♕ 001 // Action for Route 29

[lackingbeauty]

What the 'ell is goin' on 'ere? Use this damn thing fer wha-

[The video feed flicks on to show a woman's face far too close up, brow furrowed, looking quite disturbed.]

ndklanadfnkla

[Switching from text to video, she apparently doesn't know what the hell to do with the Pokegear either.]

Dagger? Wendy? Peter? Jumbo-

[The video is shaky, and only shows... a rather ponderous bosom.]

Doll? Snake?

- Joker?

[She waits, as if for a response. But the only sound is wind rustling through the trees and grass.

Another minute, before the video feed moves too fast for the feed to really pick up- grass, grass real close, black.]

... I'm goin' mad.

Comments

[pipers_son]

Well, he hasn't done anyone harm yet. Suppose we'll have ta see if he's too much trouble.

[He tries not to smile too much when she hands him the bottle, just places it between his knees for a decent grip as he fiddles about with his hand. Usually there's always Angel to help him with mundane things like this which, for him, means another set of hands... But he'll bring her out in good time.]

They can be a bit tricky, eh?

[lackingbeauty]

[She blanched with embarrassment the second she handed the bottle over. Once, on the streets, she'd never had done that. But years under the Baron's "care" had made her forget. But she didn't try and take it back, or say anything- though her expression betrayed her as usual.

She'd gotten used to him having two hands. To her having two legs.]

... What's that noisy coat on it all about, anyway?

[obviously a distraction to cover her blunder but]

[pipers_son]

[He does his best to ignore the look she makes- loss of an arm ain't gonna make some sorta invalid. Well, much a one. He just nudges her arm with it, chuckling.]

Know what? I still ain't sure, but it's a bit a silly business. Lotta things in this country seem ta be.

[lackingbeauty]

S'it all magic, then?

[Considering there were dragons that seemed the logical explanation for plastic, good electricity, and... Everything else.]

[pipers_son]

Nah, it's just... Most a it seems ta be just machines fancier than anythin' I know of.

[It's still jarring sometimes in the morning when he wakes up and there's hot water in the inn or the set up in Goldenrod, whenever he likes it.]

[lackingbeauty]

Machines...

[If she kept talking about that sort of thing... Maybe she wouldn't have to think about the rest. About how they could be here but not be missed back home, how Doll could have come here but never have left. How she'd been so weak as to-]

I don' rightly understand it.

[But it wasn't surprising that she didn't. And it wasn't a call for explanation, either. Even if he could... She wouldn't get it.

But it felt a bit better to mutter complaints about it.]

[pipers_son]

Like any of us would! [Another laugh. This is better- this is more believable for both of them.] But I have a few hired who know how ta deal with it all so I don't have ta think of it at all.

[lackingbeauty]

S'a decent enough way t'go about it.

[Though she'd be interrogating everyone at the circus the second she had the opportunity.

... After Smile and Black, what little trust for outsiders she'd had had shriveled, then died.

Beast lapsed in to silence once more, but afraid that she might say something she'd regret, instead reached in to the pocket of her jacket and pulled out...

A pokeball.]

Don' suppose ye can explain this thing, then?

[pipers_son]

...Ah.

[Right, he really should have thought about that. About what starting Pokemon she might get. But he'd been so- excited, to put it lightly and positively, that he'd forgotten all about it.]

[This is something that could go wrong very quickly, and he's not sure if he wants to touch that potential hornet's nest right now. But she did ask...]

It's- well, 'nother unbelievable thing. They say it's a science sorta thing, so... Well, wonder how I can cart around two big cats like I've been doin'?

[Along with other, much larger things.]

[lackingbeauty]

... Reckoned ye 'adn' been, really.

[The idea of Joker carrying those cats in any way, shape, or form hadn't occurred to her so much as... they just followed him about, perhaps? Even as unbelievable as that in itself was, large cats like that meekly following someone...

It seemed the best option to think at the time.]

[pipers_son]

[There is no honest to goodness logical way to put this.]

...They fit in those things.

[lackingbeauty]

[Beast was doing a lot of blank, disbelieving staring recently.

She just.

Slides the pokeball back in to her pocket.]

- Right. 'Course they do, I ought a figured that one.

[pipers_son]

[A bit helplessly, Joker gives a "I didn't make the rules" shrug.]

This place is fulla surprises. [Wait until she reads the date on one of the newspapers.] I only found out myself 'cuz I was fiddlin' about with things without a clue ta what I was doin'.

[lackingbeauty]

[She wished he had, because it would make way more sense.]

... Can all the surprises wait till the mornin'?

[Because her forehead had somehow found her palm, shaking her head.]

[pipers_son]

'Course. We can stay here in this town for a while. It's a quiet place, you'll like it.

[There's a pause, and then he twists a bit to set the water bottle between them so he can reach out to touch Beast's arm.]

Warm bed an' good food is all two of us need ta focus on for now, yeah? But we can stay out here a while longer if it pleases ya.

[lackingbeauty]

[She hates this.

It's foolish to repeat that thought, to dread on how foreign and overwhelming she was finding this place, but the repeated reminds of things that to her seemed weak made it impossible to do anything else.

She hated that what she'd done, watching him go and then seeing him again so soon after she'd been so foolish-

She ought to say it. Right now, when she had the courage.

Except she didn't have it.

She reached out without making eye contact to grab hold of his arm, more his sleeve, pulling her hand down to shield her eyes. More to hide how upset she was from him than anything else.]

- Yeah.