Playdate || Tag: Dingoberry. :3

[Faolan]

[ OOC: AHAHAH I'M BRINGING YOU OUT OF HIATUS WHETHER YOU WANT ME TO OR NOT. >:D ]

There was something almost enchanting in the manner in which a perfectly harmless playground could be made to look dark and sinister come nightfall. The toys and other such equipment that peppered the area here and there looked like monstrosities come straight out of a horror film about mutant carnivals and clowns from outer space-- or something along those lines. That didn't keep him from perching up on one Phanpy shaped teeter totter, legs braced on the ground to keep himself from tumbling back while he watched Arioche spin her webbing in a nearby tree. Occasionally he would push himself up and cause the other end to dip down a bit low to the ground, but without anyone on the other end it was near impossible to get himself up off the floor.

"Are you finished yet?" His tone was both snarky and curious, the bored look in his eyes reflecting just how he felt at that moment. They had ventured out here so Arioche could get herself a bite to eat; an idea that probably wasn't about to happen soon, considering how empty and quiet the park was. In response to his question she looked at him for a long while as though she were going to say something... then promptly ignored him and went back to spinning her web. Feng shrugged and went back to rocking up and down on the little ride with arms propped up on the handlebars before him.

Though this place was patrolled rather heavily by policemen during the day, it seemed that the numbers had lessened drastically in the park, at least, when the skies grew darker. Perhaps the fear instilled in the people by Pravus was enough to keep them from venturing beyond the safety of their locked homes, even though there was ample security to keep them feeling secure and reassured nothing terrible would befall them. He could understand why there was not much need for patrollment around the area, then, and was almost disappointed there was no one about for him to play with. Even if a cop had happened upon him, though, there wasn't much pointing him to Pravus and the organization.

It had become a frequent habit of his to shirk his Pravus attire in leisurely outings, forsaking the navy blue hat, jacket and trousers for a pair of form-fitting black jeans, a baggy white shirt and a light blazer to stave off the occasional breeze. The sneakers he wore were still scuffed and rather worn, since he'd had them through the years, and on his fingers and in his ears were silver studs and rings to mark his youth. He'd looked far too young to belong to Pravus and, even now, he still looked much like the boy he had been all those months ago. Boredom had completely overtaken his features and even the malicious cruelty in his eyes had been repressed-- at least until a passerby happened upon him and the prospect of "play" opened up again.

[dingo]

( NNN. LIKE YOU HAVE ROOM TO TALK. )

Night time was about the only time he was able to get out without running much into the likes of different pokemon. Of course, there were still the instances of him running into nocturnal creatures, some that weren't even pokemon at all, but would still give him enough of a fright to squeal like a little girl.

At the moment, he was trying his hardest not to squeal like a little girl. And trying his hardest not to run home.

Ignorantly, he believed that taking a stroll at night would calm his nerves and enable him to half-way face his fears while being relatively safe. Sure. Of course. Don't mind the bat swooping by overhead, or the rustling in the bushes, or the flap in the trees, or the tickticktick of exoskeleton feet on the cement. Groaning under his breath, a shudder rolled up his spine and made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. The hairs on his arms had already been close to leaping out of his skin they were up so straight.

Hopefully the park would offer some kind of haven, free of animals, for him to piddle about in. If it was flooded with noisy, ADHD-ridden children in the day time hours, it couldn't be so bad at night... right?

He stopped in place and fretted over whether or not he wanted to take a chance in the park. It was just up ahead. He felt sort of like he had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. One whispered to just go ahead in his ear, everything would be a-okay... the other whispered and pleaded desperately for him to just turn around and go back home until the morning. Swallowing, he opted to try the devil on for size. After he started walking, though, he realized that maybe that was kind of a stupid idea and he would surely be dead before the sun's rays touched the loop-de-loop slide in the morning.

Easing up on the entrance to the park, he squinted his eyes to look over the play-place lodged in the soft sand outlined by a wooden square. A ladder that lead up to the rails you could shimmy across, a wiggly bridge, two slides, a pole you could slide down (or try to climb up), and different levels of landings. Not so bad? Not a pokemon in sight. Then there was a swing-set to the right just beside the play-place. Yessssss. Grinning to himself, he took one step forward in that direction.

But then he froze.

Just past little shimmery lines of moonlight in the air was someone seated on one of the see-saws somewhat hidden by the play-place's edge. Crap. He was pretty much half-way inside the little gate, but he could always turn back, right? All he saw was the person's backside, so he prayed that whoever it was hadn't see-- g-g-g-geez!

If he was frozen in place before, he sure as hell was now. As if floating through mid-air, a green little spider was crawling across a web. A green little spider with a huge smiling face right on her back end, one whose eyes pierced him with the most horror he had ever experienced in his entire life. Well, okay, kinda. A trainer and a spider. A spider pokemon. A pokemon. Holy crap. Not what he had expected to run into in the park, not at all.

With his breathing rapidly shooting out of the roof, he made such a sharp u-turn in place that he probably got whiplash. No. No. No. No. No. Screw the devil on his shoulder, he was going back home right now.

[Faolan]

[ Short post is short. :U ]

Arioche's play high above the tree tops abruptly slowed, then halted altogether. Her master, meanwhile, kept up his gentle rocking up and down on the edge of the teeter totter with boredom showing plainly on his features. The night was starting to take its toll on him; it was just so boring. Pravus took caution when running the streets this late at night, but come on. This really had been a wasted trip if no one was going to come around and about for him to have fun with..

The private let out a soft sigh the likes of which he hadn't before and made to get off of the toy. But Arioche's silence just now struck him as odd, especially considering that she knew what the stillness of night tended to do to him. As of late she had taken it upon herself to spin a web just above his head before he slept and click him to sleep with her little mouthparts in a soothing, hypnotic lullaby that he couldn't do without. With his mind already starting to break free of the mental cogs that turned it, he twisted to look at his beloved spider--

And promptly felt an expression of congeniality spread across his face, a sense of relief instilling itself deep within his gut. He looked beyond the oddly colored pink hair even if that was some sort of ridiculous fad going around these days, honestly, the kids of this generation to assess the rest of the man that was... well, that was turning away from him. But the quick look that Faolan had gotten was more than enough to merit the stranger as a worthy playmate, and, standing, he quickly made to reach out for and call to the other's retreating back.

"Hey! Don't go!"

It probably wasn't enough to keep the man staying here, but it was worth a shot. Arioche watched the goings-on below her with a small bit of curiosity, then resumed spinning her web with a lot more finesse than before. It was almost as though, with the addition of a stranger who she had yet to meet, she wanted to put on a good impression and show the newcomer just how lovely her webs could be. It was probably a wasted effort, though; Feng had proven time and time again that he didn't like sharing. Playmates were not excluded from the list, even if he did request the spider's assistance from time to time.

"It's dangerous by yourself, you know; are you lost?"

[dingo]

There wasn't really enough oh-shits that could have been said to accurately describe the anxiety that rushed through him when the person on the playground told him not to go.

Not to go?

There was a huge (to him), ghastly spider-like pokemon back there spinning its little web. A web that was totally there to catch him in unexpectedly.

Dangerous? Yes. It was very, very, very, very dangerous and that's why he was about to get cement burn on both soles of his feet just to get out of there. Holy crap, did he mention there was a spider pokemon back there?

For now, he indeed had stopped his advancement through the exit, but his back was both to the boy and to the pokemon still spinning away. He couldn't even bear the thought of looking, not even a peek. "I'm..." he started, head turned just enough over his shoulder so the boy could hear him, yet he could keep his dignity by not blubbering at the web-building pokemon. "I'm... not lost..."

True, he wasn't lost. He knew exactly where he was and why he was here and he knew exactly the way home. In his head: go up the street two blocks, take a right, continue for one more block, then make another left and continue for two blocks. Home. Oh, that word rang so many good feelings within him. He longed for it, for home, for that safe haven... and not with creepy boys in playgrounds at this hour, or scary and huge spidermons.

"I... didn't think anyone was out here. I was... ah, taking a stroll--yeah, yeah. Taking a stroll is all," here, he paused long enough to take a breath, "butI'llbeonmywayrightnowsorrytobotheryou."

He made the mistake of looking back. The first thing, of course, he saw was the pokemon with her eerily smiling lower region. She had sure really spun a lot of web since when he first laid eyes on it... Damn, it was going to capture and eat him, wasn't it? He glanced down at the boy, who he couldn't see too well from the shadows of the play-place. Was that the boy's pokemon?

A shudder ran through him and he looked again at the exit he was stuck half-way in and half-way out of. All it'd really take is for him to dash right off and down the street. The creep behind him wouldn't follow, right? Not if he was running like a locomotive on the loose.

[Faolan]

"You're not bothering me." Faolan's voice was kind and as polite as ever could be, a tone that was sure to cause anyone who knew him surprise and a bit of suspicious alarm. Even the smile that had curved his features was genial and one of good humor. A hand went back to rub at the scruff of Feng's neck and he turned to look almost shyly at first the area around him, and then the boy who was currently trying to flee. "Really--- er, I'm actually sort of alone at the moment-- could you maybe stay, please?" And he gave the boy the most wide-eyed expression he could muster, turning his head down a little so that it appeared his eyes took up half of his face.

From her perch, Arioche let out a derisive snort and finally ceased spinning her web. A fine pattern of silken threads were stretched between trunk and branch for any to become ensnared within, though at this time of night the park was near-empty and that probably wouldn't occur too quickly. With nothing left to do except wait, she turned carefully to watch her master at work with this newfound human. The little expression on her bottom morphed into beady black eyes with a squiggle for the mouth.

Faolan could sense the boy's nervousness and, as a way to ease away his fears, gestured to Arioch to make herself scarce and out of sight. A clicking of her pincers was all that the spider pokemon did before she scuttled up the side of the tree and out of sight of prying eyes. There was a rustle of leaves as she made herself comfortable, and then all was silent. Feng took this as a good time to continue and began making his way toward his newfound playmate.

"You're not from around here, are you..? What's your name? I'm-- " He paused, thinking a moment, face scrunching up in concentration. Eventually his features smoothed and relaxed again, and he turned those same seemingly doe-eyes up to the other boy. "Faolan. And you are...?"

[dingo]

Okay, so, at first, he was pretty much convinced. If it wasn't for the spider-ish pokemon, he would've been turning around and conversing like nothing was wrong. "Well, maybe..." Slowly, he turned around enough to see the two of them. And he shuddered again.

Thankfully, the pokemon was sent elsewhere... though that didn't ease his mind too much when he had already seen the thing. He knew it was there... in the trees... hiding... just waiting to leap out of the leaves and pounce right on top of his magenta-colored head. He'd flip out. A big no ma'am to spiders, not to mention a big no ma'am to any kind of pokemon. After that incident a long, long time ago with Miss Combee... yeah.

Faolan? Geez, what kind of name was that? So said the boy who's nicknamed turned out to be... Dingo. Right. Worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, he took a few minutes to even respond. "I'm Dingo," he finally said, throwing his gaze back up to the tree that had since stopped moving altogether.

Great.

It was still up there, though... still watching. If he squinted hard enough in the dark, he could have sworn he saw two beady eyes looking out of the leaves at him. His face twisted into something secretly terrified.

"I'm... well, not sort of..." he started, managing to let his eyes sweep back down to the boy who he was attempting to have a conversation with. "N-no, I mean, I am! Just... somewhere close." He really wasn't planning to tell this creeper where exactly he lived, right? What if he woke up during the night and that spiderific pokemon was grinning down at him from the ceiling?

NO.

"I was... just taking a little walk... Trying to get some air and... You--" his brows furrowed, "--guys are out... awfully late." Though he couldn't really talk, seeing as how he was out awfully late, too...

Yeah, by now, his creeper alarm was starting to go off. He took just one small step back. "What were you doing out here in the park...?" he asked with hesitation in his voice. The guy didn't seem so bad. He was rather polite... and nice... and stuff. But something about him. He just couldn't place his finger on it.

[Faolan]

Dingo? What, like the dog? Faolan almost broke his pleasant facade with the mocking sneer threatening to spill out over his face-- what the hell, he actually did. The light in his eyes, then, did turn malicious at best and he continued his steady approach of the boy who looked about ready to crap his pants at any given moment. With each step forward the look on his face seemed to grow steadily more and more calm and polite and good-natured, which probably didn't do much for how Dingo thought of him by this point except to convince the boy he was a bi-polar lunatic.

That was partially true.

Long, slim fingers adorned in onyx and silver metal bands extended outward to his newfound "friend" [even if Dingo wouldn't admit it, they were friends now, Feng had decided that right this instant] in a gesture of comraderie; Faolan had ceased movement some ten feet away and stood placidly waiting and watching the boy for any new developments. This was an interesting twist to an otherwise boring evening and it wouldn't do for it to end prematurely.

From behind he could hear Arioche rustling in the foliage and then the tiny tapping sound as her feet fell quietly upon the rough bark of the tree during her descent. She was moving as well, having recognized the situation as one that might have her master needing her help, especially if they were out to catch another fleeing prey.

"Everything's so boring during the day," Came his low drawl even while a goofy looking sort of grin spread over his face. "Nothing to do... it's a lot more interesting at night... when it's just us... and there's no one else around for miles.." Although this probably wasn't true, there were loads of places still open in the Family District-- albeit a few of those were casinos and probably wouldn't spare the park a second glance. Most other establishments had closed up for the evening.

"You're out late, too... maybe we're not so different after all?" A step forward. "You want to have fun..? I can show you a good time."