2024-03-15: Unveiled Warning
- Log: 2024-03-15 Unveiled Warning
- Cast: Lan Lilac, Azoth
- Where: Energy Nede - Near Lavender Town
- Date: March 15, 2024
- Summary: Azoth finds Lan to deliver Loren's warning.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan isn't particularly hard to chase. She doesn't make it a habit to hide away from towns or cities, or to be incognito, or even to shy away from contact with the people she meets. Azoth will find, with persistance, that plenty of people have seen a tall, pale haired and dark skinned Battle Girl Visitor.
It's just that so many people have seen her, and she keeps moving. Lan doesn't stay in the same place for more than a day, and she never stays overnight in a town. If what Azoth hears can be believed, she and her Lunatone would have traveled the entire Kanto circuit at least twice over since Solaris retook him. She doubled back a few times, spent a few days out in the wilds, explored Diglett Cave again, visited Lavender Town and asked a lot of questions about the Tower but didn't go in...
And now she's stopped a few iles south of there to camp overnight, though if her pattern holds she'll be breaking camp soon. It's mid-morning, and the bright desert-yellowish canvas of her much-used tent doesn't blend into the forests of Energy Nede at all. There's a small campfire smoldering in a firepit with the evidence of breakfast nearby.
The Lunatone she'd befriended is surrounded by a small circle of floating stones, manipulating them in intricate patterns with psychic skill. And Lan is nearby, slowly drifting through the poses of her warmup exercises while the Buneary at her side copies her. (It wobbles occasionally, but it's trying hard!)
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The most difficult part of finding Lan is that Lan is on Energy Nede, a place that Azoth had once been determined not to return to after he was taken away from it. Azoth's presence tends to only complicate things... especially for the well meaning. The Drifters are bad enough, but Nede in general might just be predisposed to his care.
(Un)fortunately, Ceru had different plans, and he already identified the exact person he needed to in order to team up on Azoth about it. Pokemon always get their way in the end, in seems, and a dark Luxury Ball sits at his belt. That's the least Azoth can do for Ceru now... and have to decide later how he's going to keep him safe from Solaris.
It at least helps to look like a Trainer while asking others how to find another one -- and Lan has certainly been active as one, if the rumors are true. Azoth may have gone along with a guess about being sworn rivals or something once or twice to keep it from sounding like stalking. It's probably fine. Er. Hopefully.
Finally, finally he manages to locate her camp. A stone-like Pokemon (!!!!!) and a rabbit-like one...
Azoth doesn't intend to sneak up on Lan, but by default keeps his steps soundless, and thus there's very little fanfare as he approaches from behind. He watches her and Buneary for a moment before daring to speak with a sheepish smile and small wave.
"...Hey."
He never managed to calculate the best way to greet someone after trying to kill them.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
In the Kanto region at least, there's probably a line for Sworn Rival on your Trainer's License, right beneath your row of badges earned and just above your emergency contact/s. It's a respectable relationship! Just look at Red and Blue.
She's graceful, like this. With the ease of a motion performed ten thousand times, Lan looks like she's dancing. Even coaching the Buneary can't bring her out of the state of flow brought about by a simple warmup routine. Lan likes mornings and moving her body. She likes existing in physical space, in a body that is hers. (She doesn't think about it in quite such defined concepts, but the sentiment is there.) She likes the things she can do, and the things she can learn. She can go through the motions and reacquaint herself with gravity.
She can stop thinking and worrying for a while, and just 'be'.
While Lan doesn't hear his approach, the Lunatone looks over at him as he approaches, a grating stone-on-stone sound rumbling out as a greeting and an alert both. It doesn't seem agitated, just aware of his presence. Lan turns...
...and freezes halfway through a sweeping motion she could perform in her sleep, if she weren't confrontedshockedsurprised by the diguised face of the friend who has tried to run her through twice over (and succeeded once). "Aa-"
Lunatone goes from aware to alert, a high pitched screech cutting through the white noise in Lan's head as it darts between the two of them, staring Azoth down. "--zoth," Lan finishes, a bit awkwardly, once her heart has climbed back down out of her throat. The Buneary clings to her ankle. "...Hi," she tries, because if there's a way you're supposed to greet someone who has nearly killed you, Lan doesn't know it.
If she did, though, she'd probably just ignore it...?
"You're back," she tries again, because things shouldn't end like that! "Did Leah, uh, what did-?" She doesn't know what to ask. Because even if he's here, he's probably not okay. "...Do you want some tea?" Lan finally asks, because even if he's a killer robot he's still her guest, and she'd like to still consider Azoth her friend.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
It never fails to amaze Azoth what humans have managed to optimize about their bodies and their motions. The sheer variety of it is nothing short of inspiring. People from different reaches of the multiple worlds he's been on all have their own unique take on how to make their organic bodies efficient. It's difficult for him to pick up on, though. His programming is built for a different structure.
But once Lan freezes, so does Azoth -- like someone slammed a pause button on him. Lunatone is there in a flash, and Azoth shoots upright, palms shown in surrender. Even Buneary reacts...! The corner of Azoth's mouth twitches more awkwardly with his guilt.
If he thought it would make her feel any better, he'd let her run him through once or twice to even the score.
What did Leah do to him, he guesses she means.
"It wasn't like she tackled my code personally," Azoth says, smile more waning. "But... you know how it is." More than most people, Azoth understands grimly.
Slowly, Azoth lowers his arms when he's reasonable sure the Lunatone isn't going to Moonblast him. He shakes his head at the offer for tea.
"Tea would be wasted on me. ...Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. But I've been looking for you." Like with Gwen, that he found her is its own damning concern. Azoth can be used to find them, whatever his intentions. Whatever theirs are. But this is important.
"...I have a message. From Loren. As a friend."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She didn't mean to freeze up! She shouldn't freeze up. It's an unbecoming trait in a Drifter and a martial artist... Did she always freeze up like that, Lan wonders. Wasn't there a time when she was able to go right into action, for better or for worse? Or is it just that some experiences would be too much for anybody to handle gracefully?
...She's overthinking it again.
Despite its rocky body, Lunatone is also a psychic Pokemon. Once Lan attempts to rein in her emotions, it goes from high alert to 'concerned hovering', but it doesn't make that horrible noise again. Which is good because Lan's ears are still kind of ringing and she's not even the one it was aimed at!! "Yeah, I guess she has people for that," she finds herself saying, because there are people for everything in Solaris. Everything. She does know. Though at least Lan wasn't aware of most of it. Azoth knows he's been rewritten. He doesn't even get the mercy of waking dreams, like Lan had.
"Oh, I guess so," she nods about drinks being wasted on him, because robots don't seem to have organs or stomachs or anything...? Just wires and strange-colored fluids and metal things. She's seen bits of Azoth's insides, which is not a thing Lan likes to be able to say about anybody, especially if she cares about them!!
If he was here to take her back personally, he probably wouldn't have stopped to greet her. So Lan is a little relaxed about it, even if she shouldn't be. Because in the end, she would rather keep trusting him. It's really not any more complicated than that. "From Loren?" As a friend, still. A friend, a friend, even after the drugs. Even after the things he said. Even with the things Azoth will almost certainly have to do again. The things he'll want to apologize for. A friend, a friend, a friend.
Lan wipes a sheen of perspiration from her forehead and leans down to pick up Buneary and cuddle it close to her chest. "Something important, huh," she guesses, pale eyes grave. "What's going on?"
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
If you asked Azoth, he would be glad to go into the advantages and disadvantages of fight, flight, and the often forgotten freeze. Freeze doesn't seem logical to most people, but it's been effective for a number of creatures. Baby fawns, for one, but -- well, no one is asking Azoth.
Instead, he can only smile back at Lan in that pained, but putting-in-the-effort way. He's been rewritten. Not the first time. Whatever he did has been undone. Whatever freedom, reshackled. Back to square one.
"We all knew this was inevitable," he says. As if that makes anyone, least of all himself, feel any more at ease.
He allows his posture to take on something more relaxed, hoping it can at least put Lan's Pokemon at ease, even if Lan herself has every reason to remain on the highest of alerts when Azoth's involved. He looks every bit human right now, though perhaps Pokemon with heightened senses can still discern something a little off. Warmth of energy instead of blood, no heartbeat, that faint whirring and humming from deep within... even the flow of those strange liquids Lan's trying not to think about.
But Loren. Azoth nods.
"He was more himself again when he came to talk to me... like that version of him had never happened. And he couldn't remember everything he'd said or done." He wasn't just torturing Loren when he brought up certain sentiments expressed.
That was a bonus.
"He wants you to be careful. Not just because of who might have been watching that battle --" That's always a problem, "-- but because they ran extensive tests to scan for the Stranger's Ether in Loren after that fight. Loren said he doesn't know what it means either, but it was important to him that you know."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Honestly? If it weren't quite so close to home, Lan would probably enjoy learning about it! Even if that, by technicality, makes her the baby fawn. "Even if it was inevitable, it was really important that we tried to stop it. One day it will work. We've just got to keep trying." Keep fighting. Keep getting stronger, faster, smarter. Outpace Solaris somehow, and wrench their hands out of Filgaia's heart, and pull Etrenank out of the sky--
Lan takes a deep breath. Holds it. Lets it, and that thought, go.
He'd recovered, then. That's good. Lan is still going to stomp him, the next time she sees him!! "I told him not to use it," she sighs, because he doesn't listen to her. Especially lately. So of course he did, and then he said a bunch of hateful things.
...Wasn't there something else?
Too many people had spoken at once. Mercifully, Lan can't quite untangle it all right now. "I hope you can still give him a good slap. He needs one!" To make Loren stop being so stupid! Poor Azoth, tasked to not only ferry messages, but now corporal punishment as well?! But even becoming a little incensed by the flickering memory of it isn't enough to make Lan miss the warning tone of Azoth's voice. She straightens up a bit more, tucking Buneary a little higher on her shoulder.
"His..." A queasy, oily feeling spreads in her chest. It's one thing to have her own theory about just what's happening to her. It's another entirely to know that people much more experienced with Ether are pursuing similar ideas... and that once again, Lan might be harming or corrupting someone just by being near.
She can still remember the sensation of the black ribbons spiraling down her arms and climbing Loren's throat. The taste of his terror.
She wipes at her eyes with the hand not cradling Buneary close, and the Pokemon patpatpats at her cheek in dismay. "..."
"I... It happened before. I don't know how much he remembers. But when he had amnesia for real that one time, when he'd lost everything and Leah came herself to take him back, it was because whatever the Stranger left in me, uh, touched him," Lan admits.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth's smile doesn't fade, but his eyes are sadder. "...That's what everyone keeps telling me. At least you're a united front." Gwen, Xantia, Lan... They've even gotten to Kaguya with their Drifter optimism and relentlessness. May they all rip Solaris from the sky... whether or not Azoth is around to see it.
But maybe he'll have to stop finding loopholes to destroy himself, if they're going to be this way about it.
"I don't know a lot about the injection he took, but I don't like it when he takes it, either," Azoth admits, frowning now and uneasily toeing at the ground. "...I really don't like it when he takes two, turns out."
Corporal punishment! Azoth beeps in alarm, pointing t himself. "Me?! I can only attack Loren under some very specific parameters." Most of them have something to do with Leah. Not that he can say that. Despite this, Azoth broadens into a grin. "But don't you worry, I can make him understand regret in plenty of other ways!"
He leans in a little toward Lan conspiratorially. This is pointless. Only Pokemon are here and they can still here him. "Between you and me, I already about made his soul leave his body for the stunt he pulled. All it took was a little accurate reporting on his own behavior."
Will it be enough to discourage Loren from using Drive again? Azoth can only hope.
But Azoth is quiet and still, giving Lan a good deal more personal space as she takes in his warning. Azoth has met this Stranger once before. Even his sensors could not make sense of the madness around him. And more than once, Lan's strange magic has lashed out at him. Bizarre. Surreal. Unique.
"So that's the connection," Azoth says quietly after Lan explains. He closes his eyes a moment, wondering if there's anything he can do with this data, or any other he's collected from the three of them. "...I don't think he's looking for answers for himself, though. He's worried."
Loren hadn't wanted Lan -- or anyone but Azoth -- to know it was him saying this.
But there's a difference between the message Loren wants to send and the one Azoth does.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"All I know about that medicine is that it's called Drive, and Doctor Citan says it makes people more aggressive and shuts off their ability to care about other people, or the consequences of their actions. Which, yeah," she sighs, because that's the most cut-and-dry interpretation ever of how Loren has acted every time he's taken it. Almost impersonal... when the actual experience had been anything but.
"I don't think anybody likes when he takes it," if they're being completely fair. Maybe not even Loren, she faintly hopes. She watches him scuff at the ground with sympathy. It really is a terrible feeling, to watch someone do that to himself. "But we'll make him regret it, right?" Lan perks up, as if the promise of future Loren Reeducation Endeavors will certainly work this time. "But you can, at all... honestly, I kinda hope you won't ever need to. Because you've had to hurt enough people." Buneary turns to watch him with its adorable button eyes. Lunatone still hovers nearby, though it seems to be judging him a little less than before. Is it reading Lan's thoughts, or just sensitive to the general vibe?
And Lan's grin returns in full force, if only briefly, when Azoth says he made Loren experience Capital-H Hubris. "What did you even do!" she chortles, smiling even with moist eyes. Look, a little schadenfruede is good for you. Even if Lan can't spell it.
And even if Loren is worried. About her, or the black ribbon, or... anything.
"...I think he's right to be worried. I'm worried." Lan wants to pace, or move, or sit down and put her head in her hands and feel sorry for herself until she's good and done. But none of that will help. "But if you think it's a good idea, you could tell him I asked for help finding a way to cut it out." Because with Lily and Citan, it could be a metaphorical or extremely literal use of the word. "So I'm not giving up yet. Okay?" She reaches out to Azoth with her free hand. "I won't give up on getting free, so you don't either."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth, as might be expected, haunts the engineering departments of Solaris more than the biological. He frowns with Lan's explanation as if it's new to him -- because it is -- tapping at his bottom lift and closing his eyes. "So no matter how high you climb, what you are is never good enough."
Even the Gebler must be altered in how they think and act.
"I don't want to hurt him anymore than you do." Significant words... in more ways than one. They want Loren to be okay. Which might mean making him suffer with whatever remorse they can inflict because the alternative is several factors worse.
He glances to Buneary for a brief smile and glances in acknowledgment to Lunatone. If Azoth did try to stab Lan again, it's heartening to know he might get a rock to the face over it.
But oh, Azoth has done a CRIME. He grins, glancing away. "Oh, goodness, I actually didn't imagine it would strike him so deeply," he says, letting his words drip with innocence. "All I did was play back some of the things he said. Honestly, he should know better if all it takes is a good look in the mirror."
Or the voice box, as it were. Azoth subdues, softening as he looks back at Lan.
"I can do that. I think it means something to know that after everything, you'd still have anything to say to him." If Loren ends up feeling he's burnt his bridges, then Azoth's plans reach a dead end.
Azoth startles, looking to Lan's hand. He stares at it a moment, then up to her, before tentatively reaching to close the distance and briefly take hers in his.
"...I --" Blue eyes flicker red. He pinches them shut, opening them only once they're back to blue. "... Okay."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Nothing is ever good enough. No matter how much Loren achieves, he'll still hold himself up against the memory of Engil. Nothing he does can buy his parents' safety should he defect. Leah Sadalbari has a vested interest in his growth.
And Loren is one of Solaris's Elect, their most blessed. Still nothing is ever, ever good enough.
"I'm glad you don't want to. Which doesn't mean that sometimes we aren't going to have to pop him a good one if he's being an ass!" Mana of Little Firelight was a believer in discipline when necessary, and Lan apparently keeps the tradition of 'smacking a dumbass upside the head until they stop being a dumbass' alive.
"I'll always have something to say to him. Even if it's just stupid, little things. He's going to have to try harder to convince me to abandon him." Behind her, Lunatone's eyes lid.
Her hand doesn't shake when Azoth reaches out to take it in his own. Her flinch, when his eyes flash briefly red, is minute. Lan hasn't frozen. It's different, to simply hold herself steady. She squeezes his fingers, a long, deliberate gesture, before letting go.