nellacerniera | Inbox [Victory Road]

[It might take a while due to travel time, but eventually Narancia shows up in Pallet Town looking for Bruno! He's never been to Pallet before, but he does at least think to message Bruno asking where he is instead of wandering around looking.]

i made it
where are you

[Well! Bruno's certainly glad he'd chosen to help out at the inn today instead of anywhere else...]

I'm currently at the inn. I'll be waiting outside for you.

[And luckily it doesn't take him long to get his things together so he can be outside waiting, as promised, by the time Narancia shows up.]

im on my way!!!

[And he is on his way, running towards the inn to meet up with Bruno. In fact, when he finally spots Bruno waiting, he runs up and hugs him. Narancia really did miss his friends in the months he's been here.

Nearby, a tiny, shiny Dreepy floats nearby, watching.]

I can't believe you're here! [He doesn't know whether to thank or call out Arceus for this.]

[Bruno puts down the Skitty that was in his arms as Narancia approaches, opening his arms for the incoming hug, and then hugging back--tightly.

(Hopefully, Narancia won't draw particular attention to how long the hug goes on before Bruno finally pulls back a little; that strays a little too close to a particular can of worms that he'd really rather not address right now.)

The Skitty eyes the Dreepy curiously, but doesn't move from Bruno's side--thankfully.]

I'm so glad to see you. [Hahaha god boy is he] You look like you've been doing well... good.

[Luckily, Narancia does not address that, mainly because he's just delighted to see Bruno again.]

You too! I've been here for months now, and you're the first person from the gang I've seen! [As much as he's been adapting, seeing someone familiar is still a delight.

Speaking of adapting, one thing did catch him a bit off guard when he arrived.]

Oh yeah, no one has powers or Stands here. They're just gone. [Narancia had felt kind of disarmed by that at first, even if he doesn't need his Stand here.

Meanwhile, Tartufo goes ahead and reaches forward to bat at the Skitty's tail.]

Edited 2022-05-05 09:06 (UTC)

["Months" would be far more alarming had it not been for a certain conversation with Emporio before, so luckily that comment doesn't throw him too badly.]

Months... I can't even begin to imagine. Well, I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

[He listens to the next part of that, nodding.]

I did notice... Adjusting to not having Sticky Fingers has been jarring. [To say the least!!!

Buttons lets out a surprised little meow when Tartufo bats at her tail, before tilting her head... and then waving her tail a bit, as if to tempt the Dreepy to bat at it again.]

Good. [Hopefully Arceus won't yank him away again, but you never know with legendary Pokémon.]

It's really weird, not having Stands. I know we have Pokémon here and we can't die and all that, but it's still annoying. [He still has strong feelings on that issue. It doesn't impact his life here much, but Narancia didn't like how vulnerable he'd felt without most of his usual ways of defending himself and with no idea what was going on.]

Tartufo takes the bait, batting at Buttons' tail again with a delighted chirp.]

[Hopefully...]

Quite. [... Wait.] ... "Can't die"? [Thaaaaaat sure is new info!

When her tail gets batted at again, Buttons meows again before scampering ahead a bit, continuing to wave her tail.

This is a game now, she's decided.]

[He shrugs, apparently not entirely sure on the whole no dying thing in this place himself.]

I guess we just pop up at the Pokémon Center instead of dying if something happens to us. I don't know how that works, but that's what's supposed to happen.

[Narancia's never tested that out to see how true it is, nor does he want to. You'll just have to take his word for it.

Meanwhile, Tartufo chases after Buttons, easily drawn into the game of trying to catch her tail.]

I... I see.

[OKAY WELL he is just fine never testing that himself, thanks.

Buttons, meanwhile, is pausing just long enough for Tartufo to catch up before scampering off again--except this time she's not looking where she's going and ends up bonking into Narancia's leg. Oops.]

It's really weird, huh?

[Narancia would explain more about this place, but he's cut off when Buttons runs into his leg, pulling his attention away.]

Huh? Hey, look where you're going there! [He's not being mean to Buttons, he's just startled.

Tartufo, taking the opportunity, rushes to catch up and bat at Buttons' tail while the chance is there.]

Definitely weird.

[But then oops. Buttons looks up at Narancia, staring for a moment or two... before letting out a a squeaky "mya!" and going back to playing with Tartufo.

Bruno allows himself a chuckle at the sight and murmuring a "be more careful" to the Skitty before returning his attention to Narancia.]

You were saying?

[Narancia watches the two Pokémon play for a moment as well, waving Tartufo off to keep playing with Buttons before returning his focus to Bruno.]

Anyway, weird stuff happens here all the time. Prom just happened, that's some sort of magnet for weird stuff every year and this time it was asshole birds, there was that time we got bodyswapped with our Pokémon, the giant Braviary that just showed up one day...

[In other words, there's a lot that happens here.]

[That's... a lot to take in, Bruno's quiet as he listens, nodding along.]

Sounds like it's never really boring around here--or if it does get that way, it doesn't stay that way for long.

Edited 2022-05-06 11:32 (UTC)

No, it's never boring. When nothing weird's happening, I've been going around to get badges from the gyms, I've got three so far! [He pulls out three badges to show them off with a grin, apparently quite proud of this accomplishment.]

Hey, what are you going to do now that you're here? [Narancia wants to know.]

Well, I've been thinking about it, and trying for badges myself might not be a bad idea. Might as well, at least.

[But, uh, mostly he just wants to stick with Narancia as much as possible for the time being.]

Nice! [Narancia's excited to hear this.] There's supposed to be sixteen badges, plus an Elite Four if you collect all of them!

[Narancia, being Narancia, wants to see if he can get that far. He's confident he can, of course.]

Might as well see how far we can get, right?

[Bruno has to admit, he's rather intrigued by the thought.]

Yup! [And Narancia's determined enough to push for those badges!

What else should he tell Bruno...]

Oh yeah, there's there two - Carly and Jolyne - who helped me when I got here with having somewhere to go and all that. They're living in the Sevii Isles, but I can go hang out with them if I want to stop travelling for a bit. [Yes, Narancia pretty much got adopted. Isn't that great?

...What's not so great is what Narancia asks next.]

...By the way, did you beat the boss? I don't know if you did or not because I was brought here in the middle of everything.

[He's nodding along to the first part, Bruno's very glad to hear Narancia got pretty much adopted while he was here.

But before Bruno can remark on the first part, before he can tell Narancia he'd like to meet Carly and Jolyne sometime--

--comes the question.]

[Oh, this is a conversation he knew was inevitable, that he knew was going to have to be had at some point.

He knew it was probably going to be early on into meeting with Narancia like this.

But he's not sure there's anything that could've prepared him for actually trying to have this conversation. He's not ready.

It's taken him so off-guard, he can't even really scramble to remain composed, and there's a couple of false starts, where Bruno opens his mouth to answer, but no words come out. Where he's not sure how the hell he's supposed to put this, when he doesn't have an answer either--]

[He takes a breath, and closes his eyes.]

... I don't know. I was brought here before things ended.

[... Sometimes simple is best.]

Edited 2022-05-11 07:40 (UTC)

...Damn it. [So Bruno doesn't know either. Then again, there was that pause, and Narancia's not an idiot, he knows that something isn't right with Bruno's reaction.]

What happened before that? I...the last thing I remember is saying that I wanted to go back to school, and then I was here. Were we getting close?

[... Well.]

I did what I could to give the others an opportunity. That's when I was brought here... I can only hope it'll help at this point.

[Bruno knows Narancia's not an idiot, and... He knows he can't keep everything to himself forever.

But there's really no tactful way to put the things he's trying to avoid.]

What happened, Bruno?

[Something happened, and Narancia wants to know what. It doesn't sound like the group lost, but what exactly did happen?

Inbox [Victory Road]

Roughly backdated to April 17 | action+some text

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1/2

I lied, it's out of 3

OKAY DONE SORRY

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1/2 :,)

2/2

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