Ice, Ice, Babies

The last time Osiris had been in this neck of the woods (hue), he'd found himself scrambling desperately for survival while a big feathery rock bird beat up a giant shellfish thing. That was before his great pilgrimage of self-betterment, though, and now that he was fresh off of getting his tail kicked by every other dungeon between here and Grassveil, Osiris thought he could turn the tables on his enemy today. His enemy, of course, being... snow? Winter? The Icy Lands in general? He wasn't sure, but he was definitely here to kick some butt and maybe find some nanners.

The dratini had prepared himself adequately for the task, in his own unbiased opinion. Wrapped around him like a great fuzzy burrito was a durable, high-quality, and expensive winter cloak to protect against the cold. Hitched to his neck by a strap was his sturdy and reliable satchel, packed to the brim with all manners of orbs, berries, seeds, and other fail safes in case he found himself face to face with something that both could and would slurp him up like a noodle. The dragon worm was the picture of determination and immature earnestness as he slithered through the deep snow of Icicle Woods, leaving a very obvious trail behind him.

Now if only he could find some interesting matchups - he was here to practice, learn, and conquer.

50 - 20 energy (entry): 30 energy

Maxie: [Energy: 23 - 20 (Entry) = 3]
==================================================
No matter how well prepared she thought she might be, there was no way Maxie could have prepared herself for this territory. Having grown up in caves surrounded on all sides by rocky and sandy desert, the cold, snowy climate was the polar (ha) opposite of what she was used to.

Still, she tried her best. She wore a light cloak herself, which served more to protect herself from the cold winds than keep her totally warm. For that, she had her Defense Scarf; a thick, yellow bolt of cloth that she wore around her neck. Atop her head, at the place where her iron-gnashing jaws connected to her head, a magenta ribbon was tied into a bow, and on which her Grassveil Guild badge was pinned. Her guild issued bag was slung over one shoulder.

This excursion would be different from her last. She was—she believed—more prepared this time. She had done more research. And she was alone. No zangoose this time. Just a lot of snow. She had already decided she didn’t like snow much more than sand. Still, she wouldn’t let it stop her from doing what she came here to do.

She was here to explore, to collect useful items, and—if the need were to arise—exploit her type advantage over the local population.

By god, it wasn't the exact type advantage that Maxie was thinking of, but the aspiring explorer had no idea how true that thought rang.

Slithering a very healthy distance behind the steel-type, Iris figured he'd found his first bad guy of the expedition. He only saw the tall, black, villainous jaws that sprouted up behind the creature like hair, the brighter hues of the mawile not registering in his tunnel vision. In his prepubescent mind, there was no way that such a creature couldn't be evil. And as a heroic guild member to-be, it was practically his duty to deal with such evildoers!

As stealthily as he could manage, the little dragon hunkered down in the snow and pursued the strange pokemon. Methods of approach whirled through his mind; he could tail the creature around to learn more about it, but that risked being spotted and losing the element of surprise. He could go ahead of it and set up some kind of ambush trap, but there was no guarantee it would follow his path. The notion of minding his own damn business and leaving things be never occurred to him.

Osiris decided to act immediately and strike first. The dratini sprouted up out of the snow a few yards away with a dramatic bellow. "Not today, fiend!!" he hollered, rearing his head back before he sucked in a long breath. Then he thrust his head forth and fired a Dragon Rage right from his maw, the viridian shockwave tearing across the top of the thick snow headed directly for the mawile's second mouth.

Maxie: [Energy: 3]
==================================================
The woods were quiet until they weren’t. Maxie turned her head to locate the source of the outcry, only to see the launching of some form of attack. She turned on the spot to face the threat.

Only to shuffle out of the way and turn her black jaws back toward the attacker. She took a moment to process what he had said and observe what exactly it was she was dealing with. Glancing behind her, she could see it was a dratini. She relaxed a bit, feeling safe in the knowledge that even if the attack had hit her, it would have done exactly nothing. The fact that she had a couple of techniques that would be quite effective on the Dragon-type helped, too.

She decided that she was a little offended at the notion of being referred to as a “fiend.” Still, that wouldn’t stop her from offering the dragon a bit of unsolicited advice. ”If you’re going to make a sneak attack,” she announced calmly and loud enough to be heard clearly over the distance between them. ”You shouldn’t alert your target to your presence beforehand.”

Osiris gawked as the creature spun on the spot, neatly evading his surprise attack and revealing a much smaller pokemon behind it. Was it holding a hostage - wait, no, they were moving in sync. Were they attached? The dratini reeled back at that realization, cocking his head as he stared back at the pokemon with an expression that somehow was both unsettled and concerned.

At the very least, she wasn't immediately hostile. Squinting suspiciously, Osiris elected to move a bit closer as she had made no move to retaliate. "What? Then how are they supposed to know I was the one to take them down before they get knocked out?" he asked in response, skeptic and disbelieving. Then his brain caught up with his mouth and he shook his head wildly for a second. "Wait, no, don't answer that. I, uh, are you aware that there's a monster growing out the back of your head?" he asked dubiously, glancing between her and the second pair of jaws for emphasis.

If it wasn't for the fact that he just tried to blast her for no reason, he might have come across as genuinely concerned.

Maxie: [Energy: 3]
==================================================
The question caught her off guard. She was getting used to the odd stares and mild confusion from others at seeing her—it had become apparent to her quite quickly when she had arrived in Grassveil that not everyone was familiar with her kind. No one had ever reacted quite like this, however, with such blunt question. It was a rude question, too. As far as first impressions go, this dratini could use some practice.

”Of course,” she said it as if it were the most normal thing ever. ”His name is Gilbert. Don’t worry, he’s friendly. Doesn’t bite. ...Actually, that’s all he does.” There was a clear hint of humour in her voice.
”Now,” She turned around to face the dratini, assuming he was done flinging attacks at her for the moment. She adjusted her scarf and the ribbon atop her head; her guild badge, polished as always, shown even the dull light of the overcast day. ”Do you mind telling me what you think you’re doing out here attacking random strangers?”

Gilbert? Gilbert the friendly head-mouth monster that only bites things? Osiris was not convinced, and he let it show. The dratini continued to regard the pair of pokemon warily, keeping a respectful distance in case "Gilbert" decided to get friendly with him. Maybe it was some kind of bait and switch thing, where this girl was supposed to get him to drop his guard before the monster swooped in for the kill.

Well, it wasn't going to work on him. Osiris rose up as a snake does, displaying the modest length he was so proud of before responding. "I'm training, not going around attacking people for fun," he said (even though he was honestly kind of doing both).  The implication that he was some kind of wild hoodlum ambushing folks rankled him slightly - he'd dealt with enough pokemon like that himself. "I need to know how to fight ice-types in case I ever take a mission out here... Are you sure about that guy on your head?" he asked again, not consciously avoiding the question so much as he was just honestly skeptic about this girl's lethal hairstyle.

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Icicle Woods :

, , , , , , , , ,

Maxie: [Energy: 3]
==================================================
”Well,” Maxie started with an authoritative tone. ”Step one in learning to fight Ice-types: Learn what is and isn’t an Ice-type.” She pointed to herself. ”I’m a mawile, ergo, not an Ice-type. And furthermore, it’s not really another person,” she pointed at the massive jaws that were always behind her to clarify what she was referring to. ”It’s a part of me. Kind of like a tail, except it's mouth, and makes a great weapon.” And had a bit of a mind of its own sometimes, but Gilbert wasn’t dangerous.

It wasn’t until after she was done explaining everything that she realised he had mentioned taking a mission, which meant he was either in the guild, or intended to join. Seeing as she couldn’t spot a badge on him, she could assume he wasn’t yet a member. ”Oh, where are my manners?” her toned suddenly shifted to something more pleasant. She held out a hand to shake without thinking about how a Pokemon such a dratini would reciprocate such a gesture. ”Maxie, of Team Tenacity, Grassveil Guild.”

Osiris was ready to leap to his own defense—of course he didn't think her weird hair-jaw thing was an ice-type, but it looked evil—but this pokemon's words took all the wind out of his sails. The dratini's mental faculties grinded to a halt as soon as she introduced herself, openly gawking as she revealed herself to be not only from Grassveil, but a member of the guild. The same one he was planning on joining as soon as he could assemble a team.

He hoped he hadn't just sabotaged all that. "I, um... well." he eloquently started, not sure how to even begin backpedaling here. "Really?" Iris ended up going with, sounding almost as stupid as he felt. "D'you got a mission out here? Is there someone in trouble or is it something boring?" the dratini ended up blurting almost immediately after, his mind barreling past introductions right toward Maxie's business in this mystery dungeon. She wasn't the first guild member that he'd met, but her status as a bonafide explorer had him intensely curious and even a bit respectful from the get-go. Now that he saw her in this light, maybe Gilbert wasn't so bad.

"Oh, uh, I'm Osiris," he tacked on after an awkward moment. "I'm from Grassveil too."

Maxie: [Energy: 3]
==================================================
She was, in fact, not currently on a mission. She probably, really should have been. She had failed her first mission and had been neglecting the things since, but she didn’t have to tell him that. ”Nice to meet you, Osiris,” she put her hand down. ”And no, I’m not currently on a mission—at least not one from the guild. This is a personal trip.”

Fact of the matter was, “Team Tenacity” wasn’t really a team. It was just her. Her last partner didn’t stick around very long—due in no part because of her, mind—and the closest thing she had to a partner now was choosing not to join the guild, at least for now. And she was currently being distracted by a certain blue furball.

”So I take it you’re planning on joining the Guild?” He had said he was from Grassveil, but based on his enthusiasm at finding out she was a part of the Guild and the fact that he didn’t specify a team she could safely assume he wasn’t yet a member. Maybe if he showed promise, she could invite him to her team—or she could join his team when he made it—she wasn’t picky.
==================================================
Maxie used x1 Trawl Orb

Badger carried out 10 launched of one Icicle Woods :

, , , , , , , , ,

His hopes were pretty instantly dashed. To date, Osiris hadn't been on any missions, but he'd gotten to help on a few different ones on the occasion he caught a guild member on the job. He supposed even explorers had their free time, though this was a really weird place to go to on your day off. "Planning is a strong word," the dratini responded. "... I think. I want to join, but not all by myself, you know?" If he were being optimistic, he maybe had one and a half team-members lined up for that day.

Osiris found himself looking up at the trees and the ever-present, ever-sharp icicles that hung off of them as he explained. "Not 'cos I can't pull my weight or anything, but because I think it'd be less fun to do it by myself." he went on, trying to put it into words. "There'd be less stuff to do if I was the only guy on the team, right? So I wanna find some friends that are down to join before I go in there and sign up. But that's been kinda hard to do." the dragon-type went with, feeling a little bit less than lukewarm about his words by the time he finished.

He exhaled, absently watching a mankey as it leaped through the treetops with ease. Arms sure looked useful to have. "How 'bout you? I mean, you're already in," Osiris said. "You take down any big bad outlaws or discover any secret dungeons yet?"

(That looks fun it's my turn now: Trawl Orb)

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Icicle Woods :

, , , , , , , , ,

Maxie: [Energy: 3]
==================================================
It wasn’t difficult for the mawile to empathise with the dratini’s troubles with assembling a team. She said nothing on the subject, however. She didn’t really want to answer the question that followed either, though. She sighed. She wasn’t going to lie, but she didn’t want to make herself sound like a failure, either. ”Not yet. I’m… Taking it slow.”

She looked around the area, scanning for anything interesting to serve as a distraction. She spotted a pair of delibird a fair distance of. Not exactly an interesting sight in these parts. ”Truth is,” she started, a bit dejected. ”Team Tenacity is… Kind of not really a team. It’s just me at the moment.”

If she were a little more desperate, she would have simply invited Osiris to join her team right then and there. But she wasn’t so desperate quite yet. First, she wanted to see that he wouldn’t be a burden on the potential team. She wanted to be sure he was telling the truth when he said he could carry his own weight.
==================================================
(Good hustle but let’s try for more Banana)
Maxie used x1 Trawl Orb

Badger carried out 10 launched of one Icicle Woods :

, , , , , , , , ,

"Oh," was all Osiris said. "Kinda seems like that happens to a lot of people, huh." he went on, not phrasing it as a question so much as an observation. Maybe guild life was a little bit harder than he was assuming it was, judging by how many people... well, dropped out, for lack of a better term.

The dratini wasn't too surprised at Maxie's admission. While he obviously thought she had to be a leg up on him in terms of status, judging by the fact that she was both already in the guild and she side-stepped his attack with ease, she was pretty tiny. He figured she was a basic pokemon, like him, yet to reach her first or even second evolution. That, and a really strong and seasoned explorer probably hung out in places way more dangerous than Icicle Woods. Like super secret dungeons not even kids knew about or something.

He switched directions quickly. "Well, what're you doin' out here, then?" the young dragon asked a heartbeat later. "I mean, I know you said it's personal, but y'think there's somethin' I can help with?" A tiny little potential idea was taking root in his mind. Osiris had something of a plan lined up with Geo and the sword they'd found in Shadowhue, Sterlie, but Maxie could just as well easily fit into it. To do that, though, he'd need to impress her enough that she'd want to be a part of it.

Maxie: [Energy: 3]
==================================================
What was she doing out here? That was a great question that she didn’t really have a concise answer for. She had just recently came back from a not so grand adventure on Black Mist Mountain. She had considered taking a proper vacation—maybe the beach over in Rainfront Town—but she opted to explore some frozen forest instead.

That trip made her realise that she wasn’t quite prepared for guild life, but she was already in it. So she decided she needed to take on more dungeons, explore more, find useful things. It was like learning on the job, except she wasn’t doing a job. She didn’t want to actually risk failing another mission.

”Apparently my idea of a vacation is working without pay,” she answered after thinking it over for a moment. ”There’s nothing specific you can help with, but I think exploring the place together isn’t a terrible idea—assuming you really can carry your weight.” It wasn’t that she doubted his abilities, she just didn’t want to get into a scrap and find out the person with her freezes up at the first sign of danger. Again.

Hook, line, and sinker. He was in. Now all he had to do was make sure she didn't regret it. That meant pulling his weight and making up for that bad first impression. "Whoa-ho-ho, now," Osiris mock-protested. "This is like my tenth dungeon run, yeah? I'm not that bad at this stuff." he explained, not even doubting the number he gave her. It might not be ten exactly, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was - or even if it was more than that.

Iris paused, something occurring to him. "Well, I might not do as good as normal... I came out here to fight ice-types, and they're good against dragons like me," he admitted. In a way, he was working without pay too. "But I'm strong, really! Come on, I'll show ya." he finished, deciding to get this show on the road. The dratini resumed moving in the direction that Maxie had been heading in. No time to waste; there was only so much daylight, and he had work to do.

And now he had someone to watch his back... maybe for more than just today, if he played his cards right.