How to End a Conversation

"Do you think... it'll be pink?"

"Huh?" The meganium gave her another weird look- this girl had a bad habit of jumping topics suddenly, "What?"

"You know..." she huffed, ears laying back.

"...you didn't..." he muttered in disbelief, letting out a sigh of relief when the arcanine shook her head.

"Of course not! Just... some of the ice cream..." she mumbled back, ears drooping as she lowered her head in shame.

Now Eden gave her a really disbelieving look, before rolling his eyes and shaking his head at her, reaching once more to give her head another unwelcome pat. Pat pat pat. He was patronizing her. "Erin," he spoke softly, as if he were addressing a particularly unnecessarily distressed child, "You already know the answer to that."

Erin bit his hand and took off down the beach, a low growl in her throat. Okay yeah, she couldn't deny that she already knew that the lab results reported no apparent change at that low dosage- that was her pet project, after all. She knew every little detail up and down, and had a considerable hand in the development, even if she wasn't allowed to participate directly. The whole reason she kept in contact with the man behind her was to keep tabs on it and maintain the only link and influence she had. The arrangement worked out well for both of them, considering that he at least seemed to value her input, as while Eden was good with the testing side of things, he apparently lacked the ditto's creative approach. It was mutually beneficial for them to keep intouch... even if that often made her mistake the man for some form of "friend." And maybe he was, but not to such a degree that she felt comfortable bringing him in on her personal matters, which was why she once again was looking to change the subject.

"Someone's following us."

Or... he could change the topic himself, apparently. Still, she didn't immediately respond or show any concern, pausing only after a moment to glance back. "Pay them no mind," was her only answer. She was already aware of the pair on their trail- as noted, it was amazing what little sounds her ears could pick up. Yet another reason she was reluctant to talk.

The meganium stared back at her, a little frown forming on his lips, and he shoved his hands back into his pockets as he moved back to her side. "Is that why you're so jumpy? We keep barely touching a topic before you're movin' on to something else."

She huffed, ears flopping back as she continued to walk ahead, snorting as she noticed that they were soon going to run out of open beach. "No... I'm 'jumpy' because I don't want to talk."

"...but you do want to talk."

"No, I don't," she growled at him, but for a pansy the man was completely unphased.

"You do. That's why you called me," he insisted, reaching a hand out to pet her again, at least this time having the good sense to withdraw his hand before she even made a move to bite it. Pain was apparently a good reminder as to why that wasn't a good idea. "Maybe you don't want to talk to me... but you do want to talk."

"I don't want to talk to anyone!" she snapped, following the declaration up with a loud growl, "I'm fine! Okay?!"

He stared hard at her, inching a few steps away from the dog who was now giving him quite the feral look. "Yeah, sure... fine..." he muttered as he put more distance between them, "...for being moody."

Oh hell no. At least the idiot had the sense to run right then and there, because she was on his heels so fast, ready to tear into his legs. He wanted moody? She would show him moody!

"OW! ERIN!"

She didn't let up until he fell over and hit the sand once more, and even then she didn't remove her teeth from his leg, growling loudly and deeply as she slowly dug them deeper through his pantleg. Not even when the meganium kicked at her did she let go, just tugging on his leg in return.

"Damnit-!" Fumbling, he drew out a pokeball from his pocket and chucked it out into the sand ahead of him, cringing all the more when it didn't immediately open. Just a moment, however, and then it burst open, unleashing the creature within in a flash. Soon there stood a pink ampharos before them, a yellow and red stone hung on a chain around its neck. Eden called out to it in desperation, gesturing to the arcanine attacking him, "Maxwell! Get her off!"

The electric sheep stared at him with head tilted, and then glanced over at the canine growling into his master's leg. Remove? Okay. It held up its arms and charged up a ball of electricity between them, not even having to throw it before the dog was releasing Eden with a yelp. "GENTLY!" they both snapped at him, leaving the poor pokemon to release his electro ball harmlessly into the air with a confused little whine. How was he supposed to know? He was just told to remove her!

"Did you have to call him out?!" Erin was between a whimper and a growl, shooting the grass-type a glare.

"Did you have to bite me?! And at what point were you planning on letting go?!" he defended, pulling himself to sit upright to inspect his wounded leg.

The ditto groaned back at him, mostly because she was on the verge of throwing up- the taste of blood didn't sit well on her upset stomach. "Just... shut up."

"Can't you say anything else?"

Rather than respond, she moved right back up next to him... and barfed into his lap.

".....gee thanks," he grumbled in disgust, glaring at her, "You know a simple 'no' would have sufficed."

"Now go home and change," she comanded softly, turning to walk away, "I'm done talking now."