News, Announcements, Weather, and Events

[Negrek]

The wound on Mitch's arm wasn't huge, but it was still oozing profusely. Erishkigal's beak had left a gash perhaps an inch and a half long and a quarter of an inch deep in Mitch's flesh. Sticky black goo rimmed the wound, though it was being washed out by all the blood. The mess stung like anything, but it certainly wouldn't do anything to seriously impair arm function.

Meanwhile, Erishkigal and Gefion followed the pokéball with their eyes as it rebounded from Vincent with a faint "pang" and then rolled off the edge of the boardwalk. Faunus' sensitive ears were probably the only ones to pick up the "plonk" the ball made as it fell into the water; the others were more preoccupied by the renewed bout of hissing and sputtering that arose from the pokédex after it had been struck. The noise died down swiftly, though, and Vincent seemed past the worst of his conniptions. Aside from the occasional tremor, the pokédex had stopped moving, and it was for the most part quiet.

Lugh gave a little snort, one forepaw twitching, then blearily opened his beady eyes (as much as they were ever open). Totally unaware of all the drama that had taken place after he began his little nap, he found that he actually felt a little better for the rest. It was only a second later that he realized he'd been lying flat-out in the mud and, with a disgusted squeal, began struggling to his feet, trying to wipe off the nasty stuff. His former opponent, meanwhile, had by this point made its way to the edge of the water and settled down with her tail dangling in the stream--which was probably wishful thinking, given how shallow the water looked.

Update: You have lost one pokéball.

Ereshkigal has gained 2 EXP (4/10) and is at 65% health. Lugh has gained 1 EXP (level up, 0/5, smokescreen learned). Gefion has gained 1 EXP (4/5) and is at 10% health.

[Malice Aforethought]

((Um. I picked up the Pokéball that missed the Shinx and Kusari gave it back to me. I haven't used it since then. o.O))

[Negrek]

(( All right. Someone never added it back into your profile. << ))

[Malice Aforethought]

Mitch couldn't see what had happened with the Misdreavus; the Pokéball had rolled away somewhere she couldn't see, and she'd have to figure out where that had gone to at some point, but Vincent wasn't having horrible seizures any longer. Had the ghost fainted? Had she, by some ridiculous miracle, actually managed to catch it? Was Vincent broken? (Should she be laughing or crying right now?) And what was she supposed to do now?

At least she and her Pokémon weren't being attacked, and Lugh had woken up--he was quite upset about having dozed off in the mud, but he was awake and all right--so there was that. "Sorry, Lugh, uh... didn't mean to leave you in the mud like that, but, um..." She glanced at the relatively silent Pokédex. "...stuff... happened." Gefion looked pretty battered, so Mitch called her back into her Pokéball. After that, though...

Mitch got up and took a few cautious steps toward Vincent. If the Misdreavus was still conscious, she didn't want him to come after her again. Maybe she should try throwing something else at it, just a little rock or stick or something. She looked around for something small enough to throw without totally busting it. "Watch the Pokédex, Ereshkigal," she said as she scanned the ground. "If that Misdreavus comes out again, I want you to attack it with pursuit again, okay?"

[Negrek]

Erishkigal nodded, not that she had shown any signs of abandoning the pokédex in the first place. No doubt she intended to rip the misdreavus a new one if she dared show her face again, given the ghost's cowardly tactics.

There were many small stones in the stream area at the base of the boardwalk; if Mitch got down on hands and knees and reached, she'd probably be able to grab one, although it was liable to be muddy. There were also probably small sticks available in the grass more towards the trees, though they weren't so readily apparent.

Lugh squeaked and continued shoveling mud out of his fur as best he was able. Here, of course, was the curse of the fire-type: if they got dirty, they didn't view taking a quick dip as an acceptable method of cleaning off, even if there was water aplenty to take advantage of.

[Malice Aforethought]

The pokédex had already been broken to start with, thanks to Adrian's irritable Pikachu, then there was Misdreavus incident; getting mud on the device on top of all that probably wasn't a very good idea. So Mitch set off through the grass, on the lookout for a relatively dry stone or perhaps a very lengthy stick of the "poke objects from a safe distance" persuasion. She kept an ear out for any renewed screeching, sputtering or maybe any sounds from Ereshkigal that would indicate renewed activity on Vincent's or the Misdreavus's part; while she was moving, she looked around to see if the wild Machop was still in the immediate area. Now wasn't the time to try and battle it, but it probably wasn't safe to ignore something that was strong enough to break her in half if it wanted to.

If she did find a rock or a sufficiently long poking stick, she'd move closer to Vincent again and throw the rock or give it a good prod.

And eventually, she'd have to find that pokéball. If had, against all reason, actually captured the Misdreavus, she'd need to deal with it; if not, hey, why let it go to waste? It had rolled off in the direction of the boardwalk when it hit the pokédex, but she hadn't seen where it had rolled off to. "Hey, Faunus," she called over her shoulder. "Could you maybe stop being a primadonna for long enough to stand up and sort of look around for that pokéball? Maybe go get it, if that isn't too strenuous for you?" Surely if he couldn't jump onto the boardwalk he had enough room to walk under it a bit, even if he had to flatten his ears first. Mitch should probably have felt bad for being so sarcastic with her Nidoran, but having an oozing, burning shoulder, a broken pokédex and a recently-exorcised ghost to deal with did not make her feel especially amicable.

[Negrek]

As Mitch moved away from the river, she would come across the occasional rock buried in the grass; most were no larger than pebbles, but there were a couple that were large enough to take up maybe a quarter of her palm. A spindly twig or two, no more than a foot long, would also present themselves as she searched. The trees were still farther on up the hill, and Mitch wasn't likely to find much in the way of long sticks unless she got right up under them. The nearest tree, in fact, was still being assaulted by the machop. The fighting type was slamming its trunk with kick after kick, apparently oblivious to Mitch.

There were no further outbursts from the pokédex that Mitch could hear, and a glance back at the boardwalk would find Erishkigal still watching it attentively, though how long it would be before the murkrow lost interest was anyone's guess. When Mitch picked a stone out of the grass and turned back to throw it at Vincent, the murkrow let out a startled caw and stumbled back a step. Another faint burst of white noise emanated from the pokédex after the rock struck it, but it faded rapidly and the device didn't so much as twitch.

Faunus remained where he was for a couple of seconds after Mitch called out to him, ears slowly swiveling back and forth as they usually did, but then he got up and began to gingerly pick his way underneath the boardwalk, stepping carefully from stone to stone so as not to get wet. The pokéball hadn't gone far, the weak current flowing through the little stream having nosed it up against a submerged rock. Faunus crouched down on a relatively large stone and reached tentatively for the pokéball with one of his forepaws, batting at it in hopes of drawing it in closer.

[Malice Aforethought]

Well, throwing things at Vincent didn't seem to be getting Mitch anywhere, and she was more or less fresh out of ideas. As far as she could see she had two options: pick it up, hope that it wasn't possessed/an electric shock hazard and go from there, or leave it and hope the people at the community center had a good sense of humor and some backup free goodies on hand. Abandoning it seemed more and more tempting by the second, as the thing was already broken before Misdreavus attacked it. And they couldn't be that expensive if it was possible to give them away for free, right?

But still... leaving free stuff behind really stuck in Mitch's craw, and there was always the chance that it wouldn't be easy to replace after all. The best idea, then, was probably to take it, keep it safe and see what other options were available to her when she got back into town. Before she did that, though, she wanted to be as certain as possible that the Misdreavus wasn't going to come after her again. That meant double-checking the pokéball just to make sure it hadn't really been caught. If it had then the pokédex was probably semi-safe to pick up; if not, as she suspected was the case, then... then she'd have to... do... something else.

Faunus looked like he was making at least minor progress with the wayward ball, so she left him to keep pawing at it for now. If he really couldn't reach it she supposed she could try reaching under there herself to grab it, but why bother when Mr. Diva over there was actually willing to cooperate without complaint for once?

[Negrek]

Faunus leaned forward, swatting at the pokéball and finally managing to bat it back in his direction. Unfortunately, the quick swiping motion was enough to make him lose his tenuous balance on the rock,and he fell face-forward into the water with a splash. The stream was shallow enough that this essentially meant he ended up face-down in the mud, his legs scrambling awkwardly at the side of the rock until he managed to get his forepaws under his body and lever himself back to an upright position. At that point, there was no more point in trying to avoid getting wet, so the nidoran simply drove the pokéball before him with his horn as he splashed back towards shore.

Faunus would end up running over the slowpoke's tail on his way back to shore, but the water type gave no sign that it had noticed; one final headbutt sent the pokéball spinning up onto relatively dry ground, and then Faunus ran up to sit beside it on the bank. He seemed disinclined to go farther than that and settled down to clean some the mud off his face. A couple of seconds later, the slowpoke blinked and said, "Sloooow?" The psycic type raised its tail out of the water and gave it a confused look over its shoulder.