Language Barriers [One-shot/WIP]

[Deleted]

	Rain had continued to come down hard as Gwen had made her way to the top of the hill. Though her Ducklett had enjoyed the rain, she was less fond of the flashes of lightning that streaked across the darkened clouds at regular intervals, and Gwen had returned her to her poke ball. That it had decided to storm so suddenly and so heavily, had been a fortunate turn of events, but Gwen was glad not to have run into much more trouble after the one encounter with feral pokemon. Gwen had quickly tracked down New Pallet's Inn, and rushed through the door, closing it quickly behind her. She just stood in the door way for a moment, simply satisfied to just be out of the rain. By the time she bothered to look around, she suddenly found herself face to face with a young man, no older than herself, who looked pale and had a concerned look on his face as he held out a towel for her. "Please, come sit down Madam! Are you all right?" He asked, beckoning her over to the nearest table where he pulled out a seat for her. "My mother is good with medicine, I'll go fetch her for you." He said as he made to walk away. "Wait a moment--" Gwen said after sitting down. Gwen had first been a bit annoyed by the young man's overly fussy treatment. Okay, the towel was nice, she needed that much. Being told to take a seat and treated like she was deathly ill just because she came in sopping wet, was a bit over the top. "I don't need a doctor, I'm fine, just a bit drenched." She said bluntly. The man frowned, and obviously disagreed with her. "Ma'am, I really think you... I mean..." He stammered nervously, caught between his concern for Gwen's health and desire not to upset her more than she sounded. "Forgive me for being so blunt, but you look ill -- y-your face is blueish." He informed her. "Excuse--" Gwen began, her usually flat tone faltering slightly at the absurdity of this boy's claim, but it quickly dawned on her what was happening her and she cut herself off. She raised a hand to her face, her lips curving, slightly amused, though mostly she was just exasperated. "My face isn't turning blue. My make-up is running." There was an awkward silence as the young man took this information in, and his face turning a bit red and screwing up a bit as he tried to force himself not to laugh at his mistake. This woman so far hadn't been all to pleasant, and he could sense she lacked a sense of humor. "Oh my. My apologies madam. My mistake. The washrooms are just up ahead through the doors behind the counter, you'll find supplies to help you clean up in there." He said, pointing her in the right direction. "If there is anything else I can get you, please feel free to ask." Gwen simply nodded, and let him run through his apologies. She supposed she probably did look sick. The rain had been right in her face, and her blue eye shadow had likely run and blended right into her snowy pale makeup. "Well, I guess I should be grateful for your concern, and the towel for that matter." She admitted as she busied herself unclipping the poke balls from her bag. "As for anything else, I do have pokemon that were injured on our way into town, if you could see that they are attended to, I would greatly appreciate it." She said as she handed him her pokemon. "Of course. I'll have them cared for right away." He said, accepting Gwen's pokemon and hurrying off behind the counter and disappearing through an archway to another room. With that taken care of, Gwen wasted little more time sitting at the table and headed for the washrooms. Looking in the small mirror hanging before the sinks, Gwen confirmed what she already suspected -- her face was running to the point of making her look deathly ill. Grabbing a wash cloth off a nearby shelf, she ran it under soap and warm water and proceeded to wash what was left of her make up off her face. The end result only looked slightly less sickly, though it was still different. Without her make up, Gwen did feel a bit awkward. Her plain faced reflection simply looked off, as if it was missing a more important feature than make-up, like eyebrows or a nose. Now a shade darker, her face looked burnt and her eyes seemed so tiny without the cyan blue glow around them. It was a rather shocking difference for anyone not expecting it. Gwen contemplated reapplying the make up, as she did have some stored in her bag. She decided against it though, at least for the day anyway. It would be a waste if anything came up and she had to go out in the rain again, and she was on limited supply that she wouldn't be able to replenish until she returned to Port City, which wasn't likely to be any time soon. That in mind, she simply rinsed the mess off the cloth and hung it over the towel rack to dry. Returning back to the diner portion of the inn, Gwen found her seat again. The same young man came up to her and informed her that it would take some time still for her pokemon to be fully recovered. Gwen nodded in understanding, and simply ordered lunch in order to pass the time. Fortunately, there wasn't much wait time here at least, and she soon had a toasted sandwich of lettuce, tomato and strips of corka meat. "Thank you, Mr...?" She trailed off questioningly. The innkeep blinked, not having had the impression that this woman had really wanted anything more to do with him than necessary and being surprised that she wanted his name. "You're welcome, and my name is Nicolas Rydel" He said nervously, wondering if maybe she had wanted to complain about him or something. She nodded in acknowledgement and let him scurry off back to work, ignoring the man's rude failure to stick around to at least have her own name. After that, not a lot had occurred as she ate her lunch. A couple more guests came in, soaking wet from the storm which was still going strong, but Gwen only spared them a glance for the sake of being aware of her surroundings. Otherwise, she simply minded her own business. It hadn't taken too long before she had taken her final bite, and was left to sit boredly with her chin resting on her hand as her gaze drifted absent-mindedly between the rain pelted windows and the back of the inn. After much wait, the still nervous looking Nicolas was once again making his way back to her, this time with her pokemon in hand. "Everything's good then Mr. Rydel?" She asked, taking her pokemon from him. The boy nodded, though he felt awkward about being referred to so formally. He felt far from up to correcting her and instead forced his lips to curve into a smile. "They're all back in fighting shape. Sorry for the wait and everything, please let me know if you need anything else." He said, perhaps a little quickly, and if he was honest, he was hoping she didn't need anything more of him. "Not quite yet, thank you." Gwen said, allowing the boy to retreat once more while she herself stood up. Spying the inn's PC up at the front desk, she made her way forward. She had been considering what she planned to do while she waited out the storm, and now seemed like a pretty good time to sort out one problem she was having with her ferals, that being that communication barrier. She clicked through the PC menu, logging into her own account. She had two pokemon to deposit, the first one being Ignis. One of her only tame pokemon yes, but the fire lizard wasn't able to communicate with most of her ferals, making him impractical for her current job. Next was Ducklett. Though the bird was beginning to progress, none of Gwen's pokemon could understand her, and Gwen thought it would be better to sort out the pokemon she could establish communication with. She couldn't spend all day playing charades with her ducklett after all, she had a mission, and she needed pokemon she could make the most progress with, without wasting any more time than she had to. As for the pokemon she planned to bring out, she first withdrew Anorith(2) from her PC. The bug was one she managed to tame back in Port City, though it had shown little promise with it's laziness and preference for disobeying in favor of whatever option it found to be the easiest. The next was one of her newly captured pokemon, the Stunky. Freshly caught, and with it being fairly strong, she foresaw no easy time with this pokemon, but if it worked out, it would be worth bringing along on her mission into the forest. Once done at the PC, she borrowed a number of bowls from Nicolas, and booked herself a room. After the innkeeper showed her to her room, she settled inside, dropping a "do not disturb" sign on the door handle. She then sat down on the side of the bed, placing the stack of bowls beside her for the time being. She plucked two poke balls off her bag, she released both Sakura, and Anorith(2). Sakura stood at attention almost immediately, though she seemed a bit disappointed to be released with no opponent to battle. She was feeling quite itchy to shake off that defeat against that diglett earlier today. Anorith meanwhile just blinked it's eyes tiredly and stared up at Gwen and chittered grumpily as if to say in a not so polite manner "What do you want?" Gwen looked down at both pokemon, before clearing her throat. "Alright, so I have some ferals I want you two to help me communicate with. Your job is to repeat what I say to them, and get them to understand what is expected of them. Understand?" Gwen said as her gaze drifted over the two pokemon. The Mawile smiled and nodded, clearly having no qualms about this new task, but Anorith just seemed to roll his eyes and what sounded like a moan escaped him. Gwen frowned at the Anorith. "Of course, their expectations are also yours. If you don't wish to follow my commands, I won't stop you from leaving and making your way back home." Anorith blinked, staring at the door tentatively. It was certainly a pain to have to listen to Gwen all the time, but on the other hand though, living wild had been a rough life, and he had spent most of his time following orders then too. "Or-ith! Orith!" The bug said finally, giving Gwen his full attention and trying to look as eager about this as the Mawile did. "Okay then." Gwen said, acknowledging Anorith's change in demeanor as co-operation. She laid out two of the bowls, and pulled a bag of pokemon food out of her bag. She poured both Sakura and Anorith a portion. "Before we start, you two have your share now." She told them, as both pokemon jumped to their bowls and began digging in. It only took a few moments, before both had emptied their dishes. Anorith looked up at Gwen hopefully, but she ignored the plea for more. "Alright, first one up is for Sakura. It's going to be the Stunky we met on the way here, so be on your guard." Gwen warned as she removed the Skunk pokemon's poke ball from her bag. Anorith(2) pouted a bit about the human not giving him any more. Not waiting around for the unknown feral to be released though, he scurried up onto the bed while Gwen threw the stunky's poke ball to the floor. The stunky appeared in a flash of red light. Immediately, the stunky appeared alarmed, and upon realizing he was in a rather small, enclosed den with the human it had last met along with one of the pokemon it had attacked him with, he bolted underneath the bed, firing back a cloud of poison gas as it went that spread over the floor in a low purple haze. Gwen lifted her feet onto the bed avoiding it's effects, while the purple haze completely surrounded Sakura, causing no effect whatsoever to the steel type. <Hey, it's alright. We aren't going to fight you.> Sakura told the Stunky as she bent over to peer under the bed at the skunk. She could just make out the glint of it's eyes and the light stripes of fur that ran down it's back and belly. <But you're going to need to stop attacking us if this is going to work out, k?> The Stunky glared back at the Mawile, not really believing any of what it said as he began to fully grasp his situation. The human had captured him, that was why it went so dark right? He was inside one of those things the humans sucked pokemon into. He remembered seeing it happen on one occasion to another pokemon on the hill. Now what though? He could see no exit for him to escape from, and there was that Mawile and human that had him pretty much cornered. Gwen gave Sakura more instructions, and the Mawile looked up and nodded before repeating her words back to the Stunky. "You're hungry right? Gwen's going to give you something to eat alright?" She told the Stunky, who offered no more response than the same distrusting glare it had given her before. Stubborn thing isn't he? The Mawile thought. Gwen poured a bowl of pokemon food and set it down beside the bed. Gwen stepped off the bed, avoiding the range of the poison gas that was quickly fading, so the Stunky would know her position and not fear a sneak attack. Moments past though, and as Sakura watched the Stunky it didn't seem to budge. <Come on, it's food.> The Mawile said gentle as she nudged the bowl under the bed. <And it isn't like poisoning it would even do anything to you.> The Stunky pushed itself a bit against the back wall as the thing the human had presented it with was pushed forward. The mawile had a fair point, it had nothing to fear from poison. Still he knew there were many ways to harm someone than just by poisoning it. The object itself hardly looked like food. Really, it just looked like a round chunk of tree. Did he look like a bidoof? Despite it's unappetizing appearance though, he could smell something pleasant from inside. While he was contemplating, he watched the Mawile take a pellet from the object, (which must have been hollow -- he couldn't really see over it from under the bed) and eat it. As much as he hated to admit it, he was damn hungry. If the Mawile could eat it, it must have been safe and there was no way he was going to let it have a chance to eat all of it if he could help it. Lunging forward, he snatched the bowl and dragged it back toward him. He couldn't fit his head over the dish for the low bed, so he snapped his paw at it, tipping it over and sending a few pellets onto the floor which he sniffed carefully before popping one into his mouth. After that, he took to the rest of it eagerly, snapping up each pellet and knocking what he could out of the bowl to eat. Sakura waited patiently, while Gwen herself lowered herself into a sitting position on the floor, tilting herself so she could observe the Stunky as well. Anorith waited for the poison gas to completely fade, before he dropped down onto the floor and glimpsed the Stunky as it ate. Eying the pellets it was dropping with no apparent concern for the not very clean floor, he took a few tentative steps closer, only for Sakura to grab him by the tail and drag him backward. <Don't even think about stealing his food.> Sakura huffed at the Anorith, who groaned at her, but backed off anyway before the Mawile decided to take harsher measures. Stunky, though he was quite intent on this 'food', he still kept an eye on those lurking beyond his hiding place. His fur bristled slightly as the Anorith tried to move in on his meal, but continued eating as the Mawile dragged it backward. It was a long process, getting a few individual pieces out of the bowl at a time, but he eventually found the dry but edible pellets were gone. At least, all the ones he could manage to get out of the bowl from his position anyway. Having a bit of a stubborn side, he began clawing at the inside of the bowl, wrestling with it, hoping he could perhaps break the chunk of wood. <Hey, cut that out! You'll break the dish.> Sakura said as she noticed the Stunky was getting rough with it. <You'd probably get at the rest of it easier if you just came out from under the bed and ate it properly.> She suggested, hoping the Stunky would show a little consideration for the fact that wasn't theirs to scratch to shreds. The stunky narrowed it's eyes, weighing it's options. <Fine.> It said, deciding that getting at the food would be more worth it, than fussing over what this Mawile and her human were going to do to him. He shoved the bowl out from under the bed, exiting while still keeping as much distance as he could between himself and the human and other pokemon. Now that he could get his head over the bowl properly, he snapped up the last few pellets, before suddenly facing the Mawile and it's human. <What do you want with me?> He demanded plainly. Sakura's eyebrow's raised a bit at the sudden demand, but her expression smoothed back to a friendly one. <Well see, that's what we want to talk to you about.> She said, glad that they were all on the same page now. <First off, I'm Sakura, this is Anorith, and the human is Gwen, she's our trainer. What Gwen does is take care of us, and help us become stronger pokemon. She's captured you for the same deal. All she asks is your loyalty and obedience.> Stunky eyed the human as Sakura fired off her explanation of things. So that was what those humans did when they trapped wild pokemon in those strange metallic orbs? Took care of them and made them stronger? Well that was tempting to some degree, but of course nothing came without a price. Obedience and loyalty? He wasn't really sure. <Why should I? What if I don't want to?> The stunky snorted huffily. <Well, a lot of reasons.> Sakura said vaguely, her gaze shifting out the window that was still being pounded by the falling rain. <You'll always have food and the shelter, for one. Life in the wild couldn't be that easy right? Constantly having to fight for food and territory... You won't have to worry about finding food or getting stuck in storms like this. Gwen will feed you, and you'll always have your poke ball to rest in.> ------------------- Work in progress!
Words: 323
Tagged: Mod	Credits: Aquarius of BTN