Flipping the Script [Event]

Everspring Vale: Round 2.

Last time Osiris had stomped through these grounds, he'd met a very good friend and had a very bad day. The dratini had been woefully underprepared, weak, unimaginative, and a burden to the people that he wanted to take care of. Today, he wasn't much different. The most prominent difference was that he was aware of it and actively looking to flip the script, thanks to some much-needed advice he'd gotten.

It was time to really, honestly challenge himself for the first time. Fully, fairly, and most importantly safely. The dragon worm slithered through the tall-grass of the Vale's many forestlike areas, ducking through bushes and between trees as he searched for good match-ups. He'd brought his satchel with him this time around, packed full of supplies and useful items in case he found himself hurt, needing an edge in a fight, or a way out of a sticky situation.

It was time to do this right.

43 - 20 (entry): 23 energy

(51-20 = 31)

Each step rumbled the landscape around her. She held her head high as she marched forward with nothing but sheer confidence. As a tyrunt, she always walked with caution, but now that she was evolved...well, she was yet to be defeated. Just as it should be. She found no need to watch the ground below her as her attention was caught on the trees around her. Carefully an steadily she weaved her way around them.

This land was only just south of her kingdom, so it wasn't entirely unusual for her to wander over here. It would have been wiser to send a scouting party to investigate the tremors that this land endured, but manpower was small in her little home. If she wanted something done, she had to do it herself-especially when it posed as a potential danger to her kingdom.

The dark grey color of the beast stood out against the greens and browns of the forest, but the cloudy sky above seemed to cause everything to fall into a somber desaturated look and mix her well. The beast found nothing thus far, but that was to be expected, for she'd only just begun.

That... that was a very familiar sensation. Osiris glanced down at the ground with a panicked expression, memories of the times that'd happened here running through his head. The first, he'd been saved by one monster by another, a kangaskhan crushing a mightyena that had him clamped in his jaws. The second, a mighty bouffalant had stormed onto the scene while he and his friend were both injured and came frighteningly close to making mincemeat of both of them.

It wasn't going to happen again, Osiris resolved. He wasn't going to jump into the path of this one - although he did want to check it out, just to catalog the threat so he knew how best to avoid it later. The dratini cautiously slithered in the direction of the footsteps, taking shelter under foliage and shadows at every opportunity, not keen on being spotted. What he spotted instead, though, took the breath away from him.

A Tyrantrum. Fully-evolved, and... shiny? No, he knew all of the shiny colorations of his favorite dragon-types; this was something different, something rarer. He gasped softly once he got a good look at it, the soft intake of breath ringing throughout the mostly silent atmosphere of the area - and then immediately cursed himself. What happened to staying low and out-of-sight?! It was only good fortune that he was already hidden in the deep undergrowth of a thick, fuzzy bush when he made the blunder.

The dratini hunkered down as low as he could possibly go, tucking in any excess length and hoping desperately the incredible dragon didn't notice him.

A voice in the silence. Well, not quite a voice, but she heard something that didn't quite belong. She stopped in her tracks and began to survey her surroundings. Only the light rustle of the trees against the wind was heard as her eyes focused on the area around her. She failed to look down or even closely, not thinking that whatever the noise could have been was something small.

For a full minute, she stood and watched. She anticipated something to jump out and strike, but nothing came. A growl rippled from her throat that almost sounded as hungry as an empty stomach. Without another word, she deemed it safe to continue. She kept her head high and watched her back as her steps resumed their path. Her sight lingered for only a moment longer before she finally started to look where she was going...only to smack her head into a tree.

The large flora rustled and shivered with the impact after a loud "thunk!" Leaves and sticks fell from the top of the tree in a flurry and coated her body. With an quick huff, she shook off the ache of the bump and leaves that covered her.

It was a huge struggle not to laugh at loud at the tyrantrum's mishap. The unnerving tension of its vigilance, staring out as if daring him to present himself, only to back up and smack its head on a tree was anticlimactic and comedic as anything. It was only his self-preservation and determination not to make a jerk of himself in such an awesome pokemon that kept him from laughing.

Osiris knew that after that, he should turn and go. He'd gotten what he came for - he saw the pokemon in action, he knew which way to go to get away from it. If he just went in the opposite direction, it was pretty likely he wouldn't see it for the rest of his dungeon run. But... he was so intrigued. Tyrantrum was such a unique and powerful dragon, and he still had that weakness for his favorite kind of pokemon. And this one looked so unlike any other. The dratini briefly worried his lip before deciding this was what he wanted.

He'd come prepared, anyway. If the larger dragon-type turned out to be hostile or dangerous or anything like that, he had different options ready. Odds were, he could even get away with it with some liberal Extremespeed abuse. With those confidence-boosters in mind, Osiris ducked his head out of his bush with an admiring smile. "Can I just say you look amazing?" he admitted absolutely honestly, figuring it was best to come off as friendly and non-aggressive.

The dratini left himself exposed but remained tense and ready to bolt in a worst-case scenario.

Irritated, humiliated, and thoroughly unimpressed, Victoria had half a mind to take this tree down right then and there just to satisfy her own pettiness. Before she could seriously consider it, a voice piped up. It sounded...small. Very small. Her attention turned towards it with a focused and cautious mind. A dratini slithered out from whatever spot they hid in to deliver...compliments.

...Well this was a nice difference from the usual "give me all of your things" or even just straight up "Die" strangers seemed to like to give her more often than not. She straightened herself, head held a tad higher with a flattered smirk across her reptilian grin. "Why, thank you," she responded with glee towards the compliment, "I think you're the first one to ever say that sort of thing to me." At least, out of the blue. There'd been plenty of times she'd been complimented a a tyrunt back at her original home, though they were at the threat of her father.

Flattery was a good way to get on her good side, it was a "flaw" she was aware of, but it was one she embraced. Who didn't love a good compliment after all?

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Everspring Vale :

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"You're welcome!" Osiris chirped back happily. The lack of aggression gave him the comfort he needed to slither out of the bush completely, coming a bit closer to the rock/dragon-type, but still paying healthy respect to her space. "I saw you a minute ago and my first thought was "w o w, that's got to be a shiny tyrantrum," but I think you're an even rarer hue than that." the dratini went on with a note of wonderment in his voice. She was similar to Zircon in that fact that he'd never come across the oddities on her appearance in his, ah, studies. The charizard had all kinds of strange markings on him, and she was a totally different and much more striking color than the ones he'd read about.

Maybe he just had some defective learning material. It made him want to hit up other towns and see what kind of other dragon-type information they could offer, but this was a much rarer face-to-face opportunity with a rare and unique pokemon. "And, gosh. You're way bigger up close. I've read about tyrantrums before, but your jaw is just... goodness, that's impressive. I bet you could grind granite right down to dust with that kind of power!" The nerd was out in full force. It took all he had not to start circling the larger, friendly pokemon, inspecting every aspect of her appearance and comparing it to the mental encyclopedia in his brain on her species.

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

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The tyrant pokemon couldn't help but give a chuckle at the child's wonder. It was nice to see someone who appreciated her power as much as she did. The grin on her only seemed to crack even wider as the dratini mentioned her jaws. Yes, they were quite powerful, weren't they?

"I'd bet I could too, kid," She responded with a hearty laugh, "But no, this isn't my natural color. I'm red, just like any other Tyrantrum, I just had my scales dyed because I stuck out like a bloody scar up in Blackspear. It's easier this way," not to mention it made her appear far more intimidating and noteworthy than before in her book. She wasn't just any tyrantrum in her mind, she was the tyrantrum...at least in her kingdom.

"What're you doin' all the way out in the likes of this place? Live around here?" She decided to entertain conversation with the child as she allowed him to look her over and observe her.

Even the tyrantrum's laugh inspired fear and resonated power! He snuck a glance at her wide grin, scrutinizing her sharp and strong teeth with a nervous and excited feeling in his belly. How lucky was he right now?! The dratini inched closer as they talked, growing gradually more comfortable with her. If she was going to lash out at him, she would have done it by now - this kind of distance meant nothing to her, he reasoned.

"Oh no, I'm pretty far from home actually," the dratini revealed, studying the larger pokemon's powerful tail and sharp claws. "I live all the way over in Grassveil, but the pokemon out here are pretty strong and good to train against, as long as I'm really careful about it." Iris explained. That was his working theory, anyway - so far, he hadn't found anything besides her this time around, and he was pretty sure she could step on him and his life would be over.

It was nice that she was super cool. And smart! Blending in with the rocks of her natural enviroment was probably a killer strategy as far as hunting and defending herself went. "I'm Osiris!" he introduced himself. "You can call me Iris for short if you want. Can I know your name?" he asked politely, grinning with zeal and gusto.

She did not care nor really notice the little noodle's caution with his distance from her. She had no intention of attacking or scaring the little friend who seemed to want nothing more than to inflate her already gargantuan ego. Osiris was the small boy's name, not a bad one. She didn't quite know where that kind of name originated from, but perhaps it was something from a grandparent like her own name?

Regardless, her own name was requested. "Victoria," She responded, putting a bit more effort into some pride behind her tone. "I don't have a nickname," the dragon type clarified, "So just refer to that when you address me."

"Grassveil, that's indeed a long ways away. I was there just the other week, not much going on in that town. Seems like an awfully quiet place...why not train in someplace closer to home though? Pecha Forest-or even Shadowhue?" The tyrantrum asked. Her voice lacked criticism, instead it held more of a...curiosity.

Victoria. Regal, powerful, unyielding - a very fitting name for a pokemon of her stature. The lack of a surname highlighted the simplicity of it, emphasizing the best parts. Osiris thought his own name was pretty mysterious and cool, but it lacked the 'oomph' of a name literally derived from victory. And it was kind of misfitting - he was a noodle right now, and even when he turned into a long noodle it'd probably stay that way.

The dratini nodded at what she said. "I've already been, and they're pretty boring." Osiris replied, "Not to be like, arrogant or anything, but I don't think I'd get much of a... challenge over there. And that's what I want to look for, so I came here." It did kind of make him out to be confident at best, but wasn't it justified? He beat up that jolteon and he'd been through the ringer before that fight started, not to mention his experiences running through dungeons with various pokemon.

Then, a thought struck him. "You're really, really strong, right? Are you busy right now, or - or do you have something I can help with??" he asked. If he could tag along with Victoria or have her run the dungeon with him, that'd be an extra layer of security to everything!

The noodle sought strength. A worthy cause to venture for. She had to press a bit of doubt on the dratini's words, however. Shadowhue? Dull for the likes of this small fry? It certainly sounded like he was being arrogant, but she supposed he was just a a small package that packed a big punch. She leaned to the side of doubt, but was not going to object to the claims.

"I would say I'm quite strong," she boasted, "And I am rather busy, but a little aimless at the moment." She paused briefly, a claw scratched as close to her jaw as she could get in thought. She decidedly continued, "There's been some strange activity down in this dungeon. We've been feeling it all the way in Black Spear. I decided to come down and investigate, perhaps even put a stop to it if I can...I could use a second pair of eyes to help me look around for anything...out of the norm I guess is what we're looking for."

"Then I'm your guy!" Osiris volunteered. "What kind of strange activity should I be looking for?" It didn't matter to him which way they paired up. From the sounds of it, Victoria was seeking out trouble anyway, so there were bound to be a few pokemon for him to get into scraps with. And between his bag of tricks, arsenal of moves, and Victoria, he was probably going to make some progress without getting his face kicked in.

And that was reason enough for him to be happy. Now officially teamed-up, Osiris slithered up closer to the tyrantrum, eager for context and excitement. If it took a heavy-hitter like her to come and deal with it, it was likely out of his league, but at the very least he could watch and learn a few things.

"Anything and everything," Victoria spoke dutifully, "It's mostly tremors, but it's happening far too often to be just earthquakes. Some pokemon fled up north and talked about how strange pokemon were acting here. I was originally going to look for some locals to question that might be more familiar, so perhaps you could spot one out?" She spoke with a little nod up towards the trees. The tyrantrum was obviously way too large to climb one, but the lithe little wyrm was not.

She stepped back from the tree she smacked into earlier, giving the dragon the path to head up if they wanted to. She was perfectly willing to give Osiris a hand if need be, lowering her head for him to crawl up on so that she could lift him up into the branches on her snout.

Osiris was conflicted. Not about helping - he'd be up that tree in a heartbeat if he wasn't faced with a large personal conundrum. He could either demonstrate to this larger, more powerful pokemon that he was cool, strong, independent and could climb up a tree by himself... or he could let this totally awesome dinosaur dragon pick him up and give him a boostie.

He realized that he wanted a boostie.

"Sure thing!" he trilled, hopping up deftly onto her snout. The temptation to slither up and sit behind her crest like a dragonrider on a saddle was incredibly tempting, but he resisted it. Instead, he perched neatly, a silly little grin on his face as the tyrantrum lifted her head and he experienced the ascent, the wind tickling his scales on the way. Then, he bounced right off of her onto the tree, booping her snoot with a flick of his tail to give himself an extra boost.

Slithering up the tree easy with the momentum provided by his jump and a little liberal abuse of extremespeed, and before long he was cresting the top of the tree and looking across the wide valleys, forests, rock quarries of the Vale. From horizon to horizon the scene stretched, and even beyond that. It was a beautiful view, but he didn't come here to sightsee. The dratini immediately peered downward looking for pokemon, squinting his eyes as he saw through the treetops. There were a number of pokemon of interest to their goals, but he could make out something even more interesting.

"I think I see some pokemon," he called down, confused, skeptical, and honestly a little intimidated even from a distance. "But they're running from this one thing, and it's... big. It's very big."