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[Blood_Goddess]

"Anyone who comes to the mountains and crawls around old mines while needing a cane is pretty bad a** in by book." Ray pointed out, lifting a finger up to him "I see you traded up for a sword, I'm sure that guy will think twice next time he tempts you to hit him with something huh?"  

[Suudonym]

"Or just stupidly stubborn," he suggested as an alternative - and a much more applicable alternative, in his own opinion. "Ah, yeah, that's the idea," he rested a hand on the hilt of the thing, though only briefly. "Hopefully if I ever do need to hit someone with it, I'll be able to get away with leaving it in its sheath, at least... But no one else needs to know that, right?" The intimidation factor alone had already worked out well once, and he was fairly certain that it also would have served him well when that woman had decided to attack him.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"There does seem to be a fine line doesn't there." she said, "Bad a**, Stubborn. Innovative, Insane. Constructive, evil. Kind, coward." She put her hands up, Again it all just comes down to perspective doesn't it. Though really, in the end, one can only ask how much are other perspectives really worth."

Crossing her arms, tilting her head as she looked from the sword again and back to Luke, She let out a light chuckle and shook her head.
"Thats one think I'll never get about you kiddies, but I guess I should, If live gives you reason to carry that around, then there you go. I've never seen much need for that, I think."  

[Suudonym]

"If it comes down to perspective," he said, shrugging slightly, "then at that point maybe it's just a little of both." Or, perhaps, a third option that's less easy to name than simple, nearly black and white descriptors.

"I guess pokemon are good for a lot of the same things," he said. "I've been in enough situations that would have gone so much better if I'd had a weapon, though, that it makes me kind of nervous to go anywhere without something. Actually, it makes me kind of nervous retroactively to think that I walked around for three months without anything..." He supposed he probably would have learned that lesson again eventually, though.  

[Blood_Goddess]

A finger tapped on her arm and grinned "Or maybe just how the situation unfolds, You slapped someone with your cripple stick, so your a bad a**, or you just got in the way and made things difficult so you're stupid and stubborn for going." She pointed out. "kind of a fickle thing when you actually think about it huh? I guess sometimes its better to just not to."

"I tell you its those pesky Pokeballs." Ray said, pointing to the belt that Luke wore "I bet you that if you had pokemon out with you more often, people will be a lot less likely to want to mess with you."  

[Suudonym]

"I usually end up going with the more negative interpretation, myself," he replied, laughing slightly despite his sudden self-consciousness. "Or, in the past, at least. I guess being aware of it makes it easier to stop doing it." Not to mention the fact that he felt kind of silly about having done it in the past. Thinking back, it seemed that he had simply been absolutely intent on hating himself regardless of anything.

He looked to the pokeballs as they were indicated and frowned mildly in consideration of the suggestion, "The smaller ones aside, I'm not sure how practical it would be to walk around with an Aggron and a Pidgeot... The intimidation factor might be high, but the convenience would be virtually nonexistent."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"I know you do." She reassured him with a grin to join his laugh. Though it was what he said next that caused an intrigued look to cross the older trainer's face.
"Stop doing it huh? That seems like a kind of self awakening moment there."

"Oh ouch," Ray said with a light flinch, squinting one of her eyes and a sharp breath in hissing through her teeth. "Hold up there Red, and think about what you just said for a second. Essentially that's telling part of your team that they need to stay in their pokeballs because what they are; is inconvenient. And that you value their practicality over their presence. Would you feel comfortable telling that to their face?"
She glanced over to where Double Stripe was lounging over a good portion of the patio.
"I always say it, but I think that's the biggest problem with trainers and pokeballs, if you and your pokemon are part of a team, how is it in anyway healthy for your partnership to think of any part of them as inconvenient or in the way? Going hand in hand with that, how are you supposed to learn to grow, understand, accept and adapt to one another and their environment if you simply stuff them in an easy little ball just because you feel like they're in the way. I mean, come on kid, how would you like it?"

She didn't sound angry, but it was very clear that she had some pretty confident views of this, and chose to try and point out a perspective that might not have been considered before.
Ray herself never carried any pokeballs on her, at least hadn't for the last year. Double Stripe was always around her, a massive snake who was never in a pokeball. She knew that this was of course for a much different reason, but even back when she was allowed to use pokeballs, her pokemon were rarely, if ever actually in them.
The only ball Ray ever had on her now was in fact the dark ball that Luke had given to her with Havoc. And the reason she knew THAT pokemon was usually kept in the ball was during times she couldn't keep an eye on him, and therefore wouldn't be able to trample and kill someone in one of his fits.  

[Suudonym]

He shrugged lightly, "There are a lot of things you can see in yourself when you stop thinking of yourself as 'you.'" He wondered if perhaps that simple shift in perspective made the whole experience worthwhile, though he supposed making that sort of judgment was irrelevant; regardless, it had passed, and if it had left something positive in its wake, then that was good.

Luke raised a pausing hand and shook his head. "I don't mean inconvenient to me," he explained. "Kodo isn't really designed for pokemon, you know? I understand what you mean, but my team and I have been training together for a long time. I know their feelings very well, and I wouldn't force them into pokeballs if they weren't comfortable with it." Granted, for the few months that his connection with his pokemon had been severed, it had been a matter of his own convenience - although if any of the pokemon had been dissatisfied with the treatment, they would have communicated as much. None of them were simply blindly obedient, after all.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Hah- well that's certainly a unique take." She admitted with a chuckle "Not bad though, and hey if thats what works for you." It seemed to, at least from the initial impression.

"Sure it is" she started giving Luke a bit more of a confused look "Seeing as Kodo is sustaining a Pokemon population. I'm going to assume you mean the cities or something and well- I guess I can kind of see your point, not that it should be something that stop you. But hey, I put in my two cents but in the end you know whats best for you and your team, or you learn from experience." She smirked "I guess you'll be getting a lot of that now though, huh? what with being and officer and all. So what have they got you doing now? Any cool bad guy hunting?"  

[Suudonym]

He indeed meant the cities, or most places with a larger population of people than of pokemon, where Tartarus would worry about hurting someone accidentally and Leste had no real choice but to stay in the sky and keep her distance, but in the end it was as she said: He knew his team and their preferences, and he wasn't so naive to think that his methods would be suitable to everyone else - or that anyone else's methods would necessarily be suitable to him.

In response to her shift of topics, he replied with a shake of his head, "Not yet; I don't think they're too eager to throw their newbies to the wolves. For now I'm mostly just dealing with the reports the investigative teams are bringing in. It sort of feels like a waste with how much experience I already have in dealing with hostiles, but I'm guessing they'll give me a shot sooner or later."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Investigative teams huh? Are they bringing back any interesting news lately?"  

[Suudonym]

He hummed briefly in thought. "I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say... There isn't a whole lot that's definite. Team Rocket is undoubtedly still operating within Kodo, but we're not entirely sure to what extent - if there's just a small number of them lingering to keep a foothold in the region or if they set up another headquarters location."  

[Blood_Goddess]

The tall women nodded slowly not seeming terribly surprised by the fact that he couldn't share a whole lot about what was going on, but she listened to what he was saying anyway with an expectant interest.
"Hmmm, seems to be the question on everyone's mind. But still, with the Special opps now stationed in Kodo, maybe we'll see. Yuri seemed to think that Team Rocket's silence means that they're finished, I don't think anyone with an ounce of intelligence would take the Rocket's silence as anything but a hidden and growing threat."  

[Suudonym]

He shook his head emphatically, "Absolutely not. The only thing they lost in the end was a building - not even any significant personnel, let alone anyone resembling a leadership figure. To think that they would just give up from something like that, that's... kind of naive." And kind of surprising to think that it was Yuri who had entertained such a theory. But, come to think of it... "Speaking of Yuri, when was the last time you spoke to him? When Rosie sent out the cancellations, his was returned." He hadn't thought anything of it at the time - because he hadn't known who 'Yuri' was - but he supposed Yuri must have changed addresses and forgotten to mention it, or something similar.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Ray made a gesture toward Luke to emphasize what he said, seemingly grateful that he understood that point as well.
Though as the question of Yuri was brought up, a look of genuine surprise crossed over Ray's face.
"Wait, so he didn't tell you he was going back to Grand Ile?"