Aromatherapy

[collectyourfriends]

The gardens are growing again.

Frisk decides to leave their secret base for more than just food, for once. They'd had some Berries planted since before...the de-aging incident.

Predictably, there's not much left on their plots. A few of the Aspear plants have sprouts peeking out of the newly exposed dirt, but nothing else managed to resist the sudden icy weather. Hoenn doesn't have that kind of thing.

Sparks and Needles loiter around them when they set to their task--first, dig up the ruined berries that haven't entirely disintegrated, toss them into a box they brought out, that can be used for making mulch later. Then, just plant what they have left, which is a lot. (More than they should be able to fit into that bag, in fact.)

They're in a relatively secluded area, but it's still out in the gardens, and the claimed space they've got to fix up is huge. They won't exactly welcome visitors, but they've have their time to be angry and upset with their team...they probably won't chase anyone away.

Comments

[collectyourfriends]

Tempting and tricking, evil. Frisk looks...a mixture of amused and bemused. "Sounds Dark. That's a Type," they add, before they forget.

They're interrupted by Needles suddenly flying their way, something shining in her mouth. Look look look! Frisk crouches and takes a glittering stone from her jaws, heedless of the mud.

Needles allows them to admire it for about three seconds before snatching it back and zagging over to Chara. Look look look lookit!

They stand again. "I don't think I'm that. I've never trained a Dark-type. I don't think I have a connection. I'm not from 'Hell'." Frisk is completely earnest here, with the word 'hell' said a touch slowly as another word they've never heard. They wipe their muddy hand on their thigh. "Just Mauville. Are you a demon?"

[itstheend]

Chara can Hear the Capitalisation, but that doesn't give much indication as to what exactly is meant by it. Well yes, it is dark. And 'Type' isn't said with the same sneering backhand venom as they remember certain adults using it, but still puts them in mind of that.

*It's an element, Frisk says and starts to fax over some of the relevant information before a chagrined Chara tells them to stop. Their face has barely any chance to (apparently non-sensically) redden further, before Needles is zigging towards them - the pattern of movement actually trips off less threat-radar than rushing in a straight line would have done, and they automatically glance down at the shine, hands staying by their sides. Look, don't touch.

"Did you know that was there?" It's a somewhat half-baffled, off-guard question. Gems in the food, they know about, but they never thought that might extend to elsewhere in the Castle. Do they just spontaneously form, or did someone drop one?

*Maybe there's more.

They can feel Frisk's curious urge to find out itch at their fingers. Maybe later. Their attention quickly snaps back to the trainer as they start speaking, and their lips tighten upwards - they have to bite back a barking laugh at the way the other says 'hell' as if it's a town... they assume Mauville is a town. It ends up coming out anyway at the final question.

"Boy, am I!"

Shouldn't it be obvious?

[collectyourfriends]

"She's got Pickup. It's an Ability." Should they be telling Chara this? They try not to give advantages in battle--but they're going to fight Sparks, not Needles. It's not like they're going to know what alternate Abilities she could have instead. "Means she's really good at finding things."

Needles is slightly displeased, excitement quieting. She's showing them a thing! And she rears up to plant her small, filthy paws on Chara's leg in an effort to reach their hand. Look! It's the same as touching! (Except with food.) It's a purplish geode! (Not a Geodude. She couldn't pick one of those up.)

Frisk accepts this with a nod, and a quiet, confused hum at their laugh. "You don't seem evil or tempting," they say with a shrug. Dark-types usually aren't, just tricksters with especially unappealing moves and abilities (not just Abilities), so it's natural to them to follow up with "Should I prepare for pranks?"

[itstheend]

Puts them in mind of Nifflers.

Their trousers now mud-covered, they acquiesce and bend down for a closer look, and curl their fingers over it - a flash of dirt-coated purple. An amethyst, they think, wiping across it with their thumb to expose more of the colour.

"Did you know," they tell Needles, "they used to say that stones like this could ward off poisons? Kings and queens tested their food with them." And died anyway, if there genuinely was poison. "A good find." The praise is somewhat awkward - they don't have much cause to give it, but genuine. There's those capitals again, but it is a skill they can acknowledge.

This does somewhat ruin their apparent evil cred, they realise when the bandanna'd one speaks. The mention of pranks somewhat comes out of left field, but they take hold of that too.

"If I were to tell you it would spoil any element of surprise, would it not? That would defeat the purpose."

There. That does it nicely.

[collectyourfriends]

Needles makes a short, sharp noise of surprise. She doesn't care about kings or queens--she's heard it from humans in passing, not commonly--but 'poison' is a word she definitely knows.

She looks at it, back over her shoulder, back to it. Antidote? This?

Frisk is just as fascinated, staring at the gleam in Chara's hand. "Does it work?" A rock that keeps Poison away would be a great hold item, but they noticed their phrasing was unusual.

...they've got a point, Frisk concedes with another quiet nod. They'll be ready if they try anything, probably. They're not particularly worried--they can handle pranks, and they avoid people enough that they're sure anything actually dangerous that's might happen (like the headache-inducing resonance and extreme privacy invasions around human Psychics, or the strange enchantments of Fairy Tale Girls) isn't going to have long stretches of time to effect them.