With the PokéPuffs officially on their way to Alola- two each to Marzanna and Molayne, even if the latter was more a matter of convenience than the proper thank you that it should be- Calem strode confidently towards the snow-covered mountain pass that was Route 17.
Marius walked beside her, posture a bit hunched and glance sliding towards his trainer often. He didn't like this at all, but one of the things he admired about her, what had drawn him to her in the first place, was the friendly competitive nature that now drove her to catch up to Serena and Shauna.
The main issue was that those two had already ridden the Mamoswine that carried trainers across the pass during the winter months yesterday, shortly after their collective party had saved its friend the Abomasnow- and, importantly, the natural taxi wasn't back yet.
The trainer and Pokémon got to the edge of the pass, where the snow hadn't piled too deeply yet, and Calem started to release the other five members of her party- Gryffindor, the (male) Pyroar; Capt. Falcon, the Blaziken; Tiamat, the Mega-capable Charizard; Nosegay, the Aromatisse; and Oracle, the Absol.
It would have been nice if Femme Fatale, the Talonflame, had still been around, for her Flame Body, but these would do well enough.
"All right, kids!" Calem said, as the Pokémon were stretching and taking in their surroundings. "We'll be melting our way through this snow, so I'll need-"
A yowl from Oracle interrupted Calem. The Absol's eyes were wide and staring at… nothing that the trainer could see, or any of the rest of her party, from their expressions. Which meant either her Pokémon was hallucinating, or… Shit, Calem had thought the thing about visions was just folklore.
When the Absol became responsive again, she looked around her for a second time, then quickly went around Calem to push her trainer in the direction of the snow. Marius pulled her off, and then the two seemed to discuss- in Pokémonic language, of course, so the very human Calem understood none of it.
Marius pantomimed to translate what he could, but charades was hard enough when you could cheat. "Someone… attacked me? ...Will attack me." Calem put her hand on her chin as she tried to interpret the rest of what Marius was doing. "Probably with a knife?" That assumption was from the stabbing motion that the Lucario kept repeating; and he pointed back towards the city where only one tall building could kind of be seen, and… well, windmilling his arms. "It happens by the windmill?"
Marius and Oracle looked at each other, and both seemed to shrug. Calem wasn't sure how a quadrupedal creature could shrug, but the Absol managed, anyhow.
And with that, they both pushed Calem towards the snowy pass. Not forcefully, but enough to get the point across: they needed to get moving. And hell, if an Absol had a vision and wanted to help her prevent it, by doing exactly the thing she was planning on anyways, Calem wasn't going to argue.
In hindsight, the fact that only the path straight through the pass had shown signs of Mamoswine's mammoth crossing probably meant that not only had Shauna and Serena started out earlier than her, but were likely in Anistar only a few hours after they'd set out.
Unfortunately Calem was apparently a Murkrow, wanting to gather as many tiny treasures- as many useless shiny things as she could. Every branching path, Calem had felt the need to get Tia or Gryff or Cap to melt away the snow banks, had asked Marius or Cap again to punch or kick their way through the large rocks blocking the path. Earlier in the day, the chance of rare stones had seemed worth it.
Now that the sun had set, the ambient temperature dropped from 'cold' to 'holy shitballs this was a bad idea wasn't it'.
Partially that was because it was cold, and- well, technically Calem's boredom was rooted in the freezing winds, too. The issue wasn't that Calem was freezing to death; on the contrary, she had a campfire going in a small fire circle, with Oracle and Marius nestled up on either side of her, and Gryffindor behind. She was mostly in the lee side of the mountain, for now, under an outcropping of rock that kept any fresh snow falling, but sometimes she would have Tiamat shield the area with her wings and refresh the campfire. She was resting in her Pokéball for now, though, so that none of the party suffered from exposure.
So, true, Calem was fine enough for now- but she couldn't really move from this spot anymore without changing that status, and there was fuckall to do here, either.
...Earlier, when Calem had called Marzanna while looking through the various nooks and crannies for anything worthwhile or otherwise, the signal had been perhaps a bit spotty occasionally but mostly fine. It hadn't been a long call, due to the time difference and how late it was in Alola at the time Calem had called, and it was maybe kind of weird to call a girl you were only in the beginning stages of making friends with (/courting?) just to ramble while walking.
It would definitely be weird to call Marzanna again now, even if the other girl was awake by now.
...It would probably not be weird to call Sycamore, given Calem's previous track record. In fact, it was probably already weird that she hadn't done so yet. That was to say, he probably was wondering why she hadn't bothered him yet, but…
Calem still couldn't quite shake how he'd felt against her when they kissed in the windmill, and it wasn't nearly as pleasant as the afterglow Calem was used to. It was weird in an interesting way, and then it was exciting, but then all at once it just felt- off, Calem supposed.
If only all that had somehow nullified the whole emotional entanglement deal, which would leave Calem free to break off their ill-advised tete-a-tete and rid herself of this crawling feeling. But no, she couldn't stand the thought of insulting Augustine like that, or letting him down, even.
A number of times over a few hours, Calem tried to call Augustine on her Holo Caster - or, well, tried to make herself call him. Technical difficulties had nothing to do with her failure to contact him.
Eventually, though, she thought the decision had been made for her when her ringtone played, and she answered without thinking. "Oh, hey Aug-" Calem cut herself off when she realized the face in front of her was Lysandre's.
Lysandre took a moment to raise an eyebrow at her, then continued on as if he hadn't noticed. "According to our esteemed colleague Professor Sycamore's research on the biology and effects of Mega Evolution, the process releases all of a Pokémon's internal, and even hidden energy at once- the Pokémon then displays a level of power it could not attain through ordinary evolution or otherwise."
There was finally a break in Lysandre's words, and it seemed as if he was waiting for Calem to respond. "Uh… yeah, that sounds about right I guess?" she said, a confused frown painting her face. "Why did you call to tell me this?"
"What meaning," Lysandre said, "can we as philosophers, as scientists- or even just as trainers- draw from this?"
Calem thought for a moment, but… "I'm not sure I follow. It's… big news for the battle circuit, sure, that the means of Mega Evolution have resurface and are accessible to a more general public than-"
"The 'general public,' Calem?" Lysandre interrupted. "Calem, tell me, how many trainers have you found that have known about the keystone necessary for Mega Evolution, let alone currently possessed one, a Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution, the appropriate Mega Stone, and a strong enough personal bond to activate the process?"
There wasn't an easy response to that. Calem certainly didn't want to admit that Lysandre made some very good points, because that might lead to admitting he probably often made good points. For now, she just frowned, and muttered, "Yeah, what of it?"
Before he resumed speaking, Lysandre's hands came into view of the hologram bust as he steepled his fingers before his chin. "Do all people and Pokémon even have such potential, if given the right materials- or is it an ability hidden within the chosen few?"
At this, Calem snorted her derision. "Yeah, sure. And Pokémon who can't evolve are just terrible as a blanket statement, inherently worthless, etcetera, right? Don't be such a basic bitch, dude." ...Even while genuinely ticked off, Calem couldn't resist slipping a pun in if she could.
Lysandre, of course, kept his cool. "True, my dear metamour- or at least, the sarcasm is understood as such. The fact remains that such Pokémon are typically less powerful in battle than those who have undergone evolution. For every Snorlax there are ten Luvdisc, if not more. All the sarcasm in the world shall not convince professional Battlers to take a Luvdisc seriously."
"I dunno, I feel like Gym Leader Wallace might disagree," Calem said. She never fought him, but she'd seen Luvdisc on his rotating Gym Battle Roster a few times when she'd lived in the area and kept up with all of that.
Finally, Lysandre actually reacted to Calem- after a moment, he barked a laugh and added, "Serious battlers, then." Rude. "In that vein, I wonder how widespread the ability to Mega Evolve is. Were you aware that our dear Augustine, charming as he is, has never managed to personally harness the power he's devoted his life to studying?"
She hadn't been, but Calem was a bit busier trying to figure out what Lysandre was actually getting at to care about miscellaneous personal trivia. "Are you…" She huffed a breath and thought for a moment more before continuing again. "Lysandre, are you actually calling your boyfriend weak?"
Another laugh from Lysandre, this one less harsh than before. "Yes and no. As you would be quick to point out, I'm sure, he does have many virtues. The issue at hand is that none of those virtues happen to include battling. He's a marvel of a man, to be sure, but will he ever unlock his potential? Will you, or will I?" He paused, then. "Figuratively, of course. In a literal sense, that's a matter of past tense for you, with regards to Mega Evolution."
...Calem was beginning to suspect Lysandre was buzzed, given how this conversation had wandered. For that matter, how did he even have her number? Augustine had seen how well the two of them didn't get along, so it wasn't likely through him. After an uncomfortably long time, Calem finally just said, "Okay?" to see if the line was even still open or if her Holo had maybe just glitched.
"Food for thought," Lysandre said, then abruptly hung up.
"Right," Calem said to the white noise glaring up at her from the now dead line on her Caster. She ruminated for a few minutes, snuggling against Marius as she thought. "That sounded… really fuckin' creepy, right?" she asked her Lucario after a few minutes, but she didn't really pay attention to his answer.
Food for thought, he'd said. What thought was he trying to give her? Given the timing, this was probably some kind of response to her and Augustine's relationship being acknowledged by the both of them, especially with the way Lysandre didn't react to her knowing and… 'metamour'? Calem couldn't imagine Lysandre calling her anything involving 'love' unless it was some kind of pre-existing term. A quick internet search confirmed as much: a polyamory terms referring to one's partner's partner.
The most obvious reaction would be some kind of threat, but… While the conversation was concerning, Calem couldn't figure any way to construe it as threatening her without a decent amount of stretching. It did, unfortunately, track all too well with that conversation in Café Lysandre when he had definitely been a bit tipsy with Augustine. Wash the earth clean of its filth, to make a new beautiful tomorrow… or something.
If anything, though, it sounded like Lysandre was implying Calem might be one of the Chosen Few or whatever-the-fuck that Lysandre thought were Good Enough. Was… this maybe his fucked up way of welcoming Calem to their little circle? Calem kind of hoped not, because that would mean this was on the warmer end of Lysandre's interactions with people, leaving him just a foul person all around.
Weird guilt and attraction and avoidance and all that brain bullshit be damned. Calem dialed Augustine's Holo, and impatiently awaited a response.
"Allo? Ah, Calem, ma cherie!" Augustine's hologram face crinkled into a smile. "I take it you've just made it to Anistar City, then?"
Calem chewed her lip as she glanced away. "Nnnot… quite," she eventually admitted. "Sue me, I wanted to find possible research specimens. Geological upheaval and all that, right?"
A moment of silence as Augustine considered. "You're not actually camping-"
"Look, it's fine, I prepared for this," Calem interrupted, "Half my team is Fire type and the other half is fuzzy as shit, and I don't really plan on doing much more than dozing, gonna move as soon as it's light. That's not why I called though- Augustine, have you talked to Lysandre much lately?" At the end of that Calem took a deep breath, and hoped her speed in rambling had at least managed to change the topic.
Augustine frowned. "Have I… Cale, why do you ask?"
"Why do you think, dude? He called me, and… I really don't know quite what he was saying, I think he might have been a little bit drunk."
"I… see?" Augustine said, but it was clear that he didn't, not really.
"And he was like," Calem added, "still very focused on like- on people who are Worthwhile and those who Are Not and he brought you up, and I don't know. We don't get along, him and I, but I don't know. I'm somewhere between worried about him and worried about what he might do if he ever decided to act on what he feels."
Tilting his head, Augustine said, "Calem, I agree that Lys can come off badly at times, but you were the one who said you thought he'd had something to drink. I'm sure he didn't mean whatever it was, given. I'm still sorry you had-"
"Really?" Calem cut him off. "You're going to use that? Professor, how many times have you been around drunk people? Don't- don't try to actually answer that, that's not the point. I just mean in, in my various stints at unis and in field work and trying to flirt with secretaries, I've talked with a lot, and worked with them later, and you know. And those guys who used the n word when drunk? Most of them used it sober, when they thought no one would care. Same with faggot, same with… whatever."
"I'm… sorry to hear you've had to work alongside some very rude people," Augustine said.
"Rude? That's all you can-" Calem stopped herself, held a hand up to her Caster's camera to show she'd paused, and took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Okay, look. I just thought you'd like to know about all this. Just thought maybe it would be good to say, 'hey, talk to him or something he seems weird'. But it's no skin off my back if you won't take my advice, right?"
Augustine sighed. "I never said I wouldn't talk to him, cherie. You're being very combative towards nearly anything I seem to respond, though."
Calem huffed her indignation, then said, "I just think you should take his weird… eugenics-like leanings a little more seriously?"
After a moment, Augustine nodded. "I'll talk to him about it, I promise, mon petit choufleur. In the meantime, I didn't intend to make you agitated- quite the opposite, I assure you. Given that, and our, ah," his voice hitched for a moment before he continued, "encounter yesterday, I thought I should ask if there were boundaries you know of ahead of time that I should be wary of."
"Look… it's only been a day." Calem shrugged dramatically, mimicking Augustine's own mannerisms. "I haven't really thought about it-" More accurately, Calem had been avoiding thinking about it, but he didn't need to know that. "But honestly, I think I just… need time to get used to the idea, probably." And the feel of everything, and… Well, she'd gotten used to having a crush on him in the first place, right? It would come, with time.
...And so would he, her brain added, and Calem couldn't help but snicker to herself.
"Which, of course, is not a problem," Augustine said. "Take as much time as you need, mon beau. If you never feel comfortable, I won't be any less pleased to be with you."
Calem laughed ruefully. "You say that, but I don't know if I believe you, and I don't know how much of that is part of my brain being terrible and how much is something I should be Legitimately Concerned about."
Augustine gave a lopsided smile and said, "I see. I'd assure you that I'm being quite genuine, but if you doubt my truth, by that logic anything I say is in question."
"Right?" Calem said, perhaps too emphatically. "Anxiety brain: damned if you do, damned if you don't." She heaved a breath and shrugged, again, but she wasn't sure how else to continue.
It seemed Augustine wasn't entirely keen to continue that line of thought, either, since after a moment he asked, "So, you're... safe where you are, for the night? Shelter, warmth, food?"
Calem rolled her eyes, but grinned. "I thought I already told you that, you doofus. I'm fine- though I guess Gryff could probably use a break by now." The Pyroar was engulfed in the red light of the Pokéball's recall mechanism, and in a moment, Tiamat took his place. "I've got my kids on rotation, so no one gets too cold or worn-out, even if-oh!" Calem blinked owlishly at the holo vid in front of her. "I said I'd tell you about Fatale, right?"
Augustine's brows knitted and he looked at Calem for a long, hard moment before saying, "I'm… not sure I like where this is going, cherie."
"What? I don't-" Calem went over what she'd been saying, and realized the mental steps she'd left out of her words. "Oh. No, nothing like that, Tiamat just reminded me that I'd really love to have Femme Fatale's Flame Body right now, I didn't like… leave her out in the cold or anything! Arceus that sounded bad though, didn't it?"
Facial features still looking more reserved than usual- even if it was hard to tell for sure on Calem's miniature hologram- Augustine said, "I see. So how did she die, then?"
"It's…" Calem started, then looked to the side. "I chose her as a safe word not because of how she died- she took a nasty hit in a battle, I guess I didn't get her to a Pokémon Center in time, or maybe it was too bad of a hit, or maybe I'd pushed her too hard… I don't know. She didn't come back out from the Center, is all that I really know. I chose her name because she's the only Pokémon I've lost due to anything but old age- the stray Kantoan Meowth that my mom found by our trash can in Alola before I was even born, or the Meowth I had before uni in Unova… pets die of old age, I hate it but I get it, but… I don't know, I figured if I was feeling bad enough to want out, that pulling up an image of the Pokémon who is dead because of her time with me would… I dunno, overpower the guilt of letting you down."
Augustine listened quietly, and nodded. "I can't say I follow that logic, but I do believe I have a better understanding of you, ma choupinette, at least."
"Better understandings all around! You get an understanding, and you get an understanding!" Calem pantomimed throwing something in various directions, causing both Marius and Oracle to look up at her curiously. "Arceus, though. I'm glad you understand me, Augustine, at least somewhat, because I sure fucking don't."
"Now don't sell yourself short, Calem," Augustine said, "I'm sure you've a better idea of yourself than that."
Shrugging, Calem said, "Yeah, sure, whatever you say. Introspection is definitely my forté, and my self-image is more nuanced than a teen drunk who hates sitting still and loves the three f's a little too much, even if 'flight' wins out over 'fight' more often than not."
"Three… F's?" Augustine asked, puzzled.
"Food, fucking, and fighting," Calem said. "And I'm no good but I do like the battles, I mean, I couldn't be professional but I've done several official Leagues now, and one unofficial, even if I haven't finished any but Johto's."
With a solemn nod, Augustine said, "I see. ...Do please work hard on your current League challenge, ma cherie. I should love to see you do well, and you've made very good progress already. Only two more Gyms until you can challenge the Elite Four, on one hand; on the other, your geological study would go well with being one of my field interns, and your wanderlust, I believe."
Calem raised an eyebrow and grinned down at her Caster. "Daw, does widdle Sycamore miss me already?"
"I wouldn't say that so much as…" Augustine hesitated. "I'm worried for you, Calem. I know you've prepared, but spending the night without a permanent shelter above your head in the Mamoswine Pass sounds like a recipe for disaster."
"What the-Augustine, no, don't say things like that!" Calem barked.
"Things like what?"
"Things like- 'oh gee it would be terrible if this awful thing happened to you.' Or 'gee it would be nice if this good thing happened to me'. You'll jinx it! Or hell, are there Jynx the Pokémon here? They might spelled-with-an-i-'jinx' it if you haven't."
"O-oh," Augustine started to reply, "I see-"
But Calemine cut him off. "Nope, I don't want to hear it. I'm hanging up before you cause an av-shit. Before either of us say something and the luck particles of the universe coalesce around me and fuck shit up. Bye, love ya, but I gotta go."
It wasn't until Calem's Holo Caster clicked as the line went dead that she realized what she'd said. ...Did he catch that? Did she mean it?
Well, that was a problem she could deal with tomorrow. For now, she opened up the alarm app she'd downloaded onto her Caster and set it for about an hour's time. Didn't want to sleep deeply here, but after switching Oracle out for Capt. Falcon, Calem had two fairly-fresh fire-types and a fuzzy steel-type who was resistant to cold and really liked to cuddle, so a nap sounded like just the ticket.
In the morning, she'd make it to Anistar, she'd take on the Gym there, and maybe she would finally beat Serena in a battle. The last was optional, but Calem was feeling pretty hopeful, snuggled into the thick fur on Marius's back. Tomorrow would be the beginning of the end of her journey.