[X] My Assistant

[SaphireShadows]

What's going on?

Where am I?

It's warm...and why am I rocking?

Oh, that's right...

I'm on a boat...

Wait...didn't something happen?

I can't remember...

There was water...the ocean...and a boy...and blood...

Joey!

Twila's eyes popped open when the memories of what had happened to Joey came swimming back to her sleepy mind. She sat up on the cot she had fallen asleep on and looked around. The man was still there, unconscious, but there was also a third body in the room now. It was Joey. His Pidgey, Claw, was lying on his bare chest nuzzling up against him.

"Joey!" Twila said, jumping off of the cot. Her foot caught the edge of something as it hit the floor, causing her to look down. Someone had brought her bag to the infirmary. Silently wondering who could've known that was her bag, Twila swiftly crossed the space between her bed and Joey's. He seemed content at the moment. He was stroking Claw's feathers, and apparently hadn't heard her call out his name. All the same, she looked away, suddenly shy again. "I-I'm glad you're safe. You could've been k-killed...you know that, right?" she looked over at Joey again, but he didn't seem to be paying attention. Thinking that he wanted to be left alone, Twila went back to her bed and picked up her bag. Everything seemed to be in order, so she simply took out her three Poke balls and opened them.

The three Pokémon appeared in a mass of red light; all stretching and yawning as if they'd been woken from a deep slumber. Mai immediately walked over to Twila and held her arms out like a small child wanting to be picked up. Twila obliged and set her on her hip. Merle looked around the infirmary curiously, trying to figure out why he was there and why there was no food to be seen. Kimber, on the other hand, decided to hop up on the end of Twila's cot and make herself a "nest". When she was satisfied with the blankets, she lay down in the middle of them and went back to sleep.

"What are you doing up and about?" asked a voice at the entrance to the infirmary. Twila watched as Nurse Joy came into the room with a small Chansey-like assistant at her side.

"Uuuh..." was all Twila could get out before Nurse Joy cut her off.

"You should be lying down still. You've had a traumatic experience as well as your boyfriend, and you need lots of rest now." Joy said, practically forcing Twila back onto her cot. Twila, in the meantime, had become quite red in the face.

"H-he's not m-my boyf-friend," she stammered, "We j-just met on the boat. We're friends." She looked back over at Joey. He was still stroking his Pidgey, not paying any attention to what was going on around him. Twila furrowed her brow as a scary thought came into her mind. "Is...something the matter with Joey? He hasn't, umm, said anything, or even acknowledged me when I spoke to him. Is h-he okay?"

Nurse Joy's face fell. "Well," she said, looking down at the floor, "He was dragged deep under water, and then brought back to the surface too quickly. He's suffering from Decompression Sickness. He's lost his hearing, and we don't know if he'll get it back..."

"What?" Twila breathed, quickly crossing the space between her cot and Joey's once again. She gently touched his shoulder, hoping not to startle him. Mai, who was still positioned on Twila's hip, looked down at Joey curiously, not fully understanding what was wrong with this man to make her trainer worry so.

This post has been edited by SaphireShadows: Apr 26 2011, 07:35 PM

[LittleShadowPoke...]

Joey opened his eyes at the gentle touch on his shoulder. He was startled. After all, he could probably count on one hand all the human physical contact he’s experienced in his conscious life. Looking up, he saw a very concerned-looking Twila. Claw followed his gaze. How many times would he get that look today? What gives?

Thinking of nothing better to say, Joey greeted her with a casual “hello”. Damn, his voice was acting up again. He cleared his throat and tried again. Still nothing. Now considerably confused, Joey watched as Nurse Joy moved closer and started talking to Twila. Or at least, he thought she was, but nothing was coming out of her moving lips. Was she trying to whisper quietly? Too quietly. Twila answered, still no sound. They both then turned to look at Joey with worry and sadness. The young trainer then started clicking everything into place, realizing that he couldn’t hear. Upon that realization, his heart sank like a bird shot out of the sky. Nurse Joy started scribbling something on a notepad.

This must be a dream. In his distress, Joey completely ignored the humans in the room and turned to his Pidgey, his sole true friend. Claw refreshingly had a look of subdued confusion across his intelligent visage. The trainer tried to talk to his Pokémon, forming his name with his mouth and enunciating his syllables to no avail. While it felt like he was talking, he could hear nothing. Claw just started to look uneasy and fidgeted in Joey’s lap while ruffling his feathers. Panic was overtaking Joey.

Nurse Joy handed him what she had been jotting down, which explained about the hearing loss, decompression sickness, and his now crippled leg. When he was done reading, the now deaf boy went emotionally numb and stared off into the distance, letting the paper drift from his hand into his lap, which was quickly pecked at by a fidgeting Pidgey. Now Claw couldn’t understand what was wrong with Joey, but he was starting to catch on. Having to process this life-changing information, Joey had to completely rethink his future with this new reality. Not that it was a difficult chore, mostly because there wasn’t much set in stone anyways, and until recently he had just assumed that he wouldn’t have a future. Children from the slums of Orre didn’t usually have happy endings. Just endings.

Gesturing for the pen from the nurse and getting it, the young boy turned the crumpled paper over and wrote on his lap a short, frustrating message with holes in it. “I want my clothes. I’m leaving.” The nurse read it and nodded, Twila reading it over her shoulder started to gather her stuff and Pokémon together. Her Ralts was starting to look sick with empathy for Joey, unsurprisingly since he was currently emanating an unusually dark aura.

The Nurse handed him his clothes and Twila left the room while he dressed, reluctantly with the Nurse’s help as his current physical condition was overwhelmingly hindering. She was as polite and professional as could be, but Joey was still irked. This was probably as most of his body as anyone had ever seen, especially a female. And now he could see that most of his torso was terribly bruised. After that was finished, Twila re-entered as the nurse unfolded a previously unnoticed wheelchair. It was an older model, and looked pretty well used. Joey inwardly shuddered. This day kept on getting better and better, but he was too tired to make a fuss about it, even though it brought his spirits down even more to need help to get into the chair. The boy’s Pidgey perched on this shoulder and the back of the chair, nuzzling him from time to time.

Truthfully, his leg was stitched and bandaged well enough, but while a fracture was suspected, there was no way to prove or treat it with the sparse resources on the ferry. Now that the Corsola had changed their nesting habits, the ferry had to unexpectedly dock further away at Petropolis, and basically crawl its way there in a dark maze. Everything factored in meant a longer-than-favorable voyage, and confining Joey to a wheelchair was the safest bet. This particular model was a bit too big for him, and after some creative struggling with trying to roll himself around, Twila came up behind the chair and started pushing. Feeling exhausted, irritable, and defeated, Joey folded his hands in his lap and let Twila drive his chair. Claw sidled slightly away from her presence, not really liking other people than his trainer. Once they were on deck, he took off and propelled himself into the sky, wheeling about on wind thermals and feeling the warm air between his feathers. Joey focused on his free flying Pokémon as a means to forget his current condition. This possibly couldn’t last, could it? The warm sun and light breeze helped to carry his troubles away.

Joey had strapped his pack to the back of the chair, so as to have everything he needed nearby. He considered calling out Babylon so he would have something soft, fluffy, and warm to hold, but decided against it as he didn’t feel like playing charades with Twila to communicate his intentions. And then what would he say to Babylon? What could he say? How could he make his Pokémon understand what had happened? How could he even train his Pokémon now, or carry out any respectable life plan? How was his friendship with Vincent going to be like now? They weren’t even great at communicating before this… The two trainers’ walk continued in a comfortable silence while Joey pondered all this and more.

Everyone on deck had more or less taken up their pre-Corsola incident preoccupations. Families watching Wailmer pods by the railing, young children laughing, screaming, and running around the pool with squirt guns and Pokémon-shaped water blasters, and senior citizens fanning themselves on pool chairs could be seen all around the deck enjoying their extended cruise. It sickened Joey, and he did all but close his eyes to them. One person did catch his eye though. An older sailor with salt and pepper hair badly hidden under his sailor’s hat motioned them over. Twila started pushing Joey that way. The sailor was sitting forward on a crate with his Poliwhirl chilling nearby. Parking his wheelchair at an angle that would be conducive to conversation, Twila sat on a barrel opposite him and the sailor while the chair-bound boy figured out how to apply the brakes so he could just sit back and relax.

The sailor started talking to Twila and Joey sighed. He might as well let his mind wander, and he turned to keep an eye on Claw, who was still wheeling about in the blue, lightly cloud-speckled sky. He was brought back into the conversation by the prodding from the Poliwhirl. Looking down, he saw that the Pokémon was trying to hand him something with what he could only guess was an earnest look. Taking it from the Pokémon, it was revealed to be a top-quality, black, sleek leather sketch book. Flipping through some of the first few pages, Joey uncovered some beautifully colored pencil sketches of cute Vulpix by the base of a volcano, Bellsprout and Oddish dancing by a mossy log, and charcoal of a soaring Dragonite over the sea. The Poliwhirl intervened and quickly flipped to the pertinent pages, a sketch of a valiant looking Raticate on the mast of a ship… Could it be?

Joey looked up at the sailor who was giving him a knowing smirk and gestured for him to keep looking while he turned back to talk to Twila. Joey turned back to the sketches and started at the beginning of the series including the Raticate, when it was still a small Rattata, and looking through the subsequent pages, Joey realized there was an order to it. It was a story. Suddenly fascinated, Joey immersed himself in the story unfolding in this sketchbook about the mysterious Pokémon as the sailor dictated it to Twila.

“My name is Seamus McGee. I’ve been a sailor on this cruise ship for a little over 23 years now. A couple years back, we got a stubborn stowaway that never left. The same Raticate that this young man here had an adventure with earlier, and you too Little Miss. However, when he first got here, he was just a wee Rattata with a heart for sea-faring. We’re not exactly sure where he got on board, but he stayed out of our way, like a ghost.” The sailor started to lean back and get fully into his nostalgic story-telling.

“Evidence of his existence was only tangible after the fact in the form of berry rinds and nibbled packaging. At first the conviction to eradicate him from the ship was strong, but it waned with time, and it dissipated completely after an unfortunate incident with a Pirate ship at the time. Or at least, that’s what we took it for. Their uniforms were bright blue with white skull and crossbones enamored across their head bandanas, but their kind was never heard of around Furoh.” His fond tone hardened into one of consternation at the mention of these bandits, but he caught himself in his digression and turned back to the subject with a lighter tone.

“Anyways, they initiated aggression on our ship, and basic supply cargo was damaged. While we were haphazardly re-grouping our defense, the most miraculous thing happened. While we didn’t know it at the time, panic was overtaking the aggressor ship crewmen one by one, and slowly it became apparent that the ship was going down. Getting caught up in its own problems, it gave us the opportunity to escape and dock safely at the nearest port to recover.” The older gentleman paused here for a quick wink at Twila, as the twist of the story was coming up.

“Nobody but a handful of people saw the wet Rattata re-board our ship from the water after having swum back from the opposing ship, but word spread quickly of the brave Pokémon’s quick-thinking sabotage. His actions clearly showed his loyalty and feelings of protectiveness over his adopted home, and he earned the nickname among us of Sinbad.” The story teller took a deep breath and indulged in nostalgia as Twila looked on, Poliwhirl joined him in the nostalgia, and Joey was still deep in the book.

“Time passed, and eventually he evolved, and life went on. Sometimes he was decidedly mischievous, I’m guessing out of boredom. He has a strong-spirit, but a good sense of justice and fairness too, I reckon. A strong trainer could balance him out and help him grow into a fine Pokémon, I’m sure. But he’s learned basically all he can from this ship, I can tell. I just feel lucky to have come in contact with him a few times over the years. He’s always kept my spirits up.” The Poliwhirl next to him nodded and verbally agreed as his trainer’s tale came to a close.

Joey ran his fingers over the last page in the sketchbook, the valiant Raticate posing on the mast, clutching a rope and pointing his nose to the wind that was ruffling his brown fur. His eyes were slanted, viewing something off in the distance with insatiable interest. Below the breath-taking portrayal in a golden colored banner was his name in an olden-time style of sketched calligraphy. Sinbad. Joey smiled at the perfect fit.

This post has been edited by LittleShadowPokemon: May 16 2011, 02:09 AM

[SaphireShadows]

Twila watched as Joey opened his eyes and tried to say hello to her. It was a bit slurred, but it was a "hello" nonetheless. When he cleared his throat and tried again, it came out clearer, but it was sad to Twila because she knew Joey couldn't hear it.

"He should be realizing what's happened about now," Joy said as she came over to Twila's side. Mai was still watching Joey with intense interest. It seemed her Psychic abilities were growing every day as she became more and more aware of not only her trainer's emotions, but the emotions of the other people around her. At that moment, she was picking up on Joey's growing confusion.

"I hope he won't take it too badly," Twila said to Nurse Joy. They both looked back at him to find panic overtaking his face. Joy quickly got her clipboard and pen out and started scribbling furiously on it. Twila watched as she wrote out Joey's current situation and handed it to him. Her heart panged in sympathy as the realization that he was now deaf hit Joey like a freight train. The look of complete hopelessness on his face made her eyes mist up with tears. No one should have to have such a drastic change thrust upon them in a matter of hours. Right then, to Twila, the world seemed to have become a little more cruel.

When Joey wrote that he wanted to dress and leave the infirmary, it was a signal for Twila to gather up her things and leave. It was the least she could do for him at that moment. She called for her Pokemon to follow her out into the hall, and they dutifully did so. Twila sat down on the floor right at the entrance to the infirmary, gently stroking Kimber's back (she wasn't one to pass up a free massage, no matter how much she disrespected Twila). She quietly looked around; the infirmary was attached to the main lobby of the PokeCenter, where many trainers were standing in line to heal their Pokemon. Twila wondered if they had all been in battles, or if they had gotten injured when the ship had run into the wall of Corsola.

"You may come back in now," Joy's voice sounded, and Twila immediately jumped up, returned her Pokemon, and went back inside. She watched as Nurse Joy opened up a somewhat-old wheelchair and helped Joey into it. His leg had been bandaged up impressively; so much so that it would have been very difficult for Joey to walk even if he hadn't been bitten by a Sharpedo.

Twila walked behind as Joey tried to maneuver his wheelchair by himself. She heard from other passengers' conversations that the boat now had to dock in Petropolis. Since Twila was very new to Furoh, she wasn't sure exactly where Petropolis was, but did it really matter? She had no set plans, so truthfully the answer was "no". Twila focused her attention back to Joey. He was struggling with his chair - probably due to the fact that it was really too big for him - so she decided to help. She came up behind the chair and started to push, hoping he wouldn't mind and that he would be content to watch the scenery.

"Hey, you there Lassie," a voice called. Twila looked around and spotted an old sailor sitting atop a crate in the shade, his Poliwhirl sitting faithfully beside him. He beckoned the two of them over. Twila hesitated for a moment, what did this man want? Timidly, she wheeled Joey over and positioned him so he could see both the man and her. The sailor briefly looked over Joey, then turned to Twila and said, "I take it you two are the ones who brought the news of the Corsola?" Twila nodded. "Well, then you must know about Sinbad."

"Sinbad? The story?" Twila asked, cofused. The old man grinned, but shook is head. He then handed a sketchbook to his Poliwhirl and began to tell the story of the Raticate named Sinbad. The story of how the Raticate had come to be on the boat was interesting, and it had Twila hooked until the very end. When Mr. McGee had finished, Twila thanked him and went to take Joey away. However, he was still looking at the pictures in the sketchbook, completely oblivious to anything else.

Thinking it would be best to leave Joey to his reading, Twila grabbed a piece of paper out of her bag, wrote "Gone to the shop on the 2nd level, be back soon." on it and stuck it where he could plainly see it. She then excused herself to Mr. McGee and trotted away towards the stairs.

The shop on the second level was a good size for the ship. It had many different items, including food, drink, clothing, cheap gifts and food and trinkets for a trainer's Pokemon. It seemed as though the little shop hadn't been effected much by the Corsola incident, seeing as most everything was still in its right place. Twila let out her three Pokemon again. "Okay guys," she said to the three, "you all can pick out one thing that you want each. One thing only, okay?" Twila stressed the importance on only one item each. She wasn't made of money, after all. The three Pokemon nodded excitedly and started to look around the store.

"Ralts, ralts!" Mai cried from over near the jewelry. Twila walked over to find Mai holding up a small necklace. It was basically a piece of black silk with a little bit of lace on it. The pendant dangling from the silk was what had caught the Ralts's attention. It was a beautiful teal color, and it sparkled in the light. The color faded out at the edge of the smooth stone, and gradually got more saturated in color towards the middle. Twila looked at the price tag and found that it was more than reasonable, so she nodded to Mai and went to check on her other two Pokemon.

Merle was in the headgear corner of the store, looking at a shelf full of bandanas. He looked at quite a few, some were solid colors, others were full of vibrant patterns. He even looked at one that was black with rainbow-colored firework patterns on it. He finally settled on a red bandana with a black fist stamped right into the middle of it. Twila took it from Merle and went to go find Kimber.

It took a few minutes, but Twila found Kimber back in the jewelry section. "Hey Kimber, what'chya lookin' for?" Twila asked the Nidoran. She was staring at a sign that said "Ear Piercing, $5 each ear". Twila quirked an eyebrow, "Earpiercing? Are you sure Kimber?" She nodded enthusiastically and pawed at the sign. "Okay, if you say so." Twila shrugged. She beckoned a clerk over and told her what Kimber wanted. The woman was skeptical at first (who'd ever heard of piercing a Pokemon's ears?), but eventually she agreed and went to get out the piercing gun. Twila sat Kimber up on the chair (with much struggling on Kimber's part) and waited for the clerk to come back.

"Here we are," the girl said as she pulled a piercing gun out of a drawer. Kimber stared anxiously at the gun, probably second-guessing her decision.

"If you don't want this, you can go pick something else," Twila said, but Kimber shook her head stubbornly and perked up her ears in anticipation. The girl obviously didn't pierce ears very often, and probably even less for Pokemon. Her nail-polished fingers trembled slightly as she held the gun up to the Nidoran's ear. She closed her eyes a split second before the gun fired the earring into the cartilage, and another second later, the piercing was done. Kimber blinked owlishly, evidently surprised that the first ear was finished. The woman gave a little sigh in relief, then walked around the chair to do the second ear. She held the gun up again, clearly more confident this time, and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, she tried to remove the gun a second too early, tearing Kimber's ear slightly.

The howl that came from the small Nidoran was alarming, and Twila quickly scooped her up, grabbed a cotton ball and swiftly applied gentle pressure to the tear that was now trickling blood. A string of "Oh Arceus, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry." came forth from the clerk's mouth as she quickly threw the piercing gun back into the drawer like it was a snake that just bit someone. Twila nodded understandingly and continued to hold the cotton ball up to Kimber's ear. The poor Nidoran wimpered in pain and snuggled closer to Twila. Setting aside the thought that Kimber was actually snuggling with her, Twila continued stroking the back of her head and murmuring comforting words until Kimber's crying stopped.

A few minutes - and three cotton balls - later, Twila was walking out of the store with three relatively happy Pokemon. The clerk, feeling bad for hurting Kimber, had not charged Twila for the ear piercing. She had even thrown in a black collar with a blue, smooth stone hanging from it for the Nidoran. Twila had thanked the woman and left quickly, wanting to get back to Joey so he wouldn't be alone.

Twila made sure Joey could see her walk up and sit next to his chair so she wouldn't scare him. She had gotten a pencile and paper out and was in the middle of writing a question to Joey about what he had seen in Mr. McGee's sketchbook when a thought came to her mind. She quickly wrote it down under the first question.

"So, what are you going to do once we get off this tub, Joey?"

This post has been edited by SaphireShadows: May 24 2011, 03:37 PM

[LittleShadowPoke...]

Joey took the pencil and paper and hurriedly scribbled back, “Sinbad’s life.” Then underneath that, he wrote, “Survive.” After all, what else could he do? What else had he ever done? Especially now, there weren’t a lot of options left for him, it felt. The boat was set to port in Petropolis, but the few days left until then Joey spent in a daze. He looked at the sailor’s sketchbook and imagined himself drawing things to that caliber. Was it possible he even possessed the talent? He felt willing to try, more or less than he felt like doing anything else. The pages of the wild Raticate’s life really spoke to him. They painted the Raticate a character of courage and chivalry and valor, a true knight among pirates.

During this time, he spent a lot in the presence of that one sailor, while still being very careful about getting too close. He learned basic art, and rudimentary sign language, but not much else. He had pretty much closed his soul to much else. He spent time with his Pokémon, and they came to understand what had befallen their trainer, and primarily they met it with calm acceptance as the human implications didn’t reach them as well as they did Joey.

Within the last few days on the ship, Joey and Twila met here and there, unable to communicate much, and Joey sat with Vincent, who woke occasionally, but slept through his shock. The Raticate, Sinbad visited him often and they would sit together in the only comfortable companionship that a Pokémon could provide. He felt sorry to leave him, but he had no desire to take on another dependent, especially in his current condition. He doubted he could provide a better life for the Pokémon than it could provide for itself currently, so why try.

When the ship finally docked, Joey wheeled down the ramp and away from both human companions without so much as a word. The Nurse Joy had let him keep the wheelchair and also a pair of forearm crutches, since he needed them and the infirmary needed an excuse for an upgrade anyways. Joey knew he was being rude, ungrateful, and selfish, but that’s what he did best. He didn’t feel that he could travel with Vincent anymore, being a burden and a wall when it came to communicating. While he would never admit it, the young newly crippled boy was distraught. He felt like he was always taking one step forward and three steps back with his life, and it was wearing him out.

Wandering aimlessly around the streets of Petropolis, looking for food and a place to sleep, Joey found something even more interesting…a party bus headed for an event called PokéCon…

This adventure has come to an end. Both SaphireShadows and Pumpkin King have given me permission to bunny their characters to this point and end the RP.