Marshaling the Marshes [Mod/Open]

[Hale Callahan]

'Them baggy sweat pants
And the Reeboks with the straps
She turned around and gave that big booty a smack
Next thing you know
Shawty got low, low, low, low,
low, low, low, low~'

Between the torrid stench emanating from these part of the woods where sun rarely broke in through the thick, foreboding canopy of foliage high above and the mud; cold and clammy and sticky rising to her ankles, listening to something so ridiculously upbeat was both a relief and an annoyance---especially when the same bloody tune had been playing for the past half-an-hour. It didn’t help that the creature playing it was, for whatever reasons or perhaps due to some genetic deafness was listening to it at volumes which would have made the dead rise up from the muck that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

"Jethro."
Hale murmured between gritted teeth as she look upwards to the small yellow gecko with an overbite problem who was currently vegetating to god knows what on her head---his proclaimed favorite perch that is, ever since he got backhanded for slinking down her chest earlier on.

The scaly beast didn't seem to be listening to her at all as he continued bopping off to his favorite brand of music of which Hale had no idea where he picked it up. While amused at his particular enjoyment of pop culture, one final line about apple-bottom jeans and booty-smacking finally drove the young woman to breaking point as she rapped the lizard’s skull a few times with her knuckles so he snapped out of his head-bopping to give her an odd stare upside-down as though he couldn’t comprehend why she was admonishing him.

“Scraaaa?”
For most part, Hale had been pretty chill with him despite his lackadaisical demeanor and the fact that the very first thing he did when they met was attempt to snag her rather expensive set of headphones. The same ones which he wore now that she, in exasperation at his determination to gank the blasted thing had given to him as a welcoming present and from there on he thought of this dame as being a homeboy, but homeboy seemed to have her panties in a bunch all the sudden.

“I appreciate ye tryin’ a light up the mood, but turn it down a notch won’t ya? I doubt the critters rollin’ around these areas would appreciate yer fine musical tastes as much as I d---oooof!”
The brunette explained tersely before breaking out into a yelp of shock when her foot stumbled over large, hidden root and the fall sent both trainer and Pokemon plummeting into a pool of mud which rose up to the middle of her shins, and up to the lizard’s waist.

Spattered head to toe in the gunk, neither looked too amused with the situation at hand though Jethro’s first priority seemed to be saving the headphones, as Hale watched him hold it clear above the mud which he tried to tip-toe through. Small that he was as this stage, that was far easier said than done and after spitting out a particularly foul clod of slimy detritus, she finally struggled back to her feet and firmly took the grateful lizard by his middle to hold him to her chest---an act which prompted a double-take from him as he stared up at her in surprise.

“Scraggy Scraa!”

“Yeah yeah, don’t think too much o’ it, caffler. Yer dripping with crud and I don’t want it dribbling down my face.”
Said the trainer nonchalantly as she felt him snuggle closer to her top while she cleaned off the mud best as she could.

“No grabby hands.”

While Hale had no problems getting down dirty, this sort of dirty could land her hospitalized with some bug whose name she couldn’t pronounce and that was far worse than any small cuts or bruises, discounting the scrapes she now had on her knees from the fall.

This swamp was a lot tougher to traverse than previously thought, though this hardly daunted the stoic trainer who merely continued her exploration of the dank undergrowth, eyes and ear peeled out for any signs of movement….

[T.X. Lorelei]

(I was going to try out my post template.... but I'm too busy right now to bother with that. xD)

Hale wasn't the only one wandering the Marshlands. A blue haired girl was a few yards ahead of Hale turned when she heard the slosh and splash of the girl tumbling into the muck. The blue haired girl giggled- she couldn't hold it back. Not wanting to offend, though, she gestured at her own clothes, which were absolutely covered in the muddy muck. "I did the same thing you just did." She said with a grin, which cracked the mud that was on her face. "I'm Lorelei, by the way."

"SPOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIII!" The shrill cry that came from behind Lorelei could have easily been mistaken for a banshee's scream. A Spoink came barreling toward them, screeching to a stop beside Lorelei's leg. The Spoink was completely covered in brown, just like everyone else. Lorelei worked the wince off her face from when the Spoink had screamed. "Uh, this is Jewel. She screams and yells. A lot." Lorelei explained, looking down at Jewel as the Spoink prodded her trainer's leg and then gestured madly toward the trail behind them.

A WILD GULPIN APPEARED !

FEMALE. FIVE. LIQUID OOZE. POISON.
POUND

"...I guess she has a reason this time." Lorelei said, looking at what had caused Jewel's excitement. On the trail there was a Gulpin, slowly making its way toward them. Slowly. Then, suddenly, another figure appeared on the trail, moving a lot faster than the Gulpin. It was a Purrloin, careening madly toward Lorelei and Jewel. The two of them managed to jump out of the way just in time.

A WILD PURRLOIN APPEARED !

FEMALE. FIVE. LIMBER. DARK.
SCRATCH - GROWL

The Purrloin seemed shocked at the fact that she had been avoided. However, she quickly saw two new targets- Hale and Jethro, and so she continued speeding toward them, hissing and snarling. Lorelei watched the Purrloin with wide eyes. "Watch out!" She warned, even though she was pretty sure that Hale had already seen the crazy cat. During all of the action, they had forgotten about the Gulpin- which turned out to be a mistake.

The slimy Pokemon snuck up on Jewel and gave the Spoink's bouncy tail a good old pound. Jewel toppled over with a yell of "Spooiink!" Lorelei whipped around and glared at the Gulpin. "Oh no you didn't." She retorted, watching as Jewel got up, making sure that the Spoink was okay, which she was. Just slightly bruised. "This'll be a piece of cake with Gulpin's weakness to Psychic moves." "Spoink."

JEWEL THE SPOINK

PSYCHIC - OWN TEMPO - FEMALE
lvl 05

SPLASH - MOVE - MOVE - MOVE - PSYSHOCK - TM

"Psyshock!" Lorelei commanded, once Jewel had gotten to her feet. The Spoink happily agreed, and with a happy shout, she loosed a wave of psychic energy at the Gulpin. In the back of her mind, she worried about the other girl, but she tried not to let it distract her from the battle. Not that she was really nervous about the battle- after all, her Spoink had superior speed and a type advantage. That, on top of the fact that she was more trained in battle than most wild Pokemon, almost guaranteed their success. Almost.

[Hale Callahan]

The sound of a voice—a human voice of all things and not the anticipated snarl of something dark, hairy and befanged from the murky undergrowth startled Hale even more than it should have—given, she would have been less shocked to fine the latter as opposed to an actual person—girl, in these parts of the swamp, what with the midgeflies eating away at her neck and mosquitoes viewing anything warm here as moving bloodbags.

Blushing hard, the brunette tried to clean herself up as much as she could but the moment she saw what a wreck the new girl as in, a small smirk of understanding carved upon her lips as she carefully stepped over another root to approach this ‘Lorelei’ slowly like a wary cat would someone neither friend nor foe.

“Brilliant. The old bastard above makes things work in mysterious ways.”
She said breezily as the Scraggy in her arms looked this new trainer up and down with roving eyes for a few seconds before letting out a low whistle of approval which earned him a light smack upside the head.

“Down boy. This here is Jethro---my personal headpet if he weren’t covered in muck—“
Her introduction was cut short by the noisy porcine squealing of a very odd animal which suddenly came up to Lorelei bounding on its tail which seemed to make up for a lack of hind legs. The thing’s auditory assault drove Hale and her partner back a little as she attempted to clamp her hands over her ears—an act which accidentally released Jethro so he tumbled into the muck once more, and if they were to go by first impressions, this piglet certainly hadn’t a favorable portrayal in the Scraggy’s mind.

<Yo shorty! Back up a little man---what’s got your panties in a bunch?!>
He demanded in his own dialect with a scowl after releasing the hold over his eardrums as an odd, slow-moving something came into his line of sight and he had to visibly twitch at whatever it was which had been the reason for Jewel’s panic.

<You kiddin’ me right?>

It looked like an overinflated party balloon which had suddenly come to life and was moving with all the speed of a dying snail---This Jewel was far too easily-excited for his chill.

<Homie, stand back and watch a master at WooOOOOOAAAAA MOMMA!>

Stumbling backwards into the mud, he found himself face-to-face with something far more sinister which was rampaging his way; this one had claws and teeth and that was all he needed to know about how much damage it could do compared to snail-balloon-thing.

“JETHRO, WATCH OUT!”
Hale, realizing the trouble he was in to have been blindsided by this cat quickly grabbed him by the help of his pants and chucked him aside so the feline crashed into her instead, landing her with a good few scratches on her arm. Hissing in pain, she did what she could only out of instinct---lash out at the cat with a fist to attempt to chuck it back into the undergrowth as she withdrew a black belt and tossed it to the Scraggy who caught it in one hand and tied it to his forehead.

“Waste ‘em with Low Kick and let’s see if we can’t slag the fight out of it!”
she barked her command stridently as the Scraggy, having gained his composure grinned in compliance and launched himself at the aggressive feline. Jethro was as green as they came, but Hale knew weaknesses from way back in her childhood; For all rookie that he was when it came to fights, the lizard had type advantage and that was all that as needed for now.

<Awww hell naw! Ya be messing with my homeboy, bitch! Ain’t nobody messes with Lil’ J’s homeboys! Here’s some Bruce Lee Kung-Fu to bust up yo grill! WHAAA-CHAA!!!>
came the battlecry as he leapt over the Purrloin and lashed out at it with his foot in a Capoeira-style strike….

JETHRO THE SCRAGGY

DARK & FIGHTING - MOXIE - MALE - LVL 5

LEER - LOW KICK - SAND ATTACK - MOVE - TM - TM

HOLDING A BLACK BELT

[T.X. Lorelei]

A WILD GULPIN APPEARED !

FEMALE. FIVE. LIQUID OOZE. POISON.
POUND

A WILD PURRLOIN APPEARED !

FEMALE. FIVE. LIMBER. DARK.
SCRATCH - GROWL

(I'm really, really sorry if my posts are super crappy. For one, my roleplay / writing skills are not as good as yours. O_O I love you're writing. And Jethro makes me laugh. A lot. xD And second, I'm very preoccupied and busy, but I definitely don't want to abandon everybody just yet!)

Hale's fist easily connected with the wild Purrloin, right on the cat-like Pokemon's chest. With a shocked expression and a forced gasp, the Purrloin flew backwards, right past Jethro. She managed to land on her feet somehow, and she was more than ready to take on Jethro. She snarled as the Scraggy came toward her, trying to land a low kick. The Purrloin had other plans.

The dark Pokemon swiftly dodged the low kick, Jethro's foot whizzing past her head, missing by half an inch. The wild Purrloin snorted and gave a cocky yowl. <You'll have to do better than that, Yellow.> She meowed, practically oozing with self-confidence and condescension. She twitched her tail and nimbly leaped toward Jethro, claws outstretched as she tried to scratch Jethro, going straight for the throat.

Meanwhile, in the other battle, the wild Gulpin was having a surprising amount of success against Jewel. The poison-type could actually move somewhat quickly if she rolled instead of sliding. However, Jewel was quickly learning to not be so over-confident (unlike the Purrloin), and was being careful to stay in front of the Gulpin instead of to the side of the Gulpin.

"Keep going, Jewel." Lorelei encouraged- she really couldn't say too much. After all, the Spoink only had one move that was very useful. Splash wasn't so great. So once again, Jewel shot off a Psyshock attack.

[Hale Callahan]

OOC: NP man XDXD I just like writing. I'm very glad you like Jethro! He's a load of fun to RP ]]

While Jethro would and should have been pissed that his moved had been dodged by the cat at the very last moment, her idea of an insult instead earned her a derisive chortle from the Scraggy who was altogether not too impressed with her lack of colorful vocabulary.

<Yellow? Dat for real? Lady, you ain’t tryin’ at all, are ya? My grandmama could think up a better comeback fo’sho!>
He shot back at her as he rolled over the dirt neatly in his fall, coming to a halt near the roots of a tree where he swiftly got to his feet once more. Gotta love…and hate the flexible types, but at least this uppity little bitch of a female was a challenge, and man, did he love himself a challenge.

<Now get yo fine pussy ass over here so I can smack a ho! Gotta keep my pimp hand strong yo!>
He held out his right paw in a ‘come get some’ gesture, and realized that he was indeed going to get some when he saw the feline hurtling his way with claws outstretched again and this time, he could see in her eyes that she was going for blood.

Cursing foully, the lizard tipped himself backwards in an attempt to evade the cat’s attack, but she was too close to him and for the bare fraction of a second, time seemed to slow down and he could see everything from the clods of mud which rose in graceful arcs as he spattered backwards into it, to the slowly evolution of a snarl across the Purrloin’s face.

Something was calling out to him faintly in a low baritone. It was almost muffled and he couldn’t quite make it out, but instinct told him he had to. It was a voice he needed to recognize in battle from here on if he wanted to survive. His brow scrunched up in thought and he tried his damnest to listen to the sound.

“Sand……”

Sand?

As suddenly as it happened, things were back at their normal speeds again like a video recording as the Purrloin was now inches away from him.

“SAND ATTACK! BLIND THE BEAST AND THROW OFF HER AIM!”
The order came more clearly now as the lizard’s mind quickly got to work processing it—It wasn’t an offensive, but he understood the need for it.
With a blast of hot air, he took in all the mud underneath his paws—two fistfuls of them and swiftly turned up his body’s internal heat---something he had learned to do as a very young pantslizard living in the deserts to dry them into dirt, dust, sand.

<Have a load of THIS, ya crazy bitch!>
With a heave, he flung the debris into the direction of the Purrloin, clouding her eyes and throwing off her aim so she managed to rip into his face instead of his neck by a hair’s breath.

“Now roll up behind tha’ slapper and Low Kick again! Aim for th’ back of ‘er head!”
Hale, dismissive of the weeping scar on her wrist followed up her defensive strategy with another offensive---the cat had put a lot of power into that dash and leap, and with it came inertia which would make her an open target for several precious seconds when she landed so her back was unguarded, and this was what Jethro needed to maximize on.

<Steeeerikkeeeeee two for the home run!>
hollered the lizard, one of his hands clamped to the side of his face where the Purrloin had left three deep grooves which were leaking blood as he landed in the mud right behind the Purrloin and wound up his right leg again like a clockwork soldier—he had the advantage of having acquired no inertia from his attempt and could swing around quickly to deal the second blow on the cat’s exposed back as she landed….