Wiring In

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Shinx can't help but feel like he's made things worse, somehow.

"My name is…"

It could also be one of those moments where, long in the future, he'll look back on this moment and realize that the mess of a Zorua he met was, inevitably, going to break. Many, many times. He might even laugh, if life hardens him enough to do so.

"My name is…"

But right now, he feels extremely out of place and severely inexperienced to deal with a complete shutdown in cognition the Zorua was experiencing. At first, he was horrified that she, a pokémon in need, was about to commit a taboo without understanding the consequences.

"My name is…"

Then she just… stopped. As if someone took a candle and blew out the flame atop it. There's still plenty of smoke to show signs of life; she's still breathing and standing, if a little slack, so she's probably physically sound. Then, after a minute of silence passes; one he waited somewhat patiently, seeing how she sometimes need a moment to sort out her thoughts, she just-

"My name is…"

-started that. In the middle of the dirt-packed street. With random pokémon watching them. They might not hear what she's saying, but the limp look of her and complete lack of attention given to anything around her draws eyes. Even when a skuntank walks by with a small pose of a koffing and a zubat, the smell doesn't so much as make her wrinkle her nose, while he tries to hide his gags to be polite.

"My name is…"

He has to do something, though. She's causing a scene, and she doesn't seem to appreciate the stares as much as he did, earlier. "Um, Zorua? Are you okay?"

He's been asking that a lot, lately. Maybe he should just agree with her blunt answers that something really is wrong.

"My name is…"

The strange pokémon repeats. Around every three repeats, she lightly licks the front of her mouth and tries again after a few moments, too.

"Is everything okay?" A sunny, female voice asks. Quickly turning his head, Shinx sees a sunflora waddling up to the two of them. The living flower has a worried expression on her face, leaf-arms curling slightly as she approaches. She almost feels familiar to him, but she continues before he could think of it. "You two have been standing in the middle of the road for a while."

Shinx was very, very tempted to say no, mirroring Zorua, but decided on a longer answer. "I don't know," He mirrors Zorua's other favorite answer. "We has a bit of an argument, then she just-"

"My name is…"

"...that." He tilts his head slightly, just now noticing that every iteration of the word has the exact same tone and volume.

The expression across the sunflora's flower-like face changes to horror when she hears the content of the repeated, incomplete sentence. "W-What is she doing?"

"Wait a moment. Trust me."

Somehow, probably the absurdity of the situation giving him some modicum of charisma, Sunflora listens to Shinx. And, true to his word, after waiting for a while longer-

"My name is…"

-it happens again. Same expression. Same words. Same empty voice. It almost sends a shiver down his spine and to his sparking tail.

He has to force his tail to stop that, too.

Upon hearing the exact line being said again, Sunflora looked astonished. "Oh. My. Gosh. That is so weird!" Even the exclamation does nothing to deter the blank look on Zorua. "Does this happen often?"

Shinx looks apologetic. "I'm sorry, I don't know. I've only found her yesterday on the beach, and she has some memory issues-"

"My name is…"

"-and has said multiple times that she might have some brain damage."

Sunflora looked like Shinx hit her with a thundershock. "But- why didn't you take her to someone to help? Chansey might be able to do something to help a…" She looks over Zorua once more. "...is she a Zorua?"

"We don't know, but Duskull said she might be."

"Ah."

"My name is…"

"...this is getting creepy." Sunflora said. A leafy arm reaches out and pokes Zorua. "It's like a really strange paralysis… oh, wait a minute!" She goes to her side, and only now does Shinx notice a very familiar bag at her side. An Explorer's bag. "I think Chimecho said cheri berries can help with pokémon locking up in other ways than paralysis, let's see..."

Shinx suddenly feels very, very small. Part of him wants to cheer at being able to casually talk with an Explorer, while another wants to run away for not noticing until now. Instead, he feels his legs become jelly, and feels like he wants to crawl into a hole and hide but without the ability to do so.

He can practically feel the sneer somewhere behind him-

"Hey, Shinx."

Shinx's legs suddenly go ramrod straight, and from the slightly crouched position he was in a moment ago it launches him in the air a couple of feet. Turning around suddenly, his eyes widen at being surprised, then narrow out of a mix of anger and mild fear.

Litleo, another pokémon that was around his age, had somehow snuck up on him. The fire-lion cub flicked his little red mohawk with a single shake of his head and put on a cocky smile. "So, Shinx, what's with the weird-"

"My name is…" Zorua cuts him off unintentionally.

Sunflora hides a giggle as she searches her bag.

Litleo glares at her and goes to say something, then notices that the fox isn't even looking at him. After that, he notices that she didn't finish her sentence, either, and just stared at the same spot in space. "What is up with the messed up Zorua?"

"Why do you want to know, Litleo?" Shinx growls. He can start to feel electricity making his fur stand on end.

He sighs dramatically. "Can't a guy be concerned for a fellow pokémon? It just seemed weird to see a weirder, new pokémon in town just standing in the middle of the road, honest." The smirk on his face says otherwise.

Sunflora finally fishes out the cheri berry and, with timing instilled into her from her guild training - Shinx can only assume - shoves the red berry into Zorua's mouth right as she begins another chant.

"My na- ggyk." The words cut short, and for a moment there doesn't seem to be much change. Zorua stares at the same spot, with the same stance, and the same look in her eyes.

Even Litleo, Shinx notices, seems to stare out of morbid curiosity.

"...did it work-"

As one, all the red tips on Zorua's strange fur quiver, only for a half second, before she blinks. Standing up straighter, she blinks again before moving her maw down and up, chewing.

"...not a bad flavor." She looks down at the ground, then to Shinx. "...why is there a fruit in my mouth?"

Shinx blinks from the sudden change. "Are you okay?"

"No." She says, as if describing the weather. "But a fruit appeared in my mouth and it tasted pretty good, so I'm not bad, per se." As if seeing the other two for the first time - how she hadn't noticed before is beyond him - she does a double take at Sunflora and Litleo. "...when did you two show up?"

Sunflora smiled, if a bit bemused. "I showed up not long ago. I gave you the cheri."

Litleo just looked confused. It's weird to see that kind of face on him, Shinx thought.

Zorua glances down at herself, smacks her lips, then back up to Sunflora. "Well I won't say no to free food. Thanks." Her eyebrows furrow slightly at the look Sunflora gives her in return - the astonishment has returned - but decides not to comment and strolls up next to Shinx.

"Um… I call you Shinx, right?"

He hesitantly nods, wondering where this is going.

She nods back. "Shinx, why did two people just teleport into our conversation space?" She eyes Sunflora, then whispers "And why are the flowers talking?"

He sighs. More questions. "She's a Pokémon, Zorua. And they didn't teleport, you were catatonic for a while before Sunflora gave you that cheri berry. Did you not notice?"

She stares at him. "...no. I was saying this town's a bit fucked, but then that berry was all mushed up in my mouth."

"Heh," Shinx freezes. He forgot Litleo was still here. "You really don't remember, do you? You really know how to find the best excuses to not go to the guild, huh?" That last part was directed at him. "Find some charity case to make you feel better?"

Shinx gets angry. "That's none of your business, Litleo!"

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A lot of things are happening at once, and she still hasn't gotten to the point of her earlier argument.

The probable-Zorua liked the berry - a cheri, which almost sounds like some other fruit sitting on the edges of her lost memory - and wanted to thank the plant creature - Sunflora - but then there was the whole deal with her losing a couple of minutes in the blink of an eye. Thinking about it for a moment brought on a headache, so she refocused on the present. The Shinx- sorry, Shinx was still there, so she tried to get some info on what happened.

Then she noticed the third pokémon around her. Litleo, going by Shinx's words.

He was… a lot, going by both himself and Shinx - and Sunflora, who decided to edge away from the conversation politely. He had a lot of swagger in everything he did, with a prowl in his paws and a cocky sneer on his face. She figured that he probably thought himself the head of the pride, the big cat in the room, the… she doesn't know any more metaphors to use, but she gets that he has an ego. Big, big ego and sharp words.

Her instincts have her look at Shinx. It tells her that others can tell as much about someone else as the person themselves. And Shinx has a story to tell about Litleo.

He seemed to act normal around her at first, before Litleo made himself known. The blue and black cat has his hackles raised, eyes widening in some combination of anger, annoyance, and… fear? Yes, that's a touch of fear in the kid's eyes. He shouts back at him, but he's acting like a cornered cat.

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A fraction of a moment's hesitation passes, before she looks back at Sunflora. She's wandered off slightly, although she's still hanging around just out of earshot of whatever Litleo is saying, if still well within Shinx's shouts. Every now and then, she looks back at the two. Waiting.

Waiting for what, she can't possibly tell.

Yet.

So, she returns her eyes back to Litleo. Personality, demeanor and other pokémon's reactions build him up as some sort of childhood bully, or at least a recent, effective bully, of Shinx. Others know about this, but perhaps it's common and non-malicious enough to not conjure up a punishment for it. That, or Sunflora is an outlier. In either case, it's a cat fight. She's almost curious enough to see where this goes…

But Shinx had housed her, fed her, and helped her. A charity case she is, after all.

Guess she'll have to do something about it. But how to approach this-

Establish authority.

The sudden feeling- no, need for dominance blindsides her, hard enough to give her a sudden headache again. Or, well, make the current one worse.

She shakes her head. What was that about? She looks over Litleo once again. I don't think it'll work with him, in either case. If he's brave enough to act like this with the guild member in earshot, then he probably doesn't give a shit.

Talk to him. Debate his wrongdoings and make him realize the error of his ways.

This feeling was a lot easier to handle than the last one, but… His ego won't allow that. He won't take criticism well; he might even be egged on from it.

Punch him…

This one was barely a whisper, and she ignored it. She's not going to punch a kid. I won't.

Then a cool feeling washes over her, like a shoe that fits perfectly. Speak plainly. He wants a reaction: don't give him one.

She thinks about it, about to drop that one too and pass on stepping in… then pauses. She looks between the two pokémon, watching how they interact.

Litleo still has that smirk on his face, and he shoots a verbal barb at Shinx. Instead of looking at how Shinx responds, she focuses on what Litleo does when Shinx reacts.

His smirk deepens ever so slightly.

Ah.

Ah.

As if it's the most normal thing in the universe, she pads up next to Shinx. "Do you know any good names?"

The subject change throws him off. "What?"

"Do you," She says slowly. "Know any good names."

"Uh…" He looks between her and Litleo. "I… feel like I shouldn't be talking about this. Especially in public."

"Why not-" She pauses. "Right. Private thing. Nevermind. Besides, you still need to bring me to the guild and I think I've wasted enough of your time already."

"Hey!" The other cat butts in. "Do you mind? I was talking to my friend here." He leers at Shinx, making him puff up in anger.

"I'm not your friend, Litleo! You're just a JERK-"

"Yes." She cuts off Shinx this time. Both of them look at her, but she doesn't say anything else.

Both of the cats look at each other as the silence stretches on, then back to her. She still says nothing.

Wait for it…

When Litleo opens his mouth, she says "I do mind."

His mouth shuts, his lopsided grin falling, then opens again. "Are you going to let me speak?"

"No." She shoulders Shinx slightly. "Come on, we're burning daylight, and I'm starting to think Sunflora is feeling entertained by all this."

A very quiet - but still heard by the three pokémon - "Oh gosh." is then followed by the living plant scurrying off.

She's a bit disturbed by it; her mind tells her that plants shouldn't do that.

On the other hand, it has the added effect of embarrassing Shinx, if the pinkening of his ears mean anything. He looks off to the side. "R-right. Sorry for forgetting."

She shrugs. "I'm in no rush. Hah," She chuckles a bit. "It's not like I remember needing to rush to anything, in any case. Well, except food, I guess. I wonder if there's any petaya berries around-"

Suddenly, faster than she thought for a creature his size, Litleo runs around them and skids to a halt. The two have to stop before the weird lion-lookalike, if only because of the 'grin' that has returned to his face. "Hey, I was serious when I said me and Shinx weren't done talking. And Shinx," He gives a faux hurt expression to the cat at her side. "I'm hurt. I thought we were friends. Heh, what am I saying," He scoffs. "Nevermind, being friends with someone as worthless as you isn't… worth…"

He slowly starts to trail off. Both cats, yet again, stare at her as she just keeps walking past Litleo. A few more seconds of walking later, she looks back at the stopped Shinx. "What's the holdup?"

As a way of answering her, the blue and black cat looks to Litleo, then back to her.

She looks at the Litleo also, then the road around him. "There's, like, five meters of space on either side of him. It's not like he's taking up the whole road, or something. He's…" She squints at the obstacle cat.

There are lines around his chest barrel: ribs. A feeling of some sort tells her, letting her eyes roam over the barely-visible creases under his fur.

"...kind of scrawny, actually. Do you eat enough, kid?"

The sudden change from indifference to concern throws Litleo for a loop, if only for a moment. "What are you doing?"

She looks to the side, choosing her words carefully. "Depends on what context? I mean, I woke up at sunset yesterday with no idea of where I am, what I am, or who I am, a weird cat showed up and said he'd help bring me to the guild tomorrow - which is today, by the way - and had a nice chat with him before he let me crash at his place." A yawn slips out of her lips, which disguised the breath she needed to take.

"Also I haven't slept yet, so I might not even need sleep? But anyways, we got up this morning, and instead of going to the guild like he said he would, the weird cat boy decided to bring me around town to get some hints into my existence in said town - this one, Treasure Town - I apparently already caused a taboo about asking for names - which is stupid, by the way - and," She inhales deeply, her head starting to spin. "Now there's another cat that's just following us around that I think has some problems going on in his life, if the other cat I know is anything to go off of and now both of them won't leave me alone."

…

"And that's all I know, apparently- oh, wait!" She puts on an excited face. "My face looks depressed! I saw my face for the first time about an hour ago."

She is left with two very confused cats in front of her, both looking at her like she grew a second head.

You should check, just in case.

A small check at her shadow shows a mostly normal shape, with no weird heads out of place. Nope, everything looks clear.

After another long, awkward moment, Litleo shakes his head. His little mohawk flops slightly. "It's too early in the morning for this," He looks back at Shinx. "I'll be back, after you deal with…" He tries to find a word to describe her, fails, then shrugs and prowls away.

"Uh." Is all Shinx could manage as his… bully? Rival? As Litleo walked away, face bewildered and perhaps a bit tired. He looks back at her. "What?"

"Hm?" She starts looking back at him, then widens her eyes as far as they can go. "Oh, I just thought that word vomit would scare him off. Guess I had a good read on him." She glances back at the direction Litleo went in, then back on the road. "So… guild?"

Shinx nods, still a bit confused. "Yeah, guild sounds good." Under his breath, she hears "Word vomit?"

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Thankfully, the two walked back to the crossroad with the stone well. It was surprisingly uneventful, too, except for the copious amount of staring that she garnered from random pokémon. Some part of her almost felt like running just so she could escape them faster, but another really didn't want to figure out running again. The stone well is vacant of talking flowers and crustaceans, and she debates getting a drink before shaking her head.

For all she knows, a public well like this probably has diseases or something.

Then, finally, the two face the stairs leading up a taller cliff, where at the top is a certain pink eyesore. It still feels like it's watching her, and the steps seem more intimidating because of it.

The two still ascend the stairs, of course.

Then, after a climb that left her slightly winded while the kid is still fresh as a daisy, they stop at a small plateau on the cliff where the building lies. It's… a lot smaller up front than she realized, but a quick look behind her shows absolutely no obstructions between it and the open air above the town. Plenty of viewing space to see over the whole town, including the surrounding outskirts. If she looks hard enough, she can see the cliffs where Shinx lives. The house blended in with the cliffside, though, so no home is in sight.

Turning back to the building, she observes its surroundings. There are a couple of totems on either side of the path to the entrance - which is a gate - and they seem to be pointing right at whoever rises up the stairs. Whether it's meant to be a friendly gesture or an intimidation tactic, she has no clue, but they creep her out either way. Other than a couple of rocks lying around the path, the only thing left is a strange grate right before the building itself. It's big enough to fit both her and Shinx with room to spare, but its position and purpose seems a bit odd to her.

The building itself… really isn't a building, per se. It definitely seems to be one, but it has a colorful tarp - like a tent - coming from below the 'head' and staked to the ground. Its gaze is just as terrifying from up close as it was from afar, if even more so up close. The one oddity to it is a handful of colorful feathers tied to the outside of it, waving slightly from the constant sea breeze coming from over the cliff.

It's a memory of something. No, of someone.

She goes to ask about the grate on the ground, then notices Shinx hasn't moved, either. "Is something wrong?"

He glances at her, then takes a calming breath. It didn't seem to work. "Y-yeah, I'm just, you know," Another breath. "Nervous."

Suddenly, it's like she just managed to see Shinx in the right light. All of his nervousness surrounding the guild, all of the awe he speaks of them… "You really like this guild, huh?"

"Huh?" He takes a moment to process what she said. "Yeah, we had this talk last night, remember?"

She takes it a step further. "But you like them enough to want to join up, too?"

He freezes up, looking at her a touch sheepishly under his stressed-out face. "I-is it that obvious?"

She nodded. "I probably would've seen it earlier if I wasn't so preoccupied with, you know," She lifts a paw and taps the side of her head. "My own problems. So, why don't you go ahead and walk in?"

Shinx fidgets nervously, staring at the building ahead like it really would grow legs and run them off. "I… um, I don't know-" He shakes his head, as if he said the wrong thing. "I just feel like I'm not ready. Like they're going to turn me around if I gather up the courage to walk in and ask to join."

He laughs, and she can tell it's not a good laugh; all quiet and small. "I actually went up to the grate a couple of times, but I got too nervous during the identification and ran off each time. Hmm…" He slumps down, tail dragging on the ground. "Maybe Litleo was right: I just keep finding excuses to not go. Maybe I really am that pitiful."

"Shinx…" She starts, trying to find the words to say for the kid. It's hard for her, seeing this bright, good kid just devolve into the sad sight before her. Part of her wants to go find Litleo and listen to that third urge of hers, but she also doesn't want to leave the kid behind. She looks at the guild building, then back to the blue and black cat. "Well, you don't need to join up now, per se."

"Mhm." He hums agreeably, but the motion seemed stilted, somehow. He doesn't say anything else.

She tries to think of another response to cheer him up-

Don't.

-and that feeling comes back, almost like the first one but… softer, somehow.

This goes deeper than a pep talk can fix. Give it time, then his mask will slip back in place.

Mask? Why are her thoughts suddenly talking about masks? She looks back to Shinx, but that feeling keeps her from just charging ahead and trying to reassure Shinx. Instead, she sits on her haunches and watches Shinx for a moment, trying to dissect what the feeling really meant.

The Shinx before her seems like a completely different pokémon to the one that's been helping her for the past half a day. Whereas the one earlier had been full of energy and perhaps a bit rash - who jumps on a counter to stop… whatever she was doing with Duskull? - this one feels like a lamp with the plug pulled. He seemed to lose all that cheer just looking at the Wigglytuff Guild building, which seemed out-of-character for the cat. But if she thinks about the mask metaphor the feeling was talking about, then is this how he normally feels?

Stop trying to fix this now. This is a 'later' thing.

She has half a mind to ignore the feeling, but before long Shinx lets out a long breath and gives her a glance. "If you want to enter the guild, you have to stand on the grate and wait for one of the guild members to read your footprint before you can enter."

Then the urge to ask questions comes back, dragging away anything concerning 'masks' or whatever. She looks towards the grate. "Why footprints?"

The light starts flickering in the lamp. "Every pokémon has a unique footprint, except for some that are shaped differently like the magnemites that Officer Magnezone works with."

She looks down at her own paws. "Um… me being different isn't going to cause some kind of problem, is it?"

Shinx blinks, then looks her up and down. "I mean, you look close enough to a Zorua? There shouldn't be a problem, I think. There might be a lot of attention, though…"

She shrugs. "I can deal with that. So," She lets out a yawn. "When I finish my business here, what do you want to do next?"

"...what?" His eyes widened.

She notices and fully turns away from the building and to him. "I mean, they're not going to lock me up in there or something. I still need to find a place to stay and I don't want to impose on your home every night, you know? I'd appreciate the help of one of the only people I know in this town who's willing to help a walking disaster like me."

"Oh." Somehow, her words leave him speechless. Then she sees some kind of emotion bleed into his yellow eyes, one that she's familiar with… for some reason. "Um. Are you sure? There's some pokémon in the guild who would probably help you better than I can-"

Now is a good time to stop him. You've felt this before.

She agrees with the feeling; she's seen this before. Helplessness.

She chuckles a bit, stopping his excuses short. "God damn, kid, I don't need an expert or something, I just want a familiar face to show me what there is to do in town. For all I know, the people in the guild aren't going to know what to do with me and kick me out in three minutes, tops. It'd be nice to, you know, hang out. Like a normal person."

She tilts her head to the side. "Maybe we can bug Litleo? He seemed like he'd be interesting to talk to."

"Wha- Litleo?!" She hears Shinx squeak. "Why do you want to talk to that bully?!"

"Well," She tilts her head to one side. "If he's so comfortable with bugging you - and by extension me - then turnabout is fair play. We can, like, follow him around and call him a nark or something."

"...what?"

"Yeah," She nods to herself. "Just start chanting 'nark' every time he's about to do something."

Shinx is quiet for a long moment. "Nark doesn't sound like a nice thing to call someone."

She waves a paw dismissively at him. "Ah, don't worry: I'll just do it myself so you won't get implicated."

That doesn't seem to abate his worries at all. But, on the bright side, he doesn't seem so sad anymore. She'll mark that one down as a win in her papers.