Children At Play

If there was a king of dumb ideas...it would be Chance. Not only had he failed to learn his lesson last time of wandering away from home, but he was back at it again with an idea that had the potential to do far more harm than being eaten by a predator would. It was fortunate that he struggled so much to put it into action, that way the odds of him giving up was greater. Unfortunately, he had been at it for a solid five minutes. He tried all he could with various different ways of doing it.

What was he doing exactly? Moving a rock. It was much larger than he was, far too heavy for him to handle, but he hoped that the spherical nature of it would make it easier to roll. He tried straight up pushing it, running and jumping against it, and even the clever idea of using a stick as a lever-though he could not take credit for the idea as he simply heard about some nerd talking about this sort of thing before. Currently, he was trying to move it with the stick. The branch was properly wedged underneath it, but he didn't have the strength or weight to pull it down.

He simply hung off of the elevated end of the branch with his teeth stuck in the bark. His eyes glanced over to the rock with the hopes that it would move. No dice. Alright then. He would just have to try something else. He let go of the branch and dropped back to the ground. Hmm...what else could he try? Oh-why didn't he think of that sooner!

The little zorua paced closer to the rock before he stepped onto the branch. He struggled to keep balance on the stick, which made him doubt his plan at least a little. He didn't have the brainpower and common sense to stop himself from trying. He stood at the other end of the stick and proceeded to try to jump up and down. The stick bent and moved, but the rock simply would not budge. He decided that he would give it one last jump, as high as he could.

Up he went, and-SNAP- down went the branch. He yelped in terror as the weak piece of wood snapped into two from the weight. He failed to catch himself properly and fell over onto his side as the branch splintered around him. He lifted his head with a shake and shot a look towards the boulder.

No dice.

"uuuugggggggGGGGGGHHH!" he groaned loudly before he allowed his head to flop back onto the ground in defeat.

((22-20 = 2))

If there was a king of super mediocre ideas, it would probably be Osiris. A good idea for him might be to stay home and go to that new Peak Academy, which would have taught him the basics of battling and expeditionary missions to prepare for life at the guild. A bad idea might be for him to decide he was too good for such an institution and join the guild straight-away, only for him to inevitably get battered around by every outlaw he found and fail every mission he attempted.

Even just a regularly mediocre idea might be for him to get a few friends together and go play in some dungeons, practice some teamwork and get used to the people he'd be spending time with. Instead, he decided to come out to the middle of absolutely nowhere and try to figure out everything by himself. Because school was boring, but he knew he sucked, and he didn't want to waste Geo's time with trying to whip him into shape.

Which was why he was here in a real mystery dungeon, not Pecha or Shadowhue Forest. The time had long since come for him to take himself into the wilds and test himself against the hardened wild pokemon who made their homes there! The ultimate experience of dragon versus nature, rookie explorer versus the world. Osiris could feel his serpentine body quiver in excitement and adrenaline, ready to clash with—Snap.

Oh. Oh no.

Something was close!! Immediately, he looked around and then remembered he was all alone. His mom wasn't there to protect him from danger and Geo wasn't there to guide him through conquering it. Iris had no choice but to take a shaky breath and collect himself, nervously dropping to the ground and slithering through the underside of some bushes. He was too weak and inexperienced to fight, but...

Maybe if he was quiet enough, sneaky enough, and lucky enough, he could just glide right past whatever made its home in such a strange place as Everspring Vale. He breathed as lightly and quietly as he could, slithering quietly, constantly flickering his gaze left, right, and upwards in search of whatever was close. No doubt it was something mighty and rugged that probably ate little dratinis for breakfast. Maybe even in bulk, like a bowl of sad blue noodles.

"Oh, are you kidding me?" he erupted, his head shooting up out of the grass as he caught sight of a zorua laying on the ground in front of a big rock. "This is just sad."

Here he thought that he was going to run fr- er, do battle against a strong native pokemon! But it was just, what, some kid his age? A pokemon that hadn't even evolved once. He probably ran right into that boulder and knocked himself out!

(30 - 20: 10 energy)

A voice! Fear jolted through his spine as he jumped up onto his feet, prepared to run for his life from whatever threat there was. To his surprise, it was some weird blue snake thing. While admittedly he actually had rammed himself into the boulder hard enough to knock himself out at least once, he took offense to what he assumed to be the dratini's shock over his inability to move a rock. His ears flattened with his teeth bared in a silent snarl.

"Oh yeah? Well then how about YOU move it, you...you...blueberry!" he huffed as he struggled to come up with a sufficient insult without using one of the many non-PG words his mom told him not to use against other pokemon. His pride wounded, he picked himself up and stepped off to the side for the dratini to display its ever-so-superior strength.

"Boulder needs to go that way," he pointed to the opposite direction of where the stick used to be. The land lead through some trees down a slight slope before it seemed to almost empty out into a vast, wet, and seemingly empty area.

"B-blueberry?!" Iris exclaimed, eyes wide and scandalized. "You... fine! I'll send it flying, furball! Watch and learn."

All thoughts of survival, practice, and disappointment had immediately evaporated in Osiris' mind. All that was left was the slighted reputation of a little boy and incessant, all-encompassing need to outdo the jerk next to him. The boulder really was quite huge, larger than both him and this zorua combined. And Iris weighed probably ten pounds soaking wet after a big meal, so this kind of was not the best idea.

But, well, you gotta do what you gotta do. He'd been challenged and Osiris was no coward (disregard the fact that he had been hiding from whatever scared him in the first place.) There was no way he could simply roll it over all willy-nilly, so he had to use... a move. Probably quite a few times. And then another move to actually hit it.

Right away, Iris launched into a simple, repetitive, invigorating dragon dance. He simply raised himself up into the air and wriggled in a way that made his body look like it was doing the worm, but vertically. If he simply wasn't strong enough to push it down, he'd have to get stronger. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. He offered no explanation for the zorua next to him, confident that his display of power-boosting would come across as dynamic and awe-inspiring.

The dratini slithered up to the boulder. He waited for the moment the dratini realized that this task of moving the boulder was much harder than it appeared. He expected the dratini to push himself against it, but instead it started to...wiggle. A baffled look crossed him as his flattened ears twisted in a new direction. A paw raised questioningly with his mouth agape as if he were about to say something, but no words came out.

It took him a moment to recollect himself with a shake of his head before he would question it, "What are you even doing? You gotta push the boulder. See?" He shifted himself an angle so that the dratini could clearly see his side. He sat on his hind legs and lifted his front paws in front of him before he made a forward-pushing motion slowly in the air, "P u s h." He spoke as if the dratini couldn't understand...because for all he knew the dratini actually didn't.

Hehe, any second now this guy would realize just how foolish he had been to challenge a dragon, and beg for mercy. Even a dratini as young as him could do something like this, and all you needed after some boosts was a decent powered attacking move, and Osiris had like two. Any second now the zorua would call him off and maybe even apologize - what.

"N-no, I know," Osiris protested defensively, his air of superiority shattered. "I'm making myself stronger, stupid! It's called dragon dance, duh. I get faster and stronger when I do it! It's got something to do with, like, invigorating your spirit and making you get into the right mindset or whatever." It likely didn't help his explanation that this entire time, he was wriggling upright like a holiday streamer in the wind, continuing his dragon dance.

He went silent as he processed the information. One could only imagine what kind of god awful dial-up ear-horror would be coming from him were he a computer. It took a moment, but it clicked. "OOOOH!" he exclaimed with excitement, "So like-when I stare at things and it makes them go 'AAAAAAHHH!'?" His tail wagged with excitement as he dropped onto his forearms and his hindquarters propped up into the air. His ears perked straight up, but one would quickly twist down as he would realize what the dratini called him.

"Heeeeeey wait-i'm not stupid!" The zorua countered the argument with total rejection. His heart grew a bit heavy with that insult, genuinely taking offense to it. His hindquarters dropped, all prior excitement vanished and replaced with defiance. "That's just mean!"

Osiris clenched his eyes shut when the zorua protested what he called him, equal parts kind of reluctant to think about what he just said and also wanting to focus on the dragon dancing he was doing. It was a difficult task, though. Blueberry and furball weren't really mean names, per se, but stupid definitely was.

He wanted to say it was mean of the zorua to think he was dumb enough not to know how to push, but... well, it was more peculiar. He couldn't get the words out of his mouth and feel honest about it. "Well..." If his mom were here, no doubt he'd get a talking to for crossing the name-calling line first. "Yeah, maybe you're right. Sorry—now-check-this-out!!"

His "apology" was rushed and brushed over almost immediately with how he dropped to the ground and turned around, slithering backward a healthy distance. He stopped about five feet away from the boulder, faced it, coiled himself up taut and tense... and exploded off the ground in the fastest Extremespeed he'd ever pulled off, aiming for the boulder like a dratini missile!

And, of course, he bounced right off. Iris' head smacked into the side of the boulder and he dropped right to the ground with a mighty "Ooof!!", and continued to lay flopped over, his... everything sore, really.

The mere sound of the dratini hitting against the boulder called the zorua to cringe and close an eye as if he felt the pain second hand, "Ooof..." he commented. He knew hard that probably felt. He didn't exactly feel bad for the dratini though. It was his own fault for criticizing the zorua over the boulder! Chance stood back up onto his two paws an approached the dratini to stand over it.

"Hurts doesn't it?" he commented with a joking laugh, "I've been tryin to move this thing for hours!" it was only ten minutes, but it seemed like hours to him. He stepped away from the dratini and strolled back on over to the rock under the assumption that the dratini was fine. He lifted himself up and placed his two forepaws against the face of the rock as he went right back to trying to find a way to move it.

With a quick and mighty jump, he scrambled less-than-gracefully to the top of it. He turned back around and looked down at the dratini, "You got any ideas? I wanna do some science thing or something and I need it down there." He gestured towards the area he pointed at earlier.

(so long my 2 energy)

Kat carried out 2 launched of one Everspring Vale :

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Osiris lifted himself up off the ground, shaking his face as if to cast off the aching pain that came with headbutting a rock. Suffice it to say, it didn't work, and it took him a few moments to collect himself. "Yeah..." he mumbled in response to the zorua, looking up at the boulder itself. It was so much bigger up close, kind of intimidating-like. Dragon dance had limits, it looked like. He couldn't knock it down.

But at least this guy wasn't being like smug or rubbing his face in it.

"I don't know if it's possible between me and you," he said quizzically. It was too big, and they were too small. The solution seemed kind of obvious to him, honestly. "Not... directly, anyway. Maybe someone bigger needs to chip in." he offered up. It was the first thing that came to his mind.

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Everspring Vale :

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"Well...my mom and dad could definitely move it...but they're uh...elsewhere." All the way back at Grassveil, but he wasn't about to admit that to a stranger. He looked around his surroundings as his mind struggled to piece together some sort of idea on how to get it moving.

His ears deflated in disappointment as he witnessed nothing but trees, grass, and smaller rocks that were too small to work for what he wanted. The zorua looked back to the dratini once more, "What about you? Anybody you know? That's around at least..." He sat down on top of the rock with droopy-eared look to him. It was almost kind of sad in a way.

"It was probably gonna be super cool too..." he mumbled as he expected the dratini to be unable to bring anyone big in either.

((Thank you trap, now I can properly murder Chance.))

Kat carried out 4 launched of one Everspring Vale :

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Osiris definitely knew a few people who could do it. Geo was smart enough to figure out a way, definitely, and Zircon could just explode the giant thing. Lennox from the Academy, probably, and his mom, maybe. The problem was all of those people were back in Grassveil or Rainfront, and one of them was in jail. This was the one time he went to a dungeon all by himself, too! The dratini sighed to himself.

"Nobody around, no," he confirmed, his snout scrunching up as he gave the matter thought. "But there's pokemon who live here, right? Someone oughta be able to do it. We can go look around!" he said. All they had to do was find an evolved pokemon or someone with some kind of big rock-pushing natural talent.

The thought of abandoning the zorua to his weird boulder quest didn't even occur to Iris. He had tried to move the thing and failed as well. It was personal now. Plus, you know. Safety in numbers and all that.

(rip these poor children)

The dratini had a point, but Chance could not help but to be a little hesitant about that. His nose scrunched up in distaste at the idea. It wasn't that he hated the idea of someone else helping, he was far too eager to try his cool new experiment for that kind of thing. It was more so of the idea of striking up a conversation with total strangers.

Stranger Danger and whatnot, though Osiris didn't really apply to him...his mind was special like that.

"Uhhh I don't know if that's a good idea? What if one of 'em wants to uh...eat us?" the zorua spoke up, "I didn't even need to talk to one last time and they tried to rip my neck out or something...and I don't think my dad's around to stop em this time sooo..." At the very least Chance had learned at least a little bit of something from his last encounter in the absolute wilderness like this.

"Something tried to eat you before?" Osiris responded after a moment, slightly dumbstruck at what the zorua had said. "And you're out here by yourself? Man, that's... that takes guts." Honestly, the dratini felt some kind of way about that. He wasn't sure if he was in awe, impressed, intimidated, or scared. A healthy mix of all of those, probably, with a good dose of sudden anxiety thrown in for good measure.

Iris tried hard not to have any kind of second thoughts about being here, but it was difficult. The problem was that he was already here. He could run into any amount of pokemon on the way back. But if he had this guy with him, then weren't his odds of success, like, doubled? Neither one of them could move the boulder so they were probably around the same strength level. If they worked together, maybe they could make a run for it. Or even put up enough of a fight that things left them alone around here.

He couldn't help but puff his chest out in pride at his own stupid decision. The dratini thought it was brave, so why shouldn't he? "Yeah...it was suuuuper scary too." He was just going to leave out the part where he bawled like a little baby. "I was just mindin' my own business right?" he popped up onto his feet again, excited to tell the amazing adventure he had with his dad.

"I was checkin out this super cool place and then suddenly this JOLTEON comes FLYIN out of the tall grass!" To accentuate his words, he jumped down from the rock in a sort of almost-pounce towards the Dratini. He landed just in front of the dragon type with a wide grin across his expression. "And I was like AAAAAAAH!" The zorua rolled onto the ground as his legs flailed into the air. "And he was like RAHHH!" he popped back up with a mock-snarl, his paws raised above his head with a quick clawing motion to the air.

His paws dropped to the ground again after a quick and excited jump backwards. "And then my dad showed up! He's a suuuuuuuuper famous explorer-and he TACKLED the bad guy and THREW him aside like he was yesterday's t r a s h" He took a seat with a paw up, he gave a little wave as if it were no big deal before he waited for his applause.