[PRP] From Here, It Gets Real

[Blood_Goddess]

Ray had a small place in Sagestone down, she rented it out for when she was here for her job. It wasn't very fancy, but it was large enough for both Ray and Sera to kip. Two rooms, a bathroom, a small kitchen and a living room.

It wasn't located far from where the mining caves were, or the office of her boss, where people signed up for tours and gem hunting.
Sagestone was a rugged place, while its natural resources were good enough to support it, it wasn't exactly a vacation stop, but it was a place of note, giving Ray enough to work with when it came to tours. Though mostly from gem hunters and trainers who had never been in the aria before. Or people who just wanted to see the beautiful formation of the un-mined caverns.

Ray enjoyed the job, it was something to do, places to see. And she liked working with the people and their pokemon.

When she was not being a tour guide however, Ray was dragging Seraphine out to train.
It wasn't their second day there when Ray had come home, only to gather Sera and head back out to the open arias around the town.

"Alright, so. You don't learn unless you are doing. So do you know what we're going to do today?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera had had a pretty decent first day, all things considered, but had spent it mostly sleeping to recover from the journey there when they weren't hanging out with Luke. And Yuri. Though luckily, Sera was able to spend more time with Luke while Ray and Yuri were off being weirdos together.

Except today was a new day, and as soon as Ray returned it was immediately filled with quite a bit of 'do not want.' "No, because you haven't told me yet," Sera retorted with a huff as she crossed her arms. First she expected her to claw trees, now she expected her to be psychic. Crazy weirdo.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Well, I did actually tell you, if you had been listening at all you would know." She smirked "We're going out and battling pokemon! Wild for now, those don't cause as much of a problem as trained ones do."

She crossed her arms "You'll battle, every day, all day, when we don't have pokemon to battle we look for pokemon to battle, and in the meantime we work on survival. There are a few rules and contingencies I should make you aware of now... thought, that I did NOT mention previously..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Yeah right, as if she would bother to listen to Ray about anything. Ugh. But at least this made sense to help her team get stronger, battling pokemon. That made a lot more sense than clawing trees. "Alright, alright," she said as she waved her hands as if to wave away the words and end the conversation, "lots of battling, I get it. What are these 'rules'," she asked, even going so far as to use airquotes when asking.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Well, firstly, I am not stupid, I know you're not paying attention like... ever. SO... from now on I will have a word, just one word that when spoken, something unpleasant will happen to you, unless you catch that word and react quickly enough before it happens that is. for now, I'll leave it a surprise."
Ray explained, crossing her arms and looking down at the younger women.

"You might have noticed, but we don't have much of the way of food in the cupboards, the reason for this is becasue I'm not going to be buying food. So, as part of your training, you will have to learn how to identify edible plans, and with your pokemon help track down and gather, or hunt for Pray.
anything you gather I will then prep for you and we will have dinner. Get nothing and you don't get to eat. Understood?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera rolled her eyes at first and was immediately tempted to not pay attention again, though that decision was cut short at Ray's warning, and her gaze snapped to the tall woman. "What do you mean, something unpleasant?"

...oh. Oh s**t. Wait, so there was something else unpleasant besides hunting and eating s**t they find? Wasn't that like... unsanitary on so many levels? She was joking, right? She had to be joking. Had to be. Except... She didn't look like she was joking. This b***h really was insane. Seriously and truly, she was, if she thought that this was a good idea. What person in their right mind would choose to look around on the ground or hunt s**t when they could just go to a store and buy stuff? Really. Honestly. Sera had no idea what was even going on in this woman's head right now, and such words rendered her temporarily speechless.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"When on the field you will not be allowed to use your phone, or your gear, if I see it out I'm taking it till we're done, push this rule and I'll simply break it." She continued. "But when we are not training you are welcome to it any time, I personally don't care what you do on your time off. Speaking of time off every weekend, you will be given a small allowance, IF you preformed well in your training. along with the weekends off, this will allow you to get a dinner from a restaurant, of you can save it up, I don't care, but your pokemon will continue to be with you at all times, outside their balls."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera's eyebrows rose at Ray's continued explanation. These rules and everything did not sound at all pleasant or even remotely fair. Hell, it bordered on barbarism. Gathering berries and hunting s**t... Did people even do that nowadays? They could just go to the store or something. Ugh. This chick was ridiculous and off her rocker crazy. "Okay first of all, you are crazy as s**t, saying we have to basically live like cave people who hunt and gather food and s**t," she said as she threw her arms up, "and really? I can't use my own things? You can't take my stuff. It's mine."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Barbaric?" Ray laughed, watching Seraphine get upset. "Its basic survival, and its something trainers should know. This generations getting lax, sometimes you get lost and you need to know what to eat, and how to find it." She pointed out "I'm sorry, you're not going to find a fast food place in the middle of the forest."

She just continued to smile "I can, and I will. If you push me. I told you this is going to be when the fun stops, this is going to get serious and I'm getting serious. If you don't like it, go home. If you doubt that I don't know what I'm doing, then go home. If you're not going to at least put a little effort into the things that I can teach you, then I am not going to waist what free time i have off with you, and you can go home. otherwise, shut up and start taking this seriously, becasue we;re not playing around."

Go home, that would prove tricky, another two day walk, alone, or paying for a ride home, with what money?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yes that," Sera said with a glare. Ugh, this was ridiculous, it was dumb, it was crazy, it was just plain stupid.

But even so, Ray had a point - if she didn't like it, she could go home. Except... She wasn't quite sure she could get herself home from there easily. Certainly couldn't walk so soon - she was still sore as all hell from the journey there just the other day - and while riding Luna would greatly shorten the time needed to travel such a distance, she knew that the Rapidash wasn't at all used to traveling such long distances. They certainly would have to get up incredibly early again, and even if they traveled all day, they probably wouldn't make it back to Camphoreon before nightfall.

That was a much bigger motivating factor - all these reasons why she would be physically incapable of going home immediately - than whatever Ray was telling her.

That, and if she came back so soon, she knew Rosie would immediately question why and Sera had no intention of disappointing her friend.

"Fine," the brunette spat grudgingly, her arms folded over her chest as a dark glare settled over her features. "I'll play along for now, and we'll see how this goes." Though she honestly had very little faith that this would end well at all. Practically none, actually. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if they could just have proper food, but nooo. Ugh. Crazy b***h.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Oh no no no, there is no 'lets see'." Ray continued arching an eyebrow "I told you before we even left that this was serious, and clearly you didn't take what I said seriously. I have my own pokemon to be focusing on, more importantly this volatile gem of a monster" She reached up to tap the dark ball on her shoulder.
"If you want to train with me, then you are going to go all the way, if you're going to cop out the moment things get uncomfortable, then get out of my face right now. becasue let me promise you something. It is going to get SO uncomfortable, you don't go from being bottom of the barrel like you are to someone who can stand up against the worse that the pokemon world has to offer you by taking things easy, you do them by working hard, there is no way to get around the suffering."

Ray looked relatively calm and she explained this, but her tone was certainly not playing around.
"Now explain your situation back to me, and make your choice. Do you WANT to get better, or do you NOT want to get better?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Alright, fine!" Seraphine threw her hands up again. "I want to get better, so I will stay here." Stay with all her obvious craziness, stay here with all this s**t, stay here with all of this ridiculous bullshit that she didn't even know if she could handle. Yes, of course - best idea.  

[Blood_Goddess]

She arched an eyebrow, but otherwise seemed pleased with her choice, despite how upset the girl seemed to react.
Ray's attention then moved down to Isabella and Jacques, addressing them, "And what about you two?" she asked "Are you going to be giving this your all?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

If Sera was in it, Isabella was too, and she didn't need to look for any form of approval from her trainer before she offered Ray a resolute, "Sol."

Jacques, on the other hand, merely waved a hand at her from his place sprawled in the grass with a vague sort of gesture that really could've gone either way.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Ray smirked then nodded "Good" She stated, then with her arms crossing over her chest she started forward, passing the pokemon and their trainer "Follow me now kids, we are now starting your training!"

Leading the way, making sure the others were keeping up, Ray lead them through the outside of the town, and toward the path that would eventually take them into a forest.

"Now, I know you havn't done it often, but you've battled before, so you know all those fancy little basics hum? And by now you know your own pokemon's abilities and attacks... I hoooope."