o1. audio / action

[ladyofluminosity]

[Voice]

Hello, can anyone hear me? I believe I'm still in the signal area. In any case, I believe that I may have found something interesting! A community of Spearows, so close to the city! I thought that they were solitary Pokémon, and yet there must be at least half a dozen of them nesting here, in close proximity. While I have not been able to get too close, I have been able to construct quite a few interesting ske--

Camille, what are you doing there? Camille, sto--

[The feed abruptly cuts off.]

[Action]

[The Verdant Forest, early morning, the trees covered in a new layer of fluffy white snow. The ratata are slowly crawling out from their hidey-holes to find their first meal of the day; pidgey cooing gently, welcoming in the day; the sweet, dulcimer cry of an errant Enlightened screaming--wait, what?!]

Comments

[action]

[sixwholeplates]

[Cecilia does the same, stopping her run and panting. She shakes her head, before she looks around at them, and then back towards Lux. She's the one they found in trouble originally.]

Everyone okay?

[action]

[indy_wannabe]

Never better!

[action]

[thewindything]

Peachy.

[He wasn't exactly out of breath, but he was also mostly incorporeal. Yay, for being a ghost!]

That was close.

[action]

[ladyofluminosity]

That was...

[She catches her breath, standing up finally. She's beaming.]

That was invigorating!

[action]

[sixwholeplates]

I could live without the running for my life part, but it was sort of fun...

[She smooths her coat out, then she stands back up, looks around, and smiles.]

I'm Cecilia.

[action]

[indy_wannabe]

Ezreal. Nice to not be getting murdered by Spearow with you all.

[action]

[thewindything]

[Okay, he really can't help but laugh. Lux, plz. Oh, introductions, huh? John snickers and then- what is going on there? That Gastly just went poof in a lot of blue smoke.]

[And now there's a kid there. He grins at the others.]

John, nice to meet you. Heh.

[action]

[ladyofluminosity]

[John, you should know her better than this by now.]

My name is Lux, and this is my companion, Camille. [She gestures toward the Dratini, who stands upright and bows gracefully.]

Thank you for helping me. I did not expect them to attack. I was able to get quite a few good sketches at le--

[Wait a second, where was her sketch pad? She had it under her arm when she got cornered, then...]

...Oh. Oh dear.

[action] 1/2

[sixwholeplates]

Nice to meet you, Lux. Maybe--

[She takes a second to process everything. The missing sketchpad. The Gastly that just turned into a boy. Ez. Raftina, swishing her tail next to her. THE GASTLY THAT JUST TURNED INTO A BOY.]

[That one wins.]

[She turns and gawks at John, just staring for a long moment.]

[action] 2/2

[sixwholeplates]

[Then she bolts forward, holds her hand over the top of John's head, and starts literally measuring him by spacing her hands apart.]

How do you work!

[indy_wannabe]

[Ezreal is fairly unperturbed]

Shifter huh? Nice.

[thewindything]

Lux? What's wrong, did you lose your- [Whoa, hello person getting up in his business.]

Uh, yeah. What he said. I'm a shifter.

[ladyofluminosity]

My sketchbook, while we were running away.

[sixwholeplates]

I-I didn't know that was possible. Can you--

[Oh, wait. She's being insane. She coughs and looks to the side, embarrassed, and shuffles her feet.]

...we could double back and look for the sketchbook.

[indy_wannabe]

Do you think the Spearow have left the area yet?

[thewindything]

[John cringes.] Weren't they nesting over there? Unless it got dropped between here and where they were all hanging out. I dunno. Birds are kind of assholes. It's going to be hard to get close.

We need a plan.

[ladyofluminosity]

[Wow, John, language.]

They were nesting, and would have stayed that way had Camille not chosen to jostle one of their nests.

[Camille lets out a haughty "Niii~". She was curious.]

[sixwholeplates]

[Raftina gives Camille a look. A sassy look.]

[Cecilia, conversely, just taps her finger against her chin and looks thoughtful, before she looks between them.]

It should be safe, if we go slowly and carefully. We don't want to startle them.

[indy_wannabe]

Even if we're careful, Spearow are little assholes. They might attack us as soon as they know we're there.

[thewindything]

[Thoughtful pause.]

If I go first, do you think they'll be less likely to attack a pokemon?

[ladyofluminosity]

[Lux pauses, thinking for a moment.]

The possibility exists. I would not want to see you hurt, so perhaps if the rest of us were to hide and act as backup, in case things go...

[Well, you know.]

Eeeek notifications did noooot work. D:

[sixwholeplates]

I think that's a good idea. [She nods at John.] We could hide--ah, if it goes wrong, we can extract you that way.

[Hopefully, at least!]

[indy_wannabe]

If nothing else they shouldn't be able to do too much to you while you're in ghost form. We can back you up, I think that's probably the best plan.

[thewindything]

[He nods. He kind of was the one best to go after it. He takes a few steps back and shifts back into his Gastly form.]

Alright, let's backtrack.

[And off he goes!]

[ladyofluminosity]

If you're sure--wait, John!

[She gives John a concerned look. They were kind of giving him the short end of the stick. But before she could get a proper answer, off he went; she bolted after him.

Sure enough, they were still there, and there was a nice--well, once nice, now being picked apart by sharp beaks--leather sketchbook in the snow, surrounded by the small flock of spearow. Pulling at the pages, pecking at some of the pictures, papers were strewn about.

There was a small, upset whimper from behind one of the trees. Yup, she saw it. All her work...]