[F&F Club] Foul Weather Friends

He knew what he said. He knew he said he was excited. He remembered packing and being so excited to get going, to go and see the plains. To see the massive thunderstorms that he'd heard stories about. Hear the thunder rolling and feel it shaking his bones. He'd wanted to watch the lightning clash and streak through the sky. He'd been wanting to find some motivation to write a game for the Academy's F&F game, and views like that would have been perfect! He'd practically talked poor Adrol's ears off. He forced himself to shut it or else he was worried the Snivy would never speak to him again. He had been so, so, so excited.

But now, now that he was here...

It was so HOT!

They had come in the middle of a drought! Of all the bad luck, Boreas must have had the worst. Not only was there a drought, but he was fairly certain there must have been a wildfire raging somewhere in the distance. At first, he had thought the giant, billowing collum to the south was a thunder cloud moving in, but it soon became apparent that it was a massive plume of smoke.

This was absolutely miserable.

If it wasn't for the everpresent micro-halestorm that floated above Boreas' head, he was certain that both he and Adrol would have been cooked by the midday sun a while ago. Adrol would have had it particularly bad, due to his pigment condition. Boreas hoped that he wasn't too upset with him.

He looked to the pale pokemon, resting in the shade of the hale cloud.

"I'm sorry about this. Looks like we really did choose the worst time for this... Are you doing okay?"

The look on his face was both embarrassment and concern.

Boreas the Amara - 7 Energy

Meanwhile, Adrol was resting on Boreas's back - as he had been for most of the trip thus far. A few too many wrong turns at Albuquerque had wisened his dear friend Boreas considerably. And thus, Adrol had been disallowed from leading. He felt simply awful. At the very least, he had tried to lend descriptions of landmarks that Boreas could navigate by - difficult when your eyesight is so incredibly poor. He could read what the kind pokemon who had lent them directions had written, at least. At least they had arrived - though it was certainly getting inconceivably hot as they ventured into the eastern territory. Adrol was so thankful for the odd cloak he had found, which blocked the sunlight from him so well he felt cool within it, and his trusted hat providing much-needed shade from the sun's eviscerating rays. Most of all, though, Adrol was thankful that his friend generated nearly arctic temperatures within his near vicinity. Without them Adrol would have certainly shriveled away, based on the temperature increase turning Boreas's winter chill from subzero to cold. The snow cloud was also a desperately-needed oasis.

"Ah yes, I imagine the temperature difference is intolerable from your perspective. Thanks to you, however, I'm going quite fine. Perhaps better now that I am no longer a popsicle," the small snake chuckled. "I believe you were right when you said that I would be toast without this cloud of yours." Boreas had initially been hesitant to bring Adrol for that exact reason when Adrol had first volunteered his service - despite the fact that Boreas had been the one to mention to Adrol that he wanted to go. Adrol desperately wanted to see new things, however - and this area was new even to the local residents!! How could one not desire to explore such a place!!! In the end, he was glad that the situation had worked out in his favor.

"How are you doing? Do you need to stop and rest for a bit?"

Adrol the Snivy - 10 energy

"No, no. I'm fine."

Boreas knew that Adrol was counting on him. He couldn't just give up so easily. If he did, then they would have come all this way for nothing and wasted all this time and effort. No, there had to be something worthwhile in all this heat and smoke. The only thing was that at this point he wasn't really sure what to do with himself. He shifted a little back and forth, readjusting the weight on his back and sliding things around. This was all starting to get a little heavy. Maybe if they could find a nice place to set all this down and regroup.

Just a little ways away, he spied a single gnarled tree winding its way out of the ground. It was sparse and offered little extra shade, but a little was better than none. Making his way under its spindly branches, Boreas set himself down in a huff.

"Let's just figure something out here for now. I'm just not sure what to do now..."

Adrol could not exactly see that Boreas was trying to sit down, so as he did gravity took hold of Adrol and the little snake slid off of his friend's back with an "oh, my!", skidding against the dried grass a little as he landed on the ground. He picked himself up and dusted himself off as best as he possibly could, although the grass was a bit clingy. He turned back to the blue blob that was his friend without making a comment on the incident- it had certainly been an accident, and the discouragement in Boreas's voice instantly made Adrol concerned. Boreas had been so excited before! He had been telling Adrol about all his fascinating thoughts the entire trek here. Perhaps the journey had just taken it out of him. That would certainly make sense.

"Alright, we can do that!" Adrol agreed. Perhaps some time to regroup would be best for both of them. Based on his prior experiences with dungeons, though... "...We shouldn't linger too long in the open like this, though. The area isn't well-known, so it is hard to say where a hostile pokemon may or may not show up..." He shuddered noticeably as he recalled his encounters in the mountains. "So, you said you wanted to come here for the game you are developing, right? Fortresses and Flygons." The name was very catchy. "What aspect of the game are you working on?"

Pffft. Hostile pokemon. Who in their right mind would live anywhere as awful as this? Not somewhere right and proper where some actual chill could creep into the weather every once in a while. This place must have been inhospitable to all but the hardiest Pokemon, and they certainly must have had better things to do than bother the two of them just trying to get some shade.

What was he trying to do for the game specifically?

"Well, I was hoping to work out some specific rules for how weather works exactly. I thought seeing the storms here might give me some really good ideas on how to make things work. Instead, we just get heat and smoke! Smoke isn't even weather. And heat is just... HOT!"

He kicked a small pebble away from him in frustration. He was in no way a fan of the heat. The fact that heat made fires and that fire made smoke wasn't exactly groundbreaking either.

"I don't know. Should we head back or stick around? Is there anything you can see that we could do here?"

"Well- I don't know of a better place to observe extreme weather conditions, at least!! This is certainly the place to do so, that much is certain." Adrol frowned, however, as Boreas expressed disappointment, and even offered to take Adrol home." Well, I would like to learn more about the area, certainly- but you shouldn't give up so soon! Heat may be hot, but that's only the beginning of what it actually does, right?"

Adrol walked a little ways out into the browning grass- not too far, of course- and gestured around with his leafy little hands. "This could be a strange heat! Realistically it comes from the desert, but still... What if it wasn't? What if it was a strange crystal, or maybe a special pokemon lived here..." Adrol had to stop himself before he just ended up carrying on like that. "...so you see? We shouldn't just leave, even if the weather is poor. There might be something that we weren't expecting!"

Adrol walked back to Boreas, the hot and dry grass crunching under his tiny feet. ...It made him the slightest bit uncomfortable, and he tried very hard not to think about how that could be him. Dried out. Wilting. ...But for the sake of progress, it was a risk worth taking. "We should go further in, at least. Why don't you tell me about what these "weather mechanics" would do in your game while we do?"

Boreas's fins fluttered a little in understanding. He may not have liked everything about this, but Adrol was right. There wasn't much point in pouting. Perhaps if they took initative the two of them could salvage something from this situation.

"I guess you're right. It could be some sort of strange, magical heat or something. Maybe. I still think the heat is boring and dumb. Either way, I just wanted something to simulate the random effects of the weather. We all know how hard it can be to predict what the weather is going to do on any given day. I want to make sure that holds true in my games. But it can't be completely random either. That isn't how things work..."

Boreas stood back up to his feet. His long neck was enough to just see over some of the nearby grasses. He was looking for something to head towards, like maybe a road, but nothing was making itself apparent... Well, nothing besides the massive, billowing cloud of smoke, but heading towards that seemed like a bad idea.

"I guess we should keep exploring. How about we keep traveling in a bit of a circle around that smoke? Seems as good an idea as any."

Adrol already had thoughts about Boreas's weather dilemma, but he had to pause that oncoming rush of thoughts as Boreas asked his thoughts on the navigational front. Now, it was not a secret that Adrol's eyesight was just, well, poor. The poorest, maybe. Even from just a few feet away, Boreas looked like a nondescript blue blob against all the brown and dark. All this considered, Adrol had all this time been blissfully unaware that there was a raging brush fire within the general vicinity.

That considered, there was a great ammount of irony behind the fact that he- a grass type- and his friend- an ice type- were about to use it as a beacon of navigation. If Boreas believed that that was the most useful landmark in the area, though, Adrol believed him.

"A... fire? What fire?" Adrol mused nervously. Even with the cloak of fire immunity that he now possessed, the word itself still made him squeamish. He had been living as a creature with the absolute lowest heat/fire tolerance possible for all of his life now, and the word itself was associated with many a day of being incapacitated due to too much sun exposure or just from being friends with a Braixen who had a history of being slightly too overzealous with her fire. "Well... it is a landmark that is easy to follow... at least until we find a road. If there are roads." That's right, these were newer lands... it was extremely possible that there were absolutely no roads in this place. Then again, roads often appeared and disappeared in mystery dungeons regardless of whether or not somebody had a hand in making them...

Time to get back on another topic of thought. "So.... you wanted to make mechanics to randomize weather?" Adrol hummed, fumbling around until he was finally close enough to see Boreas's back. After he climbed back up, he continued, "Well, I can see where that might be a bit "extraneous", if not something that you can't handle with another system entirely. Don't some characters have the ability to change the weather also, like in real life?" He pondered on this a bit longer. "What about... studying the effects of the weather, instead? That might be an easier mechanic to make impactful. For example, how does traveling in this heat make you feel? And then how would you describe that in the game's systems?"

Adrol the Snivy - 12 energy

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 10 launched of one Discharge Prairie :

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If there are roads...

That comment made Boreas a little more than nervous. He'd never been this far out into uncharted territory. They were possibly miles away from anyone who could help them, and very close to many things that may have wanted to do just the opposite. Neither of them were exactly skilled outdoors folk. If something awful were to happen...

No, he couldn't afford to think like that. They could do this. If it came down to it, they would help each other. Adrol was Boreas' friend and he was Adrol's. He was sure that plenty of pokemon would underestimate the two of them, and while he couldn't exactly blame them for that, he knew that the two of them could make things happen together!

After Adrol was back atop the Amara and they were well on their way, Adrol went on for a bit about his ideas on how the weather rules might work. Or, at least, ideas related to that idea. It gave Boreas a germ of an idea, and it was just beginning to come to fruition when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.

He dropped down so that both he and Adrol would be blocked by the tall grasses.

"Adrol, did you see tha- I mean, I saw something in the grasses... I gonna take another look."

Slowly, the Amara raised his head like a periscope peeking above the water. A ways away, he spied a Dodrio. It seemed to be... Talking to itself? Maybe.

"Three-heads, one bird brain. Twelve o'clock. What should we do?"

Adrol still could not see, but he did his absolute darndest to play along and pretend like he had a single clue what was going on. There was a big bird, with three heads... Oh, a Dodrio. And it was... talking to itself, apparently?? Adrol tried to listen in to it's conversation, but at this distance, and with the noise interference of the grass... No, no he just couldn't pick anything up. He pondered this for a moment. It seemed to be in their best interest to know where the other pokemon's haed was at the moment...

Adrol slid gently off of Boreas's back. "I am... I'm going to go try to get closer and listen in without being seen," he whispered to his large companion. "I will go straight in one direction and then turn directly back. Hopefully I will be able to make it back to you this way." Yes, hopefully. Hopefully was a strong word. ...Something had to be done to progress, however, and he was the smallest and most similar in color to the grass. If anybody had a chance, it was him. "If, by chance, you catch me passing you, do try and stop me."

Adrol began to silently approach the voices in the distance. His light weight and his nimble footwork made it easy to move without a sound, and at this point he was feeling confident. I can do this, he assured himself mentally as the voices drew closer and closer, just one foot in front of the other. Slow and steady, easy does it.

Unfortunately, being blind makes it easy to step on things you can't see. Like a rock. Mistaking it for a change in elevation in the terrain, Adrol put all of his weight on the rock- expecting to lift himself up to a higher piece of land. The rock, being small and detached from the ground, wobbled underneath him and (to no one's surprise) he immediately took a spill. He hit the ground with a great "oof."

What... if it hadn't been the ground.... what had it been?

Adrol looked back and picked up the rock as he picked himself up off the ground. It was... green and transparent, and very shiny. It definitely looked odd, but without light he couldn't make much more of it out-

Wait. There wasn't light? Where had the light gone? Unless.... he was standing in someone's shadow-

Oh. Dear.

Apparently, he had fallen right at the feet of the Dodrio. He had gotten far closer than he had intended. "Oh, ah....... hello..." he stammered, standing nervously in the huge bird's shadow.

The Dodrio was momentarily startled as this small thing fell into the dirt beneath it.

"ACK!" screamed one.

"WAH!" yelped the other.

"CRIPES" shrieked the third.

After a moment of composing itself, the bird leaned forward to get a closer look at the little perpetrator

"Well, what have we here?" said one.

"It looks like a little lizard."  the other stated, very matter of fact.

"I know what a lizard looks like," the first snapped back.

"Can we eat it?!!" the third exclaimed, barging in.

"Well, you asked," the second responded.

"We already had lizard for breakfast, calm your- Well, I wasn't asking you!" the first retorted, looking back and forth.

"They who were you asking? Certainly wasn't him," the second nodded towards the third, tellingly.

"Aw. But lizards are tasty." The third sounded absolutely dejected.

"It's a theoretical question. Maybe you've heard of it, bird-brain?" The first responded hotly, turning to the second.

"Ha, look whose calling who the bird-brain! It's a semantic question, dummy," shot back the second escalating the situation.

"Maybe just a snack...." The third looked at the other two, pleadingly.

"What in the world are you on about?" The first looked absolutely livid. "I would bet on my mother's life it is certainly not a semantic question. Semantic question... I never!"

"Our mother! And it's definitely not a theoretical question. Never heard of that in my life!"

"Uh, actually, it's rhetorical...." Chimed in the third.

"Oh, right."

"Oh, right."

"Now, can we haves a snack?"

"Sure sure, snack. Right, where let's have at it then."

The bird turned back around to the look at the little thing on the ground.

"...."

"Oh blimey, he's buggered off."

"BUGGERED OFF?!"

"You let him get away!"

"Me?"

"My SNACK!"

"Yes you, arguing about grammar and such!"

"Oh, look here! I'll grammar you right in the beak!"

"Oh, oh. Such a tough guy. You've always been a big blowhard! Ever since back in the nest! Alright, let's see it then!"

"MYYYY SNAAAAACK"

"Alright, here it comes!"

"Oh, I'm waiting!"

"I'm gonna do it!"

"All I wanted was a bite..."

"Please, by all means, you absolute clod!"

"Oh! Clod! Right, that's it then. You've really done it this time, haven't you?!"

"He looked so nice and tasty...."

And so they three continued as the little Snivy had the opportunity to slink back through the grass back to his friend.

---

Meanwhile, Boreas was watching the Dodrio and wondering just what it was talking about. He imagined after a while it would get a little annoying to be attached to the same two people all the time. Still, he was sure they found ways to cope and get along.

---

"I'll peck your bloody eye out!"

"Oh please, you lie."

"I'm so hungry."

"SHUT IT"

"SHUT IT"

---

Yes, Boreas was sure they must have been very good friends.

Adrol stared blankly at the bird(s?) for a good couple of seconds while they bickered among themselves -  until they started mentioning snacks and reptiles in the same sentence. It was at that moment that the small leafy snake knew that the birds were absolutely not good for his health, and that he needed to flee immediately lest he be lunch. Thankfully, these fellows seemed none too observant of their surroundings while they talked, so he just needed to... ever so carefully... sneak back into the grass.

He listened very carefully as he rand, only heaving a sigh of relief once he heard confirmation that they had indeed last track of him in all the commotion. Despite having been interested in eating him, they seemed like a fine fellow. Perhaps a bit eccentric, but he certainly wasn't one to judge another pokemon for that kind of thing. Now, he needed to find Boreas again... He hoped he had run into the grass the same way he had come. If not... well, he wasn't exactly in the position to start Boreas's name, either... he would certainly call the attention of the dodrio again should he try.

...But he really could not find Boreas, no matter what he tried.

"Boreas...?" he called very quietly. ".......Boreas!" he called again. It seemed the grass was too thick for his voice to carry out to his good friend, and Adrol was very nervous about starting to wander and looking for him. Given everything around him was currently a golden blur... the small snake was certain that action would end poorly for him. ...He had nochoice, he supposed. He would just have to call louder.

"Boreas!!!" he yelled out. He didn't bother barring his volume too much, as at this point he was risking it anyways. He might as well ensure that his friend could find him after all this. "Boreas, if you can hear me please come find me! I've lost track of you..." He stayed put and prayed the dodrio wasn't the one to find him first.

Boreas was beginning to get a little worried. It had been a few minutes since his friend had made the decision to enter the tall grass. Adrol very much had a can-do attitude and never let his sight issues get in the way too much. That was something Boreas really did admire about him. It seemed like there wasn't much that could be done to dampen his spirits. Even Boreas' own ever-present weather cloud...

Still, it was a bit of comfort when he heard the Snivy cry out for help, just to know that he was in there somewhere and still relatively alright.

"Don't worry, I'm on my way!"

Boreas plunged into the grass. With his elevated point of view, it wasn't really hard to navigate. In just over a minute he found a small bare patch in the grass where the Snivy was waiting things out.

"There you are. Not hard to understand how you'd get lost in all this. It's pretty thick."

Just then, that Dodrio from earlier came crashing through the brush.

"Ha! Told you I heard something!"

"We found my snack!"

"Well, I gave you directions. You'd have lost it without me!"

"Oh, you always have to have all the credit! Mother always did say you were an attention hog."

"I'm so ready to have something to eat- Wait, who's that?"

"Who?"

"That one!"

"I'm Boreas," said Boreas.

"Oh, we can't eat him!"

"Wait, why not."

"Too big. Will ruin our dinner."

"Wait, eat? Who said anything about eating?" Boreas was beginning to feel a bit uneasy.

"Oh forget it! After all, we do have that nice stew waiting at home."

"Ha! Right! I'd almost forgotten the stew!"

"But I just want a nibble!"

"Sush it! It's always just a nibble with you! Starts like that and then before we know it we're all stuffed to the brim!"

"Awww..."

"Come on!"

With tha, the bird turned and started to head off, one of the heads seeming to try desperately to stick around, but not seeming to be able to exert enough control.

"Um... Okay... Are you okay, Adrol?" Boreas looked over to his friend, assessing him for any injuries.

Adrol wasn't even really "participating" in this exchange about eating him as much as was just experiencing it. Based on how the first encounter had gone... He tentatively stayed quiet and still, hoping things would work themselves out as they had before. Fortunately, things did manage to sort themselves out again. The snivy wasn't all to comfortable with the added talk of eating his friend as well, but Boreas was a much bigger target (and with a massive advantage in the fight, to boot) and that was enough to turn the birds off. Adrol leaned over and heaved a sigh.

"Don't worry about me... there is nothing injured here but my pride," he chuckled sheepishly. "I'm sorry I'm already causing trouble for you. ...Seems the way is clear now, though. That's something to be thankful for!" Adrol's vision was nowhere near good enough to get a glimpse of any distinguishing landmarks, but he could at least identify the wildfire. The glowing orange mass was certainly prominent over anything else that might have vaguely shown up there otherwise. He could tell, at least, that it was a bit lower in elevation than they were. Almost like they were standing on the edge of a crater.

"Hrm. There seems to be something interesting going on with this fire and how it's downhill... If I'm indeed reading the blobs right." He was about to sound crazy, but... "Maybe we should have a closer look? I know it's not especially agreeable to your type- it's not to mine either, but... If it's some kind of phenomena unique to this location, maybe it would give you inspiration for your weather systems? It might be worthwhile to observe it!"

OOC - Clicky!!!:

For all it was worth, Boreas was certainly happy that Adrol had come out of things unscathed. For a moment he really was worried about his little friend. Probably best to not let him wander off any more. Sometimes Boreas wondered if perhaps he was being overprotective. Afterall, Adrol was grown and likely of sound enough mind to very well make his own decisions. Still, he couldn't help but worry. Especially when his friend could hardly see his hand in front of his face.

Now Adrol's suggestion really was hammering home just how much his vision must have affected things for him. Get closer? To the raging wildfire? The one that was likely extremely dangerous and likely to change direction and consume them at the slightest change in the wind? Had he gone mad?

"Uh... I'm not sure if that sounds like the best idea..." Boreas knew he sounded hesitant. He was doing his best to not let his fear show through. "I'm sure there are other things we could get a closer look at. Cooler things..."

Jax carried out 7 launched of one Discharge Prairie :

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