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.
"Hey, I can pay for it just fine! I can, I ju--...ffh..." Senara muttered as she was gently pushed back onto the pillow. She was fine! Well, no, she absolutely was not. But she didn't need to stay here to recover, she could do that just fine at her hotel room. If Gabe paid for her as well that would just mean she owed him again--and she already owed him in her eyes for even taking her to a "doctor" when he hadn't needed to. She still wasn't sure she understood completely why he'd done it. Just because he liked her...but that didn't mean anything, did it? You didn't like people for no reason, just like you didn't help somebody for no reason. There had to be a reason. There had to be. Just had to.
...
She sighed slowly. Then, for good measure, stuck her tongue out at Gabe laughing at her. At least he agreed to hit her over this. That counted as pay-back, to some extent, right? Hahah, could she stop feeling loopy and go back to feeling ill? She thought so much clearer then than she did now. "Yeah, yeah, suffer my antics. You said you liked me. Can't take it back. You like this crazy bitch. So what does that make you, huh?" She snickered again and waved her hand in their direction. "Just as bad, that's what."
It would still take a little while to calm down and feel able to walk around again, but it was happening, slowly. She started thinking more about what lead them here in the first place. Mistakes. She'd made a lot of mistakes dealing with Arietta. She'd just been so angry and looking for a little roundabout payback and now look where they were. If she brought it back up to Gabe would his aura flare up again? That...would be less than fun, but she really did have something she needed to say to him about it.
Not in front of Nails, though. She didn't know how well the two knew one another but if it were her she'd rather not have the personal details of her (non-existent) love life spoken of in front of a back-alley doctor--even one as ridiculously edgy as Nails.
"Hey, Gabe, before I forget this...thing, can we have a second to talk?" She mumbled and glanced up from Gabe to Nail, "While I'm still only half-adrenaline-high, please."
Gabe Alim WC: 417 Trying to keep this consistent to "Burning Out", of course.
Despite himself, Gabe devolved into snickers at Senara’s words. “Maybe so,” he answered softly. Granted being called a crazy bitch back had been the least of his insults over the years. He settled for a while checking his phone and occasionally texting as she recovered. Nails went about his business without much more concern only occasionally asking Senara how she was feeling. As Senara made the request, Nails took that as his cue to leave and was sure enough retreating to the back again. Gabe frowned a little at her tone. “Yeah?” he asked back.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 10, 2019 12:45:30 GMT
There was a game to this sort of thing, she'd learned growing up. When you had to ask something that could make somebody mad you had to do so delicately, but you could also just...not. You could distract from the issue instead. Keep from asking the question and come up with a way to get around it and avoid the hard "no" or stinging cheek. But she could only think of different ways to ask this instead of ways around it. It had been what made her so angry in the first place and she couldn't let it go, even if the anger had faded away into...worry. Fear. Concern. Things she told herself she didn't need for him.
Senara glanced at Nails' retreating back then returned to Gabe, her empty eye closed, still, but the color leaking through it. Soft pastels in pale purples and blues. What those meant she still had no idea but they were nice to look at. This, though, might hurt her. But if I don't ask now I never will. And he needs somebody to ask.
Nobody else is going to.
"...did you throw yourself off Reptar because you knew he'd catch you, or because you hoped he wouldn't?" She spoke softly but not slowly, making sure the whole question out before she had the chance to retract any of it. She drew in a sharp breath, then pushed more out again. "It lines up with what she told me, about removing you from that studio. And trying to cut you out of her life. Again. I know, TMI for me, a hundred percent, but did you...did you actually try to kill yourself over that? Over her?"
Gabe didn’t know what to expect, but what fell from Senara’s lips was the furthest from anything he could have imagined. His chest immediately tightened even as a hard thud reverberated in his ears. His eyes that had been so fixed on Senara up to that point pulled away from her and found a box of purple nitrile gloves to fixate on instead. Nails kept those around only if someone was clearly allergic to latex. Gabe reached a hand up and pulled at darker purple hair near the side of his face. The soft pastels of his aura had muddied again becoming darker, messier hues.
He could have lied to her. He could have insisted that wasn’t the case. He could have said that he trusted Rep with his whole being and then some but lying required force of will— and Senara had inadvertently stripped him of that. “Yeah,” he answered after almost a minute of silence. “Kind of.” He shrugged his shoulders weakly. “I didn’t…. I didn’t hope he wouldn’t catch me, but if he just so happened to not, that’d be fine.” A pause. He wondered how much of this he should tell; how much he even wanted to tell. How much of it was TMI and how much of it could she weaponize later? Did it even matter when she’d already gotten to the heart of the situation by asking Arietta herself?
A sigh. “Ara was… is… one of the few people… if maybe the only person I’ve ever fallen in love with,” Gabe stated slowly, not looking back to read Senara’s expression regarding this. “I spent so much time thinking that love wasn’t a thing, and then she just… wormed her way into my skull.” He laughed once, a small self-pitying laugh. He paused looking back at her. “If you went to the address on file, you met my mom already….” A pause. “She was… a lot worse years ago.” His eyes pulled away again. “I wanted to run away from home with… Ara….” he exhaled slowly, some color had come to his cheeks, a mix of embarrassment and sadness. “And just get out of Arciel all together…” He shrugged his shoulders once. “Long story short, that didn’t happen, and Ara and I broke up.”
Another pause. “At least until a few months back when we… ran into each other again…” Gabe’s aura crackled, but there wasn’t the fiery orange or yellow in it, now, it remained clouded with darkness. “And it was like… stupid that….” His hand reached to his chest and gripped the shirt in front of it instead. “I both wanted to ruin her and...” And. And. And. A weird, forced laugh escaped from him at that. “And then on Halloween…. At the ball … I ran into her again not recognizing her and….fell in love with her stupid ass again….” A weird giggle escaped from him, and he reached up to grip the side of his face and then back to his hair. “And I thought she felt the same. It… we were dancing like normal and…. It was… like the past. So when she invited me to the dance studio I though….”But she didn’t. Or she did and didn’t want to anyways. Another giggle broke and died. “Long… story short….” Gabe sighed. “I… wasn’t entirely thinking that day on Reptar.” A pause. “….Thanks for yelling at me. It helped.”
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 10, 2019 18:17:22 GMT
"Ari" it is, then.
Senara kept quiet and listened, and, although she tried to keep her expression neutral, the traces of worry that knotted her brow and turned the corners of her mouth down didn't care about appearances right now. Of all the times to be right on the money. Why were people like this? What made people willing--wanting--to die, even if not committed to the idea, when another person they loved didn't love them back? What sort of insanity was that? She had never felt that sort of love towards somebody else and she never would and that was perfectly fine. But it did mean she couldn't empathize with this sort of heartbreak. Everything felt like she was watching it on a stage, unable to relate to it.
But she would try.
"It's...it's not stupid," she mumbled, "It's insane, and it's not healthy, probably, but it's not stupid. Even if it's been years you cared a lot about her and it ended in a way that didn't really...let you guys get closure. She took it one way, you took it in another. It's awful, but it's not...you're not stupid for still wanting somebody important to you in your life." She could relate to that part if not the romantic aspect. "But you are absolutely stupid for thinking anybody is worth dying over just because they don't feel the same way."
"I know I'm biased because--pardon my Kalosian--I could not give a rat's ass about her. I don't know her. But I know you, and you don't deserve to die over somebody like her. Or anybody if you want to get broader. I'm not saying you deserve to be pushed away, either, because that's also a horrible feeling, but...nobody should make you feel like dying is preferable to their absence. And if they do then you might be better off without them anyway." She brought her hand up and rubbed the eyelid over the empty socket. Yeah, the darker light, even through her skin, wasn't any nicer to look at, but with both of them able to see it was somehow easier to take; like it was split between them rather than being forced all through her working eye. Whatever logical sense that made.
Senara scoffed and shook her head. "Don't thank me. I've shouted at people over way less serious things and thanking me will just encourage me to do it more. You know, on the off-chance that I'm dissuading them from killing themselves with my incessant complaining." She smirked slightly at Gabe from under her arm. "Houe stupide."
A small puff of air escaped from Gabe as he was assured it wasn’t stupid. He opened his mouth to say something, a rebuttal to those words, perhaps, but nothing came out. His mouth just sort of closed, and his eyes dropped. As she went on, he flinched a couple of times at her words, but he couldn’t find anything to say back. Instead, he just kept listening and… listening. Hah… getting lectured by Senara of all people…hahahahah…. Why was… that so funny now? Why did that lessen some of the tightness in his chest? Why did … he feel like he could breathe just a little easier.
“My, my… if I didn’t know any better, I’d say wasting all that breath on me makes it sound like you like me,” Gabe chuckled softly a goofier smile coming to his features then. “I….” Gabe paused and then forced a smirk his pastel aura could not replicate for the life of him. “And you have to wonder why I said I liked you.” Even if… right then it may have been a little more than before. Whatever. His features fell slowly after, and he shrugged absently to himself again.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 11, 2019 19:20:19 GMT
Senara felt her cheeks heat up just a little and her smug smile dropped into a scowl. "Like you? Please. If not wanting you to die pointlessly is enough for you to think that, then you've got a low bar for 'liking'. You're j-just my business partner. If you go off and kill yourself then I'm out of a gig, and coming out here would have been for nothing!" Her tone of voice betrayed the spike of embarrassment that went through her at that little smile he gave her. Seriously, this moron! She still didn't understand him at all, and this was in no way helping! Any good, kind person would say this sort of shit to him if he dared to find them. Arietta would probably do it, too, even after everything he'd done.
But...he didn't have some kind, good person here with all the details, willing to listen, and trying to talk him through it. He had her. She wasn't either of those things. Any of them.
Not really.
"I'm just protecting an investment." She huffed and turned away from him as best as a woman laying on a bed could, which was just her turning herself onto her side, arms crossing defensively over her chest and hoping the red on her face would be mistaken for the lighting going through her bright pink hair. "...any smart person would do that."
The way Senara responded was… was hilarious. What did they call it in TV shows? Tsundere? ….Oh now I have to fuck with her… As that thought returned, Gabe was aware he was feeling better if nothing else. Better enough to want to mess with people…
Anyways. “Protecting an investment?” Gabe ask-repeated a saccharine tone coming to his voice now. He leaned against the bed a little even as she turned away from him (though not enough to repeat the mistake of last time being elbowed so hard). “That’s cute.” He laughed now a little louder. A hand reached up and prodded her back a couple of times. “If nothing else, I’d say I’m the one investing the most…” he went on poking and prodding. “And you’re the one with the most to gain now— Miss Going To My Mom’s House Of All Things.”
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 12, 2019 15:13:23 GMT
His stupid finger was poking her and she wanted to smack him again, this time in the nose and this time on purpose. Senara only hissed and squirmed and flailed her arm in his direction instead. "Oh, shut up! I said I would pay for everything, you just decided to pay yourself! This is why I hate owing people anything!" Her hand eventually reached far enough to find Gabe's dumb face, but rather than slapping it she put her palm to his chin and pushed as much as she could at this angle, trying to just knock him back into his chair or at least far enough away to cease poking. Their height difference didn't help. "And I wouldn't have gone to her house if you'd just given your actual address instead!"
Senara huffed and turned just enough to point at Gabe's nose, still flushed just so and now pouting her lips together. Before she said anything, though, the expression cooled and so did her cheeks, and she lowered her arm back to her side. "...she's also the one who called your sugar daddy your 'boyfriend', in case you were wondering. And she said to come home for Christmas. I wasn't gonna tell you since, like, it's super not my business, but I owe you again, so there's...something." Senara went quiet again.
What did he mean by "way worse years ago"? She seemed fine, I guess. She totally didn't trust me at all. Was that because I was looking for Gabe? Or something else?
"I asked for you by name, by the way, when she answered the door. Was that a bad move?" Another small pause, then, quietly, she clarified: "...the name not on your ID, if...that makes any difference. I was trying to be formal and wasn't sure if you'd...changed your name legally, or if she knew about it, or...whatever. So."
Gabe Alim WC: 333 People have decent relationships with their parents? Whaaaaaaaaat?
There was a moment of resistance against Senara’s hand before Gabe sat back again in his chair and exhaled a little softer than before. The smile he had been holding up to this point faded some as Senara went on, though, and a dry huff evolved into a drier laugh right after. “Oh really?” Gabe asked shaking his head a little and rolling his eyes. Absently a hand reached up to grasp a lock of purple hair to pull at. “Well then.”
What came after, however, had Gabe looking forward at Senara again. “…” Ah. “Gabe has been my legal name for four years now,” he started slowly choosing his words carefully then. “Gabriel isn’t… a name I associate with anymore, exactly.” There was an unexpected pause, and a weird breath inward turned into a weirder sigh out. “I can’t exactly say it’s a deadname but… It took me two of those years to get her to stop using it...” A forced grin. “Calling me Gabriel is… antagonizing.” A gulp went unnoticed by Gabe himself. “So she probably assumed you were trying to… signal something, I guess?” A shrug came and went. “Just call me Gabe.”
Alright. Senara was not so proud to say that she hadn't fucked up spectacularly in both her assumptions with Gabe's mother, as well as bringing up the subject of their old name in the process. She was silent as she looked over the tint of his aura, the way it dulled, and felt it sting her eyes in a way different to the bright black light. But at least she got a little more information to stop her from making the same mistake again...man, and she was going to call him that during the heist for shits and giggles. That would've gone well.
"So what you're saying is your mom thinks I was coming to kill you or something. Great. Awesome. Putain ma vie." Senara grumbled and placed her arms, both of them, over her head to cover her eyes with one and her mouth with the other. "Excusez-moi de supposer qu'un criminel aurait suffisamment de relations avec ses parents pour ne pas partager quelque chose d'aussi personnel. Hahah. If I ever meet her again I'm gonna need to bullshit extra hard to make up for that one. Think she'll buy that I just was trying to be, like, formal and wanted to look mature to her? Or maybe that I'm a dumbass?"
That tends to be my go-to these days. Does "ditzy" go hand-in-hand with pink hair?
"As long as I don't need to tell her we're dating, too, to save my hide, I'll come up with something," She peeked her eye out from under her arm. "...mm, I dunno, I like 'Gabby', too. Is that clear for use? I can save it for when you're being a little shit if it helps at all."
Another forced laugh escaped from Gabe. “Yeah probably something like that, I’d imagine,” he answered a little easier now. As she went on in Kalosian, though, he could only half-guess what she was saying. Leaning back in his chair, he glanced up at the ceiling instead. “I dunno, maybe I’ll tell her you did try and kill me and then we became friends,” he spoke dramatically then as his gaze lowered back to her. “Granted she already made an assumption about Amell from the sounds of it.” He snorted softly after.
….Pfff. “I suppose you can use it,” he answered slowly. “Though then I’ll call you Senny in response.” The corners of his mouth twitched up a little at that. “Sensen maybe….”Definitely not Nara though…
"I mean, you're the one who threatened to break every bone in my body the first time we met, so that's...not..." Senara lowered her arm again and mumbled into it. Nope, she was a second away to completely confirming that stupid logic of his. They weren't really friends, he was just deluded and she was just too much of an idiot for not walking away. That was it. No friendship here, no sir. "Maybe she just wants to assume the guy you're living with who mysteriously pays the bills and buys you shit and lives in a house with you is your partner and not, you know, your actual Arceus-damned sugar daddy. Ew."
She dropped her arms to her sides again. Alright. Headache going away, she could probably actually sit up and walk now. Slowly she began sitting up--she had learned her lesson the first couple of times, she wasn't going to rush it--and pushing her hair out of her face. "Pffsah. Nobody's called me anything like that. I still don't know where you got 'Sena' back in Pine, that's not what I go by." Senara stuck her tongue out at Gabe, lips curled in a coy smile around it. "And by the way, you still owe me that thirty percent of the cut, whether you like it or not. Help me to my feet?" Senara extended her arm.
"I promise not to fall on you this time. I think I can get up. Like actually."
A sharp airy snicker came from Gabe all of a sudden. “I did,” he agreed with a strangely easy air right then. “Because if it’s one thing I won’t tolerate, it’s having things taken from me.” That was far too light and playful to be talking about violence, but here Gabe was anyways. His features fell a little as she went on, though, and a small shrug was given after. “Probably…”
He watched her move with a certain level of care in his gaze. At the rebuttal to the nickname, he chuckled. “Senny it is then,” he grinned. “Only when you tease me.” The mention of the thirty percent earned a shrug in response. “Sure.” Because that wasn’t what he was after anyways.
The request had him standing up. “If you fall on me again, I’m leaving your ass here overnight,” was all he answered with before clasping her hand and starting to pull her upright. “Nails! You alive back there?” Gabe called at the door.
A low but audible ‘ugh’ was given back, and after a moment there he was again standing with a hand at his hip. Looking from Gabe to Senara, Nails gave a small nod. “Headed out then?” came the question.
Something about this threat--was it a threat?--of violence didn't have as much potency as Gabe's other attempts to scare and/or threaten Senara into doing what he wanted. Mostly it was because it wasn't a threat as much as it was him cheerfully reminding her why he'd threatened her in the first place, so it wasn't like he was going to deck her, but there was something...else about them, now, that didn't line up. Maybe it was the blur of colors around them, but their words came off as softer. He was being honest but not...
...not cruel. His aura is...too soft. It's not that blackness, utterly, like...then...
...huh?
Senara shook her head and tried to act like she hadn't been staring at his aura. Maybe he missed it. "That tracks. So. Actual question: sugar daddy know about the heist, or is he an innocent? Or a mark, I suppose, if you're using him. Him? Them? If there a gender-neutral phrase that lines up with 'sugar daddy/mommy'?...why am I asking these things." His mother had confirmed they were masculine but, eh, that didn't mean much. She accepted the offered hand and stood up with Gabe's help.
As she said she wouldn't, she didn't fall on him, but she did take a quick step forward and pull a little harder on their arm than normal to get her balance right. But she didn't feel like she was going to fall--more like somebody who hadn't properly woken up their body yet. Man, though, the pastels were stronger up-close like this. What was with all the purples and blues? She had to go digging into the history of Aura Guardians, maybe try to find some society of them online, if there even was one. There had to be, right?
"Yes. Thank you for coming up with an answer to...this. I'm still super confused but that's better than panicking, right?" Senara giggled weakly. She took a few steps by herself, looking around for a place to wash her hands so she could put her prosthetic eye back in. Once she had found one, washed up, and taken the eye from the cup of saline she slid it back into place and placed her eye-patch back over it. The lights she could see immediately dimmed again to faint, slightly irritating glowing. Not ideal, but she wasn't going to walk around without her prosthetic in. That wasn't safe. So she would need a better solution than closing off her other "eye", so to say. Hmm..
Thoughts for after she'd slept.
"Repeating my previous question, Gabby: you have my purse, or do I have to go back to your little love nest to pick it up? I won't mind but if he's home I may need convincing not to make a thousand snide comments. Preferably in the form of shiny things."
“Hahahahhah…” Gabe snickered softly at the question. “He doesn’t know, and I’d like to keep it that way.” As well as all of his underhanded things, but Gabe digressed from that specifically. Pulling her up to standing, he then called for Nails.
Nails just gave a small nod at Senara’s words. “Better than thinking you have a brain tumor,” he answered quietly. “Which would have also been a possibility.” As Senara looked for a place to wash her hands, Nails made a gesture to the sink and then directed her to the deionized water rather than the tap water- something about Bass City having a hard-water problem, apparently.
Gabe, meanwhile, let out a puff of air at the commentary. "I wasn't... thinking about your purse at the time." He really didn't want to invite her in on the off chance that Amell was there, but... but Amell hadn't been there when he had left so what was three seconds, right? "C'mon... we'll... go get it." he muttered more to himself than to Senara before turning and starting to walk out. Nails rolled his shoulders and waved them off.
As they got out onto the street again, Gabe fished out a Pokeball and released Clopper. "Want a ride?" he offered with a small smile after. The Gogoat, meanwhile, immediately looked over Senara worriedly. Was she ok now? Did she need anything? Goodness.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 14, 2019 17:13:12 GMT
"Alight, I'll be sure to keep my face on if I run into them." With her things in order and legs not about to give under her, Senara gave Nails one more thankful smile--which did weaken for a moment at the thought of a brain tumor, whee--and followed Gabe out into the streets of Bass. Wherever the hell they were it wasn't as terrifying as she expected. Illegal or not, Nails probably didn't want their office in a sketchy alley where random criminals might try to break in. Then again, the random criminals might be his clients, if Gabe having a tab with the guy was any indication. What kind of nonsense must he get into to have a running tab with a doctor....yikes.
Senara gave Gabe's arm a small pat just on the elbow. "Right, concern for my health. What a weird thing to worry about." Her sly voice only covered the slightly more genuine smile on her face by a little bit. The Gogoat did get a brighter grin though. While not a rare sight in Kalos itself, and not one of her more favorite Pokemon, they were still kind of cute and very useful. "She's not going to give me as much of a fright as Rep, is she?" She teased, holding out a hand for Clopper to sniff, then petted her on the head. "If you wouldn't mind. The other option is I break out my Steelix and go smashing through the street. Would that be too conspicuous for us? I think it's a bit too conspicuous for us."
She looked up at the Gogoat, then at Gabe with a little more color in her cheeks. "Um. I might need a hand in climbing up. My legs are fine for walking but...not sure I trust them to pull me up just yet. No funny business."
Clopper immediately pressed her nose against Senara’s hand and then leaned her face against said hand as she was pet. She was glad the pink one was ok. She had been so worried when Gabe had asked her to carry her the first time.
Gabe smirked a little softly at Senara’s words. “I don’t think Nails’d appreciate us rampaging through the streets near his clinic.” Looking back at the Gogoat, he smiled a little softly. “Clopper’s a very mild Pokemon,” he answered. “You’d really have to offend her to have a problem. You probably won’t even have to hold on if you sit right.” Gabe’s own hand reached up and ruffled the leafy appendages at the Gogoat’s neck. She twitched at the touch of a tickle spot, and all her leaves seemed to tremble at once before she shook out her entire body. Gabe snickered and removed his hand.
At the admittance, though, Gabe looked at Senara again. “If I wanted funny business, I could have had that when I lifted you onto Clopper the first time,” he smirked only to get a sudden headbutt to the shoulder from Clopper. “Ow fuck— !!!!” The Gogoat stomped her foot once, clearly offended. Gabe smiled a little weaker. “Right….” When Senara was ready, he’d help her up from the waist and make sure she got over onto the Gogoat just fine.
Post by Senara Spargo on Dec 14, 2019 20:08:54 GMT
Senara continued to pet and scritch the Gogoat with a gentle smile on her lips. She was a real sweetheart. How the hell had Gabe managed to catch her, let alone convinced her to work with him. "Duly noted. Thank you for letting me ride you tonight, Clopper."
Before she got helped up, Gabe opened his gob and got a horn--thankfully curled back instead of pointed forward in the back. Senara snorted behind her hand. Between this and Rep he must get a lot of bruises. Maybe that was why he had a tab with Nails. "Do you have a trend of pissing off all of your Pokemon to the point that they smack you up? Or are Clopper and Reptar just the exceptions?" She held her arms out so he could hoist her up by her waist. It was a little insulting how easily she was lifted up and moved around but, hey, it made some things convenient. She put her leg over the strange leaf-like fur...foliage...coat of Cloppy's back and nestled her hands into it gently.
"Alright, I'm ready. I'm used to riding on something a lot taller than me, so...here goes?"
A weird forced laugh came and went from Gabe. “The real question is if I haven’t managed to piss them off yet, are they really mine?” he retorted softly. “Even Lizbeth lit me on fire when we first met hahahah.” Good times. A small nod was given to Clopper rather than Senara, and sure enough they both started moving.
Clopper’s gait was uncharacteristically smooth even among her kind. Every little motion was mitigated some as she walked alongside Gabe. Their pace wasn’t slow either. As Gabe had mentioned, holding on was only really a preference, not a requirement. They walked back up the street, made several twists and turns, and sure enough came back to the house again. As he got there, though, Gabe started to slow. Ok, ok. The lights were on, but he had assuredly left them on. He didn’t see the car in the driveway so— wait but it could be in the garage. It was fine. Walking up to the door, he fished out his keys, unlocked it, and stepped in—
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