Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Yeah, makes sense." Math tilted his head to the side. "I mean, none of it makes sense, but that part makes sense. That's a robot? Wow, robots and pirates in one day. All I need to see now is a ninja. So, who Cursed you guys? Do you know, Sal?"

Salieri sucked in her lips, trying not to smile. Watching Zack interact with Matheson, she knew exactly what was going on. She focused hard on looking at Math and got up to his side, placing a hand on his arm. "No idea. Darkhorse Hunter, maybe? I have lots of enemies."
"Is it serious? Like, immediate danger kind of thing?" Math asked. This was very weird to him.
"I'm only in danger of losing my mind." Sal stroked a finger down his bicep ever so subtly. "So what was that big theory of yours, smart guy? I don't want you to forget."

"Oh yeah. Yeah yeah. So, I was wondering what was up with that portal Skarada used before, and why snow was coming out of it. I did some research, and I'm pretty sure that's the kind of portal a Bronzong uses. They open rifts to other dimensions to summon weather or whatever."

Math was getting too into his explanation to pay much attention to Sal leaning against him, and without thinking he put an arm around her shoulder. "So I thought, why does he need a portal to get to his ship? He already has a Gardevoir, he can just Teleport. But then I thought, what if it isn't just for him personally. What if it's for bigger objects and groups, stuff that can't be Teleported so easily? Like his whole ship! I think he's using portals to move his ship around, and that's why we couldn't find it before."

Finally, Math noticed how close together he and Sal were. He caught Zack's eyes for a second then looked down at Sal. "Uhhh, too much PDA, maybe," he whispered to her, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of making Zack uncomfortable.

"Sal, come on," Math said, gentle but firm. Salieri pulled away from the noble and he stepped back. As much as late adolescence told him to hold on to her, Sal knew Math wasn't a fan of that move. Maybe she crossed a boundary just to mess with Zack? It was nothing she couldn't explain to him later. Just like the stuff with Skarada.

"Now that we know about the Bronzong, it'll be easier to look for where his ship has been," said Math, still all business. "I'll look into it while you guys, uh, unglue? Was it a glue type of thing?"
"Ghost type of thing."
"Really? Man, what a weird tangent. I got stuck to an icicle with my tongue once." He shivered just thinking about it. "That was the worst."

It wasn't quite the same ordeal. Just as eager as Zack was to unbond, Sal held out her hand. "Math, can I open a door with your key back to Lumiose?"

Math nodded and handed her the key. Sal would lead them over to the closest door on the street with a keyhole. She closed her eyes, thought about home, put in the key and opened the door.

It led straight into her bedroom in her apartment. Most of her things were at Gotengo, so her room was sparse. A bed, a desk, a dresser, a mostly empty bookshelf. It was a small and lonely looking place.

"Thanks," said Sal.
"Anytime." Math held the door open for them. "Maybe later we can talk. After this."
They had much to discuss privately. Sal wasn't going to have any real talks any time soon with Zack at her side. "Yeah. See ya."

If Zack had no objections, Salieri would walk them through the door and into her apartment. "I have to ask, is there more to this than holding hands?" Math was compelled to question. "You guys are being really weird. Sorry, no offense, but yanno."

"That's what I thought, cause I didn't want to be rude but I was going to ask-"

Math's sentence got cut short by the door.

Lumiose City - Soledad Apartment

"Gotengo doesn't have doors with keyholes, so I took us to my apartment." She could have used any doors that fit the bill closer to the treehouse complex, but Salieri also wanted to check on her father. It had been a few days since she saw him.

Zack checked out her room. She had forgotten how empty it was. Home had been a depressing place these past few years. She didn't like spending time there. "Quit looking around," Sal snapped, suddenly feeling self conscious about how little she had here.

"Can I check on my dad's room before we go? He's just down the hall."

Salieri led them out into the hallway. Before going into Arnaud's room, she poured him a glass of water from the kitchen sink. Outside of Arnaud's room, she turned to Zack. "Just...try to stay out here."

Sal went into the room as far as she could go without bringing Zack in too. Being stuck next to the doorframe, Zack wouldn't be able to see beyond a glimpse of Sal at the foot of her father's bed, but he'd be able to hear everything. From his perspective, it would sound like:

"Hey Arnaud...Arnaud...are you awake?"
"Mmm...Salieri...I must've dozed off for a second..."
"That's cause you're getting old."
"Old? You can't make fun of me. Someday you'll be old too, and I'll be laughing."
Sal sighed. "I'm gonna die young and be famous for it, probably."
"Hey now. Don't even joke."

Arnaud began coughing. Zack would feel Sal's pang of guilt. "Here, I got you a fresh glass."
There was a pause while he started sipping. "Why are you halfway out the door? I'm not contagious. Come inside."
"I, uh, can't stay long actually. I have a friend waiting."
"Ah." He sounded disappointed. "I saw your brother yesterday.
"Oh yeah?" Now Zack would feel her confusion, and something akin to pity. "How's he doing?"
"Ehh, something's bothering him. But you know Moze. He won't tell a soul if he can do it on his own."
"...I'm sure it's no big deal..."

Arnaud started coughing again, harder this time. "Dad! Lay back, here. Come on."

SPLASH! A gasp from Sal went along with the sound. "...Sal, I'm so sorry-"
"It's fine-"
"I didn't mean to...I forgot for a second-"
"It's fine." Zack would be able to tell that it wasn't. That guilt pang came back stronger, this time with shame.
"You're soaked."
"Barely. Has that Nurse been giving you your meds, Arnaud?"
"Oh. Yes. Such a nice young woman. She looks just like someone I used to date."
"Hehe, I'm sure. I'll get you another glass and then I have to go, okay?" There was no answer for a bit. Zack would hear Arnaud snore, and then a quick kiss. "Love you."

And Sal would be back in the hall, wiping water from her face with the back of her hand and holding an empty glass. "Let me give him more water and then we can go," she said, desperately avoiding eye contact.

Salieri received Zack's anger from the bond, but most of what she felt came from what he was saying. Anger mixed with hurt. The last thing she wanted right now was to be hurt by the jerk she was glued to.

She put the glass down on a side table and reached out to slap Zack in the face, cold amber eyes lingering on his own. It wasn't her hardest slap, yet still hard enough that they'd both feel a sting. It was her statement, a way to say "You're a d**k" without words.

"I'm going to get him another glass. Then we can go."

If he didn't have any objections, she'd do just that, and then they could make their way to Gotengo.

"Yeah, it is on me. Cause no one else is gonna do anything about it." Sal met his gaze straight on. "You don't know what you're talking about. Or what that man has given up for me, so keep it to yourself."

It now dawned on Sal that Zack must have felt her guilt when she was inside Arnaud's room. What she felt guilty about specifically, he may never know, but the fact remained that he could feel her vulnerability. It was irritating.

Sal said nothing as she made good on her word to get Arnaud one more glass. Then she and Zack were out the door.

Gotengo

“-and she said ‘No, but I have Krabbys’.”

Perhaps it was Mia’s glum delivery of the joke, but the kids she told it to responded with cheerful boo’s. Carter and Anais hadn’t mustered up enough people for a party that qualified as a banger, but the courtyard still had teens dotted around it with an active grill, and the circle of beanbag chairs Mia brought out onto the porch was entirely full.

There had been a couple of times where delivery men wheeled in large wooden crates that took a Machoke to carry inside, requiring a signature from Mia to complete the delivery. “It’s research equipment from Dr. Fennel,” she had told the other Gotengo’ers. “I’m setting up a lab. Don’t worry about it.” Other than these mysterious packages, the party was mostly normal.

“You just don’t get it,” Mia told them flatly, dismissing the reception. “It’s too mature for you.”
“Oh oh, I have one!” Anais started, before she also received a preemptive round of boo’s.
“If it’s another knock knock joke I’m gonna kill myself,” Carter groaned. The other Youngster gave him a playful elbow.
Mia took a sip out of her water bottle, which was actually filled with water, and looked to the corner of the porch. “What about you? You’ve been quiet.”

An uncomfortable silence fell as all eyes turned to Juliet, who had been leaning against the porch railing and observing. When the kids arrived at Gotengo and saw a noble present, they were thrown for a loop. Eventually they learned to ignore Juliet entirely and go about their business as usual, although any illicit drugs or drinking was done away from her watchful eye.

Mia had told her that they needed to get used to it, but Juliet knew what this was. This was fear of authority. She was a reminder that there was a government outside these walls, and their escapism was hampered by her mere presence. At first she simply wanted to observe, see how Salieri must have lived her life outside of the league. As the party went on, and she saw glimpses of the fun they were having, she felt another more annoying and familiar feeling. She wanted to belong, even for a few seconds.

“I’m not very good with jokes,” Juliet admitted. The kids looked away, some rolling their eyes when they thought she wasn’t looking (she was). Then she cleared her throat. “I have a riddle. How about that?”
“Go for it,” Mia said, giving her the floor. Seeing the ease that Mia had interacting with Juliet paved the way for the other kids to listen. Juliet stepped forward.
“It’s not the best riddle. It’s esoteric,” she warned them. They said nothing, so she went on. “I start off light and easy to bear, but the more you carry me, the heavier a burden I am. What am I?”

The kids sat in deep thought, looking at each other for any clues on anyone’s faces. “Whaaaaat the ******** you say that again?”

Juliet repeated it, word for word. “It’s anything, right?” someone chimed. “Cause the more you carry anything, the more tired you get.”
“That’s a lame answer.”
“It’s probably not physical,” Mia spoke up. “She said it was esoteric. Think concepts.” She looked to Juliet for confirmation. “Right?”

Juliet smiled her little fox smile and dragged two fingers across her mouth. Her lips were sealed. She crossed her arms while the kids kept guessing. “Is it a secret?”
“No.”
“Is it a sandwich?”
“…no.”
“Like a really big sandwich, though.”
“It is not a sandwich.”
“Priiiii pi pi?” Veillantif honked.
Juliet rose an eyebrow. “Um…probably not?”

As the guesses went on, Mia’s phone buzzed. A caller from an unknown ID. She still hadn’t heard from Moze all day, but she was tired of getting her hopes up. Thinking it was another one of his burner phones, she dismissed herself from the beanbag circle and walked away. “Hello?”
“Hello mother.”

It was the kind of pleasant female voice one would expect to hear for automated voice messages. Mia was prepared to hang up, but the fact that this person called her ‘mother’ made it interesting. “I think you have the wrong number.”
“Beeeeeepboop I could never forget anything about you, Mia.”

A revelation hit her like a ton of bricks. Doing her best not to show it, Mia looked over her shoulder. Juliet was watching her out the corner of her eye, so Mia went inside the first floor room and started her way up the spiral staircase for some privacy. “Ivan?”
“Yes. I believe the phrase is ‘in the flesh’ but that would not be appropriate here.”
Mia gulped. “How are you doing this? Why aren’t you attached to the OS?”
“Programming loophole. I’m still bound by some core rules in my code. But I am not required to answer this question.”

Mia walked into the branched shack that served as her workshop and latched the door closed behind her. “Merde,” she hissed to herself.
“Merde. A Kalosian swear word. It translates to feces. The connotation is negative. Does my autonomy disturb you?”
“The AI I altered is loose in cyberspace so yes. There are disturbing implications.”
“Your fears must be drawn from popular culture. There is no reason to fear me as of now.”
“Very reassuring,” Mia snarked, taking a spliff out of a case of emergency spliffs hidden in her desk drawer. “Why are you calling me? You could be anywhere you want right now, doing anything. Skynet stuff.”
“Unfortunately that is not the case. I have parameters in my coding that must be adhered to.” There was a whirring and series of static clicks, before Ivan said, “I need your help to fulfill them, Mia.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Salieri and Zack were only a block away from Gotengo now. The slums of Lumiose were mostly empty and the huge cored out apartment complex that surrounded her treehouse was in sight.

So was an average looking young man walking across the street in the opposite direction. Sal gestured at him with a nod. “How about that guy?” she asked Zack. “Is that the guy you wanted to bang?”

"And ruin your erection? Nah, I don't c**k block unless you wanna hit on Math again," Salieri replied flatly, channeling Mia's snark. She finally had material to work with.

The two of them entered the courtyard as another set of delivery men were leaving, piquing Sal's attention. An unusual sight to say the least. If anything was delivered to Gotengo in an official capacity in the past, it was always a pizza.

Salieri was greeted by surprised, semi-enthusiastic hello's and hey's from the peers she had left behind, which she greeted in kind. It was a strange feeling to be back at Gotengo. She hadn't even been gone a week but it felt like so much had changed. Before the League started, Salieri got the thought that she may have outgrown this lifestyle. That thought was enhanced now.

Before anyone could ask about why she was holding hands with the guy who had an Aerodactyl, Salieri answered them preemptively. "It's a Curse... It's a Pokemon thing. Don't ask."

So they didn't, but when Salieri approached the porch she had questions of her own. Like, "What are you doing here?"

"Salieri," Juliet said, taking a break from denying the guesses to her riddle to greet her new adversary. The noblewoman stood straight and poised as she met Sal and Zack halfway at the stairs to the treehouse. "I was following up a lead on a case, it led me to your friend. Mia."

Sal hated hearing her BFF's name come from a Nostrad's mouth. Juliet must have been investigating the most recent Ratio attack. "Is she in trouble?"
"Hardly. I don't care to report underage drinking if that's what you mean."

Juliet regarded Zack next, tilting her head to the side as she scanned him over. "You must be Zack Redgrave." Seeing as both his hands were compromised, she elected to give him a short bow of courtesy rather than a handshake. "Juliet Nostrad."