[FIN] Training Difficulties

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera stood on the southern outskirts of Camphoreon, in a field off the side of the road, her hands on her hips as her pokemon were out and battling. She still wasn't very good at this whole thing, but she at least had taken Luke's advice and had paired them up against each other to fight. So far only Isabella was doing well - Luna wasn't inclined to battle at all and Tact was just being pathetic and himself. Which was pathetic anyway.

The brunette folded her arms across her chest as she frowned at them, really sort of unsure what to do. Did she have to tell all of them what to do? Her Absol seemed to be fine thinking for herself, as did Luna, but Mordecai looked to be a little lost, as did Tact. But then again, that was normal for Tact anyway. Ugh, this was difficult and hard and stupid and just... stupid.  

[Blood_Goddess]

This was a popular training spot, or at least it usually was. but either becasue of the weather, or because of the time of day, there weren't many trainers around when Rayan had showed up.

She had stepped in the snow, half lidded eyes scanning the empty field with a dull exasperation.
She felt the heavy body of a large red and white snake pull his hefty body up next to hers, his higher up head glancing out over the field as well.

"Kind of a let down this time. Sorry 'Stripe" The tall wiry women shrugged, lifting a hand up to pat the side of her pokemon's neck.

She was about to turn around and leave, when a flash of some movement caught the corner of her eye.
peering up over her hood she turned, narrowing her eyes to get a better look before a wide smirk spread over her lips.
So... It looked like this wasn't a complete waist of time at least.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She stopped at a safe distance from the trainer and her pokemon, enough to see what they were doing, but not be terribly noticed or in the way.
reaching a hand up to pull the hood of her jacket back, sweeping the long side of her hair out of the way as well as she watched, for a good five minuets at least. her eyes moving mostly from the Absol... something interesting about the coloration... and the trainer.

"Well well," Rayan called with a hearty laugh "You sure have the "money" look for your team down. well done."
she lid herself down a light hill on the field, grinning at Seraphine, as Double Stripe slithered up behind its new trainer. large green eyes on the new girl.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The brunette failed to notice the other woman's presence until she spoke, and it made her jump slightly before she turned in surprise, though a look of vague annoyance passed over her face. Oh yeah, it was that weird woman from before. Way, waaayyy before. What was her name again? "Huh?" Oh, wait, she was talking. "Oh, yeah," the girl said as she turned back to her team with a soft frown, not speaking again right away because she was too busy thinking of when she'd had money. Ugh, she wished she still had money...

Isabella ignored the new distraction in favor of continuing her battle - Jacques did not, however, and paid for his inattention by being tackled hard from the side. He tried to slash at the Absol in retaliation, but she had already jumped away again. The two, but mostly the Absol, were the only ones who appeared to be doing well in their training. While Giselle probably would do fairly well, she was still busy with her post of being look-out for any potential threats to her mistress.

Sera glanced at the woman again. "What're you doing here?" It was less a question of curiosity and more in the tone of 'why are you intruding on my personal space while I'm busy.'  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Hey hey now" Ray said in a friendly tone, holding her hands up as she continued to walk forward, though her gaze soon slid away, watching the continuing battle instead with a calculating curiosity.
"Its not a strange thing for trainers to bump into one another while out in the field you know. in fact, its part of the experience." Her palms turned up in a little shrug before they shoved back into her pockets.

"And speaking of training little miss, I can see you're doing it, on your own, you." While she might have come off as a little sarcastic, she mostly just sounded pleasantly surprised, her eyes drifting away from the pokemon and over to Sera, grinning.

"Pretty hard work, but it looks like you've got yourself a couple of spitfires there."
She looked around at some of the others lingering around, noting there disinterest.

Double Stripe shifted his large body again, his head bobbing to the side while the rest of him followed, slithering around to the other side or Rayan, who turned to grin at him.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I guess," Sera finally admitted sullenly, folding her arms over her chest and leaning her weight on one hip. "I just felt like training them more or something." Her tone was defensive, and she didn't care to tell this woman at all of the reasons why she was training more - or at least, trying to train more.

Spitfires, hm? "What do you mean?" She asked, brows furrowed slightly though she kept her eyes on her own Pokemon, who were still attempting to battle. Tact had essentially given up, while Mordecai hovered in acute uncertainty. Isabella continued to attempt to kick Jacques's a**.  

[Blood_Goddess]

The defensive tone drew a smirk from the trainer, but no comment. Rayan's attention continued to linger on the pokemon that were training.

"Well, from the looks of it, you've only got two pokemon who have their heart in the fight. The Absol is a no wonder really." She fell silent for a couple more seconds, seeing Double Stripe appear at the corner of her eye as he leaned in to look at the battle as well
"That's a nice coat its got, Its an impressive imitation Shiny tint. If I hadn't gotten a closer look at it i would have thought it was a legit."
But now that she was closer, she could tell it lacked that actual shiny quality to her fur, the kind that the real, rare Shiny pokemon have.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeahh," the brunette agreed half-heartedly. It was starting to be rather obvious that Isabella was doing very well. She even appeared to be enjoying herself. Ray's next words, however, made the girl go completely rigid and she bristled immediately. "What do you mean imitation? I don't have imitation anything," she said with a fierce glare. Her parents had said Isabella was a shiny. The person who sold her to them said she was a shiny. Her parents hadn't been stingy then, they would've bought only the best for her. A shiny. Who was this woman to walk in and tell her that Isabella wasn't a shiny?!  

[Blood_Goddess]

Rayan's notched eyebrow arched, her eyelids still half lidded as she tilted her head enough to look back at the younger trainer, watching her for a few seconds as she put up her defenses at what Rayan said about the Absol.

A slight smirk hinted at the women's lips "Oh, hey well look hun, I'm sorry to break the news to you. but if you thought that your Absol was an actual natural shiny, then someone conned you."
She pulled a hand out of her pocket, gesturing toward the absol "call her on over here."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

If there was one thing that made Seraphine angry, it was being cheated and lied to. Okay, so that was two things. Whatever. Someone had lied to her. She was tempted to think her parents, because of her initial reactions to being told they'd gone bankrupt, but really they'd never lied to her about that. So it must have been the person they bought her from -- he lied to them, and by extension, he lied to her. He'd cheated her parents out of a lot of money because they couldn't tell the difference either, but really, who could?

This woman, apparently.

But could she really? Maybe she was just messing with her. That would piss her off even more, if so.

With one hand on her hip, she extended the other and pointed to the ground immediately in front of her, and spoke in a volume that carried across to all of her pokemon. She did not sound at all pleased. "Isabella. Come here." The tone of voice she used for the curt phrase invoked a similar reaction in all of her pokemon. They all stopped what they were doing to look over at her with anything from curiosity to nervousness in their expressions, but regardless the Absol trotted over obediently and stood where her mistress had indicated, and gazed up at the pair with expectant gold eyes. "Sol?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

Ray put her hands on her hips as she watched the Absol trot her way over to them. Once close enough the tall women knelt down, pressing a knee into the snow that allowed her to get on a more level view of the Absol.

"Mmmhmm" she hummed lightly in confirmation "Most people have never seen a Shiny before so this makes sense. her tint it very close, she's a good fake, but she's still not real." Ray ran a hand over some of the Absol's fur.
"If you've ever seen a real one before, you will notice that their fur will have very distinct shine to it, almost like a glitter affect if you catch it just right."

One mossy eye turned up to peer back at Sera. "Also, if you were wondering where the term "Shiny" came from."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Isabella stood perfectly still as this strange woman knelt down to her level. Her gold eyes flicked briefly to Sera for confirmation that she should indeed refrain from trying to rip this woman's face off - not that Sera had ever trained her to do such a thing, but really, Isabella wasn't inclined to play nice with strangers - and her Mistress's expression, though severely displeased, gave her no indication that she should try to maul this person. The Absol, therefore, focused back on the stranger and waited. The touch to her fur made her tense momentarily, but she allowed it for now.

"I knew where it came from," Sera snapped haughtily. Actually, she'd had no idea and always thought it a stupid term. She remained silent a few moments, however, staring down at Isabella. It wasn't her fault she wasn't a real shiny, but the fact that someone had lied to her parents and took a lot more of their money than they should've paid for a pokemon that wasn't actually a shiny.

She could only contain it so long, however, and she flung her arms up with a loud, frustrated huff of a sigh. "That b*****d! Or bastards. Whoever the ********," she flung an arm out for emphasis, "ripped off my parents. Ugh." Ugh! Ripped them off so hard... They could even have had that money now, if they hadn't paid so much for her. That might've afforded them a little better of a place to live, right? Maybe. Seraphine really had absolutely no idea about prices of pokemon or housing, since her parents took care of affording both.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Rayan could tell the Pokemon wasn't entirely comfortable with being touched, or even being around her while her trainer seemed so upset. Rayan didn't expect them to be the most disciplined pokemon either, but when it came to the dark type she didn't feel, nor show it if she did that she was nervous about the large disaster pokemon.
No reason to show the pokemon that there was any reason to be concerned.

The girl however, didn't seem to be keeping her cool nearly as well. Ray watched with a half lidded amused expression, moving only to push herself back up straight, and shoving her hands into her pockets.
"I would say you still got a hell of a deal out of this one." Ray pointed out. shifting her stance so she could stand more relaxed on her heels.
"I mean, if you gave trainers a choice, between a talented pokemon, or a rare but weak pokemon... well any trainer worth anything will obviously pick the strong one."
Her eye slid back down to the Absol again. "And this one here, she's got potential... IF you know what your doing."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once upon a time, Sera would have taken the rare, weak one over a common strong pokemon. Rarity and looks were what mattered to her then, not strength. She had to wonder now, however, if that was still what she would do. Would she still take a rare pretty one over a strong one? It was a hard question, and she didn't know the answer to that yet. "Well, yeah," she replied finally, though her tone wasn't at all convincing.

The brunette stopped pacing and huffed as she folded her arms over her chest and frowned at the Absol. Isabella merely continued to stand there obediently, watching her trainer. Sera opened her mouth to reply, frowned again, closed it, and huffed again. She didn't know at all what she was doing, honestly.  

[Blood_Goddess]

A sly grin spread over Ray's face at the girl's lack of reply, that was good. she at least knew partly that she wasn't good enough quite yet to know what she was doing.
Ray glanced down at the pokemon, observing the dark creature for a few seconds before looking back up at Sera.

"Alright then, I'll be honest little flower child. A Pokemon like this, would be wasted on someone like you." she held her hands up "Cooommmmpletely and totally waited." She held a finger up, still eyeing the girl with a smile.
"But you have two things going for you right now, if you've even noticed them yet. The first." she pointed to the Absol "This Absol, adores you, and will be as patient with you as you need, and more loyal then you probably even expect. and two" The second finger moved to herself. "Me."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The brunette bristled immediately, looking thoroughly angry at the fact this woman would come over here and tell her she sucked a**. Granted Ray hadn't exactly said such a thing, but in Sera's mind, that's all that mattered. She was thinking it, Sera could tell. "Okay first off, don't ******** call me a little flower child," she snapped angrily. The fact anything would be wasted wasn't even relevant, what did that even mean. "Second, why the hell should I be happy you're here? All you're doing is pointing s**t out and talking down to me." Why would she ever be happy about either of those things.

Isabella merely blinked, glancing back and forth between her mistress and this stranger. She wasn't told to attack yet, but Sera was getting pretty angry... But biting humans was a serious offense, one she wouldn't undertake without being told to do so. Pokemon were another story entirely.