Not Like This

(21 energy)

Skylar was tolerant.  She was nice.  She was caring, understanding, compassionate, and she just wanted to help others.

"You're afraid of water.  You're afraid of your strongest asset: yourself!"

She just wanted to help.  Her leader had been kind to her before; he'd risked his life to save her, but now....

"You wanna help me?  You can help by learning how to take care of yourself."

She felt useless.  Of course, this was mostly because she'd basically been called useless.  Again and again, every time she tried to get Sova to stop or at least let her help, she got the same treatment.  She would be told all the reasons why she couldn't come, why she was too weak, just a hindrance....  It hurt, and she wanted to be mad at Sova for it, but he was right.

"If you came with me right now, you'd just end up in my way.  Either I'd end up hurt or you'd end up dead."

She couldn't stop thinking about her leader's painful words.  She was accepting and tolerant of others, even through hostility, but being told she was useless by someone who'd saved her life....  She just wanted to repay the favor.

"I couldn't live with myself if you two had to do this!  Just look at me; does this look fun?!"

So now, she was staring into the glistening water.  The water was rising just barely up to touch her paws, then retreating back into the ocean.  Again and again, just like clockwork.

"After I fix this, I'll teach you both everything I can.  I'll help you get over your fears, I'll show you how to fight, I'll help you pick out missions....  Just, please, stay here."

Skylar couldn't just sit in the safety of Grassveil while her leader tore himself apart trying to save everyone on his own.  Sky wasn't going to just wait for someone else to carry her through life.  She was here to make herself useful, even if she had to sit on the shore all day. She was directly disobeying her leader, but she couldn't help it. It just wasn't in her nature.

"You're afraid of water."

She really was afraid.  How pathetic was that?  She had gills!  She could literally turn into water!  She had absolutely nothing to fear, yet trying to use these abilities just resulted in her having panic attacks and waterboarding herself.  She wanted to just jump into the water, but she was terrified.  She wouldn't drown.  She could swim, and more importantly, she could breathe under water.  Yet no matter how much she tried to tell herself these things, she just couldn't force herself into the water.

The vaporeon sat on the shore of the beach, staring out into the ocean with a sad expression.  She'd come wearing a more determined face, but that had faded after about ten minutes of just sitting there and trying to psych herself up.  It'd been hours now.  She hadn't come all the way out to Rainfront just to give up and go home.

What a peaceful day it was, just chilling out on the beach....wishing her friends were still here with her...alive. She sighed, looking up at the sky with a soft pillow of sand to keep her head up. The clouds went by slowly and...well that was about it. The sky was covered in dark clouds by the darkness of all that noise that giratina f*cker was making. Why couldn't he at least let the sun shine? Annoying little a**...

The piplup made an even heavier sigh, allowing her wings to swing to her sides as she made a small sand-angel. There was one thing problem with this day other than the fact that the sun was unable to shine....SHE WAS F*CKING BORED! Seriously, of all the things to do in this world she couldn't find a single one to do. Namataki growled to her self and flailed in the sand, giving a small cry of frustration. Her cheeks puffed out in a pout as she stared blankly at the clouds above. It was at that time, something seemed to nip her behind.

Now, she had been sitting there for a good few minutes without being disturbed. She did not expect something to suddenly attack her even if it was only a small tiny nip. She overreacted, and cried out in surprise before blasting a Hydro Pump at the ground after pulling herself up and jumping back. The force of the attack backfired on her as she was blasted back by her own attack. Panicked, she simply kept the attack going and was suddenly being flailed about like a high-powered hose. The piplup eventually smacked right into the Vaporeon, knocking her into the sea.

"You're afraid of water."

The words kept being brought up by her mind. Sova's tone had been so matter-of-fact, so disappointed, so.... true.

"You're afr-"

Suddenly, her mind's obsessive repetition of her leader's harsh words was ceased as something slammed into her from behind. She hadn't been paying any attention in the slightest to her surroundings, so she was confused to say the least. "Aah-" she started up before falling into the water and being silenced.
What had happened? One second, she was just sitting on the shore, then the next thing she knew, she was in the water! It took her a moment to truly grasp that she was in the water, but once she realized it, she absolutely flipped.

After a moment of being perfectly still under the water, the vaporeon's body suddenly jolted to life, flailing about and struggling to get out of the water. She could swim, but due to the sudden panic, she was currently doing something more like "drowning." Parts of her body began to fade in and out of visibility as fear overcame her and her survival instincts activated. Hide from the water by turning into water! Yes, her instincts were truly those of a genius. After a rather pathetic struggle, she finally managed to pull her head above the water long enough to gasp for breath.... even though she had gills and was perfectly capable of breathing underwater. She then dragged herself out of the water and up onto the shore, shaking the whole time.

"Wha-" she panted as she looked around and tried to gather her bearings.
Something had hit her and pushed her into the water. Great, now her body was trying to melt. She could feel her heart beating faster and see her body becoming more transparent. On land, it wasn't as noticeable, but it was still pretty easy to see. This had happened plenty of times already and had never caused any problems, yet it still terrified Skylar. The feeling of basically turning into water was nightmarish. Using Water Gun was terrifying, swimming was terrifying, breathing underwater was terrifying, liquefying was terrifying.... She was a fairly pitiful excuse for a vaporeon.

As she wallowed in self-pity, the vaporeon failed to spot who had knocked her into the water. With attention only on her failure, she began rambling to herself: "I can breathe underwater.... I can't drown.... I. Can't. Drown. Uhg, what's wrong with me!?"
No matter how many times she told herself she couldn't drown, she still felt like she could.

The little penguin's little sky-adventure had been stopped as she had rammed into something. The piplup finally put a cap on the near uncontrollable pump of water as she closed her beak. The piplup landed face first in the sand of the shallow water before using her wings to pull herself up. She shook what she could off of her face before using her wings to brush off the rest. What had stopped her? She looked around and spotted a vaporeon that seemed to be freaking out massively before jumping out of the water.

Taki's wings flailed as she suddenly realized what happened. Sh**********t she just hurt someone didn't she!? She rushed over to the vaporeon, "Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t! I'm so sorry are you ok-...wow I didn't think I hit you that hard?" the piplup spoke as she stared at the vaporeon who seemed to be freaking out. She had understood that she had struck the vaporeon, but she did not seem to be piecing together that the vaporeon had been terrified of the water even with her little ramblings.

...was she really that strong? Maybe she didn't actually know her own strength...OH maybe she was as strong as Garnet! Yeah, that's it! Her eyes widened. This newfound strength...she needed to harness it and take responsibility-

"I don't care about you, you're like a foot tall! You didn't hurt that much!" the vaporeon yelled at Namataki.

The piplup froze in the spot, silent.

Spoiler:

"Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t! I'm so sorry are you ok-...wow I didn't think I hit you that hard?"

It was then that Skylar noticed the piplup. Even in her panicked state, she quickly realized the little flightless bird had been the cause of her misfortune. And apparently, it thought itself important enough to be the direct cause of her dismay. Oh, it was definitely the bird's fault, but not because it'd hurt! She'd been knocked into the water by the careless thing! Considering how hurt her pride already was, the piplup's misunderstanding of the situation was taken to heart by her, and she spoke without thinking.

"I don't care about you, you're like a foot tall! You didn't hurt that much!" she exclaimed and glared at the piplup.

Then, after a moment of just glaring, she realized what she was doing. Her brow furrowed into a sad, worried expression as her head-frills flattened. The piplup had apologized.... Her reaction was completely uncalled for. "I'm.... I'm sorry, I.... I didn't mean to.... t-to yell.... I'm just in a bad mood...." she stumbled over her own words in an attempt at apologizing for her harsh reaction.
The whole situation had just gotten to her for a moment, but that was no excuse to be so horribly rude.

In truth, she actually did ache a bit where the bird-rocket had hit her, but it wasn't really anything major. She could have just absorbed some of the plethora of water to help quell the pain, but she wasn't really thinking clearly at that moment. Besides, she had pretty much no clue how to do that at will.

The piplup stared at the vaporeon even longer, her eyes wide and her beak agape from the shock of the insult. The water type had immediately began apologizing afterwards, but the apology fell on deaf ears as she was still stuck on the fact that she had been called short and weak. She...she didn't have some untouched faucet of power just waiting to be tapped into that would bring her forth to greatness? Damn.

The vaporeon continued to apologize, growing increasingly more apologetic before asking if she had been hurt. The piplup only stared at her even more, her beak closing to more of a poker face than one of shock.

Spoiler:

"ARE YOU SUGGESTING I HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE!?" the piplup shouted, jumping up and flailing her wings in anger. She was not so soft as to be horribly injured from that little scrap! She landed back in the water with an angered face, "Why were you freaking out so much anyways!? I was worried that I seriously f*cking hurt you!" The piplup glared at the vaporeon, having completely forgotten that the kind water fox had even apologized to her at all.

Spoiler:

Ooc: No regrets
Namataki has ten energy

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Coral Forest :

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Initially, there was no response.  The piplup was staring like a brain-dead zombie.  Wait.... had the poor bird hurt herself?  Skylar hoped not.  "Are you alright?  D-did you hurt yourself, bump your head?  I didn't mean for any of that...." she tried to explain herself, though at this point, she wasn't entirely sure the piplup could even understand her.

Then those worries were put to rest.

The little bird suddenly started up raving about brain damage, to which she attempted to respond: "N-no-"  However, she didn't get very far before giving up and listening to the piplup's continued raving.  Sky felt awful about all of this.  The penguin then asked a question that she didn't really want to answer.  She instead just hanged her head and stared down at the shallow water she was standing in.  It was barely over her paws, as this was all she could handle without panicking.  "I...." she started up, but merely fell silent.
What was she supposed to say?  There was no way in which she could word it that didn't sound pathetic.  She was good at keeping her own ego in check, but even she had a limit for how much she was willing to belittle herself.

"You're afraid of water," she was reminded of her leader's statement once more.

"I'm afraid of water," she finally admitted, though she spoke so quietly it was difficult to even hear herself.
She really didn't want to have to admit to some stranger that she was a vaporeon who was afraid of water.  That was the equivalent of taking a scoop of water out of the ocean and stating that it was afraid of the rest of the ocean.  It made no sense, and she was very aware of that.

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Coral Forest :

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Simon bobbed up and down in time with the gentle surf, resting atop the water's surface. Simon could hardly believe that there was a dungeon here. It completely lacked the foreboding nature of the misty forest or the seediness of the swamp. The whole area was so picturesque and... vacationy? The water was incredibly clear, allowing for a great range of sight from the surface of the water itself. Below, the ocean flora could be shining and lazily swaying in the water. Simon liked how calm all those plants looked. He liked the friendly atmosphere they gave off. It seemed like the dungeon really was a popular retreats for water types. Simon, personally, felt like he was being choked by the salty air. This place was nowhere near as nice as the pond he called home, however, his home always had a certain sentimental bias in his heart. It was certainly very clean, a welcome change from the murky sludge he had been swimming through the marsh.

As he was rocked by the water, the young Ducklett began to feel his head lowering towards the water, heavy with drowsiness. He didn't exactly have a lot of pressing things to do, just that one errand for his mother. That could be done in time, however. For now, Simon's head settled gently on the water, covering only the bottom half of his beak. Simon pulled his ascott over his eyes, and within minutes he was dozing. While he slept, the water began to push him inland. He ended up positioned right behind two other figures on the beach. As he floated closer, the cloth around his eyes slid down to his beak, revealing the effects of his lagophthalmos. He now appeared to be... a rather dead corpse with it's beak bound up.

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 10 launched of one Coral Forest :

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The piplup stared at the sorry looking Vaporeon. Well sh*t she couldn't be mad at her if she looked like...this. The piplup's face turned to a more worried expression as she frowned and watched as the vapreon admitted that she was scared of water. She was quite shocked about this revealation, considering the vaporeon was well over 90% water.

This was...sad. Just sad. The vaporeon looked sad, the concept was sad, and now Namataki was sad. Damn it, now she felt like she had to do something about this! The little piplup waited for a moment before declaring, "Afraid of water? Then I'll just help you fix that as an apology!" she quickly grabbed the frill on the side of the vaporeon's head and turned to pull her deeper into the ocean. She felt mighty proud of herself, helping the sad looking vaporeon. She felt pride swell within her as she turned, her chest puffed proudly. She was doing the right thing, right? Garnet would surely be looking down upon her from above with a proud smile, right?

That's when she saw the ducklett.

"OH ARCEUS CHRIST WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT!?" she screamed, kicking herself back in the water and pushing herself away from the ducklett. Her attempt at escape only resulted in her backing into Skylar as she had previously been pulling her along. "KILL IT. KILL IT. KILL IT." She spoke in a panic.

Skylar's gaze raised up as the piplup offered to help her. The frilly fins on her head lifted slightly at the offer, but the slight bit of relief she felt quickly faded as she realized what that meant. One of the fins that'd taken the place of an ear was grabbed, making the other two instantly spring to life. Oh, the piplup was going to try and make her get in the water! She hesitantly followed along, trying to think up some excuse to stop what was happening before the water got too high. She didn't want to just pull herself away, but she also didn't want to let herself be dragged into the depths. "I-I, uh, my bag, i-it'll get-" she started up with some excuse about her bag getting wet, but more raving on the part of the piplup made her go silent.

She looked up to see what the commotion was. Immediate regret. It appeared to be a corpse, floating in the water! A ducklett, but was it really.... dead? "They could be alive! Get them out of the water!" she exclaimed in an attempt to be heard over.... whatever the piplup was doing.
As the one who could freely traverse water, it only seemed fair that it fell upon the flightless bird to investigate this scene. She certainly wasn't planning on being the one to check. Even if there wasn't water blocking her path, there was.... something disturbing about the creature floating in the water. Its coloration didn't look normal and its eyes were wide open! It seemed like it was dead for sure, but she still didn't want to take any risks. If there was even the slightest chance that someone needed help, she couldn't just run away because the situation was creepy.

Of course, she also wasn't going to be the one to go through the water to get to the ducklett body. The piplup had stopped dragging her into the water, so there was no way she was going to just waltz into the ocean and let it take her!

Simon began to stir from his snooze rather quickly upon hearing voices near him, but he wasn't going to pay them any mind. His head moved a bit as he stirred unhappily, and he was nearly back to sleep until the voices became tERRIFIED, BLOODCURDLING, SOUL-SHREADING SCREAMS OF TERROR. Simon's little heart actually started palpitating as he was ripped cruelly and abruptly from the doldrums he had been enjoying and was thrust straight into a world of absolute fear. "NO, please don't KILL me, it's only dye!!!" he quacked in a desperate bid for self-preservation. His eyes looked like they could fall out of his head at any second, and he yelped in terror before reeling backwards and away from the source of the loudness. His legs flailed around below the water's surface, kicking up the soft sand that made up the ocean floor. As he struggled to right himself, he kicked up an item that had been buried in the sand. It got caught around one of the peaks of Simon's webs while he was struggling, scaring him into struggling harder.

Suddenly, Simon was feeling something stir beyond the adrenaline that he had hot experienced before. Simon's frenzied movement started up a rhythm in the atmosphere, and a newly emerging wind pushed more and more clouds in the sky. By the time Simon settled into a dazed state of shock, a slight drizzle had begun to form by the newly-accumulated extra clouds. It was no storm- the clouds weren't even dense enough to blot out the sky entirely, but there was certainly rain.

"Holy mother duck!!!" Simon exclaimed after a moment of processing, "I didn't mean to make the sky cry! I just got startled!" His Reaper Cloth was still hanging off of his beak awkwardly.

In. Out. In. Out. Breathe damn it! The piplup's eyes were wide as a wing was placed on her chest over her beating little heart. The vaporeon seemed to be insistent upon helping a corpse, which she would rather get the hell out of there! It seemed that the corpse was alive though....ZOMBIE-oh wait it was just a dye.

She was finally calming down a bit after her second near heart-attack today. The piplup didn't know how much more she could take of this! Once the panic was gone, the sky seemed to rain and the ducklett seemed to whine about making the sky cry...was he some kind of idiot?

"Make the sky cry?" she exclaimed, "You can't just make the sky cry, and what are you even doing floating around like that? What if a sharpedo or something just snapped you up?" the fear had been replaced with anger. The piplup glared at the little ducklett that had dared to give her a heart attack, completely disregarding the fact that just moments ago she was crying about killing it.

Oh thank Arceus, the duck was alive. Skylar sighed in relief at this, but the relief was short-lived. There was now a new problem: both birds were flipping out, being noisy. She really didn't like all the commotion, especially since she'd been interrupted just when she was about to.... sit next to the water for another few hours. Okay, so she really didn't have anything better to do than sit around listening to the other two, but that still didn't mean she liked having to hear all the shouting. She didn't like seeing others upset, either. The situation was just all-around bad.

The fins on her head, back, and tail began to vibrate lightly moments before the rain started falling. Just a thing vaporeon did, she assumed. It felt weird. "Calm down, it was probably just about to rain. Or maybe something did a Rain Dance. Hard to tell, since there are always clouds.... Anyway, it's not hurting anything and everyone's fine, so both of you can relax," she spoke up in a calm voice.
All the stress she was openly showing before was suddenly gone. She was still stressed, but now others were stressed too, and she needed to help fix that! Her problems would have to wait until everyone else's problems were fixed. That was why she'd joined the guild in the first place: to help others. Granted, these "problems" were mostly just two flailing dramatic birds overreacting to everything, but still.

If only she knew Sunny Day, she would have tried to clear the rain to lighten the mood. Plus, she wasn't sure how she felt about the feeling of vibrating, so she kind of wanted to get rid of it for now. It wasn't as bad as melting, but it was abnormal and made her feel uncomfortable. She wondered if it was noticeable. Did it look weird? Being a vaporeon was just full of unpleasant things that she couldn't control. Then again, her teammate, Keith, literally electrocuted everyone he touched, so perhaps she was the fortunate one.

Hearing the Vaporeon's words soothed Simon a bit. She almost reminded him of his mom, very relaxed in tense situations. He took a moment to un-ruffle his feathers, tie his scarf around his neck where it belonged, and so on. And then, there was the Oshawott... Well, she certainly chastised him like his mother. No, that wasn't true. His mom was nicer about it than the Oshawott was. Still, the Oshawott did have quite a few good points. Simon hung his head apologetically, taking on the air of a sad little kid.

"Sorry... I didn't mean to cause a fuss," Simon apologized. "I just... I've never been here before, and that rain came out of nowhere, so...." Simon realized this wasn't getting him or the conversation anywhere, and shifted to a more talkable topic. "But anyways, I'm really sorry! My name is Simon, and I'm from the Small Pond! I'm really new here; I've never actually been very far beyond Grassveil or the pond. I'm here on an errand for my mom and stuff, but... people really talk a lot of good things about this beach, so I wanted to come see it! I thought I could find a cool souvenir for my mom!"

The piplup looked to Skylar before her eyes narrowed in confusion. The flightless bird looked out to the deeper waters, and spotted nothing but calm waters. "What the hell could have used Rain Dance?" she asked with a confused tone, one eye squinted more than the other as her shoulders hung in a face of confusion.

That was when the ground suddenly started to move.

Namataki's wings flailed as the ground beneath her suddenly began to shift. It was as if a mountain was suddenly forming in the span of a few seconds! She flailed her wings and cried out as she tried to keep balance, only to be dragged back to the ground by gravity as the once horizontal land became vertical.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" she cried out once her head was above the surface once more.

"So...NOISY!" the carracosta growled with angered red eyes that had had sags underneath them. The water and rock type obviously had not slept well, and it was about to take it out on them.