova's direction with a happy smile like nothing had happened.

The description sounded a bit scary, actually. A Pokémon with large claws... It sounded like a monster of some sort – especially because this person sounded like a bad Pokémon and he was going to be against the two of them! The Swablu let out a worried coo as he let his gaze turn forward, scanning their surroundings. He was supposed to look for a blue Pokémon standing on two legs and it was supposed to have red feathers... And those claws! He couldn't forget the claws. Perhaps the Pokémon would be fluffy too, considering how cold it was...

"On it!" The bird chirped as he got to work, his eyes intense as he stared unblinking until his eyes started to sting from the cold, dry air. He only saw white.
"...I can't see him here, though. Do you know if there's a place where Pokémon tend to gather in this area?" Varda tried another approach, looking at Sova. On one hand – or wing – it should be easy to find a non-white Pokémon here due to the snow. But then again, the vast snowy fields seemed to stretch on forever.

"Hm, and... He had a stone of some kind with him? A special stone? Does it... Look special, or stone-y?" The Swablu kept asking his questions, clearly having missed the key details of the mission before he hopped along.

Sova glanced in the direction of the swablu just in time to see him nearly fall out of flight, but it seemed to be just a temporary difficulty that had been fixed, so he thought nothing of it.  If it kept happening, he'd assume there was something wrong, but till then, he wasn't going to jump to conclusions.  He listened to the first question and immediately knew the answer, but before he could state it, another question came.  At least he knew the answers to these questions.  He knew the answer to the first due to having been here before and he knew the answer to the second due to.... having read the mission description.

"If there's anywhere pokemon would gather here, it'd be the stream.  It's not completely frozen, there's just a sheet of ice over it.  So if you need water, you can go to the stream and search for a hole in the ice, or break one your self if you can.  It's also a nice spot to hang out if you like ice skating, or ice in general.", he explained, answering the first question.  Their destination was the same as it had been previously; the stream.

"And the sneasel stole a Moon Stone from a skitty.  Skitty uses it to evolve.  I don't know why he'd wanna steal one, sneasel can't use it and they aren't exactly very pretty, they just look like rocks.  A Thunder Stone, Water Stone or Fire Stone would be a lot better if you just wanted something shiny.  Maybe he plans to sell it or something.", he answered the second question, becoming a bit confused as to why someone would steal a Moon Stone in the process.

Maybe the sneasel wanted to give it to a friend, or maybe he wanted to sell it to someone.  Maybe he was just some idiot who thought he could evolve with it.  Regardless, the sneasel had stolen and was now a criminal; this was all the excuse the glaceon needed to not hesitate to beat him half-dead.

(I just got the best idea for the sneasel.  I'll control him when ever we bring him in if that's alright with you, unless you had something in mind.  Also, five posts, you can roll now if you want.)

"Right, the stream," Varda chirped and repeated the other Pokémon's words. He knew that there was supposed to be a stream here... But he couldn't see it! Could an entire stream be swallowed by the snow that was falling? It certainly was seeming like it. It make sense that there could be Pokémon near it, as there would be a good source of water right there! But the talk of ice skating seemed to catch the little bird's interest right away, his eyes growing brighter as it seemed like they were almost shining in awe.

The bird Pokémon cooed as the conversation took a slightly darker turn. Stealing wasn't nice, and Sova couldn't even figure out a reason for the Sneasel's thievery! Luckily, at least it sounded like it couldn't use the stone itself and ruin their client's day more than it already had... But why would someone even take something if they couldn't use it or if it wasn't nice to look at? It really did sound suspicious!
"I hope he still has the stone and hasn't gotten rid of it," the Swablu pondered out loud, a bit worried that their mission might end up being a failure due to something that was completely out of their hands.

Varda quickly pushed such dark thoughts aside, landing on the soft snow under him. Immediately his feet were greeted by the cold, but his light weight allowed him to just walk on the surface without even falling in. He could take quick little bird steps and glide on the snow without being hindered by it – but it was quite cold!
"Do you think the stream is near? I can't see it," he chirped as he continued to waddle and snake his way through, careful to not go too far from Sova,
"I've never seen ice though! There was none of that where I lived..."

He had many things to look for. The Sneasel, their target, the potential Moon Rock that might have fallen in the snow, and the stream itself. But this far, all he had managed to find was snow!


((That works for me!))

Bird carried out 2 launched of one Frozen Stream :

,

Sova sighed upon hearing the possibility of the stone already being gone.  Technically, the mission goal was to apprehend the thief AND get the stolen item back, so they kind of needed the stone.  It wasn't too big of a deal to him whether or not the skitty got their stone back, he just didn't want to lose out on getting his "team" higher ranked.  It didn't feel like much of a team, but he was getting two more members very soon, so hopefully that would change.  He wouldn't have to be all alone on his team any more.

He wondered why Varda'd never seen ice.  He knew the bird may have come from some.... bird-land.... but there was ice everywhere.  Well, other than deserts and volcanoes.  Did Varda come from a desert village somewhere?  "You haven't seen ice?  Well, it's like glass, but cold.  A bit colder than snow.  As for the stream, it's probably got a layer of snow covering it right now, but if we keep walking we should run into it eventually and we'll know when we get to it.  Or at least, I will, since you don't seem to be actually touching the ground.", he explained, observing that Varda's talons weren't pressing through the snow.  The little bird not only looked like cotton, but apparently had the weight of cotton as well.

Then a faint sound caught his attention.  The sound of.... water.  Due to his big, attuned, canine ears, he could hear very well.  What he heard right now was a very faint sound of running water, which meant the stream was nearby!  Of course the sound was quiet, since there was ice covering it, but he could hear it!  "Speaking of the stream.... I think we might be close.", he added on, not wanting to be too specific and get Varda's hopes up for nothing, but not wanting to be too vague and leave the bird confused.

"I'm sure it'll be fine!" Varda chirped with his wings up in the air as he heard the awfully defeated sigh of Sova, worried that he had discouraged his current partner with his pessimistic attitude! Poor Sova, he really had to be worried about the stone and the client. The little bird only grew more determined as he puffed up his chest. If it was up to him, they would find the stone for the client and everything would be alright again!

As Sova questioned if he really hadn't seen ice before, the little bird nodded. Well, he knew what it was, but he wasn't going to stop the other Pokémon if he wanted to explain, there was nothing wrong with that. But he had never actually felt it or experienced it.
"Yes, my home... It's pretty warm there, always. Not too hot, just right. It doesn't get this cold, so there's no ice!" He clarified, always happy to talk about his home even if it was a bit difficult at times, knowing that he had yet to find his way back. For a moment, he looked down at the snow, not quite as chipper as he had been... But again Varda quickly bounced back to his normal mood.

His little feet kept walking over the soft snow lightly, but something caused a quiet, hollow tink sound to erupt from underneath as the bird's talons hit something hard. It caused him to stop and take a few steps back, tilting his head to the side as he tried to find what it was he stepped on. Sova's voice interrupted his search and he quickly looked back up.
"Oh? I think I stepped on something, do you think it's the stream?" Varda tweeted in excitement as he started to brush the snow aside with one of his fluffy wings. Sova had said that the stream was close, perhaps it was this close?

But all the Swablu found was two discs. He... Hadn't found the stream. But he didn't have time to be disappointed as he realized he had made a discovery and chirped to his friend.
"I found some things! I don't know what, exactly!"


Current Energy: 17 (19 -2 from the item rolls)

Sova listened to the explanation of the swablu's home. Figured, that it was just a place that didn't get very cold. Still, he would have thought that an explorer would have seen ice at least once in their life. It didn't occur to him that perhaps not every explorer had been raised on exploring as he had been. A lot of things were common knowledge to him, they seemed trivial.... That made it easy to forget that they weren't trivial to everyone.

The mention of Varda having possibly found the stream caught the glaceon's attention. His ears perked up as he turned to the swablu, only to be slightly disappointed to see that it wasn't the stream. He approached what ever the bird had stepped on and brushed some snow away to completely reveal the two discs. "Those are TMs. They.... teach moves, but I'm guessing you know that.", he explained. He HOPED Varda knew this, at least.

He noticed one of the two TMs had a light blueish tint to it, showing it was for an Ice-Type move. He placed a paw on it to check what it was, resulting in the knowledge of the name of the move flooding into his mind, Blizzard. He pulled his paw away before he could drain the use of the TM, as Varda had found it, so it wasn't his to use. Still, he wondered if the bird would be interested in giving the TM to him.... After all, what was a Swablu going to do with Blizzard?

"Well, this one's Blizzard....", he added on, aiming to gauge the swablu's reaction to knowing what the TM was for before deciding to ask whether or not he could have it.
He hoped to end up with it, though. He needed an Ice-Type move that he could actually readily use, since he was having trouble with Frost Breath. He had figured out that he was having difficulties creating the icy mist in his lungs, then when ever he managed to, he didn't know how to shut it off and it would just keep going until it started burning his throat and lungs, at which point what ever within him was creating the mist would exhaust its self and give out. This had happened to him multiple times already, so he knew he needed something else to cover for his dysfunctional move.

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Frozen Stream :

, , , ,

Varda nodded as the other Pokémon explained that TMs – or the discs he had found – taught moved, thinking that the bird probably knew that already. And he did! He seemed awfully proud of that fact, too. At least he assumed that not everyone would know it... But honestly, he tended to be the one who knew the least about many obvious things. For once, he knew. And that felt good!
"They all tend to seem so similar... I usually bring them to town with me to get them identified," the bird explained as he softly brushed some more snow off the discs, digging them out properly.

Sova ended up placing one of his paws on the other disc and the Swablu took a few steps back, letting the other Pokémon do whatever it was he was doing, watching curiously. Eventually, he pulled his paw back and gave a name to the TM, causing Varda to seem so amazed as he cooed in awe. He would have clapped his hands together if he had hands to clap together!
"I see," he chirped as his eyes turned to look at the disc lying on the ground, happy to have gotten such a quick answer without even having to go back to town for it,
"That sounds awfully cold!" The bird tweeted with a chirpy giggle, again stating the obvious but seeming just so happy as he did.

"What about this other one, do you know what it is?" Varda quickly looked up, hope shining in his little beady eyes as he looked Sova in the eye. Clearly, the other Pokémon had become an extremely smart and knowledgeable person in the little bird's eyes, now turning in his direction when he had any kind of question. And he, as a curious and oblivious little Pokémon, had many, many questions indeed...

Sova tilted his head to the left as the swablu questioned him on what the other TM was. Did he not know how to check? Regardless, the glaceon was more than willing to help. He was curious what it was, too. "Well, I can already tell you it's Psychic-Type.", he said, seeing the pinkish tint. He then placed his paw on it and let the information come to him, stopping after learning the name.

"Light Screen.", he finally said after a moment. "You.... don't know how to check? It's just like using them.... kind of.", he questioned, a bit confused on why the swablu didn't just check himself.
Again, he was forgetting that he'd had the privilege of being trained his whole life by two avid explorers. It wasn't too far-fetched to believe he'd even surpassed his parents, considering they.... At this point, he stopped thinking about his parents. He didn't want to think about what'd happened. Ever. It was too hard to not let it get to him once he started thinking about it, even after so long. Lack of proper sleep certainly didn't help either.

It seemed asking if he could have the Blizzard TM would have to wait for the moment. For now, he wanted to know if Varda could check TMs. If not, maybe he could show the bird. Or he could at least try to.

Varda cooed, his feathers standing up from not just the cold but the excitement as well. He hopped closer as he was told that the move was some kind of Psychic type move, knowing that those types tended to be rather strange but strong moves. Very interesting, at least. The blue bird said nothing as Sova placed a paw on the new TM, holding his breath as he did not even dare to make a peep so he wouldn't break the other Pokémon's concentration. The moment of silence felt like it stretched on forever, but reality, it wasn't even all that long.

Finally the Swablu could breath out a sigh of relief and continued breathing normally when Sova spoke up, telling him what he had learned. Light Screen... He wasn't entirely sure what it did, but it sounded cute! Light was cute in his eyes, at least. The little beady eyes that had dropped to look at the smooth, reflective surface of the disc quickly were brought back up when Sova asked if Varda didn't know how to check them himself – to which he quickly shook his head to signal that he didn't. And honestly, the Pokémon's description of how to do it didn't really help him.

"I have never used a TM in my life," he chirped, lacking such experience that could have helped him in this situation. He didn't even know how! Often Pokémon seemed to touch the discs, but he had touched many of them during his travel and he hadn't learned of what they were until he asked someone else who knew how to check...

Sova sighed as he heard that the swablu hadn't even ever used a TM. Of course he didn't know how to check one. "I could teach ya.... if you give me that Blizzard.", he joked. "....I'm kidding, I'll teach you for free. If you want, I mean.", he clarified a moment later, worried his joke would be taken seriously. He really did want the Blizzard, but not enough to try and bribe Varda in such a cruel way. They were friends or something. Friends or something didn't do things like that that.

How was he even going to explain to Varda how to do it? He couldn't demonstrate, since it was mostly a mental process. He could try to explain the steps, but in the end, the swablu would have to figure it out at least somewhat on his own. Still, that didn't mean the glaceon couldn't provide guidance and advice.

As he took a step forward in preparation for the likely possibility of teaching Varda how to work a TM, he bumped his paw into something sharp. "Ow!", he exclaimed as he pulled his paw back. He then carefully lowered his paw back down in front of him and brushed it over the snow to reveal a silver dagger-like spike. "Man, this place is like a treasure trove....", he thought to himself.
Of course, his first idea for what to do with this Silver Spike was to hold it in his mouth and use it like a dagger. He didn't really have any way to stab things with his face; this would remedy that issue!

Varda was already about to happily chirp 'okay!' as Sova asked for one of the TMs in exchange of guiding him through the processing of learning a move from the discs, already taking in a quick gasp of breath to prepare for it. But no, quickly the other Pokémon pulled it back, saying that he had been kidding. He would be doing it for free.
"You would?" The bird cooed with a slow, innocent blink of an eye, thinking about it for a moment as he looked at the discs on the ground. He didn't even know where to start with these things, himself.

"Is... Is it hard?" The Swablu looked up and tilted his head with a big smile, not looking very worried even if it was hard. For being a tiny little cotton bird, he was looking like he was somewhat prepared to try over and over again even if he was going to fail many times. Varda gave his friend some room to come forward, but as Sova did so, he suddenly let out a yelp and pulled back his paw in pain.

"O-Oh no! Are you alright?" The little Pokémon cried out, covering his beak with his wings in worry,
"D-Did I... Did I maybe step on something and break it? Did you step on broken shards?" Varda offered, looking quite guilty. He had stepped on something... What if there had been three TMs under the snow and he broke the third one without noticing?! The actual culprit actually ended up being a silvery spiky thing of some sort, but the bird was still very worried as he took a couple of careful steps forward.

"Does it hurt? Is it... Bleeding?" The Swablu's eyes looked large and sad, remembering how Sova had gotten injured the last time they had been together, too. That time, the large Pokémon with leafy wings and bananas had gotten quite weak after seeing the blood...

Sova shook his head at the bird's questions. "I'm fine.", he immediately replied, though it felt like it actually WAS bleeding. In an attempt to take the swablu's mind off the worry, he tried to change the topic to the thing that'd jabbed him. "It's just a spike, you didn't break anything.", he explained before bending down and biting onto the dull end of the spike, having the sharp end pointing to the right and held firmly in his teeth.
"Speaking of the spike, do I look cool like this?", he asked before turning his head to the left to give a good view of himself holding the spike.

Perhaps it was silly, but he did care a slight bit about his appearance. He wanted to at least try to look somewhat intimidating in fights, so if this spike was going to make him look silly, he wasn't going to use it. Not even if it proved to be effective. One of his few goals in life was to be respected, or at the very least feared.... not to be a laughing stock. As he got excited about the spike, he'd almost forgotten that he was just about to help teach Varda how to work TMs.

How was he going to do this? The only physical action that needed to be taken was touching the TM, so that was easy enough. Maybe some could do it without touching them.... probably Psychic-Types, but he couldn't at the very least. As for what to do after touching it, it was like learning a TM, only.... stopping before absorbing the knowledge of how to perform the move. Just sifting through the knowledge long enough to learn the name. If one kept it up too long, they could end up with more knowledge than they intended to gain - the move. Of course, if this happened, it'd also render the TM useless due to being used.

Of course, this information would do no good since Varda had never even used a TM before. He began thinking back to how his parents used to teach him things, doing his best to keep the thoughts to just that. He didn't want to trail off on this topic. His father would always explain things really technically and difficult to understand, then his mother would give a watered-down explanation which made it much easier to understand. Now if only he could figure out how to do that....