knickknackery | to know the unknown

Entry tags:

verse: gotta catch 'em all

to know the unknown

WHO Sefton,

blessddrgntamer,

swatwithdragons and

motherlanders.
WHAT ^{^P_K^M_N^T_R^N_R} Sefton needs a place to go after ecoterrorism goes way too far out of hand in Hoenn. He retreats to find his half-sibling in Blackthorn, whom he only knows about through the news and his mother's stories.
WHERE Blackthorn, in the Johto region.
WHEN Early 1994. Sefton is 11½, Lance is 20.
NOTES Continues over in the live-action pokémon musebox.

The road was beginning to give way, path widening into something more respectable and well-traveled. He was so close. So close to safety and finally finding the other half of his family. Not that his mother had ever let him down or did less than her best to raise him, but something had always been missing as he had grown up. Maybe he would find it here.

For that, Sefton was almost grateful to Teams Aqua and Magma for their insane plots that were literally destroying the Hoenn region in an effort to make it more habitable for pokémon. Who cared if all the people living there wouldn't be able to adapt or survive all the rapid changes as long as the pokémon were happy, right?

Sefton grunted disdainfully and picked up the pace. Glalie hovered behind him, matching his speed and watching his back. They were both exhausted from the journey, evading the authorities on the off-chance they would simply deport him back to Hoenn if they discovered him, not to mention fighting off all the wild Pokémon in the area that wandered too close. At least the nudge in the back of his mind usually gave them advance warning...

They were almost there. Just needed to make it toward the gym, announce his intentions to seek shelter with the clan...

"So close," he breathed.

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"Halt!" An abrupt voice called out. If Sefton looked over he'd see a girl only a handful of years older than him if that, standing on a craggy outcrop nearby with her hands on her hips and a snake at her feet. (On a closer look, one would note that said snake, although blue at first glance, seemed to be leaving a blue streak on the rocks which left purple splotches on its scales.)

The girl pointed an imperious finger at the boy and his glalie. "This is the town of dragon tamers. You can't come in here with that!"

Sefton bristled, tired joints protesting at the loss of momentum before they had reached their destination. There was nothing he could do about that, however. The girl was outside of his usual range, but it was easy enough to see her irritation and pompousness.

"Why not?" he argued petulantly. Glalie kept its distance behind him and he could easily feel the icy irritation that complimented his own bubbling anger.

"Why not?" she repeated incredulously. With a huff she leapt down from the rock, flicking her hair back and opening her mouth to speak before a hiss caught her attention. Her 'dratini', still on the rock and obviously unable to get down the same way, looked chagrined and then made another sound, sort of like a hissing cough, as if trying to produce a sound it simply couldn't.

Blushing furiously, the girl picked the pokemon up and placed it down on the ground near her feet, not-quite-discreetly wiping her hands off on her back and clearing her throat. The 'dratini' straightened, holding its head high in a similar manner to its trainer, and tried to look as threatening as possible. "Ice-type pokemon are banned from the city! Everyone knows that."

"Obviously not," murmured Sefton with a huff. He gave a confused look to the poor, oddly-colored pokémon she was dragging around with her before returning his attention to the matter at hand. "It doesn't matter, anyway! I need to talk to whoever's in charge here, okay?"

The girl's eyes widened, surprise and then vindication flickering through her in quick succession. "What, you mean the gym leader? I knew it!" All trainers with ice-types went to the gym, just because they thought they were so good for having an advantage of the legendary dragons. Oooh, she'd show him!

She pointed sharply at Glalie. "You're not gonna take that thing into the gym with you if I have anything to say about it! We oughta--EEEE!"

She shrieked as something burst from between the trees up the slope and bounced at break-neck speed toward them. The 'dratini', hissing in fear, tried to slither away through her feet, making her stumble, fall and hit the ground with an 'oof!'.

Sefton began to scoff at her automatic assumption, not even having the patience to explain. Her scream caught him off guard and his adrenaline spiked as the enemy came bounding toward them.

"Protect!" he yelled, instinct guiding him to keep themselves safe. Glalie sped forward and placed itself between the girl, her pokémon and the obstacle. Sefton scrambled in the other direction, confident his friend could stop the attacker's momentum, but it would do no good to stay in the open where it could simply rebound and go after the unguarded one.

The girl rolled over into a sitting position in time to gape at the fragmented green shield that shimmered overhead. Saved from a wild pokemon--how embarrassing!

The graveler bounced off the top of the Protect, shattering it and sent careening in another direction until it hit a boulder with a shuddering crunch. Arms and legs unfolded themselves from the crags of the stone and pushed the pokemon upright, its face turning toward Sefton. It looked confused ... and unhappy. Its eyes narrowed when they fell on Sefton, who was nearest.

With a growl it reached down to the rocks nearby and picked up one roughly the side of Sefton's head, drawing back its thick arm and hurling at the boy with frightening speed.

Glalie rocked backwards at the impact, only mildly stunned as opposed to injured or even crushed. It bounced in the air for a moment while regaining its bearings...

Sefton stumbled on the uneven ground, barely catching sight of the graveler before it recovered and struck back. Flailing, he waved his arm toward the rock — willing it to be diverted, knowing he wasn't strong enough to simply stop it — and dove forward.

... just before glalie rushed forward and slammed its head, horns and all, into the graveler's back.

If one was looking at the rock at closely, one would see a faint glow around it before it apparently changed direction--by a few inches, granted, but those few inches soon proved to be more than a foot's worth of distance as it shot past Sefton.

The girl shook her head violently and scowled, clambering to her feet. No way she was gonna let a stranger beat the wild pokemon all by himself. "Bernie! Use Screech!" she ordered, and the 'dratini' rose up indignantly, its head flattening slightly as it drew in air and let out a high-pitched shriek. The girl yelped and clapped her hands over her ears.

The graveler had already picked up another rock, but at the Screech it cringed and then was sent flying when Glalie slammed into it from behind. It rolled across the ground and came to a halt on its back in a dip in the path, rumbling with displeasure and flailing its arms to try and turn it around the right way.

Sefton jerked his legs up and out of the way of the boulder, then covered his own ears with his arms as the 'dratini' let loose, giving a soft, sharp gasp. Glalie shuddered in the air, then made a beeline for Sefton while the graveler was still indisposed.

Shaking his head, Sefton rolled over and pointed toward the wild pokémon. "Icy Wind!" Glalie hesitated for only a few moments before making to hover over the living rock. Being less organic and more mineral, it hardly needed to take in any sort of breath before the blast of freezing air was spewed right into the graveler's face; hopefully the icy effect would slow it down and prevent it from getting back up before the trainers could move to safety.

Edited 2011-02-05 09:48 (UTC)

The graveler bellowed then choked on the ice that got in its mouth, its limbs working more wildly than before in its distress. Those movements slowed, the graveler shaking its ... well, its whole body, as if to try and keep itself from getting groggy in the cold. It didn't work; its eyelids drooped.

The girl picked up her 'dratini' and scurried over to Sefton, jumping over the big rock the graveler had thrown. Her hand reached down toward his collar, the girl intending to try and haul him up in her urgency. "Come on!"

"No!"

The boy cried out, scooting away as quickly as he could before she could touch him. His heart pounded, delaying the movement to his feet and, before he realized Glalie had stopped its barrage, his pokémon was right beside him, trying to place itself between him and the girl. He took a shaky breath (that had been close), and nodded. "O-okay, let's—this way?" he asked, already heading inside the city.

Maybe he could make it before she realized they hadn't finished their 'discussion' yet.

The girl jerked back at the sudden yell, and then jumped back again with a yelp at the abrupt presence of the boy's icy-cold partner. "What's your problem, gods," she grumbled. Her 'dratini' hissed an agreement, now more ekans than dratini given the paint that was smeared over her arms and clothes.

She hesitated a moment, but then grudgingly trailed after him. "Leader Clair'll beat your socks off," she announced as she followed. Though maybe he wouldn't do too badly, she thought, also grudgingly, even though he naturally wouldn't be fighting the gym leader's strongest team. He knew what he was doing, at any rate. Wasn't fair--he was younger than her and travelling and had a sort-of strong pokemon. Stupid father.

Sefton huffed, trying to keep his pace despite all urges to simply pick a spot on the road and take a nap before doing what he came to do. Shaking his head, he begrudgingly informed her, "I'm not here to fight your leader. Just need to talk."

The girl felt a chill of absolute horror. No, he couldn't be ... going there to join them, could he? She looked him over. He wasn't even as old as she was and Father never let her join! That was totally unfair!

"You can't join them! You're not even thirteen!" A beat. "You aren't thirteen, are you?!"

The path had turned to cobblestones, now, and they rounded a spike of rock and directly into view of the outskirts train station and city guardhouse by the side of the road. There wasn't any train in the station, but there were several figures, two of them caped, standing by the door--just a little too far to actually see the details of their faces. Unfortunately for the girl, she was just a little too preoccupied by this latest news to notice.

"Eleven," he answered shortly. The fact of the matter was, he did want to join them... just not in the way she was probably thinking. His attention was caught by the people in the capes — they stood out and were likely more important and/or informed than this girl. Maybe they could help him, providing they weren't some sort of tourists.

Judging by the relief coming from Glalie, it had spotted the other people as well. That brought a small smile to Sefton's face despite everything else. Glalie always was the smart one.

"H-hello?" he called, making a beeline toward the rest of the people. "Excuse me..."

The girl breathed a sigh of relief. They wouldn't possibly accept him then! Then she followed his gaze, saw the people, and eeped quietly, suddenly worried and guilty. Her ekans hissed as her arms tightened. "Uh oh ..."

Clair was Not Happy. Not that she was often happy, nowadays, but early this morning she'd been roused out of bed with a desperate, urgent message from the mayor that his daughter hadn't been in bed that morning. It was a concern--a very big concern--given the current climate, so she hadn't thought anything of getting up and heading out with a couple of clan members as back-up.

It wasn't until a few hours later that she'd received a call from one of the clan members that the guardhouse guards had seen the girl leaving the city. And now Clair was there, organising a flyover of the surroundings, because the girl's pokemon really weren't powerful enough to go wandering around the mountain like that.

The hesitant voice cut through her orders, and withholding an impatient snarl the brunette turned, eyes narrowed, toward the boy responsible. And stopped, on the girl behind him. Said girl cringed as Clair, lips tightening, swept right past the boy and seized her shoulder. "You," she said in a low voice the cut through the exclamations of relief behind her, "have caused a ruckus today, young lady."

The girl winced.

Sefton stumbled out of the way as the woman stalked past. He looked between the two for a long moment, feeling out the situation as best he could with his above average ability for insight. After a moment, a small grin appeared. "No way," he said. "She's the one in trouble?"

The girl shot him a glare, but Clair ignored the both of them in favour of turning toward the clan member. "Tamer Yamamura, escort Akane back to her father, if you please," she ordered.

The tamer bowed, murmuring, 'of course, Lady Clair', and taking Akane's shoulder to lead the unhappy girl away.

It was only then that Clair turned around again, her eyes skating over Sefton and the glalie (the latter without reaction save a brief tightening of her lips). Then she strode past them both, back toward the city, her cape fluttering slightly and flak vest rustling. Random trainers weren't her concern.

"May we help you, son?" one of the guardhouse guards asked instead, the other departing to call the mayor.

Watching the proceedings with a curious glance, Sefton let his gaze trail after the woman perhaps longer than actually necessary. Eventually turning to the guard, he bit his lip. Right, what he'd come here for. "I... need to talk to the gym leader here—that's the person who leads the Blackthorn clan, right? I need to..." He shrugged, helplessly. It didn't feel like his place to explain the whole situation to someone who couldn't actually help.

"The gym leader?" the guard asked, surprised. "Why, that there was the gym leader!"

And he pointed down the road toward Clair. "But she doesn't lead the clan, son. That'd be her grandfather, old Hideki--ever since his sons died." The old man nodded to himself, apparently about set to start chatting despite the fact that Sefton's quarry was getting away from him. "Yep. Lady Clair's got her heart in the right place, but she's not got the patience for administration, and Lord Lance, now, well, that boy's already got responsibility enough ..."

Sefton just nodded in quick thanks to the guard, then darted off after Clair. "H-hey! Wait, please, I—"

Whatever he was about to say came to a quick stop as he stumbled over loose gravel and crashed to the ground with a jarring thud. He grunted painfully, closing his hands into fists to try and keep from letting the instinctual tears out. It hurt, yes, but not enough to start crying. One of the downsides to catching the stray emotions of others - the difficulty of controlling his own when they slipped past his regular barrier.

Glalie hovered at his side, close to the ground and making a quietly grinding noise meant to be coos of worry. It didn't try to aid him, but its solid comfort of being there still meant something.

The shout drew Clair's attention and she turned with a frown, absently flicking her cape back. She was in time to see the kid trip and faceplant into the ground, and she closed her eyes briefly with an exasperated sigh. Kids. Always in a hurry.

The woman made her way back, crouching on the opposite side as the glalie (ugh) and reaching out to help the kid to his feet. "Be more careful, will you? Some of these stones aren't as flat as they used to be."

Sefton automatically recoiled, rolling onto his side and almost bumping into his partner before it smoothly glided out of the way. He sat up and hastily wiped at his eyes, taking a few shaky breaths so that he could say, "I need your help, please. You're—you're the gym leader, part of the clan?"

Instinctively Clair pulled back with a jerk, her hands up to indicate she wouldn't hurt him. Now that was an instinctive reaction if she ever saw one, and her exasperation segued into concerned as she looked the kid over more closely.

"Yes," she said, peering at him with a furrowed brow. "What's wrong?" Whatever it was, it was clearly urgent--the boy was a little too young, a little too passionate, for her to believe he was lying. Then again, kids did sometimes believe things were more urgent than they actually were ...

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