Sy had no disillusions about how sheltered his life was. Though acutely aware of the width and breadth of things he had not seen or encountered, he liked to think he was, at least, further along than his siblings, and before them, his parents.

He had his toes dipped in the water, so to speak, while they were still squarely on dry land.

Even so, he never thought in a million years he'd ever see someone riding a Scolipede.

The sight was so distracting, he looked up from the beach ahead, squinting into the early morning sunlight; for a moment, he thought he was hallucinating.

Then he stepped on the Frillish and his whole leg went numb, a prickling sensation that xylophoned up the limb to about his mid-thigh. Losing feeling and use of the leg, he dragged his useless foot sideways in the sand, pitching forward with a yelp.

The Frillish wrapped itself around his leg as he shook the sand out of his hair and fished Vermillion's Pokeball out of his shorts. The Comfey took one look at his situation and went to work untangling the Frillish's tentacles from around Sy's leg; it hurt, bad, and he was biting a hole on the inside of his cheek to keep from screaming. Eventually, Verm lost her patience and swept the jellyfish up in an angry petal blizzard, whipping it around like a plastic bag in a windstorm, before letting it flop, motionless, in the sand.

She returned to examine Sy's injury while he fished a Pokeball out of his shorts to bop the limp Frillish with, lest it regain its mojo and get anymore bright ideas.

catch attempt frillish ; water / fairy

Shalin Nariya !

☉

‘Masculine yelp’ was a very accurate description of the noise that came out of Sy when the Frillish wrapped around his leg. There was also a little bit of whining as he gripped the meat of his calf and watched the bright red lines begin to fade to something darker, looking light lightning streaking up his foot, ankle, and shin.

Still, he did his best to force on a happy face as the stranger skittered up to him on her Scoliopede. Torn between being grateful that he wasn’t alone out here on the beach and embarrassment that someone had seen his 6’7” frame get downed by, essentially, a plastic bag with stingers.

His smile faded into confusion. He blinked at the girl.

“You ride a Beedrill?”

It did not compute.

water / fairy

Shalin Nariya !

☉

Sy had lived in the Hoenn region his whole life and, while he wasn’t super outdoorsy, he was, you know, six foot seven, and in excellent physical condition. He never really thought about anything in the world being dangerous.

We suffer for our hubris. Or, at least, he does.

“Thanks,” he said, as the green-haired stranger attended to his wounds-- Vermillion, his Comfey, hovered and spun around her, tittering now and then, to ensure she was doing a proper job. Her treatment lessened the pain slightly, and the dark purple lines in his summer-bronzed skin had stopped spreading.

“Nah, I’ll be fine,” he said, squeezing the meat of his hip flexor, “it’ll go away here, soon, and you and Verm will have me right as rain.” But he was still grounded for the time being, and he watched as the girl swapped her bugs, and he watched, with a horrified fascination, as the two of them embraced. Then the Beedrill got down on all-- fours??? Symon didn’t know-- like an adult playing horsie with a toddler.

Even Vermillion hummed a note, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Uh-huh, I’ll bet,” Sy said, when he found his voice. How weird. He smiled. Weird people were cool! It was cool to be weird. He was, in fact, mostly ostracized from his family for being considered quote-unquote weird. “I’m Symon, and this is Vermillion-- Verm?”

The lei in question had, in fact, floated away to investigate a Morgrem, who was investigating just what the heck was going on on the beach. The little goblin was so focused on watching Sy and Shalin that it didn’t notice Vermillion sneaking around and behind it, where she lifted it up in a petal blizzard, spun it around, and dropped it nearer to Sy.

“Hey, don’t be mean to the little guy,” Sy said, voice bordering on a pout, as he helped the Morgrem out (by catching it), “he was just curious.”

Vermillion looked him in the eye with the severe glare of a wounded animal. Her trainer was hurt, and she was not messing around, thank you very much.

water / fairy ;
catch attempt morgrem
Shalin Nariya !

☉

“Yeah, Verm takes good care of me,” Sy said, voice full of affection as his Comfey returned to his side. The Posy Picker Pokemon let out a long, aggrieved sigh, as though taking care of Symon was the hardest thing she ever had to do. It was, in fact, but only insofar as it was the only thing she ever had to do.

He watched the woman fawn over her massive Beedrill and down a wild Froakie, avoiding a hydro pump in quick succession. “Wow,” he said, chin bobbing in a nod, “that’s effective.” Verm swung round to face him, giving him a scathing look that said don’t get any ideas, and saw a Dedenne over his shoulder. Like the Morgrem, the Antenna Pokemon was just coming to investigate, but Verm was having none of it.

She threw herself at it like a ring-toss ring, looping around the Dedenne and spinning violently in a version of play rough that left the poor thing bruised and dizzy. Symon bounced a Pokeball off its head, frowning.

“If I stand up, will you stop being so aggro?” he asked.

water / fairy ;
catch attempt dedenne
Shalin Nariya !

☉