it starts in your feet then it goes to your head

[wildest]

Who: Kotetsu, Barnaby and Kaede
Where: edge of New Bark Town, near Route 29
When: Tues, Nov. 5th (early evening)
Summary: An old man, a little girl, and a bunny all begin their Pokemon adventure.
Rating: G

Maybe he'd just gotten a little too carried away with his drinking. Excitement tended to do that, what with the holidays and the rush of the winter air in your lungs, the bright daze of Christmas lights and decorations. The adrenaline he'd felt course through his veins as he raced after another criminal, followed by the joy of being next to his old partner once more.

He was happy in a way he hadn't been in a long time, and that was cause for celebration, wasn't it? But then if that made him hallucinate blue and black cats that shot electricity at you, and meeting women that were around your age calling you their mother, then maybe for once, Kotetsu could remember to not get that enthusiastic with alcohol. Okay, so lesson learned. He'd stop at three glasses of wine instead of five. Or ten. And a couple beers. How much did he have again?

Kotetsu stared off toward the rustling grass nearby where that weird little cat was still running around without a care in a world, wondering just how on earth he could have dreamed up something like this. Suddenly though, he could hear the sound of faint voices and footsteps nearby, loud enough that it caught his Pokemon's attention. Shinx's fur sparked as it dashed out of the grass toward whoever was approaching them, and Kotetsu lazily stood up from his seated spot on the ground to go after it and keep the cat out of trouble. "Y'know, you're more like a yappy dog than a cat. Keep it down, maybe someone's just goin' for a walk?"

Comments

[copycat]

"You should teach it to sit and stay dad!" Kaede suggested.

If this was a dream or hallucination, then it must have been a group one.

Unlike the scamp of a lion cub Kotetsu had with his as a starter, Kaede's little fox creature hide behind it's trainer back. It was only shy, and even frightened of Kotetsu for how "scary" he appeared to her. Not that Kaede minded, because she was kind of cute and like a pet she always dreamed of having around. Along with Barnaby being here as well, she was more content with the situation than her guardian was.

Whatever this dream was, she didn't want to wake up just yet. Tomorrow was school and all.

"Why do you think there's no cars around?" She asked. Kaede had seen sleepy and small villages before, but even those had cars going down paved roads. Even if their technology here was a bit "outdated" by their standards.

[sentiments]

Barnaby was going to ignore the possibility of this being somewhat real for as long as possible. This was honestly all sorts of ridiculous, and despite the mere structure of it all, he was certain it was either some HeroTV special with mechanical animals, or possibly a NEXT like Kriem, or something that wasn't what this world seemed to be at face value. Perhaps it was the fact that they came from a well-rounded, technologically advanced city that pointed out this entire world was improbable; or perhaps it was the fact that he had been assigned a rabbit.

Obviously, they were signed up for something and Kotetsu probably knew, going off his spirited, open way of accepting it. Crossing his arms, Barnaby stood and watched the Kaburagi father-daughter duo, not the least bit surprised that either of them had taken to their creatures. Kaede was quick to treat hers like a pet, and the animal took a liking to hiding to her, whereas Kotetsu's... blue... whatever that was (lions are brown, after all), was busy making noise and eagerly letting Kotetsu talk at it.

"We're all obviously delusional right now," Barnaby finally announced. There was no other explanation. There really couldn't be. "That's why there's nothing here. We've been essentially isolated with figments of our imagination in a world that can only exist if we're absolutely delusional."

[wildest]

Just the sound of Kaede's voice was enough to put Kotetsu in a better mood, and he laughed sheepishly as he straightened his posture and walked a little faster toward her, eventually stopping when he realized his cat-thing wasn't following along.

"Oi, get over here!" He called out toward his Shinx, but the Pokemon just gave a huff and turned around to keep exploring in the grass, causing Kotetsu to grumble. "First I've got to teach him to actually listen to me first." Turning back toward Kaede and soon Barnaby as he approached, he sighed heavily as he rubbed at the back of his neck.

"Maybe they don't use cars? Could be a small village, kinda like Oriental Town. Things are pretty simple over there and we do just fine."

Though Kotetsu paused and gave a lops-sided grin at Barnaby's input. "Or we're crazy. That's an option too." Not that far off of an assumption, really, aside from why they were all delusional together. But for a moment, Kotetsu let his attention shift over to a significant missing little rabbit that he'd seen with Barnaby earlier, and his grin widened. "Bunny! Where'd you put Bunny Jr?"

[copycat]

"Did a NEXT do all of this?" Kaede piped up with some speculation. But their powers were drained, as Kaede had tested that she could no longer copy her father's or Barnaby's abilities. No NEXT had been discovered yet to nullify abilities so it wasn't fathomable for someone like Kaede.

But on second thought, there was something more pressing that Kotetsu was calling attention to. "Yeah, where'd he go? But I thought Barnaby would have gotten a cooler pet." And not you know, something related to the stupid nickname Kotetsu was stuck to calling him.

[sentiments]

Barnaby just frowned. Thank you, Kaede, for pointing out the complete uselessness and horribly coincidental animal he had been saddled with. Barnaby rolled his eyes at Kotetsu, gesturing to the pokéball in his hand. Like hell he wanted to know what it was; if he could, he would have just given it to one of the two Kaburagis.

"Well... if a NEXT did do this, then our powers should work..." He looked down, giving this situation more considerable thought. "But the fact that we're unable to do anything honestly leads me to the idea that we're under a joint hallucination. And that, in particular, could be caused by a NEXT, also leading us to believe that we're unable to use our powers at all."

After all, if the supposed NEXT was playing mind games on them, he could always trick them into believing they aren't able to use their abilities. But that was also giving said supposed NEXT a lot of credit.

[wildest]

What was with the two of them being so negative about Barnaby's little rabbit? It was completely adorable? And he really wanted to take a chance to see it up close for a moment too. With a subtle pout, Kotetsu ignored the secret complaints surrounding his partner's Pokemon and begrudgingly went back to the main topic at hand.

"Not that it's not a good theory, it is! And this is a little too weird to be anything but a dream or at least part of some NEXT's powers, but it doesn't exactly explain how Kaede got here too," Kotetsu glanced over at his daughter, hands on his hips and clear exasperation on his face. She had been all the way back in Oriental Town with the rest of his family, and Kotetsu had been in Sternbild with Barnaby (or at least he was sure that was the case). There was just no way all three of them could have been affected by a NEXT's powers at the same time while in totally different locations. ...right?

Kotetsu grumbled as he rubbed at his head, ignoring the yipping calls of his Shinx in the background as it started to enjoy itself simply running around in the grass and chasing after whatever lingering scent of a wild Pokemon it could find.

"Dah! Even if we did figure out what happened, that doesn't even answer how we're gonna get back home!"

[copycat]

"There's gotta be an airport or something around here." Kaede chimed in. That was well, the obvious solution. But there didn't seem to be an airport anywhere around this place. Which meant they had to find it first. If they were just taken somewhere else, somewhere with this odd yet cute critters walking around with no one caring at all.

She picked up her Eevee, grooming her fur with just her fingers idly. Unlike Kotetsu's, it was happy to stay quiet.

"Where should we go next?"

[sentiments]

"Well, she had been with us recently," Barnaby said, glancing over. "I'm sure she wasn't heading back without you, Kotetsu." After all, with what they had been through, it didn't surprise him in the least to have her attached to her father. But the rest of the theory... There were flaws in every last bit of it.

This entire world seemed like one large, sitting flaw. But Kotetsu did have a point - they really had no idea how they'd be getting back, did they? Barnaby's frown grew a little more, and he just glanced over to Kotetsu, then to Kaede, before sighing heavily.

"Well, the only direction we can progress is forward. Let's begin walking."

[wildest]

Kotetsu had raised an eyebrow at Barnaby, a little confused on what he meant by recently. He actually hadn't seen Kaede in about a month or so, seeing as that had been the last time he had gotten a chance to head over to Oriental Town to visit. He had promised her he'd try to take more of his time to seei her and the rest of his family even as he continued being a hero, so while she had sort of been with him a while ago, Barnaby had been away for almost a year... unless a year counted as 'recently' by his standards.

But they had more important matters to handle for the time being, and so Kotetsu let the whole unasked question fade into nothing as he sighed heavily, turning toward the direction of the large forest-like route stretched out ahead of them. "Let's get going then. Considering how empty that town was where we started, there's got to be another one nearby that's a little bigger. That's just how these places work out."

Someplace to head to for food and such, which was exactly how his own hometown was made. "Maybe they'll give us better directions," Kotetsu continued distractedly, catching sight of his Pokemon still running around in the grass, and he shook his head as he called out to get its attention.

"Hey, you! Get back here! Don't make me leave you behind!"