Watching Clouds Wander [Open]

[walter]

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[atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2vjbf52.jpg] Waltz was watching the clouds move. He was sure he made quite the suspicious portrait: some weird scientist person lounging about in the National Park, back to the ground, hands on the back of his head, unlit cigarette between his lips. A chill wind was brushing against his face but whether that was just the season or a sign of storm and terror Waltz had not the slightest idea. The act of cloud watching itself was was obligingly mind numbing. Arp... no, Sonia had loved watching clouds. Kind of funny. Dark trainer would be so peaceable and relaxed. Walter toyed with his unlit cigarette. Spotted Bell out of the corner of his eye, floating serenely in place. He shot the pokemon a dirty look which the metang ignored. It wasn't that Waltz was trying to break the habit: his lighter had burned out somewhere between his somewhat idle meandering on Route 36 and here and apparently Bell thought he deserved a little more respect than to be used as an overgrown lighter. Waltz disagreed but he might have been the slightest bit biased. Maybe. He turned his attention back to the clouds. "That one looks a bit like a DNA helix," he told no one in particular. In his mind's eye (and probably only his) he could spot the phosphate backbones, the little base pair rungs, the strange crooked ladder of life. Probably a sign that he hadn't had enough sleep or food or rest. And no, sleep and rest were not synonymous. You could tell. Not that you'd ever want to. "Look, there's the guanadine-cytosine pair and-" "Maw," Viola disagreed. The Mawile chirped something that sounded rude and insistent. Don't we have anything better to do...? "Feeeh." Waltz replied carelessly, muscle memory removing the cigarette from his lips before he spoke. "Maybe." "Maybe." He put the cigarette back. Continued watching the sky.

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[Hayden]

It had been a narrow get away this morning. People in these tight, black and white outfits had come out of the houses at a ridiculously early hour. They hadn't spotted her, they had been going the other way, but still. What they would do to her if they had seen her! Oh, she didn't want to think about it! She was a child, still, that way. She avoided what she didn't like, played around foolishly with what she did.

She slipped through the trees, easily quiet, just like a pokemon would be. She pulled to a sudden stop as the strong scent of fruit - no, berries - hit her nose. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn't eaten well in quite some time. She scampered that way, stepping carefully to avoid branches. She was getting closer, closer, she could almost taste them, but just as she spotted them, just at the edge of the trees, a voice froze her in her tracks, the suddenness making her step back a step onto a twig which rustled and snapped, not nearly as loud as it probably seemed to her ever-sensitive ears. She quivered for a moment before creeping forward.

"Look, there's the guanine-cytosine pair and-"

What? What was that stuff? It didn't make sense, none of it. Just a jumble of sounds he seemed to think were words. But they certainly weren't words she'd ever heard. She paused at the edge of the trees, hand snaking out to pull off berries steadily, though she hardly noticed she was eating them. Her subconscious kept her motions as quite as they could be as her head tipped to the side slightly and she watched, listened, curious as always, but never daring enough to step out into the light, let herself be seen. It was too dangerous. And at the idea of the possibility, all she could think of was the bloodshed, violence, and agonizing pain.

--- far too lazy to code anything fancy right now xD ---

[walter]

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[atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2vjbf52.jpg] "That one looks a bit like you Viola." Waltz said, carelessly pointing at one of the larger clouds structures. He rolled the cigarette between his fingers - if he left it in his mouth much longer it'd turn one end to soggy mush. With a sigh, he re-introduced it to his box, shaking it down with a practiced motion. Perhaps it was better like this. It wasn't like he had all that many smokes left, anyway. And the easy way to make money - pokemon battles - was also the easy way to lose money. "Maw." Viola told him. Somewhere in the tree cover, he heard something rustle but was content to ignore it: most pokemon in the national park weren't known to be terribly aggressive. Not like in Kanto: he'd heard horror stories about beedrill swarms. Besides, he had other things to worry about. "No - hey, ow - alright, I won't tease." Waltz said, rubbing his shoulder where the small - but solid - pokemon had struck him. Mawiles were surprisingly tough: their steely constitution meant that they were a lot like agrons, packing much more of a physical punch than their diminutive stature would suggest. But didn't that go for all pokemon, really? You wouldn't think that something three feet tall and organic could produce enough heat to melt steel, or change the weather to a raging snowstorm or produce a beam of semi-solid energy but there it was. Reality was a finicky, tricky thing when it came to pokemon. His stomach growled. He ignored it. He'd been tired, hungry and cold for days. Right now he was supposed to be resting. Letting the tension out. Trying to de-stress. It was good for him, theoretically. Bell moved a little closer though, visibly worried (as much as a solid, machine-like pokemon could be visibly worried) and Viola awkwardly patted his head. "I'm fine," Waltz muttered. "We're almost there, anyway." Apparently Bell disagreed because he floated off, apparently in search of human food.

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ooc: No worries about the coding. xD Also, Metang's headed in your character's general direction.

[Hayden]

She'd finally noticed the taste of the berries. Perhaps because the pokemon, Metang, was headed her way and it was hers. She wasn't normally very protective, but it had been far too long since she'd had enough to satiate her hunger, even the slightest. Her hand stopped grabbing the berries, fingers stained purple a little bit from the juice and her tongue ran over her teeth, cleaning them off before she crept forward another step or too.

And then it came even closer one hand dug into the soft earth, to avoid her nails digging into the palm of her hand, her blue eyes narrowing and her eyebrows furrowing together, defensively moving closer to the bush as the pokemon neared. Before she really noticed, a growl slipped through her lips, her fangs bearing slightly, enough they were visible but not enough to appear as that much of a threat, at least not yet. Had she been one to speak, she would have no doubt muttered a soft "mine", but she didn't speak. She hadn't spoken in five long years. And that wasn't going to change.

Of course, even if they didn't notice that, it would be hard to miss what happened next, though, as her scarf caught on a branch and she squirmed and fought to get it loose. It did tug free, but not before she'd made what seemed to her like a ruckus and lost her balance, collapsing on her back, hat toppling off as her head tipped back and her eyes found the strange man again. She laid there for a moment, winded from hitting the ground before she realized her vulnerability, her tail sticking out to the side, and the hatred she knew would be there for who, for what she was. She leaped to her feet, crouching with one hand up, ready to strike, and the other resting on the ground to keep her balance, innately fearful and ready to fight or flee, whichever happened to feel right.

[walter]

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[atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2vjbf52.jpg] Walter's hands shook. Ha, silly, wasn't it? That he was scared? Bell had picked up on his anxiety was circling the morph in tiny, worried circles. Viola, on the other hand, had stepped protectively in front of her 'trainer' and growled out a warning. Waltz gently pushed her aside, ignoring her startled squawk of protest. He needed a clear view. Kinda of sort of. Or maybe not. He just... just wanted to make sure. His right hand crept towards the breast pocket of his labcoat, struggling to find his glasses. He knew. He knew. He'd asked for samples of existing pokemorphs to expedite the process of creating artificial ones. Even at this distance, even with his ridiculous eyesight, he knew. This wasn't just a slightly nutty pokemon cosplayer. He wouldn't be so lucky. He put on the glasses regardless. She certainly didn't look like an assassin. Not half starved and as thin as he was. Berry juice had made sticky rivulets around her mouth, her fangs - so tiny they might have been mistaken for slightly overgrown human canines - were bared, scrawny fist held back ready to attack. It was an almost charming tableau. Poster child for charity getting kids off the streets. But he'd seen those ears. Seen that tail. Some eevee offshoot, couldn't remember the name right now. G-something. Ice-type. Dissection table 43. He felt his gorge rise. He'd asked for pokemorphs. Rocket had brought him pokemorphs. He didn't know from where, didn't ask. Spent days just scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing and god why wouldn't the blood get out. He was a geneticist yes, but this wasn't what he had wanted- His hands shook. His breath was coming in short gasps. Waltz was fairly certain that had he had breakfast, he might have been puking it out. As it was, he felt the onset of dry heaves. Ignored them. He wasn't... wasn't this pathetic. He could face his sins. He might not want to, he might run, but if his sins, his sins (and not Rocket's) came knocking he would face them. He bottled his conflicting emotions. Didn't notice he was squeezing his hands hard enough to draw blood until he relaxed them. All this took seconds. He had probably looked pretty... well, he wasn't sure what he had looked like. Death warmed over, maybe. What could he say, what could he ask? What would make any of this alright again? Maybe he'd start by doing what he should have last time. Treated them like humans. Even if it was too little, too late. "Are," he asked hoarsely, "are you okay?"

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[Hayden]

The look on her face, she couldn't quite place it. She was good with expressions, with actions. They were what she knew well, what she personally relied on to interact with anything, anyone. Even if that anyone was limited to pokemon, things she could trust, it was how she showed what she wanted, what she didn't want. She didn't speak, never spoke anymore, not since that day. And that look on his face. It made her uncertain. She didn't like uncertainty. She nearly backed up a step, then rose and ran, but then it changed.

Seconds. It had taken seconds for him to go from plain old confusing, nearly unreadable, at least to her, to this. This strange act of seeming concerned, yet guilty, at the same time. It was the guilty part that caught her attention. What had he to be guilty about? He couldn't have been one of them, the ones who killed her friends and her family. He wouldn't have been guilty for that. Her hand hesitantly reached out, grabbed her hat back and shoved it on her head, long bangs that needed cut getting slipped back and out of her peripheral vision, just in case.

The words made sense this time. She'd heard those ones before. From her mother, father, every time she'd fell from a tree, or slipped while running and skimmed some skin off, left a bruise. But she didn't open her mouth. Didn't even try. But, her hand relaxed. He didn't seem like he was going to attack. And anyway, she had fast reactions. They would help her out if he did. Only then did she nod, signaling she was, indeed, fine.

[walter]

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[atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2vjbf52.jpg] When the question came out, he felt a bit like hitting himself. He usually wasn't quite this slow. There aren't many answers to that kind of question. Especially not for strangers. He could see the answer for himself: she probably hadn't had new clothes, or a proper bath, or a roof, or a regular supply of food for ages. But still she nodded, a guarded motion that he was pretty sure would have broken his sister's heart and cracked his just a little. No, no you're not alright. Maybe he'd interrupted her breakfast and she'd figured it would be better to stay and finish rather than risk going hungry. He tried to smile. It probably looked a bit sickly. He tried to imagine her life. Probably wasn't anything good. Pokemorphs weren't considered people in the same way pokemon weren't considered people. But you couldn't catch them in pokeballs. So you slaughtered them. Just in case. Is that how Rocket had got him the bodies? "Is there... is there anything you want? Or need?" Waltz considered his words and then winced. Was he trying to buy himself a clean conscience? A little desperately, he added: "Or maybe, or maybe something that would..." and he realized what exactly he sounded like and finished lamely, "help." Bell had stopped circling and instead returned to him looking inscrutable as ever. Viola tugged at his pants. He looked down and she gave him a searching look before shaking her head. He shrugged, helplessly. He wasn't any good at this... being a good person thing. But he was trying. People like his sister made it look a lot easier than it was.

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[Hayden]

He tried to smile; it didn't quite work. What was so bad, that he couldn't smile, not properly? Even she could smile, and she'd seen terribly things. Wonderful things too, but terrible things stood out more. She lowered herself a bit, finally sitting on the ground compared to her crouching. She wasn't concentrating nearly as hard anymore; she'd become acclimatized to the strange guilty look to his face and sound to his voice. In fact, it was easy to understand him. For all the misconceptions some people may have had, pokemorphs could talk just fine and did so regularly. She just chose not to talk.

Or, at least, she had. Now she wasn't so sure if it was a choice so much as an incapability. She also didn't quite care. She should, she knew, but she didn't. She was vaguely hungry still, but she could wait. It wasn't required to eat soon, she wasn't about to starve. He looked much worse off than she. She shook her head back and forth gently, not needing anything or wanting anything, looking him over again and frowning slightly. One fang closed around her lower lip before she bolted up, though hardly scared. Just fast, fast and smooth, not about to tip over any time soon.

She had dodged back to the bush, rummaging through the branches for a moment and finding one still full of berries. She pulled it away, blowing a thin stream of ice out to freeze the branch at its base then whacked it, shattering it off. She slipped back, crouching down again, handing it over, not quite giving him a choice but to take it, even if it meant wrapping his fingers around it herself. For the first time since the massacre, she found she actually had a need to talk, to explain. She avoided others, after all, even when she'd sworn to muteness to mourn, so there'd never been a need for speech, not while there was no one left to talk to. She didn't quite know if she remembered how. So, she kept it simple.

Eat.

It was rough, a voice clearly unused, but it wasn't terrible. She'd spoken before, she knew how things sounded, were supposed to sound. There was vague recollection of how to make them sound that way. It wasn't perfect, not like it had been five years ago, but it was okay. Passable, certainly.

[walter]

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[atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2vjbf52.jpg] She had an odd voice. At first he wasn't entirely sure if she had actually said it; if it had just been part of some hopeful imagination of his. It was rusty. Like the tools that had been passed down to his sister, or the makeshift fence that Rocket had set up outside the cave. Or Bell and Viola's condition after Waltz had found them, uncared for and almost starving. Apparently the people in the madhouse had thought that his pokeballs were empty- He was getting off topic. A quick confirmation with Bell and he was assured that yes, she had indeed spoken. Right. Eat. He'd used up most of his money buying pokemon food, various berry and mineral mixes that were highly nutritious to steel types but of dubious safety to most organics. The iron content was probably toxic to humans, in any case. He kept most of it online in various places, ready to access through any terminal. But hey, hunting for food would be easy. "Viola," he asked lightly, "do you think you could scrounge something up?" Viola hissed. Waltz looked down in confusion. Viola had her hackles up, and was staring at the morph with a deep abiding suspicion... almost, he'd say, anger. Waltz blinked. He wasn't a great trainer but he'd been with his mawile well over ten years. With metang for over twenty. This wasn't characteristic at all. He rubbed the back of her head, trying to calm her. "Viola, you need to be polite-" Bell calmly intruded into his head. Psychics. She knows the - it wasn't a word, more a concept, human-self-pokemon-glaceon distresses you. Waltz sighed. He made an elaborate hand gesture that meant nothing at all. "Could you get us something, Bell?" There was a moment of psychic silence. You should eat too, the Metang admonished gently, before disappearing into the cover of the forest. Hopefully to find something more filling then berries. Waltz picked Viola up, settling her on her customary perch on his shoulder. She jerked in surprise before settling there, trying to be polite. "Well, Bell will get us something," he said, trying to keep his voice light. "I'm Walter, Walter D. Fisk." "What's your name?"

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[Hayden]

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[atrb=background, i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv2/starstruck_insanity/middle2.png] Had it been a human who had immediately gotten defensive, things would have been much different. She likely would have full out attacked, frozen the very susceptible human body into an unmoving mass, glared for a moment, then left it there. However, the human was hardly offensive at all, and his rather sickly appearance certainly didn't help make him more threatening. So she just blinked, one eyebrow raised, in the mawile's direction, as if asking what the little thing was going to do to her exactly that she hadn't already dealt with in life from something rather larger. She did, however, growl in annoyance, picking a berry off the branch she'd grabbed and held it out to him with a shake of her head. Apparently she'd need more than one word. No. You eat. She was fine. Well, not really, but she looked better, ate better likely, and had probably eaten well more recently than he had. She had gone on to ignoring the mawile at this point, not quite caring what the little thing thought or did. Wal-ter. Huh. It was a strange name to her, but, then again, she'd never known the name of any human before. Were they all like that? All strange and mechanical, unrelated to the world around them? It hardly made any sense. But, she let it go. She let things go a lot. She offered up a smile instead. Sky. Ju- She paused a moment, voice sticking on those sounds. It had been so long, perhaps too long. Maybe she was already doing well considering the circumstances. She didn't know, nor care. All she knew was that it was frustrating to know that she could say the word but being unable to first go-round. Second time, though, she got it. At least she did get it. Just Sky.

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[walter]

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[atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2vjbf52.jpg] She was asking him to eat. He'd asked her what she'd wanted, and all she'd wanted, apparently, was for him to get better. If he was a little less of a bastard he might have broken down and started laughing or crying. But since he was a bastard who didn't really deserve redemption or absolution or anything- Ah right. No wallowing in self-pity. That was for others who had the luxury of such things. He took a steadying breath and gravely accepted the berry and began to chew. He knew it should have tasted sweet and prickly, a little bit of fructose and some tangy mixture of various other substances, but his tongue didn't register it and his stomach fought tooth and nail with him to keep it out of his system. He fought back. He didn't want to alarm Sky. He didn't want to alarm Viola either who was giving him a questioning pat. He was... he was okay. Really. "That was, um, very good," he said, giving her a shaky smile. "Thank you."

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[Hayden]

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[atrb=background, i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv2/starstruck_insanity/middle2.png] She grinned at his face, fangs flashing as a result, but she just laughed. Not that the fangs were particularly threatening, they weren't all that big. She rocked back on her heels, arms crossing along the top of her knees. Taste bad, good for you. She informed him, agreeing they weren't the best tasting berry in the world. But, they were, indeed, good for the health, as many berries were. She knew lots of benefits of the various berries and such. After all, she had grown up with them for meals, along with other things, of course. These ones were particularly good for the immune system, and if he didn't eat much, he'd need that boost to keep healthy. Or, at least, healthier. She began to wonder, again, why he seemed so nervous, so... off. He'd seemed fine before. Before he'd seen her. Did she have something to do with it? She didn't see how she could. He had her stumped. As an avid people-watcher, she liked to think most couldn't do that. So, she continued to just watch. An attempt to figure him out. She didn't know if it would work or not.

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[walter]

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[atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2vjbf52.jpg] Taste bad, good for you. "Ah," Waltz said, filing away that piece of information, blinking a bit at the odd word order and lack of verbs. He was pretty sure the berry itself must have been merely sour but food for him... Nevermind. He was about to say something - maybe comment about the weather, or the wind, or the approaching winter season and-oh-do-you-have-clothes-for-that? - y'know, something that would keep her from focusing on the fact that he really didn't want to eat anything else, sour or sweet when Bell returned. It was amazing how quietly the metang could move while carrying a small tree. Good thing too, that could probably be considered vandalism. His claws were purple with sticky berry juice. Apparently he'd tried to return with the berries themselves but while his claws could be manipulated to type on a specially modified keyboard, the same didn't hold true for squishy, easily destroyed berries. Waltz felt like pointing out that the metang could have used psychic but guessed that Bell had probably tried and failed. It was one thing to slam big and bulky pokemon out of the way (or in what had been used more often: moving heavy boxes from one side of the lab to another), quite another to manipulate and grasp fruits the size of a grape. Still, that would be something for Bell to do. Get him out of his hair and- Eat the metang ordered, sounding slightly peevish as he dropped the tree. Waltz blinked. Turned to morph. "Um, would you care to join us, Sky?"

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[Hayden]

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[atrb=background, i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv2/starstruck_insanity/middle2.png] Although vaguely hungry still, she shook her head and pushed the hunger aside. He needed the food much more than she did, if his appearance was anything to go by. After all, he looked rather like the starved, dead houndoom carcass she'd spotted last winter. Not that she was about to inform him of that one. Though, it might get him to actually eat. If he cared. She wasn't sure he did. Her eyes glanced around, keeping an eye out for anyone new entering. No one from before was paying attention to this remote corner, but if someone new came around, she was gone. He wasn't intent on killing her, it didn't seem, but that didn't mean she should be trusting everyone else. Hell, she wasn't sure she entirely trusted him. He still seemed... off. Somehow. She wished she could figure it out, but she couldn't. So she turned her attention to the one who was easier to read, the mawile. She wasn't happy about Sky being here, clearly, protective even. Sky could understand that. As part pokemon, part human, her and her whole village had felt as close to each other as a trainer and their pokemon, for they each had a part of each in their bloodstream. As such, she kept a careful eye on both her own actions and those of the mawile. She didn't want to get in a fight, though if the pokemon attacked, she'd best watch out. Sky wasn't known for fighting clean when she fought at all.

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[walter]

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[atrb=background,http://i53.tinypic.com/2vjbf52.jpg] Waltz was about to insist that Sky join him in the meal when Bell decided that enough was enough already and more or less shoved a branch into his mouth. Waltz spat out leaves and splinters: "Bell! What was that for?" Bell shrugged innocently at him. Waltz looked to Viola for some moral support but she wouldn't meet his eyes and seemed to be trying to whistle. She couldn't quite - didn't have the right facial muscles for it - but the attempt was noted. "You-!" He told his pokemon disgustedly. Viola continued her maybe-whistling. Waltz decided that it was supremely unfair that psychics could have long discussions without actually giving away the fact that they were discussing anything. Grah. Hands to the ground, the professor grabbed as many berries as he could and - without thinking too hard - shoveled them into his mouth. "Hrwapppy?" He asked, chewing and chewing and pretending that he wasn't about to go and hork it all out. He could keep it in. Really he could. This was nothing. Meals were supposed to be bland and tasteless and stringy. Viola patted her trainer on the back with a small limb. Waltz tried very hard not to give her the evil eye because - and it was always true - Bell and Viola did mean their best. Still, it wasn't like Sky shouldn't eat. He had seen how hungry she was just moments ago. He wasn't sure if she had been afraid that the berries were poisonous or that she'd be attacked (body language said she was about one twitch away from a fight-or-flight response) or what but the morph required sustenance. That much couldn't be hidden from him. The professor continued chewing. Swallowed. Tried not to gag. "Here, take something. You need it."

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