I Can't Do This {open to all}

[Rachel North]

Rachel was feeling agitated when he woke up that morning. Her rickety little house, which had been long since abandoned by a poor man, sitting on top of another, much older building, wasn't exactly ideal to live in, but she had nowhere else to be. Her long, blond hair was in its two large braids that she always put it in, somehow managing to stay somewhat clean after all this time spent here. Her life hadn't exactly been the most wonderful one in the world, but neither had the lives of any that lived in the Canopy. So, perhaps, she fit in here as much as anyone could.

The nineteen year old had woken to a nagging feeling in her gut, one that promised something happening today. Something outside of her mundane norm which consisted of mainly getting something to eat for the day. She could go into the market, but she hated having to steal, no matter who it was from. Sighing, the gijinka stepped outside of her home, thoughts still focused inward, mostly about her still growling stomach.

"Oh hush you." She snarled at her loudly protesting body. "Should be grateful you get anything at all today." Which was the sad truth of her life. Some days she'd go without anything at all, which was bad but she dealt with it. It's not as if she was a walking skeleton yet. Other days she'd manage to snag something small, nowhere near satisfying but it would have to do. Then there was the rare day, maybe once a month where she'd find enough to actually by full. It may not have all been healthy, heck, half of it probably should've made her sick. But it didn't, yet, and she was happy about that.

"No where to go?" She murmured, looking around at the other half-hearted houses and rickety bridges.

[Alexander "Alexi" Kain]

Alexander "Alexi" Kain

Words;; 866
Tags;; Rachel North and others
Eggs;; None
Layout by Kuroya

Notes;;

Okay, moved over into my template, apologies for the wait for it to look nice and pretty.

Alexander let out a sharp yelp when he was thrown on the ground again, a hiss escaping from his clenched teeth at the impact with the forest floor. He had woken up this morning and decided to teach the newest Pokemon how to bear his weight, but it was hard-going. Nero lumbered over to his Trainer with a sheepish look on his face, lowering his head to huff warm breath over the Zebstrika Gijinka's chest. "Yeah yeah, Nero, I'm fine," he muttered to the Bouffalant, his arms reaching up to grab the pair of razor-sharp horns, fingers curling around the strong keratin without a second thought. "Now lift me back up again." The Normal-type let out a soft whuff but obeyed, backing up while lifting his head so that the raven-haired male could regain his feet easily. The Zebstrika Gijinka twisted about a little, trying to see the seat of his pants but ended up sighing at the inevitable conclusion that he couldn't quite manage it and brushed off the soggy leaves in the hopes that that would be enough to keep the impromptu adventure from showing. Nero wasn't a bad Pokemon, as evidenced by the fact that the Bouffalant was already shuffling about to present his back for his Trainer to clamber onto again for another attempt, but the problem was that the large Pokemon simply wasn't used to having to bear someone on his back. His instincts told him that the weight was bad, and he'd try to buck to get it off before he even consciously realized what it was causing the weight. The Gijinka sighed quietly, feeling the ache in his fingers and his calves from trying to hang on - he'd managed to ride through more bucks and twists than just the few that had managed to dislodge him. "We'll work on this more later, Nero," he murmured, patting the Bouffalant's side comfortingly. "Right now I'm thinking a break is in order."

The pair padded about below for a while, the Pokemon enjoying his time outside of his Pokeball while the Gijinka felt a little too sore at the moment to bother with bringing his Ponyta out to ride back to base. After a good half-hour or so of this, however, the Zebstrika Gijinka grew impatient with the lack of interaction and decided to try his luck in the maze of bridges above that was the Canopy. He recalled Nero back to his Pokeball, putting the device back on his belt, and then closed his eyes for a moment, gathering himself and relaxing his muscles in an Agility to prepare himself for what he wanted to do. Comfortable with his level of preparedness, he then exploded forward in a flurry of movement, jumping up the tree closest to him in a series of Flame Charge attacks, a few flames licking at his heels as an unintended result of his method of scaling trees, until he leapt off a branch to land smoothly on a rickety bridge that creaked and swayed with the sudden addition of his weight, groaning a soft threat to collapse that had the raven-haired male tensing in preparation of having to shoot off in another few moves. Luckily for him though, the bridge held, and he found himself navigating through the world of the Canopy for the first time in a very long time. He'd never had a home here, having run straight from his father to Team Rocket, and keeping the room there was enough for him. If he wanted to sleep somewhere else, he did it in a meadow, end of story. In a way, it suited him best to go with that since the Zebstrika Gijinka, while he may not have had a lot of money to his name now that he had run away, had been raised with money and could never picture himself living amid all the trash and rotting wooden buildings that made up much of this part of Aether.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the unexpected arrival of a companion until he heard a loud squeal of alarm, and he wheeled about to see his baby Eevee flailing on one of the rope railings, about to fall right off the edge if the Zebstrika hadn't lunged to scoop the young fluffball up into his arms. "Sometimes you have no sense of timing, Cassius," he grumbled softly as the baby Eevee happily cuddled up to his chest, lifting the small Normal-type up to drape around his neck like he was a feather boa, something that earned him a soft purr of delight as the young Pokemon snuggled up to him and wrapped his bushy tail around him like a scarf. Sure, it might look weird to anyone passing by, but dammit, it was the safest way to keep the little Pokemon from getting into any more trouble and keep his hands free in case someone - Arceus forbid a hunter from Epispect come to apprehend him for being a member of Team Rocket, or worse yet, drag his ass back to his father - attacked him and forced him to retaliate. He wasn't about to go down without a fight.