[PTU, IC] IL 6: Time for swimming lessons!

[passinglurker]

Old Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?431938-PTU-IC-IL-5-I-Can-t-Believe-It-s-Not-Anime!-D/page50)
When last we left our hero drew and uriel were locked in an epic fencing duel over the fate of the parties vacation plans!


Drew shrugs a little bit. "I've never been, but we were working on setting up Johto and Kanto tours so... In Kanto, we need to visit Saffron City, the Seafoam Islands, Cinnabar Island, Mount Moon.. Uh..." He scratches his head. "We could see if that old famous boat is still in operation I guess. Johto... Goldenrod City, The Ruins of Alph, The old Lighthouse, Whirl Islands, Silver Cave, the National Park." He says listing things counting off his fingers. "And of course, the two Towers. There's a lot more to see in Johto than Kanto really."


"Whichever route you think will serve us best Monitor," Uriel chimed in; not that he had much place to speak depending on what Wisp managed to tell him about his curse in the coming days.


Nelsa continued to pet Olivine and let her be all affectionate but turned to be able to give her opinions on the trip. Kanto and Johto? Nowhere in particular, though I'm always up for additional sightseeing if others have anywhere in mind so I don't care about any detours." As long as they weren't heading anywhere close to home she was fine with it.


"I'll settle for swimming at some point then..." Claire said with a sigh. "Thanks for the information." Claire said.

When Darkrai confirmed things about Z, Claire shifted uncomfortably. Hearing the way Darkrai said it and the extent, Claire's stomach twisted and she felt sick. "That's..." She put a hand on the wall for a moment for support. She had wanted to believe her Aunt. She had needed it to be a mistake. She still wanted to believe Darkrai was lying but she didn't see that as likely. "That's my aunt...how do I have someone so messed up in my family..." She mumbled. "My mom's sister no less...No wonder she didn't talk about her much." Claire muttered. "What about Scooter? Who else knows?" She said. "Her mom seriously has some brainwashing phrase?" Claire rubbed her temple.

At the confirmation of the future Claire thought for a moment. "So...what will my grandpa say? When my mom calls me will they let me stay? Will I be a good Queen in the future? Who becomes my King? Do we save Chimney? Does Uriel's curse get fixed?" Claire asked quickly flooding with question. She started to ask more but stopped at Darkrai's question.

"Play with you? What do you mean?"


"Nowhere in particular for myself," Maria says. "I... feel like I have to admit, I only have a passing knowledge of Kanto, and almost nothing of Johto. So, this will be... interesting."

Claire
"just you know get my mind off things somehow... do anything that might be fun really..."

"anyway... Well as you probably noticed captain johnson isn't exactly mother of the year either but maybe your aunt was just born rotten I dunno" Says darkrai answering how this is possible "speaking of things I dunno about I don't know how this scooter person fits in. I only see the bad side of things as they are, were, or to come. the terrors the nightmares etc... I haven't seen anything about him abusing your cousin which means either he hasn't done bad stuff or its just slipped my notice for some reason maybe he just keeps his hands to himself who knows my ability to predict the future isn't perfect... infact its very unpleasant... ugh anyway yeah phrases I put those in uriel's dream..." She says rubbing her eyes "she uses a code name for her victim in your cousin's case "daughter dearest" and a code name for herself "mother dearest" say the two close together and the words between and around them will be interpreted as instructions which the victim more or less must follow "for example "daughter dearest undress for mother dearest, daughter dearest give mother dearest a kiss... daughter dearest enjoy kissing mother dearest..." you get the picture of how dark and twisted this quickly spirals down into and when it's over just order her to not remember this and she's none the wiser with just a few latent personality quirks bleeding through like traumatic paranoia and random aversions towards various physical displays of affection." darkrai says seeming to be depressed

"and can we please not ask for futures on demand if I have something important I'll share it, but I don't want to delve into a sea of nightmares to gleam more than I have too... especially with this gloomy mood" She says rubbing her forehead like it hurts. "so whenever you want to lighten the mood that'd be great..."

Everyone else
-Well I don't know if the trip will be that extensive things might not be according to plan if that were the case but I can swing starting in johto.-

[DataNinja]

"Look, don't mince words." Maria says, though without malice. "We should all know that nothing ever goes according to plan, no? All we can do is make the best of what we get dealt."

[Major]

"Oh...right...I guess that makes sense. I mean a goddess wouldn't want to be bothered being a fortune teller constantly even if it wasn't a pain. I'm sorry I was being inconsiderate." She said quickly bowing again in apology.

"I...well I mean I guess it's good Scooter isn't involved. He didn't seem like a bad person." Claire commented, "I mean...not like I'm a great judge of character but still..." She mumbled. "Thank you for these answers by the way. Its good to know Aunt Zadra is a liar and creep. Means I can dismiss her weird comments about family and medical stuff." Claire said. "I mean not that I needed it. I trust mom and dad."

"Uhhh...like cheer up play now...I don't really know. I mean when I am down I to shopping or spar or work out and I don't know if any of those would do anything for you..." Claire said unsure what to do. "I mean later I need to shop for a swimsuit anyways so like if you wanted you could come along with Delila and me." Claire said feeling weird extending the invite and still hesitant to be around Darkrai but feeling obligated to extend it at least. "I don't know when that will be... I mean I need to do it soon so I can get the water thing you suggested but I also doubt I will get chance soon since with all this Chimney stuff means I doubt I will get any chance to swim without seeming weird..." Claire said with a sigh.

[Haluesen]

Kara snickered a bit and turned to Maria. "Now what makes you say that? I mean c'mon, look at all of us! I'm sure we had exact plans in place that got us all here flawlessly." She did a little spin for a moment, her tail wagging. "I know I had plans to look like a furry who fell into a gothic clothing store, and look it worked!" Another giggle, finding the topic fun.

[DataNinja]

"It sounds like you've certainly had an... interesting... life to have that as your plan." Maria says, turning to face Nelsa, not quite sure whether the other was joking or not. She then realized that the other was carrying her clothes, rather than wearing them. Is this going to be a regular thing around here? she wonders, flushing, and averting her eyes.

[Haluesen]

Her ears lowered a bit but she kept up the smile, even if it was a little more exasperated than funny now. "Hey hey, I was just being sarcastic there. I know what you said is right, but I mean...well we gotta make sure things generally work out, right? I mean, we're covert team! It's our job to make sure this all goes well, preferably behind the scenes if possible. Yeah a lot of things go wrong, it's what we do to make them right, right?" She went oblivious to Maria's embarrassment, too caught up in energy.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"No thanks Drew was gonna take me clothes shopping later anyway so I'd rather not screw myself out of a potential date, and besides I need help now not later... ugh here just let me-" Darkrai says with some frustration as she reaches for you chest only for her hands to be swatted away by viel "oh come oooon!... I need some sort of pick me up and it's not like you two are gonna suddenly reveal yourselfs to be a talented comedy duo or something!" Darkrai complains though viel seems fully intent on defending your modesty and dignity


"ugh...*sigh* anyway I didn't say he isn't involved just that he didn't do anything henus enough for me to notice over the actions of people around him so don't be dumb and let your guard down around people just because I didn't see them causing misfortune..." She says sitting down and curling up "anyway... everything else like what I showed uriel about you is probably best said in front of everyone... which is totally gonna suck having to repeat it all serious like... uuuuuaaaah I don wannaaaa... this sucks so bad knowing this stuff... I wanna die..." She says as her buries her face and rocks back and forth.

[Major]

"H-hey!" Claire says glad Veil defended her. She would have to thanI the ghost later. "I'm grateful for your assistance but my chest is not just something for anyone to play with to feel better." She said putting a hand up to cover the watery bouncy orbs.

She didn't say it but she was glad that Darkrai had declined the shopping. She hadn't been a huge fan of going shopping with the goddess of nightmares and misfortune. Especially bikini shopping with a grope happy goddess.

"Ugh...well...I don't really know what would entertain you that I would be willing to do. I'm not having my body treated as a toy. Uhhhh...maybe a joke? I can try that! Comedy routine isn't impossible despite what you think. Ahem...what is in the middle of Kalos?" She paused. "An L! Get it cause K-A-L-O-S! Its meant to sound like the country Kalos but it's actually the word!" Claire explains ruining the terrible joke by actually wasting time explaining it.

"Ok, ok I got another!" She says ignoring Veil's groan. "So a Unova cat, named the One Two Three Cat, and a Kalosian Cat, named the Un Deux Trois Cat, decided to have a race to see who could swim fastest across the Castila Bay. It was a tough race, but the Unova cat won because the Un Deux Trois cat sank." Claire grinned. "Its funny cause it's a Kalosian joke... Like In is one and Deux is two and trois is three..." She starts to explain hopefully getting cut off before going on much longer.

[passinglurker]

Claire
you are interrupted by darkrai's laughter it would seem she liked your joke... wait... you made a goddess laugh... have you always been this good at jokes?... did delila not know what she was talking about when she said maybe humor wasn't your forte?.. would uriel like your jokes?

[Major]

I knew it! I am funny! Claire thought with a grin. "So...we are good then? I guess we can head back so that I can hear the rest of this vision stuff." She said moving toward the door. However as she passed the mirror she stopped and did a double take having forgotten about the twintails until now. She blinked unsure how she should feel about them. "Uhhh... should I take these out?"

[passinglurker]

Claire
looking in the mirror you see there is more at play than just a few scrunchies here. As nice as it looks it's gonna take some brushing in the shower with delila to get your long red hair back to normal. Meanwhile it seems the sneaky goddess has already left without you while you are distracted, but you still have your panties so you must be on decent terms if she didn't try to exploit you letting your guard down right?

Drew
Oh look Jerry is back "Ok I tucked Cidney in, Claire is not a giant crying mess any more and... *surprised whistle* I see one of my girls fell out of her clothes again... man is it wrong that I'm turned on by Kara's grownup booty even though I've known her since she was a little kid smearing poochie doo-doo on one of my shrines?... Crap I forgot I'm not supposed to make people mad at me!" Jerry says sorta accidentally dropping nelsa's real name out loud for all to hear and then quickly covering her mouth in alarm. "I mean uh... kara? who's that? I'm popular I must be mixing up the names of some people I know..." She says fumbling to try to cover up her snafu

[Major]

As she realized how her hair was Claire sighed. It wasn't that she had a problem with showering with Delila, her hand maiden had helped with her long hair plenty of times after balls when getting her hair out of the crazy styles was impossible alone. But with the water elementalism side effects she wasn't sure she really wanted to risk jumping Delila.

Still, supposedly Darkrai had temporarily halted the embarrassing side effect but Claire wasn't sure for how long. She couldn't go out there and delay the meeting just for a shower to fix her hair and she wasn't sure when she could go swimming for a more permanent fix.

As she tried to think of what to do, the princess ran some water over her arm to test if it had any effect at all. More likely than not she would be stuck with the hair for a while unless whatever plan people were forming had some time for people to pack up and get ready. Which seemed likely since people couldn't just hope countries without being given at least some time to get ready.

[DataNinja]

Maria turns towards the new (re-)arrival, just grateful for a reasonable excuse to look elsewhere... and promptly sighs. Great. More history that I have no idea about. But, I'm part of a team now. I should try and figure things out.

"So, is it Kara, or Nelsa?" she asks. "And... you were desecrating one of her shrines? That... doesn't sound like a good idea."

[passinglurker]

Claire
you feel perfectly normal with no adverse side effects under the flow of the water.

[Major]

Satisfied the water was indeed fine for now, Claire headed back to the room. "Sorry about...everything that happened." She said as she walked in. "I can expl---" She suddenly froze when she saw the impostor. How did she get here? How did she change? That is steel me...another one? She thought quickly as she glanced for where Victini had been dropped in the meantime. "Guys...that's another impostor! Look out." She said quickly. Victini if you can hear me come to me quick.

[passinglurker]

Claire
actually that's just a zoroark

says victini after returning to your hand

[Major]

"Oh..." Claire mumbled out loud. She glanced over and saw Slippers before glancing at the weapon, Not Slippers? Another one? And on our side at least right? Claire asked. "Errr sorry, didn't know there was another Zoroark..." Claire said sheathing the blade. She moved to sit next to Delila before softly speaking, "Update?" She asked.

"Oh right...uhhh not sure if Flu explained anything. Sorry about earlier actions, its apparently the latest annoying side effect of water but ummm I know how to stop it and will handle it and such asap. I'm ummm...really really really sorry Uriel." Claire said blushing red and avoiding eye contact with him.

[Haluesen]

Kara stopped her talking at "Jerry's" reappearance, and was mostly too stunned and annoyed to keep up with conversations. Fortunately Claire's sudden entrance and shenanigans was enough to bring her spirits back up and she laughed as she turned to Maria. "Uh right okay so yeah, my name actually is Kara. Nelsa's kinda an alias. I feel like everyone needs one at some point. So, hi! Guess that means all of you here now are the few around to know it, but I'd still prefer to keep it hidden. I mean, how could I pull weird twin pranks on people if everyone knew? Hahaha!"

After another round of laughter and a bark of excitement, she settled down and went on (just hopefully not talking over anyone else). "And yeah, I did. A long time ago. It's sorta history now, sorta not, but the short version is that messing with her shrine is why I'm like this. Darkrai told me once that it was a gift because she liked what I did...that was back when we were on different terms I guess...so now that things are a little different, is that actually true?" She turned to direct that last part at Jerry, a little nervous for her response.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"Just a little talk about possible land falls and routes to take the consensus so far is to start in johto after a short stay in the servii islands at the captain's insistence" Delila says bringing you up to speed "I'm sorry, but progress is slower than you may have wanted princess. Mademoiselle maria hasn't been very helpful what with taking the conversation off topic by just fatalistically picking apart whatever monsieur monitor says at almost every opportunity. honestly he may be overly optimistic but there is no need to grind things to a halt and effectively make him say it every few steps we have enough distractions already" She then quietly gossips to you in kalosian.

"Ahem also I am very sorry about before I was not able to perform my duties to you adequately and my shamefully poor performance only exacerbated the problem. Flu has since briefed me on your needs and I am prepared to accept whatever reprimand you see fit for me" She then says apologetically as she returns your dress.

Kara
"ack! who told you I was impressed and liked your potential for mischief!? was it claire!? no wait she just got back... was it drew!?... did I tell you that kara is a spunky carefree softie with a heart of gold too? so much has been happening lately I don't remember..." She says in frantic panic to kara and then questioning drew wondering where this leak came from. "gruuuu there goes having any respect from my girls for the next few generations now they are all gonna think I've gone soft for them... I mean I guess I have but its not like I can help it you guys are just so cuuuuuute err I mean.. *cough* yeah... I still need to know who told you all this!" She then adds letting herself get carried away...

[Major]

"Oh...I see." Claire said glancing toward Uriel. The Servii Isles? So...Uriel's home? She thought wondering how he had reacted and what his family was like. As Delila swapped to a quiet Kalosian, Claire glanced over at the cop, before looking back at Delila. She couldn't say she was surprised based on the limited experience, though Delila was more forward about it. She swapped to Kalosian and whispered back, "So not much has changed? I got that vibe before. I'm surprised Monitor brought her alone to be honest. She really doesn't seem like she wants to be here..." Claire responded back. "Still, my experience with her has been limited so hopefully its just poor impressions."

When Delila apologized and handed the dress back, Claire shook her head before continuing to speak in Kalosian, "No, no! It wasn't your fault!" She insisted, not wanting her handmaiden to feel bad. "I didn't get a chance to tell you and I wasn't expecting it to get that extreme! I see no need to reprimand you. You even tried to stop me despite my insistence to not." Claire said flushed red not liking having to bring it up. "I also learned a bit more about how it works so if you really want to help do you know a good secure spot to swim privately near here? Or to get a bathing suit? I didn't exactly pack mine since I wasn't expecting to be going swimming when I left..." She mumbled. "Given, I doubt I will have time for that...do we know when we leave?" Claire asked.

[Haluesen]

Kara was left pretty dumbfounded by her ramblings. She'd never seen Darkrai at any sort of loss before, and it was something like culture shock to Kara. At that last question she just shrugged a bit. "I'm not sure...it's only sort of half remembered. But I guess that means it's true...well wow. I certainly never saw it as...I mean... *cough* too personal for here." She said as she looked around at the rest.

Claire's other-language speaking caught her attention for a moment as Kara looked on curiously, then turned to Maria again and smiled. "Well alright, there you go! Apparently I'm just a sweet dark-powered girl who gets into mischief. Perfect to work alongside for covert missions, right? I think we'll just dominate anything we gotta deal with out there!" Her tail was wagging super fast and her ears were perked up, all ready to get this started.

However a thought occurred to her and she turned to Drew quickly. "Wait you mentioned tour stuff in Johto...so we get to see the cool places in Johto? With you? Holy crap that's freaking amazing! Wisp, why did you not advertise that part of things, I'd have signed on to help immediately!" She even hopped in excitement, looking between Maria, Drew, Wisp, and Darkrai for whoever spoke first but in an overall hyper mood no matter who spoke.

[Regalus]

"Don't worry about it Claire; if anyone understands how occult stuff can put you in bad positions it's me. I'm just glad you have a way of managing it," Uriel told the redhead empathicly; knowing that neither of them would want to deal with the ensuing media, and possibly political, circus that would arise had her episode ocurred in a more public venue. Things were going to be bad enough placing a bull's eye on their backs for Rocket; the seviian had no desire to add his name to KISS' hitlist as well.

With a slight sigh as the conversations wound back up, the young man checked his watch; Lisa had told him to keep an eye on the sky at midnight after all, and knowing her it would do him well to keep the appointment.

[Major]

"Heh...manage it...yeah, hopefully." Claire said, switching back to Unovian when Uriel spoke, scratching back of head. "Darkrai has it temporarily paused and I'll umm...I'll hopefully have time for something more long term before we go. Or maybe it will last until we get to the isles or something." Claire said. To be honest, she wasn't sure which she preferred. The Servii Isles sounded like a lovely place and swimming there sounded way cooler than swimming in Castilla. But at the same time if Uriel's family was there she would prefer her more modest and covered frills and skirts over a swimsuit.

"Darkrai...speaking of which do you know how long this pause will hold?" Claire asked looking at the flustered goddess, "You know if you need a subject change to avoid slipping up and telling more of your thoughts on 'cuties' and 'being soft' you could tell people what you wanted to about visions and dreams and such about Uriel..."

[Jacior]

"Well, like I said, my company always planned a Johto tour... Guess we're just gonna do it a little different huh?" Drew says, grinning at Kara, and messing with Gwen's hair at the same time. "I guess my next question is when do we leave?" He lets his hand fall back to the table. The rest of this he just took in without much response.

[DataNinja]

"Uh, yes... Of course," Maria says to... Kara, a little distractedly. It's starting to sink in that if she goes through with this, it means leaving the region for who knows how long, and might mean never coming back...

[Haluesen]

Kara nodded excitedly and looked to the rest. "Yeah yeah when are we heading out? Anything else we gotta do? Oh wait I did just think of something. Something real quick. Hey kitten, get down here already!" As she looked to Niko and beckoned.

[passinglurker]

Everyone
"We'll leave whenever you lot are ready tomorrow so whoever is coming should wrap up whatever affairs they still have in this city. Nothing is worse than leaving a task half done to run around to the other side of the world where they may not come back yar" Says Captain Johnson as Niko quickly scrambles off the cabinet at Kara's order/barking.

"ah right... the dream... yeah *gulp*" Darkrai says reluctantly avoiding eye contact. "well first I'm gonna need a human volunteer to well "cuddle" this stuff is gonna get super depressing and normally I distract myself from that by screwing around while I talk and well you guys would probably prefer one person take the brunt of it over just letting me go wild right?..." Darkrai says to claire about as awkwardly as kara sounds when talking about herself.

[DataNinja]

Maria nods at the captain's statement. "I'm sorry, all of you. Especially Ann. But I won't be coming back." She's even surprising herself a little bit at saying this. "I made a promise to someone to help them. And I owe it to them, because it's my fault that they're in that mess in the first place. I wish you all the best of luck in rescuing your wayward goddess, though." She looks towards Ann in particular. "And thank you, for being there, helping me... and just being my friend. I hope that we can meet again sometime." With that, she heads towards the door that leads out into the city.

[passinglurker]

Everyone
"umm.. sorry but I'm going with her I can't simply leave her alone with geegee" Ann then says dashing out to follow maria to the ends of the earth

-*sigh* ok it looks like we'll need to structure our plan- says monitor

"better it happened now than in the middle of something important" answers Wisp

[Major]

Claire raised an eye at the departure, but then looked back at Darkrai. Tact made her not want to say anything about agreeing with Wisp, but she did feel the woman had a point. If somebody was unsure if they could come, they should step out now while planning was going on. As she thought of that, her mind turned to home. What if she was ordered home? What would she do? Claire knew she couldn't just leave everyone when she was capable of helping them. However, a direct order from her grandfather was an order from the King.

She quickly pushed the thoughts aside, trying to assure herself that she would be fine and she would cross that bridge if it happened. Plus she was more concerned with the Darkrai stuff.

When the nightmare goddess requested a cuddle partner, Claire didn't respond and merely waited to see who would reply. She wasn't the type to volunteer anyone, but if she was following Drew around, he clearly made the most sense.

[Haluesen]

Kara watched in surprise and confusion as Maria left. "Ah...well good luck out there then." She gave a little wave as she departed.

At Darkrai's request for a 'playmate', Kara had a look of nervousness. She knew Darkrai could pretty much pick who she wanted, and she wanted to avoid being partner. So as soon as Niko scurried down to her she called out to the room. "Oh hey found a volunteer! Thanks kitten!" And she practically threw Niko over to Jerry.

[passinglurker]

Everyone
"huh? wha? nyah!" goes niko in confusion as she is pushed stumbling into darkrai's arms "w-wait I never agreed-!" niko attempts to protest as darkrai wraps a strong arm around the feline girl's skimpily clad hips and licks her lips as the goddess makes a knowing smile "Oh please you know you actually like being messed with why hide it?" Darkrai says as she presses a finger against the tip of niko's nose making the cat girl's ears go back and her tail go straight as she tries to lean back and away from the goddess's finger "wh-what are you doing!? s-stop it!" She says squirming to shake the finger off to no avail.

"yes you'll do just fine kitten" darkrai says with a nod not letting up with her finger "So who has a question for me first?" She then says to the group ignoring the cat girls protests.

"hey don't just ignore me! stop! I am the darkness! staaaahp!" Niko says flailing her arms in an cute tantrum that belies her infamous nature as darkrai continues to simply poke the tip of her nose.

[Major]

"I just want to know about the dream vision things. You said would say in front of others to avoid having to repeat. Sooo...whatever those were. Especially since something involves me. Not sure why couldn't tell me that privately...but shoot." She couldn't say she enjoyed someone being just thrown at Darkrai, but as long as just innocent nose poking didn't seem like worth it to interfere...yet.

[Haluesen]

Kara looked to Claire as she spoke, then she nodded. "Yeah there was something about visions and things, I wanted to hear about that too. I want to hear private details about people and vision things. I mean I would guess it wasn't great...but secret details, so yay! Go on please." She chuckled a bit as she watched Niko being messed with.

[Regalus]

Uriel for his part stayed quiet, avoiding meeting Niko with his gaze. While it certainly solved one issue, and his gut told him the huntress was protesting more for appearances than anything else, it still left the young man feeling improper to watch too closely as the goddess played with her new toy.

[passinglurker]

Everyone
"Secret details huh? hmm... well not that any of them would say it out loud but of the people in this room claire, amber, z, and wispy all have big crushes on uriel! there's more but how about we meter it out with the other questions so these simpletons don't get too distracted" Jerry says to kara loud and clear for all to hear with a wink causing some surprise among those mentioned (z and amber in particular have slowly hidden themselves under the table out of embarrassment)

Jerry then turns her attention to claire "hmm... how's the best way to put this..." She then takes a deep breath and begins to exposition at great speed "basically due to a rare supernatural trait in the royal families genetics royal infants suffer a terribly high mortality rate you would have been part of that statistic if your parents hadn't cut a deal with a crime boss where the boss would use thier organization's illegal sciences and unethical researched treatments to save your life at any cost to your mundaness and in exchange your parents would allow them limited access to use you in thier research and lend thier personal talents to the organization. As a result the organization used a combination of royal genetics, gene splicing, and good old fashioned cloning technology to make batches of half rate girls with higher odds of developing elemental powers in order to better study how the powers developed so that they come up with better ways to give powers to thier agents or make elemental clone soldiers or something conspiracy-esque like that. Your father was was depicted the way he was in the dream because his role was keeping these super powered girls in line as an enforcer the greatest obstacle against most of them revolting or escaping with rare exception and as a result he bares these girls fear and ire. The shadowy appearance of your father and the girls was because the rare genetic trait they have in common is seen as a black shadow or void like aura by seers. Where as your appearance was alluding to the experimental tricks they used to save you that result in your elementalism and your ability to switch types, and how you'd also likely deny everything I just told you. If you want proof just ask spooks she's been investigating you, kuro, and your family at least ever since your dad was murdered so she probably has plenty she hasn't had a chance to tell you yet cause you keep running off doing your own thing. if you are feeling mad right now feel free to take it out on niko she's a masochist she loves being beaten, and I don't have a problem with using her as a shield to block any attacks." Darkrai rabbles out all at once as she twists Niko's arms behind her back and hides behind the cat girl like she was a tall shield.

"huh? what!? w-wait!" cries niko in alarm and quickly turning red as her breath picks up. its hard to tell if she scared of getting hurt by a world class combat trained princess or if she is just scared she won't be able to hide her masochistic nature...

[Jacior]

Drew reaches over with his free hand and flicks Jerry on the ear. Between bites of food he makes the comment. "That's so mean. You got everyone worked up about the cuddling for a human shield?" He refuses to look at anyone else after the revealing comment about Uriel, his face sloely turning red.

[Major]

At the crush comment, Claire raises an eyebrow. Z wouldn't have a crush on Uriel, she liked cars and robots and things. However, it wasn't worth arguing. Before she could comment, Z was hiding and Claire frowned. That didn't make any sense, why was she hiding?

When Darkrai went into her long ramble, however, Claire's frown got a lot more serious. "I thought you weren't going to lie." She said annoyed. "That's all clearly a lie. Everyone would have heard about a high mortality rate and royal babies dying." She said.

"And my parents wouldn't work for some criminal! And my genes are perfectly normal! And dad wasn't an enforcer for some gang of criminals!" Claire was getting more annoyed and could fear her temper heating up. "The lying is annoying enough, but don't talk bad about my family or make up things like that. And of course I would deny it! It is blatantly stupid and fake!"

She clenched her fist annoyed, but wasn't going to just punch the goddess for talking bad about her father. Regardless of how enticing that might seem, Claire knew better than to attack for an insult so she resisted despite her annoyance and temper.

She ignored the cat girl and her weirdness. "Regardless, if I wanted to hit you I could get around her...I'm not some untrained idiot who just swings blindly..." She mumbled.

[passinglurker]

Everyone
"eh-heh sorry I'm just saying what comes naturally... and not trying to think to hard about about all those poor girls that were killed so far in thier experiments among other things..." Says Jerry to drew as her tone slides from happy to depressed "great there goes my mood... I need to recharge... with... Oppai!" She then says as she spins niko around and buries her face into the catgirl's chest "Hey! w-what do you think you are doing!? stop squeezing me! what is oppai!? if you are going to torment me do it in plain unovan!" Niko complains flailing to keep her balance.

"*sigh* actually what she is saying does line up with the evidence. I'd love for her to be wrong or lying too believe me, but we are at the point where until proof is found to the contrary we can't make that assumption." wisp says stepping between claire and darkrai "to start with the part about the infant mortality rate is true I've known that much for a very very long time the royal family hides it by concealing any pregnancies and not announcing births until a child is proven to be healthy. the public doesn't notice and the royal families influence keeps everyone else who may know quite about the matter. Also you've changed elemental typing 3 times in less than 2 days. Even without your complete medical records verified by a second medical professional I can say with certainty your genes are far from normal. And finally as for your parents themselves... take a deep breath and ask yourself this... if your child needed a doctor you couldn't find legally what would you do?" Wisp says

[Major]

"Its not natural because nobody died!" Claire snapped. "You are making it up!" Before she could comment further Wisp stepped in.

"We don't need proof! I know my family and I know that its silly and I refuse to believe that! She's clearly lying and you have no proof anybody died or hiding deaths!" Claire said angrily. Why was Wisp helping with Darkrai's lies?

"The genes and elementalism is just because of that Banette or the relic or something. My family didn't do anything!" She denied.

At Wisp's comment she frowned, "I'd do whatever, but I'd find a legal way or a way that people wouldn't die or be hurt." Claire said after a moment of pause. "But that didn't happen here. The only proof we have is her."

[Haluesen]

Kara looked between the set of 4 girls as all this talking went on, mildly curious but still pretty confused. But she knew she was getting some pretty juicy info so she tried to commit as much of this as she could to memory. But at that last comment Kara couldn't help giving her two cents. "A little naive really...sometimes things just can't be done legally. Not that I really know any things like that, but the world really isn't so wonderful that there is always a nice, clean, easy way to do things."

She paced a bit as she thought over her own words. "Looks like there's gonna be more talking about this right now though...does anyone have some soda? Maybe lemonade? All this conversing is making me thirsty. Niko, got anything?" She directed the question to the whole group, only ending with a direct request at Niko to poke fun at her uncomfortable situation.

[passinglurker]

Everyone
"I'm with Claire on this one we can't trust what this pokemon Opal tried trusting it and look what happened to her." Violet says taking a supporting position next to claire. The words seem to sting jerry who shrinks behind her "hostage" "I... didn't mean for that to..."

"Indeed you can't just go accusing the royal family of such atrocities without proof." Adds Delila also flanking to support claire.

"*sigh* Saying you'll find a way is the same as saying it just won't happen to you. Unfortunately unlike questions you can't run from reality so easily. Your medical records have already showed me you are more than a naive hot headed girl who plays with explosive zippers. While most of the action and treatment records come up very clean and routine looking the logistics entries of the records show that there are chemicals, materials, and equipment that don't line up with anything they would do in a routine check up, but are instead known to be used in genetic therapy. In addition the logistics entries show a trend of genetic tampering that dates back to your infancy. Your reckless encounters with banettes and relics frankly should have killed you but something else has been saving you." Wisp says to claire standing her ground against the three taller kalosian women. "As for proof of the royal family hiding its infant mortality rate I have my own personal experience from 300 hundred years ago of kalosian queen begging me to save thier child where I learned of these circumstances. Basically what is going on is the "shadow aura" trait manifests in varying degrees of strength only those with a weak alignment to it live to see adulthood... I was able to help them learn that much but in the end I wasn't able to save thier child, and well... I'm an occultist not a wetnurse the death of a baby isn't something I wanted to see ever again so I told them not to bother me with this business in the future..."

Kara
The catgirl groans at your request for a beverage "You already took even the shirt off my back when we first met..." She says prompting curious looks from Gwen and Flu "Ack! metaphorically metaphorically! I n-never consented to nor engaged in any nudity at any point!" Niko then nervously lies trying to cover for her slip of the tongue about how "agreeable" She got after a bit of your "snuggling" "warmed her up". Of course the funnest part was making her say different things in order to beg for her clothes back before you left the estate with her earlier today. "s-s-still w-where would you even expect me to keep something to drink!" She then tries to say as if her lack of beverages should be obvious to anyone smart enough... then her eyes wander and glance down at her ample perky bust and her face almost immediately goes red in alarm as if she had just fantasized a worst case lewd scenario "D-don't get any weird ideas!" She says twisting and squirming helplessly stuck where she was and trying desperately to just turn her vulnerable front to point away from you with no avail and instead just manages to make her chest shake entertainingly.

[Major]

"I'm not running from reality! I'm denying dreams and lies as reality! I know my family and I know myself better than anybody here!" She snapped glaring at Wisp. She knew she should suppress her temperature, but she didn't like the idea that for some reason Wisp was making up some lie just to slander her family.

"You probably are just reading that file wrong. Or the weird thing made it look weird. Or the chemicals or something are like wrong in the file or for something innocent or something! My parents wouldn't randomly do weird stuff. And if they did something it was for a reason and was innocent and not evil!" She insisted. She had thought Wisp was on her side, but now she was making stuff up.

"And that's not a funny joke. That is seriously insulting and not humorous. Stop lying!" She said getting even more annoyed at the story about personal experience. "They would have told me if something wrong, especially if had to do with infant death! Making something up like this just because of your shadow obsession is insulting and stupid and I won't take it." She said serioisly. "We are discussing serious stuff not making up things for whatever agenda you have. And I especially don't appreciate bad mouth lies about my mom and dad."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"I'm not darkrai, I'm a professional I don't lie or joke about my work" Wisp says in a dead serious tone as she steps closer "Your parents certainly can be believed to have a reason for what they did, and saving your kids life seems like a pretty innocent and non-evil reason to me, but I asked you what would you have done in thier place. What would you do if your child needed an illegal doctor. Would you let your child die or would you do what it would whatever it would take to get that doctor? no saying you'll find a legal way by some power of friendship BS not pretending it just won't happen to you cause claire your father very well could have been murdered over this! You are the person these sort of things happen to!" Wisp asserts waving for slippers to keep out of this, and daring to insinuate that kuro may have killed your dad cause he was a bad guy.

[Major]

"This has nothing to do with him being murdered! And even if they did do something to me that's not wrong. They would help me, but that doesn't mean they did anything wrong. Just doing weird genetic stuff to save me isn't wrong. They wouldn't do anything bad!" She said annoyed. "That doesn't mean they covered up dead babies, or helped criminals, or were enforcers, or did experiments on people, or anything like that. Plus I don't see what any of that would have to do with him being killed. Just because Kuro killed him doesn't prove dad did anything. Mom is alive. And he didn't say anything to me. Plus I thought you had that whole legend theory."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"First the infant mortality rate and its concealment are real. Hereditary supernatural traits of the royal family lead to a heightened risk of medical complications in birth and early childhood. I've studied and witnessed it for myself, and I will not be called a liar or allow you to go on about things you know nothing about so drop it. As for your parents as they say the path to the Void is paved with good intentions. Though practically speaking trying to call thier actions good or bad is a waste of time. Moral alignment is often a purely subjective matter anyway. My point is you need to be open to the possibility that these things may have happened and decide what you are going to do if it's so. We can't have you turning on us in the middle of saving melody because we discover we are going against your parents interests or something." Wisp says

hmm... the path to the Void is paved with good intentions... I wonder if that is what happened to your kuro to turn him into your nemesis... his actions suggest he was trying to create a narrative. Though that's probably just in pursuit of this region's legends it is a staple of stories to have a sufficient villain that could potentially justify anything the hero does to save the day. it would seem rather ridiculous though of betraying some one to save them from feeling betrayed by some one else though that stone he had on him. Wisp said it alters the mind right? who knows how long he had it warping his thoughts inflating his ambition and emotions... Victini suggests in your head breaking his long silence Sorry I'm rambling I should just keep my mouth shut. The only one here sick and useless enough to think in terms of storybook tropes is me. so yeah just shutting up now pretend I didn't say anything...

[Haluesen]

Kara giggled a bit at Niko's flustered state and was glad for some bit of distraction, but as sides were taken, words were thrown, and voices raised she got noticeably uncomfortable. She only gave a little nod at Niko, effectively letting her off the hook for now. After a bit of time listening to them (most of it went above her head but she tried), she moved to stand by Wisp. "Look this is probably all really distressing...I mean it doesn't sound like good news...and I can get not believing in Darkrai. But Wisp...she knows what's she's talking about. That's clear. It's one of the only things I'm really sure about with her, that she takes these things seriously and focused-ly. I don't know what it all means for you or this whole mission thing...but you should at least not completely dismiss it just because you don't like it."

In situations like this it helped to have something to focus on, and what Violet said was the easiest thing for that if not necessarily the best. "And hey babe, none of us were around for whatever happened to her. I mean unless you were and you're saying you were involved in her kicking the bucket...I hope not. But since we don't really know, how about you just keep that little event out of this? As a favor sweetie?" She smiled a bit and stood open with her hands behind her head seeming relaxed, but her canine teeth showed. It still sucked to consider how that young girl had died.

[Major]

"I am NOT just going to drop it!" Claire snapped annoyed, "And things I know nothing about? I'm a member of the family you are slandering for whatever reason!" She said with a glare, "You don't think maybe when I started dating my parents might have felt the need to warn me if that was the case?" She asked. She knew her fiery temper was getting hotter and hotter as she argued and that she should probably walk away for a moment or change the subject, but she couldn't just walk away from someone spreading lies about her mother and dead father.

"If you weren't being a liar you wouldn't be called one. You are expecting me to believe that for over three-hundred years the royal family has been having children die over and over and they have covered it up even from the Crown Princess of Kalos." She stressed, "And that despite our worship of Lady Xerneas, the goddess of LIFE, that we somehow have constant deaths over some silly nonsense shadowy dark energy crap?" Claire asked. The fact that it didn't even cross her mind to change the "crap" to a "errr---nonsense" was definitely a result of her annoyance. "My dad was NOT a bad person, my mom is NOT a bad person! And they weren't doing bad things for right reasons or whatever! If you had just said that they did weird stuff to me to save my life, that would be annoying, but fine. I could maybe accept that. But you were trying to claim enforcers and experimental soldiers and all that!" Claire argued, "How stupid is it to claim there are a bunch of clone soldiers of the princess of Kalos? And what those clones have just been hiding and never shown up anywhere? Those clones aren't real, because my parents didn't do anything like that!" Claire insisted, angrily.

"And it wouldn't BE against my parents wishes because my parents would never work for Poffins and wouldn't be kidnapping and brainwashing people!" Claire said slamming her hand on the table. "I trust them far more than I trust some mysterious mask lady who wanted to cram me in a box and ship me off to Orre. Or who feels she knows best about everything. Or who didn't care about anybody unless they had weird powers that were beneficial to her! Especially when this mysterious witch is trying to make up royal scandals for whatever agenda. You think I'm not used to people trying to make us sound bad for some political agenda?" Had she not been so upset, she probably would have felt extremely bad about the 'witch' remark, but with her temper burning like an inferno she barely even noticed.

When Victini made his comments, Claire frowned and thought harshly, This is a bogus story and not worth justifying. Shush. That doesn't even make any sense and indulging their line of thought is stupid.

When the furry Kara girl spoke, Claire sighed annoyed. Was everybody going to jump in against her and side with the goddess of lies and the mysterious witch? If Violet and Delila hadn't been here she suspected everybody would have just jumped on the 'bash Claire's family bandwagon'. She looked over at Kara annoyed, "Everybody in this world has an agenda. I am pretty sure I know my family better than some Unovian witch does." Claire snapped harshly. "She can claim she knows what she is talking about all she wants, but she's either lying or crazy." She said. "I'm not dismissing it because I don't like it. I'm dismissing it because I know my family and trust them and its clearly lies!" Claire stressed, though whether she was being honest or not, even she didn't know. It wasn't allowed to be true and she couldn't even consider the possibility it could be. Her dad wasn't the type to help criminals experiment on people to make soldiers. I mean, she didn't know what 'type' that was, but still. Not Kami-typed. "And just for your information, Violet WAS there. Its how she got injured trying to help Opal."

Annoyed at feeling ganged up on by Darkrai, Wisp, and now the furry one, Claire looked over at Uriel. "What about you? Do you also believe this obvious crap story?" She asked. "Or does SOMEBODY here trust that maybe I know my family more than a few strangers?"

[Regalus]

Uriel burns with emberrassment at Darkri's "revelation", placing a hand over his face as a slight groan worms it's ways from his lips. It was certainly an ice breaker, and Darkri Jerry could've gone for something else, so he was thankful for that much at least. It certainly proved that she was on her best behavior at the moment, and he took some solace from the fact the group didn't dwell on the 'secret' for long; the last thing he needed after today was to ponder what geometric shape his love life was currently simulating.

Sadly, that had been the peak fo the conversation as soon it all went down hill quickly. Uriel knew this wouldn't be easy for Claire to accept, and he couldn't begrudge her for resisting it; from their first outing it was clear the girl had idolized her father greatly. He couldn't help but feel that her late father would have been touched by the passioned defense, and then Claire crossed the line.

He looked at the red head briefly in shock, doubting for a moment that the Rose of Kalos has been that callouse.... but no. A brief flicker of his gaze to Amelia comfirmed that it hadn't been a trick; the realization turning the young man's blood to ice as he locked a steeled gaze on the woman.

"Claire... calm down, and answer me this..." Uriel said cooly; the very picture of calm and progesionalism, "When were you going to mention that you were handing Z over to your Aunt after this meeting?"

[Major]

Claire's upset paused as confusion filled her at Uriel's remark. She had been planning to throw the remark at Uriel then go back to focusing on Wisp, however his words confused her. She frowned as she looked at him and blinked, "What?" She asked shocked. "What are you talking about?" She asked surprised at his remark. "I am not!" She couldn't believe Uriel's remark. Did he also doubt her? She felt a mix of hurt, betrayal, and surprise filling her heart as she stepped back.

First she had Darkrai bashing her father, then Wisp had tried to say it was true. The weird furry girl had a connection to Darkrai so her defense hadn't been that much of a surprise. But Uriel was the one she thought she could have relied on the most, other than Delila and Violet. Her hot anger felt like ice cold water had been hurled on it but the cool words. So even he felt that she wasn't able to be trusted? She wasn't sure how she should react to that other than shock. Her temper was wanting to yell and argue with Wisp, but Uriel's words made her extremely upset and hurt.

"I wouldn't do that to Z..." She said softly. "Why would you think that?" She was having a hard time focusing on arguing with Wisp with the pain in her heart.

I...I can't focus on this, I need to focus on Wisp... A part of her thought, but at the same time making such an accusation in front of Z, especially, she couldn't ignore that. She quickly looked at Z, "Z, I promise I am not doing that!" She quickly insisted. Having to defend herself to her cousin in addition to having to defend her father from almost everyone in the room made her feel extremely attacked and pressured. She clenched her fist as she looked over everyone present. Why was suddenly everybody attacking her? Uriel had been someone she trusted and had liked. She had called for his opinion because he was always so good with words and she figured he would help her. But instead he had ignored her comment as if he believed all these attacks on her family and then made his own attack on her. Clearly, the reason he was asking about the Z thing was because he believed her family was awful and did experiments and thought she felt the same way and was handing Z over to be experimented on.

She quickly ran a hand against her eyes to clear out any water as the hurt was pushed aside by the return of the angry glare. So Uriel was also her enemy. Great, she had Violet and Delila as the only people in the room who didn't think badly of her or her family. Everyone else suddenly decided to start throwing attacks and accusations and ganging up on her. "Fine. If none of you believe me I can leave." She said angrily. "I've been trying my best to help and do what I can and I met a lot of you because of trying to help another kidnap victim. But fine! I'm a bad guy and so is my family and all of you think I'm a part of it!" She tried to push aside any of the hurt she felt as she snapped back. "I thought you knew me better than that, Uriel. But I guess you'd rather know her!" Claire said pointing at Wisp aggressively. "She didn't even want to help you until I pretty much offered to work for her and do a bunch of jobs! And I was willing to do it because I thought I could trust you and I thought you trusted me and I thought maybe you were...nevermind forget it." She mumbled stopping herself and getting quite for a second. Finally when she spoke her voice wasn't filled with the hot passion it had been before, instead she spoke with a cold quiet tone, "Clearly every guy but dad just likes to betray me." She pushed away from the table and glanced at the door debating for a moment if she wanted to just leave or let the cruel liars and betrayers respond. She wasn't the type to just run away and retreat, she fought to win. So while a part of her wanted to not give them the satisfaction of her 'retreating', another part wanted to just leave.

[Regalus]

"Maldicion..." he sighed in in good natured frustration; leave it to CLaire to blow his aesop out of the water. It honestly made him wonder wheher or not her original elementalism might've been fire. He'd certainly expected her to get flustered and defensive, but he'd thought it would've taken more than that to push her this far. It seemd like he wasn't the only one putting out a strong front after the day's events; leaving the ice in his veins to thaw just as quickly as it had frozen. There was no place for tough love at the moment.


Slowly, but surely, the seviian slipped out of his seat so he can meet Claire eye-to eye; meeting her indignation and hurt with his own melancholic gaze. "Claire, of course you aren't going to hand over Z. It's absurd, if it came down to it you'd fight off every person in this room if it meant giving her a fighting chance. No one's questioning your love for her," he began with a sad smile, "And you should know me well enough to know I wouldn't actually throw you under the bus Claire like that. I said what I said, to remind you of your own words,"

" When I first told you about what your Aunt was doing you didn't believe me, not even when Z told you we had proof; you refused to believe it could even be possible, and were deadset on getting her side of the story... even after we told you not to trust her. All because your Aunt was family, and you felt you know her well enough to say there was no way it could be true; or if it was she had to have a good reason for doing it...but in the end it turned out we were right, and she ended up chasing you through town with a flying cyborg," he explained sadly as he reflected over the evening's events.

"You asked Jerry about the visions she gave me, and she told you about the first one; and so far all the other parts have been true Claire. Moreover it lines up with things I found out from Amber, and with Wisp's own research. The fact is your family is in the middle of all this, but that's the reason why we need you here; and why we need you to keep a cool head on your shoulders, because as it stands we're still missing a lot of pieces to the puzzle,'

"You're father was a great man and an honorable warrior; not a single person of asked about him has given his name anything less then praise. So you know he wouldn't be invovled in this if he had a choice... but we don't know why he had no other choice Claire,"

"Maybe there were other options and Poffin's got in the way, you know exactly what kind of manipulative witch she is; she was willing to threaten Sevii just to get to us last time, do you really think she would've been above using baby you against him? Or maybe your aunt had something to do with it; keeping his trust while not telling him the whole truth... or maybe they did something to him. Or it could've been that they planted one of those mind screw stones on him that we've run into, or even some psyker screwing with his head to mix up the details. This whole situation is so insane already that anything could be possible,"

"There's just so much we don't know Claire, that anything might be true. That's the reason why we need to consider every possibilit. That way if Poffin tries to use some big reveal, or use that same trick even, agaisnt us we'll at least have considered how to handle it; or maybe we can find some way to stop her from getting back at us once it's over," he states, running a palm corsely through hsi hair as he considered his words.

"I-I was just trying to remind you that ever since we started this mess just about everythinlg we believed has been turned on it's head. Kuro and his men turned out to have mindscrew stones messing with their heads, Poffins turned out to be the Giovani, and my sister's penpal turned out to be a brainwashed goddess; hell, we're on speaking terms with what? Four divinities at last count?" he contineud with no shortage of exasperation, before finally sagging.

"It's just... it's been a long day for everyone here; the three of us especially... and patience is running thin for all of us, and things are being said without thinking... I shouldn't have been so blunt with how I said this but... I just, didn't want you to take a step back when it looked like things were turning from a discussion to a fight. We all need cool heads to make since of this convaluted mess,and I tried to help clear the air; but I just ended up pushing you too hard, and shoving my foot in my mouth," he admitted ruefully, feeling every hour of the day's fatigue falling over him again.

"I'm sorry Claire, really I am; can you forgive me?"

[Major]

When Uriel first started talking, Claire just covered her arms. She doubted he could just explain things away as usual. When he stood up, she raised an eyebrow and waited as he spoke. As he spoke, she shifted a few times uncomfortably.

"I..." She hesitated at the comment about the Aunt. "That...that's different..." She mumbled, "I didn't know my Aunt as well and...it just didn't make sense...I mean a mother and a daughter shouldn't be like that its just...a mother is supposed to protect her daughter so it just...I mean it wasn't just because of family. I couldn't believe any mother would do that and I wanted to assume it was just a mix up..." Claire mumbled.

She paused for a moment, "I...I still don't get it and it makes no sense and I don't understand my aunt. It does make things confusing and weird and I guess I can see why you guys might think that but..." Claire took a deep breath. "But dad and mom aren't like that!" She insisted, though at least this time it wasn't with anger or anything so much as a mix of pleading and insistence. "I...I can't accept that. Not with...I mean...we have one person's claim." She said motioning toward Darkrai, "And somebody else's theory. You can't expect me to assume my mom and dad were...were complicit in something like this. Forced or not..." Claire stressed. "I...I wouldn't even know how to handle that. It would mean...it would mean lots of bad stuff happened because of me. And it would mean dad and mom hurt people. It would mean everything dad told me was a lie. And I can't believe one person, not even a goddess, over twenty years."

"Plus surely if she had clones of me we would have seen one or something. Or Poffins would have tried replacing me or something..." Claire said, "I...if anything bad happened it would just be without dad and mom knowing or something...I could maybe accept that my genetics were messed with if a doctor or someone said it instead of just some supernatural investigator. I could maybe accept that unknowingly someone like Poffins snuck something for bad stuff...but its the part about dad and mom helping that is just...I can't."

She sighed and bent down to pick up the chair she had knocked over when she had stood up quickly and set it back up. Then she sat down and rubbed her head. "I...I get wanting to consider possibilities...but I trust my parents... And while I can believe maybe they were tricked...or maybe Poffins snuck something...I can't accept or believe this full story." Claire mumbled looking at the table instead of Uriel. "I need more proof than just people claiming things...especially people skilled at deception." Claire mumbled.

As she sat there she put her hand over her stomach. The very idea that maybe Poffins had tricked her family or somehow used her to do weird things to people made her feel sick. She trusted her parents hadn't actually done anything bad and she trusted anything done was without their permission, but the idea still made her ill. As she sat there quietly for a moment her mind flooded with all the different things that she knew or had heard.

Most of what her Aunt told her could be dismissed as lies, but at the same time who knows what was true? Her Aunt had first claimed a dragon war and that Kuro killed her dad because of her parents trying to stop the bad guys. At the same time she had also referenced 'Daughter Sapphire' which tied in with the whole brainwash phrase that Darkrai had claimed existed.


Her Aunt had made all sorts of differing conflicting claims including no command word. That was really the big thing. Her Aunt had claimed Uriel was lying and as such would claim Darkrai was lying. Uriel was good with his words which meant he could have tricked Z. She wanted to trust him. She really did, but was it wrong to test it? If she tested she could confirm for sure that her Aunt was the problem. And once confirmed she could ignore anything her Aunt had claimed. But even still it was too much. She hadn't actually proven for sure her Aunt was bad. She had wanted to talk more with Z and Uriel. She rested her head on the table and tried to think. A part of Claire wanted to test it to actually confirm, but she didn't want to hurt Z in that way. She disliked the idea of just trusting whatever people told her, but this wasn't something she could respectfully test. "I...I still don't know for 100% sure about my Aunt to be fair..." She mumbled.

However, the most damning evidence was the medical file. Her parents had insisted she didn't look at it and yet something in her file had caused Wisp to make her theory.

"F...Flu...what's in my file?" Claire asks, "You...you do medical stuff right? Do you ummm...have any like qualifications or like...should I talk to T...Terra..." She finally asked. She didn't like the idea, but the woman worked at the center and had treated her before. "Uhh...actually does she have qualifications? Like she did medical stuff, but I thought she was security and...whatever, I want like...someone that I know can tell me for sure...is...Is Wisp's comments about my file at all accurate. What's in there?"

Then she looked back to Uriel. "I...I also lost my temper. That...that's not fitting of a princess. So...its not your fault you don't need to apologize. I just...I took things badly and I'm the one who should apologize...so..." She shifted a bit. "I'm sorry...I still don't believe all of this, but I have acted rudely and insulted people so...I'm sorry to those I insulted as well." She said. Apologizing to Uriel hadn't been too hard, but she didn't like the other apology even if it was owed. She still felt they were insulting her family and father which made apologizing annoy her, but it wasn't proper for someone of her stature to throw out insults back.

[Haluesen]

" *whistle* Wow you people can really talk a lot." Kara spoke after a moment of silence. "Well then, it sounds like things are a little calmer. Good! Probably shouldn't have the team break up more before the team is even made. Anyway, excuse me please? All of you keep up...whatever. I'm gonna step out for a minute, with a couple of our friends here. Okay? Okay." So with that she turned to go to the door and grabbed Jerry to pull along (hopefully with her keeping Niko along too).

As she opened the door, she turned to the others and added a little more to things. "Oh, and princess? If Flu holds out on you, steal her clothes and offer them back for that file. It really works! Or if you can't or won't someone else can do that. I would but I'm stepping out. Have fun!" And with that and a chuckle she left with them in tow.

Once out in the hall or room or wherever they were Kara sighed and shook her head. "Damn things got aggressive way too quick in there! Quite a mixed bag, huh? And that's not even knowing everyone there yet."

[passinglurker]

Drew
This whole aggressive argument seems to have upset your busty dragon friend considering how Gwen has been holding and squeezing you like you're her teddy bear or something for the past 5 minutes

Claire
Z like amber was already under the table out of embarrassment when uriel suggested you might turn her over to her mother. now she's probably staying under the table out of fear...

Flu jumps and blushes in alarm when kara suggests you take her clothes to get her to talk "sh-she's jokeing sh-she's jokeing! a-and I'll talk! s-so there is no need for that..." Flu flusters you get the feeling that really would have worked though if you had to... "*deep breath* d-due to my work at the florence estate I have experience in both medical and supernatural fields. What The Wisp just told you about your file was a conclusion we came to together after examining your file and sharing other information" flu then says meekly supporting wisps "nonsense and lies" instead of "talking like a normal person" like you

Violet meanwhile looks like she is seething with rage at kara over her remarks about opal and moves as if she is going to aura shpere the mightyena girl while her back was turned. Thankfully Delila was already all over it before any shots were fired. Violet's still extremely upset but not so upset that she'll shoot through her girlfriend to hit her mark. Delila could probably use some help calming the burned girl...

Everyone but Kara
-Excuse me but I'd just like to clear something up about the "clone soldiers" theory first it's unlikely that any are exact duplicates of claire or any member of the royal family. Aside from the technical hurdles and infeasibilities from generation degradation if claire's parents made a deal with the devil for claire's sake then they wouldn't agree to something that could threaten claire's future as heir to the throne, and under the current kalosian laws of succession a direct clone unexpectedly would be just as qualified as the original to become the heir so a plot like that would be a non-starter. What's more likely is that they used the cloning technology like a sort of artificial womb to combine two dna sources into a child that would likely develop powers by thier calculations giving them a steady supply of test subjects to better understand elemental science. Unlike direct duplicates of claire if their cover was blown the worst that would happen is that the test subjects would be considered next in line after claire.-

"I still think that's an optimistic outlook parents in that position would value an alive child over a queen child if it came down to it. You're basically assuming that poffins would hold back to keep the parents appeased"

-yes but like I said if they were willing to make that sort of compromise they would have avoided the whole situation through adoption-

"which doesn't solve that kalos would still need an hier *sigh* lets not get into this debate again in front of everyone since we can't know one way or another until we learn more or uncover amber's genealogy to confirm the conspiracies are related..."

-agreed. Though what about amber's fear of someone matching the crown prince's description?-

"Its strong evidence we should act on, but not technically a confirmation that amber is claire's mad science daughter or something like that"

-true... we should probably stop speculating out loud in front of everyone...-

"yeah..." says wisp as amber pokes her head out from under the table in surprise to what was just said.

Kara
Jerry indeed pulls Niko along though she doesn't pin her outside the meeting room just holds her hand leaving the catgirl very confused as to what is going on and why she's here. "And this is why I play around when talking serious stuff if they get mad at anyone its me and not each other, but of course since I'm hanging around I can't have everyone hate me to much *sigh*..." Says Jerry seeming to be exhausted and dejected "Maybe if claire would loosen up and not be so dang stubborn about everything ever..." She then pouts "Though I can't say I didn't see this coming I wouldn't have put her denial in that dream if it wasn't going to be an issue..."

[Haluesen]

"Yeah well here not wanting to believe things kinda makes a lot of sense. She seems the believe-in-good-in-others-first sort, of course she wouldn't want to think her parents betrayed her somehow."/COLOR] Kara shrugged in neutral acceptance. [COLOR="#808080"]"Though I understand even more about your...thing. However you phrase it. Easier to deal with all this drama when you have someone to play with." She chuckled and did the same poke on the nose thing that Darkrai had been doing to Niko right to the poor catgirl again.

"But it seems she wasn't just angry at you. She had a lot of aggressiveness with spooky in there as well as the talkative lover boy in there." That brought a chuckle and tail wag back to her. "Not even actually a couple it seems and yet she's getting defensive and jealous about him, and their having married couple-like arguments. If there was a reason to stick around for all this, it would be to just watch how hilarious and zany all that would go."

[passinglurker]

Kara
"Heh Well is her jealousy really so surprising? You've met her evil yandere mostly opposite after all" jerry says snatching nikos free hand and pinning her wrists behind her back again so she can't swat away your poking

"Oh come on! What is with you two and poking my nose!? Cut it out!" Niko complains trying to bob and weave but with Darkrai holding her you can effortlessly match her maneuvers

[Haluesen]

Kara rolled her eyes and nodded. "Ugh yeah I remember that *insert Russian-sounding insult here* well enough. That was just today after all. Though really it feels a lot longer somehow." She gave it a second of thought before shrugging it away and continuing to mess with Niko. "I'm glad someone explained that to me. All I needed to get from it is that princess in there isn't the one I met before. Which is good, I'd probably have tried whupping her ass and have like 5 people on me, which in this case wouldn't be fun. Oh, and Drew would have seen me in a light I wouldn't have liked...oh dear." She blushed a bit at that, and then went to trying to tickle Niko.

[Major]

"Great you scared her..." Claire mumbled at Uriel. "Z, if I had wanted to hand you over to your mom why would I have waited till this meeting? Or told anyone?" She asked trying to assure her cousin. "I promise I won't force you to do anything against your will. Just because I'm not completely convinced about your mother yet doesn't mean I would risk it. Until you are comfortable with them I will keep you safe." She promised.

When Flu spoke Claire glanced over at her. "And you are saying that based on just what you know and not just because of Wisp theories?" She asked not quite believing. "And regardless all that would prove is that maybe for some reason someone did elementalist stuff to me. Maybe to save my life, maybe parents knew, maybe not. That is something I need to talk to mom about." Claire said crossing her arm. "It doesn't mean criminal gang or clones or anything weird like that." Claire insisted. "We have no proof of clones or parents helping criminals!"

Claire looked over at Wisp and Monitor and Amber. "It's a silly theory with no evidence. Can we drop the helping bad guys and clones just because some weird elementalist theory?" Claire said annoyed. "It's a weak assumption with no evidence other than a desperate hope to try and prove negative things about my dad and I don't appreciate that."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"well from what I know the tampering was definitely happening for a very long time so I would find it hard to believe the parents wouldn't know" Flu admits

"Well we have amber's testimony which lines up to an extent with elements of uriel's dream which we aren't inclined to discredit just yet as it's proven accurate in other matters so far. Either way it may all sound ridiculous to you but this is pretty par for the course when you work in this field for long enough" Wisp says defending her and monitors speculative actions

-if our theory about how they are operating in correct then we'd be able to run a dna test on amber and determine 100% whether or not she is derived from your genes the key is figuring out who the other half of the dna is otherwise the peices don't line up and there is margin for doubt.- monitor adds.

"though the margin is pretty thin already seeing as how we already had an aura user confirm amber has the same sort of shadow aura like someone with royal blood would" Wisp comments

"of that's bouffalant [censored]!" interjects violet venting her anger on this conversation "I can see aura's too and I can say it proves nothing about them being related like that. after all you have it and you're no royal, that zoroark has it and he isn't even human and.. and.. opal had it..." Violet says growing sad as she brings up opal. her words seem to have surprised wisp though.

"wait what?..." wisp says stunned no doubt her theory has been irrevocably shattered by violets words

-... are you thinking what I'm thinking?-

"... lets not jump too fast yes her mother does work for poffins, but it could just be an independent case we know nothing of her father after all not to mention what would possess poffins to put one of her artificial test subjects in the open like that?" or maybe not maybe she'd rather just dig a deeper hole for herself

-maybe its a research regimen we can't assume they are all subject to abusive testing like amber, and certain upbringings would be impossible to simulate in captivity, or maybe its just that ms. helios was having fertility problems and poffins was getting cocky about not getting caught so the two women cut a deal.-

"hmm... still sounds like too much of a stretch to me... can you even get the data?"

-morgues and hospitals aren't known for thier cyber security even when it comes to celebrity clients just give me 5 minutes-

Kara
Niko cries out in laughter and tries to thrash and pull away but fails to receive any respite from your devious fingers "oh there are times when being jumped by 5 people is fun? could it be you like the occasional taste of failure and/or being messed with yourself?" you hear darkrai say as you feel a pair of arms wrap around you from behind and and run hands over the surface of your jacket vest just over your sweet spot. There is a slight tingle but with the material in the way it's easy to ignore. looking behind you see that darkrai's "got you" but then who's got niko? "ack! where did my top go! why can't I move my arms!? hey! when did she tie my top around my wrists like that!?" Niko then exclaims in alarm trying to look at her limbs that have been bound behind her back as you get a view of her big, bouncy unprotected fun bags.

[Major]

"What testimony? I missed the part where she said 'I am a clone'." Claire said with a sigh. "She has like nothing in common with me." Claire pointed out. "How do we do this DNA proof thing so we can drop these silly clone ideas?" Claire asked. "I am not even that special so why would anyone clone me if they weren't even going to try and claim the throne?"

"Violet, do I really have some weird aura thing?" Claire asked before looking back at Wisp. "I don't get why we are debating this to be honest. It is silly, unlikely, and the evidence for it is super weak. Had it not been something you really wanted to be real and you were unbiased you would be the first to dismiss this as a weak claim and silly."

"I will ask mom when she calls me back and make her explain whatever. It is probably completely reasonable explanation."

[Haluesen]

Kara's head turned in surprise and alarm at Darkrai behind her but forced herself to calm down quickly. She gave a bit of a shrug as she tried to keep things cool by continuing the conversation. "Nah not really. I prefer being the one in control most of the time, so I guess I'm usually a top. Hmm I wonder if that's because of the canine thing..." she thought for a moment but shook her head as quick as it came to her. "Nah, I think I'd be this way anyway. Life's too serious to take too seriously." And so she continued to "toy" with the bound Niko before her, because hey you had to make life fun when it didn't want to be, right?

[Jacior]

Drew listens to all this nonsense incredulously. What kind of awful upbringing did Claire have that she couldn't imagine people would do anything for their children... even horrible things. This girl had her father murdered and she couldn't believe this stuff. He pats Gwen on the head. "Shhh, it's ok." He looks over at Claire. "Will you shut up about stuff you clearly know absolutely nothing about? Of all the **** that's happened today, this is the one thing you can't believe?! Gods, clones, time travel, murder? You draw the line at... fear and sadness driven people doing anything they can for their child? What kind of stupid spoiled life you must have where the world is so black and white."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"*sigh* I don't know if your "benefit of the doubt" attitude is admirable or annoying, but you haven't worked with us that much before so you don't have our same senses of possibility and probability. Though you now live in abnormal circumstances you're still stuck in your pedestrian sense of what is "normal". but fine cling to it if you want I'm a patient person I'll still be here to talk to when it finally hits you how life is, has been, and always will be crazy." Wisp says letting it go cause the GM needs to post but doesn't want to to get into a lengthy exposition right now.

Kara
you hear a low purr of pleasure as you toy and tease the bound niko into a wall much to her added embarrassment "th-that isn't what it sounds like! its my stomach my stomach!" She insists despite it being already established to the contrary in previous encounters "mmmmrow... y-you don't need to be so gentle j-just because I complain you know..." She then reluctantly breathes out as quietly as she could as she gives in to whatever game you are playing.

"*giggle* you'd be right no matter how much control I have the way your gifts manifest is still dependant on who you are deep down. So naturally you'd come out as mightyena. They cast themselves as the dark and dangerous bad boys but deep down they just want to protect their pack... sorry for threatening that with poochy today" Darkrai says snuggling against you, but growing depressed and apologenic toawrds the end of her ramble, but she quickly recovers "Wait! My comedic timing sense is tingling! hold that thought..." Darkrai says dashing to the meeting room door.

Everyone
"Next bombshell is zandra johnson is the little Z's grandmother!... that is all!" Jerry says before closing the door and returing to kara.

"huh?"
"wha? yar"

[Major]

Claire ignored the comment about Z and the Captain. It was hardly relevant and she had other things to focus on.

First, the idiot, "It has nothing to do with helping others protect kid. I could buy that MAYNE dad and mom tried to save me and I was sick. However, that is not the issue. Why would I believe a mask, a person all about mystery and guile, over my own family?" Claire said annoyed. "Nobody in this room, no matter how smart they think they are or what they think they know, knows my family like I do. Nobody has interacted with them as much as I have. Why would I believe that anybody here knows more about my family than I do?" Claire said. "So I find it hilarious that you want to comment on me and things I know nothing about. This has absolutely nothing to do with upbringing, black and white, or anything like that. It has to do with the fact that I know my family much better than anybody else."

Then she focused on Wisp, "For someone so worried about me betraying the group you sure don't make me want to be loyal to you. You want to be condescending about my own knowledge of my own family while trying to claim I just don't get it because the whole world is crazy. I am at least slightly entertaining your comments and will question about them. But this has nothing to do with pedestrian thinking or a crazy world."

"Delila, what time is it? How long has it been since I called Mom."

[Regalus]

Uriel sighed to himself, after apologizing to Z for the brief scare, and checking up on Amber it seemed as if things were settling back down; but it seemed to have been a mostly false start. A few steps forward were taken, only for the brainstorming session to come to another screeching halt between Drew's outburst and Claire's taurite stance on the discussion.

"Claire, how exactly are you going to ask your mom about this kind of stuff without raising a few red flags? I mean, from the sounds of things asking her this sorta thing will seem like it's out of the blue to her; so she;ll probably want some kind of an explenation about why you're curious right?" Uriel questioned the red hea.

"From what you said the women's already worried sick about you; which is why you're on a time limit as is. So if you giver her the impression you're getting involved in something dangerous or suspiscious, won't that risk having her change her mind and call on KISS to pull the plug on what's left of your stay?" he reasoned, hoping his partner had an adequote answer to his concerns.

[Major]

When Uriel asked Claire looked, "Well it should be simple I'd uhh..." She paused, "Well I mean...its...well she wouldn't have a chance to think of a lie if it was true...uhhh..." Claire shifted. He had a point. Since the story was CLEARLY false as she knew asking would just make her mom really confused and make her wonder what's going on. That would indeed cause problems. "Well...it would prove I'm right at least..." She mumbled.

She thinks for a minute. The elementalist thing probably wouldn't be too hard to figure out. She could mention having looked at her medical file despite being told not to and wanted to know why it was weird. A simple explanation most likely could fix it. But how could she ask about this silly claim of dead royal babies?

"Well...I mean, I could just mention having looked at medical file and ask why its weird for that...ummm..." She kept thinking. "As for questioning on this claim of covering stuff...ummmm...I could uhh...." She trailed off trying to think of something. "Oh! I could claim I'm pregnant or something! She'd tell me if worried something happen right?" Claire asked quickly as she noted first thing that came to mind before blushing at realization of what such a claim would be saying.

[Regalus]

"... or she'd be so worried that she'd demand you go straight home so the best kalosian doctors can check you out, instead of relying on the results of on the tests results of some random unovan pokecenter. Or better yet, she'll tell your aunt about and try to arrange a meet up for you two. Who better than your Aunt, one of Unova's best doctors, to clear up any misgivings you have right?" Uriel continued without skipping a beat.

"That's the thing about this; this line of questions isn't the sorta thing we can play up without raising red flags, or putting you in a bad spot with your mom. I mean, if she tells you to talk with your aunt you're going to end up having to explain why you don't trust her... which will inevitably lead into Z's situation. Which in turn will force you to either lie to your mom telling her you don't know anything about Z's situation, which will make her try to force the issue about you talking with your Aunt; who we know for a fact is involved in this mess, and will pounce on any chance to get you or Z in her claws again..."

"... Or you end up having to convince your mom that your aunt can be trusted, explain the situation without any real proof; all without getting her to pull the plug on your trip or letting any of this get back to Rocket or your aunt. As it is our greatest advantage is that they care more about their public image and relations, than our own plans; so if your mom pushes yoru Aunt too far she's likely to say that she's been trying to rescue you and Z this whole time. Probably while painting the rest of us criminals trying to kidnap or sway you to our cause or what have you; since I doubt Poffin's and your Aunt aren't cooking something up in case your mom starts askign the wrogn questions,"

"There's just... so much that can go wrong in ionthat conversat, and once it's brought up there's no real way to cover it up without giving her a reason to bring you back or send our rescue straight down the crapshoot with us along with it," he reasoned, voicing his concerns before turning away abashedly.

"Besides I think Drew and I would really appreciate it if your Mom didn't send KISS to interrogate us in case we're the ones that got you pregnant,"

[Major]

"I...I guess that makes sense..." Claire said with a frown, "And I wouldn't say it was anyone here or who it was!" Claire pointed out before sighing. "So when she calls back I'm just supposed to act like all this made up stuff doesn't need to be proven a lie? And not wonder what's with my medical file?"

[Haluesen]

Kara continued to mess with Niko and laughed exuberantly as Darkrai went off. She was even still snickering when she got back, "Comedic-timing sense? Now why didn't I get that? That sounds incredibly fun." Then she stuck her tongue out at the restrained cat girl with a devious smirk. "Now now, I'll do things for your enjoyment later. Right now it's just fun to cause you distress." Another wild laugh and her tail was going crazy wagging.

[passinglurker]

Everyone but Kara
while you all argue Z and the old sea captain just kinda stare at each other...
"heh that goddess is just pulling our legs isn't she?" Z says nervously.
"well lets see... yar" The old woman says as she digs out a wallet and removes a small photo from an accordion fold "this look like yer mother lass? yar"
""Ha I'm gonna be a better mom than you and you will never be able to hold this child muahahahahahahahahahahahaha"... thats mom alright..." Z says deadpanning while reading a note scrawled across the back of a photo of a smug woman holding a baby which bears a strong resemblance to Z and her mother.

at this point the salty sea woman gives a hearty laugh and with strength and agility beyond her apparent age scoops up Z in her arms "yar har har well your mother always had this habit of making promises she couldn't keep now didn't she? yar har har!" She gloats as youngest Z gives a surprised dearling in the headlights look.

Kara
Niko goes red when you teasingly call out her lapse in resolve and tries extra hard to choke down and suppress her purring, but those pent up primal instincts just escape as sensual gasps of "nyah!" to which she seems even more embarrassed that she could and would make such a sound.

"comes with the whole seeing the future gig not a fair trade if you get the nightmare end of the stick but I take what kicks I can get speaking of which... muuuuuuuuah!" Jerry says as she takes advantage of the momentary attention you give her to suddenly cup your face in her hands and plant and big smooch on you lips effectively stealing a kiss to make a point about opportunistically taking kicks.

Claire
"I've got my hands full right now claire" Delila says when you ask for the time turning her attention back to the upset violet just as fast as she looked up. Violet meanwhile has broken down and taken to crying.

What if we asked someone else who may know the royal family well enough to verify Amelia's claims about the secrets the royal family hides... one of the servant families? there is no way they could keep a secret without them. Or the lustenbergs? hans lustenberg was a close comrade to oliver verene back in my day I'm sure if there was dirt to be had that family would know it... also those two were gayer than a double rainbow... not that that's relevant... Perhaps lady xerneas?... I think I remember her phone number... victini suggests in your head. wait... the goddess of life has a phone? that sounds way more convenient than going through the ritual of purity in order to consult with her in her presence! why did that ritual gown not come with a matching set of underpants anyway?

Drew
you see gwen glance between the various scenes unfolding with the Z's or amber or violet and back to you wondering if you two should try to get involved.

[Major]

Claire looks back at Delila confused how she was busy. When she saw Violet super upset, Claire sighed. "I'll deal with this later..." Claire said moving over to her handmaiden and best friend. She had been distracted so wasn't sure what was going on but quickly gives Violet a hug trying to calm her down as well.

And how am I supposed to just ask them? Call them up and ask a clearly fake story and hope they don't mention I was asking? Claire thought at Victini. When the god mentioned Lady Xerneas, Claire was surprised. Victini knew Lady Xerneas? THE Lady Xerneas? And she had a phone? I-I wouldn't want to bother Her Holiness over something like this...Not with something as direct as a phone call! T-that's far above anything I should do. I-I don't have any of the ritual clothes and am not in her temple or anything!

[Jacior]

Drew pets Gwen's head. "It's ok. People argue. Shhhh." It was easy to get upset at this... admittedly aggressive madness but it seemed to be settling down now. He taps her on the shoulder and motions for her to get up and walk with him over to where Violet was crying. He sat down beside her and pulled Gwen down alongside him. But he didn't try to hug her with Claire doing the same. Instead, he lightly put a hand on her back and rubbed it while humming. Singing to her seemed like a totally bizarre thing to do right now, but this was nice.

[Regalus]

Uriel leaned back into his chair with relief once Claire had accepted his reasoning. It was nice to know he could still do his part despite running on fumes. For the moment he just contented himself watching the others, only to realize that Amber still hadn't come out from under the table despite his earlier proddings, and now Violate was all but inconsolable.

On the bright side, it seemed as if the old Captain was exactly what Z needed after today; and with the biological connect, and proof given the what the two were bonding over... it seemed like the had a good chance of keeping Z away from her parents legally. He'd have to personally thank Monitor after this.

But that was enough pondering, for now he had work to do it seemed a good man's work was never done. So without another word the young man poked his head under the table where Amber was hiding; thinking it best to deal with the shy girl quickly, and give Claire a chance to help console her friend in the mean time.

"Hey Amber, how's the weather down here?" he greeted the cyborg elementalist airily.

[passinglurker]

T-T-T-TIME SKIP!!!
And so the meeting goes on in much this pattern for a while with its exposition, planning and distracting emotional outbursts with a few notable highlights.


The matter of Z and amber's care is discussed but it quickly becomes clear that Wisp can only realistically look after and protect one of them and "granny Z" while probably harmless to Z is far from a responsible adult to act as the girls guardian this is the crazy lady that partially raised mamaZ after all. Delila and Violet could look after them as the group travels so that they could help along the way, but there is always risks with keeping either so close to the front lines of this operation. The matter is then deferred until later.

Violet recovers from her outburst surprisingly quickly leading to much worry about how she is coping with her loss and disfigurement, and if she is forcing herself and masking her feelings.

Monitor's test reveals that one of Opal's X chromosomes was indeed a genetic match to Claire's (the other X chromosome matching up with Opals mother. A similar test on Amber yielded identical results in respect to genetic relations to Claire. In both cases Flu checks and verifies Monitor's work.

After this the phone call from claire's mother is received but being convinced by the evidence presented Delila steal's the phone and declares Claire is pregnant and eloping before after sending incriminating photo's of Claire stradling Uriel from earlier. She apologetically grovels to Claire afterwards but stands by her actions saying it was for claire's safety in the face of a potential conspiracy.

Towards the end a drowsy Cid wakes up signaling that you have all been at this for a while and so you end the meeting and go your separate ways with the intent to resolve any final matters before resting up and departing for kanto as soon as possible.

Afterwards Kara and Niko disappear into the night to do "covert" related things.

Drew and his divine friends head thier own way for clothes shopping despite jerry getting cold feet about confining herself to the cage of pants and the party haveing to drag her.

Flu heads back to her own residence.

captain zandra heads back to her ship.

and the rest returns to wisp's creepy old house.

Elsewhere seen by no one in character
"You have a lot of nerve asking to meet with me directly I hope you realize the value of the asset you almost killed" Says an irritated woman in a large chair from behind a large desk silhouetted against a large window of a tall building overlooking the stormy city as there is a crack of lightning. "And now you have the gall to come to me and ask for protection from the consequences of your actions... meaning you either have a death wish... or you have something of value..."

"well before the cops showed up I did happen to have time to look around and pinch a few knickknacks from the display your assets ex-boyfriend had set up right below where they had been fighting... I'll let you tell me what you think they are worth" With a cocky smirk the pink haired ranger put lited a suitcase onto the table and released the latches lifting the lid to reveal to polished stones. One white and the other black...


[Fade out and cut...]

[Major]

The meeting had been a marsh of arguing and the various reveals had only made things worse and harder on Claire. She might have been able to dismiss Wisp as just trying to make up stuff to trick her, and maybe dismiss Monitor as a friend of Wisp, but Flu was entirely unconnected and had little reason to lie. She didn't know how to react toward this claim about Opal and Amber and all these others. They had proven that Claire's genetics were weird, that clones of her existed, and made it unlikely her parents didn't know about the genetics. She trusted her family, but at the same time the odds of only most of what they said being true seemed slim. Regardless of any lingering doubts she had inside, however, Claire had remained stubborn during the meeting arguing that a few things right didn't mean they all were. Luckily, other matters had distracted her for the time being. Mainly, the call from her mother. (Along with a brief pokemon trade with Uriel when Claire realized the Braviary seemed too tricky for her and Uriel had the Joltik thought she was in charge due to the impostor.)

She had been caught off guard when the phone had been teleported away from her and Delila started explaining. What was she saying? Claire could only catch a part of the conversation. However, when Delila said Claire was pregnant and eloping her face turned beat red from embarrassment. She quickly moved to get the phone only to find Delila's evil teleporting allowing her to get the upper hand on Claire grappling her and muffling her with evil marshmellow hell.

When she hung up the phone, Claire was too shocked to respond as Delila apologized and groveled. Claire had debated calling her mom back quickly, but the embarrassing picture that was sent would have then had to be explained and she DID need a reason to stay. Claire groaned inwardly and was forced to accept Delila's surprise plan. She was not looking forward to having to explain the lie later though. And she REALLY hoped her mom didn't get pissed and send KISS. Hopefully her mom would understand or something. She had eloped after all...right? Claire had been a bit worried about what would happen if the female KISS agents started going after her and Uriel. With his curse and his charm, she wasn't a huge fan of a bunch of female Kalosian agents trying to get close.

Originally Claire had planned to go with Delila and Violet to try and find somewhere to swim while also chewing out Delila a bit more. Regardless, her plans for the swimming had been interrupted when she realized Uriel was going back to Wisp's place. The last place Claire had wanted to go was around Wisp and she wasn't entirely keen on trusting the woman. However, she was the best chance to help Uriel so Claire knew she couldn't try and ruin that. At the same time, she also knew that she didn't want to leave Wisp and Uriel alone for a long list of reasons. With his curse, her "test" requirement, her untrustworthy nature, and the possibility that if Darkrai had been telling even partial truth she would try to make a move there was no way she would just wander off and leave things at that.

"Well...my stuff is at the house and I guess I could help with the curse test thing..." Claire had used as her excuse as she went with them. She really didn't know who to talk to. She wanted to talk to Uriel about KISS and apologize for Delila's story, she wanted to maybe consider doing what Victini had said and trying to get a hold of Lady Hedwig, and she wanted to do so much more she didn't know where to start. Annoyingly with Uriel needing the test it wasn't like she could privately speak to him.

"Monitor...can you look into something for me by the way?" Claire mentioned, speaking for the first time during the trip to the house. She had mostly been quiet and thinking about things and how to react. Any attempts to speak had been met with minimal replies as she was lost in thought. "Someone's Meowstic somehow got mixed up and deposited in my box I think. Is there anyway you can figure out if its a mix-up and if not who or why I got it? I mean, I get native to Kalos but I doubt any of my family just randomly deposited a Meowstic without telling me..."

[passinglurker]

Claire
-remotely tracing a pokemon's movements in the box system isn't as easy as it sounds the box system is one of the most secure networks in the world for good reason, but if you withdraw the pokemon to a PC I have full access too like the one in the library then all the data pertaining to it will be downloaded locally and I can find how it got in your box with no trouble.- Monitor answers as you all pull up to wisps basement/garage/cellar.

[Major]

"Wait...you can withdraw from any PC? Not just a center one?" Claire asked surprised. She tried to think of the technology but stopped as a sharp headache interrupted attempts to draw on her former technology knowledge. The messing with her head elementalism wasn't something she was very happy with. What if the next time she forgot people she knew or liked?

[passinglurker]

Claire
-there are peripherals for home use yes, but I'd recommend you don't dwell on it and try to relax these past few days have been rough on you so you should consider this transitionary period as down time and focus on recovering and refreshing yourself- monitor messages silently so as to not embarrass you with your gap in knowledge in front of others though if he can recognize your symptoms who's to say the people around you can't? Viel for one has no qualms against expressing her concern for you through an audible sound wondering if you are alright as the pain of you head ache shows in your expression.

[Regalus]

Uriel practically melts into his seat once the group drive off to the cape's residence; briefly glancing at Claire before simply closing his eyes, and trying to rest on the way over. Try to use some of the peace to order his thoughts.

The last hour having been nearly as stressful as the whole day put together. So may strong personalities in a single room had led to more than its fair share of chaos and friction, but none of it compared to the aftermath of Claire's call.

Eloped. That had been the best excuse they came up with. Specificly that He a Sevian commoner had made the crown princess of Kalos withchild out of wedlock, that she had then decided to leave her life behind to travel with him, and had shown one of his curse's pranks as the evidence. THat last one on its own would be enough to make him burn with emberrassment, but the three combined?

The young man couldn't even begin to wrap his head around just how boned they were; and he couldn't even defend Claire and his honor since it was sadly the only excuse they had with enough weight to explain Claire leaving. Not that her mother didn't have a perfectly understandable reason for keeping her away from this mess in the first place.

Knowing there was little else he could realy do about that for the moment, he tried to distract himself with an old past time; analyzing his mon and their potential tactics, something he'd been doing quite a bit of ever since his party inflated suddenly in the last few days. In many ways he supposed he was lucky with the sheer amount of rare and powerful pokemon that had found their way to his side; doubly so for the strange braviary he'd received if even half of Claire's stories about it where true.

Yet he had a feeling that Pewter and Cerulean would be terror's for him in the coming weeks. Water and rock, he had to find some way to foil them otherwise his gym circuit would be crawling to a halt before long; and wasn't that a strange thought to have?

After spending so long dreaming about it, it seemed fate has conspired to force him to face his dream; something that filled him with equal parts dread and excitement. However that still left one loose end which could through it all away, his curse; and with the stakes rising so high it was a variable that could cause the whole stack of cards to fall down.

But that was the point of tonights trip. The only remaining goal he had set for the day, hell; his entire reason for being in Castelia in the first place. If all went well, today he would finally have some answers.

With that thought in mind the young man slowly roused himself from his half-rest as the car pulled to it's destination.

"So, what's the plan for this?" he addressed Amelia as they all poured out of the vehicle; thinking it unlikely that the "date" plan would remain the order of the day.

[Major]

-Right. Well if fighting rocket I'm more concerned about my physical state. I can't really take it too easy. People need me. Still, at least I can handle the pokemon later.- Claire replied as she stared at the window.

When they arrived she followed behind Uriel and Wisp as she listened, also curious what said plan was.

[passinglurker]

Uriel and Claire
"First we need to work out everyone's sleeping arrangements and get them situated before slip away for a luck dowsing test... those two are gonna need thier own room at least..." Wisp says looking back at Violet who is pinning Delila to the wall with her tongue though seeing that she is being observed Delila quickly teleports out of the lip lock and tries to quickly straighten herself out with a bright red face. "Ok so those two get skull's old room. Zandra and Amber can use the unused guest room, aaaand... hm... where do we put you?" Wisp says to uriel trying to think of a bed that didn't have a girl or ledianman in it already.

[Major]

Claire looked back at Wisp commenting on those two and turned beat red. "W-what! Guys! Stop that!" She stammered blushing. "Errr t-they don't umm usually do that and ummm..." She looked over at them and frowned, "Behave in public please." She said with a sigh. "He can stay in the room I was using if he wants. I can move my stuff into either the guest room or Skull's room as well. I've slept with Delila before, so that's not a big deal." Claire said with a shrug, "They'll probably be asleep by time the luck test thing finishes and I head to the room so its not like their kissing would be a problem even if I couldn't ignore simple kissing."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"the test won't take that long I believe found a simpler way to induce a luck event we just need to step out a ways so the luck doesn't effect any of your since some peoples emotions are a little fragile right now. You should rest, and maybe get what slippers did to your hair brushed out." Wisp says noting your twin tail style.

"For the record I plan to do a lot more than just kissing when I finally get your handmaid alone" adds Violet

"u-um claire maybe you should sleep with your cousin tonight?" says Delila a little nervously.

[Major]

"I'll fix my hair later. I have no problems with staying up. I've had experience with his 'luck' so it should be fine." Claire said, not willing to concede to Wisp that easily. "Besides, if it won't take long shouldn't be too big a deal to watch. You had been showing me occult stuff anyways, so it can be good to wat---" Claire paused for a moment as she made sure to try her hardest to hide the sharp pain that shot through her head as she had subconsciously tried to think about the stuff Wisp had said. After a moment, she coughed, "Ahem, sorry, something caught in my throat. "So it can be good to wait and watch." She quickly tried to cover as she brought her hands up, having forgotten the twintails.

At Violet's remark Claire looked slightly confused for a moment, "I meant kissing period, not like specifically kisses versus kalosian kisses. Besides, I can knock and just come in after you guys are asleep." Claire said missing the point as it went over her head.

Delila sounding nervous was even weirder and she was surprised her handmaiden wasn't the one insisting on her rooming together. She had after all ditched Delila for this trip and her handmaiden had been looking for her when they ran into each other. Why did Delila care about not being near Claire just because of some pre-sleep making out? "Well...I mean that's an option. I did mention that as a possibility."

"Clearly Uriel could just sleep with me. After all we have to act like eloping!" Claire didn't actually say because her water elementalism was paused for now.

[passinglurker]

Claire
Wisp doesn't say anything she just stares at you scrutinizeingly as if she totally saw through your cover up and she's waiting for you to come clean.

[Major]

"W-what? Why are you looking at me like that?" Claire said fidgeting. "Why are you so fiercely against me watching?" Claire quickly said trying to turn the tables in an attempt to change the subject. "V-Violet! D-Delila back me up here!"

[passinglurker]

Claire
"I'm against it because I don't want an unlucky ceiling lamp to drop on you you've had enough head trauma for today" Wisp says being adamant and backhanding how obvious your side effects are.

"are you sure it's not because you have a crush on uriel and want to smooch him without claire around?" says Violet backing you up

"wh-psku-wh-what!? I'm a professional! I am going to do my job same as any other client no matter how much I want to kiss him again!... I mean no matter how I feel about him!" answers wisp being to flustered by the insinuation of unprofessional conduct that she accidentally lets slip that she's kissed uriel already. This get's Z's and amber's attention too almost as if some one was hoping wisp was about to go into what it was like.

[Major]

"Again?!" Claire asked annoyed. "What is that supposed to mean?" She asked not sure which of the two to look at.

She briefly waved a thanks to Violet and would have thanked her more but now she was focused. "And I insist. Besides if you are doing the test someone has to watch out for 'falling lamps'." Claire said with finger quotes. "Lamps fall slower than weapons. I'm sure I can help." She said even more determined and stubborn than before Wisp's slip up.

[passinglurker]

Claire
Wisp face palms "look its a long story..." she says as if that would some how dissuade you from seeking an explanation for now.

[Major]

"Right..." Claire said unamused. " And was that before or after I told you about my fee-- err opinion of him?"

[passinglurker]

Claire
Well that certainly ruffled wisp a bit "ok fine but not in front of everyone you want to hear it we'll continue this in private" Wisp says turning to leave.

[Major]

Claire hesitated for a moment. On one hand she didn't want to just walk off with Wisp at the moment since Wisp was sneaky and crafty and such. But on the other hand she wanted to hear this.

She debated saying to stay, but Wisp was already walking off. "What about Uriel's treatment? That's more important." Claire added. She wanted answers but she didn't want to take away from Uriel's time.

[passinglurker]

Claire
Wisp looks back "Look I don't want to pull any special advantage about being needed I'm not trying to sneak a date in exchange for help or anything like that I am a professional after all. I just don't want to upset uriel if this test could hurt some one including you. If that isn't satisfactory then I can give you the whole story so we can work this out in private" She says sternly emphasizing that last part.

[Major]

"I can protect myself!" Claire said annoyed. "And he would be worried about you getting hurt so I can help watch out overall. Or if you need another person like you said you did originally I volunteer." Claire added crossing her arms as she followed Wisp. "I mean we already made things weird for him due to Delia's embarrassing excuse, the least I can do is help or watch." She mumbled as she followed Wisp.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"The only reason you are being so adamant is you think I'll try something if you leave the two of us alone which I'm saying I won't so there isn't a need for you to come so you can worry about yourself or the people who are actually depending on you like your cousin instead" Wisp says allowing you to follow her upstairs and into her room where she shuts the door behind you for privacy.

Inside her room is a bit dim and messy. The walls have so many cleanse tags it's practically wall paper, the bed is overly sized and looks extremely soft and smooth for sensitive skin, the desk is piled high with books and notes, occultic decorations and trophy's are everywhere, looking through an open door you see a large and luxurious marbled bath, and the way she keeps her wardrobe seems to be a collection of racks on wheels parked at the other end of the room most of which match wisps style of boyish, heavy, stuffy, practical, boring, suffocating etc except for a curious looking bunch in the corner where you can make out some uncharacteristically fashionable and feminine articles. At least the fashion sense part of your brain still seems to work fine.

[Major]

As Claire followed Wisp into the room she glanced around. It was certainly a very...Wispy room. When the door closed, Claire turned to face Wisp. "I'm being adamant because I care. It has nothing to do with the two of you being alone." Claire insisted. "I'm the one who was working for you in order to get you to help him and if there is possible danger that's all the more reason I want to be there. I can take care of myself and make sure Uriel is fine. As for Z, you said it wouldn't take that long so its not like I can't have multiple people depend on me." She says. "And you certainly didn't make it any better with your desire to wait to find out what I like and then decide to suddenly start caring about someone whose name you didn't even both to remember."

"Besides, you said it needed a date thing and would have used me if you knew! You can't measure him while also being a part of the test. That's like...sciency and stuff. You need outside view of testy sciencey things!"

[passinglurker]

Claire
now in privacy wisp removes her mask and sets it aside as Viel veers off and checks out wisps wardrobe tuning into some of the cuter things she sees as he goes "I believe I found another way to perform the test. When Uriel casually came in contact with these shadow stones it triggered his misfortune so with the right equipment at the ready I I believe I can safely get a measurement if we limit the exposure. This is a lot better than galavanting out in the open until something happens which was the plan earlier, but naturally there are still risks involved uriel dragged his feet with the first test because it meant risking hurting whoever he dated but this way we can test far away from anyone and limit potential casualties but that won't be the case if everyone worried about him follows us" Wisp says explaining the test "...as for why I suddenly care about him... *sigh* I'm sorry I betrayed your trust in this matter... I didn't realize who he was at first... but the truth is I owe everything I am to him and when I realized who he was... well I snapped and kissed him before thinking about the ramifications so again I am sorry for betraying your trust and mistreating him before that point." Wisp adds apologizing for her actions.

[Major]

"Everyone doesn't have to follow. I've only asked for myself." Claire responded. "And a simple rock seems easy enough. Besides if it sparks his bad luck or whatever it would only have you as a target. And if you are supposed to be monitoring stuff then you being a target will just mess it up." Claire said crossing her arms. "How do you plan to monitor something if it makes you the target? Or maybe you are lying and want to be the target..."

Claire listened to the second part and raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh...So you think he is so important that you owe him all your stuff but didn't know him. That sure sounds like baloney and made up. Besides what are you thinking he is that matters? You are like super old. I doubt anybody recent is an 'everything '."

She paused, "Besides your mistreating him owes him an apology more than giggling while you make a move right after I actually admit how I felt."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"The nightmare Darkrai gave uriel today... do you know why the gods of dreams and nightmares are regarded as oracles? because the dreamworld can transcend time. in Uriel's dream he met me as a child back then I was abused and scapegoated by superstitious people for my appearance and he showed me kindness for the first time and gave be a name other than demon or monster. I remember the night I had that nightmare uriel showed me kindness for the first time in my life of pain then I met slippers and we escaped my old life and forged a new one guided by what he had shown me. or a least we tried, but through the ages no matter how much it's faded the memory of him and the possibility of some how living to find him again is what has kept me going in very dire circumstances and kept me a relativly good girl through dark times in my life. I'm not lying about this and I'm not caring about him to spite you... he wouldn't want that, and more than any human instinctive inclination I just want to help make him happy regardless of our actually relationship" Wisp says showing sincerity

Viel then not following the mood floats over carrying a cute outfit and makes encouraging noises as if she wants to see wisp try it on "wha? o-oh no I can't" Wisp stammers evasively with a mild blush but that just makes Veil encourage harder with curious sounds "y-yeah maybe I could technically but it just shows more skin th-than I'm comfortable with" Wisp tries to reason but viel just finds that silly after all you went into the desert in a miniskirt, short sleeve shirt, no hat, and a healthy dose of sunscreen so why can't wisp dress up at night, indoors? After all dressup is fun! Just ask viel!

[Major]

"Uh huh..." Claire said. "Riiiiiight. Well, either way you need someone to be a target and someone to do the occulty sciency techno stuff. So you do your testy thing and I'll volunteer as a target." Claire said clearly not buying this. Then again, she hadn't bought a lot of the Darkrai dream stuff so is it that surprisingly?

"Relatively good in the don't care about normals and forget anyone's name that isn't useful to me good." Claire said with a nod.

She looked over at Veil and frowned. Dressing up Wisp as amusing as it would be wasn't very appealing with the whole her hitting on Uriel thing because she felt he was some wet dream boy of hers. "Sorry Veil, she doesn't seem interested. But hey, I'll let you help pick out an outfit tomorrow or a swimsuit for the islands or something."

[passinglurker]

Claire
You seem to be making wisp upset with your blowing off of the most important influence in her life life seriously she's glaring angry daggers as the water works slowly start to well up and everything you must have really struck a cord there.

She's telling the truth I got the same story back when we were together victini says in your head

Veil seems disappointed but then she looks more worried about how upset wisp is turning.

[Major]

"Ugh, ok fine so weird dream stuff and real and oracles. I didn't mean to upset you. Look, can we just focus on Uriel? You want to help him, I want to help him, I need you to do your stuff, and you need someone to ensure his bad luck spike doesn't target you and mess up his test. Can we just keep this business?" She asked with a sigh.

[passinglurker]

Claire
with your acceptance wisp tries to take a deep breath though that loosens some if the tears she held back "krap krap krap my make up" She says trying to stop the tear soaked smudging of the heavy makeup she wears around her mask's eye holes another thing that makes no sense clear sunscreen would be much more practical. She then streaks to her bathroom and tries to wipe it off before black stray tears run down her face. "sigh sorry... look I doubt this will backfire I will do everything I can to prevent that and if it does I'm not going to lose my measurement. I think it would be a greater weight off his shoulders if you stayed out of harm's way this time and looked after the people here cause eh'll probably be worrying about them... what do I have to do to get you to trust me with this?" wisp says as she tries to clean up and Veil seeing an opportunity retrieves more cute outfits and holds them up to you as if offering an idea.

[Major]

Claire glances over at Veil, "Well there are two things you could do..." Claire says thinking.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"Ok I don't care how many so what is it then?" Wisp asks looking up from what she was doing

[Major]

"Psh...you don't care. You probably wouldn't accept anyways. Maybe I should just say forget it. I doubt you are that concerned with what I think..." Claire mumbled as if to herself.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"Geez I'll do it now just tell me what it is already!" she says with smudged but dry makeup since you interrupted her.

[Major]

Claire softly whispered to Veil so Wisp couldn't hear before answering, "Look...I'll let you pick an outfit but something silly...not cute. I don't want her trying to get flirty with Uriel..."

Once she was done she looked at Wisp, "Well the first thing is the hardest so we'll list that first." Claire pointed at Veil. "She reaaaaally wants to pick out an outfit. And I mean you told me I shouldn't suppress her and should encourage her so since it was your advice you not heeding it seems a bit untrustworthy... Soooo let her pick out an outfit and I guess that will be the hard part. The other thing is super easy and you don't even really have to do anything, just gotta let me do something without complaining." Claire said with a shrug.

[passinglurker]

Claire
Wisp seems surprised and hesitant about being dressed in anything other than edgy trench coats but this is for uriel so she steeled herself as best she could and accepted "a-alright" she says trying to be brave as if dressup is hard to be brave about compared to all the other stuff she does "I'll let her pick and you can do what you want without complaint as long as it's not following me and uriel to the test"

[Major]

"HEY! No conditions on my second request!" Claire said with a frown.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"the whole reason I'm going through with this is to get you to not follow but fine no conditions I'll trust you to be mature and not defeat the whole purpose of me humoring viel. Do as you wish." wisp says.

[Major]

"I thought you were going through with this as a 'What will it take to get you to trust me' not a 'What will it take for you to go away and let me have a private time with Uriel'." Claire said.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"you're not really trusting me if you are still over my shoulder but whatever interpret trust how you like are you going to tell me what I'm not supposed to complain about or not." Wisp says as Viel goes back to find something more fun and ridiculous.

[Major]

"Me helping. " Claire grumbled since Wisp had ruined it by guessing. "Look, it's not even just about trust. If Uriel was just going to up and fall for you then I lose and whatever I can't just force anything. Besides, it's only been a few days and while I have had a good time and like him and was hoping to at least try dating him, I'm not expecting it or feel like I am owed it." Claire said. "But I don't like just sitting around waiting. I try to get involved and help and do things myself. It's why I run off and do stubborn stupid stuff and why I probably drove Delila crazy even if she would never say it. But I don't want to just be some sit back and watch others do everything while I play the part of a pretty rose just hanging on the shelf for people to look at. I want to help him. And...this elementalism thing is messing with memories and so while I can't help with occult I know I am tough and can apparently adapt or whatever so at the very least I can help him by being there and being a target and making sure you have a pure perfect safety to measure and that he is safe and can't get hurt." Claire stressed. "I don't want to just try and lay in bed or couch or whatever is in whatever room I'm in and have to wonder how things are going. I don't want to risk something going wrong and me wondering if I could have helped. I'll do whatever you want to ensure its not messing anything up or is safe as possible but I want to try and help even if it's just being a target for his bad luck." Claire pleaded. "And I've been effected before to so I mean doesn't that help or something? Like the curse seems to enjoy harassing me."

She paused for a moment, "And if you are worried about how he would react then let us ask him if it's OK if I help."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"You know you can't really aim bad luck right? *sigh* but you do sound sincere about wanting to help uriel and not just supervise me so-mrphh!" just then Veil returns and envelopes wisp in her quick costume change technique expelling the heavy clothes and boring undergarments and replacing them with a fun new... belly dancer outfit... never has wisp looked so ridiculous and sparkly.

wisp meanwhile reacts hilariously tries to cover her freshly exposed stark white skin with her arms before she realizes those need to be covered to and what follows is reminiscent of a dog chasing its tail as wisp juggles how best to hold herself in this new out fit... when she finally calms down though she doesn't seem so accepting of you any more "grrr... you can help" She reluctantly pouts "by cleaning out skulls room for your friends..." she then adds glaring daggers at you again.

[Major]

"W-why do you have that?! And don't blame me! Veil picked it out!" Claire exclaimed. "You were the one all about encouraging when not hurting. I'll remind you I was the one who was all 'I can pick out my own outfits!' Don't glare or blame me. You had this outfit and encouraged her wanting to pick stuff out. And it's staying for one night. It doesn't need cleaning out."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"I'm not an idiot I investigate for a living this is completely different from what she was suggesting before clearly you influenced her. and what is wrong with having something like this?" She argues seeing right through your poor plan "I was looking forward to trying this when I was finally cured everything on that rack are things I can't wear because of my skin" she pouts despite technically wearing this costume presently without the sky falling. Viel wonders if she did something wrong but Wisp comforts her "sh-sh-sh there there you're fine you did a good job its not your fault claire abused your enthusiasm and suppressed your ideas to feed her own spite..." She says craddling and petting your shuppet

[Major]

"You are clearly wearing it now with no problem." Claire said with a frown. "Whatever, I don't know why I am even bothering asking you. It's Uriel's choice. I'm going to ask him." Claire said annoyed as she turned towards the door. However as her hand rested on the door nob she stopped. No, no, she was doing that temper thing that her mom always chewed her out for.

She paused for a moment trying to think of a better way to settle this. Bribes and tricks were what the people she hated at court did. Negotiation was what she should try. She thought for a minute before forming an idea and turning around.

"Ok, look... You can pick whatever you want to wear. However, I would like to ask if you care about Uriel are you still planning on charging for his cure? I would assume not. If not, might I point out I already did some work for you to start paying you for his treatment? It would seem a bit wrong to charge for a free product..." Claire pointed out. "So, if not charging then technically couldn't we say they you owe me? A job for a job and such. Now, of course I don't want to force you to do a job due to things changing so how about just letting me attend this Uriel job and be a part of it can be getting rid of said owing of a favor?" Claire asked. "Of course if you wish to keep charging that's fine. I understand business and personal separation means you might need to keep requiring payment for a service. If that's the case and I am paying I would like to be able to be a part of and see what I'm paying for..."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"I wasn't planing to charge him after all I owe him. and I'm wearing this fine now cause I'm mad at you for trying to blame your Pokemon for this,.. and also its only you here... but if I think of wearing this in front of everyone I-I-I..." Wisp says as she turns wide eyed like a dearling in headlights and shivers uncontrollable while squeezing veil very tight like a teddy bear its seems the thought of wearing this for others to see has frozen her a bit which is a shame because despite being ridiculous its still better than her normal garb "No one would want to see a freak like me in dress up even you just told viel to find something funny so you could laugh at me" aaaand now she's depressed...

[Major]

"I'm not trying to blame Veil!" Claire said with a sigh, "I was saying she picked it out. I said something kinda silly. I didn't expect you to have that. I was thinking like funny colors or mismatched or something. Like a pantsuit or something." Claire explained.

"And if not charging my while point of owe for a job cause I did the studio job for you as payment soooo..." She trails off.

"As for the outfit am I laughing?" Claire asked. "I didn't laugh, I was surprised. Also while it's certainly...eccentric it is way more fashionable than your normal outfit." Claire said trying to help. "Besides, I said you can change. Or if you are just worried about people seeing tell me where the test thing is going to be and I can go get Uriel and bring him."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"more fashionable? what are you saying? you talking karp about my cool work wear?" Oh god she doesn't see what is wrong with her heavy geddup... what would the fashion police think!?

[Major]

"Oh...were you attempting cool?" Claire said genuinely surprised, "I thought it was just a 'it covers my body don't care how I look' thing?" Claire said slightly horrified. "Please tell me it wasn't trying to be fashionable. I'm kind of in pain." She said with a shiver.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"you're hilarous" She says with a deadpan expression "I want to be covered yes but I still need to look the part for my job no one would hire an occultist in a track suit so I think I did a pretty good job with my image honestly" its worse than you thought she is in serious need of help being fashionabluh.

[Major]

"I see... This really calls for an intervention. Tomorrow I need to save you from your fashion sense. I get that you are 'older' so I'm sure you don't realize or mean anything, but trust me. Its not good. That outfit Veil picked is indeed not normal attire, but its also not uhhh... an assault on the fashion industry. Regardless, Uriel comes first, then saving the world from bad fashion."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"now you sound like slippers nagging me about how I dress" She growns "most of those someday clothes are his ideas" well that explains why they are so much better than her normal attire slippers will be a valuable ally in her intervention "I think you are blowing this out of proportion and besides coats and layers aren't the only things I wear I have casual clothes too" She says before whispering to viel who goes and quickly replaces the elaborate dancers costume with a over long turtleneck sweater dress, unnecessarily long fitted gloves, and some leggings as you've seen her wear before "see perfectly fine right?" at this point even viel is giving you a look showing that she thinks wisp needs help. Though would it really help to wait till tomorrow? uriel approving of her attire would certainly reinforce good fashion habits and its not like you can dress her up so well he falls for her when you are all sailing away tomorrow right?

[Major]

Claire gasps in horror and stumbles backwards. "W-what? People wear that in Unova?! Oh god..." She said shocked. "Uhhh...right ummm...I mean if you are happy with that uhhh I guess it's OK and ummm you liking matters and stuff..." Claire trailed off.

"So uhhh Uriel...test...is he holding the stone already? Cause ummm not sure seeing that outfit is good luck and...errr sorry. Not judging. Wear what you like...just preferably not that...unless you really like it...in which case it hurt--err it's good. Right..."

Claire turned for the door, "So uhhh Uriel test and me helping let's do this!"

[passinglurker]

Claire
"Oh yeah well lets see you do any better with a flat scrawny body, and freakish stark sensitive skin!" She challenges taking your bait "prove me wrong and I'll stop complaining about you coming but if you fail you gotta stay here."

[Major]

"Prove you wrong about what?" Claire asked with a sigh. "About the bad fashion or that its possible to have decent fashion no matter your body type? Look...wearing what you are comfortable with and like is what mostly matters. And if it burns the eyes and makes you look super old, that's your choice."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"Augh! either! both! I don't care! just do whatever it takes to satisfy you and get you to stop being such a snarky backhanding cheeky [censored]" she says going into tantrum mode and venting her frustration.

[Major]

"S-sorry! I didn't mean it like that." Claire said, "I...I really like fashion and I wasn't thinking and I was rude again." Claire tried to explain, "Sorry...it'd be like if someone was doing something really bad occult research or something I guess for you. You don't mean to be snarky or sound bad its just..." Claire stopped, "Ok, look I'm sorry. Different people have different styles and fashion they like and not everyone cares. If you like it, that's what matters!" Claire said giving an apologetic bow. "So...pick what you like. What I think is irrelevant since its your clothes not mine. I'm sorry, I kept trying to just say don't worry about it, but then I felt the need to correct and kept adding and I said way more than I should have and I didn't mean to sound that rude or like that word you said." Claire groaned. She could definitely understand why her mom had continually gotten into arguments with her dad about more etiquette classes and less time with physical work-outs and training. Had she always been that bad and people were just too afraid to say anything? She really hoped that it was just the long last few days.

"Look...I won't say anything about your clothes. That's not my place. I'm sorry." Claire apologized again with the bow. "I misunderstood your intentions, but I should have kept my surprise to myself."

[passinglurker]

Claire
"yeah thats right its my choice and I can look as bad as I want..." Wisp says smuggly before what she just said registers in her brain "I mean as good as I want... I mean I look good no matter what the princess of a nation that prides itself on its arts things... I mean... auuuuugh! now you've got me over thinking what to wear!" She groans. it would seem the damage of your royal fashion judgment is already done you need to take responsibility for your words and fix this if you are going to help uriel.

[Major]

"Ugh..." Claire said grabbing Wisp by the wrist and dragging her to the closet. "Look, if it will get you to stop worrying about it and help Uriel we can do this real quick. But I'm not wasting time with hair styles. And I'm not really a fan of heavy make-up anyways so no big deal there. This is just the clothes..." Claire said as she started digging, attempting to find and put together an outfit that would be fashionable so that they could get back to Uriel.

She took a deep breath and got into the zone as she quickly started digging through the closest tossing clothes off to the side as she sorted out the terrible from the usable. The first piece she offered Wisp was a pair of thigh black boots with a buckle on the top. Then she glanced over at Wisp and back at the clothing drawer. Whites and reds like Claire wore definitely wouldn't go well with Wisp's body type. She glanced around at the mostly black outfits (dang dark ghost emo girls) and held up a couple to her. Finally she settled on a combo of a dark pink and black.

She handed a pair of the pink stockings to Wisp, a black miniskirt with some pink trim, and a black longsleeve top. She picked out a few matching accessories and handed those over as well in an attempt to add some more pink to the darker gloomy black outfit. She glanced at a pair of gloves before tossing the silly looking things back into the closet. Fingerless gloves were for try-hards. When she had picked out the outfit she looked back at Wisp. "Happy?"

[passinglurker]

Claire
"w-well um... do I look good? or whatever? like you were legitimate about this and its not some trick to trip me into some sort of faux pas? um I... yes thank you" Wisp says sounding genuinely surprised at first before putting herself together enough to show you some sincere and professional gratitude. then she proceeds to ruin everything by putting her mask and some heavy gloves back on "now lets go help uriel"

[Major]

Claire reaches up and attempts to swipe the mask and gloves before she can put them on. "Are you planing on going outside?"

[passinglurker]

Claire
"huh? well... uh... no but um..." Wisp bites her lip nervously trying to find a legitimate reason but she keeps a firm if not frantic grip on her mask locking you too in a little game of tug of war over it.

[Major]

"Does the mask look black and pink? It doesn't match and people here have seen sooooooo..." Claire kept a hand on it, but didn't yank hard. She wanted to get Wisp to let go willingly, not rip it away from her forcefully.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"Well not everyone... I mean your friend and maid haven't..." Wisp says with a sideways glance. "a-and its really sentimental-ish to me and sometimes I get self conscious and panic and really I'd rather have a mask with me just in case" She babbles trying to come up with excuses and not letting go yet.

[Major]

Claire finally lets go, "Alright that's fine. "I should be thankful I guess. The mask just means Uriel can't see so I guess that's a win for me." Claire says turning toward the door. "And here I was worried about dressing you up." She said moving towards the door hoping her plan would work.

[passinglurker]

Claire
"grrr... fine" She says shoving the mask back in to your hands "but you better give it to me when I say I need it since you are so insistent on coming" She adds before collecting a big satchel and what looks like a lantern covered in cleanse tags "in fact since you are coming you can help by carrying all this" she says adding to your load and then steping out.

Uriel
while those two argued you slippers and delila had to go about making beds and such but soon after you finish those two make a well timed emergence you can only assume they came to agreement considering wisp looks much more fashionable and is without a mask and claire is stuck carrying the bags it seems.

[Major]

"A-all of it?" Claire asks surprised as the stuff is dropped in her hands and she quickly is distracted from the argument by having to focus on not dropping things. "Hey!" She exclaimed as she quickly followed behind her. Despite her dislike for being the packrat if it meant she could help and be there, she would bite her tongue.

[Jacior]

Drew just kind of watches everyone leave once they come up out of the basement of the mysterious ice cream store. "I think that the world has well and truly shattered in anything resembling sanity. So much for celebrating graduation." He sighs and kind of slouches and checks his phone before stretching. "Well, I guess all of you need clothes so we gotta hit up a store. I have no idea what's still open this time of night so it might be a search." With a sudden motion, he crouched down and hoisted Cid up, piggyback style. "Ok, one of you two get the door and lets go find us a store that isn't terrible. Hopefully not terrible anyway." The ex-idol gestures with his shoulders at Gwen and Jerry to get the door and they start walking towards the shopping district.

[passinglurker]

Claire
you being the pack mule turns out to be for the best cause she probably would have dropped everything as soon as Delila and Violet saw her without a mask for the first time. "Oh my goodness I had no idea you'd look so cute underneath!" "Did you have the princess give you a make over?" "did she sew that skirt herself on the spot?" "isn't she the best?" needless to say they are getting a little carried away geeking out over your handy work.

Wisp meanwhile seems rather distressed and flustered by the sudden attention she was receiving she tried to turtle her unprotected hands into her sleeves and cover her pale face with her arms but her top was more well fitted than she was used to and when she tried to raise her arms your friends clasped her hands in friendship incidentally restraining her as they badger her with questions and compliments. Wisp must be quite frazzled by all this if she can't remember that she can just phase herself free. Slippers seems to find this to be hilarious.

Drew
"*yawn* There's probably a 24 hour pokemart open some where its a big cityeeee! wh-what are you doing!?" Says Cid drowzily still until you pick her up then she seems rather awake and animated "put me down! I can carry myself! I'm not a little kid!..."


two blocks of fruitless complaining and struggling later...

"zzz... zzz... zzz... zzz..." but just like your little sisters when they were onry she wears herself out and dozes off on your back in no time.

True to what cid said you find a big 24hour pokemart without any real incident other than Gwen carrying absol jerry in her arms to stop the goddess of mischief from trying to simply steal clothes from passers by to avoid this bothersome shopping trip. The absol expresses her boredom with the occasional bout of loud mewing. This place isn't going to be the most fashionable, but it should be cheap and your little group looks like they fit in with the weirdos that shop here at night so you probably won't be noticed.

[Regalus]

"I'd be fine on the couch actually," the young man meekly replied, only for his answer to be drowned under the ensuing argument between his two most outspoken suitors.

Nothing could ever be easy could it?

Not even a minute into their return before Claire and Wisp got into an argument, and one about him no less; made all the worse by his own inability to get a word in edgewise before the two scurried off to have a 'talk'. His frustration at the ordeal was almost matched by his emberrasment at Wisp's slip of the tongue, and soon surpassed by it once he noticed just how intently the other girls had been paying attention to that particular tidbit.

Thankfully they'd been able to move past that particular incident with Slipper's help, and the simple routine of clearing the space and setting up beds for the two girls was a welcome reprieve. Nothing like a little work to clear the mind and the air, and it gave the six of them a rare chance to just talk for a bit in peace.

All in all the young man had taken the lack of explosions, sounds of wrecked furniture or screams of the damned as sign that things had gone, if not well, than at least 'fine' between the two grown women. Though never would he have imagined the sight that he'd be met with once their work was done, and if asked afterwards Uriel would still claim that his double take at Amelia's entrance had been perfectly justified.

It was not the outfit itself that had left the islander so flumoxed, that had Claire's fingerprints all over it; it was fact that Amelia was wearing it, and was not wearing her mask, in 'public' along with the sight of Claire playing packmule for the ocultist. He could do little more than stare in amazement at the pair, and wonder just what had happened upstairs that resulted in them going from "at each other's throats" to "fashion make over". If they could find a way to weaponize it Rocket would never stand a chance.

"Ladies! I'm sure she appreciates your compliments, but give'er some breathing room," Uriel called out taking a step towards the scene, and hopefully calling attention to what they where doing to the poor introvert.

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel
"huh what are you talking about Uriel? In Kalos this is breathing room among girls" Violet answer looking back with a inquisitive expression "...*sigh* she's right" Says Delila deadpanning at her girlfriend before ultimately relenting and acknowledging the truth "though looking closer now she does seem more Sinnohese than Kalosian don't you think?" "hmm yes Claire's fashion sense must have thrown us off" "sorry about that!" the two audibly bounce off each other before letting go in unison.

Wisp during all this only grew redder as her knight in shining armor rescued her and added to the attention given her such that she quickly spins around and puts her hands out to Claire "M-mask! pleeeeeease!?" She pleads seeking respite in her comfort zone but Violet and Delila are quick to try to alleviate wisp "No your fine really!" "see we are giving you space!" "need more?" "up the stairs good?" "how about we go aaaaall the way back to our room?" "we'll even lock the door" "claire don't let her wear anything that clashes with that cute outfit" "its your duty as the princess og kalos to protect the world from bad fashion" "bye!" *click* the two go walking backwards up the stairs as they go until they disappear together into one of the rooms.

Despite this Wisp is still holding her reach hoping for her mask back and Slippers now seems to be following what is happening closely but not leaning either way as to what should be done.

[Regalus]

Uriel looses a chuckle at the pair's antics as they leave; unsure of how transparent their excuse actually was. Were they really just leaving for some personal time, or were they just seeing the signs? In the end, he supposed it didn't matter that much.

"You sure? I mean, it's nice to See you; but why did you come down without it?" the lad prodded as the ocultist begged the burdoned princess.

[Major]

"Sorry hands full carrying all your stuff." Claire said with a mischievous grin. "Maybe later when hands aren't full." Claire said before looking at Uriel. "No complaints that I am helping right?"

[passinglurker]

Uriel and claire
Wisp looks like she is going to burst a vein for a moment but when Uriel asks why she isn't even wearing a mask Wisp opens her mouth as if to tell the whole story but then she remembers that involves her in her secret belly dancer outfit so instead she just shuts her mouth and puts her arms up in front of her face "n-never mind! I-I'm fine! really! j-just need to take a deep breath!" She lies muffled by her own appendages though she is still visibly quivering whether its from being maskless or from the possibility of an embarrassing story being exposed is hard to tell.

[Regalus]

"You don't need to talk about if you don't; but thank you for letting us see you. I appreciate it" Uriel smiles softly at Wisp, empathizing with the woman; before turning to adressing the red head.

"Well... it looks like you're already helping," he states plainly while gesturing to her load, "I don't really know much about what'll happen once we get the ball rolling, but if Wisp's cool with it I'm not going to complain,"

"And do you want want a hand with that stuff Claire?"

[Major]

"Well, I mean, I'm carrying this stuff cause its to help with your curse...if I just handed it off I wouldn't be much help and I want to help you..." Claire said, "Especially since I'm pretty sure my handmaiden made things super complicated and embarrassing for you. I'm really sorry about that by the way. I'll make her apologize tomorrow as well." Claire explained. She would have bowed, but she wasn't really capable of it. "And I'm not at home and you aren't a servant, you don't need to carry this. I'll be fine. Its not even that heavy really."

Claire glanced over at Wisp, "Well, we worked out any problems with me helping so if you are fine with it that settles that." Claire says. As much as she would have loved to tell the full story, she didn't want to cause a spat with Wisp before the test and in front of everyone again. Plus worst case she could tell Uriel another time.

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel
"huh? wha? uhh... y-your welcome!" Wisp says still muffled before she starts to make a concerted effort to calm down with Uriel's encouragement. then after a few minutes she's calm enough to lower her arms again. "ok lets get this over with Slippers watch the house" Wisp says leading you two out into the tunnels where you travel for a good while before wisp stops and opens one of the unmarked doors "Ok this should be far enough out of the way and empty enough"

inside is a mostly empty brick room with a wood floor and some stacked cafe tables and chairs "before I bought the house this used to be an old speak easy under an industrial park since we are after hours there should be no one above or around us just in case" She explains as she goes to move a chair but then reflexively filches back when her sensitive hands touch the course old wood "um Uriel can you set up a table and a couple chairs for this? and Claire could you dish me out a pair of gloves I will need them to handle the stone for the test" Wisp asks

[Major]

Claire sets the stuff down on a table as she sorts through the items to find the gloves. She holds them out for Wisp to take though she raises an eyebrow, "Is this rock really that bad?" Claire asked. "I mean, you need gloves just for a rock?"

[Regalus]

"Sure thing," the lad chirped as he eagerly got to work; pulling off the tables and flipping over the chairs to set the scene.

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel
"Well if my theories are correct this material is what the bullets that killed your father in a few shots were made out of and prolonged exposure to which is what drove Kuro mad enough to commit murder in the first place. Beings like you and me thanks to our natural inclination are essentially safe from any permanent mental side effects from coming in direct contact but at these concentrations we can't assume there isn't a risk of temporary influence while holding it in your bare hands. So yes it can be dangerous enough to warrant some gloves. but the truth is there is little difference between poison and medicine so we are going to try to limit the dosage to an absolute minimum through momentary contact just enough to get a reading with the luck dowser and no more than that." wisp explains as she takes and dons the gloves before setting up her cleanse tag covered lantern and making it glow with a purple flame. "I've set this up so if Uriel's fortune is being influenced the color and shape of the flame will change and contort to show me a snapshot of what is going on in the background we can't see" She continues as she sets up an old film motion picture camera which starts to make a ticking sound as it records. "now Uriel sit here across from me and hold out your hand like this is some hokey palm reading"

[Regalus]

Uriel nods along the explenation; some it being things that he'd known already, others things to be questioned at another time. However for the time being he did as he was told,; to jittery to do more than tak his seat, and nervously hold out his hand. This was it, the moment of truth.

"Ready when you are," he declared, hoping to swallow down his growing anxiety with the words.

[passinglurker]

Uriel and Claire
Claire has quite the headache from all that occult babble(reaction speed slowed)

Then sitting across from Uriel Wisp takes a deep breath and pulls one of the black stones from a padded lock box. She then holds Uriel's hand still with one hand and moves in with the stone in the other like a doctor administering a shot and quickly taps Uriel's palm with the stone before withdrawing the cursed pebble to a safer distance it and with no immediate repercussions from the universe her focus becomes fixed on the lantern which starts to smoke black fumes and change into red yellow and white patterns "ah ha! this is-" JUST THEN A BIG WOODEN BEAM FALLS FROM THE CEILING RIGHT ABOVE WISP! Quick someone push her out of the way!

[Major]

As the occult babble goes on, Claire nods her head acting like she understood. However, nodding her head up and down certainly doesn't make the headache any better. She is slightly distracted at first by the splitting headache to the point where she doesn't react right away at the sound of the wooden beam. However, she notices it at the last minute and quickly moves forward. Had her reaction not been slowed down, she probably would have tried to call Victini and just slice the wooden beam, but with her headache slowing her down she knew shoving would be her best bet. As she jumped forward willing her body to move faster she suddenly found her feet sending a burst of water from behind them. Her attempted jump and shove instead accidentally turned into a water jet forward as she accidentally tackled Wisp with water flying everywhere. Any attempt at a graceful push and remaining standing was lost as she flailed and tripped.


Psh, I figure I'll add lolz. Accidental Aqua Jet for priority to ensure she boost there. Plus graceful Claire turning into WAAAAHHH FLAILING WATER ROCKET is amusing

[passinglurker]

Uriel and Claire
Wisp isn't completely deaf to the world nor does she find this predicament unexpected she probably had a plan but instead she was interrupted part way by Claire's clumsy water jet tackle. Fortunately it worked and Wisp is spared any serious injury unfortunately Claire's unpracticed Water-splosion blows off everything she was wearing that wasn't hung over her shoulders and thrusts them into the far wall leaving any remaining white bits embarrassingly transparent. And to make matters worse she landed on top of wisp ungracefully scrunched in her posture with her lower half held in the air giving uriel a very clear view.

[Regalus]

"Girls!" Uriel exclaimed as he rushed around the table to check on the girls; still trying to parse the fact that Amelia was almost crushed by a wooden beam, and the fact she and Claire where safe and not rendered into chunky salsa by the debris.

"Are you two okay?" he questioned urgently as he quickly switched between checking on the two soaked girls, and the ceiling to make sure anouther surprise was on there way. He'd known things would go this way from the very start; he'd known. It certainly made his earlier hesitance at a field test so much more jsutified despite Claire's assurances.

[Major]

As Claire landed in a pile confusion filled her at first. She still wasn't sure exactly what had happened and why he push had been so clumsy. However, the clingy wet clothes and cool air on her wet butt sticking in the air caused her to realize her water elementalism had done something.

On the upside, she didn't feel aroused at all so that was good. Darkrai's thing was still going. On the downside, her butt being up meant she had probably shown an upskirt. Luckily she was definitely still completely covered and so it was just shorts. Totally. However, it was an indecent position so she quickly tried to get out of it. She quickly got up off Wisp and jumped to her feet. "Oww! Sorry, pushed a bit too hard!" She exclaimed bowing apologetically.

As Uriel questioned if they were ok, Claire nodded. "Of course, it's me!" She said with a confident nod trying to relieve his worries. "It's why I'm here to help keep everyone safe. " She said with a smile as she placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest in an attempt to convey confidence. "Are you ok?" She asked still completely unaware that the skirt, shorts, and undies were no longer attached and the cool air on her butt wasn't just because of some clingy wet clothes.

In addition the obnoxious water boobs mixed with her wet body had somehow caused the corset to slip low and her breast to pop out. While her top was still on at least and was long enough to cover her lower half, the fact it was white and clinging to the body was probably not helping matters. Huh...this water sure seemed cold according to the frost detectors.

Claire probably would have noticed, but her focus was on trying to appear fine and tough for Uriel so he wouldn't be worried. After all, he needed to be helped and she didn't want him worrying about them instead of focusing on getting helped.

[Jacior]

"Ok, so, everyone needs three outfits. Nothing outrageous, nothing gaudy. Simple, clean fashions are in right now so it doesn't have to be flashy to look good." Drew carefully sits Cid on a bench and lays her down, careful not to wake her up. "I have no idea if Cid has other clothes, but we're going to get her some. You'll need bras, panties, socks and a new pair of shoes too. I can pretty much guess Cid's stuff, but have you two ever been measured properly?" It was like going shopping with his younger sisters for the first time again.

[passinglurker]

Drew
"hmm... what do you mean by "measured?"" Gwen asks cocking her head curiously as you spy Jerry standing behind her in human form wearing the most outrageous and gaudy purple sequin pants suit you have ever seen with a big toothy grin on hr face (how she found something like that for sale in a store like this will be a mystery to inventory clerks for years to come)

Uriel and Claire
as you two argue about who's ok and who's not wisp gasps for breath from being smothered by claire's chest in the tackle and wearily sits up to take stock of herself and her surroundings "ugh... huh?... *gasp* KYAAAA!" She then screams accidentally drawing attention to herself causing you two to notice a trail of discarded dark clothes leading back to the fallen beam and that she has somehow been stripped down to a pair of cute and frilly dark undies (Viel must have "helped" by picking those out earlier). Wisp then tries to cover her flat pale body with her thin arms as she quivers uncontrollably like a scared buneary and panics.

Viel meanwhile in trying to sort out two scattered outfits and two ladies in need of immediate help has gotten herself quite dizzy.

[Regalus]

Oh judge it! Uriel internally swore as his head whipped away from the entwined pair of scatily clad and dripping women before him; turning red as a beat as he realized that his curse had not only tried to cripple one of them, but managed to strip the pair down as well. He was as affronted as he was impressed by its dedication.

"I, well, t-that's good.I'm just gonna go help gety our stuff and stuff, yeah," the flustered youth stammered as he half-fled to Veil to help gather the pair's clothes, and give them some semblence of privacy.

"A-Atleast the test worked right?"

[Major]

Claire sighed, "Veil, cover Wisp please." She said. She didn't get how a simple push had stripped the woman, but it didn't matter how.

A bit bummed as Uriel's reaction to her saving the day, but understanding why he would be flustered by Wisp appearance, Claire went over to help Uriel gather the clothes that were definitely all Wisp's, still oblivious to her own state of dress.

"Looks like. Though I don't recall you ever dropping pillars before. " She commented. "Hopefully we can get a cure out of this and Wisp wasn't too distracted by the clothing malfunction."

[Jacior]

"For like a bra? They're pretty uncomfortable if you don't have the right size for your bust." Drew says giving Jerry an incredulous look and shaking his head slightly in disbelief. "I'll see if we can't find a tape measure then. And Jerry, you can have it if you really want, but you still need two more outfits."

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel
Viel finally with direction quickly snatches wisps out fit and mask and reflexively flings herself at the underdressed girl to dress her causing the witch doctor to gasp as if it was a breath of fresh air. she still stays huddled a bit deaf to the world as she tries to calm back down.

This just leaves a pink slip a pair of panties some long gloves and tall boots curiously like claire's been wearing lately also in the confusion the panties wind up in uriel's hands.

Drew
"hm?... oh! thats right I forgot I wasn't wearing one!... you know its funny... I've worn them as long as I can remember, but I can't remember why..." Gwen says puzzled by the mysteries of humanity. it would seem odd though her breasts certainly look large and heavy and she's gone hours without so much as an arm bra for support surely the soreness one must feel would be a clue to her... well assuming she feels sore she is a goddess afterall.

"Only two? well I can't waste it on being too bland then. So what's your fetish? what sort of clothes get your... blood pumping?" Jerry asks you speaking in a playfully sensual tone as she slides behind Gwen and slips her arms around the oblivious goddess and casually weighs gwen's bust with her hands. This doesn't seem to disturb Gwen at all in fact just just seems curiously confused about what Jerry is doing.

[Regalus]

Uriel makes a choking sound as he realizes Claire has somehow decided that rather than wait for him to hand her their clothes, she'd assist him personally... by flashing her everything at him given the articleof all too familiar cotton in his hands. The young man hadn't thought he'd be seeing these so soon again.

He was certain Jerry must be over the moon right now.

After spending a few moments deliberating how to tactfullypresent his situation to Claire, he opted for a simpler route. Pointedly keeping his gaze straight down to the floor as he half-hazardly jabbed the set of all-too-familiar panties at Claire's general direction.

"*cough* I, uh, think you'll want these,"

[Major]

As she helped, Claire was confused by Uriel's reaction. Was he upset that she was helping for some reason? Or feeling guilty about the thing falling? After Wisp was dressed and stuff was gathered up, Claire was surprised to find he was staring at the ground holding out his hand with something. She looked confused and reached out to take it before holding them up and holding them up to see what it was.

Huh...Wisp panties looked a lot...like... Wait... wait. Wisp hadn't lost her panties she had been in her undies which meant...

Claire looked down finally and her face turned a beat red. Oh god, how long had she been like that. She dropped the panties for a moment as she quickly tried to adjust the corset to fix it so that her breast weren't outside of the overburst corset. She dreaded the white outfit being so see through, but at the same time was glad that she had thought of the overbust corset for the very fear of it getting wet. Given, she had at the time expected it to occur due to the rain, not changing to a water elementalist, but still!

She then quickly knelt down, one hand trying to hold the white jacket to cover her front as best she could as she retreived the panties she had dropped in surprise and pulled the lacy undies on while her eyes quickly darted around for where her modesty shorts had gone. She made sure to hold the jacket down as low as it could, pulling it in front of her while making sure that she didn't turn her back to Uriel and accidentally flash her butt to him. With the wet white outfit and the wet lacy panties, she knew that if she didn't get her shorts she might as well still be naked.

"T-thank you!" She quickly added after realizing she hadn't said anything. "Y-yes, t-those are n-nice. S-sorry!" She stammered. "Uhhhh...i-insert bow here...ummm g-gotta find s-shorts first t-then will. N-not trying to be r-rude..." She said as she looked around quickly.

However, after a moment, she remembered that the shorts had been lost due to the psychic that had stripped her. She frowned. What was she supposed to do? Panties weren't meant to be visible, especially not wet! Even though they were black the material made them cover very little! She quickly also grabbed the pink mini-skirt and pulled it up. As long as she didn't get into a fight, or trip, or something she should be fine right? Most people just wore skirts with panties and no shorts under!

Despite the fact that she hadn't had the modesty shorts for a while, Claire still felt the need to occasionally nervously tug at the mini-skirt as if worried it would magically lift into the air and flash her undies. Before, she had been distracted. Now there was a constant nagging in the back of her head knowing that she didn't have the shorts on underneath.

[Jacior]

Drew sighs and pulls Jerry away from Gwen. "Stop that. And nothing I'm going to tell you. Just go find something you like, ok? No need to try and impress me." He shoos her on her way and turns back to Gwen. "Ok, so a bra is to hold and support your breasts so that you don't have back pains of various types and so they don't move around when you're doing activities like running and walking and exercise and such, but that's better accomplished by a sports bra." Drew puts a hand on her shoulder. "And if you don't want Jerry to do stuff like that, you can tell her, you know that right? She's just trying to get you to react."

[Regalus]

"So!" Uriel interjected, tryign to spare Claire further emberassment by turning his nervous attentions to Amelia, "Uhm, did you get anything out of that or... or are we going to have to poke the tiger again?" he inquiered, hoping to give Amelia something to focus on beyond their msot recent mishap.

[passinglurker]

Drew
"Was she doing something I should be upset about?" Gwen says oblivious to the implications of being felt by Jerry "And I don't think I've felt back pain in particular unless some ones hit me in the back... do you think I really need one?"

Uriel and Claire
With Wisp redressed Viel leaps back to claire and shrouds her more effectively she will then recede and retailer as Claire instructs until the drowned girl looks relatively fabulous (though still wet) again.

"No no I think I got it... I'll need to review the film to be sure but I'm pretty sure I know what's going on now..." Wisp says coming to her feet "Your fortune then believe it or not is actually good. Well actually to be more specific it looks below average overall but the bad luck is like its tied up and siphoned away leaving mostly good in the flow albeit twisted and skewed by whatever process that is trying to regulate the bad luck. ahem to give an example look at what just happened how many lesser man would have killed to be in your position of handling a princesses undergarments and getting a gander at her rack. Luck whether we want what it gives us or not is a matter of perspective and with the way your luck is twisted and knotted it's hard to precise which way its truly flowing from mundane observation. That being said... it's clear to me that this phenomenon is artificial possibly the work of a hex maniac... So running theories are either an amature tried to curse your family to partial success in which case the mess should be cake for me to clean up once I sit down and work at the problem.... or... some one in your family's past cut a deal trying to take a shortcut to turn what seems to be your family's overall bad luck around. Such a willing pact would come at a steep price and be by comparison a lot harder to reverse."

[Major]

Trying to listen in, Claire's head started aching again, though she did her best to try and hide it. However, the bit she DID catch and understand was the reference to handling her panties and seeing her 'rack'. "W-what? C-can we not like...I mean talk like its a big deal or something a lot of people w-would like?" Claire said embarrassed and flustered at the mention of the incidents instead of just pretending they didn't happen. "I-I mean i-its just underwear! A-and...Ummm..." She wasn't really able to come up with anything to downplay the boobs. "Uhh...l-lots of girls have breasts!" She finally said flustered.

[Jacior]

"It's uh, actually really inappropriate to left Jerry do what she just did. And yes, you do need a bra." Drew says and whips out a measuring tape and measures her for a proper bra fitting. "That's... kinda a sexual thing? Mostly it's not something you do in polite company without asking first."

[Regalus]

Coughing politely despite his burning cheeks at the reminder of the 'dubious blessing' his curse showered him with, Uriel attempted to steer the question away from Victini's Secrets before Claire's train of thought led down Path's Best Not Traveled. "Well... a few days ago when I ran into a young mystic, she did mention my seemed to have a 'bad aura' around me," the yooung man said thoughtfully as he tried to recall his first encounter with the bubbly young Sage.

"Is there some way to tell which one it is?" he questioned as he idly glanced in Claire's direction; briefly thinking of her 'benefactor', before quickly averting his gaze. Not only had he almost forgotten about her current state of dress, but he was uncertain how much aide Victini would or could offer. Jerry had said the God of Fortune was far more in tune with his Mantle despite his history with Wisp, and he doubted it was still oblivious to his own condition. If it hadn't offered a solution to Claire it was likely that it's hands were tied either metaphorically or metaphysically, or it was choosing not to for some reason; neither alternative seemed appealed to the unlucky trainer.

[passinglurker]

Drew
"but isn't that what you are going to do right now?" Gwen asks as you ready to take measurments of her bust

Claire and Uriel
"well squiggly, warped, and twisted are often considered symptoms of 'bad' and I'm estimating that your fortune would be below average without whatever shaping its undergone so Fi isn't wrong" Wisp explains assuming who you mean "and yes claire we regrettably need to acknowledge that your rack would score above average because I'm trying very hard not to think about how uriel saw me in that cutesy underwear you and your pokemon picked out and how that might be something good for him to see too... Oh gods why did I just say that!" Wisp then says freaking out a bit as her shame catches up with her words and she drops and huddles with with embarrassment in a manner not befitting some one of her exceeding age.

[Major]

"Its not good for him to see!" Claire said annoyed. At comments about her rack being above average, Claire looked more flustered. "T-they are just b-boobs! " She stammered, "And he has seen them bef--- err I...ughhh ok off the boob topics!" She said as her quick replies just caused more embarrassment.

"Ok, ok, subject change! So how can we fix this baffled fortune? Doesn't Victini have fortuney stuff? Like...I know he does the hero and justice stuff, but could he help?" She glanced down at the dagger form. "Wouldn't curing a curse of someone the hero cares about be heroic?" She asked. "Err...cares about like a Uhh friend. A close friend." She quickly adds.

[Regalus]

"I, uhm, they were...nice?" Uriel choked out completely off balanced, and unsure how to best navigate the social mine field he'd been drawn into. With how strenous it was for her to trust him with her face, he would have never thought she'd so easily make such a candid confession. Especially with Claire there.

It came completely from left fi-

"The stone! Are you touching it?!" the flustered young man started in desperation; remembering how Opal had handled the stone, and fearing the consequences it might have on Amelia.

[passinglurker]

Uriel and Claire
At Uriel's comment Wisp pauses her panicking and then takes her glove off revealing the black lump of void in the palm of her pale and delicate hand "hmm well what do you know... well I wouldn't worry about it like I explained before people like me and claire are resistant if not immune to most of the effects and what remains would not last past loss of contact" Wisp says rambling the technical details as her free hand removes her mask and then rummages around in her dark wet hair removing two low hidden hair pins causing her now soaked set or zoroark ears to pop out "anyway Victini won't be much help. Shaping and untangling luck are two different things and victini only does the former adding his power on top would be like trying to cap a tangled hose with your thumb the results would be faster stronger and harder to control with greater unforeseen consequences... hmm well he could make incidents less frequent but things will only get crazier when they do happen, but I at least can start working the problem" She says as her free hand produces a comb and fixes up her hair to look cuter as she stands back up "Speaking of victini you didn't bring him did you? I don't like the idea of an entity that used to be my ex seeing me in my underpants " Wisps says to Claire while subconsciously side stepping closer to Uriel and assuming cuter posture and bats her eyelashes at him... its at this point her mind catches up with her body and she freaks out a little "wait what am I doing! ah! the stone right!" She quickly changes the stone to her gloved hand and stuffs it in her pocket for safety allowing shyness and anxiety to regain thier footholds "Kyaaaa!" meaning she drops and huddles with her hands pressed over her second ears as her face glows red.

[Major]

"Oh..." Claire said when Wisp revealed Victini couldn't help. She had hoped that he would have been able to since then she could have helped Uriel without relying on Wisp who was being way too close to Uriel in her opinion. However, she couldn't just shove Wisp aside. Not only did she need Wisp to help, but she wasn't that petty that she felt the need to react in such a clingy manner.

At the question about Victini, Claire tilted her head. "Of course I have him. Where else would he be?" She asked. "He is in weapon form though and daggers don't have eyes." She said amused as she failed an occult education roll to have any clue how gods worked.

When Wisp did her pose and eye batting, a brief flicker of annoyance crossed Claire's face though she pushed it aside. She didn't need to fight or whine. Uriel was a grown man and could make his choices...even if Wisp was a backstabbing traitorous evil person who squeezed confessions out of people just to try and make moves.

"So how long till you can fix this? What do you need? I can help get whatever." Claire commented as she tried to draw attention away from Wisp's attempts to flirt.

[Regalus]

"Yeah, uh, I don't think we need a karma bomb right now...Uriel coughed politely into his hand as he discreetly scooshes away from Amelia as the women's unconscious advanced slowly grow far less subtle. On the one hand Amelia was a beautiful woman, on the other hand the experience was reminding him a little bit too much of some of the tipsier tourists he'd dealt with in the past.

Thankfully for all invovled it seemed as if Amelia's since of shame had caught up with her before things had gotten much farther. "H-Hey now, it's; it's alright. We made some progress, and nothign regretful happened," the flustered young man reasoned; trying to reassure Amelia as he wrestled with whether physical contact would comfort the woman or just aggravate her own embarrassment.

[Jacior]

"No, that's different." Drew says, taking the measurements and then heading off to find the right size, dragging Gwen with him. "There's a difference between groping and taking a measurement, but generally, unless they're someone you really like and you're in a private place, you shouldn't let people touch your breasts or uh... the... groin area?" The last part came out a little more meek. "But that doesn't really matter right now. We just gotta get some outfits to travel with, unless you're gonna stay in a pokeball the whole time. Which would be dumb."

[passinglurker]

Claire and Uriel
"Well I'll have to review the footage when I'm back at the house and start working the theoretical mathematics before I can determine the next step. other than that we're done here" She says to claire all mopey like as she stays huddled and tries to hide her blushing shame. Though her weird extra ears seem to perk up more happily at uriel's reassurance.

Uriel's intuition mean while tells him that Wisp would accept and greatly benefit from physical contact in the form of an ear scritch. Claire's clingy tsundere paranoia mean while tells her that uriel's intuition is gonna make him scritch wisps ears and it will be like bonding or something and that she should totally do something to preempt that so that wisp bitch won't get closer to stealing uriel.

Drew
"well I've been thinking about that you are going to be doing pokemon league and maybe contest things right? You are going to need more pokemon to help you with that more than just barry right? and well me cid and jerry sorta can help right? but it would be bad for us to transform in front of everyone right? so we are going to need the pokeballs right? where was I going with this? oh right don't you still need to get balls for cid and jerry?" Gwen rambles giving you a relieving change of subject as you find where they keep the large bra's

[Major]

"Sooooo...Uriel can I uhhh talk to you privately about that ummm embarrassing thing Delila did..." Claire said seeing this as a chance to make her escape. After all the sooner Wisp was alone the sooner the sooner she cuild work and the sooner she could work the sooner Uriel could get his curse fixed.

[Regalus]

"Yeah... we really need to talk about that," Uriel commented sourly at the memory of the international incident he'd been roped into. Though before leaving he turned his focus back to the embarrassed investigator that had dismissed them so clearly, and felt a pang in his heart he couldn't simply ignore. He couldn't just leave Amelia like that...

After a moment of hesitance, Uriel reached out to Ameliar hesitantly; scratching her head to offer some comfort to her, and easing into them otions once it was clear the imortal appreciated his touch. "Thanks for everything; really. I know today's been... a day for everyone. So don't beat yourself over too much about this. If I'm not allowed to go mother-hen you two after almost getting squished; then you shouldn't let what happened burden you. Chin up now, alright?" he reassured the women with a gentle smile.

[passinglurker]

Uriel
Wisp jumps a bit at the unexpected touch but then just as quickly relaxes as you scratch her head and zoroark ears causing her shoulders to slump and her arms to drop showing her face that grows from dazed to smiling from your touch and she reflexively tilts and stretches to push her head up into your touch as if wanting more

Claire
Note to self next time you argue with wisp touch her head and see if she can keep up with you

[Jacior]

"Well, I mean... I guess yeah. I don't even know if Cid wants to help like that though. It's kind of rude to just assume it, right? And, bizarrely, I already have spare pokeballs. I've never really needed to use 'em you know?" Drew says, leading her over to where the bras were... stored. "I don't think I'm gonna be very good at this whole thing anyway. I'm no battler."

[passinglurker]

Drew
"well yeah but that's what we're here for" Gwen says sweetly as she waits for you to do you fashion thing

[Jacior]

Drew gathers up enough outfits for both Cid and Gwen to be able to not have to do laundry everyday. "I dunno, it's still kinda... new to me. I've never been a battler. I feel like I'll probably mess up a lot. If you're willing to put up with that."

[Regalus]

"That's good then," Uriel says simply after a moment, "Any way, we'll be around if you need us,"

With that said, Uriel withdrew his hand and exited the room with Claire; not particularly looking forward to the conversation they were about to have.

[Major]

Claire was mostly quiet as her and Uriel left the room. She was obviously tense and seemed to be struggling with what to say. Once they were away from Wisp, Claire stopped suddenly and turned and quickly bowed apologetically as low as she could go, accidentally giving quite the view of her corset.

"I'm sorry. I'm really really really sorry." She stressed as she remained bowed. "I didn't think Delila would do that and that was really inappropriate and it made things weird for you and I'm really sorry. I promise I'll find a suitable punishment and I'm really sorry." She said apologizing again. She paused for a moment as she tried to think of a way to make it better. "Ummm I can call my mom and say she was kidding and it was a joke and tell her it's not true and make up some other excuse. This shouldn't be a problem for you. I should have to deal with not going home myself and using you as an excuse was really inappropriate and really wrong and I'm really sorry. I'll make her apologize too."

[Regalus]

"Claire, it's fine. Really. I know that wasn't your fault, and Delila was jsut trying to help before we tied a bigger noose around our necks; though that really doesn't make up for her sending that private picture..." Uriel sighed, "Our main issue right now is how we should handle this,"

"Be nice if we could just take that back, but doing so without a plan might just hurt your position with your mother even more. I mean, from her point of view what would even be bad enough that Delila would not only lie to her; but also believe that telling her you being pregnant and eloping with some guy you met would be more palatable to her than the truth," he explained with a frown, "To take it back we'd need a cover story that would be bad enough to justify Violet's panic; but not so bad as to cause an even bigger international incident, and you'd still need to explain that rather damning picture she sent..."

"So it all boils down to should we even try, and what do we do afterwards? 'Cause as it stands I'm pretty sure KISS will be looking to drag you home, and I'm your family probably wants to beat me to a pulp,"

[Major]

"Sorry..." Claire said again with a wince at the beating remark. "Ummm well I mean it kinda depends. Luckily mom probably won't share that picture especially with the impostor having made those lewd pictures." She said flustered. "Mom was a commoner too so her knowing is better than like any of the nobles. So I mean I don't think you need to be worried of her end...Given, her and dad were super ticked about a mistake I made once with Kuro so I mean she's probably likely to be super mad about the pregnant thing..." She said trying to think. "But...well I mean she went after me more than him anyways so I don't think there is too much concern about safety. The bigger question is how she replies..."

"If Delila is right then most likely they will want to act like knew and keep calm and stuff and just 'tell people' now but they knew before. I'm not sure what she would do but at least that gives some time... mom and dad eloped so hopefully she won't try anything with KISS..." She said scratching back of head. "Given...they don't know you and it hasn't been that long so..." She mumbled.

"I'm not sure a better story and I'm bad at lying, but I mean it's my problem so I just feel that a problem should inconvenience me not you so that's why I wish I could just call and say it was a joke or something...I don't know."

"I mean...depending on how public it gets and such we might get lucky and KISS will just watch from a distance and not get involved. I mean, IF mom believed it then hopefully she wouldn't try and crash a honeymoon or something... And if they don't believe it well...uhhh you should be safe..."

Claire sighed and finally removed herself from the bow. "I'll keep an eye out on you while we wait and see if bought it but I mean I don't think KISS is going to bag you and kidnap you or anything if it helps." She said trying to force a joke despite the awkwardness she felt. "So...I think at the very least at start they'd just investigate and spy or whatever so we gotta watch out in public..." She paused, "Though that's just a guess I mean, I don't really have any experience with fake pregnant eloping schemes..." She said with a cringe.

[Regalus]

"Yeah... figure it won't be long 'fore my folks get a call from yours," he said forlornly; not looking forward to that conversation with his folks, "Remember what our plan is? We're going to try to make enough waves in the public eye so Poffin's can't just sweep us under the rug; which means we'll already get a good bit of scrutiny from the public, especially between you and Drew. So there's a real chance of any story we come up with getting revealed to the public as well; probably once other folks start asking your family about why your running Kanto's circuit instead of Kalos',"

"...And we're probably going to have to explain that picture, I mean; it'd be easy to pass it off as your doppleganger doing it, but once we hit Kanto your mom will know we're pretty well acquianted either way," he added with a hint of embarrassment; mostly musing out loud before a thought struck him.

"Wait... do you think that might help? I mean, telling your mom something like how after the recent scare you had you've decided to step up? I mean, you told me you've been training for a really long time; but you've never actually tried to run the Dojo circuit officially right?" the young man explained as the gears in his head picked up speed.

"Telling her that during your travels you made some good friends with similar dreams, and you decided to follow your Dad's footsteps and show the world Kami's legacy. But then the whole mess with your largely exaggerated death happened, which your honestly still a bit frazzled about; so you weren't sure how to tell her about your plans now, so Delila may have overstepped her bounds a bit when she saw you struggling, and tried to help buy you some time. And while you appreciate her efforts, you couldn't really let it pass in good conscious. So you decided to clear the air between the two of you and explain your intentions; and how you're dead set on doing this before going back home, and your not gonna let a little scare like this from stopping you? As for the picture..., I mean; i'd have to see the one that got sent, but we could probably explain it better," the young man paused his brain storm, a bit self-conscious about having monologued so much.

"Or at least, something like that. What do you think? You know your family better than I do,"

[Major]

"Well ummm...it's less embarrassing that way. Considering the conversation I had with her in the bathroom before I think she'd insist on doing it another time and making me come home." Claire noted, "But while I don't think it'd be as effective at least it wouldn't be a burden on you. I mean, it would just be between mom and me so I don't feel like you got pulled in." Claire replied, "But even if not as effective, it is probably better because of that. And it could maybe, possibly work. I could try that! I mean, I don't know the picture details either and will have to see what Delila sent, but I mean...even at best its me on top of you with ummm...limited wet clothing..." Claire said blushing hard at the memory of her elementalism induced stupidy. "I'm really sorry about that. I wasn't in my right mind and that was super improper and inappropriate and then all this..." She said quickly bowing and apologizing again.

[Regalus]

"Hey now, calm down alright; no need for bowing, I already said I didn't hold it agaisnt you," the young man insisted with a placating gesture, "That said, you probably shouldn't do anything right away. I seriously doubt any of us should be making big decisions at this hour or on our own; I'd say you should rest, and I mean actually kick back and relax for a bit, and then talk with Violet and Delila about this. They're your friends after all, and I bet Delila is still kicking herself a bit for how she handled things even if it worked for the moment,"

"Personally, I don't mind dealing with the rumor mill if I have to. I mean, it's nothing that can't be cleared up; and aside from the preggers' bit it's not that bad either. So don't shoot yourself in the foot on my account; if you're going to make a choice about this, just make sure its the right one and not just the one you feel pressured to pick alright?"

[Major]

"Thank you," Claire said unbowing. "Uhhh speaking of rest I guess I should show you the room I was staying in and get my stuff and let you sleep as well." Claire said as she pointed the way toward the room Wisp had loaned her. "And thanks for being so helpful. I'll talk with Delila and Violet, but if I can avoid you getting roped into this that's probably for the best even if it makes it harder to trick mom." Claire said. A guilty look crossed her face at the 'trick mom' comment and she couldn't help but feel like she was doing something really wrong. She hated lying.

Once they arrived at the room, Claire opened the door and pointed out where things were as she gathered up her clothes. Luckily, most of her stuff had already been packed still since she hadn't really unpacked since leaving Scooters so she just had to grab a bit of clothes off the floor and straighten up some. "Bathrooms are down the hall, uhhh I think its shared with Fi? I forget who shares it, so ummm with your curse knocking would be a very good idea even if seems empty." She said, "I showered other night so bed should be fine, but if you want I can try and ask Wisp for different covers and such." Claire offered.

[Regalus]

During the short trip to the room Uriel tried, and failed, to dissuade the young lady from giving him her room. As a trainer he wasn't unused to coach surfing or worse, and wasn't about to trouble Claire after all the attempts on her life today. Alas, all such efforts were naught more than pebbles against the ineffable current of her will.

"No... no, it's fine," he said in reluctant resignation, waving off her concern, "And like I said, don't let it burden you too much right now. You've been through a lot today; take it easy, and get some rest alright?"

[Major]

"Alright, sleep well. I guess we can talk more tomorrow after I talk with Delila." Claire said giving a polite bow before leaving the room. After leaving, she made her way toward the "girl's room" were Violet and Delila would be and let out a sigh before walking in. "Just me, if you two are still awake."

[Regalus]

"Alright, good night," Uriel said in parting before closing the door behind Claire. The young man lasted barely a minute before all but collapsing unto the bed with a deep sigh of relief; just laying there tranquil for a short while too let the pent up tension ooze away from his weary form, before checking the hour. He still had to let his aunt know about his change of plans, as well as humor his old friends request after all.

[passinglurker]

Drew
"Of course you messing up a lot is one of my favorite things about you." She says giving you a hug "you singing at literally the worst possible moment was what broke the mood and made us friends" She adds pleasantly as she pecks you on the cheek "oops there I go tasting your face again, yes I get it by now that isn't what I'm actually doing but I still find it weird that my body just suddenly does things when I'm super close but I also really don't want to move away..." says the goddess of isolation apologizing for not acting isolated

Uriel
checking the time you see its not quite the time Lisa indicated to you yet.

Claire
they are awake, and they are not kissing... they doing something much much more lewd (but still gentle for violets injuries) that I will leave to your imagination just know it involves violet's mouth and tongue being used some where on delila's undressed body :P

Delila is quick to teleport out from under Violet and try to recompose herself despite the lack of any sort of hand maidenly dress on her person though you've showered with her before so it's not like this is nothing you haven't seen "O-oh clairese y-you're back! I thought we locked the door w-we should fix your hair I already arranged with wisps aide to let us use the houses large bath I-if you could just give me a moment to w-well recompose myself" She says nervously as she tries to cover any spots of violets saliva on her skin with her hands.

[Major]

As Claire looked up she froze like a deer caught in head lights. Oh. OH. THAT'S what Violet meant. That definitely made a lot of sense and explained a lot from before. That was ummm certainly more than a Kalosian kiss and...uhhh... oh dear. She was snapped out of her frozen, shocked, embarrassed stupor by Delila's reaction. "Errr uhhh... w-wrong room!" She said beat red, "N-no w-we can worry about that tomorrow ummm you uhhh have fun. Sorry. I uhhh... wrong room!" She said quickly stepping out and shutting the door extremely embarrassed and trying to purge the mental image of her haidmaiden and best friend doing THAT.

[passinglurker]

Claire
Delila let's you escape, and no it's not going away any time soon.

You still have the issue of where you are sleeping tonight a couch sounds terribly uncomfortable, you wouldn't want to impose on fi who is likely already asleep and had a hard day, uriel and ledian man are of course out, you might be able to get wisp to let you use her comfortable looking bed since she would be awake and away at this hour, but that means talking to that whilly stubborn back stabber again, or finally there is z and amber in the guest room across the hall which would probably make the least awkward company out of your options, and judging by how the door is ajar and you are hearing quite talking they must still be awake.

Or you can evade your problems and distract yourself with the mystery of the pokemon in your storage box...

[Major]

"Roses...swords...skirts...scizors...pokeballs...po keboxes..." Claire mumbled trying to flood her mind with words and distract herself from the very visual image of her two friends. "Boxes...Oh! Kitty in boxes! Meowstic! Monitors! Checking!" She said still muttering words as she remembered the strange pokemon and the need to talk to Monitor. "Wisp House. Masks. Where. Monitor. No phone." She realized still repeating words she could visualize as she tried to think of how to get a hold of him without a phone.

[passinglurker]

Claire
Well faux is a cyberized now maybe she can do phone things? Or even simpler you remember there was a computer terminal monitor talks through down stairs in the library room.

It also occurs to you despite your best efforts not to think of it that what you just saw was the type of thing violet has secretly been wanting to do with you probably ever since she hit puberty.

[Major]

For the briefest of moments Claire's mind finds freedom in Monitors, computers, and scizors. Scizors. Scissors. Lesbians. No!

Claire fidgets uncomfortable at the realization of Violets crush and actions and her handmaiden and...
"To the computer!" She quickly says thinking all sorts of computer thoughts. Like computers. And keyboards. And monitors! And floppy disks!

[passinglurker]

Claire
ow ow ow ow! tech hurts as bad as occult...

anyway you find the terminal right away and monitor is quick to respond to your presence around the machine -need something claire?- silently appears on the screen in green text.

[Major]

"A lot of therapy..." Claire muttered as she rubbed her sore head. She then started typing, "I was just wondering about that pokemon we talked about. The one that showed up in my box randomly. "

[passinglurker]

Claire
-Any preference on the type of therapy? As for your mysterious storage box resident I can bring the pokeball here if you like. There is a receptor platform built into the terminal.- monitor answers still silent out of courtesy for the people who are sleeping.

[Major]

Claire chuckles. So he could hear her also. She typed up, "Probably more than you could provide, no offense. It was a joke. Mostly. I don't wanna talk about it." She then paused great not wanting to talk about made her think about it and she rapidly typed. "Pokeball! Pokemon! Sure! Please! Uhhh any way to find out origin?"

[passinglurker]

Claire
-Oh you are talking about something other than the side effects of your type shifting we discussed earlier? Okay the I won't pry. As for the pokemon due to the security of the box system I can't trace the pokeball's transit logs until it is physically brought to a terminal I have administrative access to- monitor types

[Major]

"Go ahead and bring it then." Claire typed. "Worst case we return it if it was a mistake."

[passinglurker]

Claire
-downloading...-

the cubby below the terminal screen lights up as the pokeball is digitally constructed as you've seen many times before up until you see that the "pokeball" has come out looking more like a "pokebox" or rather a scorched and frosted pokeball with a bunch of high tech bits jerry rigged to it forming a box like shape. it feels like it would hurt to try to figure out what all the extra smoking sparking technobits are for so maybe best not to dwell on it... wait... those red bits... does this pokeball have scraps from your old scythe bolted to it!?

-tracing... the pokeball was added to the box via emergency storage request signal from... 42,000 feat above the middle of fragging no where... great... hold on tracing back further...-

[Major]

"Ummm...can you see this?" Claire asked looking at the pokeball. A part of her wanted to poke it, but she wasn't sure how safe the weird thing would be.

[passinglurker]

Claire
-...It seems I neglected to put a camera in the reception pad... why what should I be seeing?- monitor types as the frost on the ball begins to thaw and lights start to blink as if in response.

[Major]

"Ummm...it's square. And pokey. And...defrosting with lights..." She noted as she looked over it still unsure if she could touch it. "With techy things....Kinda like much scythe I think."

[passinglurker]

Claire
Before either of you could think of your doppelganger or say "bomb" all the lights illuminate and a metal poker extends and presses the pokeballs button. if this was a bomb you would have been dead just then but instead the ball hinges open and materializes its contents in a flash of light revealing the male meowstic that was supposed to be in there.

Its clutching a weathered book titled "the history of the hoenn space program" and a rocket ship shaped pen and upon orienting itself it immediately looks straight up and seems disapointed by the view of a ceiling (though that's hard to tell for sure with meowstics you remember them being adorably stoic). It then looks to you and tilts its head to the side as if curious.

[Major]

At the weird reaction and button press, Claire jumps backwards. When it looks at her and then tilts it's head, Claire mirrors the movement and tilts hers as well. "Bonjour?" She says after a moment of silence.

[passinglurker]

Claire
The meowstic pulls a piece of scratch paper from between the pages of his book and writes on it with his pen telekinetically before floating the paper over to you to read

Bonjour. Are you my new handler claire?

[Major]

Claire blinks surprised. She didn't know Meowstic could talk. Oh wait, it knew her name! It could probably read minds! Was it reading her mind now? "Ummm I don't know. I actually don't know where you came from. You just showed up in my box. Who owns you and we can help you find a way home?"

[passinglurker]

Claire
The meowstic takes the paper back and writes more before showing you its new note.

I was purchased by Claire. Are you Claire? Not that it matters to me who my handler is.

[Major]

"I am indeed Claire, but I didn't purchase a Meowstic..." Claire said starting to wonder what was happening. Did people just sell Pokemon in Unova at like a Poke-Mart or something? "I'm Claire Verene though, Clarisse Verene Vi Kalos, Princess of Kalos. So...maybe a different Claire bought you and somehow stuff got mixed up?"

[passinglurker]

Claire
No that sounds right you are my handler. Well assuming I got the right universe when I escaped the distortion world. That was a wild ride let me tell you. By the way what time is it? is it night time? can I go out and see the stars!?

The pokemon writes as if in conclusion before becoming uncharacteristically eager about stargazing like seriously you weren't aware meowstic could make facial expressions like that.

[Jacior]

"Pfft, that feels like years ago... Was that really just this morning? This day has stretched for an eternity. And I still have no idea what I thought that was supposed to accomplish! That right there is like, reason one I should not be in charge of anything important. Who the hell sees an angry god and SINGS! You almost killed me!" Drew says, slapping his face into his hand at the flashback from this morning. "And you don't have to apologize for that, Gwen. I know that there's a lot of stuff all mixed up in your head right now, but we'll fix it together. You'll be able to get stuff you didn't before and be... whatever you want to be. Whoever you want to be. Be never apologize for wanting to be close to someone you care about. Or someone you want to care about, even." He pulls her in for a hug with one arm, holding soon-to-be purchases in the other. "And I know, it's not fair of me to ask this of you but... Will you please give Jerry a chance? She seems legitimately sorry for what she's done and I think if you give her a chance, she'll surprise you. In a good way, I mean. Not like, naked in front of a crowd of people."

[Major]

"Uhh good question hold on..." Claire said looking over at the computer for the time. "I mean, it's pretty late sure I didn't see if the stars were out. I mean it's a big town with lots of lights and stuff, but we can head out and look I guess for a bit while Monitor tries to figure out what happened."

She then types on the computer, -Uhh he says he's mine and mentions distortion world and handlers and buying him.-

[passinglurker]

Drew
Gwen looks down thinking about you are asking of her "I decided to trust you knew what you were doing keeping her around because you asked me too, but if you want me to genuinely give her a chance... then I have two conditions first you need to face taste I mean kiss me and cid more often so that jerry doesn't steal all the kisses... she's good at stealing things... I feel 10 times a day is a good number don't you agree? and second... make sure Cid is happy. It feels like sometimes shes just here cause she's forced to I'd feel better about wanting jerry to be here if cid wanted to be here on her own and not just because she says its her job" Gwen says veiling a selfless request. "Oh! and third I reserve the right to try to surprise jerry for a change" she also quickly adds a bit more cryptically "Oh! and forth I want to see Cid wear cute dresses sometimes!" now she's just milking this.

Claire
-I have a theory put his pokeball where I can see it, keep him away from phones, and don't let him out of your sight until we are sure of his origins intents and trustworthiness.- Monitor warns

[Regalus]

Enjoying his reprieve too much to scrounge up the will to move himself yet; the young man simply dials up his aunt to let her know about his sudden change of plans, both in regards to his sleeping arrangements and his unexpected departure from Castelia the next day.

[Major]

-He wants to go look at the stars? Is that ok?- She typed picking up the pokeball nervously worried about the weird stuff on it and holding it to camera still wondering the time.

[passinglurker]

Uriel
As is always the case when dealing with your side of the family your amazing and charitable aunt understands and wishes you luck, and hopes you won't be a stranger the next time you pass through.

Claire
-...Well he isn't from a universe where everyone uses cubes instead of balls that's for sure... this may sound crazy but I think your doppleganger purchased this pokemon from team rocket and he was stranded in the distortion world when she disappeared earlier today-

[Major]

-I see....uhhh is she back too then? And what should I do considering the team rocket thing? I mean doesn't that mean he is stolen?-

[passinglurker]

Claire
-you should talk to him and get the whole story.. and don't let your guard down-

[Jacior]

Drew smirks at her requests, changing one of the outfits he'd picked out for a shirt/skirt combo. "Hmmm.... how about... one each and I don't let Jerry steal anymore? That sounds fair to me. And I'm going to make sure. I'm not making her stay if she doesn't want to, whatever her "job" might be. I'm not into forced labor." He ruffle Gwen's hair. "Would you like a dress too?"

[Major]

"Yeah it's night time and I guess we can go outside, but I'm just trying to figure stuff out. Did Team Rocket steal you? Do you want me to help you find your trainer? I'm trying to figure out how you got here."

[passinglurker]

Drew
"3! you need at least 3 square kisses a day for a healthy diet!" Gwen says butchering an old saying though she may just be having fun with the word play then actually disagreeing with you.

"but um with cid could you still try and find out what it would take to make her want to stay? I want her to be able to stay and be happy at the same time if possible" Gwen clarifies bashfully

"Yes! Oh! what if me and cid matched!? Oh oh! what if we all matched!?" Gwen says eagerly at the dress suggestion. It seems pretty clear you are intended to be in that "all" and that the dress must be girly with no half measures.

Claire
The pokemon seems very happy and eager about going outside at night, but turns blank and monotone as it writes the answer to your questions
I've been bought and sold as long as I can remember. You bought me so you're my handler now. I'm just supposed to do as you tell me so I retain my value as an asset in case you want to sell me in the future. This is the way it's always been for me.

[Major]

Claire frowns at the note, "I...I don't like that." She said. "You are a person as well and not just an asset. You won't be sold again and I want you not to view me as a handler. I'd prefer to be a friend or partner if anything. If you want to be here though. If you want to be free I can let you go also." She said. "Nobody should just be bought and sold or forced to do things they don't want. "

[Jacior]

"That's what I said! 1 from each of you makes three. And I will, don't worry." Drew says, switching out outfits for dresses. "And uh, Dresses aren't usually for guys, Gwen. It's uh, considered pretty weird for men to wear them." That being said he does grab a moatching outfit in his own size. He knew better than to argue with girls about clothes.

[passinglurker]

Drew
"Oh it's give 3 kisses a day? then I should give my own too!" Gwen says cleverly doubling the amount of kissing that will be going on "But why would wearing a dress be weird? You looked really pretty wearing that one in the shrine earlier!" Gwen says making you the exception to the rule.

Claire
I'm not suited for the wild so I'd rather be here than there. I don't know how to be a friend or a partner though the pokemon writes

[Major]

"I mean...just be yourself. If you want to do something ask. If you don't want to do something let me know." Claire explained. "You don't have to listen to me just because I'm 'Claire'." She explained. "I'll help you, you help me, and so on."

She nodded toward the door. "For example, you want to look at the stars so let's go." She said as she started to lead the way checking if the pokemon followed. "You can tell me how you got here and what this world travel thing you are talking about is while we look at the stars." She said. Assuming the pokemon followed she'd head towards the roof.

[Regalus]

Uriel
As is always the case when dealing with your side of the family your amazing and charitable aunt understands and wishes you luck, and hopes you won't be a stranger the next time you pass through.

Uriel thanks her for everything, and continues making a bit more small talk with her before the two eventually agree to end the call. Feeling a bit lighter for the pleasant exchange, the young man decides to rouse himself from the bed before Crescelia has a chance to whisk him away to dreamland; opting instead to head down to check on how Z and Amber were settling in... assuming the pair hadn't crashed already from all of the excitement today.

[passinglurker]

Claire
The pokemon follows closely and once on the on the roof his head tilts straight up his mouth makes an open smile (rare for meowstics) and his eyes twinkle with awe and wonder... he must really not get out much if the night sky is this impressive to him. There is a lot of light pollution from the city and scattered clouds from the storm earlier yet he still finds the stars amazing. You'll probably have to ask some him some direct questions to distract him from the sky long enough to answer.

Uriel
As you approach the guest room across the hall you see that the door is ajar slightly and you can over hear them talking...

"So... I guess Darkai kinda spilled the beans that we have a crush on the same guy huh?..."

"I'm sorry"

"No-No don't be sorry I didn't mean-"

"I'm sorry I'm sorry-"

"No look thats not-j-just don't worry about.. really... I'd get why you'd like him... I mean uh-"

"He's there for you when things seem at thier worst..."

"...huh yeah that about says it... I wouldn't mind another hug slumped against the floor of my garage... it felt nice... until I puked... augh what is wrong with my head... Something about me wants him to touch me again but something else is sickened and scared I can feel my stomach turn just at the thought of it... why am I so hung up on the touching thing anyway?... am I some sort of pervert like mom?..."

"... for what it's worth I think you are a good person... and I'm sorry bad people used what you made to do bad things, and made you feel bad, and... with what we learned today... I don't think... we should feel guilty... a-and bad thoughts we have... they probably put in our heads so that we'll think we aren't worth saving and c-come back to them... b-but who the hell do they think I am! I may not believe in myself but I believe in him! I believe in the Uriel who believes in me!"

"whoa goose bumps you kinda sounded like claire a bit then at the end..."

"u-um... sorry..."

"no I meant in a good way"

"but if he wanted some one like claire wouldn't he go with claire?"

"Well to be honest... We don't really got a chance... neither of us really know how love works, while claires been through it once she could say it for sure... and also Claire would probably hate us if she believed a word darkrai said... like you saw her acting around that wisp lady she's being super territorial about uriel, and... she's like the only family I can trust right now I don't want her to hate me..."

"Well if I'm possibly claire's clone-ish daughter then that would make us family too right?"

"Amber... has anyone told you you're like an angel?..."

"I'm sorry!"

"wha! no wait good thing! that's a good thing!"

You sure you wanna walk in on girls talking about you?

[Regalus]

Uriel smiled to himself quietly as he watched the tender scene play out; despite his initial conflict when he first realized what they were discussing, or rather who, having decided to give them a minute before interrupting. Though he soon realized that perhaps it wouldn't be necessary.

It was nice seeing the girls in high spirits, bonding with each other after everything they'd been through... and he'd be lying if he said that hearing about their confidence in him wasn't as touching as it was embarrassing to hear them talk about him so candidly. The young man inwardly thanked his caution for staying his hand, and preventing him from ruining such a heartwarming moment.

Knowing he wasn't needed there, he set off once more; opting to wander around for a bit to kill time, maybe even find a spot he could groom his mon and share some peace with them while he waited for the coming hour of Lisa's surprise.

[passinglurker]

Uriel
poking around downstairs you see monitors terminal is very active with some strange robot arms and light examining a pokeball covered in jury rigged parts and red painted metal the same rose red shade as claire's old scythe... the scythe you banished to the void/reverse world/distortion world/anti-matter world/there are too many names just call it hell game freak geez!

[Regalus]

And just like that the relaxing warmth in his chest was replaced by a creeping chill rushing through his veins at the sight of the innocuous object under Monitor's study. A sudden surge of fear and guilt rushing to the forefront of his mind, leaving him standing just a few feet away from the object without realizing he had traversed the distance.

"Monitor..." he began hesitantly, a sudden numbness leaving his thoughts clear despite the dread that hung over him like a blanket, "... what is that?

[passinglurker]

Uriel
-Claire's old scythe and some pokedex's jury rigged around a pokeball to create a crude means of deep space convenience- Montior's screen displays quitely

-Claire and some invisible ghosts are keeping an eye on the pokemon that came out of it they went up on the roof to stargaze-

[Major]

Claire glanced around the roof and the stars. It was pretty up here. Maybe sleeping beneath the stars would be an option? It would mean she could avoid disturbing people, it was private up here, and it certainly sounded like a beautiful storybook.

She hadn't really had the chance to do anything like that back home. The closest was the giant window and balcony by the bed, but even still it was still inside. The only flaw was she couldn't really undress like she prefered to sleep meaning her outfit would probably get wrinkly. Normally she would ask Delila for some sleep ware but... Ack! Bad mental images!

She quickly looked up at the star then back at the Meowstic. He seemed happy and content. She doubted he was a danger, probably just a poor Pokemon caught up in a rocket scheme. So since he was safe and not stolen it didn't seem too inappropriate to just let him have some time.

Claire glanced around for somewhere to sit and lean back or somewhere comfy to lay down and look up at the stars with the pokemon. She could always ask questions later. For now she wanted to give the guy the chance to enjoy this view that had him so impressed.

[Regalus]

"W-what about the other Claire? I-Is she..." Alive? Dead? Here? The young man didn't know how to end the question; instead simply leaving it to trail off.

[passinglurker]

Claire
You don't really find much that's any better for siting that where you are standing, but when you pop a squat or whatever you feel something struggle underneath your butt, and there materializes an old couch with a bunch of ghost pokemon lounging on it... and you are sitting on one to the others laughing amusement...

The meowstic then looks back confused and uncertain by the sudden rush of strangers, but a big gangar on the couch mimes as if he just had a great idea a pulls out a big old brass telescope seemingly from no where. The ghosts (besides the one you are smothering with your cheeks) then all join in setting up the telescope and helping the little guy use it bring the smile back to the meowstics face as he finds things in the skys and encourages others to take turns looking at what he found.

Uriel
-No sign of her aside from this ball and that pokemon, but he's literate so I'm hoping Claire can get the story out of him. He may know nothing though he was acting like he hadn't seen either claire before and that all he had to go off was the name of his new owner.-

[Major]

Claire quickly hops off the ghost and sighs. Were a bunch of ghosts all over the roof? Well so much for that idea...

[Regalus]

"That's good... I guess,"Uriel nodded slightly in relief(?) at Monitor's clarification, "Have you found anything interesting?"

[passinglurker]

Uriel
-Who ever put this together is smarter than claire- monitor jokes

Claire
hey don't you have a joltik now too? hope it's doing alright what with your doppelganger kidnapping it earlier and all.

[Major]

Deciding to see the new pokemon she had traded for from Uriel, Claire released the Joltik.

[Jacior]

"Boys just don't wear dresses. People think it's weird." Drew says, sighing as she refuses to let the kissing point fall out of her favor. "Just one of those things that people don't like." That being said, he does pick out something in his size as it'd be pointless to argue with her with her mind made up. He had 7 sisters, he already knew the drill.