Set in the original region of Arciel, Legends Rising is a route-inspired, but not strictly route-based, Pokemon roleplay. Pick a faction, pick a class, and strike out into the wild to take on the League, master Contest coordination, research the mysteries of Pokemon and Arciel, and much, much more. Will you be a classic trainer? A criminal? A farmer? Choose your destiny on Legends Rising.
Obviously not— It was that bad, huh? As if Gabe didn’t feel it right there and then himself. It’s fine. It’s got to be fine. He took in a shaky breath and was aware of how tight his chest was. The bag? No it’s… His mouth opened, but he couldn’t force the words out. The wind was moving too hard passed him. It’s fine. It’s just fi—
The touch had Gabe fidgeting. Wincing, he looked back up at Senara and allowed his features to pull into a full grimace. “It’s—“ How could he even begin to say— No, he just needed a moment to rest. He just need… “Rep! Find a sand bar or something!” he managed to shout, but the pain in his voice was now evident even to the Charizard.
Rep nearly stopped flying at the sound. His head snapped back and a look of absolute concern came to his face. What was wrong? No, he had been asked to land. A breath drew into him as he searched the darkness below and dropped some as he went. He couldn’t see— wait. There. That was something not reflective. Coming down slowly for a landing, he circled it before landing.
Senara swore very softly. What the hell was wrong?? Just getting the wind knocked out of him shouldn't be causing him that much pain. His face was twisted up and it hurt to look at and she didn't notice for a moment that they were descending again because she was too focus on the concern filling her gut. What the hell was wrong with him??
As soon as Reptar's feet found solid-ish ground, Senara reached down and unsnapped the straps around her legs, freeing herself to slip off his back. Her feet hit soggy sand, which was not ideal but she could care less, and she dropped her bag at Reptar's feet and moved to help Gabe as best her comparatively small frame would allow. The school of Lanturns was close enough that there was a little extra lighting but still not nearly as much as she would have liked. Reptar's tail helped, though. Trying to get his arm over her shoulder she'd help him sit near enough to the fire for her to see him. His aura was dark, though not black, and flickering and flattening like fire being tossed by the wind. It hurt to look at, and...huh. Her hand was shaking a little. That was new.
"Is it your chest? Your lungs? Gabe?" She kept saying his name aloud like it would help him keep focused. Would it help? Names held power. "Do you need water? I've got a bottle in my bag, if...if it'll help...? Gabe?"
Gabe could not relax. Even as Rep’s feet hit the sand, he remained frozen his legs clung around the dragon, his breath shaking a bit. It was only as Senara slid off and then attempted to get him off next, that he managed to slide off. Feet hit the sand, and he immediately leaned back against Rep. His chest was throbbing, and he was fidgeting now unbuttoning his jacket and running a hand up his shirt.
The touch of wet was enough to have him freezing. They had torn. How much or how little, he wasn’t sure. His face (and his aura) twisted up in a mix of anxiety and forced calm. It’s fine. It’s fine. They couldn’t have torn all the way down…. But they could have. They could have because he didn’t consider just how much movement he could and couldn’t take. Because he was fucking stupid. Because he hadn’t even ridden Rep since….
“I’m…. injured….” Gabe admitted with such stiffness that he might as well have still been winded. Rep immediately grimaced with understanding and looked away right after. “M-my stitches might have just torn…” Gabe’s breath hitched a little. “Or… they did…. I just don’t…. know how many…” His hand was pressing hard now flat against his chest now under that loose shirt.
"Injured". Great. Be as vague as possible, that will definitely help in this situation.
Senara caught her bottom lip in her teeth. She didn't have to wait too long, though, past the heavy breathing, to get an explanation. Gods his aura hurt to look at. She kept blinking too fast like she was staring at a brilliant light, like keeping too long a gaze on it would burn her retina. Stitches. He had ripped stitches and was bleeding. Badly.
She--did she--she had to have--
Senara put her hand up for a second and then leaned over to drag her bag over through the sand. She hadn't emptied it of much since her last cave-dive, save to remove the things more specific to exploring, but among them should have been...aha! She took out the small first-aid kit and flattened the top of the backpack so she could set it there and not on the wet sand. "You. Are. Soooo lucky that I work in the mines," she muttered as she undid the snaps, pushing a box of bandages and roll of gauze to the side, "I know jack-shit about CPR, but open wounds? Bleeding gashes? Hah, you get one of those while spelunking and you need to learn to stop it fast. Or you die. Where are they..."
She pulled out a small tin box--smaller, still, than the first-aid kit itself--and opened it to reveal a collection of little packets. They looked like butterfly bandages, just with some sort of plastic pull on them. Senara set it on her knees. "Uh, hello? Shirt? Up? Do your best Amell impression and move your hand for two seconds. You're not going to bleed out. You're not. Come on." She lifted her hand to gently, but firmly, take his wrist and pull it away. She had to see how bad the bleeding was. If it was too bad...which was closer now? Plum or Bass? She could call an ambulance and have them be there when they got back. Two dumb kids tried flying at night for fun, one got hurt. Easy lie.
Some deeply rooted feral instinct made Gabe want to hole up and hide away. With his back pressed against the curvature of Reptar’s side, however, that made things difficult. Gabe bit the inside of his mouth and just watched Senara move. Open wounds, bleeding gashes, etc. She knew how to treat it. Great. Ok. This was fine. This was fine. It wasn’t like he hadn’t experienced this the first time around… right? Right. Right.
Gabe lifted his shirt up as best he could. The hand didn’t want to leave the wound, however, and he fidgeted slightly at her words. You’re not going to bleed out. He knew that. He knew that but… But— Gabe didn’t have to move of his own accord. As Senara gasped his wrist, he allowed her to pull his hand away.
What Senara would see was a pair of three prong claw marks that started at his collar bone and trailed down to just before his stomach. One claw mark in particular, the one he had been clinging to, had opened and was bleeding lightly. The sutures had ripped mostly at the top and bottom, the middle section untouched. Senara had been right, though, Gabe was not going to bleed to death, exactly, not with those anyways.
…That wasn’t stopping Gabe from physically shaking both from the cold and from… whatever was making his aura shrink in and darken like that.
She helped him push the fabric up a little farther than it looked like he was able to alone, and...took a second, only a flicker of time, to look at the wounds before moving. Claws. She wanted to ask. Who? How? When? Why? But the light of the fire didn't help the glare of dark light coming off of his body and it hurt too much to keep staring. She picked the tin up and pulled two of the little zip-up suture thingies from it. She needed the skin to be clean, first, though. So out came a small antiseptic wipe. "Don't squirm."
As even as her voice was--too even to be undisturbed--her touch was still very soft, clearing as much of the blood as she could with the wipes before she could apply the "stitching". She put the stained wipes aside and peeled the paper off the back of the sutures, then, carefully as she could with her eyes narrowed, set them on either sides of the open wounds. "Tell me if it's pinching," she mumbled as she tightened the little ties one by one, allowing time for Gabe to say if it hurt before moving on, "It should feel tight but not hurt. M...more than it probably already does. I have pain-killer for that. Nothing hospital-strength but it will work. And I think your shirt is fucked."
Senara sat back on her ankles, crumpling up the scraps of paper and wipes into a ball, and sticking them into an empty pocket of her bag. She'd throw them out on land.
"...w...who hurt you this time...? 'cause Rep didn't get a swing that hard in, last I saw..."
He's still too bright. That damn dark light. It hurt to look at. But I can't just...not.
Gabe’s teeth grit again at the touch of antiseptic. His breath hitched a couple of times before falling flat again after the stinging had stopped. He knew what was coming next, though, and gripped back into Rep for a moment as the sutures were placed in order to keep from squirming. Gabe tolerated it, and the wounds closed again. “I don’t want anything for it…” he mumbled after. It’s going to be fine. Just fine. Ugh I liked this shirt though…. He’d at least try throwing it in a washing machine before deciding it was totally lost.
He… at least found it easier to breathe, though, well, breathe without worrying that he was tearing something. The question even forced a weird, pained laugh from him. Rep growled a little in response. “Lizbeth,” was the answer. The darkness in Gabe’s aura somehow managed to get darker still. “She was…. very upset with me…” Upset to learn she’d almost lost her trainer’s life to some human she’d only met a handful of times. “Didn’t expect they’d open up again… They were just fine almost all week…” He forced a half-laugh after. Rep growled again.
"...you should take something for it. If you're in this much pain you'll have a harder time flying, let alone doing anything physically taxing during the heist. Were you going to mention these, by the way? You know, before we were in a situation where they could rip while we're running from police or worse? Where I wouldn't be able to...?" Senara winced at her own voice, hating how it sounded in her ears. Too even, too cool, especially for her. She was trying to sound angry--angry was easier to handle than all the other things she was feeling right now--but it wouldn't come out the right way. Idiot Gabe, having to be injured, having to need help out of nowhere, jarring her out of...
...well, I guess turn-about is fair play, isn't it?
Senara shook her head, eye closed. "...never mind."
She opened it again to look at the wounds once more. His explanation did little to help soothe her mangled emotions or to lighten the darkness around him. A Charmander didn't have claws that size, though. Ah. That explained it some, but not completely. "So she evolved, huh...congrats on your super-strong, super volatile teenager," Senara huffed out a breath in a way that might have been a laugh if it tried harder, "What did y--"
"How would any of your other Pokemon have felt if he'd--if you'd..."
"Died?"
...shit.
Then, carefully, she met his eyes, trying to focus on the gold instead of the miasma of deep blues and grays. Her brow furrow in concern that wouldn't fade no matter how much she fought it. She could be in the wrong ballpark, but if it had been her, and she'd found out about something like that only after the fact, then... "...it...was it about what happened during our last flight? I...achh..." Senara flinched and rubbed at her eye.
"Fuck. Calme-toi, calme-toi...ow...Gabe, you're blinding me again...calmez-vous..."
“I don’t want it,” Gabe growled a little back at Senara only to receive a growl from Rep. Looking over his shoulder, Gabe met the Charizard’s irritated gaze with one of his own. “I…” He looked back at Senara only to grimace again. “Save me?” he ask-finished her sentence. Gabe grimaced again. “I figured they were closed to healed…..” A hand still went up to his chest all the same.
At the statement, though, he snorted. “Yeah….” A super volatile teenager and then some….
As her eye met his, though, Gabe stopped breathing again. About what happened during our last flight… Gabe’s features immediately fell, and his aura might have been pitch black then. Yellow eyes tore away and found the dark sea instead. The sudden complaints earned a small puff of cheek and sigh. “She decided that …. If anyone was going to take my life, it’d be her,” he stated after a moment shifting awkwardly to sit more comfortably. Looking forward again, Gabe forced a smile. “But psych, I’m alive so…..” So it failed, obviously. So they’d worked it out, obviously. So everything was fine, obviously.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 24, 2019 13:48:00 GMT
Senara winced a little. So Gabe really didn't want to take pain medication. Duly noted. He was allowed to be a martyr if he wanted to be, and though she wanted to know why she wouldn't ask. Not right now, or maybe ever. It was his body. Just... "You're friends with a shady doctor, I'm sure they told you when these would be healed. Moron. If this is the same 'if I happen to die, that's fine' thing, I will personally..." Her empty threat trailed off. Kind of hard to threaten somebody when you were focusing on helping them.
Well. A threat of harm, at least.
"...I will personally tell Amell that a 'twunk' is a term for a professional body builder so he uses it around you at all times. Then you can laugh these stitches loose again. Just try explaining that one to Nails." Her lips twitched but didn't quite manage a smile.
She kept her palm pressed over her eye, but still could feel the darkness cutting through her patch and prosthetic in that agonizing way. And it was getting worse, not better. Fuck. It didn't help that her stomach was twisting itself into knots over his--well, Liz's--supposed motivation. She drew in a slow breath, eyes still covered, trying to think of a response to that. If she really did think that way, that was incredibly dangerous. And she was supposed to be helping with the heist? Would she be safe around a Pokemon that dangerous? Would she actually kill somebody if they got in the way? Would...?
Senara exhaled. "...Arceus' plates, Gabe, there's assuming what your Pokemon are saying and then there's making way to big a leap...you're sure that's what she meant to do? Get a one-hundred-percent confirmation through your little telepathy buddy?" She meant Harriet, naturally. How else would he read Lizbeth's mind? "Cause, like, I'm more into the study of the stones than the evolution themselves, but...you might want to get her self-restraint training, or something, before she hurts you or somebody else."
"Or, you know, me. Because I'm sure I've pissed you off enough to warrant it by now." That was only mostly a joke, and it didn't quite hit the way the other one had. Dammit.
Gabe grimaced. “Personally what?” he muttered a low challenge back. Hit him? Dig claws into him and scream at him? He’d already experienced that. And then, of course, Senara did that. Almost immediately the tips of his aura turned a bright orangey-red, embarrassment again. “You’re— that’s ridiculous…!” he protested. “You can’t just bring Amell into—!!“ Gabe stopped himself and just grimaced again.
As Senara went on, though, Gabe’s arms folded over his chest. “I—“ He immediately stopped when she spoke of telepathy and looked up wild for a moment until she followed up with buddy. “…” Ah, of course that’s what Senara meant Gabe’s eyes dropped again right after, but his ears remained open aware.
you might want to get her self-restraint training, or something, before she hurts you or somebody else … Yeah. Lizbeth had. She had already tried to hurt Ara— already succeeded in hurting Ara. Gabe’s lips pressed together into a fine line. The joke fell flat and only earned a sigh back. He didn’t speak immediately but pulled his shirt down and drew his knees up to himself awkwardly. It was cold out there even with Rep’s tail so close.
“Liz’s my first Pokemon,” Gabe started slowly precariously, as if at any moment he’d drop off into silence again. “She’s spent the last four… almost five years trying… desperately to keep me alive.” Rep growled. Gabe snorted. “I’m pretty sure she meant… “ A small weird laugh came and went rather than an explanation. I brought you into this world, I can take you out. Yeah, if she was a parent, anyways, heh. A hand went to his chest again, and he closed his eyes.
Very suddenly, a mental image from Gabe’s perspective of Lizbeth pressing her claws hard against his chest, screaming and roaring, with something fiercely distressed, pained, in her gaze crossed a barrier in Gabe’s mind and was accessible to Senara right then.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 24, 2019 15:11:53 GMT
"Oh yeah? Try me, bras maigres. If you can tank physical hits I'll start arming myself with psychological weaponry," Senara snickers a little, and it sounded more genuine to her ears than it had before. Lighter. Good. Yes. She needed to put the color back into his aura, so it didn't hurt to look at...and so she knew he wasn't in so much-- "Besides that big lug probably doesn't help these stitches with all that swinging-you-around. You've told him, right? So he doesn't hurt you? That'd be fun to see you try to explain..." It would not be fun to see him try to explain. It'd be second-hand cringe.
It still hurt too much for her to open her eyes but she lowered her hand so she could adjust her position into something less painful on the ankles. Every now and then she still made out a shift in color through her eye-lids and through the patch. It was so weird. How could one see things without seeing them? How did it work? "Magic". Bah. She was still a scientist. Just like in the cave, she'd need to let this go or she'd go mental.
Well, more mental.
Senara turned her head toward him, though she still kept her eyes shut. She wasn't sure what to think of it. Of him, and of Liz. If it was Baby Girl who had hurt her like this would she be able to send her off for a while to learn to control herself? Could she handle that distance? That pain? But then again, could she handle the feeling of one she loved so much hurting her, either? Or would she rationalize it, file it away, and not tell a soul...like he was doing. She tilted her head down a little. "I don't know what to--"
Claws raking across her chest, blood spraying out of her skin, staining her shirt, flecking onto the ground; the shriek of a heartbroken Pokemon whom she loved so very, very much but who was, in this moment, absolutely terrifying; scales as redas the blood it--
Senara drew in a sharp, pained gasp and clutched at her own chest, bending forward in the sand like...like the thing she'd just seen, the scene in her mind, had happened. But then in a breath it was gone again. She was left trembling, eye snapped open, staring at the gray sand an inch away from her face. What the--had that--was that aura? Her imagination getting the better of her? But it had been so lifelike, so painful, like it were her own memory. At the same time...she'd never seen Liz before, as a Charmander or a Charmeleon. She had tried to put Baby Girl in her place to empathize, but that...vision...
"...fait mal...ça fait mal...wh-wh-what the fuck..."
The sudden sharp gasp that echoed from Senara ripped Gabe from the memory. He looked up startled, confused. In the darkness, he couldn’t readily decipher what she was doing aside from bending forward. “S-Senara?!” He dropped a leg to lean forward (and wince a little at the weird movement then). “What’s wrong?!” Rep had flicked his tail around to illuminate the area more and looked back as well. She was speaking in Kalosian, though, and he couldn’t guess exactly what she was saying. “What?”
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 24, 2019 15:48:48 GMT
She did poorly with pain.
To make up for her physical weaknesses, Senara had become clever. Quick. She was better at out-talking somebody than she was out-fighting them. She could run and duck but taking a punch could knock her out in one go. So this was not fun. Not at all. What had even hit her? She didn't feel any blood on her hands, and knew it was just from what she had seen, but what the hell had she seen? That...it had been so clear, so...
Well, I already see people's literal life essence floating around them, maybe it's related.
Wheeeeee.
"...I s-saw it..." she whimpered, still clutching her chest, and felt heat welling behind her eyes, "I saw h-her h...hitting...it was so vivid, it hurt, I just...even m-more than the aura..."
She saw it? Alarm had been substituted for more confusion. “What do you mean you saw it??” The clarification didn’t help. She’d seen… She’d… seen… Liz?? She’d seen Lizbeth??? Her hitting— “No— how no that’s—“ Gabe was stumbling over words as his mind rapidly tried to grasp what exactly he was deflecting. It hurt… Even more than aura. How did—
An answer came to Gabe, but he wouldn’t believe it right then. He couldn’t afford to. “Y-you’re just being dramatic!” Gabe stumbled over his words not even fully believing them right then. The way in which Senara had moved— how her body lurched— was nothing if not… pained. Gabe grimaced. “How could you?!”
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 24, 2019 16:21:55 GMT
Senara flinched as his words hit her like an icy punch to the stomach. Cold. It was cold and biting and sharp, demeaning--dismissing--and her pain. Ignoring it. Belittling it. Her stomach lurched and throat tightened up. Wh-Why? After everything he'd believed in Nails' office, why was this too far to believe? They didn't know what came with this sort of power. He didn't know what she could or couldn't do. He sure as hell didn't know what she did or did not feel! As fast as she had curled up she jerked herself back into a sitting position, her expression shocked, like she had just been slapped across the face.
"Ce que vous ressentez n'a pas d'importance pour moi."
Her arm whipped back and slapped Gabe right across the cheek.
"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'M FEELING, YOU BASTARD!?!?" Oh. No. Stop. "YOU'RE NOT IN MY HEAD!! YOU DON'T KNOW!!" Don't. It's not him. "DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TELL ME WHAT I'M FEELING IS FAKE!!!" He's not her. Stop.
He's not--he's my--my friend--he's not her. He's not her. He's not...not...
Senara's voice cracked, raw, with a sob. "D-DON'T...you dare t-t-tell me what I feel...!!"
A scream reverberated in Gabe’s mind, and he froze as Senara jerked up and stared at him.
"How can you? You ruined your reputation. You failed."
"You are too sensitive. Move on."
"You worthless child."
"What you feel doesn't matter to me."
What was he hearing— What was— NO. Before Gabe had a chance to react, he was suddenly looking sideways at Reptar, the sting of his face only reaching him after the fact. For a hot moment, his face hurt more than his chest did. Senara was yelling, though, and his ears were aching shortly after.
You’re not in my head. You don’t know. Oh no. That just now. Oh no. No. No no no no. Don’t you dare tell me what I’m feeling is fake! That just now. And suddenly she was crying— or maybe just… Shit.
Gabe slowly looked forward again. A chill was running through his veins, and he wanted to recoil and evaporate all at once. But no. No he— He had to put his own concerns away right then. He needed to— need to— “I’m sorry,” broke passed Gabe’s lips. His hands shook as they raised to try and clasp Senara’s shoulders. If she’d let him, he’d pull her into a hug. Otherwise, he’d just stare at her.
“I’m sorry— I didn’t—“I didn’t mean it? No, no he did. He did mean it. Because if she had seen it— if she knew then— then— “You’re not, you’re not dramatic. You’re not even close. You’re logical, a scientist— I’m just…”Afraid. “I’m… I’m…I— I don’t have an excuse.”
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 24, 2019 17:28:30 GMT
Senara drew in another slow, trembling breath. Her hand was shaking in her peripheral vision, and against the cold sea air she could feel her tears running down her cheeks like boiling water. Her palm stung. Her chest ached. Her eye burned from the blinding black and blue light flickering around Gabe's body like a dying flame. Her whole body hurt in some way, and yet the slow turn of his head to meet her eye made her ache all the more. Fucked up. She'd fucked up. He didn't know, he was her friend. And she...
He apologized, and before she'd even processed that, he'd pulled her in and she was in his arms. She went rigid for a moment. Only a moment. Then, slowly, she softened. ...hah...an apology...wh...huh...
Senara leaned into his shoulder, but didn't put her hands on him again. She just listened to him and let herself be held. Reassured. Even comforted? Maybe? Was that what this was? That was new. Nice. A little. Very. Her eyes still hurt but she closed them again and it was...fine. She dipped her head just a little bit, and exhaled. "...n...nnm..."
"...je...I...you don't h..." she mumbled very, very quietly, "...I'm...sorry I hit you..."
A weak breath escaped from Gabe as Senara leaned into him. Hesitantly, he rubbed her back and continued to mutter the same assurances. Meanwhile, his mind tried to patch together the jarring yelling that had echoed in his brain. There was no denying what he had heard— But why…
As Senara finally started to mumble, Gabe sighed a little back. A hand pulled back from her to feel over his cheek. It stung still but was quickly breaking down into a dull ache instead. His head turned, and his eyes flashed back to Reptar who had watched this entire thing in silence but gave no immediate judgment for any of it. Gabe looked forward again. “N…next time don’t go for the face….” was all he muttered after a moment.
"...I'll keep that in mind next time you piss me off," Senara tried, again, to joke. It didn't fall as spectacularly flat as the rest, but not because she was trying to sound mean or angry--she just mumbled it with a soft, weak giggle, not even trying to disguise the joke as anything more than that. His hand on her back felt nice. When was the last time she'd let another person touch her comfortingly? It must have been a long time, if not...
...
"But...no, I...no, I'm not...I didn't want to hurt you. I won't do it again. I swear."
She thought if she should pull away, because how long could she lean against him before this became weird? Was it already weird? But it wasn't like it was...like that. It was intimate but not...it didn't make her want to vomit, so that meant something, right? Or, heck, that it didn't mean something. It was just...nice.
And if it started bothering him, he would tell her. He'd do that eventually. Right?
"Besides I can't even reach your face when you're standing. So..." She raised her hand to gently poke him in the ribs, not even hard enough to earn a squirm. "...I...I didn't lie. I did feel it. I saw it. I wouldn't...I would never say something like that if it weren't true. I hate to lie like that. Not about something as serious as you being hurt. Or me feeling hurt or whatever the hell that was..." Her brow furrowed and the hand at his side clung gently to his jacket. "...it's gone now, but...I...fuck, I hope that wasn't aura related...I can't even look at you right now, it's so bad. If I start getting visions, too, I'm gonna lose it."
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