An Otter in Distress

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[Energy: 19 (Base) - 10 = 9 left]

It was a simple day outside of Rainfront Town... Wingull were flying above the ocean, while many fish were swimming underwater. Among the fish, however, was an Oshawott. His name was Tempo, and he usually spent his spare time exploring the ocean, even though he couldn't stay under forever. Like other water types, it was go to place when he just needed to feel free from the responsibilities of the world.

The Coral Forests was basically a location originally thought to only be imagined in dreams, too! It amazed him by just how many colorful pieces of coral were surrounding him... He's glad to be a water type, thus allowing him to dive to this place...

After swimming around the beautiful coral forest for a bit longer, he felt his chest tingle a bit, and his lungs begging for air. He has been under for a while, so another breath wouldn't hurt. He attempted to swim out of the forest, but he realized that he was lost, with no easy way to escape... ~No... Please... Don't let me be trapped in here...~ The otter thought to himself, panicking... He was rather weak, so breaking through the coral wasn't an option... All he could do was wait for some other Pokémon to notice his predicament... or for the water to take his life... "Someone... Please, help me..." He cried out, in a desperate tone...

Sy'rin nodded in agreement with jumping right into the depths, wanting to waste as little time as possible. She wasn't sure what her new friend would do with the fossil or even what could be done with one in the first place, but she didn't care and was more concerned with the current situation. As she follower the oshawott into the deep, dark waters, the light in the area began to fade, making things progressively harder and harder to see. Being a vaporeon meant she was well-off in the water, but she wasn't an umbreon, so the darkness still wasn't her natural habitat. Of course, an umbreon likely would have drowned trying to go so deep in the ocean, but maybe some kind of cross-breed would have sufficed. But alas, things like that didn't exist, so she was stuck having to navigate through her lack of proper sight.

It didn't take long before the vaporeon realized a problem; namely, she couldn't see her friend, and the same was presumably true vice versa. They would need to speak to keep track of each other, and conveniently, it seemed Tempo was getting a head start on that. Well, he wasn't exactly speaking, but... screaming? Yelping? He didn't sound hurt, but more like something had spooked him, so Sy'rin didn't pay much mind to it. Still, she decided to swim toward the sound just to make sure they wouldn't get separated. Even if they weren't in any danger, she figured it was a good idea to stick near her partner, just in case he decided to drown again. It didn't take long for her to locate her target, bumping into something a bit too fleshy to be a rock or piece of coral.

"There you are!" Sy'rin spoke as she placed her front paws in front of her to feel for Tempo. Sure enough, she felt a body, though it wasn't quite how she had imagined an oshawott would feel. She wasn't one to judge, but it was admittedly a bit surprising that oshawott had scales. She had always thought they had fur, but she knew what scales felt like and these were definitely scales; it felt like a fish, or a lizard. Despite how obvious it should have been, she was oblivious to the fact that she was, in fact, not touching Tempo.

[How convinient I lose all my energy and then the page ended... 6-6+1 = 1 Energy]

Tempo calmed down a bit after touching the kelp. Yeah, it did spook him, but after realizing it was just coral, it put him at ease...
What didn't put him at ease was something grabbing him... At first, he thougt it was Sy, who was most likely trying to find him, and Sy did indeed say she found Tempo... but it was from further into the dark forests... Upon feeling for a bit, the thing that grabbed him was some kind of... kelp Pokémon? It had to be a Skrelp... Then two more Pokémon, at least he thought it was two more, held onto Tempo, as well... Feeling around for a bit with his free body parts, they had to be Seadra, like the one he found before...

Suddenly, they were dragging him down further into the depths, further from the surface and into depths he wasn't used to... The water pressure was pushing out air from his lungs, and he couldn't free himself... His only option was to call for help... "Sy! Where are you!? Sy-" He was cut off by one of the Seadra putting its tail over Tempo's mouth... He soon felt an urge to breathe...

Sy'rin didn't quite realize that what she was touching wasn't her friend until he suddenly called out for help from a totally different place. "What? But..." she spoke mostly to herself as she tried to piece together how he could have been speaking from such a distance when he was right in front of her. She tried to swim in the direction of her new friend to find out what was wrong, but a sudden, bright light right in front of her forced her to stop. The thing she had been putting her paws all over was a seadra, and it was now glowing a very bright, silvery color in the water. She didn't know much about different kinds of attacks, but she was pretty sure it wasn't just offering to be a living lantern.

...Or was it?

She looked toward her friend, whom she could now see was being dragged into the depths by more seadra and a skrelp. Despite this, she didn't panic, instead knowing just what to do to make the situation all better. She looked back toward the brightly lit seadra in front of her, putting a paw in front of her eyes in an attempt to shield herself from some of the light as she spoke. "C'mon, don't be like that... We can be friends, can't we? Pweeeeease?" she gave the seadra a pouty face and her voice took on an enchanting quality, effectively swaying it to her side. Fortunately, it seemed to be a male... or at the very least, it swung her way. "Great, now come help me save that guy," she pointed a paw down toward the oshawott and sent the seadra down after him before going down herself.

Sy'rin only had one reliable attack to use underwater, so she went with that. After inhaling a deep breath, she exhaled in the direction of Tempo and the fiends surrounding him. At first, it may have seemed to an untrained eye that she had done absolutely nothing, but if one paid close attention, they could see the rippling pulse pushing its way through the water before colliding with the foes... and the friend. It was a bit hard to aim for the attackers without also hitting Tempo when they were all so close to him, so the vaporeon had just decided to hit all of them and hope her new friend could handle it. Her seadra slave was already being useful enough by providing light, but it seemed to be quite the capable attacker as well, channeling some of the vibrant light coming off of it into a beam and firing it at one of the other two seadra to further damage it.

"Good thing it didn't get a chance to do that to me," she muttered to herself, thankful that she didn't have to experience whatever that beam felt like.

(Saame. +1.)

He could barely see some light shimmering in the dostance... Is this what Pokémon mean when they can see the light... He believes that this is the end of his life, but then, he strangely felt some rippling pulses hit the entire group of Pokémon, including himself...

He sees another light beam hit the two Seadra, damaging them more, and Tempo headed out towards the shining light he could see before... Maybe it was friendly? He feels a bit disoriented by the rippling water attack, though... On the way back, he lets out a huge cloud of bubbles, and began clutching his mouth, as he swam to the light...

When he reached it, he realized it was another Seadra, freaking him out a bit and caused more bubbles to escape from his mouth, but he soon realizes it was friendly... He also sees Sy'rin was there. She must've likely attacked the group, along with the Seadra. "Thanks... Sy..." He says, weakly... But he soon realizes that he needs to breathe... Him dealing with the group of Pokémon dragging them down took a lot of air to resist... "Mmmph... Sy... Let's... get out of here..." He said, hoping she would help him out, again...

Sy'rin watched with glee as the group of attackers fell apart from just a few attacks, having their organized strike completely broken. Of course, she had to give credit where credit was due: her new friend/slave was quite helpful in dealing with the attackers. The seadra appeared to be quite strong, seemingly even trumping its "allies." Sy'rin found herself feeling relief that she had been able to take hold of its will, wondering if she would have been able to deal with it otherwise. Fortunately, everything had worked out fine, and Tempo didn't even seem to be in too bad a shape from being hit by her. However, he was clearly having more trouble with that whole "breathing" thing, which meant it was about time to go back to the surface yet again.

The vibrantly colored vaporeon swam over to the seadra who had been manipulated to her side and spoke to it just one more time before preparing to ascend to the surface. "Thank you so much! Now go keep them distracted, okay?" She ended her command by giving the infatuated seadra a little peck on the cheek just to show her gratitude, and more importantly, to make sure it stayed swayed. With that, she made her way back over to Tempo, intent on carrying him to the surface since he didn't seem to be fit to get there on his own. Sy'rin looked back just to be sure her temporary ally was doing as instructed, and sure enough, the seadra was swimming down to meet the assailants. It would presumably be very violent and entertaining, but alas, she couldn't stay to watch.

"Alright, I'm gonna carry you. Don't make this weird," she joked, once again showing her lack of any concern for the very serious nature of the situation. Death, danger and violence were very casual things in her mind, so it wasn't like she was trying to act thoughtless; this was just how she worked on a mental level. Sure, she knew she needed to get Tempo to the surface or else he would drown, but the situation really just wasn't a big deal to her. Worst case scenario as far as she could tell was that maybe Tempo would pass out. There was no reason to get all worked up over such a little thing. But, still, she understood that the situation was a bit time-sensitive, so she wasted no time in moving into position to wrap her front paws around the oshawott so that she could carry him to the surface... Even without having all of her paws to help her paddle, she could still swim just fine thanks to her tail.

Tempo watched as Sy told the Seadra "partner" to distract them while they escape... He didn't know how, but she somehow managed to woo the Seadra onto her side... It surprised Tempo, actually, but it wasn't really the time to be hung up about that...

Once again, Tempo noticed she wasn't taking the situation as seriously as she should be taking it... We're talking about someone's life, here... He suddenly felt Sy'rin's paws grab a hold of Tempo, surprising him a bit... He was going to ride her like a Ponyta, but this seems better, since if Tempo were to pass out, Sy wouldn't lose him...

Tempo starts to lose his strength as the seconds pass by and the last of his air begins to burn away... He was in serious discomfort, and his paws were shoved over his mouth to avoid losing too much air, and to prevent him from breathing if it gets to that point...

Sy'rin made sure to hold tightly enough to the oshawott to not... drop him or something, while also not squeezing so tightly as to assist the water in drowning him. Seeing that he was struggling still, she paddled her tail as fast as it would go, looking up and focusing on the path ahead rather than the darkness around or the enemies below. She was at least moderately confident her temporary love-slave would be enough of a solution to allow them to escape, so she felt no need to look down and double-check. As she swam upward, maneuvering around the coral structures, the darkness around her faded into light. Fortunately, they hadn't gone far into the depths, so reaching the light wasn't hard at all, and getting to the surface wouldn't be much harder! Well, she figured it was probably a bit more tasking for Tempo... even though she was the one doing all the work...

"Almost there! If you die, I'm looting you, so don't do that," she made a rather dark joke in an attempt to lighten the mood and motivate the oshawott to put a little extra effort toward staying awake. She didn't actually intend to steal anything from him even if he passed out, but she did want him to try to stay awake so that they could continue having fun! After all, if one of them passed out, they would both have to wait for that one to recover before doing anything else. She didn't fancy having to do such a thing, hence the point of her trying to swim so fast. Well, perhaps it was also partly to avoid Tempo drowning, but that was a petty detail.

As the vaporeon neared the surface with her living cargo, rather than slow down, she actually sped up. Again demonstrating her lack of consideration and foresight, her mind was coming up with something "fun," and that had taken over her thought process in moments. By the time she breached the surface, she had gained enough speed to fly straight out of the water, going a good few feet up before gravity finally began to get a hold of her. The air she'd gotten was nice and all, but she wanted to see how high Tempo could go! "BE FREE!" she shouted as she pressed her paws against the oshawott and thrust upward so as to send him out in the air. She then allowed herself to fall toward the water, content with her work.

She may have forgotten for just a moment that oshawott were living things that could be injured, not toys.

(See this is what happens when you let me say what happens to your character, now he's a discount bird.)

Tempo was desperately hanging on to his last breath... His squirming and struggling weren't slowing down, but Sy's firm gripped assured him that he won't slip out of her grasp that easily. But what if he does... Would Sy help him in time? Or would it already be too late...? Suddenly, he coughs up a cloud of bubbles, signaling that he needs air, and his lungs were trying to get him to breathe...

Sy mentioned that she would loot his body should he pass out... This... unsettled him... Whether it was joking or not, though it most likely joking, it's hardly the time for it, and it wasn't funny... at all... He would've given a proper scolding, but if he were to do that, now, it would surely give the water a free one way trip to his lungs...

As they reach the surface, Tempo's vision was fading and his lungs were empty... Tempo was relieved when they launched above the surface, giving the poor Oshawott some breathing room... and then he was thrown higher into the air... He begins screaming and flailing around, and he crashed back into the water... He resurfaces again and coughs up some water. "What the hell, Sy!? That wasn't fun! That was terrifying! I'm not used to being thrown into the air like that! Plus, that joke you made earlier was not funny at all! Seriously, I have to question your... decisions, sometimes..." He said. "In fact, I have half a mind to cover your gills and see what it's like for air breathers to inhale water..."

Sy'rin was feeling pretty proud of her little stunt as she splashed back down into the water. She allowed herself to drift below the surface for a moment, hearing Tempo's screams that indicated her work was done. The oshawott was alive and had probably just gotten as close to flying as he would ever get! Sy'rin breached the surface yet again after only a moment, at about the same time as her new friend, and just in time to get an earful of angry oshawott. Perhaps she should have felt bad for her actions, as the points made against her were reasonable, but the only thing she could really focus on out of the rant was the bit about covering her gills. She felt laughter coming over her and tried to suppress it, knowing the situation was supposed to be serious, but she simply couldn't help herself. Having someone threaten to try and drown her was just too funny not to laugh at!

"Hahahah, that's funny, ahah, yeah," she tried to calm her laughter long enough to speak, but it was proving difficult. "I... yeah, I'm a vaporeon. You can't drown me. I am water. My body can absorb it, oxygen and all. Good try, though," she completely glossed over the serious bits of the topic, instead focusing on the part she found funny. She doubted Tempo's ability to restrain her in order to do such a thing even if he tried, but it wouldn't matter regardless since she literally couldn't drown. She assumed it was all just a joke, like hers, except not quite as... good. It wasn't offensive or anything, at least not to her, but it was far too easy to pick apart. If Tempo wanted to threaten to suffocate her, a better way to do that would have been on land. Smoke was still a threat to her lungs, so that would have been far better than threatening to... cover her gills?

Still, the vaporeon was happy to see her new friend joining in on the harmless banter, as she saw it. She was a bit disappointed in how bad he was at it, but he could always learn from the best! Besides, his joke was still funny if only because of how bad it was, and that was more than enough to entertain Sy'rin. Having been completely distracted by this, she had already forgotten about the rest of the rant, though she hadn't paid much attention to it in the first place. She had just assumed Tempo wasn't actually angry, since... why would he be? She had given him an experience most would have paid to have! Probably.

Tempo noticed Sy wasn't exactly paying attention... It's serious business he was discussing here! She could've killed him! Even as a Water Type, smashing against the water at high speeds would veeery much... And even if he did, all that screaming could've led to him inhaling water... "Pay attention, alright!? I don't care what you say, even that fact that I can't drown you, but lemme say YOU DON'T DO CRAP LIKE THAT!" He said, angry, but Sy still looked... proud of herself for her actions! "Question... Have you ever seen what a drowning Pokémon looked like? You want me to show you?" Tempo said, though he immediately regretted saying that... He sighed a bit and began diving...

Sy'rin was actually a bit surprised by the sudden outburst from the oshawott, as she hadn't thought he was actually upset. What was there to be upset about? She had helped him, after all, and everything was fine! Still, Tempo seemed awfully upset, which at least got the attention of the vaporeon if nothing else. When her new friend questioned if she had ever seen a drowning pokémon, she tilted her head, finding the question odd since she had just watched Tempo practically drown multiple times. However, she didn't get a chance to formulate a proper response before the oshawott had already dove back under the water, apparently desiring to just drop the topic and get back to exploring. She was fine with ignoring the odd outburst, though she was a bit confused at the whole thing. Was Tempo bipolar?

"...Did I say something wrong?" she muttered to herself as she followed the oshawott under the water, wondering where they were going now. "Hey, where we goin'?" she questioned, keeping close behind him to make sure he could hear her. Something about the question he had asked about drowning... bothered her, but she wasn't entirely sure why. Had she ever seen anyone actually drown? She didn't recall any such events, but she knew what it looked like when the life left someone's body. She knew what it looked like to suffocate on land, and she assumed it would look similar in the water, although probably a bit neater. But still, there was something a bit settling about having Tempo offer to show her, especially since he had already done that! How much better could he possibly demonstrate it?

Was she supposed to apologize, even if she didn't know what she was apologizing for? At this point, she understood that she had upset Tempo somehow, but she didn't quite get what the big deal was. She hoped this little situation wouldn't damage their relationship, especially since she didn't even know what the problem was. But the oshawott seemed to have gotten over whatever was wrong already, so there was no apparent need to be concerned! Sy'rin allowed herself to relax slightly as she awaited her companion's response, curious to know where he was taking them.

Tempo tried to stay calm after getting angry with Sy'rin, but he was still upset about it... And he was kind of curious as to whether or not Sy saw someone actually chocking on water before... She should know what she's actually doing to him...

Sy seemed to ask him where they were going. "Isn't it obvious? We're heading back into the Coral Forests? Where else would we be going?" Tempo answered. He continues down to the forests again to see what other wonders could be found in the depths, again... Hopefully they can find some kind of pocket, too! A place to grab a quick breath without a trip to the surface would work fine for him!

He finds the Seadra and the Skrelp from earlier, and the infatuated Seadra, as well! It sort of confused Tempo how Sy managed to get the Seadra to have the hots for her... It would be awkward to ask, but... Maybe he could see first hand what it's like? "Hey, uh... Sy? Can you, maybe... I dunno... do what you did with that Seadra? Maybe to me?" He said, awkwardly...

Apparently, they were heading back into the forest, which was obvious enough. Sy'rin had been looking for specifics, like... back into the depths, or perhaps some kind of specific direction, but she supposed it was her fault for not being specific enough. At least Tempo didn't seem mad anymore, though, so everything was fine! They could just keep exploring together and having fun and not having to argue anymore. Well, it hadn't really been much of an argument in the first place since she hadn't argued, but she also hadn't apologized or anything, so... maybe it still counted. Regardless, all seemed to be forgiven, at least to the oblivious vaporeon, so she was relieved. Or at least, she was until Tempo next spoke... and asked for some thing very... odd. "W-what?" the vaporeon muttered, stopping dead in her tracks and staring at the oshawott.

Her expression was a mix between nervous and surprised, as she had no clue why Tempo suddenly wanted to end up... well... attracted to her. On top of that, she didn't know how she felt about doing it to a friend, since it was mostly a thing she used on enemies and meanies. "I, uh... why? Why do you want..." she tried to figure out a way in which to word her response, but she just couldn't help but feel confused and unsure about such a request, making it difficult to respond properly. She figured she owed it to him for letting go of whatever she had done to upset him, but still, the idea of swaying a friend like that just felt weird. Why in the world did he even want to experience it? Sy'rin understood curiosity and all, but it still seemed weird to want to be the subject of such a thing. She wasn't sure if she was okay with doing it, but she reminded herself again that she still owed him for doing something to upset her new friend. Even though she didn't know what she'd done.

No matter what, one thing was clear: this situation was awkward. Even the one who had made the strange request seemed to feel awkward about it, and rightfully so, since it was... pretty odd. "Why would you want me to do... that... to you?" the vaporeon finally managed to get herself together and form a proper response, though her expression remained the same and her voice wavered with uncertainty. Was this, perhaps, payback for having upset him? Or was he just so bored and curious that he wanted to experience something like having his free will taken away and being forcibly infatuated with someone?

Looking at the Vaporeon's expression, it was clear what Tempo asked was not... exactly normal... To be fair, there didn't seem to be any reason to do such a thing, other than to satisfy his curiosity... which he was usually full off during an exploration, but it just seemed strange... Then again, she did kinda throw the poor Oshawott in the air, and she did get a good scolding for it, so maybe it was karma...

"Um... Good question, actually. I was just curious how it feels to be charmed like that... And besides... You've got to make up for scolding you on the surface, right?" Tempo asked. "I-I mean... If you don't wanna do that, then it's fine, but..." He seems to be blushing, as if he's embarassed about something... Could he already be infatuated or something? It's a strange feeling he's never had before...

Sy'rin simply stared as she listened to the oshawott's response, though it didn't give much insight into the thought process behind this odd request. Apparently, it was simple curiosity at what it was like, which seemed harmless enough. She didn't want to deny such a request even if it was a slight bit uncomfortable from her end, as there seemed to be no harm in it. So, when Tempo continued on to attempt to give her an out, she immediately spoke up, swimming closer as she did so. "No... no, it's alright," her voice was suddenly calm and smooth, with an eerie, enchanting vibe to it. She still felt awkward, but she was pretty good at keeping herself together to attract someone to her.

"This is what you wanted... Do you feel it? Do you like me?" she continued, trying not say anything too awkward since Tempo was a friend and he would probably remember it all afterward, whenever it wore off. Actually, come to think of it, the vaporeon had no idea how long it would take for this to wear off once it took effect. She had never stuck around someone long enough to time it, but she had been told the effect wasn't permanent. This meant she also didn't know if there were any lasting effects. This would have bothered her, but as far as she was concerned, the idea of stopping was selfish in nature. Surely, Tempo knew what this was if he was willing to be afflicted with it, so he had to know the risks... whatever they happened to be. He wouldn't request such a thing otherwise, right?

On top of the questions and concerns she already had, Sy'rin couldn't help but wonder why her friend trusted her with such a thing. After all, it would essentially take away his free will, at least to an extent. He had to have known that before asking for it, right? They barely knew each other, so Sy'rin wondered why she was getting so much trust. She figured it was because she had saved him multiple times already, so there was obviously no reason to distrust her. Definitely no reason at all to be concerned. She was 100% worthy of being entrusted with someone else's life for an undetermined period of time. Totally.