Post by Danny Kazuki on Aug 15, 2014 1:43:54 GMT -5
(TW: Blood, Broken egg talk) Rain roared behind him as his footsteps became embedded in the moist, mud-filled trail, leading directly to the mouth of Meteor Falls. Leaning against the wall as his uneasy, shaken up breaths recoiled from the chill of the water, he gradually sunk down to his knees, shivering as he stared at the storm he barely escaped from. "Looks like it's getting worse." Hesitating as he opened his bag, he let out a light sneeze, which he instinctively blocked with his arm. <You better not sneeze on me.> A Metapod's monotone voice perked up as the lid to her cozy and dry hiding spot opened up, revealing her and the Froakie Egg that she was assigned to protect. Maybe putting a Metapod on guard duty wasn't the best idea, but knowing how reckless the rest of his crew could be, he really didn't trust any of them besides the one that couldn't possibly hurt or drop an egg if she tried. "Easy, easy. I'm just looking for a towel. And maybe a change of clothes." To him, it only made sense to put the softest stuff he had with some of the most fragile stuff. His laptop bag was large enough to handle the job too, so he certainly didn't have many issues regarding space. Sure, the egg might've been super snug, but it wasn't a tight enough fit that it would hurt, especially when it had his Hello Kitty towel wrapped around it. What? Don't judge Hello Kitty. After fiddling around with what he had stuffed in there, he managed to get his hair to stop dripping water everywhere. His soaking wet clothes had to be stuffed into a plastic baggy until he could find a place to air dry them, and he was stuck wearing gym shorts and a loose T-Shirt with a logo featuring a Beartic playing the banjo. Kind of tacky, but it was cheap, and it wasn't as if he was planning on socializing out here. "The one thing I wouldn't miss about Hoenn is how humid it is. Why do people want to move here again? Seriously, remind me." Winnie could only wiggle in response, which Danny interpreted as a buggy shrug. Even the entrance to Meteor Falls felt humid, but the more Danny looked into the depths of the cave, the more his curiosity grew. Surely the temperature drops depending on how deep you go, and if what those TV shows on the Discovery channel said was true, there was supposed to be a massive waterfall hiding in here. There was even a rumor that you could find a nifty cave filled with sparkling limestone at the other end, but Danny wasn't willing to ruin another set of clothes so soon. Stretching his arms over his head as he tried to figure out where he wanted to go next, Winnie cringed in disgust as she heard his spine crinkle and pop from each move he made. He happened to glance over at Winnie, making clear eye contact as she suddenly looked in the other direction, pretending as if that never happened. "What? My back hurts from carrying all this stuff." It was one thing to just have his laptop bag resting at his side, but he needed an actual backpack that could hold enough supplies for a night or two in the wild. <You don't have to be so loud about it, do you? It's sickening to hear.> Winnie turned back around, facing him with eyes squinted in clear disgust. He didn't know what she was saying, but he had the gist of it down. "Sorry, but you gotta deal with it. Sometimes I need to get it out of my system. It's a human thing. No, wait. It's an invertebrate thing." He remarked, not even feeling sorry as he suddenly got back on his feet, dusting himself off as Winnie protested again from the sudden movement. She wasn't so fond of being shaken around without a hint or a warning, but Danny was already walking deeper into the cave, easily tuning her voice out when his eyes had so much to take in. From the way that walls sparkled when you caught it in the right light, to the way the rocks playfully curled around one another, forming distorted mouths and eyes that warned him to turn away. If it wasn't for some of the gaps in the ceiling that easily illuminated the cave's upper floors and the torches and lanterns that stuck to an easy to follow path on the bottom, Danny would probably be walking into walls. Winnie finally got the hint and resorted to passive aggressive String Shots, first squirting out a small chunk at Danny's face, then another at the lid of the bag, and after giving the string a good tug, she slammed the bag's top right over her. There was still a small crack for her to peek out of, but the point was to lash out at Danny, not hide in the dark like a sulking child. "EEk! Winnie, don't do that. It's all wet like spit and everything." Right as he turned to glare at her with an arm brushing the gunk off his cheek, his bag was slapped shut. Great. Now his Metapod was fed up with him. "You're so weird. What is this, like, pre-teen angst? I don't even know what you want from me." And now things switched around, much to the Metapod's enjoyment. Now she could simply ignore Danny's rant as she hid in silence, though he could very easily pick her up and yell in her face if he wanted, he wasn't the type to do that. She knew he wasn't the type to do it either. Whine and babble as much as he liked, he was much too lax to do a damn thing about the problems he had with others. It was great that he bothered to train his Pokemon, but there was a reason why she was still a Metapod. Just sayin'. Danny walked along the water's edge as if he had a song booming in his head. His feet swung around as his knees bobbed up and down, and he was starting to crave actual music to replace the sound of rain rampaging around the cave. "Depending on how the rain goes, we could be stuck here all night. Either we run to Fallarbor in the rain, or we try to feel our way through at night. I kind of hate both options though. It's not like we're in a hurry, eh?" Not that Winnie was going to talk to him, but he knew that she was listening. He even gave his bag an affectionate tap, hoping that gradually he could work up some trust. Originally planning on exploring the cave from mouth to mouth, the prance to his step came to an immediate stop once a flash of red and green caught his eye. The sound of rushing water was ever present with the waterfall and the rain, and on a day like this, the river's current was even stronger than usual. Whatever was bobbing up and down the current was noticed for a brief few seconds, but when he looked back, there was an even brighter assortment of colors drifting through the waves. This time, he could distinctly recognize them as clothing. Shirts, jeans, socks, undies, jackets. It was as if someone dropped a suitcase in here thinking it was a bag of confetti. "Should I...?" Thoughts transformed into words, until his thoughts cut his sentence off. Was it worth diving into the river to pick all that crap up? Someone dropped this stuff in the first place, he imagined, and it would've sucked to lose this much clothing if you were on a tight budget. "Said I wouldn't get wet, but I guess it's necessary. Winnie, keep an eye on the bag. I'm going in! I might not be as incredible as those sparkling cartoon swimmers on TV, but I'm at least a quarter of how dazzling they are!" How being dazzling related to this situation, he didn't know, but it helped to feel positive about something before doing someone else's dirty work. Slipping his bags and footwear off so they could rest beside a nearby rock, he waded into the river's depths. The water rose tentatively to the edges of his shirt, and once again, his shorts were completely soaked, but fortunately for him, doing this didn't require swimming skills. He spread his arms wide as bits of clothing wrapped themselves around him, only to get tossed onto shore so he could collect even more. As much as he wanted to go back for the ones that already passed him, standing against the force of the current was already a lot of trouble. Overexerting himself for a couple of socks and shirts just wasn't worth it in his eyes, so the owner was just going to have to take what they could get. Right as the stream of colors flowed to a stop, Danny was just about ready to hop out when Winnie popped the lid of her bag open. <Danny, get back in there! Something strange is in the water.> Luckily for him, Winnie had been keeping a close eye on the situation from the safety of the shore, and her eyes caught onto something bright bobbing up and down, caught in the river's rough current. "Huh--oh! Oh crap. Is that...is that an egg?!" He spun his head around at the Metapod's concern, and sure enough, that egg was speeding right towards him. Taking care to catch it as he held it to his chest, he didn't even notice the warm sensation that rubbed against him as he waddled back to the shore, egg in tow. Heaving a sigh of relief as he collapsed on the ground, surrounded by clothes, dirt, and rocks, he pretty much considered all of this two good deeds for the day. He looked at Winnie, hoping for some kind of look that offered him the praise he desired. With an excited grin, he even expected a hint of respect hiding in her expression. Danny didn't get anything like that. In fact, he only saw a look of terror. <That's blood. You're bleeding. It's...do you even see it? Look at yourself. What happened out there?> From what Winnie could remember, none of the stories she heard regarding heroes and rescuers involved blood. Danny tried to be a hero, kind of like the knights and Prince Charmings she always admired, but he didn't get that ending. This couldn't be right. Danny froze at her horror-stricken expression, and as his thoughts slowly processed everything, he noticed how she was staring right at his chest. No, this time, she was staring right at the egg. "...What?" No. This couldn't be right. That whole time when he was standing out in the river, he hadn't felt injured in the slightest. Sure, maybe the rocks at the riverbed were uncomfortable to walk on, but certainly nothing out there hurt his chest. "What?" He repeated, holding the egg away as he constantly tried to process what was going on, and as his sopping wet hands slipped as they turned the egg around, he saw the problem. The damn egg was cracked. The egg was cracked, and that whole time, he never noticed it. The rain continued to pour as thunder loomed in the heavens, but all Danny and Winnie heard was complete silence as they stared in horror at the abandoned egg. An egg that probably belonged to somebody. An egg that he couldn't even tell if it was injured by his own hands, or maybe an egg that could've been saved if he had just noticed it sooner. The feeling of nausea he felt was immense as he gently rested it away from the stranger's clothing, not wanting to stain any of it on accident. It was too late for his own shirt, but at least it was a crappy spare. "Shit." He immediately dived back into the river, getting the fluid off of his skin as he furiously scrubbed at the settling stains on his shirt. It might've been gone from his arms, but the stain on his shirt was stubborn. To make matters worse, he could hear sobs and sniffles approaching through the darkness of the cave. Someone was coming, and he was stained in red gunk. No amount of smooth talking could make him look good in a situation like this. He panicked. "Winnie, get in the bag." He hissed under his breath, gesturing sharply towards his computer bag as he waded back out of the water. Danny was shivering by the time he crawled back out, and whether it was from the cold or from his nerves, he didn't even know. He only knew that it made him walk even faster as he grabbed what he could and bolted behind the nearest rock he could find, dripping a faint trail of water behind him, hidden by the shadows of the cave. Winnie could only stare in shock as she subconsciously inched closer to her precious Froakie egg, recoiling at the thought of such a thing happening to something she was supposed to protect. She looked towards Danny with a mixture of concern and something else he couldn't quite decipher, but she seemed to be as panicked as he was. Struggling to control his wavering breath by holding it entirely, his ears picked up on the loud gasp as footsteps drew closer and closer. Without a doubt, he wanted to look. He wanted to see what was going on, but doing that required movement that could've made some sort of sound that could reveal his position. Awkward confrontations were not his thing, and had to be avoided at all costs. He vaguely heard a high-pitched, feminine voice squeak out "Oh, no. No no no.", followed by a heavy slump to the ground. It didn't take much to figure out what was going on. Wincing as he shut his eyes tight, fearing the sound of each blink disrupting the stunned silence, he could easily imagine her picking up the egg, holding it and staring at it in horror as her eyes first fixated on the oozing fluid, only to notice the crack in the side. He didn't even know what kind of egg it was, but it was clearly important to a trainer that easily could've been him. He kicked himself for cowering and hiding throughout all of this, imagining that girl wanting someone to support her throughout it all as she solemnly picked her clothes up, shaking the water and dirt off of them until she stashed them away in her bag. But alternatively, maybe she was the type that preferred to handle this on her own. Maybe it was something so shameful, that having someone see it and offer to help would've made things worse. The obvious stains on his shirt made him want to hide even more. All he could do was shiver in silence until the girl left, and even after he heard those burdened footsteps fade away, he couldn't bring himself to come out of hiding. Winnie was patient with him, choosing not to say a word as she leaned over the Froakie egg, tired eyes drooping, drained from the intense suspense. Arms resting against his knees as he quietly smacked himself in the head, he gave one final sigh as he leaned back into the rock for support, seemingly staring into space until his head tilted towards the egg. Rather, his own egg. He could handle raising Pokemon, because typically they could fend for themselves. But an egg was something else; it was fragile, and knowing how reckless he could be, there was only too good of a chance that something horrible would happen to it. Arceus forbid he ever became a parent. "Winnie...that egg is gonna hatch, ok. It's gonna hatch, and it's going to be healthy." If he lied enough, he figured that even he could believe his own words. He crawled towards her, giving her a gentle pat on the side, thinking that she'd say something encouraging. Anything sounding remotely happy would do. Winnie didn't answer him, instead choosing to ignore him as she feigned sleep. "Yeah. Sleep well. Keep that egg safe." He flipped the bag's strap around his chest as he waited for the rain to settle, and by the time it did, the sun was already setting. He was hungry. Larry had already chirped out the dinner alarm, and everyone had to eat away at at the unsettling silence shared between Danny and Winnie. Eyebrows were raised at the scent of blood, and even Aph tugged at his arm in concern, but Danny shrugged it off with a fake laugh. Dinner was kept short due to the need to travel before nightfall, and with both of his outfits semi-dry, Danny was left uncomfortable regardless of what he wore. Still, the stainless one was preferable, and he didn't feel nearly as guilty wearing it. Making it out of Meteor Falls was easy enough, but seeing a young girl near the exit to the cave, hints of red in her eyes as she tried to flash him a smile wasn't. The Danny charm just wasn't good enough for this one. His polite smile was pleasant at best, but he made sure to walk the hell away from her before any sort of conversation could start. The broken egg that he once held might not have been obvious to human eyes, but his scent had the clear, metallic scent that once coated the egg. It was enough to stop a Pokemon in their tracks, and despite its hidden presence behind the trees, one in particular did. Danny boasted his best cheerful smile as he tried to shove the past behind him, figuring that from now on, this was a secret to be shared between him and Winnie. He certainly wasn't expecting the curiosity of a stranger to be lurking behind him, carefully studying his features until it decided it had enough, zooming towards Fallarbor Town without a sound. At the pace Danny was walking, he figured he'd make it to Fallarbor right as the clock hit 9:30. It would've been dark by then, but at least he'd be around civilization, and not stuck in the woods with bad phone service. tag: nah ▪ words: 3104 ▪ ooc: Solo posting thing |
made by kei at GS
