steelwilled:
“Some disaster I would imagine…”, it was the only thing that could explain an entire city just being abandoned like this. From what he could gather from his surroundings, it didn’t appear to be a natural one, but then again there were still other possible answers that couldn’t be ruled out with just a brief glance over. “But I doubt we’ll get a clear cut answer anytime soon. Not unless we find the caretaker of the lighthouse, he or she knows, and they’re willing to talk about it anyway.”
“In anycase, it might be better to head back toward the lighthouse; we probably have a better chance of meeting someone there.” This was true enough. Someone who had been fixing up the lighthouse was likely to return there, but it wasn’t his only reason for wanting to leave. A city in ruins was hardly a pleasant environment to stand around in. Any curiosity was currently overtaken by the disappointment at finding it this way, the bad omen it seemed to be, and the implications of what possible tragedy had happened here.
“Disaster is putting it lightly, I would say,” Wallace continued staring with wide eyes. Of course he would say it was putting it lightly to simply say disaster— he who exaggerated almost everything and did everything in a larger than life manner. As his eyes took in the scenery, his heart ached to realize that almost everyone who had once lived here must be dead or somewhere dying. ”The caretaker of the light house,” he repeated as though he couldn’t believe that a person like that even existed. Given their surroundings, it would be hard to blame him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t take his eyes away from the crumbling buildings that looked like they’d been attacked by something far worse than a raging Gyarados. Slowly, he removed the hat from his head and began to wring it in his hands. ”What if that person is not alive anymore?”
Only Steven’s words brought him around from the trance that he’d fallen into. Turning to him, he shook his head. ”No, what if no one comes? We’ll starve to death or something too.” Again, he was being his usual melodramatic self. He wouldn’t starve if he could just eat a fish or something without bawling like a baby. ”I just… I mean… there has to be something beyond this one city. If we flew on your Metagross…”
steelwilled:
“Perhaps,” his smirk grew as he glanced over at his cheerful friend, “But there’s nothing wrong with that is there?” Whatever tension there had been before they had turned in last night seemed to have vanished, which Steven was glad for. It was pleasant to see his friend at ease and laughing. “Hah that’s true. I might’ve been more reluctant to rise this early if that were true.”
“Hm indeed.” Letting out an extremely drawn out sigh, Steven scanned the remnants of the city again. Nothing pointed toward inhabitation, and of course after several days of trying to survive on their own, their only lead at finding help and shelter ending up dead was disappointing. “Still… this begs the question,” he mused, turning back to look in the direction they came from, “If no one lives here, why and how is the lighthouse being maintained?”
“Well now, that depends on how you look at things,” Wallace replied with a playful twinkle in his eye. They were lucky; the weather was nice, with a gentle sea breeze. It gave a lovely atmosphere. However, Wallace still felt a chill looking around them.
“Well someone /must/ live here,” Wallace hugged himself to ward off the imaginary cold. It only made sense that there was someone alive, but looking around, there wasn’t much evidence of that, aside from the lighthouse behind them. With wide eyes, he continued looking around before lowering his head and shaking it. ”No, the better question is… what happened here?”
steelwilled:
He gave a small laugh but nodded concedingly. “Admittedly yes, but ordinary travelers down on their luck is still better in comparison to a pair of starved, crazed looking ruffians.” Though, if Steven had chosen to wear his left behind jacket, they probably would’ve looked like that too. “All things considered, our appearance isn’t as bad as it could’ve been.”
“…Mm, it would appear so.” Despite the closing distance, the noise level did not change. Everything remained relatively still aside for the slight breeze coming off the ocean behind them. A sinking feeling in Steven’s stomach grew until the town was fully in sight. Or what was left of it. The place seemed void of any human life. There was no movement, no signs of people starting their day; everything was still as if stuck, motionless in time. Regardless, It was glaringly clear that something was wrong, and Steven paused momentarily in his tracks. Well, this was a pretty unexpected, as well as unwelcome, turn of events.
“You’re being optimistic,” Wallace laughed gayly. Even considerinig all that had happened last night, he was in a rather good mood, having a bit of spring in his step as he followed Steven with a tight grip on the strap of his man purse. ”But you are right. It could always be worse. We could be doing this in the middle of winter!”
He was still in a chuckly mood, but this faded the moment his blue eyes caught sight of the town and the state of dilapidation that it had fallen into. ”Well…” he looked around with wide eyes, seeing that this was not even close to the bit of civilization that he’d expected. ”All things considered, now I feel a bit over dressed.”
steelwilled:
“Well, to be fair, I don’t think we look that terrible.” Steven started to protest, but lost his words after he began to feel the sensation of Wallace’s fingers in his hair. It wasn’t unpleasant at all; in fact it leaned more toward the opposite, but he didn’t explore that any farther as Wallace started to attend to his own hair. Really, it was too early in the morning for this.
“It is pleasant,” He agreed, stepping aside to allow his friend to exit first and closing the door behind them. The scent of the ocean permeated the air, though after days at sea, it was considerably less noticeable. The water was clearly visible now, as was the burnt out campfire from last night. It was particularly quiet as well, which was a little unsettling to be honest. Weren’t they within close proximity to a city? True it was dawn, but even so… Well, explanations would be found soon enough. “Let’s head off then. If I remember right, the town was off in this direction.”
“Oh Steven,” Wallace giggled. ”Don’t be so generous.” Because in Wallace’s eyes, they looked absolutely hideous. Only bleach would get Steven’s shirt truly clean, and the prissy man did not have words for how oily and disgusting his own hair had gotten to be. It was starting to curl as well, which made sense because Wallace could not recall the last time it had seen a straightner. ”I would say we pass as ordinary, down on their luck travelers, but a fabulous coordinator-champion extraordinaire and his well off businessman of a best friend, we do not appear.”
Wallace stepped out first and paused to put a bit of gloss on his lips. He was really scraping the pot at this point, and so he saved what he had for occassion such as this and moments when his lips became unbearabl dry. As they neared the town, he would voice Steven’s observation. ”The people of the city must be late risers…”
steelwilled:
A small smile formed on Steven’s face as he buttoned up his shirt. “Good to hear.” He was glad to see that his friend seemed to be in more lighthearted mood from the night before. It took a weight off of his mind for the moment. After he was done putting on his short, Steven stood up stretching. Now it was time to hopefully take care of the other things on his mind.
He listened to the plan, nodding at intervals before replying. “Sounds good. The city didn’t appear too far from the lighthouse, but we can probably have a better look at our surroundings now since it’s daylight.” As he said this, he went over to the door and opened it, squinting a bit at the change in lighting. It looked like it would be fair outside today at least; it would be better than trying figure out things in the rain.
“Even though we both look absolutely hideous,” Wallace fussed and started trying to smooth Steven’s hair down. Finally, he clicked his tongue and moved away, raking his fingers through his own hair and then twisting it up to place on his trademark hat. With no hair gel, his hair wouldn’t do the whispies he was known for, but oh well.
Wallace checked to be sure that he had all of his Pokeballs and then returned Edward to be sure that the Milotic didn’t cause too much of a spectacle. Then he followed Steven to the door. ”Oh my, what a lovely day! It is rather dreary inside of this lighthouse compared to the great outdoors. Onward!”
steelwilled:
Aggron knew enough to know something kept eating at his master and that Wallace was somehow involved, but he hadn’t quite put two and two together yet. Like trainer like pokemon, with the exception perhaps of that ribbon.. which certainly didn’t exist. psh.
Stirring slowly, Steven rubbed his eyes open glancing at his surroundings and then up at Wallace. “Ah. It appears I didn’t make it up the stairs last night..” He noted groggily, stiffly trying to straighten up. The entire process of him ending up there was a blur, but he supposed it didn’t matter too much as long as he was inside. Now though, he was wishing he had found a better spot to spend the night as he experienced immense stiff soreness. Sluggishly he grabbed at the now dry shirt draped over him and started to put it on. “You sleep well?”
“No, it appears you did not,” Wallace giggled at Steven, pressing a hand lightly t o his mouth. As for sleeping well, he was going to have to tell a little white lie here. “Oh, I slept alright.” That was until he realized that Steven wasn’t going to come up with him, but his best friend seemed so casual about it now. Perhaps Wallace had over thought it. It wouldn’t be his first time.
“It’s dawn now,” he pointed out. ”No one has come here, so I suggest we head to the city now, find someone to explain our situation too, and try to figure out exactly where we are. Then we can see about getting home.”
steelwilled:
“Goodnight… Sweet dreams.” Solemnly, Steven watched as Wallace retreated into the lighthouse. His friend was obviously still bothered by something, Steven could only assume it was the incident just prior. Letting out a large sigh after the door shut and Wallace vanished behind it, he went about the task of creating the small campfire absentmindedly. The skill of starting one was near second nature to him now, though he had fallen out of practice briefly before appearing here; it wasn’t long before one was lit and burning, and Steven sat in front of it lost in thought, staring through the flames.
Sensing his master’s brooding mood, Aggron made its way over and situated himself behind Steven, making it so that the forgotten shirt could actually dry and that his trainer could lean back on him to rest. The pokemon punctuated this with a light swat of his tail, forcing the man backward and bringing out a small chuckle from him. “I’m fine.” Steven attempted to reassure, to which Aggron responded with a small grunt of disbelief. Honestly, who did he think he was trying to fool? Aggron knew him best out of all his pokemon after all.
Minutes passed and soon Steven started doze, despite his swirling thoughts. The large pokemon allowed him to sleep until the untended fire began to die and the others began to gather round, peering at their sleeping owner. Nudged awake, he greeted and apologized with a yawn, returning them all and starting back to the light house half asleep, almost dry shirt hung over his shoulder. Once he got inside, he drifted off again at the foot of the stairs, having not the energy nor the desire to climb them. Steven was, by all means, completely exhausted.
“Goodnight, Steven,” Wallace called, but he was in an obvious hurry with Edward trailing along behind him. He thought that Steven surely must have noticed his erratic behavior, but the champion also felt that his options were vastly limited. It was either fleeing rather unceremoniously or staying and drooling all over himself. He didn’t realize that one was likely more welcome than the other.
Either way, those two needed help, and Edward was at his wits end. Sometimes he wondered if Aggron noticed any of this and just didn’t care. He was too busy being macho… perhaps, but then Edward had seem him fiddling around with a certain dirty old ribbon once or twice.
The rest of the night was uneventful for Wallace, who spent it brushing his Sealeo and then going to sleep. In the middle of the night, he thought he heard Steven come in, and so he sat up with his heart pounding, but there was nothing. At length, he got up and tiptoed down the stairs, finding Steven asleep at the foot. It must have been his fault that Steven didn’t come up; Steven must be uncomfortable. Wallace would leave him alone, but he wouldn’t get very much sleep that night, and as soon as the first rays of sunlight made their way into the lighthouse, he went down to prod Steven with his toe.
steelwilled:
“Ah .. Thank you.” Hesitantly, Steven reached out for the shirt and gently took from his friend, eyes briefly scanning the others face before trailing back down to the garment. He knew the other was uncomfortable; Wallace wouldn’t lift his gaze from the water, nevermind look at him, but he couldn’t blame him. No, if there was blame to be had, it would belong to the shirt thief who looked entirely too unapologetic at the moment. He shot the pokemon a quick dirty look, before turning to go back to his spot on the beach once more, this time with a tighter grip on his shirt. Quickly, Steven wrung some of the seawater out of his hair and shirt before getting dressed, save for the still very wet top which he decided would just have to dry out more before putting it back on; no matter how much he wanted to put it back on at the moment he wasn’t about to catch a chill doing so. Instead he hung on one of Aggron’s horns, who didn’t seem to mind being a temporary clothes rack. Now, to start on that fire..
“Of course there’s no need to thank me!” Wallace sounded absolutely cheerful, as though it wasn’t at all tempting to be so near Steven while both of them were wearing so little clothing. He did not need to ask himself what his problem was; the lust threatened to set him on fire and then Steven wouldn’t need to bother starting one.
Edward was proud of himself, of course, rocking from side to side as he used his tail like a fan. He wasn’t hot at all— just being his charming self and playing innocent.
“Well,” Wallace forced a yawn. ”I’ve decided to forego a meal in favor of sleeping. We have an early morning after all. Goodnight Steven!” Retrieving his neatly folded clothes, Wallace hurried on, entering the lighthouse once more.
steelwilled:
Refusing to look behind him, Steven didn’t notice Edward’s casual approach. Instead, his attention was squarely directed on things to do after he got out of the water and dressed. Building a small campfire seemed a good idea, if for nothing else than to help dry off his shirt. Then, perhaps, he should check on his pokemon again, make sure they were providing for themselves and weren’t hungr- This chain of ideas was severed after he felt his shirt being tugged from his grasp.
“What-” Steven turned to watch the milotic make off with the spoils. Words died out after that. Dumbfounded, he stared after the pokemon for a few seconds, wondering why on earth would Edward want his shirt, especially in its current state before finally deciding it didn’t matter. With this momentary confusion dispersed, he began to follow after him, only pausing once to hesitate when he saw the destination and drop off. Oh of course. The man was beginning to think the universe had it out for him.
Wallace had tried focusing on bathing, but hearing a wet plop in the water, he turned to see that his Milotic had brought him Steven’s shirt. ”Why do you do these things to me?” he grumbled at Edward, who was lying flat on the water, floating around Wallace in circles. Sighing, Wallace picked up the shirt and took it the rest of the way, holding it out to Steven and clearing his throat. “I suppose we should see to making a fire now, shouldn’t we? It is rather late.” In all of this, he refused to look Steven in the eye, instead focusing on the dark water that they were in. ”We have an early morning don’t we?” Not expecting Steven to answer, Wallace continued on for the shore, climbing out and redressing without bothering to dry himself too much. Thanks to Edward, he was dying of embarrassment and just wanted to get to sleep ASAP.
steelwilled:
Continuing his efforts on attempting to focus on cleaning, Steven now chastised himself mentally for every glance he took. There was no reason for him to feel so … distracted. A task needed to be done and usually that was enough to reign in any drifting thoughts or ideas. In light of current circumstances, however, this approach was failing to make much of a difference, which just wound him up further. To say he was annoyed at himself would’ve been an understatement.
The question that plagued him most was why. Why was he so distracted? Why was he both so hung up on and set against about thinking about why? Why did he catch himself when he started thinking too deeply about Wallace? He was his dear friend; there shouldn’t be anything wrong with having him in his thoughts. Though another small voice in his head started to gently remind him that it wasn’t just passing thoughts, and there were daydreams and actual physical sensations that accompanied them. This caused an immediate shut down on that trail of pondering, as he suddenly realized that he had stopped cleaning and hadn’t moved for quite a few moments now, staring blankly at his shirt. When he moved his gaze upward and to the side, he finally caught a glimpse of Wallace (or rather what he could see of him, as he was deeper in) in the moonlight. A painful clenching sensation resounded in his chest, as his grip tightened on the shirt, his mind beginning to flood again. Steven shook them away, tearing his eyes away from the source and back to the object he was trying to clean. After a brief and rather halfhearted inspection, he came to the decision that there was no point in trying to wash it further. It looked cleaner, but the spots remaining would not dilute out in the end. Sighing, he slung the item over his shoulder as he slowly started back for shore, ignoring the still present feeling in his chest.
Wallace tried to focus himself on bathing and thoughts of what was ahead of them. Come tomorrow, they would have to strike out into town and meet with them natives. it was going to be odd to explain that they had been floating around on a Wailord’s back, or so he thought. He had no idea, of course, of the ship and it’s odd inhabitants.
Sighing, he dipped his head into the water and then turned to look at Edward, who was floating casually along there. The Milotic mewled, but then lifted his head quickly, seeing that Steven was about to leave. He then floated along casually after him. Then, just as casually, he nabbed Steven’s shirt and carried it back to Wallace, dropping it in the water in front of him.
