Adventure Thread - Group A

"I ain't about to be frozen to death, so yeah I got it. It'll probably be a bit before I have supplies ready. I'll letcha know when I'm headed out for this."

Lia pauses.

"And uhhh... thanks."

"Yeah alright I'll letcha go. Cya."

Lia hangs up only to get the e-mail with the private number. She'll be calling in the future when she goes to Seafoam, but she'll need supplies first. And that'll take some time. For now, she sees two avenues about what to do. One, she bought a suit for sneaking. If she plans on heading into Seafoam, she's not about to want to fight EVERYTHING like every other time she's been in a cave. She shudders, thinking about all the bad stuff that always gets her. Mostly bats and rocks.

...And Vali. She's the fucking worst.

But she's not really sneaky, but she knows she's athletic enough to be fast enough to get away and to get up into places. She'd need to practice a lot. Before she heads into caves... or criminal organization buildings.

Or she can use her day for the other thing, mostly for herself. Because even though she's dedicating herself to fuck with the Sand-Ninjas, even that has a timer on it. Or she dies. One of the two. Hopefully not that one. So that doesn't cover MOST of her life, and Kaeda 'says' that she can has the money to have them living on a beach for the rest of their lives but... Lia didn't 'act' at the time like she could hear, but she can hear better than Kaeda realizes. She heard the tone of her mom talking about herself. It wasn't great. It's... unlikely that her parents can be relied upon to do that. Come to think of it, her own dad didn't even comment on 'love of my life'. Maybe he missed it, or it was just with an info dump of 'hey it's my daughter', 'my daughter is quitting the thing she punched me and left for' overwhelming him. Either of those could be it.

But this has all been thoughts in her head lately, about what to actually 'do' with her life. She's never really had a true goal outside of 'beating the living hell out of people' and doing the League was an extension of that. But when she was really young she had dreams. Ones she hardly remembers but talking with her dad sent her down memory lane and into her journals she used to write. It slowed after she started training, she really didn't have time. After decompressing the day after she quit, she was looking through and came across an old picture she drew. Of herself as some sort of crazy rockstar. She laughed when she found it, but then she started thinking. Was it that crazy? I mean being a trainer is pretty lucrative for as long as it lasts, so she has time to attempt it, pass or fail. And that's what she came back with, a guitar to get started. But she needs training.

So what will it be? Sneaky stuffs or finding a music teacher?

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Lia decides that all the serious talk today has got her mind filled with all those thoughts and it'll hardly be a good idea to switch to something more casual and be able to concentrate. Sneaky times it is! She heads back to the room and changes. She had bought a full body leather suit (Adding herself to the leather red-heads running around) with gloves and a hood. She also has a Gas Mask, which can filter gas, but is mostly to obscure her face. She puts the full outfit on, looking almost cyberpunkish before removing the gas mask and grabbing an old hoodie of hers and putting it on over it and pulling the hood up and putting the gas mask away. She pulls 'that' hood up and heads out to fly to Saffron. Probably best to do this far from home. She lands far from the town and heads in, hood up, trying to stay as hidden as possible. She's looking for maybe an industrial part of town, hopefully somewhere with a lot of fast people and pokemon out.1d2

Floyd receives a cryptic, vaguely threatening message on his Pokedex from an unknown sender. "It's time to pay what you owe. Come to these coordinates within the next two hours. Failure to do so is not advised." Plugging the provided coordinates into Poké-Earth directs him to a clearing surrounded by trees somewhere just to the north and west of Celadon City.

Upon reaching the designated area, a woman Floyd doesn't recognize approaches him, flanked by the woman who gave him the Delta Vespiquen and two others. "Aurelius Floyd. A bargain was struck, and the time has come for you to uphold your end of it. This is a relatively simple matter, and can be accomplished with minimal fuss if you acquiesce." Her lips draw back in a thin smile. "Tonight is but the first of several steps you must take in order to fulfill the favor that you owe. For now, all we require is a small sample of blood from you. No more than would be taken if you were to donate to a charity organization. Will you comply?"

"'Tis but one favor with many steps, and your challenging of the Cinnabar Gym was not a qualification of the favor owed." Says the first woman.

"To use your unit of measurement, we need approximately 4 Gills, or 1 standard Pint of blood. I promise it will be quick and easy." Says the second, producing the standard items required for drawing blood.

The first woman offers Floyd another tight-lipped smile, then motions to the others. The pink-haired one is obviously the one in charge as she only seems to be supervising the rest. One of them walks over with a fold-out chair and sets it up next to Floyd, gesturing for him to remove his armor and take a seat.

"It's really quite simple. First, you'll want to remove your armor and take a seat. Try to relax, it helps the blood flow easier than if you tense up." When he (reluctantly) does so, the woman with the equipment begins setting it up and produces a cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol, which she applies to the crook of his elbow. "The drawing of your blood should only take 20 minutes or so, but you'll want to remain seated for awhile after to ensure you don't hurt yourself if you should become dizzy or light-headed, which can happen when drawing blood." The woman continues to speak calmly to him as the connected bag is filled with his blood over the next 20-ish minutes, explaining how the drawing of blood works, what sort of side-effects to expect, and reassuring him that he'll be just fine within an hour of finishing so long as he takes it slow.

When the job is finished, they remove the needle and bandage his arm like any professional medical person would. A tight wrap with a cotton swab in the center to absorb any excess blood while the bleeding is staunched. He is free to ask as many questions as he likes during his 'recovery' time, but they promise no answers. While the others deal with packing up the equipment and storing his blood in a chilled container to keep it fresh, the pink-haired woman walks over to him.

"With luck, this will be all we truly need from you, Aurelius Floyd. Regardless of what my overzealous coworkers may say. One favor was asked, and one favor has been given. When you have collected your Volcano Badge from the Cinnabar Gym, we will contact you a final time to return the Delta Vespiquen you were loaned. Other negotiations could be made at that time, should you wish to deal further with us; else you shall not here from us again."

When he is deemed fit and free to go, they collect the chair he was sitting on and board a helicopter that arrives shortly thereafter; likely signaled by one of the others.

"Originally, yes. Now she is nothing but a thief and a saboteur. She has caused no lasting damage to our work, however, despite her best efforts, but she is becoming a nuisance that will need dealing with soon." Blue-hair replies with a slight frown. Floyd spies pink-hair's eyes narrow at the back of blue-hair's head briefly before she regains her neutral expression. Perhaps blue-hair said overmuch?