It’s humid.

It occurs to Tuesday that the environment of the Misty Timberland is perhaps supposed to be creepy, unsettling, and perhaps even spooky, but to her the mist the air just ends up being annoying. Another one of those ’it’s a feature, not a bug’ features. Who would ever think players would enjoy an excessively humid environment?

Then again, there’s something nice about how cold it is. About the scents of pine, damp soil, grass, fallen leaves, and so much more. It’s almost enjoyable to be able to walk through the fog without the annoyance of actually breathing it in… If it weren’t for the fact that it still makes it difficult to see her surroundings.

Tuesday makes note of all these things, and she finds herself appreciating the attention to detail.

<'I don’t like it.'>

Needless to say, Aesop isn’t nearly as appreciative.

"Why not?"

<'It’s wet.'>

Sparks shoot out of the Fennekin’s ears, but they’re immediately extinguished by the mist around it. Him. Around him. Last week, when looking at her starter’s stats, Tuesday had learned that apparently Aesop is actually a boy.

"Yeah, it sure is."

Aesop does not use PSYBEAM. Probably because he’s too preoccupied with suddenly getting picked up or with trying to get away from the water. The only thing stopping the angry little duck is Tuesday’s boot, and apparently that does a whole two damage. Great. Amazing. Wonderful.

Her socks are wet thanks to the incessant WATER GUN, and in this world there’s only a few feelings worse than wearing wet socks.

"Dude! Do something!"

<'Okay, okay!'>

Sparks shoot out of the Fennekin’s fluffy ears, and good thing Tuesday is a Kindler, or she’d be even more annoyed. But, there’s a PSYBEAM indeed, one that sends the bird bouncing back a couple of metres.

Somewhere in this horrific situation, there’s something ironic about a golden fox named Aesop getting beat up by a duckling. Like something out of… well… One of Aesop’s fables.

Too bad Tuesday is too preoccupied with being angry, soaked, and cold to think about things like those.

The Ducklett’s water is merciless and takes out the Fennekin with deadly swiftness, leaving its trainer as the only target to the bird’s rage. It looks up at her, and although Tuesday claims to not be afraid of much, it's then that she takes a step back.

"....Shit."

Might have been a good idea to call out her Petilil, but instead the catgirl's instinctive response is to kick the blue duck.

Maybe this is karma.

They say that everyone wants to be a hero, and when playing an MMO, that’s probably true for most people. Tuesday’s hero of the day does not wear shiny armour, but he does have a scorpion-thing that wears a funny hat, so that’s a great trade-off right there… except for the fact that the scorpion-thing seems to be as ineffective in taking down this angry duck as her Fennekin had been. Seriously, what is this duck made of?!

"Oi, lass! Get out of here if you're not gonna do anything! Hurry!"

Cold and dripping onto the already muddy forest floor, Tuesday stares at the guy with her mismatched eyes, as if weighing her options for a moment there. She could just leave him to deal with the raging beast and she wouldn’t feel bad at all, but honestly, this stupid duck had pissed her off.

"Oh! Sure, yeah, no problem. I got this!"

Does she?

Out from her pokéball comes a Petilil, and the poor thing shivers when looking at her surroundings. Tuesday sighs, staring down at it and pointing at the Ducklett. ”Can you shoot some leaves at it?”

Surely MAGICAL LEAF will do something, no?

Shaking the top of her head, the Petilil releases leaves that shoot out towards the Ducklett.

Lucky Guy

Honestly, considering her experiences in the game so far, that’s some helpful advice right there. Her Fennekin hasn’t proven himself to be all that great at protecting her so far, but at least he tries, right? There was an attempt. Tuesday would put a gold star sticker on him if she had one, mostly because she has a feeling the fox would hate that.

Her Petilil, on the other hand…

That one clearly craves validation, because she looks all too pleased when Lucky Guy implies she’s doing a good job. Tuesday herself doesn’t bother with saying as much, instead being more preoccupied with watching the little scorpion release some noxious liquid. Damn, that’s cool. It barely hits the target, sure, but it is cool. If only her pokémon could do things like those.

Petilil can’t, but what she can do is cover the Ducklett in spores while attacking it.

"Hey. Are pokémon this small usually this hard to deal with?"

Tuesday is not one to ask questions of the sort all that often, but this is getting rather ridiculous, isn't it?

A small snort and grin as he watches the Skorupi. Furrlicity doesn't know if his pokemon would win but he wouldn't have said 'no' to a friendly scrap. The Deerling had a big head that needed to be taken down a few notches in his opinion.

He just shrugs at Lucky Guy's question. There is the temptation to be a smart-ass but he likes Lucky. The guy has been nice in all the times they've met, so he doesn't see a reason to be a needless dick. Honest answer it is. "Guess so? Irish Standard Time. I also don't sleep well." Which was maybe a little over-sharing. His character model did always look fucking exhausted though. A true reflection of who he was deep inside.

A brow is raised at Tuesday. Furrlicity doesn't believe her but doesn't call her on it. Taking out his golden pokeball, he tosses at the fallen Ducklett. Sadly, with far less pizazz than Lucky had.

"I'm headed over towards the Birchwild if either of you want to go with." Usually he liked to stay by himself when he explored but he was feeling social. "I want to know what the hell spawns out there that we haven't seen."