Listening to Dawn she mentally came to this consensus: she thought of little else externally but her appeals which made her a good Coordinator if not a horrible conversationalist. It was interesting and exhilarating talking to someone who was so passionate about what they did, the teenager was distracting which proved to be a godsend for the twenty two year old focusing on those words was more than enough to keep her from thinking about Solidad and their relationship. "Okay, so because you're going into the first round with the intention of using ice and water type appeals I'm thinking something delicate that won't contrast too much with the decorations whatever they may be." She knew exactly what the decorations were going to be for each round and each day but that was confidential information that was not to be shared.
Turning around the rough sketch of the dress she showed the color scheme to the black haired girl. "We should go with a pale, almost white color for the dress something like Alice Blue, with a ribbon matching waist ribbon and garnish the whole thing with sapphire, cerulean and Carolina. The overall theme will work with your intended appeal and be pleasing to the eye." The professional feedback and explanations seemed to come as a shock to Dawn and blocked Cynthia from asking questions she already knew the answer too but it was only so long before they got into the uncomfortable conversation that was brewing between them with ammunition on both sides.
Reaching into the bin of plastic tabs beneath the counter she pulled out a card that had a number and letter combination on it and explained the organization of the internal show room. "So now we go to the closet of wonders, explore the madness, select a style, do some hemming and pinning here and there, mark the alterations on a blank dress and get to work. Look in the section marked with the Q, racks 100 to 130." Gesturing towards one of the arches that lead into the "closet of wonders" she let the fashion conscious younger girl go skipping gleefully into the dress room, it wasn't a fast move and it wasn't a jaunty walk the girl literally skipped over in a high hip swaying motion giddy with the prospect of putting on dresses. "Well, that's a first."
"It was Solidad wasn't it." It wasn't a question; it was a statement that instantly made her defensive even as it made her want to crawl into a hole and die. Hiding things from Cynthia was like trying to fit a Mamoswine into the icebox, just wasn't going to work, although the smart ass side of her did whisper that if you put it into a pokeball it would fit just fine. "Don't hide from me. Spill it or I'll find your favorite pair of boxers, you know the lucky ones with the Huntails and doubloons on them and torch them, Dev." And she would too.
That nickname again…
She tightened her jaw and stoically looked the blonde in the eyes, she'd have a hard time finding them because she'd lost them in The Under six months ago… it was more likely that Spark had kept them but that was the past and this was the present. They really were lucky boxers. She seemed to remember that little adventure as well because the tips of her ears went pink and she revised her threat.
"Tell me or so help me I'll tell the world who you really are, do you want to get swamped by fans?" and that did it, she actually winced at that, while everyone pretty much knew who Cynthia was on sight because of her status as Champion and her high regard in the world of archeology seeing the enigmatic Devyn somewhere and recognizing him was very unlikely. During the winter months she normally travelled somewhere, usually mountains or passes or particularly hard to find locations that yielded either: fascinating Pokémon, places, people, foods, or views. Every season a block ran in a popular travel magazine that was a recollection of the previous season's journeys usually accompanied by pictures or something of the sort, a traveler's almanac so to speak. In the winter Devyn took high altitude to a whole new extreme and gave a new perspective on places to visit even if it was dangerous, the world was a beautiful place and you never really appreciate life unless your life is in danger. The slightly masochistic side of Devyn had attracted quite a following though not as strong as Cynthia's or even Erin Lynch Kirkland Braddock of the Dragon Masters or even Jayr on the Dark Side with who people watched in television just for the hell of it.
Though rightfully Cynthia was Champion before she was a traveler, her entries were read by her longtime fans as well as new ones because her name attracted attention from the media even in districts and nations far from her homeland of Unova. Erin Lynch Kirkland Braddock of the Dragon Masters was well known and well read by the fanatics that had followed the utter desolation and despair that she had wrought upon every organized league both official and not across the world, the only one to hold the World Champion title, people took advice from the quiet demon quite seriously. Jayr of the Dark Side was famous because she had become the figure head for Those of the Void, the public image of the world's most hated ethnicity, as they gained redemption from years of violence with the psychics.
No one really knew Devyn for any other reason than the articles she wrote; no one knew that his last name was Alexandria.
While she would bring more customers to the converted inn most would only stay to get a glimpse and ask stupid questions like why he only had four companions in his travels… well five now but she didn't count the little nipper, he wasn't really hers in the eyes of the law she'd just "friended" him after finding the egg a season ago near Olivine City in Johto, of all places, she suspected that another trainer had abandoned him after he failed to hatch in a timely manner.
That was not something that anyone wanted, that the magazine had taken her request seriously when she'd asked to never be photographed and put into an issue, it was a common request though normally by those with more wealth of fame than wealth of knowledge. It was not an empty threat and if anyone would do such a thing it would be Sea Touched Cynthia. "The next time you're sick with fever from the sea your ass is dead or in the hospital, I'll tell you some now but details later… definitely later." The words were a low growling base that she realized was far more threatening than she had thought a year ago.
This was going to take booze, beer, a bar, possibly a whole pack of cigarettes, and a slow screw against a wall, few shots of pure alcohol, and more than a little prodding in the right direction as well as maybe a round of kickboxing and a baseball bat. She could tell this wasn't going to be something as easily yielded as what was purchased for Christmas, all it usually took was for her to sit in Devyn's lap and look up at her with a sad expression on her face. Just as Devyn began to feel the pressure between them she was saved by the bubbly Coordinator.
She came that skipping out of the back room holding up a blank slip with a bow on the back and a delicate crisscross of four individual pieces of fabric creating a halter affect around the neck. Cynthia was fixated on her legs as she began to remove her shoes to try it on for the inevitable alterations, Devyn had zoned out looking at the natural etchings in the hardwood caused by the cutting the wood down to size from trees.
"Do you remember when I went to Meteor Falls and that storm broke over the ocean?" she didn't wait for an answer as she gestured for Dawn to stand on one of the four boxes in the corner of the room surrounded by a panoramic of mirrors. Hands busy pushing multi-colored pins into the dress, moving and shifting around fabric to get the desired effect on such a slender, relatively plain body. "The western face of the mountain took the brunt of it, as you well know, but what got me stuck was the camp fire I saw the nights before the storm broke. They were moving further up the mountain instead of down so I tracked the person and we ended up in a mudslide that took us to that shelf and cave on."
Devyn knew that Cynthia knew exactly what she was talking about; she'd spent many a year on Meteor Falls training with the Dragon Master Clan at the base to put a better edge in her game and develop a closer bond with her partners. The shelf she was familiar with because her master had made her climb it once a week and later once a day, she'd raved about it for months, talked about the limestone cavern there that seemed to be seven times hotter than the outside because of the volcanic core of the Falls.
"I think the fall knocked me cold for a while but there was this woman there, I think she dragged me inside because there was no way that I fell directly into the cavern, simply impossible. She looked so small and so vulnerable but she was faintly sea touched and she got sick relatively fast." The brunette gave no direct references to anything besides the storm that had rocked the Hoenn Region for a week before it lost its power on land just ten miles outside of Lilycove and died down into nothingness. The cold water off the coast would've fueled it and it would've just gotten worse from there, tearing apart everything in its wake. It had been on International News and broadcasted worldwide for months after as "Hoenn Recovered".
The sound of the girl's voice tore through her awareness and hinted at more of Dawn's personality, making it a point to start visibly to keep up appearances both of the older women stared at her like she'd just entered the room. Quite intentionally on Devyn's part but she suspected that Cynthia just hadn't cared enough to remember that her girlfriend was in the room. "What does that mean, sea touched?"
"Sea-touched is one of those words that only natives and those who understand Slateportian and Lilycove Speech really understand. Popular vernacular for a fever that is caused when exposed to certain agents in sea water, when someone is particularly vulnerable to it and succumbs to it easily they are 'sea touched' because it's just easier to say. Besides you must understand in a city that was founded by fishermen there are a lot of words that you landlocked fools don't know. Doesn't happen to the locals after maybe nine or ten." Devyn added the last with a biting, teasing tone, a low blow, a jab at Cynthia who returned in kind.
"That's because you're so used to inhaling sea salt and being drenched by sea spray that not even chloroform works on you guys." The older women laughed at that leaving the younger baffled by the casualness with which they addressed one another, how anyone could be so callous with the Champion of another region was stunning. Regardless of previous encounters she had been uncomfortable addressing her girlfriend as just that for months but this Devyn was at ease with the whole situation, and if she was right then the expression on the younger's face of horrified admiration was just good acting.
Her mind churned and she looked at them flabbergasted, "What?" hopelessly lost and clearly not faking her confusion Devyn laughed a low, soft sound.
"A combination of sea salt, sea spray, and the sun is enough to drain the energy, the vitality right out of you if you're not careful. Like chlorine in a pool. We're so used to the combination of all those three things that not very much works in terms of putting us to sleep except maybe Jigglypuffs." The smile on the brunette's face lit up those features and Dawn, who was confused about the common speech of Slateport.
-ooo-
"Okay, spill." The single most annoying person in the world was sitting next to her right now, no not Ask Ketchum although he ranked a close second but, if anyone has ever seen the regional Queen of Sinnoh, a well-respected archeologist drunk then you've officially met the one person you did not what to have to deal with. Repetitive conversations were at the top of her list of things to avoid at all costs and since alcohol is a truth serum and the truth was that her friend was boisterous and insecure you saw both sides of the legendary champion of Sinnoh. "Okay spill." She spun around on the bar stool smiling broadly at no one in particular about two and a half sheets to the wind.
The brunette looked down at the fourteen shot glasses in front of them, all of them had been Slate Wine which wasn't really wine but appallingly strong vodka brewed up north in Fallarbor Town for the Mid-Summer Festival, she wanted to call for another few rounds but not being able to walk home was not a good tradeoff for the ease of words. "Okay, okay! But you have to tell me why you called me crying four months ago." Devyn snapped harsher than intended, the native tapped three fingers on the bar top the forefinger and ring finger sitting behind the middle extended further than the others. Two ales, a thick brew that was native to the city and made by the owner Mick anyway… it sort of hurt to down but it was affective and delicious. "Now then… remember Meteor Falls for my segment right?"
"Yeah I remember because it was me, you and Erin most of the way North, then Erin broke off in Mauville with Jayr and I let Charlie cajole me into yet another adventure in sand land." Cynthia shuddered at the memory of the indestructible girl, Arceus must have blessed her or adored her because no way in any twisted man's mind did anyone have that much luck, she had more than her fair share of adventures with though despite the fact that Charlie Lyhnnmann was notoriously danger prone it was very true that most of the major archeological discoveries made in the past ten years were unearthed by the surly girl. In the past Devyn had gone so far as the tell her that she was tempting fate but the good humored laugh she received by way of response seemed to display her views of the world and everything within it.
Charlie was good people though, the girl's ability to charm death seemed to be the direct result of her spending an entire childhood with two well-known archeologists, tombs and other such ruins seemed to draw her like a moth to flame. The two of them had met Charlie completely by mistake one day when the seventeen year old, at the time, had slammed face first into the twenty year old Cynthia and toppled her back over and through a dense patch of grass concealing the hiding place of Registeel three days outside of Lilycove. They had become fast friends and between the three of them had pieced together more information about the ancient world then many of the more prominent and older professors across the world.
"If I remember correctly, you ran into the storm on the west coast and toppled down the side of Meteor Falls to a secluded section of the route that very few people know about or try to get to in early spring. What in the world compelled you to go that way back into civilization? Rusboro is a week from the Falls while even the Dragon Master encampment is only a day." Cynthia slurred slowly, articulating every word like drunken people did when they didn't want to sound drunk but only highlighted the amount of alcohol they consumed. She was starting out slow and not asking the question that she really want answered, what had ended the relationship that they had shared.
"I spent the whole winter in the mountains, that might have had something to do with it but I caught sight of camp fires leading to higher altitudes. I guessed that whoever it was had no idea that mountains give the term 'Flash flood' a whole new definition." Devyn chuckled softly, "Anyway, I had Absol help me keep tabs on them as I made my way back up the eastern face after the fool, for a week I stayed behind her but I did save time taking more difficult trails upwards, I swear to you I have never since or before climbed up more feet of sheer ninety degrees angles."
-ooo-
-Three Years Ago-
The highest altitude on the Connectivity of Hoenn was bitterly cold even in early spring; the snow had begun to fall heavily in driving sticky sheets for what she felt would be the last time in the season, obscuring the landscape to all those who were unsure, untrained, and inexperienced as the terrain was a treacherous beast waiting to snag ankles and take out many a hiker for a few seasons if not forever. The leg shattering holes that potmarked the area would take a full grown man down to his him and swallow a small child at their shallowest, some of the holes opened into the caverns below and a fall like that would kill anyone unfortunate enough to step on the wrong patch of grass. She paused to inspect the landscape carefully as she moved off one of the marked Diamond trails that were constantly checked over for their stability and safety and looked back down mountain to see if her shadow was still there.
He was.
The man made an impressive sight from a distance, he knew what he was doing picking quickly and easily over the snow with an ease and grace that belied human motion even though he was a good thousand or so feet below. From her current position she could tell that he was well versed because he did not make the same clumsy mistakes she did and took routes she though that were impossible. It was beautiful to watch though she was well aware that he was following a path chosen with meticulous and almost obsessive compulsive care by an enormous white creature with a grey scythe on its head. Someone who trusted their luck to a creature known as 'The Disaster Pokémon' at this time of year, when the ice was melting and accidents were up, had a level of confidence in his partner that anyone else would have thought was foolish arrogance.
The man moved up the side of the mountain with a single minded determination that defied belief making much better time than she had, at the time it didn't occur to her that as the storm clouds gathered at sea he was rushing faster and faster up to her, the clouds themselves were not heading into shore by her reckoning and the winds hadn't shifted in days.
She brought her binoculars up to her face scrolling the zoom in to make out his face and smiled he was handsome and moved like a Delcatty raised by contest professionals; she pushed herself to her feet and tucked the goggles back in place, enough resting to adjust to the lower oxygen. She had a new respect for Dragon Masters that called this place home their lung capacity must be astronomical. Brushing her hands on her jeans she took ahold of the walking stick she'd carved for herself, with more than enough prototypes to speak of her almost non-existent whittling skill, and set on further up the marked path. Absently she noted the scent of the sea in the air.
-ooo-
"Time wasn't on my side, Cynthia. I didn't catch up with her until the next afternoon at the summit just as the storm reached land and unleashed its fury. Only luck brought the flood down in a spiral and she literally crashed into me with a torrent of water. Took my legs clean out beneath me and I belly flopped half on top of her and when I tell you that it was the coldest water I've ever been in I am not exaggerating." She shuddered next to her longtime friend who gave her a sobering expression.
"Even the water from the Shoal cave that one time we weren't paying attention to the tide had nothing on this." The seriousness in his voice was disguising the unspoken comment, their expedition to the Shoal Cave had left both Devyn and Sundown in a state of utter agony. It had been so unbelievably cold that it took their breath away at the same time caused their balls to literally retreat within their bodies so fast that when they'd tried to cry out they got a mouthful of frigid water cold enough to crack the fillings in Charlie's teeth and cause ice crystals to form on the poor girl's glasses within moments.
The cold had been instantaneous and bone deep, the sensation was a sharp stabbing pain and there had been an honest risk of hypothermia, caught in the cave overnight they'd collected some driftwood and started a bonfire with four flares that burned so hot that their skin turned a nice rosy shade of pink as they huddled naked together like small children. Unforgiving and punishing were the words that came from mind as they sat together that night sharing far more than the wanted to with the exception of Jayr and Sundown who spend half the night trying to convince Devyn to get a piercing somewhere, and that had been in summer. Something like that coupled with the snow and ice on the summit of a mountain in a rush of water that more than a few hikers drowned in every year was an experience that Cynthia could not even begin to fathom.
"Worse than that Cynthia, four times worse because it wasn't a slow process that started at your feet and rushed up about a foot or so every ten seconds, we had time to prepare ourselves for that. I got blasted by volcanic ash, rocks and water and whatever else the flood had picked up and was completely submerged in more than twelve feet of water before I could register the white on white coming at me." Devyn shuddered and felt every muscle in his body clench in reflex to the memory of an event that had obviously given him nightmares. "Worse though, I think something bashed my head hard enough to make my lose consciousness or a period of time because the next thing I remember I've got this woman kneeling over me preforming mouth to mouth. And I've got blood dripping down my face mixed in with icy water. I'm thinking gang green and 'wow she's got pretty eyes' all at once and worse we're stuck more than five hundred feet above the ground on a shelf that the water and weathered away, we can't go back up the grade is far too great and I can't even climb down with her on my back because I've been running for twenty-four hours and was just unconscious for an unknown amount of time, I'm fading in and out of consciousness periodically and the satellite phones are out because she doesn't have waterproof batteries and mine got separated from me sometimes in the flood."
"I told you about that leg holster thing you've got there, Devyn." The icy look that she received would've been enough to stop anyone else in their tracks but painted a smile across the blonde's lips, grey eyes sparkling with good humor. "Calm down now and tell me what else happened on this camping trip from hell. What all did you have with you?"
The brunette upended the pint and pushed it away waving for another one and a round of shots with one dismissive gesture fumbling around in the pockets of his jeans, "Standard, I didn't change anything but I packed long johns and more polar weather gear."
Standard in Devyn Land was bare minimum for everyone else on the planet: a hydration pack, waterproof backpack with a sleeping bag compartment, heavy duty all seasons sleeping bag and liner, charcoal for water filtration, binoculars, compass, hatchet, knives, shovel, flash light and extra batteries, pot, fork, cup, flint, tissue, towel, soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste, first aid kit, clothes, snow goggles, compound bow and arrows, fishing rod and line, two weeks' worth of clean clothes with extra underwear and socks, swim trunks, and the Guardsmen symbol that he used as a sort of international passport and that was it.
Everything that was outer shell or mid shell was waterproof and he didn't take denim with him so none of his stuff got wet and he struck a fire with flint and dry flora. Standard in Devyn land was anything he could fit in a backpack and carry around comfortably so anyone who happened upon any of the stuff could only use so much because the kid found food even if he had to take out some of the local fauna with a trap and knife or the bow, everything was edible something that Cynthia had learned the hard way. Watching Devyn pin a Stantler buck on Route 207 five years ago submitted in her mind that everything that moves is food for something else, not every Pokemon was edible and that what they were doing was no different than buying steaks at a market. She only had to watch it die and it deserved that much from her.
The full implication of the desperation the Devyn must've felt at that moment dawned hard on Cynthia as did the fact that they were going to stumble all the way home and feel terrible in the morning. "What happened when you finally got back to Verdanturf?" she didn't get an answer as her friend did four shots off the counter in a row.
The sharpness of the blonde's voice did nothing to snap him out of the silent moment of dawning horror and shame that flooded the center of the brunette's chest because he wasn't sitting there in Mick's Bar with a friend drinking a beer and fishing for cigarettes in his pockets, he was back on the side of that mountain praying to any deity that would listen that they would survive the last harsh dregs of winter on Meteor Falls more than a hundred miles from civilization and while no one knew where they were at. He was back feeling the absolute horror that had ended his brief vacation in Verdanturf and set him out to find Erin.
"No, Cynthia. You tell me why you called me in a frenzy four months ago before I start with the part of this story you haven't heard yet." He sighed and leaned back taking his tankard with him as he drained it down to the film on the bottom.
The upwards thrust of his head brought the neck line of his white shirt close enough to the skin for her to see what she knew was there, the tattooed emblem of the Slateport Guard, the symbol was borrowed from the Leviathan God himself and viewed in the highest esteem in Port Cities all around the world despite whatever the favored local legend was. It was something that all fishermen and sailors seemed to have in common with each other and she admitted to herself that maybe it wouldn't hurt to share the undying faith that the Guardsmen seemed to have. The confidence to jump into a raging storm to help people was the only reason she was alive today because despite Drew's efforts she would've have made it if that fourteen year old boy hadn't come charging into the ocean to throw himself shoulder first into the Tentacruel that had a hold of her, it stunned it enough for him to get her loose and hot foot it back up the beach half carrying and half dragging her along behind him. Her first meeting with Devyn had drawn her to him with that magnetic personality and unbelievable work ethic and determination, the man was something else when he didn't doubt himself.
"Because I don't believe like you do, don't believe how you believe because I'm afraid of what will happen if I do." He set the empty chilled glass on the counter and looked at her closely, examining her with calm eyes. "You don't seem to be afraid of the Leviathan God, what he could do if he wanted to. You face down everything from Tropical Storms to Typhoons and Hurricanes because Slateport is on the division line between warm and cold. You've seen horrible things and look at it and know that it isn't some freak accident that no one could have predicted by an act of anger wrought upon you by your deity. Even Charlie has faith in the Behemoth God that rules over land and does horrible things from earthquakes to volcanic eruptions and-"
His left index finger pressed against her lips softly, delicately, "How is Forina sustained in all its glory?" he asked just as softly as his touch, "With Mt. Chimney spewing both lava and ash into it three to four times a year even if there isn't a full blown eruption and the tornadoes and storms battering it on their way further south or east across the Connectivity of Hoenn?"
"All those elements come together and provide what Forina needs to grow and flourish you know that, Devyn." The blonde answered instantly the point of this lesson gone far over her head.
"I know that but is it not the Behemoth God, Leviathan God and the Ziz Lord that puts forth efforts to destroy the beauty of the land but instead makes it come back more vibrant than ever. That's kind of how faith works; everything will be alright because if the Leviathan and Behemoth come together to clash the Ziz Lord will calm the giants and put them back to sleep. The storms brewed and earthquakes they cause are just tests of faith. They're Pokemon yes, dangerous things that have been imbued with powers from the original one through their creation, ignorance defines them as the Weather Trio, those that do not believe that it was the Original One that created this level of existence."
She nodded slowly she understood what he was getting at, breaking away the dark fears in her heart and replacing them with the cold logic of their profession and the historical memory of the world. She knew well that the Leviathan God was created with the sea as its Mistress from the pressure in deep sea trenches and the Behemoth God was created by the hardening of magma and earth like Heatran, like the Ziz Lord was formed by Minerals in the ozone layer and that the Original One tasked them like the three dragons that controlled time, space and antimatter, the three aspects of knowledge, emotion and willpower, and the three terrible storms of ice, fire and electricity. These were things that everyone knew but not everyone believed.
Who could know for certain, the argument only came from people who believed that the Original One retreated at different times or just didn't exist in the first place. A foolish thought but a thought none the less that caused controversy.
"What you're worried about is that will happen if the supposed birth of the Tao Trio is the truth. Yang, yin, and wuji. What it means for the Dragon Masters because they came from one dragon, what that means for you if you become a Dragon Master and of course that that means for Erin." His degree in Religions of the world was showing clearly. "You fell in love with the Black Haired demon didn't you." It was like he just told her 'I Told You So' and he did but now wasn't the time for that.
Her head hit the bar as he ordered another round of Silver Wine, they bother were going to need it.