Gotta take that time for character development (?) After I finished writing this, I realized nothing happens in this chapter. Oh well.
Arc I, The Plate of Space
Chapter Nine:
The Royalty in the Sketchbook
I had been in the mortal realm for less than forty-eight hours, and someone had recognized me. Someone who, according to my own intuition and Latios' chilling memoirs, could be dangerous to both my objective and my being. When I closed my eyes or looked into darkness, I saw his white smile and the parallel scar beneath, mocking me at the forefront of my mind.
The ninth-generation had caught me with a Pokéball. Could this man?
Aurelio didn't recognize the description I had given. "A man with a scar like that?" he said thoughtfully. We descended from the train onto an open platform in the middle of the city, surrounded by buildings. "No, can't say I've heard of anyone like that. And he knew who you were?"
"Yes," I said, momentarily lost in wonder. I gently dragged my bare feet along the pale brown concrete of Rustboro City. This texture felt much more different than sand. When I regained full alertness, I added, "He was the one who left the note—"
"I was thinking that." Aurelio nodded to the man stamping our tickets.
"And he said that he knew about me," I added. "More than your — the Solomon family. That's your name, correct?"
Aurelio shouldered his bags, sighing. "Yeah, but I find it difficult to imagine anyone knowing more than my entire family," he said, biting his lip. His eyes searched the crowd for unquestioned answers. "Our knowledge is a massive collection of research done over the course of centuries. I have you here with me. What else is there to know?"
I quieted, letting the sound of the population fill the space. The visage of the Alterstone, I thought, nervously covering the blue jewel. I aimlessly followed Aurelio through the station of people, wanting to both look at the scenery but also to contemplate what had happened. He knows what's in there. How could he know? I left nothing...no traces, I just know it.
Aurelio had also been lost in thought. He seemed so out of place amongst the city-folk, who dressed pristinely, with their sharp edges and pressed fabrics. But Aurelio looked like a small bundle of chaos amongst them, with his rumpled shirt, smudged glasses, and that streak of mud that had been on the side of his neck since yesterday.
I followed behind him, smiling.
"Hey, Arceus?" he said. "You wouldn't happen to have shoes, would you?"
"I can make some," I offered, suddenly hyperaware of how I dressed. My clothes were normal amongst the people in the town whose name I had already forgotten, or never learned at all, but now I seemed out of place. We both did. I was not even from the mortal plane and I knew this fact.
"Well, Rustboro is a big city," said Aurelio. "Nothing fancy, but definitely not like where we came from. I'll need to shower before we head to Devon...of course, I don't live here, so a hotel will work...I also need to buy some clothes. I left all of my dressier stuff at home in Mauville. Maybe we could dress you up too?"
I contemplated this. Latios would know how to respond. I longed for his presence again, but he had left with the wind before the train had travelled too far into the city. Where he was now, I had no idea. And as insulted as I felt that my current garb was not enough, I knew that Aurelio was right to suggest that.
"How does it work?" I asked.
Whenever I asked questions that would be common sense for mortals, Aurelio seemed taken aback. But he laughed and shook his head. "I don't know why that still shocks me," he said. He smiled at me, head tilted slightly and hands on his hips to better balance the bags on his shoulders, where his neckline was red from the pressure. "Your human form is so believable that I forget sometimes."
"Because it's not a fake," I said. "I am a human. At least, I am right now, while this stone is blue."
"Well, then. Humans go into stores, where companies sell items for money. You can try clothes that look good and fit you. When you find something that pleases you, you buy it. Then you can leave the store with what you have."
"I can materialize anything that I want. Why would I use money, and where would I acquire it in the first place?"
"I have plenty."
"Then that is fine."
"Great."
"Aurelio?"
"Yes, Arceus."
"What is a hotel?"
Aurelio blew his hair out of his face.
Turns out, people stayed in hotels when they needed to sleep in a city in which they had no permanent residence. Aurelio lived in a place known as Mauville City, which was not terribly far but was over a day's travel. Because he had not intended to stop in Rustboro City, none of his clothes were here and he also had no place to rest. I needed no sleep, but as a mortal, he certainly did, and the sun was high above us and it would soon be evening.
I could not reason why he became so flushed when the woman behind the desk asked how many beds we would be needing. Obviously, we would only need one. But Aurelio had difficulties responding to this very simple question, so I answered for him because I already knew the answer, "We will need only one."
The woman's eyes started at my face and then travelled downward.
She smirked.
In our assigned room, Aurelio explained to me why he had been incapable of speaking.
"That was Claudie," he said, sitting restlessly on his bed. "I've stayed in this hotel often, since I'm always running around through different cities. I choose this one because the Devon headquarters is less than two blocks away. But I've never come with company before. She thinks that we're a couple. And she's best friends with the secretary at Devon. Can't wait for that gossip to spread."
"We are a couple. There are two of us."
"No," said Aurelio, clearly exasperated. "Not like that. Like, we're in a relationship. Seeing each other. Dating. Sleeping together?"
No matter how many times he tried to describe it, I could not understand why this was something about which he should have been flustered nor could I understand the basic concept of "relationships," or at least the embarrassing sort. At first, I thought that he may have been describing the nature of Latios and Latias' siblinghood, but he was fiercely insistent that brothers and sisters did not participate in that manner, or not often. Eventually, he gave up.
"I'm going to wash off," he said tiredly. "Just...sit here. Don't move."
He left his belongings on the bed. I heard the door shut. I sat unmoving, listening to the sounds of running water in the other room. Every now and then, he would drop or knock over something, and he stayed in there for a long time, long enough that despite my familiarity with immortality, I began to grow bored and wonder if he had drowned.
I looked at his journal, which he had left out in the open. Picking it up, I flipped through its pages, taking great care to keep them bound to the spine. The first page was the messiest. Dark, oily spills stained the words, so I kept turning.
Most of the notes were random assemblages of unclear thoughts. He had drawn the Alterstone on one page. The drawing had obviously been referenced from another notebook, as the lines were practiced and even, as if he had traced it or drawn it many times before. He had written concepts concerning the immortal dimension in bullet points on another page. Near the middle, I saw a rough sketch of a human wearing heavy robes.
Then I realized that it was me. Or what he thought I might have looked like.
Further near the back, I saw where his thoughts had clarified. His writing was more sure. His ideas were more certain and detailed. Astonished, I beheld the chapter during which Aurelio had met me.
The notes:
Boy or girl? Non-binary probably, but its face and body are androgynous / Still can't tell
Seems easily flustered by new things / Wears Alterstone on left wrist
Calls me human / mortal / etc.
Does not sleep / eat?
I turned the page and saw my face. An incredibly realistic sketch of it, at least. My artistic rendition was staring through the window of what I presumed to be the train, my chin in hand. Aurelio had drawn me with my hair falling into my face, my eyes dreamily unfocused, a slight parting in my lips. I appeared on the verge of sleep, lost in my musings.
"This is me," I said as Aurelio left the shower, holding up his notebook. He snatched it from me. "Why did you draw me?"
"No reason," he said. His temples were dripping with water.
"Why?"
"Because you looked…" Aurelio trailed off. I noticed then that he was shirtless. The darkness of his arms ended at his shoulder, where his colors transitioned into smooth ivory. When he stood beside the bed, I could smell the combination of water and skin. "I don't know, you looked beautiful. Mystic, almost. Like royalty."
"Royalty," I said, huffing.
He laughed gently, looking down at his hands. "Yeah. Stupid, I know."
My mind's eye illustrated his artistic rendition for me. I saw every curve of my face. Where my shadows had been, I could hear the sound of Aurelio's pencil scratching at the paper. "It's not," I said. The tap of the eraser. The wipe of his fingers on the corners. I had shivers. "What you drew — it pleased me."
Aurelio shimmied himself into a clean shirt like his other one, paper-thin, only its color was black. "I didn't draw it to please you," he said, ruffling his hair with his hands. I watched the water droplets stain the bedsheets. Two or three landed on my chest. "I did it to remember you when you're gone...inevitably gone."
End of Chapter Nine