Melody sighed, rubbing her eyes. They were still puffy from her crying earlier. Hon had just said his goodbye and left to go to bed. I should sleep, too, she thought, But I'm just not... tired. Not yet. She glanced around. The section of hallway she was in happened to be deserted at the moment, minus herself, and Andreas, who was examining a painting hung on the wall and mumbling to himself about the texture of the acrylics used to create the image. Melody snorted and said, "You know, you think too scientifically sometimes. Try and enjoy the beauty of something without dissecting its properties down to its molecular structure."
He thought over her sudden suggestion, and then smiled. "I guess you're right," he laughed. "I'll take your advice."
Melody was about to express her approval, when she was hit by a dizzying migraine. She gasped, leaning back against the wall for support. Andreas looked at her with a panicked expression on his features. His mouth formed words, but they did not reach her ears. Melody's vision began failing as blotches of darkness spread across her eyes. Her body swung forwards, collapsing onto the scientist's shoulder. As she shut her eyes, she breathed in Andreas' signature scent of water lilies. The next sensation she experienced was nothingness.
+
"Melody... Melody... Dammit, girl, you better wake up!" A familiar voice roused the Mudkip from her unconsciousness. As she opened her eyelids, the blurred figure standing before her came into focus. First, she was able to make out the blue hair, then the t-shirt with the large star splashed across the front, then the black shorts, and finally the ears and tail that made the person unmistakable to Melody. "Sheek...!" she breathed.
The Shinx girl laughed. "Took you long enough! Here I was, thinking the telepathy thing didn't work this time!"
"But... but... what are you doing contacting me again?" Melody stuttered.
"Isn't it obvious? I wanted to check up on your progress with the deliverance of my message. Have you been able to pass it on?"
"...No."
Sheek frowned. "Then what have you been doing all this time? Haven't you been able to find someone trustworthy enough to tell the secret to?"
Melody looked at the ground, too ashamed to look her friend in the eye. "I've joined this group of gijinkas that are in a similar situation as me. They're all very kind to me, but I just don't think now is the right time to deliver the message to them. I still need some time to be able to trust them all fully. The information can wait, right?" she said.
"I suppose," the she-Shinx yawned. After a dramatic stretch, she continued, "So what is this little congregation you're a part of called, anyway?"
"Pokemon Gijinka Revolution."
Sheek stopped dead. After an odd glance from Melody, she gave an awkward chuckle. "Ohh... I see. I, uh, I used to be a member in that club too, but I ran away without a trace. Heh... good memories."
"What?! You were there once?!" Melody half-shouted.
"Yeah, but that's besides the point," Sheek stated hastily. "Anyway, it's a bit frustrating that you haven't been able to deliver the message yet, but life isn't easy on you, is it? Oh well. I guess that's all, then. It was nice talking to you, Melody. Take care of yourself." Her figure started to fade.
"Wait!" Melody exclaimed, running over to her close friend. Without hesitation, she flung her arms around Sheek's disappearing body, which was surprisingly warm. "I want to thank you," she said. "If it wasn't for you, I never would have had been able to escape the Bounty Hunters' base. C-come and visit the club sometime, okay?"
Sheek chuckled, giving the Mudkip a small smile. "I will see what I can do," she muttered, her voice steadily becoming fainter. "Just... give them my message, please..." Her apparition dissolved completely. Melody stepped back, straightening her posture. "I will," she replied, resolve evident in her statement. "I can and I will!"
+
Andreas let out a stale breath as he paused to adjust Melody's weight on his shoulder. Climbing up a staircase with a fragile, hundred-pound body on one side of your body was an energy-draining process. He didn't even know why he was heading in this direction. I'm only a few steps away from the landing, though, he told himself. It would be foolish to turn back now.
When he reached the even surface, he sighed with relief. Melody felt a little lighter now. He took a moment to drink in precious oxygen and to fix his glasses. Melody let out a groan, followed by, "...The information can wait, right?" Andreas gave her a curious look, but found her to still be as unconscious as she had been for the past twenty minutes. He waited a minute longer, before announcing in a voice he hoped would be loud enough to seize someone's attention, "There's a bit of a problem with Melody here!"
Continue?
Melody.
---
Writer's block. Fun, fun, fun.
Anywho, the mysterious message from Sheek gets a little more mysterious, I hope!
(You can tell I really like that Shinx, can't you? lol)
Heres Mear:
Cause KC posts so much...
"I've only seen it before a few times in casinos I was haunting, so no... not really," Shupple answered as she started resetting the cards and moving them around again. I was somewhat surprised by this. I had learned to play speed back in the smeargle colony as a kid. Back then, the idea had been to finish everything as quickly as possible. However, this often led to drawing errors and things that, later in life, were better off left out as one spent more time perfecting the picture.
"I could teach you if you don't mind..." I finally answered gaining the strange want to play more and more. I had set my sketchbook aside and sat across from her. Suddenly the wind picked up and threw a card off the deck and out into the darkness. My eye trailed after the card before a voice turned my head back.
"Shadow Sneak," Shupple had whispered. If I hadn’t been listening so intently to the silence beforehand, I would have missed what she was saying all together. However, what occurred afterwords, even I was not entirely ready for. Shupple’s shadow extended and then moved off of her completely as it started walking on its own towards the card.
I watched as Shupple put two fingers on the ground like a little stick figure and made her stick figure move over to the card and pick it up. My eyes widened as the shadow itself preformed this task to complete perfection. The shadow flicked thecard over to Shupple, and she seized it from the air easily. As suddenly as it had come, the shadow rested back into place under Shupple. After a moment of staring at the place the shadow had fallen down, my eye moved back to Shupple. She had just finished putting the card she had retrieved back.
"If you don't mind me asking, what move did you just use?" I asked. It was an interesting attack, and a part of me wanted to use Sketch right then and there to learn how to manipulate the shadow in this way. However, I waited to learn its name first.
"Shadow Sneak. It's something new I just learned." Shupple answered after a moment. I worked this over in my mind and then looked towards where I had left my sketchbook. After another moment, I looked back and then continued the conversation. Too much time had elapsed, and I would not be able to perform Sketch at that moment without causing some sort of confusion along with it. So instead, I continued on as if nothing had happened.
"I guess I should teach you speed now, correct?" I smirked.
"Yes, I should think so." Shupple answered.
“Alright then,” I answered. “The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards first. You had two piles and you have to stack the cards in order going from the regular order of numbers and faces. You can chose to go ‘up’ in which if there was a seven per say, you could place an eight then nine then ten, or you can chose to go ‘down’ which means you could place a six then a five, four, and three on the same seven. The numbers though must go in order. Once you use up all your cards, you say speed. Sound easy enough?”
I gave a light smirk, and Shupple smirked back.
“I get it,” Shupple answered, and with that, I picked up the cards, shuffled, and then started placing them out in the correct places. As we started playing, I couldn’t help but smirk as she placed a few cards at a time. I moved exceptionally fast and began placing more and more cards almost at once on the piles. After a few more seconds, I was finished and put my hands down.
“Speed,” I said a loud, and with that, Shupple froze as if in shock and then looked up at me. After a moment, I realized that I had been too fast on a person new to the game. I let out a sigh and looked down. “Sorry,” I began. “I should not have gone so fast for your first time playing. How about another practice one?”
Shupple gave a nod and we began to play again.
"Uhm. Hi Shupple!” A light voice said. Shupple appeared to look up, but we continued our game.
“Out of cards. I win," I said aloud showing my hands to be empty once again.
Shupple leaned back and sighed. "Great game, Mear! You're a worthy opponent," she answered. I half-heartedly wanted to remind her that this was still only the second game, and yet after a moment, I noticed that there was other attention to be paid. A meowth Gijika seemed to be approaching.
"Hi." The meowth smiled a little. "I'm Nyarth!" he said aloud stretching out a hand. "You're new around the house, right?"
Deciding it was better to be curtious in this instant, I took Nyarth’s hand and gave it a light shake. "Name's Mear," I answered. "I built the house, actually... it was the least I could do for Lupe and Estelle noticing me earlier by the lake... I'm a Smeargle gijinka."
"Wow.... you're an artist, right?" Nyarth said as his voice rose with something like amazement. I blinked unsure of what exactly to say. Finally I decided to answer with the simplest.
Yeah...I am actually" I answered. An internal part of me tightened my fingers over my sketchbook not really ready to have another theft occur.
"D'you think... maybe another day soon.... you could show me your drawings? I'd love to look at them. You see, I like to draw too but I need to get better...it'd be awesome to have you as an artistic mentor!"
I blinked once again unsure of exactly how to react. This seemed….. I didn’t even know how to begin to explain what I was trying to.
"HEEEYYY!!!" Suddenly, some lone voice cried out in the night, a little ways off from the edges of the lamplight. Nyarth seemed to perk up and then turned and ran off almost as quickly as he had come. I looked back at Shupple who just looked down at the cards.
“So um…” I started.
“It’s fine,” Shupple answered. “I got the jist of the game now. Let’s see round two.”
With that, I dealt out the cards once again, and suddenly as the game started again, I realized that she was moving a lot faster than before. It was as though the first game was simply a trial, and this was the actual game. She placed cards with sharp fluid movements, and before I had finished half of my hand, she had finished her entire deck. Looking up almost in denial, I found that she was smirking. After a moment, I nodded back.
“It seems you have the hang of this game,” I said aloud.
“Indeed it appears so does it not?” Shupple answered back.
I gave a nod. “Best two out of three though,” I answered picking up the deck again and starting to shuffle the cards once again. As I set the cards up once again, we began the match again. It was a quick movement, and we both worked with extreme speed. However, at the last moment, I was forced with a queen that I could place nowhere on the piles. As my eyes moved to find a place to put the queen, a voice spoke up.
“Speed,” Shupple said aloud.
My eyes moved up, and I found that she had somewhat of a dark grin on her face.
“Looks like I win,” she nodded almost to herself.
At first this notion irritated me, but after a moment, I just nodded and half laughed. “Indeed you do,” I answered. “But sadly we weren’t playing for berries or anything.”
“Indeed… we should have bet something,” Shupple answered.
I gave a shrug and resumed my drawing once again as I had left it. After a moment, I closed my eyes and muttered sketch. With that, the move Shadow Sneak appeared written on my sketchbook. With that, I placed my hand on it and couldn’t help but smile.
Another gust of wind seemed to pick up and toss the cards that I had left in a stack on the ground. Shupple made a move to use her shadow again, but I stopped her.
“May I try something?” I asked.
Shupple seemed surprised but made no motion of protest. With that, I uttered the words Shadow Sneak. Just like that, my own shadow extended and started picking up the cards. After a moment, all the cards were stacked neatly again and my shadow returned to me.
“How did you….” Shupple started.
“I’m a mimicker,” I answered. “My move Sketch allows me to copy any move I see.” I gave a shrug. “And I liked the move you used, so I copied it.”
Shupple just seemed to stare at me.
LoL sorry this was short XD;;
It took me half an hour to get rid of the mareep girl. She was very, very close to becoming a bloody pulp right before she got distracted and ran after a ninjask gijinka. I feel sorry for the poor fellow. The girl kept repetitively hitting me with a bell yelling on the top of her lungs "HEAL BELL". How can something that heals hurt so much be so annoying? I have finally arrived at the basement area. Several areas have been flooded.*shiver* But the entire area under the girls wing is above the water and has proper drainage. Its damp, dark and earthy; perfect. I can definitely be happy here. Tomorrow I plan to go rock hunting...
~Larri
Continue? Does anyone dare disturb Larri in her happy place? >:3
Sorry its so short.
Sorry it took so long to get this out guys! For some reason TheO is being really slow in its text boxes... it keeps freezing on me D:
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So I didn't get to hear many other gijinkas' stories, I missed Nina's, and I still haven't gone... but it was getting late from the look of the rapidly-disappearing shadows outside. Estelle called the meeting off for now. I assume we'll continue telling stories another day.
I stood up and took a big kitty-stretch, starting from the tips of my ears to the end of my toes and my tail. I noticed some people were heading towards their rooms, all the early sleepers wanted their rest I guess. Some others broke into their own little groups and started talking amongst themselves. Some, including Lupe and Shupple, and the new gijinka whom I had never met before headed outside. Later, I walked outside for some fresh air too.
It was beautiful outside, there was part of the moon visible, adding its light to the ground with the various lamps that were outside. I saw, in the lamplight, two people were engaged in a card game on benches and a table. I walked over and noticed Shupple and another boy. I decided to say hi.
"Uhm. Hi Shupple! I directed towards the purple ghost girl with the parasol. She gave me a quick smile and then turned her attention to the game again. It looked like they were playing speed, so that's why she couldn't talk. I stood next to the table, away from their rapidly moving elbows, to watch but not disrupt them.
"Out of cards. I win," said the boy.
Shupple leaned back and sighed. "Great game, Mear! You're a worthy opponent," she chuckled.
I stepped forward now that the match was over. "Hi." I smiled a little. I'm usually horrible with introductions. "I'm Nyarth!" I held out my hand to the boy. "You're new around the house, right?"
He looked to be in his late teens and I saw a beret on his head and a sketchbook in his lap. I started realizing something...
He took my hand. "Name's Mear," he said quietly. "I built the house, actually... it was the least I could do for Lupe and Estelle noticing me earlier by the lake... I'm a Smeargle gijinka."
I knew it! I knew the beret was familiar... oh wow. I'm almost speechless. I finally got words out. "Wow.... you're an artist, right?" I said in amazement. Finally, a manga-ka... someone to teach me to be a better artist!
He blinked a little. I guess now he was interested. "Yeah...I am actually" he said, and his hands tightened on his sketchbook in his lap. It looks like he might not want to show me his drawings... I guess I won't ask him right now.
"D'you think... maybe another day soon.... you could show me your drawings? I'd love to look at them. You see, I like to draw too but I need to get better...it'd be awesome to have you as an artistic mentor!" Ooops. I blurted that last part out... I hope I didn't scare him. He looks nervous!
"HEEEYYY!!!" Suddenly, some lone voice cried out in the night, a little ways off from the edges of the lamplight. My ears perked right up.
"Oh... sorry guys. I'm gonna go see who that was. Sounds like they might need help!" I scampered off, also partly greatful that I didn't have to stay around Mear, having embarassed myself a little.
I rounded the house to the front, and saw a dark lump lying on the grass near a tree. Coming closer, I saw it was a person! There were two luminous objects attached to the person, too. It looked like the bright tentacles of a Chinchou!
I kneeled down by the boy. "Hey... are you conscious?" I shook his shoulder a bit when he didn't respond right away. He was out cold. I looked around to see if anyone was nearby, and no one was. I decided to try to drag him myself to the house. After debating how, I put my hands under his armpits and used my back muscles to lift him a bit. Only half of him rose. He must be kinda older than me, like an older teen... he's heavy.
And so I started slowly dragging him around to the back of the house so other people can notice him...
~Nyarth
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Nyarth just loves to help people! :3
And looks like Nyarth has found his role model! Mear is such a great artist to look up to and learn from! Hopefully Nyarth hasn't scared him off... Nyarth's normally more energetic but he was kinda containing himself XD
Continue?
