First Thing's First [MOD]

[Vanessa / Viola Oldford]

Vanessa was not the type to think the words 'I told you so' at her other personality, but they were linked closely enough for Viola to know that, consciously-worded thought or not, the sentiment was there, and she really didn't mind much. The surprise was not that the anorith escaped from the pokeball but that, as they tried to re-balance themselves in that kneeling position with what they were pinning having vanished, it turned around and lashed out at them, leaving a shallow cut in their outer forearm. They ignored the pain from the wound like all previous, and Viola sent their one-eyed gaze locking on the anorith's own eyes.

And, then, Viola laughed. The sound was like a few harsh barks or coughs, their lip curled back to show their teeth as the sound emerged from their throat, but the grim mirth quickly gave way to something all the worse. "You should have tried to run away," she said, voice hissing and with a vicious, feral snarl on their features. They weren't in a position to properly kick it, which would have been their first answer, so instead Viola lashed out with a fist, aiming straight for one of those googly eyes, followed by a swing of their other fist. And another swing. And another.  Just because they'd never stab or rip out an eye didn't mean they would never attack them at all.

They'd changed, over these years. Their connection sixteen years ago had changed them. Reaching Mi-aro had changed them. The old man's influence had changed them.

But sometimes, every once and a while, the nature of the half-people they used to be before all of that bled through.

And Viola had been a Fury.

Bushy Tail, meanwhile, pranced left and right, not sure if she should be fighting or not. Vanessa and Viola didn't tell her to, but then again, they really hadn't been giving her direct battle orders at all. They'd just given her the go ahead to help out that poor lillipup and then asked for the pokeball. She didn't like the big bug hurting her trainer, though, and so gave a deep, loud growl, raising her hackles at it, as a compromise with herself.

The lillipup's little snack was left uninterrupted, and the nearby bag that housed the rest of Vanessa and Viola's berry supply was still wide open with no sign of either eevee or human noticing any time soon that it had been left such.

---

Viola is going berserker and throwing as many punches at the Anorith's eyeballs as she can.
Bushy tail is using Growl on the Anorith.

[SoJasp]

Eyes locked on the single eye, the Anorith leered back defiantly at the human. However, the laugh caught the Rock Bug off guard to say the very least, and for a moment she blinked in confusion until suddenly being punched right in her left eye! OW! A shrill cry escaped from the Anorith only to be mirrored in the next jumbled seconds of flying punches. Of all the places to hit, those were certainly the best ones if only due to a clear lack of armor there. A claw reached up in defiance to Scratch at the woman’s fists as they came at her though the Growl once more weakened her capacity to do damage even if the Anorith wasn’t paying much attention to the Eevee as she was the crazed owner.

Finishing off the first berry, the Lillipup sat back on his haunches glancing sideways towards the fight only to jump a little startled at the sight of the woman now truly wailing on the Anorith--- but then the smell of Berries came to him, and his head turned back to the sack…. One more wouldn’t hurt, would it? But he’d already eaten one…. But… they weren’t looking anyways….so…Standing up again, the Lillipup slowly started to pad closer to the bag pressing up against it briefly before pawing at it waiting for another of its contents to come out- and when one did so, he began to eat more.

[Vanessa / Viola Oldford]

The scratch to the fist didn't even register at first, blood dripping down their knuckles without so much as a flinch. They'd suffered worse. Much, much worse. Pain faded into the background in the face of the all-consuming rage as Viola simply kept swinging, that snarl frozen on her features. Her instinct to kill was under lock and key thanks to the influence of the other one lurking in their mind, but, for the most part, Vanessa was willing to just let Viola get this out of her system, even if the intention had been to let Bushy Tail do the fighting after the failed capture attempt. We're going to have a lot of explaining to do to Jasper...

Bushy wasn't sure if her growling had done anything, though she liked to think it did, since the alternative was that she wasn't helping and she didn't like not helping. She wanted to do more, but Vanessa and Viola were fighting and not saying anything and she, but, but, but, rrrrRAAAARRGH! With a snarl, Bushy Tail suddenly lunged, hurling all six-and-a-half kilos of her fuzzy body straight toward the anorith's side to get that awful bug AWAY FROM HER TRAINER!

Meanwhile, the berry bag, after a bit of pawing, relinquished another of its sweet delights from its specially-designed-for-freshness depths, sending the poiup berry rolling practically right to his paws for him to devour. Little did he know that he was not merely eating food, but a piece of this crazy woman's livelihood. Oh well, what they didn't know wouldn't hurt him, right?

---

Viola's still punching.
Bushy Tail is using Tackle on the Anorith.
Lillipup still has a free buffet, because they've both gone and lost it now.

[SoJasp]

For every punch, the Anorith let lose a few cries of pain, yet unwilling to back down, she continued her Scratch retaliation. Not even the battle cry of the Eevee initially bothered the clearly distracted Anorith up until she was tackled anyways and sent sliding a few meters away from Vanessa and Viola. Considering pokemon attacks by nature were stronger than most humans’, the damage from the Tackle actually hurt more. Her eyes scrunched together from the pain of being punched their repeatedly, she swiped around blindly now daring anything to come within her reach. She huffed a little- more out of exhaustion than actual aggression at this point.

If he had been aware of the fact that he was eating the human’s livelihood, the Lillipup might have stopped at one- Arceus he might have not even started. However, the tantalizing scent of food was too alluring, and he nipped into the berry with ease chewing and biting through the skin without really thinking about it.

[Vanessa / Viola Oldford]

As the anorith went skidding away, Viola's final punch hit air and she finally seemed to snap out of it. She turned and blinked at Bushy and the anorith, who flinched and stumbled back as she was scraped by the blind swing of claws. Viola only then became aware of the fact that they were breathing a bit heavily, and that the cuts on their arms hurt. You okay now? Vanessa asked, gently.

"Yeah," Viola replied under her breath. "When's the last time I did that?"

Two years ago. A zigzagoon bit us and you bashed it in the snout until it ran away.

"Right." She looked at their hand; the faint scars from the zigzaoon's eye-teeth were still visible if the one knew what to look for. It was the same hand that now had a slash above the knuckles, in fact.

Bushy Tail felt particularly triumphant at separating her crazed trainer from the armoured pokemon, though that scratch did hurt. That was okay, though, because she was a domestic, battle-bred pokemon. The pokemon of a survivor! Just like Vanessa and Viola promised to not let down Anita, she refused to let them down. With another snarl, she charged the anorith with a second tackle.

She's a little spitfire, isn't she? Viola thought, their mouth quirking into a smile despite the twinge of pain and blood dripping down their cheek. They then let their eye move back to where they'd been sitting before they'd acted on the brilliant idea to tackle a stone-armoured lobster, and they froze at the sight of the lillipup next to their berry bag, clearly eating something. Is it eating our berries?

Vanessa, however, had nothing but sympathy. Aww, poor thing's hungry.

That 'poor thing' is depleting our alchemy supplies, Viola shot back, but the anger wasn't really there, and Vanessa knew it. Their expression didn't even look angry at all, just surprised. Viola had spent her rage, for the most part, and even if she hadn't, being upset at a hungry pokemon wasn't as easy for her as one could assume. They knew what it was like to be hungry, after all.

Letting Bushy Tail handle the battle for the moment, the dual-minded woman shifted into a sitting position and carefully slid along the ground back toward their bags, using their least hurt arm to pull themselves, keeping their movements slow and posture relaxed despite being riddled with slashes. They put on that lopsided smile again. "Hey there, puppy," Vanessa said gently as they approached, voice practically cooing. They knew the words didn't matter, just the tone, and Vanessa was the one of the two who could sound like she wouldn't hurt a fly, despite evidence to the contrary. "Are you hungry? Those berries are tasty, huh? It's okay, puppy-puppy. We don't mind if you have one or two."

---

Bushy Tail is using Tackle on the Anorith.
Vanessa is trying to get closer to the Lillipup without scaring him off.

[SoJasp]

The second Tackle hit the Anorith’s side before she had a chance to react, and briefly she was shoved back again- only to make a sharp swinging Scratch moment shortly after in the direction she had been Tackled. While she still couldn’t really see where her attacker was, she could swing in the last place she’d been!

The sound of the woman coming closer caused the ears of the Lillipup to perk, and his head jutted up rather quickly, a step taken back in surprise or fear he knew not. The tone that was used, however, was not threatening, not harming, and for a brief moment, he was uncertain of how to handle it. He’d just seen the woman attack the Anorith, and what she could do did still frighten him. However, the sound and tone wasn’t too altogether scary at the moment…. A sort of ‘lil’ sound escaped from his vocal chords, a quiet recognition that there was a problem even if the woman wasn’t recognizing it that instant. He’d eaten a berry or two and… another step back was taken.

[Vanessa / Viola Oldford]

Bushy tried to hop out of the way, but was still grazed by the claw, and let out yet another snarl. She was convinced she could keep this up all day, and would, if that's what it took. She hopped around to the side and tackled from a different angle this time, trying to disorient the blinded anorith even more than she already was.

The sound that escaped the lillipup as he stepped back made Vanessa and Viola stop approaching for a moment, and Vanessa frowned, though it was still not an angry frown, instead a fairly sad-looking one. Little thing's probably afraid we're going to do what we did to that anorith, Vanessa commented. It made a certain amount of sense, after all, since they'd attacked the anorith unprovoked--trying to explain to him about the reward even with a translator would probably be difficult--while he, on the other hand, had stolen their food, which was a pretty serious offense going by feral logic. Going by a lot of people's logic, really.

What I did, you mean. And yet you say I'm not scary.

Okay, fine, you're scary at first, but you're a puppy once someone gets to know you and you know it.

Is that why you like this dog so much? Reminds you of me?

Well, I admit it'd remind me of you more if it'd jumped on our feet and tried to eat our shoes. Viola resisted the urge to roll their eye at that comment, which was easier as Vanessa moved to another one. Speaking of eating...

The frown on their face was replaced by that little smile again. "It's okay, puppy, really," Vanessa continued to coo softly, but they shifted to move toward their backpack instead of the berry bag. Opening a different pocket than the one Bushy Tail had gotten the pokeball from, they pulled out a little, wrapped object that likely smelled particularly tantalizing to his sensitive nose, especially when they unwrapped it slightly. No better way to let him know it's okay to have food than offer him more, right?

If we hadn't just eaten and that wasn't just supposed to be a snack for the road, I'd be a lot less on board with this.

Vanessa ignored the comment--of course this would be a less likely course of action if food wasn't a sure thing for them--and instead held the large chunk of fried corka in their non-bloody hand and gingerly reached out to place it as far from their body as they could in the lillipup's direction. "We need the rest of the berries, but if you're that hungry, you can have our corka, puppy-puppy."

---

Bushy Tail is using Tackle on the Anorith
Vanessa is offering Fried Corka to the Lillipup

[SoJasp]

Bushy’s tactic worked well. The Tackle from a different angle caused the Anorith to briefly fall sideways swiping around in that general area but missing her target now as the Eevee darted away. A cry of disdain and frustration came from the Anorith as she swiped more wildly than before- not getting anywhere but more tired as she did so.

The frown on the woman’s features caused uncertainty to jump onto the Lillipup’s. He didn’t know what to do! Should he run? He should be running shouldn’t he? Why was he frozen in place then? Fear seemed to be a likely answer. The smile spooked him a little, but again he had no idea what to do about it. The tone that followed, however, was light as it had been before. W-w-what? When the woman went for her bag, the Lillipup simply watched- up until an amazing aroma hit his nose. That…that smelled amazing. He hesitated a moment eyeing the corka and then the woman and then the corka again. Briefly he took a step forwards only to back track only to repeat the series of movements cyclically for the next few seconds. Glancing up at the woman’s face, he then slowly turned his gaze to the berry bag and then slowly back again and then at the corka.

W-well she… she was offering it, right? Slowly padding over to the corka, the Lillipup leaned forwards sniffing it for another few seconds before taking a bite. O-oh wow. This was yummy! Teeth met the corka fluidly as bites were taken in succession. This was really good!

[Vanessa / Viola Oldford]

As Vanessa and Viola watched the hesitance in taking their offering, which was perfectly understandable, Vanessa just kept up that patient, encouraging smile. However, when he took a bite and they caught a flash of the canine's sharp teeth, that's when Viola decided to chime in mentally. That pup's got fangs, doesn't it? she commented, the affection she'd been trying in vain to deny to the other in their head finally showing through.

Sure does. As he started to enthusiastically take chomping bites out of the corka, Vanessa started up the soft cooing again. "That's it. Good puppy. Very good puppy-puppy. That's the food, not those berries. Berries are medicine."

They decided not to try to see how many berries he'd left them with just yet, instead sighing and relaxing a bit. They weren't all that tired--the bout of punching wasn't even approaching a fraction of a proper workout for them--and the pain from their injuries was barely a blip on their radar, but stopping in this little patch of grass had been intended as some quiet time before going to see Kourtney. They idly tucked a bit of their hair behind their ear, showing a bit more of their facial scarring than what would have already been visible.  I wonder how this brat would react to us showing up like this?

Well, we're not going to her for a chat until we've got some proper bandages and a change of clothes. And only the wounds on our face and hand would be all that visible.

True. I'm just wondering what someone being injured means to her. 'Pretentious' as a description isn't that thorough, though given that she 'doesn't feel like' fetching more of something that could have benefits for humanity--Wow, look at Bushy Tail go! Their eye settled on the on-going battle for a moment, the eyebrow above it arching in impressed surprise.

Bushy Tail was on a roll down, the nimble little ball of fluff dancing around out of range of the wildly swinging pincers. This was kind of fun, really. Of course, she only thought that because she knew Vanessa and Viola wanted to catch this pokemon and thus there would be proper medical attention for the anorith later. It was like play-fighting with other pups, only rougher and with more recovery time.

Watching the swings of the claws, she pranced to the opposite side she'd tackled from before, but this time went more toward the back for a flanking maneuver, and this time she didn't make any snarling noises before she leaped.

---

Bushy Tail is using a flanking Tackle on the Anorith.
Vanessa and Viola are just relaxing and letting the Lillipup eat for now.

[SoJasp]

Though he knew not exactly what words the woman was using, her tone remained encouraging, and it kept him relaxed at the very least. The food was much yummier than the berries to boot! Even if the berries had a more interesting flavor in a way. A light grey-brown eye glanced up at the woman’s small movement and stared at the scarring for a few seconds before dropping back to the food. He’d seen more than one pokemon that had just as much, and honestly he just counted himself lucky that he wasn’t torn to shreds already.

Her arms slashing about wildly, the Anorith hit- nothing, and suddenly tackled from behind, she went flipping over onto her back flailing a little as it seemed she was unable to right herself again. A sort of irritated screech escaped from the Anorith as she tried multiple times to get back up but found herself stuck upside down.