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 Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 10:53 pm
"Ryou, get down here!" The blue-eyed teenager said, staring up at the dark-type who had latched onto a tree branch juuust out of his short trainer's reach. The boy received an irritated hiss in return, and he heaved a sigh. "C'mon, Ryou! I have chocolate cupcakes!" Bribes always worked, right? They usually did in Ryou's case.
His ears twitched at the magic words 'chocolate cupcakes' but still he resisted, and jumped to another branch to tell his trainer he wasn't coming down just yet.
At the mention of food, Basil and Manami were instantly next to their trainer, both of them nudging him on either side with their best 'I love you can I have food please?' looks on their faces. Kazuki sighed, rather frustrated, and managed to ignore them for the moment as he walked over under the branch and pulled a small plastic box out of his bag, waving it tauntingly at the dark-type. "I've got ham sandwiches~ Just come down here and let me change the bandages really quick, and you can have as many ham sandwiches and chocolate cupcakes you can eat." There, hopefully that would entice him to come down. He didn't really know any other way, besides climbing up and dragging him down. Somehow, the vertically-challenged trainer seriously doubted that would work.
Ryou tilted his head curiously and sniffed a bit, using his sixth sense of a sort to see if there really were ham sandwiches in there, and there were, mmm. But, he despised the awful bandages that the idiot nurses had wrapped around his entire middle, just to cover two small..well, not small per se, injuries across his back. So what? They'd heal on their own, with or without the stupid bandages. Probably better without. He snorted and flicked his ears back, still deciding on whether or not to come down. Ham sandwiches and chocolate cupcakes were very, very tempting...
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Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 11:35 pm
They say that the world works in mysterious ways. They are completely wrong. The world actually worked in very, very simple ways. It’s just that the people inhabiting the world are so stubborn on thinking that it’s complicated that they overthink it. For example, nothing could happen if it went unobserved. This was completely true and, in this case, the little drama below was observed by a pair of bright blue eyes. Lucine tilted her head to one side, looking curiously down at the others below. Something smelled absolutely delicious… and sugary!
Feeling suitably intrigued and delighted, the mew blipped out of existence from her higher perch and came back into being right next to Ryou, watching the umbreon intently. Oh, now this would be fun! Funfunfun! Alastair’s warnings echoed in her mind, namely the ones that went something like, ‘and don’t let yourself be seen, blah, blah psccsshshshshh…’ Yeah, she didn’t pay too much attention to, oh chocolate… once again, those large blue eyes blinked down at the trainer below. She switched her attention to Ryou for a moment and winked.
And then the mew was gone again.
Some distance away, branches cracked and leaves ruffled at the passage of a few other beings. “Bloody snarled tripe in a rusty bucket!!” Alastair complained, trying to find any signs that Lucine had passed this way. This was the trouble of trying to track a pokémon who could teleport. It was virtually impossible to track them down! They didn’t leave any clues, there was no scent that Con could track… well, virtually no trail either.
And this was made all the more difficult by the fact that Con did NOT want to track the mew down. If she wanted to stay out here, let her, he felt! At least then she would stop bothering him so much. Normally, the hunt would have been filled with the sound of his fear-inspiring howl, the proud cry of a hunting houndoom. But, for now, Alastair and Con traveled in silence. Or it would have been silent, had it not been for Alastair’s creative curses.
“Cretching Lucine, dragging us out here…” he muttered angrily. It was NOT a good day for him thus far. His broken hand was twinging more than ever and his black eye looked even worse than usual, with shades of purple and blue that simply were not meant to be on skin. Ever.
Right then, Con caught a far more interesting scent than Lucine’s. HAM! There was ham here! The pale houndoom perked up immediately and let out one of those long howls before charging forward, no doubt terrifying anyone in his path.
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Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:26 pm
The dark-type merely flicked his tail, still debating on whether or not to come down -- ham and cupcakes were a very, very tempting offer, but he despised the constant changing of bandages that Nurse Joy had insisted on shoving on him. As if it wasn't bad enough to have the damn injuries, Kazuki was supposed to take off the wrappings, scrub the wounds with something painful that stung worse than a beedrill, wash them off -- meaning, giving him a freakin' bath -- then re-wrap him. Ugh, it was awful. They'd heal on their own without all this frivolous crap. Why didn't humans understand that? He wondered if they even had a functional brain sometimes.
And then a something suddenly popped up next to him, a something with incredible amounts of psychic power, and just as suddenly the something was gone. With a yelp of surprise, the scarred umbreon jumped back and slipping, tumbling from the tree and onto the ground. Thankfully he had cat-like instincts, and managed to flip around to land on his feet and not his back. He didn't need his back to hurt anymore, especially from stupidly falling out of a tree and landing on it.
Kazuki blinked and scratched the back of his head as he watched his blind pokemon fall inexplicably from the tree. That never happened. He tilted his head curiously, attempting to figure out why, for some strange reason, Ryou fell.
...until he heard Con howl, that is.
With his own surprised yelp, the timid human dove behind the large arcanine, who was still sitting there, wagging his tail and giving his trainer his best 'I-can-has-food-nao?' face. Manami was too busy looking for food, her head completely inside the blue-eyed trainer's backpack. Ryou sneakily pulled the ham and cupcake boxes away from her, not for the first time glad he had his own type of psychic powers.
He perked up at the sound of the baying houndoom; he knew that howl anywhere. With a grin his eyes glowed blue once more as he shot out his invisible tendrils of aura, trying to locate from which direction his pale friend was coming from.
Kazuki remained hidden behind his still-begging arcanine, arms thrown protectively over his head while he curled up in a fetal position. Basil tilted his head and nudged the trainer's shoulder, easily tipping the human over with a dull thump. Why wasn't he giving him food yet?
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Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:03 pm
After a short sprint, Con’s brain began actually working and he began to wonder why there’d be random ham in the middle of the forest. In all of his experiences with ham, it was normally being handed out by people. It was not, as far as he knew, a common occurrence in any forest. Which meant that there were people around here… oh, how delightful. He always enjoyed scaring people! They always made such interesting noises and generally had something to say, which was normally along the lines of, ‘please don’t eat me!’
Pfft… foolish humans. Con wasn’t sure where they got the idea that they were some sort of tasty treat, but it couldn’t be more wrong. Give them a couple of thumbs and humans thought that the world always revolved around them. Clearly, it revolved around ham. A few moments later, and he managed to sense the dark energy pulsing out towards him. After that, he even recognized the origin of those pulses…
Ryou. Now that was a pleasant surprise.
Alastair was less pleased about this new development and ran off after his houndoom, hoping that Con wouldn’t end up chasing after another Stantler again. It was fun and all, but right now they had more important things to worry about than the simple joys of running aimlessly through the woods. Besides, his hand was acting up again. “Con, you get your mangy butt back here! Don’t make me chase af…” he shut up there, because he needed to save his breath for running.
It didn’t take long before he saw a very… err… very, very large arcanine. Alastair slid to a stop and pondered the wisdom of slowly going backwards and then running away. No one wanted to pick a fight with an arcanine… but… a white arcanine with rainbow str… ZUKI! Finally recognizing Basil---yes, it shouldn’t be possible to forget a rainbow-striped white arcanine, but Alastair managed it---he looked around for Kazuki and found him in a little huddle.
“…Pooooke,” he said, giving Kazuki a friendly poke. “Hi! Err… I was just… umm… passing through and I’m wondering if you happened to…” he stopped there, and shook his head. “Ah, forget it. Hey, Zuki. I didn’t think I’d find anyone out here…” He offered his hand---his good hand---to help Kazuki back to his feet.
Con, meanwhile, had found Ryou amazingly quickly. And, more importantly, he’d also located the wonderful ham the umbreon was dragging around. ‘You do know you’re my best frie… what is that around your waist?’ Con stopped in midspeech, much like his trainer. Unlike his trainer, he was now glaring at his friend or, more precisely, at the bandages around his friend’s stomach. What was this tomfoolery?
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:51 pm
Kazuki, like the brave and courageous person he was, had his eyes shut tightly, and managed a fearful squeak at being poked. One eye opened at Alastair's voice, and with a blush for his behavior and a sheepish grin he took the offered hand and stood up. After dusting himself off a bit -- whether or not there was any dust present, but he'd ignore that thought for now -- he rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't normally expect to see anyone out here either, that's why I stay here," he explained, pointing backwards at a tent he'd set up the night before, just a few feet from a ring of stones and the ashy remains of a fire long since extinguished. "I..come to think of it," he paused, blinking and looking at the taller trainer with a tilt of his head, "why are you out here?"
He seemed oblivious to the fact that Alastair could ask him the very same question.
Ryou merely chuckled as he settled down to the task of opening the plastic containers -- ham first, of course. He tore off the lid, and floated a ham sandwich in front of the canine. "(Yes, I.... what?)" Oh, right, the bandages. Of course. The dark-type's ears flattened. "(Oh, those. Well, I was in a battle with a girafarig, you see. Stupid thing decided to paralyze me before trying to squash me to death with her hooves. I managed to avoid that, but she got me pretty badly all the same.)" A little embarassing, really, but not nearly as much as losing to a cubone. Who he'd fought a rematch with the very next day and beat her to the ground, as it should have been the first time. "(Zuki doesn't really want me battling again for a while because of it.)" He didn't mind the break that much really; the wounds still hurt like nothing else, but he wouldn't dare let Con know that.
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:07 pm
Following Kazuki’s gestures, Alastair ran his eyes over the tent and the rather pathetic pile of ash that had once been a fire. To think that someone actually lived out here… alright, so it wasn’t that different from living in the wagons, as they both had for the last expedition. Maybe that was exactly why it had surprised him to see Zuki still living in such conditions. It just seemed so strange to prefer to live in this sort of place after all of that. Didn’t Zuki want to pamper himself at all?
“Oh. No reason,” Alastair said vaguely, mind racing furiously to come up with a good answer why he would be out here, in the middle of nowhere. In this case, a ‘good answer’ was one that avoided all mention of Lucine. It wasn’t that Alastair didn’t trust Zuki… he just wanted to avoid taking chances with the mew. “Con needed to go for a walk. And I guess he picked up your scent or something.”
Yes. Because a houndoom with bad joints clearly needed a good run out in the middle of nowhere. That wasn’t a very good answer, but at least it explained things nicely.
For perhaps the second time in the history of the universe, Con ignored the ham sandwich floating so tantalizingly close to his nose. For now, he was more interested in his friend’s injuries. He snorted at the story, sensing that Ryou wasn’t telling him everything; right as he snorted, a couple of small smoke rings came out from his nostrils, a sure sign that the houndoom’s temper was getting fired up. Err… no pun intended.
‘I can’t say I blame him. I don’t think you should be fighting either. Did you win against that girafarig?’ Yep. Go right into the important things… At least Zuki wasn’t a complete idiot, if he was keeping Ryou from fighting. Con’s temper calmed down a little, at least enough that the houndoom started eating the sandwich.
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:25 pm
"A walk," the short trainer repeated as he blinked in slight confusion. Somehow, that just didn't seem quite right, but if Alastair didn't want to tell him anything else, he wouldn't pressure him. "Probably the scent of ham sandwiches, I was offering them to Ryou if he would come down from the tree. I think something must have startled him, because he all of a sudden just fell right out of it. He never falls out of trees..." It was just so weird. What could have made him fall?
"(Con, stop smoking. You know it scares the feeble-minded humans,)" he commented as he took a rather large bite out of his sandwich. Mmm, ham... "(And of course I did. Certainly showed her,)" he said in a rather irritated tone, followed by a snort of displeasure. Let her take him on again, the results would be the same. Hopefully without the scars next time, though.
"(Hey, Con,)" he started, flicking an ear as he plopped down on the grass. "(Why is it that humans insist on their frivolous medical procedures? One of the nurses told Zuki to change these stupid things probably 20 times a day.)" Not really, but it felt like it. Stupid things. "(They don't seem to realize that things heal on their own just fine.)"
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:53 pm
Now Zuki had Alastair’s attention. Something had startled Ryou? And made him fall out of a tree? The trainer’s first reaction was to just ignore the words. The umbreon was blind, after all; it couldn’t be that unusual for him to fall or bump into things… but, then again, he had been blind for years. He learned to navigate around such things, right? So why would he fall now… and just what could surprise him? He never seemed surprised to see---metaphorically speaking---Con. He had to have some sort of way to detect the arrival of others.
“Something surprised him, huh? Up there, I guess?” Alastair took a few steps back and glanced up at the treetops, shielding his eyes from the sun’s glare. “Well, it could be anything out here, I suppose.” It could have been Lucine… but, more likely, it was just a random pokémon. “So, how’s Ryou doing anyway?” he asked, still glancing up at the trees.
‘…How did you know that I was smoking?’ Con asked, contentedly chewing on his sandwich. Mmm… now this was truly delicious ham. The fact that Ryou had defeated his foe filled Con with a distinct pride. Ha! Damn right. They had always been fighters, the pair of them, always fighting for freedom in Inhinx… it was no surprise that Ryou had won. He considered the question carefully, musing it over in his mind. ‘Probably because they’re stupid.’
Alright, so it wasn’t a very elegant answer. But it was probably the truth, more or less. Something about the humans’ conversation caught Con’s attention. ‘You fell out of a tree? What happened? I’ve never seen you fall from a tree.’
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:02 pm
"Yeah, with the yelp he made and how he just fell right out of it, that's the only thing I can think of. No, there," he corrected, pointing to a branch more to the right of the one Alastair was looking at.
How Ryou was doing? Oh dear. "He's been wanting to battle a lot more for some reason as of late, I'm not sure why. I'm not that fond of it myself, but he uh... wouldn't take no for an answer." The dark-type was quite scary when he wanted something that Zuki told him he could not have. "He's had three battles since we got back from the whole wagon caravan thing, and his last one was with a girafarig. He did wonderfully at first, confused her right off and she couldn't land a hit on him. She managed to paralyze him though after probably 20 tries, and while he was vulnerable, her trainer had her use rock smash." Ugh, that was a terrifying day. "Luckily Ryou managed to twitch or something at the last minute, I'm not sure how, but he avoided anything fatal. Her hooves scraped up his back pretty badly. That's why he was up in the tree in the first place, I have to change the bandages."
At that last statement, Ryou hissed and hid behind a conveniently placed bush with his ham sandwiches. "(I knew you were smoking because, first off, I can smell it. Second off, I'm just that cool, you should know that,)" he joked with a smirk, flicking his tail. His ears twitched back at the thought of falling from the tree. "(I know, that's why I'm surprised myself. I never fall out of trees. The only other time I've fallen out of a tree was during one of my recent battles, when the stupid cubone knocked me out of it.)" He certainly taught her, though. At least, in that battle. "(I don't know what happened... Something... Something just all of a sudden popped up right next to me, and then just as suddenly disappeared. I think it was a psychic type, must have used teleport or something. I don't think it was an abra though, it seemed much too powerful to be just an abra. Around the same size though, I think.)" He furrowed his brow as he spoke, trying to figure out what it could have been that had suddenly appeared. Whatever it was, he'd make it pay for making him fall out of a tree.
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:39 pm
As Zuki corrected him, Alastair examined the branch as closely as he could. This wasn’t very close at all, considering the vast distance between branch and ground, but… well, he did the best he could, and that was all he could do at the moment. It wasn’t like he needed to climb up there to be certain of the lack of Lucine. As it turned out, a mew sort of stuck out in places like this. Or, at least, Lucine did when she wanted to. Damn psychic pokémon… they could mess with your mind and make you see things that weren’t there at all or just the opposite. Lucine generally avoided that sort of thing, but it was always best to be cautious.
“Strange thing, I guess,” Alastair said vaguely with a shrug. Maybe Ryou had seen something… but what would surprise the umbreon enough to fall out of a tree? Nah… more likely, the umbreon was simply still a little woozy from all of his battles. That seemed a lot more likely than the mew oh-so-conveniently showing up.
Alastair winced at the appropriate times as Zuki recounted Ryou’s battles lately. “Ouch… poor guy. I’m guessing he doesn’t like having his bandages changed? Do you think he fell because of his injuries? Could be that he took a wrong step or something…”
While Alastair was busy making up excuses and reasons why it couldn’t possibly be Lucine, Con’s mind was going down the opposite path. As soon as he heard Ryou’s description of what had happened, he knew the damned pink menace was behind it. Again, he snorted, blowing out another pair of smoke rings from his nostrils. ‘Oh… that… I wouldn’t worry about that, Ryou. I think I know exactly what you saw… it was Lucine, probably. That’s why me and Alastair are out here. We’re searching for her, more or less. See, he’s trying to keep her safe and she’s just trying to keep herself amused. It’s a rather amusing combination, except when she chooses to amuse herself by stealing my food.’ Con snarled a little at that, his hackles rising up at the mere thought of the mew stealing his hard-earned riches.
Luckily, he still had ham right here. That could do wonders for the houndoom’s temper. ‘Anyway… she’s not a danger. Much.’
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 12:35 pm
"Are you sure?" Kazuki asked, scratching the back of his head. He knew Ryou better than any other trainer, of course -- he'd be a bit ashamed if he didn't -- and that didn't sound like him at all. "I didn't see anything, but then again I could only see most of him from where I was standing. Either way he wasn't coming down, and the only time he moved was when he fell. I don't think he took a wrong step or anything..." It still was rather weird. "I think he must've seen -- err... Sensed something. Either that or something poked him and startled him, and I just didn't see it." Yes, that sounded most likely.
Ryou snorted at the humans, mostly Alastair, for even suggesting that his injuries would be the cause of any problem of his. As if his back getting wounded would make his paws slip off a branch. Right.
His ears flicked and he focused back on Con, and nibbled on another sandwich. "Lucine, eh? Is she the.. mm, ham... Is she the uh, what was it... the whatever it was that was in the cave that Team Rocket wanted?"
Well, at least she wasn't dangerous. If you didn't include the food-thievery. That could be dangerous, especially if said food belonged to Con or Ryou. "So where is she now? Any idea?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 12:56 pm
While Alastair was coming up with every possible reason for Ryou to fall, he might as well be really outlandish. It was possible that, all of a sudden, every single air molecule within three feet of him decided to, at the same time, move in the same direction thus pushing him off the branch! Or maybe a tiny black hole collided with the branch. Or… or maybe… just maybe… It could have been Lucine… but, Alastair didn’t like that thought, mostly because he very specifically told Lucine to stay out of sight. He didn’t like thinking that maybe, just maybe, the mew was ignoring him.
“I dunno… if something poked Ryou, I imagine he’d be barking at it right now. Or hissing. Whatever it is that an angry umbreon does,” Alastair continued looking up at the tree, hoping that there was some small pokemon up there. Maybe one of those electric squirrels or something.
While he was busy looking up, however, he should have been looking back. If he had been looking back, then he would have seen a mew pop into existence. Lucine winked and waved cheekily at the short trainer, wondering if he was enjoying this game as much as she was. By the time Alastair stopped looking at the damn tree, the mew had disappeared once more.
“Well, I have no idea. I guess we’ll never know.”
Con nodded at Ryou’s question. ‘Yep. Dunno why Team Rocket wanted her specially. Alastair’s pretty protective of her too, making sure that no one sees her and everything. Seems to me that she’s just an annoying ratling. Clearly, this is just another case of human stupiditiy… Speaking of human stupidity, the pale houndoom happened to look over at the two trainers just as Lucine made her appearance.
With a smirk, he nudged Ryou. ‘You’ll want to see this, Ryou. Come on, take a look through my eyes.’ Alright, so Lucine had her moments when she could be amusing.
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Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 3:32 pm
The dark-type grinned as his eyes glowed blue, watching the scene from his old friend's eyes. "Wouldn't miss it," he snorted, flicking his tail.
"He hisses or growls. Snarls, or whatever," he said with a shrug, and watched Alastair study the tree. Whatever it was, it had obviously gone by now, especially with the talking and Con's howling, and all the other noises. He didn't understand why the other trainer insisted on looking at the branch, since there was obviously nothing there, and what in the world he could be looking for. Did he have a vague idea of what could have sca--
MEW.
Ohdeargodcrapwtfbbq there was a MEW right behind Alastair and he didn't have ANY idea and ohdeargoditwasamew.
That thought spun through Kazuki's head lightning-fast the instant Lucine appeared, and at the same time his eyes grew as wide as a solrock. He froze in place, merely staring wide-eyed, mouth slightly agape, at the vision in pink now waving rather cheekily at him, before it disappeared again. His mind stopped working temporarily.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 1:45 pm
As soon as Alastair turned around to face Kazuki, he knew something was wrong. Since the other trainer’s eyes were at risk of falling out of his skull due to the bulging, however, this was hardly a difficult feat. Alastair spun around once more, wondering if he had missed something important. Like an attack or something… but, the only thing he could see behind him was a vast amount of nothing. Surely nothing to be afraid of, not unless Kazuki had a deep and dire fear of trees or something.
“What is it? What did you see? You didn’t see…” ‘a mew’, he wanted to say, but he stopped himself in time. Sure, he liked Kazuki; he seemed like a good kid. But there was a line that couldn’t be crossed. Right now, Lucine was that line. The mew simply had no idea how mean people could be… “Err… something?” he finished his thought weakly.
Con chuckled a little, feeling vaguely amused by Lucine’s antics for once. ‘See? She’s annoying… but harmless enough. Mostly, she’s supposed to travel in the form of an eevee to avoid attention… unfortunately, she has the habit of transforming into a pink eevee, which attracts a good deal of attention.’ Even more than a pale houndoom, in fact, which was perfectly fine with Con. He rather enjoyed not being the center of attention for once.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:09 pm
Poor Kazuki still stood there, frozen in place, not knowing what to do. Sure, Lucine was gone now, but that didn't mean his mind un-imploded. OhgoditwasamewanditwasbehindAlastairandohdeargodwhattodo.
Basil, completely unaware that a mew was anything to be excited about, finally decided it had taken Zuki long enough to give him his lunch. With a hungry whine, the white arcanine towered over his trainer, giving him his best 'I love you I can has food nao?' face, and nudged the boy's shoulder a bit. "Arr..?"
The short trainer yelped and flailed, snapping out of his mind-freezing reverie, and stared up at Basil after ungracefully falling on his backside. "Wha--" He paused, looking up at Alastair. "Did you see what I did?"
Manami, meanwhile, had her head shoved all the way in Zuki's backpack, contentedly munching on anything -- edible or not -- she could find. "Deewwww!!"
The dark-type snerked, flicking his slender tail. "Wow, I didn't know your trainer could inadvertently cause mine's brain to explode. He'll be okay now, until she pops up again, that is," he said with an amused smirk, still watching the scene through Con's eyes.
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