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Who?: Anna, and BLU Sniper
Where?: Cherrygrove City
When?: May 14th
Summary: Having finally reached Cherrygrove, the princess and the grouch are preparing for their long route ahead!
Rating: PG
Log: After spending what was unmistakably a longer amount of time than usual going through Route 29 (probably on account of, y'know, her going out of her way to avoid every Rattata she so much as lays eyes on [Thanks, Nui]), Princess Anna (with her traveling companions) finally reached Cherrygrove City! And actually, she found the whole thing kind of cute! It was certainly bigger than New Bark Town, but still had that quaint small-town aesthetic, from the flowers to the ocean breeze. Naturally, the technology in the Poke Mart and Pokemon Center psyched her out a bit...as did the old man who seemed more than insistent to show her around the place...but in the end, it didn't seem like that bad of an area!

Having heard from several sources that Route 30 takes a pretty long time to traverse, the Princess decided to rest up for a little while and mentally prepare herself for the road ahead. After all, it's been a solid couple of days since she's had a decent meal (since Anna's cooking was nowhere near the level of quality of the food served to her in the castle, and Sniper's wasn't much better~!) and a good bed to sleep in. It took a little bit of a while for her to get the hang of the PC, but after a few tries, she started to get the gist of how everything worked, and got her Axew egg and promised to take amazingly good care of it (and not scramble it)! Which finally resulted in the traveling buddies getting a chance to wind down a bit for the rest of the night.

"So, everything okay with you, Sniper? You've been kinda quiet since we've got here. ...And by that, I mean you haven't really been as grouchy. Which can be either a good thing or a bad thing, and I'd like to think positively but I also kind of want to show my concern and ask if everything's alright an--you know what I mean.." the poor princess prattles on incessantly, as is par for the course.

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"...you don't ever stop that mouth of yours, do you?" The last few days have been an exercise in patience, and considering that Sniper himself is perfectly able to wait hours on end for the perfect shot, that really says something about how Anna's continuous chatter grinds on his nerves. He rubs his temples, feeling absolutely drained. He's used to silence and solitude, not companionship and chatter. "I'm fine. And I ain't a grouch." Other than that slight flash of temper at the PC earlier in the day when he'd gone over to collect the two eggs he'd obtained from Shaun (damned new-fangled technology with all its tiny buttons), Sniper had regarded himself as perfectly social and cordial to the quaint townspeople around them, and even to Anna (though that really calls into question his idea of being social, given that he spent most nights and days in silence, and answering Anna's questions with grunts and occasionally exasperation).

Settling on his bed he lies back and feels the tension in his muscles starting to unwind a little. He's a man comfortable in the wild, but a soft bed every now and then did wonders for his back especially with all that crouching and hunching he did over his sniping rifle. Casting a side glance at her, he gestured at the egg.

"What's that you got there?"

Oh Gosh, poor guy. Anna obviously doesn't mean to give the poor guy a headache, but of course, she is prone to incessant chatter.

"Not really, no. I mean, I didn't really have many people to talk to back home, so I guess I'm kind of making up for lost time. I do talk a little too long, though, so if I ever ramble on too much, just tell me to stop. I'll understand."

She says as she scratches the back of her head...she knows that he was pretty much quiet over the past few days, but it wouldn't be the first time she was dealing with someone this antisocial. Nonetheless, the girl was determined to bring her new friend out of his shell!

And speaking of shells, there she is, holding that egg of hers like it's made of gold.

"It's gonna become an Axew! It's a dragon, apparently. And when it grows up, it's gonna become big and strong...with blades on the side of its head, and armor all over! A huge dragon, taller than me, maybe even taller than you! Isn't that exciting?!"

"That so?" Sniper raises an eyebrow at her; she's not exactly making much headway in debunking Sniper's assumption that she's an escapee from an asylum, being treated for delusions of grandeur. It wouldn't surprise him if the nurses in the place wouldn't want her talking with the other inmates. "Then-"

And before he can even make his request to tone it down she pops the conversation pot back on the stove to bubble even further, brandishing her egg and excitedly showing it to Sniper. He rolls his eyes slightly before he sits up straighter to take a look at the egg; after all he had brought this one onto himself by opening his own mouth. And he is slightly curious to see how a dragon egg would look like. It's surprisingly not as fierce and wicked as he thought it would be. In fact, the innocuous egg looks about the same as the two that he picked up from the Centre; you'd hardly be able to tell the difference. "Hmm. Dragon, huh? I suppose that's par the course for a troppo place like this, it's like a blooming fairy tale here." He cast a suspicious look at it, almost as if he's expecting the dragon to suddenly pop through the shell and breath fire everywhere. "You sure you want to take care of this thing? Could be dangerous for a young girl like yourself to handle it." If Anna will let him, he's going to reach for the egg and hold it, just to see if he can feel anything different about the Axew egg.

How utterly morbid of an assumption! At the very least, if she's from an asylum, she'd probably be one of the nicer inmates.

"Isn't it interesting? Nova's already gonna turn into a fire-breathing dragon, and now I'm going to have two! Maybe I should become a dragon tamer. Wouldn't that be cool? I was telling somebody before how it's pretty much the reverse of a normal fairy tale. Usually the princess gets captured by the dragon, right? But now, I'm going to have two! Maybe even more!"

She's utterly beaming, proud of herself for getting her hands on such cool Pokemon, in addition to the cute little Sentret that she managed to catch along the way. She's going to take great care of all of them before they end up being ~~creatures of mass destruction wait what who said that~~

"Of course I want to take care of it! I mean, I can't wait to see how a baby dragon grows up, can't you?? It's so neat!"

At the very least, the girl has a lot of enthusiasm. She'll let the Sniper touch it do whatever he wants with it, as long as he makes sure he's careful.

A nice loon is still a loon, in his opinion. Just because you've got a spring in your steps and a sunny smile, doesn't make you any less crazier.

The egg feels warm at least. Sniper holds it closer to his ear, but there's not a single sound coming from inside. It's in stark contrast to his own two eggs that he's placed in the corner, wrapped snug within a couple of blankets that he snagged from the inn keeper downstairs. Every now and then there'd be a slight wobble from one egg, or even a sudden, tiny jump from the other. Those two obviously couldn't wait to hatch but this one's taking his own sweet time.

Well, far be it for Sniper to tamper with nature. He passes the egg back to Anna, still not very convinced of her Poke-mom/dragon taming skills.

"Dragons are more of a boy thing; boys love a bit of rough tumble. Shouldn't you be looking at ponies and flowers? Something a little more gentle, more for girls."

Edited 2014-05-16 13:23 (UTC)

Ah well, crazy isn't always a bad thing! ...Is it? Anna doesn't know, but what she does know is, she needs to get this guy out of his shell!

"Hmph. So just because I'm a girl, I can't like fire and dragons and a good old-fashioned rumble? I'll have you know I can put up a bit of a fight myself. Don't look down on me because I'm a girl. Or any girl, period. The last guy who took a punch from me is probably still reeling from it. ...Of course, he totally deserved worse, but..."

She takes the egg back and keeps holding it close, keeping it warm. It doesn't matter how long it's going to take for this thing to hatch; Anna isn't exactly the patient type, but far be it for her to force the little cutie to hatch prematurely.

"...I mean, though, if we do run into a pony, I'm gonna try and catch it, but that's beside the point! I've seen some pictures, and apparently there's one that's got fire for a mane?! Isn't that awesome?! I don't think I'd be able to go about riding it, but the thought of it..!"

Edited 2014-05-16 15:51 (UTC)

"You? Don't make me laugh." He crooks a slight smile as he gestures at Anna, completely disbelieving of her. "You're a little on the small side. Careful you don't break a nail while you're at it."

Chuckling to himself he reaches into his pocket to take out a Pokeball. Since they're on the topic of Anna's Pokemon Journey, now seems like a good time to present Anna with the little test he's prepared for her. He tosses the ball into the air and catches it back as he issues a challenge to her.

"If you really want to impress me, I dare you to take care of this one. According to some, it's a vicious beast. S'got teeth the size of your hand and claws sharp enough to rip through yer skin, an' it ain't even the half the size of any dragon out there. It's right clever too; knows how to dash in and rip out yer fingers before you ever get to blink." Sniper holds the ball up and cocks an eyebrow at her, smirking. OK, he might be exaggerating a little, but he's really just repeating the gist of what Anna's been freaking out about.

"Still think you've got what it takes, princess?"

"Just because I'm small doesn't mean I can't hold my own! I'll have you know that I've got a fair bit of strength!" She crosses her arms and huffs a bit, not sure if she likes his tone...

But when she brings up the Pokemon that he's been saving for her, she visibly tenses a bit. The poor girl's been going out of her way to steer clear of the little not-so-vicious purple rodents, so...the thought of taming one probably isn't the smartest.

"It sounds dangerous, though...If you caught it, do you think it'll still listen to me? I mean, it'd be cool to tame something like that, sure, and of course I'd love to put in some work with it, but...is it really that vicious?"

She's been really hyped up about these things (again, thanks ~~Obama~~ Nui), so the idea of taming something supposedly so deadly is pretty interesting to her; after all, the more muscle, the merrier. Sentret's not looking too strong just yet, but with time, it'll become pretty wicked. However, having Nova as her main source of muscle...well, it's good to have a backup.

"I'm not scared, though! I'll take you on for sure!"

The smirk on his face widens ever so slightly as he tries his best not to laugh at Anna's naivety.

"You sure? I'm gonna let this one out of her ball. I think she's getting mite antsy stuck in there the whole day. Maybe she needs something to chew on."

"Well, I can give her a snack if that's the case! I can take it, let me see what it's got! I'll tame the beast, you just watch me! Hmph!!"

Poor, naive little girl...

"Well have at go at it then."

Sniper casually tosses the Pokeball Anna's way, still very amused by her dogged insistence on her trainer skills.

"Prove to me that you've got what it takes by letting her out."

"I will!"

Anna doesn't really notice that her hands are shaking a fair bit as she presses the button on the center of the ball, letting out what is no doubt a horrible beast..

That horrible beast emerges from the white glow of an opening Pokeball. Rearing on her hind legs, eyes almost appearing to flash with a bright light as they reflect the glow from the Pokeball, the creature sniffs the air and spots Anna. Dropping on all four paws, the killer rat crouches and pounces, her huge and no doubt sharp teeth the most prominent feature of her appearance.

...but it's pretty clear after that initial jump that this 'horrible beast' isn't really interested in biting Anna to death. In fact, she's just leapt to Anna's feet to sniff Anna's shoes. And clothes. And her everything, really. And now she's placing her paws on Anna's skirt, nose twitching and eyes staring upwards into Anna's with slight awe at her new trainer. Sitting back on her back legs, the Ratatta gives out a squeak and waves a paw at Anna.

Meanwhile Sniper bursts into rare laughter, unable to contain himself any longer.

Edited 2014-05-20 00:03 (UTC)

...

......

"Wait, what? She's not vicious at all...! I heard that they're bad in packs, but...this little cutie looks like she couldn't hurt a fly!"

She heaves a little bit of a sigh of relief, before petting the little purple creature and smiling at it. Well, that was good, at the very least.

"I wonder why that blonde haired girl with the eyepatch said they were vicio...hey! Stop laughing at me!"

He does stop laughing, though the teasing probably isn't going anywhere for awhile. He covers the smile on his face with one hand, the corner of his eyes crinkling slightly into crows feet.

"That's your fearsome beast right there. Her name's Princess; she's kinda like you. Stubborn, a bit full of herself, but enough guts to put the rest of my team to shame. Caught her while she was chasing Courage 'round the bloody fields the other day. I think he accidentally pissed her off somehow, she wouldn't stop hounding him till I knocked her around a bit. Still I think she'll get along with you. The both of you don't know when's a good time to quit."

On a more serious note though, he does drop the chuckles to address something he's noticed about Anna.

"Probably thought to have a bit of fun by yanking your chain around a little. You look the type to believe everything someone tells you. Best be careful next time; you can't trust everything you hear, especially if it's a stranger you're talking to."

"Full of myself! Hmph!"

Even though it's at her expense, Anna is smiling a little bit, too. She's never seen her companion have this much of a laugh; she was beginning to think that scowl was permanent.

"Well, a bit of bravery never hurt anybody. I'm sure she'll stand up to even the most ferocious of beasts~! I mean, if I thought she was vicious, so will others, right?"

She says as she reaches over to cuddle the Rattata a bit more, showing it plenty of affection!

"You really think someone would do that, though? Just tell lies for fun..? ...Actually, don't answer that. I...kind of know the type."

"What you don't know is that pikers like that are a lot more common than you think," corrects Sniper, slightly irritable at what he presumes is her naiveness. "There's lots of lying snakes and spooks out there just waiting for an easy target, and you've got a big red one painted right on yer head." His index finger and thumb sticks out while the other three fingers curl in, forming a finger gun which he aims straight at Anna's forehead. His gravelly voice gets softer and he inclines his head slightly to the side, as if he's scoping Anna out with an actual rifle in his hands.

"That girl tricked ya good and proper, but least it was just about purple rats. Next time, you might not be so lucky. You could lose more than a few days travel; could be money next, maybe even your life." The imaginary gun goes off, and in his mind's eye, so does Anna's head. The finger gun drops, along with whatever good mood Sniper might've set up.

"Well, I never exactly saw the good in being too suspicious of people." Despite the severity of what Sniper is saying, Anna remains confident in what she's saying. Maybe she is kind of crazy, and she is incredibly trusting, but she never saw either of those things as a weakness.

"If you spend too much time looking over your shoulder to see who's going to stab you in the back, you miss out on seeing the people in front of you sticking out their hands to help. It just makes it that much harder to make your alliances. I might be too trusting, yeah, but I'm not stupid or anything. I just like to see the good in people, and do what I can for them. Like, look at you for example, y'know? I wouldn't have let you travel with me if I didn't think that you were a good person."

"If yer good enough at what you do, then ya don't need help from anyone. The only person you should and can trust in," he jabs a thumb at his chest, "is yourself. S'why I make it a point to be the best in my business. I don't need to worry about backstabbin' fakers tryin' to ruin my job if I don't work with'em from the start."

He raises an eyebrow at Anna's declaration of trust in him. "That's a lil' too quick to decide if I'm a good person, princess. Ya hardly know me."

"I get what you're saying. I'm not sure if I agree with it, but I understand where you're coming from."

Her smile persists anyway, despite Sniper's skepticism. "Well, why would I let a bad guy travel with me to begin with? I think you're a little rough around the edges, sure, but I'm pretty sure your heart is in the right place. ...No, I'm positive of it. You just don't like to show it."

Edited 2014-05-25 22:41 (UTC)

Her honeyed words can't sweeten Sniper's bitter and cynical heart. In fact, they only served to irritate him further; it's almost sickening to meet someone so trusting and sincere after a lifetime of being a distrusting and mean loner, and it shows in the curt tone he addresses her with.

"Just a week on the road and you're already an expert at reading people?"

Well, Anna's not changing her outlook anytime soon, so he better get used to it!

"I didn't say I was. Just that I trust you, and that I know you're not a bad guy. Is there a problem? Or do you want me to think you're bad and ditch you here?"

"...hmph. Believe what you want to believe then. Just don't say I didn't warn ya."

And there goes the conversation. Sniper settles back on his bed and pushes his hat downwards to cover his eyes as he closes in on himself again, lapsing back into silence.

"I'll take it to heart, thanks..."

Anna looks down for a little bit and ponders her companion over a bit briefly. Something must have happened to make him this way, right..?

"At the very least, it's nice that you're looking out for me."

"I'd be surprised if it gets through your thick head," he grumbles. He's half convinced that she's incapable of feeling anything but sunshine, puppies and rainbows. Probably one of those people who'd find a kangaroo and try to cuddle'em without realizing that kangaroos are as cuddly as those sharp claws and powerful kicks.

So he really shouldn't have been so surprised when Anna thanks him. Sniper tilts his head up slightly, the brim of the hat shading his eyes and hiding the barest amount of surprise within them. "There's no need fer that. I haven't done anything worth your thanks."

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