Blood, Sweat, and Tears

The fallen leaves made subtle little crunching noises under the paws of Chiyako and her eccentric boss as they walked into the familiar, darkened forest. The familiar streamers of midday light broke through the canopy above them and made concentrated points of light glisten on the forest floor before them. They could see trees for as far as those trees would permit them; trees that thickly blotted out the horizon as they grew together, competing for access to the essential sunlight above them. It was easy to pick out which of them were winning that competition, and which were loosing.

This was a good spot for them to meet up one-on-one because neither of them had trouble seeing in the low - light setting, and in fact would be more suited to this environment than the others they had to pick from. Granted, there was an unfortunate number of bugs in this forest as well... something that posed enough of a threat to them for it to be something to consider. She suspected Iva had something to counter that, however... even if it was purely her moxie. Not that any of this would have phased Iva were she to bring it up. Chiyako considered these points, naturally, but she felt assured in making the assumption that Iva had not. Iva was much too... "proactive" in her endeavors to consider those kinds of things. Chiyako had gotten used to it frankly; in fact it was part of the whole reason Chi had asked her this favor in the first place. At least with Iva around she wouldn't have to worry about getting caught while training alone. Well, that and she felt they needed to have a discussion about her position at the inn regarding her poor show in Pecha Forest the other day.

"...it was embarrassing at best, and would have been lethal at worst," Chi recounted as she and Iva walked past large tree after large tree. "I'm still... hesitant, I guess. I just freeze up when people start fighting. I haven't tried instigating anything, but I imagine it would go pretty similarly." She sighed and reached up to adjust her hat awkwardly; she wasn't entirely sure where she was going with this or what exactly she wanted out of this conversation at this point. "It just made me think, y'know; how am I going to handle the night crowd when you're not here if I can't even handle a few dungeon pokemon? There are real bonafide explorers that come in. How am I supposed to contend with that when security's as thin as it is?"

Chiyako the Purrloin - 14 Energy

As her paws crunched the leaves beneath with each step, Iva crunched down on the ice she had been gnawing on in her jaw. It was helping her to keep from grinding her teeth, but only barely. How could she have let something like this happen? She had been so busy galavanting around the region that her sight had fallen away from what truly mattered! Well, no more. Her eyes had been opened, her vision clear and renewed. Her heart and vision were in line now, gazing into the blinding warmth and light of the sun that lit her true path into the horizon and beyond!

She turned and planted her paws into the ground, claws digging into the strong, hearty earth that lay just below the smattering of dead leaves. A wisp of frost and fog seeped from between her teeth, chilling the blue cloth wrapped around her neck.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of, Chi-Chi!" she exclaimed firmly. "Those creeps that attacked you were nothing but cowards. Unable to stand on their own power, and using numbers and trickery to their advantage! This is the mark of a soul that doesn't understand their own power, that can't kindle the flame inside their soul, so instead, they let it go out, quenching that flame with their greed, avarice, and malice...."

She put a paw on Chiyako's shoulder.

"Such is not our way, Chi-Chi. Our path is to embrace that flame, tend to it, nurture it, until it grows into a blaze, and then eventually an inferno! That very Inferno of a Righteous Soul is the flame that lights our path onward! If we can do that, then we clear a path for others, letting them follow. When they follow down that path, so too does the flame inside their hearts grow. Their hearts grow to burst with it!

"And those few small flames light the way for others, growing larger and larger until there's no one that can help but see that blazing conflagration! It's the Flame that burns away all that is unjust in this world! Then, and can we look back and observe the path we've been walking! See all the friends and allies that have been striding behind and beside us all along! For when that day comes, we will turn from the glorious sunset that we've been striving towards, ONLY TO SEE A EVEN MORE LUMINOUS SUNRISE WARMING OUR BACKS! THAT SUNRISE WILL BE THE FLAMES THAT CONSUMED OUR HEARTS ALL ALONG, NOW PASSED ON TO THE REST OF THOSE BEHIND IT! SUCH IS THE WAY OF THE TRUE FLAMING SOUL!!!"

Birds flittered out of the trees above and Iva realized she might have been yelling for a bit. No matter. Anyone with ears should hear such a message and be inspired to forge their own path to the horizon. All the better.

Iva's grip had grown tight on Chi's shoulder. She locked her eyes with the red kitty's. Her gaze was intense and she knew others might flinch from eyes filled with such raw, unfettered passion, but Chiyako was not simply some other Pokemon. Inside her, Iva saw the embers of a flame just waiting to grow.

She paused a moment, then continued, softer this time. "That's why, starting today, we're going to stoke the embers of your heart, until no one can look away from the fire in your eyes and the passion in your soul!"

Chiyako had a very funny feeling from the moment the Poochyena opened her mouth that things were going to go like this. Iva had a way of being... very Iva in the most outstanding way possible. The hipster feline could only stare blankly into the the display before her as Iva proudly announced her treatise of determination to the whole of the forest, causing even the ambiance of the forest to fall into an awkward silence so to let Iva speak her piece. Chi was kind of impressed just by Iva's ability to have this kind of affect on the environment whenever she stepped up to speak. She wondered exactly how she was supposed to match this toe to toe when it came to sheer presence. Granted, maybe that presence wasn't the best thing to have in a place like this, but she could certainly see how it would be useful in the bar.

Also, how did Iva always manage to emote and enunciate this much with a piece of ice constantly in between her jaws? She was a frightening character in a great many mundane and non-frightening ways. Chiyako may have come to accept these things about her boss, but that didn't mean she knew how to feel about them.

Iva gripped Chi's shoulder harder and her gaze grew more intense, making Chi's stomach flip over as she attempted to meet that stare. "Oh no please don't quiz me; I lost track. Fuck, something about fire... flame, blazing; uh, our way? How does someone with an oral fixation on ice talk about fire this much??" Chiyako thought to herself. Normally she found it pretty hard not to absorb every word Iva said, but she had admittedly gotten a little lost in her thoughts this time. Her tense reaction relaxed and faded as she translated the closing statement to Iva's keynote speech and realized the pupper was only speaking about training. Phew. Chiyako let out her breath and silently scolded herself to stay focused next time. She didn't want to end up having to run scrimmage laps around this whole freaking forest because she missed something Iva had said about cottage cheese or the secret to getting real swole.

"I, ah... couldn't have put it any better myself, boss," Chi attempted to agree, still not entirely sure exactly what it was about training she was agreeing with. "The best way to get good at something is repetition, and trying. Wouldn't have asked anybody else out here for that kind of thing. If there's one thing you've got a stranglehold on it's motivation." She awkwardly reached out and put a paw on Iva's shoulder, hoping that it was the right thing to do. She still hadn't fully translated Iva's Iva-isms. She lowered her paw and moved on to her next question. "I guess I'm just curious about how you approach this kind of training. Are we just going to walk around until something jumps out at us, or do you approach people directly...?" There were two equal parts of Chiyako that could both see Iva accosting random individuals in the interest of a fight and couldn't see her doing such a thing. Chi supposed she was about to have that question answered.

"Ha! I like your spirit, Chi-Chi! That's a good type of mindset to have. But no, we can't just fight any old pokemon that wanders our way. That would just be decadent and depraved! Interrupting another pokemon's life just to make ourselves stronger? No, that's not the way.

"Not at all!" She pounded her paw down on the ground and looked around. The forest always seemed to shift, which made coming back to regular training spots difficult, but Iva had managed to make due so far. Then she spied the perfect thing.

"Follow me!" She ran off towards a small clearing. In the middle was a rock. But not just any rock. A boulder. A gigantic, truly monumental boulder. It must have weighed a ton.

Iva stood next to the rock and grinned.

"Alright. Here is where we'll test that fire in your heart, Chi-Chi!" She butted her head against the rock and grinned.

"You're gonna move this rock! Push it through this field and show it the fire inside your soul! BLAZE IT UP IN THE INFERNO OF YOUR HEART!!!"

"I don't think that word means what she thinks it means," Chiyako thought with a furrowed brow as she began translating more Iva speak. "Decadent" was not the word Chi would have used personally; maybe "excessive" or "immoderate" if she really wanted to get fancy about it, but definitely not decadent. Chi knew better than to point it out to her, though. It would be rude considering Iva's education level, and would most certainly fall on deaf ears.

Well, that answered the question about Iva's training methods. It seemed she too avoided fights where necessary."That's a fair policy, I guess. Kinda seems like that's that training method of choice around these parts, but maybe I just haven't been around enough pokemon to tell." She shrugged it off and followed Iva, who seemed way too enthusiastic about whatever she was planning. All of this was starting to make Chiyako wonder if she wanted to know what Iva's secret training technique was.

Turns out, she shouldn't have asked.

Chi found herself faced with a rock five times her size, and the simple proposition to "push it." She stared in disbelief at the rock, and then at Iva, and then at the rock. As she stared at Iva, she couldn't help but form a mental image of the small doggo trying for hours to push a large rock such as this one, getting nowhere but still continuing to push. It was an entertaining mental image, but it also listed all of the exact reasons why this endeavor was pointless!-

-no... No, there had to be another way. Iva wouldn't do this to her. She must have wanted her to be clever about it. ....That made more sense, though it kind of felt like a refresher course.

"Okay, then..."

Chiyako walked up to the rock and then stood and rubbed her paws together, letting out a preparatory breath. When she parted her paws, she had produced several bombs through some slight-of-hand that she proceeded to place all over the rock. She then ran like the dickens for cover.

Crrrack, Thumpb.

The rock split apart into several more manageable chunks, which she proceeded to push across the clearing. It was not easy. Maybe she should have used more bombs. She struggled until all of the rocks were in a pile at the opposite end of the clearing and only the shrapnel of rock remained, which she also picked up and carried over to the stack because, knowing Iva, she would want that.

"I think..... that's the last of it," Chiyako said as she scoured the ground for any missed pieces of broken rock.

Iva sat at the edge of the clearing and glared. It wasn't until Chi-Chi had moved every last piece of the mess she had made to the other end of the clearing that Iva got up. She walked over to the other end of the clearing and examined what Chi-Chi had done.

Icy fog floated from the frown on her muzzle as she slowly pushed around a few pebbles, clearly not impressed at all.

"Congratulations," she said, as she kicked a rock a couple of feet away. "Literally everything you just did was wrong."

She huffed. "And on top of that, you destroyed a perfectly good boulder. Now I'm going to have to find something else to use." With that she turned about and started to head out of the clearing. presuming Chiyako would follow her. Chi-Chi had obviously completely missed the point. It was a little disheartening. Perhaps she hadn't understood a single thing Iva had told her over these past few months.

Hopefully not.

It took a while, but eventually they happened upon a sizable waterfall pouring into a basin which led out into a river. This would likely do. If anything, it was probably something Chi-Chi couldn't just blow up.

"Alright, girl. No tricks this time. I need you to stop this waterfall. No special powers. No abilities. Just you and this big guy here!"

Iva's Energy: 9

Jax carried out 9 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

, , , , , , , ,

What. Chiyako frowned, genuinely confused by this turn of events. What exactly had she done wrong...? She had moved the boulder in the best way she possibly could; there was no way she was going to be able to move that thing without some kind of modification! She felt defeated, but she probably should have expected this outcome. Nothing was ever easy or "reasonable" in an everyday sense when it came to Iva. Chi only sighed and hung her head. She couldn't help but feel disappointed at the outcome (a "perfectly good boulder"? If anything she had made 5 more!!! They were definitely still large rocks by any definition).

"Alright... I must have misunderstood, I guess." She wasn't sure how Iva had expected her to move a rock like that without the few skills she did have. She wasn't a "strength" pokemon. She didn't do "strength" training. Maybe Iva did, but she didn't. Maybe... maybe it was a trick question? Was she supposed to admit humility or something? If that had been the point all along, Iva was going to be disappointed at how quickly this ended.

They approached another clearing, this one made by a stout waterfall being fed by a reservoir pond atop a rock outcropping. A Flabebe that had been tending flowers near the pond saw them and fled in a panic as they approached the water's edge. "No wait, don't bother; we're just here to do something asinine," Chi thought sarcastically to herself. Unsurprisingly, she was not wrong. Iva once again presented her with an equally ridiculous task: stop the waterfall. This... this was not making any sense to Chi. There was clearly some kind of obscure lesson to be learned here and Chi was certain she was not getting it, nor was she getting how this was supposed to solve the problem of her having no ability to confront fights directly. "I'm not trying to be the karate kid here; I just need to defend myself." Still, Iva must have come here with some kind of plan to make this work. At least, Chiyako really hoped she had.

The cat pokemon looked around and quickly, considering her options. There were... some rocks she was pretty sure she couldn't physically lifft, and the cliff face was definitely too sheer for pushing. She looked at the water crashing down, and the lake above, and for just a moment the idea of "electrocute the water with Thunderwave and let the bodies pile up and block the flow" crossed her mind... That would have immediately violated the "no moves" rule and the "no disrupting innocent pokemon needlessly" rule. Chiyako actually got a little disheartened as that one died; she thought it would have been pretty clever.

The thought about humility she had had earlier again crossed her mind. It was... a long shot, but maybe it was worth trying? "I... uh... Can't do it?" she hazarded after a long silent pause of pacing and sizing up rocks. It was an ace in the hole, but it was a crappy one. She looked to Iva for a little more guidance, but in the back of her mind she knew she wasn't going to get it.

Chiyako the Purrloin - 14 Energy

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 10 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

, , , , , , , , ,

Chiyako will also preemptively share a Pecha Berry with the boss man so -1 Pecha Berry from her inventory

As Chi-Chi was looking around Iva felt her stomach get a little queasy. Looking off to the side, it seemed she might have stepped on a Shroomish or something. Either way, she might have to eat a berry or something later. Whatever. That stuff wasn't really important right now. She'd throw up if she felt like it. It was just her body's natural reaction.

Iva was much more interested in if Chi-Chi was going to give it her all and really put her back into it. Iva could tell that this girl had the makings of greatness in her if she would just get off the boat and go for it! Really go for it. None of this tricky, half and half stuff. Just good old fashioned gumption! She could tell that Chi-Chi was summoning up her inner reserves and getting ready to put her back into it! All her hopes were going to push through an-

"I... uh... Can't do it?"

Eh?

She...

"Huh? Whaddya mean you 'Can't do it'? Just give it your best shot, you dummy."

Well wasn't that just peachy. Chi let out a tired sigh. "Well darn the luck. And here you actually had me looking forward to a lesson in humility," she joked. "...Before you say anything it's not an invitation." She felt like it was better to elaborate than to leave Iva an opening. Iva had more than proven she would take an opportunity if an opportunity was provided to her. Business people were relentless.

Chi was out of options. She was out of ideas. There was literally nothing else she could do! Literally. Nothing. Else. This dog wanted her to just walk out under a waterfall and just hope for the best. Looks like she had not other choice, then!! It wasn't like suicide wouldn't cure her emotional and inferiority problems, it just wasn't how she had wanted to solve them. She soldiered up to the rock, feeling more conflicted and defiant with every step. What the hell was this? Why was Iva treating her like this; what did she do?!? She wouldn't have asked his she had known she was just going to be intentionally asked to do impossible shit with no explanation... and yet here she still was, walking up to the waterfall.

She looked at the water. She was going to do this. Was she really going to do this? The sight of the water made the skin on her back crawl with fear and distaste. She... she didn't want to do this. She didn't ask to have another person just throw her into situations that she didn't want, and her just having to accept it. She had put herself on the street to get out of that life. She wasn't okay with Iva treating her like this, and she wasn't gonna just grin and bear something this ridiculous. Maybe the boulder was fine, but this was dangerous. And stupid. And would teach her nothing but how to die.

Chi turned let out a terse breath and then turned around, resolved to call Iva out on her nuttiness for once. "Hey Iva. One more quick question." She stood there in front of the lake and the waterfall, staring hard at the Poochyena.

"You remembered that nobody taught me how to swim, right?"

Iva frowned.

"Well, that's really sad. But don't worry, no one taught me how to swim either! I just fell in one day and it was literally sink or swim! If you start to drown or something I'll just get you, okay? No biggie!"

Another toothy grin flashed her fangs and she chuckled, blissfully unaware as to how insane she might sound to anyone else, and how absolutely certifiable she must have seemed to Chi-Chi.

"So yeah! Just get in there and give it your best shot! The best way to go out is in a blaze of glory anyway!"

Besides, it was just one dumb waterfall. Iva wasn't sure what Chi was so worried about. I mean, sure, it was pretty tall, and water was coming down a little fast, but Iva had seen bigger and scarier waterfalls. Sure, other people might be intimidated, but sometimes there's just no time to be afraid. You just have to put that emotion to the side and move on with whatever the heck you were going to do anyway. You have to keep looking forward to keep moving forward.

"One foot in front of the other, Chi-chi! That's the way the show goes! You can't go forward if you spend your life looking over your shoulder!"

She gave the pink little cat a nudge with her paw. An encouraging, 'Go get'em, bud!'

Chiyako stared at Iva like there were snakes crawling out of her skull. Sometime she wondered if Iva ever really thought about the things that came out of her snout, like did she ever go back and consider what these things that she was saying must have sounded like? Was there any spot of logic left in that thick brain of hers? Chi almost felt bad through all of the spiraling confusion. "Well... yeah, sure, I guess I'll just... try that then." The sound of defeat was clear in her voice. She was going to die nameless in a waterfall, there was no way around it. She hadn't even released any music to make really popular with her untimely demise.

Sigh.

No stopping now.

The climb up the side of the crashing water wall was not an excessively hard endeavor for Chiyako's feline body; her paws and claws created traction on the otherwise slick rock and vegetation. She was up to the cresting portion of the waterfall in no time at all. Now, how in the hell... there was no way she could just pile up pebbles. She needed some kind of contraption to make this work. A net... if she had a net full of debris, she could block up the water enough for her to safely build something. Probably. Maybe. ...No, if she tried that the water would just be forced out at a more dangerous rate. Let's see... Bidoofs did it with mud and sticks... maybe she should just stick with the classic.

Chiyako pulled off her good shirt and hung it on her lute, which was propped up on a nearby tree. She began filtering up mud from the bank of the water under the watchful eyes of a nearby pair of locals: a flabebe and a slakoth. The slakoth looked relatively unfettered by the situation, his listless gaze unbroken as he seemed to be chuckling at Chi's herculean task. The flabebe looked on with worry in her eyes. Chiyako turned away from the tiny fairy. She really didn't fancy being pitied right now.

But it wasn't pity in those teeny-tiny eyes, it was concern. Seeing as Chiyako was paying no attention amidst her work, the flabebe took it upon herself to float down to the dark doggy that was with her. She cleared her throat to make the stranger aware of her presence. "Um... hello. If you don't mind, could I ask what you're doing here?"

Iva looked on as Chi started into her task. Iva frowned. Not exactly how she wanted her to do things, but maybe she'd figure it out if she was given some time to just sort of fail for a bit. Maybe Iva could do some push-ups or something while she waited-

A tiny little voice broke her concentration. She looked down and saw an itsy-bitsy, teeny tiny flower nudging her and asking her what exactly they were doing here.

An excellent question!

"The better question, my dear," she answered in the tone of a camp counselor about to impart fireside wisdom, "is why, exactly, are you here?"

The little flower looked confused. "U-uh. I was just passing by and I was just wondering what-"

"NAHnahnahnahnahNAH!" Iva interupted, shaking her head. "I mean, what are you doing here in the big sense. What are you doing? What are you living for, you miniscule little pollen populator?"

"What are you talking about? I jus-"

Iva got down on the flower's level and looked it dead in the eye. "You and I were brought together by the hand of destiny today, my little friend! The providence of the universe foretold our meeting and wrote it int the heavens. You can feel that too, can't you?"

The Flabebe, now feeling a bit less certain about its choice to start up this conversation, started to slowly back away. "Uh, No, I'm not sure what you mean..."

Iva pounced back up. "Well, I do! You and I were meant to meet so you could join that little kitty up there in her pursuit of destiny, and perhaps find a purpose for yourself as well!"

"Uh, I don't think-"

"What? You just said you weren't up to anything in particular. Didn't you?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"Well then, what in the world are you waiting for?! Get up there!"

The flower looked at Iva, steely glare and all, and then at the waterfall. Resigned, she started to trudge off towards the cliff. Satisfied, Iva grinned. Another soul hoisted towards greatness! It was then she noticed a Slakoth, Heracross, Pinser, and a Venomoth all watching from the edge of the clearing. She growled.

"Hey! What the hell are you all doing standing there with your mouth slack open waiting for a bunch of Joltik to come and fly down your throats? Get over there and make something happen!"

One of them snapped back, "Hey, we don't have to listen to you!"

Iva barred her fangs and a little shiver of frost crackled on her teeth. "You guys wanna be known as the bunch of chumps that just sat there and watched while a little kitty and a freakin' flower struggled with a waterfall all on their own? Because I'd be more than happy to spread the word around!"

They all looked at each other a moment and then one by one begrudgingly started towards the falls. The Slakoth looked back and asked, "What are we even doing?"

"You'll figure it out, lazy bones!"

He sighed and then turned back and caught up with the others.

Iva, for her part in all this, looked extremely happy with herself. She sat on the ground and her little tail wagged behind her.

Well, Chi now had a pretty good pile of mud worked up... or she would have, if the water didn't keep eroding one side away so that the rest toppled over. She pulled back from current progress for a quick break, pulling out an Oran Berry for lunch as she stood back to admire her work and collect her thoughts.

…yep, she sure had made a mud pie.

Chi sighed. She really didn't see how this exercise was helping her at all when she had yet to learn certain essentials such as where the firewood was stored and how to hire someone to clean the damn bathroom. She was still trying to figure out Iva's intentions with this whole exercise in futility. Was Iva... just trying to get on her nerves? Was she being intentionally ruthless to her to see if Chi would crack? ...Chi didn't want to believe that. Despite all of Iva's ridiculous and unpredictable quirks and how they made the feline feel, Chi really did want to believe that she could trust Iva. This job, this part of her life, even Iva... they had been encouragingly good so far. She wanted to keep believing that Iva was just eccentric, but still had the best intentions. If it turned out Iva was just bullying her...

Chi didn't know if she could handle it. The very concept froze her heart in shock. If Iva was-

"Hey. Is this where the whatever is being built? The thing that the dog is talking about?"

Chi looked up.

She saw Iva confronting a group of pokemon, most of which had turned and come over to start working.

what.

"Uhhhhh..." Chi had no idea what to say to these pokemon. "...Yes?" It was the true answer, but she had no idea what it meant. She stared at the pokemon, and they stared back. Both parties were just trying to figure each other out. At this point, the purrloin's mind was gone. That's probably why her train of logic decided for some reason that it was appropriate to start divvying up work and assigning roles. Because they were all her to build now, Chiyako guessed.

The Venomoth from earlier still had a bone to pick with Iva. It stared at her with a certain amount of defiance. "I don't like this idea," it declared with a firm tone. "Not only is it a stupid, impossible idea, but it's going to ruin the ambiance of the area!! I hang out here for this waterfall!!" It leered at her, but deep inside it seemed to know it wasn't going to win this argument. The frustration of its futile situation certainly seemed to be eating it up inside. "...You may have turned everyone else around all higglety-pigglety, but I'm not convinced! Ruin the landscape BY YOURSLEF!!" With a loud huff, it whipped around and scattered poison spores aaaaaaaall over Iva before it took to the sky.

Meanwhile, back in dam town, dead branches had been collected and were being cut up for material. With the addition of the new supports, Chiyako found her mud pie was staying a bit more stable, albeit still being swept away some. Maybe if she added some rocks...?

A voice interrupted her thoughts. "...Why are we even building this damn again?" The Pinsir asked, looking mildly unsettled.

"If I had any idea, I would tell you." Chiyako sighed. She took some of the branches that they were cutting up and returned to the construction area to continue her work.

As they continued their impromptu renovation of the large stream, they began to disrupt some mushrooms near the bank. Unfortunately, the little team failed to notice that the mushroom patch that they were disturbing was in fact the resting place of a small shroomish, who had unfortunately chosen to take a lovely little nap beside the ambient creek. At first it wasn't bothered, as more dampness in the ground was more a boon than a bane to the fungal pokemon. As the team continued however, a larger stream was diverted and actually tore up the sleeping youngster from it's cozy patch of ground. It woke up with a start, fearing that it was being attacked, and ran away crying and scattering spores in its wake.

Iva was now in line to be double-poisoned. How unfortunate for her.

Chiyako watched these misfortunes from her spot placing branches into the mud with a panic in her face as she tried to conceal her mixed emotions. On one hand... the dog's brash actions had kiiiiind of earned her some bad karma. Granted, Iva couldn't help herself. She meant well and all, but this was a bit much to be doing to what was clearly a valued landmark. Still though, maybe she didn't deserve that much karma. Even a little bit of poison could make you feel like you were melting from the inside out. Chi couldn't imagine that Iva's lungs were liking that inescapable spore cloud too much.

"...I'll be right back," Chiyako told the others as she resolved herself to help Iva. She got up and went to the Poochyena's side, digging around for an antidote in her bag as she went.

"Hey, that looks pretty serious; are you okay?" Chiyako asked with concern as she produced what was unfortunately her only poison-curing supply. The forest would actually pose some further danger to them if she used up this key resource now, but admittedly Chi really didn't want to see Iva suffer. Secretly, she hoped the experience was making Iva re-think her plan. She probably wasn't thinking well while she was so sick, though. "Here. I only have one of these, so we need to be careful if we're going to stay out here. ...Maybe this isn't the best idea, you know? It seems like we're disturbing the order of things around here with all of this commotion. I mean... isn't this whole operation a little... selfish?" Chi braced herself for some kind of lecture, or like a sucker-punch or something. Her ears folded down a bit in preparation for Iva's booming pipes. It was a necessary invitation for pain though.Her thoughts from earlier had mad her extremely nervous. She just needed a little bit of logic out of Iva, enough to dispel the fears that were accumulating in Chiyako's heart.

Chiyako the Purrloin - 0 + 10 Energy (Oran Berry)

The first batch of poision. That was annoying to be sure. It seemed like it was on purpose too, so that wasn't doing the situation any favors. She didn't hold it against the Vemomoth for leaving. That was her choice. She could do as she pleased. It was the rudeness of getting her pestilence all over the place that was the issue.

The second however, seemed like it was an accidental. She quickly helped the little Shroomish up and set it on it's way, despite the burning in her lungs and tears welling up in her eyes. She was just trying to get it out of her system when Chi came over and offered her a berry.

"Nonsense!" She hacked up the words with a cough. "You save that for yourself. I'll be fine."

Still, she could see the look on Chiyako's face and could tell that she was perhaps going about this wrong. Maybe a different approach was in order.

"Alright, new plan. You go on home and get some rest. Come meet me back here tomorrow in the morning and I think I'll be able to show you what I'm getting at a little better. Alright?"

Chi frowned and remained obstinate in her offering of the pink berry. "I respectfully insist that you eat the berry. Poison isn't something that you just sleep off, and if you get sick... who's going to take care of the store? Who's going to help me get better?" She would not take no for an answer. She insisted on holding the berry out until Iva took it, watching carefully to make sure that it actually got ate. After all that, she turned her head and sighed.

Seeing Iva finally reconsider was... reassuring, to say the least. Admittedly, it also made her feel a little bad. Ungrateful, even. But she just... she just didn't understand where this was supposed to get her! She couldn't do it. She just couldn't trust that this seemingly random task was going to help her in any conceivable way. She just had to let Iva down this time.

She finally calmed down a little bit. At least Iva heard her, and a break after all this... it didn't sound bad, honestly. It might help with the anxiety and... a fresh start with a clean slate would make it much easier to get involved in these antics again. "...Alright, if you're sure," Chiyako conceded with a sigh. " A break would be nice. I still have to get the bar ready for buisness tonight. Sorry, but I'm gonna excuse myself." Chi left the dungeon feeling more confused and defeated than she had before. Maybe... this wasn't for her. She didn't have the mind for this kind of thing like Iva did - hell, she didn't have the mind that Iva did. Period. It was going to be a long process, this whole "training" thing.


Chiyako re-appeared at the agreed meeting place early the next morning, having slept and eaten and probably also partaken in a booze or two. In any case, she was feeling better. She was still worried and uncertain about the plans ahead. She was fairly sure she'd still be faced with at least one more impossible task, but at least she knew it was coming this time. At least she could mentally prepare.

She just had to not think about it this time. She'd just have to put her nose to the grindstone, and do whatever the heck it was woofer wanted her to do. Even if it was pointless. Maybe once she got through it, Iva would get to the things that made sense. the things that Chiyako was pretty sure were more important.