no_ufo_ending | Room 023 [prose/ action for hotel room]

Henry Townshend could not sleep.

He had not slept the night through for a week and now he could not sleep at all. He had crawled out of his sleeping bag, pulled on his shoes, gathered his bag, and crept out into the black morning without making a sound. The photographer was a pretty quiet guy, so he didn't take great pains to go undiscovered, but it did feel sort of proud of himself. He could do something without getting caught.

It was misting when he arrived at the little corner shop to pick up a pack of smokes. The mist had turned into a steady drizzle by the time he hit the edge of Route 34.

If he wanted to smoke, he was going to have to do it outside the city itself. Henry was now convinced that there was some kind of forcefield that disintegrated cigarettes the moment they crossed the threshold. If he hid them in his bag, they were gone the next day. If he hid them behind the toilet in the hotel bathroom, they were gone the next day. In his pockets, in the rolled up cuffs of his shirt sleeves, in the space between the bed frame and the mattress, under the potted plant outside in the hallway, in spare poke'balls, even trying some reverse tactics and hiding them in Harry's personal belongings...

It was insane.

He could see the lights of the city through the trees and didn't stray far enough to loose sight of them. As irritated as he was with adopted!dad, he didn't want to get himself lost and never see him or Heather again. The sounds of night pokemon surrounded him and he could catch glimpses of eyes glinting in the tall grass.

Henry unclipped a battered pokeball from his belt and had one last internal battle before pressing the button and letting it expand. "Walter, come out."

A flash of liquid light produced a ruffled, spherical creature with enormous hateful eyes. It tottered on the spot before getting its bearings and swiveled its head around to glare at its master.

"Hoot Hoot." it scolded him. Walter clacked his beak and swayed on the spot. When his master didn't recoil, the little owl pokemon hopped up and down and flapped its stubby wings to show Henry just how scary he was.

Henry breathed out a mouthful of smoke. "You can go if you want to."

"Hoot?" Walter stopped his tantrum and tilted his head to one side.

"Leave. Go on, shoo." Henry waved his cigarette at the wilderness. Walter swiveled his head around to look at the unfamiliar forest. "You don't like me, and I don't like you. I can't train you if it stays like this."

Henry had been trapped in an appartment for a good week. He didn't know what went on insdie those poke'balls, but he didn't think he'd want to be kept in one all the time. He didn't want to begin to think about the inside of the computer. How did that even work? Walter was still wild. Surely he could still take care of himself.

"Hoot Hoot?" Walter's little ear-tufts sank as the rain dripped off them. His red eyes grew wide as he shuffled toward his master.

The photographer screwed his face up. Live ash fell from his cigarette and died before it hit the ground. "Don't start acting like that now! I don't know what to do for you, owl! I feed you and take care of you. You scratch my face, procreate at a horrifying rate, and give me nightmares." Henry's voice rose steadily. He shook all over. "You follow me for miles and when I finally catch you, you want nothing to do with me."

The little owl pokemon stepped up onto one of Henry's sneakers and clicked his beak together sadly. He screeched when Henry lifted his foot and shook him off. Walter went tumbling and came to a stop upside down.

"H-hoot Hoot!"

"You aren't sorry! You're just sorry you're in trouble. If you could call this trouble. Isn't this what you want? You've made it pretty clear you don't want me as a trainer." Henry coughed through his teeth and waited for the owl pokemon to make its decision.

"Hoot?" Walter drew a little circle in the grass with one claw, his eyes sliding elsewhere. The rain all around them was making it hard for him to hear other pokemon scurrying around in the brush. It was making him nervous. "Hoot Hoot, hoot."

"Fine. But if you scrach me again, we're done. I won't even care if you get eaten by an Ursarang."

"Hoot Hoot!" Walter flapped his waterlogged wings and fluttered up to Henry's shoulder where he perched and sank his claws in.

"Walter!" Henry cringed and swatted the owl as bright red stains bloomed on his overshirt. He dropped his cigarette and clamped a hand over his shoulder. "What did I just finish telling you!"

"Hoot!" Walter danced in place, unable to take hold without impaling his trailer. He tumbled to the ground again and lay there with his wings spread.

"Sssss," The trainer fumbled around in the tall grass for his smoke with one hand. He knew there was no danger of anything catching fire, but it was still littering. Plus, what if Harry randomly went for a walk and found it? He'd have to start ninja-ing around in the trees if he wanted a smoke break.

"HOOT HOOT!" Walter took flight and landed on Henry's back, his feathers fluffed up to their full volume. He ignored his trainer's yowl of dismay. He flapped his stubby wings furiously and shot his best Growl into the woods around them.

"Walter, what the hell!" Henry started to stand up and wrenched an elbow around to knock the owl away, but froze. They were surrounded by enormous, sapphire eyes. A gang of Jigglypuff had heard the ruckus. They were daytime pokemon and it was too damn early. Two dozen pink ears were cupped toward the trainer and his owl. Their fur was ruffled and their eyes were droopy with sleep and irritation.

The biggest Jigglypuff, who had enormous bags under its eyes, stepped forward and drummed a stubby arm on its chest, letting out a threatening, "Puff!"

Henry slowly stood up straight and winced as the owl climbed onto his shoulder. "Walter, this is how we die."

"Jiggly!" They rose, one after the other, like hellish balloons and descended upon them.

"Walter! Ajss fuhh derrshrr guuust! Bite it in the face or something! I don't know! Owl attack!"

"Hoot Hoot!" Walter flared his wings out and took off from Henry's shoulder, plowing into the lead Jigglypuff. Both of them went bouncing into the trees while the others unleashed a barrage of Pound attacks on henry with their horrible nubby paws. It didn't hurt as much as he expected, but there were a lot of them and it was almost impossible to keep his footing. His sneaker hooked into a knot of grass and sent him tumbling back onto his ass.

Screeches, hoots, and jigglys echoed from the forest before Walter returned to the clearing with ruffled feathers. He panted and shook himself back to sorts. His opponent wasn't going to be following him any time soon. Where was his trainer? A warbling scream caught his ear and he swiveled his head around in time to see the carnage unfold. Henry was crawling across the grass on his stomach inchy by inch while Jigglypuff after Jigglypuff slammed into him with a Rollout. Each blow grew harsher and if Walter didn't do something, he would have to dig his trainer out of an imprint in the ground.

"Hoot Hoot!" The little owl pokemon charged into the battle.

Henry looked up with dirt in his teeth in time to see a round pink abomination go sailing into the trees. He twisted his fingers into the earth and tried to drag himself closer to the path and away from the grass, but a pink puff rolled across his hands with surprising force. He yowled as two of his fingers jammed. Henry curled to his side and cradled his throbbing hand against his chest as screaming and puffing carried on behind him.

Walter was fighting beak and claw against the pink hoard and all for him. He could have just flown away into the night and left him to be Rollout'd to death in the mud, but he didn't. Henry didn't understand why. He was sure the little bird hated him and everything else in the world, but there wasn't time to waste by being all philosophical. Walter couldn't hold them off forever. The photographer rolled onto his elbows and knees and inched toward the path like a soldier.

"Hang on, little guy."

When his face hit dirt, he snatched up the poke'ball he had dropped in the drama and clambered to his feet.

"Walter, return!" A red beam struck the Hoot Hoot and drew it into the poke'ball before a duo of Jigglypuff could crash into him with a double Roll Out. As all eyes moved to him, Henry didn't think twice. He turned around and ran as hard as he could into the city's glow.

The sky was grey by the time Nurse Joy placed Walter onto the counter. The little owl was good as new, but Henry was still filthy. His hand had been wrapped and the two fingers that had jammed were braced. He thanked the nurse and held Walter under one arm like a football. His feet dangled as they made their way back out into the rain.

"You're a weird pokemon, Walter."

"Hoot Hoot." Walter promptly twisted his head around and bit one of the buttons off of Henry's overshirt. He fumbled it around in his beak and the dropped it to the pavement.

Henry just sighed and kept walking. He could smell breakfast food all the way out in the hotel lobby and his stomach growled as he climbed the stairs to Team H's room. He entered as quietly as he left and plunked Walter down on the desk by the door before ungracefully falling on top of his sleeping bag, muddy clothes and all.

_{tl:dr- Jigglypuff gang beatdown.}

[ACTION for the Hotel Room]
_{[There is a filthy, somewhat bloody Henry laying on the hotel room floor with an owl settled happily on top of his butt. WHAT DO?]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Walks into the room.....what...]

Henry?

_{[Henry full body twitches at the sound of Harry's voice. He's used to having to tuck smokes away into hiding at a second's notice but there are no cigs to hide today. Instead he just makes a muffled noise into his pillow.]}

Hhhfffbulpuuffffs.

_{[The owl that's sitting on him opens an eye and clicks his beak at Harry.]}

[Goes over to see if he's alright.]

.....Hufflepuffs?

Jigglypuffs. A thousand of them. Approximately one thousand Jigglypuffs.

_{[Walter adds a thoughtful, hoot hoot and nods his head.]}

Where were you?

[Kneeling next to him.]

Are you hurt very much?

Somewhere on...Route 34.

_{[Henry was quiet again, taking a short mental inventory.]}

No. The nurses fixed up my hand.

And what were you doing out there?

[:| Good. He'll just look you over to make sure, then lean back to sit down on the floor.]

_{[So yeah, Heather wasn't actually AWAKE when Henry came in. Like hell she's gonna wake up early on a rainy day.]

[Of course, that means when she DOES wake up, it's to the sight of a vaguely-spherical shape she's come to associate with Henry's homicidal Pokemon... perched on a Henry that's dirty and bloody.]}

--HENRY?! HEY!

_{[Walter startles awake and clacks his beak at Heather. HOW DARE SHE WEAK THE GREAT AND POWERFUL WALTER?]

[Henry, however, drags his pillow out from under his face and cover shis head with it.]}

Shhhhhhh no sounds.

_{[--Oh. Okay, so Henry's not dead. That's a good thing. On the other hand, as far as Heather's seen thus far, Walter-owl being in any kind of close proximity to his ass would have Henry leaping out a fifth-story window if nobody caught him first.]}

Uh...

Okay, one, there's an owl on your butt, and two, what the hell happened to you?

_{[She knows he has rough dreams sometimes, but not THAT rough.]}

_{[Henry was still for a while. Once it started to look like he'd dozed off again, he spoke.]}

I was assaulted by a gang of Jiggly puffs.

_{[He shifted to reveal the splint on his hand.]}

Jigglypuffs are mean.

You were-- when did that happen?! How the hell did I sleep through that?!

_{[THIS IS HENRY. He doesn't leave the hotel room by himself!]}

I went for a walk.

_{[Henry Townshend went for a WALK.]}

You can have. The rest of my cereal. Okay?

_{[She sits up in bed, swinging her legs out from under the sheets and off the side.]}

I don't want the rest of your cereal.

_{[She wants DEETS.]}

How the hell did JIGGLYPUFFS do that to you?

_{[She knows they're creepy, but they never exactly seemed like heavy-hitters...]}

There were thousands of them.

_{[Henry heaves a sigh and raises up onto his elbow so he can face her. He's got little scratches on his face and huge bags of WHAT IS MY LIFE under his eyes.]}

I took Walter out to...we took a walk. And we were yelling at each other. And then they came.

_{[Jeez. He looks even worse than he did when they'd pulled him out of the woods...]

[Without hesitation, Heather shoves the rest of her blankets aside and heads over to his bed, plopping down on the edge to get a better look at his injuries. He's obviously been to the Center for some patching-up, but he still looks rough.]}

Holy shit.

Are you serious?

Yes. Why would I make something like that up?

_{[Henry drew in a sharp hiss as Walter decided to move from his trainer's butt up onto his shoulder.]}

Walter saved me.

I dunno, to screw with me?

_{[But she believes him, and reaches out to wipe a smudge of fine pink hair off of his forehead-- well, at least until he says THAT.]}

... Walter saved you.

Okay, now I KNOW you're pulling my leg.

_{[Henry's mouth forms into a neat little frown.]}

I was going to let him go because I thought, if he hated me, I wasn't going to make him be on my team. But then Jigglypuffs happened and I don't even know.

... Whoa.

... Wellp.

Uh.

_{[She pauses, wondering if she should pat him on the shoulder or something, but well, Walter Owl is there now and even if he's NICE NOW for some reason, she's still seen his viciousness in action. She doesn't particularly want to put a hand near him.]}

...Yeah.

It was a really weird morning.

_{[Henry side-eyes the owl on his shoulder and leans his head away. He doesn't like his eyes being too near that beak.]}

The nurse said I jammed my fingers.

Yeah, I can tell...

_{[She's silent a moment, just drumming her fingers on the bedspread.]}

... You want some coffee or something?

...yeah. I think they're still serving breakfast down stairs.

Oooo-kay.

I'll go get you some of that then.

_{[She gives the lump that is his ankle a careful pat before getting up and heading over to the door. Too lazy to put on socks, she just slides on a pair of Harry's shoes (they're too big for her but WHO CARES) to head downstairs in.]

[Eventually she returns with a cup of coffee and a waffle in a napkin-- by that time, the sky's lightened a little bit the rain's still coming down.]}

_{[Henry had managed to wrestle Walter into his ball by the time Heather returned. He held his good hand out for the coffee.]}

Thanks, Heather.

_{[He just sort of stares into his cup without saying anything else for a little while. He's not really thinking, but enjoying how warm the cup is to his hands.]}

I'm going to start being a better trainer today.

Don't mention it.

_{[She tears off a piece of the waffle for herself and pokes it into her mouth before offering the rest to Henry, speaking around it.]}

If y'want, you can come with me the next time I go out to train.

Room 023 [prose/ action for hotel room]

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