|
|
Post by Ex on Jul 6, 2010 18:19:34 GMT -5
It was three in the afternoon on this hot summer day. The central market was slightly more empty than normal due to two factors: firstly, it was a Monday, and secondly, it was simply too hot to be out. The sun was burning the fruits at the market without mercy and there simply wasn't enough shade to keep them cool. Tomatoes had been wasted, apples had gone bad... it wasn't a very good day at the market. On the bright side, the much less dense crowd made walking around more comfortable, and there was a lower chance of loosing your belongings. Not that Pokémon required many belongings: unlike the needy humans, they could survive on what nature gave them. Some of them were even immune to the hazards of sunlight. Not all of them, however.
"You are going to learn how to stop stealing stuff now," One Pokémon demanded crossly, picking his way towards a booth selling seeds of various plants. For now, Psy needed jasmine and chrysanthemum flowers, as the supply was running low, and tea was a fairly popular drink at the café. There was also the rose tea, but Psy grew his own rose hips with relative ease.
Bright blue eyes glared up at the sky. The sun was too strong today, and he could feel his shoulder burning. A sunhat was able to shade his face well (of course, it did make him look even more feminine, but Psy was quite used to that by now), but he had taken off the black biker jacket, and the sunscreen only lasted so long (he hated sunscreen, but then again, so did most people). The burning and stickiness made him hate his companion a bit, as she was completely fine in the sweltering temperatures. In fact, Fire-Bird completely thrived in it.
"You're no fun," Fire-Bird complained, casting a quick glance at the Gardevoir. He simply pouted a bit, which although amusing, didn't quite satisfy Fire-Bird's need for entertainment. She understood that the sun was bright and all, and that Gardevoir didn't have the same, tough, burn proof skin fire-types like herself had, but a bit more energy would be nice. "Besides, stealing is our life-"
"Was our life, goddamn you."
"... well, fine, but it's still my life. Sort of. Well, no... my life revolves around being happy," Fire-Bird explained, waggling a finger with a smile that certainly fit her trickster attitude. The Blaziken was wearing a maroon coloured cloak, attempting to hide her appearance. The people would not be happy if they noticed that the calamitous leader of the Fireworks Gang was among them. Then again, these were humans, and they didn't usually care too much about the affairs of the Pokémon.
Psy wasn't intent on listening to Fire-Bird attempt to brighten his mood, and she knew that. Rolling her eyes, she simply followed him towards the booth, jadedly eying Psy's hand as he inspected the packets of seeds and seedlings wilting in the heat.
"... Oh, I know! You're PMSing, right?" Fire-Bird squealed.
"I hate you."
|
|
|
|
Post by insert pretentious name here on Jul 7, 2010 19:25:36 GMT -5
Summer was a lovely time of year for a pair of Eevees. Unlike most, they did not feel the heat despite their obviously thick coats, they did not find the abundance of insects annoying, and they quite liked the bright, near-constant sun. Plus, less people were outside, so that meant they didn't have to be very careful, to the point where Pollux didn't see a problem with making themselves quite visible to everyone but the densest of spirit-whatevers.
Well, in theory.
Pollux padded ahead, mostly because Castor was having the time of his not-exactly life investigating various goods wilting in the heat. Every so often, Pollux would have to double back to tug his twin onwards, after Castor had found a particularly interesting mass of sun-bleached plant matter. "Come on, Castor," Pollux insisted petulantly. "'Nless you're gonna bring those bugs to what's-her-face, we oughta get there 'fore she keels over from heatstroke 'n stuff."
Castor glanced up from his interestingly squishy tangerine, which had somehow rolled from its stand and landed in a mess of sand and hungry ants. "Fiiiiiine," he pouted, abandoning it to its disgusting fate. And somehow he managed to find something else interesting in the space of two seconds. "Pollux, Pollux, lookit! Flowers!"
Pollux's ears twitched in irritation, and he resisted the urge to slap his brother upside his intangible head. "What kind of psychopomp are you?" he demanded grumpily after Castor. He got no response, mostly because Castor ran to the nearby stand, darting between the maroon-cloaked whatever and shiny Gardevoir bickering in front of it. With a resigned sigh, Pollux followed his brother. Probably no one would bother making trouble in this heat, but Pollux should still make sure that Castor didn't, say, try to eat someone's hand.
He would, too.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jul 8, 2010 17:55:01 GMT -5
"So, how do you plan on teaching me to be a good girl, exactly?" Fire-Bird asked not so innocently, leaning forward and resting her feathery elbows on the table. Her head rested on her large claws. Unsurprisingly, Fire-Bird received no answer.
While the central market was usually loads of fun, hanging out with Psy quickly became a few hours of boredom. Fire-Bird was much more used to swiping some fruits with friends and then enjoying their goodies on a peaceful building, preferably one with a nice view. The Zabat Resort offered a wonderful view of Sootopolis and the humans usually didn't mind as long as there wasn't much noise. After this outing, perhaps, Fire-Bird would find someone to play with.
"Move your head and let me see those packets," Psy demanded, attempting to swat the Blaziken's head away. As he was looking down at the slouching fire-type, Psy managed to catch sight of Castor. The Gardevoir stared, apparently startled that a young Eevee would be in Sootopolis. Surely, such a rare species belonged to a human. There was also the subject of Castor's colouring, as Eevee did gain a silvery-white shade if they were born with the DNA that made them shiny, although red and blue didn't usually fit in.
Red and blue. Psy frowned. He knew someone with those colours before. However, now was not the time to hold a grudge. The Eevee look young, so Psy decided that it couldn't be associated with his original trainer. And besides, Eevee were too cute and fluffy.
"Oooh, how cute! An Eevee!" Fire-Bird squealed, crouching down to get a better look at the fluffy mass of cuteness (as she would later describe it). She didn't appear to care much about Castor's odd appearance, mostly concerned about hugging it. Fire-Bird could hug it, but sudden hugs were usually rude, and it might attack her if she tried. If the Eevee attacked her, Psy would abandon Fire-Bird, and Fire-Bird did not want to be alone.
For now, Fire-Bird settled with attempting to poke Castor without being bitten. None of the two appeared to notice Pollux nearing.
|
|
|
|
Post by insert pretentious name here on Jul 9, 2010 19:58:55 GMT -5
Castor turned around and smiled brightly at the Blaziken looming over him, completely oblivious to any thoughts of being petted. "Hallo!" he chirped brightly. Somewhere, probably underground or underwater, something ugly-slash-deformed screamed in pain in a way that was probably not related to overwhelming adorableness but may well have been. Castor continued in cheerful bliss, "Aren'tcha that crazy lady from the fire gang over that-a-way?" His tail flicked in the general direction of the Fireworks territory. Apparently, Castor didn't really get the idea of subtlety. The Eevee turned his head a few degrees to stare at her friend, and, more importantly, the stall behind him. "Ooh, flowers!" Castor exclaimed gleefully, despite the fact they were mostly seeds and wilting barely-plants.
Pollux announced his arrival by pulling on the twins' shared chain, which somehow produced a crystalline sound despite being intangible. Castor didn't move at all, as their chain simply stretched some more, but turned around to stare at his twin inquisitively. "Heya, Pollux!" Castor greeted him cheerfully. "Can we like get flowers?"
"No," Pollux told him flatly, padding up to stand at his twin's side and maybe slap him down if he did something Pollux found stupid. "Flowers are girly and we don't have anywhere to put them." He glanced up at the two shinies. "'llo. Did he try to eat anything?" Pollux asked, somewhat pleasantly in a not exactly 180 from his previous grumpy bearing. More like 135. While not as cute as Castor (arguably), it was probably physically impossible for either twin not to be endearing. |
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jul 10, 2010 15:21:39 GMT -5
Fire-Bird made some sort of squealing sound, if Blaziken could do that at all. She was acting like a hyperactive schoolgirl, which was pretty goddamn normal for her. Not only was the Eevee adorable but he knew who she was! Of course, many Pokémon knew who Fire-Bird was, hence the cloak she wore. After moments of what might have been fangirling, Fire-Bird cheerily answered, "Why yes, yes I am. Fire-Bird's the name. Who're you twos?". Pollux, while obviously not as 'cute acting' as Castor, certainly looked cute. Oh well, as long as they were more entertaining than Psy.
Speaking of Psy, he had largely ignored what was going on, and was instead thinking about the properties of chrysanthemums and jasmines. The chrysanthemums he would have to grow more often considering the way they helped in the recovery of influenza. Jasmine tea often used green tea as a base, which was fine since there was still a good amount of Camellia sinensis. It would take a few hours during the night since jasmine flowers opened up their petals during the night and- "Flowers are girly and we don't have anywhere to put them."
It was a topic that was commonly brought up, and Psy was beginning to get sick of it. He was about to bend down and begin explaining the rather unknown facts about various flowering pants (such as the poison of the Nerium oleander and the oil from the Ricinus communis being used to light lamps) when Psy remembered that yes, flowers were girly, and arguing against that was pretty pointless.
"Oh, no, he didn't eat anything. Does he want to?" Fire-Bird replied to Pollux. There wasn't anything edible in reach and even if there was, Psy would have insisted on buying it legally instead of attempting to steal it. None of the two appeared to care much about the odd appearance of the Eevee, although Fire-Bird looked like she wanted to play with the chain that attached them to each other.
|
|
|
|
Post by insert pretentious name here on Jul 11, 2010 20:38:33 GMT -5
Castor smiled brightly at his twin, obviously pleased that he hadn't been caught doing anything wrong, then answered the Blaziken cheerfully. "I'm Castor, and this's Pollux," he told her. "Who's she?" Castor asked innocently, obviously meaning Fire-Bird's sunhatted friend.
Before the other two could react, Pollux narrowed his eyes. "Dummy," he said. "That's a guy. Eden's Gardeners, remember?"
"Oh, right, the flower people!"
"... Sure." To Fire-Bird, the young psychopomp added, "Nah, we don't really need to eat. Also, we kinda can't. Like, not the way you people do. 'Nless you want to burn the food, I guess, but that's kinda inconvenient." Pollux was referring vaguely to the practice of offerings, of course. Except they were typically more ornate than just buying a burrito and chucking it into fires, but the twins were too young to be picky nor really merit ceremony, which they were fine with.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jul 11, 2010 21:59:45 GMT -5
Fire-Bird erupted into a somewhat controlled string of giggles. The joke was getting old, that was true, but there was still something incredibly funny about Psy being mistaken for a girl. Maybe it was the look on his face (not that Fire-Bird could see at the moment) or the realization that Psy did look like a girl. There was always something about the gender confusion that made Fire-Bird laugh. Even when Pollux corrected his brother, Fire-Bird was still giggling. Thankfully, she recovered quickly (or at least, quickly before Psy swatted her in the face with his sunhat).
Having paid for a few packs of jasmine and chrysanthemum seeds along with a few wilting plants (Psy was sure he would be able to rejuvenate them with a little TLC, or at least a bunch of premium grade Miracle Grow), the leader of the 'flower people' turned to look at the Eevee twins. Psy didn't quite understand what they meant by 'can't eat', but he decided against questioning it.
"Ooh, alright then. I don't see any food that hasn't died in the sun anyways," Fire-Bird exclaimed, doing one last check to make sure there wasn't anything edible in sight, "Hey, can I like, hug you two? You're so adorable, and there aren't too many Eevee around. Not unless they belong to a trainer, then they're everywhere. Humans love Eevee," which was true, in the end: Fire-Bird couldn't remember seeing a trainer who didn't have an Eevee or its evolutions on their Christmas wish list, "I can hug them, right Psy?"
The Gardevoir shrugged and simply said, "Fine, just make sure they're okay with it. The last time you hugged a Luvdisc. Who was part of the Tsunami Gang. Who attempted to kill you."
"But she was so cute!"
|
|
|
|
Post by insert pretentious name here on Jul 12, 2010 7:55:50 GMT -5
The twins listened in baffled silence at the shinies' banter, and mutually and silently agreed not to question it.
Castor frowned, which was rare. "Aaaaw, I want a hug," he whined, glancing at Pollux. The other Eevee rolled his eyes, not bothering to remind his brother why it was pretty much impossible (again).
"You may, but sorry, you probably can't hug us," he said bluntly (somewhere far away, a grammarnazi was probably cheering), quickly reverting to his initial grumpiness. "You're welcome to try, though. See?"
With that, he turned and batted at the wooden leg of a stand with his left forepaw. The fluffy white appendage sailed right through the old wood without interruption. Beside him, Castor fairly radiated confusion - they weren't supposed to make it obvious they weren't normal (well, as much as they could, anyway), Tullia had made it clear when they were reassigned. Something about psychopomps not being generally welcomed because of dying and stuff. Why Pollux was impulsively flouting that made no sense to Castor. |
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jul 13, 2010 15:32:48 GMT -5
// Getting used to laptop keyboard, I keep missing the backspace button, urgh. //
"What."
"What."
Both shinies stared, baffled. While Psy's reaction was to be expected, it was fairly rare to see Fire-Bird of all Pokémon speechless. Fire-Bird went as far as to poke the wooden leg and then attempt to poke Castor, but quickly pulled her finger back before she could make contact. Still unconvinced, Fire-Bird went as far as attempting to light the wood on fire, blowing out a few embers. It caught on fire like it normally would.
"Dammit, Fire-Bird!" Psy snapped, pushing the fire-type away from the burning wood. The Blaziken ducked allowing Psy to easily place a blue hand (the one that wasn't holding the bag of seeds and plants) on her shoulder and catapult himself over her. Before the fire could spread (as the wood was dry and it was a hot, dry day), Psy managed to put out the embers by smacking them with his sunhat.
"Oh calm down, they wouldn't have spread that fast," Fire-Bird reassured earning her a bright blue glare. She grinned in her trademark goofy fashion. Then she turned to Castor and Pollux, putting on an appearance of genuine curiosity.
"So... exactly what was that?" Psy asked, now fully interested. He bent down to get a closer look at the two Eevee but couldn't find anything that would explain the intangibility. The chain, however, was probably the closest thing, "So, is it because of that chain you have? Is that why you, uh, lack solid substance?"
|
|
|
|
Post by insert pretentious name here on Jul 14, 2010 9:42:59 GMT -5
Both Eevees watched unblinkingly the shinies' obvious confusion and Fire-Bird's, well, arson wasn't quite the right word for it but whatever. One twin was much more amused than the other, even if he didn't show it visibly. Really, Pollux quite liked flouting rules and traditions, and was not above acting on irrational impulses for his entertainment.
"Nah, we're just dead," Pollux said bluntly. "We cannot physically interact with the living. We can choose to touch the nonliving if we want, but..." Pollux's tail swished dismissively in what was probably a shrug. "It would've defeated the purpose of my, eh, demonstration if I had, so."
"We dunno what the chain's doing there," Castor put in cheerfully, apparently having decided to just go along with it. "It doesn't even do anything, and i's been there as long as we can remember."
"And we've been dead as long as we can remember," Pollux interjected. "But pretty sure it's 'cause we're psychopomps that you can't hug us." |
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jul 15, 2010 13:28:54 GMT -5
"... You're dead?" Fire-Bird echoed. It wasn't every day you met a genuinely dead ghost... psychopomp... thing. However, Fire-Bird was not the kind of Pokémon who cared about who her companions were. She had tortured played games with members of the Tsunami Gang after all and survived to tell the tale (over and over and over again).
"This reminds me of the time we went through Mt. Pyre. Mind scarring," Psy added (although he was pretty easy to mind scar, so it didn't matter much).
"Well, if I can't hug you, can I at least play?" Fire-Bird questioned eagerly, acting more and more like a child, "Psy's no fun to be around and I was thinking about going to the festival. It's mostly abandoned, not in the creepy carnival of terror way, so it's usually safe to play around."
"But you have no way of activating the rides. Or using them safely," Psy interjected.
"Besides, playing by myself is so boooring. Psy counts as 'by myself' because he acts like he always has a stick up his ass."
|
|
|
|
Post by insert pretentious name here on Jul 15, 2010 20:08:20 GMT -5
"Yeah, we've been dead for a while," Pollux answered Fire-Bird matter-of-factly. At almost the same time, Castor piped up with a hurt, "We're mind-scarring?" Pollux gave him a look.
Pollux blinked a bit at Fire-Bird's invitation, obviously surprised that someone would still want to play after realizing they were not exactly alive. After a brief moment of consideration, the Eevee answered, "Sure, we got nothing better to do." Pollux smiled, which looked genuinely cute, if not odd after his extended grumpiness. "Lead the way," he told the Blaziken. Castor cheered and started to run in circles around his twin, doing weird things to the way the chain connected them. [ ] |
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jul 16, 2010 12:37:44 GMT -5
"Oh, goody," Fire-Bird exclaimed in delight, clasping her hands together. The Blaziken stood up, now completely towering the Eevee brothers in terms of height (while still being shorter than the average Blaziken).
"Well, I'm going to the café," Psy told his companion bluntly, adjusting his sunhat. The sun was becoming intense and he really did need to check what felt like a burn on his shoulder, "Fire-Bird, don't put the entire festival on fire. The last time the Fireworks Gang was there was an utter catastrophe."
Fire-Bird rolled her eyes in disdain. Indeed, Psy was a fun wrecker, "Yes, I know. You're so pessimistic, I really don't understand how people see you as such a sweety," the Blaziken commented. Fire-Bird crouched down and suddenly sprung up, landing safely on the roof of a stand selling candies. She quickly swiped a bagful of them (causing Psy to swear softly) and waved towards the Eevee.
"... Please watch over her for me," Psy said, looking down at Castor and Pollux, "Who knows what kind of havoc she'll wreak," with that, the Gardevoir walked in the opposite direction, only to suddenly teleport and disappear from view.
// Kay, so, thread closed. TO RINGTAIL AND NYYYX. //
|
|
