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

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

When Weavile mossied up beside Taylor again, she immediately perked up again, some tension seeping out of her and a tiny smile appearing on her face, which did much to lighten up the dour, sardonic airs she's taken up. She reach forward to fondly ruffle his feathered crown, already feeling a little better and more willing to continue her uncomfortable reminiscing.

"Always good to have ya by my side, Weavile. Thank ya...."

Your old partner rolled her eyes and scoffed in amusement as you tried to play up the positives of your propensity for painful probabilities, smirking as she remember all the times where your luck didn't pay off nearly as well......then grimacing for a second as she reminded herself where that lead the two of them. Tsk.....she really needs to reign in her train of thoughts, before they derail at unscheduled Sad and Horrible Recollections again.....

To make up for that bad trip down memory lane, she began to pet her fellow cat burglar even harder, this time targeting the spot she knew would make him purr like a Litten. He's been resisting her so far, but she'll tease the warm and soft kitty cat out of this Ice type feline yet, heh heh!

In spite of that, when you yet again brought up that question, the savaged thief's mood dropped like a Mandibuzz on a fresh carcass, causing her to visibly winced and cringe, her background feelings of discomfort, guilt, and shame now taking front and center stage in her mind. For anyone and especially you, it was patently clear she that she didn't want to answer you, and would much rather be talking about literally anything else......but she did.

Oh, she did.

"Omph......the million Poke question of the night right there, and just as dreaded. At least, for me. *Sighs* I really don't want to talk about, or just want spin a yarn and lie like lye........*Sighs*......But I can't keep this from ya, or give you Tauroshit instead. You deserve the unvarnished truth after what I put you through, even though I know you really, REALLY won't like it....."

Well, isn't that dandy.

Before you could possibly interrupt or interject, Taylor heaved one last great big *SIGH*, frowning and stared you morosely in the eyes, and simply said thus:

"The long and short of it is this: I couldn't afford to let you in on my plans. Partly 'cause I couldn't put you guys in danger by sneaking you back home - as they'd strip us of our Pokemon and throw us into the darkest oubliette they have if they caught us, and that's if they're nice about punishing us - but......that wasn't the main reason. *Sighs* ....No, that would be because......because......*Gulps, then hardens herself*......because I couldn't risk you, Weavile, or Kingdra fucking shit up again and ruining my one chance of getting my Lucy back, like back in the Dragon Shrine. Didn't trust in ya or your skills, didn't think you all learnt enough in a year's worth of time, and.....and didn't think you'd be much help to me at all, honestly. Plain and simple, I wasn't willing to take a gamble on you all, so I just.......left you out of my plan, and shouldered everything between myself and my 'mons. It was bad of me to do that.......but I wasn't taking any chances. Not with my girl Lucy."

....".......What. In. My. Domain."

"And.....well, everything paid off almost exactly how I wanted it. Simple as that. Getting mauled within an inch of my life by a Salamance wasn't a part of it by any stretch, sure, but that was the only thing that went wrong, and it hardly affect my rescue plan none with all the preparations I took. *Voices lowers* .....Only thing it did affect was my post rescue one. I was going to head straight back to ya after getting Lucy back. Feed ya a story about how I found her after two years and had to spring her right away due to hearing the Elders were going to put her down soon for being too disagreeable even for them, we head over to Goldenrod to lie low for awhile, and then we go about our lives in exile. You all be none the wiser, and we'd all be just happy and Pecha keen without. However, despite the Full Restore fixing me up for the most part, pushing myself to finish my plan with freshly treated Lethal injuries turned out to put me into terrible enough shape anyway. *Darkly chuckles* Imagine that, huh? Forced me to go straight to Goldenrod right away to rest up, and........well, I already told you the rest. Well, besides about my plan itself, and how and why it took me a year to find Lucy, but you didn't ask me about that, did ya? *Shrugs* You can if you want, but its not that important compared to.......yeah....."

Taylor's bows her head as she finishes, no longer able to look you in the eyes after coming clean. Shed leaned far back into the coach and bringing her hands together on her laps, looking and feeling like she was the worst person in the entire world. 

....Is she, though?

Only Reiner can answer that question.

First, though, she answers your other one (Well, if Reiner would actually want or would ask her about her scars after that explanation....), her voice almost flat and toneless by this point.

"Heh.....sharp eyes you got there. ....Yeah, they are, and yes, it was a Dragonsong 'Mence. Don't know if it had a Strong Jaw exactly, but it sure felt like it, after it took big old bites out of me like I was some Sitrus Berry tart."

........".....How DARE She."

Weavile looks just a tad offended for a second, really.  (Which definitely interrupts any purring he'd been doing)

As does Reiner for just a moment.

...though it's soon followed by a heavy sigh with closed eyes.  "...given what nearly happened here in this very room after four years...can't say I blame you too much for not wanting to fully trust us with such a delicate mission after just one..."

Weavile quickly deflates a little himself alongside Taylor, I imagine.  Particularly since he's one of the primary reasons they got caught back at the Dragon Shrine originally...as much as he doesn't like it, there's not really any way to sugarcoat that fact right now...and the droop in his ears makes it quite obvious, really...while he is quite cocky and confident most of the time, he does feel bad about what his actions caused 4 years ago...even though you'd be hard pressed to get him to admit that most of the time...Taylor of all people implying his skills are lacking definitely takes a little spring out of his step, though...

Silence.  Painful silence.  Reiner knows he's far from the only one who didn't like what Taylor just said...he just hopes that the obvious eavesdropper that he can't do anything about doesn't think too ill of Taylor since it is rather valid reasoning...(and Reiner indeed knows that she is definitely listening in, even if it is only because Taylor mentioned her earlier...)

Oof.

And that's probably when Reiner asks about the scars, if only for a slight topic change.

Thing is, though...while he IS concerned that a Dragonsong 'Mence munched on Taylor...he finds that...odd. Again, why was a Salamence patrolling the Secret Breeding Grounds?  As far as he knows, they aren't usually used as guard Dragons by the Elders...they're much more likely to use bulkier Dragonair, Dragonite, and Kingdra for guard duty...particularly Extreme Speed using members of the Dratini line, which can deliver quick ambushes and/or warnings much faster than most other Dragons usually can...a Salamence is hardly a subtle choice beause of its more violent tendencies...and Fly doesn't afford it many advantages over a Dragonite in the Dragon's Den, either, particularly since a Dragonite can also use the move, and the Elders definitely have access to HMs...oh, and Salamence can't swim nor use Water HMs, either, unlike Dragonite and Kingdra...

Hmmmmm...time to dig for more info.

"...why did it take you a year to find Lucy?  It was only a week after she'd been birdnapped when you started looking, and she was obviously still somewhere in Blackthorn, right?"