[Rory Leonhardt]

Rory waited quietly at the table with Ivory. Ivory is usually quiet and Azura couldn't sit still so she had to go rest in the pokeball. Usually Rory would be in their own dorm working on their stuff, but today they and all the other students at battle tactics were given a group project and assigned to groups. Rory and their other group members decided to meet up at the library. Rory wasn't really fond of group work because they might have to do most of the work, as usual. Group projects weren't fun in the past however the two people that were grouped with them seemed more than capable. 

They looked around the library beforehand and picked out a few books dealing with battle tactic and some of the best tactics many trainers implement these days. They looked at the paper with their assigned project. Researching a type and then picking a pokemon and create the best tactics for the pokemon. That shouldn't be too hard, Rory only anticipated an issue with choosing something they all agree with. They sighed and took a swig of water from their bottle. This was going to be a long day.

Tags: Serena Miller & Maximillian Chavant

[Maximillian Chavant]

Maximillian was engrossed in a completely seperate book, a novel about a boy who see's hordes of Gengar and Banette in his dreams, as he paced around the library with both Hope and Isabelle, following beside him, the two playfully poking each other. Maximillian enjoyed the school's vast collection of books, even if they weren't first editions. He found himself reading several chapters of the book and walking around for a while before he noticed someone sitting alone by a table. He almost walked by them when he glanced out of the corner of his eyes a piece of paper on the person's desk about an assginment.

Maximillian hadn't been to the class but he did remember hearing something about it. He walked over to the person who sat beside a Mawile. "Excuse me, um..." He said unsure what to call the person. He indicated to the paper and asked "May I see that?", as he didn't know the person's name. He also wasn't entirely sure if the person was a boy or a girl, he did like their Mawile though.

[Serena Miller]

Group projects always made Serena nervous.  Working with other people could be fun, but she was always afraid of letting them down somehow or otherwise messing up.  This time was no exception.  She kept her pokemon in their pokeballs so they wouldn't be distractions, and wrung her hands as she looked around for her partner.  She didn't know much about Rory, but he seemed nice enough.  Hopefully everything would go smoothly.

She continued fidgeting as she made her way through the library.  Fortunately, the two of them scheduled a time and place ahead of time so they could meet up easily.  Serena was also glad that they were a fair distance away from the computers.  She still hadn't quite recovered from having one nearly catch on fire right in front of her.  Eventually, she found the spot, but there was an extra person there.  He seemed to be asking about something, but she couldn't quite make it out from this distance.  Serena stopped in placed and fidgeted more.  Should she approach?  Would she be interrupting anything?  Did she have the wrong time and it was just a coincidence that her partner for the project was here as well?  If that wasn't the case then she'd be keeping him waiting be standing around here or going somewhere else.  Serena tugged at her lower lip and furrowed her brows.  She was pretty sure she had the right time, and she really didn't want to hold up the project.  Slowly and nervously, she approached the pair.

"U-Um...S-Sorry am I um...interrupting something?"

[Rory Leonhardt]

Rory mused quietly to themselves as they pondered about what types should they bring up to their partner about. They wondered if the guy who was absent was around too. Apparently they just got paired up into Rory's group too, wonderful. Rory was already angry they had to deal with a no show. Lucky for them that their other group member seemed so much more reliable. They bet between the two of them they could get an amazing project completed.

As they continued to do some pre-research and pick out some types to run by Serena a young man pulled up to the table. Ivory, who was asleep suddenly woke up and glanced up at the boy. She noticed his glasses and thought they looked very funny. Rory didn't wear glasses and didn't know people that did so this was a first for the Mawile.

Rory looked rather annoyed with the kid as he asked for his assignment paper. What was it his business unless...

"You must be the guy that didn't show up to class huh?"

It wasn't as if there were many missing from class today, it was really only him so he would stick out like a sore thumb asking for the paper. Rory thought about it, and with the kid being in their group they really couldn't say no huh?

"Yeah sure, here. Pull up a chair buddy because you were tagged to my group. I'm just waiting on-"

Serena interjected wondering if she was interrupting something. Rory looked over to the girl and shook their head.

"No not really but I did find our 'missing' third member."

Rory handed their assignment paper to Maxi and patted the book they were just reading.

"Alrighty dude get to reading because we need to agree on a type like now."

[Maximillian Chavant]

Maximillian readjusted his glasses before taking a seat. "Yes I guess that would be me. I don't find battle tactics as exciting as most.", he said as he looked at the lovely young lady he was apparently in a group with. "However I think i might attend more of these classes if lovely ladies such as you attend it.", he said smiling at the young lady. He quickly shifted his chair to  half face her as he began looking over the paper. Isabelle climbed up into his lap while Hope hid under his chair. After a short moment he looked over at his group mates. "By the way, my name is Maximillian. I haven't properly introduced myself.", he said with a charming smile.

Reading the assignment he remembered why he didn't like battle tactics, for the most part it lacked flair and was pretty simple. He also couldn't imagine Isabelle in a serious high-stakes battle. "I guess having missed the class I'm mostly useless here.", he mumbled half-heartedly as he glared at the paper thinking.

[Serena Miller]

"O-Oh, yeah, that makes sense" Serena nodded.  "Hi, I'm Serena.  Um..."

Serena blinked at the student that missed class a few times, then looked behind her clearly confused.  She was stocky and overweight with broad shoulders and short legs.  She was muscular, but most of her muscles were hidden under a layer of fat that she was never able to get rid of, no matter how active she was.  Her hair was a curly frizzy mess that she had to tie back a bit just to stop from poofing everywhere.  She never tied it back into a ponytail because her mother didn't like it, but a small braid resting on top to contain it was pretty much necessary to not look like a complete fool.  He was looking at her, but it seemed unlikely to Serena that he was referring to her.  Maybe he was referring to Rory?  Rory was pretty androgynous and was certainly prettier than she was, so it was possible.  Regardless, she couldn't let her confusion with all this mess up the conversation or the project, so it was probably better to just ignore it.

"Um...it's nice to meet you."

She nodded again and took a seat at the table.  Rory looked really prepared.  There were a lot of materials spread out already.  Serena felt bad for not bringing anything herself, she figured they'd just be working everything out and then would use their notes from class to finish the rest.  Her face flushed a bit as she got the feeling that he could have finished this a lot faster on his own.

"Um...I'm fine with any really..." that seemed like a non-answer though, so she didn't really want to stop there.  "Um...I-I guess I'm most familiar with um...fire types?"  Probably unsurprising given she was walking around in a bright red lava dorm uniform.  "Um...but I have pokemon of pretty much every type, so we don't have to go with that if you don't want to."

[Rory Leonhardt]

Rory rolled their eyes as Maxi introduced himself. And he was trying to flirt with Serena? Good grief, in any case they don't think she got the message. Looks like it went way over her head. So since he wasn't in class then Maxi's opinions were automatically invalid, good it makes things easier to decide between them and Serena. She didn't look like she minded but she did suggest fire types. Rory was looking at fire types before either group member showed up. They were considering catching one to cover their fairy typing. Rory nodded and opened the book to fire types.

"Alright then it's settled we'll do fire types. So what we need to do now is to come up with basic info around fire types, strengths and weaknesses all that jazz. And then we have to pick a pokemon and make a strategy for them and I guess we present it next class."

Rory grabbed the other book and opened it to a list of potential fire pokemon they could use.

[Maximillian Chavant]

It seems his words did not quite hit their mark with the young female. Maximillian readjusted his glasses and sighed. Isabelle laughed to herself at her master's failed attempt. Maximillian simply smiled at the young lady again. "Serena huh? A beautiful name for a beautiful girl." He said again, a more direct and clear attempt this time.

When his groupmate suggested fire types, Maximillian tilted his head slightly. "Fire types ... Sure that could work although I personally haven't seen much fire types." He said as he sighed and poked Isabelle. "But I'm sure fire types would be an excellent topic especially when suggested by one as excellent as yourself." He said looking over at Serena. "So do either of you own a fire type." He asked as he turned to Rory and fished for Hope, who was still hiding under the chair. Hope squealed as he was picked up and placed beside Isabelle. Maximillian turned to Rory and looked at the book on the paper.

[Serena Miller]

Serena was a little surprised that everyone was okay with her suggestion, but she wasn't going to complain.  Most of her exposure to fire types was because of Natalia, but seeing them prance around outside her dorm window helped a bit too.  She looked between her partners for a moment.  It looked like they were both waiting for her to say something, which both surprised her and made her nervous.  Hopefully she wouldn't get anything wrong.  That wasn't the only thing making her feel awkward however.  The student that didn't show up to class confirmed that it was her that he was talking to.  She blinked a few times and her face turned a bright red.  She suddenly found it difficult to talk, like there was something stuck in her throat.

"U-U-U-Um, y-ye-yeah, I-I um...I have Na-Natalia...um...she's um..." 

Rather than try to explain, she just released the growlithe from her pokeball and kept her on her lap.  She buried her face into Natalia's fur in an attempt to hide her face.  She didn't know how to react to any of this, and she was already incredibly shy.  Natalia, sensing her trainer's distress, looked between the two humans sternly, and a bit menacingly.  She wasn't quite sure what was causing all this, but once she did she would definitely be ready.

"U-U-Um..." Serena's voice was a bit muffled due to her face being in her growlithe's fur, "Um...They-they're weak to um...water and um...rock and um...ground attacks um...whi-which can make them a little weak de-defensively, but um...they have a lot of resistances, and can hit bulkier steel types um...re-really well..."

Hopefully that would be enough of an explanation.

[Rory Leonhardt]

If Rory could roll their eyes any harder they would. Rico Suave over here was trying way too hard now it was getting on the blonde's nerves now. They sighed and just waited for Serena to answer, so it seemed that she had a fire type named Natalia. Upon releasing the pokemon Rory discovered that it was a Growlithe...a very angry Growlithe. Rory noticed Serena's discomfort and frowned a bit. However they got the gist of her explanation, which gave them an idea.

"I got an idea, okay how about we pick Growlithe as the pokemon and do a small battle demo to actually show our battle strategy? I have Ivory here who is a steel/fairy type so she can work for the demo."

Ivory perked at being mentioned, she didn't like the way that Natalia was glaring at her trainer and decided to glare back. She nodded, she wouldn't mind a battle demo. 

"All you have to do is give your pokemon the commanded moves we're using. You don't have to explain anything to the class, that will be left for Maxi and yours truly. What do you think?"

[Maximillian Chavant]

Maximillian could tell he should stop now. Serena was clearly flustered, Rory seemed like he had enough of it and to make matters worse, Serena's Growlithe, Natalia, seemed too protective of her. All for the best though since Maximillian should really be focusing on the assignment with his group members. The Growlithe had a very nice coat of fur though, despite looking like it would attack him. Hope clutched onto his master's shirt while Isabelle just sat there ignoring everyone.


When Rory suggested the battle demo Maximillian gave a rather sour smile. He didn't care much for battles but it had to be done. It would, hopefully, at least be a short demo. "If we're going to do this how about we use my Bonsly, Diana. She's rock and fire has a hard time with that. We could show the damage difference it does between steel and rock.", He said as he looked at the Mawile.


He reached into his bag and fished out the Pokeball that belongs to his Bonsly, he took a deep breath before sending the pokemon out and covered its mouth before it got as noisy as it normally was. "This is Diana guys." He said formerly introducing his noisy little rock-type. The Bonsly screamed its name into her master's hand and despite being muffled it was still fairly loud. Diana was the worst pokemon to bring into a library as she was always loud. "And as for explanations, I'm pretty sure we could handle that.", he said, instinctively looking up at Serena with a charming smile but upon seeing the rather fierce pokemon in her lap he looked away.

[Serena Miller]

Suddenly, there was a bit of awkward tension around the table.  Serena sunk deeper into Natalia's fur.  She really should have known better than to release her over protective growlithe when she was feeling flustered.  Even though she couldn't see Natalia's face right now, she could see everyone else's.  It was pretty obvious what was going on based on her own experience with her pokemon.

"I-It's okay Natalia..."

Her grip on Natalia tightened a bit, but it was clear that Natalia didn't think anything was okay.  The growlithe continued to stare sternly, and somewhat threateningly, at her classmates while occasionally looking at the pokemon that was staring at her.  Serena slumped her shoulders, defeated and unsure how to deal with her pokemon's behavior.  At least it looked like they knew what to do for the project.  Natalia would listen to her well enough, even if she was a little nervous from presenting in front of people, that Serena wasn't worried about her not listening like some of her other pokemon.  If she didn't have to talk that would be even better.  

"U-Um...Y-Yeah, I should um, be able to do that, um okay.  Um..." she looked at the floor off to the side.  "I-I-I promise that um, Natalia isn't normally like this so um...I-I think everything should um, be okay?"

[Rory Leonhardt]

Rory shook their head, they looked more calmer and friendlier now that they realized how nervous Serena was about the whole ordeal.

"Don't worry about it Serena, all she needs to do is follow through on the battle demo. And you don't even need to talk much. Just giving out the commands. And with me and Maxi speaking it looks like he actually did something being that he wasn't there for class."

Rory flipped the book to Growlithe and then handed a note book to Serena with their notes on Ivory.

"Here go through my notes on Ivory so you can come up with a strategy. I'll get the basic info on fire types and gather the notes on that. Maxi, you need to write down your usual strategy for your Bonsly and give them to Serena so she can prepare. If you don't have a strategy make one up."

[Maximillian Chavant]

Maximillian, still muzzling the noisy Bonsly, had stopped to think. A battle strategy with Diana, this wasn't all that good considering he never used her in an actual battle but more so in his spare time to see what she could do. "Well she has Fake tears, Rock Throw, Rock Slide and Copycat." He said before frowning. "Not much strategy there. Fake Tears doesn't help with her other moves so that's kinda out of the question. But I guess she's just good at using rocks and copying others." He said with a sigh. He wasn't entirely sure about what he said though since battling wasn't his greatest skill. "Truthfully I don't use her that much. She's so loud and noisy it makes it hard to focus sometimes." He said, reaching for her pokeball, returning her to it. "Best I could really say is to just have Natalie attack Diana then have Diana Copycat the attack and show how fire type attacks affect fire types too?", he asked very much unsure of his idea. This made him reconsider Diana. Maybe he should take her out for actual training more.



Hope and Isabelle, mostly Hope, were now paying more attention to the other pokemon and were looking at the Growlithe in Serena's arms. Hope looked up at his master with eager eyes, wondering if it was safe to go to the Growlithe. Maximillian wasn't sure and gave the eager Ralts a half shrug. The Ralts looked back over to the Growlithe and waved very timidly at it. Isabelle, on the other hand simply looked the Growlithe up and down before going back to doing nothing.

[Serena Miller]

Serena was starting to feel like she could breathe again at least.  Her face was still as red as a lobster because of her shyness when it comes to being flirted with and her embarrassment over Natalia's behavior.  Even though she was starting to feel a bit better, she still kept her face buried in Natalia's fur to hide that.  She pulled Rory's notes towards her and rested them on the back of Natalia's head where she could read them.

"Y-Yeah, I should be able to do that.  Um...Is Ivory going to be okay...um rather okay with this?  It'll probably hurt a lot...I have um, some sitrus berries if that'll help."  She nodded at Maximilian without pulling her head out of her growlithe's fur.  "Um...well I think that sounds like a good idea.  What do you think Rory?"

Natalia continued looking between the two suspicious humans, and occasionally that suspicious mawile.  As long as Serena was obviously on edge Natalia had to remain at the ready.  It obviously meant there was something dangerous in the area.  Suddenly, there was a slight movement.  Natalia sharply turned her head to the waving pokemon.  As long as there was danger here, she had to remain vigilant and assume everything was dangerous.  The ralts received the same intimidating glare that she was giving to everyone else.  However, it didn't seem to be an immediate threat, so Natalia went back to looking between the humans.

Serena just sighed.  She was seriously considering putting her growlithe back in her pokeball given how awkward she was making this conversation.  That would mean leaving her face exposed, which would likely be awkward for them, and even more embarrassing for her.  It was quite the dilemma.  She squeezed Natalia a bit tighter and continued to try to calm her down so she wouldn't have to make that choice, but Natalia was having none of it.  This was worse than when she determined that door was pure evil.