✗oo4

[tsunbird]

action; hikawa shrine

[With the recent events and the attacks by the Enhanced, the whole of Union had been in a buzz lately. Quietest, perhaps, had been a small collection of Pokemon left behind by their trainer when he went off to adamantly train on his own. Even the vindictive Fearow had mellowed out in his aggressive trainer's absence, having taken to staying perched on the roof or somewhere near it as though he were waiting.]

[Fluff, for her part, had effectively adopted Eiji in the absence of her trainer, often sitting in his lap or on his shoulders like she had with Ankh. She was convinced, with every fluffy fiber of her Fairy being, that Ankh would return to the Shrine, and so she had to keep her chin up and keep Eiji from being too upset. She even went as far as to accompany him to the Forest Shrine during the attacks, battling alongside him of her own will.]

[So in the figurative lull after the battle, she had become somewhat restless. It had been too long, now, even for her to still have complete faith in Ankh's return. So she was pacing up and down just outside the Shrine when a familiar presence dully registered to her. When she'd identified that yes, it was Ankh, as the vague shape of him meandered into view, she started making a huge fuss. So here she was, yipping and barking and going as far as to run full-tilt into the Shrine, leap into Eiji's lap, and then running back out.]

[Ankh, ...is literally a huge mess. But most noticeably, he's different. He's evolved again, it seems. The left half of his face covered in rust-colored feathers and black scaling, and he now sports an enormous pair of wings attached to his back, the right of which he is covering most of his body with while the left remains mostly neatly folded behind him. Fluff wastes no time in running straight for him, still yipping and barking and being a general visage of excitement. It wasn't until he lost his balance and dropped, gracelessly to sit on his knees with his wings all drawn up around him, that she settled down and climbed partway into his lap.]

[Her yipping ceased the moment she took note of his state, and he brings his left arm up to pet her, not-quite smiling at her.]

...Hey, Fluff.

[ooc; SORRY FOR THE NOVEL DNGJKRDH hi guys the Shitbird is back.]

Comments

Action. He's going to fucking kill you 1/????

[underwearfortomorrow]

[Things did seem to calm down a little after the Enhanced came to the city. While it should have been a welcomed peace, Eiji was restless. No one had seen hide or hair of Ankh and it was ... it was getting so late. If not for Fluff's persistence, he could have even started to give up. He was an optimistic person, but he wasn't stupid, either.]

[When Fluff came running into the Shrine causing a fuss, he gets to his feet, confusion all over his face. He cautiously follows her out until...]

2/???

[underwearfortomorrow]

[Until...]

3/???

[underwearfortomorrow]

4/???

[underwearfortomorrow]

ANKH!

5 done

[underwearfortomorrow]

Ankh, where the- Where have you been!?

[And now he's racing over to him as fast as he can and skidding on his knees to get to his side.]

What happened!?

[Oh god, what is even. He is so upset with you.]

he might be sorry when he's not mostly dead.

[tsunbird]

[Oh hey, it's Eiji.]

[His reaction time is extremely sluggish, and he's still looking at Fluff and petting her languidly when Eiji skids to his side and is hissing distress at him. He notices Eiji's knees before anything else, frowning slightly and following them up to the rest of him. He stares dully for a moment.]

...

[The grin on his face isn't quite like it ought to be, strained and tired as he is, but he's trying.]

's. None of your business.

raptor noises

[underwearfortomorrow]

[Eiji bristles every bit like the reptilian Enlightened he is. He never thought he could be so angry and upset at the same time, but Ankh was good at making him feel like that. The ground beneath them sprouts an alarming amount of ice. The look in his eyes is wild.]

[And then he goes quiet, gently picking himself up off the ground and then grabbing Ankh. He's dragging your ass inside, you have no say in the matter.]

bird screeching

[tsunbird]

[His grin wobbles a bit with the rest of him, and Fluff presses a paw against his chest to push him upright again when he starts to list to one side, and he can't... Quite make himself react to Eiji's rage.]

[When he's hauled upward, Fluff jumps away and trots along beside them, and Ankh has made some sort of alarming screeching sound and folded in on himself, his wings folded tightly around his right half. He knows he can't hide it for long, but he's going to try and keep his arm hidden for now, at least.]

[underwearfortomorrow]

[Yeah, he'll find out eventually. But for now, Eiji drags him in. Hina, who had probably senses Eiji's overwhelming distress, finally comes out and screeches much more loudly in her own distress upon seeing him.]

Not now, Hina. We have to get him inside, first.

[She immediately flies back towards their room. Eiji will set him in his bed. He's not about to try and balance Ankh's injured as on the shelf he usually perches on.]

[tsunbird]

[He's not actually capable of fighting back a whole lot, but being manhandled is freaking him out. Remember how he reacted when you first healed him as a Fletchling, Eiji? He's doing something very similar, despite being largely human-shaped right now.]

[Once released, he scrabbles awkwardly, uncoordinated, keeping his right shoulder pinned against the bed with his wing folded around it. His eyes are wild, much like Eiji's before, but brighter than they ought to be. It's pretty obvious that he's spooked, even if he's trying to hide it and trying to not be because he knows Eiji won't hurt him, but his state is finally starting to really get to him. The blood loss, the poison, everything.]

[He probably won't be conscious for long.]

[underwearfortomorrow]

[Eiji just kind of lets him. He should feel bad for spooking him, but he doesn't. He doesn't because he's still mad at Ankh for the last month. He does, however, have the presence of mind to want to make sure he gets treated for anything that might be ailing him right now.]

[He doesn't sit. He starts looking him over for injuries.]

[tsunbird]

[And Ankh straight-up goose hisses at him when he gets anywhere near his right arm. His spook dials itself from "unhappy injured feral bird guy" to "THE NOPE OF A THOUSAND SUNS" to the degree that he's nearly hyperventilating, because something just won't let him be okay with them knowing about his fucking missing arm.]

[Of course, in reacting this way he's really only drawing more attention to it. Nevermind the fact that he doesn't have the energy to keep up the fight for very long at all, so when he's done goose hissing and thrashing for a number of seconds he flops onto his side and just breathes heavily, giving Eiji what is best described as a pleading look of a frightened animal.]

[He's scared, Eiji. He's not scared of you, not really, but he's scared of what he's done to himself. And most of all he's scared he's really messed up and he won't actually have safety and help here because of how mad everybody is at him.]

[underwearfortomorrow]

[Eiji recoils when Ankh starts to freak out. He doesn't get as mad at him about as he could. Eiji realizes deep down that Ankh really is still kind of a wild animal and he takes to things in ways that normal people normally wouldn't. Him acting much like he did when he found him injured in the wilds shouldn't surprise him that much.]

[Still. He steps back for a moment and takes a deep breath. He gently raises his hands up to try and appear placating, his voice soft.]

Ankh. Tell me what happened so I can help you.

[tsunbird]

[Okay, that... That helps. That helps a lot. Thank for being so goddamn patient with him, Eiji. You are an Icy Lizard Jesus. He's still breathing really hard, but he seems to be making a conscious effort to focus and calm down. Really, the fact that he's poisoned and actually maybe dying a little is just really fraying his nerves.]

[But... Eiji being calm helps. And he works on breathing like a normal creature.]

[He's still pretty violent when he finally shifts and pulls his wing away from his... Well, his lack of arm. And he's definitely not looking at Eiji or the arm when he does it.]

[Fluff pads over and sniffs the half-limb, making a quiet sound of unhappiness.]

Because sitting outside waiting for pizza on laptop.

[faithfulflame]

[Generally, Rei would've been unsettled to see someone so badly hurt entering her home. But this is Ankh. This asshole left her cousin, his own Pokemon, and her wondering where he'd been for weeks. Not a word except for a vague message that was, in it's own right, extremely upsetting. Extremely upsetting. She'd been fully prepared for the thought that he'd simply died, killed doing something stupid, and was mentally steeling herself to have to break that news to Fluff and the rest. Couple this with her complete inability to get any information through seeings and fortunes, and she was beyond worried.

And to see him strolling back in like that left her beyond angry. She's fucking livid.

As she storms out of the living quarters, the miko's own evolution should be more than obvious. The ends of her hair burn with a smokeless orange light, a gleaming mark of an arrow piercing a heart blazes on her forehead, and her image shimmers with heat.]

Where have you been?!

you are a brave soul.

[tsunbird]

[Despite the fact that Eiji is the one with an elemental power that could actually really hurt him, Rei's the one that Ankh is actually afraid of. He may be an idiot, but he's not completely stupid.]

[So when she storms out of the Shrine half on fire and seething in rage at him, he folded his wings a little tighter around his person. Fluff darted out of his lap and behind him.]

...th'Wetlands.

[Is he slurring?]

It's 80 here

[faithfulflame]

[She is, in fact, quite furious. Her ire passes over poor Fluff though, focused entirely on Ankh. She'll shatter his mind if she has to so he'll get the message.]

You didn't call. You didn't tell us where you were going. We've been worried about you for a month. Why the hell did you go alone?

[No honorific. She is that mad.]

oh. well then that's good pizza-sitting weather.

[tsunbird]

[Fluff took to butting her head against his back every time he wavered in place, trying to keep him upright.]

When you're trying to train, 's generally more effective if you don't have a support group.

Yes, SC weather is bipolar

[faithfulflame]

[Rei actually sneers, she is THAT angry.]

And when you're alone...you're ten times as likely to die. You idiot! How do you think you made poor Fluff feel?

go sc go

[tsunbird]

[Aforementioned Sylveon curls around under his good arm and back into his lap, trilling at Rei's inquiry. Ankh looks down at her and scritches at her neck, uncoordinated.]

...yeah, well. 'm not dead, so.

[faithfulflame]

[She can arrange for that to be a reality, if you like featherbrain.]

So you got lucky. And you're half dead already.

[She snaps her fingers, and Deimos appears from nearby, her hands already glowing with a healing light.]

You're going to the medical center. I'm calling Ami-chan, and you're going to live so you can make up for this. To Fluff, and to Eiji.

[tsunbird]

[He wheezes something vaguely reminiscent of a laugh.]

Half dead means I'm half alive, too.

[Deimos startles the hell out of him and the entirety of his everything poofs until he registers that that's a healing light he's seeing. It still takes him a minute to breathe like he's not hyperventilating.]

...'m not really in a position to argue that.

[And he is sorry. He'll get around to apologizing in his own way, probably, after a while. But right now he's only running on adrenaline and the support of Fluff, who is still pushing him back upright every so often.]

[faithfulflame]

No. You are not.

[Deimos' Heal-Pulse continues unabated, healing what it can.]

What happened to your arm?

[tsunbird]

[He flinches. Of course she'd notice that quick. He folds in on himself a little, wrapping his wing tighter around the right half of his body for a minute before unfurling it and holding it out.]

[He did a halfway decent job of bandaging it, probably with what used to be his shirt, but it's very obviously tied off sooner than it should end, and... yeah, everything from below the elbow is gone.]

I don't like snakes much.

[faithfulflame]

[Her eyes widen and she kneels down, already calling mentally for Ravi. The Xatu makes an appearance a moment later, floating down off the roof.]

Your arm...gods. A snake did this?