59 days till Halloween [TallFellow Encounter 1]

[quickattackjack]

_{[An eerie wail cuts through the night.]}



Locations:
_{Johto National Park (Between Routes 35 and 36) - July 12-15
Route 34 - July 19-22
FORWARD-DATING MAGIC! OH BOY!}

- Original Tallfellow Information Post
- Calendar for Weather Reference
- Map

About Threads:
_{Please put the location/date as the subject header.
Let me know OOCly how many characters will be in the thread so I know to wait for my turn!
Every thread will be at least A/C length! You get A/C! And you get A/C!}

NATIONAL FOREST

_{[It is a dark and stormy night. Or at least rainy. Pachirisu and Metapod alike hide deep in their nests as the branches shake in the wind and rain. The path is little more than mud as it's been raining for days on end. Rain, rain, rain! The Pokemon are apathetic about coming out of their burrows to forage but there is one creature that the weather hasn't stopped...]}

ROUTE 34

_{[It's a nice enough evening. The Jigglypuff are settling in for the night and the sun is heavy and orange as it sinks behind the trees. The shoreline is peaceful and Buizel play in the gentle surf. Twigs snap and the tall grass rustles--but it's just the sound of scurrying Pokemon....isn't it?]}

Comments

[ossifragant]

Really, one of these days Greed will sleep well, but unfortunately tonight it's just not going to happen. He's cold and still very wet, even after spending time in the tent. He hadn't even been trying to sleep, not really. He knew himself too well. Though the Meowth next to him was curled up fast asleep.

"Yeah, I'm awake. What's up?"

At least he can travel alone with Envy without incident, even if the weather is horrible. That's something.

[quickattackjack]

Sorry, boys. No tent talk tonight! There's something moving around outside.

The foot falls weren't exactly heavy or accompanied by deep raspy breathes, but the tell-tale sound of something bipedal walking through puddles wasn't hard to miss.

[exeggutorhead]

Envy doesn't get the chance to respond to Greed before he hears the...something walking around outside. He tenses warily, glancing around the tent to make sure that it's not just one of the others out for an inexplicable stroll in the rain.

Just who would be walking in the rain on a night like this? Unless it was some kind of bipedal Pokemon, maybe...

"You hear that, right?"

He doesn't wait for confirmation before he quietly shuffles to the tent opening, trying to peer through the rain and the dark. It better not be some dumbass native kid wanting a battle.

[ossifragant]

He slides next to Envy, blinking slightly. It's probably a kid, but you never know. Having been in the world full of happy colorful animals and not people who want to kill him for the last few months, it's remarkable how quickly he returns to being incredibly tense.

If it's just a kid, though, he'd feel a little guilty about spooking them, but it's also a little strange to wander around while it's pouring rain. "Anyone outside?"

Greed really doesn't want to battle in the middle of the rain. That's absolutely not his idea of a good time.

[quickattackjack]

No one is there.

This is because, of course, the tall dark figure is behind the tents rather than in front of them where the flaps open. Jack has yet to get this close to the people he's been spooking so hearing the two of them talk about him makes it hard to keep his shit together.

He feels a good dozen years younger. They had no idea.

[exeggutorhead]

Envy doesn't like not being able to see anyone, not when he's sure there's got to be something out there. He scowls and grabs a raincoat out of the pile next to the tent opening, tugging it on and stepping outside. It's wet and miserable, but Envy is nothing if not persistent when he wants to be.

"Hey, who's out here?"

It's not a real yell, he doesn't want to wake up everyone else. But he hasn't thought to look behind himself yet.

[ossifragant]

Whoever it is must be sneaking about somewhere, right?

Though maybe it's not some native if they're able to actually sneak around without being obvious. The locals are pretty obvious, aren't they? Then again, Greed has never exactly been subtle with his methods. They don't have their powers anymore, but even then, there was a certain amount of training that came with being loyal to Dante that Greed had kept with him.

Unfortunately, it didn't make him capable of detecting anyone about in the dark and the rain.

"Might just be some punk," he suggests before stepping out into the rain himself. His coat doesn't have a hood and he's left wishing it did because it means he's going to spend hours dealing with his hair in the morning, but there's not much he can do about it.

Maybe it would help if he looked directly behind himself, but he looks just about everywhere else.

[quickattackjack]

Quietly, slowly, Jack slipped backward away from their tent to stand motionless near one of the trees. All he had to do now was wait for them to go back inside. He judged it too rainy for them to investigate--at least not yet. Right now they just seemed annoyed.

He wanted them to be afraid.

[exeggutorhead]

It's hard to see much of anything right now, especially with human eyes. That doesn't stop Envy from squint-glaring around, but...no, he can't see any wayward trainers. Jack's right, he is more annoyed than scared right now.

But he's still feeling uneasy about all this.

"You think it was just some Pokemon? I don't want to stand around out here any longer if it was nothing."

Determinedly pretending it's nothing and things are fine and going back into the tent seems like a great idea. He would really, really like it to have been nothing. Because as nice and friendly as this world is, he's been here long enough and seen enough to know that when something bad happens, it really happens.

"Besides, your hair's a mess now."

Not worried at all. Denial is the way to go, and besides he doesn't want to look scared in front of Greed.

[ossifragant]

"What else could it have been?" because he doesn't want to think about alternatives. He might not have much in the way of experience with things going to hell here, but he's certainly been told about the nasty things that happened in the past. Nothing has happened yet, unless you count the whole meeting the other Greed and triggering an identity crisis, but you know what, he's not going to talk about that.

"It was probably nothing." Because sometimes it's easiest to agree with Envy. He's older than Greed, anyway and that makes him trust Envy's judgement more than he would anyone else. Especially given the only other homunculus to be older than Greed was Gluttony and he had never been in any position to be helpful. "The others are probably going to laugh at us for getting worked up about nothing."

[quickattackjack]

Jack cupped his elbow in a hand and traced his jaw with a finger. People were so interesting! He had done plenty of people watching in Goldenrod over the years but he'd never focused on uncomfortable people. He wondered just how on edge he could make them.

He stooped down, carefully picked up a large pinecone, and hurled it in the direction opposite him. Misdirection was the magician's best friend! It would allow him to move and it would allow Lily to start doing her thing.

[exeggutorhead]

"Then we won't wake them up."

Envy nearly jumps at the noise from the pinecone, and glares in the direction he's sure he heard the sound. Okay well that means there's something out here.

"Over there, you heard that right? Come on, I want to see what the hell's out here."

He's trying to sound confident at least, and he starts heading off towards the sound, looking over his shoulder to see if Greed will follow. There's no way he can't find out what it is now, he has to know. He's just hoping for it to be a Rattata or a Pidgey or something tiny and harmless.

[ossifragant]

There's an unasked question, something about what if this thing is an actual threat. At full strength, the only thing that could threaten Greed would be another homunculus. But he's not at full strength.

He's completely human here, and even if he's stronger than a normal human, it's not the sort of strength where he could punch a tree and turn it into a weapon.

"Yeah, I heard that," he says quietly, following Envy. He's trying to hide how tense he is. He's the younger one: he's the one who has been alone for too long, the one who habitually has to make noise because silence is maddening. But sudden noises? Still something that make him start.

[quickattackjack]

Once they were far enough away that small movements wouldn't be heard, Jack stepped forward, picking his way carefully through the brush. In his hand he carried a bundle of twigs, tied with grass. They poked out in odd directions and didn't make any recognizable shape. He carefully placed it on top of the tent before moving back into the trees. His Stunky's smokescreen rolls a mist in around the campsite.

And then, because he couldn't help himself any longer, Jack screamed. It was a God-awful sound--a sound a creature makes when it's dying, when it's in pain, when it's in fear, when it's heartbroken and angry all at once and the wail is hard to classify as man or mon.

[exeggutorhead]

Envy doesn't really have an answer to that unspoken question beyond 'run away'. Because he left his Pokemon back in the tent. And suggesting turning around and going to get them is just unacceptable because that would mean admitting to being tense and nervous.

He might be the oldest, but that doesn't mean he's good at being in charge.

The smokescreen rolling through the camp not only makes it harder to see, but makes everything look just plain eerie. He doesn't like it at all. "What..."

Then that scream. Envy's so wound up by that point that he almost trips whirling around in the direction it came from. And he manages to spare a thought for hoping Greed can't see his face right now because he is not controlling his expression.

Greed and the mysterious scary thing probably did hear the shout of pure startled terror he let out, though, even if he will deny that he made that sound until the sun explodes.

[ossifragant]

This? This is a situation that Greed never wanted to be in. He doesn't know what to do. He's not sure what he would do even if he had his Shield because it's not like he can attack the air.

The smokescreen had been bad enough, but now he's in panic mode.

Fortunately for Envy, he doesn't see his face, but he does hear the noise. It's enough to get Greed to whirl around, to try and find whatever the hell it was that screamed because it doesn't sound like a Pokemon. What the hell could it be?

What the hell can he do? He lets out a breathy, nervous noise, clawing through his hair, trying to get his heart to stop pounding in his chest. Shit, shit, shit, he doesn't have any of his Pokemon on him. With his Ponyta, at least there would be a light source.

[quickattackjack]

Jack's heart swelled.

That fear was downright delicious. He drifted back into the trees, silently motioning for his faithful Stunky to follow. That was all for this night--but not really. No, if the boys decided to investigate the area around their camp in the daylight they would find deep criss-crossing gouges in the mud. Some of the markings looked like stick men. Others were just abstract clusters of lines. A few black feathers were scattered around the markings but not a single footprint could be found.