FALLERS - SETTING-BASED TOPLEVEL SAMPLE

[notpiercings]

[CLAWMARK HILL: THAT'S MY GIRL]

Dio doesn't... actually have a Pokémon to call his own. Some of the residents have posited that the region's Island Guardians will guide baby Pokémon and even eggs toward noble, deserving individuals in hopes that they'll make excellent Trainers. Some have observed that the Guardians are especially keen on placing such Pokémon into the hands of 'Fallers' - of people like himself. The specific whys of that, even, are hotly debated, and one could truly come up with a laundry list of theories about the significance the Guardians seem to place in the Fallers.

He never stuck around long enough to hear those theories, though.

Dio won't irrationally turn aid away, especially not when he's been tossed in an unfamiliar world, but he's hardly a charity case either. He doesn't need to be babied like a lost lamb, and he especially doesn't need people hypothesising about his very presence in his face. He would rather spend a whole day wandering a beach or field he doesn't know than allow himself to be so disgracefully pitied by others, and more than anything, he refuses to tolerate the inevitable cooing about his lack of a Pokémon. Walks quickly become a part of his daily routine just for the sake of avoiding it all.

He's found a few neat places on these walks. Lots of them tend to be inhabited by wild Pokémon, though this is about as surprising as a world inhabited by animals. Pokémon are simply the creatures that live in this place, and so their presence is hardly as mystifying as it might've been at first. Wild animals, too, will often run when approached by a human; Pokémon doing the same to him doesn't bother him at all.

Even when they don't run from most others.

If he has to hear another sympathetic murmur of "Ohh, don't worry, it's just a matter of time before they warm up to you," Dio might just stab someone. It doesn't bother him, he doesn't care; how hard is it for other people to see that!?

...even so, when the Pokémon of Clawmark Hill don't immediately turn tail when he approaches, his interest is piqued. Granted, he isn't very visible to any of them, nor is he the immediate focus of the intense battles he discovers on the evening of his passing by. Brute strength is hardly an impressive feat on its own, but it is more than a simple show of dominance that is at play here. There is pride and want here. It is more than just fighting for the sake of fighting.

Things are on the line here, made evident by the tiniest speck of green facing off against a large rock-like beast. Despite the sheer difference in size, the sun totally eclipsed by this monstrous creature's mass, the green clove-looking thing doesn't appear shaken in the slightest, its stance as sturdy as can be.

(It's shaking a little bit. Just a little.)

The green thing - a Budew, some might say - clearly isn't that strong in terms of battle effectiveness, for it appears to be 'knocked out' with little delay, but the verdant flurries it summons around itself appear to stave off its attackers better than Dio would have anticipated. It eventually steps up again after a few other rounds have gone by, seemingly rested enough to continue, to repeat the process again. Though its fights are brief, they are among the most interesting of the lot.

Dio is engrossed, so much so that he doesn't even notice he isn't alone wedged between the more distant rocks. "If it put some more distance between itself and its assailant, it'd likely last awhile longer..."


[THE NEARBY POKÉMON CENTRE: I'VE BEEN BETRAYED BY MY GIRL]

Dio Brando does not become attached to others, especially not such subservient creatures as Pokémon. Maybe that's why the whole idea of some being with great power trying to push one of these creatures toward him bothers him so much: he doesn't need something grovelling at his feet like a disgusting dog. He doesn't want a pet. He doesn't want a companion.

What he would like is... some medical attention right now, actually.

Dio feels awful, a nausea having overtaken him ever since he ended his trip to Clawmark Hill. When all of the commotion of battle had finally died down, that peculiar Budew had started wobbling in the same direction as he, and he began to suspect at some point that it was even following him perhaps betting that he'd take pity on it and restore it, so he decided to take it somewhere to be healed in hopes that it would leave him alone after the fact. Ever since that walk back to the nearest Pokémon Centre, however, he's been feeling under the weather, and it seems to be getting progressively worse. The general sickness had been bad enough to start, but now a cough plagues him with an aching chest, and his digits feel sore and swollen--

There's a very comical combination of self-awareness and obliviousness to Dio's own situation as he makes it to the Pokémon Centre and, approaching the front desk with a Budew cradled in his arms, declares:

"I believe I may be poisoned."