¤ 37 - Fireball

[honorinflames]

Control of fire comes from within, so... you must master your breath, the energy inside yourself, before you can control flame. So, let's try a breathing exercise. A slow breath in like this--[the appropriate pause here]--aaand, breathe out...

Chaaaaarrr...

That's good!

[there is some firebending training going on in the park. Though, one of the firebenders can't actually firebend right now, and the other one is a chubby orange lizard. So there's that.]

Okay, let's go through the routine I was showing you yesterday.

Char char!! [and, with that, the lizard excitedly flails around in its own version of what looks vaguely kung-fu... throwing erratic bits of flame around, and accidentally slapping a nearby bush with its fiery tail... which kind of catches the shrub on fire]

Hey, stop! Don't-- ...Uh-oh.


((ooc: Zuko is still on his dumb happyface loss. Open for the small fire in the park, or just watching a kid try to teach firebending moves to a pokemon))

Comments

[sexyhitchhiker]

[she's walking along, her brat of an Eevee balancing on her shoulder.

And oh, it's you and...]

Ah shit. [looking around for a bucket or something??]

[honorinflames]

[are there buckets in parks??]

Uhh... [taking off his jacket to try and use it to snuff out the flames!]

[sexyhitchhiker]

[uhhh. Probably not.

And she goes to stomp on any of the flames that manage to get on the ground. Geez, Zuko.]

[honorinflames]

[after a minute or two of work, it seems like the flames are out. Just ignore the little bits of smoke, and the scorch marks marring a big section of that poor shrub.

...and then there's his jacket, which is now looking a little worse for wear]

...Oops.

[sexyhitchhiker]

Maybe you should try this somewhere less flammable.

[and her Eevee gives a condescending sort of chirrup]

[honorinflames]

[shut up, eevee. no one asked you.]

I thought the park would be relaxing...

[sexyhitchhiker]

It usually is, when you're not setting fire to things.

[man, this doesn't look good. He still sounds kinda happy.]

[honorinflames]

I guess I keep forgetting that I can't bend here.

[he glances back to his Charmander, who is looking pretty self-conscious by this point]

Don't worry, though. Next time we'll just remember to bring a bucket of water.

[...yep. still happy.]

[sexyhitchhiker]

[j-just roll with it. She suppresses a twitch and kneels to hold a hand up to the Charmander to sniff.]

Who's this little guy? [...Eevee glares daggers at the Charmander.]

[honorinflames]

[Charmander cautiously sniffs Natsuki's hand... but then when it catches that look from the Eevee, it automatically falls into what seems suspiciously like something that is supposed to be a defensive martial arts stance]

I think he's a baby dragon.

[sexyhitchhiker]

[she blinks, recognizing the intent of that sorta stance, but when she glances at the Eevee, all she finds is a happy Eevee chirruping at her.

...Well then. She digs out the Pokedex, holding it up to the Charmander.]

Charmander: The fire on the tip of its tail is a measure of its life. If healthy, its tail burns intensely.

[honorinflames]

[ha, he pets the Charmander's head] See? I told you the fire comes from inside you. That's why controlling that energy is so important. Get it?

Char...

[and then back to Natsuki] What is that thing?

[sexyhitchhiker]

[man, he's so nice to the Charmander. Maybe it's a good thing he's not normal at the moment. He'd probably be yelling at the baby pokemon.]

She's an Eevee. I haven't figured out a name for her yet, though.

Eevee! [and she daintily licks a paw]

[honorinflames]

[yep. yelling at, or leaving it with someone else to take care of]

Oh... [looking back at the Charmander] I haven't named him either.

[sexyhitchhiker]

I figured calling her Eevee would be like naming my dog 'Dog.'

[honorinflames]

Oh... I guess so.

[derp. looking at the charmander.]

What would you name something like this, though?

Action!

[direwolfbastard]

[Have young man and his fire-breathing puppy dog watching from a distance, curious about the exercises they're doing. Jon knows that Ghost can breathe fire, but Ghost himself has been having trouble getting used to the idea. They stride forward together, curious. Zuko is free to note the similarity of their scars, though Jon's is under his right eye, it has much the same aesthetic effect as Zuko's.]

You seem to have some knowledge of how this works. Perhaps you could help me teach Ghost how to master his abilities?

[honorinflames]

[glancing over from where he's running through the routine with his drastically failing charmander]

Oh... I could try, anyway.

[direwolfbastard]

[Jon nods.]

I appreciate it. I trained Ghost myself from the time he was a pup, but I've never had to teach him how to control fire, so I'm at something of a loss. I believe he's called a....Growlithe? Normally he's a direwolf, but when we boarded the vessel that rescued us, he was transformed into this.

[Ghost strides forward to sniff at Zuko and his Charmander, looking like the least threatening thing on four legs.]

[shepherdsveritas]

[Connor rushes over, stomping out the flames. His Teddiursa follows along behind, watching curiously]

Whoa! Careful, there. Don't wanna burn th'place down, do we? {He laughs, smiling at Zuko]

[honorinflames]

[the Charmander automatically falls into a mockery of a martial arts stance when it sees the Teddiursa, while Zuko helps put out the last of the flames with his jacket]

Yeah... guess he's still learning how to control his abilities.

[a smile that is actually pretty darn uncharacteristic of him! yay, losses]

Thanks for the help.

[shepherdsveritas]

[The Teddiursa cocks his head at the Charmander, sucking on his paw. What're you doing, bro?] Ursa?

Yer welcome. 'm Connor [he holds out a hand with a smile]

Some place, aye?

[honorinflames]

I'm Zuko.

[this loss is filling him with all the good will in the world, so... he shakes the guy's hand]

Yeah. It's a lot nicer than some of the other places we've been, I think.

[shepherdsveritas]

's a pleasure.

[He looks around] Aye? 's th'first time th'place's changed since I got 'ere. I heard 'bout Paris. What else's it been?

[honorinflames]

Well, there were pirate ships. ...And, before that, we were all put into a school together.

[neither of which were much fun, judging by his expression]

[shepherdsveritas]

[He just stares for a moment]

Fuckin' pirate ships? I don't know which's worse, that're school.

[honorinflames]

They were both pretty bad.

[but his momentary irritated look fades back to optimism pretty quickly]

Maybe it's shaping up now though, and is done with sending us on terrible trips.

[shepherdsveritas]

We can hope... Though some've th'shite in th'castle's bad 'nuff. I got bit by a fuckin' dragon if y'can believe that.

[honorinflames]

[he'd heard before that there were living dragons here, but... yeah, no it's still weird]

Really?

[shepherdsveritas]

Aye! Damn near lit me on fire 'cause it was sneezin'.

[stalkershiki]

Wait... is that how you teach your Pokemon to do things? I always thought that they just kind of... learned new things as they got older!

[honorinflames]

I heard you had to train them. And this is how I learned, so...

[stalkershiki]

Oh... but does that mean that you can train them in anything? I mean, I knew that they could learn things, but I didn't know it could be anything super useful in day to day situations or anything!

[honorinflames]

They seem pretty smart... he does all the things I tell him to.

I'm sure they can learn anything they put their minds to.

[oh, watch out for the loss-induced optimism!]

[stalkershiki]

[But loss-induced optimism is the best kind of optimism!]

You know, I think you're right! They're totally amazing creatures, after all!

[honorinflames]

They are pretty amazing, huh?

[and the Charmander, who definitely appreciates loss-induced optimism, gets a head-scratch] Charrrr!

[stalkershiki]

Oh, absolutely! Hey, does he have a name? Or... wait, is yours a he? I didn't mean to assume or anything!

[honorinflames]

I think it's a boy...

[assumes it's a boy]

But... I didn't name him yet.

[stalkershiki]

Well, hey, that's okay! I mean, you don't want to give him the wrong name or anything!

[honorinflames]

...I'm not very good at naming things.

[stalkershiki]

Hey, don't worry about it! It's not super hard or anything! Um... people usually name things after people that they know, I've seen some people name things after characters... and then sometimes you just kinda... know the right name, you know? Like, they just are a certain name!

[honorinflames]

After people they know...?

[a pause while he looks at his Charmander for a while. There really weren't many people that he considered friends, and he certainly couldn't call the thing 'Iroh.' In all honestly, the only person that the little fire-breather reminded him of was himself.]

I don't know.

[stalkershiki]

That's alright! I mean, the only reason my Annaliese has her name is because she was kind of... given to me? I've been with her since before this, and the person who was with her before gave her that name, so it's just... her name. But if it were me, I still wouldn't have decided on anything yet! So I'm sure you'll come up with something!