Locke slowly awoke in his bed, stretching his muscles out, outside the boundaries of his small bed, to start the day off. Most nights he would stay up well past midnight to be with Crystal, getting less sleep as a consequence. Most nights, that is. It was on that night that he could finally get a full night's rest. So Locke had delighted himself in every second sweet slumber he could get.
After the initial stretches and yawns, Locke had fully gotten himself awake again. However, he felt things weren't quite right. His instincts told him that something was just off. His hairs stood up just as he raised his guard so he could find what out of the status quo had been breached.
It didn't take long for him to figure out what was off and causing those feelings: he had woken up on his own accord rather than the sound of knocking on his door. While some might let that be enough to ease them, Locke wondered what happened that made him wake up at himself this particular time. It had to be someone early, since the knocking hadn't begun yet. He figured that something small must have happened that he noticed only subconsciously, and that caused it all.
Scanning the room with his eyes, he saw that on the desk he had gotten from Crystal was a sealed letter, one that was certainly not there when he fell asleep. It rested diagonally on top, propped up by the desks's back pen holder and was strategically placed so the seal was perfectly pointed towards the bed Locke was in.
The shinx got out of his bed to walk directly to the letter. Out of habit, he checked around for traps as he collected it. It was closed by a yellow wax seal resembling the electric type symbol that was applied very carefully. Locke wasted no time as he tore the letter open with his claws, and found a piece of paper resting inside. He grabbed the paper to unfold it over the desk and began reading.
"To my beloved Locky;
It may have only been a few days since we last spoke, but those days have felt like an eternity to me. Last time we met, you told me things that weren't very nice back at that restaurant. But I want you to know that I've chosen to forgive you for those things.
Now that some time has passed since then, I do hope this is the day where we can be together. The day where we can have a grand journey together start and bloom.
In the future, may you and I have an everlasting love. Being together, raising a nice family and having a happily ever after together.
Our happy times together can start any day, but I hope that today will be that day.
Signed - Olive the emolga."
"What in the actual hell is this?!" Locke said out loud as he set the letter back down.
Locke extended his claws and tore the letter up into small paper shards in anger. He didn't consider how this could have been destroying valuable evidence, Locke only sought to destroy the source of what made him mad. Once he was done with that, he looked at the desk again where he noticed that the individual drawers and sockets were also slightly ajar from how he had left them. His anger intensified a bit even more; the emolga had not only gotten into his room to leave a creepy letter, but also made an attempt to snoop through his belongings.
The shinx made a half-hearted attempt to get the paper shards into a trash bin before he moved towards his room door. Confusingly, the pin was still slid into place to prevent the door from opening, which made it seem as though the door had never been interacted with while he slept. The shinx briefly looked around any place in the room where the emolga could possibly still be hiding in case she was still in the room, and even looked up at the ceiling for her, but he saw no such place where she could have been. He even double checked if the window had any function to be opened, but there was no such function, so that possibility was eliminated.
"How...how did she get in and out of this room?" Locke wondered to himself, confusion adding onto his fear that the chamber was no longer a safe place for him to sleep.
Temporarily putting the mystery aside, Locke slid the bolt to unlock the door, opened it and left his room. The guildhouse appeared more red and orange than it did on other times as the sun hadn't yet been over the horizon long enough to turn yellow. It was far more desolate than what Locke normally saw as it was before Niot had begun waking up the diurnal pokemon, and even before Niot was awake himself. The only sounds were from the few nocturnal pokemon within the guild, but that was ever so faint as they avoided creating too much noise and waking anyone up.
From there, Locke began his search for the emolga whilst planning out what he would say in his head. From gut feeling he knew she had to be awake at that moment.
It didn't take him very long to search, he needed only go to the east side of the guildhouse to see Olivia out in the field. She was facing away from the guildhouse and holding a crossbow which she used to fire practice shots at a crude target placed on a tree.
"...Another bullseye," Olivia muttered to herself as another bolt landed at the target's center, only millimeters away from various other bolts at that position. Over ten were landed on the target, but not a single bolt could be seen in the field behind the target.
The emolga turned the crossbow to face it upwards directly in front of her and have it set on the ground. She grabbed another sharp wood bolt from the quiver by her side, pulled down the crossbow's extremely tense strings until it clicked into place, and loaded it carefully. She then aimed it once again at the target, but before she could fire, a voice reached her ears.
"Hey!" Locke shouted at Olivia as he sprinted towards her.
A sudden rush of emotion came through her as she realized whose voice it was. Her fingers twitched which made the weapon change angle and the trigger accidentally getting pushed. For the first time that day, she missed a shot.
"Play it cool, remember the script you planned," Olivia thought in her head as the bolt flew through the air.
"Oh, hey Locky! How did your night go, did you get a good night's sleep? Don't mind me, I was just doing some training by myself, I had no idea you would be up so early! Hehe," She said while a red blush began forming on her cheeks, almost making her face look like a pikachu's face.
"What the hell was that?" Locke asked, anger still present in her voice.
"Sorry, I missed with one of my shots because you surprised me," Olivia said as her blush intensified and she was already forced off of the script she had planned in her head.
"What? No, that's not what I was referring to at all," Locke said. "Okay- first of all- prove to me that you are not Hunter. Because I'm not getting up early and walking all the wait out here only to have to deal with another one of his dingus 'pranks' again."
"Here," Olivia said as she set the crossbow down, raised her paw up and channeled electricity through her paw so the energy was visible.
"Okay, seems legit. Now: what the hell was that letter you left in my room?"
"Oh! So you found my writing! Did you like it?"
"What?!"
"I want you to know I meant every word of what I said, and I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. Now if you want to, would you like to see my workshop? I made some stuff that I think you'll like quite a bit."
"No I did not like your writing, not at all!"
"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Is my prose still not very good? I have been trying my best to practice."
"No, like, y-you're not understanding what the problem here is," Locke said as his frustration was building.
"Wha-what's the problem?" Olivia said, concerned while slightly tilting her head, "If it's something physical I can repair it."
"The problem is you breaking into my room while I sleep!"
"Where's the problem in that? Boyfriends and girlfriends do that all the time," she said calmly.
"What the frick?"
From there, Locke spent several seconds stuttering non-words as he struggled to come up with something to say in this conversation that only escalated in absurdity.
"Okay, even assuming we were together you still have no right to go into my room! It's mine and absolutely no one else's! And mo' importantly, I ain't your boyfriend!"
"Oh that's fine, we'll just start our relationship today!" Olivia said while she smiled, put her paws together and her eyes twinkled. "I have so many places I want to take you out to! This can be remembered as the day two soulmates came together!"
"Even if I wanted to (which I don't) I couldn't be your boyfriend. I'm with Crystal," Locke said.
In a single second, the twinkle disappeared from the emolga's eyes and her enthusiastic spirit disappeared. Like something shattering, it was all gone in a moment's notice, leaving behind something far less appealing.
"C-Crystal?" she sputtered out, "You're boyfriends… with… CRYSTAL!"
"Uh…" Locke said as he began walking backwards, keeping eye contact with her whilst trying to get away, "yes."
"...Would you be a dear and tell me what she has that I don't?" Olivia said while visibly jittering. "Or how that makes any sense?"
Fight-or-flight instincts began to take hold in Locke's mind as he continued to walk backwards. Immediately those became the only two possibilities he accepted due to how creepy the emolga was behaving. He had no doubt that he could defeat Olivia in a fight and his claws did become extended. But before he made any attack, he remembered about Sylveon telling him to not attack any guild members again.
"I'll pass," Locke said as he quickly turned around and dashed away, back towards the guildhouse. He didn't look back, only went forward at full speed towards the closest entrance into the guildhouse.
The sprint both invoked feelings of deja vu in the shinx as the first encounter with Olivia had ended the same way, but it also invoked feelings of helplessness while his eyes got faintly red. He felt like a coward for simply running away from the situation and knowing that he simply had to avoid Olivia instead of defeating her demoralized him. The feeling of not being allowed to fight her beared down on him more than pain could.
Locke managed to get back inside of the building's interior. Without a moment to ponder and still guided purely by instincts, the shinx retraced his steps he had taken for that day to return to his chamber; the closest thing to a safe place that he had in building.
Locke shut the door with a slam and swiftly slid the pin in place to lock the door. His hair was still raised up, but she was on the other side of the locked door. Then again, the emolga did someone make it into the room while it was locked so she could place the letter.
He went over to the desk that Crystal had bought and got on the other side of it. The shinx supplanted his paws onto the ground and used his strength to push it across the floor, in front of the door to block it. After that he traveled to his chamber window to close the curtains, almost surprised that the emolga had not been peering in already. After that, he simply waited.
"Can I not even leave my room without something happening?" Locke quietly said. His voice carried some anger, but also a hint of despair.
He gazed at the room's curtains again, with it dawning on him he might have to keep it closed forever to stop Olivia from spying on him.
"But you are not to attack him or anyone else here again," Sylveon's commands repeated in his mind, and he cursed every word he had said. He felt it was absolutely stupid there.
"I shouldn't let myself be bound by stupid rules. I can get bent without being broken, but screw this," Locke thought to himself.
Alas, for that moment, Locke was still stuck within his chamber. He sat in his bed for comfort, but he was far too alert to get to sleep.
After some time, Locke was able to hear a familiar sound reach his senses: it was knocking.
"Come out, Locke. I know you're awake," Niot said as he hit against the wooden door with his talons.
The shinx let out a sigh when he heard those words spoken. "Coming," he announced.
Locke undid the blockades and slides he put up, and opened the door agoun. "I'm here, Niot."
"Good," he said. "I do know that you were awake earlier as people have mentioned hearing and seeing you running around the guildhouse a bit earlier. I have to politely ask that you refrain from doing that in the future as you could wake others up by doing that."
"Fine," Locke replied.
The shinx moved past the chatot, onto the mess hall. He went on to eat breakfast and positioned himself next to Crystal. While on previous days he talked and socialized, during that time he was silent and frequently looked around with vigilance that bordered on paranoia. Crystal even asked him if he was alright, but Locke assured her that all was okay. He didn't see the emolga at all during breakfast, just like on the day he dined out with Crystal and Tamin, Olivia seemed to just vanish suddenly.
Breakfast ended without incident, and Locke stuck close to Crystal to hang out with her for hours longer. Locke spent his time explicitly with the weavile until she eventually went to bed, and then hanged out with Tamin once Crystal was asleep. He wished he could have gone with Dewott to have some fun with him, but found out that he had gone off on a mission right after breakfast. "Just about my luck, I shoulda gone out with Dewott immediately," Locke thought to himself. "Oh well, I might as well stay because I'm morbidly curious on how this craziness goes. If my life's a comedy I might as well enjoy my front row seat."
From the hours he spent with Crystal and Tamin, Locke's guard gradually lowered as the time since he had last seen the emolga increased. Eventually, the meal bell rang to signal to all of those still awake and present that it had become lunch time. With those thoughts almost entirely gone from his head, the shinx sat down with Tamin on his right to begin eating another meal. But after only a minute, Locke began hearing a familiar voice in his ear as he sat alone.
"H-hey Locky, how's it going?" Olivia whispered directly into Locke's right ear.
"Oip! There's the crazy girl! I wondered how long it would take for her to show up again," Locke thought as he continued to look forward and chew food with his mouth open. "Just ignore her, Locke. Maybe she'll go away like that,"
"You're pretty good at running, I like that about you. I-I like a lot of things about you," Olivia continued to whisper into the shinx's ear.
"She doesn't seem to want to attack me, so I'm curious where this is going. At the very least I have a room full of witnesses," Locke thought as he continued to ignore Olivia to focus on his food.
"I know you don't hate me, you're just scared. That's alright, I can assure you I'm good, I can assure you I'm much better than that weavile girl."
"Huh, I probably should have made some bets with someone on how she would have acted. Maybe next time I see Dewott we can make some bets on specific things she says. That'd be fun."
"Your room is nice by the way. I don't think I've mentioned that to you yet," Olivia began to breathe more heavily as she whispered "Wanna go out tonight? I'll pay. We can do whatever you want, Locky. I'll be happy as long as I can do it with you. You're so cute…"
"Okay, this is starting to get really, really weird. I should probably be getting out of here or retaliating soon," Locke said as his spine began to straighten out and he slowed down his eating.
"There is nothing more in the world than to be with you. You and me, Locky and Olive. Together forever."
Olivia's mouth was meer milimeters away from Locke's round blue ears when she finished saying that. Her mouth opened and her moist tongue slowly came out of it. It made contact with the bottom of Locke's ear and she slowly dragged it upwards, licking his ear until it began twitching in reaction.
"Alright, that's enough insanity for me!" Locke said as he finally pulled away from his food and sat back up, making Olivia flinch back and everyone else in the cafeteria turn their gaze towards him.
Without missing a beat, Locke jumped down from his seat and changed course towards the questboard room. Olivia was left in surprised shock for a moment- a moment which Locke would not squander.
The different members of the guild reacted different ways to the situation. Tamin had disturbed disgust marked on her face, Venasaur tried not to burst out laughing at Locke's expense, several there felt second-hand embarrassment, many had their jaws agape, and the vulpix in the guild bobbed her head with a smile present as she was liking what she was seeing.
Froslass and a ludicolo were already present in the questboard room as the majority of the guild had been in the mess hall.
"That one good?" Froslass said as she pointed at one mission on the quest board, "Standard cove exploration, three man team."
"Whatever you're doing, I'm going with!" Locke said as he charged into the room.
"Uh, Locke? What are you here for?" Froslass asked in confusion.
"I need to get out on a mission right now!"
"Why do ya want to go so badly?" Ludicolo asked.
"Because I just need to get out of here!"
"Why?" Ludicolo inquired as a follow up question.
"Locky! Where are you going!" Olivia could be heard saying from another room.
"I haven't got time to explain, we need to go NOW!"
Not understanding his reasoning but understanding how distressed he was, Froslass ripped the paper off of the thumbtack board and the three ran off towards the entryway. Olivia tried to cut them off when she figured out what was going on, but he got himself ready in extreme haste, and ran out of the guildhouse's main doors.
"I've heard people say 'running from love', but I didn't think it was ever this literal," Locke thought to himself as he sprinted across the road in front of the guildhouse.
Olivia stopped herself at the doors out of the guildhouse, halting as though there was an invisible barrier she didn't want to crash into. She simply waited there, staring out in the distance to watch them until they took a turn to get behind a building and broke her line of sight. Afterwards, she only let out a deep sigh.
"There they are, off again…" Olivia said to herself. "Away from me once again… I'll just have to wait until he comes here again… waiting more… just as I've done before."
The emolga, though still having a burning desire, had a spirit which began to wane. She turned around and made a walk of shame through the guildhouse, going up the stairs, and returning to the recluse of her chamber.
She first passed the time by working on random woodworking projects in her workshop-esque room. Her mind wandered to imagine the adventures Locke might be on, which made her come close to neglecting proper safety protocols as she daydreamed. As her mind wandered, a metaphorical lightbulb lit off within it. Her face of sadness turned into a cunning smile.
Hours later, after many small fights and significantly more steps across the continent, Locke came back to the town and was nearing the guildhouse.
"It's good that we're almost back, that was quite… beguiling," Froslass muttered.
"I didn't think it was that bad. Pretty tame compared to some of the stuff I seen, to be frank," Locke replied.
"Of course you wouldn't consider it bad, you were the one who made it awful," Froslass retorted back.
"Hey!"
"You got lost from us not once but twice, went completely ferocious during battles, and almost hit me with a lightning bolt at one point," she explained.
"I didn't get lost, I knew where I was going, I was just heading off on me own. I can handle these dungeons myself without any help; I've done so probs a hundred times before,"
"This isn't how you work in a team, you have got to stop separating from us! And that doesn't excuse your blind ferocity!"
"Hey-hey-hey! Let's stop arguing now, bad vibes make for bad energy, and we don't want to be bringing that into the guild!" Ludicolo interrupted them, simply not wanting them to fight.
Froslass rolled her eyes as the three all walked back into the guildhouse's insides. All three of them showed proof of a completed mission, and claimed their share of the reward. They split up and Locke began walking back to his own room. But before he could make it fully out of the questboard room, he heard an all too familiar and expected voice call to him.
"Heyaa!" Olivia called out while waving, "How'd the mission go, Locky?"
"And here we go, my recursive nightmare has come back," Locke thought to himself, "I suppose if she's stuck to me like a joltick then I'll play along."
"Hey Olive!" Locke said as he turned to greet the emolga, "Mission went well."
"That's great to hear!" Olivia said as the sparkling returned to her eyes.
"Hey, are you good at making clocks?" Locke asked.
"I've made them a few times and I'd say I'm pretty good at it, why do you ask?"
"Oh, I just noticed how your behavior is quite like clockwork, so thought it just made sense."
"Wha?" Olivia said as starstruck joy turned to confusion.
Locke got a sly smile as he caught the emolga off-guard with a question. But immediately right after, he could sense a smell trying to enter his soul through his nostrils, the smell was appealing in an indescribable way and caused his mouth to begin salivating heavily. The smell's source was in front of him, and gave Locke an incredibly strong desire to rub his head against Olivia.
"Uh… Olivia?" Locke asked, saliva beginning to escape his mouth as he talked.
"Yes!" Olivia said with another rush of happiness coming to her.
"Did… did you rub catnip on yourself?" Locke said as she took a step backwards in hopes distance would help him resist the strangely overwhelming desire he had to rub himself on the scent's source.
"Of course I did! I read up on shinx and I knew you'd love it!" her eyes glittered once more. "I'd do anything to please my Locky!"
"You are absolutely crazy and- wait- anything?" Locke said as a lightbulb illuminated from within his cranium.
"You got that right! Anything that I'm able to do, you can count on me!"
"If that's the case, could you get me a strawberry soda?"
"On it!"
Olivia turned around and ran away, heading off towards her own room and out of Locke sight.
"Huh… that actually got her to go away. Sweet," Locke quietly said to himself.
Proud of his apparent victory, Locke turned around and continued his walk back to his own room. As he entered one of the outer hallways, he saw Tamin in there, who immediately talked to him on sight.
"Oh, Locke, do you have a minute?"
"What is it, Tamin?" he asked.
"I'd just like to walk and talk for a moment, is that okay?"
"Sure, but don't spend too long, I'm not sure how long I've got."
The pokemon turned around to face the same direction Locke did. They both walked forward at a slow pace, side-by-side, Locke closer to the guild's center and Crystal positioned closer to the guild's edge.
"So what did ya want to talk about?"
"I've heard the emolga here has been giving you some trouble,"
"Yeah, she's been giving me a lot of crap. But I managed to get her off of my tail for now," Locke said, glad he could simply vent as they continued to walk forward, getting closer to Locke's chamber.
"Good job. Maybe you could do something more to get rid of her next time? Like maybe using fake out tactics? I do the bare minimum to satisfy her, and make is clear you're not going to start giving anymore. Or- or- here's another option: maybe make yourself intentionally unappealing, like by using bad perfume."
"I don't know. I don't want to get violent with her but I have a feeling I will need to eventually," Locke admitted.
"Well, if you feel that way, alright. Anyways, I was thinking about going out with you to something in town, kind of like how we did with that restaurant after our first mission. What do you think?"
"That sounds like a relief. I'd like that after a day of dealing with Olivia and her-"
"I'M BACK!" Olivia's voice echoed down the hallway just as they had gotten to Locke's room door.
"Speak of the devil, godd-"
"I brought the soda you asked for," Olivia said as she moved her tail to the side to show she indeed had a red soda can held in it. She moved forward to Locke, more waddling than walking to avoid dropping the can or shaking it up too much.
"Huh, thanks I guess?" Locke asked, although it wasn't much of a question.
Olivia got up to the shinx and brought her tail forward to move the can closer to him. Locke took a few steps forwards towards her, but did not reach for the can.
"So!- I was planning you and I head out into town for a date! We'll have an early supper!" she said, phrasing as a demand rather than a request.
"Ha! I can't do that because I've already got a plan to go out with Tamin tonight!" Locke declared like someone who had cornered his opponent in a game of chess.
"I would advise that you rethink that plan, mate," a voice different from Tamin's spoke from behind Locke.
The shinx's heart sank as he recognized what voice was speaking to him. Locke turned around and saw that it was not Tamin that was behind him; it was Hunter the zorua that sat right there with a cursed smile on his face.
"Hunter?! W-what the hell are you doing here now!" Locke said with building rage.
The zorua did not respond verbally. He had positioned himself directly in front of the door to Locke's room, and he raised a single arm to press against the side of the door. The action blocked it away from Locke, and Hunter's devious smile remained on him.
As Locke saw Hunter do that, he felt the emolga place her paw on the back of his neck, lightly grabbing his scruff.
"You've had your fun with Tamin, you've had your fun with Crystal, and now you've even had your fun with Froslass. But it is my turn now," Olivia said with a shadow casted over her eyes.
Without even so much as an attempt at negotiation, Locke made a violent shoving movement to force Olivia back. Immediately afterwards, he sprinted past her and towards the guild's entrance
Olivia stayed in the position she was in while Hunter stepped away and began running in the opposite direction Locke was, towards the back of the guildhouse. As the shinx ran off, Olivia let out another deep sigh as she stood still, this time it was twinged with annoyance rather than sadness.
Locke went straight forward, aiming to run to one of the front corners of the guildhouse to then turn it and run elsewhere. While he had adrenaline coursing through his veins, it was more so instinct that guided him, and less so intelligence.
But just as he was about to reach the turn, Locke made contact with some invisible barrier. Making contact did stretch the barrier several centimeters, which forced the shinx to a stop and pushed back into the position it was in.
"What in the world?" Locke said to himself as his momentum was forced to a stop and he shut his eyes.
Under closer inspection, the barrier was composed of tight plastic wrap that stretched from wall to wall and layered several times over to give it toughness. While most eyes would have noticed the telltale signs of light reflecting off of the transparent meterial, it was hard to see to those who weren't in the best states of mind..
"No no, you're not getting away from me this time," Olivia said while walking forward at a casual pace.
"When the hell was this a thing?" Locke asked, his tone still angry.
"What did you think I was up to when you were off on an adventure?" Olivia replied sternly, phrasing it as a question but it was given as an answer.
Locke's mostly feral brain had to quickly make a new plan to overcome this physical barrier. As he opened his eyes, he saw a direct route to one of the staircase rooms. His mind played around with the idea of breaking through the wrap or leaping over it, but the alternative route seemed like the best option. Thus, Locke changed his route and sprinted to the small room holding a staircase.
As Locke reached that new room, he turned right once again with intent to go up the stairs. But as he ascended up the staircase, his paws began slipping up on a slick lubricant substance that coated the stairs. Locke attempted to keep his footing and run up, but there was no way for him to set his paws down and keep them still as the substance didn't relent. Before he could fully react, all four of Locke's paws began tripping up. As he started tumbling back down the steps, he extended his claws and put them on the wood as a last ditch attempt to force himself to stop moving, but the attempt was for not as Locke tumbled all the way down to the bottom of the stairs.
"Nice try, Locky," Olivia said as she came closer to Locke's location, "We coated the stairs in lubricant so you wouldn't get out that way. Pretty clever, huh?"
Unwilling to let this singular failure bring him down, Locke got back onto his feet and continued running, going to the foyer. At that point, his mind was seeing the guildhouse as some kind of madhouse after running into two seperate traps that hindered his movement forward. Knowing these sorts of traps could only be installed in confined areas and not in open fields, he turned to the left to head out of the front doors. This time he prepared himself for any seemingly invisible barriers or slicks, however, no such hindrance came to him. However, as he passed the threshold to the outside, a different event transpired.
"Hey Locke," Hunter said to him just as he stepped outside, casually sitting down just to the right of the shinx while not in any disguise. He had run around the guildhouse while Locke was fumbling with the plastic wrap and stairs.
Still in the running mindset, Locke turned the opposite way and sprinted away from Hunter as fast as his four legs could carry him. He went down a dirt pathway, avoiding the town all together and running past the guild treehouse as well; he went straight for the closest forests around the guild.
"I take back any time where I thought of this guild as boring, this is quite exhilarating, actually," Locke thought to himself after a minute of running without any encounter as he looked back. "I think I've lost them now. I can hang out in the forest until nightfall, and then sneak back in to go with Crystal. If not, I have hours to come up with a better pl-
Ah!"
His train of thought was swiftly derailed when the ground rose up from beneath him and pulled him into the air. A net was lifted up from under fallen leaves on the path- and with great surprise- forced Locke several meters into the air with his paws left to dangle.
Suddenly wrapped up in a net and hung up in the trees, he instinctively extended his claws and looked around. He quickly spotted a vulpix below him. The fire pokemon held the rope that pulled the net up in her mouth, and had her tails were wagging.
"Alright Oli! I caught him!" the vulpix said, her voice partially gargled by the rope in her mouth.
"What is going on?!" Locke shouted as he extended his claws and began to work on cutting the net fibers.
"Hunter and I got co-mis-sioned by Olivia to set up some traps. She really likes you, so much that she dropped a decent amount of money on us for this," the vulpix explained, shifting the rope from her mouth to her paws.
As Locke continued working at cutting through the net to his freedom, Hunter and Olivia began running up to them from down the path.
"If that's the case, can I commission you to get a nuts emolga off of my back?" Locke said, moving onto more threads after getting one part cut through.
"Sure! Meet with us when we're not busy and you have the money," the vulpix replied.
It was at this time that Hunter and Olivia started to catch up to and get to where Locke was by running down the same gravel path. Hunter ran over to sit down next to the vulpix while Olivia approached Locke directly.
"Alright, listen!" Olivia aggressively said, "I've dealt with you running off on me long enough. Now that I have you trapped, you WILL go out with me tonight. You WILL give me a day between you and I."
"Okay! You know what, fine! If you're not going to leave me the hell alone, then I'll come with you on your st- your idea for a date."
The vulpix Yuki raised her left paw and Hunter raised her right paw, to which they proceeded to give each other a high-five action as their eyes continued to look at the caught shinx above them. Like a switch being flipped, the anger faded from Olivia's face and the starstruck twinkling in her large eyes made a resurgence.
"I'm so glad you could finally come to your senses!" she cheered on. "Let him down."
Yuki suddenly let go of the rope that held the net in the air. He plummeted down towards the hard ground and the fallen leaves that blanketed it.
"Hey! Softly!" Olivia said to the pranksters, showing more anger again, but this time towards him.
The shinx stood up again, still inside of the net even with his paws on the ground. The emolga ran over to him and helped him get out of the net.
"Alright, I'm yours now, just don't do anything physical with me," Locke said while finally claiming freedom of movement. "What ya want to do?"
"We'll do a dinner date, let's start with finding a place to eat at!"
The emolga pinched down on Locke's fur and began walking in the direction of the town. Given his circumstances and promises, the shinx found himself helpless to do anything but follow along.
"Just for the record, it was incredibly fun to set all of this up: I'd go as far as to call it the best commission we've gotten this year," Hunter said. "We had to figure out how to lure you into a specific starting point to make a plan possible, and then every route you could have gone from that point. From plastic wrap to make certain routes blocked off and some classic slicks so you wouldn't get upstairs. It's almost a shame you didn't go into the treehouse, we had some lovely plans set up in there that you didn't get to see.
I would call this resolution quite exquisite. Anyways, our work here is done."
The zorua and the vulpix did not follow Locke and Olivia to town. The shinx and emolga walked beside the guild's estate, onto the brick roads of the settlement and under the pervasive shadows of clouds.
Olivia window shopped around as they stepped down the roads, gleefully looking into the glass windows and store signs to find the ideal location to bring Locke into. Locke only continued to follow in reluctant agreeance, the feelings of helplessness returned- stronger than ever- as he felt forced to play along simply to get Olivia to leave him alone.
As they got further from the guild, Locke did seriously consider the possibility of fighting Olivia in the town's alleys when no others from the guild were around to witness it. He knew he could defeat her if he really tried; it wouldn't be hard as he had significantly more combat expertise and Olivia was part flying type, but he ultimately concluded the idea was not wise when he could properly think it out. Before he could come up with a superior plan, the emolga guiding him spoke again.
"Would you like to go there?" she asked while pointing towards a structure.
Locke turned to check, seeing a standard one story tall accessory store.
"I could care less," Locke said.
Olivia was slightly miffed by Locke's unenthusiastic response, but resisted that from letting it ruin her mood.
"Let's go in then!"
"Aight…"
The two electric types went inside, where without providing time for Locke to finish an inhale and an exhale, Olivia exclaimed "ooh! Look at that!" and went off to one of the shelves of accessories. Locke might have had keen instincts, but it didn't take impressive intuition to be able to tell that they would be there for a long time.
The shopping took an hour by itself, but felt like three. At multiple points she found alternative scarfs that she insisted on Locke wearing, but he insisted that his purple bandana provided by the guild was fine. After a beguiling period of time of Olivia fawning over many baubles and Locke being in false agreeance as he made occasional dark humor quips, they had finally finished with only a slightly large bag of useless items that the emolga had bought. But just as Locke's hopes were finally getting brought up from leaving the place, they were squandered and dashed upon as Olivia walked just down the street into a clothing store.
Second time around in a store on this forced date was an entire order of magnitude worse than the last one. Not only did Olivia search for clothing that she thought looked cute on her and frequently asked for Locke opinion (to which he had to make shallow compliments, which she blindly bought) but she also forced the shinx to try various clothing on as well. Shirts, hats, skirts, and dresses alike; Locke begrudgingly wore each piece she took from the aisles in a vain attempt to please her. He hated the clothing, finding it itchy and feeling it limited his freedom with the bandana being more than enough, but Locke stretched his patience by playing along.
Partway through he had the unfortunate realization that the emolga would likely refuse to let him leave without wearing at least one of the pieces of apparel she was buying for him. He chose a thin plain shirt as what he deemed to be the least humiliating option for what to keep on. Any form of a fashion sense went over his mind. Even Olivia didn't actually like the clothing that much, finding the soft materials to be less appealing then the harder woods she worked with, but it was the time being spent with Locke that was like a dream to her.
They had spent an accumulated total of an hour and a half in the accessory and clothing store before they had finally left. Olivia proclaimed their next destination was to find a restaurant to partake in a dinner date at. The shinx couldn't help but let out a groan of relief, he still didn't enjoy the date but the promise of filling his stomach was always appealing; and even more so when he had been constantly salivating due to the catnip Olivia had rubbed on herself.
It was a different restaurant from what they had previously gone to that they went into this time, but Locke didn't care about the nuances between the stores. To him, all they were was spots to stuff his face at, indifferent from the guild's mess hall. Olivia signed themselves in and they took to seats at a small table. There was no more walking that needed to be done, no more window shopping and no more having to put on different clothing, just the two electric type pokemon sitting across from one another.
"I'm so glad you came along to this! I've been having so much fun today with you," Olivia said.
"Um, you're welcome," Locke said, not knowing fully how to respond.
"How have you been today?" she asked in sincerity.
"I've had better days," Locke said, still having an annoyed attitude.
"Oh, I'm oh-so sorry to hear that, I hope things get better for you,"
"Oh, thanks, actually," Locke said, surprised to hear her empathizing with him. "I've just not been enjoying how I feel forced around town."
"Sorry, but I just felt it was what I had to do. You ran away from me earlier to go on a mission," Olivia said, tones of genuine guilt in her voice.
"Huh, you're actually nicer than I thought you would be," Locke said while slightly shifting in his seat. "At least, a lot better than that zorua."
"Mhm, I completely agree. Don't worry, I won't be working with him anymore," she reassured, starting to get blushy from love again.
"Although I'm not all happy with the crazy stuff you've been putting me through, not ever," Locke said, trying to get an apology from her.
"Like what?"
"Well for starters, please don't just be randomly licking my ear. That's beyond weird, and honestly a little disturbing."
"I just can't help myself. You're so cute!"
"Right. Just- just don't do it again."
"I'll try my best. But no guarantees. Hehehe," she giggled to herself.
"Right…" Locke said, shifting in his chair again in discomfort, "I'm guessin' you've heard of my past at this point, your's?"
The emolga shrugged in place before any verbal answer was uttered from her mouth.
"Not much to talk about, in all honesty," Olivia explained humbly. "I grew up in the country a few hours from here; single child with two emolga parents. I picked up woodworking at an early age, picked up exploring not much later. Pushed how far I could wander away from my home, and had to teach myself some combat skills as well. When I became old enough, coming to the guild was a natural decision."
"Well, that's still more of a story then what I've got. Maybe you could fill more than one page with it."
"Hmm, maybe," Olivia said, bobbing her head slightly to the side, "Either way, joining the guild was a breeze. Apparently their last electric type was a luxray that bit the dust right before I came along, so I was pretty well needed as the guild's sole electric type. They almost begged for me to join, hehehe.
But now that you're here, we can make a great duo!"
"A luxray? Who was that?" Locke inquired.
"Eh, it doesn't really matter. She's long dead."
"No, I'm curious." Locke continued to speak.
Right after he said that, the waitress at the restaurant started putting plates on their table, delivering the food to them.
"Thanks!" Olivia said to the waitress before turning her head back to Locke, "Her name was 'Valance' and she apparently was K-I-A. But that's really all I know about her. Like I said, she passed away before I joined. You're going to have to ask someone like Espeon if you're curious."
"Oh. Thanks anyway," Locke responded as he turned to the plate of food placed in front of him.
He spent a moment thinking to himself, casually eating some of his food as he ignored Olivia for a bit to only pay attention to his own thoughts.
He scratched through the recesses of his memory. Searching for any shard of relocation on the name 'Valence'. As he thought deeply, he seemed to get deja vu with the name and it somehow being deep in the trenches of his ocean of memory.
But at the same time, Locke entertained the possibility that he might have just been forcing a false memory on himself. Since he wanted the name to have some meaning to him, he forced it to have a meaning.
"So how's the food?" Olivia said, interrupting Locke's thoughts in the process.
"...It's good," Locke responded, his head neither looking towards Olivia nor his food, just out the window as he thought.
"Can I try some?"
Despite phrasing it as a question, she didn't wait for any permission. Olivia leaned forward and started grabbing bits of Locke's food to eat. This action broke his train of thought away from the name.
"What're you doing?" Locke asked, trying to get her to realize the absurdity of her behavior.
"This is some good stuff," Olivia said while chewing, "You chose well."
"Uh, you have your own food," He said as he started lightly pushing her away with his right paw.
"Sorry," She said as she went back to her seat.
"She's never going to change is she?" Locke asked himself in his head, "I guess it's enduring that she's holding onto craziness. Just not the kind of endurance I'd like."
A moment later, a bell chime from the restaurant's entrance ringed. The two electric types turned their heads to the sound to see what caused it, to which they saw a sylveon coming through with a stern expression. A bandana around his neck was proof enough that this was the same sylveon that they knew from the guild.
"Olivia?" he asked as he locked eyes with the emolga named.
"Uh, yes?" she asked, concerned.
"There was an extremely slippery lubricant that was put on one of the staircases, which has resulted in Fraxure getting badly hurt by falling down the stairs. Some eyewitnesses have reported you being the one who poured it on the stairs, so that is what I have come here for," Sylveon explained, his gaze remaining stern. "Olivia, did you cover those stairs with lubricant?"
A short flashback came through Olivia's head. Although she was helped by the two pranksters to set up the plan, the plastic wrap, the net and contingency plans to the scheme, she was the sole one to set up the stairs as she did while the other two stood back, with her even using substances from her own workshop.
"Uh-uh… yes," Olivia said as her cheeks blushed bright red for a different reason. "I'm so sorry! I promise it will never happen again!"
"I will make sure to tell Espeon that you apologized, but unfortunately with vandalism of guild property and indirectly causing harm to another guild member, I'm going to need you to come with me," Sylveon said as he stepped closer. "This isn't something where a slap on the wrist will suffice, bones have broken because of you."
"W-wait! I'm in the middle of a date! Can this wait until afterwards?" Olivia spoke as she began panicking, the consequences of her actions literally catching up with her.
"I'm sorry, but guildmasters' orders are that discipline is to be immediate for rule breakers of this degree," Sylveon said as he got even closer and began extending his feelers out.
Olivia began panicking in place and sweating profusely, paradoxically trying to find a way to both escape the current situation with Sylveon and continue the current situation with Locke. In the midst of her panic, some part of her mind thought that running would lead to the best outcome, which led her to jumping onto the table followed by jumping into the air and attempting to glide past Sylveon with her emolga wings. The escape attempt was extremely brief as while in mid-air two of Sylveon's feelers reached over to Olivia and wrapped around her.
"We can do this the hard way if you so desire," Sylveon said as he grappled the emolga.
"Locky! Help me!" she called out as Sylveon began walking out of the restaurant with her wrapped up.
"Bye-bye, ya witch," Locke said with a malicious smile engraved on his face.
Just as she was being pulled out of the exit, Olivia glared back at Locke with an expression of true betrayal. While he was only able to see it for a second, it became permanently burned into his mind when he witnessed it. Even still, Locke enjoyed watching Olivia be taken away much in the same way one enjoys watching a theatre play, complete with his dinner seat with food laid in front of him.
While the restaurant staff was left shocked by the scene that had just transpired in front of him, Locke's smile stayed. The allure of the free meal remained, and the shinx enjoyed every last bite of it. Even after he was done with his own meal, he ate some of what Olivia had left on her plate to both fill himself up further and to get the feeling of playing a power move.
He went back to the guildhouse with a walk of pride. For the first time that day, going all the way back to when he first woke up, he actually felt safe and free. So he delighted himself in every second of that newfound liberty.
Locke spent the next few hours to exercise that liberty away from the emolga. He jogged around, he made some jokes with Dewott, and he simply spent time being lazy to take a cat nap. Eventually, night fall came around to blanket the land with the darkness of a new moon, the clear constellations were the most discernible thing around the limited size of the guild's territory.
In the final hours of the day, Tamin walked across the guildhouse, and saw the shinx. Although not being the most confrontational pokemon, she could tell something was off about Locke's expansion and poise, and felt obligated to ask.
"Are you alright there?" Tamin asked him.
"Yeah," Locke responded, "Crazy day, but it's over."
"And is everything between you and that emolga cleared?"
"Should be. Not one-hundred percent sure though."
"Alright," Tamin said as she began leaning back against a wall, "I was in my room, reading a book when that stuff with Olivia, Hunter and that net broke out. So I got to hear all the madness unfold."
"Oh. Sorry."
"It wasn't your fault. In fact, I'm sorry I didn't do anything to intervene."
"Yeah. I really tried to tell her off but she just wouldn't leave me alone."
"She's a psycho. I understand.
Anyways, it's getting pretty late. I am heading to sleep. If you want to hang out with Crystal this would be a good time to do it."
"Actually, about that," Locke uttered, "I know this is a bit of an odd request, but I don't feel too safe in my own room knowing that Olivia found a way in while I slept. So is it okay if we do a little sleepover and I go with you in your room tonight?"
Tamin spent a moment of thought followed by a shrug before she said, "Sure. Let me just get my room ready for you."
"Thanks a lot."
"You're welcome. I am a light sleeper so no one will be able to sneak in on us."
The two headed over to Tamin's room. She went in alone into the room for a minute to do one last quick cleaning while Locke waited outside. Afterwards she called for Locke to come in.
Her room was extremely detailed with plenty of time put into it. The walls had a black and white checkered pattern of panels across the entirety of it. The floor was carpeted with black and red in a similar checkered pattern. A desk was set up with it having a cleared top and it's drawers perfectly sorted. It was also made clean with nothing scattered on the floor and what she had was stored away.
A wooden pillar was in the room with two hammocks set up high off of the ground, hanged in-between the walls and the pillar.
"Wow. You've really put a lot of time into decorating this place," Locke said.
"Thanks." Tamin replied, "You like to spend your free time going on jogs or chatting around, and this is what I like to spend my free time on."
"That's nice," Locke replied as he continued to look around the room.
Tamin ran up to the wooden pillar in the room and climbed up it, hopping into one of the two hammocks that was perched up there.
"You sleep in a hammock?" Locke questioned.
"I just find them more comfy," Tamin answered while moving her shoulders upwards and lowering them back down shortly after.
"...That's two meters off of the ground." He pointed out.
"The height is nice," she said. "Anyways, I hung up a spare hammock I had for you. Do you think you can climb up to it?"
"Not without scratching up the wood," Locke responded.
"Oh, let me put it a little lower than," Tamin said as she began getting out of her hammock.
"No wait. I think I can jump to it," Locke said as he got down and started preparing his leg muscles for a jump. He flicked his tail around while he made calculations.
"I don't think that's very safe. You could get hurt trying-"
Locke leaped and flew across the room. Tamin gripped the hammock she was in to avoid being knocked out of it. Miraculously, Locke landed directly in the center of the empty hammock. It shook around some, but he held on without falling.
"And you doubted me!" Locke said enthusiastically, now directly beside Tamin as their hammocks were on the same level.
Tamin continued to grip the cloth and stay silent for a few more moments until everything became completely still again.
"Excellent job," Tamin responded once things stabilized.
The two pokemon repositioned themselves in the hammocks to get comfortable. Then staying still as they began the slow process of getting to sleep.
"So what do you want to talk about?" Locke asked Tamin.
"Not sure," she said.
"Hmm… Oh, there is something I have been wondering about you," Locke said after pondering what they have told each other before for a spell to get a flash of recollection.
"What is it?"
"Back with that training mission we did when trying to join the guild, you told me you didn't want to talk about your past, and just sorta dropped that subject. But I'm curious," Locke explained. "I mean, we've known each other for a little time now and we're in a private place."
The minccino paused for a moment, questioning her own trust and if she wanted to recall her past again to say it. After a few seconds, her decision was made.
"I didn't want to talk about my past because I used to be abused," Tamin admitted, her words being far more somber than what was her norm. "My parents hit me, they yelled at me, they cut with a knife, they locked me up for hours on end, they… I don't want to be forced to go back," Tamin confessed. "My childhood was wasted on them dressing me up and making me pretend to be happy to keep up this facade of a perfect family to the camera, and the worst of abuse was reserved if I did something that would poke a whole in that facade They always kept what they did inside of the walls…
I was told that parents should protect their kids, but that's always felt like a fairy tale to me."
"Oh…" Locke said, stunned out of words. "I'm- I'm sorry," the syllables sputtered out of his mouth.
"Mhm…" she said, the saddest form of confirming the shinx had ever heard. "I couldn't stay there any longer, I couldn't even bring myself to wait out the winter in that hell when it dawned on me just how wretched it was. I waited until midnight, took what little I could in a bag, snuck to a window, and I opened it to climb down from there. I walked and I just kept walking, the pitch black dark may be scary but it's sure a whole lot less scary than home is.
I look back and I have a hard time thinking of a single happy memory from that time. I think my happiest was when I finally ran away."
"Wow, I'm so sorry for you… But hey, least that all was awhile ago, right?"
"It hasn't even been two weeks," Tamin said as her body found a way to shrink away even more.
"Oh…" Locke said in yet another moment of realization.
"But you're right, it is in my past. And I'm going to do my best to keep it that way."
"Well, that's good at least,"
Another moment of silence swept over the room and the two pokemon in hammocks, both lost in their minds to think of what to do.
"Oh, that reminds me of something else," Tamin said, "how did that nurse's appointment you had with Audino go?"
"I had to get bathed and get my claws sterilized (which was painful), but I'd still take that over today," he explained.
"Sterilized your claws?" Tamin asked, her mind starting to get pulled away from her past to be thinking of Locke's past instead.
"Yeah, they made me extend my front claws and dip it into this hot disinfectant stuff that really stung."
"Huh… they never did anything like that with me. I just had a normal appointment where she looked at me and asked some questions."
"Really?" Locke asked.
"Yeah."
"So they are treating me differently then they are treating you…"
"Hey, by chance did they make you take any form of medication during that?"
"No, she didn't do anythin' like that."
"Okay, that's good."
"Why's that?"
Tamin let out a sound of disgust as she recalled her past, "my parents forced me to take medication just to make me more submissive. They weren't for curing anything, I was perfectly well, it's just so they could force me to behave certain ways.
I learned to tuck them under my tongue and spit them out when I could. Had I not done that, I would not be here right now."
"Dang, the hell's their problem?" Locke said.
"Yeah… just don't take that if they give it to you in the future. I don't trust those at all."
"Gotcha," Locke said with a slight nod.
The two fell silent yet again, reflecting on various things in their head. They thought of each other's pasts and what they had to go through to get to where they were. From that they thought about their futures, where they would go as they obviously could not spend eternity with each other on those cloth hammocks. But try as they might to imagine, Locke's ideas on the future were as blurry as what he knew of his origins, and Tamin struggled to think of anything except the darkest outcomes possible.
"...What do you think you want to do with your life?" Locke asked, getting into deeper subjects than they normally do.
"To be honest, I want to work at this guild for a few more years and try to find myself here. I might raise my own family one day, but I'm not sure. Right now I'm just trying to survive."
"Mhm. For me, I feel like I already succeeded at just surviving. Life gave me so many challenges, dungeons, and fights, but I passed them all. Now I want to try and live a life, I want to try and make some friends and relationships."
"I see," Tamin replied.
"And that's why I want to stick with Crystal. I feel that with her I can get the relationships that I never really had. So I want to be with her, I think I can get what I'm missing."
"I suppose that makes sense. You've also got me and Dewott as friends," Tamin said.
"Yep! And I hope I can keep all of you for the rest of my life and time at this guild."
"Mhm… personally, I think it's cruel how short our lives are. So I definitely don't want to spend it all at one job."
"I'm just the opposite, you see. I think if our life is so short, then I should do whatever will allow me to explore the most of the world in that time."
"I guess I can see your point of view," Tamin said, neither agreeing with nor rejecting Locke's philosophy.
"So you said you wanted to have kids in your lifetime?" Locke asked, changing the subject.
"Still a maybe, I'd say. I would take calmly raising a family over going on dangerous guild missions. (although I know a lot more on what not to do then what to do with that)."
"Who do you think you want to marry?"
"I don't know, not in love with anyone right now (and frankly, all the men in the guild just seem barbaric, uninteresting or already occupied). I don't think it matters that much since my kids will be minccino either way. I'd imagine you'd have to be a bit more careful on who you settle down with."
"To be honest, what I would love is to get a house in town one day and have some sneasel kids with Crystal."
"It's good to see you have plans," Tamin replied.
"What about the immediate future? Like tomorrow?"
"I dunno, I guess listen in on what the other guild members are talking about again. That's yet to prove disappointing."
"Again? Have you eavesdropped before?"
"Yeah," she said nonchalantly.
"Why do you like doing that?"
"Ignorance is never bliss. Knowing what others intentions are helps me be able to defend myself."
"But isn't that stepping into privacy? How would you feel if someone else eavesdropped on your secrets?"
"I don't know." Tamin said while she lightly shook her head side-to-side, "To be honest, if I wasn't eavesdropping on others, if I wasn't as perceptive to my surroundings as I am, if I didn't learn as much about people close to me as I did, I don't think I would have ran away from my home like I did.
So far, eavesdropping isn't just something interesting to me that I do for fun (although I will not deny that is a part of it). It is something that has helped me get to where I am today.
If it makes you feel better, I do keep almost all of what I hear to myself (especially more private things)."
"'Kay then."
"Hang on, there's something that I feel like I should tell you that I have been holding from you (and this would be a good place to do it)," Tamin said.
"Yeah?"
"I actually lied about how old I was. I'm three-and-a-half."
"Really?" Locke asked.
"Yeah… I was worried they would take me back to my parents if they just saw me as a 'lost kid', so I claimed to be older to avoid that."
"Huh…" Locke spent a moment taking in what she just said. He then asked, "How old are you in months?"
"I'm three years and ten months old," Tamin specified.
"I'm five and… I think three months, I don't really know."
"Do you not know exactly how old you are?"
"No. My past is really all a blur. I can't tell you much about it."
"Oh. That's kind of a shame."
"Yeah. I hope I'll be able to discover more about myself in the future though. But for now, I don't have much to say."
"Alright." Tamin said.
The two of them talked little after that. Both just trying to get to sleep.
Locke was kept up by his own thoughts. He kept thinking about the name Valance that Olivia mentioned back at the restaurant. And the more he thought about it, the more the name seemed familiar to him.
This was far from the first time Locke tried to deeply scratch into his memories. And like all other times he tried scratching into his mind, his cohesive memories only went back so far and was all him just going into mystery dungeons for food and money to survive. Memories of him doing that scratching back to what seemed like the very beginning.
However, he did have some earlier memories from before his memory became cohesive. From before he could consistently put things in long-term storage, he had random scenes in his head from before he entered mystery dungeons.
One memory in particular always stook out to him. One that all attempts to scratch through his memory ended with. A scene that was both vivid yet vague from before he was even half a year old. The scene of him in an old house, surrounded by roaring flames. His fur being extremely overheated as the sound of crackling and collapsing wood filled his ears. All while the smoke choked him, preventing proper breathing. His throat turned dry as a desert and the moment when he stopped sweating as heatstroke kicked in. A memory that he knew could not have been fabricated by his own mind.
It was this train of thought that troubled Locke before sleep inevitably overtook him.
End of chapter 10.