[Battling Class] Items and Power I

Lennox was feeling uplifted today. The cramps were still hurting, and moving his tensed muscles was certainly still giving him trouble. He wasn't feeling so bad about it now, though. He was truly enjoying the new purpose he presented to him. That first class with his other three students had been a smashing hit; he had really felt like he had been an active contribution to some other mon's dreams somehow. He felt like he had done something worthwhile. It probably hadn't been perfect; there had definitely been things that he could improve on, but all and all, he felt proud of the work he had done. He hoped he could feel proud of it again after this class as well.

…Honestly it was kind of giving him nerves. He had set a very high precedent for himself to meet with the last class; could he do it again? He definitely wanted to provide some level of consistent quality, so he wanted to make sure that this class was at least as good as the last one had been. He decided that he'd do it in at least a similar format, so that he could draw from his past example if he needed to. He had spent a lot of time on this... he was noticing that this whole job was starting to make him a little anal. He didn't know if he liked that or not.

Once again, Lennox limp-rolled out onto the training field. With the nature of this class he had a feeling that a sparring field would once again probably be better He had put his supplies in the crate the night prior, his lesson plan was all but memorized... So why was he more nervous this time than the first time? He had to shake that. If he were a student, he would have wanted to se confidence in his teacher. He did his best to shake those pesky feelings and live up to his own standards as he approached the group of students on the field. He was already met with some excitement upon arriving: he saw two students that he recognized! He tried not to get too excited about it, but it definitely reinforced the feeling that he had been doing something right the last time around. The excitement was also met by nerves again, but he quickly swallowed them down. He put on his best face to try and keep them down as he addressed his class with a quick "err-hrmm."

"G'mornin, everybody," he remarked unflinchingly, "the items battling class is about to start, so students who aren't involved need to move along now. That means only Opal, Cimche, Yigo, and Vesper need to be here." Lennox was partially saying this to make sure he had everybody's correct name. He had been a little unsure of some of the pronunciations the night before and this was the time to confirm. As soon as the others had cleared out, he continued. "...Alright, looks like we can start. Welcome everybody, it's nice to see you all. Some'a your faces I recognize from other classes, but others are fresh to me so let me introduce myself real quick. My name's Lennox, I'm a Battling teacher and the headmaster here at the school. If you like combat you'll probably be seeing a lot of me. You can also come see me any time you have questions, need advice, or want some tutorin' or a second opinion. I'm tryna make myself as available to my students as possible so feel free to pop into my office without an appointment if you need to."

Already, Lennox felt like things were going a little smoother. "I'll go ahead and give you a quick rundown on this class. You probably saw on the listing that we're gonna be getting comfortable with items here today, so you'll need some seeds. Hopefully you got at least three different kinds, but don't worry if you don't got that. We're still early in the process so I can lend you some if you need, or maybe some a' your classmates have a few extra and would be willing to share. Don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. We're gonna try and cover as many uses of as many different kinds of seeds in as many different combat situations as possible today, and by the end hopefully this class will have helped you come up with some different strategies you may not have thought of before. Also, feel free to ask me questions when you need to. Your questions might clear things up for your classmates as well."

"If that's all sounding good, I'm gonna start by handing the introductions off to you guys. I know a couple of you already went through this with me, but for the sake of everyone I'm gonna ask that you try and introduce yourself as if you're new to everyone so we can all get acquainted. Just let us know your name, your other major if you want, and then your hobbies, other jobs, ect. Maybe include something that contributed to your interest in battling or what makes it important to you, so that I know how to best help you in classes. Also, although it's less important for this class, still let me know what your current moves are and if any have changed since I last saw you." He still had his previous student's moves on hand, but the newcomers' were a mystery. He wanted to make sure he was thorough. "I'll start, as an example. My name's Lennox and I only participate in the battling major right now. My hobbies are, well, battling mostly, but I guess I also get around some. Do some casual exploring here and there. Don't really have another job outside the school right now. My moves are Poison Sting, Rollout, Twinneedle, and Venoshock. Not especially rounded yet, you'll note. I'm still learnin' some things along side you guys."

With that he passed it off to the next person with a nod. "Next up, go ahead."

(I'm going to leave the post order up to you all like I did in the other thread, so whoever wants to respond first feel free to ^^ We can always swap things around if we need to!)

Vesper waltzed over towards the sparring fields, a little spring in her step. Contrary to what she'd initially thought it would be like, the battling class she'd taken before had been pretty fun! When a second class had opened up, the Roselia opted to take it without much hesitation. Sure, it was a bit of a shame that Alki wasn't in this class with her, but at least she'd be able to find someone else interesting among the students.

"Morning Teach'!" She grinned, making a saluting motion with one of her roses as the students who weren't participating in the class all took their leave. Unlike the last class, Vesper hadn't been late for this one. She'd done her wandering in much better time before coming to a halt in the sparring fields a few minutes beforehand. There were still many faces around the campus that she didn't recognize, but it was almost thrilling to know that not one of them suspected her of being a thief.

Well... except Alki of course.

Perhaps there really was something to the idea of hiding in plain sight.

After Lennox's introduction had concluded, Vesper took it upon herself to be the first to speak up this time around. Yigo was in the class again this time and she wondered if he'd be just as nervous as the beginning of the last lesson considering that there were new students. Putting that aside, the Roselia took a step forward so that she was in front of the other students and turned to them, waving lightly with her blue rose.
"Hi! I'm Vesper and my other major is Performing Arts!" She paused, doing a brief twirl and scattering a small number of blue and red petals around her as she did so. She was really going to run out of small opening acts if she met any more new students.

"I guess I explore in my spare time, which is how I found the seeds for today!" She paused, digging through her scarf to reveal three seeds. She'd tied it in a bizarre twirled fashion to act as temporary storage since she wouldn't be carrying enough to warrant a bag. The Roselia tied her scarf back up before showing them to her classmates, the seeds balanced between the petals of her roses.

"I brought a Swift Seed, a Totter Seed and a Blast Seed, but that's not all!" She grinned, clapping her roses together and twirling once again. When she re-opened her rose hands to the other students, she revealed an absence of the three seeds from before. Instead, they were replaced with a single Heal Seed.
"I figured a Heal Seed might come in handy," she chuckled, "Since some seeds like Stun Seeds cause status effects."

Tucking the Heal Seed back into her scarf, Vesper then clapped her roses together again, "Oh! My moves haven't changed since my last lesson, but since I haven't met you two before," she motioned to Opal and Cimche, "My moves are Absorb, Poison Sting, Growth and Extrasensory. I prefer to fight from a distance, with ranged attacks, but to be honest, I only really fight to protect myself." She shrugged lightly with her last comment. "That said, it's always good to know how to protect others as well!"

Vesper looked specifically at the new faces as she continued speaking, "It's nice to meet you two by the way! Lennox is a pretty good teacher so hope you have as much fun as I did." She grinned, before bowing lightly and stepping back to let one of the other students introduce themselves.

"I agree! I want to protect others!" Opal commented cheerfully. Though she knew Cimche and Yigo, there was one new face, and she was pretty sure she hadn't shared her full moveset with anyone. On top of that, she'd just learned a new move that she'd wanted for quite a while. She was eager to introduce herself and get to know the others better as well. "My name's Opal, and my other major is Expeditionary Studies!

The growlithe's tail was wagging fast and she was just about bouncing around as she continued, "I'm a Guild member! I may be new at it now, but I want to be one of the greatest some day! Being great means I'm good at helping those in need or hunting down outlaws! These majors I've picked seem like a neat way to learn some new tricks for my job!"

After a request from Lennox to calm down and a reminder to share her moveset and any seeds she'd brought, Opal looked a little sheepish.

"Heh... sorry, I'm rather excitable... Anyway, my moves are Fire Spin, Bite, Roar, Ember, Morning Sun and Sunny Day. It's so hard to decide what else I want to learn!"

Opal looked a little sad when she brought out two seeds. Three had been the suggested number, so the young pup saw this as a failure of sorts. She did have a couple of Reviver Seeds she could have brought, but she really needed those for her explorations.

"I'm afraid I only have Blast Seeds and Bound Seeds to spare," she announced, "I hope that's okay?

Opal looked around at the rest of the class and hoped they weren't too disappointed.

As usual before any classes start, the sparring grounds were crowded. Some had stayed there since the end of a previous class and some others were just using the fields for their intended purpose: hone fighting skills. Yigo was also nearby when the crowd of pokemon was around, scratching his ear as there was some odd, itchy feeling that he couldn't just shake off. By his side, there was his simple backpack made of cloth and brown coloured while he himself carried a belt with a satchel hanging from the side of it. The sandshrew was told that the next class would be about items and their power so when he arrived at his simple burrow, Yigo unearthed his hidden stash and took as many items as he could fit inside his bag and the pockets of his belt. They were mostly berries of many kinds, orbs with mysterious effects and seeds with various effects as well as his favourite pink scarf, a trap scarf, around his neck.

It wasn't long until Lennox came by rolling to the sparring grounds, asking that many of the pokemon there left the area so that only hi students may remain. Among those called out there was Vesper. She was an elegant, flamboyant, playful and oftentimes rambunctious Roselia. Vesper was a really optimistic pokemon, which made Yigo all the more confused about why he didn't like her. Maybe it had to do with her plant-like nature? Or was it because he dreaded psychic type moves and saw those who wielded them as able to see right through his thoughts? Even more unnerving was the fact that another pokemon was missing from the previous class, a dratini, to calm his thoughts a little. The roselia introduced herself cheerfully and as energetic as always. She showcased the seeds she was carrying -all of which Yigo took good note of- and explained what moves she could use to the other students that had stuck around.

Speaking of new students, many faces were not new to the sandshrew. Opal, the next pokemon that got the chance to introduce themselves, sent chills down Yigo's spine just to feel warmth crawl back again from it. She was adorable, she was enthusiastic and her fur was the best! It was hard not to chuckle when seeing her and even harder to avoid matching her tail's moves with his own. Nevertheless, his reaction might have just the energy of both of the girls getting to him. In reality, Opal and Yigo were mere acquaintances after sharing some joy and having some fun together, nothing else.

That meant that there was only someone to be introduced to. Yigo decided to talk after Opal, the warmth he felt from the pup is enough to bring his body into motion. He wasn't even that nervous anymore as he had been in that position and had introduced himself in the previous class. He closed his eyes, sighed, and then took a deep breath before smiling to the others, looking back and forth at the teacher and students one by one "Well... I wasn't expecting you here, Opal. Nice to meet you again. Uhm... I think that I only have you to introduce myself to?" He looked at Cimche while sitting on his haunches. Yigo cocked his head to his side questioningly as his ears twitched for a moment "I'm Yigo and... uhm... my other major is Essential Skills. I don't exactly have someone to protect except myself so I hope these classes help me stay alive"

Yigo quickly ran out of words as his tone stopped happy. That was perhaps uncalled for and Yigo became a little nervous about having said such a stupid thing "Oh! Sorry! I didn't meant to..." Yigo stopped for a second before looking down and then at his belt as his ears rose up again and his tone became light-hearted again "The seeds! I've brought everything I have. Let's see... Totter seed... this is a... Heal Seed! And these are Blast seeds! I've also brought a Reviver Seed, just in case" Yigo literally took off his belt and shook it in front of him to make the seeds in the pocket fall onto the ground before examining them. He just felt proud to identify them correctly, a sly smile now on his fail and his tail gently wagging. He soon grabbed the seeds back and got them back into the pocket.

"My moves are... uhm... Rollout! Crush Claw! Defense Curl and Sand Attack!" His tone was much more energetic this time, almost shouting as if he was going to just attack after the name of each move. Yigo was now excited, his paws trembling as he tried to wear his belt around his hip again"Oh! Uhm... I can also cast earthquakes but people have told me not to do that. They get scared..."

As the class grouped togeather and introduction where had, Cimche sat through it all. Though it felt rude to do so he felt sore from the other days encounters, having took so much of a beating even Wish couldn't heal his sore muscles. He just continued to relax until focus was brought to him, that of which he gave attention to when needed. It felt wrong but he felt he deserved it for that day he had.

When his turn came up he was reluctant to stand up, even hoping he wouldn't be noticed. but he knew he would have to stand eventually so he slowly stood up but found that it was quite difficult to keep balance. Having both hands and feet to the ground he tried to push himself up only to push to hard and stumble backwards before landing on his rump. looking up to everyone he let out a sigh before greeting everyone with a smile. "Well, I guess I'll do my introduction sitting down." He said before waving an arm. "Hi, my name is Cimche. Sorry if I seem lazy, accidently blew myself up yesterday, still quite sore. I think It was with one of those blast seeds mentioned." He said, pointing to Yigo's belt.

He took a second to straighen himself out before he continued. "Anywho... or is it way?.. Anyway, My name is Cimche... My moveset is Copycats, Tackle, Wish, and Protect, just recently got protect, sounds useful." He ended with a shrug

Holding his head he though of what else he could say. "I'm part of the guild with Opal as team Spinel, and my other class is Expeditionary Studies... and... Oh yeah my seeds!"

Swinging his satchel in front of him he dumped all of its contents onto the ground. Digging through it all that was there was three sticks, two green gummies, and a Pecha berry. "Uhh… I got gummi." He said holding them up for all to see.

Lennox looked and felt pretty pleased with everyone's introductions. It was good to see Vesper and Yigo back, and the two newcomers Opal and Cimche seemed like they had a lot of enthusiasm with them as well. Cimche seemed a little shy, though. Hopefully he'd warm up a bit as the class got rolling. Lennox mentally psyched himself up for this; he had to ignore the growing pains he was feeling right now in favor of giving these students a good class today. He was sure that Vesper and Yigo would be looking for the same kind of quality that they had seen out of him during the last class and he didn't want to let them down. Hell, Vesper was already talking him up. That took some of the edge off; it made him genuinely happy to hear her say such nice things. If exoskeletons were capable of blushing he just might have done it. He was definitely feeling more confident now.

"Nicely done; 's a pleasure to meet you all - or see you, if we've already met," the oversized roly-poly potato bug began. "Sounds like you all are putting thought into your work already, which I really like to hear. I don't expect you to know everything you want yet - why would I be here if I did - but I do really appreciate the motivation. The more you invest in these classes, the more we'll all get out of it." Lennox felt a little self-conscious already... He could hear how all over the place he was already. He had to take a moment to work it out in his head - he had to remind himself not to get too far off track. He had plans for this class, he just had to follow them and he'd be fine. The introduction to the class was done, the students had all introduced themselves... and holy moly Vesper had a lot of Seeds.


"...Speaking of class, I'm really impressed with the diversity of seeds we all managed to bring together. I think we should expecially thank Vesper for bringin' so many; that really helps us out and it's very generous," he began, nodding at Vesper and acknowledging her act. "Like I said before, you don't have to worry too much if you don't have exactly 3 different kinds of seeds; I just wanted to make sure we had a good collection. I brought some myself, but it seems like a lot of them are covered. We already have bound seeds, totter seeds... yep, even heal seeds. I do have a few that aren't here though..." Lennox grabbed his own seed bag and layed out two rare seeds that he had brought especially for the occasion. "Here, you all can have a look: this is a Life Seed and this is a Vile Seed. They're polar opposites of each other. Life Seeds will raise your overall stamina permanently, whereas vile seeds will drop your defenses as low as they can go. You should watch out for feral pokemon carryin' these in dungeons, as some will try to use these against you. Granted, both these seeds are both pretty rare and one's dangerous. I wouldn't ask you to use anythin' like these in a class, unless you really need to. Same with Heal Seeds and Reviver Seeds, unless we're on a field trip and we need them. We shouldn't be needin' anythin' like that today." He layed out the rest of his seeds: Totter Seeds, Bound Seeds, a Blinker Seed, a Reviver Seed, a Heal Seed, and a few others that he had gotten donated from kind people in town. He invited everyone to lay out their seeds as well.

"I'll go ahead and give you a quick rundown on the different types of seeds. I see that a lot of you are explorers and so you've probably had experience with several of these already. I'll just list the basic types and then we'll have a little quiz, how's that sound?" He arranged the seeds into several little piles before continuing. "We can identify most seeds by using three different categories: Buffin', De-buffin', and Healin'. We don't have a whole lot of Buffin' seeds on us today, but these are generally seeds that give ya a boost of some kind. There are a few rare ones like the Life Seed that give a permanent buff, but most are temporary. Swift Seeds, Violent Seeds, and anything else that gives some kind of positive boost are all included in the buffin' category. The de-buffin' category is considerably vaster. It includes all of those temporary status effect seeds that you're all probably pretty well acquainted with by this point, and then some of the rarer permanent effects like a Doom Seed which will permanently cost you a level if you're unfortunate enough to have one used on you. Just consider: would you want it used on yourself? If not, it's a de-buffin' seed. The last category is pretty self-explanatory: healin' seeds heal. Reviver Seeds and Heal Seeds pretty much make up this entire category, although there are items that we'll cover at another time called 'look-alike' items that have some healing effects. For now though, just focus on the basics."

"Before we get to the quiz I'll cover one more thing: tellin' seeds apart. I'm willin' to bet you all have been doing this innately for a while, but I'm gonna go ahead and point out the basics. Notice anything about the colors of these seeds? They all look pretty similar, but there's some minute differences when you look really hard. The de-buffin' seeds are a little darker, the buffin' seeds are mid-tone, and the healin' seeds are lighter. Can't really tell from a distance, but that's what I've gotten from staring at them long enough. I think it might be the juices in 'em that does it; the stuff that makes them do what they do. The darker juices have more negative effects; fitting I suppose. You can also tell the severity of the effect of the seed of the size. You might think that bigger is better, but take a look at this blast seed next to this totter seed. The blast seed is smaller, right? The more intense effects seem to come from concentrated packages, but I'm no expert. Those of you in Essential Skills should take Mille's Foraging class if you're interested in this kind of stuff, she's so much better at this than I am."

Lennox began to absentmindedly mix up his seeds as he finished his explanation. Pretty soon, they were all in a big homogenous blob, indistinguishable by sight. He looked up from the pile and addressed the class. "Right, now that we've covered that let's have a quiz to see if you can identify seeds based on what we discussed. I'll show you a seed, and you tell me what you think it is and why. We'll go around and have everyone give an answer, and then once we've done that I'll tell you the answers." He pushed the first seed towards Vesper. "What do you think, Ves? What type of seed is this?"

((I'll message you all your seeds individually ^^ You can decide whether your character identifies or misidentifies the seed, although as I mentioned on the Discord I have been considering giving out bonus merit points to those who have their characters falter in classes and open up opportunities for them to improve. That's not to say that they should fail constantly either. I would prefer you do whatever feels in line with your character.

Additionally, you don't have to roleplay Lennox in this situation. Just have your character contribute their answer and I'll have him deliver the verdicts in the next post!))

Vesper smiled lightly at the new faces as they introduced themselves, making a mental note to be careful around them as they were both Guild members. She wasn't here to get arrested after all.

Soon the lesson began and Vesper found herself moving closer to Lennox as he showed the two rare seeds. She'd never seen either of these seeds for herself before, but knowing that a Life Seed was so useful, the Roselia committed its image to memory. You never know when and where you might find one.

Placing the seeds she'd brought down where Lennox had indicated, Vesper sat quietly and listened as the Whirlipede explained the basic types of seed to each of them. Although she was already quite familiar with the more common seed types due to her constant wandering, Vesper kept her attention on her teacher. In particular, the Doom Seed caught her attention. What a horrible item it must be to be affected by. She hadn't had many debuffing seeds used on her, so it was hard to imagine herself suddenly feeling weaker let alone permanently.

Vesper's mind wandered a little as Lennox mentioned Essential Skills. Perhaps Alki had taken that class. She'd have to ask her at some point.

Soon, Lennox was pushing the first seed towards her, beginning the quiz. Vesper glanced down at the seed and grinned, delighted that she'd been given one she was familiar with to begin with.
"Ah! This one's easy. It's a Blast Seed," she smiled lightly. She had more than enough experience using these to be able to identify one. They were fun to mess around with and Vesper had to consciously resist putting the one before her in her mouth and spewing explosive fire in front of the rest of the class.
"It's very small, like you described before, but they're also easy to tell apart up close because they always have these thin, slightly darker patterns that make it look sorta cracked. Like they're gonna explode at any moment."

This Cimche was a bit strange, although considering what he said that happened to him it was understandable. Not everyone can keep appearances when they feel hurt or sore. He was also a guild member too with some moves that seemed less useful for a battle, mostly defensive moves. That meant that he was perhaps meant to be in the frontlines, or so the move Protect implied. How could he defend so well? He doesn't look too big or nimble. Yigo cocked his head to the side when the Spinda dropped everything on the floor. No seeds to note even though he seemed confident that there'd be some. It was strange but that almost made him chuckle.

Soon enough, Lennox took the spotlight back after every student was introduced, appreciating the motivation of all of the students. How wouldn't one be motivated? Lennox was a great teacher and an awesome Pokémon in general. Yigo stepped in closer when the other seeds were laid out and revealed, trying to catch the general scent of them in case he could identify them by that property. The two rare seeds, in particular, were some he hadn't seen before. Could seeds just give you permanent effects? That Life seed seemed worth searching if possible. It also fits in with the description that soon followed about how to tell the effects of seeds apart, but that wasn't anything new to him. His mother had taught him in the past how to tell a good seed from a bad seed. The color was key as good seeds were lighter and bad seeds were darker. Eat the former, toss the latter. Quick and simple lesson that was easily adopted without much thought.

The note about the size was something he had never taken a moment to realize. The Sandshrew believed that seeds were like berries in that reward, some grow bigger and some grow smaller yet they all have the same flavor and properties. Is that why Plain Seeds are large enough for a snack when you gather a few? Well, that didn't matter much, he considered after shaking his head and getting back to reality. A seed was pushed in front of Vesper, a seed that could be identified in a glance and, in fact, she seemed to have done so herself. Of course that it was a blast seed yet... he never knew that the pattern on them was a clue to what they did. Yigo had a sudden urge to check on his own seeds again to see if he could tell what they could do just by looking at them but, alas, it was too late for that. A seed ad been pushed in front of him as well.

Contrary to the previous seed, this one was not one of the common and famous. Moreover, it was unrecognizable. Yigo's head tilted and his ears twitched upon realizing he could not answer. He took a glance at the others as well to see if it felt like he was the only one that didn't know which seed this one was. Thankfully, Lennox's gaze managed to give him a shred of confidence that seemed to have shattered amidst the surprise. "Let's see..." the color was not as light as his Reviver Seed nor as dark as the Blast Seed. Comparing sizes, it was bigger than both as well which meant that it wasn't especially powerful. What about the pattern? Well... it had a few lighter spots on the surface but that was it. No idea what having spots could mean so he'd simply have to come back to it after knowing the answer. He turned his gaze to Lennox and simply shook his head with humility but not shame. They were here to learn so not knowing something should feel exciting "I don't think I have seen a seed like this one before. It is not too small or big but it's not light or dark. It has some small spots but I don't know what that means. Many berries have spots like these so it could cure burns or poison but it isn't a buffing seed so maybe it creates a puddle that can cause those status"

Yigo pushed the seed back at the teacher, his eyes locked to the Whirlpede. He felt the need to ask what it truly did or where he found it but then he remembered that there were other students with him. He will get his answers later.

Given Seed: