[Game] Lord Windos' PokeRole Adventure: Celadon City Vandel

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

The Gym Acolaytes give you dirty looks for interrupting their private and tantamount conversation with their Leader, and were none to subtly about to tell you to buzz off or wait until they were finished ......until they froze when they spotted your cousin hovering behind you , casting upon them a glare that beats up their puny Intimidation specialty. Clair was already pretty grumpy for being  dragged along by you, since her ideal plan was the polar opposite of what ended up happening, so her patience for bullshit of anykind, no matter where it comes from or why its laid at her feet, was thin.

Erika for her part, already familiar with the Arendse brand approach to negotiation tactics , finished her cup of macha tea and let out a sastified *sigh* , before they placed her cup down and regarded you with an pleasant smile, and dismissed her acolaytes with a casual wave of her hand. "Its nice to see again, Reiner. From what I've heard, you've been making quite a name for yourself since we last spoke. Subduing Romeo and Juliet, and rumored to have put a stop to the Vampire, since their were no murders or victim reported last night and reduced entire street reduced to rubble in some epic conflict around the same time period as well, but of course this is unsubstaintiated. Regardless, you've done the city and the Police several favors despite having little obligation to do so, so on their behalf I would like to humbly thank you from the bottom of my heart for protecting Celadon, and doing your part to make sure the Flower Festival proceeds as intended. Thank you for all you have done, Reiner..."

Erika's closes their eyes and formally bows their head in a gesture in a sigh of deep respect, but due to her remarkable skill in maintain her composure even under the most adverse circumstances (With exceptions, of course) you couldn't honestly tell it was genuine, a thoughtful but still a formality, and/or what she said was more for your still extremely irritable and somewhat estranged family member hanging back (Who's eyebrows were knitted together and seemed even more pensive than before) . Still, you do know she held no ill intention towards you, and was remarkably relaxed despite two of the most powerful people hovering over semi-menacingly her. Either her ovaries are reinforced with steel, or she's still high from the other day, but I suppose it doesn't matter which one is the cause at this point.

The Prim Princess then evenly returned their gaze with you, and share another warm smile. "In light of light of your service, I am more than willing to honor your request for privacy with your esteemed cousin Clair. Wouldn't want anybody easedropping on matters best heard by as few ears as possible, yes? We'll settle the matter of further compensation (Read: Our prior arrangement) due to you after you have finished your reunion with your cousin, so without further delay...."

A couple of moments later, and you are sitting with Clair in that sound proofed backroom of the tea shop, you favorite drink and snacks sitting in front of you while had Blackthorn Style Tea spiced with sweet cinnamon and nutmeg (Think Irish Breakfast, but stronger) and currently untouched sushi platter. She was in the classic Gendo Pose you Boss is so fond of, before both hands slammed into the table and a light (but still scary!) scowl was on their face. "Alright, you've lead me here to this 'private' location, cousin, so cut the Tarous shit and explain yourself . You've wasted enough of our time dodging me like my own acolaytes when I'm in a bad mood and generally being your irratible self, so start talking about messes you are in now, and don't stop until I tell you. Got it? I'm already going well beyond reasonable doubt by offering to stick my neck out for you again and coming here to this shop that snooty bitch probably owns, so what you have to say better damn well be critical, Reiner....."

"Thank you, Erika."

Either she heard his name from Clair just now, or she did a little research into him after their last meeting, as he doesn't remember giving her his name originally...well, no matter.  She was being accommodating, and that's the important part right now.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Reiner sips on his own Blackthorn Style Tea.  Feels good, having these Blackthorn delicacies again after four years...shame they're not as good as the real thing since they lack that Blackthorn touch he's so fond of...*sigh*...his mother makes this stuff all the time...and it's about the only kind of tea he likes...

...

And then he stands up, slams a fist into the wall, and starts cursing in Draconic as soon as he puts his cup down.

"Finally, I can actually #$@% talk plainly without having to dodge around the #$@% issue of drawing far, far, far too much #$@% attention to myself that I don't #$@% need because it's only going to get in my #$@% way and give me no opportunities for some #$@% damned peace for once this stupid #$@% week!

He needed to vent too.  After he's done with that little outburst (which is FAR longer than what I typed, by the way.  He's NEVER cursed that much in front of Clair before, but none of it is aimed at her specifically) and he's calmed down, he starts 'explaining himself.'

"One, please stop scaring my Eevee.  I only just got them off the streets, and getting them to trust me was hard enough.  Though kudos to you for intimidating Ridia.  She doesn't scare easily from what little I've seen of her so far.  But don't harm her brother.  He's frail, and she WILL bite you if you harm him, no matter how scared she is."

"Two, I'm not going to try and defend myself regarding my past actions in Blackthorn, if you can believe that.  I've had a bit of an eye opener this week, and you came very, very, veeerrrryyyy close to ruining my facade, I'll have you know.  My superiors are going to be watching me like a hawk when the grunt that was tailing me reports back, and that's going to make my plans difficult to accomplish without some extreme sweet talking on my part unless we stage a battle after this conversation and you 'lose' in a rather convincing manner, followed by me 'chasing you off and rejecting your offer', or we alternatively play it off as me luring you here into some kind of trap or something and escaping while you're out of the action.  And even then, that's still probably not going to be enough to get them off my back about it."

"Three: Do you and the Elders even know what exactly that necklace is?  That's not some artifact some ancient dragon tamer made, it's something no mortal should ever wield in my honest opinion, and I'm worried about what that thing might do to you besides turning you into a literal dragon because it's one of 18 of them, and they ALL have some rather severe drawbacks if you mishandle them, and even if you don't, they still have a ginormous bite."

"Four: I'd rather not go back to Blackthorn if I don't have to.  Too many bad memories there, and there are people counting on me to stick with them that aren't in any way related to Team Rocket.  I don't know if the Elders would approve of them coming to Blackthorn, and I'd rather they not suffer their wrath for no good reason."

"Five: I'm not planning to stay with Team Rocket, and I was originally planning to leave sometime this weekend, or sometime after the festival is over.  Not sure if I'm going out with a bang or just running, but I do know that whatever happens, the boss is going to be doing everything in his power to find me and 'convince' me to come back, maybe kill me if he knows I won't.  Like I said, had a bit of an eye opener earlier this week.  You don't battle a Mythical in a fair fight and win, see the creation of the universe, find out you're now psychic and always will be from this point on because of said visions of that Mythical's memories, nearly get overwhelmed by everyone's raw emotions when those psychic senses grant you perfect empathy and an unparalleled ability to multitask, finally realize your boss is just treating you like some tool instead of a person, make a really rich guy angry enough to kill an 11 year old girl just because you couldn't get him to rightfully return the far too large amount of money he shouldn't have taken from her, revive said 11 year old girl, get offered a chance to turn your life around by an incredibly skilled member of the national guard who's an ex-mafia, obtain a ridiculously powerful weapon that you probably shouldn't have from him when you beat him in battle and hint that you MIGHT accept his offer without tipping off your superiors because you barely managed to create a situation where creating a suitable facade was possible, kill that dastard rich guy for killing that 11 year old girl because the law can't touch him, revive his wife because she was caught in the crossfire and didn't deserve to be killed for his mistake, find out she's got almost complete amnesia and is now infatuated with yourself for Arceus knows what reasons exactly, fight and kill an insane couple intent on brainwashing both some children and yourself into joining their 'happy little family' that has no qualms with killing any random person at any moment if they get angry; no matter who's watching at the time, fight something that's not quite a pokemon and almost certainly not of this world at nearly its full strength, almost get squashed by it yet somehow make it out alive, learn that there's FAR more to that weapon you got from that ex-mafia guy than you ever imagined there could be, revive the young woman that was killed by that monstrosity from another world because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time because you tried to do something nice for someone else for once in your sorry life, narrowly avoid getting stung to death by an tire hive of beedrill because you managed to befriend one of its sentries, hunt down the person who befriended that #$@% otherworldly nightmare which is somewhat loyal to you for some unholy reason; and yet spare that person you were hunting because of a madman's pleas even though she probably deserves to die for all the pain and suffering she's caused, learn a little about how the universe actually works and that there's ANOTHER; EXTREMELY powerful lady infatuated with yourself, find out there's some nutjob in a fallout zone in downtown Celadon that's trying to create an ultimate pokemon and some other nutjob who's going to raze New Bark Town to the ground to obtain Professor Elm's Research at some point, end up determining you're probably one of only one or two select individuals that can stop whatever those two wackos have planned; whether it's directly or by enlisting someone else's aid, discover the ex-wife with amnesia is actually still pregnant despite having died previously and being stuck in limbo for at least 8 hours before being revived, go to face your cousin alone because you don't want any of the people you've come to care about and keep alive getting caught in the crossfire if things go badly, get offered ANOTHER chance to turn your life around in a rather unsubtle fashion that could ruin any chance of safely turning your back on this life because you have to answer in a semi-positive way to avoid making a huge; unnecessary mess of things, find out your cousin is probably in danger of killing herself because of some grudge held between you and the people she mostly respects, and stay the same man you were before any of this madness started."

(TLDR; It's this week in a very brief, semi-rushed summary, minus some of the details and one or two specific events)

*huff* *huff*

...that last one was said all in one breath, by the way.

"Six: I hope you're ready to stop me, because that special guest I mentioned earlier?  I still have to introduce them to my Eevee, and this is a convenient time to show you as well.  By the way, congratulations on changing her opinion of you a moment ago.  I didn't even have to try to convince her to give you a chance."

Whether she wants to come out or not, Reiner's sending out Mew!  Because gosh darn it, he trusts Clair to keep a secret more than anyone else he knows!  Well, besides maybe Petrel, but that's kinda his job along with finding out those secrets.  And Taylor, since she's probably still got a boatload of secrets he doesn't know and managed to hide her existence from Blackthorn entirely...

"Clair, Ridia, Poe (if he's conscious now), meet Mew.  Met her this Monday, and it turned my entire world upside down.  Not that that's necessarily a bad thing in some regards.  We can discuss the details of what my future plans are exactly after you get over your initial disbelief."

Reiner flops into his chair, looking rather...tired and sad.  Defeated.  He's been holding this in for awhile now...

"...let me tell you, cuz...these prophecies and 'chosen one' business and all that...it's not all it's cracked up to be...yes, I intended to...harm Blackthorn to accomplish my goals.  I'm...rather ashamed of saying that your face, but it's true...and then I met Mew and...started having doubts...then Lindworm showed up, talked about how he wants Blackthorn to change as well, gave me a Dragonair that...decided it could tolerate being one of my dragons...then Valarie Malcolm...gave me a choice...opened up another way I could..."

...

"...I want to prove our grandfather wrong, cuz.  Just like what Lance did.  Maybe it happening a second time will finally get it through their thick, stubborn skulls that something is fundamentally wrong here.  That's all.  Change Blackthorn for the better because of it, and then I might be able to finally go back with my head held high despite the wrongs I've committed...I don't want to scrap our traditions entirely if I don't have to, but some of them either have to change or just go, because I don't want anyone else to suffer what I have...please...stop killing yourself over this by using that Cursed Arm the Elders gave you...it's not worth it, trust me, and I don't want to...see you...suffer because of that damned, #$@% Legendary killing weapon...and I STILL have to worry about your safety, my parents', Emily's, Kyubi's, my own, and anyone else the boss knows is tied to me in some way or that I care about in some manner...I'm supposed to meet Valarie tomorrow night, and I'm hoping he has some ideas or suggestions, but..."

...

"...I don't want to fight you, cuz...there's no need to..."

...yet another rather desperate, bold gamble from Reiner Arendse...he's always been able to talk to Clair about (almost) anything, though...finally having someone to actually talk to about all this is a HUGE weight off of his shoulders, even if lifting that burden is just as exhausting as continuing to carry it...it's all or nothing, dealing with Clair...

...

...how's that for critically important, Clair?