Rise From the Ashes - RP Thread

It was a quiet morning, an early Tuesday one to be exact, and Rae Tanwen lay in bed. Her eyes gently blinked open to the bright rays of sunlight that filtered into her bedroom through the window. Taking a deep breath, Rae sat up and threw the quilt off of herself.
Yesterday she had brought up her dreams in a conversation with her mother... and against all the odds, she had said that she would support her. Support her in her bid to rid the nation of the king and enable Pokemon to live alongside people again. She truly hadn't expected it... after all, she was only fourteen. But then again her mother and father had lived through four years of war and conflict up in the north before moving down to Furikkusu Town to settle down and have a child.
The one catch was she wasn't allowed to go on her own. She needed to convince at least one person to come with her.

Rae sighed. It really was quite an unrealistic dream when she thought about it. A few teenagers taking on a whole military, along with the king himself. Some of the friends she had in town were afraid of Pokemon entirely.. and it was obvious they would need Pokemon's strength if they were to overthrow the king. So they were out of the question.

Getting up, Rae got dressed and threw on some jeans and a plain lilac shirt. She wandered downstairs and made herself some toast before grabbing her coat and scarf and putting her shoes on.
"I'm going out mom!" she yelled before disappearing out of the door.

Rae slipped into her coat as she wandered up the path towards the edge of the village. She was headed into Chiratsuki Forest as, despite it being quite dark when you went in too far, Rae found it easier to think when she was alone.

She entered the forest, her white scarf now wrapped around her neck. Picking a tree, she scrambled her way up it and sat on one of the branches. A rustle came from one of the bushes nearby and Rae cursed herself for not bringing her sketchbook and pencil case. She could probably have done something better with her time rather than just sitting here if she had done.
Rae leaned her head back and stared up at the bright blue sky. It didn't look like it was going to rain today. At least that was a plus.

Around the same time that morning, Dante walked downstairs from his room, having changed into a red button-down shirt and black pants. He hadn't really had any plans on what to do that day, and decided that a walk through the forest would be nice. Of course, there was the fact that he didn't have anyone going with him and the fact that there were usually pokemon out in the forest, but unlike some of the other kids in town he wasn't afraid of pokemon. He just didn't like them very much. As he threw on his coat and walked out the door, he heard his mom call over to him. "Hey, don't forget to come back soon. I'm going to need your help with a couple things aroud the house." She said. "Don't worry, I'll be back. I'm sure you can manage for a couple minutes without me." He replied with a smirk, before heading out to the forest. Once there, he started to walk through the various trees and bushes around, until he noticed someone up in a tree branch. "Fancy seeing you here." He commented, walking over to the base of the tree.

"Fancy seeing you here."

Rae blinked and looked down to see who the voice had come from.
"Oh. Hey Dante!" she smiled, waving down to him.
"You can come up here if you want, rather than standing down there. There's a much better view I assure you!" she chuckled, the leaves rustling around her as a small breeze blew through the treetops.

Dante smiled back at Rae, looking up into the tree. He grabbed onto the nearest branch and started to climb up it until he got up to a branch next to Rae's. "Hm...you're right. The view is pretty nice from here." He commented, leaning back against the tree and taking up his whole branch.

Aria Fyriana sat criss-crossed staring at the window. She was awake at this time every day. She was watching the sun slowly creep its way up into the sky, sending beams of gentle light. It was peaceful and it was the only time she would allow no noise at all. Once the sun was about an inch from the hills (at least what it looked like) Aria quickly put a coat over her shirt, and put on longer pants, grabbed a berry from the cabinet and opened the door. She walked excitedly to the forest, eating the berry as she went. When she finally reached her destination, she had polished off the berry, and looked at the forest ahead of her. Aria grabbed the lowest branch of a tree and started climbing. Once she reached what she deemed high enough, Aria walked to the edge of a study branch and jumped. Quickly she grabbed an opposing branch and hoisted herself up. She repeated this act several times until she was on a taller tree, and expertly Aria looked at a collection of leaves and reached her hand in the hideaway. They rustled and she picked a Pecha Berry. “Farm grown berries taste good but wild ones are the best!” Aria said cheerfully and quickly ate the treat.

Rae sighed, watching as a Pidgey from a nearby tree fluttered past them before veering off into the sky toward an unknown destination. She was silent for a moment, thinking about the conversation she had had with her mother the previous day.

"Do you ever wonder... what it must have been like to live with Pokemon?" she asked Dante. Her amber eyes were still focused on the sky as she spoke, staring at the place where the Pidgey had become just a tiny speck.

Dante chuckled at the question, not thinking about it too seriously. "Living with pokemon? Well, I'd say it was probably a heck of a lot more complicated then life now." He answered, also looking out at the sky. "Why do you ask?" He questioned curiously. It wasn't that it was a completely random question, especially for their surroundings, but it was an interesting one to ask. "It's not really a question most people still think about, with the 'king' and everything he did." He added in accordance with his thoughts. A little bit away, he thought he saw some rustling in a larger tree, but dismissed it as another pokemon.

Aria was busy eating the fruit that grew in the tree when she heard some sounds. She grew silent and carefully looked around, before jumping into another branch. It bent slightly, and she mumbled silently for miscalculating the strength of the branch vs. her weight. Aria waited for a bit and jumped to the next branch, this one only shaking quietly when she landed. From this tree she scouted and saw 2 figures on a branch slightly lower than her. “Oh it’s just you! Hello Rae and Dante!” She said cheerfully, and was slightly relieved it wasn’t somebody else that would punish her for being so reckless and in the forest.

"I suppose it would be complicated... but wouldn't it also be.. kind of... well... wonderful? or twenty years our country has been forced by the king to completely blank Pokemon. I don't see why we cannot live side by side with them as humans once did before. It makes absolutely no sense!"
Rae sighed again, realising that her normally tight lipped manner about this sort of thing had just dropped in the heat of the moment. No one seemed to feel as strongly about things like this, not as much as she did.
"He's such a hypocrite," she muttered, not noticing as Aria hopped into their tree. It was only when she spoke that Rae was once again snapped from her thoughts.

"Oh.. Hello Aria!" she smiled, her attitude shifting back to cheerful once more.
"It seems like we have a little gathering up in this tree now. I only came out here to think," she laughed.

Dante sat still for a moment, and was about to respond when Aria came jumping into the tree a couple branches above them. "Hey Aria. I didn't realize you would be out here too this mourning." He said, chuckling slightly and turned back to Rae. "Look, I know that it sucks that we have to be under that usurper's rule, and we can't have our own partners, but I don't see anything we can do about it. You're just blowing off steam right now." He said to her, still not realizing that Rae was actually serious about her thoughts. Personally he thought she was just rambling, maybe wasn't in the absolute best of moods at the moment.

Aria grinned, “I usually wake up before or during the rising sun, but if I manage the chance, I sneak out here.” She admitted. Suddenly she frowned as Dante talked to Rae. Was that the rule she thought it was? “Um…What were you guys talking about?” She asked quietly. To be honest, Aria wanted to understand Pokémon. They intrigued her, Pokémon were quite nice, and harmless. But then why did all their parents say they were monsters? Nothing made sense but one thing was positive. The species was misunderstood.

"But I'm not just blowing of steam," replied Rae firmly.
"What if we could actually do something to help? To change our world instead of just sitting here complaining about it."

Rae's amber eyes stared from Dante to Aria, a deadly seriousness in their depths. She was passionate about this and wasn't about to let it slide.
"You said it yourself, Dante. It sucks. So why won't anyone do anything?"

"People don't do anything, Rae, because they're intimidated, and for a good reason. The ones who actually try to do something end up being taken away or worse." Dante replied, starting to sound a bit more serious about the topic as well. "And since when did it matter so much to you?" He questioned back, starting to soften a bit more. He knew he probably seemed like a jerk, but it was the truth. He wouldn't want anyone in their small town getting caught up in something like that. "Aria, she wants to go head out and try and change the world, and get rid of the king. Partner up with pokemon. Please tell me you think it's a stupid idea?" He said to Aria, filling her in and hoping to get someone else to convince Rae.

Aria looked at Dante and bit her lip. To be frank, she WANTED to get rid of the king. She WANTED a Pokémon partner. But she was slightly realistic. Getting rid of the king was an impossible feat. Aria blinked and was quiet for a minute. Then she spoke. “Dante’s right…we can’t overthrow the king. But…if we have the nerve and are careful we might be able to partner up with Pokémon. Dante I’ll agree on you that the fact of overthrowing the king is stupid…but becoming a partner might not be.”

"But we know the power of these Pokemon. Everyone still tells that story of how the village was burned down by a newborn Pokemon. And the village still has scars to prove it's true. If we can learn how to befriend them, perhaps they can become strong enough so that we can overthrow him," she pointed out. Rae's tone was calming down as she had realised that if she didn't she would only end up shouting and scaring the Pokemon nearby. She hated to argue with people, she just didn't see why everyone was so adamant to disagree with her, or call her dreams foolish. In her eyes, everything was accomplish-able as long as you kept trying.