Total Eclipse of the Heart Swap

[Whatevr89532]

The Eevee-girl nods and starts her way down before inexplicably losing all sense of balance. "Waah!" She waves her hands in the air and falls a short distance onto her side, before quickly recovering into a cross-legged position, more dirty than injured, and shaking her head a bit to get the gravel out of her hair.

[AmbushCat]

*blinks* Um... you alright? What happened?

[Whatevr89532]

"Huh? Oh, uh, sorry. I moved my tail wrong and lost my balance for a sec. Like I said, I have random moments of stupidity that I don't understand sometimes," says Whyte. "It's not super often, but it's frequent enough I've sort of gotten used to it. I don't ever really get hurt by them...sometimes even when it seems like I should have been," she adds, getting a slight thoughtful look. Indeed, despite hitting the fairly hard concrete she doesn't seem to have more than an extremely minor scratch here and there.

[AmbushCat]

((OOC: Grass, actually. Although there are some rocks here and there, so it could still happen. ))

*toothed smile* Had the same thing happen to me the first time I turned human, although---

*Ida's Psybeam interrupts her again, pitching Amber onto her posterior for a second time.*

Ida: --You turned the lesson over to me, so stay quiet and sit down. Whyte, are you ready?--

*Amber, clearly irritated, straightens a bit but remains silent.*

[Whatevr89532]

The Eevee-girl stifles a giggle, but returns to a more serious look when Ida addresses her; she nods.

((I thought they were in the parking lot..probably misremembered something. Especially since now that I think of it you've mentioned specifically grass at least twice.
Ah well, replace 'gravel' with 'dirt' and 'concrete' with 'ground/rock(s)' and it's the same general idea anyhow.))

[AmbushCat]

Ida: --Good.--
--It shouldn't be a surprise to you, but Calm Mind plays an integral role in what few battles I partake in. It involves shutting out all distractions, being at peace with the land, the air, and my surroundings. Nothing enters my mind until I feel myself becoming stronger.--
--How is this relevant to you, you might be asking? The answer is simple. It's my understanding that Work Up works by rousing the user. Rouse, how?-- *forked tail twitches a bit* --Well, what is the opposite of absolute serenity and peace?--

[Whatevr89532]

"Complete chao--wait, no, that's a contradiction in terms. Uh, mostly chaos and discord," says Whyte.

[AmbushCat]

Ida: --More or less. *grooms her forepaws as she speaks*
--I recall a trainer who, years ago, tried to catch me for his team. The Pokémon he sent against me used the move gratuitously, and I was able to catch its surface thoughts: things that would not have been consequential for you or I, but taken entirely seriously by itself. Little things like its food preferences, what kind of ribbon it wanted on its head... it was imagining others laughing at him for it. It probably knew at its core that those things didn't matter, but it was willing to forget that temporarily to increase its strength for the battle's duration.-- --Suffice to say they failed to catch me, or else we would not be speaking of this. That is irrelevant to the topic, however.--
*stops grooming herself and settles down* --You could think of Work Up as a lesser version of Frustration, and projected inward instead of outward. Are you with me so far?--

[Whatevr89532]

Whyte has a serene kind of smile while watching the Espeon's grooming, but nods to indicate she has been paying attention as well.

[AmbushCat]

Ida: *wryly* --And I'm glad to see that my personal hygiene makes you peaceful.--
--Anyway, feel free to give it a try. Don't think about anything that saddens you or seriously angers you, but something that irritates you instead. Think about it until you feel you can't think about it anymore. Considering how much of your humanity is combined with what makes us Pokémon, then you should be able to feel slight boosts to your body and mind if it is accomplished correctly.--

[Whatevr89532]

Whyte looks slightly embarrassed at Ida's first comment. "Sorry, it just looked really cute, and uh..anyway, I'll just try that now."

She runs through a list of typical modern annoyances first, and finds many of them not particularly bad: Taxes in Muffinville are weird but not so bad for her; she walks everywhere so traffic isn't bad...people have a surprising habit of leaving the toilet seat down around here...ugh, this is kind of annoying. She grabs onto how annoying it is that there isn't anything to immediately use as an annoyance, and tries thinking about that for a bit, while deliberately ignoring the contradicting inherent in the meta-annoyance.

[AmbushCat]

Ida: *ears and tail twitch* --I can hear it... her brain is more closely resonating with mine. I sense a slow buildup of voltage and vigor.--

*chants something to herself before nodding* If you're saying that she both looks and thinks stronger, then I agree.

[Whatevr89532]

The Eevee-girl moves on to being annoyed that she isn't getting stronger faster than she is. If it's going to be useful in the middle of a fight, it's got to take as little time as possible! This delay is unacceptable. Ugh.

Once it actually has been long enough, she opens her eyes. "..Phew. I am way too much a wise old person."

[AmbushCat]

I'd ask your true age, but that would be insulting. Ida, what's the word?

Ida: --Both body and mind are where they should be. How did you describe it before? "One stage each"?--

Close enough.

[Whatevr89532]

Whyte gives another small fistpump. "Woo, that's great! It should be a lot easier to find things to get annoyed at in the middle of a fight, I think. Honestly, I never really developed the habit of figuring out what year it was when I entered a world or left it, so...I've sort of lost count on the age thing. But, thank you so much! This stuff is a lot harder to figure out on one's own."