route_1065 | ✘ and I'll try~ oh lord, I'll try~ to CAAAAAAARRY onnnn! xO

Who: Zack Fair; OPEN. Separate threads, one thread, I'm up for whatever.
Where: Cherrygrove outskirts.
When: Around 9 PM.
Summary: Zack has one last wild encounter before finally dragging his sorry ass into Cherrygrove City, where he will probably crash and burn at the first available opportunity.
Rating: PG, probably. Subject to change.

"Man, I'm beat..."

"...tiiini!"

"Heh. Yeah, no kidding."

The conversation between man and dragon was beginning to thin out. It had been a long, taxing week and a half -- and not just for the SOLDIER, who was still struggling to cope with the sudden and disheartening disappearance of his inhuman strength. Angela, the infallible little dragon, had been putting every ounce of her excess energy to good use. The duo had taken out what had seemed like an alarmingly sizable chunk of the local bird and raccoon population... but the creatures always came back, incessantly and, in some cases, aggressive.

The 7-foot long blue beast weaved through his legs from time to time as they made their way through the homestretch to Cherrygrove, chirping and whirring from time to time. The momentum of battle and the delirium of exhaustion had drawn out a bizarre mood from the both of them... and he found himself stopping in the middle of the sigh, interrupted by the shrill squeal of his pokemon.

The dark-haired man flinched reflexively with a shout, thinking he had stepped on Angela's tail. But the dragon's attention was not on her trainer -- it was on a small, brown, spherical bird that was staring rather intently back at the two of them.

Puuffing out his chest and giving it a wily grin, that second wind swept through him as he dug around in his backpack, fishing out one of the Pokeballs, which had been untouched prior.

The process had gone by surprisingly quickly. A couple of minutes in a dragon's stranglehold was more than enough to whittle down the unsuspecting owl's defenses. The animal was caught with relative ease, though Angela had taken a nasty blow to the snout in the process.

Putting the occupied Pokeball away, he contended that he would give the Hoothoot a more thorough examination after everybody had gotten some rest. For now, however, the town was in sight and the Dratini was reminding him of it with a loud whine.

"Alright, kiddo, alright..."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kanzeon seemed to be leaning towards the 'fuck you' translation, if her irate chittering was any indication, while Rise was inwardly wondering just how she should take that "women" remark.

Well, there was a time for indignation and there was a time for diplomacy. Rise was too tired for annoyance just then, and so gave the Sentret a quick pat and raised her shoulders in a tiny shrug.

"I'm fine with letting bygones be bygones, but would she be happier if I treated you guys to dinner?"

DINNER, SHE SAYS?

"Dude! She'd absolutely be happier if we grabbed a bite to eat." The man was starving and he was pretty sure Angela was, too. The prospect of a meal caused him to give the Dratini a gleeful squeeze while he got to his feet, lifting her upper body in the process. This effectively interrupted whatever snotty remark she was sure to make -- Angela being the prideful little thing that she was.

"... But ..." His face fell slightly.
"You don't really owe us anything, ma'am. It was just an accident, you know?" He'd let his stomach run away with him...

Maybe there really was truth in the saying about reaching a man's heart through his stomach-- and Rise might have put more belief in it if she'd actually been a good cook who followed recipes faithfully instead of gleefully spicing everything up.

But hey, restaurant food was safe.

"Then think about it this way!" She held up a finger, undaunted. "Accident or not, I'm fine with making friends, and it would be a pity if Angela didn't like me or Kanzeon, right? So this is kind of like a gesture of friendship!"

"Aw, Angela's fine with you guys. It just takes a while for her to warm up to strangers. Kinda spoiled, too, I think."

He rubbed the Dratini's head with his knuckle while she glared off into the distance in resignation to her trainer's roughhousing.

"Honestly, ma'am? We'd be happy to catch dinner with you guys. We've been pretty preoccupied with training, lately..."

He extended his right hand in greeting while the left kept a simmering Angela in a headlock.

"Zack Fair. Nice to meet ya."

Rise grinned after a moment, using one hand to hold Kanzeon in place, and the other to grasp Zack's for a friendly shake.

"I'm Rise Kujikawa. You've already met Kanzeon, but it's nice to meet you both!"

Or so she said, since her Sentret still didn't look too thrilled about further social interaction with the Dratini that had spoiled her fun so quickly. At least she'd be a little more subdued for the rest of the night.

Well, he ought to at least try to patch things up with the little hairball. The handshake with her trainer had gone swimmingly enough, so...

Going out on a bit of a limb, he regarded the Sentret with the cheesiest, most forced kind of smile before extending his right index finger, which was about the same size as the thing's whole arm.

"Hey, little lady... Whaddaya say? Truce?"

Kanzeon stared at the offered finger with all the balefulness of an incensed snake, looking for all the world as if she'd like nothing better than to bite it. A warning look from Rise stopped her when she shifted, however, and she grumbled under her breath but stayed put.

It took another few minutes of deliberation, before she reached the conclusion that it was the Dratini she detested. The man had been pretty comfortable until he'd started screaming, but she'd surprised him, and she liked surprising people.

So with an elegant sort of sneer, she chirped out a "Sentret!" and relinquished her hold on Rise's neck to instead wrap her tail around the finger.

... He wasn't really sure what to make of whatever emotional transaction had taken place between Kanzeon and her trainer to make her go from wanting to eat his face to shaking his finger semi-peaceably, but he was happy to have gotten it out of the way.

With a wiggle of that finger, he sighed in relief.

"... Quite the handshake you got there." And all the while, Angela shot visual daggers from under his arm.

The Sentret's tail squeezed his finger in a "And don't you FORGET it" gesture before she released him and returned her tail back to its rightful (or so she felt) position adorning Rise's neck as a scarf. She gave her trainer a glance, as if to say Hey, look at me, I'M willing to make amends and Rise had to fight to keep a straight face.

"Don't act like this whole thing wasn't your fault," she murmured, as close to reprimanding as she'd get tonight.

✘ and I'll try~ oh lord, I'll try~ to CAAAAAAARRY onnnn! xO

Please breed her so Rise can snag an egg-- I mean

I've been considering it. /chinscratch

Ohoho.

Angela babies. _ /is back finally derpderp

welcome back!

thanks a bunch... ;-; ... and thanks for the patience, too.

No problem at all~!

/in love with this Sentret. dsklajdf so precious.

she's such a hardy little brat sob