A.B.A (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
quirkynote) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
bottlecaplogs2025-02-11 08:00 pm
quirkynote) wrote in bottlecaplogs2025-02-11 08:00 pm
Impromptu Oran Sleepover
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!]]
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!]]
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Have tried. [ with his paws, anyway, what he can manage of it. between his collar and the mane he's metaphorically had his hands full... ] But doing basically anything makes it into a mess again. And I am not sure that it is all actually solid?
[ he hasn't seen Hisuian Zorua to know himself, but at least parts of the head tuft there are less fur and more just formed resentful energy ... for Hisuian Zoroark it seems to be at least somewhat more physical? maybe her idea will work, even if Emmet isn't so sure about it.
in any case, she's still right— the restless nights have been adding up, with snarls in the fur that have gone unattended to. aaaaaand if he wants to try to sneak out ... A.B.A will probably take exception to it, huh. ]
... If you want to try. I will not stop you.
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[That's her excuse. With his permission granted, she comes shuffling over to gather a few wisps of his mane in her claws. Those claws are savage-looking things, but they're also dextrous—five-fingered, like a human's.
They're also apparently what she's planning on using in lieu of an actual brush. In her defense, she does know how to be careful with them, too. Experimentally, she tries to comb them gently through the ends of the fur in her grasp. Whatever she's holding right now seems to be solid, at least...]
Huh. What's it made of then, if not fur? Ectoplasm? [Something like what her own claws are made of, she guesses.]
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[ it's ... pliable, sort of. flexible and wisplike, feels like it isn't quite there even though it is, right in her shadowy little not-hands. weightless. if it moves a certain way it tends to ripple more like something fluid might, rather than something entirely physical. ]
... Or maybe I am just wrong, [ Emmet adds after a moment, ] and this is just part of what being this kind of ghost means.
[ he's wisps here and there coming off his limbs too, after all. despite looking more like an regular, non-ghost Pokemon, maybe his shape in general is just not as neatly tucked away and self-contained as Shoka's own form.
Emmet yawns a little, jaw gaping open for a moment in a very canine fashion before snapping shut with an audible click. ]
Not all Pokemon ghosts were other things before. Many aren't. But someone told me that these ones are what's left after what they used to be died in the cold. According to old stories anyway. Dunno how true they are.
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... Weird.
[Still, she is undeterred and goes right back to combing through the next lock of his mane that comes twisting into her reach, moving her shadowy hand in long, measured strokes. If the tips aren't going to cooperate with her, she'll just focus on brushing out the tangles in the fur that will cooperate with her for now.
Maybe it's because his mane was already getting into her personal space before, or because the whole sleepover thing is already starting to desensitize her... Or maybe it's just because Emmet looks basically like a big, weird dog. For whatever reason, this barely feels strange. Maybe it would feel stranger if she thought about it at all, but right now she's sleepily choosing not to.]
That's dark. [Said flatly, unsurprised. She figures it makes sense for a Ghost-type to have a grim backstory, after all.] And what'd they used to be? Just regular foxes, I'm guessing? Or whatever the Pokémon version of a fox is.
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Verrry weird. [ He snickers instead, softly. Gossamer strands of red sway smokelike with the motion. ] You try dealing with it all the time. But, anyway. What they used to be...
The Zoroark I am familiar with have black fur and are not ghosts. So those ones, most likely. [ Probably. The other most likely option is some common predecessor to both of the regional variants he's aware of now. ] There are other species with vaguely similar shapes— [ there's a Nickit in this very guild, even— ] if you really want to stretch it, but Unovan Zoroark are already right there.
[ No need to go looking for other possibilities in Vulpix and Ninetales or anything. It's Zorua and Zoroark who died and the same who lingered, supposedly. ]
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[As she threads her claws through his fur, she tries to commit that name to memory, like adding a newly caught monster to her FanGO Bestiary. Zoroark...]
We've got plenty of old stories and myths about fox spirits where I'm from, too. A lot about 'em being tricksters who shapeshift into humans and stuff. Don't think I've ever— [He might feel a twinge as her claws get briefly caught in one of his mane's snags.] —Sorry. Don't think I've ever heard of any that include the whole "died in the cold" thing, though. The foxes I know live in places where it snows normally, so...
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Akechi has mentioned similar stories too. Though he also said something about how they were also supposedly messengers. Something like that. You are from... [ a moment, a flick of an ear as he tries to recollect, ] Japan as well, then?
[ unless 'shapeshifting trickster fox spirits' is just a commonality found across even more worlds and timelines than established so far. which, possible, considering: ]
Either way. Zoroark are shapeshifters too. There are also stories and superstitions about them. Both kinds of them, apparently.
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[It's a slow process not without another twinge or five, but she must be making some kind of progress, because those twinges are spaced out further and further apart.]
... Wait. If you're actually a shapeshifter, why haven't you just shapeshifted yourself an easier-to-manage haircut?
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[ The other things he's figured out, those came naturally, or build on each other. Illusion feels like something else entirely, and he hasn't yet managed to grasp the idea of it at all, it feels like. ]
Have tried already, actually, [ he adds, after a moment. ] Did not go so well. But whenever I've tried after, I don't manage to actually get anywhere.
Back to your 'Inari' for a moment— I told Akechi too. As far as I know, Zoroark are not messengers of anything in particular. I know more about what is said about the black-furred ones than the white ones, though.
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[She still doesn't know how to pull off any moves that can hit him other than Wood Hammer, after all.
She can't help being a little curious about how his shapeshifting attempts might have gone wrong, but he changes the subject before she can. So, first:]
Well, what's said about them, then?
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They are thought, sometimes ... [ the flick of an ear. ] Hmm. The superstitions are unkind. But they are like this: if a child does not speak. They may not be a child. Might be a Zorua instead. That is how it goes. Because Zorua do not speak.
Zoroark can, though. But mostly they keep to themselves? [ definitely not messengers, or anything like that. not unless zoroark populations in other parts of the world behave very differently than the ones so very rarely actually seen as themselves in unova. ] They are protective, fierce. People say they can trap and punish those who wrong them or others of their kind in their illusions. Go into a forest; get lost there, landmarks and maps don't match. Zoroark can fool many people at once.
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Sounds pretty sick—if it's even true.
[Fuck around and find out, and all that.
Experimentally, she releases her hold on the finished braid. Having no hair ties to work with, she's settled for braiding up to the wispy tips of his fur and willing whatever ghostly essence they're made of to keep the braid tied at the end. Maybe those wisps will somehow bind together...?]
How's that?
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[ Though they probably get embellished sometimes. ]
What is true: they are capable of illusions. And so far, I am bad at them. If you are judging them by using me as an example, I am not a very good one.
[ That said, on the way-too-much-fur front ... she's finding some success. The section she's braided, well, seems like it almost wants to come apart, the various parts she's sectioned out each seeming to have a mind of their own as they sway faintly, independent of each other and any lack of wind. Because she's started with a relatively small amount, though, the wispy ends she's trying to get to gel together do manage to more or less keep the entire thing together for now. ]
... Not a bad start.
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[At least it's staying together! ... For the most part.
Counting this as a success, she starts valiantly in on the rest of it.]
So what happened when you did try to use your illusion powers?
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[ His tone of voice is always like this, Shoka; it's as good as you're gonna get. His expression does quirk a bit in response to her, though, matching her tone in the curve of a lopsided vulpine smirk.
Though it evens back out a bit with the next question as he thinks back to what he was trying to accomplish in the moment, what it felt like. ]
Tried to make myself look like me. From before here, I mean. But more than just not working, felt like I ran into a block. Danger, high voltage, do not enter. It hurt. Yep.
[ A bit of understatement, but it's fine. ]
Not fun when you're supposed to be in the middle of an attempted spar.
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[A thoughtful pause, as she starts weaving another braid.]
Right in the middle of a fight, though? What kind of strat is that?
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[ A reaction that ... in the moment was surprising, confusing maybe, but now with the benefit of hindsight and more awareness of the situation is instead telling. ]
Was trying to clear it up, but. Didn't quite work out how I wanted.
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[ Ingo didn't say when he asked, what it was that he wasn't supposed to be doing, so the best Emmet's got are educated guesses.
There's only so much he can say here without Shoka realizing it's Ingo he's talking about, though, and Emmet isn't a good liar. Might have already said too much, even, but he figures Ingo wouldn't want him airing that out, so. ... So, he just kind of shrugs. ]
So something like that, maybe.