Ran sizes the Hariyama and snorts respectfully. Finn grins proudly at Noah's compliment and how Ran carries himself so gracefully - Ran really glows with the radiance of his teaching. Unlike many Primeape, Ran sees his wrath as a source of grounding and power.

"Thanks, man!" Finn blushes.

And speaking of raising Pokemon...

"By the way, since you're a Fighting-type expert and all, I wanna ask if you have any advice. Do you have any experience with... Paradox Pokemon?" Finn asks, lowering his voice. He knows the public knows they exist, but they are shrouded in so much mystery. And Finn is having a really, really difficult time getting his new Iron Valiant to behave.

"Because if you do, I'd love to learn from you."

Meanwhile, a Hawlucha swoops past, and Ran unleashes a grunt so fearsome that the Hawlucha squawks and crashes into a bench.

noah faber

Captures the Hawlucha!

Finn might still be keeping his deeper, baser interests at arm's length, but he really liked tea.

"I like the roasted type. Sometimes, I actually gather the tea leaves myself. There's a small tea garden that my family keeps off the side of one of the hills. Then, we roast it over a Will o' Wisp - gives it a nice, charred, almost otherworldly taste."

As Finn spoke, his face and body opened up with the warmth of interest. Perhaps it was his enthusiasm that attracted the Misdreavus, who fell quickly to a sharp peck from Fei's beak.

"I could bring you someday, if you want."

Finn felt like he was warming up to Zev. Really getting to know him better.

Zev Harcourt

Captures the Misdreavus!

Finn chuckled. Part of it was that he didn't know how open to be with Zev, and part of it was that he didn't know who he was outside the school. Did a self exist outside of a social context?

Sheepishly, Finn diverted his attention to a stray Murkrow. "Eh!" Finn's kimono fluttered behind him like an emerald wing. Fei hopped from ledge to ledge, homing in on the Murkrow before shrieking it off its flight path.

Click!

As the Murkrow shook about inside its Pokeball, Finn's cover ran out of run time.

Time to confront the question - who was Finnegan Yang?

"Tea. Working out. I like flying out to offshore places." There was so much more Finn could say - fashion, liquor, theme parks, cute boys. But he felt awkward about stepping out from behind the sword.

Zev Harcourt

Captures the Murkrow!

Finn felt the soft, tender turn of a genuine moment between Zev and himself. An unspoken bond between student and teacher - a shared understanding of suffering and the commitment that arose from it. It shone like moonlight off the edge of a blade.

And then, Zev brought their silence to a smooth end, raising the mood with a bright smile. Finn blinked his solemnness away and returned the grin. Now, he felt guilty about weighing Zev against Isaac Merlo in his mind, always wondering how two friends turned out so differently. Zev took a bit longer to understand, but it seemed like Finn was getting closer.

Fei pecked at a little armoured dragon, holding it in place long enough for Finn to swing a Pokeball at it.

"I hope you're ready for a good fight," Finn said, anticipation evident on the edge of his breath. "The Pokemon here are strong."

Finn hopped onto a step and began ascending towards the Pillar.

Zev Harcourt

Finn catches the Jangmo-o!

Zev's words touched something deep inside Finn's heart - a memory covered by scar tissue, tough and fibrous on the outside but wounded within. Finn knew, from his own memory, what terror looked like, smelled like. Finn looked at Zev, stricken. The real reason Finn devoted his life to the sword? A house on fire, smoke choking his lungs, Pokemon suffocating in the inferno.

Finn nodded solemnly. I thought so too.

Fei's wings caught the sun's glare a little bit too brightly.

"We can't change the past. It wasn't your fault." Finn dropped his usual stoic cover. His posture was open and honest, and his voice soft like a Swablu's wing. "We can only do better for the people who come after us."

And that's why Finn invested his time into rebuilding and strengthening Flying Sword School. He could work out his penance by ensuring it never happened again.

"You've got a good heart, Zev."

Vulnerably, Finn gave Zev a gentle smile.

A small Farfetch'd tumbled past them in the background, and Skarmory pecked at its leek and swung it around until it fell on its beak.

Zev Harcourt

Catch attempt - Farfetch'd!

Finn liked Noah right from the get go, but he didn't know how much to tell him. How about I am still recovering from the horror of almost being killed in an alien dimension by a wild bandit? Not the best way to make a first impression.

"I just need some time away from the School. Nice sun, good drinks, strong Pokemon."

A cute Buneary toddled past them, but Finn's attention was wholly focused on Noah - the man, the legend himself.

"How about you? Do you come here often? And cool Hariyama!"

Excitedly, Finn releases Ran, his Primeape, so Noah can have a look at his own Fighting-type Pokemon. Finn also noticed the difference between their Pokemon - Noah the brawler with his big, bulky wrestler, and Finn with his comparatively fast-footed crafty fighter.

"I'm not sure about my ace. I guess who that is depends on whether I'm showing up as a swordsman or a fighter."

A deep response to a fairly innocent question, but Finn's identity was also in constant flux. The events in the other world did make him think harder about who he is and who he should be.

noah faber

A gentle wind flickered past the two men. Zev’s question flipped the pages of Finn’s mind like that very wind itself, and he thought back to how he never really imagined a life apart from Flying Sword School. Right from boyhood, he became friends with the forest air; he learned the way a blade cuts freshly through wood.

”I was born into it. And a tree never outgrows its roots.” Finn bore a smile that hinted more than it said. It always felt so natural - learn, fight, then teach. A clear, organic progression from shoot to tree, providing shade for the next generation of swordsmen. But Zev made him think - or, rather, resurfaced a train of thought that had been brewing for a while - about whether or not Finn had a life outside the School.

A Dragonair sailed into sight. Finn’s eyes widened at its beauty, how its scales reflected the creamy sky. Power and elegance coursed through its body.

”Fei!” Finn called out, jerking his head towards the dragon, and Finn’s Skarmory tamed it with a Steel Wing. Finn threw a Pokeball against the current of the wind - it hit its target right on the horn.

Chuckling, Finn wiped his brow.

”How about yourself, Zev? What brought you to where you are?”

Finn realised he knew little about Zev too.

Zev Harcourt

Captures the Dragonair!

Redeeming a Custom Pokemon from the Move Pack:

Mikael's throwing knife found its target clean and quick. Finn was impressed - he was good! Witnessing his prowess was like beholding a song in another tongue. Every note sounded unusual, yet they stitched together with a logic exotic but forceful, and formed chords that arced into a moving song.

Finn whistled in affirmation.

"Nice to meet you - Mikael, Aurora, Selene. This is Beidou, my fellow fighter." Beidou, named after the Big Dipper, wore a star of his own on his neck - a fragment of a Dawn Stone threaded on a gold string. It caught a stray sunray and glittered.

Finn still found it surprising that Mikael was this close to Flying Sword but didn't know of its existence. His green eyes flickered with an idea; his matching green hair twitched too.

"What say you come back with me to have a look at Flying Sword? The students could learn something from you."

Finn gestured to Beidou. With his Teleport, they could be there in a second.

mikael rosenberg

Zev confused Finn. Thinking about him was like fighting a shadow with a sword. No matter your skill, the shadow would slink and swerve around you. Sure, Zev seemed to want to learn, but Finn always wondered if there wasn't a secret undercurrent drifting darkly beneath his feet. 

Or maybe it was just a bad first experience. Finn remembered how Zev had him in a headlock the very first time they met, and how Finn was honour-bound to take him in on a technicality. A reluctant bond, proper on the surface, but who knows what underneath? 

"I like coming here to think about being empty."

It was something he taught in his classes. At the very tip of the blade is where something becomes nothing, the cutting point that severs one into two. Here, at this great spike into the sky, was also a point of vanishing.

To become a good swordsman, you must learn to empty yourself. Become nothing. 

A Misdreavus poked her head out from behind a rock. Feidao Screeched at it, shocking her stiff, and Finn lobbed a Pokeball at the ghost.

"Yourself, Zev? What do you want to find here?"

Zev Harcourt

Finn catches the Misdreavus!

The Battle Resort heated up like a cookie cracking in an oven, but Finnegan Yang, himbo swordsman of Fortree City, would not be deterred from a good day. He leaned back on a bench, his green dragon kimono off his back and fluttering in the wind, hooked onto the bench's corner. His abs caught the sunlight like toasting buns.

Trips away from the School were good for the soul - and for Finn's tan. He'd never catch this amount of Vitamin D underneath the trees.

Someone's shadow came into view, blocking Finn's sun, but Finn wasn't irked by this at all. Peering up from behind his matching green sunglasses, he saw someone he'd always wanted to connect with but never knew how - Noah Faber!

And what? Noah Faber the gym leader wanted to see him?

Finn glowed!

"Yep, in the flesh. And I've heard of you too - Noah Faber!" Grinning like the sun itself, Finn extended a strong bracing handshake. He was honoured to be recognised by someone whose own fighting prowess he admired.

"You should come by for sure. I've been thinking of challenging your gym too," Finn gushed as he reached back to pull his kimono back on.

noah faber

"Thanks, Fei." Finnegan hopped off the tough, burnished back of his Skarmory, who tilted her neck to the ground so Finn could slide and hop off easily. Finn dusted his outfit off, straightened his crown and pulled his hair back into shape. True to her name - which, in translation, was true to origin, Flying Dagger - the ride from Fortree was wild, swift and direct.

Sky Pillar looked as majestic as Finn recalled. This rough, stark spike into the air was a place Finn could always come to clear his head. And get a good fight in. The sky clear air bred fierce, powerful creatures. Finn never left disappointed.

And, speaking of fights and struggles, Zev was here as well.

When Finn told his students that he was taking a day off to train by himself, he didn't expect anyone to come along. He thought they'd be glad he was sparing them for a day. But Zev - a handful of a student - was here too. Grudgingly, but respecting his eagerness to learn (or perhaps just annoy the hell out of Finn) Finn brought Zev along too. And here they were. Finn wasn't sure what to say.

"I come here often." Finn started. His boots crunched on the ground. "These monsters are strong."

Zev Harcourt

(Note: Feel free to write it such that Zev came over on the backs of one of Finn's flying Pokemon. Or, even more hilariously, on Finn's Skarmory too!)