Z frowned, that meant that he'd be facing against Zandrophin in his battle round. He figured he could come up with a strategy to face down his squirtle, but if he switched and threw his Abra at him, the psychic pokemon's teleport might make things hard for him to handle. Still, his pokemon had learned a few new moves and he wanted to make sure that all of their training would be worth it in the end so he decided to wait and see and try to come up with counters for all of Zandrophin's pokemon. HE wished he could have been facing Akane, as they had battled before and he knew part of what she could throw at him.
Marcus turned towards Eira and spoke his disagreement, "Are you sure about that? Akane is really experienced in battling and Maya has very little in the way of fighting experience. Even if she does well in performing beautiful moves, she stands no chance against the queen's Silas or Houndoom..." Marcus was worried about Maya; she had just started to get used to battling on the trip here, and he didn't want her to lose any confidence she had gained by being destroyed by Akane's brutal personality and her powerful Pokemon.
The red woman was almost disappointed she didn’t get an excuse to battle Zandrophin. But she cracked a smile when she noticed the gloomy air surrounding Maya. Perhaps this will be equally as fun. Akane was well-known for being ravenous in battle, but to have to make it pretty; Akane always loved to create shapes with all of her chess pieces before she made one final check mate where every single one of her remaining pieces blocked a move, which sent a psychological message under the winning over-tone. Akane figured by her uneasiness she’d be almost too easy to break. Maybe. Although that woman has an air of… supernatural about her. Perhaps that other pokeball is hiding a ghost type? Akane’s thoughts were cut short. She ought to prepare for battle. Akane looked at houndoom. He was powerful, and still pretty rested considering the difficulty of his moves earlier. But she still hasn’t tested in a real battle Silas’s specialized strength. Silas was her battle pokemon, and he rarely did anything but. But she figured his moves were relatively pretty, he could at least make one hell of an exit, and Maya's pokemon would not leave the hall conscious.
"Sanity is only an idea made real, to make those who are boring feel better." -Akane
"F*ck." Maya said, looking at Bo. She couldn't send Dororo out in the ice after all. Furthermore his moves were not quite so... beautiful... She desperately wished she had somehow acquired another pokemon on her journey...
"Ok, Bo," she said, looking down at the pink flaaffy that was now starting to shake not from cold but nerves. "I'm gonna have to rely on you okay? J-just do your best okay?"
"Maaa..."
She didn't have a lot of time to plan here... and that was definitely not good. But... she looked at the stage carefully and adjusted her glasses as she looked at it. It might give her an idea... but it would be hard to work with trying to be beautiful and battle...
Eira looked at Marcus as she called Sealeo back to her, the now much larger Pokemon attempting to move like he used to only to fail as his size failed to cooperate now that he was larger. She looked back at the stage and frowned slightly at the different reactions to the battle round that was to come. "Remember that this is not about winning everyone. You only earn points for how well you perform, not for how well you win. Even the worst of trainers can earn points in these battles."
"Okay...if you say so." Lex hopped out of Marcus' lap while he was distracted and went to Sealeo, astounded at the Pokemon's new look. "Wy...Wy?" Lex patted all over Sealeo's face as he assessed the new changes, playing with his new marvelous mustache. "Wynaut!"
"They all did pretty good, but Akane and Z were at a clear disadvantage due to the arena they were competing in. If they don't switch, I see you giving them a lot of negative points in their battles for melting your new hall." Marcus turned to look out into the audience, "Don't you think this place being made of ice...might keep fire type trainers away? It's nice for the aesthetic, but anyone with a fire routine would steer clear of here. And given that half of all fire-type moves are beautiful, that seems...counter to what you want. Just an observation."
Z found a place in the stands where he'd be able to watch the battle between Akane and Maya. He wanted to take notes on some of the tricks that they used in case he could utilize them in his battle. He knew Eira wanted a flashy battle, and he had one new move that definitely was flashy, but it would be a bit destructive to the stage, so he was a bit hesitant to use it. He thought about how Zandrophin performed in Akane's contest and tried to remember the moves that his abra knew. He also tried to work on countermeasures to the squirtle's moves in case he had to go against the little turtle.
Sealeo bumped Lex with his nose, discovering how sensitive it now was to textures and scents. With a small cry of his name, Sealeo bumped Lex so the little Pokemon rolled onto his nose before lifting him up playfully.
"We don't really have much to work with around here other than ice, so there was no way we could have made such a large hall without using it," Eira explained as she sat down next to Marcus once more. "I'm not trying to steer any Fire type trainers away. This hall is more of a challenge to them to learn to control their fire so it doesn't melt everything it touches."
"I guess that makes sense. I just imagine moves like Eruption and Fire Blast, that are both spectacularly powerful and amazingly beautiful, would be unusable here. Maybe if you ever expand Eirlys, like start another town, you could have more access to other materials and build with a less meltable one. Especially once you get trade going with other towns now that your village is more well known; not counting the 30 or so people not from here that knew of you before."
Lex wobbled and kept falling down from Sealeo's nose, his body doing what it was meant to do; wobble. The center of gravity was far too low for Lex to be effectively balanced on his head easily, if at all; but he was having fun nonetheless, waving his arms around wildly as he giggled joyfully at being upside down; a rarity for his Pokemon and their evolution.
"We don't really have enough people to expand and create another town," Eira said with a small sigh as she watched their Pokemon interact with one another. "I'd like for it to be easier to get supplies that aren't easily found around here that we need, but we just don't have the manpower or the leadership needed to expand further than the forest. Everyone puts the leadership on me, so no one else is going to step up if I try suggesting that we migrate anyone to a different area."
Sealeo tried his best to keep Lex on his nose for as long as possible, really enjoying playing with the baby Pokemon like this since he felt so squishy and seemed to be enjoying it as well.
Lex's top of his head was slightly depressed into the rest of it, making his smiling eyes almost look straight; his balloon-like body not fully inflated unless needed to be. Lex was starting to get disorientated and could no longer help keep his balance on the seal pokemon's nose, his body naturally trying to find equilibrium, started to fall off Sealeo's face.
"You can't have a single person be in charge of a town in this whole village? I find that really hard to believe. If that's true, you've got an oddity of a village completely full of wimps, no offense. They can't do anything without asking you first, they constantly praise you and come for advice and can't take any charge for themselves. It sounds impossible to get a random number of people and have all of them be so lacking in leadership, even if they've been here for years."
Marcus was delving into his 'I know better than you' talk again, and he kept watch of it because he didn't want to insult too much. He just wanted to help. "I don't believe it. That has to be just how you see them. How many faces do you actually remember of your "subjects"? You do say how often you get them to leave you alone, you probably don't pay that close attention to each individual. Maybe you keep getting asked advice from new members. I can't see the same person asking you the same question 5 times and still forgetting, and they had to live here 3 or 4 winters without learning how to take care of themselves. Seems kinda strange. You see what I mean?"
"I-I admit that I don't quite remember everything about the people that live here, but I do know who has been here and for how long. I may not be the best of leaders like Akane, but I can keep that much straight at least even if I don't like having to deal with people," Eira snapped at him, having been offended that he had insulted her ability to remember things about those who lived around her. Yes, she had issues with socializing, but she knew the people that were able to survive on their own and who couldn't even if she couldn't remember their names or other things about them. And she did quite well with remembering details about people by remembering things about their Pokemon, who she always made sure to get to know even when she didn't get to know the trainers so much. "Whether you believe I do a good job here or not, we have survived for about a decade here without the need for help from others and have actually helped people stupid enough to try to make it through dangerous weather."
Sealeo made an attempt to keep Lex on his nose for a bit longer, but stopped paying attention to his playmate when he noticed his partner getting upset talking to the other human. *What is your human doing to my Eira?*
"I'm sorry if I've offended you, but the fact that they've lived here for a decade should tell you that they can take care of themselves and at least a few show leadership skills. I may be wrong about how many people you know here, and I apologize for that. You may be upset that I've insulted you, but it doesn't compare to how you've insulted your own people. They not only survive here, but go out of their way to make you more comfortable. Not because you need it, but because they think you deserve it. You didn't order them to do those things, they did it of their own will. That takes forward thinking, decision-making, thinking of others, desire to go above and beyond."
Lex flipped over and landed on his feet in a perfect dismount. He was, however, not worrying about that at the moment, listening to the argument before responding to Sealeo. *He seems right to me. But I don't know her all that well. If he's right about them, she's not being nice to them.*
Marcus went to walk out of the booth, Lex beating his tail on the ground as he followed, "To be honest, you should be more insulted by your opinion of your people than they should be."
*My Eira is just shy around people. She does a lot for the humans here that they don't know about, but all of us Pokemon do cause we are always around her.* Sealeo explained with what sounded like a laugh as he clumsily moved to follow Lex a bit. *My Eira is nice, just doesn't know how to be with other humans.*
Eira looked at Marcus like she wanted to say something to him, but decided to keep her mouth shut and look back towards the stage with a hurt look in her eyes. She hadn't wanted to fight with one of the few people she considered a friend, but she didn't want to outright say that she didn't want anyone to leave Silvertree so she knows that they were safe.