Re: Cinnabon Isle Arc

[Michael]

Michael clicked off the Pikachu themed dataverse device and pocketed it, shocked into momentary silence. Missing for a week. He hadn’t really given any thought to… Something like this happening. He definitely wasn’t mentally prepared. He pushed it to the back of his mind though. Worrying about the problem getting bigger; MUCH bigger in fact, wasn’t going to solve it. It’s not like he could just give up!
Michael took in a deep breath and sighed, calming himself down. Charmander, sensing Michael’s poorly hidden anxiety, buried his face in Michael’s coat in an attempt to escape the negative feelings hovering around them.

Noticing this, Michael attempted to reassure Charmander and let him know that everything was alright. Charmander didn’t seem like he completely bought it, but calmed down and looked up to Michael anyways.

“There we go.” Michael said mostly to himself, smiling at the little pokémon in his arms. Charmander smiled back.

Now… Where to start looking now, Michael thought to himself. The most obvious place to start looking was Charmander himself, it occurred to him. There was a good chance he was there when… whatever happened ended up happening. Recalling previous events where Charmander burst into tears whenever he tried to pry too much, Michael almost let a frown leak out as he wondered how he’d go about getting the information they needed.

Going by his gut, Michael walked over to a less crowded area of the festival and sat down on a convenient bench, Charmander looking up to him in curiosity and wondering what they were doing.
“Charmander…” Michael put as delicately as he could “I know you don’t like thinking about… What happened with you and your parents, but please understand that it’s very important what happened then.”

Charmander’s expression saddened. Either he knew where this was going, or he didn’t like even thinking about thinking of what happened.

“Charmander, please… I need you to tell me what happened to you, and to your parents.” His question was as general as he could make it, as really he had no idea what to ask about specifically. Hopefully what Charmander could tell him would be enough to go off of.

From Michael’s perspective it was almost as if the little fire type understood. He looked away and seemed lost in thought, eyes idly glancing around at their surroundings, although the crestfallen gaze still lingered there.

Charmander had decided to try his best to recount what had happened, but as he tried to recall those events it proved to be easier said than done for the little pokémon. The memories were too painful, so he avoided them, yet he knew he had to remember them so he went back to try again and only to flee from the pain the memories induced.

Eventually he felt he had to say something, but realized he’d forgotten the initial question. He gave a random related answer in hopes that it would be what Michael was looking for, fighting back tears from his not so cheerful trip down memory lane.

“Th- The one who was other pokémon, the big one with claws… He- I-…” He whimpered, and Michael decided that was good enough.

“That’s fine Charmander, you can stop now.” Michael said, full of guilt at making the little kid relive what were definitely some harrowing memories.

Charmander clung to Michael’s chest, tears falling but without any sobs accompanying them. Michael held him close as he got up from the bench, believing and hoping that he had enough information to go on. He definitely didn’t want to do that again.

So, Big claws, is also other pokémon. His first guess is shapeshifter. Shapeshifter with big claws. Might not actually have big claws in their base form, so pretty much just shapeshifter.

Progress!