Expanding Horizons (OTA Catchall)

[worthallthis]

Who: Bucky Barnes AKA the Winter Soldier, and OPEN
Where: Routes 30 and 31, then Violet City as of 6/12
When: June 9 - 16, next leg of the journey!
Summary: Traveling with friends and finally hitting the city! Because Buck needs more CR and he refuses to engage with the network...
Rating: PG-13 for the swearing again


I. On the Road; Routes 30 and 31, June 9 - 11

It’s a longer trip from Cherrygrove to Violet City, the next location on the map, but it’s not an unpleasant trip. There are eggs to carry-- and to collect, as a large bird pokemon drops some off for the Soldier and Entrapta a day out of Cherrygrove-- and new pokemon to marvel at. The device is actually really useful, and the Soldier is pretty sure he has both books memorized now, even if he keeps looking things up.

This is the new mission. It’s a better one than the last one. He might be starting to relax a little, but he’s still not sure how to smile.

The campfire is comfortable, though, as they sit around it and read, write, pet and groom pokemon, or talk. (Well. Mostly listen to Entrapta talk.) The Soldier discovers the radio, at which point he discovers that everyone can hear that weird music everywhere and it’s not just his brain being crazy, and at further point he discovers jazz. Which is the best thing ever, maybe even better than Grace (Sorry, doll.), and Entrapta and Link will have to make him change the station or turn it off when they get sick of it.


II. Catching, Take Two; Route 31, June 11

It takes the Soldier almost until they reach Violet City to try the pokeball thing again. This time, though, he crouches down next to the absolutely adorable little Espurr once Grace and the Starly (who is now a Starava, that was a fun experience) are sitting on her, and wave them off. And he offers the ball, instead of throwing it, silent but inviting.

He’s gonna let them choose, going forward. It only seems fair. Nobody should not be allowed to choose. (Not anymore.)


III. Townie Life; Violet City, June 12 - 16

It’s a nice little city. He keeps thinking the buildings should be a little taller. A slightly different style. Dirtier, maybe. But the feeling of more people around him feels right, and if he closes his eyes, listening and breathing in the smell, he almost feels at home.

He and Entrapta stay at the pokemon training center, because one, it’s the cheapest option besides camping out, and two, there’s shit to learn there. He can be found making notes in a new notebook before, during, and after lessons (And damn do we feel old, surrounded by all those teenagers.), pacing around the town itself in a kind of leisurely patrol, or sitting somewhere in the sun just taking in the sights.

Or chasing down pokemon babies. He’s got a handful of those.


IV. Babies; Violet City, June 12 - 16

Very young pokemon are difficult to keep track of, as it turns out. They’re like unruly children, who happen to be even smaller than regular children. And the Soldier has three of them to keep track of-- four, if Entrapta’s little Growlithe cub is in the mix. It’s like trying to keep track of the girls, only worse. (What girls?)

First, there’s the Skitty, Fuzzlebutt, who refuses to grow up yet, though not from lack of trying to get new experiences. Most of those experiences consist of biting, chewing on people’s shoes, and pouncing whatever pokemon he can find. He might be small for his type and age, but he makes up for it in energy and aggression.

Second, there’s the Rockruff, hatched on the road on the way to Violet City, who is much friendlier than Fuzzle but also much louder, and just as energetic. She keeps bounding up to people, barking, “Rockruff! Rockruff! Rock! Ruff! Ruff!” while the Soldier chases after her anxiously, apologizing.

Third, there’s little Stevie, a barely-hatched baby Absol who keeps tripping on his own over-sized paws and landing face-first into something pointy, or chasing after pidgies until they swarm him, or trying to keep up with the other two when he’s smaller and weaker and clearly a little runty. He stumbles over a passer-by’s feet or catches their pants leg or skirt to stop them from stepping in a puddle or to try and herd them this way or that or just in an excess of energy. The Soldier comes to collect him with a sigh and another apology.

Comments

1. Route 30, June 9

[stardiving]

Backtracking to pick up new arrivals isn't exactly the best way to move forward with your own Pokemon adventure, but at least Estinien has the opportunity to meet new people.

Opportunity, yes, but left to his own devices he'd normally avoid people he doesn't know.

Unluckily for him, he has a very friendly Vulpix who, when seeing new and interesting people sitting around a fire near sunset, runs right up to them, flops down, and stares back over her shoulder at her equally white-haired, antisocial, exasperated trainer, who comes over to collect her.

"Mine apologies--Iceheart, come away from there." Quit bothering the nice people.

[worthallthis]

Really, the Soldier would avoid people he doesn't know, too. They just keep coming to talk to him. He'd tracked the sounds of approaching footsteps along the path-- though he can't hear as well as he used to, his ears are still pretty sharp-- and been ready to ignore or deal with a damn trainer child wanting to throw pokemon at each other.

Pokemon, however, are a different story. Though he straightens up sharply, metal arm making a mechanical whine, at the sudden motion bursting into the circle of campfire light itself, he relaxes a little when the Vulpix just... flops. Aww. Also, Grace doesn't react beyond rolling closer to his thigh, which usually means everything's okay.

Iceheart doesn't get the chance to come away, anyway, because an energetic Skitty leaps right onto her tail.

[stardiving]

He does empathize with you on the being unable to hear thing--everything sounds like he's shoved cotton in his ears, and it feels weird looking in the mirror when something so fundamental as your ears have been physically changed. Oops.

Estinien approaches the circle of firelight carefully, calmly--he's aware he can be a little imposing, since he's nearly 7 feet tall in a world where folk the height of Elezen and Roegadyn aren't the norm.

He sighs, stopping a fair distance away. He had also intended to make camp for the night, sooner rather than later, but he doesn't necessarily want to do so around other people.

Iceheart yips and bats at the Skitty playfully, spitting a tiny cloud of snowy mist.

"She is of a mind to approach people on her own." Estinien sounds grumpy and annoyed by that, because it makes him actually have to deal with people.

[worthallthis]

"Yes. I know that feeling."

Seeing as Fuzzlebutt is still undeterred, and counters the spit of ice with an actual chomp onto poor Iceheart's tail. The newly-hatched rockruff, still unnamed, starts awake in the Soldier's lap, then starts yapping and scrambles to charge into the fray. "Rockruff, rockruff, ruff ruff!"

The Soldier sighs and scoops her up with the metal hand, glinting in the firelight, letting Fuzzle deal with Iceheart on his lonesome. "Sorry."

[stardiving]

Estinien would be concerned for her, but Iceheart got herself into this all on her own, and despite her yelp, there's no harm done--Iceheart's tails are more fluff and ice crystals than actual flesh and bone, so Fuzzlebutt gets a mouthful of chill fur. She can get herself out of trouble if she wants to.

He notes the metal hand, and the rest of his arm--it's strange, it doesn't appear to be armor, it doesn't add enough bulk to his arm compared to the other side. Is it machina?

He doesn't know and he's not about to ask.

"Tis fine, if she is inclined she shall stop." With a shake of his head, he comes a bit closer, into the circle of firelight. "My name is Estinien. Would you and your companion mind over-much if I also made camp here for the night?"

IV

[fearinahandfulof]

Cassandra blinks as the Skitty attempts to pounce on her Type: Null, who merely stares downward at the small pokemon, impassive behind its heavy mask. Her own Skitty, Misty Malarkey, is currently gnawing on a twig, seemingly oblivious to the goings-on around her... although Bucky may notice that other people seem to be giving the other Skitty an uncommonly wide berth. "Is this one yours?" she asks Bucky.

[worthallthis]

Fuzzlebutt is impossible to scare without actual threat of violence, so he just rears up on his little hind paws-- he's small for his age and type-- and swats at the poor Null's mask. The Soldier catches up to scoop him up again.

"Yes. Sorry." His expressions are subtle, but this one is edging chagrined. "They're very energetic."

"Rockruff! Ruff!" yaps the rockruff puppy behind him, who manages to jump over his blocking foot to try and scamper up to Misty Malarkey.

[fearinahandfulof]

Fortunately for at least one side of this 'conflict,' Blade is over six feet tall, so Fuzzlebutt's aim is a bit short. Still, points for trying?

"Yes, they are," Cassandra replies, as Misty Malarkey suddenly stops chewing on the twig and somehow manages to bat it unerringly at the Rockruff despite not actually looking in her direction. Now it's Cassandra's turn to wince as she moves in the direction of her own Skitty. Misty Malarkey doesn't seem hostile, at least; if anything, that might have been her way of initiating play with the puppy, since she seems to be watching her expectantly. Whether the Rockruff realizes that, though, is another question.

[worthallthis]

Fuzzle does try! He leaps! He jumps! He swats at the air!

The rockruff stops short when the stick bounces off her little puppy nose. She yips, not her type name this time, and rubs at her nose with one forepaw. Then scampers the rest of the way up and tries to lick Misty's nose. The Soldier can't even rescue her, because he's busy grabbing Stevie, the extremely tiny baby Absol, from trying to join in, too. Or maybe trying to grab the rockruff back from danger, which he continually fails to do, being very small and kind of pathetic.

"Three babies at once is a little much," he says, holding the wriggling Absol pup to his chest with the metal hand.

The fully grown Absol Grace isn't helping, either, mostly because she's just now padding up, having taken her own sweet time catching up, and she looks vaguely amused at the antics.

Babies; Violet City, June 12

[lordofthefries]

There's an easy way to deal with babies who misbehave and get into all sorts of trouble: food. Hilariously enough, it's also the same way to deal with a particular teenaged trainer who is traveling with a couple of her own babies.

There's her too stubborn to evolve standby Togepi, Omelette, and her level 65 Pichu, Sprinkles, who also isn't quite ready to evolve purely by choice because why evolve when you can stay a baby and get fed multiple times a day by an overly concerned for your stomach trainer? All three of them are sitting in the grass for a quick picnic lunch of sandwiches for the human and berries and poffins for the Pokemon. The spread is huge and more than enough for some guests so when the Rockruff bounces their way, Sprinkles is kind enough to roll a poffin its way.

"Eat up! She's got more!" Sprinkles chirps as he chomps own on his own snack and Sasha nods the puppy a hello. Omelette, on the other hand, is way too buy digging into the snack backpack to pay the Rockruff any attention.

[worthallthis]

No on in this party is over level fifteen, wow. The rockruff is entirely unphased by this, though, being a baby, and gives Sprinkles a cheerful lick in the face before flopping down on her belly to snuffle at, then rub her face on, and finally start chewing on the poffin.

A baby Absol comes toddling up to the blanket about that time, with the Soldier on his heels. "There you are. Are you." Stop. Realize this is someone's picnic blanket, flinch a little, and add for Sasha's benefit: "I'm sorry."

I never got the notif for this D:

[lordofthefries]

Sprinkles just managed not to spark the Rockruff's tongue as it giggles in it's own Pichu way. It tickles!

Sasha is halfway through taking the world's largest bite out of her sandwich when the Absol wanders over and it's purely on instinct of feeding every single Pokemon that crosses her path that has her reaching for a another Poffin. Clearly, it must be hungry, so it gets fed too.

The human, however, gets a pair of wide brown eyes on him, ones obviously confused. "For what?" Who apologies for being hungry? Not Sasha.

it's cool I know how it goes <3 I'll always backtag

[worthallthis]

"For. The babies taking your food?"

He didn't ask, so clearly she couldn't give permission, and... that means trouble, usually.

And now Stevie is chewing on a poffin, too. The Soldier really doesn't have the heart to take it from him; little jerk needs all the food he can get, he's really runty even for a newly-hatched pokemon. He crouches behind the two babies looking a little hang-dog.

1. Route 31, late at night

[firstonesexpert]

It's not unusual for Entrapta to stay up ridiculously late. She had far too much fun engaging with all of the blueprints Egon had sent to her, and would often be awake well past midnight muttering to herself as she drew up fresh schematics in her notepad. She tried to be quiet, to give the others the courtesy of sleep, but often her muttering and self-approving noises would go on well into the night.

Except this time, when she looks up from her notes to think about what to add next, there's a pair of what looks like huge, glowing orange eyes staring directly at her. There's two much smaller glowing eyes directly above them, but Entrapta barely sees them - the larger ones hold her gaze like a trap, and without really thinking about it she finds herself moving to stand up and investigate it.

[worthallthis]

Despite being an extremely light sleeper, the Soldier as learned to tune out Entrapta's muttering and sleep as much as he needs to. Or to listen to is as a kind of soothing background noise when he's not really ready to sleep yet, or has gotten enough for the night. She's safe. And if he didn't, he wouldn't sleep at all.

What does make him crack open an eye, though, is the sudden stopping of her muttering, and her getting up. He doesn't look her direction yet, waiting to see if it's just a trip into the trees for a midnight bathroom break or something. When it clearly isn't (she tends to mutter during those, too, and she's not), he sits up and prods Grace, who is also already awake, and Fuzzle, who is not but who growls at him anyway.

They ease up to their feet to follow, Fuzzle tucked up against the Soldier's chest and Grace at his side.

[firstonesexpert]

Nancy wakes up as well, with all the shuffling, and he's quick to tag along with Winter when he realises his trainer is gone. The poor Luxio's hackles are raised, and he's taking point in front of Winter despite how he keeps looking nervously back at the soldier.

At least Entrapta has Leslie on her - the Impidimp rarely strays far from her person, except to hang with Winter in a kind of exasperated solidarity. And right now he's dozing on her head, but waking up with the movement of her walking through the tall grass; and looking around in great confusion when he doesn't immediately see Winter.

Even in the dark it's not hard to spot the Impidimp - he's bright pink, first of all, but his eyes also do the orange cat thing in low enough light, and he's standing on Entrapta's head to grab a fistful of her ponytails in each hand and trying to tug her back, to no apparent avail.

[worthallthis]

This is worrisome. The Soldier picks up his pace so he can catch up to Entrapta, lengthening his stride and overtaking Nancy as he shifts Fuzzle to his shoulder so he has the metal arm free. And also a hand for the knife in his pocket, just in case.

He's not afraid. Actually, really, for the first time in a while, he's not afraid. Entrapta might be in danger. That means he has to focus. Protect her. Maybe with pokemon help, maybe not. Grace bounds at his side, at least, so he knows he's got back-up.

IV

[meteorman]

Given how prone to disaster Ford Pines can be, it's no surprise that Stevie probably zeroes in on him. This is a man who fucked up so bad that he caused an apocalypse. He might have that big of a fuckup in him again.

Or he might just be about to step in a puddle, in his thick boots that are specifically made for rough terrain. He might get mud on them! It might cover up the mud that's already caked on there! Oh no!

He looks down at the baby Absol tugging ineffectually at the hem of his trench-coat and then up at the Soldier with an expression that is clearly unbothered. He doesn't recognize the other man right away, but then, he only got blurry glimpses of him. Give him a second. It's pinging something in the back of his mind.

"Don't apologize. The hem's already torn up enough, one more chunk out of it won't make much difference."

[worthallthis]

Oh hey, he knows that voice. And that face. The Soldier crouches and deftly disengages little Stevie's teeth. "It's the principle of it, Mr. Pines. He shouldn't go chewing on people's clothes. Even if it's with noble intentions."

"Absooooool," Stevie whines as the Soldier straightens up again, pup in the crook of his metal arm (only mostly hidden by a jacket; the hand and wrist are pretty obvious).

[meteorman]

It takes him a second for it to click, but when it does his expression brightens considerably. Now that he's not being held hostage by an overzealous Absol he can turn and face Bucky properly.

"Oh! You did make it to Violet after all. Excellent."

Not that he was ever worried. Travel in this world isn't exactly all that harrowing except to those who have literally never spent a night outside in their lives before. Maybe he's a little biased in that respect. Stanford Pines, who has spent an awful lot of nights outside both by necessity and choice, is an outlier and should not have been counted. Still, spring rain notwithstanding, it's not a hard walk.

He notices the hand. He doesn't comment on it. After a lifetime of people making comments about his weird hands he has the good sense not to do it to someone else right off the bat.

[worthallthis]

"We made it. It was an easy trip, just long." Only a couple annoying kids trying to get into fights; most of them took one look at creepy former assassin who doesn't remember how to smile, and creepy over-excited tech gal wanting to ask them detailed questions about their pokemon fighting style, and got out of their way.

He looks down, giving Stevie a little scratch in the ruff, and he croons, distracted from Ford's clothes at least. "Was going to find your gym and museum. You said it was here." Just got distracted by so many babies.

SURPRISE, it's IV on June 22 also do you want a rabbit

[carbonatedscientist]

Very young Pokemon are indeed very difficult to take care of, and that Skitty, if it tries to gnaw on one man's mismatched shoes, is going to be met with a squad of rabbits--three Bunnelby and two Scorbunny. One of the Scorbunny and one of the Bunnelby are a bit larger than the others, and it's the largest Scorbunny that immediately starts trying to pick a fight with the Skitty as two of the Bunnelby start madly hopping around and the smaller Scorbunny and one of the smaller Bunnelby sort of freeze up in confusion.

Sento's just trying to pull his feet up and out of the line of fire and grab at a couple of the rabbits. "Tank, please do not set anything on fire this time, thank you..." Did anyone lose a Skitty? He's looking around trying to figure out where it came from.

much as I would like one, Bucky won't cooperate. too many babies already XD

[worthallthis]

"Sorry," says the person who lost the Skitty, trotting up to... not try to collect him, because Fuzzlebutt is already pouncing on Tank with an excited feline yowl. The bitty Absol on his shoulder wriggles, as if considering diving in, too. The Soldier winces, puts a hand over the second baby, and says again, "Sorry. He doesn't mean trouble. Just likes to wrestle. And chew."

There's a full-grown Absol padding up behind them, and she tilts her head, horn vibrating a little, as if considering intervening in the little tussle. She doesn't yet, though.

[carbonatedscientist]

"Oh, I've seen quite a bit of wrestling and chewing on my end of things, as well." He has so many rabbits right now, he doesn't even know why he's surprised at anything beyond the fact that the rabbits hatched out of eggs.

Tank's absolutely ready to throw down with that Skitty, and there's a light kick thrown in its direction. No special moves, just a bit of wrestling, and of course the Scorbunny's going to prefer kicking.

[worthallthis]

Feet are Fuzzle's favorite things. To chew on. He wraps himself around the kicking foot and bunny-kicks it, himself, though thankfully his little hind-claws aren't sharp. The Soldier keeps them trimmed, just because of this.

He sighs. Then takes in the little horde of... rabbits. "You have a lot of rabbity types," he says, more a surprise comment than a smart one. Sure, he has two Absols, but everything else is pretty varied. He's not seen anyone with this many, all so similar.