031 [Video/Action for Olivine]

[soggypastry]

I said get out of the way!

[Morning, Johto. Enjoy your very early morning wake up call. No, seriously, it's early. The sun's not even up-early. Lightning normally sleeps through this time of day, so why is she on the network? ...Well, she's not exactly on it by choice. Her Pokemon have the gear again, and it's showing that a nurse is trying to stop a very pale and rather shaky Lightning from leaving the Center, but considering she's dressed and with a pair of Lucario's at her side, she's not going to be stopped. At all.]

Miss Farron, if you'll just calm down--

Calm down? I just spent the past six hours puking my guts out while you ran around like headless chocobos trying to fix a problem that shouldn't have happened, and you expect me to calm down? [She scoffs at that, moving to shove past, but the nurse bars her passage yet again.]

Miss Farron, the poison is still affecting your body. If you'd sit down and let us help-

[Now Lightning snarls, and it's still rather intimidating despite looking like she's going to fall at any second.]

Help? Like when you somehow didn't notice someone go into my room in the middle of the night and let this happen? I don't need your help. I can handle this myself.

[The nurse aims to protest again, but Lightning doesn't listen and she goes around, hobbling out of the Center on crutches while not looking back even as the feed shorts out with a startled "Pika!". It never comes on again, but those who go out looking for her will find her on the porch of Minnie's house, sitting on one of the chairs with her head in her hands, that pair of Lucarios and a Pikachu nearby so she isn't alone. She really doesn't look well, either, so their concern is probably warranted.]

[ooc: due to plottings, Lightning spent the night badly poisoned and is now rather freaked out because, well, no idea who did it! :3 My thanks to both Cobra-mun and Kimblee-mun for this plot, it's been fun!]

Comments

[video]

[tapestodiane]

_{[There's a faint grimace at the edges of his mouth when he watches her. He's always been attentive and the state of her doesn't escape him. Her resolve is admirable, yes, but whatever this poison was, it looked nasty.]}

As long as you don't deal on your own.

[video]

[soggypastry]

[It felt nasty. Not even the toxins back home felt this bad. ...granted they had fast-acting magic to deal with those instead of slow antidotes that needed time to work, but still.]

I don't think I could have if I wanted to. [The camera shifts a bit, and sure enough, there's a pair of Lucarios nearby, attentive to every little sound and person that walks by. Best bodyguards.] They haven't left my side since I left the Center.

[video]

[tapestodiane]

_{[He nods, but doesn't look too relieved. There's still the very pressing issue of why she was potioned - and by whom.]}

Do you have any idea who could have done this to you?

_{[He asks it bluntly, never a fan of dancing around the issue. And since she seems to be cared for enough, and okay enough to talk to him, he's going to assume she is.]}

[video; filtered]

[soggypastry]

[Whom is an issue. Especially considering where she was during this; they've gotten smarter.

But she is indeed well enough to talk, and certainly well enough to throw up a filter before she does. It's not casual conversation anymore.]

A few, but nothing concrete. My team slept through the attack happening and the nurses didn't see anyone who wasn't supposed to be there go into my room, but they may not have been looking in the first place.

[video; filtered]

[tapestodiane]

<sub>[He should have thought about that filter himself, to be honest, but there's been a lot going on on his end of things as well. If she looks close, she might see it, too - something haunted and tired beneath his eyes, wearier than normal. Paler.]

[But his focus is on her and the situation she's found herself in, and he's likely going to keep it that way.]</sub>

The locals tend to be a bit more trusting. _{[It's fact, really. But he doesn't say more beyond that agreement, instead looks at her like he expects her to elaborate. He'd like to hear of those ideas, few or not-concrete though they may be.]}

[video; filtered]

[soggypastry]

[She notices something's off, to be sure, but it's been a long month for all of them. This could be anything...but she's making a note of it. If he's still like this the next time they meet or talk, she'll bring it up. Probably.

For now, she can tell he wants more details. Shame she doesn't have much to give him.]

My idea is that it was someone working as a Center employee. They hire anyone who walks in off the street and asks for a job, so it could have been someone after me or someone doing this for no apparent reason. I'm not sure yet.

[video; filtered]

[tapestodiane]

<sub>[Thankfully, he does have a better month ahead.]

[And, well - he's law enforcement. Any detail is a good one, as far as he's concerned. He has that air about him too; Cop Mode, in a way. Interrogative, although without being too pushy.]</sub>

Why would someone target you?

_{[He knows at least one reason, but it's practically a staple question to ask, and he wants to hear her answer.]}

[video; filtered]

[soggypastry]

[At least one of them does!

She's seen that air about people before; commanding officers who were good at their jobs, mostly, so it's familiar enough that it doesn't spook her already jarred nerves. She even answers promptly! Old habits die hard.]

The Corps, mostly. Like I said, the nurses will hire anyone. It wouldn't have been hard for someone from Team Rocket to get in and do this. They do know about us, to some extent.

[Etro, she needs to warn them. But now's not the time. She needs to get her head back on the way it should be and stop. shaking.]

[video; filtered]

[tapestodiane]

_{[And he notices that! It has him a little curious, but he lets it lie. It's for another time. Instead he nods, eyes a little darker as he asserts this. It's what he thought, but that doesn't make it any less worrying.]}

I thought as much. But I must admit I hadn't expected them to take measure against us just yet.

_{[It's all really quite troubling.]}

[video; filtered]

[soggypastry]

[Someday the people she trusts and met here in Johto will get a full explanation about her world. Someday. But that day is not today, and so she nods. She can certainly agree with his point.]

So did I. I knew they'd probably do something, but I thought we'd have more time. [A pause, and she snorts.] I thought that before the bombing in Goldenrod, too. We both know how wrong I was about that.

[It's turning into a habit, her being wrong. Goodness.]

[video; filtered]

[tapestodiane]

_{[He smiles, a wan thing.]}

It's as they say, Lightning - expect the unexpected.

It just keeps proving a lot easier said than done.

[video; filtered]

[soggypastry]

[She sighs, scrubbing her face with one hand. What a mess...]

Tell me about it. They always say it but never say how you're supposed to do it.

[How in the world can you ever expect the unexpected. It's unexpected for a reason! Or something. Pardon her, Coop. Rough night.]

[video; filtered]

[tapestodiane]

_{[No worries - he's hardly going to hold it against her.]}

We can cover a lot of ground by preparing for every possibility.

_{[Which might not always be feasible or even practical, but it's not meant as a literal suggestion so much as just encocuragement, both for her and himself. There are always ways to go about something - it's hard to believe, at times, but he strives to stick by it.]}

[video; filtered]

[soggypastry]

Probably. It would still be easier if we headed into a cave and stayed there. At least then we'd know what to expect more often than out here.

[Hey, if there are always ways, that's got to be one way of doing it...right? One exceedingly frustrated way, but still.]

[video; filtered]

[tapestodiane]

I wouldn't be so sure in this place.

_{[Could be dry humour, but he mostly says it straight. Because in all honesty ... in a world where there are living rock snakes, just to START with, you really can't expect to know what to do if you gear up in a cave somewhere.]}

[video; filtered]

[soggypastry]

True, but you're less likely to run into people in a cave. We can deal with everything else easier than with humans if we have our teams with us.

[Well. Everything other than certain more aggressive mons. Those are worse than humans sometimes. At least humans can be turtleflipped.]

[video; filtered]

[tapestodiane]

_{[And also at least humans aren't magical (OOOH what little do these people know). Their strength is strategy and ulterior motives, really - which of course is not to be underestimated and she does have a fair point.]}

We'd also be trapped rather neatly should someone figure our hiding place out.

_{[It'd be a double-edged sword, the metaphorical cave.]}

[video; filtered]

[soggypastry]

[Hahahaaaa magical humans. Pfft, yeah right. ...Well. Good thing for Johto's power removers, or they'd have been screwed since day one. Ulterior motives and strategy are terrible enough.]

Only if it was one way. Most of the caves here have two exits, as far as I can tell. There's always a way out of them, even if you have to make one on your own.

[Or use the aforementioned rock-snake tunnels. Either works! ...Granted those may cave in on you so double-edged sword is an apt description.]