The Heights of Londo [IC 2: Bolted]

[Comissar]

Leah hesitates when she sees Souf busy eating, not wanting to disturb her. She glances briefly at Alyssa, then back over at Souf before walking over to the woman. She clears her throat a short distance from her to attract her attention, "Umm, Souf..?" Once she had her attention, she glanced back to Alyssa again, then returned her attention to the older woman, "Umm, I, uh, I just wanted to thank you for, uh, for having us. Umm, we, uh, we're going to be staying with, uh, with someone else while we're, uh, while we're in Thundercrag so, umm," Leah rubbed at her arm uncomfortably, aware that she was babbling a bit, "We were going to, uh, going to grab our things and, uh, and then head off, umm, if, uh, if that's ok..."

[tgva8889]

Blushing as Leah comes down off the Mudsdale, Alyssa turns away nervously and just nods at Leah's question. "I'll, um, be right behind you." She adjusts a few things in Ricewine's bags for no reason, watching Leah walk away for a minute before she follows at a jog.

As Leah seems to take the initiative talking, Alyssa comes up beside her and gives her a reassuring smile. Once she seems to trail off, Alyssa steps in, putting a hand on Leah's shoulder to support her. "Thank you for helping us, really. How much would we owe you for nights we were here? I don't wanna forget."

[Hazuki]

"You're very welcome." Souf says, as her eyes flick between the pair. "Do come again if you need another place to rest, or for breakfast, or any meal." She says, then reminds Alyssa of the price.

[Comissar]

Leah nods her agreement as Alyssa steps in, the hand on her shoulder helping to steady her nerves, then gives Souf a grateful smile. "Thanks, umm, I'm sure we'll be back." She glances down the corridor to the rooms they were staying in, then back to Souf, "We'll just, uh, just grab our stuff."

She waited a few moments for Alyssa to pass the money over to Souf, intending to walk the short distance to their rooms with her. As they head down, she asks "Umm, have you got much to grab..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa finds the appropriate amount of money and hands it to Souf from their "Lord Bastille Fund" before she heads off in step with Leah, trying to walk with her rather than too far ahead or behind.

She takes a while to give a response to Leah's question, talking as she walks. "Well, I know I left a bunch of stuff around...I didn't think we'd be moving so I, uh, got comfortable. But, um, it'll be fine." Stopping at her door, she smiles and fiddles with the key. "I'm sure it won't take me too long to get it all set, though." Once she gets the door open, Leah can catch a glimpse of a bunch of clothes all thrown about among a mess of general travel items and...is that a net? Alyssa pulls the door closed quickly and smiles nervously. "I, uh, um. Could you pretend you didn't see that?"

[Comissar]

Catching just a brief glimpse of Alyssa's room, Leah breaks into a grin as her friend asks her to forget the mess inside. She nods, "Sure, I'll try, but let me know if you want any help cleaning up."

Turning to her own room, she fiddles for a moment with her key, then unlocks the door. Looking back over her shoulder, she gives Alyssa another smile "See you in a moment!"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa flushes with embarrassment and laughs at Leah's reply. "Thanks." When Leah goes into her own room, Alyssa nods to Leah, still a bit red, and waves as she closes the door. Once she seems to have gone, Alyssa goes into her own room and quickly pulls the door closed. She slides down to the floor against the door and sighs, smiling to herself for a second before she finally lets the task ahead of her hit her.

Some cleaning later, Alyssa realizes she did leave something important behind. Finding a canvas with the painting she made of Leah, she finds herself smiling at it, remembering what had happened over the last few days. Hadn't she meant to show that to Leah at some point? Maybe? She rolls it up for now and puts it to the side, a whole pile of other things in need of being put in some kind of place.

[Comissar]

It doesn't take Leah too long to finish clearing her room up. Since getting on the road, she'd taken to living out of her bag, only really unpacking when she expected to be in one place for a significant amount of time. Once she finishes, she sets her bag down on her bed and stops to think. She considers going out into the corridor and offering her help to Alyssa again, but she seemed pretty embarrassed by the state her room was in. Instead, she sat and waited to hear the click of Alyssa's door opening, ready to head out into the corridor when she was finished.

The mess reminded Leah of when she'd shared dinner with her friend in Alyssa's room back in Bastille. She found herself smiling softly at the memory. Despite the awful events leading up to that evening, and the troubled night that followed, it had been nice to just have that quiet moment with her. Tucking a strand of hair away from her face as her cheeks warmed, Leah leaned forward a little, looking toward her closed door as she waited.

[Hazuki]

Leah is treated to the sound of tiny furred feet shuffling around between the doors of their two rooms, accompanied by the swishing of what must be an exceptionally fluffy tail.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa takes a decent while to clean everything up and move it into easily-mobile forms, trying to make sure she doesn't damage anything important. She finds herself getting distracted by the rolled up canvas on her bed, having to pull herself back into packing instead of staring at the canvas. Then her thoughts would go to thinking of showing it to Leah, what her reaction might be, and then she couldn't think any further because she couldn't even think of what she might think. Alyssa had never been so afraid of Leah seeing her work but something about it scared her. What if she hated it? What if she just didn't think it was very good? And then there was another question in Alyssa's mind she hadn't considered until just now: what if she doesn't know what it means? Alyssa knew her thoughts were leading her to one place and she almost thought she was stupid for not figuring it all out before. By the time she sorted through all her clothes, Alyssa thought through every way about how Leah could possibly take seeing this painting of herself made by her friend and traveling companion and now she just stared at it, the shuffling outside her door filling an otherwise empty void of uncertainty in her thoughts.

Not wanting to be alone with her thoughts anymore, she opened her door and started towards Leah's door, moving to knock before she had even thought of why she wanted to talk to her.

[Comissar]

Hearing Alyssa's door open, Leah rocked herself up and onto her feet. Shouldering her bag, she moved over to the door and opened it just after Alyssa knocked. She gave her friend a smile, asking "Ready?" before catching her expression. She tilted her head slightly, "What's up..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles, turning red with her eyes cast down. "I, um. I found, uh, the painting I was gonna show you. Would you, um, maybe, um, want to see it? Maybe not now, maybe later, but I...um." She bites her tongue and looks at Leah, noting the care in her face and the way her hair fell. "Actually, um, would you mind...just sitting together for a bit?"

[Comissar]

Leah blinks in surprise, "Oh! Umm, sure." She glances back over to her bed, making her way over to it and dropping her bag on the floor in front of her. Sitting herself down, making sure there was space for Alyssa to join her, she gave her a questioning look "So, uh, what's the painting of..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa follows meekly into the room and sits down next to Leah, twirling a strand of her hair. For a second she seems like she doesn't know what to do but when Leah asks her question she shakes her head and giggles. "No, you gotta wait to see it. I'm not saying anything about it before then!" She smiles and nudges Leah jokingly, seeming to loosen a bit. Glancing around the room, she says, "You're more organized that I was. How long were you waiting for me to be done?"

[Comissar]

Leah grins at Alyssa's teasing, "That's not fair! You can't just tell me you want to show me something, then not show me!" She follows Alyssa's gaze around her room, giving a shrug, "A little while, maybe..? I wasn't really keeping track." A thought occurs to her, and she gives Alyssa a worried look, "I, uh, I wasn't waiting that long, I just didn't want to disturb you."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa laughs and sticks out her tongue. "I'm not gonna tell you what it is, but I'll show it to you. That's different." She shrugs at Leah's assurance and smiles to clear her worries. It wouldn't have been too bad. Well, the mess maybe, but you didn't have to wait on me." She looks nervously around, then looks Leah in the eyes. "Did you, um, want to see it...now? Or later?"

[Comissar]

Leah pulls a mock serious face at Alyssa as she sticks her tongue out, though she quickly breaks back into a grin, "Now you're just splitting hairs." She shrugs self-consciously at Alyssa's reassurances, "It's ok, like I said, I just thought you might want the time to yourself..."

When Alyssa's gaze settles on her eyes, she feels her cheeks heat a little, but maintains eye contact. She gives Alyssa a curious look at her obvious nervousness, tilting her head slightly as a faint smile playing on her face, "I would like to see it, but, uh, you don't have to show me now if you don't want to..."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa twirls a strand of hair nervously. "It's, um, it's not a problem to do it now? I can go get it, it's in my room. Or you can, um, come with me." After a short pause, she quickly adds "It's clean! I just, um. Wanted a moment before we left." She feels a bit of heat in her cheeks but smiles and seems to relax. "I feel like we're both gonna be busy with, um, Parkin commissioning me and you having your fossil to work on."

[Comissar]

Leah nods, brushing a strand of hair away from her face as she did. "Sure, I'll come with you."

She smiles at Alyssa for a moment, before picking up her bag again and pushing herself to her feet. She lingers a moment so that Alyssa can head out of the room ahead of her, then locks the door behind her as she leaves. With that task complete, she follows Alyssa into her room, seating herself on the bed and setting her bag down again once more.

[Hazuki]

Leah notices that the sweeping Mincinno continues on its journey up the hall, tail swinging back and forth, as she crosses rooms.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles at Leah's response. Twirling a strand of hair she nods. "Yeah, um, okay." She pushes herself up after Leah, her mind processing something before she shuts it up. Her mind distracts her long enough that she doesn't notice Leah waiting behind until she's at the door. Once Leah has caught up she unlocks her door, fumbling a bit as she notices her hands are shaking. Almost dropping the key, she takes a second to take a deep breath and gets the door open before Leah has hers locked.

Once the door is open, Alyssa hurries into the room and scoops up the wrapped canvas before Leah can make it in. She turns and holds it behind her back, shuffling her feet a bit. "Would you,
um, oh this is gonna sound silly but would you mind closing your eyes?"

[Comissar]

Leah watches Alyssa with a concerned look as her friend fumbles through her movements, her nervousness plain to see. When asked to close her eyes, she hesitates, then nods slowly. "Uh, sure."

Sitting up a little straighter, she closed her eyes, letting her arms fall by her side and holding the edge of the mattress in her hands.

[tgva8889]

When Leah closes her eyes, Alyssa turns away from her and takes a few deep breaths. For some reason knowing she wasn't looking helped and she was able to calm down enough to gain full control of her hands. With one more deep breath, Alyssa rolls open the painting and looks at it herself. She runs a finger along the strokes, remembering what brought out about. Wiping a tear from her eye, she turns around and holds the painting up in front of her, almost hiding behind it, and says "Ready. You can, um, open your eyes."

The painting is of Leah, dressed as she was for dinner with Lord Bastille. The painting presents her smiling, happy, and glowing. All of her best qualities seem to be emphasized, even elements of her personality which pop out obviously in her expression. The painting actually almost makes her seem alive; it's as if a part of Leah were captured on the canvas. A subtle background of mostly solid color helps bring her out of the frame, almost like she were sitting for a photo of some kind. Alyssa tries to hold it steady so Leah can see it and take it in.

[Comissar]

Leah nods, then opens her eyes. She blinks a couple of times to clear her vision, then looks at the painting Alyssa's holding. It takes her a moment to realise what she's looking at, but when she does, her eyes widen in surprise. She raises a hand to her chest and clutches at her shirt, briefly glancing up at Alyssa as if to confirm what she's seeing, then back down at the painting. At a loss for words, she finds her cheeks heating up as she runs her free hand through her hair.

"..."

Leah breaks into a smile, shaking her head as her gaze dropped to the floor for a moment. She then leans forward, elbows resting on her knees, as she looks at the painting again. Her mind races as multiple lines of thought run parallel. She looks up at Alyssa, grins, then looks down at her feet. When she looks up again, she gives Alyssa another brief glance, then finds she doesn't know where to look. Deciding to just return her attention to the painting, she gives a soft laugh, trying to figure out what to say. "Y-you, uh, y-you made me, uh, made me look really, uh, really pretty"

Her voice betrays her as she speaks, wavering as she reaches the end of her sentence.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa keeps her eyes closed, hiding her face behind it. With no line of sight she can't see Leah at all and has to listen for her response. The silence makes her tense, and a million thoughts run through her head. A few times she lowers the painting a bit to try to get a look at Leah but each time she only catches her studying the painting, not picking up on her motions or her changing expressions. Eventually she gives up and just looks at her shoes, waiting for something she recognizes.

After what seems like forever to her, Leah's comment brings a lot of heat to Alyssa's face. She let out a big breath she didn't realize she was holding and laughs a bit herself. With very careful motions, she sets the painting down on the bed next to Leah so she can see it and then quickly takes a seat next to her on the other side. Looking at Leah in the eyes, she says "I, um, I'm better with paint than words, but, um. You're really...I mean, what I mean is, um." Turning red, she's forced to look away, smiling. Looking at her feet bouncing against one another, she tries to say something and says "I, um, that's what I do. When I, um, need to get my feelings out. And you, um. What I mean to say is, um. Oh I'm not good at this." She's still smiling, but she rubs her face with her hands. "That's, um. That's you. To me, um, you look like that."

[Comissar]

Leah gives another soft laugh, running a hand through her hair again. She glances at the painting, then back at Alyssa as she sits next to her. She finds that she has no idea what to say, instead just feeling her face steadily redden as she feels incredibly aware of Alyssa beside her. After a moment, she gives another soft laugh, as much to release some of the tension she's feeling as anything else, "..."

Leah swallows, then tries again, "U-umm, i-i-if I, umm..." She closes her eyes, forcing herself to take a deep breath, then tries one more time, "I-I think that, u-uh, i-if I tried to d-do the same, I..."

Her voice catches, and she looks up at Alyssa with an apologetic smile, then looks back down at her knees, taking another deep breath. "I-I-I don't think I-I could do you justice."

She glances up at Alyssa again, worry and hopefulness written on her face in equal measure even as her cheeks burned.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa, noting now Leah's obvious nerves, feels her own fade into the background. Her focus turns to Leah, sitting in front of her, struggling to speak her mind. She offers her best supportive smile, ignoring the growing heat in her cheeks. Once Leah finishes speaking, Alyssa takes a second to process the words, looking down where Leah's gaze seems to go, then smiles wide. "You...you mean...you...you feel the same?" As she speaks, she raises her glance to Leah.

Not waiting for a response, she takes Leah's hand in hers and smiles at her, then hesitates. "Um, is... is this okay? Sorry, I, uh, I should have asked." She doesn't let go, but she looks to Leah for approval.

[Comissar]

Leah feels her heart hammer as she nods. She glances down at her hand as Alyssa takes hold of it, then back up at her with an embarrassed smile, "Y-yeah."

She abruptly grins, looking down at their hands together, then looks back up at Alyssa. "U-umm, thanks."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles wide. "Yeah. Um, of course. No problem." She squeezes Leah's hand and grins back, leaning into her a bit. She lets the moment sit a little bit before she says "How do you feel? Do you feel as much jitters as me?"

[Comissar]

Leah returns the squeeze as best she can, twisting her hand so that she's properly holding Alyssa's. She enjoys the moment as best she can, though she feels a flurry of emotion despite simply sitting in place. Alyssa seems to pick up on it as she asks her question. She nods, giving a small laugh as she does, "Y-yeah, u-umm, I guess I'm, uhh, relieved..?" She sits up a bit straighter, turning her head to look more directly at Alyssa as she grins, "But, uhh, but e-excited, too."

Turning her attention forward again, Leah leans into Alyssa lightly. After a moment, she asks, "S-so, umm, what, uh, what now..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa nods. "Yeah. Excited, yeah, and glad." She sits up straighter to match Leah, though she only turns her head. Her grin is wide, though. "I know what you mean."

Leah's questions gives her pause for a second, but then she shrugs and laughs. "I dunno! I, uh, I guess we do what we want to. I mean, um, we can do what we feel okay with. And know that we feel how we feel." She smiles at Leah. "I've never done anything like this before, so, uh, whatever we feel is right, right? Like, um, right now I know I wanna be near you and I want you to be happy."

[Comissar]

Leah feels her cheeks flush red again at Alyssa's answer. She nods, reaching up to tuck some stray hair away from her face with her free hand. "Y-yeah, umm, that sounds good." She hesitates, glancing at the door as a thought occurs to her, before giving a nervous laugh, "Umm, although, uh, Souf, uh, might start wondering how, uh, how long it takes to, uh, to pack up two rooms."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa laughs along with Leah. "Yeah, I guess. Parkin may also wonder." Then she suddenly sits up straight and puts her hands to her mouth in embarrassment. "And we left Ricewine outside!" Shooting to her feet, she turns around and offers Leah a hand. "Ready to go, Leah?"

[Comissar]

Leah smiles and nods, taking Alyssa's hand and pulling herself to her feet. "Yeah, uh, ready."

She stooped down briefly to pick her bag back up, then glanced at the painting, feeling her cheeks flush again as she looked at it, "Umm, do, uh, do you need to do anything special to, uh, to transport that..?"

[tgva8889]

Once Leah is up, Alyssa pulls her things together. Her clothes have been carefully folded and then tied together to be easily carried, but she has to take a moment rolling the canvas carefully. When Leah asks, Alyssa shrugs. "Usually I keep it in a case, but, um, I think I left the case in my bag? If not I can keep it tied and on top of everything else. Maybe not the safest but if this one is for me and you so I'm not worried about keeping it perfect." She smiles and Leah and offers her a hand to hold.

[Comissar]

Leah nods, giving Alyssa a smile, "Fair enough."

She takes Alyssa's hand when offered, finding she can't help but grin as she does. She gives the room one last look over, checking to make sure nothing was left behind by mistake. She looks back to Alyssa and asks "Got everything..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa grins too. She nods at her question, though she does glance around too just to make sure. After a second, she shrugs. "Anything I forgot probably wasn't super important." She heads to the door and lets go of Leah's hand to pull it open, but offers again to take it when they head out.

[Comissar]

Leah retakes Alyssa's hand as they make their way back down the corridor. Once they arrive in the main room, she fishes in her pocket for her key, ready to pass it over to Souf. As she approaches the woman, she gives her another smile and a brief bob of her head, "Umm, thankyou again. Hopefully we'll, uh, we'll see you again soon."

[Hazuki]

"You're welcome." Souf takes the pair's keys gently and tucks them away. "I hope you have a pleasant day."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa passes her key to Souf and smiles. "You too!" Glancing to Leah, she heads out the door, trying to match her pace with Leah's.

Once they get outside, she finds Ricewine and lets go of Leah's hand to pat his side. "Sorry we took a while! It was my fault. We'll get going soon." She puts her clothes into one of the saddlebags, then tries to find somewhere to carefully keep the painting. With everything set, she offers Leah some help getting back up onto Ricewine.

[Comissar]

Leah stows her own bag in one of Ricewine's saddlebags, then gratefully accepts Alyssa's help up onto the pokémon's back. She watches over her shoulder as Alyssa clambers up to join her. "So, uh, I guess back to Parkin's, then..?"

[tgva8889]

Settling into the saddle, Alyssa nods before realizing that isn't really that helpful and says "Yeah. Um, Ricewine, if you don't mind taking us back to Parkin's place, that would be very nice." She pats Ricewine on the side and then puts an arm around Leah's waist to hold herself steady.

[Comissar]

Leah finds herself smiling again as Alyssa held onto her waist, even as her cheeks flushed red. Using just one hand to keep herself steady on Ricewine's back, she laid her other hand on top of Alyssa's. As Ricewine took them back through the streets, she gently squeezed Alyssa's hand. Unable to come up with a conversation topic, she instead just enjoyed the ride back, feeling a fluttering in her chest as she did.

[Hazuki]

Ricewine seems ambivalent to the amount of time the girls took, and begins making his way towards Parkin's home. As he walks them along, they spot Bibi and her Inkay heading down to the beach.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa waves to Bibi and Inkay with her free hand. "Hi Bibi! How's it going?" She pats Ricewine on the side and says, "Do you mind if we stop for a second, Ricewine? These two are our friends."

[Hazuki]

Ricewine slows down as Alyssa instructs, and Bibi pauses mid-stride. The scarred woman turns her eyes to look at Alyssa and Leah atop the Mudsdale, while Ibib does the same, then strides over to them.

"Hello." Bibi greets, in her usual dulled tones. "Mudsdale." She pats Ricewine's muscular neck and earns a pleased grumbling in response. "Where are your little ones?" She looks to the girls.

Ibib gives a waggle of its tentacles.

[Comissar]

Leah gives a small wave to Bibi as she makes her way over. "They're, uh, they're up at the new place we're staying at the moment. Umm, I'd, uh, I'd forgotten Lord Bastille had arranged accommodation for us so, uh, we're just on our way back from picking up our stuff from the, uh, the Health Hole."

[Hazuki]

Bibi nods. "Your foot is injured."

[Comissar]

Leah hesitates, glancing down at her injured foot, then looks sheepishly back up at Bibi with a nod. "Yeah, umm, I slipped down on the beach. Umm, it's, uh, it's not too bad. I'm just trying to keep my weight off it..."

[Hazuki]

Bibi reaches into one of her packs and retrieves a small bundle, which she hands over to Leah. "Salve bandages. It'll heal faster."

[Comissar]

Leah smiles gratefully and reaches over to take the offered bandages, "Umm, thankyou, I'll put them on when, uh, when I get the chance."

[tgva8889]

Noting Leah and Bibi have gotten into conversation, Alyssa waves to Ibib and whispers,"You taking care of her?" She gives a slight knowing nod of her head to Bibi, figuring Ibib will understand.

Alyssa smiles at Leah and Bibi's small interaction, piping in as Leah takes the bandages. "I'll make sure she remembers, don't worry. Oh, the person who we're staying with asked me to paint her portrait, so we're gonna stay for a bit longer in Thundercrag. If you know her, we're staying with Parkin?"

[Hazuki]

The lights on Ibib's helmet briefly hum to life, then disappear at Alyssa's question.

"I know the name." Bibi says.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa notices Ibib's response and turns to Bibi. "Something we should know?"

[Hazuki]

"What?" Bibi asks.

[Comissar]

Leah glances back and forth between Bibi and Alyssa. "Umm, I think, uh, I think Alyssa assumed you, uh, knew something specific about her."

[Hazuki]

"No." Bibi says. "Just the name."

[Comissar]

Leah nods, then frowns as a thought occurs to her. "Umm, how did you, uh, how did you know I'd hurt my foot..?"

[Hazuki]

"I looked." Bibi says. "You hold it different. Edge of bandage by your ankle."

[Comissar]

Leah blinks in surprise, glancing down at her injured foot and tilting her leg to try and spot the edge of the bandage Bibi mentioned. It takes her a moment or two, but she does manage to get the right angle to show the edge of the bandage she'd used. She couldn't tell if she was holding it differently, though. She looks up to Bibi with an impressed expression, "That's, uh, that's really impressive. Umm, I don't think I'd have been able to tell that fast."

[Hazuki]

"You pick it up." The heavily-scarred woman says.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa shrugs. "Oh, well, I guess that's not bad then."

She nods at Bibi's explanation. Though she hadn't noticed too much, thinking about it now she could see Leah moved a bit differently in her memory. "I'm still figuring it out, but makes sense to me." Looking between Bibi and Ibib, she asks, "Where were you two headed? We didn't mean to pull you away from something."

[Hazuki]

"Ser Ramis needs help." Bibi says. "She doesn't know Pokemon like I do. She's paying me for it."

[Comissar]

"The knight who, uh, who wanted to talk to you when we arrived..?" Leah gives Bibi a questioning look, "I didn't think she was, uh, was looking to hire you when she took you to one side..?"

[Hazuki]

"She wasn't." Bibi glances to Leah. "But now she has."

[Comissar]

Leah nods, offering Bibi a smile, "Well, umm, I'm glad you've been able to, uh, to find some work while you're here."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa nods, glancing at Leah before she continues. "I'm glad things have worked out, too! I'd be glad to have your help if I needed it for sure." After a second, she adds, "Oh, where are you staying? Even if we don't end up going together, it'd be nice to see you before either of us leaves."

[Hazuki]

Biby shrugs her muscular shoulders. "Let me stay in the barracks last night. I'll figure it out."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa nods. "I guess you know where we are. Don't go without saying goodbye!" She smiles and points to Ibib. "And you too!"

[Hazuki]

"Okay." Bibi says. "Bye." She turns on her heel and marches down the hill, while Ibib just gives a faint wave of its tentacles.

[Comissar]

Leah gives the pair a wave as they head off, "See you later!"

She twists in the saddle a bit as they start moving again, trying to turn enough so that she could see Alyssa over her shoulder, "Do you think they've, uh, been having trouble with wild pokémon..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa offers a one-armed shrug, her other arm securely around Leah's waist. "Dunno. I hope it's nothing serious, though." After a second she says "Y'know, we didn't actually get to see any Pokemon at the beach, did we?"

[Comissar]

Leah nods, "Yeah, hopefully."

Laying a hand back over Alyssa's, she gives a shrug of her own, "Well, uh, we did get to see the Staryu?"

[Hazuki]

Ricewine soon arrives back at Parkin's house, steadily stepping up beside the door with the bags containing the pair's things facing them. When they move to take their things out of his packs, both of them notice a small green Pokemon perched on the top of a nearby bunker-like building, watching them from some conveniently-places shadows.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles at Leah's response, keeping her hand beneath Leah's. "Yeah, that's true. Maybe we can see some more some other time."

As they arrive, Alyssa gets off first and offers Leah a hand down. She makes sure to pet Ricewine before she starts unpacking things, only noticing the Pokemon in the distance once she's partway through. Putting a free hand over her eyes, she tries to get a good sense of what it looks like from here, squinting a bit to help her vision.

[Comissar]

Leah smiles, nodding at Alyssa's suggestion as she looked forward, "I'd really like that."

When they arrive back at Parkin's house, she gratefully accepts Alyssa's help again, giving her a smile and a "Thanks." as she dismounts. She also helps start to unpack, removing her belongings from one of the saddlebags, when she notices Alyssa's attention drawn off somewhere. Frowning, she turns to follow her gaze, "What is it..?"

It takes her a few moments to spot the pokémon she's looking at, and she starts trying to work out what it might be.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa goes back to unpacking her things, but she says "It looks like some kind of Grass Pokemon? I, um, don't know Pokemon names that well. It looked like it was watching us, though."

[Comissar]

Leah watches the mystery pokémon for a few more moments before turning to help finish unloading. She periodically glances back to keep an eye on the pokémon. "Yeah, umm, I'm not sure what it is either." She hesitates, giving Alyssa a questioning look, "It's probably just a wild pokémon, right..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa looks up at Leah, shrugging before she hauls things over her shoulder to carry them. "I hope so. I dunno what I would think about someone trying to watch us without saying anything." Turning back to Parkin's door, she adds, "Maybe they're watching Parkin's place? D'you think we should tell her we saw it?"

[Comissar]

Leah nods, "It can't hurt to." She glances at Alyssa's baggages, then back at her, "Umm, got everything?"

On receiving a confirmation, she turns back to Ricewine with a smile, "Umm, thankyou again. Hope to see you soon."

[Hazuki]

Ricewine grumbles at Leah, then begins to trot off.

[Comissar]

Leah gives Ricewine a small wave as the pokémon heads off, glances back up to where the mystery grass pokémon was, then moves over to Parkin's door. She hesitated a moment, then knocked a couple of times to announce their return.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa waves as Ricewine goes as well, giving Leah a happy glance before she picks up all her things and carries them towards the door. As she is also carrying some art supplies she's a bit more laden than Leah and lets her do the knocking, more focused on not falling over or dropping anything fragile.

[Hazuki]

The girls are forced to wait for several long moments before Parkin arrives and opens the other side of the door. "Hello, children." She says. She doesn't manage to get another word out, as a humming suddenly surrounds the group, and the girls fair a rush of wind against their legs. The green Pokemon rushes through their legs and into the house, passed Parkin. It darts inside, but not before the pair of them recognize it as a Lilligant. A Lilligant with a particularly small crown, who has wrapped her bangs around her face much like a thief's mask, and parts of her skirt have been tied to her legs in a way that rather resembles baggy pants. She also seems to be the source of the humming, as it fades when she runs up the ramp.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa, quick to react, shouts "Hey!" and then quickly, "Luna, you here!?" before she turns to Parkin. "That Pokemon was watching us when we got here. You know it?"

Luna, still dutifully sitting on Alyssa's bag, sits up but doesn't see Alyssa or anything so she hangs out on the bag. She does call out to Saura, if she's in the room.

[Comissar]

Leah's caught completely by surprise as the Lilligant rushes past her, nearly losing her balance as it did. "Wh- Hey!"

With Luna, Saura stirs from the nap she was taking. Blinking blearily, she looks over at Luna and, seeing the Cleffa's alertness, stretches then stands, looking around to try and work out where the source of the commotion was.

[Hazuki]

"Knotte!" Parkin yells after the sprinting Pokemon, then turns to look at Alyssa with a frown that isn't meant for her. "She's Vaster's, and she's a pain in the backside!"

Luna and Saura get to watch as an unusually dressed Lilligant hurtles into the room and bounces up on the nearby counter, where she opens a cupboard that containers a bowl of berries, and begins to stuff its contents into her "pants".

[Comissar]

Leah looks confused at Parkin's explanation. "Wait, the, uh, the woman with the book store..? Why would she send her pokémon here..?"

Saura blinks in surprise at the abrupt arrival of the Lilligant. Glancing briefly at Luna, she bounded forward to the doorway leading out of the room. While she couldn't get up to the counter without help, she could try and stop the thief on her way out. Vines ready to extend, she gave the Lilligant a warning "Bulba, saur saur."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa blinks a bit before setting her things down. "I guess you want to stop it from leaving?" After a second of digging, she pulls out her net, the handle still collapsed.

Luna, noting Saura's moves, quickly leaps up, shouting at the Lilligant in support. "Cleffa!" She carefully climbs down from Alyssa's bag and waddles over to the door, reading herself for action.

[Hazuki]

Parkin peers at Leah following her question question. "Because she's my bride, a word which here means 'Woman who agreed to marry me'. Were you not listening?"

Inside, the Lilligant finishes stuffing berries down her pants and spins around on the counter to look down at the pair. She giggles and swipes her hand through the air, sending a hail of leaves that land just in front of them and form the shape of the letter K. She skips over to another cupboard and opens it to retrieve another one of the bulging waterskins there.

[Comissar]

Leah blinks in confusion, "Wh-, umm, no, I..." Feeling herself growing flustered, she glanced briefly over to Alyssa, using her presence to try and help keep her calm. She turned back to look at Parkin again, "I-I, uh, I just meant, umm, was meaning, uh, do, uh, do you want us to just leave, uh, leave Knotte alone..?"

Saura gives the Lilligant a bemused look, not quite sure how to take its nonchalance. She glances at Luna, then back at the Lilligant, resuming her prepared stance as she readied herself to intercept the pokémon.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa puts a hand on Leah's back, giving her a supportive smile. "Parkin, should we try to catch Knotte when it leaves? Or not?"

[Hazuki]

"Well, I don't know!" Parkin huffs. "She's liable to start putting us to sleep if we get in her way."

The Lilligant hefts its booty over its shoulder and looks down to see Luna and Saura still sitting there, guarding the door. It giggles once more and begins to dance across the tabletop, with short, sharp movements that make the fruit of its crown glow.

[Comissar]

Leah gives Alyssa a grateful smile at the physical contact, feeling her nerves settle somewhat. She hesitates at Parkin's response, then asks "Well, umm, we could still try..?"

Saura continues to watch the Lilligant warily. Aware that she was just a guest in this house, she found herself unwilling to make the first aggressive move in case she ended up creating a mess.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa sighs. "Well I suppose we can just...wait here. Do you usually let Knotte do whatever?" She looks at Leah, not really sure what to say or do.

Luna, now confused by the Lilligant, waves and cries a happy "Cleffa cleffa!" at it, hoping to introduce herself and ask what the Lilligant is up to.

[Hazuki]

"No." Parkin huffs. "But she mostly listens to Vaster, and Vaster happens to think that Knotte raiding our kitchen rather than obeying regular feeding times is cute."

In the kitchen, the Lilligant doesn't seem to notice Cleffa's greeting. At least, not until she repeats her dance in its entirety again, her clown grows brighter, and she grins down at the pair as an array of leaves float in the air around her.

[Comissar]

Leah returned Alyssa's uncertain look, turning back to Parkin and asking, "So, umm... Shall we, uh, leave Knotte to you..?"

Seeing Luna relax, and the Lilligant apparently utterly unconcerned about her warnings, Saura begin to doubt if she was reacting appropriately. She relaxed her stance slightly and cautiously asked "... Saur, bulba bulb..?"

[Hazuki]

"Just come inside." Parkin says. "She doesn't steal anything valuable."

Saura is treated to the sight of the Lilligant darting forward much faster than she'd entered, easily slipping between the two Pokemon at the door and bounding into the hallway.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa returns her net to a compact size and picks up her things. "Well I'm glad it's nothing too bad." She gives Leah a reassuring look before she heads inside. "I guess, um, we should bring our things to our rooms."

Luna gives Knotte a small dance of her own, waving her fingers and turning about in place. She starts waving happily at the Lilligant as she leaves, then turns to Saura. Giving a rather convincing shrug motion, she says "Clef cleffa cleffa," hoping to relieve Saura's doubts. With the Lilligant gone, she waddles back to Alyssa's bag and readies herself on top of it for her trainer's arrival.

[Comissar]

Leah hesitates, then nods, "Umm, ok." Shouldering her bag, she follows Alyssa inside.

Saura twists in surprise as Knotte darts past her, giving a bewildered "Bulba?!"

She starts to try and chase after the Lilligant, but soon comes to a stop when she realises how much faster it is than her. She paces back into the room with Luna looking disheartened, moving to lie herself down next to the Cleffa.

[Hazuki]

Just as the girls are about to step inside, Knotte comes racing down the ramp, her pants stuffed with berries and a bulging waterskin over her shoulder. She's even quicker than she was before, as she leaps into the air, twirls, and kisses Alyssa's cheek in the split second before she continues soaring through the air and darts off down the street.

Alyssa begins to feel very drowsy.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa, taken by surprise, spins to see Knotte and is too bewildered to notice she's kissed her before the Lilligant is gone. Putting a hand to her head, she stumbles a bit, first into Leah and then into the wall nearby. "Woah, uh, m'sry." Her eyes are already closed, and she slides down the wall as she starts to lose consciousness.

[Comissar]

Leah is caught off-guard as Knotte blurs past, only realising what's happened once the Lilligant is already bounding down the street. Her head snaps back to Alyssa once she starts stumbling. "Wh-, Alyssa!"

Filled with worry, Leah steps forward to try and keep Alyssa on her feet. Trying to hook her arms under Alyssa's, she instead finds herself dragged down as well as her bad foot causes her leg to buckle under the strain. Wincing as she drops, she tries to make sure that Alyssa's head at least doesn't hit the floor. Once neither of them are falling any further, she looks up at Parkin with a helpless expression.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa ends up resting her head on Leah, asleep by the time the two of them hit the floor. She actually looks kind of peaceful, though her things are sort of strewn over the floor.

[Hazuki]

"Well." Parkin says, as she looks down at the pair of girls strewn on the floor. "Vaster certainly owes you an apology, doesn't she? Would you like me to fetch the smelling salts?" She asks, as she closess the front door.

[Comissar]

Leah nods, glancing down at Alyssa as she does, "Umm, yes, please."

She finds herself starting to redden as she looks at her friend, almost feeling like she was doing something she shouldn't be, and settles for just trying to keep her in as comfortable a position as she could.

[Hazuki]

Parkin returns within a moment, smelling salt in hand and with her Pachirisu racing around her feet. She peers down at the girls again, as she lowers the smelling salts and starts to waft towards Alyssa's face. "Why are you blushing? You're not the one sleeping on my floor."

[Comissar]

Leah feels her blush deepen at Parkin's question, instinctively glancing down at Alyssa, then quickly back up at the woman, "I-I, umm, it's, uh... It's... Complicated... Umm..." She hesitated, it wasn't like she was trying to keep a secret...

"I-I've not, uh, not had her fall asleep on, uh, on me before."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa seems to take a deep breath and opens her eyes, seeing Leah from below. She shoots up rather quickly, her face turning red as she adjusts her hair. "Oh! Um, sorry Leah, you okay?" She smiles awkwardly, looking away. "Um, thanks Parkin."

[Comissar]

Leah shifts her attention to Alyssa as she feels her weight shift off her. She gives a relieved smile and nods at Alyssa's question, "Y-yeah, just, uh, wasn't ready to try and catch you."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa shrugs. "I wasn't ready for a nap." She tries to pull her things together but after a second pulling at things decides to pick herself up first, offering Leah a hand to help bring her up. "Did I fall on your leg or anything?" Her face turns to concern as she checks Leah's leg.

[Comissar]

Leah gratefully accepts Alyssa's help up, making sure to put her weight on her good foot. She shakes her head at Alyssa's concern, giving her a smile. "N-no, don't worry about me. I landed a bit badly on it but, uh, but I'm ok."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles back to Leah. "Okay, if you say you're okay." She turns to Parkin, giving a small sigh. "So, um, where should we take our things?"

[Hazuki]

"You want a bedroom each, do you?" Parkin asks, having re-sealed the smelling salts and tucked them into her robes.

[Comissar]

Leah tucks her hair away from her eyes, nodding in response to Parkin's question. "Yeah." She hesitated, glancing briefly at Alyssa. Had she been expecting to share..?

"Umm, I think so."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa nods to Parkin, then realizes that maybe Leah thought differently and looks to her just as she's glancing at her. That makes her smile. With Leah's support she looks back up to Parkin. "Um, yeah, if it's not a big problem."

[Hazuki]

Parkin sighs. "Fine. Follow me, children." She says, and starts to lead the pair deeper into her home. They go down some stairs and find themselves in an oval-shaped hallway with sparse blue decorations, and are led to the two doors furthest from the stairs. "Choose whichever one you wish. They're functionally the same."

[Comissar]

Leah breaks into a grin at Alyssa's smile, relieved that they were thinking along the same lines. She looks a little embarrassed as Parkin sighs, following her further inside to the rooms she'd offered. On reaching the rooms, she glances between them, then moves over to the one on her left. "Umm, I guess I'll take this one..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa says, "If it's really too much, we can take one room. We don't mean to be a problem or anything," looking to Leah as they walk. Once they reach the rooms, she lets Leah speak first, nodding at her response. "I'll take the other one then."

[Hazuki]

Parkin looks between the two girls, then grabs the handles of both doors and pushes them open. Just as the legend foretold, the rooms are remarkably similar, with blue lightning-themed murals on the stone walls, a well-maintained wooden floor, a handful of lidded baskets, and a double bed at the center of each room. There's even a large cushion that one would assume is used by Pokemon.

[Comissar]

Leah glances briefly between Alyssa and Parkin before heading into the room she'd chosen. She takes a moment to look around it, then sets her belongings down on the bed in the centre. Task complete, she returns to the corridor and realises she's at a bit of a loose end. Once Alyssa's also dropped off her baggages, she looks between the pair and asks "So, uh, are you planning to start painting now..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa takes a moment to throw most of her non-fragile belongings on the double bed before recalling that Luna is still sitting on her bag in Parkin's sitting room. Still carrying the art supplies she found, she walks back out and looks to Parkin. "Well, I'd like to go get Luna first, but I'm ready to paint whenever works for you. Though...do we have to do anything about Knotte now?"

[Hazuki]

"She'll be back for dinner, and I'll have Parkin handle her." Parkin tells Alyssa. "Come. I want to be painted in my bedroom." She says, as she strides down the hall.

[Comissar]

Leah hesitates as Parkin heads off down the corridor. She gave Alyssa an awkward smile, "I guess, uh, I guess I'll catch up with you later, then..?" She glances down the corridor again, "Umm, can you send Saura down here? I'm just going to read in my room for a bit, I think."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa shrugs. Turning back to Leah, she nods and gives a smile. "Yeah, I'll tell Luna to bring Saura when I find them again. See you again when I'm done for the day!" She shifts a few things in her hands so she can give Leah a one-armed hug and then heads after Parkin, hustling a bit to catch up to her but slowing down to her pace as she makes it.

[Comissar]

Leah returns Alyssa's hug, a grin on her face as she does, then gives her a small wave as she heads off. She stands watching her go for a moment, then turns and heads into her room. Sitting on the bed, she starts rifling through her bag. Coming across the bandages provided by Bibi, she sets them down on the blanket beside her. "I'll do that before I go to bed..."

Tucked just underneath, she finds the book gifted to her by Vaster. Curious to see what stories it held, she scooted herself back to sit with her knees up and back against the head of the bed and started to read.

[Hazuki]

When Alyssa enters Parkin's room, she learns that it's not too different from her room - save that the bed is bigger, there's roughly twice the amount of containers, and shelves stuffed with knickknacks. Parkin removes a couple of the glowdust lanterns and packs them away, then hangs one above a particularly comfy chair. She sits in it, surrounded by a corona of light, and takes an austere pose.

~

True to Vaster's words, the book Leah reads contains a number of stories about people who've come to possess powers similar to Pokemon. They're from all over Londo, and it's easy to spot a trend of where particular elementalists come from. Electric types are often from Thundercrag, Fairy and Ice from Vibrost, Rock from Parmez. Almost all of them feature combat in some form, with many of the heroes of the tales being Knights themselves. A few of particular note are one that features a Parmez Rock Elementalist, who served as a shield for an advancing army; no arrow or blast could pierce his stony shell, but he met a tragic end when the bridge they marched over collapsed - and pulled the ground out from under him. Another features a Dark Elementalist from Diwyneb, who fell to the great beasts that lurk in the forest, but whose shadow lived on, latching onto and influencing her slayers in defense of Diwyneb town. Yet another is about a Bug Elementalist who, upon being betrayed by her closest allies, dissipated into a swarm of Bug Pokemon that captured and tormented all inhabitants of her home castle.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa takes a second to set up an easel and all her paints, giving Parkin time to rearrange things and get into a position she likes. Once it seems like Parkin is all set, Alyssa finishes up her preparations and takes a moment to mix a few colors together before she starts. "Did you have any requests, or would you like me to just do what I do? Just your face or bust or whole body?" She looks to Parkin, though she's still putting some of the colors of paint together and getting a feel for the brush Vaster gave her.

[Hazuki]

"Do whatever you would normally do, but ensure that I look aristocratic." Parkin instructs, without changing her pose. "Aristocratic is a word which here means like people should do what I tell them to."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa nods, opting not to respond to Parkin's comment with anything more than that. She sets to work, outlining her figure and position, stopping at a few points to mark something on her sketchpad on the side. While she's filling in some space, she asks, "So, um, if you don't mind me asking, how did you and Vaster meet?"

[Hazuki]

"She attempted to rob me." Parkin answers, managing to hold her pose quite well. "While I was briefly separated from the rest of my traveling companions. But a brigand who doesn't stab you on sight, and proclaims to need money while owning a fancy sword, is one who isn't really committed to the endeavor. So, I simply stalled until she was distracted and tackled her to the ground. I'd like to tell you that I thoroughly thrashed her, but then I'd be a liar. There was a lot of punching and kicking and grabbing and biting, and our grunts attracted a much more committed assailant. A Pangoro, no less. I was preparing to flee when a Pokemon burst out of Vaster's pack."

"Now, you might not think it from the size of them, but a Flabebe is particularly vexing foe for Pangoro. It was swiftly driven away, and naturally I wondered why she didn't simply summon the Pokemon to defeat me. It turned out that she'd rather been enjoying our tussle - aside from the biting that she claims was one-sided - and didn't want to stop it before she'd had her fill. I slapped her for being a deviant and went on my way. As you may have realized, Vaster is quite the fan of storybooks, and many of them feature the trend of grand romantic gestures. It just so happened that the following day, in the following town, was a love festival."

"Since my companions had yet to catch up with me, and I was bored, I agreed to take part in the festivities with Vaster. It was reasonably entertaining, though she utterly failed in the apple-bobbing contest, so I decided to accept her proposal of a relationship after that."

[Comissar]

Leah quietly enjoys reading her book, finding herself wondering how much of the stories are grounded in reality. One thing she was surprised at was how dark many of the tales were, with practically all of them seeming to end in the death of the subject of the story. Shifting to a more comfortable position, she made a mental note to ask Alyssa if all traditional Londo stories carried a similar tone to them.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa takes the time as Parkin tells her story to work on the painting, filling in a lot of the base colors and working on developing some of the details. At a few moments she jots down a few notes or looks to Parkin and nods, but she never takes more than a few seconds away from her painting. "Wow, so quite the love story. That's really sweet! So, um, how did you two end up in Thundercrag?"

[Hazuki]

"I come from Thundercrag, I wanted to continue to live in Thundercrag, and it was obvious that Lady Thundercrag was going to have a close relationship with the foreigners." Parkin explains. "Considering Vaster's condition, that seemed promising."

[tgva8889]

"Condition?" Alyssa does look at Parkin at that, but she doesn't stop filling in paint.

[Hazuki]

"She has a hook for a hand. She's a hook-handed woman." Parkin says, with a tone of annoyance. "You children seem utterly averse to paying attention."

[Comissar]

After a while of reading, Leah sets the book down. While the stories were interesting, she was starting to pick up on repeating themes and, rather than grow sick of them, it seemed like it'd be better to simply take them in small doses. Given she hadn't heard Alyssa coming back yet, she guessed she probably still had a while to herself. While she contemplated what to do, her eyes fell on Sable's pokéball. She felt a bit of a pang of guilt as she looked at it. After a moment's contemplation, she pressed the button to release the ghost pokémon.

Sable materialised in front of her, looking around with his gem-like eyes as he took in his surroundings. Leah scooted forward a little as he did, "Umm, hey."

Sable turned toward her, giving her a look up and down. "Eye."

Leah hesitated, rubbing behind her neck, "So, umm, I want to try and patch things up between us. Umm, I know I've not been... Great at being your trainer. Umm, the truth is, I've only ever had Saura until I, uh, I caught you." She glanced at Sable, the ghost pokémon watching her carefully, "I've, uh, I've been asked to look at a fossil. Umm, I know you eat rocks, but you're not allowed to eat this one. If you can promise you won't, I can show you the tools I've been using to work on it and, uh, and how to work on fossils..?"

Sable gave her a questioning look, a lack of comprehension obvious on his face. "So, uh, the tools are kinda technical and, umm, I thought you might find them interesting..? I remember you had that hoard back in Sorland..."

Leah leant over to her bag, digging around until she found her hand held drills and tools. She hesitated again a moment, then held them out so that Sable could inspect them. "So, umm, they work on fairly basic principles..."

After a short while of explanation, Sable came over to take one from her, turning it over in his hands while Leah reiterated her explanation to him.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa offers a shrug. "I just don't think of it that way, I guess. 'Condition' seems so much worse to me." She goes back to painting for a second to give Parkin a moment to respond, but ends up asking, "So, um, how did you and Pachirisu meet?"

[Hazuki]

"You think losing a hand doesn't leave you in poor condition? I dread to think what horrors you'd inflict were you a Knight." Parkin huffs. "You're referring to Seju? A Pachirisu Gijinka Girl in Lancer Town gave him to me, after I bested her in a game of trivia."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa decides to just let the matter drop and goes on with her painting. "Did you spend a lot of time in Lancer?" She takes a bit of time to paint and listen before asking, "Oh, what inspired you to make the blue spice? It was really good!"

[Hazuki]

"I've spent a lot of time in a lot of places." Parkin answers. "And I have some interest in unique things. Finding them is well and good, and I wanted to try making one. So I did."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa seems to focus on the painting, so it takes a moment before she responds. "I've thought a bunch about that. It's part of why I started this work. There's something special to making something your own, right?" She makes a bit of a flourish behind the canvas for emphasis, carefully as to not ruin the work she's done. After a second, she asks, "Where was the place you went that you think meant the most to you? Besides here, I mean."

[Hazuki]

"Why are you asking all of these questions, child?" Parkin asks, without shifting her gaze to look at Alyssa. "Your jaw will start to ache soon."

[tgva8889]

"Well, in order to make a good portrait, I want to make sure I show all the best parts of you. And I need to know what they all are before I can do that. So partly just because I wanna know, and partly because it helps me make this the best it can be." She pulls her seat back so she's more in view and looks towards Parkin. "If you don't want to answer anything, that's okay. But I want to make sure I capture every part of you so I can make a portrait that really shows you in your best." Squinting, she pulls in and adds a few small touches. "If I do things right, I can get a picture of you sitting still that makes it seem like you're alive." With that she pulls her seat back once more and stands up. "I wanna do the best I can, so it might take a week or so to finish. You won't have to sit for me the whole time, but maybe two or three more times just to make sure I get everything I need. Is that okay?"

[Hazuki]

"...I suppose." Parkin says.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles. "You're a complex person with a lot to you. I wouldn't want to leave anything out. And that's a compliment, I've done some work that wasn't really great because the people weren't really anything special." Tilting her head a bit, she spends a moment examining her work, screwing her face in concentration and squinting a few times. Once or twice she makes a small number of strokes on the canvas. "If it bothers you I can ask less, though." She looks to Parkin with a smile again. "I think I'm done for today. I would want to do some work on my own just adding small bits so you wouldn't have to sit there if you don't want to."

[Comissar]

After spending a while talking with Sable about her tools, Leah found herself glancing toward the room door and wondering if Saura actually knew where she was. Sable's attention appeared to be drifting too, and he was beginning to explore her room with a glint in his eye. Feeling a little concerned that he might start to pick the room apart in search of treasures, Leah pulled her pokéball out. "Ok, I'm, uh, I'm going to see if I can find Saura. I'll let you come out again once I'm doing some more fossil work, ok?"

Turning to look at her with his gem-like eyes, Sable gave her a nod, then vanished in a flash of red light as he was recalled into Leah's pokéball. Stowing it away, she pushed herself gingerly to her feet, then headed back out into the corridors. She hesitated a moment as she tried to remember the route through the unfamiliar building, then headed back toward the living room.

[Hazuki]

Leah finds herself back in the living room, where it seems Saura and Luna still are. The Pachirisu is nowhere to be seen.

~

"That's acceptable." Parkin tells Alyssa.

[Comissar]

Leah smiles as she finds the two pokémon. Saura looked as though she was snoozing, curled up on one of the chairs beside Luna. She couldn't quite tell if Luna was dozing to, but rather than disturb the pair, she quietly sat herself down in one of the free chairs. With nothing else to do, and feeling it might be rude to explore a house she was a guest in, she just enjoyed the quiet. After a few moments, she idly pulled out her pokégear. She broke out into a grin as she opened up the camera and flicked through the photos taken down at the beach in the morning.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles. "Well I'll get out of your hair then. Same time tomorrow work for you?" She waits for Parkin to answer (or at least indicate some answer) before she cleans her materials enough to carry everything, canvas and all, out of the room. It takes her a bit carrying so many things, but she makes it back to her own room and sets everything back up as it was.

She spends a little while in her own room fixing small mistakes, filling in some small areas, and doing a lot of small details that don't need to be done while examining Parkin's features in detail before she realizes that she hasn't seen Luna at all. Her work mostly done, she opts to clean off everything for the day and head out to the living room, hoping Luna was still there.

[Comissar]

Leah glances up when Alyssa enters the room, flipping her pokégear closed as she broke into a smile. "Hey. Umm, are you done already?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa gives Leah a passing smile, slipping by her to pick up a snoozing Luna and her bag. It takes a bit of care, but she eventually extracts the Cleffa without disturbing Saura at all."For today. It's gonna take a while to finish, I think. Wanna do it right, since Parkin was nice enough to let us stay here." Turning back to Leah, she turns calm and gives a genuine smile. "You doing okay? Sorry I'm gonna be busy for a while."

[Comissar]

Leah nods at Alyssa's explanation, shifting in her seat so that she was facing her more fully. "Yeah, that makes sense..." She shakes her head as Alyssa expresses her concern, "Oh, no, it's fine, don't worry. Umm, I don't mind leaving you to, uh, to your work." Tilting her head a little, a note of concern entered Leah's voice, "Umm, are you ok..? You, uh, you sound a little tired..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa sits down next to Leah's chair and puts her head on her leg. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just tired. I think maybe I'm still sleepy from the sleep powder." She yawns and starts to close her eyes but shakes herself just before. Picking her head up, she rubs her cheeks with her hands. "Bwah. Long day."

[Comissar]

Leah relaxes as Alyssa allays her concerns. She smiles softly as Alyssa props herself up against her leg and nods, glancing down then back up at her "Yeah, umm, long day. But, uhh, but a good one."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa looks up at Leah and beams. "Yeah, really good." Finding this position somewhat uncomfortable, she grabs a chair and brings it over, leaning her head on Leah's shoulder instead of her leg. "How's your foot doing?" Her eyes are closed but she makes a motion to look at Leah awkwardly as she asks.

[Comissar]

Leah breaks into a broader grin as Alyssa affirms her comment. She shifts a little as Alyssa moves away, watching her as she goes to bring over a chair. She shuffles in her own chair so that she can rest her head against the top of Alyssa's. She glances down at her foot at Alyssa's prompting, "Umm, it aches a bit." She admitted, "I've not put Bibi's bandage on yet so, uh, maybe that'll help it heal a bit faster?" She gives a one shouldered shrug, careful not to dislodge Alyssa as she did, "It isn't too bad, though. I can just make sure I don't move too much for a while..."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa stifles a giggle when Leah rests on her, just smiling dumbly instead. She doesn't seem happy at Leah's description of her food, but she knows there's not much to do so she just sighs. "As long as you're taking care of it." For a second she just enjoys the company, but she asks, "How was the book? I guess I forget you wouldn't know those stories." She shifts a bit, but settles after a second.

[Comissar]

Leah hesitates before answering, trying to think how best to describe the book. "It's... Really interesting, actually." She adjusts her position a little, reaching up to move some hair away from her eyes, "It seems like there's, uh, a lot of danger in the stories..? Like, there's the one about the rock elementalist? From Parmez?" She pauses a moment for a confirmation, uncertain of how familiar Alyssa was with the stories, "Umm, he always seemed to be off fighting, and then he gets killed? I mean, it's really dark and, uh, a lot of the other stories I read seemed similar. It's, uh, it's totally different to what I grew up with."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa notices Leah's hesitation and sits up a bit to look at her. Nodding her head, she gives a small hum of agreement. "Yeah, they can be a bit dark. Some of them are a bit more about warning kids or making them afraid of danger. We had a lot of fighting here in the past, so stories sometimes just have a lot of fighting." She rests her head back on Leah's shoulder. "I haven't read them in a long time so I'm not sure if they're as good as I remember, but I did like them a lot when I was a kid. Harder to find adventure when you aren't allowed to go too far."

[Comissar]

Leah shifts to allow Alyssa to lift her head, before settling back into the same position after Alyssa lies her own head back down again. She's quiet for a few moments, before softly commenting "I keep forgetting there was fighting here not that long ago... It all seems peaceful now..."

She pauses for a long moment, trying to decide if she wanted to ask her next question. Eventually, she broke the silence, "... You, uh, you'd have been quite young when it was still going on, right..? Umm, you don't have to answer but, uh, do you remember any of it?"

[tgva8889]

Content with the quiet company, Alyssa doesn't say anything until Leah asks her question. It takes her a little while to think, but she responds after a moment of silence. "I, um, I remember some. My brother's a knight, so sometimes he'd go away for a little while and I wouldn't know if he'd come back." After a second of pause she quickly jumps in, desperately trying to fill the empty space. "Oh, no, he's fine, but, um. Yeah. I learned to look after aches and pains because he was always tired after coming home from war and I always wanted to help him. When things were peaceful, I liked it because he was around but I never asked him how he felt about it." She stops for a second, her mind working over something she'd never really thought of. "I wonder if he was...bored. He spent a lot of time training with his Pokemon and trying to go for the League, but I never really wondered why he cared so much when there wasn't much fighting."

[Comissar]

Leah lets out a relieved sigh as Alyssa confirms her brother had made it through the fighting in one piece. She listened with interest at her description, trying to put together a picture of what he might be like. After a short silence, she asks "Do you know if he started the league challenge..?" Her voice betrays her interest, almost holding a note of hopefulness, "Maybe we'll end up running into him if he did."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa shrugs on just the side opposite Leah. "I dunno. I don't think he left before I went to Lancer Town. Unless he left without telling me. We didn't, um, talk much, so... Um, I was still, um..." She trails off, taking a deep breath to keep herself from tensing up too much. "Dealing with the, um. Thing." Her breaths become both loud and regular and she grabs Leah's hand tightly.

[Comissar]

Leah feels a pit of guilt open in her chest as Alyssa grabs her hand. She returns the tight grip, doing her best to let her know that she was right with her. "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn'tve..." She lifts her head, looking at Alyssa with worry written across her face, "A-are you ok? I didn't want to... I-I'm right here with you..."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa pulls her head up when she feels Leah move hers. She offers a rather weak smile, still trying really hard to put on a face. "It's okay. I know. I, um, just need...a minute. Or, um, a bit longer. Wow, my heart is beating fast." Her eyes dart around a bit and fall back on Leah again. Trying again, she puts up her smile but it's not super convincing. She grasps Leah's hand with both her hands and turns toward her all the way. "I know you didn't, um, mean anything. Nothing's gonna hurt me. Just a memory."

[Comissar]

Leah gives a hesitant nod, twisting in her chair so that she was facing Alyssa properly. "U-umm, ok. Umm, sorry..."

She sits quietly for a moment, eyes on Alyssa as she tried to work out what to say to try and make her feel better. She gives her a nervous smile as she realises nothing is coming to mind, and instead she tries to think of what she'd done in the past to help. Hesitantly, she pulled her hand free of Alyssa's and leaned across the gap between their chairs, then pulled Alyssa into a hug.

[tgva8889]

Leah's comment makes Alyssa smile again. "It's okay. I know you didn't mean anything." She seems surprised when Leah pulls her hand free, but then suddenly they're hugging and Alyssa closes her eyes, trying to settle into the moment. Her breathing is steady but still forcibly so. "Thanks, Leah." The position is actually really nice, and Alyssa tries to hold it for a while, concentrating on the closeness and her own heartbeat pumping loudly in her ears. At some point she's not sure whether it's from nerves or from the fear still running through her.

Luna, who has been roused by movement, notices the two girls hugging and hugs Alyssa's ankle. The movement makes Alyssa look down at her and give her a wink.

[Comissar]

Leah finds herself hoping that she hadn't overstepped any boundaries by going for a hug. Her worries are pre-emptively stopped as Alyssa thanks her. Giving a soft squeeze of her arms in response, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment. When she feels Alyssa shift, Leah pulls back a little, following her gaze down to see Luna at Alyssa's ankles. She grins at the sight. Releasing one of her arms from around Alyssa so that she can tuck her hair away from her eyes, she finds her cheeks heating as she said "Hey Luna, umm, have a good rest..?"

A little way across the room, Saura begins to stir from her own doze.

[tgva8889]

Luna looks up and gives Leah a small wave. She nods and gives a happy "Cleffa!"

Alyssa smiles and breaks away from the hug to pick up Luna. "Sorry I forgot to get you! There was a bunch of stuff happening and, um, other things on my mind." She looks at Leah and blushes a bit. Luna notices this and cheers happily, which makes Alyssa laugh. "Thanks Luna."

[Comissar]

Leah shuffles back into her chair as Alyssa breaks free of the hug. She catches Alyssa's look and feels herself turning red at her comment to Luna, then breaking into a grin at the Cleffa's enthusiasm and Alyssa's laughter. The noise is enough to fully rouse Saura, the Bulbasaur blinking blearily as she looked around to get her bearings. Seeing her friends all together in two chairs, she made her way over to Leah. Seeing the pair of trainers blushing, she gave a quizzical "Saur... Bulba bulb, saur?"

Leah leaned down to give Saura a rub behind her neck, giving her a smile as she did, "Hey Saura. Umm..." She glances over at Alyssa, reddening again as she grins at her, then looks back down at Saura, "Hope you, uh, didn't get too bored. Umm, we were just talking. Didn't want to wake you."

[tgva8889]

Luna starts excitedly pointing at Leah and Alyssa and crying to Saura, her excitement overflowing."Cleffa cleffa cleffa!" Alyssa puts Luna down next to Saura and offers Saura the option of pets and scratches. "Sorry we woke you, Saura!" She blushes as she catches Leah looking at her and doing the same. Taking Leah's hand in hers, she smiles. Luna gestures for Saura to come with her and sit a bit far away to give Alyssa and Leah some privacy.

Once Luna and Saura are able to converse, Luna explains that yes, Alyssa and Leah finally confessed their feelings and everything is fantastic.

[Comissar]

Saura gratefully accepts the offered petting from Alyssa, then follows after Luna once the two trainers turn their attention back to one another. She listens to Luna's enthusiastic explanation with a broadening grin, glancing back at the two girls periodically. Once the Cleffa had finished, she responds with a pleased "Saur, Bulbasaur."

Leah returns Alyssa's smile with one of her own as her hand is taken, sitting up straight again. She watches as their pokémon move away and begin an animated conversation, giving a brief giggle as they did, "Luna seems very excited." She twists in her chair and turns her attention back to Alyssa, giving her hand a soft squeeze as she looked at her. Her blush deepens, and she glances down with a smile, "... I know I've, uh, I've kind of already said it, but, uh... I've... I've really enjoyed today..."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles as Luna and Saura move away. "Yeah, um, I think...they knew before we did?" She looks at Leah as she squeezes her hand, catching her blush. Her face turns a bit to concern as Leah looks down, but once she starts speaking Alyssa smiles. Leaning down to look at Leah, she smiles. "Me too. I'm, um, really happy, really. I just wanted to make friends, I didn't think I'd, um, meet you. But I'm really glad." Blushing a bit, she squeezes Leah's hand back, using her other hand to push a strand of Leah's hair behind her ear. "I really wanna know you. I mean, um, get to know you more. And just be with you. And, um, what's important to you. You matter to me, I mean. And I want you to know me too."

[Comissar]

Leah looks up again as Alyssa tucks her hair out of the way, feeling intensely aware of her proximity. She feels a strong tugging in her chest at Alyssa's words, but finds herself just dumbly nodding in response, unable to get any words out through the knot in her throat. Her smile turns apologetic as she glances down, then back up. Feeling her heart fluttering, she hesitantly leaned in a bit closer, pausing just a short distance from her. Giving Alyssa a final nervous look, she closed her eyes and leaned in to kiss her.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa notices Leah's smile change and concern appears on her face. She is about to say something but Leah then leans in. Smiling, Alyssa leans in too, closing her eyes and moving for a kiss. She slightly misses, kissing Leah mostly on the left side of her mouth. Realizing her mistake soon after they touch, she pulls back and puts her hands to her face. "Oh, I'm sorry, I think I, um, I think I missed. Can I, um, I mean, can we try again?." Taking a second to breathe, she leans in again, the benefit of experience helping her to more properly land a kiss this second time.

[Comissar]

Leah pulls back a little as Alyssa does, giving her a worried look. At her comment, she breaks into a grin. Caught up as she was in the moment, she'd barely noticed it hadn't quite been right. She gave a small nod and a "Y-yeah", before leaning back in for the second attempt. Her heart hammers in her chest throughout, and when she eventually breaks away again she finds herself feeling breathless. She gives Alyssa a giddy grin, reaching out to take her hand again. Feeling a bit foolish, she said "Th-thanks..."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa nods at Leah's response before she goes back in. She's much better the second time, almost perfect, and keeps contact for a decent while. Everything else drops away for her in the moment, just feeling her and Leah and her heart beating. When they pull apart, she takes Leah's outstretched hand, smiling really broadly. "Thank you. I, um, I never would have, I mean, I never have. I mean...you know what I mean." Not really sure what to do with herself, she smiles and tries not to babble, drawing circles on the back of Leah's hand with her thumb. "You, um, okay? Because my heart is going really fast and, um."

[Comissar]

Leah nods, giving a soft laugh, "Y-yeah, umm, it was, uh, I've never, either."

She grins, glancing down at their held hands. At Alyssa's question, she nods, taking a few moments before looking back up again with a smile on her face. "Y-yeah, I'm good, uh, great, even." She squeezes gently on Alyssa's hand, "U-umm, it, uh, it feels like my chest is, uh, is going to burst."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa smiles. "Good, I'm glad you're good." She points a finger at where Leah's heart would be. "Don't do anything to Leah! Well, don't do anything bad." She returns Leah's squeeze. "Me too, though. I've never, um, felt like this before."

[Comissar]

Giving Alyssa a quizzical look, Leah found herself laughing again as her heart was warned not to cause her any trouble. She shook her head at Alyssa's comment, "Yeah, uh, me either." She idly looks down at their hands again, grinning again, "It's, uh, it's funny... We're, uh, we're not really doing anything but, uh, but I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing..."

[Hazuki]

TIME PASSES.

Alyssa continues to work on her painting of Parkin, which proves to be going quite well and even earns a few words of appreciation from Vaster. When she's present, that is, which is mostly in the morning and the evening. In these times, Parkin is noticeably more pleasant to be around, and Vaster is more than happy to tell tales when everyone's around. Even Lokke returns, quite happily running and bouncing around the house like nothing had ever happened. Seju is also more active around her, including getting involved with chases and faux-duels when no humans are around. When Leah puts Bibi's bandages on, she's immediately soothed, and by the time two days are gone, her wound has almost entirely healed.

It's the fourth day of their residence in Parkin's home, the third morning, and Leah can probably get around without the aid of a Mudsdale. The night before, Vaster came home with talk of Ser Ramisu and further piles of ashes being found around the lightning towers, with much greater frequency. It's morning, after breakfast, and Vaster has recently left. It's as Leah and Alyssa sit in the dining room that there's a knock at the door, and Parkin departs to answer it. Three voices can be heard in the hall, one unfamiliar, one Parkin's, and one that Leah recognizes.

"Serah Parkin!"

"Aunt."

"Children? What are you doing here?"

"I don't know what she's here for. Mother told me to come."

"I'm Maddy. And thank you!" There's a pause. "You're looking lovely this morning, Serah Parkin."

"Thank you, Maddy. Well, I suppose you both can come in." There's a shuffling of feet, the door closing, then the sounds rapidly approach the dining room. Parkin walks through, followed by a foursome of folks.

The first is the girl Leah recognizes from Bastille Manor, her blonde hair held high and graceful, though she's now dressed in a simpler umanori hakama with a sleeveless top. Beside her is a Mareep with particularly large ears and a stubby tail.

The second is apparently a girl with dark skin, dark eyes, and dark hair that is long save for one side - where it is shaved. She is narrow everywhere but her hips, and wears an elegant, tight-fitting yukata that's cast in pale blue with a pattern of yellow and white ripples. A small Pachirisu sits on her shoulder, its tail looped around the back of her neck like a scarf.

"Children, these are Clayr and Maddy." Parkin gestures to each of them. "Clayr is my niece, and Maddy is one of the local boys." The girls are both reminded of Lord Vibrost. "Other children, these are Leah and Alyssa. Alyssa is an artist and Leah is a fossil expert."

"Hello." Clayr says it like the syllables takes too much effort, as she places a small tray of cakes on the table.

"It's nice to meet you." Maddy smiles at the pair and bows. "How has your morning been?"

[Comissar]

Leah spends the next couple of days largely keeping her own company. She found herself enjoying the mornings, when the house is full of life and activity, and looking forward to the evenings when she got to spend some time with Alyssa. The days, by contrast, felt inordinately long. With Alyssa busy painting, and Vaster out of the house selling her wares, Leah found herself spending most of her time indoors. Though her foot was healing, in large part thanks to the bandages provided by Bibi, she still found she couldn't walk for any extended amount of time over the first couple of days. Vaster's news of the mysterious ashes around the lightning towers caught her curiosity, and she made a mental note to try and find Bibi and ask her about it once she was leaving the house more often.

_______________________

Leah glanced up as the door's knocked upon. In the few days they'd been here, there hadn't really been much in the way of visitors and, when the voices drifted down the hall, she found herself frowning at the familiarity of one of them. Fighting the urge to go and take a look, she felt almost relieved when the mystery pair were invited inside. As Parkin brings them around the corner, she frowns softly for a moment as she tries to work out where she recognises Clayr from, not paying as much attention to Maddy. Once Parkin introduces her, recognition sets in and she feels her heart sink in her chest.

She gives the pair an uncomfortable smile and a bob of her head as she replies, "Umm, hi. It's, uh, it's been good so far, umm, thankyou." She hesitates, feeling like she should add more, "... And, uh, and yours..?"

[Hazuki]

"It's been lovely, thank you." Maddy smiles. "I hope I'm not interrupting breakfast or anything...?" He looks between the pair and Parkin.

"Nonsense. You'd be welcome even if it were." Parkin says, then looks to Leah and Alyssa. "Children, I'm going to be helping Maddy with his beauty treatment. I know such things aren't particularly important to you, but it's vital that I maintain focus. Kindly endeavor to be quiet - and don't leave any windows open for Lokke, or poor Maddy here may well lose an eye."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa does spent a lot of time working on the painting. She does take some time away to spend with Leah, but for the most part she's busy busy busy. A lot of her time off she's not very receptive, her mind sometimes drifting into her sketchbook where she puts a lot of different ideas together trying to make sure she gets every element of the painting right.

Meals are among the few times where she forces herself not to think about painting. Instead she takes the time to be present with food and Leah. Or, at least, she would if not for visitors. She glances up at the noise, too, though she goes back to Leah once she notices her unease. She is about to ask her about it when the noises start moving upstairs and she decides to wait on it. The introductions put Alyssa on her best behavior and she is quick to politely bow her head, though she doesn't have much to say too quickly.

She nods in agreement with Leah. "Yeah, um, nice to meet you!" At Maddy's question, she shakes her head. "No, um, we were mostly done actually." She nods at Parkin's instructions. "We'll try."

[Comissar]

Leah pulls her attention away from Clayr and gives Parkin a nod. "Yes, uh, of course." She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, glancing between Clayr and Maddy. Feeling she ought to say something, and figuring Maddy might want to go off with Parkin, she turned to Clayr "Umm, so, uh, so what brings you here..?"

[Hazuki]

"My mother told me to visit my aunt, with cakes." Clayr gestures to the nearby tray. "And here I am." She pauses and narrows her eyes. "Do i know you from somewhere?"

[Comissar]

Leah hesitates, caught between a desire to not be recognised and the knowledge that sooner or later she probably would be. "U-umm, we, uh, we ran into, uh, each other briefly at, uh, at Bastille Manor." She winced internally at her choice of words, "We, uh, we didn't really talk, though..."

[Hazuki]

Clayr watches Leah for a few more moments. "Wait - were you the one who collapsed?" She asks, as her Mareep wanders up and rubs against Leah's leg. She can feel the hair on her arms start to rise.

[Comissar]

Leah feels her ears heating as her hair began to rise from the static. She nods, "U-umm, yes..."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa looks between Clayr and Leah as they converse, giving Leah a supportive look. She smiles at the Mareep, offering pats on its head (though not on the wool directly).

When Leah brings up collapsing, Alyssa starts to say something, but notices Leah's nerves and instead puts a hand on her arm and gives Leah her support as best she can. Feeling a bit of the static pass through her, she tries to get Mareep to move a bit away from Leah with some offers of rubs.

[Hazuki]

"That was weird." Clayr says, as the Mareep shifts away from Leah so that it can collect rubs from Alyssa.

[Comissar]

Leah glanced at Alyssa as she felt her lay her hand on her, giving her a grateful, if brief, smile. She hesitates, then gives Clayr a nod, even as she felt her hairs gradually fall back down as the Mareep moved away from her. "I-I was, uh, I was having a, uh, a stressful morning..."

[Hazuki]

"Yeah. Well, it happens." Clayr says. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to prepare the equipment. No rough-housing while I'm away." Parkin announces to the room, then departs through the nearest door. Maddy silently taps his fingers together beside the door.

[Comissar]

Leah feels some of the tension leave her as Clayr dismisses the awkwardness of their first run in. She glances at Alyssa again as she's asked why they're in Thundercrag, finding herself breaking into a soft smile as she did, her thoughts going back to when she and Alyssa had first met. "Umm, well, Lord Bastille wanted to, uh, to sponsor Alyssa to travel Londo," She turns her attention back to Clayr, "And, uh, and he asked me to travel too. Umm, he, uh, he gave me a fossil to examine and sent the tools to, uh, to Lady Thundercrag."

She hesitated, realising that Maddy was being left out of the conversation. Turning her attention to him, she asked, "Umm, Parkin said you, uh, you live locally..?"

[Hazuki]

"You're being sponsored by Lord Bastille?" Clayr's eyes triple in size.

"Yes, I do." Maddy's face lights up. "Thundercrag born and bred, that's me. How about you?"

[Comissar]

Leah smiled at Maddy's enthusiasm, leaving Alyssa to answer Clayr's question, "I'm, uh, I'm from Kanto originally. I moved to Londo a few years back, umm, over in Sorland Town. I'd not left Sorland until, uh, until I went over to Bastille Town."

[Hazuki]

"I've heard so many good things about Kanto!" Maddy says. "There are some similarities between some of our fashion and some of the traditional ones in Kanto and Johto. Like the Kimono Girls?"

[Comissar]

Leah gives an affirmative nod, "Yeah, umm, I think probably more similar to Johto than Kanto. Johto is generally more traditional than Kanto is. But, umm, some of your traditions here remind of places like Lavender Town." She shifts in her seat a little, brushing her hair away from her face as she continues, "I never saw the Kimono Girls in person but, umm, they sometimes made TV appearances. They always looked really cute."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa looks up from the Mareep as she's mentioned, catching Leah's explanation in time to nod in agreement. She nods at Clayr's question. "Yeah. I was, um, his artist in the court. There was something that happened, so we thought it'd be better for me to take some time away while things were, um, figured out." She leaves a lot out, careful to be a bit vague in case Clayr doesn't know too much about what happened. "I worked for him for a little while."

She pops in to Leah and Maddy's conversation. "We did get to see a little bit from one of their students! It was really awesome!"

[Hazuki]

"You were his court artist?!" Clayr asks, her eyes now fixed on Alyssa.

"You hung out with a Kimono Girl student?!" Maddy asks, his eyes flicking between the pair.

[Comissar]

Leah gives an embarrassed grin, rubbing behind her neck, "Umm, yeah, we, uh, we did. She did a performance for us. Umm, like Alyssa said it, uh, it was really good! Umm, I guess we can point her your way next time we, uh, we run into her..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa's cheeks turn a bit red as she nods to Clayr. "Yeah, um, for a while. He wasn't much of an artist but he really wanted his daughter to see some of it so I helped her learn to paint and appreciate art." She glances at Leah a few times and tries to hide her feelings on the situation best she can.

[Hazuki]

"Please do. That would be wonderful." Maddy bobs his head. "I always make sure to see any troupes that visit, but Johtoan ones haven't made their way here."


"How did you catch his eye? Familial connections?" Clayr asks, in the tone of somebody who doesn't want to let on they're annoyed by something.

[Comissar]

Leah smiles again, "I'm sure they will, with time. Have you, uh, have you thought of travelling over to Johto? Not necessarily right now but, uh, but in the future..?"

[tgva8889]

Alyssa catches the tone in Clayr's voice and takes a moment to think. "I, um, got along with his daughter, which I think he thought would be really important. I think he wanted someone like that more than he wanted a court painter, so it was less about how good I was as an artist and more how much his daughter liked me?" Now that Clayr has mentioned it, she's not sure if Lord Bastille knew who she was related to.

[Hazuki]

"Oh...I don't know if I could leave." Maddy laughs. "Especially to somewhere so far away. But it would be nice..."

"I suppose it must have been nice for you." Clayr says. "And he's paying you to travel?"

[Comissar]

Leah grins and gives a shrug, "Well... Johto's not going anywhere and, uh, and from what you've said, I think you would really like it. I think you should at least consider it."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa nods. "I didn't do as much actual, um, art as I wanted. Or really get as much, um, notice. Mostly I got to know Macha, but I didn't get much else special besides that. To be honest, the court painter from home probably did better." She shrugs at Clayr's second comment, not really able to come up with a way to spin that."Um, I guess."

[Hazuki]

"I will, thank you." Maddy nods his head. "Is there anywhere you've really wanted to visit? Somewhere with a lot of fossils?"

"You must feel proud." Clayr tells Alyssa.

[Comissar]

Leah goes quiet a moment as she ponders her options. "Well... There's a few famous sites around the world I'd love to visit some time, but, uh..." She gives a sheepish grin, "I've not really got a way to go and visit them right now. But, uh, the reason they're famous is because they're already well known. And, uh, that means that there tends not to be many fossils left to find. Even if you do, a lot of the places expect you to hand them in when you do find them." She tucks a strand of hair away from her face as she frowns, "There's not really much research done on Londo fossils. Umm, Lord Bastille said the one he gave to me to look at was, uh, was from up near Vibrost..?" Leah looked back over at Maddy, uncertain as to how common fossils from Vibrost were, "So I think it'd be neat to visit there and see what the environment is like, it could give me some insight into the, uh, the environment the fossil was preserved in."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa shrugs. "I dunno if that's the right word. I was basically kicked out."

[Hazuki]

"I don't know a lot about fossils. I couldn't tell you. Sorry." Maddy scratches his head. "But there's a lot of old stuff in Vibrost, so that might be your best hope. Would it be easy to find fossils...?"

"With pay?" Clayr asks Alyssa.

[Comissar]

Leah gives Maddy an uncertain shrug, "It... Depends on what it's like in Vibrost, really. If you know where to look it can be kinda easy to find fossils. Maybe nothing super impressive, but, uh, but bits of shell or corals can be kinda common. But..." She shrugs again, "Nobodies really done any research on Londo fossils yet, so if I went looking I'd be going in blind." She breaks into an excited grin, "But, uh, that also means I might get to be the first to find something."

[tgva8889]

Alyssa shrugs, reading Clayr's tone as best she can. "Some. About as much as I would have been paid for work for the time I was there, I'd think."

[Hazuki]

"That's the spirit!" Maddy says. "There only gets to be one first fossil expert in Londo, after all. Are you planning out your own.." He smiles. "Sorry, I don't know where fossil experts work."

"Right." Clayr leans up against the table and takes one of the cakes out of the tray she delivered, which she proceeds to chew like she's out for revenge. Her Mareep hustles up to nuzzle her leg.

"Maddy!" Parkin says as she appears at the door, and the Pachirisu on the boy's shoulder coils around to look at her. "It's time to make you presentable.
Alyssa, Leah, take care of Clayr. You're about the same age, aren't you?"

[Comissar]

Leah grins at Maddy's encouragement, "In labs but, uh, but there's a lot of field work." She's about to add some more when Parkin returns to take Maddy away. Rather than say anything, she contented herself with a nod and a small wave as the boy was whisked away. Turning her attention to Clayr and Alyssa, she realised she had no idea what they'd been discussing. Judging by the sour expression on Clayr's face, and the aggressiveness with which she was eating her cake, it wasn't going to be an easy conversation to simply jump into, though. She hesitated, giving Alyssa a questioning look.

[tgva8889]

Alyssa opts not to say the first thing that comes to mind when Parkin comments, and instead nods. She catches Leah's look, shrugs, and makes a sort of shake of her head. "So, um, what do you do, Clayr? I mean, what do you want to do?"

[Hazuki]

Maddy gives a little wave to the inhabitants of the room as he leaves, his Pachirisu swinging back round to his shoulders.

"Mgmgknffljn." Is Clayr's first response, then she swallows her cake. "Healing."

[Comissar]

Leah gives Clayr a smile as she states what she wants to do. "Oh, well, uh, have you met Bibi..? She, uh, she guided us here and she's, uh, she's really good with medicine."

[Hazuki]

"No." Clayr says. "Who is she?"

[Comissar]

"Umm, she's, uh, she's a guide." She glances at Alyssa, then back at Clayr, "She was recommended to us back in Bastille and, uh, and like I said, she was really good at patching us up when we needed it during our journey here... Umm, for example, uh, a few days ago I fell pretty badly and hurt my foot. She, uh, she could tell I'd done it without even seeing the injury and, uh, and she gave me some special bandages that've helped me heal really fast."