"So, run this by me one more time. You lost the Time Flute, which is...?"
"Time Flute is an important artifact. Whoever plays it summons me from whenever I am. Elian- ...the dialga made it after I was created. He told me to take good care of it if I ever took it out with me."
Whiiiich he didn't do. He'd taken it along since he liked the sound it made and dropped it somewhere he couldn't find it. Lonnie scuffed the toe of his left boot in the dirt. He didn't like the explanation for why he was trapped in the here and now. He didn't like that the whimsicott he met a few hours earlier was the one to hear his story of just how bad he messed up. Maybe he just wasn't used to talks with mortals of any variety. He glanced over at Idril.
Her attention was on the leaves and branches of the trees, not on the ground and fallen twigs. Lonnie wasn't sure what she expected to see up there. The Time Flute couldn't fly or float or anything. He doubted Elian would let him take it if it had a strange quality like that. Not that he'd specifically asked to take the flute today.
"And, that's all it does?"
"Well, I mean, yes. Yes, that is all it does."
He shut his mouth. That was all the flute did. The only thing. It was designed to summon him back if he got too lost or disconnected. It was a failsafe. Lonnie clasped his hands together. His antennae curled into tight coils as a great, cold weight tugged at his insides. He shouldn't have taken it and lost it, he really, really shouldn't have. It was his da- it was Elian's and-! He shivered and scrunched his shoulders up against his head. The weight remained and he kept his mouth shut.
Idril walked on in silence next to the timekeeper. He glanced at her from his hunched over posture. He wondered if she would call him out on his actions. If she would turn to him and say, 'Way to betray your boss' trust,' or, whatever. Maybe it would be more like, 'Wow, you're really bad at this whole not messing up thing, aren't you,' or even, 'So, you had one job regarding that flute and you went ahead and screwed up, great work.' He wrung his hands together and squeezed his eyes shut. He never realized just how many ways he could imagine someone else scolding him. He'd be a bit more impressed with himself and his new-found creativity if the sick, heavy sensation in his abdomen wasn't so hard to deal with.
Idril was quiet, her attention on the tree line. She didn't spare a single glance towards Lonnie. There was no criticism from her direction. Maybe that was how she intended to make him learn from his mistake? By being quiet? He pressed his joined hands against his chest and let out a sad, bii. The ill feeling increased.
"Soooo, you were all, what, no, never, at the idea of being pink and chilling out with a worn out victini. What's going on with that, Lons?" The whimsicott turned to face him and locked him in place with her eyes. "Do you hate the color pink, orrrr victinis, orrrr forestssss?"
"What?!" Lonnie's antennae pricked up in surprise. His hands dropped to his side, balled up into small fists. What was this lady talking about, that was utter nonsense! "No! Nonono, how could I hate forests? Forests are part of my job description, I love them!"
The whimsicott laughed and clapped a hand on Lonnie's shoulder.
"I'm teasing, I'm teasing, don't get your wings in a tizzy. They're really part of your job, thoooough?"
"Uh-huh! They are. I make sure nobody messes up the forests I know about too badly. That's- Well, it's kind of why I came here in the first place." He shuffled his feet in the dead leaves. It was entirely why he came into the future in the first place. There was no 'kind of's about it.
"Ohhh?" She gave her hair a shake and grinned. "I'd like to hear about this!"
"Mmhm. See, Elian gives me time off for breaks, and, um. I guess..." he wrung his hands together, eyes locked on the ground. It was hard to talk about himself. It shouldn't be, but it really was. He gave his head a shake and pressed on. "I guess that. Um. Well. I like to spend time in this forest in my here and now, and I just. Um, I guess I got a little bit worried since. Um...well, there was-"
He looked over at Idril. Her eyes were still on him. He still had her attention. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. It made him feel warm and light, at least, and that wasn't so bad. It was better than the cold weight he'd dealt with just a minute earlier. His antennae twitched and he dropped his gaze back to his hands, a little smile on his face.
"See, there was a forest fire...and, um, it didn't cause too much damage. And, I mean, it's not like it was unnatural or anything since fires happen all the time, but, it got me thinking about what ifs, and, um. I decided I would make sure the forest was still standing in the future. Which, um, I guess I shouldn't have done that since Elian doesn't want me traveling too far into the future by myself and it's against the rules, but, it's not like I'm messing around with anything or- well. Okay." His antennae drooped. "I guess I can't say that nothing bad happened. I lost the Time Flute."
Idril ran a hand through her hair and blinked at him. She seemed to consider his flustered explanation with more care than he'd expected her to. Shoot. It made sense, right? He hoped everything fit together properly. Ugh, he was the worst at this. He shouldn't have even tried to explain things, he just made everything worse, he knew it.
"So, you came here because you wanted to check in on your forest when your boss gave you a bit of time off?"
"He's not really my- ...well, okay, yeah. I guess he's my boss." Lonnie shifted his weight from his left foot to his right. She was entirely correct. There was no way in which Elian wasn't his boss, but. He shifted his weight back to his left foot. "But, I mean, he's more than my boss. Elian is the one who made me, with the creator's help."
"So, he's your dad?"
"Ye- ...well, I. No, not-" Lonnie paused and shut his eyes. Okay, yes, she had him there. "Yeah. Yeah, he's my dad."
He hadn't said it out loud before. It had been in the back of his mind for at least a hundred years now, just as a thought. A piece of information to consider. He'd overheard mortals talk about mothers and fathers. He'd watched families in the forest. Boss, father, creator, mentor, caretaker, all of those fit. They were all part of what Elian was to him. He just couldn't bring himself to isolate the more familial parts when he referred to Elian. Maybe it was all just anxieties. Lonnie didn't want to call the dialga his dad and then have the god of time stare at him and tell him to stop being ridiculous or something. He decided to change the topic. He got nervous when he thought about labeling Elian like this.
He needed a distraction for Idril's topic of choice. He did not want to talk about Elian anymore. The whole conversation made him anxious and changed the light, warm sensation to the heavy feeling that weighted him down and gave him that slightly sick sensation in his stomach. What could he talk about that wouldn't make him upset and would interest the whimsicott? He didn't know about a whole lot of things. Mostly just plants and time. Sooo, his work. He knew how to talk about his work. Maybe he could talk about Ether for a while, but, he didn't want to always default to talking about Ether when he needed a good conversation starter. Sure, Ether was interesting, but stories about the deoxys required too much explanation and build up. What he needed right now was a quick fix and a solid distraction.
"But, uh, anyways, this sure is a weird time, isn't it?" There, he thought. That was a good topic.
Idril tilted her head to the side and frowned. Curls of her white hair tumbled over her shoulder in a thick cascade. Lonnie had never seen hair flow like that. Granted, most of the pokemon he interacted with and watched in his actual time preferred their natural forms to these strange equalized ones. He wondered if effected what kinds of hair he saw. He also wondered why he just spend a minute of his time focused on the whimsicott's hair. He frowned and tapped his fingers together while he waited for a response.
"I don't know what you mean, Lons."
"You don't?" He straightened up and shifted his weight again. That was very, very odd. How didn't she notice how strange everything was here in the future? Wait. Waaaait. His antennae curled up and his face flushed. Right. He was just dumb, okay. "Well, I mean, uugh, hold on. Yeah. That makes sense, sorry. It's just weird for me, I'm being weird, sorry!"
"What do you mean by that?" She put her hands on her hips and took a step closer to the celebi. He wasn't certain how she managed to look more in charge by being closer to him, but, she pulled it off. "You're gunna have to talk straight if you want to change a conversation like that, okay? Talk straight and don't dodge the point. In fact, I'm going to tell you a very obvious secret. I'm interested in what you have to say. I am curious. But, if you're not clear about things and keep dodging around I'll just give up. Understood?"
Lonnie let out a soft buzz of a trill and nodded his head, entirely uncomfortable. It felt like his insides were made of stone and his face was on fire, neither of which sensations he liked in the least. He pressed his small hands against his cheeks. They felt warm.
"I- yes. Yes, okay, talk straight and don't dodge. Got it." He nodded his head more times than he needed to.
"Excellent! Now, why don't you start by telling me what your home time's like, Lons? When are you even from?" She took a step back, the smile back on her face.
"I was made not long after the start of the universe." He kept his hands pressed over his cheeks while he talked. "Elian made me to assist him as the timekeeper before any mortals were around."
"Well, dang, son! I guess the real question is, how old are you?"
"How old?" He shut his eyes and added up the years of his existence. "Maybe, five hundred years?"
"You don't look half bad for a five hundred year old, you know that?"
The celebi's hands moved from his cheeks to over his eyes. Everything about him felt warm. Everything. His face, his weighted down chest, his ears, his legs, his arms, his feet, his hands. It was all warm and all filled with the sensation of the charged air before a thunderstorm. He pressed his face closer against his hands.
"I-I, no, well, not really, 'cause, this isn't-!" He paused and peeked out from behind his fingers, eyebrows quirked up in his distress over the strange physical sensation. He dropped his voice's volume until it was a light whisper. "This isn't even what I'm s'pposed to look like, it's not my natural form."
Idril pursed her lips and looked at the ground for the first time all afternoon. Her right hand slid to her side and into a dark brown messenger bag. She pulled out a plain, bound book and an ink pen.
"Right. I wanna see what this natural form of yours looks like." She pried Lonnie's hands off of his face and slid the book into his fingers.
"I don't know what you want me to do with this," he said. He was tempted to hide his face behind the book now that his hands were filled. As far as hiding spots went, it didn't seem half bad.
"Here, I'll show you." The whimsicott reached over and spread his hands so that the book opened to a blank page. "Now, sit on down and I'll show you a neat trick, okay, Lons?"
He sat down after Idril pushed at him for a minute. The whimsicott tilted the book towards her and pressed the pen against the cream colored paper. Lonnie watched the nib- was it still called a nib with these kinds of pens - glide across the page. It formed swoops and swirls and curls until everything tied back together into a small picture of Idril. Lonnie leaned forward, eyes wide. He wasn't sure how she'd turned lines into herself, but he was more than a little bit intrigued by the concept.
She set the pen in his hands.
"Here. Draw yourself, Lons."
He stared at the pen, then at the paper. All right. He could do this. The drawing part would be very hard, but, he knew what he looked like. He just had to work through this in pieces. Two thick circles for his eyes. Okay, that looked sort of all right. They were pretty close to being circles, at least. But, then there was his head. He dragged the pen across the paper, but, the head was a real miscalculation on his part. Lonnie wasn't sure if it was the angle or the size, but something about the head was entirely wrong. His antennae curled up and he glanced at Idril, his face warm.
She grinned at him and nodded. Her approval this early into the drawing was a good sign. Lonnie rubbed at his nose and furrowed his brow before he set on the task of drawing his body. That wasn't so hard. It was just kind of a squished circle thing that- no, okay, yeah. Lonnie frowned at the paper. Nooo, that wasn't much of a body at all, his product quality slipped way down as soon as he was past the eyes. He added some feet and arms, which helped make the picture a bit more identifiable. It was still crude at best, he decided as he added the wings and antennae. His eyes flicked to the side again and met with Idril's.
"Aww, Lons, that's really cute! You look like a little bug fairy or something. Thanks for drawing yourself for me." Idril reached over and pat him on the head, and grinned. She took the book and pen back from him and tore the piece of paper out of her book. Without a moment's hesitation, she handed the sheet to Lonnie. "Here! Your first drawing ever. You can hang it on your wall or give it to the dialga or something. It's pretty good for a first drawing, you know?"
He took the paper as his face split in a wide, trusting smile. Idril thought it was pretty good! She said it to him about his picture and-! The electric, charged feeling in his body increased in intensity. He hugged the sheet to his chest and, for a moment, he forgot about the weight that lay in his chest. Everything was all right. It didn't matter that he didn't have the... that he didn't have the-
The Time Flute. His eyes went round. Elian's relic that he'd borrowed and lost, he still hadn't found it, it was still gone, and the sun. Ohhh, the sun, it was so low in the sky, it was the gloaming hour and he was such an idiot! Such a dumb plant!
"Hey now, it's okay, Lons. Here. No need to get all worried just yet. There's still time left in the day." Idril crawled forward a bit, concerned. She tugged the celebi over and into a hug. "I want you to do me a favor. Close your eyes."
Lonnie shut his eyes as tight as he could and made as many mental notes on the way Idril's hug felt as he could. He didn't manage to hug her back. That was a bit out of his capabilities. He enjoyed it, though. He leaned into the hug and relaxed. He let the warmth from Idril wash over him and calm his nerves. It lingered on for ten seconds before Idril let go and set a small bundle in his hands.
By the time he opened his eyes, the whimsicott was gone. He was alone amid the trees, left with the drawings and a small flute, wrapped up in a scrap of paper.