These Shenanigans are Codswallop

A slow moving creature had entered the forest about half an hour ago, but had barely gotten anywhere.  He could still see the light from the entrance somewhere behind him.  It was tough being a Slakoth, trying to move around.  It was in the Pokemon's nature to be slow moving, even if they wanted to get somewhere fast.

"Just great, at this rate It'll be dusk before I even get anything done."  Capone had said to himself, annoyed that he couldn't move quickly.  He would probably become prey to some other creature that was out there, but it was a good thing he knew how to deal with the wild Pokemon.  "How am I supposed to find a hideout if I can't even get away from the entrance?"

Energy: 16 - 10 = 6

The soft snickering of amusement that followed the Slakoth's commentary was the only thing that gave away the Vulpix's presence before she made herself known by stepping out from the undergrowth.

Synd'r had ventured into the dark forest after overhearing multiple conversations in Grassveil Town citing the place to be a veritable den for thieves and other such outlaws. The Vulpix figured that she might as well do a little investigating of her own and gather intelligence on just what other underworld operations might be going on in the area.

Shortly after entering the forest, her curiosity had been diverted to a Slakoth that appeared to be trying to travel somewhere, but was taking his sweet time about doing so. Synd'r had been about to leave the Slakoth to his business when he'd spoken to himself, his words amusing the Vulpix that she couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh.

Opting to reveal herself rather than slink away into the undergrowth, she called out to the Slakoth.
"Maybe you should have planned a bit in advance?" she suggested, her mouth still curled into a soft smirk of amusement.

It was a good thing Capone could keep his cool, or he probably would've snapped at the Vulpix to mind her own business.  He probably also would have said something about how his body couldn't move quickly, with many vulgar words sprinkled in.  At least he has learned to keep his impulses to himself, and calmly answered the other Pokemon.  "Well, if I could help it, I would have been half way through this damned forest.  I always prepare as best I can before leaving my home in Grassveil, for whatever the reason.  I just have a naturally slow body."  He then looked down the path, then back to the Vulpix once more,  "And what are you doing eavesdropping on random Pokemon?  I would hope that you don't do this to everyone that walks past these woods."

He then looked back at the path, which looked so long, bathed in the morning sunlight.  It would have looked beautiful to most, but the Slakoth who was taking in the sight could not find any sort of admirable traits about it.  Neither could he see it in the lusciously green trees and pale blue sky.

"The essence of gathering information tends to rely on others first giving out that information," the Vulpix replied with another amused smirk, "If you didn't want anyone to hear you shouldn't have said anything."

Synd'r flicked her ear, behind which perched three black and white striped feathers, and sat down a short distance away from the Slakoth.
"And by planning in advance I didn't mean that. I mean you could have brought a ally of some description to carry you. Or purchased a few swift seeds. You seem to be acutely aware of your speed weakness so why not take measures to limit said weakness."

The Slakoth just looked away and sighed.  "I guess you're right about that.  I really should be more careful when talking to myself.  He looked back towards the Vulpix, her smirk expected.  When she talked about his preparations, he already knew what she would say.  Although, he let her continue, not wanting to be rude, for the sake of trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.  There's a simple answer to that.  As for an ally, I don't have any, and for the swift seeds, I was unlucky in being able to find any before going on this little expedition.  If I could have gotten a few, you probably wouldn't have met me, and that same goes for me."  He sighed again, since he was wasting time that could have gone to another few feet of travel, which would have been great progress for him today.

Synd'r blinked at the Slakoth's answers. She had meant he could have bought some in the town that was nearby but apparently he had other ideas. Nevertheless that topic had been exhausted and so in her investigative quest she sat and watched the Slakoth huff as he finished speaking. Realising that he hadn't moved since she had started speaking to him, she held in a small chuckle of amusement, reigning in her tone so that it sounded oddly serious.

"You know you can keep moving if you want to. It's not like i'm going anywhere anytime soon," she commented, wondering how much it would take to get under the Slakoth's skin.

Capone's sandy-brown fur was glistening a little with sweat, just barely noticeable. He really hoped the Vulpix wouldn't see it. This was the first time in a long while that he had been under so much pressure. He felt like glass at the bottom of the ocean, ready to break at any moment. He tried to think of a response, but his mind felt like giving up as this moment. After a while, it came to him.

"Ah, but wouldn't that be rude of me to just leave someone when they're sitting and conversing with you? Especially a lady?" The Slakoth said with such confidence that this would work. He hoped that he could get away secretly, though.

Synd'r couldn't help but let out a chuckle as the Slakoth finally came out with his reply after a significantly longer than normal pause. The Vulpix couldn't help but wonder if the length of the pause was because he couldn't think of what to say or because it was just in his nature to be slower than most.

"Welllll," she began with a rather over dramatic swipe of her paw across the dirt in front of her feet, as if she were truly contemplating whether or not to actually say her next words. Of course it wasn't even a decision in the end, she already knew what she was going to say just to get under the Slakoth's skin.
"I wouldn't really call it rude when you wouldn't pass me for quite some time. I'm sure we could finish our conversation by then if you really wanted to," she added, struggling to keep the amused smirk out of her facial features.

The Slakoth was almost at his limit now. With that dramatic movement and the very offensive comment on his slow speed, he was about ready to burst. His fur continued to shine with sweat, now even more noticeable than before. He figured she knew she was getting to him, so he tried to act calm, no matter how much his mind was telling him to bellow out his anger. He quickly thought of a response. "You know, I try to be nice the someone I just met, and what does she do? She makes fun of me for something that's harder for me to control. I was hoping I wouldn't have to have said it, but the truth must come out now. The real reason I don't have any swift seeds is because I have no money. There, I said it. I'm broke." Capone said it with such passion, that if he was lying, he was one good actor. Which of course he was lying. "I make my money off of playing my banjo I left with my parents so it wouldn't get damaged. I was going to go in here to try and get some berries and whatnot. But I just can't!"

Synd'r's chuckles didn't stop as the Slakoth finally responded. It was clear she was getting to him, even if he was pretty darn good at hiding it. Plus, even if the sob story was true, she didn't particularly care. Everyone has their problems, the Slakoth was probably just less well adapted to deal with them.
"Ahah, i'm sorry," she laughed. The apology didn't exactly sound sincere accompanied by the sound of her laughter, but it was about as good as Capone was going to get, "You just made it so easy to get under your skin. Just look at your fur, you're practically sweating bullets."

Her laughter finally devolved into quieter chuckles and the Vulpix wandered over to one of the nearest trees, peering up into it's branches as if looking for something in particular.

Solilo carried out 5 launched of one Pecha Forest :

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Capone decided to give up. It wasn't worth his time to mess around with her if all she was going to do was this. "Fine, you've got me. I can't think my way out of this one, so I may as well give in." The Slakoth Said with an exasperated sigh. "Anyways, we have some visitors nearby." He pointed to the leaves in a tree a few feet away from him, two eyes looking at him.

Suddenly, a Hoothoot came flying out of the trees at him. Capone, already seeing this coming, had started using Night Slash, which would normally take a few extra seconds, and slashed at the charging Bird Pokemon. It crashed into the tree the Vulpix was under forcefully.

The Vulpix rolled her eyes at the Slakoth. He was the slow one and he was assuming that she hadn't noticed the presence of the enemy pokémon. What an idiot. She stared up at the tree she had wandered over to, watching the branches with calculating eyes. She finally made eye contact with the individual that had been up there and her expression switched from slightly peeved to a sly smirk. Synd'r blew a small flicker of flame from her parted jaws, resisting the urge to flick her ears as it would only divert the Tangela's attention.

At Synd'r's mental command, the tiny flame moved swiftly in a circle, leaving an almost comet tail in the air in it's wake. However, it was cut off quite suddenly at the halfway mark when a Hoothoot came flying from behind her, crashing into the trunk of the tree that held the Tangela, distracting both Synd'r and her opponent and causing the semicircle of flickering flame to dissipate.

Recovering from the immediate shock, the Vulpix growled and instead let loose a full burst of fire from her jaws, attacking the Tangela that had been shaken from the tree after Capone's opponent crashed into it.

Leaving the Tangela to burn and set fire to the grass around it, Synd'r whipped around and turned her attention back to the Slakoth.
"You idiot!" she hissed, "You couldn't have hit it into any other tree? Now anything that Tangela might have been carrying is going to be all burned up!" she growled.

Capone saw the blazing ground, and decided to ignore that for the moment. Before, the Vulpix was just messing around, Trying to get under his skin. Now she's mad at him for hitting the Hoothoot into that tree. "If it was carrying anything, it's not my fault it burned to a crisp. Who's the one here who sent flames at it? Certainly not me. And on the subject of the Hoothoot. I can't control where it's going to land. I was actually trying to aim it for the tree a few feet to your right and a few meters behind." He was really angry now. He did not want to get this far, but that was his last straw. "I even tried to be nice to you! I could have been a complete asshole this entire time. But I didn't, because I can at least hold in my anger for long enough!"

Capone took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. He mustn't succumb to anger like this, especially not for someone like her. It was just a waste of his time. He the started to move back down the path slowly. Although, he seemed to be straining himself to go faster, wanting to get away from here as quickly as possible.

The Vulpix's fur bristled at the Slakoth's words, her ear flicking in irritation.
"Well I wouldn't have had to have used my Ember attack if your aim wasn't shoddy and hadn't ruined my Hypnosis!" she growled. Her tone and volume was surprisingly controlled, despite the venom that was practically dripping from each word.
"And maybe you should have been angry at me! At least then you'd be sticking to your principles instead of pretending like it didn't matter that I was making fun of you," she hissed, stalking over the Hoothoot to see if it possessed anything worth taking. She only managed to find a few sticks and some weird odds and ends that had probably having been collected to be used for some sort of nest.

Getting a small idea as her brown gaze traced over the odd objects she had found on the Hoothoot's person, Synd'r grinned. The Vulpix hopped over to the KOed Tangela and used her tail to flick sand and dirt over the dying flames to put them out properly. Satisfied that the forest wouldn't burn down around her, she got to work, grabbing the longest of the three sticks and -with some difficulty due to having to use her mouth for the most part- tied what looked to be some sort of string to it's centre.

Flinging the long stick at Capone but keeping hold of the one end, she aimed it to hit the Slakoth on the head, gaining his attention. She didn't say anything however, still finishing what she was doing.

Glancing at the string in her paws, she used a controlled burst of flame to singe the ends down, burning it so it shortened it's overall length.

The unknowing Slakoth had been hoping that this wouldn't lead to violence. That was until a stick hit him in the back of the head. With a fresh bump on his head, he looked back at the Vulpix with a glare full of malice. He started moving to her as fast as he could, but he doubted he could make it to her before she could attack back or run away, probably fight back. Capone had tried to be nice, that didn't work. He tried to leave, and that didn't work. And when those don't work, that's when I resort to violence! He thought with an evil laughter, most likely muahahahahaha, or something like that. There would be no way he would hold back any longer. He wanted to do this. No, he needed to do this. Capone started readying his Night Slash for attack.