Toxic Flare - M1 - 3

The sun was higher as Persephone awoke from the nap, sitting upwards to rub at her face. She felt refreshed, if only slightly. Most of her worries from the actions taken in the mission had been pushed down to be thought about later while meditating.

They hopefully wouldn’t think anything of it until later; it was enough that her brother didn’t need to know about her fighting style until she thought it was time to start teaching him (whenever that was), but if Artemis started to question..

 That thought simply gave her chills.  

Well, now it was time to go find her brother; he should be back by now if her internal clock was right to shake her awake at this time of day.

Gathering up her scarf from the ground and shaking it off properly before looping it around her neck so that it trailed down at the front in an inconspicuous manner, the poison frog set off in the direction of the middle of town where a small commotion could be heard.

Even though the immense crowd of Adventures in the square she spotted her brother right off the bat. His small stature might have been hard to tell apart, but from what she could tell there weren’t many other Magbys around to get him confused with.

He was saying goodbye to someone though; looked like another team consisting of a shiny Ralts, a Honedge and..a very grumpy looking Sneasel who was staring at the fire type in disdain no matter how happy he seemed at the moment.

Looking around soon after, Olek spotted her and with a cry of “sis!”, trotted over eagerly. That was her brother; even if he cared a lot about what others thought of him, he would always make it known that she was his sister, no matter the situation.  

There was something different about him though..

He was..

“You’re filthy, Ollie.”  

Even saying so, she placed a hand against his cheek and rubbed it gently as if comforting him. He smelt a little singed, though it was more the smell of overcooked berries that caused her a bit of concern.  

The Magby turned pink around the place that Persephone held her hand against, as if she was going to pinch his cheeks like the nuns did when he was younger. He had never liked it thought and she had picked up on that fairly quickly, though she was full of surprises as of late now that he had been paying closer attention.  

“I did it, Phee.”

He said it straight, with a tall back and looking her straight in the eyes. Now that was a surprise to her but she took it in stride. He must have done something very important or impressive to even himself to act like this. Usually her brother would avoid her eyes and mumble if something had wrong had gone on for a mission, even if it was one she had given him herself.

“O-On the mission, we were having a good time and it was fun until..until I got a little scared and angry because one was bothering me.”

Even though the Magby didn’t say who it was who had caused him these emotions, Persephone could guess with just a look that it was either one of the members or a Leader who had caused him distress; it was only then he looked down and fumbled for a bit before picking up the story again.

“The..it was burning inside so I-I did what you taught me and thought of water..but that didn’t work so I thought of something happy and nice a-and um..”

“You didn’t burn anything.”

“Y-Yeah!” he piped up a bit too eagerly, that small tail wagging a bit before the fire type looked down in a bit of shame “D-Does that mean..”  

“You’re getting better; don’t worry.”  

An even stronger blush began to form on her brother face as those words and he began to burn slightly, prompting her to pull her paw back a bit. It was nothing new of course, but she wasn’t going to get slightly scared again because Olek still couldn’t control himself when it came to his emotions and setting objects on fire by accident. He was getting better, it was true but..well, both of them had a long way to go for their training.  

“Still doesn’t mean you have to come out of a mission looking like an abstract painting.” she chided teasingly while placing her hands on her hips, causing her brother to puff out his cheeks, his hot headedness coming into effect just like she thought it would.

As if she had flicked some kind of switch, he began to explain his predicament in rushed sentences without stopping for breath. Typical Ollie..

“Well it wasn’t my fault sis! Canopus said we had to pick teams and then I got a bit lost because I didn’t know where to go since he vanished like a ninja when the game began! I didn’t even know when the game started because he never said, then there were berries flying everywhere and I got hit..”

Allowing her brothers torrent of words to wash over her like the sound of soothing rain, Persephone simply began to walk off, knowing that he would follow her while still spouting his story until he ran out of breath. Though depending on how important he thought certain parts were he would leave them out when another train of thought came crashing into his head, only to go skipping back a few steps when he remembered what it first was that he was talking about.  

With her brothers footsteps sounding out behind her, the poison frog began to make her way back to their abode..she couldn’t call it home just yet. They hadn’t made many memories just yet, or at least hadn’t explored the surrounding area very well.

Her own thoughts wandered to the collections they had picked up over their travels; all the smooth, sparkly, or different rocks Olek had collected to only leave behind when they had to travel for long periods of time. He had complained at first and only after a very stern lecture had he given up, if only for a while.  

Those were simply objects; they could gather more if need by and while it seemed that he was still attracted to them, her brother seemed day by day to understand that those items he had collected were simply a piece of the past and would be worn down over time no matter how carefully he took care of them.

And as for the memories they would make here..

Well, surely, they would come in time~