Pokemon: Mind and Soul (Retry) [IC / PG / Probably Not Accepting / Co-Hosted by Skaia]

[Sethera 290]

Training was. Well. It was not going well. Belle was out of shape. And even worse, she was holding the others back. As she trained with the others, a decision she had been avoiding previously grew impossible to ignore. 'I have to leave.' The others would not approve of the decision. Part of her agreed with them. But it was necessary. She had grown to care (somewhat) for the other two. This was as much for their sake as it was for hers.

By the time they arrived at the day care, Belle was dragging. She said little to the others, simply nodding her head when addressed. If anybody directly asked her a question, she would grunt, giving off an unapproachable atmosphere. And when both Nate and Quinn were suitably distracted by Billy, she took out a piece of paper and wrote, crossing out some words and wishing she had chosen a pencil instead of a pen to write with. Her chest hurt, and her eyes stung a little, but that was fine.

Things weren't okay now, but they would be soon.

Edited November 15 by Sethera

[LordCowCow 816]

Team JAA/AJA/AAJ

Anneliese wasn't so sure she liked what Anima had said. "Hm, are we supposed to fight with the Pokemon? Have I been doing it wrong this whole time? Oh dear, I've been making poor Leopold get hit when I should have been getting hit alongside him." She seemed to stress somewhat about this for a while until of course the time came to set up camp and she grew distracted.

---

"though I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to start a fire on a grass...hmmmm...Well, I'm sure we can deal with any problem anyway, Corsola's a water type anyway right?" 

"Oh yeah!"

“As for what you can do to help… Jacklyn’s right, we should start figuring out for a fire-- But she’s also right in that we shouldn’t be starting it on the grass. The Corsola where I come from at Ghost type, after all,”

"Oh no!" Anneliese furrowed her brow. "Something to burn..." She looked around, eyes lingering on the tent for a few moments longer than she should have before deciding that, no, that would be a bad idea. Thankfully Anima brought up wood and Anneliese gasped. "Oh my, I forgot, wood burns! That's right, I believe my parents told me that primitive people used to heat their homes by burning wood...how novel!" She clapped her hands together. "Very well I shall go on a hunt to find wood to burn!" She sent out her Shinx, who gave her a confused look and glanced around to find something to battle. "Come, Leopold, we must gather wood!"

From the grass nearby, something watched. Body tensed up as it observed the humans moving about. Then it ducked farther into the grass and waited.

Spoiler

So to be clear we don't have to write out step by step what we're doing and I would actually suggest not doing that but yeah we can spend this round setting up camp.

Don't worry about the last line that's just set up for Anneliese later.

---

Team BQN

“I am a ghost!”

"And I'm sure you're a spooky one at that when you put your mind to it." Billy said without missing a beat as he led them inside. "Don't get many ghosts. Some Ghost Pokemon of course, they're a tricky bunch to keep from wandering off but they're harmless for the most part." He paused. "Oh right, if one of them slips into your rooms don't worry just come get me or my brother and we'll get them back in the fence."

“I get a little excited sometimes.”

Billy laughed as well. "Ah it's alright. Good to see passionate young folk. Means you'll be sure to take care of your Pokemon right I'd say. If you wanna know more about caring for the Pokemon my brother does much of that. I mostly talk with the trainers, he's not very good with people, and do the cooking. But I can show you a thing or two about Pokemon food tomorrow if you're interested."

Billy had led them over to a hallway that had multiple doors on one side and only two on the other. "As for Bearble, course I know about them. That's one of the Starter Pokemon the Professor raised right over in her place at the edge of town."

He stopped then and gestured towards the doors. "They're all empty right now so feel free to choose however many rooms as you're comfortable with. Me and my brother's rooms are right across the hall if you run into any trouble."

His eyes lingered on Belle a moment and a small frown crossed his face, as it seemed he noticed something was wrong, but then he smiled again and decided it was none of his business before wishing them all a good night.

Spoiler

If you have anything more for Billy then ask me so can give you responses. Otherwise it's time to turn in for the night.

 

[radio414 868]

Quinn was happy to hear that Billy tacitly approved of his Pokémon-raising habits, almost as much as thon was Billy did not even blink at the startling revelation that his hostel was now, technically, haunted. From the mention of Ghost-type Pokémon, though, perhaps that was because it already was. Quinn wondered how a Haunter or a Spiritomb could even wear a collar, but the thought was as ephemeral as the Pokémon themselves, and there was still business to attend to that evening. Another visit to a Pokémon Center was required, and speaking of care, Quinn needed to figure out how Normandie would prefer to be treated.

Fae had known and been tethered to Cassiopeia for over a year now. The Drifloon’s habits and eccentricities were well-trod territory, and Quinn had become used to them and incorporated them into itself. Normandie, meanwhile, was unfamiliar territory. Their relationship was much more transactional. Who knew what would happen should the berries run out? There had to be other ways to dote on Normandie besides just feeding her, Quinn thought. Would a bath work? Quinn had read somewhere that rats were actually one of the cleaner animals in the wild with how often they groomed themselves. Would a bath even be necessary?

Cassiopeia did not take baths, but she did enjoy being in a bathroom’s steamy atmosphere when the water was nice and hot. She would also enjoy a good polish when Quinn felt she was deserving of a reward. Their first day of adventure and their first new Pokémon companion probably qualified. Quinn took their two Pokéballs back from the center and examined them both. “Tomorrow we shall figure this all out,” xe said to zirself. “Perhaps Bobby will be in a more sociable mood at breakfast time and we can present him with our questions. Either that or rely on our own intuition. Surely someone with experiences such as ours, who has faced such trials, can manage the responsibility foisted upon them here.”

They ended up in room L, which seemed auspicious even if Quinn had no understanding of why. The room was relatively spartan, with a bunk bed (Quinn took the top bunk) and a desk with a hard chair accompanying it. There was not an attached bathroom; they would have to share the unisex one (it was Billy and Bobby’s house, after all) just across the hall. Quinn did try to call first dibs on that. Cassiopeia was not the only ghost who enjoyed hot water. It soothed the soul just as much as the form that their material essence had taken.

After that and a few other standard nighttime rituals (Quinn had never been the most devoted tooth-brusher even when alive, but he had promised its mother to try their best), Quinn was ready to enter that meditative trance that enabled fae to explore a dreamscape at eir leisure. The only thing left to do was wish the others the same luck.

“Good night,” Quinn said as they knocked on each of zir friends’ doors. “Let us try to find each other in the Astral Plane, hm?”

[Sethera 290]

Belle's eyes widened at the talk of ghost Pokémon, but that wouldn't change her plans. She just had to… be a bit more careful. That's all.

In the end, Belle drank a large glass of water and went to sleep first, to ensure she was the first awake. And her bladder woke her up in the middle of the night as planned.

The girl took out the note she wrote earlier. She hesitated and then placed it on her pillow. When the others went to look for her… they'd see it.

I'm leaving. Don't look for me. Be well. I'll miss Don't do anything stupid. Normies.

~B

Her eyes stung and her chest hurt, but… this was just how things had to be. If she couldn't find a way home, she'd just go at her own pace. The others were too ambitious, too eager, too… nice. 'They're cramping my style,' she told herself as she exited the Pokémon Center slash Day Care. If she said it enough times, she might even believe it.

Part of her felt like, in some ways, this was fate. Perhaps in another world, she was the one the others left behind. She could almost see it. Stumbling through a swamp, meeting a girl with purple hair and a rough-and-tumble boy, and journeying together until the inevitable end.

She wasn't cut out to work with others. Nate and Quinn were nice, but how long would that last? No, she had to leave first. Before she let herself get hurt like that time so long ago.

A little girl ran out toward the beach, wearing a white dress and a sunhat over silky sapphire locks. Her golden eyes sparkled like gemstones under the summer sun. She grinned, revealing a gap between tiny baby teeth, and shouted a greeting to a group of children her age nearby.

The kids' expressions twisted. One held his nose, another made a gesture to ward off evil. Even more spat out vitriolic words, while others turned away as if she didn't exist.

The girl's face fell. She grabbed the sides of her dress and twisted them in her hands, looking down at the ground.

The earth underneath was flat and mixed with yellow clay and sand. Belle crouched down and reached out a hand.

The girl took a finger and swirled it into the sand, creating shapes in a corner of the beach by herself. Every so often, she looked up, biting her lip and gazing at the other children wistfully.

"Why don't they like me, Mommy?" she asked her mother when she arrived to pick her up from the beach.

The woman gave a painful smile. "Because you're different, and people don't like those who are different."

"I…" the girl trembled. "I don't wanna go outside anymore, Mommy."

"What? But you've been wanting to go to the beach all month! And what about our trip to the park next week?"

"No!" the girl screamed. "I don't wanna do that anymore!" She sniffled. "Sorry… I know shouting's bad."

"No, it's fine." Her mother frowned. "I understand. Take as much time as you need. But please, don't shut yourself away."

The girl shook her head and said nothing.

Belle withdrew her hand from the ground and snorted air from her nose. This wasn't the end of her journey, but this was the end of her journey with other people. She stood up. Maybe one day, she could let herself heal, open her heart, and move on. But that day seemed faraway, as distant as the stars in the night sky above.

And then she began to walk. Step by step, on the road that would lead her to her eventual destination.

Edited November 27 by Sethera

[Tiamat's Circus 109]

Well, that was one thing taken care of. Anima smiled nervously as Anneliese called upon her Pokémon, and announced their intent. She still had her reservations about sending Anneliese out to get wood alone, but… Well, she had handled herself well enough so far, and Anima herself was the one who was the most physically hurt of her group, so it wasn’t as if she had much of a leg to stand on. Still, she gave a slight nod towards Leopold as she knelt down. “Keep an eye on her,” she instructed the Pokémon, before rising back to her full height, and nodding towards Anneliese. “And, uh, be careful. I haven’t actually looked into what sort of Pokémon come out around here when it gets dark,” she chuckled lightly.

Anima had thought about teasing the girl, maybe making a joke about how there may even be ghosts about-- But she wanted them to be careful, not paranoid. She could do that herself, she reasoned, as she did her best to listen to their surroundings as she set about unpacking the tent, and getting ready to actually assemble it. Normally, she would have relished a time like this; quietly working while everyone set about their tasks. It would be good for her to have something to do where she didn’t find herself speaking much, except…

Given that she was to perform this journey with her companions, it only stood to reason that she should try to get to know them better. After all, she would need to be able to trust them, and while they were both... far different from her on the surface, she couldn't tell how much she could actively trust in them yet. For this reason, her stomach twisted itself into a knot as she tried to figure out what it was she should even ask as she scanned over the papers that had come with the tent, doubts rising even in this simple moment. It was, of course, much too early in their journey to ask about their reasons for the adventure, or anything about their past; she wanted to get to know them naturally. But how did one even do that? It’d been so long since she met new people, that even now she wasn’t really sure how to establish a natural friendship.

So, as she glanced upwards from the instructions, she decided to break the ice with a simple question, assuming Jacklyn was still there: “Do you, um… Know any good ghost-stories?”

[Skaia 553]

As Anima tried to delegate and formulate a plan as to what to be doing to set things up, Jacklyn smiled and said, "fufufu, leave all the tenting to me!" Of course it did not end up as "just" Jacklyn doing it. With Anima sifting through the papers Jacklyn was busy looking at each of the individual parts of the tent. Anima would be able to hear things such as, "oh I think this goes here," and, "this definitely fits together like this," and most concerningly, "wait it moves like this?" The girl continued to fiddle around with each part, probably making more of a mess then anything else as Anima asked her question to the adventurous girl. 

Turning around, tossing the part of the tent to the ground she was holding, she smiled at her companion. "Oh sure do! What kind are you interested in? See back in Castelia we had all kinds of urban legends and rumors and stuff like that. Like the story about being kidnapped by the sewer Krookodiles that were secretly running the city from the shadows - I checked and didn't find hide or sandile down there by the way. Then there was some other stuff like the Tentacruel that would sprout legs and roam the streets at night, looking for people to drag back into the ocean with it. But I didn't ever see one of those things come out at night, much less dry to drag someone into the sea with them. Oh, oh! And then there was the one about this haunted building near home. It was due for destruction and rumor had it that a bunch of ghost types would be in it and when it was raining they would spirit you away to some kind of weird haunted ship or something. Which never happened to me!" The girl became rather upset as she rambled on about these things. 

As she went back to pitching the tent, and with Anima's help making some progress on it she asked, "oh but I don't really know anything about where you're from. Like, a ghost type Corsola! That's crazy to learn about. Oh! Is that why you wanted to know ghost stories? Does Confi have any or like are there any cool spooky ones where you're from. I hear that smaller towns and stuff typically are loaded with haunted stories and ghosts!" The girl furrowed her brow thinking for a moment saying, "I wonder if Anneliese knows any good ghost stories, we'll have to ask her too!"

[Cheshire Toon 136]

Nate was excited about the prospect of talking to someone knowledgeable about the care of Pokémon. “That would be great! I wanna know all about Pokémon food,” he said. “Proper diet and care is half the battle when it comes to training.” Hard-work was a lubricant when it came to getting stronger. It made things easier, but if your foundation (your body and your mind) began to fail, hard work would never be a proper substitute. 

As they went their separate ways into the rooms, Nate waved goodnight to both his teammates. His eyes lingered on Belle longer than Quinn. Something seemed… off. He had a bad feeling in his stomach, but he was sure that sleep would fix it. 

So sleep was what he planned to do. He released Peat and started their nightly routine. Grooming (himself and Peat), brushing teeth (his own and Peat’s, flossing, and a calm nightly workout that consisted mostly of stretches that he took to more easily than Peat. It was a relaxing way to wind down from the stresses of the day; it expended the last of your energy while giving your muscles a stretch that helped dissolve any excess tension from walking. 

It gave him time to reflect on the day. A lot had happened. His first real battle, his first experience traveling with friends, and his first time meeting a Ranger to boot. Nate decided that he wouldn’t let not catching a Pokémon on his first day bum him out too much. Belle hadn’t either, and she was already proving to be a stronger trainer. 

He would have to work twice as hard to keep up with both her and Quinn. 

“Sweet dreams, Quinn!” he called when they knocked. Peat rumbled his goodnites as well, and then the both of them prepared for bed. Peat climbed into the bed and curled into Nate’s chest. Nate breathed a contented sigh and was almost immediately claimed by sleep.

[LordCowCow 816]

Team JAA/AJA/AAJ

“Keep an eye on her,”

Leopold gave her a look that said "I was going to anyway" before looking away in obvious annoyance and following his trainer farther into the grass.

"If I were a stick, where would I hide..." Anneliese said as she wandered down a narrow path looking side to side. "Attached to a tree I bet. But there aren't that many trees around...Goodness, sticks are harder to find than I thought!" she noticed Leopold and started speaking to him. "I heard that some people need to use wood for heating in their own homes, isn't that amazing? I suppose this means that I shouldn't have to find much. If a whole house can be heated there's no way that it takes much for a camp fire..."

Leopold began to get antsy after some time and, figuring out that Anneliese was hardly finding anything, he began to run off to grab sticks himself and bring them back to her. Or rather dropping them in front of her for her to "find".

So engrossed in her adventure was she that Anneliese didn't notice it was getting darker. Not until she suddenly realized that she could hardly see the paths any more.

And once it hit her that it had gotten dark she froze up. She hadn't been outside without a source of light before and she began looking this way and that. Trying to find something that was lit up for her to focus on. When she couldn't she ended up crouched down with her head between her knees as she tried to instead ignore the darkness.

It was then that a creature that had been hiding in the grass started to inch forward. Slowly making its way towards the girl.

"Shiii!" The creature ducked back into the grass as the girl's Shinx came running up to her, carrying another stick, and nudged the girl.

"Oh, Leopold...oh my you, you found a stick. Good job." Shakily getting up she looked this way and that. "I suppose...that must be enough, yes? We should head on back."

Leopold noticed her hesitate, unsure which way to go, and so he took the lead and Anneliese followed her back to the camp.

Once she saw the others Anneliese breathed a sigh of relief and ran the rest of the way there. "Hello! I have discovered sticks!" she called out to them.

Spoiler

Feel free to finish up the night if you wish. I have something I wanna do in middle of the night but it'll be just for Anneliese and it'll be right before jumping ahead to morning so let me know if there's more you wanna do.

---

Team "B"QN

Quinn and Nate, the next day, would find that Belle had left and discovered the note left behind. Billy would inform them that he had noticed her leaving and "I thought I'd stop her but...it isn't really any of my business. I wouldn't want to butt in....sorry if that was the wrong thing to do."

He was about to offer them breakfast when suddenly there was a loud roar from outside. And through a window they saw a gout of fire shoot across their vision. "What in the world?" Billy exclaimed as he hurried outside.

They would see another man who looked just like Billy, only slightly longer hair and wearing heavy gloves instead of an apron, carrying a Smoliv in his arms and breathing heavy as if he had just been running.

"Bobby what happened?"

"It's Magmortar. She suddenly started acting up and began firing off Flamethrowers everywhere. I only barely got this little one outta the way."

"Goodness...what could have caused that?"

"Can't say for sure but...I did see someone running off that way, and it looked like he was carrying something. Might be that he took something from the girl." Bobby frowned and nearly growled. "I gotta make sure she don't hurt herself, or one of the other Pokemon, so I can't exactly chase them down..."

Spoiler

Gasp, a potential thief and a rampaging Pokemon! I feel that the options for what to do are clear but I will say it will be harder to calm the Pokemon down without dealing with the other matter.