Adventure Thread - Group A

The night they had was more 'intense' than the night before. Equally naughty, but Rei ravages Holly with a vigor she didn't think she had. Once she's sure Holly is out cold, Rei holds her lover in her embrace under the covers, staring at the night sky.

She's not ok, lets start with that. She's an emotional Yo-yo over the past two days. Tiki's fight and the fallout after was already a whirlwind. She got away with Holly and had their first time together, and she woke feeling so clear in her mind... then all hell broke loose again. Celeste brought news she didn't need to hear. Multiple info dumps she didn't want. And then she couldn't even quit the Steel branch, and is more or less stuck there even though she feels like she just doesn't stack up to Sorra or Maya anymore.

She strokes Holly's hair as she thinks. As she realized earlier, she has to change. She doesn't have a choice. And maybe when this is all over she can just sit and let all her emotions drain out. She'll probably deserve it at that point. But for now she has to gear up for a fight. But one thing is clear. She and Holly are NOT dying for this cause. They are living through it. No matter what happens. Not even if she has to kill a god. Or a few.

We'll hunt down these people for hurting you. We'll make them regret it.

By any means necessary.

As that thought enters her brain, she shakes it off. It's bringing... dark ideas into her mind. But... it does bring another idea. Nobody at the guild can 'truly' be trusted. Not until they are sure who the Usurper and her cronies are. But outside the guild might be safe. And well... one way Rei can be sure to stay alive,,, is to surround herself with her own cronies. Especially if she has to do 'anything' to win. She... might need some serious Crowns to pull this off.

But that's for later. For now, it's time to sleep.


-Next Morning-

Rei wakes herself and Holly up and packs everything up to take them back. She does tell Holly that it'll be hard but they should both be able to remember this well. If they win, they'll be able to forget the bad parts, and if they fail they will be dead so it's ok! It won't be an issue anymore.

She gives her a long deep kiss and because it's early, she lets Holly sleep on Raido as they ride back. Once they get close again, she goes to find Clay (after depositing Holly if that's needed). She doesn't have ideas on how to get Tiki on board, but she knows Clay will be game. She just needs to apologize. She picks up something from the market to help facilitate that.

She gets back to the guild as breakfast goes on, hopefully able to find him. She looks around a little aimlessly, wrapped gift in hand.

Clay is indeed at breakfast, with what might be an unfamiliar face at first - a large, red-and-white monkey, with a flame crackling lowly from the top of her head and swirls of gold like armor at her joints. "Hey, Rei, look at this! Fan finally evolved again!"

He certainly seems to be in much better spirits than the last time they saw each other. Then again, from where he's sitting, so does Rei. At least, 'looking for something' is better than 'literally having a nervous breakdown'. Fan, who is now somewhere around Clay's chest level in height, waves over to her at the same time he does, looking very pleased with herself.

Fan looks even more pleased with herself when Rei praises her, wearing a smug monkey smile.

Clay raises his eyebrows when Rei mentions failing to quit the Steel Branch - Go Lady Sorra. At least, he assumes that "failing to quit" means Lady Sorra talked her out of it.

He flushes a little when she presents him with the package, and shakes his head. "Aw, c'mon, Rei. You're not the only one who needs to apologize. I didn't exactly handle this whole thing well. But if I didn't stick around to at least try I'd be a lousy friend. You don't have to give me anything."

He still takes the package, though; it'd be rude to refuse a gift. "I found out something pretty important last night, actually. I, uh, shouldn't talk about it here, though. Someplace private with you and Holly... though after the mess I made breaking the bad news to Tiki yesterday I dunno if she'd wanna listen, too." He shakes his head with a sigh... then smiles again after Fan reaches up and pokes his nose. "Okay, okay, I get it, sis. No moping."

Clay grins slightly. "I think the lesson you need to learn from this is your girlfriend is always right." Clay's never been completely sure how much Holly actually likes him, or whether she just tolerates him for Rei's sake, but at least she seems to understand him.

He nods slowly. "I think the only thing we can do with Tiki right now is give her some space. Maybe check on her to try and make sure she's safe... though her girls are in pretty good shape to look out for her, too."

Clay pulls the paper around the package open curiously to discover... a book? Well, it was book-shaped to begin with, so that was probably the most likely. "Um... thanks?" He sounds at least as confused as he does grateful, but he's at least not saying out loud why did you give me a book, I can't read. "What kind of book is it?"

Tiki is not up for getting out of bed right now. She would rather just stay indoors, than deal with everything going on. The news Clay delivered knocked her for a loop, but the calming embrace of Aeon's new form stopped the waterworks for now. Tiki sends out the floof army to retrieve some food. They scamper off to the dining hall, grab some food, and run on back to Tiki's room.

"Yeah teaching a fully grown human will be... a bit challenging but I'm up for it. I figured a subject material that you understand pretty well is what we need."

Rei exhales as Clay hugs her back. She at least didn't destroy her relationship with him. Progress.

"Maybe you should just go put in the order really quick. Before something else catastrophic happens..."

Rei looks to Piesc as Clay seems to be communicating with him, and let's them have their conversation.

This is most definitely not what it's like communicating with most Pokémon. Even Psychic-types aren't quite the same - then again, Clay's most frequent contact with Psychic-types has been with Hermit, and Drowzee and Hypno are much more in tune with sleeping thoughts than waking ones. Clay is dimly aware that some Pokémon can use Aura, but he doesn't know which kinds and he's certainly never channeled one before. (There might be a couple of Meditite knocking around the Fighting Branch but Clay has never had occasion to talk to them.)

"Whoa, that's new. Never met a Pokémon who could do this back to me before." Clay regards the Lucario curiously. "So you met Rei in the Rock Tunnel? That's good to hear. She's been through a lot... She could use some strong support." This would probably be embarrassing if Rei were in on this connection as well... or spoke dog, since Clay's still "talking" out loud.

It takes him a moment to realize Rei said something, too. "Huh? Oh. Yeah, I guess you have a point. There's always somethin', huh?"

"Yeah I would just stall a bit and go make the order. It probably won't take you long. I'm sure your branch would understand considering everything you've had to go through lately."

Clay and Piesc then seem to be communicating back and forth, but Rei doesn't understand a word of it. She feels a tad left out, but that's more or less everytime Clay speaks to a pokemon.

Piesc nods thoughtfully. "Perhaps it comes from your human family? Such abilities as yours certainly are not known for appearing out of nowhere, and you claim you have been doing it since you learned to speak." This last bit seems to strike Piesc as odd. "Come to think of it, if you were raised by Infernape, how did you come to be here, living among humans?"