~~~ <'((< ~~~ Ripples in the Water

[Skye]

Twilla swam through the water, her frayed tail skimming it's surface. Feebas swam slowly and because of this, small ripples formed where she swam. It wasn't actually fair. She was weak, ugly and dim, there needed to be a balance in life. Sure, she could swim in any water no matter how poluted it was, but all the other Pokemon just regarded her as dirty. Twilla dove down. Her face was wet, she assumed it was just water but then it struck her, they were tears.

The Feebas swam amidst a cluster of weeds, untangling some knots as she went through. She was ignored by everyone because of her appearance. Shabby. That was the best word she could come up with for herself. To say she was anything more than shabby would be a complete lie.

Resurfacing again, Twilla heaved a sigh.

[Clif]

Down, down and down he went, a small buizel allowed himself to sink to the bottom of the small body of water just for the fun of it, his childish curiosity had his mind wrapped around his newfound ability to 'run' along the mini-lake's floor, even though he wasn't moving quickly, he was enjoying being pushed along by the force of the nearby waterfall. Looking like an astronaut, the buizel's gait was that of a slow-motion skip to anyone that was watching.

A large, childish grin plastered on his face, he looked up to see a fish close to or even above the surface of the water, ~Hm...should I go scare it?~ he asked himself, having very little experience, all he knew was that fish weren't very keen of being surprised or even approached by him. After a swift moment of thought, the little buizel took off in Twilla's direction, his twin tails propelling him upward at a pace that was somewhat faster than leisurely, hoping that he wasn't noticed before he was close enough to his target.

[Skye]

Life was unfair. How often she had watched the Goldeen, swimming gracefully through the water. And her? Well, it might look like she didn't belong there. Her fins were too short, her vision wasn't perfect, everything about her was wrong.

She turned around, not necessarily looking for something but to aim her thoughts at something besides ugliness and how it fit her perfectly. Ugly. The sigle word even sounded like something bad. Something like a Feebas swimming in a pool at this moment.

It shot in her direction. Maybe it had meant to scare her when she was unaware but Twilla was scared already. She splashed helplessly in the water. The Feebas was weak. She knew no good attacks. The only move she knew was tackle and how much weaker could a move like that be?

No matter, Twilla aimed a tackle at the Buizel- and missed. They overshot eachother. By then, the Feebas was too exhausted to do anything except splash.

[Clif]

The buizel frowned at the fact that the fish pokemon had taken notice to his 'stealthy' approach before he had a chance to do anything, ~Aww...maybe next time!~ he thought, causing his frown to vaporize and leave his childish grin in its place. Taking a moment to figure out what was happening, his thoughts quickly changed as he saw that his target now had targeted him!

The child's inexperience didn't allow him to comprehend why the feebas was now attacking him and was barely able to dodge the fish's charge, causing his countenance to shift once again to portray his confusion and frustration. "Hey! Why'd you attack me!" he shouted, his arms crossing as he turned around to watch the feebas splash--somewhat comically to him--in the water.

[Skye]

Twilla splashed until she could still herself. The Buizel had shouted, "Hey! Why'd you attack me!" And she could only snarl a retort, "I should ask you the same question!" The Feebas sent a small wave of water at the Buizel with her body, intending to drench it somewhat.

She missed. Fuming, Twilla tried to shoot a water gun towards him but had no success. Now he's probably going to show me how it's really done. It isn't a Feebas move but it very well should be!

Then, Twilla stopped and asked, trying to sound calm. "Why did you attack me?"

[Clif]

Tilting his head, the little buizel's face scrunched up in confusion, not exactly seeing what he had done wrong in the first place, he was only trying to have some fun! ~Attack...? I didn't attack her...~ he thought, staring blankly in the feebas' direction. He swam a foot or so towards the fish subconsciously, his eyes fixated to a point somewhere behind the fish as he remained in thought, trying to think of why he was being accused of attacking.

Breaking from his lost gaze, the buizel snapped back into reality and replied back, somewhat in a small voice, feeling somewhat bad for what he did wrong, even though he had no idea what that was. "I...I didn't attack you...I just wanted to have some fun..." the buizel knew he wasn't telling the whole truth but he decided that leaving out a detail or two wouldn't hurt if the feebas didn't know.

[Skye]

The Buizel was swimming at her. Twilla dodged awkwardly but instantly righted herself. Suddenly not so calm anymore, the Feebas yelled in rage. "FUN? Fun for YOU maybe but for ME? Fun so you can scare a stupid, helpless, ugly and... And..."

Twilla broke out in tears. Belittling herself made everything worse. The Buizel seemed to regret his actions. He was young. Tiny teardrops fel into the water. Plop-plop-plop. Twilla still couldn't forgive him yet but she had this longing to do so inside her. It was digging through the Feebas' tiny body until she shook with repent.

Twilla turned away in shame.

[Clif]

The young buizel was taken aback by the feebas' harsh tone towards him, and his eyes showed it as he began to tear up. "I-I'm s-sorry..." he stuttered quietly as the feebas vented her frustration towards him. The young sea weasel turned away just as he heard Twilla beginning to cry, not exactly knowing the connection between the negative description and the feebas herself; he still needed to learn quite a bit about others' feelings and thoughts before he'd understand what Twilla was talking about.

Almost crying himself, the youngling swam to the water's edge and ran into the nearby forest.

((ooc: don't worry, he'll be back ))

[Skye]

Twilla heard him go. She heard him. In fact, the Buizel wasn't exactly the most silent of Pokemon but that didn't exactlt matter. Anyways, Twilla felt torn between staying here or swimming after him.

For one thing, she had her pride. If she was to swim after him, slowly (thus bringing her self esteem to an even lower level.) He might laugh, some other Pokemon might see and she would be ashamed.

But if she didn't, this gnawing feeling would crawl up her body, starting with her tail and spreading through the Feebas' ugly brown scales. The feeling that she had left a Pokemon , restraining herself from helping it, reassuring it when it was her fault for causing him to- well, to put it simply, feel bad.

Twilla didn't know what to do so she just splashed there. And cried.

[Clif]

Sitting in the forest near the opposite edge that he exited, the youngling watched Tilla crying near the water's edge, thinking to himself. ~She seems to cry a lot...~ he thought as he sat inside a bush, his twin-tail sliding back and forth on the forest floor, holding a large blue oran berry in his lap, having stumbled over a bush as he was sulking away from the receiving pool for the waterfall.

Making the decision to at least share--if not give the whole large berry--he stood up in the bush, his orange head barely sticking out of the top of the medium-sized foliage. He hesitated, leaving his head visible to give Twilla the chance to spot him before approaching her, not wanting to scare her and get yelled at once again.

[Skye]

Twilla turned and saw the Buizel's head poke through the foilage of the forest above. She tossed her head (well, she kind of flopped) to acknowledge the fact that his prescence was known. The Feebas felt this was a perfect chance to apologize and, in a splash, quickly dove into the water to find a present for him.

After a bit of time, (considering how slow the Feebas Pokemon swam), Twilla resurfaced holding a freshwater oyster in which was a pearl. It wasn't as rare and valuable as the saltwater ones but it would have to do.

Twilla called out, "Buizel! Buizel!" And remembered she didn't even know his name.

[Clif]

The buizel appeared somewhat confused as the feebas left to go swim down deeper in the pool; initially it sent the message that she was ignoring him, as if still sore from his earlier antics. The youngling frowned for a little while until he saw Twilla resurface with the pearl His eyes lit up when he saw the precious stone, and his little mind didn't give any thought to the fact that there was a difference in value between salt and freshwater versions of the object of his attention.

As a secondary thought, the small sea weasel couldn't help but feel as if his offering wasn't as nice as the gift he was being given, and his wide grin faded to a smile, his teeth becoming hidden behind his lips as he stepped forward with the large oran berry in his hands. Remaining silent so Twilla could talk, a little shy to speak after he had been yelled at.

[Skye]

Twilla felt awkward. Well, she always felt awkward both in the land and the water but this was a different feeling. Of the same species, maybe but a totally different kind of creature altogether.

"Er... Yeah. Sorry for yelling at you..." And she fumbled with the oyster but finally presented it to the Buizel. Twilla wasn't sure what to do. She didn't want to hand it to the Buizel because his paws were already full with a gigantic oran berry.

So she just sat there. Dumbly holding out an oyster. And because nothing happened, it got her thinking. I'm just like an oyster. Ugly and defenseless on the outside but a great beauty lies within.

[Clif]

Giving a nod, the young buizel walked over to the water's edge in order to set down the berry so Twilla had access to it all the while he could hold the oyster and pearl. "Meh, it's alright, most of those who I scare end up yelling at me for some reason or another..." he yawned a bit, the day had faded to evening, portrayed by the orange tint of the sky and water as the sun began its journey to the other side of the world. "Hey, I'm Dalton by the way, thanks for the shiny lookin' stone!" his eyes scrolled over to Twilla after having set down the oyster to hold the round white pearl in his small paws. "What's your name?" he asked with a childish grin.

[Skye]

"Twilla" She said. "Nice to meet you Dalton." The Feebas swam towards the water and took the berry. Ripping it in half. She ate one and left the other for the Buizel to take. It was by far the best berry she had ever eaten. Twilla mainly feasted on the hard, dry Chesto berries which were said to make a Pokemon more beautiful.

The Feebas took a tiny bit more from Dalton's half and stuffed it in her mouth. It wasn't hard to get addicted to the juicy Oran berry. "Thank you." She murmured. "This seems cheesy but d'you want to be friends?"

[.0~Suki Wiwi~0.]

As Surso was skimming up the water he was going very very fast so as he went past 2 pokemon he didnt see what they were but he knew they were pokemon and since he was going so fast he sent a wave of water that splashed all over them. He was turning around to say sorry he yelled out "SORRY!!!!!!" and then turned around but he didnt see the tree BAM! he ran nto a tree again.

[Skye]

Twilla saw it coming. A Surskit was skimming across the water at breakneck speed. She tried to dive away but was soon enveloped in a wave. To think she was a water Pokemon! An apology was soon yelled and a painful thwack heard. The Feebas regained her composture and saw the Surskit had smached into a tree.

She looked to the Buizel and made a motion as if to get to the Surskit. She swam, slowly. When she got to where he had crashed, Twilla muttered. "You nearly gave me a heartattack, you. Now are you okay?"

[Clif]

Dalton gave a slight nod to Twilla in response to her question as his eyes caught sight of the surskit speeding across the water, silently staring as it quickly approached him and his new friend. "Um..." was all he could voice out before the wave that was in the speeding pokemon's wake splashed over him, of course causing no harm except a little confusion as Dalton tried to make heads or tails of what he just saw. "That was pretty weird..." he chuckled as he walked over to the lightly-built pokemon. Of course the youngling only moved after he finished his half of the large oran berry and made sure his new stone wasn't washed away by the receding water.

"Hey, how ya doin'?" Dalton asked childishly, somewhat masking his chuckles as heavy exhales as he awaited for a response from the surskit. His blue eyes scanned for any blood to make sure that it wasn't horribly hurt and by what the little buizel observed, everything was at least alright. "Twilla! He looks alright!" he called, smiling back at the feebas as he walked back over to the waters edge and sat down near her as he awaited for the speeding water-type to come to his senses.

[.0~Suki Wiwi~0.]

"Oooooooohhhhhhh! that hurt I really gotta watch where I'm going. Oh hello I'm fine I'm used to running into things thank you for asking and Im sorry for the disturbances I have caused you, well anyway I'm Surso what are your names" Surso was looking up at the Buizel and then down at the Feebas they seemed friendly enough.

[Skye]

The Feebas chuckled. "My name is Twilla. This is Dalton." She pointed to herself and the BUizel in turn. "Quite nice to meet you Surso." The Feebas looked at the Surskit's soft blue skin and long his limber legs with envy. Then, Twilla's face brightened up. "D'you want to do something special that'll influence the world?"

She paused, hoping for a dramatic effect. "Listen, say we form a band and make this place better for all Pokemon to live in? We can start out small like planting some berry trees but then, later go to big stuff like conquering to Horde! We don't have to do any dangerous stuff if you don't want to but..." Twilla would've said 'but since I'm not beautiful or anything, I want to do something that mattered' but held it back.

[.0~Suki Wiwi~0.]

"Well nicw to meet you Twilla and Dalton." Surso was happy that pokemon were talking to him he never really had friends cause he always splashed them then they would shout at him and storm off. '
"Planting berry trees sounds fun but conquering the horde can we save that until I'm a Masquerin and your a Milotic that is if you want to be, and are we gonna search for more members for our band if we do start one cause it would be fun to make new friends" Surso was jumping for joy inside.

"If we do all of that I am in for sure" Surso could not contain his happiness any more he started skimming around and jumping for joy.

[Skye]

A few drops of water that came from Surso's skimming danced through the air, landing on Twilla's face. The Feebas could hardly contain her joy but tried to sound natural. "Alright." Her eyes became damp as she thought of becoming the most beautiful Pokemon of them all- the Milotic but Twilla shook those thoughts aside.

"Dalton. What do you think?" It was hard pretending to be serious and Twilla couldn't help but keep a smile on her face. Ideas were whirling around in her head. Planting berry trees would just be a first! With our team, nothing will ever be the same in this world!

(Hooray! I'm a Baby Pokemon! *Confetti*)

[Clif]

The young buizel caught Twilla's contagious smile, being the kid he was, Dalton quickly nodded and responded to the feebas' question, "Sure! That sounds pretty fun!" his eyes lit up as he thought of him actually doing something to help others across the land, yet his smile somewhat faded, not really knowing what the Horde was.

"Uh,what is the Horde guys?" he asked, having been separated from his parents and not really concerning himself with the rest of the world , he had sheltered himself from the rest of the world's problems.

[.0~Suki Wiwi~0.]

Surso stopped in his jumping and skimming and just stared blankly at dalton ans said "UMMMM Who? The Horde who are they I dont know I Just dont want to be comnquering, they sound like a big group WHO ARE THEY TWILLA?" Surso was now staring at Twilla waiting for a reply

[Skye]

"Um... The Horde huh?" Twilla wasn't exactly sure herself but she knew that the Horde was a group of Pokemon. "Yeah, it's a big group of Pokemon I think, that have this HUGE Fortress and they... Do bad stuff!" That wasn't exactly the most professional answer that would make Dalton and Surso drop their jaws in awe but it explained enough.

"But anyways, let's just do the berry tree thing first." The Feebas veered the conversation back to what she was comfortable with. "So I was thinking about something easier to grow first. Nothing like Cornn or Belue berries, maybe Oran, Pecha, Cheri and Chesto?" Twilla thought for a moment longer. "Maybe Rawst too." She then she started babbling and after awhile, the Feebas couldn't understand what she was saying herself.

[.0~Suki Wiwi~0.]

Surso was satisfied with the brief explanation that was all he needed to know that the horde were a group of scary pokemon but know he was just confused twilla was just babbling on and on and on and he had no idea what she was talking so he just looked at Twilla with a weird look and then to dalton with a questiioning look

[Clif]

((sorry about the late reply, been busy this past week))

Dalton cocked his head to one side as Twilla began to ramble away with her own sentences, eventually loosing the attention span of the child sea weasel. Yet, despite his lack of focus at that very moment, he did give a slight nod of his head to portray his understanding of the Horde--or at least through what Twilla had told him. His blue eyes fell upon Surso and they met with his confused look and Dalton in turn shrugged, allowing Twilla to stay in her own world for now. "So...Surso, since we've decided on at least planting berries around here, do you have any preference in berries?" he asked, a childish and simple question that came to his mind, after all, same interests made good friends!

[Ren]

An espeon had been listening to the group for a while now. He grinned at their goals. Beating the horde, eh? He gave them points for bravery. It wasn't unheard of; many were trying to stop the horde. And now was the right time to do it, since they were getting weak.

((Yet little did he know of the darker forces in the horde. Mwuhahahaha! *coughs after laugh, evil and dramatic music breaking* Ehem. Sorry it's short. Going through this horrible disease called Writer's Block. I've had it for a while and it sucks.
Hope you don't mind me joining, but I was simply shocked by one of Clif-kun's characters not being a char! *dramatic gasp* I'm proud! *hugs* Ok, ok, I'll shut up now. Sorry! ))

[.0~Suki Wiwi~0.]

Surso was just staring at Twilla when Dalton asked him the questio he wondered how someone could talk so much about nothing
"Well I really like Hondew berries but I heard they were hard to grow and it seems so since I dont see many around, so I mostly eat Oran and Sitrus what about you Dalton"
Surso was really fine with any berry as long as he could eat it, but he still was confused about Twilla and what she was talking

[Clif]

Dalton shrugged as he thought about his preferences, "I don't exactly like any berry more than another...I guess so because I haven't had any other kind than Oran..." he admitted. the fact actually having not been brought up to the little buizel in his own free-time. Casually, he picked up a small stone near the water's edge and chucked it into the bushes just for his childish entertainment. "What's it like to glide on the water like you do?" he asked, curiosity lighting up his eyes as he looked at the water-gliding pokemon.

(Hehe, thanks Ren *hugs back* by the way, I don't mind you joining at all!)