route_1065 | No place for the traveller to be faint-hearted ~

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No place for the traveller to be faint-hearted ~

Who: Miguel and Tulio
Where: Route 39 and Olivine
When: BACKDATED CAUSE LIFE to September 12th and 13th
Summary: Conmen attempt to travel! But since they're from an animated kids movie mildly crazy shenanigans and obstructions are bound to happen. Also, bromance.
Rating: PG to be safe
Log:
Right, so. All in all, the situation could have been worse. Much worse. Disaster-worse. But fact remains that they've somehow managed to get lost again, which in Tulio's book is always less than ideal.

The problem is the many, many FARMS. There's no telling where one starts and the other begins half the time and there is seriously nothing else to see. And they've been stuck out here for how many days? Six? Seven? ... wait, that's an entire week, isn't it?

Tulio groans and taps the 'Gear against his forehead, like that will make the crude map in the device grow clearer. And show them where exactly on it they are. Because frankly, he'd really like to get out of this place and back to some kind of civilsation. That Olivine place they're heading for is starting to turn into a glorious place of rest in his mind and yet he's beginning to feel pretty sure they won't reach it in this lifetime at this rate.

So the situation is that he's got corn to his waist (having had to chase some of the Pokémon into a field because they were startled by ... something or other), a very unhelpful 'Gear and a probably equally helpful but much more well-meaning friend.

"If we ever go back to that Ecruteak place," he starts with that typical gruffness in his voice, "we're not going back this way."

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"If we ever go back to Ecruteak we'll get a sensible map first. There gotta be something better than that sad excuse for a map that the 'Gear has."

With most of the Pokémon kept safely in their Pokéballs (such as all of Miguel's erous Pokémon), they're trudging through the fields at an alarmingly slow pace. They're used to being lost, but not quite this lost, being without a proper map, sense of direction and in a world that doesn't look familiar.

But then why does the name Olvine feel familiar? No clue, and Miguel won't think about it much right now. He's got other things to occupy his mind with. Like, how can this many farms even exists on one place? They walked for days and farms farms farms. So many farms. Occasionally they've stumbled upon herds made up of something that ressembles cows and bulls.

Even though farms can be considered somekind of civilization, Miguel did prefer the wilderness of the earlier routes, in all honesty.

"Maybe you could send Pico to like.. scout or something, and then point us in the right direction?"

Yeah, the abundance of farms hadn't been all that alarming at first - but after seeing nothing else for days, it quickly started getting ridiculous. The occasional livestock helped (more or less) but Tulio still felt vaguely nervous around the Tauros on account of their bull-like appearances.

Bulls ... generally didn't like them.

Fortunately, these all seemed quite content with chewing their grass or whatever it was. This area wasn't exactly short on grass in general and though the yellow did overwhelm the green most of the time there'd been places for most of the pokémon to graze. The ones that didn't, well, they had food for them.

Having thought about the pokémon and their troubling (but sometimes useful nature) just a moment ago ... Miguel's suggestion just earns him a blank look at first before Tulio quite simply facepalms.

Why hadn't they thought of that before. SIGH.

"I can't believe we're only thinking of this now."

But it only takes him a moment to be a little excited about it, because hell yeah, DIRECTION. Tulio never did work well when he felt he wasn't on top of the situation and this will give something more concrete to work with.

"Right, okay, stop here for a moment - I want to give her something to eat so she won't just fall out of the sky halfway there."

She is a very, very tiny bird, after all.

Tulio cares about this Pokeymans and this warms Miguel's heart.

"I suppose we could ride on Cerdito whenever we reach somekind of sensible road."

He shield his eyes from the sun with his hand as he looks up to the sky, as if he somehow could estimate how far it would be. Come to think of it, it's pretty idyllic out here. Quiet little farms, yellow fields, green grass (and the occasional red autumn-tree) all bathed in the sunlight from summer's last sigh. Soon the cold will come and... yeah, Miguel would prefer to be in Olivine before then. Do not want stuck in the middle of nowhere in a rainstorm (nevermind that it's happened before. It was warm there!)

... Come to think of it.

"You know, soon we've been here for a whole year."

Tulio shrugs off his backpack and sits down to rummage through it, finding the standard pokémon food pretty quickly and breaking a few pieces apart in his hands. At this point he's obviously moved out from the yellow ..wheat, corn, whatever, and is kneeling on the dirt road next to it.

Pico is already out. She was one of the pokémon he'd have to chase(AGAIN), but she'd been okay once he'd recalled Dinero. He really needed to make sure those two never laid eyes on each other. It only ended in his own discomfort.

As she timidly flutters over and starts eating from his hand, he nods a comfirmation to Miguel's suggestion ... only to hear what he has to say next, and gives his partner a sort of baffled look.

He hadn't really realized, actually.

"Whoa. That's ... huh."

Running his other hand through his hair in thought, he then shrugs. Like it doesn't really matter. He's gotten USED to this Johto place, largely, and ... well, he has no real complaints right now. (With the bug-thing and Halloween-thing out of his mind right now, everything checks up to be totally decent.) But that's still one hell of a time.

"I can't believe it. Can you believe it?"

Getting out from all that damn corn-whatever feels A LOT better than standing shoulder deep in the middle of it.

Miguel casually let's one (1) piece of bigger-than-average Piloswine out of its Pokéball now that they're out in free space again. They've been walking for quite some time now, and while this is no news to them, avoiding tired feet and legs is pretty much impossible. Cerdito is strong and well-rested enough to carry them both for a while and Miguel easily heaves himself up on the furry back.

Riding on an enormous pig does take some getting used to, and while Miguel does have a horse-like Pokémon, riding Altanera is out of the question. She's firstly too small and secondly too proud for such things. She'd burn them as soon as they tried.

"No. Not at all." He hardly cared about time before. Surviving the day was what mattered back in Spain. But here, life is easy. Miguel is more than okay with being stuck in Johto.

"Can't say that I mind though. I like it here."

"Yeah, no complaints here. Especially not for that excuse they call the police."

He says the last part with a grin Miguel's way. Pico eats rather quickly, picking the little pieces from his hand in that way that is so typical for birds. He gives her a moment but once she lets out a small little chirp, he picks her up and turns to his partner and the not-at-all properly named pig.

He definitely recalled when he was tiny and hell, he'll admit it, even a little cute, but after that freak-transformation that turned the little Swinub into a thing like this Tulio has learned to expect all of Miguel's pokémon to grow up to be just-a-litle-scary.

So far, he's been right. Because no matter how docile that Piloswine is, he just looks like he could MAUL you.

But well, he's used to him. And to the easy way Miguel handles him. Sometimes he was almost jealous of the way Miguel had with animals - but he'd started understanding how these pokémon creatures wanted to be treated. And he hadn't done a too bad job with Pico, had he?

He murmurs his orders to her and then throws her into the air (something he knows she appreciates) and watches her take flight. He can trust that one. And Niña. But he wouldn't depend on the rest of them if his life was at stake.

He holds out a hand to Miguel in the way that says 'give me a hand, will you?' to help him get up on their fluffy ride.

"I think their law is more like-..." He grabs Tulio's hand, helping up on the huge pig. "..recommendations, and not rules to go by."

Cerdito's evolution was unexpected, to say the least. While Miguel could no longer carry the little Swinub wherever he went, Cerdito was now able to carry HIM quite a distance.

He pats Cerdito's back, muttering a small "sho sho" to the Piloswine to set him in motion. His walk was slow and lumbering, but he's proved to be effective in deterring smaller Pokémon that otherwise would pester them whenever they crossed tall grass. They end up fleeing in order to not get crushed beneath the careless Piloswine's feet.

And that, if nothing else, is always a plus, because having to chase off wild attacking creatures got not only tiring but increasingly annoying, especially if they try to jump you when you were just innocently snoozing away in your sleeping bag.

Yeah, he'd rather not have to deal with that again.

Scooting up so he's closer by Miguel so he won't fall off - the pig is big, but not THAT big - he settles in for the slow but comfortable ride, looking up the sky briefly for his bird, but she's yet to show.

"Well if that's the case they're wasting time and money on even having police, aren't they?"

That's where guard Pokémon come on a suddenly the world was a little easier. If nothing else then Tiburra was always willing to volunteer to night guard-duty.

Miguel holds onto a couple of tufts of fur - not to keep from falling off, the risk for that is small. Cerdito is abnormally large for a Piloswine - but to steer the Pokémon along the right path. He has a tendency to wander if left unattended and they wouldn't want to be lost in a cornfield again now, would they?

"Yeah, you're right." He chuckles. "A disgrace to all things law-enforcement."

Niña was also always game for that. She liked spending time out at night, anyway - not to mention her snappy nature effectively kept most intruders away.

"Not that I mind."

He stresses it again, and then falls silent for a moment. Despite the fact that all the fields were annoying as hell, it was kind of nice when you weren't stuck in the middle of them. Sun's shining, wind's blowing - hell, it's not even all that chilly, despite the time of the year. Probably one of the last warm days.

So ... yeah, it was ... nice. Especially to be out alone with Miguel again - it had been ages since they'd REALLY done anything just the two of them. And though Tulio definitely had taken a liking to Envy lately he wasn't his partner, and sometimes he just missed the old days a little, where it was just him and Miguel off towards what Tulio would call glory and riches and Miguel would call adventure.

The thought prompts a small, sincere smile that his friend probably won't catch.

But taking in the sunlight and the wind, he realizes there's someone else who should be out to enjoy it - and after taking one of those little pokéball-things from his belt, he wordlessly lets Bicho out.

The world's derpiest Yanmega, for sure. He buzzes excitedly and gets right up in Tulio's face to express just how omg awesome it is to be out, and Tulio swats him away.

"Get away from me, you big bug," but it's not really like he means that, anymore. He's grown attached. (Damn it.) "Come on. Bicho. Shoo! Now!"

Six-feet-dragonfly sets out to nuzzle Miguel for a moment, as well, and then does set off, doing little loops in the air before he almost disappears across one of the fields. IT TOOK HIM A WHILE but Tulio did manage to train him to return to him after his escapades.

(Not let's just hope the huge insect won't anger any of the cattle that can be seen scattered among the fields beyond the corn.)

Edited 2011-10-03 08:47 (UTC)

Miguel smiles and laughs a little as Bicho derps about, and he watches as the huge dragonfly buzzes away and out of sight. He would let his own Pokémon out, but Altanera would probably set fire to the fields, and the farmers would most likely not appreciate that; Rana is too slow and Tiburra is too hectic.

Miguel's always been called Friend To All The Animals, but somehow Tulio's ended up with more Pokémon than him and the thought makes him smile. Tulio's never been much for animals. Whenever they encountered one, Miguel's been the one to handle it, and he must admit, he does it pretty well.

(Except bulls. He's got a slight problem with bulls.)

Once he's steered Cerdito on the right path, he leans back a little. They've been here a year now. It's insane, and it certainly doesn't feel that way.

From what Miguel've gathered, not everyone had the luck to come here with their friend(s). In fact, most people seems to come here alone, and if they're lucky a friend or two may arrive later on. He must've been incredibly lucky to not only end up together with Tulio again - but also being whisked away to Johto almost at the same time. When he thinks about it, they must've been barely a day apart.

For a moment he wonders how thing would've been if either of them would've ended up here alone, leaving the other behind, but he's doesn't keep the thought long enough to expand on it.

"So, Tuli, anything special we want to do for out one-year-in-Johto anniversary? Once we reach - what's it called? - Olivine?"

Tulio raises an eyebrow at the nickname - with a smile. It's old but it's been a while since he's heard it, making the familiarity of it welcome.

Leaning forward and sideways to be able to see past Miguel up ahead, he then throws the blonde a glance with a sort of 'eh' expression.

"Some real sleep is good enough of a celebration for me. ...and some real food. You know, that's not from a 'can'."

Ah, the wonders of travelling - and these cans. It had taken Tulio longer than he'd liked to master the can opener but once he did he had had to admit that the whole thing? Was REALLY clever and made things a LOT easier.

That said, there's nothing like some real, fresh bread. Or meat. Or anything, really. Besides, food from little metallic jars is just plain weird.

But then he shrugs.

"Why, what do you want to do?"

Because hell, this is Miguel. Miguel always has something in mind.

Ah, always the priorities. Typically Tulio, but that's what you get for being piss-poor all the time, and it's also why Tulio always handles the money. Miguel couldn't keep track on them or go without spending to save his life. (Except these two (golden but useless) pesetas he's kept for what feels like an eternity) They know this from experience.

Now when they can spend to their hearts' content they should. Now when they have finally obtained this, these endless amounts of gold and riches, the purpose for all their adventures. Now they have it, but it didn't bring this sudden change in lifestyle Miguel had imagined. Nope, they're still conmen and still on the move pretty much all the time.

As it should be, then. And anyway, figuring out a new reason for adventure is no big feat. Besides, travelling in Johto with Pokémon was an adventure all on its own. And Miguel is a-ok with that.

"Hmm, well, I've always wanted to try out this 'fireworks'-thing."

"What do you mean, 'try it out'?"

They know what fireworks are, but haven't seen many of them for themselves. Being on the run, always in hiding, and so on - but they're things to look at, not ... DO, so the wording confuses him.

That said, he can't imagine doing anything but tagging along. He always does, even when it's a seemingly stupid or senseless idea ... but that's what you do for your partner, and even if he might pull a face at the stuff Miguel comes up with, he's always there for the (bumpy and tyically uncomfortable but damnitall, also pretty fun) ride.

"You know... fire some! It looks like fun!"

Cause big explosions of coloful sparkles in the sky are awesome okay? You can't tell Miguel that sparkly explosions aren't awesome. Because they are. Something or someone must be setting them off cause explosions... usually don't go off by themselves, and the few times they've been at any store and yearned, Miguel's occasionally seen them sell fireworks.

"Wouldn't it be a nice way to celebrate out anniversary?" He says this with a laugh. Not that they usually celebrated anything ever (except maybe a succesful con), and when they did, it was usually pretty low-scale, but things are different now. Despite Dinero being a fickle cat, his ability to make seemingly endless amounts of money out of nowhere at any given time is damn useful.

-- fire some? You sure you're not going to get your hands burned off or something?

(Just step back and watch as Tulio will turn into the mother hen the day Miguel purchases fireworks.)

For now, though, he keeps that to himself, and does a lazy halfway shrug--

"Sure, if you want. Just ... don't let it explode in your face or anything."

... Okay, lies. He was unable to keep that to himself. But it's okay.

"You know, if you survive that fireworks thing, we should just go find the nearest tavern and get some real drinks. Make a toast, drink to our hearts content, you know the drill. ... with focus on the drinking to our hearts content-part. Just like the old days, right, amigo?"

Getting more or less drunk had always been part of the celebration routine. But he doesn't think he's gotten a drink as good as the one they had in El Dorado and that was over a YEAR ago now.

"It shouldn't be too dangerous! I mean, if it was, I don't think they'd be selling it in stores." Really, what's the worst that could happen? They had fireworks in El Dorado didn't they? Or was he just mixing memories now? Man, it's been so long.

"I like the sound of that." His focus right now is on steering the absentminded Piloswine who, of course, nearly lumbered out into the field - but he turns halfway to look at Tulio as he speaks, smiling.

"It's been waay too long since last time." Not that it happened all to often back in Spain. It was risky and expensive, but when it happened, it happened with gusto. 'Drinking to your hearts content' usually meant 'drinking till you're so drunk you can hardly stand up' and while the hangover was the worst thing in the world forever and always, it was pretty fun to relax with a drink or two. Or seven.

He claps a hand to Miguel's shoulder to show he agrees.

"Yep. Way too long. Remind me why haven't done that yet?"

Because really, it was a mystery. Supposedly they'd been preoccupied with the whole Johto thing, and getting to know other people, and chaotic pokémon all over the place - but really, not even a single night of getting drunk? Even Envy and FRANCE had pulled that.

And Tulio and Miguel should clearly step up their game.

Because yeah, part of the thing - the partying. The other part is really just the atmosphere of the thing. They'd usually go for drinks once they'd made it to a new town and they weren't really recognised, so it had become a thing to do to just ... get some peace. Have a drink, a chat, and not worry about being caught for once.

"I am not sure, but I think shenanigans with oversized animals with superpowers could have something to do with it."

The whole unfamiliarity of the place could've also been a contributing factor in this off-putting of getting outrageously drunk. Of course, back in Spain, it was different from town to town, but everyone still seemed the same. There were never any huge differences in how people treated you or how the streets worked.

But then suddenly Johto, full of new people, new animals and new everything.

Now though, they had the money, the time and the reason to just go out and get unreasonably tipsy.

"So first stop when we've reached Olivine: - and I have no idea how far or close we are - A tavern!"

Or bar or pub or whatever it was called in Johto.

"Amen, partner!"

He claps him on the shoulder again and grins at the back of his head before he leans back a little, supporting himself on his arms, hands digging into Cerdito's fur. Not that he's going very fast - he's hardly in any danger of falling off or anything here - but (and he wouldn't admit it even if someone asked) that fur is pretty nice.

"We better get there soon though. ... but at this rate I'm not getting my hopes up."

But he's not actually very critical here. He doesn't mind chilling in the sunshine with his bro and one huge pokémon, even if he'd rather get there before nightfall.

All the same, it's pretty early. The day's only just more or less started. With a little luck they'll get there soon: if unlucky, there's tomorrow. But it shouldn't be more than that. The map says they're close, and he likes maps. Maps are reliable.

At least as reliable as miniature ones can be.

Riding on Cerdito can be a hella lot slower than walking. Of course he can run, but Miguel doesn't have the heart to push him when it isn't necessary. Besides, chilling in the sunshine sure is nice.

The hump on Cerdito's and his thick fur back makes him quite comfortable as a riding animal, and while it more comfortable to sit facing the other way and lean against his sloping back, Miguel has to sit the other way to keep the Piloswine from wandering off to god knows where. Besides, it isn't that bad.

When he has, once again, directed Cerdito on the right path, he leans back as well.

"I think Bicho's coming back."He squints at the horizon, trying to discern the buzzing shadow approaching them at high speeed. And his flight seems to be awfully linear.

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No place for the traveller to be faint-hearted ~

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