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 Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 11:46 am
☼ ☼ ☼
Burn as bright as the sun..
Lithium sat at the side of the road to the harbor, rubbing his head slowly, groaning softly, his breath catching as he exhaled. He should really stop trying to run - it wasn't good for him, but he had seen one of his family's van's, and then nothing else had mattered....he had to get away, he had to! But then he had had an asthma attack..and it was a case of stop running and find inhaler before you died of asphysxiaton.{sp?} He rubbed a hand over his hair and ears. Oh right! Not real ears of course. They were attached to a headband on his head, the square orange ears with yellow insides highly reminiscent of a growlithe, especially when combined with the rest of his outlandish outfit, also styled after a growlithe, even with a tail attached to his belt which also housed six, sadly empty, pokeballs.
Sometimes he wished he had a pokemon, so he could have a friend, so he could prove his family wrong. And other times...other times he was glad he didn't, glad there was nobody to witness his weakness, glad there as nobody to see him cry, as he did now, a solitary tear sliding down his cheek, followed by another, then another, his sickly body wracked with coughing, choking sobs, which were oddly silent as he struggled to gain breath.
...take life by the hand, and have your fun.
☼ ☼ ☼
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 11:55 am
Once again the youngest child of the family had been sent on errands although this time she was going to deliver a verbal message, not buy items, so her arms were free as she slowly walked down familiar paths towards the houses she would need to speak with. A large nest of eggs were ready to be hatched soon, her mother and father spending their time in the hot houses instead of watching her or her brother like they normally would. It's not that Ahiru minded the freedom she was being given, but it was a little lonely. In a family of more then five people it was still possible to be alone.
She recited the message she was supposed to deliver over and over in her head, making sure each word would be exactly as her father had spoken, and she shook a few strands of hair free from her face as the heat and her sweat made them stick like glue. Her shaking allowed her to finally get a good view of the area around her, and as a body moving in an odd way (crying?) came into her view, Ahiru froze like a Stantler in the headlights.
" . . . . . "
She wasn't sure what to do, should she run back home? The person looked wounded however, and probably scared for whatever reason, so the eleven-year-old outweighed common sense and half-walked, half-ran her way over.
"Are you okay?"
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 12:26 pm
☼ ☼ ☼
Burn as bright as the sun..
Lithium looked up with a start as he heard a child's voice, and still struggling for breath, now more seriously, spoke haggardly.
"C-ould y-ou p-a-ss m-e m-y in-ha-ler?"
He motioned weakly to the inhaler lying on the ground a few feet to the side of him where he had thrown it angrily after the asthma attack a few minutes ago..an action he now severely regretted. Bags under his eyes betrayed how little the skinny, distinctly unhealthy looking male slept, and a sickly pallor to his skin showed his lack of health. Honestly, Lithium had no idea how runaways did it. I mean, sleeping at pokecentres was all well and good, but after a while, people started asking questions. And then you had to move on...and in this small chain of islands, there were only so many pokecentres. And after that you ended up sleeping on the ground...
And the ground was hard. And uncomfy. And cold. And the dust provoked asthma. Mind you, most things provoked asthma. Like crying. Anyway, men shouldn't cry. It was wrong to cry. But right now Lithium could do nothing about the tears running down his face as he gasped for breath, trying desperately to keep breathing as he waited for his precious inhaler.
...take life by the hand, and have your fun.
☼ ☼ ☼
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 12:37 pm
Ahiru backed a little and nodded her head before she moved to get the item the man was speaking about., Being of good health the girl had never seen one before nor did she even fathom what it could be used to do, but she quickly got the inhaler in her hand and she skipped back to the man. She didn't know if she should hold it out to him or to his mouth, since inhaling = breathing in something, but she didn't know this man so perhaps that would have been considered rude.
So it was best to hand the inhaler down to the man, taking care to press the item into his hand firmly so he couldn't drop it while he was wheezing or whatever an attack included. Ahiru didn't know what to do past this, like if the inhaler didn't work right away. She couldn't carry him into town and she couldn't make it to town in time to get help.
". . . . "
Let this work.
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 12:54 pm
☼ ☼ ☼
Burn as bright as the sun..
As the small girl pressed the inhaler into his hand, he attempted a weak grin before uncapping the inhaler and bringing it with some difficulty to his mouth, and depressed the canister three times, each time his breathing becoming less and less labored, until eventually he was able to breathe without effort, his chest rising at falling at a normal rate, instead of the panicky in-out-in-out of minutes before. Tucking his sleeve over his hand, he wiped his face, wet from the tears, and smiled at the girl.
"Thankyou very much young madam. I am sorry to have worried you."
In truth, he was much more sorry that the girl had seen him in a moment of crying that he was to have scared her, though he was sorry for that as well. He mentally berated himself for this fact, saying he should be many times more concerned about the girl than himself. He smiled and stuck out a hand.
"I'm Li. Or Lithium, to give my full name. And you?"
[This'll probly be my last post for the night - I need to go to bed soon. :c]
...take life by the hand, and have your fun.
☼ ☼ ☼
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 8:57 am
It took her a moment or two to answer, like she was hesitant in giving her name to someone she'd just met. Sure she knew it was rude to do so but being slightly timid was a bad habit of hers. Her mother would be livid.
"A...Ahiru."
Her voice was low and husky, the kind you'd expect to hear come from a smoker and not a little kid, and it didn't suit her at all. Still she was speaking so it was something of an improvement over standing in silence. She shifted slightly from foot to foot, her whole body swaying, and it seemed now like curiosity was taking into account.
"Are you okay now?"
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 9:19 am
☼ ☼ ☼
Burn as bright as the sun..
Lithium withdrew his hand, seeing the girl's obvious discomfort, and smiled encouragingly as she seemed rather timid. As she spoke, he internally was startled, but said nothing - after all, she had not commented on his outift, do why should he not return the favor for her slight abnormality? He smiled again as she spoke, and nodded.
"Ahiru...nice name."
He smiled and nodded in answer to her question.
"Thanks to you. Have you never met an asthmatic before?"
He puzzled curiously over this - most people at least knew of asthma, and by...he took another look at the girl, by age....ten? Perhaps she was ten? at least knew what it was, if not having met one.
...take life by the hand, and have your fun.
☼ ☼ ☼
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 9:26 am
Ahiru's face flushed a little at the compliment to her name, the color spreading from her cheeks almost up to her ears. All of her brothers and sisters had names related to birds, something her parents thought to be funny and unique considering their occupation. It was very rare that someone thought her name 'duck' was anything nice.
"T..thank you. Your name is interesting as well, like the element."
Hopefully that wasn't being too forward of her but the little girl loved the sciences and was always pouring over the tables and charts when she wasn't running around helping out. Her eldest brother would often read with her and talk about how the elements would help out in the future while she worked at the center.
"As for...asthma? No, I don't think I've ever seen one. No one in my family is sick and I don't go out very much because I don't have a partner and I have to help out."
Ahiru shifted again from side to side, not swaying nearly as much but still enough to help ease her nerves. She'd seen the pokemon at home doing this quite often whenever they were uneasy and she'd picked the habit up from them from an early age.
"Are you going to be okay though, with your 'asthma'? Do I need to get someone to help you?"
It should have been noted that this whole time Ahiru's eyes seldom moved away from the man's face or the ground, taking away the chances of her noticing his outfit in too much detail.
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