World Tree MUSH

     With the holidays working to a close, Suiren is trying to make the most of her remaining free time. She's been studying and working with her Pokemon in her time off, and it's starting to pay off. Today she plans on doing a little more training with her Pokemon, see if she can help them learn some new things, and then relax a bit and do some riding around the ocean, perhaps some fishing too. First stop is the Pokemon Center, to make sure she's stocked up on Pokeballs and potions. After paying at the counter, she moves to one of the cusioned seats to check to make sure she didn't forget anything. Iona is out of her Pokeball, and hops up onto the next seat over, peeking into the bag. Suiren smiles and gives her a pat. "I think we're set, you ready to hit the beach?" Iona nods and claps her flippers together.

    Being curious about these Pokemon things she's seen several times now, Athena finally found a nice and easy route through the Vines to check out one of the source worlds. The Pokemon Center was pretty fascinating, and while her ability to assess technology worked very well on most of it, the storage units were just alien enough that, while Athena could tell what they were and roughly how they worked, they were still extremely bizarre to her.

    Seeing a young girl with a pokemon is an opportunity! The young woman watches for a moment, then hmns, "I can never figure out if these creatures are pets, partners, or something else."

     Suiren pulls a bottle of pinap juice, and a paper bag from her pack, then zips it up, taking a few sips of her drink before reaching into the paper bag and pulling out a big malasada for herself, and a smaller one which she offers to Iona, which the Popplio happily begins to eat from her hand. Hearing a voice, they both turn to look toward Athena, Suiren greeting with a smile while Iona just watches curiously while continuing to eat. 

    "Well, really they can be all of the above. Some people do keep Pokemon just as pets and never battle with them, some train them to help them with their job, from Police work, to fire fighting, to farming, and more. Myself, I do enjoy doing Pokemon Battles and seeing my Pokemon grow stronger and learn new abilities, but I like exploring and seeing new Pokemon even more. One day I want to go to the depths of the oceans and see what Pokemon are down there for myself, learn about them, maybe make some of them into new partners. There are also some Pokemon that prefer to be on their own, staying wild. There are some other exceptions too."

    "Like a robotic helper force, but biological," Athena mumbles to herself, rubbing chin. A little chirp comes from the small 'box' on her shoulder, the drone she keeps with her, but otherwise she's dressed pretty normally. Not in battle armor or anything! "So they're basically just a lifeform unique to here, with lots of variation... and you're more of an explorer. I see. I can't say I'm particularly good with creatures, but I've seen these in action and they're pretty interesting. What do you call this one?"

     Suiren never heard anyone compare Pokemon to robots before, but some of the steel-types actually are kind of like robots, one she read about in a history book actually might be a sort of living robot even if the legends about it are true. She nods at the unique life form statement, they certainly are, and smiles at the question about her Pokemon. "I've named her Iona, but she's a Popplio, a water type native to the Alola region here, though pretty rare. Surprised I just sort of found her getting bullied by some thugs from Team Skull, but thankfully I was able to nurse her back to health. She's warmed up to me nicely, and is starting to trust other people again, sometimes at least..."

    Team Skull. Athena doesn't know who that is, but she can gather from context that they're some kind of faction or gang. With a name like Skull... but anyway, she's more interested in the pokemon, Iona. "Well, hello there," she offers, but doesn't lean in or extend a hand, not if the pokemon in question is an abuse victim. "Nice of you to do that. You just wander the Tree or the local region? I can't imagine every world has pokemon, I've only seen them a few times."

     Iona looks at Athena as she says hello, and Suiren gently rubs around her ears. "Can you say hi to the nice girl?" Iona nods and lets out a happy sounding cry which sounds much like a sea-lion bark, but also sounds like of like she's saying 'pop, pop!'. Suiren smiles and looks back to Athena. "I'm Suiren by the way, I live here on Melemele Island. I've started to travel around the Alola Region here, and have been to a few other worlds, and I do want to see the other regions on this world at some point too, there's lots of Pokemon that you'd never see here in Alola that I'd like to meet!"

    Athena isn't exactly 'good with kids' but she can chuckle at this. Though, Suiren seems to have a childlike joviality with a more mature outlook on life than most her age, which might help. "I'm Athena, I... well, I'm from a long way away. It's complicated. I'm just visiting after running into a few of these pokemon elsewhere, like I said." She straightens up and smiles to Iona. "Nice to meet you, too. This here is Little Owl. He can't really speak but he's intelligent." The drone on her shoulder lifts up, making a series of beeps and whistles, hovering with small propellers.

     Iona turns from Athena to Little Owl as Athena introduces the drone, tilting her head at the beeping and whistling. She claps her flippers again and lets out another cry. Suiren continues to smile and lets out a bit of a chuckle herself. "I think Iona likes you and Little Owl. We were planning on heading down to the beach for some training if you'd like to come along." Iona seems more ready to play however, as she makes a basketball-size water bubble and bounces it toward Athena.

    Let it not be said Athena is all work and no play, as she eyes the bubble and lightly tries to 'catch' it, not sure how water will interact with her when shaped like that. "I could watch that. I don't need to be anywhere, and maybe Little Owl could give you something to work against. He's not as fragile as he looks... but no lasers," she eyes the drone. "He's a little iffy about flesh and blood creatures, I have to tell him to be careful. Most drones aren't as smart as he is, though."

     The bubble is relativly elastic and durable, almost like a water balloon, it won't pop unless Athena is rough with it. "Iona and I have been practicing with those balloons, she can make them bigger than that, but we're working towards being able to make them big enough for a person to fit inside." She offers as she stands up, puts on her pack, and picks up Iona, holding her in her arms as she begins heading for the door. "Sure, having Iona practice against something from another world would probably be good experience. How strong are Little Owl's lasers?" Suiren asks with a curious tone. Iona has gotten significantly stronger since they met, but still, being a young unevolved Pokemon it didn't hurt to be careful when sparring with others, she had to agree.

    "Strong enough to be used in combat, but-" Little Owl interrupts Athena with a flat note, and she laughs, "Okay, I think he's telling me he's not so dumb he'd use them full power. It'll just tickle." She lightly plays with the ball, then gently tosses it back before turning to follow. "He's more of a recon drone than a battle drone, so at full power it will hurt but he doesn't have enough juice to do that more than a few times without recharging."

     Suiren nods. "Oh, that should be fine then, Iona has been getting stronger as we've been training, but she's still an unevolved Pokemon with a lot of growing left to do. Little Owl doesn't really need to hold back to the point where they'd only tickle a little, probably good to avoid having to bring Iona back to the Pokemon Center or Little Owl somewhere for repairs. Though assuming he's decently water resistant, I'm not sure how effective Iona's battle moves will be honestly." She offers with a shrug as she heads down the path from the Pokemon Center to a nearby beach which convinenently has a Pokemon Battle Arena marked off to the right of the path. She makes her way down to the water and lets out her Lapras so he can get some fresh air, a little excercise, and watch if he likes.

    The reborn goddess just chuckles, patting the drone making an indignant beep. "Yes, he's waterproof," Athena assures. "But water can mess with his fans. He doesn't need them to float, but it'll be interesting seeing him try to adapt to the reduced finesse." Which is the point. Training. "I'm not actually sure how much he can learn... he's not fully self-learning but I think he's getting more complex."

     Suiren nods again as she heads over to the marked battle spot, standing on one side as Iona moves to take her spot within the square on Suiren's side of the field. She's not going to pretend to understand how Little Owl's learning might work, but training is training she guesses. "Iona has a couple of physical moves too that we're working on, just so she's got options if an opponent gets too close. Since you're the guest here, I'll let you decide on making the first move or not."

    Athena clucks her tongue and stands back. "Owl isn't meant to be engaging, so it'd be better for him to try to dodge the first attack." She lets the drone beep and trill, then scoot over to hover over the designated spot, unsteadily at first but firming up and then turning on a series of blue 'running lights' to indicate he's ready. Now he's just darting about, trying to present a difficult target.

     Suiren smiles. "Alright, that's fine." She says calmly and gives Athena and Little Owl a moment to get ready, then when the lights come on and he starts darting around, she turns to Iona. First, they would attempt to slow him down some. "Alright, use Bubblebeam." The shy yet playful Popplio of a few moments ago was gone, Iona had her game face on now. She nods as Suiren orders an attack and moves forward a bit as she shoots a forceful stream of blue bubbles towards Little Owl, if they hit, some bubbles burst with a bang, some cling to the surface they strike.

    That stream of bubbles does... NOT hit! Little Owl is great at dodging! Well, so it would seem, but the sudden jink to the side and dive, while very effective, isn't designed for use against a stream of bubbles like that. A few do cling to the drone's surface, not enough to inhibit mobility yet... but that doesn't matter, because such a flashy and overcompensated dodge is as bad as it is good, and the spattering of bright flashes from the drone's laser are WAY off. Athena sighs, "No... Owl, you have to be willing to risk getting hit if you want to actually fight back." She smiles apologetically at how her drone seems to... be missing the point of this.

     Iona was expecting an attack back from Little Owl, she'd been in enough battles to understand how this works, but Little Owl's aim is so spoiled by its attempt to dodge that she doesn't even have to move to avoid getting hit. Suiren takes the opportunity to press the attack. "Iona, get closer and use Water Gun!" Iona nods, ambling along with her flippers, then suddenly leaps into the air and quickly takes aim, then fires a powerful blast of water that seems to come from in front of her nose.

    "How odd," Athena murmurs, watching Iona's attacks and how they work. Which is, to her, basically magic. Not that she doesn't believe in magic, it's just odd seeing it here! This time, Little Owl dodges a bit 'better' and doesn't move quite so far, but again the quick but longer beam that slices through sand isn't going to hit. Only this time, it's because the fragile drone was clipped by the water gun, and sent into a spin. To Owl's credit, he recovers swiftly and hovers, now taking this battle seriously since, well... he's kind of getting his metaphorical butt kicked and needs to shape up if he's going to land a hit at all.

     Well, it wasn't a direct hit but it was better than completely missing, and at least Little Owl missed again too. "Little Owl is fast, he can certainly fly circles around Popplio on land, though we might be able to do something about that." She says with a smirk, then calls out. "Iona, Aquajet!" Iona nods and creates a stream of water that spirals around her, enveloping her, then suddenly propelling her forward like a rocket, a rocket that is aimed to slam into Little Owl as Iona braces for the coming impact.

    That's a solid idea, Athena realizes... though if Iona misses, that would put her in a bad positin. Unfortunately for Little Owl, this is when he decided to stand his ground(in a sense) and fires off a spattering of a half dozen blasts! It's more meant to deal with someone dodging, so it's probably going to hit, but they're all kind of weak hits... while Little Owl proves more durable than he looks, since Iona slams into him and he doesn't fly to pieces. He is comically tumbled backward, end over end, and when righting one turbine is whining plaintively, requiring him to cut back on the second one's power.

     "Nice going Iona, that was awesome!" Suiren praises the Popplio. As one of Little Owl's turbines is worryingly making more noise now, she looks to Athena a moment, but since she doesn't seem to be backing out of the battle she assumes it's ok to continue. Turning back to Iona, she calls out to keep on the offensive. "That may have slowed him down some, see if you can hit him again!" Iona nods still focused on Little Owl. She takes in a deep breath, and this time, instead of water, a powerful gust of freezing cold air mixed with ice and snow is blasted toward Little Owl. Suiren blinks in surprise, as this is the first time she's seen Iona use Icy Wind, but after a moment, she grins. "I can't believe you learned Icy Wind on your own... well, actually I bet you've been playing around and learning from Kaiko haven't you."

    Laughing, "I guess your pokemon learn from one another?" Athena doesn't seem worried about Little Owl either... the drone is woozy, but straightens up despite the damage, but it does make him slower. He lets out a series of frantic beeps as he lines up a shot, and this tie is making a nice bolt that should actually sting little. He also cuts the turbines in an attempt to dodge which is, thanks to his slower reactions, only partly successful. The wind clips one side, frosting over the turbine and causing it to stall. This doesn't make the drone fall, but it does send Owl spinning off to the side until he can recover.

     Suiren smiles and laughs a little. "I guess it's probably easier to learn a new move from another Pokemon that already knows it, than for me to try and train her in the right direction for it myself. Many Pokemon can understand some human speech even if they themselves can't talk back, talking to another Pokemon on the other hand, even different species, happens a lot." While Suiren is talking, Iona takes the initiative and moves in closer, then finally leaps into the air and aims to pound Little Owl with her flippers. She's gotten so used to not having to dodge those lasers that she's gotten a little overconfident, and takes a beam right to her belly. She winces in pain, letting out a cry, and her pound is rendered a bit less forceful than it would have been.

    Suiren isn't the only one wincing, because Athena does too, when the pound, while not fully on the mark, connects. Little Owl is just not as mobile as he usually is, with one turbine frozen up and the other damaged. It smacks him firmly, and he actually hits the ground, bounces, then rights himself to do a quick 'slice' with the laser across where Iona was a moment ago. A whining comes from the turbine, as Owl lifts up and the frozen one restarts...

    "Okay, stop!" Athena calls out. "Iona wins this one, Owl, sorry. I know you think you can still fight, but you've gotten grit in your turbines and if you keep pushing them like this, they'll either grind in some damage or maybe even catch fire." She grins, "It's given me some good data though, for if I want Owl to get into any other fights."

     Suiren nods, and Iona stands down, accepting that the friendly battle is over as she walks back over to Suiren's side to receive some ear scritches. "You did good Iona, you're starting to get better at hitting moving targets, which is not an easy thing to master." She offers her praise before turning back to Athena and Little Owl. "That was a good battle. Anything we can do to help get the sand out of Little Owl's turbines? Don't suppose a gentle rinse would do it?" She asks with hopeful curiosity.

    Athena hmms, "Actually it might. I'll be giving him a full checkup when we get back, but something to clean him off would be nice." The drone beeps, and Athena tsks. "No, don't be like that, say thanks." To which Little Owl makes a more pleasant-sounding warble.

     Suiren smiles and nods. "Then leave it to us!" She says as she turns back to Iona. "Ok Iona, I want you to help Little Owl by giving him a cleaning rinse, just, be gentle ok?" Iona nods, getting an idea of her own. She mixes Bubble Beam and Water Gun, the gentle stream of bubbly water washing over Little Owl, with the bubbles working kind of like soap suds, working out the grit so that the water can wash it away. Suiren blinks a bit as she watches. "Huh, that was a really smart idea Iona, great job!" She praises and gives the Popplio a pat on the head, then looks to Athena and Little Owl to see how well that little wash may have helped. "So um, what do you want to do now? We could go for a relaxing ocean ride on my Lapras Kaiko, go for a walk through a nice meadow I know of near here, or head back to my place."

    The drone wiggles some in midair, as if tickled, then whistles and alights on Athena's shoulder as Suiren asks what to do. "I think we can end this with a little walk, that should be a nice winding down, don't you think? Oh, and thank you Iona for the friendly duel. This helps a lot, and I hope you got some practice even if Owl's a little shaky in actual fighting still."

     "Sure, glad we could help. It was fun, and Iona did get a little bit of practice yes, this is her first time trying to fight a flying opponent, so that was good." Suirne offers with a smile, then takes Kaiko's Pokeball in her hand, pressing the button as she aims it at her Lapras. "Kaiko return!" She calls as a red beam is emitted from the Pokeball, striking Kaiko and suddenly he seemes to be turned into a red energy that gets sucked into the Pokeball, which she clips back onto the rope belt around her waist. Iona stays out, as she scoops the Popplio up into her arms as she begins walking off the beach and onto a path. 

     Before long they are entering a field of flowers surrouinded by trees and rocky cliffs beyond that. There are several Pokemon to be seen, fom Caterpie and Butterfree, to Petilil, which looks like a flower bud, and some bumblebee-like Pokemon called Cutiefly buzzing around. There are also some of the sprite-like Flabebe clinging to some of the flowers, though they're pretty hard to see unless you're really looking for them. Suiren smiles as she steps out into the flowery meadow. "Welcome to Melemele Meadow!"

    "That matter-energy conversion is amazingly advanced considering the rest of the technology here." She pauses, "Which isn't primitive, it's just a little anachronistic I suppose. It's one of the technologies I am having a little trouble understanding." She doubts the young girl wants to listen to her ramble about such things though, so she falls in to a walk beside Suiren, taking in the sights.

    Athena is more of a war goddess than one of beauty, but she can still remark, "It's rather pretty. Such places are hard to find out in the wild on my world, now. We have them, but they're been carefully sculpted, not grown naturally."

     Suiren nods. "It is pretty amazing, Pokeballs have even been around for quite a while too, though there have been advancements made in to make them work better. They're made by a company called Silph Co., though it's not all they make, they invent and manufacture all kinds of different tools and technology related to Pokemon." She explains, then takes a moment to look around the meadow herself. "I like it here, it's nice and peaceful most of the time, I come here when I want to relax and just enjoy the peaceful Pokemon and nice smelling flowers." Iona takes to laying in a bed of flowers, seems she likes the smell too.

    "Mmm..." Athena considers the place, and lets Little Owl take off again, to buzz around and explore. "I don't have the time to sit down and relax much lately. But I am partly a goddess of war, so I'd be betraying my principles if I just lounged around too much. But I'm also human, so I think a little break is nice. Ares can hold the fort without me for the evening."

     Suiren watches with a smile as Little Owl buzzes around the meadow, but quickly turns back to Athena at the mention of being a goddess of war, her mouth hanging open a little. "A real goddess? Wow, I never expected I'd meet someone like you, but I guess the vines are full of surprises. Really though, everyone should take it easy once in a while, well maybe if your a goddess you can get away with it without burning yourself out or falling over from lack of rest, but still sounds like an awfully demanding way to live." She says as she sits down and watches while Iona and a wild Caterpie play, the pair crawling around among the flowers.

    Athena lifts an eyebrow. "Yes, well... a real goddess, but probably not what you're thinking when you think of a goddess. Or maybe I am, I don't know what you think one is supposed to be." She laughs, "You're right though! I've met some gods and goddesses from other worlds that are just strange to me, so I guess there's all kinds in the Tree, huh?" She does take a seat though. "And like I said... the body is human, I need rest more than I used to. I think I will take a little while to just watch."

     Suiren thinks a moment, then nods. "Right, you did say you had the body of a human, so I guess that would make you different from the sorts of gods that are like, all powerful beings. Of course, here there are even some legendary Pokemon that could be considered god-like if the legends about them are true." She says with a shrug, she's only read about them in books so that's all she's got. "Anyway, I'm glad we got to meet, if you ever want to come visit, feel free. Maybe next time we can go fishing or something, it'd be fun, you might even catch a Pokemon!"

    Athena smiles, "I'd like that, it could be fun, and I am curious about them. It would be interesting to try even if we don't succeed." Not that she thinks she'll fail... after all, being a Greek God does involve some level of, ahem, vanity. "It was good to meet you, and see some of these pokemon in less stressful moments. I'll be sure to visit."

     Suiren grins. "Well, if you're curious, I'm happy to try and answer any questions you might have about Pokemon, so feel free to hit me with any questions you've got, if you'd prefer to think about it and ask me next time we meet, that's fine too." She offers with a nod. Iona comes back over and climbs into Suiren's lap, and receives some pats and an oran berry that Suiren pulls from her pack.

    "I'll do that," the young woman agrees. "I have a lot of responsibilities back home, but I think I need to explore these other worlds to really understand what's going on. Things have changed a lot since my kind walked the earth." She rises, whistling for Little Owl. "Thank you for the time, Suiren, you're a very considerate and thoughtful young girl. If I could still give blessings I'd give you one. Perhaps next time, I'll have recovered that power." She nods her head. "Fare well."