Time to Think (Mod/Open)

[Admiral Striker General]

He released her at the first nudging, but struck a wry grin at her continued thanks. "All part of the job~" he chimed, teasing.

At this point, he became suddenly aware he was still shirtless, in all his scrawny scarred glory.. ...Well, he'd been on the beach, and alone back then, and he hadn't really thought about it-... dammit. Ah well. It wasn't as though he was shy or anything; he just sort of felt bad about the hug now as that made it considerably more awkward. Meh.

Thoughts back to the present, he smiled gently to her. "It seems like you've been through a lot tonight.. Is there anything I could do to help you feel better?"

[Jay]

The woman ran her fingers through her hair a bit more stressed about the mess it was in rather than a creation of habit before she finally shook her head. "I'm just glad the Wingull stopped attacking," she sighed out rather tiredly. "I didn't expect them to just..." she shook her head a moment and sighed again.

A few of the people from the bonfire looked over and made a wave once more in both Alaric's and the woman's direction. "Hey do you guys want to sit down and share some stories or something?" one of the men...actually one of the service patrol men from before... asked aloud. The woman looked back at Alaric and half smiled a fraction.

"I wouldn't mind....." she said aloud. "Do you want to?"

[Admiral Striker General]

...Oh. ...... Well, fuck. What sort of ass would he be if he made an ambiguous offer and then ran off when she took him up on it? "Ah-..." he stuttered. "I eh.. don't think I'd have much to share..." Smiling at the young woman, he added, "I wouldn't mind listening, though, if you'd like me to."

Realizing they'd not made introductions, he bowed, holding the position. "The name is Alaric, by the way." Looking up with adoring eyes, he asked, "What could I call you, princess?"

[Jay]

The woman blushed bright red and laughed lightly back. "My name is Erin," she answered back lightly turning her head to one side as the darker curls in her hair moved with her head motion. "And that sounds good..." she finished meaning the idea of just listening. A few people nodded and made space to sit down.

A man with flaming red hair seemed to be the one all but rushing to get his story out. He talked, even if no one appeared to be listening, about meeting a Salamce in a forest and having it chase him four kilometers until he finally jumped into a lake in order to hide from it.

[Admiral Striker General]

With a 'nice to meet you', Alaric stood up straight again and called Honey over as they made their way to the fire, letting her lay out just behind them. Even as they got seated, the first man began his tale.

While intriguing in theory, Alaric couldn't help but roll his eyes skeptically. Kilometers... What was that, like... Eh, he didn't feel like math-ing. More miles than it looked like the man could run nonstop, Salamence or no.. When he finished and various feedback was going around, he turned to Erin and said- hopefully quiet enough only she would hear it and others wouldn't pressure her if she didn't want to- "I'd be interested in hearing just what happened with those Wingull?"

[Jay]

The woman's face turned bright red and she laughed a bit to herself before rubbing the back of her head. "I wanted to go out on the old abandoned boardwalk just to see what was out there, but these Wingull suddenly came at me..." she was trying to keep the story rather quick more out of embarrassment, really. "I guess I made them angry or something... they started chasing me, and I just kept running..." She kept her voice low, yet a woman not too far away had heard it all and appeared ready to all but shout out this story for the entire group.

"Well that IS certainly interesting getting attacked by Wingull just for walking on a boardwalk," the woman said aloud. "Why don't you elaborate more?"

Erin's face turned redder, and she simply looked down at her hands after a moment. "I just wanted to see if there were any water pokemon... I guess I was on their turf or something...." she murmured after another moment. Satisfied with this answer, the group continued on as it had before as yet another person appeared to start up another story.

[Admiral Striker General]

Blushing as well, his due to embarrassing her, he half-whispered while whoever ranted about whatever. "Sorry about that.." As a thought occurred to him, he looked around, wondering if any were within sight or at least nearby. "I don't suppose you'd want a Wingull?"

[Jay]

The woman appeared surprised by the offer, but after a moment of thinking on it, she shook her head a bit and looked down at her hands. "I'd rather not have one of them chase me if it realizes it can..." she said quietly turning red even as she said it. "Thank you, though."

A few stories were shared and went around with some light talk and the like. Erin explained that she was actually on vacation and lived in Evergreen City to the East as she tried to use other stories to try and avoid people remembering what had brought her there. After a moment, one of the patrol officers leaned over towards Alaric and grinned. "Ya sure you don't want to share a story?" he grinned.

[Admiral Striker General]

"Eh-" Yes, he was quite sure.. But then, he supposed Erin was sharing.. Hm. Thinking a moment, he finally grinned and worked to suppress a laugh as he realized the perfect story. "All right, then. You want to hear my most amazing story?" he asked semi-dramatically.

Feigning suspense, he slowly began, "One day, I was walking along a beach much like this one, expecting nothing of consequence to occur. I'd just spotted a small party starting, much like this one, in fact, when suddenly a scream caught my attention! Looking to its source, I found an immense flock of enraged Wingull- Shadows they could've been for their aggression!- chasing a beautiful woman. Fortunately, thanks to some quick thinking, my beloved Luxray was able to take down the entire flock in under a minute~ Together, we managed to save the damsel in distress, to whom I myself am eternally grateful for putting up with my terrible sense of humor!" Out of pure habit, he cringed as though preparing to be hit, though in doing so he was also grinning from ear to ear and doing everything he could not to laugh.

[Jay]

The woman's face seemed to explode into a blush, and she looked down again turning far more red than even the flames in the center of the fire. A few laughs came here and there, but for the most part, people were shrugging it off. However, a woman, not Erin, but another far more stout woman appearing to be readying herself to smack Alaric for Erin was moving a few inches closer now.

[Admiral Striker General]

Alaric calmed down some as the new woman approached, though seeing her aggressive look he cringed more legitimately. Mostly, though, he just gave a confused look; the joke hadn't been that bad, had it?

[Jay]

The stout woman shook her dark hair and seemed to sigh outwards with the words of 'men these days' on her tongue before finally crossing her arms and returning to the conversation. By that time, Erin had sighed outwards and managed to find herself at least half smiling....

[Admiral Striker General]

Alaric looked to the angry woman. ... And then to Erin. ... And back.. and forth. Unable to come to any conclusion, he finally just grimaced slightly and asked Erin, "Did I do something wrong?"

Laying down making it significantly easier, Honey did facepaw this time. She couldn't say she was upset, though. With any luck, at least one of these little whores would finally piss him off or get pissed enough at him and they could leave already.. Honestly, it wouldn't be quite as obnoxious if he didn't get so obsessive every time a pretty face passed by...

[Jay]

Erin sighed a bit and was unable to really comment effectively. The stout woman simply replied with the term 'men' and waved her hand in the air for a few seconds before sighing outwards and muttering to herself. Someone had started another story, and most were listening in on it instead of watching Alaric, Erin, and the stout woman who was scrutinizing the male sex as a whole.

[Admiral Striker General]

Gears began turning, ever so slowly, as he contemplated what it could have possibly been. After nearly a minute, he seemed to realize a correlation between mentions of the Wingull and her bouts of embarrassment. ...Wait, really? In his mind it seemed so ridiculous he almost felt stupid asking, but he couldn't come up with anything else. "You're not embarrassed about getting attacked, are you?"

[Jay]

"I...uh... no I..." Erin tried to find the words to describe what she was trying to say but utterly failed and began to simply resort to stuttering that in the end led to nothing but oddity in her voice. After a moment, she silenced completely and just looked down again.

[Admiral Striker General]

Alaric barely reacted to this, except that his expression became a bit more sincere. "Would you feel more comfortable talking a little further from the group?" Leering toward the woman who'd picked up on her Wingull story earlier with just a hint of playfulness, he added, "Where certain people wouldn't interrupt.."

[Jay]

Erin looked at Alaric before looking back at the group. "Ya... that'd be... nice..." she answered back after another moment before starting to stand a fraction. Most of the ground now was too engrossed in a story about a Haunter chasing a Gengar to notice that the brown haired thin woman actually stood up.

[Admiral Striker General]

Alaric smiled softly and stood as well, offering her a hand. He then began to look for the best place they could go to sit. He'd like somewhere that seemed secluded, well out of speaking-earshot of the group, but still close enough she wouldn't start to feel as though he were trying to 'get her alone'. Because, well, he was in a sense, of course, but not the way it would probably look if they just suddenly disappeared completely. Of course, just further off in the sand or perhaps against the walls of the station would work, but he did want to see if he couldn't spot somewhere.. better, he supposed.

[Jay]

The brown haired woman walked alongside Alaric and was looking down the beach with a careful eye some would consider with a half mount of worry give or take, most probably stemmed from the attack of the Wingull. Catching herself with it, she turned red and forced a half laugh trying to hide this fear. "The beach is pretty...." she finally commented as they continued walking.