[ Because who can tell (yet) if there was the chance he got to know which rover it is that Shuyi occupies? But Red knows who to look for, and he happens to coming up from the beach, giving the woman some time to exit her own and for the boy to glimpse through the collection black machines, a small ] Hey! [ and open-mouth smile on his face when he finds her, then walking over. ]
If you asked, I bet Charizard would carry you in his arms if you wanted him to.
[ It's a lighthearted thing, a joke for the imagery of being carried bridal style by the pokémon standing just some steps behind his trainer, a croak of a sound coming out of the creature's mouth in greeting once upon making eye contact with her.
But there's an honest truth to it too, that it would very much be tested out should she want.
(And this all depending on if Shuyi hadn't turned into a butterfly on leaving her rover to watch the boy look everywhere for her.) ]
[ It has been long enough since those thirty-second trial by fire that Shuyi no longer walks like an 80-year-old with severe arthritis. She seems normal, if not slightly paler than before with darkness under her eyes, wrapping herself in an oversized shawl that she holds tightly against her chest and walking about barefooted. But her smile is bright as ever when she skips over to meet them halfway, grinning all the way.
Her laughter comes easily as she looks from Red to the pokémon. ]
Does he know that you're volunteering him for this weighty duty?
[ She's heavier than a few human girls combined, if the recent incident teaches her anything. ]
[ Red smiles, but he holds up a hand and waves it dismissively, more compelled to be polite than to laugh at what sounds like humour at the woman's expense. ]
Come on, you? You won't be a problem at all! [ A person like Shuyi? As easy as pie. ] He's lifted plenty of heavy things.
[ Shuyi rests her hands on her hips in an attempt to make herself seem bigger --heavier, not that her appearance does much to support the fact that, yes, she weighs as much as full-grown rhinoceros. Well, maybe adolescent, but one does tend to carry more mass when heavy metals rather than iron courses through one's blood. That's not something she can so clearly describe. ]
I will not have him prove his mettle, in case it wounds his pride.
[ It continues to appear as a joke, which this time Red will concede to, humour in his voice. A wounded pride would be too messy to clean up. ]
Okay, okay. We don't want any more injuries after yesterday. We'll all walk.
[ And Red will step a foot forward, and then another, Charizard inching along too upon the movements of his trainer. The boy gestures out to the way in front of him. ] This way? You can ask me now what you wanna hear about, if you already have an idea.
[ Not after yesterday, no. Sometimes she can remember how it felt to have all her insides burning out while the air's sucked out of the room. It's enough to motivate her to never fail again. She can't afford a second time. She follows suit, one step behind Red just so she can walk closer to Charizard, eyeing him with the amusement of a little girl seeing a kitten for the first time. It's hard to resist the urge to pet him again. ]
Are dragons that fly common where you are from? Tell me about your favorite creatures from your home. What are they like?
[ There's nothing funny about what Shuyi says, but Red still laughs a little. A favourite creature? ]
Charizard's my favourite. [ Because he's never deliberated over a favourite, but the pokémon is always one that stands out. He's his constant, always there with him, his best friend and companion. He can say it and know that there would be no better answer. It also helps him lead into her other questions. ] And you know, he's not actually a dragon. I call him a dragon because everyone thinks he is, but we only know about three dragon types: dratini, dragonair and dragonite.
[ Charizard looks back to Shuyi as Red talks, and he'll keep her gaze if he catches her looking (and tilt his head too, wondering, but he'll be content to look away with a smile or some action that signals everything is fine. ]
Dragonite's the flying type out of the three of them, but they're all related - they evolve from dratini to dragonair, to dragonite. But they say dragonair can fly even without wings, and I think dratini too? Don't remember. [ Do they, don't they - it's difficult to recall.
Regardless, Red holds out his arm in front of them as they walk - to aid in his upcoming description. ] Dratini and dragonair are long. Dragonite's sort of look like Charizard because they have feet and arms, but before that they're blue and their bodies are like... [ "an arboks" is what he wants to say, but he knows Shuyi won't understand that. So, let him pause a little longer, thinking... ] Spaghetti.
[ He chuckles some again. ] But they're thicker than a spaghetti.
[ Now, does Shuyi have anything she would like to say, or should Red continue to talk? Because he will. ]
[ All the while, she keeps her attention on Red and the way his face lights up when he speaks of the different dragons, trying her best to commit the names to memory.
There's nothing funny about what Red's saying either, except for the part about the spaghetti because as luck would have it, Shuyi doesn't understand that either. The earpiece translates it to her as elongated dough and that's when biting her lower lip isn't enough to keep her from laughing, head thrown back and an arm over her stomach, no matter that each breath still makes her stomach sting. It's worth it to feel alive, present and pleased for the company.
Only when she can catch her breath does she speak. ]
We have what you might call dragons. We call them Khorgta, but they neither fly nor spout flames. They are kindly creatures but wily, and loyal. Very loyal.
[ She spares a glance to Charizard, still her favorite not-dragon by far. ]
[ It has to be the most awful way to describe something, that when Shuyi bubbles with laughter, the brief shy expression on Red's face leaves for a small amount of laughter too, the boy accepting just how ridiculous it is.
It leaves him grinning as the woman talks, and when he speaks up after. ]
Yeah! [ He raises a fist, just for that added emphasis. ] The dragon types don't breathe flames either. They have their own kind of power. But they're really kind too - there's stories about dragonites saving people from shipwrecks. But... [ His voice dips. ] What does wily mean?
[ Shuyi has a soft spot for enthusiasm, for a certain brand of enthusiasm that doesn't peter out and die at the slightest hint of darkness but instead persists despite it. It's a little bit of narcissism on her part but then again, once it was her sister Lungme who could always rise from a fall. Again and again and again. She has pretended to be relentless in her optimism until she grew to fill those shoes. ]
Wily. Mischievous. Having a mind of its own. They can be quite the tricksters. Do you know any animals like that?
Ghost types. [ He doesn't need more than a second to come that answer. ] Gastlys, haunters, and gengars. They're all part of the same evolution too.
Gastlys are like a ball, [ and here come the hands up, forming a loose ball and widening with the fingers opening, trying to illustrate his words ] a big ball of gas. They can go through anything. Haunters and gengars too. But when they evolve into haunters, they get parts that look like hands floating beside them, the fingers like claws, and then they get tiny feet as gengar.
But each of them will follow you through the night. [ His voice, naturally, takes a mock sinister tone to it, though lighter than it could be. ] They stalk you through your shadows, making you colder. That's how you know they're around - they're eating your energy. If they lick you, you never stop shaking.
That's how I met my gastly -- oh, but not because she licked me. [ Like that the effect is gone, the boy returning to a more casual voice, a chuckle at the end. ] I left a tower where pokémon rest, and she'd been with me since then. I wouldn't have noticed if a woman didn't push her off my back.
She said I was lucky - she'd been with me for nearly two days by then. I would have been a goner if she was just after a meal.
[ What amuses her more than the idea of a ball of gas growing limbs and, apparently, a tongue, is the way Red tells the story. It strikes her as simplistic but with a dash of optimism and lightheartedness that's rare in a place like this. She thinks that he's the kind of boy who would survive anything, not because he's hardened and jaded, but precisely because he would be able to see through his troubles to find the light at the end of the tunnel. See the mole hill for what it is, not a mountain.
It's infectious. ]
Your gastly? [ A she, too. ] What did she want if not a meal? A friend?
I dunno. [ And that he admits simply too, a quirk in his smile to go with the raise of his hands and the shrug of his shoulders. ] Maybe. I don't know how she stayed silent for that long in the first place. She's always pulling pranks on the other pokémon whenever I have everyone out. But that's what the woman said.
[ At the time, he didn't think to try and ask further than what he was told.The harder ground of the camp starts to dust with the sand of the beach ahead, the water calm. It makes Charizard's steps softer when like their own once they cross over. ]
But I'm glad she did. She's helped me through my journey. [ He looks up, his face softening. ] I just hope she's doing fine right now...
[ As soon as the ground gives way to sand sinking under her weight, Shuyi lifts each foot to take her shoes off, carrying the boots in one hand as she keeps walking. Besides, even walking on gravel doesn't hurt her as much as it might have years ago. She would rather let herself feel the sand growing damp the closer they get to the water, then feel the ocean lapping against the shore when they're there. ]
Where is she? [ She turns to him, quirking her head in question. ] Do you miss her?
[ In the moment she slows to take off the shoes, Red slows too (and considers if he should do the same, but--no), Charizard only pausing a little after before they resume their pace. ]
I miss them all. [ He looks at her as he says that, then watches the way forward. ] When I got here they took everyone but Charizard from me. [ A shoulder lifts. ] They're on the ship now. They said I can see them whenever I'm there.
[ They. Mothership. But he figures that detail doesn't matter. ]
They did the same with another trainer. He only has one pokémon with him too. [ A glance back Shuyi's way. ] Most trainers carry six pokémon with them at a time. It's how many you can use in a trainer battle.
[ It's a tidbit that almost betrays the mood of his words, but even that is expressed with a stiff upper lip. He's brooded over it far too much already to allow himself to do so now, and in front of company he wants to entertain.
If not with juggling fire shows, then with stories of pokémon. And trainers. ]
[ Shuyi has heard others talk of the ship, though she can't quite believe it by now. Imagine, a ship that flies not over the sea or through clouds but beyond it. She doesn't even know how anything of the sort can stay afloat without the presence of matter. Matter is what she understands. Atoms and molecules, and not even that. She knows only how to break them apart to make fire and fury.
She spares a glance to Charizard. The tame-looking creature with fire in its breath. A fire-breathing dragon, no, lizard? And a ghost. When she turns back to Red, she has a smile on her face. ]
So you have Charizard and Gastly. What of the other four?
[ Stories of pokémon will do. All they need is a little reminder of what they're fighting for, isn't it? ]
[ Charizard's wings stretch with the open space, shaking off the stiffness creeping into them from their folded state. The open water always means plenty of room for flying, though his feet keeps on the ground with them. But he's watching it, and the listening to the soft sound of the water and the other two chatter. ]
Oh, she's a gengar now. [ He corrects, a hand coming up, gesturing as he explains. ] Pokémon evolve, so she evolved from a gastly to a haunter, to finally gengar.
[ The hand then drops. ] But the rest are Jolteon, Lapras, Articuno, and Mewtwo. I'll talk about whoever you're interested in.
[ Which name beckons indeed. This feels like picking cards out of a box. But first she grins at Charizard, already keen on flying, though she skips ahead to finally reach the shoreline, stepping in deep enough to soak her ankles in seawater. The sand sinks under her weight as she closes her eyes briefly, tasting the salty air in the back of her throat. But sweeter still.
Only after does she turn back to him. ]
Lapras sounds like the name of a friend I should like to have.
[ Red doesn't join her then, still wearing shoes himself; durable, yes, but not worth getting wet when they don't need to. But he watches her anyway, older than him but the sights still a fun thing to witness. You were never too old to get your feet wet, after all.
The comment makes the smile on his face brighten with a row of teeth. He nods. ]
It is. He's been friendly since the day we met. [ His gaze return to the water, his voice a notch higher. ] If we asked, he'd take us across the ocean and try to get us to wherever we wanted to be. Being on his back, it's like...
[ He trails into a small silence as he thinks, and ends up regarding the back of Shuyi's head. ] Have you ever been on a boat?
[ The turning of the tide is new to her, the way the sea rises and falls with the changing hour. The turning sun and sky is new to her. Seeing the scenery in changing light still takes her breath away, when even the most mundane of scenes fall into twilight and reveal greater beauty than she could imagine. Her world doesn't turn. It's always dusk in the valley where she was born. ]
I have been on a boat. [ On a journey to a place she ended up despising, but she remembers it felt exhilarating. She turns over her shoulder and smiles. ] Tell me it is kinder to be on his back than to ride on a boat.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
okay. ill look out for you
[ Because who can tell (yet) if there was the chance he got to know which rover it is that Shuyi occupies? But Red knows who to look for, and he happens to coming up from the beach, giving the woman some time to exit her own and for the boy to glimpse through the collection black machines, a small ] Hey! [ and open-mouth smile on his face when he finds her, then walking over. ]
If you asked, I bet Charizard would carry you in his arms if you wanted him to.
[ It's a lighthearted thing, a joke for the imagery of being carried bridal style by the pokémon standing just some steps behind his trainer, a croak of a sound coming out of the creature's mouth in greeting once upon making eye contact with her.
But there's an honest truth to it too, that it would very much be tested out should she want.
(And this all depending on if Shuyi hadn't turned into a butterfly on leaving her rover to watch the boy look everywhere for her.) ]
no subject
Her laughter comes easily as she looks from Red to the pokémon. ]
Does he know that you're volunteering him for this weighty duty?
[ She's heavier than a few human girls combined, if the recent incident teaches her anything. ]
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Come on, you? You won't be a problem at all! [ A person like Shuyi? As easy as pie. ] He's lifted plenty of heavy things.
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I will not have him prove his mettle, in case it wounds his pride.
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Okay, okay. We don't want any more injuries after yesterday. We'll all walk.
[ And Red will step a foot forward, and then another, Charizard inching along too upon the movements of his trainer. The boy gestures out to the way in front of him. ] This way? You can ask me now what you wanna hear about, if you already have an idea.
no subject
Are dragons that fly common where you are from? Tell me about your favorite creatures from your home. What are they like?
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Charizard's my favourite. [ Because he's never deliberated over a favourite, but the pokémon is always one that stands out. He's his constant, always there with him, his best friend and companion. He can say it and know that there would be no better answer. It also helps him lead into her other questions. ] And you know, he's not actually a dragon. I call him a dragon because everyone thinks he is, but we only know about three dragon types: dratini, dragonair and dragonite.
[ Charizard looks back to Shuyi as Red talks, and he'll keep her gaze if he catches her looking (and tilt his head too, wondering, but he'll be content to look away with a smile or some action that signals everything is fine. ]
Dragonite's the flying type out of the three of them, but they're all related - they evolve from dratini to dragonair, to dragonite. But they say dragonair can fly even without wings, and I think dratini too? Don't remember. [ Do they, don't they - it's difficult to recall.
Regardless, Red holds out his arm in front of them as they walk - to aid in his upcoming description. ] Dratini and dragonair are long. Dragonite's sort of look like Charizard because they have feet and arms, but before that they're blue and their bodies are like... [ "an arboks" is what he wants to say, but he knows Shuyi won't understand that. So, let him pause a little longer, thinking... ] Spaghetti.
[ He chuckles some again. ] But they're thicker than a spaghetti.
[ Now, does Shuyi have anything she would like to say, or should Red continue to talk? Because he will. ]
no subject
There's nothing funny about what Red's saying either, except for the part about the spaghetti because as luck would have it, Shuyi doesn't understand that either. The earpiece translates it to her as elongated dough and that's when biting her lower lip isn't enough to keep her from laughing, head thrown back and an arm over her stomach, no matter that each breath still makes her stomach sting. It's worth it to feel alive, present and pleased for the company.
Only when she can catch her breath does she speak. ]
We have what you might call dragons. We call them Khorgta, but they neither fly nor spout flames. They are kindly creatures but wily, and loyal. Very loyal.
[ She spares a glance to Charizard, still her favorite not-dragon by far. ]
Just like him, I take it?
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It leaves him grinning as the woman talks, and when he speaks up after. ]
Yeah! [ He raises a fist, just for that added emphasis. ] The dragon types don't breathe flames either. They have their own kind of power. But they're really kind too - there's stories about dragonites saving people from shipwrecks. But... [ His voice dips. ] What does wily mean?
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Wily. Mischievous. Having a mind of its own. They can be quite the tricksters. Do you know any animals like that?
no subject
Gastlys are like a ball, [ and here come the hands up, forming a loose ball and widening with the fingers opening, trying to illustrate his words ] a big ball of gas. They can go through anything. Haunters and gengars too. But when they evolve into haunters, they get parts that look like hands floating beside them, the fingers like claws, and then they get tiny feet as gengar.
But each of them will follow you through the night. [ His voice, naturally, takes a mock sinister tone to it, though lighter than it could be. ] They stalk you through your shadows, making you colder. That's how you know they're around - they're eating your energy. If they lick you, you never stop shaking.
That's how I met my gastly -- oh, but not because she licked me. [ Like that the effect is gone, the boy returning to a more casual voice, a chuckle at the end. ] I left a tower where pokémon rest, and she'd been with me since then. I wouldn't have noticed if a woman didn't push her off my back.
She said I was lucky - she'd been with me for nearly two days by then. I would have been a goner if she was just after a meal.
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It's infectious. ]
Your gastly? [ A she, too. ] What did she want if not a meal? A friend?
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[ At the time, he didn't think to try and ask further than what he was told.The harder ground of the camp starts to dust with the sand of the beach ahead, the water calm. It makes Charizard's steps softer when like their own once they cross over. ]
But I'm glad she did. She's helped me through my journey. [ He looks up, his face softening. ] I just hope she's doing fine right now...
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Where is she? [ She turns to him, quirking her head in question. ] Do you miss her?
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I miss them all. [ He looks at her as he says that, then watches the way forward. ] When I got here they took everyone but Charizard from me. [ A shoulder lifts. ] They're on the ship now. They said I can see them whenever I'm there.
[ They. Mothership. But he figures that detail doesn't matter. ]
They did the same with another trainer. He only has one pokémon with him too. [ A glance back Shuyi's way. ] Most trainers carry six pokémon with them at a time. It's how many you can use in a trainer battle.
[ It's a tidbit that almost betrays the mood of his words, but even that is expressed with a stiff upper lip. He's brooded over it far too much already to allow himself to do so now, and in front of company he wants to entertain.
If not with juggling fire shows, then with stories of pokémon. And trainers. ]
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She spares a glance to Charizard. The tame-looking creature with fire in its breath. A fire-breathing dragon, no, lizard? And a ghost. When she turns back to Red, she has a smile on her face. ]
So you have Charizard and Gastly. What of the other four?
[ Stories of pokémon will do. All they need is a little reminder of what they're fighting for, isn't it? ]
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Oh, she's a gengar now. [ He corrects, a hand coming up, gesturing as he explains. ] Pokémon evolve, so she evolved from a gastly to a haunter, to finally gengar.
[ The hand then drops. ] But the rest are Jolteon, Lapras, Articuno, and Mewtwo. I'll talk about whoever you're interested in.
[ Which name beckons? ]
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Only after does she turn back to him. ]
Lapras sounds like the name of a friend I should like to have.
[ So let's start with that. ]
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The comment makes the smile on his face brighten with a row of teeth. He nods. ]
It is. He's been friendly since the day we met. [ His gaze return to the water, his voice a notch higher. ] If we asked, he'd take us across the ocean and try to get us to wherever we wanted to be. Being on his back, it's like...
[ He trails into a small silence as he thinks, and ends up regarding the back of Shuyi's head. ] Have you ever been on a boat?
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I have been on a boat. [ On a journey to a place she ended up despising, but she remembers it felt exhilarating. She turns over her shoulder and smiles. ] Tell me it is kinder to be on his back than to ride on a boat.