Roleplay

Raising her eyebrows, Xanthia shook her head. "What so you are under ten?" A teasing glint reflected in her eyes as a hint of what used to be glinted from behind the dark blue pools which were her eyes. Technically in this world, one was considered an adult by age ten.. their pokemon given to them made them mature and able to make decisions. Though in recent years.. the age had been extended to fifteen.. and then even more recently.. eighteen. Probably to keep kids from repeatedly dying.. or giving up on pokemon all together. All it took was one of the three greater tragedies of pokemon training. Of course.. there were a few minor ones as well.. but these were the ones that happened to all trainers.. as much as everyone would wish they didn't. One was losing so many battles that you give up, the second was when you have to release a pokemon, and the third was a pokemon's death. Any of the three could break a trainer.. and it had actually broken her once before. She'd only come back to fight when she'd heard rumors about Arceus being in Sinnoh. "I.. was not aware that there were so many just wandering around... i thought.. i thought it was over.." she felt a twinge of guilt. Here she had tried to retire, hid away from the world for almost three years.. and.. Cyanna was still looking for her.. still reverting pokemon to their ancient forms and letting them lose on the world.

A finger brushed Chitter's apricorn as the question fell upon her. She responded smoothly and quickly, eyes meeting his in a nearly flawless lie. "her wound was surprising to me, i was expecting far worse." She rubbed her arm reflexively as if she had the wound herself. "you know the expression sympathy pain? Looking at pokemon's wounds sometimes makes me.. think of what it would feel like. They suffer so much to protect us."

Without a word she started the movement out of the city, eyes scanning the rubble as Felicity scanned the area using her echolocation.

There.. the woods weren't far from here.. they needed to get out of here..and this was probably the safest place to go.

She entered inside, leaves folding behind her to hide her mainly from view. People would come to the place with the sounds of the skarmory and the smell of burning metal.

No use trying to capture a pokemon in that area now, she'd have to wait until they were somewhere else. She'd find a fighter elsewhere.. hopefully.

"I'm turning 18 in a few... Days? Weeks? You know the laws have changed..." He knew exactly what she was thinking about. He had been too young to fully remember the distraction and the war and what life had been before, but it had made his father sick and made his life what it was right then. "And there aren't. That's why you surprised me so much." He held the branched back for Luca and followed them into the dense underbrush.

"Yeah, iget what you mean about the pain thing." He certainly did. "And how pokemon are so important. Luca has been my protector and translator since I was what, four or five? We grew up together... That's why she calls me brother and I think of her as a sister."

The Crimson eyes of Luca flashed to the two trainers as she smiled at Mason. Yes, and he taught me well. We work and fight as one. She knew how true that statement could be, but knew not to reveal his secret. It wasn't exactly something he enjoyed demonstrating.

"If you aren't eighteen yet.. that officially means you are still a child. It doesn't matter if you turn eighteen tomorrow. It is the law.. mainly beacause that is the same age where you could have been sent off to the war if it was still raging along."

The way he was talking, Luca was his starter. Xanthia turned to glance at him, abyss-blue eyes looking dead and cold. "Take extra care of her." She commented. "There is no connection quite like the first one you make with your first pokemon.... and when your starter.. your first pokemon goes missing.. nothing will make sense anymore."

She had a hole in her heart where her starter had been, she missed Luthien dearly, the two had been... probably as close as Mason was with Luca.

Xanthia skirted around a root which would have made her trip if she wasn't careful, before coming to a clearing in the woods by a small pool of clear blue water. It was getting late.. and they were.. far enough away now that they could take a break safely... she could only hope.. What she did know was that she needed rest.. and so did her pokemon. Felicity would never go into her apricorn if she knew Xanthia was still up and not resting.. and Chitter would probably break out of her apricorn the moment she learned about Xanthia not taking a rest. They really were mothering... they only wanted her to get rest. And now that they were this far into the woods.. they should be shielded from sight. There weren't many wild pokemon out this close to the city.. so they should be protected from harm.

She heaved her backpack off of her shoulders, clicking her tongue as Felicity flitted off her shoulder to her head, perching delicately as Xanthia slid a small jacket out from inside of the bag. They were too close to the city for a fire, so she was going to have to resort to eating whatever dried foods she had. Releasing all her pokemon in the clearing, she allowed Zira to slide away from her and towards the lake. She glanced at Mason, who was still following her for some reason. Probably because he'd never seen anyone kill one of the creations before.

it didn't matter what he did as long as he didn't get in her way. She put the jacket on, zipping the front up smoothly and opening a jar of peanut butter and a small bag of dried figs. Feeding it to everyone in the group who would eat it.. which was everyone except for Felicity.. who would feed herself later tonight. "So.. Mason.. what exactly were you doing in the ex-capital of this region? Everyone knows its not the safest place to be.." That was sort of an understatement, as it had been the center for war.. and apparently the place where Arceus had decreed humans the problem and cause of the war. Of course.. she'd been there looking for clues.. which would have to wait till the next time she came past here.. maybe a few weeks.. that would give the Skarmory time to decompose.. and no one would be looking for her. Till then she could look for clues in another place.. she'd heard Pastoria was where the Legendary pokemon had met and discussed the fate of the humans. Of course she could be completely wrong about this.. but it was worth to check her basis.

"Close enough," he muttered. He didn't comment other grave message about losing starters. He then knew that she had lost hers. He... He couldn't imagine being without Luca... She had been his comfort when his mother was in one of her rages.

When they stopped, he dropped to his knees and gulped some of it down, then filled the old canteen he had in his pack. He released Saltare and Barb as well, and both made good use of the pool. Luca waited, then nudged Saltare aside to lap some of the water herself.

"Thank god we found water," Mason said, then was silent when she spoke. "I go by Mason Alexander... But yeah I was just passing through. I'm just trying to find a safe place to stay for a long time." He shrugged, seemingly careless as he sat back against a tree, trying not to stare hungrily at her food. He was not going to beg for free handouts.

Ah... right. He didn't appear to have any food. Probably didn't know how to catch it either.. the poor kid. Thrust into the world too soon.. she had to wonder why he was on his own if he was under age.. he could have pretended to be older she supposed.. but your trainer ID was usually a rather large giveaway.

She held out the nearly empty jar of peanut butter and jar of figs. "I found this looting an abandoned grocery store a few miles back. Dried the figs myself. Pays to have a fire type pokemon i guess." She glanced over to Chitter, who had dulled the flame on her head to a dimly burning ember, as she knew they were on the run from the contact with her pokeball, and knowledge of what happened when they fought the ancient beasts. It was just barely enough to light up the clearing, with most of the ambient light coming from the stars and moon. As soon as she had drunk and eaten, Chitter retired to her Apricorn, killing the little ambient light they had. It was for the best right now, as Chitter's fire.

"Normally i would have Felicity hunt something for us to make a meal. That is... if you aren't squeamish about eating wild pokemon.. patrat and magikarp.. sometimes pidove. Fire isn't necessarily a good choice right now though. There are a also probably few herbs and berries around here we can eat as well... your Roserade should know of a few. Grass types are especially handy when it comes to that."

And then she exhaled through her nose in annoyance as she heard him insist yet again that she call him Mason Alexander.. which was not something she was ever going to call him because it sounded like something his mother would say. Instead, she was going to call him Mason and be done with it.. that was if she even called him anything. She burst into a cold laugh as he said something about trying to find a place to stay for a long time.

"There are some cities like Pacifidlog in Hoenn which might actually be your end goal. Though I personally find that they have too many rules there. Can't so much as breathe without the leader of that place jumping down your throat. Probably would try and take your apricorns too.. for their own purposes and the betterment of their city." she snorted. "Honestly.. its a fools errand. The best way to survive in this cracked world is to keep moving." She snorted. "I know from experience. Every safe house I have ever had has been discovered.. and destroyed."

Nowhere was safe.. and this kid needed to learn that now before he ended up in some town with martial law and getting killed because it was highly unlikely his Lucario would ever leave him if it had been with him for ten years.

He quickly scarfed down the food, forgetting instantly his previous mental resolve. "Thanks... I let Luca and Barb eat the berries they find because those are the foods they need to eat... Saltare and I share whatever human food I can find. I can't resist giving him a little extra... I wouldn't be opposed to fresh meat, neither would Luca, but yeah I know that there are, like, no safe places... But I can try..." He looked kind of downcast and angry at this, as he recalled Barb and Saltare into their Apricorns. Luca sat beside him and shut her eyes, long ears still twitching to show she was awake.

"We should probably just sleep." He had eaten the rest of the food, careful to get every last bit of the peanut butter. "Hope you don't mind me tagging along, I can assure you I'm not dead weight."

An eyebrow raised, Xanthia watched as he grasped the food and ate as if he hadn't for weeks. "you do know that berries are safe for humans as well, right? I know a lot of rookie trainers don't but i would have thought you would have at least tried to find them? You know.. Pokemon and humans usually eat the same thing. I mean, granted most grass types are plant eaters only.. its perfectly healthy and safe to eat what they are eating and feed them what you eat."

Xanthia was actually impressed by his naive nature. A few years out in the real world and that would be gone. He'd be hardened and cold just like she was. because it was only a matter of time before a crazy trainer targeted him.. and one of his pokemon were killed. Everyone she'd met had lost a pokemon somewhere along the way.. some more than others. her ex.. lost his mind after losing his entire team except for his Raticate.. of course that had been during the war.

Xanthia watched as the boy finished the peanut butter, grasping the jar quickly and scooping up some water as soon as he had finished. Another bottle for holding things. She shook it to get the excess peanut butter off the sides and dumped it in the open and waiting mouth of Zira, who sucked the entire bottle into her mouth. A moment later it came back out, sparkling clean and Xanthia rinsed it twice more before dumping it out and screwing the lid on, filling up her water cantines to the brim. It wasn't like she needed the water, having Zira with her to provide it whenever they were in need. But still, it was nice to get water that was not lukewarm.

"You can do what you like.. but i will leave you in the dust if you fall behind." Xanthia reasoned before folding her arms under her head, stuffing her backpack under and laying down. Felicity took to the skies, stretching out her sore wing, streaming away from the camp and into the darkness. And moments later, the rhythmic sound of Xanthia sleeping was heard. Zira watched over her for a moment before sinking slightly into the waves and resting her head against the edge of the pond with a grunt.

__ (feel free to RP your response to Xanthia, i am putting up a timeskip)__

Xanthia woke with a start, extreme pain shooting through her arm. She let out a loud yell as a some kind of monster had sunk its fangs into her arm. With cloud cover over the moon, Xanthia could just barely make out the furred shape on her arm. She slammed her arm, and the creature into the tree, now that she was awake she could feel the powerful sensation of hatred it was oozing. Holding her bleeding arm, she watched as Zira woke, firing off several ice beams into the darkness, which the creature easily dodged, lunging yet again for Xanthia, its original target. The flash of teeth made Xanthia's adrenaline surge through her body and before she knew what she was doing, she'd slammed an Apricorn into its face.

The apricorn sucked the creature inside and lay still on the ground.

The chaos over, Xanthia glanced down at her arm as the moon came out from behind the clouds. Staring at her arm, she could see the blood slowly dripping from the bite wound. Nice. She moved over to Zira and had her pokemon wash out the wound as she winced. Having heard the shout, and smelling the scent of blood, Felicity was back, looking full and content, but worried at the sight of her trainer bleeding.. a frantic sound came from her mouth. After Zira had washed Xanthia's wound she glanced around for the offending pokemon, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly at the black apricorn laying in the grass, a low growl coming from her chest. "Gaaasss." she seemed immensely unhappy.

"Felicity, my bag." Xanthia ordered. her pokemon easily lifted the heavy-looking backpack with very little difficulty, bringing it close so Xanthia could reach inside. Her last poltice.. she'd have to make more. She brought it up to her arm, wrapping the leaf around quickly and securing it in place with some old shoelaces, binding the wound. She did this so smoothly, it seemed as if she was used to treating wounds.

As she finished she glanced to the apricorn and looked uncomfortable. Great... just great.. she'd caught the monstrosity that had attacked her. It didn't have rabies.. and it wasn't an ancient. Which meant it was one of those human hating pokemon. Awesome. What was she going to do with it.. well.. she should probably see what type of pokemon it was first.. and then go from there.

Mason nodded. "I know that, I'm not stupid! They just need as much, if not more food than me, and when you're traveling mostly through cities, even berries can be hard to come by... Trust me it's not cuz I'm a picky eater. I just don't want to take the only things they can eat."

Little did she know, his attitude was mainly an act. He was pretty lost, but he knew the dangers. and the consequences, even if they hadn't happened directly to him. He had had other companions on his trip, this she didn't know.

Of course, though, he didn't know what she was thinking and so he didn't voice this. He simply wrapped himself in his jacket and slowly fell asleep, leaning against the tree, Luca at his side.

***

"Ack!" he yelped when Xanthia's cry woke him. The whole thing unfolded before he could say a word.

"You okay?" he asked tentatively, not knowing if his words were welcome as she tied a leaf to her arm. "I have a few rolls of bandages, you know." If only she knew how much he was offering with those words. If it was one thing he always needed, it was bandages. "What Pokemon was that?"

Hearing the news that he had bandages was honestly shocking to Xanthia.. supplies like that were far rarer than the peanut butter she'd lifted from that random convenience store. "I.. have had worse before." She answered, keeping pressure on the bite as she felt the sting of the herbs entering the open wounds. "Keep those bandages for later." She reasoned.

At hearing his question, Xanthia shook her head. "I have no idea. It was too dark to see much of anything." She tapped one of her apricorns and Chitter shot out in a stream of light, looking concerned. "hey look Chitter.." Xanthia joked. "We match."

Chitter snorted at Xanthia's lame attempt to be funny, rolling her eyes. "Ferrrn." She stated, glancing at he ball. She'd been able to hear what had happened from the inside of the ball and make an educated guess as to what was going on. Strong hands scooped up the black apricorn, holding it up towards Xanthia.

Staring at the dark apricorn, Xanthia was still at a loss for what to do. She grit her teeth and released the Monstrosity.

A shimmer of light and the creature came out, hissing and spitting furiously, fur standing up on end. It lunged for her yet again, but this time, Xanthia was ready. She managed to move out of the way before slamming the beast's face into the ground in order to get a good look at it. The hatred was more potent than she remembered, but the creature stopped, apparently shocked by her actions. Then Xanthia got a good look at it.

Smooth tan fur with dark green dotting the tips of its tail. She could feel its rapid hatred shooting across their connection... "Leafeon." She stated before continuing to pin the creature down. She could kill it, but now that she'd caught it, she would feel its pain as it died.. which was not going to be pleasant. She couldn't let it go.. because if she did she doubted it would ever leave them alone.. probably stalk and kill them.. or try and attack someone else. She doubted she'd be able to change its mind and make it like her... it had been through too much before she'd come there. She didn't want to keep him for her team, because she knew what kind of hell that would be to raise a human hater. But.. thinking about it.. she probably had no choice.

"Listen here you little monstrosity." She snarled, keeping the leafeon pinned. "You are not going to attack me ever again, or i will have Chitter here burn your leaves clean off."

Chitter bore her teeth, breathing a small burst of fire as demonstration.

"Gasss." Zira seemed unhappy at the proceedings.

"You are going to behave yourself.. and I will help you get stronger than you ever would get out here." Sadly enough, Xanthia knew how to handle human haters.. and evil pokemon.. she'd had a few on her teams before.. even one on her first team. Hades.. who hadn't hated her or anyone else.. he'd simply had the desire to take over the world by force.. and he'd changed after Vesuvi sacrificed herself for him to survive. She doubted she'd be able to get this human hater to change very much.. but she could at least keep him away from other trainers.

"Leaf." The Monstrosity snarled, struggling under her hands.

"Do we have a deal or not? You don't attack me.. and I just won't have Chitter burn you to a crisp."

The Monstrosity's eyes flitted over to Chitter and then to the disapproving Zira before he grudgingly narrowed his eyes, tail twitching. "Leaf." he grunted, looking rather disappointed at the whole entire situation. As Xanthia let him up, his whiskers twitched and he looked furious, but he didn't charge towards her or try and kill her. She returned the Monstrosity to his ball rather quickly before he could think too much and clipped it onto her belt with a sigh.

"Gastrodon!" Zira complained, her eyes narrowed. "Gastro tro don don!"

Xanthia had been around the creature long enough to know when it was upset, and could easily guess what she was complaining about.

"I know." Xanthia stated. "It's not ideal. but its either I keep him with us, or he comes and stalks and tries to kill one of us again.. maybe this time he succeeds. That or he tries to kill another unsuspecting trainer. I can't very well kill him if he doesn't have a broken mind. At that point it would just be murder and prove to him and other human haters like him that we humans are something to be continually hated and attacked." there was something else behind her words, the warning that she had connected with the Monstrosity the moment the ball closed around it. Her gift could be something of a curse if she wasn't careful. She shouldn't have panicked and thrown the ball.

The little monstrosity was hers and she was going to have to deal with it now.

Zira seemed a bit unimpressed and made a small grumbling noise before slumping slightly in her version of a pout.

At this point, Xanthia couldn't get more sleep if she wanted to, a headache coming on as she could still feel the ambient hatred seething off the monstrosity she'd captured.

"Sorry to wake you." She stated, scooping up her backpack with her non-bitten arm and hefting it over her shoulder. "Sun isn't even up yet. But there's no way I can sleep now. Not when i know there might be others like him around." She glanced down at her leaf-wrapped arm and heaved a sigh. well.. she;d have to go get more poltices.. maybe take a look around this forest for some raw materials. There should be something. Her pokemon were pretty much useless to help her... and there was no way the Monstrosity was going to help her out here... even though he was a grass type. Leave it up to her to find probably the only violent and destructive grass type in the world.. because if she could remember correctly.. Leafeon was supposed to be kind and gentle.

Mason had watched, mouth agape, through the whole conversation. "How did you know all that about that Leafeon?" he asked incredulously. "It was like you were actually speaking to it... I mean yeah, I have Luca to translate for me, but you... You don't have a speaking pokemon....."

He sat back against the tree, lost in thought. "Are you going to name him, anyways? And are we leaving, or are you going for supplies?" If it was the latter, he could always send Barb to help. "Should I come?"