The Dragons' Maw

[Phoenixsong]

So. Two sets of disappearances at once, one of them one of the cops and her manectric. Possibly the best part was how now they were having to call on freaking guests, most of them kids his age for crying out loud, to step up their security. Blue was half considering volunteering himself, assuming Charizard and Gyarados were up for it—at least it'd mean someone from the probably-hopefully-please-completely-trustworthy group would be keeping an eye on things, as opposed to just people from the group that was either suspicious or had been voted most likely to get got. Also it'd give him something to do that wasn't "sit in a restaurant booth doing nothing besides feeling approximately twenty-seven different kinds of helpless".

Charizard had seemed amenable to the idea when he'd floated it, at least. He'd been restless ever since his conversation with the hypno the other day; as best Blue could tell, he'd come away from that little chat with more questions than answers. (Then again, what else was new?) The dragon's tailflame was flickering erratically the way it did when he was troubled, guttering low for a period, sparking and flaring when something occurred to him, dwindling again when those new thoughts only served to loop everything back around to complicated. His folded wings twitched every now and again, itching to get back into the air, to go, to do, something, anything.

"We'll figure something out," Blue said, to himself as well as to Charizard. "Probably best we don't rush into things, though, right? Take advantage of some quiet time to weigh the options, come up with a plan of attack so we know we've got something concrete to start with—as concrete as shit ever gets on Terribad Island, anyway—then see how Gyarados feels about it and if he's got any ideas. Maybe even, I dunno..." He glanced at the pokégear he'd set on the table. "Maybe there's someone else from the Trousselin who'd be willing to pull some of the weight, too, so it's not just us alone. Like that lady with the fuckoff huge noivern, or the talking tropius. Somebody, I dunno." Not that he fancied making more "friends" after the way his last few introductions had gone, after the way nobody seemed inclined to shut up about someone who wasn't even fucking here. But he wasn't inclined to become the latest sad statistic, so needs must, he supposed.

"Just try and finish your lunch for now, yeah?" He gestured to the charizard-portion plate in front of his friend, most of which was still covered in food. "Better than trying to figure all this crap out on an empty stomach." Charizard snorted and pointed to Blue's own plate and the burger with all of two bites taken out of it; Blue rolled his eyes. "Right, right, okay, Daisy, point taken." He wasn't sure he was that hungry, either, truth be told, but he'd take his own advice and soldier through it. At least until another distraction or problem or something inevitably rolled on up, because that was just how things worked on Terribad Island.

 

[IFBench]

Speaking of said talking Tropius, she was nomming on a bowl of fruit nearby. An Oshawott clad in a red reunion cape sat next to her, nibbling on a burger.

Both were worried about the recent disappearances, but Coleane tried not to show it, even after the hero talk earlier.

Gen, though, was skittish. His eyes darted all over, and...wait, was that Blue?

"Um...h-hi," Gen said, waving at the human. "Are y-you Blue?"

 

[Phoenixsong]

Blue started, just a little, at the sound of his name, then scowled. Wonderful. Here we go again. He didn't turn around right away, instead spending the time it took to finish his mouthful of hamburger trying to rearrange his expression into something more neutral. He could see Charizard doing much the same thing, although his tension dissipated when he craned his long neck around the booth and seemed to recognize whoever was speaking. Huh.

When he finally turned to see who'd hailed him from the other table, he was confronted with... an oshawott. He stayed silent for a few seconds more as his thoughts caught up to what he was seeing. Right, other people had mentioned the tropius wasn't the only talking pokémon that'd showed up here, somehow. It looked like that was her in the oshawott's booth as well, though she seemed preoccupied by her own lunch. At least that'd make it easier to float the idea of helping patrol the island later.

Still, though... why did a talking oshawott know who he was? He crossed his fingers under the table and hoped the oshawott had just seen the name on the guest list, or heard about him from someone else on the island. (Wait, shit, that probably made it worse. He crossed his fingers harder and hoped that the little guy hadn't been talking to Wallace.)

"Yeah, I'm Blue," he said at last, looking warily back at the oshawott. "And you? Sorry, not sure I caught your name."

---

Ah. It was the little thing from the boat. He still looked kind of jumpy, but at least this time he wasn't alone; there was another pokémon, big and brown and green, sitting nearby. That was probably the tropius, right? It just about lined up with what Charizard remembered after the drink thief had mentioned the word. Well, that was good, at least. Now that all these disappearances were happening, it was nice to see that he hadn't been separated from his friend for too long.

"Hello," he said, ignoring his earlier twinge of mild annoyance in favor of a more genuine smile. "It looks like you found your friend. I'm sorry we couldn't help with that earlier. I hope you're both doing well."

 

[IFBench]

"Um...m-my name is Gen Taranz. It's...n-nice to actually meet you," Gen said, fidgeting with his reunion cape before turning to Charizard. "I-it's ok. Thanks. Uh, w-we're both doing well...I think."

 

[Phoenixsong]

Hm. Seemed like an odd name for an oshawott, but what did he know about wherever Gen came from? Jack, that's what he knew, and at least Blue also knew better than to assume, which was more than he could say for most people here. Possibly including this guy, though he wasn't about to kick the beedrill's nest by asking. It'd only make the distraction worse.

"Nice to meet you, too," he said, still a little cautious. "Under different circumstances I'd probably have a lot of questions about where you're from and what it's like, since it seems like it might be kinda cool, but given all these multiverse whatevers, I'd bet you've had enough of that. And, well, all the everything." He made an irritated gesture at the general area. "You holding up all right?" Not the sunniest topic to chat about, but maybe it'd keep the conversation angled toward something useful, something that wasn't going to get under his skin.

 

[IFBench]

"I-it's ok. I d-don't mind. I l-like talking about Johto," Gen said, fidgeting with his reunion cape. "It's...a really, really nice place. I l-live in Goldenrod City, a-and there's a cherry b-blossom tree right outside my home. ...I m-miss it so much."

He gripped onto his reunion cape, and added, "I-I'm...not holding u-up very well."

 

[Phoenixsong]

He probably should've expected that answer, given how on edge the oshawott seemed. Super-duper cheerful.

Blue really hadn't been looking for small talk, but that don't-kick-the-sad-puppy feeling was creeping up on him again. At least it was a normal conversation, right? (With an oshawott, sure, but. Around here you took what you could get, especially when most of the alternatives so far seemed to be either clingy strangers or whiny assholes.)

"Goldenrod's pretty great, yeah. Or, uh. The one I'm familiar with, at least. S'probably different for you, given the whole, well. Talking oshawott thing. Or the fact that there's an oshawott in Goldenrod at all, given Unova's pretty far away where I come from." He shrugged. "Yours sounds nice, though, so that's good."

And then, well, he'd opened the door to the sad puppy response, so now he didn't really have much choice but to walk through it. "This whole thing is really messed up," he agreed, shaking his head. "Honestly can't believe some of the people they've let run around here. The level of clownery on display here would be impressive if I weren't so damn angry about it. But," he sighed, remembering the other sad puppy conversation, "most of the people here seem pretty determined to do something about it, y'know? Charizard and I were just talking about volunteering to help with the security. If you want something done right and all that, yeah? Not like we haven't helped solve problems back home, with all that Team Rocket nonsense. And from the sounds of it the others have been hard at work investigating, too. I'm sure we'll all figure this out between us."

He tried to offer Gen a smile that was hopefully more reassuring than irritated. Charizard smiled, too, his tail burning a little more steadily—maybe because they were closer to having something to do, maybe just to keep the oshawott at ease, probably both. "Don't think any of us are planning on going down without a fight. As long as you stay with your, uh. Trainer?" Blue shot the tropius a confused look. "With her and the rest of us from the Trousselin, anyway, we're gonna figure this out, and make sure it doesn't happen to any more of us. Dunno if that helps any, but..."

 

[IFBench]

"Goldenrod is...p-pretty normal from where I'm from. I'm...p-probably the weirdest th-thing there in my w-world. Or...I was," Gen said, looking down.

Looking back up at Blue, the Oshawott said, "Y-yeah...th-there was a m-man who said...he wanted t-to kill all humans. That...that was r-really scary..."

A tiny smile appeared on Gen's face from the words of encouragement. "Th-thank you."

 

[Phoenixsong]

"Jeez, don't even get me started about that maniac," Blue grumbled. "Took them long enough to actually do something about him. Like we're not already dealing with all of... whatever this is!" He gestured at everything and nothing in particular. "I mean, I dunno, if he really meant 'kill all humans' then hopefully you'd've been all right, at least, but... still! What a fucking mess."

"We'll see who's a mess if that human tries anything else," Charizard muttered under his breath, tailflame burning brighter for a moment.

"But yeah, as long as the remaining cop can actually keep a leash on that guy, we can worry about dealing with the bigger problem and actually getting home. Me back to where there's only one of me, and you back to your cherry tree, yeah? Like I said. We'll figure this out, all of us."

He waved a waiter over for some takeout boxes. Not that he had any more of an appetite; he was still more restless than anything, especially after that cheerful little pep-talk. No use sitting here and letting this poor, weird little bundle of nerves feel even worse when he could be out there doing something about it instead.

He chose not to bother the tropius about patrolling, at least for now. Let her decide for herself if she was up for it when he texted the group about it later. Probably for the best if she stuck close to Gen for the time being, and taking the oshawott with her on a trouble-hunting trip just sounded like a recipe for... well. You know.

"Nice talking with you," he said, standing up to leave with his takeout in hand. "You watch out for yourself, all right?"

"Stay safe," Charizard added, smiling. "If you need anything, come find me. The offer to help still stands."

 

[IFBench]

Would he have been alright? Or would that man have found out the truth about his humanity, and then...

Gen shuddered at that thought.

"O-ok. Th-thanks, both of you," Gen said, waving, before he returned to his trainer's side.

<><><><><>​

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion and Hazel arrived to the restaurant a little early. A habit, it was better to be early than late, in his opinion.

“Will Laura be bringing Malachai? And Sleet?” Hazel wondered to Gladion.

Gladion blinked. “Huh. I… didn’t think to ask. Figure she’ll ask them and either they’ll come or they won’t. We’ll see.”

“I am looking forward to seeing them again…”

He brushed a hand through her head feathers. “Yeah. Glad you have more friends here. I’m sure you’ll see them all soon. Not like it’s a huge island or anything.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Laura stepped inside, and looked around for Gladion. Having booths everywhere suited her just fine, she preferred the privacy, but it did make it hard to spot her friend, and she didn't really want to have to ask a member of staff... but there, she could see a piscine tail and a scaly mammalian hindleg. That would be Hazel, then.

She made her way over with a shy smile, and sat down, still triple-checking that, yes, this was Gladion, and he did want to meet her here, she wasn't about to excruciatingly embarrass herself. But no, everything was fine.

"Hey there. Nice to see you both!"

She felt for her pokéballs, wondering whether to release her 'mon and have them join the meal. Mal might be physically too large, and while Sleet would fit just fine, she was also a rude little shit who would probably go out of her way to embarrass Laura. On the other hand, she felt weird and unfair not doing so. So...

With a tap of a button and a hollow pop, the capsule released Sleet, who manifested already seated next to her on the booth. She looked around with lidded eyes, smirking slightly at the sight of Hazel, for some reason.

"Sszup?" she hissed.

Laura put out the thought of Sleet acting up, and beamed at Hazel, and her now-visible features.

"Congrats," she said. "You look wonderful. I bet it feels good to have that thing off."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion emailed back at Laura and gave a small wave. “Hey.”

Hazel perked right up on seeing her. “Laura! Hi! Are you heading me? I can be talking much easier now. I am still using signs sometimes but I am also using telepathy when I am using the right style. Oh- Hello Sleet! Are you seeing how I am a bird now? It is because of my head and that is what is mattering.”

Gladion raised an eyebrow at Hazel. “You know, after you first met Sleet you told me it was polite to greet her in sign.”

Hazel chittered. “Oh yes I forgot I did that you should definitely still be doing it.”

He sighed and turned to Sleet. “Your sign name isn’t actually…” [Bitch] “…Is it?”

Hazel looked away guiltily. But not with regret.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Laura choked on air, eyes snapping wide. Sleet seemed to try to remain impassive, but a shit-eating reptile grin spread wider and wider over her face until her stupid pink-white lizard tongue stuck right out of her mouth as she snickered devilishly.

[Actually, it's pretty much a nickname,] she signed, still snickering. [Sign names aren't always a translation of your spoken name, and 'sleet' is an awkward one, it basically goes 'cold rain', it looks dumb. 'Bitch' is cooler. I'm very cool.]

Laura paraphrased out loud for Gladion's benefit, suppressing a soul-deep groan of embarrassment.

"Heyy," hissed Sleet. "Hayy-zzell [my beautiful bird-friend was the one who played this prank, not me! You should be judging her!]

The inteleon winked lasciviously at Hazel. Hopefully the chimera would not imitate that, at least. Talk about a bad influence.

I'm so sorry, Laura mouthed at Gladion.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion couldn't help but laugh. Hazel had... Well, she'd almost pulled a fast one on him. And it was just last week they didn't have any way for her to speak at all. As long as they, well, survived, this trip would be the most worthwhile thing he'd ever done. It was too bad that they would have to part ways with all of Hazel's new friends, in the end.

"Ah, I see. She's fallen in with that sort of crowd, then." He dramatically sniffled. "They grow up so quickly..."

Hazel tilted her head at him. "What are you meaning?"

"Nothing, I'm kidding. Just noting that you and Sleet have pretty different personalities."

Hazel was unsatisfied with that answer. "We are talking around me. I am not understanding why we are judging people. Or why Sleet is winking at me. Sorry Sleet if that is supposed to be meaning something to me I am not understanding."

Gladion rested his face in his hand and sighed. I'll tell you when you're older, he thought to himself.

Hazel narrowed her eyes at him. "I heard that."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Sleet continued to chuckle shamelessly to herself. Laura, for her part, took Gladion's response as a relief. If he could laugh it off, she didn't have to be so hideously embarrassed. She sighed, and smiled gently at Hazel.

"Sleet's just being naughty by deliberately implying things she knows we'll understand and you won't, and hoping to cause a fuss she can laugh at. She likes it when she's the only one who isn't confused."

She shot Sleet a knowing look, somewhere between a smirk and a frown, and Sleet responded by putting her hands up in the air.

"B-usssted!" she said, cackling.

Laura rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I take it there are plenty of other benefits to getting that bloody helmet off. Communication, comfort, combat... Nice alliteration there, aha."

"Lookszz sssexy," hissed Sleet, leering, until Laura kicked her in the shin.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Hazel chittered and directed her thoughts to Laura. “I see. She is causing troubles. I am familiar with the idea… I am much happier like this. I can be seeing and feeling more easiness. And eating, too. I can probably be doing that myself now.”

Gladion sighed. “Right. Here I almost felt disappointed my home-world’s species aren’t as intelligent, but maybe we have it easy.”

Hazel cocked her head at Sleet. That was a word she had only heard a few times. Once in a while, though, if Gladion left her with Plumeria she’d hear it, because Plumeria would talk to people who weren’t humans even though she thought none of them were understanding.

She wasn’t sure if it was a derogatory or complimentary word, though. Or if it could be either? Plumeria didn’t seem to know that herself, so Hazel was not the only one not understanding it. Sleet was just using a confusing word to confuse her.

She could not let Sleet be winning, though. Today it would be a complimentary word. If Sleet was disagreeing it would be Sleet’s problem. “Are you liking my feathers, Sleet? They are very pretty.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Sleet's eyes widened, then narrowed again. [Yes. I like your pretty feathers,] she signed, thinking hard, no doubt for a way to regain the upper hand.

Laura tried very hard to keep a straight face, and said nothing, exchanging a glance with Gladion.

Sleet's grin returned as she came up with something.

[Wanna let me touch them?] she gestured, her tail curling with glee.

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion wordlessly returned Laura’s glance, trying to pass an unspoken understanding.

Hazel leaned her head towards Sleet. She didn’t actually see anything confusing about that request at all. “Of course! You are welcome to, if you would be enjoying it. It is being nice to be able to feel touch on my head again…”

Narrowing his eyes at Hazel, Gladion wondered if she’d hear him again if he thought at her.“Are you sure you know what you’re doing here?”

“Nope! No idea,” She thought to him alone, “But I am having fun.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Laura watched Sleet make a face she was sure she'd never seen the inteleon make before. Sleet looked, for once, like she didn't know what the fuck was happening.

"Uh, oh-kayy," she said, her voice breaking a little on the last syllable.

Sleet reached out and stroked Hazel's feathers, tentatively, as if they might sting her. When the chimera seemed to enjoy it, Sleet continued, glancing around as if she felt like she'd been caught doing something wrong. Not that she ever wore that expression any time she was caught misbehaving.

"Yyou like thaaat, huh?" she rasped, trying to put more bravado into it. Then she looked at Laura with wide, pleading eyes, and mouthed it's not working??? in silent desperation.

Laura just smiled and nodded. It felt good to be the smug one for once.