[NRP] Switch & Melomar's Journal (161 views)

[melomar]

Solo Two: Legacy
Date: 20 January 2013
Word count: 1188
Farfetch’d are not only smart, they, like other Pokémon, know what the humans are saying. So when a young female farfetch’d -- the same one Rocío had heard laughing the other day -- had perched in a tree -- the very same tree as before -- within easy earshot of two young female humans, she was indeed listening.

They seemed harmless enough; it was obvious they were in around the same situation as her, clashing on some level with the adults in the family. However, where theirs was an argument and generalized dissatisfaction, hers was merely a jokester catching others by surprise. The mere thought of her latest prank left her hissing softly through her dandelion-yellow beak with laughter: her favorite uncle’s head was now shaved on one side.

More importantly, these girls were interesting to watch. The elder ambled by the younger holding something behind her back. Her posture was strange, like that large feline, a liepard, which the farmers kept to scare away the rattata horde that often took to, and later took over, the fields. What is behind her back? That girl’s mannerisms demanded the question to be asked, and promised an interesting answer.

“Whatcha got?” the younger girl asked, her thoughts obviously in line with her observer. She was seated against the trunk of the very same tree the young farfetch’d was in.

She was completely ignorant of the bird’s presence, though when she had approached it earlier, she had obviously been looking for signs of the farfetch’d. Her slender little fingers had searched the grass fruitlessly for feathers. Listening for telltale noises from above, her only reply had been the soft sigh of the breeze. The wily little bird had remained perfectly still, proving not for the first time that even if the foliage had been less dense, peering up into the upper branches was yet another vain attempt to find that which wished not to be found. In the end, disappointed eyes had turned downward to one of to the ubiquitous sewing projects in hand.

The farfetch’d’s interest in the unfolding scene below, however, had begun to reveal a careless side in her.

“I got something for you, Theo,” was the sing-song reply. Her name was Eulalla, though the farfetch’d had also heard her referred to as Yaya. She wore a broad grin that neatly bisected her face, which was otherwise thickly framed with a mane of wild, light-brown hair.

“What?” Rocío dropped the mending she had been working on as she rushed to her feet. It rolled down her lap, bounced off her skirt, and fell into an unceremonious heap at her feet. The girl wobbled and leaned back against the tree instead of stepping any closer, her shaky hand made a sudden dizzy spell apparent.

Her sister rushed forward and helped to steady her, taking the girl’s shoulder in hand. In her haste, what she had been hiding came into view. “Take it easy, Theo. I’ll sit down with you.”

“Okay.” The girl nodded only slightly and they carefully sat back down. She was unable to even respond to her sister’s surprise.

Up in the tree, the farfetch’d shifted her feet and leaned closer. Is the girl sick? A fleeting thought. What is that thing? A giant berry?

“Oh, it’s a... pokéball.” The words were almost impossible to hear, her voice so thready and faint.

“Lean against me. Yes, and do you recognize it? It was Grandma’s pokéball, the one she used to capture Velvet.”

“The liepard? Oh...” There was a pause in which one girl offered the other the large, round, shiny object. Little Theo turned it over slowly in her hands.

Meanwhile, the farfetch’d filed the name away for the future. That scary feline’s name was Velvet?

“Grandma’s favorite,” the younger girl replied, voice tiny as before, but with another subtle tone in her voice: wistfulness, or perhaps reverence, maybe both.

The farfetch’d fluffed up in surprise and leaned closer as she watched. Humans are so strange, wanting to possess such wild things. Velvet wasn’t just scary, it was terrifying! She had heard all kinds of stories from the chittering rattata. Favorite indeed! ‘Grandma’ must be a scary human herself.

“That’s right. No one but Grandma could tame that liepard, and this is the pokéball that helped her do it.” Eulalla pointed at the ball for emphasis. “I know you like pokémon. There’s no one left who understands them like you do. I think you should have this. And,” she took a deep breath and grinned, which even the farfetch’d above could see, “I know Grandma would want you to.”

But! I like this girl! Not really understanding the true meaning behind this meeting, a swirling wave of fear and violent imaginings filled the young farfetch’d’s mind and superimposed her vision. I don’t want her to be scary! She started to feel woozy. Because she was already leaning so far forward, it was nearly impossible to keep her balance.

“What would I do with it?” Rocío asked thoughtfully. Perhaps she was asking this question of herself, and considering the consequences of her eventual answer. “The farm...”

Before either of them could answer, the branches above cracked. The elder sister was quick to respond and dragged them away and to their feet to save her sister from harm. She didn’t need to however, for as the farfetch’d landed in the grass, she missed them completely by several feet.

The farfetch’d recovered quickly: the greatest harm she had suffered was to her ego. Scared and angry, she quickly jumped to her feet and stood as tall as possible, glaring up at them with fierce dark eyes, and pointed her leek at them as if it were a sword. The softly swooshing black mark above her eyes dove sharply downward into a vicious-looking V.

“LEER! Don’t look, Theo!”

Both girls were frozen in place, apparently in the throes of one powerful Leer.

“What do I do, Yaya?”

“Throw the pokéball!”

The little girl drew back her arm then hesitated, the ball otherwise poised and ready to throw.

The farfetch’d’s eyes widened briefly, but did not lose their intensity. Harshly, she jabbed her leek at them and crowed, “I am Switch! If you make war on pokémon, I’ll declare war on you!” Then she was gone with a great flap of her wings.

- - -

Long after she had gone, Theo tossed the pokéball at the spot where the farfetch’d had been. It popped open in midair, lost momentum, and dropped roughly on the ground. It remained where it had landed, still open.

“It’s... broken.”

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." Rocío walked, still a little unsteady on her feet, over to the pokéball and crouched before it. She studied it for a moment, then reached out with her fingertips and nudged one of the open halves. The hinge seemed to be broken. I wonder if I could fix this? I wonder what that farfetch'd said. "So... that's what a pokémon move feels like... Yaya?" she asked uncertainly, then glanced over her shoulder.

"Don't be silly. That stuff doesn't work on people. You were just startled."

[melomar]

Interlude: Friendship is Blind
Dates: 21; 23 January 2013
Word count: 772
Throughout the morning, Switch the farfetch’d watched as bags of dried rice and bunches of fresh leeks (a small crop this year, for a previously established reason) were hauled onto the farm’s tauros-drawn cart. These crops were followed closely by the two half-grown males, Rocío’s brother and uncle; and the adult male, her father. The latter inspected their load, stopping to tsk and shake his head when he looked upon the leeks. What is his problem? Those are delicious-looking leeks!

Beside the cart, the girl tinkered with what looked like the metal skeleton of some unknown pokémon. Switch could not conceive of what it may be, but decided that it must be large enough to carry her weight. It had feet like the cart’s wheels. Humans are unimaginably strange.

Warily, for he was about her size, Switch watched the skitty flounce around the human girl’s ankles when he wasn’t chasing after butterflies. “You’re staying here, Skittles,” the girl said, but he seemed not to listen nor care. Instead, he batted at her boot lightly.

The farfetch’d knew that he meant to come along, one way or another. Earlier, she had overheard his conversation with the family’s houndoom, whose job it was to stay here and protect the home. Because he could not protect her this time, the skitty had decided he wanted to try. Perhaps she really is ill.

Eventually the cart rolled off down the road, away from the mountains and towards the ocean. The girl mounted the bicycle and rolled away too, Skittles trailing after her, heedless of her protests. Switch wondered if metal ponytas existed somewhere in this world.

The houndoom, Watch, nonchalantly wandered by the farfetch’d’s concealing perch, and equally calmly looked up into the tree’s branches. Though he could not see her, it was obvious to her that he was aware of her presence. “How long have you known I was here?”

“Long enough.” Watch stretched out in the grass. “Will you go? They are going on a journey and will be gone for several days.”

“Ah…” Hesitant at first, finally she blustered, “Why would I?”

The canine yawned. “Adventure, why else?” Then with a keen eye, his lips parted from his teeth into a neat, vicious-looking grimace. His smile came with a knowing wink as he seemed to pierce through the leaves with his gaze. “Besides, like the skitty and myself, I think you care about that girl. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I don’t understand why a pokémon should be friends with a human,” she replied stubbornly.

“Why are pokémon of different species friends? I don’t know. But if there are humans in this world that can be considered friends of pokémon, it should be ones like these.”

“My parents say stuff like that sometimes. Do you know them?”

The houndoom barked with laughter. “Perhaps.”

- - -

As a half-grown bird, Switch was beginning to realize that her world was tiny indeed. The concepts and bits of logic she had believed to be rock-solid were beginning to crumble. The sheltered meadow and thickets she that had been her home for her entire life had quickly vanished from view: it was but a small nook against a huge mountain. She could no longer point back and say, “I live over there!” And the swamp they now traveled toward, that she understood to have fed her ancestors many generations before, was at once distant and vast, yet framed unendingly by a great ocean.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, she clung to two things this day: the leek (or in this case, stick) that every farfetch’d should clutch to their breast, and the visage of the farming family that she now followed into the unknown.

She was not really sure why she had set off on this journey. Houndoom’s words or not, she was not entirely convinced herself that the reason why she now followed the Cotier cart (which was, incidentally, filled with rice and leeks) was because she felt a special affection or kinship for the little girl that struggled to keep up on her own set of wheels. Did she somehow feel an obligation to observe and protect from afar? Did she like to watch the workings of the family, which was both similar and very different from her own?

She could not have said for sure, especially were she asked to name just one reason she’d come, even with intent to lie. She simply had no idea, at least, not one that she could formulate into any coherent string of thought. Perhaps that in itself was reason enough to follow. Perhaps she would find the reason on this journey.

[melomar]

RP Two: An Uncut Onion
Date: 16 January 2013 - ongoing
Post count: 13 (ongoing)
Interaction with: MoogerMint's Mycah the Pawniard
Link: here
In which Switch has her first pokémon encounter beyond her home: on the shores of Whaloh Ocean with Mycah the Pawniard.

RP Three: A Marvelous Notion
Date: 16 February 2013 - 05 January 2014
Post count: 3
Interaction with: Orpheus Solon's Gethin the Zorua and Rasui the Eevee
Link: here
In which Switch, reflecting upon her time with Mycah, hears some distant voices in the farmlands beyond the city.

[melomar]

Solo: Unnamed
Dates: TBA
Word count: TBA
this is an unfortunate but necessary placeholder. Story shall detail the time that Rocío had her pokeball fixed and met her future mentor of machines.

"Dialogue."

[melomar]

Solo: Unnamed
Dates: ? ? 2014
Word count: TBA
another placeholder. This depicts the loss of her family.

"Dialogue."

[melomar]

Solo: Unnamed
Dates: ? ? 2014
Word count: TBA
Another placeholder. This describes Rocío's response to Switch's ordeal, and her decision to cheer her up by taking another trip into town.

"Dialogue."

[melomar]

Interlude: Baptism of Fire
Dates: 27 January 2013
Word count: 428
The small girl, Rocío, shuffled along the road walking her bicycle. This whole trip had been a disaster. They had hoped to make it out to see a festival in the town to the northeast of home. They had come as soon as weather allowed, but the shifting, mucky road had loosed a large rock that sent her tumbling over her handlebars. Cold, wet, and hobbling on a bleeding knee that she had tied tightly with her bandana, she had found the front wheel was now bent and barely unusable. It certainly wasn't rideable.

Sniffling, she was near to weeping: worse than the pain and the cold was her sense of defeat. She had finally learned to ride her bike quickly, and could now make the trip in under a day if she really tried. Instead, the trip had taken several days longer. Her greatest comforts had come from Watch the Houndoom and the wild farfetch'd. Not only had they provided warmth at night, but had also taken it upon themselves to find food on the day she had run out. Perhaps it was Watch's duty as a family pet to do these kind and gentle things for her, but the farfetch'd she had come to think of as a good friend, closer than any she had met outside her family. There was no doubt in Theo's mind that the farfetch'd was part of her family. Surely it was because of these pokémon and the support they offered that she was able to continue on.

But unsurprisingly, the closer she came to town, the scarcer the wild farfetch'd had become. And she felt that loss.

Finally when she crested a hill that overlooked the city, she saw men out with lanterns. Mistaking it at first for some kind of ceremony for the festival, she soon heard shouts. The farfetch'd took flight and the men rushed up the hill to meet the girl and her growling houndoom companion. Only when Watch recognized one of them did he grow quiet.

"Rocco! Is that you? We were so worried when you didn't come."

"Carlos! I'm sorry..."

The man skidded to a halt and knelt down on one knee, taking hold of her elbows. Only a moment later, he had pulled the sobbing girl into his arms and lifted her onto one shoulder. He rubbed behind Watch's ear while another man took hold of the broken bicycle with a low, appreciative whistle. Carlos chuckled. "Oh, but now I see why... You're such a strong girl. You have nothing to be sorry about."

Interlude: Help at Last
Dates: 27 January 2013
Word count: 401
Notes: The following is an introductory excerpt from "Big City Lights" that also ties in with "Alone on the Crowded Street," which chronologically comes first.

This was not the first time the farfetch'd had followed her favorite human down to where the other humans gathered, but it was the first time they had come without any adults, unless one counted Watch of the Age Incalculable. It was also the first time Switch had come so close to the lights of the city. From a hill overlooking the urban sprawl those lights seemed to dance in the growing darkness as the mist floated in from the sea, and because of that sense of magic, perhaps, it had been easier to cast fear aside to skirt the city limits and beyond.

She considered this only for a few moments before a group of men rushed up the hill to take the girl back down to the city. Theo called to one of them, recognizing him, before he picked her up and carried her away. Watch the Houndoom glanced back the way Switch had gone before following. The girl had been through much on their trip here, just to reach this town.

Switch was torn. She wanted to go too, she wanted to see Theo to absolute safety, and that her injury would heal. Switch had often wondered if she would be truly safe in the world of men if she had let that girl throw that broken pokéball at her all those months ago. In a corner of her mind she knew that humans came to the city with a variety of pokémon all the time; surely a farfetch'd would not seem out of place, even now. No one would realize that she was actually wild, right? And she had caught glimpses of what appeared to be humans wearing strange but lifelike pokémon-like costumes. Humans seemed to like pokémon, perhaps even a little too much, didn't they? So, maybe, surely...

In the end she did follow, but she hung back in the shadows, her dark, worried yet jealous eyes following along as Watch escorted Rocío on foot-- as opposed to within a pokéball. She physically kept pace at a safe distance, peering down from rooftops, alerting the houndoom to her presence when she thought it was safe. She felt a sense of heedlessness, almost, of her own safety. But once she saw the man carry her, not to the usual place, but to his home and surrounded by his own happy pokémon, she wandered away. Theo was safe.

[melomar]

RP 4: Alone on the Crowded Street
Date: 17 February 2013 - ? (ongoing)
Post count: # posts
Interaction with: Dea's Calanthia the Maractus
Link: here
In which the farfetch'd finally visits the city, under less than favorable circumstances. A continuation of the solo lead-in, "Baptism of Fire."
She learns three important lessons:
- only some humans can understand poke-speech, but some limited communication is possible.
- humans and pokemon can be friends, not just trainer-and-pokemon
- humans are as different individually as pokemon. Some are good, some bad.

RP 5: Big City Lights
Date: 27 January - 22 June 2013
Post count: 20 posts
Interaction with: Dooma's Mariette the Spinarak
Link: here
Later during the same trip to the city, Switch makes a new best friend. This is a joint star-finding event.

RP 6: Are We...Still....Us?
Date: 13 July 2013 - ? (ongoing)
Post count: TBA
Interaction with: Dooma's Mariette the Spinarak
Link: here
Switch and Mariette awaken to some life-altering changes. This is a joint after star-finding event.

[melomar]

Interlude: A Hero's Departure
Dates: 8-9 June 2014
Word count: 509
Switch had not seen the Cotier farm in a very long time. What had prompted her to visit was concern for the family’s safety. No one save little Rocío could approach her without feeling understandably awkward. She had, after all, come from a long line of leek-stealing ducks, but now she was more than that, she was also a child.

That sentiment was not the same for their pokémon, however, and Watch the Houndoom had met her with his usual stoic charm. She could even meet the skitty, Skittles, with far less fear than before. In fact, she found him to be surprisingly quite charming!

All that aside, she had come to see if the farm had been affected by the unnatural weather patterns.

“It’s been a bad year for the leeks,” Theo said gravely, “but it’s not as bad as it could have been. The rice is all right. But our friend’s barn was washed away. They were keeping hay there.”

Switch looked around; that was the reason for the hubbub. Rocío’s father was missing, supposedly already gone to help out the neighbor. Her brother and uncle were packing supplies in the meantime: the cart to carry hay off to a safer, dry location, and various tools and lumber to help shore up the sides of the barn. Once the weather died down, there would be an old-fashioned barn raising involving the whole community.

Switch didn’t stay long; the atmosphere was strained and worried. She felt an undeniable, probably unsurprising surge of determination. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” she growled, brandishing her newest fighting stick, which she had, like all the others, named Bait. This time she had even whittled its name into the handle. “But I’ll be back and tell you what I find,” she added as a promise to Theo.

Then she was off, headed to the wilderness, hearing someone mutter softly behind her, “But she’s just a little girl too.”

“Switch! Wait!” She turned just in time to see Rocío’s mother and sister Eulalla disappear into the house. Theo was grinning broadly.

“What?”

Several minutes later, the ladies returned with a backpack. Theo, Watch, and Skittles were all sitting beneath one of their fine and healthy, but now weather-beaten trees with the bewildered Switch. She rose to her feet and dusted off her feathery legs.

Theo’s mother held out the backpack to her. “Switch, if you were my daughter, I wouldn’t let you go. But maybe a pokémon child could do more in this case than a human child. Take this with you. There’s sandwiches and a large bottle of water inside for you.”

“And a blanket,” Theo’s sister added, tapping the top of the bag where the thick quilted fabric was rolled and tied down. “Be careful.”

“Come back soon.” That was Theo’s mother.

“Switch! You tell those pokémon gods who’s boss!” And her sister.

Well. So much for making a strong exit. Switch was wiping away tears as she waved good-by and disappeared into the forest.

“Yaya, where’s Skittles?”

Meta Event 2014: Wrath of the Gods
Date: 7 June - 13 October 2014
Post count: ? posts
Interaction with: goooood question
Link: here
In which this farfetch'd girl sets off on her own to determine why the weather has turned against everybody. Follows closely behind interlude, "A Hero's Departure."

[melomar]

ignore this. derp

[melomar]

Meta: To Catch a Fallen Star
Dates: 27 July 2015 - 22 February 2016
Word count: ?
Link: here
Switch and Chocco Rocco embark on a journey to help rescue abducted pokemon and poke-children.

"Dialogue."

- - -

Solo 7: From Rubble and Destruction
Dates: 16 February 2016 - ?
Post count: 7 (incomplete)
Link: here
Switch and Chocco Rocco help out the clean-up by visiting survivors with first aid.

"Dialogue."