Wrote this as part of the Zoroark Games over on Ao3, posting over here now that it's over and we've been revealed. Could not think of what to write, but had been spending a lot of time chewing on thoughts about a previous story I wrote and how my writing tends to be rather puzzle/hidden in style and if I could adjust that.
Ru'd had a great day so far.
Ru wasn't actually her name. That was just what Mom'd called her. Her name was pretty and important and meaningful, and her wonderful owner had picked it. But Ru didn't mean anything but her, and that was even better.
And today Ru got to go on a long adventure and see lots of new things and meet some of her adoring public!
If her owner's parents were here, they would definitely not allow this. They'd say Ru was in no condition to stay out after an exhausting day. And they'd be right. Ru's throat felt sticky as melting rubber and she had the extra bad headache she always got from being too hot, and she was so dizzy she thought if she was set down she'd fall right over. But she didn't want this to be over yet so she didn't fuss.
And it made everyone else they met happy to see Ru too. They petted her fur and called her beautiful or adorable, and sometimes they'd ask about getting somebody like Ru themselves. Sometimes they'd even ask about getting Ru themselves, but Ru didn't mind. Her owner's said the king of the world could ask to buy Ru and she'd say no.
Ru hadn't really thought much about how somebody could take her even if her owner said no.
Ru knew better than to struggle in the new arms she found herself in. She wouldn't accomplish anything more than to wiggle around a little and the exertion could make her faint. Her mouth was so dry she wouldn't even be drooling on the thief's clothes, And even if the thief did drop her, so what? She didn't think she could even stand up on her own by now. If they decided she was too much trouble, she could die before her owner found her.
After a minute or two the jolting from the running made her body spasm and choke. Ru was quickly set down and tilted partway over, with one of the thief's hands getting shoved into her mouth to hold her head at the right angle to keep her throat open. While it helped physically, it was even more of a relief that she hasn't been stolen by some ignorant person who just knew she was valuable. Her heart stopped pounding so hard. This must be another breeder. Maybe they were a rival kennel or maybe they were hired by one. She may have been stolen, but she wasn't in danger.
She tried to take a few breaths until her vision came back. It took her a while to realize they were in an alley. Ru was propped up on the ground behind a dumpster, getting dirt on her feet and fur.
Ru knew that if she was stolen, she should try to find a phone and hit the right numbers, but she figured smart thieves would know that, and so it'd probably be a while before she got the chance. Maybe weeks or even months. It's really exciting. And the pokemon thief looked nothing like any of the people at contests Ru'd ever seen before. They must be in disguise as an ordinary person so they wouldn't be suspected... She wondered how much they were disguised. Maybe now that they'd stolen her and gotten away, they'd pull their hair and it'd turn out it was a wig!
"Sorry," her thief said. "I have water. Would that help?" Ru nodded, then did a happy wiggle and rubbed her face against their knee so they'd know she was feeling better.
Her thief took a crumpled plastic bottle from their bag, unscrewed the cap, and offered it to Ru. Ru'd never been allowed to drink out of one of those before! Her owner said the water could have all sorts of chemicals. It tasted sweet. Maybe that's what plastic flavor is? Ru mouthed at the emptied bottle and it didn't taste sweet but did have a wonderful texture.
"God, I really should've thought this through," her thief told her, opening a second bottle and handing it to her. Then they took out a pokeball and released a pokemon with strange fur, like her, although theirs is all white.
They weren't another snubbull, though. They were a meowstic.
But if this stranger was already willing to fly in face of society enough to steal another person's pokemon, they might be willing to go even further. Who knew how far they might go? ...they might even do...outcrosses.
.🐶.
Branwen had done something, and now there was a wheezy shiny snubbull swaying on her feet. She smelled strangely flat to Balthazar and it made his heart spike for a second before he put it together. The last time he'd smelled other pokemon like that, he'd been trying to paw his way out of a garbage bag full of corpses. Inbred, like him and the rest of the pokemon where he'd been born. Super inbred, but she had beautiful sparkling fur, so she wasn't something anyone would throw out like they did him...
He looked to Branwen. How bad was this? Did she at least-
"Of course I didn't have a plan! When do I have a plan? You guys have plans! I'm an idiot, okay?"
"Hi," the snubbull gasped out. "You look cool. Are you. A boy or a girl?"
Right. The situation at hand. "She hasn't explained anything yet, has she?" he said.
"No." She sipped the water. "But. I get it. My owner's. A breeder too."
He shuddered. "It's not like that. She wanted to help. With your throat at least."
She nodded and wiggled the water bottle so it sloshed a little. "Yes."
"Real help. We know a doctor. Uh, look, do you want to lie down?" he asked, because she looked about ready to fall over.
She took that as an invitation to flop against him and rest her head against his neck. The wheezing was so much worse now that he could feel it and not just hear it. It was hard to believe she wouldn't just stop breathing each time.
"My name's Balthazar. What's yours?"
"I'm. Roseburn's. Mary Mary. But! Call me Ru."
"Okay, Ru. If Branwen leaves, can you stay here with me until someone comes to get us, and not run? We won't keep you from your owner if you want to go back later but our doctor friend needs to see you first."
Ru made an awful choking sound that he realized after a moment was a giggle. "Run?"
"Yeah. Bad choice of words."
She giggled again. "I want to. Go home. Eventually. But this. Is fun!"
He patted her side. "Glad to hear it. Now, how to you feel about a quick roll in the dirt?"
.🐶.
"You can't just do this stuff!" raged Brighid. The vulpix's pair of tails was lashing. "We have only two and a half humans and you're all criminals! The absolute very last thing we need is a manhunt!"
"I know you're mad. It's bad. But I had-"
"You didn't! Absolutely did not! Not when it's some rich girl's fancy pokemon! Pick your battles!"
Hyacinth interrupted with, "I think it's good to help people who need help."
"Yeah! Well, try to warm the whole world and you'll end up a pile of cold ashes," Brighid snapped with a little burst of flame. "We all have limits! How much help will we be to people if Branwen gets the humans arrested and we all get confiscated? Or to each other! Rebecca could die, Branwen. She's a terrorist."
"Most federal judges transmute capital punishment into life sentences," said Rebecca.
"She could die! You're going to lead the police to a wanted terrorist! That's how bad you are!"
Kit knocked on the door frame, some rich girl's fancy pokemon black-brown with dirt wriggling in her arms and sending dust everywhere. "Haaaaaaaaaai!" the snubbull slurred around the tube in her mouth. "Dwen, dwen!" Set down, the snubbull trotted in a circle, then threw herself onto the ground and rolled, smearing more dirt across the floor.
Brighid stared and then began to curse.
"This is Ru."
"Yeah. Okay. Motherofgod, Balthazar, I thought you were bad. Still, Branwen, you, I don't know... Maybe Kit could've turned into somebody plausible and then stolen her, and then at least they'd be off chasing someone else and maybe we'd have enough time to have a chance of fleeing the country."
"She might want to go back," Balthazar said from Kit's shoulder. "Let's not argue for now. Rebecca? What can you do and how long will it take?"
Rebecca knelt down by Ru who was now making a sort of dust angel. "Open your mouth."
Ru stopped wiggling and covered her mouth with her paws. "Nuh. Kepin fover. Lhuv hit."
"The tube can stay for now. I want to see the surrounding tissue."
Ru said, "Ohey. Bu na f naw, fover," and opened her jaws shockingly wide. Rebecca reached in and prodded the flesh there, then tugged at the skin around her face. She began to pat down the rest of Ru.
"Throat and nose should be quick. Just a lot of excess to cut off. Skin's more delicate, especially with all the irritation in the folds, and the eyes will be tricky. Maybe an hour or more on just that."
"Sk?"
Rebecca pulled the skin around the snubbull's eyes tighter. "Feel better?"
"Yuh." Ru blinked a few times. "Wuhw. Lhtz."
"If I cut away where your skin folds and stitch the two sides together, it'll stay like that."
"Eelly?"
"And I can make it so you can breathe without something holding the sides of your throat apart, and open your nasal passages."
"Eelly?!"
"The bone problems are more involved. I can't fix those right now. We could make sure someone has to, though. It wouldn't be pleasant but if those are broken badly enough, then the pokecenter would have to rebuild it. I don't think they'd put you back together wrong on purpose just because you were born like this."
"Bnnes?"
"Like here." She got her hand on Ru's hip and pushed.
Ru shrieked, then went limp and started to sob.
"Rebecca, what the fuck," said Branwen.
"It was dislocated," Rebecca said as Ru's tears soaked a growing patch on her pants. "It's probably a shock. Ru, it's stopped hurting?"
Ru nodded, sobbing harder.
"You don't have to make a decision yet. The soft tissue is an easy fix. I can put you under for that now."
Ru nodded again.
.🐶.
It didn't hurt when Ru woke up. She wasn't expecting it to. She'd heard from other pokemon that you got drugs for surgery that made it so you felt wonderful, and it seemed it was true. Or maybe this was how other people felt all the time, because it'd also felt like this when the woman had pressed against her side and popped something and all the pain she hadn't realized was pain had flown away. Or how it'd felt when Kit had propped her mouth open and suddenly she could breathe without thinking about it.
She yanked the tube out of her throat and found that she filled her lungs again even without it. Her voice came out so much louder than she expected. "I don't want to go back!"
"Shhh, shhhh," said Balthazar. "Don't yell, you'll hurt yourself."
"I don't want to, I don't want to!"
"Okay."
"It hurt," she told him. "It hurt so much and I didn't even know. She said she loved me!"
"I know."
"I don't want to go back."
"You won't. We'll figure something out."