i got an alert someone followed this and was like 'o damn im so sorry i havent written anything abt these gays in like 12 years'.
also i just realized ive been writing this fic for 3 years and im still just barely halfway done i. am so sorry that i cannot do this any faster.
dont u just love chapters that are just a billion lines of dialogue b/c ur in a expository skype call?no. to make up for it have what could almost count as an ill-described date, if you squint, first. this chap would be longer but its already like 2k so i spared myself.
Unfortunately for Riley and Steven, Cynthia is not easily accessible. Well, she is, though only over text and only for brief stretches at a time, which Steven finds generally inconvenient. This is a messy matter and both Steven and Riley are unfortunately bad at dealing with large issues over text. Video calling Cynthia would be the ideal method, but that requires a tad more effort. Apparently there's some new Trainer vying for their Sinnoh League recognition and Cynthia is quite preoccupied watching her Elites and the visitor battle it out. Instead of concise messages, Cynthia is repeatedly pestered over text until she replies with at time when she'll be able to sit down and do a video chat, which would be sometime around midnight in Mossdeep's time. Part of her wants to tell the two messaging her to shut up and wait, but that fact that it's Steven and Riley, notorious avoiders of technology, trying to get along of her makes the Sinnoh champion a bit more lenient, considering they must have a good reason for urgency.
Steven grumbles about this regardless. What an inconvenient time for the Sinnoh elites have to deal with a challenger. Riley doesn't mind one way or the other; this gives him as much free time as he likes to wander about Mossdeep with Lucario and Steven. Steven isn't given a say in the matter, he's just told "well, if there's no other innocents you want to irritate, come walk with me and stop worrying" and gently tugged out the door.
As with any place Riley has not been before (and many places that he has), he has the pervasive urge to explore as much as possible. Not even the vague dizziness and fatigue that came back after his brief respite can keep him from wanting to wander. Besides, he's got Steven by the hand should something actually happen. (And to narrate where they're walking and how mangroves work, because Riley has no clue.)
Lucario quite likes the mangroves lining Mossdeep, and she manages to distance herself from protectively flanking Riley's heels in order to play tag with herself among the shallow water and roots. The feeling of actually taking a break from everything that's been happening is incredibly welcome, as is the idea that Riley might actually manage to fix himself up. He doesn't really know how that would happen, and is still hesitant to admit aloud that something's wrong and it scares him, but he's going to take the small positive of believing things will definitely turn out fine. Riley relaxes and does his best to make Steven do so as well. While Riley doesn't really like reading people's aura without permission, sometimes he catches Steven's from the corner of his eye, and on occasion he can see daubs of concern-azure interfering with the usual thistle-purple of the former champion's aura. Though sometimes there's other little flecks of sunrise colours, positive ones, and those, if anything, are what Riley's trying to encourage in Steven's mood.
Riley doesn't let go of Steven's hand throughout their about two hour long jaunt unless he absolutely has to for whatever reason. Steven's warm and Riley figures that if the feeling of some other trusted human being next to him makes him feel slightly less like a tired, mildly anxious wreck, maybe it'll work to reassure Steven that Riley's not going to abruptly vanish or keel over.
It does. Steven appreciates contact more than he chooses to say or think about too much. Instead, he points out Shoal Cave in the distance once it's visible, talks about the Space Center, the fantastic young kinds running the Gym, really anything he can think of so Riley at least knows Mossdeep on a superficial level. It's Steven's home and he both loves it and is very happy to show it off.
Maybe if Riley likes the island as much as Steven does he'll have an extra layer of motivation in the future to actually visit for once. Once this whole mess is wrapped up and they don't have it to worry about.
They're forced to return back to Steven's house about an hour after it gets dark.
After that, it's mostly just a matter of milling around until it's time for Cynthia to call. Riley occupies himself with dumping his personal items in the spare room. Steven was right, it had quite apparently not been touched in quite a while. Steven's somewhat sheepish over it, which Riley completely brushes off. It's still quite a lot nicer than Iron Island's room. He appreciates it.
Around 11:30, Steven starts fiddling with a laptop he procured from some drawer somewhere, Riley doesn't know. It's a fairly outdated device, and Steven's unfamiliarity with it ends in him perched on the couch, clicking semi-randomly and irritatedly at settings controls. Riley's next to him being of no use whatsoever. He actually has very little idea how any sort of technology works, and is content to watch bemusedly as Steven attempts to resurrect the laptop he hasn't touched in at least a year. He gets it working before missing schedule, thankfully.
Cynthia's face occupies the screen not five minutes later. Riley leans over and waves at her happily.
"Hello again," she opens with. "What's Steven worked up over?"
Steven pushes Riley's head out of the way so that Cynthia can actually see him. "Something broke Riley and it keeps getting continually weirder."
Here Riley interjects with something along the lines of 'I'm not broken'. Steven continues on his explanation.
"Seems more like the weirdness that happens when powerful pokemon are running around, so I thought I would ask you as opposed to just leaving him comatose on Iron Island."
Cynthia shows marked concern at that, staring with brows furrowed at the pixellated image of Riley on her computer screen. "You are telling me that one of my friends is.. inexplicably going into comas?"
"No," Riley interjects, "I'm not unconscious. It's just being, ah." What's the best way to phrase this that will minimize Cynthia's concern. "Prone to falling asleep and being difficult to wake up."
"Riley Maris!" Both Steven and Riley are very taken aback by how perfectly Cynthia captures the tone of outraged mother. They pale. She reddens, annoyed. "You have lived in Canalave for how long and you still don't know about this kind of thing? A kid nearly died two years ago with that exact same description." She tells the two to hold still as she excuses herself to go find something in her bookshelves. Both Steven and Riley knowing Cynthia's bookshelves and organizational systems, this could last anywhere from ten minutes to over an hour. In the interim, Steven and Riley whisper at one another.
"What is she talking about, a kid dying?"
"I don't know, I don't get told about stuff like that."
"Regardless, now you have two people yelling at you that this is bad, are you still going to try and play yourself off as perfectly fine?"
"It's not that bad!"
They continue bickering back and forth in whispers, preoccupied enough with this activity to not notice Cynthia's return. She watches them, vaguely confused. The microphone isn't good enough to pickup what they're talking about, but they seem very into this discussion, and could probably use a reminder in what personal space is.
"A-hem." No one notices her. She tries again. "Excuse me, I can't actually hear if you're discussing anything important, but I'm back."
The fact that the response Steven and Riley give her is various stuttered excuses is evidence that no, it was probably not an important discussion. Cynthia holds a newspaper clipping up to her webcam. It's too grainy to be easily read, but there is a clear enough picture of a young kid sitting in a bed, with an older girl standing next to him looking disinterested. Riley blinks a few times and leans closer to the monitor. The girl looks familiar. "Is that miss Dawn?"
Cynthia nods. "Correct, this was about a month after the major incident with Galactic. Long story short, a boy in Canalave fell asleep and his family couldn't get him to wake up for over a day. Dawn was in town and said she'd help, when asked the family said someone had told her to go to some islands north of Canalave and find a feather from Cresselia."
Throughout the story, Riley's expression had best been described as one of concerned interest, but at the mention of the name 'Cresselia', it switches to mild alarm. He leans back slightly as if spooked. Cynthia doesn't notice, but Steven looks over him with eyebrows raised inquisitively. At the lack of reply, Steven just lightly knocks his shoulder against Riley's. A reminder: We're here, you're fine.
"And from what else I got from this event, this has happened before, every couple of decades, to people who spend too long up north in Canalave." Cynthia looks up, eyeing Riley. "You know, like you do. Hm, I never thought it might affect you, though…." She trails off, her turn to mutter to herself before voicing up again. "Every time it comes up, there's mention of something called Darkrai (that I assume is a pokemon) linked with it, but nobody ever specifies that. Even in the older stories…."
Steven pipes up again. "So you're saying that all we need to do is find where Cresselia lives and get a feather? That can't be that hard." Riley twitches again. He doesn't know why the talk about this is starting to make him very anxious, but here he is.
"There's that, but I'm not positive it would solve it. I don't know how it works. Is there anything else that's weird?"
Riley knows there's something he's forgetting, he just can't recall it right now. Things are getting increasingly staticky in his head and he feels very worried over nothing in particular. Steven, at least, is unaffected by the greyish waves of anxiety curling off of Riley's aura. "Ah! Yes. Mystery rock." Not a mystery for long if Steven has his way, which he undoubtedly will. He turns around and leans over the back of the couch to lift the stone he's conveniently placed on the table behind them.
"Why is this rock a mystery?" Cynthia asks. Steven Stone, not knowing something about stones? Mark her down as incredulous. And very intrigued.
"Because if Riley touches the crystals, it hurts. Yes?" He looks up at Riley for verification. Riley just nods distractedly. Alright then, Steven will allow him slipping into being nonverbal again, that's fine. "And they don't look like the kind of crystal formation I'd expect. They seem to luminesce in cave-darkness," Steven prattles on, probably giving a bit too much detail about the rock and Cynthia flips through a worn-looking book on her lap. This it so be expected from an enthusiastic geologist, but Cynthia has to cut him short. Not only is it not entirely useful information, it's late and she can only do this for so long before she starts yawning.
"I'm sure the geological implications are fascinating, but I'm not really sure. There's something I recall mentioned a few times about how Cresselia would manifest her power in a physical form to 'keep away nightmares' or something, and imbue her power in the land itself, so maybe it's a little bit like a lunar wing, only I don't know if it would work the same." Or even if that was remotely true, but it's the closest Cynthia can approximate from her collection of mythos, and since mythos seems to be a highly applicable topic, she'll take it. She closes the book with an ill-disguised yawn. "Steven, I'll photocopy anything relevant and email them to you tonight, okay? And if anything changes or when Riley comes back, I expect to be notified. No one's going comatose on my watch. Riley, I'd say get some sleep because you look half dead, but I really don't know if that's the most tactful thing to advise right now." Cynthia gives them a final appraising stare before sighing and giving a proper goodbye. Steven and Riley reciprocate, and the camera cuts out.
Cynthia sighs. She really is quite worried about what Riley's gotten himself into now, but at least he's got someone on his side. The Sinnoh champion doubts she'd have to step in at this point considering what Steven has already done and how determined he seems to be, but still. Illogical though her concern may be, she's going to worry about her friend's health now that it's been brought up. The best thing she can do about it now is send anything relevant to Steven. Inhale, pause, exhale. Alright. Time to start up the scanner.