September Catch Call

[nastyboy]

Who: Team Femblemtroika and guests (Dimitri, Grant, Chip, Claude, Felix, Ashe, Annette, Dedue)
What: After temple adventures, it's back to depression. And maybe recovery.
When: September
Where: Vermillion City, and other Kanto places

Comments

Group Text | 9/13, while Felix is on his way back from Sion's house

[bestswordmaster]

I want to bring hermione to stay at the house with us
she's my student
and she's been living in pokecenters for months.
for
some reason.
any objections?

[vrdantwind]

No objections, but what's she like?

And she knows we're all kind of a mess right now, right?

[bestswordmaster]

she's
like lysithea but smiles more
and asks too many questions like you do.
she's highly intelligent, responsible, and focused.
and she knows enough.

[vrdantwind]

Sounds like someone I'd like, anyway. Although I don't know how much socializing I feel up to just yet...or even how good I'd be at it right now.

Again, though, I'm fine with it.

[nastyboy]

[Felix keeps adopting - taking in students. Dimitri... thinks he might be relieved, a little bit. That means Felix is recovering, at least a little bit. Or, at any rate, he's making connections with people, and maintaining those he has.]

[Although-]

We will have to clean the house properly if we are going to have a guest. The yard is still not in a proper and presentable shape, either. When do you plan on arriving with her, Felix?

[bestswordmaster]

we're taking the train back to saffron
idk yet whether she has access to kanto warps
I'll ask.
if not we'll have to walk back to vermillion.
but you don't need to do all that.

[nastyboy]

If she does not have access to the warps here in Kanto, then I will offer to send over some of my Paliens. Many of them now are quite speedy, and could get you both here safe and sound.

I may not need to do it, but I do want her to feel welcome and comfortable here. A little bit of effort into presentation is the least I could do.

this is very late but grant wouldn't have NOT replied SO!!

[woofdad]

Oh god, yeah I'd be fine with her staying here
I'll have to let Chip know ahead of time. What's she like?

[bestswordmaster]

thanks.
she's older than chip
16 I think
she's diligent and focused
highly competent and intelligent
practical.
her hair is a bit like yours.

Nebulous timeframe tbd

[vrdantwind]

It's well past time Claude addresses the wyvern in the room. And the Dedue in the garden, for that matter.

He'd been...relatively prompt in talking to the other members of their group who were from Fodlan, at least once his secret had first come out. He'd resolved not to hide it anymore from that point on - hiding it from some and not others hadn't just seemed rather unfeasible, but unfair - and he'd preferred to volunteer the information himself, rather than have it accidentally revealed by someone else who was already in the know and then have to do damage control. But with Dedue...well, the man had been the victim of extremely unfortunate timing. Almost before the pleasant surprise of his arrival had worn off, the crushing blow of Sylvain's disappearance had hit them...and that had driven almost everything else from their minds for a good while. Claude himself had been barely functional for almost two weeks.

And then - almost fortunately - an emergency call from people he knew within the temple had forced Claude to become active again. And while he's certainly backslid a bit since then, without urgency driving him...he hasn't sunk all the way back to how low he was before. He's slowly getting back to - well, functional. Not good, not normal, but passably functional. He gets out of bed in the morning, he does normal things, he's regained an awareness and borderline interest in things happening outside their house. And, with that, he no longer has anything to prevent him from becoming aware a talk with Dedue is over(de)due, or any excuse to put it off any longer.

So, after making sure he looks at least as good as he did back when he was leader of the Alliance - barring some dark circles under his eyes; he's been having trouble sleeping, and he's not sure whether that's the source of his constant exhaustion or not - he slips out of the house and into the garden. It's nice outside, and he has to admit the sun feels good on his skin; he hasn't been out of the house nearly enough lately, and down in the depths of the temple doesn't quite count as being outside. It's also peaceful to watch Dedue calmly tending plants - there's a nostalgia to it in how it calls back to their days in Garreg Mach, but also it's just nice to see the man do something he clearly finds pleasant. It's almost a shame to interrupt him.

Still, Claude does. He approaches from behind, clearing his throat once he's close enough. "Hey, Dedue, do you have some time to talk?"

[donoteattheweeds]

Dedue hadn't understood why Claude was so desperately affected by Sylvain's disappearance until Ashe explained it to him-- the news that there is such a love... polygon occurring amongst his former schoolmates was surprising, but did explain much of the strange dynamics in the household. And, of course, if this arrangement is what satisfies all of them and has no major social ramifications in this place, there seems to be no harm in its pursuit. The grief associated with Sylvain's departure aside, if Dimitri has found happiness in this, than Dedue is pleased for him. For all of them.

It was worrisome, then, the listlessness that had come over Claude in the past few weeks. Dedue didn't know him well, but he always remembered him as being bright and active, both in body and mind; that he's returning to some of his former temperament is heartening.

Claude comes upon him while he's busy in the garden, taking care of some minor pruning. The lion's share of that work won't really be until late autumn, after the first few hard frosts, when the perennials start to die back. But there are a few damaged branches and dead blossoms that need to be dealt with, just maintenance work. When Claude announces himself, Dedue sets down his shears and removes his work gloves, then stands and faces him.

"Of course, Claude," he replies. "Your timing is fortunate, as there is something that I would like to discuss with you, as well. It is not of particular import, however."

Merely some inquires about changes to the garden that he wishes to make; nothing that requires immediate attention.

"Is there something that I can help you with?"

[vrdantwind]

For all that Claude likes Dedue a lot, that question from him is a reminder of the thing he likes the least about him. He's always so...deferential. Claude's sure that a man of Duscur, living in Faerghus, probably can't afford to act any differently...but, well, it's not like Claude likes that, either, so it's not like he's going to enjoy the symptoms. Of course, Dimitri doesn't like it much either, as Claude recalls, so if he can't get Dedue to knock it off, no one else has a ghost of a chance.

But it always makes Claude a little uncomfortable. When Dedue responds to him like this, as though Claude must want Dedue to do something for him just because he asked to talk to him...it always leaves him wondering just what kind of person Dedue actually thinks he is. Sometimes he wonders if Dedue thinks about what kind of person Claude is at all, or if he's so used to having to act a certain way for people who could make his life hell that he treats everyone like that without any consideration of whether he actually has to.

But, again, it's not like Claude can do anything about it, except correct Dedue...constantly. He smiles slightly at the other man. "I don't need you to do anything for me; like I said, I wanted to talk. Specifically...well, you arrived at a pretty weird time, which I'm sure you didn't miss, but a side effect of all that is that there's a lot of stuff you need filled in on that I don't think anyone's caught you up on yet. Under any other circumstances, you would've been told a lot more a lot sooner, but..." He shrugs, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, no one's exactly been at their best lately. And I'll admit up front that I'm the guy who tends to think in terms of information management, who does or doesn't need to know what. So if anyone really owns the lapse, it's me.

"But better late than never, right? I'm doing...well, better enough to start picking up the slack I've been letting pile up. I know you'd probably be the last to complain, but you didn't deserve to be left in the dark this long...and there's a lot for me to shed light on."

august and also whenever

[woofdad]

A - woops - backdated to 8/27

The playpen Grant keeps around for newly-hatched Pokemon is sitting in the living room, and there are six Woopers in it.

They’re just doing their Wooper thing, bumping around inside the playpen and smushing their faces against the sides to examine their surroundings, making their occasional little woop sounds over the sound of a shower running elsewhere in the house. There’s a plaid button-up, potentially recognizable as one of Grant’s, dropped in the middle of the playpen, and every so often the Woopers reconvene on it to woop their findings to each other.

Eventually, the water stops, and it’s just a couple minutes later that Grant returns to the living room, grimacing and rubbing at his arms as if they’d both fallen asleep. Just as his overshirt has been left in the living room for the time being, it looks like he’s swapped out his attire from that morning for a hastily thrown-on sleeveless shirt and sweatpants, not even bothering to replace his hair tie after showering. “Alright… you guys think you’re ready to look around the house now? Preferably without swarming me?”

B - cooking adventures - over the course of September

Figuring out how to reproduce recipes he never actually learned, with his sense of smell (and therefore taste) severely reduced from where they were when he actually experienced most of these recipes, when Grant himself doesn’t have much cooking experience is… it’s a task. But he’s not gonna learn by giving up, right?

Every so often, the others who either live in or just drop by the house occasionally may find Grant making some kind of an attempt in the kitchen. The attempt in question may involve piling ingredients into a slow cooker, or mixing together some kind of sauce, or… setting a whole stockpot of in-the-shell peanuts and water to boil on the stove.

He’s visibly a little distracted when he looks up, but anyone who stops by will still get at least a smile and a “Hey!”

A

[nastyboy]

By the time that Grant comes back to the playpal of woops, Dimitri has crouched down in front of it. Cradled in his legs would be a jar of pickle slices, with a fork poking out from its briny depths. That would certainly explain the slice Dimitri has held between two fingers, and that he's holding right over the edge of the playpen.

At the sound of Grant's approach, Dimitri looks up with worry writ across his face. "Grant... There you are. Are your arms feeling better, now?" Because this absolutely hasn't been the first time that Grant has had to experience Wooper struggles.

The first time was after he crashed through the floor into a pile of woops, shaving off more years of Dimitri's life that was short enough to begin with, and probably encouraging the development of early gray hairs.

[woofdad]

"Well, I can feel my fingers again, so... better, yeah." It might sound like a joke, and he might smile like it's a joke, but also. Not really a joke. He's not sure if these guys have worse control over their skin toxins than Chip's Quagsire did even as a Wooper, or if it's just the difference between holding onto one versus being swarmed by six, but jeez.

He crouches down alongside Dimitri while the smallest of the Woopers toddles over, trying to get all the way up onto his little toes to reach for the pickle slice. "These guys really just make it impossible to be mad at them, huh."

Polycule Thread - whenever everyone looks the Least Fucked Up in a while

[nastyboy]

It's taken... some time for Dimitri to choose when to have this conversation. More than he would have liked, in a perfect world, but it couldn't be helped. Everything just fell apart so quickly, and picking up the pieces has felt like it's taken some time.

But, well... For once, everyone is in the same location. Some of their spirits seem to have been - if not lifted up exactly, then at least a little more active. Now feels like the right time to bring it up.

And besides... He can't leave the subject abandoned forever.

So he's gathered them all together in a small corner of the yard, with its largeness being a benefit, and is taking a breath. This does not feel like an easy thing to bring up... especially with what Felix has brought up to him before. It's enough to make him nervous, honestly. Everyone has just managed to feel a little bit better...

Still, he forces himself to speak. "Some time ago, I was... confessed to. By someone met here in Johto." In other words - not from Fodlan.

hoo boy

[bestswordmaster]

By the time Dimitri gets around to saying anything at all, Felix's fight-or-flight response already has him on edge. It's that all-too-familiar feeling that just when he thought things might be okay, he realizes he's careening toward a cliff and he doesn't know how to stop himself from going over it.

Sylvain's the one who always catches him. But Sylvain isn't here. And it's the first group talk they've had since he left, and Felix honestly isn't sure he'll be able to get through it without snapping or walking away.

Which is why he's sitting as close to Claude as he dares without seeming too...needy. If Grant weren't there, he might have just sat in Claude's lap from the getgo. As it is, he's close enough that there's no way Claude can't tell how tense he is.

He doesn't say anything in response to this opening volley. Just watches Dimitri and tries not to feel like this is heading toward an attempt to replace Sylvain. But if Dimitri had no intention of accepting this person's advances, whoever they are, he wouldn't have bothered calling a meeting about it. Which means he's seriously expecting Felix to sit here and calmly consider the idea, somehow.

It's not that he thinks that's actually what Dimitri is trying to do, obviously. That's just how it feels. And he fucking hates it. His left hand - the one with the ring on it - clenches in his lap.

[vrdantwind]

Claude, for his part, slips an arm loosely around Felix's waist. He can tell the man is wound up to the point of snapping; he doesn't know if any amount of delicate handling can actually avoid that, given the circumstances. All he can do is...do his best to be there for Felix, and reassure him as much as he's able. He can only imagine how hard all of this is for Felix without having Sylvain's reliable presence beside him; Claude's never had that kind of support to take for granted, only to have it ripped away.

"So was I," he murmurs. "By the same person, I'm guessing. Although in my case, I was kind of prying; all he did was answer my questions honestly." He glances questioningly at Dimitri. "Under better circumstances, I don't think I'd have any reservations about exploring the possibilities there, as long as everyone else was on board...but right now, I'm honestly not sure what I want to do for myself, even before what anyone else thinks."

He shakes his head. "It came up...right before Sylvain left, and after that I wasn't in any state to even think about it for awhile. But I guess it needs to be talked about sometime."

BEAR SEASON

[didyoulosethis]

Return of the box

Despite their promises to rest more after earning their first Badge, Byleth has been as busy as ever, and apparently as hard to catch for a conversation as they were at the Academy - whether it's training, exploring, studying...they make time for everyone, of course, but there's only one of them here at the moment.

Apparently, though, they've thought of how to remedy this already. One morning (regardless of how early one wakes up), their housemates will notice that there's something new in the kitchen, tucked out of the way but impossible to miss: A frankly terrifying lucky Meowth coin bank, complete with fake coins in its little diorama and a slot positioned cleverly behind its forehead coin. There's also a small plastic stand that holds a note card, beside a small box of paper slips of just the right size to go in the bank.

The note card simply reads, in the Professor's own handwriting:

ADVICE

You know what to do. And if you don't, someone will probably tell you.

BEARS BEARS BEARS

Mandagot remains a mystery to Byleth, but they know a depressed baby when they see it. Stufful, sweet little thing he is, is just as heartbroken as the rest of the household without his trainer. The Professor and their pokemon pals have been struggling to figure out a way to cheer the poor guy up, and when the wilds are suddenly swarming with bear pokemon, inspiration strikes. They pack up for a night out in the woods, stocked up on pokeballs, and head out with only Levin, Knife Dog, and Mandagot (the latter two coming on their own insistence, of course) in tow. They do make sure to leave word with their friends that they're going out to catch some pokemon, of course; a vanishing scare is the last thing the Femblemtroikas need right now.

And so the Professor heads out for a brief adventure, and returns to stand at the front door with a Pancham under each arm and a Teddiursa on their shoulders. They were going to let themself in, but this works, too.

"I'm back."

Red apple, green apple; sweet apple, sour apple (for the Abaroas)

So apparently the reason Teddiursa wasn't eating the apple she was clinging to isn't because it's underripe. It's an Applin! And a shiny, at that. Byleth only noticed when they caught it peeking at them at one point, but even knowing it's alive they haven't been able to pry it from that cub's sticky paws. Which is a problem, since pokemon need to eat. Applin hasn't shown any discomfort at being treated like a common fruit, but Byleth still worries.

Which is why they go to Grant. He has an Appletun, the evolved form of Applin (they checked!); if Teddiursa isn't going to unhand an Applin, then maybe Byleth needs to find some way to make that Applin too big to hold. (Because they would never dare to subject their pokemon to unwelcome statuses just to achieve something like this).

"How do you evolve an Applin?"

This time it's not one, not two, but three pairs of unsettling wide, unblinking eyes staring at him, because of course Byleth had to bring Applin with them. Which means they had to bring Teddiursa.

apl.....

[woofdad]

So, while Grant may have more or less gotten used to Byleth's stare, it's a bit much in combination with... extra stares. He'll try not to get too distracted by those as he answers.

"Ah - actually, you feed it an apple... you got a couple options, though." He looks around for Chip to get their attention - assuming they haven't already come over to check this situation out. "Byleth, you've met Sweetie, right...? Chip, have you shown them Sour?"

He'll just... deal with the practical aspect before asking why Byleth's Teddiursa is just clinging to that Applin.

[demonpuppy]

Hello yes did someone call for a small and timid childe? Chip perks up a bit from where they had been brushing Pooka, and hops up to make their way over while Pooka himself follows along behind them with a grumpy look.

"Sour? Um..." They frown and try to think, but...even without Depression Session they're horrible at remembering small details like that. "I dunno, but I can go get her!"

--aaaand they've run off. Pooka squeaks in annoyance and bounds off to follow, the hairbrush finally falling out from where it had stuck in his coat.

b o x

[nastyboy]

Well.

So that meowth is a thing.

It's such a thing that Dimitri has to pause and stare at it when he's returning from a small sketch session out in the sun, taking the time to draw some of his Pokemon. The sketchbook is still in his hand, but it might as well be forgotten. It's easy to forget a lot of things, when faced with....

That.

Another second is needed to take in the fact that there's a note and, after a moment of puzzled confusion, memories stir in the recesses of Dimitri's mind. That's right... He remembers the advice box, from his student days. Such a minor little thing, he'd nearly forgotten about it after five years of... a lot happening.

...Well. It would be a shame not to use it.

A note makes its way into the muscular Meowth.

I fear that I have taken on too many hobbies since arriving in Johto and Kanto. While I enjoy all of them equally, I fear that I will become rusty with one without knowing it. How should I handle this dilemma so that I avoid falling into such a pit?

backdated to 8/27, closed to claude and dimitri

[woofdad]

So, falling through a hole in the floor of a mysterious ocean temple was… probably the third or fourth scariest thing ever to have happened to Grant?

When his brain finally catches up to his body and his heart returns to his chest, he determines that he doesn’t seem to have broken anything, or even bruised particularly badly, probably thanks to the spongy bed of plant matter he’s landed on. So… there’s that, at least. He calls up through the hole that he’s alright, hoping Claude and Dimitri can hear him, but he doesn’t know if he can assume they’re even still there. Shit.

As he looks around, trying to get an idea of his surroundings, he glimpses a couple little blue Pokemon peering around the surrounding architecture at him. Okay, well… there’s worse company while he waits here than a few Wooper - and he will be waiting, because if there’s one thing he knows about getting lost, it’s that the best thing he can do now is to sit down and stay put.

And... somehow, by the time Claude and Dimitri reach him, there are a half-dozen Wooper nosing at him and clambering over him with their little feet. He looks up at the sound of his boyfriends approaching, his face lighting up at the confirmation that he is not, in fact, trapped down here forever.

BEEP BEEP

[nastyboy]

Grant may want to reconsider just how happy he is at his boyfriends coming to get him, because one of them decided that stairs are for people with more to lose. And so he's taking a slightly more.... direct approach.

So.

There are a couple of bits of pebble falling after Grant. And some tiny flecks of ice.

This would be because there is Rat, Incoming.

Dimitri, very reasonably, did not think he would need to have a flying type Pokemon in an underwater temple - and none of his fliers could fit down such a hole, either. Neither could any of his Surfing Pokemon; Karimala is much too large for such a thing. And so he's gone with a slightly more unconventional method of traveling... Clinging to his Raticate as she makes a perilous path Down slightly less so by blaring out an Ice Beam so that they are sliding straight down to Wherever The Fuck.

Not that his Raticate - Knocker - is without sense, of course. As the bottom of the hole becomes apparent, she digs her teeth straight past ice, into stone.

For any other Pokemon, this would probably be a, uh, horrible idea. It would also shove nothing, on account of their teeth breaking. But for Raticate - who gnaw on steel for fun, whose Super Fang cannot be overestimated enough - this is child's play, and, soon, there is, uh.... There is a giant rat hanging from the ceiling by her teeth.

And Dimitri is hanging from the giant rat.

"Grant!" Completely ignoring his own predicament, Dimitri cranes his neck to look towards the ground with a voice full of nothing but pure panic for his lover. "Are you all right!?"

[vrdantwind]

Perhaps, under normal circumstances - which is to say, when the loss of one of his boyfriends isn't already weighing on him - Claude might keep a cooler head. Possibly he'd be more cautious and practical, even in the face of such an alarming thing as his lover suddenly falling through the floor of an abandoned temple into who knows what danger or injury. Or maybe Claude always loses his ability to maintain detached pragmatism when someone he loves seems to be in danger. It's hard to say, given everything currently in play.

All that can be said with any certainty is that Claude panics almost as thoroughly as Dimitri, and that's no small feat.

"Grant!"

As it happens, Claude didn't only bring Sharp to serve his water pokémon needs. He also brought Melusine...inherited directly from Sylvain. (This was part sentimentality, part practicality; Melusine's a higher level than Shirov, Claude's own hand-raised Milotic, and not knowing how powerful the pokémon of the temple might be, Claude had opted to be better prepared.) The upshot to that...well, Claude might be panicking, but that doesn't mean he's not using his brain. And as soon as he thinks of how he can get down to Grant, it immediately occurs to him that he has what amounts to a 20-foot-long rope.

Grant will see, lowering into the hole, the beautiful fan-like tail of a Milotic. And Claude promptly follows, sliding down it like a fireman's pole. (Sharp the Wishiwashi, or rather the school of fish currently acting as the entirety of Sharp, descends with Claude, with an urgency that suggests that Claude did a minimum of consulting with the pokémon currently allowing him to breathe and Sharp is just trying to keep up with him.) There's still a drop between where Melusine's tail ends and the floor, but it's a manageable one, and Claude doesn't hesitate to make it.

As soon as his feet touch the floor, he's rushing over to Grant. "Are you all right?!" The question may be somewhat borne from his own knowledge of Grant and that Grant does sometimes say he's fine when he's not(although Claude hasn't known that to extend to physical issues before), but it's mostly stemming from the massive dose of alarm adrenaline that blasted through Claude's veins that hasn't exactly let up yet.