national kick a tall person day

[weenwoon]

Who: you and Hythlodaeus! Or you and any other person taller than you. Or shorter than you.
Where: errywhere around Mango City
When: October 25
What: national kick a tall person day! Get 'em in the shins!

[As you walk around the city, be it for pleasure or on some errand, there is a very good chance that you will suddenly be swarmed by tiny kids who arrive to happily kick you in the shins. Fortunately, they are still very small, so the kicks are about as effective as being slapped with a soft toy. In fact, some of them choose to press their Pokemon's paws against your ankles instead. Upon questioning, the kids happily explain: it's kick day! The day you can kick if you're small! A day of revenge, cries one of the kids!

An older child, tagging behind the group - clearly the designated babysitter, and bored of the antics, - explains that it's the National Kick A Tall Person Day. That's it, really. You kick anyone taller than you in the shins, - here she half-heartedly taps your legs with her foot, - and you can try to dodge kicks from shorter people. The toddlers love it.

There you have it. You are now free to participate in tormenting anyone taller than you! It seems like the power of the kick is fully dependent on your desire. Do you take this chance at revenge? Do you ignore it to go about your business and avoid further attacks for the day? Do you have an (ir)rational fear of getting kicked and hole up in your room for the day?

Should you try to return the kick favour, however, the kids stop you, frowning, and explain that no, you're not allowed to kick back, you're only allowed to throw the shorter people! Almost immediately, you are surrounded by children demanding you throw them up and down. Enjoy!

For those looking to extract revenge, be it for your height-related complex or for his personal transgressions, Hythlo is wandering around the city on his day off. Go get him.]

Comments

[bythefurry]

[The gravity attack sends Swablu tumbling to the ground, at which point she notices her prize isn't in her beak anymore - and, after a quick examination of her surroundings, seems nowhere to be found in general. She squawks angrily, most of her ire directed at Sigilyph. This is your fault, birdbrain!!!

And so it's to the scene of Swablu and Sigilyph madly shrieking at each other and Sagi down to his knees that Joss arrives. He was wondering where his bird went, but this is not what he expected at all.]


Um...

[scension]

[The gravity effect eventually lifts, allowing Sagi to pick himself up despite a certain lingering twinge. The racket does not. Sigilyph's main response to Swablu's screeching is to screech its own displeasure even louder. It has no idea where that feather went either, but it serves her right!

Once he's back in his feet, Sagi gives the squabbling birds his best attempt at a firm look of disapproval.] Stop it! You're making a scene.

[Wait, that berry tree behind Sigilyph seems closer all of a sudden... Oh. Unfortunate timing on the loom out of nowhere, Joss.]

Um, not you. Sorry.

[Joss seems too sad and too generally passive to have sent a bird after him on purpose. Besides, he does remember him having trouble with her before.]

[bythefurry]

[Joss shakes his head - he understands it wasn't directed at him - before turning to Swablu.]

Please don't.

[Don't what? Joss doesn't precise but Swablu seems to mollify under his extremely sad gaze, going from screeching to annoyed beeping. Look, it's not her fault, there was a fallen guy with a back full of nice fluffy feathers, it only went wrong because Chicken Itza over there started attacking her.]

[scension]

[Sagi cannot deploy the power of Joss's Unbearable Sadness without a card, so Sigilyph gets a headpat to calm it down instead. Its shrieking gradually dwindles into smaller keening noises. It and Pawniard continue to glare at Swablu, though - five eyes in total.]

Whew. [They quietened down to a degree much less likely to give him a headache, so Sagi counts that as a success... even though he'll probably never see that other trainer again.] Everyone's out for blood today.

[bythefurry]

[If Swablu had fingers, she'd definitely be pointing at Sagi's Pokémon before pointing at her own eyes. As it is, she just flies off to sit on Joss's head, before haughtily looking at the both of them.

Joss, meanwhile, just sighs.]

So it seems. Children in particular.

[scension]

Yeah, I ran into some of those too. Probably less than you, though... At least the kids don't seem to mean anything by it.

[Most of them. ...It still smarts. It may be the only part of him that is.]

[bythefurry]

[He nods, though not too deeply as to not upset Swablu.]

A holiday. Wonder how it started.

[scension]

One of those test of courage things that caught on somehow, I'm guessing. It's a different kind of risky than normal, but it tracks.

[Or something like that. As far as he can tell, the mindsets of little kids seem to be more or less the same everywhere.]

They're not picking on you too much, are they?

[bythefurry]

[Joss just gives Sagi such a long-suffering look it might have spontaneously filled all of his blank magnus with undiscardable depression if he didn't need them later for tower-related crimes.]

Used to it.

[scension]

[Sagi winces in sympathy. He then winces slightly more, because the first one caused him to accidentally move his leg.]

I... I see.

[That's rough. He can't help but rack his brain for suggestions, though the only ones coming to mind are hypothetical. The kids who have kicked him so far today went for quality over quantity.]

What happened to your armour, anyway?

[Leg armour is a reasonable and proportionate option in this situation, he thinks.]

[bythefurry]

On an errand. Didn't expect combat.

["Combat" sure is one way to put it, but to be fair the town does kind of feel like a battlefield to anyone above 170cm or so right now.]

[scension]

It might be worth it, just for today. It sounds like they'll calm down by tomorrow.

[Someone could easily point out that wearing spiky dragoon armour under a potato sack would only make Joss stick out as a target even more, but that someone will not be Sagi, who doesn't see the problem.]

[bythefurry]

Sensible.

[Two Jrpg protagonists, zero braincells.]

[scension]

Either way, I hope they ease up on you a little.

[He hazards a sympathetic smile, then turns back to his Pokemon. They have not stopped glaring at Swablu this entire time. Sigilyph is still keening quietly but pointedly.]

Thanks for looking out, you two. Let's go.

[That one trainer wasn't exactly far off winning, so it's off to the Pokemon Centre, as he's well used to by now. Pawniard and Sigilyph follow close behind.

...Only for Sagi to stop just a few paces ahead, reach down to pick up one of the nearby fallen berry tree branches snapped off by Sigilyph's Gravity move, contemplate it for a moment, then stick it in his mouth. Cronch.]