Adventure Thread - Group A

Clay bites the inside of his cheek. Judging by yesterday, neither arguing with Rei nor trying to get someone to change their mind about quitting things is going to give him a lot of success. "Just... try not to make any decisions you can't take back when you're this upset. What happened to your head, anyway?"

Clay rearranges his plan for the day in his head. Top of the list is obviously finding and warning Tiki. Then, things have probably escalated to the point that he needs to tell Instructor Mason more of the whole story. Secrecy or no secrecy, he wants someone to know what's going on if he gets into serious trouble. Especially someone who can blow holes in rocks with his aura. The problem is that he can't exactly swear Instructor Mason to silence - mostly because he knows Mason will tell the Master of the branch if he thinks he needs to, and he doesn't want to put the instructor in a position where he'll have to break his word to do it. He's just going to have to trust that Instructor Mason has a good idea of who would be safe or not to talk to.

He can think of other people he should tell - Lady Anya and the Poison Branch head, who he doesn't think he's ever met, particularly. How much he can tell who is another question. This is already getting into three can keep a secret if two of them are dead territory. Though Lady Anya already knows most of it. Gah, this is hard. Being able to tell people would make this so much easier... though it would probably cause more problems than it solves. Can he even talk to Kalani about this? She deserves to know something, especially if he's in danger of running afoul of these agents of the Usurper's. Or if she is. He doesn't know whether they'd go after his friends, too... then again, Gertrude could probably make a lot of assassins regret their choices.

Before he gets too wrapped up in his planning, he hurries over to catch Holly before she and Rei leave. In an undertone, he says, "I probably don't need to tell you to take care of her. But don't you wander off, huh? You might be halfway ghost but you're in just as much danger as any of us, so try not to get yourself turned all ghost." Especially since he's pretty sure losing Holly would break Rei even worse than she already is.

He pulls away with a sigh. "I gotta warn Tiki. You guys be careful, okay? I'll see you soon." He flashes something that might qualify as a grin in bad light. His teeth are bared, anyway. "Don't worry. We'll get the sons of Mankeys who did this." Revenge won't bring Divini and Sano back, but focusing on somebody killed my friends means there's something to be done. If he lets that turn into my friends are dead there's not much to do but collapse... like Rei seems to be in the process of doing.

Unless they have anything to add, he'll turn and scurry off in hopes of finding Tiki again.

Tiki can be found outside, and behind the guild. She is there with her pokemon as they are going over songs, dances, and other routines. She sees Clay approaching, and she sighs. Hopefully he wasn't too bothered from this morning, or maybe he wanted his stone back. Tiki pulls away towards him. "Hey. What's up?"

Clay doesn't waste much time. "I just saw Rei and Holly. They got a visit this morning, too." He looks around for a moment before lowering his voice. Some of the determination drains out of it in the process, letting through how sad he is. "Theirs said that the Usurper's cronies... killed Sano and Divini."

He takes a deep breath and powers forward. He needs to keep going forward, to keep the urgency and anger between him and the sadness - if he loses momentum he's not sure he can get moving again. "I know you don't wanna get involved. I'm not gonna try to make you. But you're in danger too. So... try not to go somewhere without someone you trust, okay? Keep Star or Justice or Heart and her little army out with you, or something. You're probably the most dangerous out of all of us in a fight, but... even if you're going Celadon, I don't wanna lose you, too."

He shakes his head. "The jerk lady working for Darkrai wants this to be a secret. Rei's Celeste probably does too. But... I'm trying to figure out who we can tell safely. So at least somebody will know if something happens. I'm probably gonna tell Instructor Mason... he can read auras and stuff so he'll probably know if somebody means trouble." He bites on his lip for a moment. That's probably a human gesture more than a Chimchar one. "Just... take care of yourself, okay? If you die I'm gonna kill you."

"Rei says if we find this Xerneas thing it might be able to bring them... back..." He trails off with a sigh. He wishes he could go comfort Tiki, but he's pretty sure he would find himself attacked and he doesn't want to pick a repeat fight with her right now.

"Just... be careful, okay? I'm gonna rearrange faces over this but I don't want to add you to the list of people I'm getting revenge for." He turns away, shaking his head. "If you need me, you know where to find me."

He'll leave her to... however she's going to cope, and heads off to the Fighting branch next. He's lost track but he's pretty sure this is late for training, and he's going to have a lot of explaining to do.

Rei walks in, still forlorn about the whole thing. At this point she just has her arms hanging down at her sides.

"No... No I am not."

She realizes that Sorra is talking about her bandage.

"Don't... Don't worry about that."

She looks away, unable to keep staring Sorra in the face at this time.

"But if I'm ok or not doesn't matter. I came to regretfully resign from the branch."

Rei shifts a bit, not wanting to look at Sorra's gaze.

"It is a bit about Rock Tunnel. But not in how I did but what I realized going through. And the fight where things 'came to blows' as you put it the other day."

She crosses her arms and seems to shrink just a little thinking on it.

"I was barely able to do anything in most of Rock Tunnel. I'm trained to protect and take attacks for others. And that was fine early on. But things have been getting harder and harder as things have been getting stronger. I'm being outpaced. And my fight after we got back was the final awakening. I wasn't able to keep my own pokemon up at all, even after I got myself to my defensive maximum. It's clear to me now that if I continue this... I can't be relied on. Someone maybe will end up hurt... or worse. And that could be me. Adding in everything I've been realizing about my upbringing, and I'm not fighting myself anymore."

She's trembling a little now. This morning she was thinking it would all be ok to ask them. That she could find another branch and be ok. Now that's all gone.

"And if I'm not fighting alongside my pokemon and you all, then I don't feel ok being a part of the Steel Branch. I'd feel ashamed to be here."

"I see. I did wonder about that. It's great that you want to protect everyone, but everyone also has limits, and it appears you've realized yours. At least within the confines of 'protecting everyone'. I would not, however, say that you 'cannot be relied upon'. In fact, I would say quite the opposite! People who are reckless, who don't understand their own limits, cannot grow past those limits, and rarely, if ever, achieve anything significant in their lives. Those who do, on the other hand, discover that with hard work and dedication, those limits can be surpassed. My point being: Just because you don't fight at your Pokemon's side, doesn't make you any less of a member of this Branch." She pauses for a moment to let Rei process this. "I know that when you first joined I said you were expected to fight and train alongside of your Pokemon, but that doesn't mean you have to leave the Branch just because you no longer wish to do so."

Sorra frowns. "Not with that attitude you can't! Attitude is everything, Rei. If you believe you can do something, then you will. If you believe you cannot do something, then you never will." Her expression suddenly hardens. "Now you listen to me. I don't care if you want to fight with your Pokemon in battle or not, but I will not stand for this mopey 'I can't do anything!' attitude of yours. Fix it."

Sorra waits patiently for Rei's rant to be over. Her demeanor is much more reserved now. "I...see. I am truly sorry about your friends, Rei. This is the first I'm hearing about any 'gods' or 'last line of defense'. Does this have something to do with those strange dreams Lady Anya told me you were having?" At Rei's incredulous look, Sorra explains that Anya told her only because Rei was in her Branch, and she felt Sorra ought to know if Rei was having problems. "This is part of the reason I've been so distant from you. I was trying to give you space to work out whatever it was that is eating at you. I see now this may have been a mistake, and if so, I apologize."