(Open) A New Face in Town

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Grassveil Town was within sight! Opal had travelled a long way to get here, but the journey had been worth it! What the young Growlithe had heard about the place looked to be true. There were lots of Pokemon about, and there was presumably a lot to do here as well. Oh, if only her brothers and sisters were here as well. What a marvellous time they'd all have! Well, there was no point just standing there. Grassveil would never be reached then. Onward, to adventure!

Opal was wagging her tail with excitement as she trotted into the town center. She enthusiastically greeted passing Pokemon and asked several questions about the place. The shops she heard about sounded amazing. There were shops for berries, shops for gummies, even shops for blended drinks. That sounded amazing! Being a desert dweller, Opal had never had a blended drink. It simply wasn't a thing there. She made sure to memorise the location of these drink shops so she could come back when she'd saved up some money.

Skylar felt that she had made a fine argument, at least for a moment, but was quickly met with what seemed to be a lot of disagreement.  The puff's immediate response was submissive but clearly not in concurrence; she didn't seem to be the defiant type so of course she wouldn't try to object.  As for everyone else, Skylar's suggestion didn't even receive acknowledgment, as if they had all made up their minds already.  Keith was only worried about hurting someone, but he probably wanted to go to the hospital with how he tended to be about... everything.  The leader of Team Pink Children was only interested in helping Keith while the growlithe seemed to be encouraging the hospital idea, totally ignoring Sky's suggestion and going so far as offering to carry Alki to her destination.  No one trusted the guild, it seemed, or perhaps they simply didn't trust the one who'd just saved them.  Maybe they were right?

Given a moment to observe the damage, Skylar could see that Darcy seemed to for some reason be incapable of speaking while Alki was clearly favoring one side of her body.  Darcy had a pretty unpleasant-looking wound as well... and then there was Keith, who didn't have any visibly severe injuries but was apparently unable to get up on his own.  The growlithe seemed pretty much fine but everyone else was... not.  Could the guild help?  Probably, but... more than a hospital?  The thought frustrated Skylar almost to the point of pulling the smile from her face.  Why did she feel so bad about such a simple thing?  It wasn't a personal insult and really wasn't a big deal in the first place; so what if they wanted to go to a hospital instead of... with her?

Is that the part that bothers me? she mused to herself from behind the safety of her happy face.  Did she not want to be alone?  Then why not go with them?  Was she just upset that they had all so quickly discarded her idea?  She hardly noticed when the charizard's emergence was pointed out, absently turning to face him.  She felt... agitated at the sight of him, perhaps because he seemed almost to be getting more attention than her words had.  A tingling sensation crept through her head, slowly refining itself into a tense pain as she stared at the dragon.  She could feel her heart racing again just like before.  She was fine, so why was this happening?  An annoyingly high-pitched noise suddenly echoed through her sensitive ears or fins or whatever they were and she snapped her head toward the source.  She felt mad at it, even after seeing that it was only the growlithe, afraid of what had previously assaulted all of them and given plenty reason for such a reaction.

As the sound dulled, so, too, did the rest of the world; everything was growing muffled in Skylar's perception... except the insufferable whining.  Once was good enough, so why was the mutt doing it again as if they hadn't all heard and noticed the overgrown lizard?  It was getting louder, oh so much louder, until the light pain in Skylar's head suddenly turned into a splitting, stabbing feeling and the ringing blasted her eardrums.  It was all so painful, so sudden that she almost collapsed; she shivered visibly from the unexpected onslaught of sensations in her head, confused as to how one little growlithe could make such an intolerable noise.  She shut her eyes tightly and shook her head violently in a vain attempt to make it stop, stumbling in no particular direction but away from what she thought to be the source.  It quickly grew to be too much to tolerate and she found herself acting without thinking.

"Stop!" she snapped and jerked herself toward the growlithe, glaring at her to see... it wasn't her.  The little thing wasn't doing this.  Skylar's eyes narrowed in confusion before a fresh wave of stabbing pain invaded her head, bringing her to flinch before suddenly turning and starting off in what she could only hope she remembered correctly as the way back to the guild.  "He's fine.  Do what you want, but I'm- I need to go," she spoke, trying very hard to leave emotion out of her tone, lest she lash out again.  She was forced to grit her teeth under another surge of pain as she desperately tried to get away as quickly as possible while keeping her composure.  Every thought that passed her by seemed to do naught but make the pain worse, but they came and went despite her protests against them.

Why?  What's happening?  I'm fine.  It's just a headache.  I hit my head when I fell.  Am I just stressed?  No one else gets headaches.  I'm not stressed.  I'm fine.

The pain and feelings wouldn't go away, but the scattered thoughts finally stopped all at once.

--

Keith was hesitant to accept help and end up shocking someone, but he wasn't sure of his ability to get up on his own and really wasn't interested in trying.  He may not have been the social type, but he could see the hospital was the more popular suggestion even though he probably wouldn't be going there.  He was aching all over, but he very much doubted it was anything serious; and besides, he still needed to watch over Skylar, even if she didn't want him to.  She looked fine at the moment but had been very stressed as of late, and for good reason.  Alas, she wasn't the only thing to worry about in this situation; Keith held concern for himself as well, along with all the others and... well, when it was brought to everyone's attention... the beast.  He would have backed up if not for his position on the ground, but aside from an initial rush of fear, he wasn't too worried.  The others had handled this foe once already just fine, and upon closer inspection, the thing seemed to be in pretty bad shape.  If nothing else, Skylar was definitely still fit to...

As if on cue, the vaporeon proved this notion wrong with a sudden outburst at the adorable growlithe who'd done nothing wrong.  Stop... what?  He would have vocalized his curiosity if only he were bolder, but alas, he instead watched Skylar's clear effort to distance herself from the group, again for no apparent reason.  She seemed to be very frustrated or... in pain?  She spoke and claimed the charizard was nothing to worry about, and while Keith was willing to trust her on that, he didn't believe the same about her.  It was far too obvious that something was wrong, and since she clearly wasn't going to come with everyone else to the hospital, that settled it: if he couldn't convince her, then he wouldn't be going either.  "Sorry, she's not usually like this," he muttered just loud enough for those in his immediate vicinity to hear before trying once more to get himself off the ground.  He managed to lift himself, albeit just barely, and carefully raised his front leg on the skitty's side.  He'd received the message that she was willing and perhaps even eager to take the shock and help him up, and since she was a fair bit smaller than him, the only way he saw for her to do that was to kinda... push him up.  That meant touching her with more of his fur than he wanted, but he was now more worried about his teammate than delivering some trivial shock to someone who could surely handle it.

The questions he never asked were, of course, never answered. He remained silent as he observed, his wounds pained him with each moment. It honestly felt better to just stand still rather than irritate them. A pink puffball seemed to notice him first and immediately began to fear him. He could practically smell it from there. The fairy type could barely speak in his presence as she stammered and trembled. His eyes locked onto the small puffball in an almost emotionless gaze as he tried to process what was going on. Something told him that he should not want this, but another side of him relished it. It was a sick sort of guilty pleasure. The longer the feeling stayed, the more he would come to accept it. He made no expression or movement to suggest the joy he felt in seeing them cower.

The feline, the other pink pokemon with the strange puffy tail, seemed to be...he couldn't understand what emotion they seemed to express. Indifference? Confidence? Too scared to make any other expression? His attention was snapped away from the pink duo as the pup made noise. The pitiful wail rang with him, in a way that both excited and horrified him. His tail flickered as the flames grew larger, the blaze giving away that he felt some kind of reaction to the cry. When it ended, he...almost wanted to hear it again. It was as if his eyes began to hunger for the ultra-violence that he was denied moments before-

"STOP!" the vaporeon from earlier snapped him from the malicious thoughts he was not quite even aware he trailed into. A moment that left him wondering, 'what am I thinking?' with no real answer for himself. His gaze landed on the water type who began to speak but seemed to suddenly need to leave the children all on their own with the big bad monster that tried to kill them moments before. Garnet was unaware of how stupid this decision might have been, but fortunately, he was brought away from the wretched thoughts. Instead, his mind seemed to sort of fade into white noise as he looked back to the group, unsure of what to do or say from this point on.

Darcy had never really interacted with many electric type Pokemon. Her childhood had been rather sheltered, and most of her friends had been Normal types, just like her. She supposed Alki was one of the more exotic species she knew personally. Fairy and normal. Sure, she had seen quite a few other types of Pokemon when she went into town with her parents and at the guild, and she had read about them in books and such, but that was still quite different from meeting them, interacting with them, touching them. She’d never touched an electric type before!

   Did all of them sting like that? Darcy’s fur bristled as the electric shock coursed through her body. It felt sharp, like little needles running through her body, but concentrated on her flank, where the jolteon had put his front leg. And he was heavy, too. This was nothing like helping out Alki. This Pokemon felt ten times heavier. The Skitty let out a grunt of exertion as she stepped forward, little by little, towards the guild. It wasn’t a conscious choice, exactly. The thought that she was going towards the guild didn’t even really enter her mind. Darcy didn’t question it, and not for a moment, did she consider going to a hospital, like her sister and the Growlithe wanted. Both of them were scared, and she didn’t blame them. But Skylar was right! At the end of the day… well, it was their home now! Except the Growlithe. Member or not, the guild was still the safest place around. More than a hospital… more than anything!

   She hoped the jolteon would be alright. And everyone else too… Alki needed space, Skylar seemed off, somehow, although she still seemed fine compared to everyone else. Opal was unhurt, at the very least, but… somehow, Darcy couldn’t shake the feeling that the victory they had won was Pyrrhic in nature. If that was how she felt, Darcy couldn’t help but worry for Alki. Usually, Darcy was the optimist…

   The Skitty closed her eyes as she focused on pulling her weight, as well as the Jolteon’s. It’d be a long walk back to the guild…

~

Alki felt pretty bad for the Growlithe.
She hadn't been there at the start of the fight, but from what she could gather, the Growlithe had been attacked by the Charizard, and had then been defended by Keith and Skylar. Later, she and Darcy had come to help too. They'd helped, right? They'd been more than just semi-active spectators…

That was reason enough to feel bad. Alki didn't blame Opal for her fear at the sight of the Charizard. Hell, she was just as afraid, in a scared-silent sort of way. As the Charizard remained inactive, that fear - ever so slowly - dissipated. The girl let out a shaky breath, and right as she was about to say something, she found a new, watery, eevee-shaped Pokemon to be afraid of.

And to think: Skylar wasn’t even yelling at her.

Poor, poor Opal.

Alki had no desire to be yelled at like the Growlithe. The Jigglypuff did her best to make herself as small as possible, make the broken foot more apparent, (maybe that would get her pity points?), and otherwise make herself seem as innocent as possible.

If Skylar was saying anything, Alki wasn't listening. No… she wasn't innocent. She'd screwed over the Vaporeon, and now she was trying to hide from the consequences.

She just wanted to go to the hospital. That was really it. She didn't belong in the guild, and she certainly didn't belong in that group of Pokemon. All the other guild members present were actually competent.

    “Shut up, coward.” She mumbled the insult, meant only for her own ears. Take the yelling. She deserved it so much more than the Growlithe. And Darcy was doing her fair share to help the Jolteon! She was much smaller than him and she was still helping! She should… well. She couldn't help anyone. But…

    “H-Hey… Skylar, w-wait.” She called out meekly, limping towards the Vaporeon. She closed her eyes and drew air through pursed lips. She was afraid. It was obvious in her own voice, to herself. She must have sounded downright pathetic to the others. Alku cleared her throat, and in the most confident voice she could muster, she called out again:

“Skylar?”

Opal felt quite bewildered. She had been shouted at for expressing her fear and making an instinctive call for help. Did the others not see it that way? Was crying like that just a growlithe thing? What was she supposed to do, just let that charizard eat them?

The little pup didn't know what to do. As she wasn't part of the guild, she didn't understand why everyone wanted to go there instead of the hospital. The jigglypuff seemed to be the only one on her side, but of course, there was no way to be aware of all the internal politics going on. These pokemon already knew each other while she was a stranger.

She was out of the loop. If only someone would just explain things to her...

Keith stood on shaky legs and found himself very thankful for the skitty's kind help.  She had to have been about as exhausted as him, but still she put her all into being helpful to someone else.  She was better at this job than he was, at least in his eyes.  The two began walking and within moments, Keith couldn't help but look over at Darcy, at which point he really noticed her condition.  She was pretty beat up; in fact, she looked to be hurt even worse than him, and yet he was the one who had to have help walking.  He suddenly stopped and leaned away from the skitty, stumbling a bit before catching his footing.  "I think I can walk now that I'm up," he stated, gaze switching between the cat and his own legs.  He didn't want to, but he wasn't going to let himself be so selfish as to make someone help him when they needed it even more than he did.  Still, he very much appreciated the much-needed help getting up, at the very least.

He took a single shaky step forward before pausing and turning back to see the growlithe just... standing there.  Was she lost or something?  Maybe just in shock?  Either way, it seemed wrong to leave her like that, and Keith figured... well, maybe he could help.  "Hey...  You uh... you wanna come?" he questioned, turning to look at the vaporeon for a moment.  "Guild members are usually pretty friendly, including her.  S-she's just... had a hard time lately."  He felt the need to defend Skylar despite her behavior, mostly because he knew something was wrong.  She had been growing increasingly upset for a while, and today had been especially rough on her with one problem after another.  Keith hadn't been there for most of it, but he had been told enough to understand.  It didn't give her the right to randomly yell at people, but that was part of the reason why he felt the need to explain; the poor growlithe at least deserved to know she hadn't done anything wrong.

Plus, truthfully, Keith had enjoyed getting a compliment for once and kind of wanted to see more of the pup.  He had been putting up with a lot of Sova and Skylar criticizing him for a while now, and while he knew all of it was valid, it was still nice to have a little bit of the opposite for a change.  At that, Sky was being especially lethal with her words today; for understandable reasons, but still, having someone around to counterbalance that a little sounded nice.  As if to prove his point, the accompanying jigglypuff decided to go poke the beehive and talk to Skylar.  Keith figured it would go one of two ways, and pessimistic as he was, he assumed it would be the same as it had been with the growlithe.  He had been around Skylar enough to know that the last thing she wanted when she was in a bad mood was to have to talk to someone.

--

Misery was more tolerable without having to think so deeply about it.  Granted, that didn't make the throbbing pain go away, but Skylar was desperate for any relief she could find.  She could only assume her headache was from the fight or the stress or both, but it was still just a headache, and it would surely pass.  For now, she just needed to get away from everyone so she didn't have to worry about lashing out at any more random innocent puppies.  A faint ringing persisted from some indiscernible source, but beyond that was silence, and relief.  All she wanted was to be alone for a while so she could rest, and then surely, she would feel better.  Alas, the voice in her head decided to start back up and remind her she could have no peace... but it sounded different.  It took the vaporeon a moment to realize this time, the voice was coming from outside her own mind.

Sky spun only halfway around before snapping, "What!?" in quite the agitated tone.  The frills adorning her head flattened and she bore a glare to match, but this attitude caved almost as quickly as it emerged.  Staring at the others staring back at her, she realized how she was behaving.  She was being so aggressive all of a sudden for no reason, lashing out at nothing.  It was the noise she didn't like, but it was unfair to blame those making it when they didn't even know.  Such outbursts seemed so hypocritical of her after her little speech about how she was a guild member.  Her posture wilted in a defeated manner as regret overcame her face.  "I apologize," she tried to regain whatever composure she had left, "I must have hit my head during the fight, because it's killing me.  I just need some rest."  Such outbursts seemed so hypocritical of her after her little speech about how she was a guild member.  She wanted to say she was sorry, and at the same time, she wanted to avoid further hurting her image as a guild member.

"Um... what did you want?" she spoke in another attempt at her initial response, this time far more gentle and inviting.  Skylar wanted nothing more to be alone in silence so she could lay down and rest, but it wasn't everyone else in the world's fault that her head was hurting.  Besides, she would have to get used to dealing with such injuries eventually if she wanted to keep up with others in the guild.  She would need to be able to act decent with a little headache at the very least.

(I figured it'd be safe to assume everyone would stare at Skylar.  Feel free to correct me.)

“If you’re sure...” Darcy said, backing away as she let the Jolteon steady himself on his own feet. She was always happy to help out, of course, but gosh, did all electric types have fur like that? Her own fur seemed to be bristling with the static electricity, or… whatever that kind of leftover electricity was called. She was far too tired to think of what it’s actual name was, and now her whole body kinda stung with electricity. She snuck a glance at her own teammate, and was rather discouraged at the pitiful display she seemed to be putting on.

She’d had a pretty crummy day, hadn’t she? Darcy let out a small sigh and shook her head. It was going to be a tough night, trying to talk Alki down from one of her moods… not that she minded. As long as she was happy in the morning, it was worth it.

But truth be told? Darcy kind of just wanted to sleep… She felt bad about it, but that was the truth. She was exhausted.

The Skitty let out another sigh, this time out of disappointment towards herself and sat down, allowing herself to rest for a moment while things calmed down. The Jolteon seemed to be discussing things with the Growlithe, and while Darcy felt as though she should be chiming in, truthfully? She was just tired.

Darcy lay down, and put her head atop her paws, closing her eyes for just a few seconds. Her side was kinda sore, but just a bit of rest, until the others got everything sorted out, and everything would be fine. Besides, she could help out Alki much better if she weren’t so dog-gone exhausted…

~

“S-So… Um.” Alki had a hard time gathering her thoughts after getting shut down so quickly. The jigglypuff opened and closed her mouth, struggling to think of something meaningful to say, while at the same time trying to hold back tears. Why was everything bad happening to her? She’d really just wanted to help… that was it! So why was the world so intent on having everyone hate her…

Alright, so the Vaporeon seemed to be apologizing… Alki hadn’t even bothered to look up at her eyes, and even now, after her apology, Alki found herself having difficulties establishing eye contact with the larger, angry Pokemon. She chose to focus on her frills instead. “Um… N-No need to apologize, I mean… it’s just that… ”

Alki shook her head, mentally preparing herself. She wasn’t about to cry in the middle of her apology. If nothing else, she could at least apologize with dignity! She could do that, at the very least. “Well, I mean… I’m sorry I wasn’t really… Well, that I just sorta… wasn’t a help at all, here. Or… well. That, I just kinda...” She snuck a glance at the Growlithe, and thought better of her initial word choice. “Screwed you over.”
She felt her ears flatten on her head, and felt herself beginning to cry. Even though she’d promised herself she wouldn’t. No. Stop. She rubbed her eyes and tried to stop herself from trembling before continuing. She wasn’t even sure if she had, but...

“Really, worse than screwing you over… I almost got you killed, and that’s all because I didn’t know what that orb did.” She said. The balloon Pokemon seemed almost to deflate, as she focused on something behind the Vaporeon before finishing her long winded apology. “I’m really sorry I did all that… I shouldn’t have tried to help. I’m too much of a shitty guild member for that. I just wanted to apologize to you and… well. Sorry I made things so difficult for you…