Impromptu Oran Sleepover

[quirkynote]

Who: Oran newbies
What: Having fun with communal dens
When: Sometime after Mightyena gathered them up
Where: The Spire, low tier dens
Warnings: Will add if anything comes up, but not anticipating anything

[As everyone knows by now, the Oran Berries depend heavily on communal living, sharing a bed is simply to be expected. For some, this experience was temporary. Mightyena was kind enough to lend the mysterious misplaced Pokémon a place to rest, but now some of them have moved on.

For others, this is now a part of life, and it's time to get used to it. The Oran Berries value treating everyone like friends and family, after all, so you're expected to do the same! Why not have some fun with it?

Whether you've noticed your fellow newcomers are all gathering in one den, or you suddenly find yourself dragged into the the party against your will, everyone is invited! Everyone's going through the same thing, belong to the same guild, you gotta stick together.....right?]

[[ooc: Feel free to use this as a mingle log! We have nine Oran Berries (I think???) and although the dens are said to hold up to eight, I think some members are small enough that we should be able to include everyone!]]

Comments

[offtracks]

Oh, that is his guild? That is excellent! That they will take in others as well, I mean!

[Ingo's literate - not a given in the clans - but he doesn't consider himself any sort of scholar. He wasn't surprised not to be approached by them. He wasn't disappointed either; his interests were always either Oran or Cheri.]

Is this the guild you wanted to join as well?

[He imagines it was, given that he knows Emmet enjoys battling, but - well, he's trying to make conversation, and he doesn't know him well enough yet to simply assume.]

[outbounds]

Mightyena was verrry insistent when she pitched it to me. Said she didn't want to see me anywhere else. [ she said a couple of things alongside that too, actually, but. insistent. ] I do not mind. I also do not think I would have really minded the others, if they asked? I am Emmet. I would have made the best of it somehow, wherever I ended up.

[ though he doubts it would have been Lum as well. ]

But the underground is familiar and I do like battling. So Oran is fine. And you are here too, so even better.

[offtracks]

Ah! How interesting!

[Mightyena had clearly wanted him to join, Ingo thinks, but she hadn't been anything he'd call insistent. She struck him as a Pokemon of few words.]

I would have been happy here or in Cheri, I think. I've done similar work to both of them! But I like this environment much better - it is familiar. There's a number of caverns in the highlands.

[....why is Emmet familiar with tunnels?]

[outbounds]

Is it? I guess I don't really know how she approached everybody else...

[ they have quite the eclectic bunch of newcomers, here in the Oran Berries. it makes sense the offer wouldn't have sounded the same for all of them.

(what does Mightyena expect them to help him with, though?) ]

Oh well. Cheri seems fine but the canopy does sound like it would get drafty. Maybe that is not an issue for you, though. [ fire type privilege. ] This place, on the other hand. The spire here isn't the same as Chargestone Cave or the subway tunnels but it is close enough.

[offtracks]

The subway is in tunnels?

[Ingo knows that the subway is a thing, but what sort of thing exactly? Not entirely clear!]

[outbounds]

Yup! Well. Significant amount of the rail system is underground, especially closer to the major cities like Nimbasa and Castelia. Not all of it is but a lot of it is! Once you get further out, more likely to have aboveground parts, more space for it. The brown line to Anville Station for example mostly is. At some places like water crossings— the green loop line that goes all around most of the region, the singles line, [ the oldest trains still running, one of Ingo's lines, ] crosses over Tubeline bridge on one level, while pedestrian traffic is on the level above.

[ he's kind of gesturing a paw, a quick swipe side to side in two parallel lines, one above the other to try to mark out the shape of a double-decked bridge. ]

Other times, the tunnels are also underwater. Driftveil is a port city, Castelia a harbor. The region is by the coast, has two rivers running through it top to bottom.

[ ... he may need to be stopped from chattering too much about this specific subject. ]

[offtracks]

[Ingo peers at Emmet's gestures, trying to mentally picture the place. He must have known it well once. But he can't see it now. He knows what bridges and trains are, yet all he can see is generic images of them, more akin to the wooden bridges he knows and the great iron creation from Laventon's only photograph of a train than to whatever the real subway must be.

It's an old familiar exercise: trying and failing to envision the past. It feels worse knowing the shape of what should be there, and still failing to fill anything in.]

...underwater tunnels? That sounds quite dangerous!

[outbounds]

Well, they are more underground than just being under the water. Not like the Marine Tube out near Undella. That one is clear so you can walk through it and look around to see the Pokemon who live in the ocean. The tunnels of the subway mostly go under the riverbed.

But yes, it can be. Dangerous, that is. Like how Pokemon can be dangerous, like how caves in general can be, like how a lot of things can. That's why proper procedure, safety checks, and regular maintenance are so important.

[offtracks]

Well, I suppose...

[It sounds too dangerous to be made safe at all, to him! But they must have better ways to create things like that in the future. Ingo's often the one pushing the limits of what's considered "safe" in his time.

(In Hisui? But that's the only time he knows, so it is still his, right?)]

I could do with these tunnels being farther from the water. The damp is annoying.

[outbounds]

It is. [ especially when you have as much fur to work through as Emmet does. ] I think that's something you need a higher rank for, though.

Mightyena did tell me to get a good room, but I am not sure there is much difference between them this far down.

[offtracks]

[Ingo shrugs. If there is one, he couldn't tell.]

The two-person rooms are higher up, aren't they? Those are probably rather better.

1/2

[outbounds]

You are saying she was telling me to hurry up and get a better rank in the Guild, then?

2/2

[outbounds]

Well, fine. But you better work hard too. I am Emmet and I am not going anywhere without you.

[offtracks]

Of course! I may not be bothered much by the room, but I am quite interested in helping with these quests!

[From what he's heard, it isn't unlike what he was doing already. Ingo's always found his work rewarding, and it will help him to establish his place in this new world besides!]

[outbounds]

Like I said earlier. We will help. Though, I wonder what they will mostly be like...

[ obviously helping the community, but as far as priorities go, what all are the city's right now? building themselves up more, exploration... those maps in the archives seem very incomplete.

the tea's mostly finished by now, and emmet can, despite himself, feel himself fading. not this exact moment, or anything, but in those stretches between thoughts where they wander just a little bit too long. and while he's not particularly eager or in any rush to try to get back to sleep, it's also probably not a good idea to doze off in the kitchen. ]

... We probably should start cleaning up soon.

[offtracks]

[Ingo lets a long yawn slip out, a flash of quite sharp teeth in his short muzzle.]

Yes, I suppose so! Let me see what I can do here...

[He can take one (1) piece of dishware at a time.]

[outbounds]

[ oh no, they're contagious. that is to say, Emmet also lets out a yawn of his own following Ingo's, mouth stretching open far enough for a clear glimpse of both teeth and tongue.

(they're not still, or anything, hisuian zoroark might simply not be entirely capable of it, but right now, even the curling wisps clinging to his form seem a little bit more sedate.) ]

Me too. Let me see...

[ wasn't really able to manage it well enough to drink out of a hot bowl while carrying it, but maybe now that's it's cool... he can also maybe carry some of the dishware? if he does it very carefully. ]

[offtracks]

[That helps get it done a little faster, at least!]

I do hope that no one minds us having been in here.

[Maybe he should've thought more about that before, but like...the door was open.]

[outbounds]

[ ... ]

We will apologize for it. If we weren't allowed. Maybe we can find something to make up for what we used, if we have to.

[ Maybe they should have thought about that more, but what's done is done? ]

[offtracks]

Yes, I suppose so.

[It's true - there's nothing to be done now! Ingo resolves not to worry too much about it; if there's anything to be made up for, he'll do it. With the dishes about as away as they're likely to get, he turns back to the door.]

Maybe I will go out to the fields and try some ghost-type moves tomorrow.

[outbounds]

Sounds fun. Want me to come with? Or do you want to just practice on your own for now.

[ He's not entirely sure if that was meant to be an invitation, or just a declaration of intent. In any case, they should start heading back now, huh... ]

[offtracks]

You ought to come! We were brainstorming it together, after all!

[Ingo would have just as readily gone alone, but if he didn't want Emmet's company, he would have simply not brought it up at all. Their time together has been...awkward, at points. It tends to leave him feeling uncertain. But Ingo imagines that the only way out of that is through it.]

[outbounds]

Right, right! Just checking. I don't know if I can help help but maybe a jumpstart might also make it easier.

[ same way as he currently uses Shadow Claw to start his attempts at Shadow Ball, or Shadow Sneak to start general playing around with that sort of thing. ]

And maybe I can also practice things that aren't just shadows.

[ though no one look at what normally comes next in Zoroark's learnset after Shadow Sneak. ]

[offtracks]

You ought to know a few normal-type attacks. Swift. Slash.

[The scars on his arm, now foreleg, seem to ache for a moment. He does not break his stride.]

[outbounds]

I mean, I can probably just do regular Scratch or Slash if I can Shadow Claw...

[ it's the same idea, right? just he doesn't have the backing power of the ghost claws on top, so he'd have to put more physical force into it? ]

Swift, though? I know of the move and how it works. But I do not know where I would start with that one.

[ huh. how do you just... manifest star rays to fly around in undodgeable patterns anyway. ]