[PRP] Something Evil is Afoot

[BlackFireKitsune]

He chuckled again. "You should!" Eighteen, huh? Wait, did that mean she was already 18, or would turn 18 soon? From the phrasing, it sounded like she wasn't yet... "Your birthday's coming up soon then?" That was one way to figure out which it was. "Nahhh, you don't have to do that," he reassured her somewhat firmly - he did not need a sequin shirt at all - and sincerely hoped that that suspicious chuckle of hers was not a malicious plot formulating at the present moment to get him one such shirt.

"Huh. Well, I don't speak German at all, so I wouldn't know," he admitted, not bothering trying to shrug with a small person on his back. It still had three of the letters in his name, after all, so it was close enough. Her enthusiasm about punching made him laugh, though. "Not a lot of punching, but I did punch him, yeah. He's always been a little punk, especially around then. Not that there's anything wrong with being a punk - unless you've convinced yourself that you can beat up your big brother, that is." His little brother could not, in fact, beat up his older brother like he had thought. "Prize chicken?" Where was this girl from again? "Ah, ah, careful," Abel chided her, trying not to be too amused at her mistake in kicking her feet out as he attempted to ignore the signs of fatigue setting in. That had probably hurt.  

[Venti Mico]

"How about you, hm? Do you have any experience in laws? I will hire you," she laughed, trying to imagine Mister Guitar all fancied up as a lawyer. The thought made her snort, and she shook her head. "Oh, my birthday is soon, yes. Just few days, then I will be adult for real." And, she thought, probably able to get in a lot more trouble than a minor for being kind of illegally in the country. Whatever. If she got in trouble somehow, well... jail breaks sounded like lots of fun, right? "I do not know what I will do, it seems very... boring. In my home, I am allowed to drink already! Here, no. Rules, rules! Boring! ...But, I think the sequin shirts, they are not boring. Not at all!" She couldn't help the sly grin on her face; if she ever saw Abel again, well... she'd look around for sequin shops. To be prepared.

"You should try it, it is nice! Good language for swearing. Very robust." She snickered. "My parents, if I swore in Latvian, they got mad. Swear in Russian, my father got mad. Swear in German? Who cares! Haha!" Parenting at its finest, for sure. Aija kind of liked the sound of Abel's brother; little brother, thinking he was tough enough to beat up the big brother. She could appreciate that. He'd be cooler if he could actually beat his big brother up, though, but since he couldn't, that meant Abel won the cool points. Plus, he didn't have a broken back! If he did, Aija would be out of luck. "Little brothers can be annoying. I would rather have punk little brother, much more entertaining! Prize chicken- you know, the biggest, fattest, bestest of the chickens you have ever owned? The one that is, like... um... bring the chicken to town fair, compete in chicken contest, win prize? Prize chicken? Do they not have this here?" Actually, that wasn't a big thing in Latvia. But Aija was happy to pretend it was.

She pouted slightly at being chided. "I am very careful, it is just... my ankle is stupid." She said, huffing defiantly.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Ha, any law experience? Not any good kind, that's for sure," he chuckled somewhat bitterly with a slight shake of his head. He was starting to feel a little out of breath, and that feeling began to creep into his words. "Yeah? Happy early birthday, then. Maybe you'll get a last minute growth spurt before then," he suggested with a half-smile. Maybe she was German - that would explain a few things - but then she mentioned Russian and Latvian (which he'd never heard of before) and suddenly he wasn't sure anymore. Only one way to find out. "Where's your home?" He pointedly ignored the sequin shirt comment, hoping she would drop it, though he kind of doubted she would at this point.

"Maybe I will sometime, if I ever have enough free time to learn a new language," he noted, though he kind of doubted he ever would with his work schedule and his hobbies. "Ah, we sort of did where I lived, though usually for us it was prize Miltank or Mareep or something," he explained, sounding - and feeling - a little breathless now. "My family's on a ranch and have a bunch of Miltank and Mareep and a few others. Mostly those though."  

[Venti Mico]

Oh, so a bad boy... or something. Unless that strange bitterness that hadn't been in his voice before meant he'd gotten caught smoking weed and had adopted a '******** the police' attitude, Aija was curious. But, asking people's criminal history probably wasn't the best conversation topic. She needed to rack up a few charges herself, if she wanted to brag. Oh well; it just made Abel more interesting to figure out later. "Ah, thank you! Yes, if I have magic growth spurt, I will be sure to let you know. I will become giant, like you. Oh! I am from Latvia," and, cue the usual explanation. "It is small country bordering Russia. Also Estonia and Lithuania, but those are also less known. My father was Russian, but many Latvian people know Russian anyway! Have to pick up many language, being such small country." She didn't really expect Abel would attempt learning German. Hell, if she ever saw him again, she'd rather teach him Latvian! But, she wasn't expecting she'd see much of him again, either.

"A ranch? So you are farmer? ...Do you have Mareeps? Of your own?" Mareep- those were particularly cute. If he had one... okay, he was nice. So should wouldn't try to steal it. Not that she was in any condition to steal a pokemon anyway. But maybe he could redirect her to a ranch with lots of Mareep. Perhaps he could do that when he didn't sound like he needed an inhaler. "You know, I am made of many, many muscles, they are just condensed into small size, but I am actually brick. Do you need to stop for moment?" She asked, playfully poking him in the cheek.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She didn't ask, for which he was grateful, and so he didn't elaborate. "Heh; yeah, let me know, though I'm afraid if you get a magical growth spurt I wouldn't be able to give you another piggyback ride," he pointed out rather breathlessly with a half smile. "Latvia, huh? Never heard of it," the blonde admitted, though thankfully Aija explained. It did sound like a tiny little country, which explained his ignorance of its existence.

"Not so much a farmer, since we didn't have any crops," he explained despite feeling quite breathless by this point, "we just had livestock pokemon. My parents are ranchers, and me and my siblings helped them out when we were living at home, but that was back in Sinnoh, so I'm not anymore. I don't have a Mareep of my own - have a Growlithe though," he said, and said Growlithe let out a timely, gruff bark to remind the humans of his presence.

Despite the fact his initial reaction was to reject her offer, he refrained from actually doing so for another moment or two to gauge if that was a wise idea or not. He felt completely out of breath at this point, beads of sweat were beginning to form on his forehead, and he was starting to feel vaguely lightheaded. "Uhh," he breathed, not reacting to the poke in the cheek as he ceded, "probably? Yeah, 's do that." The words barely left his lips before he halted, glanced around, then proceeded to the nearest bench to carefully deposit Aija and, once he had done so as gently as he could and without jostling her too much, he moved to one side and gracelessly flopped onto the bench with a heavy sigh, not being even remotely careful with himself in comparison.  

[Venti Mico]

"Hah! That is because, not offensive, you are weak. Not- not like, small child weak! More like, you have weak breathing at the moment..." Aija said, tilting her head. "Most people have not heard of it. Almost feel like I should just call myself Russian, less confusing." Though- she'd probably never resort to that unless she had to for some strange, dire consequence. And she couldn't think of a situation like that.

Aija listened to Abel's explanation and turned to look at his Growlithe, giving the pokemon a grin and a small wave as best she could while keeping her foot out of harm's way. "He is pretty, even if he is not Mareep!" She said, and soon she was let down onto a bench. She rose a brow at Abel's flop down onto the other side of the bench. "I hope, you are not injured?" She asked him, annoyed that she couldn't hop around to the other side of the bench to pester him more. Stupid foot. She wasn't sure why the guy was out of breath, and he could simply be out of shape, but she didn't want to assume. If he was hurt, recovering from some injury(maybe he wrestled a gang of Ursaring single-handedly? Beat up an entire swarm of Gyarados?! Something totally cool like that), then she might feel a little bad.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Weak, huh? While normally he would argue otherwise, his breathlessness kind of prevented him from doing so - it also would immediately disprove any kind of rebuttal he could come up with, so he didn't bother.

Caleb frowned at the girl as she waved at him, not entirely sure why she was waving, and decided to just ignore the gesture instead as he flopped onto his fluffy haunches near the bench.

He felt sort of bad not replying to her as he caught his breath - he made a mental note to not give anyone else a piggyback ride ever again if this was the consequence he had to suffer - and so he offered a light shrug to her last question, "Nah," he replied airily, still slightly breathless, "just unhealthy. Don't ever start smoking, 's bad for you."  

[Venti Mico]

"Smoking, unhealthy? Pfft! Even me could tell you this!" Aija snorted, shaking her head. She leaned back, frowning down at her foot, and let out a small huff. "I will not be very judgmental of you today, because falling from a tree is also unhealthy. But, do not worry! Will make fun of you for bad choices next time I see you, when I am not broken! Deal?" She looked at Abel with a playful glint in her eye.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Both the way she spoke and the fact she was promising to make fun of him later was amusing, and a small smile worked its way into his expression. He inhaled so that he could reply, but the action made him cough instead. When the small fit had passed, he paused to make sure it wouldn't start again, took an experimental breath, then said, "Deal."  

[Venti Mico]

Aija ended up snorting at Abel's whole coughing fit, shaking her head. "I hope you have, at least, given up the smoking! Surely is not worth this? You do look like a man that carries strangers around often..." She grinned sarcastically, "But, sorry. Was deal to make fun of you later. Am bad with these deals." Aija scratched her cheek and glanced around them. A ways off there were some people riding bikes, with a baby carrier on the back of one. Maybe if she could commandeer that, and have Abel ride the bike instead of carry her! That'd be a little less work, totally!

...But, she wasn't sure how to bring up stealing a bike to this guy. Co-theft came the second time you hung out, at the least. "You know, I think if I... if there is something to use as splint, and something to hold it to foot, could possibly walk. I need duct tape and big stick! Do you have these, Mr. Apple?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Ah..." Given it up? Well, that would've been the intelligent thing to do, but addictions were a little more difficult to deal with than simply stopping. He pointedly refrained from answering that question and hoped she wouldn't pester him about it; he wasn't sure he ever would attempt to give up the habit, and didn't really want to lie about it or anything. No, unfortunately for his lungs and his health, smoking helped calm his nerves. Oh well. Instead, he focused on her talk of the deal she'd already partially broke, and he smiled wryly. "Don't worry about it," he offered, and mercifully he didn't start coughing this time.

While he would've loved nothing more than to not give her a piggyback ride anymore, he didn't have either of the things she asked for, nor any possible way of transporting her except by carrying her. So he shook his head and frowned lightly, "No, I don't. Don't worry, it's not too much further to a clinic," he said, though whether it was more to reassure her or to reassure himself was another matter. Quite possibly both. At the very least, he felt - and sounded - a little better after resting for a bit, though he didn't move to rise just yet.  

[Venti Mico]

"If you are suuure..." Aija said, leaning back on the bench and sprawling her arms out behind her. She made note not to fall out of a tree again; that was a bad, bad choice. Now she was stuck relying on this wheezy, albeit nice(which she did appreciate), guy to save her. "You know, I think I will invest time into getting really big pokemon. One big enough to carry me. You know, in case I have more emergencies and do not have knight in shimmery armour to save me."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Was he sure? Ha; no. No, he was not. Did he have an option though? ...well, all things considered he did have the option to not help her anymore, but what kind of person would he be if he didn't? A really crappy one, that was for sure, and so he resigned himself to his fate. "Yeah, I'm sure," he said with an easy smile, though it would not be at all easy to carry her the rest of the way given his unhealthy lungs. Oh well... At least sitting there talking meant more time to rest, and more time to recover before starting again. "Hm.. That sounds like a good idea actually. And kinda fun - I've ridden Rapidash before, but I know other types of pokemon are big enough to ride on. I bet those are just as fun."