audio, backdated to during the Dragafloat Festival

[telewarped]

[Following a successful but taxing bounty quest, Shoka has been stuck in the Pokéclinic since the 15th—and judging by the way the clinic Pokémon look at her and the way her stupid, freak body keeps telling her it's somehow still on fire, even when it totally isn't, she's going to be stuck there for some time. She can still walk, kind of, and it doesn't hurt all the time, so if anyone were to ask her, she'd tell them that this amount of caution is entirely unnecessary... But no one did ask her.

The Grumpearl message comes in darkness; no visuals or even true audio—just pure thought:]

This bites. I wanna go to the festival!

Maybe I can sneak out...?

[This is almost definitely the Grumpearl version of a butt-dial. In Shoka's case, it's more of a head-dial, considering that her pearl is still stowed away inside the hollow of her disguise's false Pikachu head.]

Comments

[telewarped]

[This isn't Shoka's first time seeing Siffrin like this. When they first showed up at the clinic, she'd greeted them with a hearty, Well, look what the Dondozo dragged in! before her own wounds started to act up, too, forcing her to keep the playing around to a minimum. Once she could manage it, she'd Shadow Snuck over to their cot at least once before as well, just to check up on them. A buddy helps recovery, after all.

Now, she still has a small patch of off-color fabric sewn over the part of her disguise rag that burned away, and her ghostly true form still flickers and jitters briefly like a computer glitch when she moves to sit up, but she doesn't yelp or hiss. If this wasn't her first time seeing Siffrin like this, and she wasn't guilty of having the exact same idea as them, she might have been more concerned... Instead, she replies in a hushed, conspiratorial tone.]

Hell yes, we could...! [She considers her own options for a moment before musing aloud,] Come to think of it, I've never tried shadow warping with a passenger...

[loopsiedaisy]

[Likewise, Siffrin would be much more concerned if they hadn't already seen Shoka like this - they would have visited for the handful of days before they also got sentenced to Clinic Jail, and now the two of them are cellma... fellow patients. What she's experiencing still doesn't look great, but she has improved.]

[And surely fresh air will be good for the two of them?? Definitely. Really this is the clinic's fault, for not carrying them outside and bribing them with delicious snacks!]

Oh. That's a lot simpler than what I was thinking.

[They were maybe imagining some elaborate distraction and then the two of them hauling each other out a window...]

[They're not sure "shadow warping" sounds pleasant, but they can't back down now.]

So it's probably worth a try first?

[telewarped]

I'd say so. Lemme just...

[Her condition has definitely already improved, but sudden movements and too much activity still tend to make the pain flare back up, so it's much slower and more gingerly than usual that she uses Shadow Sneak. What would normally be a quick and easy drop down into her shadow is now a gradual, deliberate sinking, like taking the first dip into a hot bath. Once she's partway through the process, she reaches carefully for Siffrin, wrapping her claws around their uninjured front leg and coiling a long, fingerless tendril around their shoulders, then drawing them into the shadows with her.]

Okay, nice and ea—sy—?

[Or, rather... she's trying to draw them into the shadows, the same way she remembers towing her teammates along with her through her Telewarp portals... But it doesn't seem to be working. Even after she finds herself safely in her shadow, Siffrin will remain above ground. In fact, if they don't pull away in time, she might just (very gently) pull them into a graceless cot-sheets faceplant instead. Oops?!]

[loopsiedaisy]

[Siffrin is a bit stiff - partially because they're still a little unsettled by some Ghost Things, even if they've definitely gotten more inured to them over several months at the Bay, and partially because they're still unused to the idea of being touched gently. (Except for maybe by Firepaw, official snuggliest member of the Cheri Berries and actual cat.) But they make a deliberate effort to lean in, instead of pulling away.]

[Which in this case means: FWOOMP. Face into the sheets they go! Siffrin makes a muffled noise.]

[They wait another second just in case this is Going Somewhere, but when they don't start melting through the cot, they carefully push themself back into a seated position.]

Maybe I'm not enough of a ghost...? ["Enough," says, the electric type.]