2024-04-04: Crossroads

• Log: Crossroads
• Cast: Loren Voss, Eleanor Klein
• Where: Vermillion City - Harbor
• Date: April 04, 2024
• Summary: Loren, having retreated to Vermillion City to regroup with the others, is happened upon by Eleanor. She has a few things to say to him.
• Warning: Includes implied suicidal ideation.

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<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    It had been going so well, right up until it hadn't. There have been better missions.

    Loren under an umbrella-equipped table near the harbor, his hamburger half-eaten and seemingly abandoned on the compostable plate it had come on. Shoulders slouched, he sits in a hunched-over fashion that he will regret in another ten years, methodically feeding the Zubat that sits on the metal chair next to his own a Poffin.

    The Zubat seems to have settled for 'oh boy!' as its mood of the moment, in definite counterbalance to the despondant aura that Loren himself is projecting.

    Maybe the whole thing had been dashed the moment his partners had gotten downed. He'll have to include that in the report, he thinks, beetling his brow as the Zubat noshes away. Maybe they'll send someone else to help for the next target. More likely, they'll suggest he 'try harder' next time.

    He doesn't have a lot of faith in the next time, especially with those guys. And maybe it's unfair to blame them: they're still getting used to Nede and using Pokemon. But somehow, he gets the feeling that fate is going to repeat itself, and that he's going to end up having to haul around dead weight again.
    Frankly, he's just glad no one seems to have reported them (yet? in a way that matters?) so those guys can sleep it off peacefully and he can make an attempt to plan the next operation. He scowls, deeply, slouching further. Why's it his responsibility to plan these things, anyway?! He's medical!

    He's medical and he's gotten a lot of field experience in doing this sort of thing, is the correct answer, however he might like it. And unlike other First Class operatives--

    But maybe it's better not to think the rest of that thought.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor Klein heard about what happened in Armslock. She has a lot of people who give her information these days, as it happens. That's on top of her own gifts, naturally.

So color her surprised to actually see Loren...

But that's what was then. What is now is:

"Hello, Loren." Eleanor steps onto the terrace with a fancy drink in her hand, looking at Loren. "May I take this seat, Zubat?"

She asks the Zubat. She does not ask Loren.

SHe very much does not ask Loren.

"You seem to be having a rough time. That sort of posture is bad for you, you know."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    If it is luck, it's probably not the kind of luck that's going to hold -- definitely not for him. Which is all the more reason for Loren to check in with command, and soon; if he gets arrested and locked up on Energy Nede, he's really going to be in for it.
    Of course they'd bail him out. But, and this is the thing, Leah had said not to let her down.

    Ruining this attempt would certainly accomplish that, unquestioningly.

    But a shadow falls across the proceedings here at the waterfront: for lo, here is Eleanor.

    "Uh," starts Loren eloquently, lifting his head and not his shoulders or back. "Hello?" Loren says to her, with a look on his face that suggests that she is not welcome.

    Unfortunately for him, Zubat has other plans. "Zu!" the Zubat squeaks after finishing his poffin, then beating tiny wings to ascend to the tabletop. "Ba!" he then chirps, turning around to face Eleanor.

    "...You traitor," Loren says without real feeling. Zubat looks pretty pleased with himself. Loren's own gaze swings over towards Eleanor. "What else is new?" he grouses. "...And don't you have somewhere better to be?"

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

"Hello!" Eleanor repeats, and her shadow does not fall very far but it is certainly wide enough to come over this particular outing.

She smiles, leaning closer to the Zubat. "You're so cute!" she tells it. "Thank you very much."

Then, she sits down, primly smoothing her skirt and then turning to smile at Loren as he grouses.

The smile disappears after a moment, though. "I don't," Eleanor answers seriously. "I actually think this is a rather important place for me to be at the moment, considering."

"...I notice that you used Pokemon, not weapons," she says quietly. "And that made me think."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "Zubat!" chirps the Pokemon, grinning at Eleanor toothily. He might not be able to see her per se, but he's glad to 'see' her all the same.

    Something about Eleanor's shift in tone -- let alone her choice of words -- prompts Loren to rather suddenly straighten. It's not proper posture precisely, but his alarm has forced him into something more approximate of it. He regards her warily.

    And then she drops the bomb, as it were.

    "...Don't tell me you were there too?" he opts for after a moment's silence, his shoulders dropping as if to thereby signal his resignation. What's he going to do, deny it? Leave, and see if she calls the police on him? She's obviously wanting something or she would have already done the latter, so he might as well figure out what it is that she wants from him.

    "And, so what? I don't want to fight those guys myself." He looks pointedly at Zubat, who beams at Eleanor. "That was the whole point, remember?"

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Zubat is very cute. It helps that Eleanor hasn't been in enough caves to see hundreds of them. Always there. Always screeing.

Loren straightens, and Eleanor gives him a moment to be wary, to consider her words. But then his initial reply--she shakes her head. "No, but I stay informed. If there's an ARMS member present, you can generally assume that I heard about what happened sooner or later. And if there isn't... It's not surprising if I learn about it that way, either."

"It's not that I think you're too soft," Eleanor says. "I don't think you did it that way because you're unwilling to hurt people. You are a soldier. I think you did it that way because you and your leaders aren't prepared to fight Nede openly." She pauses for a moment.

"..But that's beside the point. Are you really prepared to alienate an entire new world for your leaders? You're playing a very dangerous game, Loren." She sighs. "Well, I don't expect you to tell me your objectives, either. ...Though I'm certainly willing to listen, if you'd like!"

She doubts it. "In fact, I..."

Eleanor stops again, and if Loren actually looks at her, he might see that she's staring into space. That her eyes are glowing gold, looking at nothing in particular.

It's going to take her a few moments.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He stares at Eleanor for a long moment. Then, with a 'tch', Loren turns his head away. "I knew someone would talk. So, what do you want? What's your game, Klein?"

    To say he's being prickly in her direction... would be an understatement.

    "Is that what you think? Hmph..." he says, glancing at her for a moment as if solely to glower in her direction. "...Well, you're not wrong. We could have broken our way in there. Our way. But..." But it would have come down to just that moment. If they didn't get what they needed from that facility, then that was it. It wasn't that Command -- or Loren, who had suggested the approach -- had thought that it would have brought the wrath of Energy Nede down upon Solaris's heads (advanced technology or not). It was more that if they struck them hard, then he, personally, would get to find out how hard they could really hit back. And they'd without question tighten their defenses.

    Energy Nede seems like they'd be pushovers. His assistants in this operation had certainly pondered the same thing aloud, at first. Then Loren had pointed out a few things to them that he'd noticed.
    You don't become a civilization like this without breaking a few eggs. And what's more--
    There's the matter of the Pokemon themselves.

    He shakes his head, even as Eleanor notes some of the same points he'd made to the others when dissuading a more direct approach. In the end, it might well amount to the same thing -- for him, at least. "And? What does it matter," he says to her, not looking back this time. "I don't live here. And if you think I'm about to tell you what we're doing, I--"

    It takes Loren a moment to realize that she's trailed off and hasn't said anything else. At length he turns his head her way again, half-expecting to see that something horrible has descended upon their location in abeyance of sense, but instead sees something arguably just as bad.

    Her eyes are glowing gold.

    "uh," Loren utters, standing up quickly enough to knock over his chair. "what--"

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor can deal with prickly. That's not a problem for her; glowers don't intimidate her much... though truthfully, if Loren wanted to fight, it would be a problem.

But that's just the name of the game.

"Right. I don't think Nede is prepared to handle you as things stand. That much is clear."

But--

Eleanor could've given a retort to that. She could've said that it matters even if he doesn't live here. But she doesn't do that. Instead, she continues to stare into the distance for a long few more moments--

Before she suddenly blinks, and her eyes go back to normal. She stares into the distance a moment longer--and then shakes her head. "Loren?" she says. In her vision, he is kneeling; she can't see all of it, though. She can't see what he's kneeling over. And what he says...

"You..."

"Ah, that is--" She can't exactly tell Loren about her visions. "...In any case, so long as you keep things nonlethal that way..."

A shake of her head. "Nm." It's always disorienting when that happens.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He doesn't want to pick a fight. Not unless it has a purpose, or if it keeps someone safe. And if he starts one now, he'll accomplish neither of them: the soldiers resting back in the hostel won't know what's happened until it's too late if Loren gets arrested out and about elsewhere. Maybe they should go to ground. Probably, they should go to ground: more than likely the situation is less safe than he'd come to assume, and they still have work to do.

    Damn it-- perhaps he should be glad for Eleanor's 'intercession' with that in mind, but it's not actually making him very happy.

    "They aren't," he agrees. "But it won't take much for them to become ready." He's still not sure the others get it. But they'd listened to his plan and went along with it and, hell, he'll take that.

    But in Eleanor's vision, the Loren she sees is a very different person from the one she'd been speaking to mere seconds ago. He seems ready, the bolt of a crossbow drawn to its sticking place and prepared to meet his fate. What he says is--
    It'll be important, someday.

    And just like that, she's herself again. "...What?" Loren speaks again, as Eleanor drops back into the conversation they'd been having just moments prior. "What was with the-- thing," he says, gesturing towards Eleanor vaguely. That thing. With the glowing eyes.

    His gaze pans instead over to the rest of the table after the span of a moment and it's there that Loren sees that Zubat is eating the rest of his hamburger. "Hey-- that was mine, you--" he starts, gesticulating before ultimately giving up and letting his arms hang in resignation at his sides. "Zubaaa?" chirps Zubat, tilting his head to the side, which might just mean, 'but you weren't eating it anyway?'

    Loren, succumbing to this fate, goes and picks up the fallen chair and sets it back upright before sitting himself back in it.

    "...Well, let's hope so," he tells Eleanor, pushing his glasses back up his nose pensively.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor wouldn't directly help Solaris--but she could fail to act against Loren. Especially under these circumstances--the losses the police would take if they tried to bring him in and he resisted...

She doesn't doubt that Nede could become ready, and indeed, she nods at that. "True."

But she doesn't think they are yet. She is lost to the vision shortly after, though, and it's one that troubles her greatly. The emotion she gets from it is so...

"It--"

She can't explain. Or well, she could, but it strikes her as a very bad idea. So she doesn't. Instead, she lets herself latch onto, "Pokemon are like that. I can't tell you how often Phaosia goes for my snacks..."

Loren sits down again. "I also hope that. It means that I can afford to talk with you like this, for one. And more importantly, it prevents open war between our worlds. I don't believe that everyone on Nede would see the distinction between Solaris and the rest of us."

A pause. "...Loren," she says. "I know there's more you care about than your nation. That there are things that matter to you. I..."

She hesitates, but her heart can't let her fail to say something. "...Please just think very carefully about what matters most to you. You don't have to tell me anything. But for your own sake... Be as certain as you can."

That face. So certain. So ready...

"I've had to think about the same things, myself. So I hope whatever you choose, you can live with it."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    The last thing he wants to do is draw more attention than is warranted down on this entire operation. Whatever the Nedians are capable of if pressed, it still comes down to the basics in the end: even if, in spite of their technology, they wouldn't hold a candle against what Solaris is prepared and willing to attempt, the fact remains that they aren't even on the home turf of Filgaia here. Backup wouldn't be able to respond readily even if they did call, and there's no telling what the Nedians might do in the interim.

    Maybe they wouldn't even bother with jail. Maybe there's something uglier hiding behind the facade-- maybe they'd just get executed.

    Loren doesn't plan on finding out what that is, if he can help it.

    So instead when Eleanor collects herself and he sits himself back down in his seat, he sighs over the matter of his Zubat eating his hamburger. "You're going to get a stomachache," he tells Zubat, who is not at all slowing down. "He had several poffins," he complains in Eleanor's general direction, as if that made the different in a way that mattered.

    But neither does he snatch the burger away. He doesn't, uh, want it right now, anyway.

    And Eleanor points out something important. Loren grimaces in response. "...You say that like I have a choice. If I can keep it from getting out of hand, then-- fine. But I can't promise anything," he finishes, lifting his head to look at her again. "..."

    "Everyone has something they care about," he says, at last. "Something other than their nation, or their people, or whatever. I think that's the case wherever you go." His shoulders sag. "Look-- I'm not saying..." He trails off, as if rethinking himself what he's trying to say, midsentence. "...But it's not as simple as picking sides and living with it. Whatever I do, I'm--"

    And just like that, he comes down hard on whatever it was that he'd been about to say. But Eleanor can surely guess.

    Instead Loren sits up straight in his seat to stare at her almost as if to dare her to say anything more, his defensive prickliness on full display. "...Forget it," he finishes, shaking his head. "Just-- forget it. We're not friends," he tells her, as if saying it would make it any more true than any of the other times he's said as much in the past. "And I don't owe you a story." Taking a long breath, he closes his eyes as if tired for just the moment before fixing his gaze on her again.

    Be certain about it. He wishes he could be certain about it. It'd make this all so much easier. But as it stands he--

    "Whatever happens, I'll have to live with it."

    He doesn't see that there's room to do anything otherwise.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

"Oh, did he? Hmmm. What a naughty little boy," she says of the Zubat, though she says it in a fond tone. So, so cute.

She spoils her Pokemon a bit.

Eleanor does recognize that Loren isn't in charge, though the degree to which that's true is clearer as he says that. "That's all you can do, I suppose. But it's good that you're doing that much."

He does almost say something. He almost gives something to her. It's not simple, he says, and Eleanor waits, hoping she'll learn what makes it so complicated for him--

But she can only guess. Guessing isn't quite good enough... But she imagines it's the fact that there is no 'clean' answer, no way that doesn't let someone down.

But he's prickly again. Eleanor inclines her head. "We are enemies," she says, which isn't the same as not being friends. "And you don't owe me a story. That's very true."

She hesitates for a moment, her strange, yellow eyes crinkling a little as she does. "But..."

"That's what I'm afraid of, Loren." Eleanor looks into his eyes, if she can. "...I'm afraid you won't have to live with it."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "More like a pain," he gripes, though there's no true heat behind it. "If you get sick from this," he tells Zubat, who is still happily chewing away.

    Loren does not actually finish detailing that threat. He will never admit to it, but the fact is that Loren also... is guilty of the same sin as Eleanor in this.

    "Consider yourself lucky," he goes on, feeling like he's saying way, way too much already. And he is! But there's also a wild and chaotic part of his hear that revels in doing this. "If those idiots had their way, it would have been a lot worse."

    It's not all that dissimilar from that part of him that had delighted in the power he'd grasped in the wastes on the other side of the rift.

    But the fact of the matter is that he's the one who gets to decide, also, just who near and dear to him that he gets to let down. Or worse. There's the option for several shades of worse, however it goes. And it's on this matter that he will not speak to Eleanor regarding. Or to anyone else at all, if he can help it. It's a weakness after all. And as much as he can't bear making this decision, he truly can't bear someone using his own heart against him to force it in a particular direction.

    But it's okay if Leah does it?

    ...He does not answer this traitorous part of his own psyche. Instead, he focuses his attention outwards, where paradoxically he feels like he can have more control. "Then you get the idea," he tells her, settling back heavily in his seat. A long pause follows as his gaze meets hers.

    "...What do you mean by that?"

    He knows, he finds in the moments following, perfectly well what she means by that. "...Then..."

    "...Then, fine then," he finishes, breathing out slowly and looking away towards the sea. "..."

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

That's one thing Eleanor won't blame Loren for. It'll be their secret, at least for now.

Lucky, though... She is. Eleanor won't deny that, though she doesn't think it's what Loren means. She glances to her left hand, to the wedding ring there. She considers, for a moment. "...I imagine so," she says of those idiots, instead.

No, Eleanor can guess only so far as to the contents of Loren's heart. And she does 'get the idea' as it were. If it were different, maybe she could warn him... But she can never avert visions like that on her own. She never has been able to. Not without others. And who could help?

"..."

Fine then, he says. "I'm sorry," Eleanor says. "I can't say any more than that." She smiles at little Zubat, and then makes a more subdued expression to Loren.

"Just think about it," she says. "...I know there are people who would be sad, if you were gone."

"...I think I'm one of them."

Eleanor rises from her seat. "Take care."

She walks away, quickly and quietly as she came.