[FIN] Holly Jolly How D'you Do

[Sao Kasai]

Cold. Why did it have to be cold? It was never really cold in Lavaridge, or anywhere in Hoenn actually, save high in the mountains, and that meant the temperature hadn't been a consideration when Izumi finally decided to come back to Kodo. Thankfully, Izumi thought as she trudged down a path in the snow through the park in Camphoreon, electronics dealt very well with the cold. The same could not be said of the parts of Izumi that were not a mechanical arm.

There wouldn't even be a need to be out in the snow if it weren't for the fact that on her long trip abroad, Izumi caught a new pokemon who was in need of training, or at least bonding with its trainer. Her recently un-demolished and relatively warm shop was no place to try to get a handle on a dragon however, and so here she was--bundled in a large poofy orange coat, her hair hidden under a large fluffy white hat with ear flaps, and her face obscured under a tightly wrapped white and teal scarf--clumsily walking through the snow, picking each foot up as high as she could before plunging it back down.

Eventually the bumbling pumpkin of a girl found a spot she deemed "good enough" and stopped. Izumi dug through one of the pockets in her coat and pulled out a pokeball.
"Okay..." She mumbled through her scarf, "I've got to start somewhere... I-if I can handle Killa... I can handle this thing..."
She pressed the release on the pokeball and a bright white light burst forth and materialized into a very large blue and white reptilian-like bird creature.

"Terrr..." It growled irritably at its human, the feathers on its body ruffling, and its large blue crest laying flat against its skull.

"U-um... h-hello. I'm I-Izumi, your... um... trainer..."

The Altaria's crest righted itself, and it looked quizzically at the human who was stuttering at it. Trainer? This was its trainer?

"I--um, i-its nice to m-meet you, G-gondolin, um..." Dear Arceus Izumi was terrible at this. Even after training in Hoenn for months, she didn't make an amazing amount of progress, and really any progress made by her pokemon was due to their hard work and not by her skill as a trainer. A dragon type was probably not a good fit for this girl, and said pokemon could tell.

"Arrra..." It chirruped in exasperation and spread its great white wings, stretching the muscles that had grown stiff not being used for so long. It didn't seem to be paying any attention to the human who was definitely NOT fit to be its trainer.

"G-gondolin, I-I'd like to, um...start training?" Izumi noticed the pokemon wasn't paying attention. "C-could you p-please listen to me? Gondolin, h-hello? I-I'd like to see what moves you know... p-please?"

Gondolin craned his head around to look at the bumbling human. Was she realling giving him a command? A weak and pathetic command, but a command none-the-less. This would not stand. The Altaria growled and reared its head back, its feathers ruffling with energy, and breathed a bout of flame at Izumi, who yelled loudly and crumpled in a frightened heap in the snow.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri wasn't especially fond of the cold either, but he dealt with it. They had snow and stuff back on Grande Ile too so he was certainly familiar with it. Thud the man had sense enough to bundle up in a black coat and scarf. He was out and about, gathering stuff for some plans he had for Christmas, when he managed to catch sight of a girl and her Pokemon. A Pokemon that didn't see to be listening to her.

He whistled lowly to himself as he paused to watch. "That's a big bird." And certainly it was. His Growlithe, Repede, stood at his side and watched keenly as well. However, when the blue and white Pokemon actually blew fire at it's trainer, the man actually blinked in surprise. Repede also lept into action, bounding through the snow and placing himself between the Altaria and the girl. The dogmon snarled and growled, glaring at the Pokemon with his one good eye.

All the while Yuri came up behind Izumi and offered her his hand.

"Hey, you all right?"  

[Sao Kasai]

The large bird seemed to roll its eyes at the human and growlithe who placed themselves between him and his so called trainer--They weren't worth the trouble. Gondolin spread his great wings and flapped a few times, lifting himself into the air and flying off a short distance to sit atop the tallest (and strongest) branch he could find.

"U-um..." The girl squeaked from her hiding place in the snow. "Y-yes..." Izumi slowly pushed herself up onto shaking legs and looked at her would-be rescuers timidly. "T-thank you... um... I-I didn't know it was a fire type..." She looked past a number of trees to where she could see the Altaria preening itself.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri watched as the bird took off, not really all that concerned with it, and looking back to the girl as she got up.

"Fire type huh? Doesn't really look like one, but then I guess Repede doesn't either."

"Grrruff gruff!"

"Well you don't."

Now that the Altaria had flown off, the blue and white Growlithe relaxed and looked up at Izumi as well with his one stoic eye. Yuri also chose that moment to speak up again.

"No offense, but you don't seem to be very good at training."  

[Sao Kasai]

Izumi frowned and looked rather dispirited at this stranger's comment on her abilities--True as it may have been.

"Um... yeah..." She sighed, "I'm really not..." It was a wonder that the other pokemon that she owned were as well trained as they were, which in some cases was really not all that well.

"T-thanks for, um, helping... I-I'm Izumi, um, by the way..."  

[BlackPidgeot]

He kinda felt bad for her really, but even Yuri could tell that big bird might not be the best Pokemon for this girl. He gave a little smile when she introduced herself though.

"Name's Yuri, Yuri Lowell. I take it that big bird is yours?"

A jerk of the head as he motioned towards the bird sitting up in the tree. If it was hers, it would definitely be a pain to get it back down again.  

[Sao Kasai]

Izumi smiled rather shyly, "N-nice to meet you, Yuri... And um, y-yes, he's mine... But, I, um, just got him really..." That should have been fairly obvious.

Gondolin seemed rather unconcerned with anything happening on the ground, perfectly content to sit up there in the tree until that girl learned her place.

The girl looked down at the blue growlithe a bit nervously, but, for having a strong fear of fire types, seemed to be handling its presence fairly well. "Um--h-he's yours?"  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yeah that was definitely pretty obvious, but she seemed like one of those shy, sensitive girls, so he didn't say as much. Her attention was diverted to Repede though, who wagged his tail despite sensing her fear. He took a few steps closer to her, attempting to show the girl that he wasn't aggressive.

"Yeah, Repede and I have been partners for a few years now."

The Growlithe tilted his gaze up at Yuri and then looked back to Izumi with an affirmative bark.  

[Sao Kasai]

"H-hi..." She knelt down slightly and held out a hand for the dog-pokemon to sniff. "I-I've never seen the small ones..." They were kind of cute, for a deadly fire breathing beast. Apparently Izumi wasn't too concerned with Gondolin or his being up in a tree.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Well if she wasn't concerned, then Yuri definitely wasn't going to be. So he just stood there with a little smirk on his face as he watched Izumi and Repede get acquainted with each other.

The Growlithe looked down at her hand to sniff it briefly then looked up at her with another woof.

"Repede doesn't usually approach people he doesn't know, so that means he likes you."  

[Sao Kasai]

"Oh." A small smile crept onto the girl's face at that, and she took her hand and very slowly went to give Repede a gentle and tentative pat on the head. "U-um... thank you. Y-you're a, um, very nice growlithe."

Izumi looked up from the blue growlithe to his owner. "I-I'm not sure what I'm going to do about him..." She said, referring to the big blue bird, "I-I wasn't expecting him to be so..." Izumi trailed off and made a quiet whining sound to describe the pokemon.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Repede's tail continued to wag and he woofed a couple more times, accepting the pats to his head.

At Izumi's confession though, Yuri again looked up at the tree where the Pokemon sat. He'd never even seen a Pokemon like that before. Yuri put a hand on his hip and a puff of air left his mouth as did an open mouthed sigh.

"Well I'm no trainer, but I think he needs to be shown who's the boss."

Something he doubted this girl was really capable of. Repede barked his agreement.  

[Sao Kasai]

"O-oh..." Izumi looked very sheepishly at being given that advice. "L-like in a p-pokemon battle?" She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a pokeball and looked very thoughtfully at it.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri rolled his shoulder in a shrug.

"I dunno, but I guess it couldn't hurt to try."

He really wasn't a trainer, and hadn't really witnessed many of those battles between trainers either. Where he came from, there was no league, and very few formal trainers. Pokemon were mostly wild, pets, and work animals.

"Good luck getting it down from the tree, though."  

[Sao Kasai]

"Yeah, thanks..."

Izumi let out a pathetic defeated sigh. Maybe, she thought, it would be better just to let this one go, even though it had been a present from her parents that probably cost them a lot of money... Not an option.

One of Izumi's pokeballs burst open without a button press and a huge white and black Metagross appeared. It looked at the humans with an incredibly disappointed and fed up look.

"O-oh! Glados!"

"Meta..." It whirred irritably. Honestly, some times the metal pokemon thought she would be better off training the team instead of her incredibly timid human.