2024-01-02: The Poison Called Regret
- Log: The Poison Called Regret
- Cast: Dias Flac, Claude C. Kenny
- Where: Professor Oak's Pokemon Lab, Pallet Town
- Date: January 02, 506 PC Filgaian
- Summary: Claude brings Dias his clothes after he gets cleaned up, and sticks around to talk for a few minutes about some recent and less-recent events.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
Working with Pokemon can be a sticky business. Sticky, stinky, dusty, goopy--all kinds of things. That's the reality of biology: life is messy in all sorts of ways. The way that Dias personally encountered earlier was sludgy, via Koffing's Sludge Bomb. There was also the smell. We won't talk about the smell.
Fortunately, since this took place in a Pokemon professor's lab, there were both showers and anti-stink wash available. Dias stripped and handed off his clothes to be laundered; then he went into the shower to wash.
That was over an hour ago. The hot water has been pushed to its limit and beyond. The drains are going to cry poison later. But right now, the master swordsman... is finally clean.
(At least 70% of that time was spent on his hair. Dias is not a vain person, but there are certain realities that come with keeping one's hair as long as he does.)
He pushes open the shower curtain enough to reach out for a nearby towel; it vanishes with his arm within. A moment later, he pushes the curtain open the rest of the way to let the steam rise and disperse, but he remains inside the stall for a moment to wring out his hair over the drain. There was *one* towel, and he chose to use it to dry his skin and wrap it around his waist.
Between his lithe, muscular build, the few remaining water droplets still clinging to his skin, and his handsome face, it's honestly a sight to behold. But there's no one here to see it, so it's fine... right?
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude hasn't had too much trouble with Pokemon yet. He's lucky in that way. His current friend among them is a giant bee, and hasn't turned his poison-type powers on his trainer.
Not all are so lucky.
As it happens though.. there is someone there when Dias comes out of the shower, because Claude was walking around looking to find him. "Hey, Dias," he starts, and turns around and sees him stepping out with a towel on. He blinks once, looks over the other man, and his surprise(?) means he doesn't say anything for a moment. He blinks a second time.
"Oh, right," Claude finally finishes, shaking his head as if shaking something off. "I was looking for you," he said. "Looks like I found you! But maybe a little sooner than you were ready for. Heh."
He turns, looking around for Dias's clothes, and then once he spots them says, "I'll be right out here!"
He steps out a little faster than he strictly has to.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
As has been previously established, one understands now why people don't directly fight in Pokemon battles.
This isn't going to stop Dias, who still has no intentions of making some other creature fight his battles for him, but it is going to raise his caution against these creatures in the future. Poison-types are no joke.
Dias raises his eyes without lowering his hands from his task as Claude stares. "Claude," he replies curtly.
...he's still staring.
......still staring.
"Did you want something?" he prompts, at which point Claude shakes his head and finally responds. "Hm. I suppose." It *is* true that he isn't done just yet. Dias lets him leave--or at least move away--without further comment.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude doesn't really see it the same way; they're not 'his' battles if they're between these creatures! ...Something like that, anyway. It's Nedian culture. The Federation respects cultures!
Don't worry about it.
Also don't worry about Claude staring, because he catches himself eventually, and then firmly looks away while Dias finishes drying himself up. Shower sandals are important. As is...
"Here you go," Claude says, and doesn't stare this time, mostly because he finds himself regarding Dias's weapon instead. Of course he brought it with him. It makes him think about...
Now he's staring at the sword instead. But he is holding out the clothes.
No one else is here!
"Mostly I had these for you," he says eventually. "And I wanted to see what you thought of this place so far. Rena's... definitely reacting."
How? Well. She's reacting.
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
That's precisely the problem. They're not *his* battles.
"Hm. She certainly is," Dias says wryly, accepting his clothes. It speaks to the level of trust Dias has for Claude that he offers his sword, now sheathed, in its place for him to hold onto while he gets dressed. He'll need to unsheathe it again to fully dry out the sheath and polish the blade, but a couple minutes of dampness is fine.
"Hold this for me," he says, and then he goes back behind the corner to make sure no one else walks in on him. Claude will hear the rustle of cloth--maybe see the towel drape to one side as he *definitely does not* look back.
"I don't much like it," he says as he dresses, quick and efficient. They're still warm from the dryer, and smell of fresh wind and sunlight. The washer-dryers in Nede are something else. "Even a small town like this is manicured, and young children join battle like it's natural."
Which is not to say that either Chase or Elaine were *bad* at fighting. Quite the opposite--which is also the problem.
"You and Rena seem taken with the place, and there's nothing wrong with that." Claude is from an 'advanced' planet like this one; this planet was originally Rena's home. "But personally, the sooner I get back to Filgaia, the better."
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude recognizes that trust, and it's something he appreciates well enough that he doesn't call attention to it. He knows better than that by now. Instead he just says, "Sure," and holds it with a firm but careful grip. He knows how to properly handle a weapon.
But Dias has a clear opinion to share, and Claude nods as he hands back over the sword when he comes out. "I noticed that last part especially," he says. "It's strange to me, too." He can adapt fairly easily, but it was a surprise.
"It's..." Claude considers. "It's a pretty planet, and it reminds me of home in a lot of ways. On Earth, most places are pretty well-developed and taken care of by now, but not really on this level."
He considers. "I'm glad to be somewhere Rena is liking so much, but... I am concerned about Filgaia. I want to get back to make sure everything's fine. And there's a lot left there that I need to do."
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
It's that proper handling that's part of why Dias trusts him. There is no fuss about it, and when he emerges, he accepts it back without further comment. He draws it anew, holding the sheath down and the sword up to inspect the latter; there is of course still some condensation on it. He lowers it, then walks off to another room to search for a cloth and polish. He doesn't look at Claude as he does so, but his gait is slow enough that he can easily follow.
"Likewise. I'm glad for Rena that her motherland is a place she can love," Dias replies. "It just doesn't sit right with me." He pauses to glance at Claude at last. "...Keep that to yourself."
There's a quietness to his tone that might indicate that this is a request, rather than a demand, however brusquely he phrases it.
"So your motherland is a similar place?" he asks then. In the next room, there is conveniently some metal polish and several clean cloths laid out on a table, helpfully provided by someone who deals with Steel-type Pokemon; Dias sits there and gets to work.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude watches the motion with the sword with his eyes, but comments no further. It needs further care; that's normal enough. So Claude walks along, not making a big deal of that, either.
He already made a big enough deal earlier seeing him, apparently... Embarrassing.
"You got it," Claude says. He is... well. He's waiting and judging some on Rena's motherland. He likes it so far, at least, but, "...With the way she's looking at it, I think someone who has a little caution about the place is smart."
But, "Yep. Skyscrapers and trains and all. Our wildereness is a little wilder, but we've settled most of the planet by now." Claude will stand, in the meantime. He figures if Dias wants him to leave him be he'll say so. "We don't have wildlife like their Pokemon, though. ...Admittedly I spent most of my time in cities, or in orbit, seeing..."
he trails off, shakes his head. "Well, I spent a lot more time in orbit and in space once I joined the Federation."
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
At least some other things didn't get big too in the process. That would've been even more embarrassing.
Dias thinks nothing of it, at least; he's very sharp when it comes to people's feelings and motives, and he certainly observed Claude's extended attention, but even he wouldn't be able to guess the reason for it. He didn't sense any ill will, and Dias is willing to leave it at that.
He also doesn't mind Claude hanging out as he polishes his sword. If his company weren't welcome, he wouldn't have started up a conversation about Earth, anyway.
He flashes Claude a brief, grim smirk about his talk of caution. "And that sure isn't going to be you with your 'Kakukarrier,'" he quips. His smile fades as he returns his attention to Swallowblade. "That's fine, though. It's good for you two to be enthusiastic about the same things."
Skyscrapers and trains and a wilder wilderness, hm. Different wildlife... that sounds logical. From Dias's understanding, Pokemon are... restorations? Recreations? Of ancient wildlife that died out with the rest of the planet. He's not quite sure. Bio-engineering is beyond his grasp.
Space itself, ironically, is easier for him to understand. After all, they all rode that rocket to Marduk. And comparing Filgaia with the sterile cleanliness of the Black Moon... "It must have been a shock when you first ended up on Filgaia."
'No wonder you looked so lost and alone back then,' Dias doesn't add.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
True.
Claude laughs at the quip. "It's not. Though Barry's definitely not going to fit in that thing anymore..." A pause. Good, huh? Claude notices the way Dias says that but can't come up with a decent segue to saying anything else about it.
Instead... "It was," Claude admits. "Not just for that, though. I was used to different planets by then; I actually... Well, I never told you how I ended up on Filgaia, did I?"
Best not to say that out loud.
"I was on another planet where we'd caught some weird readings. ...I was being pretty stupid about it, because I was annoyed at my father."
"I went to investigate this blinking object, and, well... Got sucked into a vortex and teleported to Filgaia. That's how it happened."
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
It's not that he couldn't come up with a decent segue. It was just all he had to say about the matter. ...That might be six of one, a half dozen of the other, though.
"Rena said she'll just adjust it for the next Pokemon. We'll see how well that turns out." Used to different planets... That makes sense, based on Dias's understanding of the Federation, but still, Filgaia is 'underdeveloped' by their standards. That's not really the important part, though.
Dias glances at Claude. 'You didn't,' he doesn't say, because it's something else that doesn't need to be said. He listens to his story, which on its surface is fairly straightforward. "I see. And that was at least six or seven years ago now," he says. He turns his gaze back down to his sword; with a twist of his wrist, it reflects his stony face back at him. "Your father must think you're dead by now."
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude couldn't though!! And--well. Milokeenia was underdeveloped, too. Claude is not considering Milokeenia that hard by the time Dias speaks up, though. At first, because it's a secondary concern to Rena, who, "Yeah. Some of them are small enough, but..."
He didn't. But he does then.
"...Yeah," Claude says, with not quite a wince. he doesn't share his feelings so easily as that. But Dias can see the little shift in his eyes, the way his gaze goes distant as he thinks about it. "Maybe so. They wouldn't have any idea of where to look, probably. And even if they could trace the teleporter, this system's off-limits, so..."
He looks down. "Wonder what Dad's up to now?"
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
"But they get bigger," Dias concludes. *Much* bigger, in some cases.
Claude isn't one to share his feelings easily--but Dias is observant, and he too knows how it feels to have lost everything. He watches him as his eyes shift and unfocus. It's something that Claude has already considered--no doubt weighs on him regularly. He's the one who's had to live with that knowledge, after all.
Being stupid and investigating something that got him in hot water, though... That's something else Dias can relate to so closely it hurts. It irritates him, really. Every time he looks at Claude, he sees a bit of himself staring back at him.
"Who knows," he says as he wipes down his blade one last time. Satisfied with its shine, he sets it down on the table. There, he'll leave it for a while longer; his sheath needs to finish drying out. He folds his hands under his chin and looks back at his companion. "If he's anything like you, though, I'm sure he's found the strength to keep moving forward."
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
"Apparently!" Claude pats the ball at his belt where Barry is currently hanging out. They decided it was best not to have a gigantic bee just chilling out at the lab unsupervised. But he'll be back out again later.
He doesn't really recognize the similarities in himself on that level to Dias, right now, but he does know Dias gets it. He doesn't have to say as much.
"..."
Strength, though...
"Probably," Claude says, and doesn't elaborate on his wondering in the moment--that he wonders about how his dad would feel in the first place. How a great hero might react...
But he's not so immature anymore as to think his Dad wouldn't care.
"It just hits differently than it could, I guess. Because it's my doing that means he had to find that strength in the first place."
Claude smiles, but it's not a happy kind of thing. "I'm going to check back in on Rena," he says. "Glad there's no lasting damage from the whole smog guy."
<Pose Tracker> Dias Flac has posed.
Dias smirks briefly when Claude pats the Pokeball at his belt. "Rena will be disappointed when she eventually has to put Shorty in one of those too," he says dryly.
Or else she'll insist on keeping a shoulder-height monster out and about. Dias honestly wouldn't be surprised by that, coming from her. Hopefully she'll be sensible about it.
That smirk fades, though. The topic of Claude's father is a heavy one--and so is Claude's response to it. Dias watches him for a moment longer; then he drops his gaze.
"I guess," he echoes.
He doesn't bid Claude stay when he says he's going to leave. Dias isn't that kind of person at the best of times, and this is... not that. He simply nods and gives him a low grunt of acknowledgement, both of Claude's intentions and his well-wishings.
The lasting damage he's suffered came from a different kind of poison: the poison called regret. For him and Claude both.