spindees

[spindees]

   It was strange to see them respond in understanding, even relating his words to their own mother. But.. then again.. this was much different to any fictional robbery he'd ever witnessed and he supposed it could only become more obscure. In this case though, obscure is a relief. Had it been another way, who knows what could have happened.

   "Hy.. dd... dreigon.." Haruka's voice is quiet, like a mumble, trying to imitate the name of the Pokemon. That must be 'Temper'. Part of it had a similar sound to the word 'dragon' so if that was any indication, it was a dragon type.

   As interesting as new Pokemon can be, his attention is soon pulled away towards the other things Elijah had to say. Where his things were going was sort of to be expected but hearing about this person's father wasn't so much. Is that who he meant was 'making them'? That sounds awful for a parent to do.

   "... Your father..? W... Why is he making you?" For whatever reason, he really was pushing his luck in all kinds of places tonight but the robber had been somewhat open thus far, so maybe he could find a little bit more about the reason this was happening. In a way, knowing more about it gave a tiny bit of consolation for his valuables being taken. Just enough so that he might feel sympathy instead of anger. As he'd learned before, anger can sometimes make bad events even worse.

Temper wasn’t the best name for the Hydreigon. His species had a rather poor reputation, but he himself was a well-together dragon. Loyal to a fault even, perhaps. The dragon would not harm anyone without his trainer’s go ahead. Patiently, Temper hovered by the widow waiting for his human.

"You think so? I don’t remember taking any other ring like this, so it must be it." Setting the family ring on this nightstand, he glanced at the cane. The boy ought to have a Skiddo or Gogoat. He wouldn’t be able to go many places if he was dependent on that cane.

"I see. Yes, my mom is the same way." The way the other talked and fiddled with is hands were a sign he had some sort of condition, but Elijah wasn’t sure exactly what it was. It didn’t really matter, he wouldn’t think of him any different for it. It seemed as though the boy was ‘all there’. No, it didn’t matter just because of that, I didn’t matter because he would likely never see him again. Which was a shame, really, since he was perfectly decent person, unlike so many that Elijah knew.

"There are more, but I’m not going to make my Hydreigon go back to fetch them. He’s tired. We are all. …Most of your things will be sold far away from here. I doubt you will see them again. The money will go to my father, who will spend it on unless junk, people, and gambling. I really am sorry for doing this to you. I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to."

[spindees]

   "Uhh... You too!" The answer is a little late but he's definitely trying hard to be friendly and make the most of the situation. Mellow is happy for the attention and though she recognizes the champion's face from television reports, she doesn't exactly understand anything about him except that he helped her best friend.

   The Wailmer do alarm Haruka, who watches them warily. He knew what they were from picture books and cartoons but he'd never seen them in real life. It wasn't that they were scary, they actually looked pretty cute, but the way they bounced up in numbers from the ocean was enough to make him sigh in relief when Steven slowed them down. It was also kind of surreal to have an idol figure shielding him from harm like someone important.

   "Aah, it's okay. Thhh--ank you... As long as they don't jump.. on me I'll be fine."

   "Spiiindaaaaa...." Slowly leaving Haruka's side, the Spinda twirls and wobbles over to the other Pokemon out of curiosity. She hadn't had a lot of contact with other Pokemon either, at least not outside of the route she was caught in. Experimentally, the small panda reaches up a paw to touch one.

Steven had known such a phenomenon his whole life, he wasn’t taken out of it until he left the Hoenn region one time and had to introduce himself in what felt like ages. Back home it was back to Steven! Mr Stone! Stevennn!  Hoenn was home, and like home, people knew your name—and that was exactly how naive he viewed the whole situation, being born and growing up in fame. Though many could know your name, they can’t know who you are…

"Haruka…It’s nice to make your acquaintance. You as well, Mellow! I haven’t seen a Spinda in a long time, it’s very pleasant to see you all the way out in Lilycove." Though a talkative one, Steven could be awkward when up close with people, but never so with Pokemon.  Though he did not forget the Wailmer he pardoned himself from, the beach ball pokemon believed so and begun to bounce their way over to the pair. It made Steven a little urgent, causing him to scurry a short distance to the pokemon to be a barrier for Haruka. "I didn’t forget you," he chuckles. "Though please do be careful with Haruka and Mellow here."

The Wailmer had cute sounds to Steven in reply, and curious looks toward Mellow and Haruka. These new Wailmer never seen a Spinda before. 

[spindees]

   Whoops... Maybe it was a bit far off of a guess but it was worth checking. It would be bad to give the hall a bad review over his own clumsiness.

   That aside, she was definitely a serious contest competitor. If he was in the ranks himself he'd be worried. Hm... But who knows which category she specialized in. Maybe Tough? Cool..? It's not always good to judge from the outside. There were a few people like bug catchers who sent their Pokemon into the Beauty section so anything can happen.

   "Ah... I--I've lived here a while--" All his life, "--do you need any help or...?"

Aine quirked an eyebrow at the boy before schooling her features back to a neutral expression.

"An Inspector?  No, I’m not," she answered the boy’s question as she held an elbow in one of her hands, holding the opposite hand near her face in a movement similar to one holding a cigarette to their lips.

"I suppose I am inspecting to some extent though.  I’m interested in entering one of these Hoenn Contests, so I need to study how they are conducted and what garners the most reaction."

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   "Yeah, contest accessories would work well... W---We should go there first. I'll let... her choose which she wants." The Pokemon sounds pretty happy about that, chirping up from the top of his shoulder and hugging Haru's head affectionately. As much as he'd love to dress her up himself, he'd rather give her full reign to pick. It's not as though he was all that good at clothing coordination anyway.

  "Hm... But... I'm not e..xactly sure what my mothers would want. If there's anything that has the place's name on it that would be good... for memories and all." Tapping his chin, Haruka muddles over it a little longer. "If there's nothing like that.... then something that's famous here?"

   "Heh.. Sorry, I'm not a good shopper."

She pursed her lips a bit and placed a finger on her chin in thought, trying to think of if there was any stalls to buy things like that.

       ”Well, what sort of people are your mothers?” She questioned, rocking back and forth on her heels. “Like, what sort of things do they both like? I know there’s a few perfume stalls around, but it’ll depend on what they like, you know? Oh, and how much money you have to spend.”

Knowing what his mothers liked would help her case a lot.

As for Mellow..        ”I can think of one store for little Mellow, and it sells all sort of accessories for Pokémon. I usually go there to buy my things for decorating my team during contests, so they should definitely have something that fits Mellow!” Sakura grinned, excited to see what sort of things would look cute on the Spinda. 

[spindees]

Rate my writing between 1-10

10 as the highest; 1 as the lowest.

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   "Oh... Okay." He was still a little confused, maybe even a bit more so, but not in a way that he couldn't let go of. "You're fine... It's n--no problem."

   Nicknames must be more important than he originally thought. At least it was sorted out without much fuss. He exhales and glances up at the sky for a short moment, wondering if there was anything else she needed to ask. The breeze was stronger here than he was used to. It smelled somewhat salty as well.

   "Hm?" Haruka stares blankly at first before taking on a pondering expression. He wasn't sure of what they might be selling and he certainly didn't need anything but it would be good to at least grab something. "I think I want to buy a souvenir for mmm.. my moms and maybe something for Mellow too. Like a bow. Do y-you know any stalls that might have stuff for them?"

She sighed with relief when he didn’t seem to bothered by her mindless mumbling, as she’d taken note that some people thought it was a little annoying when she’d do such things. 

       ”It’s just that my brother’s name is Chiharu, see? So keeping a nickname for him and making one for you would be a little of an issue. But, it’s sorted because I can just call him Chi!” She took in a deep breath, having spoken in just about one breath. “So that’s kinda why I apologised. I hope I didn’t freak you out or anything..”

Sakura stretched out her hands in front of her, letting her fingers poke out from beneath the hoodie she’d been wearing and took a curious glance at the boy.        ”Hey, Haru,” She started, testing the name quickly. “Is there any sort of shop in particular you want to head to? Or do you want to wander and just see if there’s anything you like?”

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   Temper. It was hard to see what sort of Pokemon it might be. It wasn't one he recognized but in this lighting something about it was intimidating. He waits quietly for them to search for the ring, movies and video games. A little bit of the tightness in his chest is released as they're placed on the bed.

   "Y.. Yes, I think so." Haru squints at it as the other holds it up to examine. It fit the description... so as long as there weren't others in the house similar to it, this had to be it.

   "Not really to me. One of my moms... Her grandfather passed it down after hi--s wife passed away. It's a wedding ring." Maybe he shouldn't be saying that. If it was worth a lot, would they take it back? "Family memories are really important to her, so I'm sure she'd ffff.. freak out if it was taken. She wanted to give it to me someday."

   Haruka's gaze trails down to the cases on the bed and fiddles with his hands more exaggeratedly. Hopefully that was enough. He didn't have much attachment to objects outside of games and videos but as long as he got that for his mothers it would at least be something.

   "I'm sure there w..... was more but I can't remember it all." The boy's brows furrow in thought. "What will you do with.. the stuff?"

No, simply asking for donations was pointless. He would either get nothing, or much, much less than he would by robbing them. He did feel bad for doing this, though. The thief actually had quite a strong conscious. If he wasn’t told to rob these people, he wouldn’t, even if he was really in need for the money.

Usually Elijah didn’t feel that bad if he knew that the people he was robbing were bad people themselves, but he knew nothing about this family. They seemed perfectly fine. There was nothing suspicious that he found in the house; no guns or anything like that. This boy and his mothers were just trying to do their best, just like anyone else. There was no reason to be doing this to them.

"…Temper, go back to the other bags and look for a ring like that. It should be in the first one. Bring it back." The dragon nodded, and once again, took off, only to come back a few minutes later, handing Elijah a ring with three red crystals. "Thank you, Temper."

Opening up the bag in his hands, he grabbed some movies and video games, and walked over to the boy’s bedside. He set the cases on his bed, and held up the ring.

"Here. It’s not all of them, just the ones out of this bag. Is this the ring? Why is it important to you?"

[spindees]

♀ Were there ever any concerns about Haru's ability to care for his Pokemon when he first received it?

   ”Not at all! Call me biased since I raised him but Haru is the sweetest, especially when he cares about something. I think Mellow was just what he needed to get that shine back in his eye.”

   ”It would have been wrong to leave him without a companion like that. He used to pretend to be a Pokemon master with all his little plush toys and it’s absolutely heartbreaking for a mother to see her son so interested in something he might not be able to do.” Katashi sighs. “That’s why we pushed so hard for him to pick one, or else I know he’d regret it.”

   Naomi nods in agreement and points out her thumb towards her wife with a boasting attitude.

   ”Plus since she works with Pokemon for other people all the time it wasn’t too hard to help and teach him anything he didn’t know. Not that he really needed it. The two of them clicked so fast. When I was on my own journey as a kid I woulda been jealous!”

   ”Mellow isn’t very high maintenance either which I think eases off some pressure. I’m not sure what it is about Spinda but I wish I could be so carefree.”

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♀ Have you ever gone on a grand trip with Haruka?

   ”We’ve been wanting to do it for a while but something always seemed to get in the way and we didn’t want to push him into something he didn’t want.” Katashi twirls a lock of brown hair around one finger. “He has a strong sense of pride. There was a long time when he was much too embarrassed to even leave the house… The poor thing.”

   ”Probably the biggest trip we ever did together was taking Haru to the Pokemon day care. It was so cute wasn’t it, Kata? He would just sit there and stare at them for ages and toss them leftovers of his lunch like they had hypnotized him!”

   ”Aah… He was so tiny then… I think now he’s more verbal and independent he’d rather go out and discover things on his own but I’m hoping that once he’s settled in and comfortable with himself we can all take a nice vacation!”

   ”Look! I have a picture of it in my wallet!” Naomi gushes, pulling out a worn down photograph. They both laugh and sigh at the memory. Somewhere Haruka is embarrassed.

[spindees]

Send me a ♀ and a question and their mother will answer it.

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   The cane is lifted up from Mellow's paws and given to Haruka who takes it without a word, positioning it into the sand securely and standing upright before letting go of the man's shoulder.

   "Hhhh.. Haruka. I'm Haruka, that's Mellow." He grips and releases the cane's handle repeatedly while holding it in place with his palm. The Pokemon chirps up at her name which is followed by more peculiar whirring sounds before she hugs onto her trainer's leg.

   It's clear enough to him why they didn't introduce themselves before asking. Being so famous that you can just assume and be right about people knowing who you are. Who knows what that must be like. Maybe.. just maybe one day he could reach that point too.

He doesn’t find him heavy at all, and feels quite happy to help.

"No problem at all," he replies. When he is glanced at, he waits once again, but this time not as long as before. He doesn’t need to be asked for help, he gently takes the cane from the Spinda and hands it to the quiet stranger. "May I ask for you and your friend’s names?" When Steven is in the Hoenn region, he doesn’t quite bother to introduce himself because most people already know who he is.

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   It takes a moment but Haru gets the message, pausing a bit with uncertainty before grabbing onto the champion's shoulders and leaving the cane in the sand. His Spinda awkwardly attempts to pick it up and move it out of the way, apparently with the intention of holding onto it for him.

   Using Steven for support he is able to get help standing and regaining his footing. This was beyond embarrassing but he simply decided to avoid direct eye contact and truck through it, if only to be able to leave this beach.

   "... Thank you. Sorry for the tr--ouble." The boy ducks his head and turns to eye Mellow who is still holding the cane. With a sheepish glance towards Steven he attempts to lean over for it while still holding onto them to stay standing but it's just out of reach. Asking for help a second time doesn't occur to him.

Steven didn’t want to ‘find out’ if the other person could get up on their own, but at the same time he knew he should never touch someone without their permission and had to wait against his better judgement. As a geology nerd, he is very aware of how sand works against a lot of things. He really wanted to stop the person from trying, but from his own experiences, being told he couldn’t do something was worse than trying then failing, so he watches. He watches as the pink haired teen falls back down, but in a less painful way. It’s a little jarring, seeing this teen and his pokemon teeter around, or maybe more painful—he wasn’t sure, but what he was sure of was that it was now ‘right’ to help the person up.

"Alright." His tone was patient and kind.

Rather than only hand out his hand to the pink haired stranger, he gets on level with them, and gestures for him hold onto him for support.

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   Older brother? He doesn't react much, just nods as though he understands. So she wasn't an only child... and her brother probably had the same or a similar name to his own. Huh.

   Haru's hand drops as it's let go and returns to mindlessly tugging at fabric. The girl apologizes for.. something. Perhaps it was about mentioning her brother. He shrugs and shakes his head to ease her worries.

   "It's fine." That happened to himself pretty often if he wasn't careful. He was used to speaking aloud to himself or Mellow when sitting around the house or watching television. Maybe that's why he tends to be frank with people. "Sss... Some people call me Haru but it's not needed. You can call me whatever you like!"

She smiled lightly when he spoke a bit louder, confidence being a bit stronger of a tone in his voice.

       ”I'm sure you will keep her safe!” She laughed into her hand, raising a hand to scratch the Spinda behind the ear.

Sakura giggled a bit when he jumped back a bit when she exclaimed, his reactions were extremely funny to her, especially when paired with the puzzled face he made while she held out her hand in front of him.

      “Haruka and Mellow, huh?” She shook his hand lightly. “Hm.. I’d call you Haru.. but then I can’t call my older brother that.. But then I can call him Chi…” She felt a little embarrassed she’d spoken aloud about her nicknaming ideas, and quickly shook her hand, now pulled away from his, in dismissal.        ”Ah, sorry about that.. I just kinda started thinking out loud… Hey, do you have anything you want to be called, or is Haruka fine?” 

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   Maybe it was because his family was generally charitable but he was sure he would have. Didn't people do 'Spring Cleanups'? He didn't think he'd agree anymore, for obvious reasons, but otherwise it would have been more ideal. Of course, that didn't guarantee Elijah to get what he wanted or needed so there's not much for a chance of him bothering to listen. Because of that, he lets it go.

   "If you say so." Haru eyes the bag and listens to the list, which doesn't sound too promising on his end. The art.. could probably be dealt with, maybe. Jewlery... some of that was important. Movies and video games were personally important. Stashes of money... Great. He tugs at his shirt, hard, like it was starting to really sink in.

   They start to leave, making him almost desperate enough to try and get up but the person stops just short of the window. He asks something that takes Haruka by surprise. Was he going allow him to take something back? How many things? What should he choose? For his parent's sake he wants to ask for the money but he has no sentimental reason to plead for it.

   "... Yes... Um. Y--You didn't.. take a ring with.. three red crystals, did you?" This was hard to describe, considering he knew nothing about jewelry. His hands move more, shuffling the bed sheets. "It's sort of a triangle shhhh... shape. It's been passed down."

   "And some of the movies and games. Or just one.. that I can pick. Please. I ca---an't leave home much." Something was beginning to come out that he didn't like very much. It was neither him being sugary sweet, distant or apathetic but instead more genuine. That weak side which slipped out every so often. Ew...

This boy really did want to chat with him. Looks like even when he’s hiding his face, he doesn’t seem intimidating. That may or may not be a good thing; he wasn’t completely sure. While it was nice to approachable, he didn’t want to be so much so that people would want to get physically close to him. At the same time, though, he was a thief, not a Purrloin looking for some shiny bell to snag.

"No, I didn’t think to ask that. I doubt you or your family would have given me anything if I came to your doorstep asking such a thing. Who would? People don’t even give a piece of bread to starving children on the streets, why would they hand out these sort of things to someone who simply asks? I didn’t think of it because it’s unthinkable."

Elijah looked inside the bag he was carrying to answer the other question. “I took art and jewelry, mostly. Movies, video games, and some ‘hidden’ stashes of money, too. Tell you’re parents not to do that, it really just makes my job much easier.” Elijah closed the bag, and made his way to the window.

"Was… Was there anything you didn’t want me to take? Anything special to you?" Of course the boy probably didn’t want Elijah to take anything at all, but Elijah had a few important items of his own which he would be crushed if they were stolen. So he gave the other a rare opportunity to claim something he wanted to keep.

[spindees]

sakurapetalidol replied to your photo:I accidentally drew his Spinda too large but it’s...

[uwaaah your art is so pretty~ and what a cutie]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it aahh..

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I accidentally drew his Spinda too large but it's a bit too late to fix it... Anyway here's Haruka. The necklace is a medical dog-tag.

[spindees]

I might try to do a ref drawing for Haruka tomorrow since I can finally draw digitally again. I would have done it tonight but it didn't cross my mind until just now and it's way too late at night for me. Either way, Happy Holidays. Good night!