Having Some Fun [open]

A tentative, almost fearfully cautious creature slowly made her way through the darkened woods, climbing among the tangled roots and ragged leaves littering the forest floor. Her paws left a light, ghostly crunching in their wake, and the rustle of each branch she touched made a sound like the crack of a whip.

Kageri timidly glanced up at the foreboding shadow of the canopy, then shrank down, lowering her head fearfully. The large jaws protruding from the top of her black-capped head dropped and nearly pressed against her back, leaving her with the diminished and frightened look of a hunted animal trying to withdraw into an invisible shell. It was like an enormous prison of earth and darkness, sealing her in with the pungent fumes of the decaying leaves and only brief snatches of uncontaminated air.

A few feet away stood an enormous tree of darkened wood, covered in moss. Several small, faltering steps brought her to the base of the wide trunk where her dark claws shakily reached out to touch the slippery bark. She stood shivering on the gnarled roots, backing unsteadily into its firm trunk. There she paused for a minute, resting against the slick wood. Her wide, tearful blue eyes darted apprehensive glances at the murky darkness of the roots and shrubbery of the surrounding trees, and what had been an attempt to calm herself only succeeded in making her more edgy.

The possibilities were endless. Her imagination could run wild and overflow reality itself, filling the shadowy wood of trees with clawing creatures and dark, vicious beasts with large fangs and salivating mouths. The deep, swirling mist was everywhere, furling amid the trunks of the trees, the cool air licking her golden-charcoal body, making it nearly impossible to see what was ahead.

‘Sweet Arceus, how long is this going to take? I should have at least reached the center by now...’ The exasperated thought trailed off into nothing, and the only indication of Kageri’s inner dialogue was the fact her head lowered another fraction of an inch.

Kageri was actually completely unaffected by the unpleasant atmosphere of the forest- this was nothing more than a comfortable stroll in a mostly silent forest nearly uninhabited. She had a surprising resilience of her mental facilities that demanded her be realistic, giving her imagination little room to take over her almost sinful practicality. However, to any person looking on at her progress through the dark undergrowth, she likely looked like a helpless, victimized animal suffering through their most terrifying nightmare come to life. She had long since mastered her disguise to the point that she could address nearly any stimulus with the proper reaction without any improper hesitation. To a leering opponent, a frightened shiver; to a friendly stranger, a childish shyness; to a suspicious bystander, an innocent paw lifted to her lips; to an accusation, a fountain of silent tears. She had been in the habit of practicing since her childhood and had nearly perfected it as an art. It was of such second nature that she was naturally inclined to it, even in times of absentmindedness.

‘With this mist as thick as it is, a pack of Houndoom could be after me and I wouldn’t know until they were within three feet of eating me.’ She thought unhappily. Her timid eyes gazed out into the darkened trees, and in the back of her mind, she began to wonder uneasily if perhaps she was as alone as she initially thought.

(OOC: My, that was longer than I expected. o.o Don't expect another post this long again, I just got a little too into my writing this time.)

Kageri's widened eyes flitted uneasily to the trees before her and the shadows beneath them. With the dark mist seeping around them, the large tree trunks seemed to expand, their close-knit canopies looming over her without a single glimmer of light. Things seemed to move that were unmoving, and her ears caught sounds that had never touched air. At first, she almost imagined a large dragonic eye had appeared near a large oak tree several feet in front of her, but when she had blinked, there had been nothing, just as it had been the entire time. Inwardly, Kageri realized her mistake and her mind scolded her to be reasonable.

She swallowed faintly, then took a shaky breath to steady herself. 'I'm clearly beginning to hallucinate. If anyone was there, it would be impossible for them to move without touching something that would make a sound.' Kageri reasoned swiftly. A moment later and she stiffened abruptly, her paws clenching the soap-like bark beneath them with a death grip.

Swish...

She had heard it. A swift and low whistling noise, it had passed mere centimeters from her head, accompanied by an almost imperceptible scraping noise. She whipped around, stumbling slightly over the roots she stood on in her frenzied rush to identify the sound.

There was nothing.

No further sound, no movement. Kageri remained rooted to the spot, her ears pricked for further noise, but none came. The forest was silent in the absence of wind, and the loudest noise she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. Their shadows enveloped the ground with a darkness that threatened to swallow her, and her eyes took in her darkened surroundings despite the inefficiency of her quick, terrified glances. She had long since learned the trick to assembling what she wanted to see in her mind's eye whilst her eyes flitted over the scene, never looking at what she really wanted to see more than once. It had always been an efficient way to prevent raising any suspicion.

What Kageri did notice, without acknowledging it openly, was a thin scratch in the wood, mere inches from the curve of the tree near the place her head had rested. As she dashed around to the other side of the tree, her mind worked furiously to recall if it had been there previously. As her face became a slightly paler yellow in dread when she found nothing, she grimaced inwardly in annoyance. She had never actually seen the tree, because she had initially backed up against it.

Kageri highly doubted that she had imagined the noise. It had been low, but distinct, and even with the possibility of the scratch having been there previously, there was also the chance that some projectile had just missed her head. The two being in such proximity merited her heightened awareness, and what had previously been an apathetic stare behind a frightened facade became a perceptive gaze of suspicion settled on her surroundings. There probably wasn't someone...and no one would be able to move that quietly, but...

She shuffled slowly back, away from the tree, nervously darting a glance over her shoulder. 'Hmm. It's probably best if I keep moving, in any case.' Kageri stepped forward shakily, then proceed to walk a hint more quietly through the underbrush, staying close to the shadows of the trees despite her acting demanding she stay in the open.

Kageri whipped back once more as a rustle of leaves came from behind her. This time her shivering seemed a bit too realistic, even for her, and she swallowed faintly. Her gaze were set determinedly within as her eyes glistened in visible fear. 'That was most definitely not imagined.' She thought grimly. Someone was here. She slowly turned to continue on her way, gazing out at the trunks in front of her and the patches of mist. At first, she blinked faintly, then after running what she was seeing through her mind twice more, she decided that her eyes were correct.

Two ghastly red orbs, like glowing eyes of some demonic gaping maw, were floating only a few feet to her left, locked on her in a fixed stare. At first, Kageri didn't react except to widen her eyes another fraction.

Her next reaction came out in a sharp, frightened squeak of terror, and she dove backward, eyes still on the glowing orbs. With two steps, she tripped ungracefully over a large stick behind her. She landed with her jaws taking most of the impact, unbalancing her into rolling sideways. When she scrabbled back to her feet from the loamy, decaying forest floor, the orbs were gone and the darkness of the mist was all that remained.

Kageri stood, shaking and a bit sore from the impact, her eyes glazed over slightly. Whatever it was, it could hide efficiently, it could move silently, and it could appear on opposite sides of her within a matter of seconds. 'Maybe it isn't just one...' Her stomach dropped.

A minute later and her heart chilled slightly when she heard ethereal breathing, a shuddering rattle not far from where she had been looking. It took less than a second for her practical mind to determine that whether it be imagination or predator, the reaction to the possibility of the second outweighed the probability of the first. She tore off into the woods, sprinting at top speed through the branches and mist, fully intending not to stop until she was sure she had lost whatever it might have been. In other words, once she ran out of breath.

Pant, pant, pant...

Several minutes had passed, and Kageri was still sprinting through the woods. It had been a miracle she had made it this far without tripping over the tangled undergrowth more than once. In the minute following her initial sprinting, her foot had caught a snarl of branches, bringing her to the ground, stirring the furled leaves and sticks around her into a flurry with a loud crunch. She was not terribly hurt, and she was up on her feet again in a matter of seconds, but her pride only barely survived the tumble. It added to the effect of her façade, a mask that was rapidly becoming just a trite too realistic, but Kageri considered anything that she did not do on purpose as tarnish on her acting reputation. In the meantime, she filed away the idea “realistic tumble” to her list of reactions for future use.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes, the exhausted Mawile stopped, panting heavily. She slipped off of the path a bit, darting a tired glance down the path behind her. She glanced behind her and around her surroundings, and seeing nothing, sank weakly to her knees, taking deep, gasping breaths of the thick-scented air. She had never been very good at running. Her preferred course of action had always been to stand and fight, but then again, that had never had fit with the image she made for herself. The fact that she had actually run this far only told her inwardly how she had actually been scared of what might have been behind her, and it disturbed her quite a bit.

The dark jaws of her head seemed to almost pant with the rest of her delicate body, hanging open in fatigue. She wasn’t going anywhere for a while at least. In fact, she was so tired that even her image was slipping. She vaguely thought to herself that she should be crying in fear right now or crying in relief to be away from the patch of woods, but right now she was so relieved she could barely think.

A gold whish entered the corner of her vision with sounds of rustling and the snapping of branches.
Thunk.

Kageri flinched visibly, widening her eyes as her head jerked upward to see the source of the color. She immediately darted her glance back down at what appeared to be a small treasure chest lying askew on the ground nearly two feet away, then back to the branches spread across the canopy. A couple of leaves drifted down in the wake of the box, and she could see the branches that had cracked under its small weight. Other than that, she saw no one, saw nothing that might have caused the box to fall. It seemed, to all appearances, that it had fallen from nowhere to land beside her, with no rhyme or reason about it.

Kageri watched the box with a wary trepidation, almost as if she expected it to sprout talons and lunge at her. After a few minutes, it became quite apparent that if the box were to do anything, it clearly was not about to do that, and she edged a little closer to it. She stared at it for a few moments, then immediately turned and began to scuttle away in the other direction. No way. Treasure chests didn’t just happen to fall out of the sky for no reason, and certainly not in the murky mists of the darkest parts of a forest, surrounded by gnarled roots and underbrush.

After making it about twenty feet away, she turned back, looking at the small wooden box, which had not moved.

”…” Kageri paused. It didn’t seem to be going anywhere. It was so small, too… Certainly it couldn’t be too dangerous. Her natural curiosity began to get the better of her slightly frayed nerves.

Kageri slowly began to walk back to the small box. She stared down at it for another couple minutes, glanced around the clearing suspiciously, then she carefully stepped closer to it. It still didn’t move. Her hands trembled slightly as she reached forward and picked it up. The wood was smooth and nice to touch, and the clasps were neat. She admired the rich gold color of the wood. It was a very pretty little box. What could possibly be inside it, anyway? She turned it over and looked at each side, and even shook it a bit. She could hear a soft shuffling in it, but nothing that sounded threatening.

She tenderly touched the opening clasp, her paw lingering on the metal. A moment later and she slowly flipped the lid open.

A loud explosion sounded with a large plume of smoke, and the box fell with a shiver from the paws of the startled Mawile. As it was falling and even before the explosion silenced, a barrage of polychromatic snakes erupted from the box, showering her in an unexpected ambush.

The girl emitted half of a high pitched, blood-curdling shriek before proceeding to fall to the ground in a dead faint.

Kageri woke, her eyes flickering open abruptly to the sight of familiar scraggly tree branches arching across the canopy above her head. The gradual groggy fluttering to wakefulness was not for the cautious Mawile, as her personality simply did not permit it. Despite being completely awake, she was still feeling a bit dazed and not all her mental facilities were running perfectly.

...why am I on the ground? Kageri thought dryly.

It was a simple question. And it was stated so plainly that it was almost as if she actually expected a coherent reply. Perhaps it was this that stopped her from seeming to think it strange when a voice responded.

Since you passed out from being attacked by a barrage of rainbow-colored snakies? was the cheerful response.

…

Suddenly Kageri found it particularly uninteresting to continue a conversation with the voice and went with her first instinct. She proceeded to ignore it despite the following whine.

Oh, now that’s not very nice! You can’t deny it; I’m just saying the truuuuth~!

Kageri’s lips twitched. The voice did not seem troubled by the fact Kageri wasn’t interested in listening; that was the problem, it was just as aware as her that she just couldn’t do anything about it. Kageri thought how much easier it would be to deal with the voice if it weren’t being so damn cheerful, all the while pointing out her greatest failure. If it weren’t for that and the fact that it really was being brutally honest, she would probably launch a good number of carefully worded insults in return. As things were, it was simply grating on her nerves. Almost in reaction to the passing thought, the voice seemed to become still more cheerful and began drawling out its sentences teasingly.

I mean really~! You were startled by a couple of colored snake plaaaay-toys because you were *actually* scared. And not just that! You actually passed out, you were so absolutely terrified…can you *imagine* what would have happened if there were really someone there?!!! That would’ve been the stupidest thing you’ve eeeeeever done, and….

As the voice rambled on, Kageri was still as she remembered the multicolored plethora of spring action snakes erupt out at her. She narrowed her eyes at the tree branches above her, glaring as if it were their own fault for her change in position. She felt like she was in the same area as before, but then again, aside from the strange feeling, who could know? The whole forest was sinister, dark, and gloomy; covered in leaves and shrouded in mist.

Besides…the snakes hadn’t scared her- it had been the explosion. Such a loud noise and all…

And if you believe that, I have a lovely bridge I’d love to sell you… The voice chipped in.

Kageri was careful not to express a reaction to that statement. She very distinctly gave her head a small, sharp shake to help her ignore the voice’s protest, and she instead turned her focus to her surroundings. Almost immediately, she became attuned to the sound of lively, boisterous laughter nearby. Instead of her initial reaction of cataloguing any unknown sound and its creator as an enemy to escape from, she sat up abruptly with a scathing glare.

No, she had no idea who was laughing, and she didn’t even know why. It really didn’t matter, either. He was laughing at her. Her self-conscious, self-oriented manner of thinking demanded it. And the person was a he, too. No female would laugh so heartily and fully. Kageri cast a glance to the side after finally sitting up, only to pale slightly. She was on her paws in an instant. A huge, eerie…worm-like creature was writhing a couple feet to her side, hooting, snickering and erupting in all sorts of laughter. Kageri seemed to almost instantly return to her shy, frightened self in the presence of another known person, her head immediately dipping slightly into a more submissive position. Even now, he didn’t seem to notice her, and he continued rolling about in amusement.

The Mawile’s instincts told her to leave now while she still had the chance, but her aching sides from her previous running implored her to stay. The added fact that she had never seen such a creature kept her still, debating whether to try to catch his attention.

That was what did you in last time wasn’t it~? Such morbid curiosity… The voice chirped happily.

That settled it.

“H-Hello?” A shaking, small voice barely rose above his laughter. “…um…may I ask…"

"Who are you?”

(ooc: Sorry for the lateness)

Kageri jerked slightly as she realized that the creature had heard her, then immediately emitted a cry of fright. She stepped back rigidly as she returned his stare with a look of absolute horror and panic. His stare was so intense that she barely heard the beating of her heart. It was fluttering so fast and beating so loud that in the back of her mind that voice (not bothering to mind its own business, as always) noted how interesting it was that it hadn't stopped yet from overexerting itself.

He rose like a cobra from a snake charmer's basket, looming over her- despite the darkness that enveloped her from the canopy, she found herself swallowed in his shadow. She felt infinitely tiny in comparison to his immense shape, and as he stretched out the threads on his back out like thin wicked shadows seeping out from the underworld. She found her heart clutched in a terror inexpressible in words as her gaze slowly moved up from his plated underbelly up to his incensed eyes.

That wasn’t very smart. You should run. The voice in the back of her head squeaked pointedly.

Just whose side are you on?! Kageri shot back, shaking slightly where she stood. Yes, she should run. But it was as if her mind no longer connected with her legs, and she remained rooted to the spot in pure, uninhibited fear.

The Mawile shuddered, the jaws on the back of her head shivering slightly as they tightly clenched shut. The last thing on Kageri’s mind was to act frightened; she might not look quite so scared as she had previously made herself out to be, now standing still and trembling from head to foot, but now she was truly terrified. As his mouth opened with a sound like the gates of Hell itself, Kageri froze completely, eyes riveted on the razors that for all her attempted inward jittery explanations always brought her to the conclusion that they were indeed…teeth.

As a hissing snarl escaped his awful maw of the mouth in which Kageri was destined to go, a single thought fleetingly passed through her mind. I hope you break all your teeth on the first bite, you demonic beast of…

“Hi.”

The Mawile squeaked in panic, recoiling abruptly. Then she froze. Her normal reactions of fright weren’t much different from the real thing; she had to go with what was realistic to exaggerate it, didn’t she?

"Nice to meet you. I'm Giratina, the god of death."

The black and yellow creature stared at him in pure shock. His chuckle had completely disoriented her, and she hadn’t yet recognized the fact that he wasn’t some carnivorous unintelligible monster and that he had just spoken perfectly intelligently to her.

The so-called god extended a tendril towards her, and despite the initial reaction of retreating from an oncoming threat, she managed to blink once and remain where she was standing. Seeing as he could have easily just scooped her up into his mouth (What with you freezing and all… the voice remarked innocently), Kageri recovered inwardly, realizing that grabbing his tendril was not likely just another way to put her in his mouth, and was probably a polite way of address to follow his last statement.

After studying his tendril and the claw attached to it for a moment, Kageri extended a black-gloved paw and politely shook the curved claw beneath her fingers in a firm hand-shake. “Nice to meet you…Giratina.”

The cautious female studied him for a moment. He seemed just a little less impending now that he didn’t seem to want to eat her, but it did not change the difference in size and his evident power. Now she realized his exact words. The god of death? Well, she wasn’t really sure exactly what a god would look like, but for some reason she found it just a little unlikely. Wouldn’t a god be locked up in his own little area or bubble in the air or something? Why would he just be wandering around here? …well, it is pretty dark here. Kageri considered the idea. Maybe he just likes it or something… She remained silently pondering the idea, because she wasn’t exactly interested in offending anyone exponentially bigger and more powerful than she who could likely crush her, steel skin or not, with one and a half bites.

“My name is Kagerinoarukao. Frankly, I hate the name, it’s too long for any decent person to remember, and I’m surprised I know it myself.” She surprised herself by smiling warmly with a small quirk of her head. Why wasn’t she pretending to cower? Because there’s no use, you already know he can scare you into submission and eat you? The voice interjected. Well, it was true. There was no need to pretend, seeing as he had already utterly terrified her, and he was choosing not to eat her just now, so why not…?

“Please call me Kageri.” The Mawile paused for a moment. “…were you laughing…by chance, at my…um…opening that box?”

Kageri was still wondering how that came to be there, and she was also wondering just how much of the last couple minutes the strange worm-shaped Pokémon had seen…she took small comfort in the fact that at least he hadn’t seen her from the get-go, or she would be absolutely humiliated…

"How a mother expects anyone to remember Kageriaku…er, Kageriokan…ag. See? I only just heard it and I can’t even say it."

Kageri stifled a small laugh at that, thinking of the stout woman she had left. She had been well known for her...creative...taste in names. She was fairly certain that her mother had told her its meaning when she was younger, but the lack of need to know it had caused her to completely forget any significance it might have had.

"As a matter of fact, I was. And I’m very glad I waited until that moment to use it. You have no idea how tempting it was to simply spring out and scare you sooner, but…well, you know as well as I what happened."

His smirk made it evident that he had taken quite a delight in observing her reaction. Kageri, on the other hand, had been otherwise unaware that the box had actually come from this "god of death", and had been thinking instead that he might have simply been a lucky bystander who happened to see her moment of complete humiliation. On hearing his claim to the scheme, Kageri looked at him steadily for a few moments.

Oh, how she wished she could just crawl into a hole and shrivel up in shame and embarrassment. Disappearing now wouldn't even begin to cut it. Even if it were possible, purging his memories of the event wouldn't even do- she would have to erase her own well before she got over this.

"...You're glad you waited to use it." The Mawile glanced to the side, away from him as she sorted through the prior events, vocalizing her thoughts as she did so in a quiet but even tone that betrayed her total mortification only in the fact that she was trying so hard to keep it steady. "So...you were following me."

The steel-type looked up at him, perhaps a little narrowly, pausing slightly for his reaction, the darkened horn-mutation on her head clamped tightly shut, slowly sinking down against the back of her head. "Not only that, but you were also the one who placed this strange box in my path- assuming that I would open it."

Kageri inwardly wilted, any pride that might have remained had now withered and was long gone.

"And you did this and spent all this time...just to see my reaction, resulting in complete and utter humiliation and terror on my part. Do I have this right?" She queried, swallowing dryly, staring at him in something that might be mistaken as a mix of skepticism and confusion, that was really a plea along the lines of Arceus, I will give you my soul, just please say it isn't true, anything but that, please say it isn't true...'

The Mawile blinked slightly, trying to ignore the feelings. “Are you really a god of death? Don’t you have better things to do?”