[ti]closed[/ti][S][C/Kyukon] It's Cold Outside!

Besides trying to visit Mom again, Arthur had another plan in mind to prepare himself for the winter that he felt was not going to let him go so easily. Even if he had been in the right place at the wrong time, if they were going to face off against the bitter chill, then he needed to be more prepared. So when he saw that there were plenty of other trainer classes to unlock, one for each type, he knew he had to get the ice one. There was only so much fire could do to heat himself up against the cold.

As to how he decided to get in touch with Josh to help him out, well, it just seemed like the most logical choice. He had been very helpful with the delivery tutorial, and he made sure to ask if he was also interested in trying to unlock this class with him. Luckily, he was (or maybe he was just being nice?), so that was why the meet up spot was here. Arthur had to travel north for this, and as he approached this route that he hadn't been to before, he could already feel a different kind of chill sinking it. It wasn't just the temperature, but the mist, the odd feeling that there was someone or something else around, watching.

He pushed the feeling aside and focused on trudging, watching the ground underneath him eventually be taken by snow. He made sure to dress better for this, and he was also able to keep on top of his body heat thanks to the Kindler class.

As expected, Josh was already in the area, and while he did see a flash of blond, it was on a person much smaller than he expected. Arthur blinked, realizing that what he saw in the Tower of Dogs was not his eyes playing tricks on him. Or was his Growlithe bigger than the usual? It was hard to tell until he got closer and saw that indeed, the trainer was a child now (but there was no denying that the username hovering above his head was the same).

❝Damn. Any reason why you decided to de-age yourself?❞ it wasn't in an accusatory tone, but he couldn't wrap his mind around why he'd do it. Really, it was more of curiosity. ❝I really thought I was seeing things that other time...but thanks again for agreeing to meet up. You think we'll be able to knock all of these requirements in one go? Not sure about that last one though.❞

On the side, the window that explained the unlocking requirements was staring back at him. He had already made some progress on the cold drinks (and that was also when he realized that Josh brought a bunch; thankfully, it didn't look alcoholic), but what about the diving? That seemed to be the most dangerous...

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Josh Devlin
+1 Steeler Class Unlock: Travel North

Arthur blinked, letting the information sink in. Oh, of course. Like, he couldn't be sarcastic about it because from what little he knew of Josh, it just seemed in-character. If he had to give one thing to this guy, he was extremely driven towards his goal, and apparently that involved riding a lot of different Pokémon. ❝No, I...actually see the logic.❞ he wasn't sure about the level thing - Pokemon evolution seemed mysterious in UNOVR. He knew that one of the requirements was that he had to unlock a certain tier in the classes, but other than that, it looked like he couldn't exactly force it. Thus, he had mainly been letting his Pokemon train when they could, and he figured that it would eventually trigger when they felt ready. Maybe it differed per player or playing style?

He was also curious about the mention of the Huge Seals. He recently did get some Arena Points after all, and the seals were actually something he could buy. Well, he could buy a grand total of one. ❝You look like you're having fun at least, being able to ride your Growlithe.❞ he had yet to retrieve his own from Torino. Stura was currently inactive in the mean time, but he wondered if he should've brought him for this particular outing. Having a much larger Pokemon had its benefits, and he might've been more resistant to the cold. Mugan would not enjoy this weather by nature of his typing, right?

Arthur nodded. ❝I also have two fire Pokemon, though they're not as big as yours. I maxed out Kindler too, but I'm thinking of changing to Swimmer for the final requirement.❞ not getting soaked in any type of water sounded useful in surviving the plunge. He recalled that cold clothes were a big problem once a person got out of an icy body of water (thanks random Youtube videos!) so with Swimmer active, he just had to worry about the temperature more than anything else.

He walked over to the cans of lemonade and picked one up. God, without Kindler, he would've been shaking like crazy even with the gloves and thick coat. It felt odd to drink something cold in cold weather, but then again, people ate ice cream in the middle of winter, didn't they? Arthur was about to take a sip before Josh warned him about touching metal, so he followed suit, trying to be careful of any spillage. The lemonade was sour and sweet, and he wondered how the liquid had not frozen in this environment.

He let out a sharp exhale after drinking, forming a puff of fog in front of his face. ❝Well, that's done for me. Will you need to drink two more cans before we get to the snowball fight? Mind you, I never actually did that before.❞

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Josh Devlin
(OOC: I will buy the first tier of Swimmer once it becomes thread relevant but I haven't bought it yet since I'm thinking I may need the boxes first lol)

❝Teach me how to ride a Growlithe?❞ he was about say "how to ride a dog", but that didn't sound appropriate nor as funny as it could be. It just felt odd to talk about such things to a person that looked like a child, even if he knew that was not the case (or was it? Actually for all he knew, maybe he could be a kid who was masquerading as an adult and then turned himself back to something closer his age). ❝I can't even imagine riding a Pokemon using Quick Attack would be like.❞ it would probably be really, really fast. So fast that he would fall off or puke or both.

❝A fire sounds like a good idea. We have all day, right?❞ he didn't have any Pokemon that could easily chop up firewood (except perhaps Mugan), but perhaps with teamwork, it was doable? It just reminded Arthur that he should try to find some way to evolve his Pokemon soon, as right now he was still very limited. ❝That is, unless you have some place to be after our icy dipping.❞

But it looked like they were doing this in order, and that meant that the duel Josh was referring to was the snowball fight. Right, uh. Once again he remembered that his Pokemon were tiny, and not all walked on two feet. ❝Let me see how they react to the cold first.❞ he tossed out the Poke Balls for his Chimchar and Druddigon - Gou greeted the familiar face before doing a double take and realizing that he looked much much smaller compared to when they last first met, and Mugan was, well...

Making noises and raising one foot as he felt snow for the first time. That made sense. The baby-ish dragon then put his claws on the snow. It was cold! He shook his claws like how a person would do their hands before hitting (or patting?) the ground; his tail swishing from side to side, making a semi-circle, or a half of an angel's wing.

Well, they seemed fine. ❝I could just use one. Rules? Or are we winging this?❞

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Josh Devlin

Was he really going to be Josh's apprentice on Pokemon Riding? The thought did not sit well with him initially, but he supposed it wasn't something completely useless. Just...he certainly was not going to reach the same craziness that this guy had for extremely fast Pokemon. Fast was fine, without any additional modifiers. When he thought about it a little more though, as he held the extremely cold drink in his hand, the other player made sense. Horses were what people rode with since they were of the right size and had a particular anatomy, he supposed. Riding dogs, however, was going to be different - the way they moved alone said a lot. ❝Shouldn't be surprised that you've already tried it. Maybe next time I'll only be looking at your afterimage.❞

Indeed, as Josh pointed out the mini game, Arthur also saw a pop up on his notification that gave some rules. The game was listening to them, huh? ❝Didn't actually play this one.❞ he muttered, as he was more of a Mario Kart kind of guy. ❝You mean that players have like five lives, if I'm understanding that right?❞ oh, he was going to lose, he could feel it. If someone asked him to throw something slightly heavier than a standard ball, he definitely was not confident it was going to travel far. Maybe the game could give him a bit of a boost?

❝Well, not like it really matters who wins or loses anyway.❞ he more of said that to himself, but then Gou looked very much ready to hurl some snowballs and was already forming one in his hands. Surprisingly, the snowball did not immediately melt. Game logic? ❝Mugan, come here, I need to teach you how to make a ball.❞ the dragon raised its head before trotting towards his trainer; his arms folded close to his body. Arthur then squatted down and gathered some snow in his hands before forming it into a lumpy, far from perfect sphere, and then he showed it to the Druddigon. ❝Like this.❞

The dragon growled, looked at the ground, and then moved closer to it before scooping a much bigger pile of snow into a pile. And then he stuck his hands on it, seemingly mesmerized by its texture. ❝Okay yeah maybe Mugan should sit this one out.❞

He shooed the dragon to the side so he wouldn't get caught in the crossfire and let out Rou to babysit him. The Vulpix, he realized, was caught at the same time as Josh's. (Rou was not pleased, but decided that whatever her trainer was going to do seemed more exhausting than watching the dragon).

❝I just remembered, you caught the Vulpix back then as well, right? How're they doing?❞

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Josh Devlin

Right, first to five. Piece of cake, or rather, maybe something that he just needed to get over with. He was surprised to see that the Vulpix that he brought out looked completely different. At first, Arthur thought that the Pokemon had become a shiny or something, but there were some other things different about this one (and it helped that the UI told him that it was an Alolan Vulpix, so that was...interesting?) she looked completely at home in the snow, compared to Rou where she was tolerating it because she was able to withstand the cold with her internal temperature. When he glanced at Rou and Mugan again, he noticed that the Vulpix was looking at her counterpart. He wondered if she knew that this was the same Vulpix they caught, like an echo or a twin.

Anyway, snowball fight was of the higher priority. It took a split moment for Arthur to realize that the first throw was aimed at his Chimchar rather than him, so the fire type quickly dodged. He had no idea what kind of strategy he should do though, so it made sense to copy what Josh was up to. ❝Gou, make some snowballs as well.❞

The Chimchar nodded and quickly started to push together a pile of snow. Meanwhile, Arthur curled up a small snowball and waited for a good moment to strike, which seemed to be when Josh would crouch to get a ball. That was easier said than done though, since when he threw the snowball, it didn't travel at a straight line, and lopped sideways onto the ground. Damn. It would take a couple more throws before he could get a handle of how the balls travelled, and even then, he had to take two hits from not being able to dodge fast enough. The Chimchar was certainly better at dodging than he was.

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Josh Devlin

Holy shit this was really taxing on the arms, actually.

Somehow he managed to land two on his opponent, but he knew that if this kept going, there was just a bigger and bigger chance for him to lose. A part of him wanted to give up and just get pelted by snowballs, but he felt like Josh wouldn't like that, so he had to put on a show.

It was then he started moving closer, with a bunch of snowballs in hand. And then it was one after another, and Arthur couldn't dodge them all. Gou did see an opportunity right in front of him, and since he noticed that his trainer was getting tired (and not throwing all of the snowballs he piled up), the Chimchar started to throw some as well, more careful and precise with his attempt.

It didn't help that because Josh was now in the body of a child, there was less of a hit box compared to him. As he tried to swing another throw, he suddenly lost his footing (his right foot getting caught in his left? Something like that?) He just felt a moment of imbalance, was not able to recover, and toppled over, face full of snow - he had only enough time to let out a yelp. Gou cried out, kind of like a mix of worry and surprise, while his Vulpix and Druddigon also noticed the commotion.

Did this count as losing? If he felt a snowball fall on top of his head, he felt like that was a yes.

❝Ugh. I concede.❞ he felt he was too tired to get up anyway, and let himself lie on the snow for a while. With his Kindler class, it was a surprisingly pleasant temperature, all things considered.

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Josh Devlin

Arthur felt the snowballs plop with a bit of weight on his head, one after another. Thankfully, Josh was not the type to do overkills with snowball fights, though he wouldn't be surprised if he would do overkills in other games (he vaguely remembered a conversation they had in passing about Final Fantasy and him being sheepish that he never actually tried the series).

His head was sideways so that he could breathe, but once it looked like the boy was done, he lifted it up after the comment on the coins. It was as if there was a loading circle that appeared over Arthur's head before he squinted. ❝Might as well take my star while you're at it.❞ he pushed himself up, feeling the soreness in his virtual arms. Gou quickly ran over to him, jumped on his arm (❝Augh--okay, on the back, yeah, that's fine.❞) and was keeping close to help warm up his trainer. His cheeks were cold.

The trainer took the lemonade, feeling no difference in temperature because his hands were also fucking cold. ❝Thanks.❞ he already knew that the "drink cold drinks" requirement was slashed from what he needed, but it still felt nice to taste sugar and sourness on his tongue. He let out a relieve exhale, creating a billow of smoke. ❝I don't even know if I'm gonna have enough BYTES to use this class any time soon.❞ he said idly, swirling the can. ❝But it would be funny to see what Kindler and Freezer do together.❞

For Arthur, this just left the dive. It was not hard to see that this was the part that he was most nervous about. Hypothermia was no joke, after all.

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Josh Devlin