Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class: 
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 2, 2024 18:51:49 GMT 9
He drank from the artesian well, the touch of the wind cold and unfamiliar on his bare face. His mask hung around his neck like a discarded lower jaw, leather bobbing slightly as he stood back up.
<Feel better?> asked Oinkologne. The black boar was standing by, tapping its trotter. It stood on two legs, not four, its arms crossed over its chest. <How do you eat wearing that thing?>
Respiro didn't answer. He just wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then slid the mask back over it. It fit across his nosebridge, long and beaky, like a little crow. Rook. It was a private joke. A private name. A private memory.
The wellwater was clear and cool, coming from somewhere deep in the earth. Respiro could feel the tremors of the river underground. The gentle vibrations shook the strewn pebbles around the well's base, like a distant earthquake.
Or was that the river after all?
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 2, 2024 18:59:13 GMT 9
Womwomwomwommmmmm.
It hummed in the ground like a meditation bowl, singing in the deep. Respiro pressed his ear to the ground, straining to hear. Were those words? What language were they in?
<You look crazy, kid. You sure you're all right in the head?>
The little fighter ignored him. He was listening.
Oinkologne shook its head, stalking over to see what he was doing. It tipped forward back onto all four legs to press its own floppy ear to the dirt. <This better be good,> it grunted, then grew very quiet.
Respiro blinked at Oinkologne. Did the boar know what it was? Was it a river, roaring in the deep? Was it magma bubbling underground? Both thoughts thrilled him.
<Hmmm. That's not good,> Oinkologne finally said, getting back to its trotters. It looked uneasy now, looking around. <We should probably go.>
"??"
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 2, 2024 19:03:50 GMT 9
His questions were answered a moment later as a trio of Nidorino burrowed up and out of the soil, bellowing ominously. Respiro flung himself backwards, turning a full backflip and skipping two steps. Oinkologne was already backing away, rearing up on his back legs to fight.
<What do we do?>
Respiro knew what had to be done.
...He turned and ran away!!
Respiro never just ran away. He ran like the wind. He ran like deer through a forest, like a greyhound on the track sprinting for the joy of it. He loved to run. He had yet to find someone who could catch him.
The Nidorino bellowed in the distance as they—and Oinkologne—were left behind. He wasn't worried. The black boar would catch up with him, in time... and if not, next time he logged back in, the pig would be back in its Pokeball.
Of course, that wasn't what had happened with Dodrio.
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 2, 2024 19:10:54 GMT 9
He was listening to the ground again.
He was getting good at it. Feeling the vibrations. Wondering when the next wild Pokemon would appear. His Pokedex was malfunctioning from the static in the air, making it difficult to get a read on which Pokemon were out here. The Surge Steppes were always like this, he remembered.
Respiro closed his eyes. It sounded like a herd of Pokemon were coming this way—maybe just across the next hill. He readied himself to run, or fight!
Unless... could it be Oinkologne?
He hesitated. What if the boar was still trying to find him? Or what if it was in trouble, back where he'd left it at the well?
He wanted to check its status in his HUD, but the static was interfering with all his instruments. As it always did. As it always had.
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 2, 2024 19:14:31 GMT 9
BOOM. Nosepass, migrating North. They passed in waves like falling meteors, treading the soft yellow grasses of the Steppes beneath their rocky bulk. It was strange seeing so many of them. Rockblue, nosered.
The longer it took them to pass, the antsier Respiro became. He hopped from one foot to the other in frustration. He wanted to go that direction, too! But he couldn't go around so many rocks! (He might leap upon their heads, dance his way across the stepping stones, but at what cost?) The thrill would be great, but so would their anger!
He turned and ran back. Three Nidorino, or a hundred Nosepass. He'd take the three!
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 2, 2024 19:20:30 GMT 9
He tread lightly back over the hills, following Oinkologne's footprints.
He'd found the place where the boar had fought the Nidorino. It seemed the pig had run around the same time Respiro had, but in a different direction. As Respiro crested the hill, a flock of tiny white birds took flight from the grasses, dazzling him. He stopped to watch them, too entranced to even wonder what kind of Pokemon they were.
Such beauty in this world!
Humming now, he capered down the hill, turning his head this way and that in search of the black boar. It couldn't be far, he thought. Or could it?
Perhaps it was hiding.
He lost the trail as the pig crossed a small stream. That meant Oinkologne had stayed in the water— so he should follow it too!
Respiro looked upstream, then downstream. Which way should he go? Maybe if he knew Oinkologne better, there wouldn't be a question. Was it too much to hope listening to the ground again would bring him answers?
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 2, 2024 19:25:29 GMT 9
Oinkologne. Respiro had won it in a Colossal Battle. He still remembered the way it moved, massive and indominable, straddling the shapes of Barcelona businesses. They'd fought in Miquel's hometown, rich with real-life memory.
Where was it now?
A dark shape appeared upriver and Respiro looked up eagerly—then his shoulders slumped. It wasn't his Pokemon. It was just a Blitzle, coming to the stream to take a drink. Respiro swallowed, mouth feeling dry, and was tempted to join the zebra—but no. It would not do to make a practice of drinking from rivers. What would Mama think?
Turning away from the Blitzle, who eyed him uneasily, Respiro went upstream in search of Oinkologne. If only it were not so small, now.
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 2, 2024 19:31:03 GMT 9
Perhaps he should give up...
The thought skipped like a stone across his mind. His Pokemon was nowhere to be seen. It must be hiding somewhere from Nidorino, waiting for Miquel to log out of the game and automatically recall it back into the safety of its Pokeball.
Then again, did that sound like Oinkologne?
Respiro thought carefully about the boar's gruff voice, its powerful battling style. No, that did not feel right.
If Oinkologne had come this way, it had probably been chasing something. The Nidorino from before? But he hadn't seen any signs of them. Perhaps a flying Pokemon, Respiro thought in a sudden burst of inspiration. Or something big, that he'd seen from far away. Was there anything like that here upstream?
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 3, 2024 12:22:32 GMT 9
He was wrong. Nidorino were here. They were better at tracking than Respiro was.
<About time you showed up,> huffed Oinkologne. The pig was cut, thin lines of blood trickling down his dark hide. His chest rose and fell with exertion as the three poison-types circled him, their horns glinting wet with venom. <Could you be any slower!>
Respiro stopped in the stream, indignant. Nobody called him slow!!
He saw a Nidorino lunge, and moved to counter. Yanking himself from the water, Respiro stepped up on an invisible air-step, vaulting off the double-jump and into the air. Wind built around his sandaled foot as he lashed out, the air-bullet blowing the poison-type back even before the kick connected.
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 3, 2024 12:26:59 GMT 9
He heard his kick connect with a wet crack. The Nidorino staggered and fell, its head at an odd angle. Respiro landed and crouched, eyes growing wide.
Had he broken its neck?
He hadn't expected such... realism. He'd never done something like that before. Not in all the foes he'd fought, in all the battles he'd won or escaped. He'd never felt bones break. He'd never seen a Pokemon laying like a dead thing, like a dead animal.
Then the Nidorino moved.
It stood back up. Its broken neck played a sound in reverse, un-breaking, bones mending, and snapped back into place. Its eyes burned black, and when it opened its mouth, Respiro saw ash falling from its stubby teeth.
Ah. It's Corrupted.
That complicated things!
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 3, 2024 12:32:08 GMT 9
Respiro's yellow eyes flicked to the other two Nidorino, who were staying back, still prowling. Were all three Corrupted? Or just this one?
<What the fuck?> he heard Oinkologne grunt incredulously. <Never seen that before.>
Respiro pointed adamantly at the steaming, infected enemy. Something like smoke had begun to whisper off its purple hide, filtering into the air. Too much, and it would be difficult to see—and the occluded vision would only add to the horrors the Corrupted creature would bring. It was no wonder he'd seen its neck break: Corruption broke the rules of Pokemon. It tried to scare you.
But it would not scare him!
He had to know how many they were dealing with. Respiro turned, an arc of whirling limbs, and launched himself at the other two Nidorino. He pivoted on his hands, touching the grasses of the Steppes only for a moment as twin bursts of fire lashed from his feet, one towards each Nidorino.
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 3, 2024 12:37:33 GMT 9
As the fire lashed out, Respiro was taken back.
He was training with Respira. She was showing him how to use his Kindler powers. How to fight. He was used to a sword, not his own limbs— she pivoted on her hands, using her tail for balance. [tangent=See, you can do it too!]<¡Lo ves, tú también puedes hacerlo!>[/tangent]
His heart hurt.
One of the Nidorino jumped back, and Respiro saw its health decrease normally. The other snarled, its face bubbling and blackening in the flames. It was wreathed in them now, burning like a coal in heat.
Two Corrupted, One not.
The remaining Nidorino backed away from its compatriots, looking alarmed. <What's happening to my friends?> it shouted.
<Beats me, get out of here!> Oinkologne stepped between the Nidorino and the others, one burning, one broken. <Your friends are dead. They have been for a long time.>
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 3, 2024 12:53:47 GMT 9
Your friends are dead.
Why did Corruption always bring such terrible memories along with it?
Respiro turned on the remaining two Nidorino. The third was frozen, unable to contemplate what was happening. Respiro fired a Pokeball at it and kept running, speeding between the two Corrupted Pokemon and whirling around to face them from behind.
Three strikes.
He spun on one hand, feeling one foot impact twice, then the other.
Four strikes.
He was a spinning top, flipping back over, then bouncing back off the air. He focused on the burning one. Its dark flames seemed to laugh at him. No, they did laugh. An older woman's laugh. Respira's laugh.
Rage kindled in his breast. How dare they use her laugh!
Oinkologne fought the other Nidoran, muscling it back, breaking it again and again like a scrap of kindling. They weren't strong. They were just bad. Bad, bad, bad. Respiro hated them. They wanted to make him hurt. They had waited, used Oinkologne as bait, for him to come here. They lived on his suffering.
But he would suffer no more!
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Respiro
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Player Character
Posts: 57
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Miquel Torres
OOC Username: M00k
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Post by Respiro on Sept 3, 2024 13:08:28 GMT 9
He crushed them with her fire, with her footwork, with her disappointment. With his sorrow.
When it was all over, the two monstrosities melted back into the ground, trickling away like ink through the grass. Respiro stomped on the place where their bodies had vanished, willing them to never return. Never!
<Guess that's over. I thought they came from underground too fast. Was weird when they didn't drop aggro on me, either.> Oinkologne stretched, rubbing one of his shoulders. <Think we could go get some R&R?>
Respiro didn't understand the boar, not in those words, but the blinking HP bar in the corner of his vision was enough of a reminder. Respiro had not escaped the battle unscathed, either. They needed healing, and he knew just the place.
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C0D13
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Bug Maniac
Administrator
Posts: 2,009
Trainer Class: 
Player Name: C0D13
OOC Username: Ladybug
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Post by C0D13 on Sept 5, 2024 18:32:06 GMT 9
CAPTURE COMPLETE! Nidorino, down for the count
NIDORAN M has been added to Respiro's box!
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