2024-01-28: What Hurts and What's Right
- Log: 2024-01-28 What Hurts and What's Right
- Cast: Lan Lilac, Loren Voss, Eleanor Klein
- Where: Viridian City - Emerald Way
- Date: January 28, 2024
- Summary: Lan derails Loren and Eleanor's rescue plan by not actually being kidnapped.
=======================<* Viridian City - Emerald Way *>======================== Viridian City is a city of many importances; it is the major commerce and logistics hub within the Emerald Cape province, providing primary access to the western reaches of the Kanto region. It's of no surprise, then, that it sports an expansive and well-developed commercial district, with Market Way providing a wide variety of shops and goods for all walks of life. Lush and adorned with nature, Viridian's residents enjoy a spacious and relaxed environment, with most living in medium-density apartment blocks three to four stories high. The market is most recently memorably featured in the hit single by sensational Nedean-pop band 2BA, "I'm on the Road to Viridian City." BGM: Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee & Pikachu! - Pewter City - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGrGjO5F6ZM
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lavender Town had been a bust. So had Vermillion City and Pallet Town. Lan still isn't very familiar with the region so her travel is slow going, but the general safety of the region makes long travel times almost a novelty. She doesn't have to worry about a giant sandworm breaching the desert surface or anything!
Here the sandworms are small and they're called Dunsparce, which is a weird name for a worm but nobody asked Lan.
But neither Eleanor nor Loren have been in any of the towns she's traveled to, although she was able to confirm (via a video call, which felt very weird to make) that her friends are taking care of her things and the Lunatone. Which is a huge relief! But now her things (and the Lunatone) are moving, and Lan doesn't have any idea about which direction they might be taking.
At least she ran into Doctor Citan yesterday! And met a new friend, too. She'll have to ask Sable about the medicines she saw... most of the plants here are unfamiliar, and just because the pharmacies have cures for everything ever doesn't mean that there isn't more she can learn from the Nede's home remedies. But for now, she's resting her feet on the patio of a dessert parlor off of one of Viridian's main streets. Jessie and James, despite being villains (and villains that she'd threatened with grievous bodily harm!) were actually fairly generous... they bought her some clothes (with Lunata's paycheck) and also made sure that she had a little money to travel with (more of Lunata's paycheck...!)
It was something about the boundless generosity of Team Rocket, but Lan is pretty sure she remembers that they're normally broke? Are they just the kinds of people who can't manage money?!
Lan, who is halfway through her rather expensive Super Slowpoke Sundae, can't relate at all...!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
For Loren, the last week has been a frustrating one. True, it hasn't been spent in vain: he's been getting a good look around Nede along with a crash course in Pokemon training (not to mention being able to scout about for signs or stories of possible Azoth sightings), but every day he hasn't gotten any closer to his present goal (which is to find and rescue Lan) the more anxious he's gotten.
Team Rocket steals Pokemon, not people, is the common refrain he's heard. What if they're not keeping her captive? What if they've--?
And then they'd caught word about a discount on TMs planned a few days hence in Viridian City. The price was a pretty steep drop from the list price, which after Loren's own experience with the spa seemed a little bit suspicious. Was it possible that this was another Team Rocket plot to draw people in then divest them of their Pokemon? ...Well, it wasn't as if they had anything to lose. Worst case, at least he would get his hands on some TMs under list price. And so he had set forth along with Eleanor on his quest, hoping that this lead would bear fruit.
They arrive early. The sale is tomorrow, as it happens, and at a glance, nothing looks terribly amiss. There are people wandering the Market Way and browsing shops. He sees some Nedians chatting with each other (about their Pokemon, he assumes, since they have theirs out and are pointing at them as they talk). A couple are walking hand-in-hand, apparently lost in their own little world. A blonde lady is lounging about outside a dessert parlour, apparently halfway through a sundae. It looks like a completely normal (for Energy Nede) afternoon--
Loren quite literally halts in his tracks and pivots his attention sharply over at the lady by the parlour. Wait... wait a minute... that can't be--!
...But it is!
"Lan!" he calls out, racing over in her direction before his brain can halfway catch up with his body.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor Klein has been concerned about Lan, too--but she has a plan for how to get her back, and that's to work with Loren Voss for a while. She wasn't in Vermillion since the attack; she hasn't been to Pallet in a while. Mostly she's spent time in Pewter since then, and...
Discount TMs! That would be helpful regardless. "If it's not a trap," she'd said, "Then you can use the TMs to strengthen your Pokemon."
But here and now...
A blonde lady. Eleanor looks to the couple rather than the blonde lady at first, until Loren suddenly halts and--
"Loren?" she starts. "Oh!"
"Lan!" Eleanor greets cheerfully, and walks at a much more dignified pace. She's practically got flowers over her head, is how happy she is at this.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
What if they have...?
Lan, who clearly hasn't been, sticks a spoonful of strawberry-champagne ice cream into her mouth. The color looked like it should be regular strawberry, or maybe bubblegum, but there's a funny depth to the flavor of the fruit. But it's non-alcoholic, according to the menu...!
There's a small commotion in the street. Running footsteps, and a shout of... wait, that's her name! Her long-handled spoon clatters to the tabletop as Lan shoves her chair out, scrambling to her feet.
No way, no way, is it really just this easy?! (What, exactly, was easy about any of this?!)
She's wearing Nedian clothes in unusual colors and a pair of their cushy sneakers, and her hair's still falling loose down her back without the butterfly ribbon to even pretend to tame it. "Loren! Eleanor!" Lan laughs, and rushes the rest of the way over to them, arms held out wide. She's going to scoop him up, she's going to crow in his ear about how happy she is and how good it is to see him--
--Her smile dims a fraction of a watt, and Lan slows to a stop in front of them, ice cream forgotten back on the patio. Her arms drop to her sides a bit awkwardly. "Hi! It's so good to see you both! What have you been up to? Oh," she seems to realize, looking from Eleanor to Loren and back again, "Have you been traveling together?" Is Loren making friends? Or did the Drifters collectively decide that Loren can't be left unsupervised in this innocent land, and now he's got a babysitter?!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
TMs would be handy. In fact, he's wondered if only Pokemon can use them, or if this might be something that Runeberry could handle, too. Assuming, of course, it wouldn't be dangerous for Runeberry. But it's occured to him that it could be a good idea to help see if he could train the cloudbear to defend itself, given it... really can't do that at all presently.
But that was then and this is now, and of all things, a nightmare has suddenly come to an abrupt end. Lan -- because it is Lan and he's not mistaken or anything at all like that -- sees them too and she rises to her feet and she's running and it looks like she's about to sweep him into a hug and,
And the way that he'd started to stiffen in anticipation of contact feels more like a joke than anything when she skids to a stop and greets the two of them cheerfully. Once again, all he can do is look at her as if she'd walked up to him and slapped him instead.
...This is what he wanted, isn't it? It's better this way, right?
And it takes him a few moments to get his brain rolling down the correct track again and tune back in to the here and now. "Y-yeah, we were," he manages, before shaking his head. "--I thought Team Rocket kidnapped you!" he blurts out.
'I spent almost a week trying to find them to make them give you back,' he doesn't say.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor sees the way they interact--the way Lan stops short, the way Loren goes stiff. She has a perfect view, since she's walking up more slowly, before she reaches conversational close distance.
"Hi, Lan," Eleanor says warmly, and then inclines her head. "Yes. We thought Team Rocket had kidnapped you, so we've been preparing to rescue you," she adds, since Loren doesn't seem able to mention that part and if she doesn't miss her guess he'd just fail to say anything about it at all left to her own devices.
"But it would seem that you've gotten free on your own?"
Eleanor wouldn't say she also didn't think Loren should go unsupervised, but it may have been a factor. Mostly though she was hoping...
"He's been working very hard for you," she says sincerely. "I'm glad you're safe."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It's what he had said that he wanted. That he couldn't do what she'd asked of him. And it's cruel to keep... Lan doesn't know. To keep trying to change his mind, maybe. Why now, after all the years they've known each other? Is it just because her feelings were hurt?
Lan wants to examine her feelings one more time. Because she still wants to embrace them both, to be happy and not feel weird or guilty or weirdly guilty about trying to respect Loren's space! About being hurt, about crying. About why he's looking at her like that. Eleanor has a perfect, possibly supremely awkward view of all of it - and she's much better at reading faces that emotionally-stunted Loren will ever be.
But they'd thought she was kidnapped. "Oh! No, no, the balloon crashed in a forest. And they were going to try and battle me but their Pokemon were tired and then they were scared of me and they both ran headfirst into a tree and I think they got concussions, but aside from that they were goofy but pretty okay?" Lan counts the events off on her fingers, eyebrows furrowed. "But I said I'd beat them to a pulp if they tried to take Runeberry again (sorry other Pokemon!) and then they took me to a 'department store' and bought me some clothes." Lan reviews. Yes, that's the gist of it! "I've been looking for you guys since!"
And they've been looking for her. "But I wasn't ever kidnapped, I just couldn't find you. I'm so glad you're both okay."
He's been working very hard for you, Eleanor says. Lan's expression softens, a little more like the sunny girl they know and not this Lan that's trying to navigate between what feels right and what hurts. "He did? ...What have you guys been doing?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren had realized (as much as he can realize, given his inadequacies in this particular realm) that things were different between them ever since the Diglett Cave. Normally, when they'd met in the past she would have asked him how he'd been, what he'd been doing. She would have asked him to travel with her. And while she hadn't been cruel or hadn't pretended he didn't exist...
He'd found himself at a loss. He hadn't known what to think or feel about it -- and still doesn't. And he knows. He knows that he can't do what she's asked him to do. That hasn't changed. He'd been the one to walk away because it was impossible. He asked for this. He wanted this!
And still. And still! Knowing that's what he asked for, he finds himself wanting it less and less. But the calculus behind his decision hasn't changed in the slightest. He can't. There's too much at stake and he'll never be able to live with himself if he wants away, and, and--
And Eleanor spills the beans anyway, explaining what he (and her) had been trying to do and Loren looks no less than horrified, jerking his head in her direction as if to silently plead for mercy. Let him at least look like the person he's trying to be and not some sadsack who can't decide if he's coming or going--
But it's too late and the details are all out there before them.
And Lan explains that she never was in danger, really. That they'd even bought clothes for her, and after she'd threatened them about Runeberry (something in his bag wriggles at the mention of the name; is it really hard to guess who?) so in the end, other than trying to catch up to them she hadn't been in much trouble at all.
"...Y, yeah," Loren manages, breaking the silence of his mortification.
But what were they doing?
"Well-- I was looking after this guy," he says, settling on the thing that seems at least minimally embarrassing compared against the hours and hours he's spent trying to get his Pokemon fighting fit. He rummages in his bag -- yep, there's Runeberry! -- and finally pulls out a particular Pokeball and releases...
...That's a Clefairy, not Lan's Lunatone. "..." is Loren's approximate response.
"Clef!" chirps the Clefairy.
>Loren prays for his immediate death... but the prayer goes unanswered.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor can power through a lot of awkwardness, but she's definitely aware that it exists. ...And she has little mercy for it in this case. It's important for them to speak more honestly.
Even if that means conflict.
"Oh," Eleanor says of the danger. "I see. That's very..." Hm. "Well, it makes me wonder about them. I suppose they have some standards?"
She's been looking for them. Eleanor smiles. "We're all right," she says. "And he has."
Loren breaks the silence, but he mentions--ah. That's not Lunatone at all. Eleanor manages not to laugh--but she does smile.
"...Loren has been putting together a team of Pokemon and training them to take on Team Rocket," Eleanor explains. "I've been training my team as well, of course, for the same purpose. But it would seem our confrontation has been put off for now, considering."
No mercy.
"Clefairy here is simply one of his battling partners."
She's.... trying to give him a little dignity?? Maybe??
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It was easier, somehow, before this 'truce'. Lan hates it.
Runeberry pipes up from inside his bag and Lan can't help the way her eyes crinkle at the corners. Silly baby. She's so glad it wasn't stolen. They would have both mourned, Loren harder than anybody. And Loren in mourning, or feeling any kind of heightened emotion at all, has proven to be a dangerous Loren. ...Not that it's something that Lan should be concerned about, except that he could hurt others. He doesn't want her help. He can't accept it. Because his parents...
Again, she thinks about what she could do if their positions were reversed, and comes up with nothing but running away, faking her death, and never ever being able to come home again.
Her head tilts when he draws out a Pokeball. "Oh! So you do have the L..."
That... is not the Lunatone. It's not any Lunatone! Lan stares at it. It's so pink and fluffy. What are those little tiny fingers. "Clef?" she echoes it, and squats down to get a better look. "Hello!" Why is it so cute!
But... "He was really...?" she trails off, looking from Eleanor to Loren (who once again looks like he would like the ground to swallow him now, please). "You were gonna come rescue me? Both of you?"
Loren made friends so he could come rescue her.
(Of course Eleanor did, she's Eleanor! She has social graces and a keen mind and leadership skills! She would naturally take to the ways of a new society. Loren is a gremlin that builds model kits and grouses about everything. Lan wonders if the Nede has model kits.)
But even if his latest and greatest Terrible Secret has been revealed, Lan isn't laughing at him. She's smiling.
Maybe, even if they can't be allies, they'll always care. It doesn't make it hurt less, but it adds a little sweet to all that bitter sadness. Lan stands back up. "Okay, but you have to tell me about them! You have to introduce me, all right? And thank you for taking care of Lunatone! ...Wait, Eleanor, the spa lady said you have my things, right? Can I pleeeeeeeease have them back? I miss my ribbon!"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's easier if he can pretend it's nothing. If he can pretend it doesn't hurt, maybe, at some point, it won't hurt. It's a lie he's been telling himself for a very long time now, but surely, surely...
But Eleanor, perhaps already seeing the ruse for what it is, won't let him make the attempt. She explains exactly what they've been doing -- what he's been doing -- and Loren, in the moment, has never felt more betrayed in his life. Just let him pretend, he pleads silently at her to no avail. Let him give her the Lunatone back and then they'll go their own ways. And in time, even this will scab and scar over.
Eleanor refuses his silent prayer and Loren's shoulders slump as he resigns himself to this fate. "...Yeah," he admits, glancing away awkwardly. "I didn't think it was a good idea to fight their Pokemon myself again. So..."
"Clefairy!" announces his Clefairy, raising their paws in the air.
"I've got your Lunatone. It's, uh, somewhere in here," Loren says, turning his full attention on his bag because it's better than looking at Lan right now. Wait, how many Potions does he have in there-- Eleanor really wasn't kidding, he became some sort of full-on trainer in the last week, huh. Finally, after a brief struggle with Runeberry (Runeberry squalls, frustrated) he produces a Pokeball and releases its occupant. ...It really is Lunatone this time!
She thanks him for taking care of Lunatone, and an embarrassed flush begins to spread across his face. "Well-- what was I supposed to do? I wasn't going to leave it," he protests with a heat he doesn't really feel. "And..." She had just said that she wants to hear about his Pokemon, hadn't she?
Loren is silent for a moment, trying in vain to sort through his emotions.
In the end, he gives up. "Sure," he tells her, relenting at last.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
'Easy'. Eleanor finds that she likes many things that are easy--but not this kind. No, as Loren silently pleads with her, Eleanor continues to explain. They could go their separate ways, and they still might, after this--but it won't be because Eleanor didn't try to get them to talk to each other.
"Yes," Eleanor says to Lan. "And..."
A smile. "Yes," she says, "I have all your things here." Eleanor steps closer to Lan, and hands over an invisible quantity of items. It's fine! It's the ribbon and everything!
"I think that sounds lovely," Eleanor says. "...Maybe you should get some more ice cream?" she suggests, glancing to Lan's table. "Since yours is melting..."
And sitting down at the cafe makes it harder to just get up and walk away until they've paid. Eleanor's master plan continues apace!!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
But surely, eventually it will work... "Don't fuss, baby," she tells Runeberry when she hears it squall. It must have been trying to relax in there!
She'd like to try to hold it, but... (Also Runeberry has never been much of one for being held. It usually requires Swaddle Jail.)
Seeing Lunatone again fills Lan with a buoying sense of relief that's stronger than she had expected. "Hi," she tells it, and can't stop herself from holding out her hands. The Lunatone makes a noise like a deep rainchime and spins in place once before allowing her to pet it. "And of course you did," she frowns, looking up at him. "Why wouldn't you? You've always taken good care of Runeberry, after all." Its rough rocky surface feels solid and cool. It hums faintly under her hands. Lan closes her eyes and breathes out. "Thank you, Loren."
She can't resist any longer - Lan stands up, gently scooping the Lunatone up into her arms to hold it. It's comforting, somehow. It makes a surprised sound like a raindrop loudly hitting a roof tile, but is still.
"Oh, thank you, Eleanor!" All of her stuff! Her precious, irreplaceable ribbon. She feels complete now...! "Ah-- the ice cream!" Slowpoke's ice cream and candy face looks... yyyyyyyyeah. "...I've still got that FOL stuff. Can I treat you both to ice cream to say thanks, and you can tell me about everything you did while we eat?"
Because Lan can't rip the bandage off. Because she wants them to eat delicious treats and be happy. Because, because, because.