hashtagafreakingghost | First 👻 Story [Video/Action for New Bark]

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First 👻 Story [Video/Action for New Bark]

[VIDEO]

--on't want to, oh my--

[Hello, there, world! You know how a camera looks when two people are fighting over it? ...Or, well, one person and one blob-like candle-thing, in this case. Point is, you do now; the lens is covered in little waxy marks, leaving the girl it's now focused on- the girl who keeps trying to snatch it back from the surprisingly nimble candle- in a light haze. Through the viewpoint, at least, emotionally she appears rather annoyed and frustrated.

Probably because of that Litwick urging her to do an impromptu vlog, huh.

Ashley's kneeling on the ground, her backpack open on her lap and her Trainer's Handbook gripped firmly - open, looks about halfway done - in on hand, as the other keeps swiping at the camera.]

Please give that back to me, you little-- [The angle evens out and Ashley's eyes go wide. Deer, headlights, hello.] It's on. Isn't it? [Bobbing, up and down.] Oh.

[Well. Let's just- ...keep staring straight ahead, okay, good job. A+ kid, gold star. Stage fright?]

I, um. Uh... Is...it broadcasting...? [Dumb question. ] Okay. I...uh- I'm not- ...this isn't anywhere near Canada, is it? Because. I read the- this. [She holds up the manual, a little dismally. Her tone of voice is frazzled, a little weak and helpless.] I know, it said um...New Bark Town, Johto? B- but...I'm just trying to figure out how I...got here. B-because no one's really...been forthcoming about that.

[Maybe she should broach this question carefully-]

And I really really would like to be sure if I'm going crazy or not, because there's a- a candle filming me, and I do not have blood on me and that is not at all what I remember, and I should get back t-to the ranger station because they might still need to- ask me questions- about...

[OH OKAY WOW NEVER MIND THEN

Ashley trails off as it seems her brain catches up with her mouth and oh boy that sure is something to say uh. She pales considerably.]

I- swear that's not what it- I- haven't um- killed...anyone...or...

[Either Litwick is going in for a dramatic close-up or actually wants to see if she's alright (jury's out on which one frankly) because the view of Ashley gets ever-so-slightly bigger- and when it's close enough she reaches out in one fluid motion and snaps it up with one more quick, muttered whimper:]

Sorry, bye.

[So. That's that, then.]

[ACTION FOR NEW BARK]

[If you happen to be around New Bark, you might find Ashley just kind of kneeling on the ground, around the houses, with her Litwick bouncing impatiently next to her. It doesn't look like she's in the mood to leave, not just yet, or. Even stand, really, she hasn't had a great time, lately.

...Though at some point she has decided to get herself up off the ground, because she's really had it with being all crouched in the snow and it KEEPS HAPPENING. Really she's so exhausted after the last...what, twelve hours? Thirteen? She'd kind of lost track, with all the bustling, questioning, waiting. Last she remembers, had...she finally fallen asleep? Waiting for the others to be done, the rhythmic ceiling fan, the distant sounds of the others being interviewed, the dim awareness of Emily glaring daggers at her every few minutes, the feeling of her cheek against Chris' shoulder...

She has to walk. To do something. Litwick trails along with her, pointing toward the trail, but Ashley ignores her insistent taps and pokes. She leaves a trail of footprints, occasionally rubbing her eyes with one hand, looking...rather exhausted, honestly.

There's nothing to do but read the handbook, so she finds a little bench and opens it and browses...and the PokéGear, at some point, she just kind of. Ran from that. Not her finest hour.]

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_{[It might be a trainwreck, but Heather is familiar with that sort of trainwreck.]

[That is an 'I just went through something super fucked up and my brains are scrambled for the foreseeable future, PTSD is fun for the whole family' trainwreck.]

[So she repeats herself, a little more softly this time.]}

It's okay, deep breaths.

Whatever... uh, 'it' is, it can't get you here.

Holy moly. You've been through hell, haven'tcha?

["Whatever it is"

She didn't even have to say something was after her, something...indescribable and horrid, something that could have...

What a strange, fascinating understanding. It's the kind she only expected to get from the others on the mountain, Sam or Chris or Mike or...maybe Emily. IF she ever forgives her. Ashley nods dismally.]

That's a very, very accurate summary. It... It's different from the blood, that was- related but not the...same thing... It's been a really bad night.

Yeah, I'm gettin' that impression.

_{[Heather's had years-- literally, she's been in this land of free therapy animals for half a freakin' decade, can you believe it?-- to cope with her own really bad night. So she lifts a hand, shaking her head a little.]}

You don't have to talk about it or anything, I know getting grilled by strangers on your fresh steaming hot trauma is literally the worst.

But yeah, you're safe here. The wildlife can get a little nutty, but your little candle dude there'll protect you. By the time there's any chance of running into anything actually dangerous and not just... 'oh no this purple rat really wants to attack my sneakers, agh fuck off', you'll be totally ready for it.

_{[SHE'S TRYING TO BE ENCOURAGING.]

[And despite her reassurance otherwise, she IS curious about whatever the hell this poor girl went through. It's been... a long time since anyone from Heather's own neck of the woods has shown up here in Johto, so it's honestly a shot in the dark, but she can't help but wonder...]}

[There are dangerous things here... Ashley can't help but shiver, because danger is now synonymous with cannibalistic monster for her, or the sound of saw-blades, and she's not sure if that's ever going to change.

She casts Litwick a quick glance, though.] If... If I get her stronger, she can keep me safe? But she's...very small.

[Funnily enough, in the back of her mind, Ashley's pretty curious about whatever personal hell this woman's experienced; she just can't help it, it's how she works.
It's a conversation for another day, maybe.]

She sure can!

One of the things you'll learn real quick in this place is that size doesn't always matter.

--in fact, hang on a sec.

_{[She dips briefly out of the frame, then straightens back up with what looks like a ball of yellow fluff cupped in her hands. It has four little robin's-egg-blue eyes.]}

See this little guy?

He can hold a MASSIVE amount of static electricity and discharge it any time he wants, even though he's the size of like... a molecule.

Sometimes when my bros and I go clubbing, I hide him in like... a breast pocket, or in the front of my hood if I don't have any.

Insta anti-grope device.

[Oh wow, she peers at the little ball of fluff.]

...It's so little. Um. Wow. Is everything like that here?

Edited 2016-02-18 19:57 (UTC)

Tiny and powerful, you mean?

Nah, they're just like animals-- there's big ones and small ones and everything in between.

_{[Now that they're successfully on a distracting topic (technicolor animals with superpowers are GREAT for making you temporarily forget that you were being chased by horrifying monsters a few hours ago), Heather's on a roll. She picks up the camera. TIME TO SHOW OFF.]}

I'll show you!

_{[LET HER TELL U ABOUT HER POKEMANS]}

[The fastest way to make her more comfortable here: Give her a crash-course in the local fauna. ...and flora? What the heck is a Bulbasaur, anyway, plant or animal.]

Okay... Alright, what do you have?

_{[BIG GRIN. Heather LOVES to show off!]}

Here-- first of all, THIS big dumbass was MY starter.

_{[She turns the camera to reveal an ENORMOUS MASS OF CREAM-COLORED FLUFF ON THE FLOOR-- oh wait no it's a really fat Growlithe lying on its back. It snorts loudly for the camera and swishes its tail.]}

He's really good at breathing fire, and also shoving his cold-ass nose in your ear in the middle of the night. Also, drooling.

Ah--! [What a surprise, Ashley blinks and tilts her head.] F-fire, but...he's a dog. Dogs can breathe fire here.

Yep. ... Well, that one can, anyway.

Others can shoot electricity.

And others are... well, pretty normal. They just bite stuff, I guess.

I'll show you an electric one. HEY, TRISH! Trish, c'mere girl!

_{[The camera swivels again as the sound of clicking claws on the floor starts up, and NOW the screen is taken up by a BRIGHT NEON YELLOW-AND-BLUE DOG. Or... something like one, anyway. It doesn't look QUITE as doglike as the Growlithe. Manectrics are weird.]}

[Leaning back just a little bit, oh!] She's...really bright. Jeez, I knew there were a, uh, lot of different types, but...they're all so colorful.

Right? It's like they fell out of a Lisa Frank stickerbook.

_{[A hand appears, presumably belonging to the girl doing the talking, and strokes the Manectric's spiky topknot. It thumps its tail and leans its head into the petting happily, tongue lolling out.]}

But they're still animals. Most of 'em won't hurt you if you treat 'em right.

Lisa Frank...? Those old notebooks...? [Before her time- not important.

Ashley shrugs lightly and thinks for a moment.]

I guess, um. I didn't think of it like that. I mean, I...didn't really get an animal, I got an object.

Yeah, those!

_{[She doesn't seem to catch onto Ashley's confusion-- there's better things to talk about. Like Pokemon.]}

The important thing is not to think of it as an object-- it's an animal that looks like an object. Basically.

There's others that're similar-- some look like balls or keyrings or-- I swear to god-- freakin' ice cream cones but they're actually alive and can move and make noise and communicate. And that's just... normal here.

[Balls? Keyrings? Ice cream cones? Her eyes seem to glaze over for a moment in confusion, trying to imagine that- but she glances down at her Litwick, who's still dutifully with her, trying to get a good view of the other Pokémon.]

I... Yeah, I know. I could never mistake her for something not alive. She surprised me, but...she's energetic. [Lips pulled tight.] In a sense.

[Little troublemaker in the making...]

...does that go for the ones in the wild too? They don't...just attack people?

[She's not thinking there's a wendigo Pokémon out there but boy howdy that would not be a pleasant surprise.]

--WELL...

... The ones in the wild will.

Or, well, can.

That's why you get given a tame one right off the bat.

So that you'll be safe to travel.

The place where you are right now's called New Bark Town-- there's nothing around there that can hurt you bad. Like-- ever been chased by a squirrel in the park or something? That's the only kinda thing you have to worry about for now.

Like I said... by the time you make it to anywhere more dangerous than that, you should be plenty ready for it.

Just like...birds and squirrels and stuff? Okay. O- okay. [She lets out a slow breath.]

It's...like a game, where they scale and get...stronger later on, just gotta keep telling myself that.

...What do the rest of yours look like? How many do you even have?

--yeah, basically!

A game.

_{[She usually tries to avoid describing it that way... because it can make for some alarming moments later on when your pet animals behave like ACTUAL ANIMALS rather than Tamagotchis.]

[But, well, if it helps.]}

And, uh... gosh. I've lost count.

More that I've inherited than ones that I actually went out and caught myself, but... uh... damn.

Gotta be at least thirty by now. If not more.

Here, I'll show you some of the others.

_{[The camera turns, revealing more of the surroundings-- she seems to be in a fairly normal, suburban house, heading for a sliding glass door.]}

Some of 'em are big, so if they're out of their Pokeballs-- those, uh, little ball capsule things that you can put them into-- they gotta stay outside.

Inherited? How- [Her question's cut off by the sight of the house. God, she misses home right now. She wishes she was home, with her parents, her friends.]

oh. Huh, I...haven't really put Litwick in hers yet. It just seems... Do they really like that?

_{[Yeah she's... she's gonna leave off the 'inherited' bit for now. Because, if this girl really DID come straight out of the sort of situation that would leave a person covered in blood, the last thing she needs to be told right now is that you could be sent back to your own world at any time, without warning.]

[Instead she heads out across the yard (it's a healthy size, although the trees are still winter-barren) towards an in-ground swimming pool.]}

Like it? Well, it depends on the Pokemon. Some don't, definitely. But it's kinda like having a crate for a dog, or a... cat carrier, you know?

Better to put them in one of those than try to like, squeeze something the size of a horse onto a train or into a cafe. They're not uncomfortable, although obviously I wouldn't recommend keeping your Pokemon in there all the time.

_{[She's speaking as she walks, although... wait a minute. Are those... SHARK fins moving around above the surface of the pool water???]}

That makes se... [GUESS WHO'S SPOTTED THE SHARK FINS

Ashley tenses and her eyes widen at the sight of them.] Wh- hey, uh- [she doesn't know her name] y-you, there are sharks in your...?!

YEP.

Sure are.

_{[She reaches the edge of the pool and crouches down. The fins immediately turn in the water and make a beeline for her, the dark, bullet-like bodies of the Sharpedos rising to the surface and clustering in front of the camera.]}

These guys belong to the owner of the house, actually, so they're not mine.

Believe it or not, they're super friendly.

_{[Her voice goes up an octave in that talking-to-animals way.]}

Heeeey, guuuys!

_{[Her hand appears from off-camera and reaches out to pat the big blunt shark noses bobbing on the surface.]}

[And Ashley just kind of stares in this abject horror, as if waiting for Heather to get her hand bitten off-

And when that doesn't happen and instead the Sharpedos are kind and receptive she- well, she doesn't quite know what to do with herself.]

...Huh. That. ...That doesn't even look like...a full...

[They're half a fucking shark.]

Weird, right?

Kinda like somebody took a shark and squished it lengthways in Photoshop or something. They can move real fast if they put a mind to it, though.

But anyway, they're not actually the ones I was gonna show ya.

_{[She clears her throat and splashes at the water slightly.]}

ZILLA! HEY!

GET UP HERE!

_{[A burst of bubbles comes billowing up from the very bottom of the pool. And then the Sharpedos scatter as something VERY LARGE comes rising up to the surface. A big blue reptilian head lifts from the water, dripping, and then shakes, blowing sprays of water from its nostrils. It's a Feraligatr and its jaws alone are the size of a small motorcycle.]}

There you are! Hey, smile for the camera!

[Video] OH! THEN GOOD, because the feeling's mutual!

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[Video] sorry for the late reply, I had a friend visiting!

[Video] no worries!

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