• Welcome to The Cave of Dragonflies forums, where the smallest bugs live alongside the strongest dragons.

    Guests are not able to post messages or even read certain areas of the forums. Now, that's boring, don't you think? Registration, on the other hand, is simple, completely free of charge, and does not require you to give out any personal information at all. As soon as you register, you can take part in some of the happy fun things at the forums such as posting messages, voting in polls, sending private messages to people and being told that this is where we drink tea and eat cod.

    Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything if you don't want to, but seriously, what have you got to lose? Five seconds of your life?

Frontier Town Old Town

Reader mode
At hearing that, Silver couldn’t help but chuckle a little. Though, it wasn’t with his usual trademark bold and overconfident tone. No, it was… softer, much closer to a giggle. But like heck he was gonna admit that he was… ugh, giggling!

“Heh. Yeah, I get what you mean,” he replied, and this time a tiny smile reappeared on his face. “I’ve got someone like that back home, too. My f-rival! Rival! My rival is…” he snorted, “such an optimistic airhead! Nothing seems to faze her, not even the greatest dangers! Like, heck, she’s the kinda person who would hug a rampaging Tyranitar to try to calm it down! Somehow, she seems to have the talent of seeing the light and goodness in everyone, or similar nonsense.”

Silver’s smile widened slightly. Despite his apparently rough words, it was clear from his joking tone that he didn’t truly mean them and he was mostly pretending to sound annoyed and aloof.

She saw something good in someone like me…

“But… I’d say that’s part of her charm, though. She’s always so… sweet, and gentle, and willing to help others with a bright smile. It wouldn’t surprise me if she could wow anyone with her cheerful energy and personality — she’s a literal social Butterfree! I’m serious; I don’t think there’s any creature she can’t get along with!”

Silver looked down at the flask and turned it in his paws, but got tired of that exercise quickly and slipped it through the belt of his belt bag so that it wouldn’t budge. He sighed and placed his hands on his hips, his smile turning sad.

“I… tried to follow her example a few times, but… it’s not easy for me. I’m not that kinda person. I’m just… me. Someone who’s barely learned how to make friends,” he said, muttering ‘friends’ as if it was some barely speakable foreign word, before a flash of determination burned into his eyes. “But… I’m doing all I can. I really wanna improve and become a better person, in a way or another.”

Much better than how I used to be.

Silver sighed again and looked away, smiling shyly. “I hope I’ll succeed someday, and become someone others can rely on and trust…”
 
Archie was briefly reminded of his own recent escapade of trying to give a rampaging Shadow possessed Lycanroc a cool down hug and he had to cringe internally. Yeah, he could see why Silver would maybe mentally compare him enough to his own home world friend to ask him about how he made friends. Hopefully the attempts went better for her than they did for the Oshawott.

“I think you’re maybe being a little hard on yourself,” Archie said, trying his best to look reassuring, “I have yet to have a single reason to doubt your reliability or trustworthiness. That doesn’t meant you can’t keep striving to do better, but don’t ignore the progress you’ve made already!”

He didn’t know how well Silver was doing getting along with everyone, but if it was as well as he was getting along with Archie, the Sneasel probably had a number of friends! … At least, he couldn’t be doing worse than Wes and Koa were with each other.

“Your rival sounds a lot like my partner, though,” he added with a grin, “I bet they’d get along great if they were here.”
 
Silver chuckled softly and reciprocated the grin. “Oh, I have no doubts ‘bout that! It wouldn’t surprise me if they became besties from day one. Or even minute one, for that matter!”

Just thinking about that eventuality (and Kotone being around) made his heart pulse with an unrecognizable warmth. It was like the gentle glow of a candle that, once lit, cleared away the doubts that gnawed at his mind. And yet, that same glow also better showed the dark figures hiding in the shadows, and a side of him was… concerned. The now-Sneasel didn’t even want to fathom a world that threatened to blow away that soft light.

Well! If such a scenario were to become a reality, then he needed to be ready! Get stronger, swifter and smarter, so that he could be always ready to lend a hand to the people he cared about.

That inner resolution reflected on his own body, too. A grateful smile stretched on his muzzle, and his tail fully spread out its feathers and quivered with newfound energy.

“Thanks, Archie. For… well, this chat. It has helped me clear my mind and reassess a lot of matters that bothered me.”

Slowly, fueled by a sudden leap of faith, Silver reached out for the Oshawott’s paws and held them gently, then bowed with his head, whistling as he did so. That was the closest he could offer to a gesture of respect and kinship, and he hoped Archie got the message, in a way or another. You’d better translate that, Betel, because I’m not gonna repeat myself!

With that out of the way, Silver let go of Archie’s paws and flashed his trademark smirk. “Alright! That’s enough saccharine emotional nonsense from me! We’ve still got plenty of stuff to buy and expeditions to fully plan out!” He glanced around the area, and his feathers twitched. “I think I saw some bags over there… C’mon, let’s go!”

Without thinking for a second too many, Silver took off with a burst of speed… only to realize that he left Archie behind. He sighed exasperatedly, annoyed that his Sneasel instincts decided that was a good moment to run off, but quickly salvaged the awkward moment with a proposal.

“Ha! By the way!” Silver bolted back toward Archie and shot him a cheeky smirk. “I’m gonna buy you the next thing, and I won’t accept no as an answer!”
 
Silver’s mustelid excitability was infectious, and before long Archie was grinning again. The Sneasel was dooking and dancing and dashing all about; the Oshawott definitely thought he’d come a long way from the kind of person he’d described himself as. Anyone going adventuring with this Sneasel would be lucky to have him.

“No problem, I’m glad I was able to help,” he said. “Thank you, too, for letting me get all that off my chest.”

But, Silver was right! They still had so much to prepare! Their expeditions would be here before they knew it, and the last thing either of them wanted was to be caught in the middle of the wilderness without sufficient supplies. Actually, he probably had the money to afford a larger bag at this point, anyway, and he’d probably need a bigger one for when he evolved anyway. So it probably would be a good idea to… Wait, Silver was going to what!?

“Wait, Silver, no! Don’t worry about that!”

It turned out Archie was about to learn just how stubborn a Sneasel could be.

<><><><><><><>​
 
[Ch05] Nova & Grace ~ Catching Up
  • Threadmarks
    • Nova wanted an easy request from the bulletin board given his fatigue. Unfortunately, in this case, easy meant dumb. Thus, Nova was searching around old town for a misplaced scarf. A job was a job.

    It was dumb because of how long it was taking. By now, the desert winds probably covered the damn thing in dirt.

    But then something cast a shadow out of the corner of his eye. Nova looked up, crest fanning out. "Oh, hey! You here for a stupid reason, too? I'm trying to find a lost scarf."
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Grace slowly walked into view, waving a paw as she grinned. "Hey, Nova! I guess you could say I'm here for something similar," she said with a giggle. "I was looking for a toy! This cute little Sewaddle lost his toy while playing, so I'm just retracting their steps!"
     
    "Neat!" Nova paused. "Ah, not for the kid, of course. But I guess we can keep eyes peeled for each other's stuff." He jerked his head to his left, a direction he hadn't gone yet. He began to walk that way, looking around for any fabric somehow poking out of the dirt. "I, uh, took this cuz I still need some cash. But that raid left me exhausted. Even wandering around's giving me a headache.

    "How're you feeling? I dunno what happened with you after we all split up."
     
    Grace continued to speed-walk after him, wings barely flapping behind her. "Oh, yeah, I'm pretty knackered too!" she said, stretching an arm out. "I was so busy healing and making sure everyone else was alright! It's busy stuff, you know?"

    She looked around for a moment, then glanced back up at Nova. "What did your group get up to? I've not had much time to breathe since we got back! Being a Wayfarer is tiring work!"
     
    "Tell me about it." Nova's crest drooped. "Went to the Deep Lab and broke the machine making the shadows. We got the source, too. Think they're innocent and need some help. But I'll be honest... that's when things started to blur together."

    He stopped to stretch his hind legs. "I was... getting my energy drained. Felt like I could barely stand." His turquoise parts dimmed. "I was on autopilot the whole way back and sleeping a ton.

    "Makes me think I missed some stuff." Nova sighed. "What did you guys end up finding in the rest of the place?"
     
    "Oh, you know, a lot of science-y stuff that I'm not very good at!" she laughed awkwardly and lightly bonked herself on the head while sticking her tongue out. "I couldn't make much sense of it, so I was guarding those prisoners we broke out! I couldn't find everyone I was looking for, though, so it might be Plan B..."
     
    "Plan B?" Nova winced. Had he missed something on the way back? "Have we made some other plans for this stuff?"
     
    "Oh, you didn't know?" Grace asked strangely, tapping a paw against her chin. "There's been some plans with Gerome-- d'you know him? The Tyranitar? He's gonna help me rescue Owen... I want to rescue him even though he attacked me, sssooo I'm gonna be bait and stuff!"

    The Togetic flashed a pose, then quickly glanced around again. "Toy... toy... if I were a toy... where would I be...?"
     
    Nova's crest constricted. He continued forward, scanning the ground. "Owen? Isn't he with that Alexander guy? We're all worried about that zweilous, right? So then, there a plan to take him on? Who's your backup aside from Gerome?"
     
    "That's the same Owen," she said with a nod. "And whatever Wayfarer's wanna come along can do so-- it's a careful operation after all! I lure him out by being all defenceless and stuff, and then we'll get the jump on him! He'll never expect it!"

    Since evolving, Grace had been using her wings wherever she could. Beside Nova, she was waddling quickly to keep up with his larger stride.
     
    "Right. Makes enough sense, I suppose."

    Nova went to bend over. But he did so mid-step and misjudged his angle, which resulted in him kicking up some dirt in Grace's direction. "Anything else? Like following up on the raid?"
     
    The dirt showered Grace, and she staggered in surprise. She didn't say anything about it, though, and just did her best to keep up.

    "That's what I'm trying to do? I was doing a different part of the raid! I heard some fighting, but I was downstairs with the prisoners and the others, so I missed all the exciting stuff! I had to make sure everyone was okay or stick around in case the prisoners got all aggro and stuff."
     
    "Right, right. Shadows and stuff." Nova had his beak toward the ground, sniffing around. "I was focusing on Mewtwo stuff before the raid. I may... go back to that now. Your kitchen sounds like it has a lotta cooks already.

    "We working on anything else you've heard about?"
     
    "Hmm..." Grace said, humming a little loudly to herself.

    "Well there's that plan, and then there's all that Shadows and Radiance stuff... you know, the usual stuff these days. It's all a little hard to keep track of!" she laughed softly, brushing some dirt off of herself. "But... what's that about Mewtwo? I think I remember hearing that somewhere..."
     
    Goodness, she'd gotten forgetful. "Mhynt and I are planning a raid. I've got the power to draw Mewtwo's attention. But didn't I tell you before?" Nova frowned. "We shouldn't be getting you checked out for a head injury, should we?"
     
    Grace tensed for a moment.

    "Oh... Oh yeah, I remember!" she exclaimed, raising a paw to rub her head. "All of this mess with all these humans is quite a lot...! A lot of things are going on that it's hard to keep track of it all. We can get me checked out if you want, though? But maybe we should find that scarf, first!"
     
    Reader mode
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top Bottom