[Shoka titters.] Nah—not until you make sure everything looks right, at least... Sorry it took so long.
[She leaps up onto the cot, still balancing the hat carefully in her claws. It definitely looks accurate, at least, thanks to Siffrin's descriptions and a couple sessions of careful measuring—but on closer inspection, as she's holding it out for their appraisal, Siffrin may notice that the weight and feel of the material is a bit different, by virtue of it being made from fabric found only in the world of Pokémon.]
If—there is anything off, I can still take it back for some tweaks. No big!
[That said, she's really hoping they at least like it, and she can't quite keep the hint of nervous energy out of her voice.]
Need help trying it on, or do you wanna do the honors?
you have unlocked: icon I haven't had a chance to use before
[Siffrin shakes their head. They were both busy with endless quests and rain memory trauma! And then Shoka ended up in the clinic! And honestly, their sense of time is all sorts of fucked, still, after remembering years of looping through the same two days... And she didn't have to do it for them anyway, they were honestly kind of surprised she stuck with it.]
...I'll try it myself first. I think you'd get sick of me really fast if I needed your help to put it on every morning! [They grin and wink at her, regaining a bit more equilibrium. (For Now.)]
[It is kinda tricky with paws, but they manage to half flip it up with a paw, half scoop it up with their head. They have to adjust it from there - eventually they settle on tilting it at a mild angle, with the brim resting more of its weight on one folded-down ear. The hat still feels different from their old one when it's settled in place; it's a little bit heavier (though maybe it's that they're so much lighter now), and the texture is surprisingly soft.]
[But that's not a bad thing, they think - actually, maybe it's even better this way? This isn't the same exact hat, and it wouldn't be even if Shoka magically replicated it perfectly. What it is is a hat made specifically for them by Shoka, because she cared enough to do it. That means a lot to them! It should feel different, the difference is part of what matters about it!]
Th-thank you. It's perfect. [Uh oh! Their voice did crack that time, they're Feelings Things again! Shhh don't mention it, they're going to go ahead and duck behind the brim and hide their face now.]
[Shoka watches closely, fidgeting with the lace-like hem of her disguise as Siffrin takes the hat in paw—and once it's on, she perks up with a small laugh.]
It looks good! So cute. [She really means it. There's something so classically adorable about a cat in an oversized hat.] Ugh, wish I had my phone so I could take a pic for you...
[And for herself. That's her project they're modeling, after all! Oh well; they can find a mirror later.
It's perfect, Siffrin says. They even sound a little choked up about it.]
Y—yeah? [Siffrin's hiding their face, so they might not see it, but Shoka's Mimikyu form seems to be trying very hard to compensate for her lack of a mouth to smile with. In addition to the way she's smiling with her eyes, her disguise's ears are also standing a little more upright than usual, and her stick-tail is swaying side to side like a metronome.] I'm... really glad!
[Then it's her turn to look embarrassed, even though her face is already always hidden. She reaches for the ears of her disguise, tugging on them until her false Pikachu head folds downward over her eyes.
Trying to distract both of them, she starts to babble.]
Roza—uh, Firoza helped me with it, so I can't take all the credit. And—I dunno if it'll be as weather-proof as your old hat, but we tested the fabric out a bit and it totally held up to rain, at least! It's made from Drampa fur... Whatever that means. [Although her FanGO brain allowed her to remember the name of the Pokémon easily, she's never actually seen one.]
[Siffrin peeks out from under the brim of their hat when Shoka responds, just barely in time to see her perked "ears" and swaying tail stick. When she yanks her disguise over her eyes, they politely glance away.]
[Without their input, the front paw that isn't in a sling kneads the sheets of the cot underneath it. Biscuits!]
[Sounds like they'll have to thank Firoza too, when they see her next! But for now... babbling and distractions it is! They reach up to paw at the hat gently, feeling how soft it is again. ] It must be one of the sheep Pokemon, right?
[They're picturing Mareep, who they've seen around and don't recall the name of. But an electric sheep would probably be weather resistant...?]
[Shoka releases her disguise in time to see... OMG. Biscuits! A giggle escapes her.]
Sheep-dragon, maybe... [She did get the Pokémon's typing, at least! Just don't ask her to explain why its name is one letter away from Grampa.] Really pulled the wool over your eyes with that one, huh?
[With another snicker, she straightens, propping her disguise-head back upright, but makes no moves to jump down from the cot.]
Anyways... Delivery complete. Buuut I think I'll stick around for a while more, if you don't mind. Someone has to keep you occupied and make sure you don't break anything else.
[She snorts.] Nice try, but there's no way that's the record. I mean, some Pokémon have six legs to work with. Maybe even more!
[Settling comfortably where she is, she answers Siffrin's question with a shrug.]
Eh, not much... [She points to their hat.] Finishing that up, for part of it. For the rest... Mostly just getting used to being able to move around like normal again, I guess. Well, not normal, but you know what I mean.
[Exploring, Pokémon-watching, wondering what to do with herself, trying not to think about how the attack that left her in the clinic gave all her teammates a devastating glimpse of her true form... Back to the usual, more or less.
Speaking of that last point:]
... Did you know that creep Spiritomb just lives here now?
Nope, can confirm. Apparently they were here around the same time I was and I just never noticed.
[She lowers her voice to a secretive almost-whisper. What she's about to say must not be an actual secret, judging by how readily the Ring-Spirit told her about it (which is why she deems it safe to tell Siffrin, too)... But maybe it's best not to let anyone else overhear, just in case.]
What's weirder is... There's this guy in Lum who also got turned into a Mimikyu, just like I did. Maybe you know him. [She'd give a name if the Ring-Spirit had one. Alas.] According to him, Spiritomb is his long-lost family or something... And they're totally sorry about murderhobo-ing it up in the woods and also literally setting me on fire.
[Though she doesn't sound exactly convinced by this explanation, she doesn't seem that resentful or even concerned about it either, her tone more wry than anything else. Apparently, she's just offering up a bit of gossip as a form of entertainment for Siffrin.]
So finding that out was another thing that happened. All's well that ends well, I guess.
[Siffrin leans in to listen, free ear swiveling forward and folded ear twitching as it tries to do the same. They shake their head slightly when Shoka mentions the Ring-Spirit - they've seen him around, and they remember seeing him around specifically because he looks like Shoka at a distance, but they've never actually interacted with him.]
[They'll follow Shoka's cue in not being upset about it - after all, she's the one who really got hurt, and she's fine now - and squash down the beginnings of the grudge they want to start building... but that's still kinda weird, isn't it?]
[They're taking Ring-Spirit's claim at face value, because why would someone lie about that, so:] So they just decided to stay in the woods this whole time...? Without ever coming to the Bay??
[There've been some Pokemon lost in the woods for a while, they think they remember someone saying... but it sounds like this was on purpose?]
[And... that's about all she has to say about it, apparently, because she moves on with a sigh.]
Anyways... That's about all that's happened to me. How've you been staving off death by boredom in here? Where I'm from, hospital rooms usually have a TV or something, at least...
[Reflecting on what she's seen of Siffrin's world through their memories, however... Do they know what a TV even is?]
[Totally not even a little bit suspicious. Siffrin considers whether they'd be curious (or bored) enough to poke around for some more info, while they're in the clinic... but they're hoping to be out of here soon enough that it's probably not going to come up.]
[As for what they've been doing, though... "spiraling mentally about the things they've been trying not to think about now that they have no choice but to sit still" is a bad answer, right. Mmh. They're doing better with Shoka visiting, and honestly as soon as she pinged their Grumpearl, so they don't want to bother her with all that...]
Loads of things! Taking naps. Staring out the window. Eavesdropping on people. I tried practicing my Electric Craft [or whatever they should call it, when it's not a specific move?] but they made me stop basically right away.
...so dying of boredom is still an option!
Um. What's a TV? [Well, that definitely answers Shoka's question.]
Riveting. [It sounds a lot like what she was doing during her own hospitalization, too, in the moments she wasn't hanging out with Siffrin or planning grand escape plans.] But if you die of boredom on me, just know that I will take that personally.
[Siffrin's question earns a chuckle.]
Oh, brother... [They really are an RPG mage, aren't they?] Well, you use a TV to watch television, which is... [Weirdly hard to explain? She has to think for a moment.] Basically, it's a box you can watch programs on—shows, movies, the news, whatever. With sound and everything, for entertainment.
[But Siffrin probably doesn't know what shows or movies are either, so she attempts:]
You're into theater, right? [Or at least she remembers Siffrin mentioning plays at some point.] I guess you can think of it as something you can use to watch all the plays you want, whenever you want. Plus news from around the world and everything...
[She even has vague memories of a knife in place of any spellcasting implements! It's just so hard to see past the wizard hat...]
Sort of, yeah. But a lot of the time, the shows on TV are prerecorded... So they're not actually happening at the same time you're watching them, if that makes sense. And the editing and stuff can be all fancy and polished—not off the cuff like Grumpearl messages are. Unless someone's memory is really that good, I guess...
[She wishes someone with a photographic memory would show up and give her the chance to see movies again.]
[Sounds complicated! But they could absolutely go for being able to watch plays from their prison cell clinic bed.]
Me? No, they just show up in stories a lot...
I guess... I've seen a mirror someone Crafted to make pictures of what it was reflecting. That felt kind of magic?
[They kind of wi - want to have that picture with them, now. ...nope, not thinking about! Not the time to be gloomy, Siffrin! (They don't deserve to have it anyway.)]
[That's probably also an unfamiliar term, isn't it? Kind of like Craft is for her, even if she somewhat understands it now from context clues (though the way that Siffrin seems to imply that it's something separate from magic does confuse her a bit).]
My phone back home had a camera in it, so it could do that, too—make pictures. [Facing Siffrin, she brings her thumbs and index fingers to the body of her disguise, making them form a rectangle around one eye.] If I still had it, I would've already gotten a pic of you, heh.
[She'd take so many pictures, of so many things—and she'd have plenty of old pictures to share, too. Grumpearl images just aren't the same when they inevitably fade, preserved in memory only. She withdraws her arms and droops with a sigh.]
Ugh, I'd kill to have it back... That'd give us hours of entertainment, too!
[Probably(?) like a camera. Siffrin nods, hesitantly. Slightly more hesitantly when she also mentions phones, which is yet another new term for them.]
[It's too bad that Shoka's camera hand shape isn't a certain secret fourth hand shape... still, they kind of get the idea from how wide she's holding her hands apart.]
Something that small can make pictures? Wouldn't you only be able to make ones of things that were really small??
Or... I guess if you hold it far enough away, it can reflect something big...?
Uh, no? [She's not explaining this very well, is she?] I mean, maybe if you were holding it super close or something... Angle's important, obvi, but you can take pics of pretty much anything. Normal-sized pics.
[Come to think of it... her arms are so long now that if she did have her phone, they could basically serve as built-in selfie sticks. Incredible and tragic to consider.]
Anyway, it also didn't just make pictures. Mine had games on it, too, along with music and stuff...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
loopsiedaisy) wrote2031-04-01 01:31 pm
no subject
[She leaps up onto the cot, still balancing the hat carefully in her claws. It definitely looks accurate, at least, thanks to Siffrin's descriptions and a couple sessions of careful measuring—but on closer inspection, as she's holding it out for their appraisal, Siffrin may notice that the weight and feel of the material is a bit different, by virtue of it being made from fabric found only in the world of Pokémon.]
If—there is anything off, I can still take it back for some tweaks. No big!
[That said, she's really hoping they at least like it, and she can't quite keep the hint of nervous energy out of her voice.]
Need help trying it on, or do you wanna do the honors?
you have unlocked: icon I haven't had a chance to use before
and rain memory trauma! And then Shoka ended up in the clinic!And honestly, their sense of time is all sorts of fucked, still, after remembering years of looping through the same two days... And she didn't have to do it for them anyway, they were honestly kind of surprised she stuck with it.]...I'll try it myself first. I think you'd get sick of me really fast if I needed your help to put it on every morning! [They grin and wink at her, regaining a bit more equilibrium. (For Now.)]
[It is kinda tricky with paws, but they manage to half flip it up with a paw, half scoop it up with their head. They have to adjust it from there - eventually they settle on tilting it at a mild angle, with the brim resting more of its weight on one folded-down ear. The hat still feels different from their old one when it's settled in place; it's a little bit heavier (though maybe it's that they're so much lighter now), and the texture is surprisingly soft.]
[But that's not a bad thing, they think - actually, maybe it's even better this way? This isn't the same exact hat, and it wouldn't be even if Shoka magically replicated it perfectly. What it is is a hat made specifically for them by Shoka, because she cared enough to do it. That means a lot to them! It should feel different, the difference is part of what matters about it!]
Th-thank you. It's perfect. [Uh oh! Their voice did crack that time, they're Feelings Things again! Shhh don't mention it, they're going to go ahead and duck behind the brim and hide their face now.]
waugghh 🥺😭
It looks good! So cute. [She really means it. There's something so classically adorable about a cat in an oversized hat.] Ugh, wish I had my phone so I could take a pic for you...
[And for herself. That's her project they're modeling, after all! Oh well; they can find a mirror later.
It's perfect, Siffrin says. They even sound a little choked up about it.]
Y—yeah? [Siffrin's hiding their face, so they might not see it, but Shoka's Mimikyu form seems to be trying very hard to compensate for her lack of a mouth to smile with. In addition to the way she's smiling with her eyes, her disguise's ears are also standing a little more upright than usual, and her stick-tail is swaying side to side like a metronome.] I'm... really glad!
[Then it's her turn to look embarrassed, even though her face is already always hidden. She reaches for the ears of her disguise, tugging on them until her false Pikachu head folds downward over her eyes.
Trying to distract both of them, she starts to babble.]
Roza—uh, Firoza helped me with it, so I can't take all the credit. And—I dunno if it'll be as weather-proof as your old hat, but we tested the fabric out a bit and it totally held up to rain, at least! It's made from Drampa fur... Whatever that means. [Although her FanGO brain allowed her to remember the name of the Pokémon easily, she's never actually seen one.]
nice to them!!
[Without their input, the front paw that isn't in a sling kneads the sheets of the cot underneath it. Biscuits!]
[Sounds like they'll have to thank Firoza too, when they see her next! But for now... babbling and distractions it is! They reach up to paw at the hat gently, feeling how soft it is again. ] It must be one of the sheep Pokemon, right?
[They're picturing Mareep, who they've seen around and don't recall the name of. But an electric sheep would probably be weather resistant...?]
[...] If not, I'm lamboozled too!
no subject
Sheep-dragon, maybe... [She did get the Pokémon's typing, at least! Just don't ask her to explain why its name is one letter away from Grampa.] Really pulled the wool over your eyes with that one, huh?
[With another snicker, she straightens, propping her disguise-head back upright, but makes no moves to jump down from the cot.]
Anyways... Delivery complete. Buuut I think I'll stick around for a while more, if you don't mind. Someone has to keep you occupied and make sure you don't break anything else.
no subject
Foiled again... and here I was planning to snap all three of my other legs today, and go for the clinic record!
[They sink back down onto their side, carefully avoiding their sling.]
So what have you been up to, since you served your time?
no subject
[Settling comfortably where she is, she answers Siffrin's question with a shrug.]
Eh, not much... [She points to their hat.] Finishing that up, for part of it. For the rest... Mostly just getting used to being able to move around like normal again, I guess. Well, not normal, but you know what I mean.
[Exploring, Pokémon-watching, wondering what to do with herself, trying not to think about how the attack that left her in the clinic gave all her teammates a devastating glimpse of her true form... Back to the usual, more or less.
Speaking of that last point:]
... Did you know that creep Spiritomb just lives here now?
no subject
[But more seriously...]
I heard some of the clinic talking about it, but... I kind of thought I misunderstood?
no subject
[She lowers her voice to a secretive almost-whisper. What she's about to say must not be an actual secret, judging by how readily the Ring-Spirit told her about it (which is why she deems it safe to tell Siffrin, too)... But maybe it's best not to let anyone else overhear, just in case.]
What's weirder is... There's this guy in Lum who also got turned into a Mimikyu, just like I did. Maybe you know him. [She'd give a name if the Ring-Spirit had one. Alas.] According to him, Spiritomb is his long-lost family or something... And they're totally sorry about murderhobo-ing it up in the woods and also literally setting me on fire.
[Though she doesn't sound exactly convinced by this explanation, she doesn't seem that resentful or even concerned about it either, her tone more wry than anything else. Apparently, she's just offering up a bit of gossip as a form of entertainment for Siffrin.]
So finding that out was another thing that happened. All's well that ends well, I guess.
no subject
[They'll follow Shoka's cue in not being upset about it - after all, she's the one who really got hurt, and she's fine now - and squash down the beginnings of the grudge they want to start building... but that's still kinda weird, isn't it?]
[They're taking Ring-Spirit's claim at face value, because why would someone lie about that, so:] So they just decided to stay in the woods this whole time...? Without ever coming to the Bay??
[There've been some Pokemon lost in the woods for a while, they think they remember someone saying... but it sounds like this was on purpose?]
no subject
[And... that's about all she has to say about it, apparently, because she moves on with a sigh.]
Anyways... That's about all that's happened to me. How've you been staving off death by boredom in here? Where I'm from, hospital rooms usually have a TV or something, at least...
[Reflecting on what she's seen of Siffrin's world through their memories, however... Do they know what a TV even is?]
no subject
[As for what they've been doing, though... "spiraling mentally about the things they've been trying not to think about now that they have no choice but to sit still" is a bad answer, right. Mmh. They're doing better with Shoka visiting, and honestly as soon as she pinged their Grumpearl, so they don't want to bother her with all that...]
Loads of things! Taking naps. Staring out the window. Eavesdropping on people. I tried practicing my Electric Craft [or whatever they should call it, when it's not a specific move?] but they made me stop basically right away.
...so dying of boredom is still an option!
Um. What's a TV? [Well, that definitely answers Shoka's question.]
no subject
[Siffrin's question earns a chuckle.]
Oh, brother... [They really are an RPG mage, aren't they?] Well, you use a TV to watch television, which is... [Weirdly hard to explain? She has to think for a moment.] Basically, it's a box you can watch programs on—shows, movies, the news, whatever. With sound and everything, for entertainment.
[But Siffrin probably doesn't know what shows or movies are either, so she attempts:]
You're into theater, right? [Or at least she remembers Siffrin mentioning plays at some point.] I guess you can think of it as something you can use to watch all the plays you want, whenever you want. Plus news from around the world and everything...
no subject
[Huh!] So, something you can watch things from far away with...? Like a magic mirror?
[...actually:] That's kind of how the Grumpearls work, isn't it?
[Too bad nobody's got the time or energy to be putting on plays in Bottlecap Bay. Maybe someday!]
no subject
Sort of, yeah. But a lot of the time, the shows on TV are prerecorded... So they're not actually happening at the same time you're watching them, if that makes sense. And the editing and stuff can be all fancy and polished—not off the cuff like Grumpearl messages are. Unless someone's memory is really that good, I guess...
[She wishes someone with a photographic memory would show up and give her the chance to see movies again.]
... Magic mirror, huh? You had one of those?
no subject
prison cellclinic bed.]Me? No, they just show up in stories a lot...
I guess... I've seen a mirror someone Crafted to make pictures of what it was reflecting. That felt kind of magic?
[They kind of wi - want to have that picture with them, now. ...nope, not thinking about! Not the time to be gloomy, Siffrin! (They don't deserve to have it anyway.)]
no subject
[That's probably also an unfamiliar term, isn't it? Kind of like Craft is for her, even if she somewhat understands it now from context clues (though the way that Siffrin seems to imply that it's something separate from magic does confuse her a bit).]
My phone back home had a camera in it, so it could do that, too—make pictures. [Facing Siffrin, she brings her thumbs and index fingers to the body of her disguise, making them form a rectangle around one eye.] If I still had it, I would've already gotten a pic of you, heh.
[She'd take so many pictures, of so many things—and she'd have plenty of old pictures to share, too. Grumpearl images just aren't the same when they inevitably fade, preserved in memory only. She withdraws her arms and droops with a sigh.]
Ugh, I'd kill to have it back... That'd give us hours of entertainment, too!
no subject
[It's too bad that Shoka's camera hand shape isn't a certain secret fourth hand shape... still, they kind of get the idea from how wide she's holding her hands apart.]
Something that small can make pictures? Wouldn't you only be able to make ones of things that were really small??
Or... I guess if you hold it far enough away, it can reflect something big...?
[Even then! What are these, pictures for ants??]
[But...] It does sound fun.
no subject
[Come to think of it... her arms are so long now that if she did have her phone, they could basically serve as built-in selfie sticks. Incredible and tragic to consider.]
Anyway, it also didn't just make pictures. Mine had games on it, too, along with music and stuff...
[Hence, hours of entertainment.]