Author's Comment: The dating meme that inspired this is now linked in my profile! Check it out if you're interested in seeing Kowai's app! And of course, I happily thank my two reviewers, Thewinkingme and ASiriusWriter!
Thewinkingme: Yeah, being destroyed is a bit of a drawback! XD Hopefully, that situation can be avoided! I'm glad you found Kowai's cluelessness to be amusing, as that's one of my favorite aspects of it!
ASiriusWriter: "Kowai is scary. And childish. And annoying. And...very, very naive." Yup! Kowai in a nutshell! Good to know that my characterizations are accurately portrayed! And I certainly have fun showing how Kowai's logic works; it's smart, but hopelessly paranoid (and crazy)! XD Yams is a surprisingly determined little Yamask, so hopefully she'll keep earning those trying points! And yay! Someone else that gets my sense of humor! :D
Chapter 3: Presents
"Okay, slight change of plans," Sokudo starts, back with Yams and Luft at Spinda Cafe. He hadn't told them about Kowai's ominous threat regarding Yams, nor does he plan to. He just doesn't want to risk losing their help, and he's sure he can just work around it. "We'll slow down with this a bit, add a bit more distance. First of all, Yams, don't touch Kowai, at least not yet. It made it perfectly clear to me that it doesn't want to be touched, poked, prodded, bitch slapped, whatever, and I don't want to take the risk in pushing it."
"Oh, alright." the Yamask mutters. "I just wanted to show him that I wasn't going to hurt him."
"Understandable," Sokudo grumbles. "But I think that's moving a bit too fast, and I don't want to be responsible if you get hurt. So I'm thinking of doing a... 'desensitization' process." He takes a sip of the smoothie Luft had bought him. "I want you to follow Kowai as much as possible. Get it used to your presence without any actual contact."
"So," Luft drawls a bit. "You want Yams to stalk him?"
"Yup, pretty much." Sokudo chirps with a grin, the other two exchanging uncertain glances.
"May I add my two cents?" Yams asks timidly, not sure if she has a say in any of these plans. Sokudo certainly seems irritated as he rolls his eyes, but he doesn't deny her request. So the little ghost continues, her voice soft. "Wouldn't Kowai see that as a bit threatening? Being followed by someone he already had a negative experience with? I was instead thinking about trying to talk to him again."
"Talking is useless," Sokudo tells her with no uncertain terms. "It didn't work last time, so what makes you think it'll work again?"
"Well," Yams starts with a shrug. "Last time, he misunderstood me and thought I was trying to hurt him. Now that he knows my intentions, maybe he'll be a bit more receptive. I won't touch him, so he shouldn't freak out as much as before." An idea sparks in her head. "I can give him a gift or something."
"Give it a gift?" Sokudo pipes in surprise before thinking that over. Kowai has never received a gift of any kind, so how will it react to getting one, especially from a stranger? Maybe he should allow this, and find out. "Alright. You can talk to it and shit, see if that gets you anywhere. I can't tell you what to give it, other than a Soul Sacrifice, but I doubt that's what you had in mind..."
"No..." Yams whispers almost nervously. "I don't like the thought of that. I was actually thinking something like flowers or... yeah..."
"Dunno if it'll like flowers, but give it a shot." Sokudo states with a shrug. "I'll scout out another meeting spot, and give you a few days to work your little plan on it. Oh, and Balloon..."
Luft snaps to attention upon hearing the Ninjask regard him. Said bug takes another sip of the smoothie and smirks at him.
"This is a pretty damn good smoothie you bought. I wish nothing bad on you."
"Uh..." the Drifloon blinks a bit, obviously unsure of how to respond to that. "Thanks... I guess..."
Sokudo's requests are getting stranger and stranger.
Carrying an empty jar in its black mist, Kowai heads for Sokudo's favorite sugar maple tree. It doesn't understand why the Ninjask doesn't just have the tree sap they got from the store, and it supposed he prefers it straight from the tree. But why get it to do this? It isn't particularly skilled at getting tree sap, in fact, it's never done it before. But when it asked him to come along so he can teach it, he declined, telling it that it'll figure it out and that he's too lazy to go anywhere today.
Ninjask. Lazy. Those two words generally do not mix. But maybe Sokudo's tired, or sick...
It whimpers a bit at that thought. Last time Sokudo was sick, he told it that he would've died if he hadn't gotten to the doctors. Hopefully, that isn't the case this time...
Arriving to the massive tree, it floats to the trunk, just staring at it. After a few minutes, a small tendril of its black mist snakes towards the trunk and feels around the bark, testing it. Shouldn't be too hard... It stabs the tendril into the tree, slashing a small gash into it. Nothing. It tries again, deeper this time. And low and behold, the glistening sticky sap begins to seep out.
Purring at how simple this turned out to be, it holds the jar under the sap to catch it. After a few minutes, it pauses for a second, sensing another Pokemon coming over to it. It is already growling even before the voice comes up.
"Hi again."
It turns to the Yamask floating a distance from it, a soft smile on the other ghost's face. In her hands is a rectangular, bright blue box with a red bow on it.
"You again," Kowai hisses. "Go away!"
Here we go again. Yams takes a breath before holding out her offering. "I got something for you," she mutters softly, looking a bit bashful as she spoke. Hearing this, Kowai freezes, not expecting this at all. Almost immediately, it becomes more suspicious and it backs away defensively.
"What do you mean you got something for me?" it asks, staring that the box like it's some alien device that'll hurt it at the slightest touch.
"Well, I felt bad for scaring you the other day," she tells it. "So I bought this for you. Kinda like a 'sorry'." She holds it out a little farther. "Do you want it?"
For a long moment, Kowai doesn't respond except to maintain its growls. Finally, it slowly puts down the partially filled jar of tree sap before inching closer and closer towards her. It looks as if it is ready to attack or flee at an instant's notice and Yams makes extra sure not to make any sudden movements that might alarm it. Hesitating several feet from her, Kowai begins to hiss at her in warning before its black mist surges forward and rudely snatches the box from her grasp.
Backing away quickly, it snarls at her before holding the box up into its line of sight. The black mist engulfing the box to explore it, Kowai grunts a bit to itself and shifts the present's position as if trying to figure it out. Yams feels the impulse to help it understand, but she keeps her distance. Finally, the Shedinja snorts before throwing the gift to the ground.
"It's just a stupid box!" it snaps at her, thinking she was mocking it. Yams shakes her head, trying to keep herself calm at its snappy behavior.
"No, you have to open it." she tells it. "Here." Very slowly, she inches forward and she cringes as the shell gives a loud shriek. "It's okay!" she says, trying to get her voice over the din. "I'm just going to show you how to open it, is all!"
"You're not touching me!" Kowai exclaims as if it didn't hear her, although Yams tries to make her words as clear as she can.
"I'm not going to touch you, I promise. Just let me open the present for you." An idea slips into her mind and she quickly adds. "Lemme open it, and I'll go away, okay?"
At this, Kowai quiets down a little, still hissing. It backs away a bit and Yams tries again to inch closer. This time, the Shedinja doesn't blast her ears out with a screech and instead watches her extremely carefully. Its black mist is flowing heavily from it, giving it a large dark aura around it. Yams can feel the cold radiating off it and she hesitates. As a Ghost Pokemon, she is used to the chill of fellow ghosts, but this one feels... off...
Choosing to stay focused, she shakes it from her mind and takes the present, carefully unwrapping it in Kowai's plain view so it can learn. Placing the bow and wrapper aside, she opens the box and pulls out the gift: A dark purple flower. She smiles gently and holds it out to it. "Here."
"It's a plant." Kowai states flatly, unimpressed.
"It's a symbol," she tells it. "A token of my apologies. Take it, it's okay."
"It's a plant," Kowai insists before turning away back to the tree, picking up the tree sap jar. It starts filling it up again and Yams still floats there quietly, waiting for it to accept her gift. But acceptance is not what she got as it hisses. "Why are you still here?!"
"Well," she blinks a bit. "I'm waiting for you to take your present."
"I don't want your stupid plant!" Kowai snarls. "You promised to leave, so LEAVE!"
Yams lowers the flower, unable to keep from feeling rejected and hurt, although she knew this could very well happen. Sighing deeply, she nods. "Okay, I will." Maybe in keeping her promise, she'll show it that she's at least a little trustworthy. Plus, despite the rejection, she knows at least some progress has been made, compared to their last encounter. And that's the best she can ask for right now.
Placing the flower next the open present, she tries to offer another smile. "I'll leave it here, in case you change your mind." At this, Kowai gives a snort. "Good bye."
With a soft wave, she turns and goes off to reunite with her team-mate, ready to receive word of the next opportunity to meet Kowai for another chance. After she disappears from sight, Kowai visibly relaxes, turning its attention back to its sap harvesting. Almost done. Hopefully, its Ninjask will appreciate this and allow it to cuddle. It certainly needs a snuggle right about now.
There. Removing the jar from the tree, it purrs a bit before closing the lid and turning to go on its way. Unable to help itself, however, it glances at the so-called 'present' on the ground. Growling, it inches towards the plant and picks it up, looking it over. Maybe there is supposed to be something special about it and it only needs to examine it a bit closer. But if there is something special about this plant, it doesn't see it and it grunts before throwing the flower aside.
"Stupid plant." With little hesitation, it hurries back home.
"So it's been about a week of you 'talking' and giving Kowai presents. How's it going? Is it taking these glorified weeds or whatever the hell you're giving it?" Sokudo asks at another of their meetings, this time at the Rogue Headquarters and without Luft. Yams gives a small shrug, not sure how to answer at first before giving a small nod.
"He's been taking the presents from me, yeah, and he likes opening them. But he didn't like the flowers I was giving him, so I've been trying other things. Y'know, something more interesting." she tells the Ninjask. "Like yesterday, I gave him a Venus Fly-Trap, and he certainly seemed to have fun playing with it, but only after he thought I left. He's always feigning disinterest if I'm still there..."
Hearing this, a spark comes to the insect's eyes. "Wait, so all these presents, it takes them right out of your hands?"
"Yeah," Yams nods. "He's still a little overly-cautious about it, but I notice he's getting more confident each time." She states with a smile, her feeling of accomplishment growing a bit as Sokudo snickers, his claws twitching a bit.
"That's good, that's very good!" Sokudo says. "For it to go near a stranger, even just a little, that's definite progress there! It's certainly better than what I thought would happen." Of course, he thought Kowai would kill the Yamask on sight much sooner than this, and he's relieved that wasn't the case. Hopefully, she'll remember to keep refraining from physical contact, at least for now. "Alright, given how great this is going, I'm gonna take the chance here, and I'm going to get myself involved."
"What do you mean?" Yams asks, a bit confused as Sokudo previously expressed an interest to stay completely out of these plans, lest Kowai turns on him.
"What I mean, is that I'm going to talk to Kowai when I get home. And tonight, I want you make plans to go somewhere interesting, 'cause you are going to take Kowai on a date."
Yams almost chokes on the air and she blinks. "A date? Isn't it a bit too soon? He obviously still doesn't like me, and he's barely tolerating my presence..."
"Exactly," Sokudo points out matter-of-factly. "The gifts and stuff is good, it's great and we're really getting something with it, so don't get me wrong here. But we both know that the only reason Kowai's even interested in meeting with you is for all the new stuff you're bringing it. I want to transfer that interest from the items, to you. A date seems the best way to go."
"He's not going to accept my invitation..." Yams utters and Sokudo waves his claw dismissively.
"No worries, 'cause that's where my little chat with Kowai comes in," he tells her. "I'll convince it to go with you, you take it somewhere fun, it grows to like you, spends more time with you, severs its bond with me and BOOM! It's out of my life and your job is complete!" He can see the uncertainty still in the Yamask's eyes, but he disregards it as he turns off to leave. "Just get ready at the sugar maple tree by tonight. Kowai WILL go out you, and I'll do whatever it takes to make sure it happens..."
With that, he is gone, leaving Yams to wonder just what she should do for this so-called 'date'...
