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Post by subtleAssiduities on May 23, 2017 17:18:46 GMT -5
"That sounds manageable," she replied pleasantly. The prospect of solving a mystery that didn't have time to daunt them was exciting. And a cup of tea didn't sound too bad either.
"Who is he dangerous to?" She sat down beside her, tail tip twitching. The Umbreon looked to her like a troublemaker, and she didn't doubt Win's ability to make herself a part of anyone's trouble. The last thing she needed was whoever had attacked this poor fool coming after her, or snooping around the ranch.
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Post by Atticus on May 23, 2017 18:13:16 GMT -5
Winter's ears fell back against her skull, and she thought on this.
"Well... anyone who'd want to hurt me."
It wasn't wrong. He had protected her before, once during a visit to the woods. She got to see a glimpse of Ryu's true abilities, and it was what motivated her to start getting stronger. The grey Umbreon moved like no one she had ever seen, but his speed and agility did not outdo his strength. Win hadn't been much into fighting until she saw him move.
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Post by subtleAssiduities on May 23, 2017 18:35:31 GMT -5
Vivian's eyes narrowed to vicious red slits. Why was Winter always pushing her to the brink of her patience? Did she think she was an idiot? Win couldn't possibly think that she wasn't giving herself away. Viv always suspected that she was running off, getting herself into trouble, but here she was, saying it without remorse. Her blood was boiling. Did this child have any sense?
"He can't stay here," she growled. It wasn't a threat, just a warning. As soon as he was able, he was out. She wasn't about to let in strangers and have them coming and going, causing a ruckus and tracking in Arceus-knows-what.
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Post by Atticus on May 23, 2017 18:45:33 GMT -5
Winter returned the stare, debating viciously if she should dignify her mother with a response. For months she had been trying to convince Ryu to leave the woods and join the ranch - if he had, he wouldn't have gotten attacked today. Ferals weren't as reasonable as domestics, after all.
Though, with another glance at her mother, despite how she loved her, Win couldn't say that domestics were holy children of Arceus, either. The Sylveon couldn't help but think of the Village. If Mother was resolute on Ryu leaving, and Ryu didn't want to stay, perhaps she could take him there... if she could figure out the way. Not that she wanted him to leave.
Win turned away from her mother, looking back at Ryu's unconscious form. "That's not up to you," she stated simply, her feelers whisking about the air around her. "The humans get to decide."
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Post by subtleAssiduities on May 23, 2017 19:55:15 GMT -5
Vivian's ears twitched with rising irritation fueled by the implicit fact that her daughter was absolutely right. Her tail gave another lash as she got to her feet.
"Don't hold your breath, Winter." The warning came out a snarl, chasing off any feeling of care behind it. Viv's patience was resolving, and she didn't want to snap at the willful child when she couldn't argue with her. She turned and limped off, returning to her corner of the barn.
Chance and Austin stepped out of her way, clearing a path for her. "Watch her," she growled, curling up in the hay.
"Yes, Mum," Austin murmured.
The two turned back to Winter, silently debating how to handle this. Watching over Winter wasn't an unfamiliar task to them... but they had never been good at it. Austin couldn't keep up with her, and he was too easily assuaged to cover for her shenanigans. Chance just didn't have the will. If he wanted to, he could never let her out of his sights, but what was the point when Winter didn't give him anything to worry about? His policy only backfired in cases like this.
Austin padded up to his sister and crouched beside her, eyeing Ryu thoughtfully. He hadn't gotten a chance to look him over before, what with him being on his back. He certainly was an... exotic-looking Pokémon. "So..." He looked toward his sister, brandishing a tentative smile. "You really have a knack for finding interesting friends, don't you?"
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Post by Atticus on May 23, 2017 20:06:36 GMT -5
Winter kept her back to the mutant as the red-furred Eeveelution stormed off. The Slyveon was trying to pay no heed to her mother's snarl, but she still felt her heart thump hollowly in her chest.
The Mr. and Mrs. of the ranch were good people... once they saw that Ryu was docile and had no where else to go, they wouldn't chase him back into the woods. No way.
Once Vivian left, Win let out a quiet scoff. "What do I need supervision for?" she muttered, looking over Ryu. She had no intention of leaving his side, even though she knew no harm would come to him even if she did. The Pokémon of the ranch were not like that, not even her matriarchal mother. Win simply wanted to be the face he saw when he woke up, so that wouldn't be overly alarmed at the new locale. He wasn't the type who seemed he would be thrilled to wake up in a place he didn't know with faces he didn't recognize.
She spared a glance back at her brothers. What were they going to do, watch her watch him?
The Sylveon blinked as her brother approached, gentling her gaze. Her frustrations were with her mother, not them. "They find me," she corrected him, almost wistfully. "I find things like rose bushes to get stuck in, that's all."
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Post by subtleAssiduities on May 23, 2017 20:17:45 GMT -5
Austin snickered. Winter was so clever; it was no wonder she annoyed their mom, and wearied Chance. "You're a damsel," he teased. "Attracting all sorts of colorful characters... I think Mum's jealous."
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Post by Atticus on May 23, 2017 20:24:52 GMT -5
Winter's ears pricked, warming substantially at the remark. A damsel! She opened her mouth to argue, flushed, but realized quickly that she had no rebuttal. That was how she got into all those interesting predicaments, getting stuck or lost somewhere in the woods. The Sylveon lowered her head, jutting out her lower lip in a pout.
"Don't tell Dad that," she huffed, trying to appear indignant but she couldn't fight the smile setting on her petite, milky white muzzle. "And if Mum's jealous, she has a funny way of showing it. You don't get to know a lot of people by telling them to get lost."
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Post by subtleAssiduities on May 23, 2017 20:40:56 GMT -5
Austin's tail swished. Nothing brightened his day like flattering his way through Winter's grumpy façade. He sometimes wondered if she seriously did not understand how much of a peach she was. "She just can't handle you," he said, nosing her cheek softly. "It doesn't mean she doesn't like you. When Chance and I were little, she'd cuff us when we were bad. You, she just gets mad at and stomps away." He settled onto his side and yawned. Those days seemed so far away, when he and Chance were constantly testing their limits and trying to outrun their mom. It was strange to him that Winter had no concept of that Vivian.
Now, her limp gave her so much trouble that she didn't go far from the barn unless she had to. It was always fueling a small flame of irritability that was easily ignited into an inferno. Her patience was a little shorter with Winter than it'd been with them, but her hit range was, too. He didn't like to think about it much; it made him sad. She'd slowed down so much in the last few years.
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Post by Atticus on May 23, 2017 20:59:28 GMT -5
Winter grumbled in a faux sourness when her cheek was bumped, avoiding her brother's gaze with whimsical stubbornness. A 'handful', she thought, wouldn't be the first word she would use to describe herself. Her mother had just been spoiled with Austin, as far as Win was concerned, and there were so many limits within the ranch... such as the ranch itself. They, all of them, were on just a portion of a landmass that had a whole other country just some ways to the west. Ellie had described it to her once when she noticed the map in her office one day when playing with Chelle. It was incredible... incredible that there was so much out there, and her mother wouldn't let her even explore the woods next to their home.
"You?" she asked in awe as she finally met her brother's green gaze. A mischievous smile wiped away her incredulous gape, and she tilted her head to the side. "What could you have done to piss off Mum? Couldn't recite all her rules off the top of your head?" She looked back at Chance from the corner of her eye. He she could understand perhaps a little more.
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Post by subtleAssiduities on May 23, 2017 21:15:38 GMT -5
"That was part of it," he chuckled, following her gaze. Chance had flattened himself to the ground in a sun beam leaking in from a crack in the barn wall. His half-lidded eyes didn't meet theirs, but he lazily flicked his tail in acknowledgement.
"Sometimes we'd sneak away, too," he went on. "Usually Chance led me out. And we would travel around a lot, so when we wandered off, we didn't know where we were going." He looked away wistfully, tail flicking with mirth. "A couple times, she had to get us out of some real trouble. That's usually when we got a smack. We earned it."
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Post by Atticus on May 23, 2017 21:25:37 GMT -5
The Sylveon considered this with intrigue. "So... you know what it's like then? Feeling confined?" she pressed. She had always felt like her escapades out into the woods were some kind of cultural taboo she was committing with the way her mother treated her like a heretic. Slapping her tail lazily against the floor in thought, her pale eyes gleamed as they bore into her brother's. If she stared hard enough, could she see what he saw?
"Where did you guys wind up?" she asked, her ears at full attention. All of Winter's adventures took place in the woods, but she had seen pictures of towns and cities beyond even Mahogany Town, and she yearned to get lost there.
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Post by subtleAssiduities on May 23, 2017 21:43:48 GMT -5
"Ah, all over the place," Austin replied, smiling sheepishly. He suddenly felt unqualified to answer his sister's question. "I usually only went to small towns. I don't remember the names. We wandered into woods all over the place, and dirt paths and paths with cobble stones. And some buildings. Chance has been everywhere." He looked up at the Espeon, hoping for help. He simply flicked his tail again. "He's been to big cities. He's been everywhere, even different regions." He paused. He was rambling. "Mum didn't like us going anywhere she couldn't see us, so we couldn't go far. Especially in cities. The buildings are so big, you can't see very far at all. She hates them. When we got lost there, she really let us have it. In the woods, we had an easier time. But we got into more trouble. You're lucky, Win. You run into nice Pokémon. I didn't really have that sort of luck..."
He trailed off, thinking of all the times that their encounters with wild Pokémon had been less than positive. The worst by far was when Chance had convinced him to wander away at twilight before either of them had evolved. They were in a luscious forest with Note and Tunes, who had been sticking assiduously to very boring trails, so they wandered off. Their attempt to play with some Teddiursa led to an attack by an Ursaring, who was ready to tear them apart before Vivian showed up. The memory was muddled by the sheer level of terror Austin felt as he and Chance cowered in hiding, but he remembered that after the fight, his mother was torn to pieces. He couldn't remember how she'd made it back to the humans before fainting.
That was what was on Vivian's mind every time Winter wandered off. Back then she was strong and fast, and she could take a hit and still take down a creatures ten times her size. Now, if something happened to her, there wasn't much she could do. She had a lot of pride for Chance and Austin, but he didn't think that she always trusted them to keep Winter safe should they have to.
He glanced back at Chance again, and saw the same memories he was facing dancing in the Espeon's lavender eyes. There, too, he saw agreement: Vivian was scared for her more than anything else. If only she could make Winter understand where all her frustration came from. Until then, he guessed they were doomed to a rocky relationship. He couldn't blame Winter. It'd taken him years to figure out what his mother was thinking. And even for Chance, it wasn't easy.
"It's dangerous out there," he concluded, turning back to his sister. "Mum saved us from a lot of really bad stuff back then. We never got off easy when we needed saving."
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Post by Atticus on May 23, 2017 21:59:33 GMT -5
Winter stayed silent all the while her brother spoke, absorbing every detail of his exploits. Even if he was vague, she could still picture the cities, all different from one another, all the Pokémon worth meeting... even the bad ones. Her eyes were round and full of wonder. How she longed to see it all!
"I know there's danger out there. I just... I-I know it sounds dumb and selfish, but being here and having hardly anything to worry about, y'know, Mum aside, I just... sometimes I don't feel like I'm really living. The idea of being positively safe until I die just... doesn't appeal to me." Was it selfish, she wondered, to long for an adrenaline rush, or was it selfish to live life only by the good it had to offer? She always had this idea that the Earth had a way of balancing. If she got to live it nice, and only nice, until her time was over, that meant there was someone out there longing for death. Win didn't want the sugarcoated experience, she wanted the full package. Even if she had to go and find it herself.
"Not that I've ever wanted to put you guys in danger," she felt she swiftly needed to clarify, "and don't get me wrong, I'm in no rush to die. But... when I do, and my life flashes before my eyes, what am I gonna see?"
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Post by subtleAssiduities on May 23, 2017 22:05:08 GMT -5
Despite himself, Austin managed to laugh. "You sound so dramatic." He quickly realized that that probably came off mean, and penitent, he lowered his ears and continued more gently. "It's not always going to be this way. You're still young, you know. There's plenty of living to do later. Chelle, I bet she's going to go out into the world, and she'll take you with her!" He paused, willing his sister to argue that. Everyone on the ranch knew it; the two were going to get into loads of trouble out there, and the whole ranch would wait to hear about it with baited breath. She had even heard Mum mutter about it once or twice.
"And if you really wanted to, I bet Tunes would take you with her. She's taken me! Right, Chance?"
The Espeon's eyes were glowing, and the ticking of his tail was interrupted by a steady vibrating of his tail tips. "Yeah. You'll get your moment of glory. You'll get plenty of them."
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