bottlecaplogs | August Catch-All

That's probably a good sign...

[ One of the keys does seem to dodge away from the paw, but it still seems like it's just? Sleeping? Or maybe just disoriented, getting roused into whatever this all is, the other keys also slowly starting to bunch up defensively.

Paws off please! Who are you anyway?!]

Ugh - we're here to help, don't be difficult!

[Siffrin yanks their paw back immediately. Their emotions are yelling "sorry sorry sorry" but they are not saying it.]

[...]

Are you okay? [They still have no idea how to tell!! And with slightly less urgency:] What were you doing in there...?

[ The little set of keys starts to carefully jingle each individual key while assessing this.

'Yes... no... maybe?'

It still sounds a little confused for the current situation, but at least the hostility's toned down.

'We hit a rocky path and the door jammed! It shouldn't have gotten stuck like that!'

... Well, maybe a little indignant and embarrassed at being stuck somewhere and potentially forgotten about if no one registered them as lost yet. Bruised ego and invisible bruising from the equipment. But that's another headache for Archnemon on top of the extra emanating from Siffrin right now. ]

Do you at least have an auger in there?

[ She thinks she's... finally... located the plane, in this other messy compartment where the file returned to, but she is waiting for further confirmation. ]

[Oh, right! They were looking for an auger.]

[Siffrin sticks their head into the compartment, relieved to have something to do that's not dealing with the Klefki... and unearths a whole pile of stuff, which they scoop out with some effort. There are indeed augers in there! Most of them are clearly meant for tinier paws, but there's one that seems to be sized right for Dodrio's talons.]

[Siffrin picks it up in their mouth. Muffled through it:] How's this one?

[ The Klefki continues to check itself and move out of the way once Siffrin hops in behind it to sort through the mess.

"You're going to put that all back, right?"

Archnemon is more concerned about the item right now. What Siffrin has seems the right size? She squints at it, not entirely sure - tools were such weird things sometimes. ]

That looks right, come back around for now. We'll deal with the rest of it later.

[ She could already feel a rise of agitation in the air and not just her own. But it didn't help, really. ]

[Siffrin looks between Klefki and Archnemon... aaaand decides that Archnemon is the person they're going to be working with for at least the next few hours. She's right, anyway!]

[Back to Dodrio they go! The bird Pokemon is tapping their foot impatiently, but each of the heads opens their beak to take a tool, and the middle head even remembers to say a perfunctory,] Thank you, [before it takes the auger.]

[Before anyone can return to Klefki, though, the next person in line is already up. Bulbasaur is resting her forelegs on the side of the wagon and peeking over the edge with her vines raised.] I need some more hammers. We had some break on us over the past few days.

[And indeed, she's got some splintered hammers to turn in, for repairs later. (Who knows when they'll have time.) But at least the replacement hammers are an easy request! Siffrin dashes off to get them.]

Whoever was using these got excitable... or maybe they were made too flimsy? Tch...

[ She'll handle very carefully the exchange of the broken ones, briefly scanning them though it's not that she knows how to fix that... in any case, there should be some sort of box these go in right? Maybe just over here, so they're not mixing with anything that is still good. Just needs some kind of sign. Ugh.

Klefki's still muttering to itself as it pulls itself together, back there, seeing Siffrin come back around but clearly too focused on whatever task they're doing. The hammers at least are in an easily retrievable spot, this time. ]

[Siffrin thinks to snag a sack on the way this time, filling it with hammers and dragging the whole thing back with them. Much more efficient! They dangle it over the edge for Bulbasaur to dig through and pick out the hammers she needs.]

Just a little bit! [Bulbasaur confesses cheerfully as her vines shuffle through the hammers.] But we've gotten a lot of construction done too!

[ Look at them go, gaining levels in practicality or something. ]

It's surprising how quickly it's coming together. Almost like they must have had plans ready before this was found, no?

[ Small talk is hard. Look at her, trying it. It's keeping things going, at least. She can't picture herself doing this sort of thing in her previous life unless being specifically ordered, and even more reluctantly.

There's a sandshrew that rolls in line just behind the Bulbasaur still selecting the hammers, ensuring that the next order will be coming up just as quickly. ]

[Siffrin waits to respond until Bulbasaur is finished picking out hammers and they can haul the sack back into the wagon and let go of it.]

It sounded like we were just going to keep going until we found somewhere that made sense to build...

[They're not sure if that's what Archnemon means, but...]

I wonder what Mightyena would have done if we started running out of supplies...?

[Bulbasaur backs off, merrily holding many, many hammers above her head. Here comes Sandshrew!]

[ She can understand traveling and building things to a fault, but they'd also... spent a considerable amount of time surveying those areas! Plotting strategic points. Not... whatever this was. Moving along hoping to just... build a new hideout? A home away from home? ]

Well, likely would have sent everyone back to the city base and started over.

[ That question seems easier than turning over the rest of it. While Sandshrew -- ... has not, in fact, stopped their rolling. That's the corner of the wagon they're about to make contact with. ]

Hey -!

[ It's only a light bump as it wobbles, but there's a muffled 'Hey!' from the Klefki as well. ]

'Sorry! Sorry! I just need a new saw handle? It's shaped like a loop.'

[Wow that sure is a weird burst of panic out of literally nowhere in reaction to the word 'loop!']

[Outwardly, Siffrin doesn't react - they drape their paws over the edge of the wagon again and peer down at Sandshrew.] How big? Do you have the saw with you...?

"Oh- here it is!"

[ Sandshrew uncurls, carefully, making it easier to see that shiny metallic part as the sun glints off of the tool. Clank.

The unveiling of the saw coincides with something else. At the weird sense of panic added to the malaise, her headache gives a brief flare as she sways to the side, managing to keep herself hanging on to the wagon with a timely curl of her hair. ]

Ugh...

[ Don't mind her. ]

[Siffrin eyes the saw and nods - they have seen a matching handle, just recently. They're pretty sure it was...]

[But when they turn around, Hatenna is swaying.]

[They are minding her. They are minding her very much, both because Ribombee wanted them to keep an eye on her but also just because they're concerned.]

Are you okay?? [Clearly not, Siffrin, you idiot.] What's wrong?

[Meanwhile, for any psychic emotion readers around... fortunately, Siffrin's spike of panic has faded as their brain catches up to the word meaning something entirely different. Unfortunately, it is now time to contend with their ａｎｘｉｅｔｙ about Hatenna.]

Tch, I'm -- I'm fine.

[ Perhaps not nearly as convincing as she'd prefer. It's a combination of factors, those aches she insisted on pushing through, these new headaches, those emotions, just swirling around and around the whole time. Ugh. Stupid new body. She didn't ask for this! ]

It's you! This -- these feelings, it has to be you, you've been here the whole time--

[ That makes no sense without giving context but it's hard to stop when hitting a certain point of tirade. Also probably doesn't help someone with guilt issues so she'll probably regret that immediately but she's new at this- ]

[Huh??]

[Confusion and alarm for you, Archnemon!]

What feelings?

[They're... getting a bad feeling about what Hatenna means.]

[ Has she said too much already? Probably. She hates that it feels like an obvious weakness, but she still has to spell it out for people. Probably because of everything she's avoiding, herself! What a cycle.]

... Oh, are you not sure? You're feeling perfectly well, nothing bothering you at all, today?

[ When in doubt, sarcasm deflection...? No? ]

Ugh, just finish helping the customer with the saw problem first...

[ She hasn't registered whether or not if had been taken care of yet. ]

Nothing bothering me at all! I'm fine!! [Siffrin "agrees," very adamantly. All the while, their anxiety is slowly ramping up...]

[But helping the customer first they can do. They dart over to the pile where they're pretty sure they saw a handle, taking the opportunity to take a deep breath in and let it out. Their nervousness steps down a few stages, but it gets right back to climbing as they trot back and dangle the handle over the edge.]

[Sandshrew accepts the handle happily enough, starting to fiddle with it down below to attach it - and not actually letting the next person in line up to the "counter" yet. Which means Siffrin has a chance to resume darting glances over at Hatenna.]

[ Complete the mission... prioritize the mission... these were goals that felt simple and yet here they were, struggling. Being so disoriented due to a weakness was annoying! And the thought she'd have to explain that to others in some way, or else impede anything she'd tried to do... worse, she has to think about all of this instead of just letting it go. That circling malaise, that anxiety... was it just feeding her own buried issues?

She also realizes no one else has come up yet, which is probably for the better given her current state. Is someone delaying them? Great, that might mean other problems could get backed up. Or she could deal with her other hatted partner here. ]

... Hnn. Right, listen. You're fine, I'm fine, but whatever it is that you're really not fine about -- can you at least try to figure out a way to not worry about it right now?

I'm not worried about anything! [Siffrin insists, their smile a little bit more strained.] ...aside from how sawght out we'll be while this wagon is still a mess!

[Pun? Pun distraction?]

[This is... really just their baseline right now, aside from the nervousness at being challenged over it. Sorry Archnemon.]

[And anyway!! This ain't about them!] B-but really, what's wrong? You're swaying...

... I swear.

[ Huff. They're just not getting it, are they... not that she doesn't also play the deflection game, but even so... hard to do the convincing when she's the one being inconvenienced by not being fine. ]

Listen. If you keep finding the items for people like you have been, it'll get better, okay? Just... don't worry about it.

[Despite what they literally just said, not worrying about it? Sounds fake. But, at least outwardly, all they express is an uneasy ear flick. It's true that if they were saying they were fine, they wouldn't want someone insistently pushing it...]

[(They think.)]

...okay.

[They can keep working...]

[And indeed, fortunately for Archnemon, as Siffrin keeps at it and they get better at figuring out where stuff is, their anxiety does ramp down to its previous simmer. Unfortunately, that general malaise doesn't leave - that just seems to be their baseline. But they seem to be used to having that as background noise, so maybe if Archnemon sits with it for long enough she'll also be able to tolerate it...?]

[You know. Maybe.]

[ General malaise is generally more tolerable when it's not being projected directly into her brain, at least.

Still annoying, but not... debilitating. Adjusting to the parameters. This is fine . . .

She can tell they've not solved whatever issue it is, but that's on them to solve! She's given the suggestions. Kiefki even calms down from whatever issue they were experiencing to help Siffrin with finding things until Archnemon is able to recover enough to resume directing. The line subsequently resumes.

Progress, right?? It's a long day. They'll figure this out. In light of all this, maybe their "rewards" start to make a little more sense once someone reports back to the organizer... ]

August Catch-All

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gently... swaps how Siffrin is thinking of Archnemon in tags now that I know she's going by Hatenna

to be fair she never... introduced herself...

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