Set in the original region of Arciel, Legends Rising is a route-inspired, but not strictly route-based, Pokemon roleplay. Pick a faction, pick a class, and strike out into the wild to take on the League, master Contest coordination, research the mysteries of Pokemon and Arciel, and much, much more. Will you be a classic trainer? A criminal? A farmer? Choose your destiny on Legends Rising.
It had been a few hours since the last few months of Arietta's life were revealled to one of her best friends, Ellie. Months of exes returning, of true chaos, of dancing, of tears, or making really really smart choices, all being revealled at the drop of a hat after she confront Gabe and... Senara. Despite having cried enough tears to last her a long while and feasting on waffles like they were her lifeblood, Arietta still felt empty, and sad, and tired. Realizations gently tugging at her mind, understandings... and her text to the group chat didn't make anything any better. But at least she wouldn't have to explain again, right? Her heart, and tear-ducts wouldn't be able to take it.
Ellie promised all the girls were there for her. They loved her. She said not to shut them out. But there were things she'd never be able to let them know. As she sat ehre, curled up on the edge of the bed, a quilted sheet pushed around her shoulders as she simply stared straight at a re-run of say yes to the dress that was playing on the TV she was doing all but watching it. Elise had spoken a bit about Tony, there had been idle chatter but...
After that chaos, what could be said that wasn't entirely awkward or forced? Arietta drew the blanket closer to herself, trying to take comfort in the warmth it provided... the girls dress on the screen was so pretty... jewels... white... poofs... jems... jewel- oh she'd already looked at the jewels.
She made an effort to ignore her phone. When she was like this, she could do dumb things. Dumb things like blog. And if she blogged some of the chaos that just happened right now it would be an utter trainwreck of antagonising, insults, a tiny bit of self-loathing... and probably a bunch of things she'd regret when she didn't feel so dead. She was just waiting.
Waiting for the inevitable. For the rest of the girls to show up. And for having to... explain? Or...? Uh??? Ari didn't know, and she didn't wanna think about it, nope. She was just going to watch the pretty girl spin around in her pretty dress and say no to it even though Arietta would actually die to wear something as adorable as that. "...She's cute." Arietta found herself speaking softly, wanting to break the silence once more, being too quiet would probably make it seem like she was 100% like not okay, and Arietta was like, okay, putting aside everything not-okay about today. "Is, uh, that the... type of dress you'd like to wear when Tony walks you down the aisle...? Or is it too fluffy?"
Post by Elizabeth "Eliza" Joan on May 16, 2020 18:41:15 GMT
» TAGGED, beans! » WORD COUNT, 454
Eliza might have scared the receptionist when she came to the desk, and not on purpose. The entire lobby had a stale, tense air to it, like something had just happened that left everyone uneasy. It didn't help that rather than calmly say a hello to the man checking the computer behind the desk, she slammed her hand on the bell and made him jump out of his skin. She didn't have time for this.
"Reservations under Joan, Elizabeth." Her voice was cold and sharp, and there was little room for questions in her expression. The poor clerk found her room and gave her the key-card, and then she went straight to the elevators, up to the fourth floor of the hotel. If they had planned this right, then their rooms would be right next to one another's. Four-oh-three, four-oh-five, four-oh-seven...there.
Without going into her room to drop of her backpack or change out of her boots, Elizabeth rapped on the door next to her own. "Elise? Ari? Are you in there?"
The storm that had been on the boat had followed her into Plum City, and as very fitting as it was thematically it meant she'd been walking in the rain since leaving her umbrella with that stranger. It hadn't been her smartest move, but she just needed that woman to leave her alone, quickly. The bottom half of her jeans, her boots, and her shoulders were subsequently pretty soggy, but her raised hood and head were dry from the force she'd put above her head to deflect the rain. It had hurt to do that after the first five minutes, so she'd had to shrink it to just her head and the space over her bags. Oh, and Mimichu. Speak of the devil--from the back of her hood, she heard the little Pokemon shifting about, waking up.
She took a moment to inhale, then exhale slowly.
I'm not mad at her. I look like I'm mad at her, but it's just resting bitch-face. She knows I have that sometimes. She knows I'm not mad at her.
I do want to strangle her a little.
Not as much as I want to do it to them, though...
Another inhale, and another exhale.
Comfort the dumbass first, then premeditate manslaughter, brain.
From in her hood she felt Mimichu stir, prodding the back of her neck with the little wooden tail she always held. At the same time a long, black, phantom arm slipped out from the space behind her head and pinched at her cheek. Elizabeth swatted it away. "Stop that. If you're going to misbehave, you can go in the ball."
Elise sat on the edge of the bed, just far enough back that there was no space between her calves and the bed itself but so that they would have to fall straight to remain there. She felt equal parts tense and tired. There had been so much to Ari’s story, so much to unpack from the last few months, and so many sympathies to give. And Elise was out of those, unfortunately. Every time she had thought to say something more, she simply couldn’t, and so she talked about other things and watched TV. Like it was normal, almost. As Ari spoke up, Elise hummed at the dress. “It’s a little too fluffy on the back…. But something like that on the front maybe….” She made a small gesture to the torso before dropping her hand again.
….Only for it to spring up again as a loud knock reverberated in her ears. Her head jerked sideways to the door, and her pulse slammed in her ears uneasily. As Eliza’s voice hit the air, however, Elise let out a shaky breath. “Yeah! Coming!” She called scrambling off the bed before Arietta could and walking over to grab the door handle.
As she opened the door, however, Elise found herself staring at the very clearly drenched Eliza. “Eliza— oh gods you’re soaked….!?” she squeaked only to quickly step aside to allow Eliza in as she pleased. Closing the door behind Eliza, Elise was quick to scuttle over to the bathroom and grab a few towels off the rack before walking back out again and holding one forward. Her uneasy eyes flashed between Eliza and Arietta, but she said nothing immediately.
...Ah. A modern back. But a cute front of the dress. That would look nice. Arietta nods numbly in approval and her attention goes right back to the show. Oooh, Lindsey has a bow on her dress and creeping up the neckline, it was delicate, but very plain other then the ribbons- almost tacky. Arietta would not be caught dead in something like this, and apparently neither would the bride. It was almost time for another dress when the knock and voice from the other side of the door caused her all at once to tense up. Arceus, have mercy. What would Eliza say, or think?!
She hoped she didn't have to recount anything- oh- oh her dirty plate was still on the bed, that was gross. The blankets bundled around her were huddled closer and she attempted to make an effort to follow Elise and further Eliza's entrance with her eyes.
Oh. Ellie was right, Eliza was soaked. There was a very soft intake of breath from Arietta who really made an effort to properly get up, keeping her blankets around her, and a rather pathetic excuse of a smile found it's way on her face. "...I didn't know it was raining" Ari didn't ant to recount the whole thing again, her texts had totally been enough, right? Right. Everything was super fine. Totally fine. "I hope you're not too cold- uh- I don't know if there's a heating unit in here... we... were just watching 21 d-dresses...uhm..."
Post by Elizabeth "Eliza" Joan on May 27, 2020 19:49:21 GMT
» TAGGED, beans! » WORD COUNT, 475
Elise's familiar voice chimed from the other side of the door, and Elizabeth drew in a small breath, feeling lighter already. Of course they would be together. Elise wouldn't leave Ara alone right now. That wasn't like her. Good. So she'd had somebody at her side while she type out that...
When the door swung open the corners of Eliza's lips pulled up just a little. "Yeah, it started pouring over the channel, and I brought it with me. Sorry." She looked down at her boots and decided that since it wasn't either of their homes and she wouldn't be making a mess for them she'd leave them on for a little longer. She didn't want to stall in the doorway. Eliza stepped into the room, then back up Arietta. She was practically drowning in the hotel blankets, and her face still looked puffy, if only a little. She'd been crying.
No shit.
For a couple of seconds she just stared at her friend, trying to sort out something to say to her. "Why didn't you tell us", or "Didn't you trust us" or "We could have helped you" all felt like the wrong start. Ara was sad. Eliza was mad, but not at Arietta. She couldn't be mad at her for something this out of her control.
Telling us wasn't out of her control.
The seconds passed, and Eliza stepped until she was standing directly in front of Arietta...and with ice-cold hands she suddenly clapped both of Arietta's cheeks in her palms and squished her dumb cute pathetically grinning face like a plushie. "Ar-ee-ett-aaaaaahh..." she said in singsong, smile growing a little more, but leaning less into the direction of "happy to see you" and more into "you're in so much trouble". Her frigid hands kept on squishing. "Why-do-you-keep-date-ing-scum-baaaaags? The next guy or gal you bring to meet us, I'm going to have to interrogate them at this rate...why-is-your-taste-in-peo-ple-so-shiiiiiiiiiiit-eeey??"
Her arms moved quickly, hands releasing Arietta's face to wrap around the quite smaller girl and enfold her in a soggy, still pretty cold hug. She wasn't holding tight enough to keep her from pulling away--and with how soggy and icy she was she expected Arietta to squeal and scramble back, but if she didn't, she'd just hold her tighter. Either way Eliza slowly stood back up to her full height, pulling her hood back so her eyes were no longer in its shadow. "Arceus' sake, Ara." She wiped some rain water--yep, definitely rain water, not anything else--from her cheek and up into her bangs, which were only slightly dryer than the hood itself. Mimichu peered out at Elise and waved a tiny shadowy limb in her direction. "I thought you saved the drama dumps for your blog, not for the group chat."
Elise paused for a moment, her arms full of towels, as she watched Eliza. A hand clapped up over her mouth as Elise suppressed… a laugh? A squeak? Anxiety? She wasn’t sure as she listened to Eliza speak. Purple eyes kept flickering between Eliza and Arietta. Still, as Eliza eased up, Elise stepped in and wratehr quickly started wrapping one of the larger towels around her shoulders. “You’ll catch a cold if you don’t dry off…” she murmured weakly looking between Eliza and Arietta and then finally at Mimichu whom she paused to smile softly at before going back to dabbing Eliza again.
A weird breath drew in and out of Elise after, though, and she shook her head. “I… uh… suggested that it’d be better than trying to explain over and over again,” she tried to justify the ‘text versus blog’ statement despite it really not needing justification.
This atmosphere felt uncomfortabel? Was it uncomfortable? Or was it the smile that made her lips hurt when all the brunette wanted to do was sob a little bit more. She clutched the blankets a little closer to her chest now, the silence slowly eating away at whatever front she'd attempted to put up. Her forced smile twitched. Eliza? Eliza? She was approaching. Arietta blinked. She blinked again- and then she let out a 'mmmph!' as her cheeks were taking captive.
Ow! Ow that kinda hurt, like a pinching, and her cheek meat! Arietta sniffled a little, wreiggling helplessly in her blankets in an attempt to get Eliza to stoooop. Of course, the attempts were fruitless and all she could dude was make a variety of noises that didn't exactly equate to any proper verbal words.
Why is her taste in people so shitty?? She doesn't have bad taste! They all seem so great when she get's into it! But- then- yeah- yeah... Oh arecus. Would any of them even live through Eliza attempting to interregate them?! What if Arietta never got to go out with anybody, ever again!? Or... no! Her taste of people wasn't bad! Arietta was gonna find somebody good again- er...
...But... did she... realy... want that right now? When her heart was so torn over whatever the fuck is happeneing- nooo. Noo she didn't wanna think about it! A string of "Elihhhh-zhah-" Was practically forced out, inbetween squishes. Then the girl, who'd spent was too much time in the rain pulled her in for a hug- wait- her blankets?! A shiver ran up the girls spine and she really did try and hug back, if only for a moment, thankful her friend was here. Having her clothing and blankets ruined would just be another messed up part of her, like her makeup... and her heart. Ow. Angsty.
As she pulled back Arietta took a step back, a hand still firmily grasping her blankets moving up to pat at her cheek with a soft glare, but... it's... not like she was mad. The stupid smile was gone though. Arietta watched as Eliza gathered herself, wiping rain and pulling off her hood, and as Ellie stepped in to give her a towel and gently wrap it around Eliza's shoulders. Arceus, what would she do without these girls? They all cared for each other so much. Arietta's lips pulled together and she found herself all at once collapsing back onto her rightful place, the bed.
...The drama dumps.. for her blog... oh. Oh she should probably do that later. But... Arietta mumbled something under her breath, shaking her head and bringing the blankets closer. A greatful nod was sent in Elise's direction as the girl explained, further stepping in with. "Yeah- and... even then... uh- I didn't... wanna... wait to tell you guys I mean... I... uhm.. telling Elise i couldn't really, not- after what had just happened so...."
She let her legs kick out again over the edge of the bed, "...Also I can't... say too much on the blog- I... might have been threatened to be hacked if I mentioned Gabe again? But i've backed everything up! So! So like- I still totally can!" A very fake smile found itself tugged on her features as her gaze flicked back up the the TV, backgroung noise now. She sniffled. "B-But, uhm- yeah... w-what Ellie said- It beats bursting i-into tears... a-again, you know? I'd rather not do it four m-more times over..."
Post by Elizabeth "Eliza" Joan on Jun 18, 2020 17:40:34 GMT
» TAGGED, beans! » WORD COUNT, 371
"Look, I appreciate how fast the information got to me, and it keeps you from needing to go through saying it all again," Eliza responded to Elise's small reason for the text, but the sentence wasn't done, "But. If next time, you could send a warning first, it'd be appreciated? Like...'do not read this in an appropriately dramatic thunderstorm'. 'Contents may induce wanting to strangle my exes'."
The fluffy, dry towel wouldn't do too much for Eliza through the thick wet hoodie, so she reluctantly began stripping out of it. Beneath her plain black t-shirt was only nominally dryer than the rest of her clothes, but her bare arms were very cold. She propped her bag against the table and held the hoodie for a moment, looking, for an appropriate place to put it--tempted to drop it on Ara's head--before she draped it over the back of a chair to try as best it could. Mimichu transferred herself to besides the television in a small cloud of purple smoke.
With the literal weight of her shoulders Eliza started drying her hair and arms, while still listening. When she said "threatened" over mentioning Gabe again, did she mean Gabe had threatened her, or that somebody else had threatened her on Gabe's behalf. Either wait-- "Want me to blacklist him? Can't be too hard. Or I can just go over to...wherever he's living, and stab him." This was all said so monotone that it could only be a joke. Totally a joke. Absolutely. She looked up from under a fluffy towel and met Ara's eyes. "That'd put an end to the problem."
A quick swipe of her face dried that off as well, and she started spot-drying her shirt as best she was able. Eliza let out a small sight. "In all seriousness, ignore the threats. If he or whoever wanted to take you down over your free speech, they could have done so ages ago. Drag the asshat through the mud. Him and his girlfriend. They deserve it for all they've done." If anyone in the group was the devil-on-the-shoulder, it would be Elizabeth. And she was fine with that.
Elise released the soft breath she hadn’t even been aware she had been holding up to that point, and a smaller smile pulled onto her features after the fact. “At least there’s a dryer downstairs, I think,” she answered Eliza’s words. It was probably going to take a dryer to get Eliza’s hoddie dry any time soon.
Slowly, Elise sat down back on the bed again setting both hands behind herself and stretching briefly— very briefly as she immediately slipped back awkwardly at Eliza’s joke. A squeak escaped from her, and she was quick to sit back up again. “Eliza it wouldn’t… do any good,” she frowned softly before looking back to Arietta specifically. She… couldn’t imagine poking and prodding anymore would do any good? After everything?? But Elise had been physically present listening to Arietta for the past few hours. She’d heard it— which was different from text.
Wriggling… wriggling… Arietta was trying her best to get comfortable on the edge of the bed, but the fabric was a bit too scratchy, the chill in the air a bit too cold, the words in the room too loud. A breath, another breath, a tightening of her lips to keep up her perfect Ari grin as Eliza spoke. Honestly, she was super fine, never been better, the finest of the fine- like, who wouldn’t be? It was a chaotic situation, a terrible situation- a heart-wrenching situation, her mouth was dry- that was normal too!
One leg crossed over the other, then they recrossed, and then finally she decided to plant thm on the floor, scrunching her hands together in her lap. “…I didn’t even know there… was a thunderstorm.” Idle words. Eliza was wet, and soaked, and probably angry, and frustrated, and keeping it in. Eliza’s pokemon would never choke her on a ferry, Eliza and Ellie had such happy boyfriends… they… had… oh yeah. Her mind began switching from thought to thought, never staying on one too long, trying to fill the silence without speaking out loud, eyes watching Eliza but not really watching her.
Then… Eliza said… blacklist him? Stab- stab him?! Arietta’s head shook furiously, she wouldn’t even humour the thought, eyes quickly snapping away from Eliza’s gaze “Uhm- n-no stabbing, it’s… it’s fine- I mean- I a-assume you mean… stabbing Gabe? And.. not.. yeah.” Actually, she was going to cross her legs. Yep. Criss-cross, much better. “…I don’t want him dead…”
What did she want? Gabe was bad. She knew he was bad- and… mmmm… yeah no don’t go there Arietta! Eyes finally moved back to Eliza as her words filled the room, Arietta pursing her lips together as she listened. Drag…him through the mud? Immediately Elise spoke and Ara’s gaze flicked between the two girls, her hands in her lap tightening and tightening, her ankles crossing and uncrossing.
“I mean- like- as much as dragging people through the mud like… helps? What… if like… uh… I get a Charmeleon sicked on me again- not that he sicked her on me but the possibility is totally always there and- like- I assume he has friends who know me and can tell him what I’ve written and- do we need bodyguards?? Can we afford bodyguards?” A blink, a furrowed brow, “…what…if…I drive…people to uh… jump off their flying pokemon again by dragging them ‘through the mud’ or… uh… like- uh… uhm…”
Fumbling for words mid ramble the girl shifted, fidgeting, annnd now her feet were on the bed, knees hugged to her chest. The girls didn’t know. They didn’t know half the stuff she’d said was just exaggerated bullshit. She forgot that. It was bullshit for the greater good, of course! Or, that’s what she always justified it as, the greater good so she didn’t get hurt- so they didn’t get hurt- it was… it was… “…I don’t know… I… d-don’t know… I… I don’t…know...” A sniff. Her knees tightened to her chest. Arietta what the fuck.
Post by Elizabeth "Eliza" Joan on Jul 19, 2020 12:09:35 GMT
» TAGGED, beans! » WORD COUNT, 407
Eliza rolled her eyes at both of them. Arceus. She loved them, really really did, but they were taking her words so seriously right now. Since when. "You know I would never actually hurt him." Well, no, she never had, there was a difference. "Physically anyway. Come on. I am serious about getting him blacklisted."
With a sigh, Elizabeth took up the standard rolling chair that was always present in a hotel room at a desk that was rarely used for work related purposes, and sat herself down in it once it was positioned next to the bed. She didn't want to get their sheets wet. She kept drying herself and listened. "If it was an accident then it won't happen again. But if you think it will then I think you don't really think it was. The Charmander line's full of bad tempered Pokemon but, like, there's a limit to what I could believe one would get up to. You're sure it was an accident? This is Gabe we're talking about. I wouldn't put it past the psycho..."
He'd tried to get her to run away with him, then left her high and dry. If Arietta's story was true--and Eliza had no reason nor want to doubt her--he also busted her phone and threatened her blog and probably stalked her to some extent. How else would all those meetings be explained? Chance? Please. Ara said it herself. He's crazy.
"Again," Eliza waved her hand in a dismissive manner, "Maybe it's just me, but I can't trust a word from him. I'd bet he only said something like that just to get under your skin and feel guilty. If anybody should feel guilty for things they'd done in the past, wouldn't it be him? He's the one who hurt you, not the other way around." Hard hazel eyes glared at the floor as she spoke, genuinely trying to keep the worst of the vitriol from her voice. "You don't deserve that sort of manipulative horseshit in your life. You deserve infinitely much better that that."
She looked back up at Ariette, curled into herself, then at Elise with an unsure frown. What was she having such a hard time with grasping? It looked cut and dry to Eliza. If the toxicity wasn't going away on its own, she had to force it out.