FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

She closed the door once everyone was inside, and she pulled off her scarf, wringing it out before sliding it back on--not that it helped much, given that she was still dripping wet, but with the sand on the floor, she saw no reason to expend the energy. She did however, clear the water from her face and head. "There are Pokémon who have evolved without the use of a scroll, normally in the case of prisoners and things like that...I don't know what happens to them...but I'm fairly certain that I CAN'T evolve in your world even if I wanted to try."

"Alright Serena, now you've gotten me even more enthralled. WHY is is that you think you wouldn't be able to evolve in my world? Does it have anything to do with the additional limitations placed on you?"

"Remember I told you about that ball of energy that normal Pokémon can feel, but most Pokémon here can't? It felt like it was missing...of course that might have been because I was surrounded by strange Pokémon...I don't exactly do well in groups."

"Well. Then perhaps if I find a more feral Bagon in my world, and the gender turns out to be female, it will remind me of you, until I see you again. Though for all I know you'd be a Shelgon by that time. You already have enough experience anyway. Most Pokémon evolve after battles once they reach a certain point, or in some VERY rare cases, they can surpass that and force the energy to emerge to fit a need, like say, rescuing their Trainer from something."

"Sounds like something that the rescuers would do to be flashy and elegant." She wrinkled her nose, walking down the hall and turning left, which opened up into a room. There were drips in the ceiling--that was to be expected, but it was at least wider and more comfortable than the rest of the halls. "Reminded of me? Why in the world...er worlds, would you want to be reminded of me? I'm nothing special, even if I stand out due to my coloration, I'm still just a normal Bagon, I'll be a normal Shelgon as well, when I evolve." The walls were coated with footprint runes and Unown script both, not that many would be able to see them with the darkness that surrounded them.

"Well, I suppose it might not necessarily you specifically, but the time spent with you. That is if something goes wrong with the portal next time... and like, maybe I dunno, a hundred or more years goes by here. If all I have is a fleeting memory of you, then that is not something that I want to just let go to waste..."

"Just a hundred years? I might be a Salamence by then, but I wouldn't be dead, well, not of old age or something like that, there's always the chance I might die on the missions but that's a given...and so long as something like what happened with Sorbet doesn't happen again, there's not likely going to be any chance of that happening." She put her claws to her mouth, and an orb of light emerged into her hand, the same blue green that the shell had been. She set this, gingerly, on the ground to let it coat the walls in the blue green lights.

"Right, well, I guess I never really asked them about how long they lived. Though, still, 131 years is a bit of a long trip, Serena. I do so hope you make it to the Salamence stage. I would love to see what your unique aspects would look like. I mean, there are very few images and paintings that I've seen the truly capture the magnificence of Salamence."

She looked away from him, a slight color in her cheeks, proving that she could indeed blush. "You should get out of those wet coverings before you catch cold." She had sat herself near her own Dragon Pulse, and began to lick along one arm. "I would offer to dry them with them on you, but my flame isn't that accurate, I wouldn't be able to gauge it before it touched your skin."

"I suppose that's one way of going about it, though the fact that you mentioned flame makes me a bit nervous. Are you quite certain that that is going to be the best way to dry these?" What he didn't tell her though, is that he'd gotten his cloak via the Draconic city of Blackthorn.

"Would you prefer to air dry them?" She spoke between the licks to her arm, getting all of the water off of it, then switching to the other. "It would mean that you were nude longer, and that they'd develop wrinkles, but it IS up to you; I only offered because you seem...hesitant to go without them."

"Ugh. Wrinkles. We DO have a method for keeping wrinkles out of clothing, but I'm not back home. Also, I'm not really hesitant to go without them, just that they do offer me a SLIGHT amount of protection from claws and other things. They'll tear before my skin does, but I guess you could also say that you're right about me being hesitant to go without them... I got these from a Draconic city. Since there are no other humans here, it wouldn't matter if I went nude either though. "

"Right now you've got quite a few Pokémon to guard you from claws while your coverings dry...however if they're that important to you, I would think, mind you I'm biased because I'm a dragon, and dragons tend to hoard and protect things that are dearest to them--I would think that you would keep them in a safe place, where they wouldn't get damaged." The other arm clean, she turned a bit like a cat and worked at her shoulders, then down her back. She did have oils to help protect her scales, but that would have to wait until after the water was gone from them.

"You are correct, though, there are some times when clothing has to be worn. There will come a time, when I will part ways with this uniform, and it will as you say, be kept in a safe place." Kyn sighed, and started removing his clothing.

Finally she reached her tail, and even she would admit to it being a comedic sight to see herself licking at the base of her tail, nearly doubled over backwards to reach out to the tip, but she was sufficiently clear of all water, and turned over on her back to reach at the base of her tail, where her oil glands were located in this stage of her evolution.

"Ahem. Please be careful with it." He said, finally fully naked. He took a sleeping bag out of his pack and laid it on the ground so he wouldn't have to touch the ground with his bare skin.

"You act as if I'm threatening to tear them to pieces." She had rotated around onto her stomach, smearing the oil on her scales with her claws before wiping them off on her still moist scarf, and picking up his cape first. In went the deep breath, and she closed her mouth on the flame so that only white steam escaped from her mouth, beneath the clothing until she was sure that there was no flame to it, then she brushed over it quickly with the steam, before her breath ran out. She snorted at the black smoke curling from her snout, that always rather annoyed her, but with the cape dry, she could address the other clothing. She dropped the cape, as it cooled, onto his lap, giving him something to cover himself with, at least from the eyes of his Sceptile who hadn't gotten what he wanted previously. "They might smell a little like me, I'm not entirely sure I got all of the oil off of my claws...since I was in the process of protecting my own hide."

"Congratulations Serena, you just created the first Grass-Dragon type?" Kyn said jokingly, hoping that she would understand his humor. He wrapped the warm cape around his lower area, giving himself not necessarily modest, but 'protection' from Tensa, and his temptation.

"More likely that they'll just assume that we'd been sleeping near one another." She phrased it very carefully, Sceptile and Bagon were comparable after all. "Since we're traveling, and reptiles aren't exactly known for having regulated body temperature, it's not really farfetched at all...of course there are those around that can't keep their minds out of the dump, and would take the scent reading a bit too far." She inhaled and produced the steam again, this time over his shirt, one side at a time, and adjusted to hold the sleeves so that they didn't wrinkle either as the steam passed over them.

"Of course, and I'm probably one of them. That'd be an interesting Type combination, though unfortunately Serena, it'd be another quadruple weakness to Ice. Poor Garchomp.... she never stood a chance after that..." Kyn said, trailing off to thoughts of Cynthia and the Sinnoh League again.

"Well, now you know why we're weak to ice...we're cold blooded, the cold can make us lazy and sluggish because of that, even to the point of paralysis in some cases..." She was remembering at the lake, when she wasn't sure that she would even be able to get up. When his shirt was done, she handed that back to him and picked up his undergarments, wrinkling her nose at the scent. "If I didn't know where these came from, I would be able to guess just by the scent."

"It could be a lot worse Serena. I would hate to imagine what you would be experiencing if I did not wash them, or myself." He shuddered at the thought, unfortunately doing just that.

"I would torch them on the spot if you hadn't, and I'd probably put you back up in the rainstorm until I deemed you clean as well, still tempted to put these up there as it is." she muttered, then breathed the steam out over them. "I'm also...going to ask you a question, that you'll probably take personally." She coughed a cloud of smoke out of her mouth, away from the underwear and shaking her head. "Ack, well, I need a break from getting all steamed up anyway...like I said, very little control over it." she rubbed at her throat, trying to soothe the scratchy feeling there.

"I didn't exactly ASK you to do it, but I do have more than one pair. First, I have no idea why you even are, but I'll get to that later. As to the question that I may take personally, go ahead an ask it."

"Why is it that...with all the humans in your world, that you chose a Pokémon to be your mate, let alone a male?" She handed him back his underwear. "I've...been having a war with myself, perhaps your answer will help." Her blue scales were tinged with the pink of a blush again, as if admitting that she was mortal was a sign of weakness. "Previously I agreed with Heji that I would be more open minded about this sort of thing..."

"Well, I can tell you this, I didn't necessarily choose him, he chose me, so you'll have to ask him about that particular part, but it really comes down to... I was only eleven at the time, and I just generally found Pokémon back then to be more intelligent than humans at times, which I still find evidence of today, and that I was open minded. I didn't expect him to fall in love with me, but, one cannot really expect to know somebody's heart until they are with them for a while. Oh, and the gender, at that age, gender is the farthest thing from a human's mind when pursuing or selecting one. It is social perceptions that dictate it. Serena... even humans back home find the idea of a human mated with a Pokémon to be... well, like you currently do."

She was quiet for a while, quite a while as she spread her oil over her arms and upper torso. "No...I don't think they do...I have more issues with getting over the same gender situation than I do the whole Human/Pokémon relationship...since it's apparently not unusual for Pokémon to adore their trainers...it could easily escalate further." She curled back up on herself and coated her face in the oil, essentially rubbing herself against her tail. "Probably does, if Pokémon still have their minds inside the Poké Balls...and are able to get out of their own accord." She stopped the thought right there, where in the world was that train of thought leading her? She wasn't interested in that sort of thing. "I mean...er....sorry, lost where I was going with that..."

"Even if it did, they wouldn't tell anyone about it really. Now, Serena, we do have a word for species that are able to be attracted to their own gender. Do YOU all have specific word for that?"

"Wouldn't know." the answer was simple. "If they are attracted to their own gender, they're not open about it, or they claim to identify with the other gender and claim that that makes it alright, and that's all sorts of confusing. I get a headache just thinking about it. You would think that if they identify as the opposite gender that their scent would reflect that." She muttered the last sentence.

"Hn. Well, it applies to both. Male to Male and Female to Female. There is also a word for those that do not have a preference and are able to be attracted to both. Oh dear, that would get all sorts of confusing, gender identification... especially with humans that CAN change their scent to reflect it."

"It would be easier if they could change their scent's to reflect it...less awkward. 'Missus Malt, here's that abacus you wanted.' 'I'm a Mister, not a missus.' pah." She stuck out her tongue. "Ickh, oilh on maih tonguh."

"It's not as easy here as it is there do do that. So! Any other questions? I was perfectly fine answering that one. It is for the sake of curiosity. Also you are young, you will if you look enough, be able to see--not in the sense of blankly staring at of course--more examples of it in the natural environment around you."

Serena sighed, more to herself than to him, as she finally got the taste off her tongue. "You asked me a question first: Why was I drying your clothes. That answer is probably simpler than the one you gave...When you forgave my mistake, you told me that we were equal. To someone I am equal to, I take care of them as if they were my brother. I don't always get along with everyone that I am related to...but then it doesn't matter, because those family members will always forgive and still care for you no matter what happens." She unfolded herself, and stepped over to his pants, and blew the steam over one side, and then the other before handing them to him as well. The socks and shoes she couldn't do anything with, but it was just as well that he got to take them off for a while. "At least, that's what I've observed, and put into practice because it -feels- right, even if it's not logical."

"We'd technically be related in another if you decided to express an interest in one of my Pokémon. At least by human traditions. It seems that I had forgotten that I initiated it. So, from this here ruin, and this unexpected stop... about how much might be added to the trip, and are you planning on scolding Marlow additionally because of it?"

"It's not his fault there was a rainstorm...we've lost the time that we had made up by not stopping throughout the day..." She lost her voice around the time he mentioned having an interest in one of his Pokémon, and the ball of light that had been flickering in time with her heartbeat, went out, leaving them in darkness. It was perhaps two moments later that she created another one, and set it back down in the center of the room, leaving the conversation at that. She couldn't lie, the best thing she could do was not talk about it, even she didn't know if there WAS an answer to it...hopefully...hopefully he would take it as an overheat from trying to work out how taking an interest in one of his Pokémon would make her related to him, but she doubted it, highly doubted it.

"Then I guess we'll just have to spend more time tomorrow, and not resting as much. Eating quickly, and moving quickly. I do still have that Patrat, which I'll be able to use as a snack."

"I totally cannot fly with my wings all wet like this. Could you start a fire somewhere Serena so I can dry them out?" Striker fluttered them, to illustrated all the liquid that had accumulated on them.

He let it go? She shivered a little beside herself, half with relief, and half with anticipation...then Striker saved her from her thoughts. "We don't exactly have any wood to make a fire with, or I would...If you can assist me in finding some around here, I don't mind, but if we can't...well, we could either lick you dry or wait for them to dry out on their own." She realized how very wrong it could be taken in different situations, but she doubted that he would take it that way.

"Licking me dry eh? Let us depart and search for some wood then." Striker chuckled.

Serena ignored his comment, it was for the sake of her own sanity that she did. "Can you see in the dark or would you prefer another light?" She had already started walking. She had been trapped down here before, and thought she remembered a couple pieces of wood and tarps about two rooms down, but then, this place was always changing. It was why she had kept Marlow with her this time.

"I can see in the dark to some extent. But, a light would be preferable." Striker followed her by sound alone, until his eyes would adjust to the dark naturally.

She put one claw to her mouth, making the motion of blowing a kiss almost, and an orb of light sat in her hand, smaller than the other one, but brighter, if that was possible. The clicking of her claws did assist in him following her, but she looked in a couple rooms as they came upon them, then actually entered the third. It wasn't that she minded the thought of the old bug in that sort of situation at all, but she was trying to keep that annoying color from her cheeks, it hadn't happened at ALL before they got there, and not at all before this evening when Kyn had praised her, and now she was fighting down a feeling she couldn't identify with, embarrassment.

"So, Serena, I don't exactly know what you're currently thinking right now, but I might be able to answer some more of your questions, on some... specific matters." Striker said, maintaining sound. If it was just too quiet, and all he heard were their footsteps, it would make him restless.

"Are you sure you want to know what I'm thinking, Old man?" the words in themselves were quiet, but the echos carried. "I told Heji, my brain doesn't exactly shut down, even when I'm asleep..." cobwebs littered the room, and under different circumstances she might have been interested in getting new webs, for now she gathered the old webbing on her free claw, she would much prefer wood, but this would work if they found nothing else. Of course, since Striker hadn't stepped into the room with her, there was a moment of disorientation before she stepped back out of the hall...two rooms from where she had started.

Striker immediately noticed the change in where Serena had been due to his eyes being forced to adjust to the darkness again. He planned on asking her why this had happened when he returned to her. He retraced his steps back the way he came, where he was sure he would meet Serena, since he didn't see any of her light in front of him further.

She stepped out from the room and shook her head as she spotted Striker, actually chuckling.

"Sorry, should have warned you. This world is prone to space distortions, we like to call them Mystery dungeons. Just don't go up any stairs and you'll remain on this floor, which has the entrance on it...which we can still exit through. Do try to stay beside me though." She made a mental note of the two connected rooms, scratched an emblem into the wall of three claw like marks connected to a circle, then started looking into rooms on the left. There, there were sticks in that room. "Do Poké Balls work to where you can recall yourself?" She asked, not stepping into the room just yet.

"Interesting... I wonder what Miru would think of these places? For those of us that have hands it is easier to, yes, but we have the ability to enter and exit at our own leisure." He would now stay as close to Serena as was comfortably possible.

"You should probably go back...I'll get Marlow to pull me back...wall walking you know...He's not had practice with anyone bigger than I am, so it's not...safe for him to attempt it with you." As she spoke, she stepped into the room, and wrapping the cobwebs around the end of one of the sticks before turning back around and walking out of the room, back into the straight hallway, the disorientation didn't affect her as bad as it would other Pokémon, since she'd grown up in this world.

"You still haven't answered me though as to whether or not you have any more questions. Though, you seem to imply that you do not." Striker said, and with that, he walked back the way they came, and reunited with the group.

She sighed. Questions, right now they were the bane of her existence, she didn't want to resort to asking them about the fog, she thought she already knew the answer of what the fog was, as embarrassment had brought with it the realization of infatuation, but how in the world did you FIGHT infatuation? She found that she didn't need to bother Marlow to bring her back to the group, as she crossed through the threshold of the room, she found herself only one room away, and just walked to the room in which Striker had arrived in moments before. "Don't go wandering off without either Marlow or myself." She spoke, swallowing down the smaller ball of energy as she set the sticks on the ground. "This place changes where the rooms come out on the hallway, and stairs are bad, except for the ones we entered." She started organizing the sticks into the typical pyramid, and blew a small tongue of flame onto it, which started to crackle and soon had built itself to a steady roar. She was sure that she would get questions about WHY not to wander off, and welcomed them to do so, so long as it was off the topic of her /feelings./ ugh.

Striker sat with his back turned to the fire keeping enough distance that he felt the warmth, but it was not overpowering. "Well, thank you for your assistance, Serena," was all Striker said, short and simply.

"I do have a question for you, Serena." Kyn said. "Would you mind too terribly, if I asked you to keep your tail the way it is?"

Heji was a bit surprised by Kyn's rather strange, in his opinion, request.

She blinked at Kyn, raising an eye ridge as she did, she hadn't really thought about the way she had been holding her tail, which to balance out her squat had been straight out, but as she stood, she let it fall, as it wasn't needed just at that moment to balance her out.

"Kyn...Specify..." Again she had to remind him. "If you're asking me to hold my tail a certain way for the rest of the trip, you can forget it."

"I meant... I'd rather hate for you to lose any part of your tail. You say it marks you as different, well, so what? I'm not exactly the way I was either. I guess I'm still ignorant to most of the ways of this world. If you're already a sort of loner, and you don't plan on doing what you currently do forever, then what is the problem?"

She wrinkled her nose. "You...I... No, I wont give up my tail, if I can help it, I'll live with the cards I've been dealt, I've got big enough shoulders to carry that weight, I'm not a coward to run away from it. It's bad enough that I eat rocks that others find distasteful, that I apparently need something in them, and it gives me a headplate color of gold, some 'mon find the color unique and attractive, until they find out what they'd have to do to get it." She snorted. "Sorry if I gave you the idea that I'd change myself to the society standard if given the chance."

"That makes me feel a bit better. Though of course some people and Pokémon would even wonder why I asked, getting involved anyway. As for the headplate color thing... please... would you tell me what you eat that they are that color? I feel like I can't go all this time without knowing!"

She blinked at the request, and without a word went over to the bag she had been carrying, pulled out a piece, and lobbed it to him. "Don't know what it's called, the cave that I live in is full of it, and it's apparently worthless to other Pokémon." She sat down and warmed her scales by the fire, letting him examine the fool's gold all he wanted. Heji...he was probably still sopping wet, even if he had shaken, he hadn't done anything to groom himself since then, had he? She hadn't exactly checked...she'd actually been trying to avoid the lion, and the fog that came with being around him.

"This is Pyrite... some would call it Fool's Gold. That... Serena... that makes me wonder. Do you think... do you think that there's a golden Onix out there somewhere, due to eating this sulfide material?" The image came to his head, and he'd hoped that if there was one, it would be left well enough alone, since it would probably face the color issue.

"It's possible? I never really thought about it...and if you say so, there's probably some real gold behind where I've got carved out, but I don't...really want to disturb it; I mean, I'd probably be considered rich if there was, but eh, Poke is made from the stuff, and that would drive all the other Pokémon crazy in one way or another." she had actually curled up part of the way, laying down. "Oh, um...this room isn't affected by the rest of the craziness...just so you know...but I'm going to be hungry in the morning...and I'm tired now."

"It might do for me to examine the Pyrite in your cave. There usually are trace amounts, and if there turn out to be more, well, it'd be a monster house, like you said." Upon noticing her shift what looked like the beginnings of a sleeping position, he said, "Hopefully you can have a good sleep."

She had just laid down on her stomach when a slight crick of bone against stone reminded her of Marlow, and she pulled the skull out of her scarf, looking it over to be sure that there wasn't actually any harm done, then set it down beside her. "I hope so...if not, you may find me curled up beside one of you in the middle of the night..." She rested her head on her forelimbs and tried to sleep. "I'll probably wake up on my own before dawn, if I don't, wake me up AT dawn."

"Striker, as hard as it is for me to do this... I'm ordering you to get some sleep." Kyn said, with a firm, but concerned tone. He himself planned on sleeping soon, and wanting Striker to now get some sleep.

Serena slept, if a bit quietly, she dreamt that someone had been trying to cut off her tail for the past two days, and instead of them being allowed to torment her again, she turned around and slashed their faces off. She didn't wake up before dawn, however, she was enjoying her sleep too much after only getting thirty minutes of sleep the night before.

At dawn, Kyn's alarm went off. He had since used the noonday Sun to calibrate it so that he would be able to get an accurate sense of time again. SO HUMAN of him to do so.

Serena, of course, started with a jolt, she hadn't heard anything like that before, and was almost immediately on all fours and looking for the attacker. When she realized that it was just Kyn's contraption she groaned and forced herself to sit up, shaking the sleep from her head. The fire had long since gone out, but that was fine by her, she was still warm from the dream, and more chipper, or at least, so it would seem after she lapped the water from the puddle on the floor to cure her thirstiness. "Morning." came the groggy greeting.

"Oh Serena. I guess... I guess you're not used to alarms like this. You probably got instantly woken up too by it. I hope I didn't interrupt any special dreams. Although I don't know if you're the type to cling to a pleasant dream." Kyn said, mostly apologetically.

"Mmmmph...No, I'm not...and I guess this wouldn't be considered a pleasant dream...more of a vengeful dream." she had laid back down until the rest of them were roused, looking at Kyn, her tail draped over her almost protectively. "Ah well, it'll fade eventually, they usually do."

"Serena, have you thought about what'd you want in an ideal mate yet? This is totally out of the blue by the way." Kyn said, trying to judge her reaction.

She tested the words in her mind to see if they were true before she said them, mentally wincing a few times before she found a way that she could, in fact, say them. "I haven't...thought about it, no, considering that the chances of me getting a mate within my own world is slim to none. As for if there's something I would look for...I don't know? Instinct says someone strong enough to protect a clutch...but I don't know." She repeated. "IF I was looking for someone to have an egg with...it would probably happen at mating season." She laid her head down again.

"Alright. Just that, like I said, it may not work the same way for Pokémon, but usually I'd expect the answer to become clearer once you are older." Kyn said casually. "Are we ready to go now, or do you want to eat some breakfast?"

"We can go." She stood up, grabbed her bag, and slid it on her back, then grabbed Marlow from his place on the floor beside her. She felt a jolt of guilt, and one of glee, but it was his own fault, he hadn't caught the if, he could have continued the uncomfortable conversation, could have made her speak the words even, had he asked the right question, but he had said that he would never make her do anything...wasn't that the point?