Grounded (open)

[summerrain]

Tanis had been exploring the Gorge, as it had always intreagued her. The one thing she didn't remember, though, was the unpredictable weather. She was flying through the air on her way back to the Dragon's Den when the clouds above her finally released their torrent of rain over her. She quickly found a cave, making her way inside it just as a bolt of lightning shot through the sky, followed seconds later by a crash of thunder. Tanis retracted her wings after shaking them dry, then curled up in a corner of the cave. The gold spheres on her neck and tail gave off a soft light, like a Charmander's tail always did. The light offered little warmpth, though being from the lake in the south, Tanis was unaffected by cold. In fact, she prefered the cold to the hot weather that the Desert always experianced.

Tanis curled up, waiting for the storm to subside. She couldn't fly when there was lightning in the sky.

[pumpkin]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #343434; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #af9390 solid; border-bottom: 10px #af9390 solid;] repair your broken wings ( WORDS ) WORDS ( TAGGED ) TANIS ( STATUS ) COMPLETE The storm hadn't come out of nowhere; it was kind of a point of pride for electric-types to sense way before any other pokémon (except maybe psychic types, but they were all smug anyway) that a storm was coming. But that hadn't prepared her for finding some shelter in time for the thunder to start splitting the air above her; the constant give-and-take of absorbing and discharging electricity from the air made her head spin. It was great for a quick jolt if she were running low on her supply, sure, but a non-stop onslaught was very difficult to just stop from happening. So she ran, hunting for a place to bury herself away from the direct contact of the storm. She panted as she struggled to keep her purchase as she ran along the steep hills, her toes slipping and squishing through the soaked dirt. Not battling very often had allowed her to put on a few extra pounds around her middle, which made running . . . well, it was harder than when she was young. She kept her tail down to ground herself as she ran, finally finding a pathway that leveled out. There! There was a series of caves. With a renewed burst of energy, she pushed her short legs into overdrive, just as another burst of lightning lit the sky. Her cheeks sparked wildly until she dove into the mouth of the cave, breathing hard to catch her breath. She closed her eyes and lay on the cool floor, until she heard something move a little further in. Her eyes shot open and she leaped to her feet, tail raised defensively; a squeak-hiss escaped her lips. But when her vision adjusted to the dark, she relaxed warily. It was a dragonair, with the coloring humans used to call 'shiny.' "Oh," she panted, settling back on her haunches. "I didn't know anyone was in here. I can find another cave," she said, glancing back out at the storm. She weighed the options: staying with a strange pokémon in a place where she could dry out and groom the mud from her legs, versus not risking confrontation but being trapped in the bad weather until she could find another suitably deep and grounded cave. Tough choice. She looked back to the dragonair, an awkward half-smile pulling at her lips. any and all notes can go here

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by maroon 5

[summerrain]

Tanis looked up when the Raichu ran in, revealing the black mark of the Jakkalse Queen on her neck sphere. She smiled slightly, completely understanding the desire to get out of the rain. It must be different for an electric-type pokemon, though, with the static energy in the air because of the lightning. She shook her head. "It's fine," she said after a moment. "I'll only be here until the storm ends. I need to get home, the others are probably looking for me." She laughed softly. "I still have a habit of wandering off without them noticing." She wouldn't let her distrust toward strangers put the Raichu in danger. She was a Queen, and she wouldn't let her personality put anyone at risk.

She spied some logs in the back of the cave, old and well-dried, and carefully channeled her Thunder attack from her tail to the dried logs, catching them on fire. "You can dry off over there if you'd like. I have no need for flames, as I live in the south and am used to the cold, and my scales keep me dry." She watched the Raichu, having seen one before a long time ago, before the rebellion. "Did you, per chance, have a trainer?" she asked softly. Many of her friends had gotten captured by trainers, but her bodyguard had kept her well hidden when trainers were around. At the time, she was Crown Princess, and they couldn't lose her.

[pumpkin]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #343434; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #af9390 solid; border-bottom: 10px #af9390 solid;] repair your broken wings ( WORDS ) IDK A BUNCH ( TAGGED ) TANIS ( STATUS ) COMPLETE Sootsies saw the mark on the dragonair, but it didn't hold any significance to her beyond suspecting that the dragon-type was in a tribe; so maybe there were others around? She sank down a little lower and raised her guard, ready to fight her way out if necessary. But the dragonair didn't move aggressively; in fact, she took a moment to light a fire, explaining that she was not prone to feeling the cold as deeply. But wasn't that one of their weaknesses in battle? Sootsies thought; that was something her trainer had learned from studying the elite four battles televised yearly. Somehow, though, she managed to smile gratefully. "Thank you," she said softly. She padded closer to the fire, lifting her paws higher than necessary as the mud began to cake to her fur; she sat near the fire, shaking the wetness off, and began to tongue herself smooth again, always keeping the dragonair in the corner of her sight. She was just gnawing a bit of mud from between her back toes when the dragonair asked if she had a trainer. Her fur stood up at the hackles. "That's very personal, don't you think?" she snapped. She took in a deep breath and made herself settle, though her tail beat against the cave floor. "It was a very long time ago." She hoped that she imbued her words with a sense of finality; strange pokémon really had no business asking each other about their trainers! As it happened, Sootsies was still very tender about allowing others into her history with her trainer. Without knowing this strange pink dragonair's stance on the very complex issue of human/pokémon relations, Sootsies really had no desire to get into that discussion at all. "I'm thankful for sharing a cave and a fire with me, but that doesn't open the floor for discussion of something that could be very painful." She worried that she was dating herself in that statement--it seemed fairly obvious at this point that she was old enough to be around when humans were, but she didn't think her status as a trained pokémon could be so easily parsed from that bit of information. any and all notes can go here

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by maroon 5

[summerrain]

Tanis winced at the Raichu's words. She looked away. "I didn't mean it like that," she said quietly. "I never had a trainer, you see... My bodyguard always kept me hidden from the humans whenever they were in the area. I grew up in the south, so not many humans came by... My mother told me about the rebellion, but she said the Jakkalse didn't take sides..." She knew she'd probably never see this pokemon again. "I was just asking because I remember a trainer with a Raichu coming by once... I just thought that... It might've been you." She unfurled her full 13 feet of pink and white scales, light no longer coming from the golden spheres on her tail. "I didn't mean to offend you..."

She made her way to the opening of the cave, watching for any sign of the Flygon who had been tasked with keeping watch over her. She sighed softly. She loved the rush of adventuring, but when everything slowed down, she began to feel lonely. She'd gotten so used to being around others, having been crown Princess before her parents retired. The Flygon brothers had been elpecially kind to her during the terror of the Rebellion. Granted, it had finished not long after but still...

"I watched my friends get captured by humans while the Gyarados guard kept me safe in the underwater cavern..." She still felt guilty about it, but that had been nearly a hundred years ago, when she'd been just a baby. The rain pelted down in thick sheets as another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. A bolt of thunder jarred the Dragonair's ears, causing her to wince again. She hadn't said much that the rest of the south didn't already know about the Jakkalse tribe, but most of the information hadn't reached the ears of other pokemon yet.

"I hope this storm stops soon..." Tanis spoke worriedly. "I didn't mean to be gone so long..." She had only become Queen recently, after all. She wasn't going to forget about her love of exploration. She wanted to become the best educated in the Jakkalse Tribe. Tanis' face reflected the worry she felt. Her advisor could keep the Tribe from noticing her for a few hours, but she'd have to get back by sunset in order to keep the tribe from panicking.

[pumpkin]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #343434; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #af9390 solid; border-bottom: 10px #af9390 solid;] repair your broken wings ( WORDS ) IDK ( TAGGED ) TANIS ( STATUS ) COMPLETE Sootsies withdrew as soon as the dragonair issued what came across as an apology. At least, that's what Sootsies chose to take it as, if for no other reason than to keep the peace. "I see," Sootsies said, settling. "I'm . . . sorry for snapping. The weather gets me riled up." That was true as a special trait, but it felt a little weak for an excuse. So she went on: "The Jakkalse--is that your tribe?" She waved a messy paw at the marking on the dragonair's neck. "If there's a gym in your...territory, then it's possible. But I don't remember seeing any shiny dragons before. I honestly try to forget what happened before." That, too, was the truth, but it only scratched the surface of the reality. It was difficult to think of how she and her trainer's other pokémon had been pressured into being "recruited" for the rebellion, and having to attack her own beloved human to prove that she fit in; how could she possibly describe that to a pokémon who hadn't gone through the same thing? Well, she couldn't. That's why she kept quiet about those kinds of things. Hearing the dragonair speak made Sootsies reevaluate her temporary companion; sure, she had known pikachu when she was wild and young who had been captured, but there was never a negative attached to it. Maybe it was different for a tribal pokémon. Maybe it was different for dragon-types. "That must have been hard for you," Sootsies said softly. Tribes were more like families than what chu families had; once the egg was hatched, they tended to just separate from each other, sometimes making small family units called nests that were only three or four chus. "We never had any guards, or anything like that. But we never objected to being captured by trainers--it was an opportunity to do more than just fight over Berries." Sootsies didn't know why she shared that tidbit; it probably wouldn't help to ease the dragonair's thoughts about her own past. Sootsies' ears twitched as she approached the mouth of the cave. Her cheeks sparked gently, just little zaps that leapt into the air and died long before making contact with anything. "It should be finished soon," she confirmed. "It will slow down, anyway. Enough for you to get back wherever you need to go within an hour or so. The atmosphere is changing already." She retreated further into the cave again, sitting down by the fire and trying to scrape the caking mud from her toes with her claws. sorry it took so long i had to go on a quest for dinner unu

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by maroon 5

[summerrain]

Tanis nodded slowly. "The Jakkalse is a tribe exclusively of dragon-types, with some minor exceptions," she explained after a moment. That was all she dared tell an outsider like this Raichu. She understood when the Raichu said that she tried to forget. "I know many innocent humans were killed during the revolution... I remember seeing some of the bloodshed first hand one time when I snuck away from my guard... That was a day that I'll never forget... I was nearly accused of siding with the humans until they saw that I was still so young..." She shuddered, her tail swaying just slightly.

"I... I was never allowed above the surface of the lake when humans were about..." Why was she telling this stranger so much?! What compelled her to do so? "The guards were just for myself and my parents." That was enough for the stranger to know. Tanis didn't even know the stranger's name. "I had to watch while my friends were taken... One by one... And some humans even ventured into the Dragon's Den and stole one of the eggs from within... And there was nothing that could be done to stop them but try to battle... And many more of the Jakkalse were captured trying to defend the Tribe..."

She turned, spying a small ray of light in her current wallowing. She decided to focus on that, rather than the past. "What's past is past," she said quietly. "Maybe there was a small group of humans that the Revolution missed. It feels... Like the balance of the land is... Not right..." She shook her head, a small smile on her lips. "But what do I know. The grass-types probably know more about the balance of the land than I do. The legends even more so." She curled up, then thought for a moment. "Would you like to hear a traditional Jakkalse tale? It should make the time pass quicker." She wasn't the best storyteller; there was a specialist specifically for that within the Tribe, but Tanis had listened to the stories as a child. And she knew the most important one of all: the one about Raquaza, Giratina, and the first Dragonite.

[pumpkin]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #343434; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #af9390 solid; border-bottom: 10px #af9390 solid;] repair your broken wings ( WORDS ) LOTS ( TAGGED ) TANIS ( STATUS ) COMPLETE Some minor exceptions? What did that mean? That seemed kind of silly, Sootsies thought. But then again, she just thought the idea of forming tribes didn't make a whole lot of sense, either--not after having had a team under a trainer's guidance, anyway. "My...trainer was attacked," Sootsies confided. Her ears wobbled anxiously, and she found her claws digging at the stone, unable to make even a dent in the hard rock. Not unless she used her only ground-type attack would she be able to break through, but it was the action of pawing at the ground itself that comforted her. She had sided with the humans, and was against the rebellion, but... she wasn't as good a battler back then. She had been pushed. "We tried to stay by him, but it was difficult. It was easy to be outnumbered. He tried to release us at one point, but none of us would leave." Now that she had started, adding her story to the dragonair's felt cathartic. It changed nothing, but it was freeing to let it go. "They took eggs?" Sootsies snapped, toothily. She knew trainers took baby pokémon at times, but eggs? That was just unacceptable! But it made sense--dragons were some of the most sought-after types. Who wanted the eggs of a chu? Or of any of the other pokémon around their native landscapes, in the forests and fields and power plants whose turbines and wires drew them. "I can't imagine how that has weighed on you," Sootsies said softly. She sat down on her rump, paws in front of her, tail curling and tapping against the floor. "How old were you? Did you ever find out what happened to the other members of your tribe? The ones who were captured?" She could remember rumors that her trainer told her, long ago, about tribes of humans, clans, who dedicated themselves to raising dragon-types; they were among the elite of the battling leagues. Sootsies wasn't very familiar with how those things worked--gym battles were the closest she got to anything like that--but she remembered wondering at the time if there were any clans dedicated to raising chus. "The balance?" she asked, nose twitching. "I don't know anything about that. Just lightning!" She knew next to nothing about the legendaries, beyond what was instinctual to all pokémon, such as their influence on the world. But it was difficult for her to keep track of all of their being. "I would like that. I like stories." i had to focus on schoolwork again unu sorry it took so long again! also i'm totally writing this in a lecture so sorry it's short

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by maroon 5

[summerrain]

Tanis nodded slowly. "They took the eggs, but not often," she corrected herself. "There were a few who snuck in during the dead of night and managed to get away with an egg, but it was never one of the few Dratini eggs. Those were kept underwater. Most often they simply ended up with a Trapinch egg." She had to stop for a moment in order to remember just how old she had been back then.

"I'd only been a few years old, maybe five at most," she said thoughtfully. "Many of the captured Jakkalse returned not long after the Rebellion, but many were... Different. They'd left as happy, innocent Pokemon and come back... Scarred... Some simply because their trainer was killed before their eyes... Others just had bad trainers. It's like mother always said. You can't fix stupid. You can only muffle it." That one made her laugh a little every time.

"I'll do my best, but I don't remember all of it," Tanis admitted when the Raichu replied positively about the story. "It's a pretty long one, so you might as well get comfortable. Oh! I'm sorry. My name is Tanis, of the Jakkalse royal line. May I ask your name? Or should I just call you Raichu?"

[pumpkin]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 400px; background-color: #343434; padding:20px; border-top: 10px #af9390 solid; border-bottom: 10px #af9390 solid;] repair your broken wings ( WORDS ) NOT A WHOLE LOT ( TAGGED ) TANIS ( STATUS ) COMPLETE Sootsies settled in, trying to pick the rest of the mud from between her toes; it might be easier to let the fire dry it and deal with it then, but it was beginning to get uncomfortable, and they would just get messy again once she left the cave at the end of the storm. Might as well get as comfortable as possible now, she supposed. "We don't have any kinds of traditional tales, so even part of one would be very interesting," Sootsies encouraged. "My name is Sootsies; you could call me Raichu if you want--I'm not very picky." She grinned cheekily. "Royalty, though! Should I be bowing?" doing this in class! sorry for the wait! ... and the shortness abloo

table by CALIFORNIA DREAMING of CAUTION 2.0, lyrics by maroon 5