Mystery Continent ~ Southern Beach

[Negrek]

"What, if you bought it? Yeah, I think one or two people might find that a bit fucking distressing." Good Christ. Definitely operating on a different wavelength, this guy. "Besides, you might, like, land on somebody or take out a house or some shit. Not much chance of that around here."

 

[RJR Basimilus]

Seyka nodded. "Alright, that's a fair point. I can save it for when I get the basics down."

"Wow, this is kind of exciting." Seyka spread his wings, carefully looking over them. "Err, enough about me though, I forgot to ask what you're doing here today." Seyka paused. "And uh- what your name is."

 

[Negrek]

It was kind of fucking exciting. Nate didn't even know how the fuck skarmory flew in the first place. It would be fascinating to see how that worked--or didn't.

"I'm Nate," he said with a crooked smile. "And what, can't a guy enjoy some time admiring the scenery with his psychic slug rock without people asking questions?"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"No, they can't" Seyka replied. "Questions are an inevitability, it's on you if you want to answer or not."

"It is nice here though," the Skarmory murmured. "I hope next time we have to go out and fight something we can do it somewhere nice; I mean, since we seem to be getting into those a lot."

 

[Negrek]

Nate's smile vanished. "Yeah, don't we." He looked out at the ocean. Not exactly his idea of fucking "nice," but whatever. "Probably better we don't fight shit anywhere pretty. All that'd happen is it'd get fucked up somehow. Like, you know, fucking explode or some shit." Nate sighed, then cleared his throat. "Anyhow. You want me to hold your shit or anything? You know, so it won't get wet if you end up taking a dive."

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Mmm, maybe," Seyka said. "Who knows, if I lose it they might give me a better one."

"Oh, don't tell anyone I said that," Seyka said, feigning panic. "They'll mark me down as an idiot. Not that I would mind that, it's easier to do what you want when pokemon think little of you."

 

[Negrek]

"Mmm." Nate squinted at Seyka for a second, then turned back to the ocean. "Sure is. So. Think you're ready to go?"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Yeah! Just wait right here."

With that, Seyka took off down the shoreline, making his way up to a cliffside. He turned and waved a wing at Nate, sunlight glinting off his body. Standing a few feet back, Seyka was still for a moment before he broke into a run, only to stop short of the edge. The Skarmory stood there for a moment before retreating backwards and readying himself again.

The second time, he seemed to run faster, launching himself off the cliff into the air, immediately plunging like a rock into the ocean.

After a minute, his head emerged from the water close to where he and Nate had been standing.

"Not bad for a first try!" Seyka shouted, up to his neck in water, but smiling widely. "I think next time I need to work on my posture, no?"

 

[Negrek]

Nate actually took a couple steps forward at the first abortive attempt at liftoff. Damn, he was into this, wasn't he? Totally fucking stupid, after all didn't bird pokémon usually like jump and that was--oh, fuck.

He ran down to the edge of the water when the skarmory plummeted out of the sky. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He should--he should try to do something with the water here. Like, do a surf towards the beach to dump the skarmory on the sand? Fuck, he needed to get in there and try to find the guy.

But the skarmory popped up before he'd managed to untangle himself from his pack again, entirely cheerful and apparently unfazed by the experience. "Uh, yeah. I mean you sure got the whole jumping part down," Nate said, hanging tangled in his pack's straps and no longer sure whether he should be trying to get out or back into them. "Dunno about your posture. Uh, maybe? I was thinking you might need to try, uh, making some wind for yourself? Or something? Like you would for an air slash or a whirlwind attack, if you know any of those sorts of moves. I dunno if just flapping your wings is gonna get you there."

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Well, it's not like I'm on a schedule," Seyka said, emerging from the water. "Wind huh? Now that I think about it, some of it's coming back. I have to cut through the wind, not run at it like a wall." The Skarmory sighed. "That sounds complicated, so I might do it later."

Seyka settled, laying on his side as he craned his head to stare at the sky. "Aha, I embarrassed myself though, with that false start. I didn't think I could allow myself to be indecisive like that."

 

[Negrek]

Oh. Was that it? Nate couldn't get a handle on this guy. Seemed like some kinda Zen master type, almost. Next thing Nate knew he'd turn around and cut a boulder in half with his beak and then say something mysterious about goldfish or some shit.

"Usually the decisive sort, huh?" Nate tried to subtly slip an arm out from the twisted straps, but gave up after a couple seconds' straining. "Well, wouldn't be weird to be having an off day, after all the shit that's been going on."

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"More or less," Seyka said, watching a cloud. "For me at least, it's- it's about the choice. It wouldn't have mattered to me whether I chose to jump or not, it's the simple fact that I did."

"I can live with regret, but not with what-ifs," the Skarmory continued, "As long as it was something I decided, then I can be happy." He glanced over at the Mudkip. "Are you having trouble?"

 

[Negrek]

Yeah, that sounded... kinda deep. Not a... bad way to look at things, maybe. But a second later the skarmory made it quite clear he wasn't fooling anyone by not drawing attention to his situation. "Nah, I just gotta--hrk--" With a fierce wrench and a little undignified kicking, Nate dragged him free of the straps, tripped over the bag itself, and landed face-first in the sand. He was on his feet a second later, brushing himself off. "Yeah, I'm fine. So, uh." He glanced around at the deserted beach, the waves rolling in. "I guess you're just gonna hang out, then? Enjoy the wind and all?"

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"I think so. If you have more engaging things to attend to, I won't blame you for leaving."

"But- thank you for indulging me a little, it's not something I get to do often." Something crossed the Skarmory's face. "I don't believe I mentioned it, but I'm Seyka. Maybe you heard it from someone else, I personally know hardly anyone's names. Oh well, I don't care much. Names or no names, we're all in the same place at the same time. Here today, gone tomorrow, it makes little difference."

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah, I was thinking I might, you know, go warm up a bit. Not all of us got armor and shit." After all that drama to get out of his pack, he slipped it back on with a resigned sigh. Hauling your shit everywhere sure was fucking annoying when you had more than a little of it. "Anyway, good luck with that... Seyka. See you around, I guess. And if you ever need a spotter or whatever the fuck... Let me know, I guess."

With that, it was time to head back into Destiny Village. Or maybe not the village proper. If he couldn't find anywhere private to talk to Rocky, there was one other small matter that needed taking care of.

 

[RJR Basimilus]

"Personally, I don't feel like my armor makes me warmer or colder. If I had to think of a word... maybe emptier?"

Seyka smiled. "Just kidding. Thanks for the offer, though I think I'll be fine. After all, there's no consequence for failure."

The Skarmory waved. "Until later then, Nate!"

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[Negrek]

It was another lovely fucking day at the beach. The waves churned against the rocks down below, and the sea breeze carried freezing spray with it. Here and there a sodden bit of snow lurked in the craggy bowl of a rock. "Wow, what a fucking beautiful day at the beach," Nate said, scowling down at the ocean. "It sure would suck if some bouncy asshole showed up to ruin it."

Rocky sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the cliff, watching. Nate popped a berry snack into his mouth and grimaced. "Good thing there isn't anybody around who'd want to interrupt all the fun we're having over here."

"Do we have to do this every time we come out here?" Rocky asked.

"Can you imagine how much it would suck if someone just showed up to try and swipe my... fucking terrible fruit things," Nate said. Seriously, what even was in these bastards?

"It's not even a nice day to go to the beach," Rocky said, looking out across the waves. "We should go back into town. I want to make some friends! I still haven't gotten to meet almost any of the other familiars yet."

"Look what a fan-fucking-tastic time we're having here, just the two of us. All alone out here, with no one to notice if some dickwad wanted to show up and punt us into the ocean like footballs."

"Or we could go to the colosseum. Silver said he wanted to train, but he was worried about fighting somebody too strong for him. Well, I'm not very strong yet, so maybe we could train together!"

That... actually wasn't the worst idea ever. "Maybe later," Nate said reluctantly. To the empty air and the cold rocks below, he said, "In the meantime, isn't it great that we get to enjoy this time all by ourselves, with no fucking interruptions at all? If someone did come and act all dickish, I would just be so fucking sad. Who knows? I might even fucking cry." He waved the bag of snacks over his head, just to make sure they were, like, super fucking visible. Come out, come out, wherever you are...

 

[Namohysip]

It had been several, perhaps countless instances of trying this tired song and dance over and over and over. And every single time, the only thing to answer Nate was the wind, or other idle sounds, perhaps even a tumbleweed if he hallucinated hard enough. But today was different. Today, a horrible miracle happened instead.

"Oh, what's this?" called a small voice just beneath Nate's tiny feet. Two dark eyes stared at him from beneath the sand, and then disappeared. For some reason. "What're you doing out here all alone?" she called again, this time somewhere to his right, where the hazy bottom of Darkwhite stuck out of the sand.

 

[Negrek]

Rocky jumped up at the sound of DarkWhite's voice, tail standing straight up like an exclamation mark. "It actually worked!" he hissed from behind his hands.

Don't fuck this up! Nate thought back, as sharply as he could. Meanwhile his heart was pounding. Nine times out of ten DarkWhite seemed to confine herself to minor dickishness, but it was truly impossible to tell what she might do next.

"What, can't a guy enjoy a quaint fucking beach picnic without getting weird questions about it?" he asked. "Besides, it's boring back in town. You know that." He frowned at Darkwhite's tail, which was waving lazily in the air while she dug around under the sand or... whatever the fuck she was doing. "So I guess Giovanni didn't end up turning you into dogfood, then."

 

[Namohysip]

"Who? The big me guy, is that his name? He ran off once you guys were away. I had to figure out how to get back after he disappeared in one of that thing's portals!" Darkwhite leaned back. "Right now I'm just on break."