Spa n' Chill [Open]

Elysia Falls was the perfect spot to train as a Martial Artist. That is, if you had seen one too many Wuxia Flicks and were completely off your gourd. Meditating under a waterfall wasn't any easier now than it had been the first time he had first done it weeks back, but at least now, he had company.

Mienfoo was just about the only Martial Artist he truly thought of as his student, and the only one in who's growth he was personally invested. He was pulling from every experience he had while being trained under his mother and her own pokemon students in order to build the little pokemon's training regimen. 

Until he had a solid plan, he didn't dare truly begin her training. That said, he could, and in fact had,done other things to keep her busy in the meanwhile. Physical conditioning was an obvious choice, since she was fairly weak still.

And naturally, Meditation. It was an important exercise for self-betterment, and it   had been what led to their first meeting.

And, perhaps most important, it was the only thing keeping his sanity and bottled rage from boiling over and having him kill every single old man in the palace.

They had just finished a meditating session after a long day of training in the water. The meditation had been done under the crashing water. No better way to tests one's concentration and resolve than to let tons of water batter and bruise their already tired bodies.

"Hurts pretty good, doesn't it?" Asked the half naked, drenched boy as he rolled his arms experimentally, grunting as the soreness jabbed at his muscles.

Mienfoo responded with a sharp, though strained nod, pulling her gaze away from her master as he began undressing himself. 

At one point the boy rather brazenly walked past her 'completely' naked, his backpack swung over his shoulders. Needless to say, she yelped in surprise. 

"Oh, come off it, I've a towel 'round my waist for a reason." He said with an eyeroll. There was another person in the thermal waters surrounding the falls, but Doug didn't pay too much mind to them. If the person was bothered by the sight of them, they'll probably let 'em know.

Dropping his backpack by the edge of the waters, he unceremoniously stepped into the hotsprings, sighing in relief instead of flinching as he settled into the pool, leaning back against the edge.

"Evening." He greeted the other person across the pool politely before turning his body away, settling a single elbow outside of the waters as he spoke to his student.

"Get over here already; the water will help with the soreness. Hurry it up already!." He said, holding a heavily scarred arm to his face as he yawned. Just sitting in such a warm, cosy place was making him drowsy.

The Mienfoo blushed, glancing at the complete stranger in the pool before shyly dipping a toe on the water, getting goosebumps all over her fur as the warmth hit her.

Then Doug proceeded to yank her into the thermal waters.

A small splash followed shortly after, the amused snorts of the boy echoing in the air as his livid student rose above the surface of the water, smacking weakly at his arms in protest.

"Sorry, sorry; you were taking forever." He 'apologized', smirking at her. She narrowed her eyes in response, before crossing her arms over her chest and huffing, looking away as if to give him the silent treatment.

---

"Not anymore, thankfully." Replied the boy while leaning back against the edge of the pool, his head using his backpack as a sort of pillow while he hummed lazily, the thermal waters working their slow but sure magic on his sore muscles.

Though still a little testy, Mienfoo soon found herself relaxing in the heat as well, sinking into the water until the tip of her head and nose remained over the surface only barely. She could see what her master had meant earlier. This felt so nice...

A shadow suddenly shot out of the water, jolting the Mienfoo out of her slow sleep spell rather rudely. Her brows came together into a scowl at the culprit, eyes narrowing as her palm slapped at the water in clear anger, incensed words beginning to tumble out of her mouth in a heated rant.

"Do you really feel like getting angry right now?" Interrupted her trainer with a yawn, reaching around her and tugging at her away from the Totodile, despite her protests. "You won't get anything out of the hotsprings if you don't chill out. Ironic, I know." He said while rolling his eyes, smiling in response to his student's vivid glare.

The Mienfoo settled for growling and crossing her arms once more, her brows still set onto a firm scoul. Doug rolled his eyes again in response, sure that she would eventually cool off.

"Been here for a while?" Asked the boy lazily to the other occupant of the pool, having noted the man had looked sort of groggy earlier. He couldn't fault him if he had fallen asleep; the place was certainly having that effect on him at the moment after all.

As he had predicted, Mienfoo was slowly getting on her way to dreamland, her head leaning against her master's shoulders as her heavy eyelids began to close, her breathing slowing down and deepening considerably as she began to fall into a deep sleep slumber.

Ah, much better for her. The more she relaxed, the more effective would the hot springs' effects be for her body.

If the boy thought anything of the little skirmish between the Salandit and the Totodile, he certainly didn't show it, simply slouching further back against the edge of the hot springs.

"It's fine, dude. Ain't like he tried to hurt her or anything." He said through a yawn, one hand reaching to block out the sight of his open maw out of politeness while the other reached over to pet his napping student gently. Later on his hand shifted away from his mouth, the boy leaning his head against his palm lazily.

"Name's Doug. This is Mienfoo. Pleasure." He responded to the man briefly, before releasing an impressed, low whistle at the amount of time the man had spent on the hotsprings. Dude must have been crazy chill!

"Phew. That's a lot of time just chilling at the springs!" He commented with an air of awe, his one free hand reaching over to the shoulder opposite from it and pressing firmly against the muscles on his back. He could have used a massage... Sadly these were just the natural springs of Elysia, not a resort.

"Wish I could spend that much time relaxing now; sadly, I've got bout an hour before having to return home." Not that it was his true home, but whatever. It was where he laid his head to rest at night these days.

"I ran the little lady here ragged all day, if it wasn't obvious." He commented, tilting his head slightly towards her sleeping form. 

"Need to put her to bed and get to counting Z's myself." He said, yawning once more as if to emphasize, his hand reaching to cover his mouth once again.

"We've a long day ahead of us tomorrow." It would actually be pretty similar to the one they had earlier that day; just nonstop training. She needed to be caught up to speed with the rest of the team.

After all...

"Gotta get ready for the Grand Prix!" The next big thing was coming, and he wasn't about to miss it for anything!

"Man, the prix is gonna be huge, I can already tell!" Commented the child, eagerness dripping off his tone. This wasn't the first time he had heard people talking about the tournament today.

Quite a few of the visitors of the falls had commented on their intention of either participating or spectating the tournament. The more people he caught speaking about it, the larger the event seemed to him.

"With any luck, it won't go the same way the last big event in Stellara did." He said, his expression souring considerably at the memory. The gala had been a blast until the crux had decided to crash it. Then it had been a nightmare, though ironically no less of 'blast', in a more literal sense. "Talk about crashing the party uninvited." 

He didn't often think of the Team Crux before the Gala, but needless to say, it had left a pretty shitty first impression. 

A wide smile quickly tugged at the boy's lips as the older man revealed himself to be a competitor in the tournament, excitement swiftly returning to his tone and expression as he spoke.

"You are a competitor too?" He asked, unable of keeping himself from asking the obvious as he leaned forward, taking a good look at the man. 

Well, he didn't look like much, but hey, that didn't mean he couldn't be a good opponent! If nothing else, the man had a clear eye for talent- He had immediately seen how awesome the boy was, after all.

"I mean, I don't mean to brag-" He started, reaching for his neck, a wide smile inevitably rising to his lips. It couldn't be helped; if someone stroked his ego, it was hard for him to not let it get to his head.

His grandfather and mother were always telling him to keep his ego in check (in his mother's case, 'before I do it for you' was usually added at the end), but the boy couldn't help it if someone else praised him, right?

"I think we've got a good chance." He admitted with about as much humbleness as he could drag out of his egocentric ass, reaching over to rub his student's fur as he did. "She's not ready for the tournament yet, though."

She was one of the newer, and weaker, members of the team. He would need to keep her constantly working if he was to close the gap between her and the other's while also making the other's stronger by the time the tournament rolled in.

The boy had a hard time not agreeing immediately with the man's words. The man did admit to having little experience as a trainer, while he had been at it for quite some time now. He couldn't guess at a pokemon's level at a sight most of the time (he was still trying to master that ability for gym challenges), but he didn't think he would lose to a rookie.

Still, saying so straight would be kind of dickish, even if he was just being honest...

"I am pretty good; but I dunno dude. I've seen what a Salandit can do before." He tried the humbleness thing again, channeling his memories of the battle with Dokuro to do so. That Salandit hadn't been particularly tough, but to be fair, it had hardly been focused on the fight, wanting more than anything to get his damn hat.

"Me too." He said, nodding. The gala had been nice while it lasted, and the contest fairly entertaining for all the stress it gave him at the beginning, but a tournament? Now that was something he couldn't possibly miss.

Koontz didn't take long to get the boy's meaning. Doug simply nodded in response, bringing both of his arms up to lay his elbows by the edge of the springs.

"Yeaup. Lots of crap happened." He said, his lips growing taut at the memory. "I flipped my shit quite badly back there. Worrying about others is a pain in the neck." He groaned, reaching to rub at the back of his neck. Just remembering the event was making him feel stressed out.

Not an experience he was looking forward to reliving any time soon. He had gone out of his way to buy his mother a new PokeNav himself after her original one got totaled. With any luck, she wouldn't lose that one. 

His arm? Ah, must have been quite the first meeting.

"Oh, sounds like an spirited one." He commented, grinning. It reminded him of a few of his own little 'angels', Scyther, Beedrill and Charmander chief amongst them. Three pains in the ass for the price of one. At least one of them was getting better about it.

"So long as they listen, I think I can handle obsessive." Joked the boy, still thinking of the other three. He couldn't have found more stubborn pokemon if he had tried. "Dealt with more than a few rebels before; it's all fun and games until they decide to give you attitude during an important match."

"Lucky! It's a mayor pain to deal with. They can be so damn stubborn." Said the boy, shaking his head. He really didn't care for dealing with the more stubborn members of his team at times. Beedrill and Charmander were the biggest pair of pains in the ass he had yet captured.

Scyther wasn't a whole lot better herself, though at least she wasn't cheeky 
about it. He was starting to get somewhere with her, which was more than he could say about the darned fire lizard. 

"I don't understand pokemon speak, don't worry about it too much." the boy replied with a hand wave. For all he knew, the pokemon was laying a verbal beat down on him, but that was okay. He was probably getting his name dragged through the mud at the temple just for taking his sweet time at the hot springs anyways, so what was a couple of insults actually thrown at his face for once?

The conversation began to slow down shortly after that, the boy getting as comfortable as he could in the water while letting the silence reign. After a while though, he quickly found the silence to be a tad too awkward, and his mind quickly rushed to find another topic to tackle.

"So..." He suddenly began as casually as he could, trying to ignore the fact that interrupting the awkward silence had left him feeling even more awkward than before. "You are new to this whole pokemon training thing, right?" Asked the kid, humming before he looked up at the night sky. "So, what's your plan? Gym Challenger? Coordinator? Both?"

Doug was only sure of his desire to tackle the gym challenge. He wasn't sure if he would be trying the coordinator schtick again.

It had been a fun experience after he had finally gotten into the flow of things, but he did have to admit that the planning and performing was far more stressful than simply training to challenge a gym.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to do that  again for 5, if not 6, 7, or who knows how many more contests.

"It's a good way to go about it. That said..." started the boy, humming. He would be seeing the man across from him at some point, he supposed. He yawned, stretching his arms above his head and grunting as a few pops went off along his spine, his arms coming to rest over the edge of the hotsprings shortly after.

"Exploring the region is fine and all, but I feel like having a solid goal helps with training a lot." Said the boy, reaching to pet his student's head gently. "Doesn't have to be the championship or the grand festival, but keeping something grand in mind does help keep focused. At least, it does to me and my pokemon."

"Yeah, I've fought in a gym before." He said, smiling. "It was fun. You can learn a lot just from one bout with the gym leaders." He said, remembering his fight with Mr. Arthur fondly. It hadn't really been too long ago, but the boy still liked to think of it as highlight and important milestone in his career as an independent trainer.

"I feel like everyone should try it at least once. The gym leaders are tough; they know exactly what to expect from those who come to challenge them. The thing about being bound to one type is that the leader knows their opponents know their weaknesses. They know what a challenger will usually be aiming for. At the moment of the battle, how the challenger reacts when the easy path crumbles and turns into a dangerous cliff is what determines whether they deserve their badge or not!"