Training? Really? (Dojo)

[Clover Frost]

Well, Clover thought, I'm screwed.

Perhaps a bit of an overdramatic thing to think when beginning a Pokemon training regimen, but really, this was new territory for her. Sure, she'd had her Pokemon for a while, and they'd exerted themselves from time to time. By the time Clover had made it to Shula, though, it'd been so long that her Pokemon basically forgot all they learned. She didn't even think that that would be an issue.

Well, whether it was a one time thing or a natural result of complacency, this meant that Clover needed to get her Pokemon to at least the level where they could be expected to be able to hold their own against wild Pokemon in places like Mossrock Forest. That was pretty much the bare minimum in relation to what would likely be expected from her going forward.

So, what first. Something for Cynder made sense. Perhaps something kind of fun and simple to ease her into things? Yeah, that seemed like a good idea. Clover recalled that Cynder would often enjoy playing with rubber balls and somesuch when they were younger, and plenty of such items could be found in the Dojo...Perhaps some light bunting and kicking was all that she needed.

[Persian]

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[Clover Frost]

Clover's last (read: first) training session went well, much to her relief, and it seemed like Cynder was already looking pretty decent in terms of level. Sure, she was no powerhouse, but she seemed like she could hold her own against some wild Pokemon, at least. That was definitely promising!

The question from there was...what would she have to do in order to keep the pace they were going? Would she have to come up with something more substantial for her to do? Maybe. But, at the very least, she didn't have to worry about it for a week or so. Instead, she could focus on Retro, who was in dire need of some training himself.

He admittedly didn't seem too excited about the whole idea. Sure, it made sense that he'd be going through some training, but it wasn't like he enjoyed the prospect...or disliked it, for that matter. That was probably a good sign, Clover figured.

For that week's training, Retro would be putting his tackling skills to good use. There were quite a few different things to knock around at the Dojo, and Retro seemed content slamming his small body into inflatable dummies and lightly-used cardboard cutouts. Not the craziest idea in terms of exercise, but at least it was largely hands-off.

[Arcanine]

[dojo]29J2LGLY

[Clover Frost]

That week's Dojo visit was much the same as any other, really. It was something that Clover herself didn't actually want to do, but would end up doing anyways, for fear of her superiors getting on her case. At the very least, her Pokemon were in good spirits. Or, well, at least Cynder seemed fine. Retro always seemed fairly uninterested in doing just about anything, so when Clover brought him to the Dojo once more, he just kind of stood around and waited for her to pick out what kind of training he'd be doing that day.

That training ended up being strength-based, not unlike last time. One major hurdle to overcome, though, was the fact that Retro only had feet. He couldn't exactly lift weights, could he? Well, fortunately, there were plenty of options. For example, one room had heavy blocks that could be pushed around, like a sliding block puzzle in an adventure game. In this case, though, there was no clear puzzle. It was just about pushing on the blocks until they moved. This ended up being rather awkward since, again, Retro only had feet, but pushing with his whole body, he could move some of the lighter blocks himself just fine. Could he push the heavier ones just as easily, though?

[Gardeon]

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[Clover Frost]

Retro had been doing quite well in terms of training, and Clover was quite confident going into the next week's session. Of course, as always, it was a bit of a difficult task just to figure out what he'd be doing that day. What he'd done thus far was fine, but what came next? Well, Clover was intent on figuring that out.

Retro was, in summation, an angular sphere with stumpy feet and a little antenna. That was the long and short of it, and it was challenging just figuring out just what he could do at the Dojo. Fortunately, the place had a lot to offer, and Clover was able to settle on testing the little guy's athleticism. He may not have been the most speedy or dexterous, but he had decent physical capabilities regardless. All he needed to do was put those capabilities to the test.

It was just a simple goalpost and a football (or soccer ball, as some in Shula called it), but it was more than enough for their purposes. Clover may not have known much about sports, but she knew football. All she'd need to do was place Retro in front of the goalpost, kick the football towards the goalpost, and have Retro try to intercept it. Rinse and repeat.

[Gardeon]

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[Clover Frost]

The last training session Clover went through with Retro was...a mixed bag. Sure, it seemed effective enough, and was even kind of fun, but at the same time, it wasn't the kind of fun that Clover was accustomed to. It just required a little too much exertion on her part. She was supposed to be training her Pokemon, not the other way around!

Still, she couldn't just have her Pokemon tackle inflatable dummies every week and call it training...could she? Well, maybe, but it wouldn't exactly be enjoyable for her Pokemon. With that in mind, she decided to do something a bit more interesting.

Retro had always had the innate ability to build up his strength and resilience, albeit at the cost of his movement speed. It was a little weird, but Clover could see that it was a very useful ability, even if it made him rather agitated. If he could harness the full strength the move gave him, he could increase his combat effectiveness exponentially. Thus, Clover set him on working on his Curse.

It was a bit odd to watch, as from a casual observer, it just looked like Retro was getting angry, with the occasional purple wisp floating by him. In truth, however, he was building up his strength, and once he was ready, they'd see just what he was really capable of.

[Persian]

[dojo]ucL0SZE5

[Clover Frost]

Something that Clover couldn't really ignore was that Cynder was, for lack of a better term, a bit of a softie. Sure, she loved her for it, but that didn't mean that she didn't consider it to be a harmless little quirk of hers. After all, how could she fight if she didn't have the heart for it? Clover figured it'd be a good to get Cynder more acquainted with battling. If she didn't, that'd just cause more problems, right?

Unfortunately, battle training wasn't something you could just get. You generally had to find it while out and about, or something. Still, there were some things that they could do in the Dojo to make up for that little inconvenient detail. But what, exactly, would they do? Clover gave it some thought. Perhaps Cynder could practice different fighting techniques. Stuff that she could expect to do in an actual fight. It may not have been able to do much about her mindset, but it'd at least get her more used to what she'd be doing in the future.

"Smokescreen, then jump in with a Scratch!"

"Try to Growl as you charge up that Ember!"

"Make big bites, like you're tryin' to bite into a big jawbreaker!"

Were all those commands things she'd be expected to do in a real battle? Cynder wasn't sure, but she trusted in Clover's judgment regardless.

[Gardeon]

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[Clover Frost]

Retro's last Dojo session had gone so well that he had to take several days just to recover due to how much he'd exerted himself. Suffice to say, that was a good sign for the future, and bringing him into his next training session, Clover knew they'd have to do something pretty damn cool. The big question was though, was obvious: What sort of activities that the Dojo offered could be considered "cool?"

Well, that sort of thing was subjective, for sure, but something that Clover figured was a safe bet in that regard was quite simple, albeit rather open-ended. They could just play some music and have Retro perform all sorts of different exercises all at once, like they did in the movies. Unfortunately, the Dojo didn't offer much in the way of raw meat, and no beaches or scrap yards were housed inside its walls (that anyone knew of), but it had plenty of other stuff. It had punching bags, speed bags, stairs to climb up and down, jungle gyms, and plenty of things to lift over one's head. Unfortunately, due to his anatomy, the latter two were impractical at best, but that was fine. They could just do what Retro feasibly could do, set it to music, and call it a day.

[Gardeon]

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[Clover Frost]

Well, once again, Retro had managed to do astoundingly well on his last training session, leading to him having to take the week off. Well, while he rested, it was only fair that Cynder got another shot. She was as excited about the prospect as ever, and promised to give her all.

Though that promise was meant to be positive, Clover knew she didn't want to work her Pokemon to the bone or anything like that. The last thing she needed was to have it so that neither of her Pokemon could function. Thus, she devised a form of training that hopefully wouldn't wear Cynder out all too much.

Cynder could fight well, but she wasn't all too intimidating under normal circumstances. Sure, she could Growl, but even that wasn't too scary or anything. Perhaps that was something that they could work on? All she'd have to do was refine her Growl to make it scarier, and doing that meant training her voice. She could already do a nice "Grr" sound if she wanted to, but what else? Maybe she could step that up a bit, and add some venom to it. She could even try making other intimidating sounds, like hissing or barking. They'd just have to see what worked best, really.