bottlecaplogs | Impromptu Oran Sleepover

Entry tags:

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!]]

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This feels like the kind of place where everyone pitches in where they can. Some can contribute in some ways that others cannot. But maybe you are right.

[ waiting for water to boil ...

............. emmet is going to just. carefully attempt to make himself more comfortable. it takes a little bit of doing but eventually he manages to approximate something resembling a foxloaf. ]

Hm. That is just regular Ember? But you mentioned Infernal Parade before.

Wonder what the difference between ghost fire and regular fire is.

I don't know...I can't seem to produce any ghost ones. They always just come out regular.

[Ingo was sitting on his haunches to do this, which now forces him to awkwardly back up before he can lay down as well. It feels too strange, to loom over Emmet like that; anyway, may as well be comfortable.]

My thought is that perhaps making the fire is a physical action, and making the ghost one would be a sort of...spiritual action? But I certainly don't know what that means.

[ Emmet doesn't respond at first, just cocks his head and blinks a bit as he thinks that over for a long moment or two.

Eventually: ]

... Chandelure's fire burns cold. It looks like fire and acts like fire in some ways but isn't actually the same in all of them. You can put your hand through it and it won't hurt. And they won't mind. Though he likes being pet in the curl of his arms more.

... Lots of ghost moves feel like that I think. Either feelings or— shadows I guess? Things that are like others but aren't really. Though I don't know what kinds of feelings might make ghost fire.

[ He pauses to yawn a bit, ears swiveling a little. ]

Haven't really thought about it that much here. So I don't know if this really helps. But not counting status moves ... So far for me it feels like ghost in general is easier than other things. Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak are easy if I don't think about it much. Just have to feel not there. [ If that even makes sense. It's a kind of distance, one step removed from something more tangible, more real? Shadow Claw is kind of like his own hands— well, paws— but it isn't. Shadow Sneak— well, of course he isn't over there, silly, he's over here now— ] Shadow Ball I can sort of start if I use Shadow Claw as a base. But I can't control it well enough to conduct it to any real destination so that one is a not really.

[Ingo listens intently. They're both only partial ghost-types, but Emmet still seems like the most ghostly one. Zoroark are like that; they have physical forms in a way many ghosts don't, but that form is itself rather spectral. Typhlosion aren't. If a Hisuian one isn't showing its flames, someone less experienced could be forgiven for thinking it a Johtonian variant.]

Feel not there...

[Well, he knows what that feels like. But it must be something less. He can't let his mind wander like that mid-battle!]

I should be able to use Infernal Parade, Hex, and Shadow Ball naturally. Someone would have to teach me Shadow Claw, and I can't use Shadow Sneak at all. That's a bit of a shame - I would be curious to know what that felt like. Is it strange?

Hmm, not really? Like a game of hide and seek. Not there until someone finds me or I decide it's been too long and come back on my own.

[ it's just Shadow Sneak, anyway, so it doesn't really last that long. the point is to be fast. maybe Phantom Force might feel different, or maybe it's just more of the same.

pause. ]

Have accidentally done it on reflex actually. Didn't mean to at all. In my defense, I was trying to dodge a dark type attack aimed at my face. Maybe Hisuian Zoroark is just less ... solid, than Hisuian Typhlosion.

But that is all shadows. Ghost fire might be something else. What does Laventon's Pokedex say about Typhlosion?

[Hm...]

As I recall, it was a short recounting of the legends about them. It's said that they purify lost and forsaken souls with their flames, and then guide them to the afterlife. He thought that they were like that in Hisui because they were affected by the sacred energies surrounding Mount Coronet.

[Which sounds pretty reasonable to Ingo, after everything!]

If there are any lost and forsaken souls around here, though, I cannot tell.

So they're guides. Conductors for lost passengers even. [ That sounds nicer than a bereaved ghost. A bereaved, vengeful ghost that Ingo still will react to, sometimes.

(The red around his collar flickers and blurs a little, again. But Emmet stays exactly where he is, paws folded and tucked away as harmlessly as possible, smile soft.) ]

They sound kind. And it is familiar, sort of. [ Remarked: ] You used to think of Chandelure that way too. Said his flames would light the way to where you need to go. Paths you need to take. Even in the darkest places where light doesn't normally reach.

Maybe that is the kind of feeling you need to think of?

...that does sound familiar.

[Guiding them through the tunnels, luring them onward...what was it he said? Something like that? Ingo stares into the little glowing embers for a few moments, lost in thought, then shrugs.]

Mmm, well, maybe! I don't know that I should try it in here, though. I don't know how to make the ghost fire burn or not burn, either!

Right now is probably not a good idea, yup. You are better with nights than I am. Probably still doesn't pass safety checks either way. Definitely do not want to start a fire near where food is kept.

[ A bigger one than the one they already have, anyway. ]

[The water's starting to boil a bit, at least...]

Absolutely not! [It's important to keep the food safe and secure! Though...hm, there's a tidbit.] You are not an evening person?

Hmmm, sort of? If I am excited. If there is a good battle. Or something else to look forward to. Then there is no problem. I can keep going all day. I can even get carried away and almost miss the last train sometimes.

But between the two of us you are better with nights. It is weeeeiiird that you are up in the mornings when I am now.

I have never enjoyed mornings. But there is work to do, and I cannot sleep through the sun rising anyhow.

[So is that a natural tendency, one he never changed because he...didn't have to, back in the future?]

Haha. [ poor, poor Ingo, forced to rise with the sun in Hisui. ] I used to handle the mornings when we didn't have work. Fed our Pokemon. Took care of breakfast.

You usually only really woke up once everything was ready. Would stumble into the kitchen and go strrrraight for a cup of something to wake you up properly.

...that sounds nice.

[Having someone to take care of things in the morning for him like that. Ingo has never particularly expected to have anyone else so consistently around - he's never felt terribly inclined to seek a spouse, especially when he couldn't say for sure that there wasn't someone like that waiting for him someplace else. He's always imagined that, if nothing happens, he'll live alone until he grows too old for Wardenship.

........hey, wait.]

Did we live together?

Shared an apartment in Nimbasa. Was convenient, saved money on housing.

Did try separate places before in the past. Found there was no real point. Sharing the space was fine for us, you had your room and I had mine.

[ ... Emmet glances away, ears lying a little flat. ]

Your room is the same as how you left it. I haven't changed anything.

[ he went in to clean it, every now and then, keep things from accumulating too much dust, but otherwise ... he pretty much hasn't touched any of it. ]

That's quite a bit of space!

[Separate rooms! That's common enough in Jubilife houses, but not in the Clan; Ingo's only stayed over in places like that as a guest. But then Emmet goes on, and he feels foolish for having commented on something so mundane.]

Ah. Well. Thank you?

[Is that what he's supposed to say? Ingo doesn't remember the room or how he left it; that doesn't matter to him. But to think of Emmet carefully maintaining that space for him, all this time...a large part of him wishes he hadn't been so mired down in that loss, but a smaller part is...a bit gratified to know that he'd been missed so much. And then he feels guilty for that, so.]

[ Emmet just shrugs a little, or tries to approximate something like it from his current position before unloafing just a bit, freeing his front paws just enough so that he can lay his head down across them instead. It isn't that big of a deal? Putting anything away into storage would have ... what. Made it more real? Cemented it as a done deal? He's not delusional or in denial or anything, just... ]

Kept the space for you just in case you ever came back. Knew the odds especially after that long but. Weird things happen all the time. Ghosts, fairies, legendaries. Who knows.

[ Some might say that after a certain point, hope is just delusion, isn't it? It doesn't feel that way to Emmet, though. He's ... fine. He's been fine. More or less. He's been getting by. Five years, you learn to live with the absence, one way or another. Part of him sometimes wondered— well, no, that part isn't important. It's like keeping a light on, though; the beacon of a lighthouse at port, a light in the window, Chandelure's flames to illuminate the way home.

'There's a space for you here still if you still want it.' ]

Don't have to feel obligated though. Not trying to push. I am Emmet. Ingo is Ingo. But I know you don't remember. And that's okay.

...of course.

[It cannot possibly be that simple. It doesn't seem at all that simple to Ingo. But what is he going to do? Press? Insist to Emmet that he must have more complicated (more negative) feelings than that? It feels silly to be worried about the fact that everything seems fine. He looks down at his paws, then at the embers.]

Well, I suppose no one is going anywhere anytime soon in any case.

[ What's with that reaction...? Emmet also glances over at the embers, ...stares a little too long past them, then lays his head back down, ears pulled back. He opens his mouth to say something, hesitates, then goes through with it anyway. ]

... If I am doing something wrong, just tell me. I know that all this is probably still strange. It is new to you and it is a lot to adjust to.

[ Going from being alone to having a twin he basically didn't know about, that is. And Emmet isn't entirely the same as he was either, no matter what habits and routines he does and doesn't keep to. But he's trying. He's been trying to let Ingo set the pace of things without having to check in overtly, and therefore crowd or pressure. Keeping track of what he can and adjusting where he notices, without trying to make anything of it... Has he not been doing that well enough?

(Emmet's feelings don't factor in. He's fine! He's been fine. He's found Ingo again, so he should be even more fine than he has been. Anything else, he can deal with without making others have to for him. Should be able to.) ]

Something wrong? Why would you be doing anything wrong?

[Who said anything like that? If anything, Ingo's the one who's done something wrong! Not on purpose, to be sure, but he's done a great deal more to hurt Emmet than the reverse!]

Sometimes when I say or do something. You seem unsure. [ Which on its own would be fine and make sense, if Ingo was just trying to figure out how to respond, but... ] Not like you are not sure what to do but. More like you're waiting for something else to happen. Expecting something that does not come.

... Maybe I am just imagining it, though. [ An out. ] It is late. And sleep has not come easily, these past nights. I may be overthinking it.

Ah. I don't...well, no, you are not doing anything wrong.

[He should explain more. Explaining things is usually something like second nature for Ingo; he does a lot of it back home, sometimes more than people really want. But Pokemon and the mountain are subjects he understands well. This is...

Does he expect something else? Well, yes. Ingo just isn't sure what exactly that is. Should Emmet be angry at him? Should he cry? Should he ask him to come back to the room he so carefully maintained, rather than just assuring him that it's fine either way? Ingo doesn't know; he doesn't know what tracks Emmet's car typically travels. Maybe he really is just that easy-going. It's hard to say. It's hard to say a lot about Emmet.]

Though - you do not have to keep saying that it is okay.

It is, though. Because there is no one to blame. It is not your fault and there is nothing to do about it. Just is. So it's okay, because it has to be.

[ What's he supposed to do if it isn't? Is he supposed to be angry at something, sad that it happened? What's the point? What's wrong with skipping straight to acceptance when there's nothing else to be done for it?

(Unless Ingo left on purpose, originally, before whatever happened to displace him in time and space. Unless some of those trashy tabloids back then, like a broken clock, actually managed to stumble upon the truth. No. That is ridiculous. Too many sleepless nights. Doesn't make sense. They know where and when he disappeared.)

Emmet's head lifts. A tufted ear twitches. ]

... Your water is boiling, I think.

That is not -

[That's not how it works, that's not how anything works! Ingo's never thought that his amnesia was anyone's fault in particular. Maybe some of what came after - all the battles that failed to spark any more recollections, all the failed attempts to conjure those vague figures in more detail - maybe that was his fault. But surely not the initial loss? The circumstances were so strange that it was hard to imagine a person even could somehow do that to themselves. So it wasn't his fault, and he couldn't do anything about it - but it wasn't just okay -

The water is boiling. Ingo blinks dumbly at it for a second.]

........we never actually found the tea.

[ That, for some reason, makes him bark out a soft laugh. More of a yipping sound than anything, but. ]

Oh. No we did not. We rushed ahead, proceeded down the tracks without finishing checks first... How verrrry silly.

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