Wren narrowed his eyes in thought, trying to remember mentions of space-time distortions. In the medical rehabilitation facility he’d spent most of his recent years in, time had passed mostly in a haze of pain and hopelessness. The tiny tv in his hospital room looping outdated cable television reruns and annoying commercials whose jingles would get stuck in his head like ear STDs. As dire as things got in the outside world on the news, he’d been suspended in an indifferent bubble, dealing with more personal and direct problems.

However now it was leading to this embarrassing situation, where he had to admit to essentially having been living under a rock.

“I might have heard of that. Um. Very vaguely. Maybe?” He said. He sighed in relief as the psychic energy lifted him and placed him in the saddle, the sudden removal of pressure on his spine a heavenly thing. “You telling me all the pokemon in hyper space are ‘roided up XL?”

At Devlin’s warning about the strange pokemon, Wren anxiously looked at Meatloaf, who had paused in her approach to chew her own tail, yet was still too close to Aleph for comfort.

“Sorry, could you get that dumbass fluffball for me? I can’t recall her from that far. Then we can head out.”

Josh Devlin

((Passing on both pokemon <3 Should we wrap up the thread soon? Unless you have any continuation ideas. It’s been really fun! Thank you so much <3)

Good Arceus, what a unit! Wren had been too distracted by pain and Meatloaf’s goblin shenanigans to have truly taken in the sheer scale of the Jolteon, but seeing the equally giant espeon sharpened that awareness.

He’d always thought his sylveon was on the bigger side for his species (particularly in circumference - Wren had a weakness to babydoll eyes at the dinner table), but compared to these two eeveelutions, his own was basically a tiny little sprout. He was so startled, in fact, that his thoughts vocalized.

“What are you feeding these guys?! Mario mushrooms?!” He shook his head in disbelief. As someone holed up in hospitals and often mired in despondency, Wren had often gone long periods of time not keeping up with news or active events. Outbreaks, attacks, totem pokemon - to be honest he was less informed than nearly anyone his age had a right to be, knowing only vague things.

Even so, he winced soon after his outburst.

“Ah, not to be rude or nothing. Just impressed.” He muttered. “I’ll gladly take a ride on one of your titans.” He opened his mind to the espeon with the ease of someone who routinely did so with PT physic pokemon.

Swallowing down his shame and self disgust, he grimaced and lifted his bent arms up like a child expecting to be lifted up, the way he’d been long trained to do by nurses.

To distract from his embarrassment, he turned his head away - only then seeing one of the strangest looking pokemon he’d encountered attacking a heatmor.

“Huh? What the hell is-? MEATLOAF, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!” Meatloaf, the brainless wonder, had begun trotting towards the beat down in the distance. Wren turned and tried to struggle to his feet, only to fall over onto his hands and knees with a hiss of pain.

Josh Devlin

The pokeball rocked once, gently, in his palm, before falling still. Wren blinked at it once, and then twice.
...
That worked?!! Just how badly did the rapidash wanna momma hen, ah?? Wearing the quintessential expression of ‘I didn’t think I’d get this far’, he turned his head to the other man.

“This really was a fluke.” He said. Now that he wasn’t being supported by the horse pokemon, he swayed where he sat, using the hand not holding the ball to brace against the hard ground. A steady sharp pain still radiated from his lower spine, clipping the wings of hope that the ranger’s words inspired before they could take flight.

“That’s real nice of you to say,” Wren said, forcing a smile, “but being a ranger seems like a pretty physical job. I got injured pretty bad a while back.” He motioned vaguely towards his back and lower half. “Considering a tiny little roll down the slope has fucked me up so bad I probably won’t be able to walk normally for a week, I doubt I’d be good at the whole rescue thing.”

He shrugged with the shoulder not occupied keeping him up.

“But if something mechanical needs rescuing from the scrap-yard, I’m your man. Best mechanic you’ll find.” He flashed a grin, though at this point the edges were obviously strained with traces of pain. His arm quivered supporting his weight as unpleasant numbness tingled in his limbs.

“Thanks for letting me know about rapidash.” His voice wavered, growing a bit fainter. He cleared his throat, annoyed at his own weakness. He. Was. Not. Going. To. Pass. Out.

“I’d love to take you up on that offer of, like, training wheels level riding, but I think it’s a ‘oh arceus, I just need to get home somehow and take, like, all the contents of my medicine cabinet and sleep for seven years until my spine feels less like a bent paperclip, and I feel vaguely human again' kind of day.”

Sweat beaded Wren’s brow, but he couldn’t wipe it away without the risk of keeling over.

“If you by chance have a pokemon that could carry someone the muscle consistency of a sliggo without them falling, I would be eternally grateful.”


Josh Devlin
OOC: Passing on the two wild pokemon

• player/ooc name: koi (kappaccino alternative)
• character tags: WREN WINTER
• ic posts for characters:  here 
• are characters in directories?: Y
• any notes/comments: splish splash im havin a blast! most welcomed I've ever felt joining a site, thank you so much

If Meatloaf got him punched by a Machamp, Wren was going to -- well, he was going to bitch about it loudly! It wasn’t like Meatloaf responded to any sort of punishment or training: her brick-level brain was too thick to make the connection to consequences. She didn’t understand time outs or verbal reprimands - or any human words at all really. Sigh.

So Wren approached with his hands up, palms outwards.

“Hey there big fella, just gonna grab her, don’t mind me.” He soothed, and reached out to nab the naughty zigzagoon. Of course, like a nimble pachirisu, meatloaf scuttled around to the other side. Wren’s eye twitched. He glanced up to see the human and the unimpressed psychic pokemon in her lap - haha that was certainly an expression on the little pokemon’s face.

“Sorry if trying to talk to her mind was like smacking into a wall. Or shouting into an empty void.” He said directly to the kirlia.

Wren knew he didn’t have to move - Meatloaf would assume she was being chased, and would - yep, there she was, scurrying back around-

He snagged her scruff and peeled her off the machamp before taking a hasty step back. Meatloaf blinked in surprise, still not caught up to the fact she’d been caught.

“So sorry about her. Uh, might want to check your pockets or bag - she’s sneakier than you’d think for a cinderblock with fur.”

opal garcia

Biscotti Kingsley

Madd & Wren
Yay, neghbors! Meatloaf would probably especially try to break into her house since her main pokemon is obstagoon, I can see meatloaf having like a ‘you are my parent/gangleader’ type obsession with them lol. Meanwhile Wren would see Obstagoon and be like 'holy shit I need to buy an everstone and have them inject it like a microchip into meatloaf because if she turned into that size i would literally die'.

If she came over to scare him, it would work for a while, but I think Wren is the type to get more bitchy and grumpy and used to things with repeated exposure, so each Meatloaf-return encounter would probably slowly wear away and make him more likely to be antagonistic (even though he’s the one at fault lmaoo!)

Scotti & Wren
Lmao the meeting of the unique name committee! What were their parents thinking?? (Though wren isn’t any better at naming anything)

Oz & Wren
Wren would gladly accept work! He’s always looking for clients!

Kazuya & Wren
Sounds good to me! If it messes up out in public while wren was around, he’d offer to fix it right there and then for free because he’d be interested to see how it worked. In fact, it’d be a huge compulsion for him to mess with it, and depending on his mood, he may just blatantly be a bit pushy with it hehe.

Nikita & Wren
Oooh, very interesting idea! Maybe the thing found can turn out to have dangerous components, making it a tense ‘oh no, do we cut the red or green wire’ sitch or something idk.

Ugh, a witness. There was also probably a rule for customer service about that, something that went like: don’t murder a horrible client (even if they totally deserve it) if anyone is around to see you do it.

Wren shifted from his pose of holding the wrench in the air behind the man’s head, turning the motion into a toottally believable arms wide stretch. Yawwn, yup, no murder happening here, nothing suspicious, just stretching.

“Another fucking kid?” The client grumbled, eying Emerson. “Whatever, as long as you know what you’re doing unlike this idiot.”

Wren’s eye twitched. He was about to yawn himself into a fucking felony. After a deep sigh, he went around the client to the newly arrived software man.

“Welcome.” He said. ‘To hell’ was implied with his long suffering expression. “This man’s estate programs are run by multiple routers - I’ve fixed most of the routers so far, but I can’t verify they are working again until the program is reset. To be honest, I’ve never even heard of the program itself, and the client doesn’t have any of the initial installation details.”

Wren patted the other man’s shoulder, absentmindedly brushing off a tiny bit of cilantro without much thought aside from a shared sympathy.

emerson whitlock

Wren opened his mouth and then closed it. Something about this ranger’s earnest and good natured words made it hard to be his usual sarcastic self and respond to ‘some people think pokemon are only good for fighting’ with ‘and some are barely good enough to be emergency rations’ while motioning towards the galarian zigzagoon who was chasing her own tail currently with a focus that showed she legitimately believed it to be a separate entity.

Was there a little golden aura shining behind ranger Devlin, a little halo of wholesome? Or was that the glow of the rapidash’s flames? Ah, wren needed to level up his social skill rank to deal with people like him!

“You have a lot of faith in me,” Wren said with a self depreciating laugh, “but I’m really not a good trainer. I was, uh, forced to be out of commission for quite a few years when I was injured - I am not even sure I remember the whole catching thing.”

Even so, the doleful eyes of the rapidash caught his attention, and he felt his heart stir. She was so friendly and inquisitive! The long crippled and buried flame of pokemon ambition surprisingly found itself sparked as if by the fire of the horse’s brilliant mane. Or was it the consequence of being around someone with easy confidence in him, as if it was natural?

With some effort, Wren slid off of the gliscor’s back, wincing. His legs trembled, pain lancing through the nerves of his lower back, but he managed to keep to his feet despite quaking and took a few steps closer to the rapidash.

Of course, it was too good to be true. With a sharp throb, his knees buckled, and he fell. To his surprise, the rapidash sidestepped so he landed against her side. Instinctively, he caught himself against her back. It was only his inability to move quickly that prevented himself from throwing himself away from the flames now crackling near him - but after screwing his eyes shut he realized he didn’t feel any burning. Just a pleasant warmth like one of the heat pads he often had to use. At least for now, she didn’t seem disposed to burn him.

She turned her head and lipped at him curiously, in a sort of imperious way that gave Wren the feeling he was being scolded. It was a bizarrely motherly feeling to get from a wild pokemon.

The rapidash blew out air from her nose and slowly lowered herself, and by extension him, down to the ground, nickering. He adjusted how he was sitting until he was leaning against her in a way that hurt his back the least.

Once there, she made some more sounds, neighing mixed with huffing - furthering the bizarre feeling of maternal scolding.

“You’re a sweet girl, aren’t you?” Wren said, in wonder. His heart hurt - they never warned you about wild pokemon being too wholesome in the books! “You wanna keep an eye on me? I need someone to keep me out of trouble.” After some digging, he shyly offered up one of the very few pokeballs he owned, holding it out to the pokemon, chest tight.

Josh Devlin
OOC: Trying to catch Rapidash

Wren & Madeline McKenna

So she is from a rich family, but where does she live now? I see annoying neighbors listed as a plot idea, and I think Wren would be a good annoying neighbor because of the racket of him tinkering with machines at all times of the day and night, and because his pokemon Meatloaf would break into nearby houses and makes a nuisance of herself a lot. He doesn't live in a good neighborhood though, so if she still does, we can think of something else!


Wren & Biscotti Kingsley
Chronic pain pals! Maybe they run into each other in a hospital setting or a PT one? And they both have overbearing pokemon, though in opposite directions. Meatloaf could cause a big issue and make Biscotti's pokemon upset or something! Idk, I just think it would be fun to toss these two into a stressful, physically strenuous situation, because I am mean.

The galarian zigzagoon paused in her sniffing as a mind brushed against her own. She tilted her head all the way to the left and then all the way to the right, as if rolling the kirlia’s communication from one side of her head to the other - a process much akin to a penny rattling in an empty tin can. For most pokemon, said communication would have been an easy thing, but unfortunately for all involved Meatloaf had one thing that stood her apart from other zigzagoon.

The IQ of a turnip.

So after thirty seconds or so, after the human was picked up and began to be carried away, it seemed to click that SOMETHING WEIRD JUST HAPPENED!! IN HER HEAD!! Meatloaf yelped as if she’d been electrocuted - loud and overdramatic howling - and whipped around in circles looking for the source of the brain-tickle. Despite the sound like a trashcan of meowths getting rolled down a hill, her tail was wagging a mile a minute.

Alerted by the familiar cries of his personal idiot, Wren hurried from further down the beach.

Why was sand so hard to run in, ah?? He arrived at the scene of his pokemon running circles around a machamp’s legs, baying up a storm of aggressive friendliness.

“Ah, there you are, you brat! Couldn’t have done us all a favor and gotten gulped down by a pelipper? Argh, c’mere, shush - leave that lady alone!”

Meatloaf yipped happily at him and proceeded to ignore his commands completely, launching herself up to try and climb up the Machamp to investigate the source of the pokemon that tickled her mind.

“Meatloaf!” Wren shouted. “Bad girl! Ugh, sorry about her - the daycare lady dropped her egg a lot I think. Meatloaf, get down, she doesn’t have treats!”


opal garcia

A famous foreign travel blogger had once reviewed Hoenn and rated it thus: 7.8 Too Much water. It had been a whole big controversy at the time, and Wren, stuck immobilized in his hospital bed, had followed the drama out of boredom.

The point was: Hoenn had a shit ton of ocean all around it. And yet... Wren had never gone to a beach.

Like sure, he’d walked - been wheeled usually - past beaches from time to time while getting from point A to point B. But as a Hoenn resident, wasn’t it a travesty and a half that he hadn’t spent some actual time with his toes in the sand, salted air in his lungs, and er, whatever else you did at the beach? But for so long he was injured or immobile, wasting away the best beach years of his life in bed. And then he was confined to a wheelchair, and the less said about trying to operate wheels on sand the better, even with all the improvements Wren had made to it.

So this was a long time coming: standing here in the shallows, letting the water lap at his ankles. The wide open expanse of the sea made him nervous, so he kept his gaze to his feet, making his steady way across the sands. His sylveon walked patiently at his side, ribbons around his arm, while his cutiefly sat on his shoulder. Meatloaf had disappeared somewhere - hopefully swept out at sea to spare Wren from her mischief, but probably to go harass other beachgoers into giving her treats.

opal garcia

(feel free to have her harassed by meatloaf and control her if you feel like it)

The gliscor’s climb was as smooth as Wren could have hoped. His arms quivered, and felt a little like cheese strings that had been heated just enough to soften, but the one strength he had to his name was grip strength, so he dug finger bruises into his own wrists around Steel Needle’s neck and grit his teeth.

He hissed out a breath as quietly as he could once they were safely horizontal on land once more. Agony was set to a low simmer in his lower back, but it always sucked to reveal being in pain. It felt like pointing out a giant glowing eye on his body and going ‘well hey look-it here, my big ol’ weakspot!’ Like he was some video game enemy. So instead he pushed himself up to sit and swallowed a wince.

“Wren Winters,” he said, internally wincing again because of how strained his voice sounded, “And yeah man, super lucky you were around. I thought we’d be stuck down there for days. I was preparing Meatloaf’s” and here he motioned towards her, “eulogy for when I had to turn her into real meatloaf to survive. Better it didn’t happen - she’s so troublesome she’d have given me indigestion for sure.”

He was just about to ask for a hand up when, to his complete shock, a couple pokemon arrived. Instantly his eyes were drawn to the roaring flames of the rapidash’s mane, shocked brain reverting him to blurt out a primitive: “Gah! Fire!”

In his line of work, fire was an inevitable disaster, so on instinct he reached for an extinguisher he didn’t have. Then, since his hand was already out, he switched it so it was held out with his palm facing outwards.

“Whoooa horsie. Be a good horsie, kay?”

Josh Devlin

(wren do not be having those trainer instincts lol)

Meatloaf basked in her success, spitting out the large clump of berries to admire the slobber-coated mess with a gleam in her eye like a prospector who struck gold. Wren made a mental note to compensate his rescuer (and not give Meatloaf dinner - Nurse joy already had told him off about Meatloaf’s extra loafiness, she was supposed to be on a diet now).

From his bad vantage point of being flat out on the ground in a divet, Wren tried to surreptitiously eye Devin. He’d never had the chance to interact with gym leaders before. His gaze kept being drawn back to the massive jolteon which outsized his sylveon by many times, and the speed at which they’d arrived.

Honestly, he felt how he’d always imagined stumbling into a legendary pokemon might feel: intimidated.

He could only be thankful his visceral reaction to the giant scary bat pokemon crawling towards him was muted heavily by his own body’s refusal to let him do more than twitch and tense in pain.

“Oh, ah, yeah, haha. Heya big buddy, those are some intense uh. Eyes, and pinsors, heya.” Wren wrestled his nerves down mercilessly, and rolled over onto his stomach with a grunt of pain. “We’re cool though, right, Ironman? Needle, I mean - yeah, just gonna-” He half crawled and half dragged himself onto the gliscor’s back, amused to find a saddle there. His upper body wasn’t affected too badly, it was only his lower back and legs that throbbed, so he was relatively certain he could hold on long enough to be lifted out.

“Um. Giddy...up?”

Josh Devlin