i just passed the 4 year anniversary of this fic why is this taking me so long. anyways, the gays are in.
in the almost-closing-events chapter. if i calculate correctly there should be only two chapters left for me to write...
Cynthia proves, as always, an incredibly capable woman. Her supply of folklore is inexhaustible and leads to Steven having more emails than expected in the morning. Like any historian, Cynthia came armed with as many primary sources as possible but was kind enough to give bullet-point summaries of anything she found relevant, saving Steven's recently-woken-up brain from having to parse though too much fluff. He peruses that over morning tea.
A majority of her notes are things that seem straightforward enough for Steven to classify them as 'doable'. Cresselia lives north of Canalave, its feathers are proven to ward off sleep issues, some kid she and Riley know called 'Dawn Stava' knows where and has already been called, Darkrai has never been found but is rumored to live north of Canalave as well. The note that interests Steven the most (despite relative irrelevance; he is a fixated man) is the brief point about the crystals- a possible symbol of Cresselia's gatekeeping, manifested dreams and protectiveness as it were. It's that particular copy of folklore he's thumbing through when Riley stumbles blearily into the kitchen, Lucario padding alongside. Now Steven's surprised about two things: he has a rock supposedly made of abstract concepts and Riley's awake of his own volition. He's not positive which of these is more unexpected a development.
"Good morning. Coffee or tea?"
"Mmnhwha?"
"I don't know why I thought you'd be coherent." Steven grabs Riley a mug, fills it from the teapot and passes it over. Riley takes it appreciatively and having something to concentrate on doing (take offering, don't drop it, etc.) wakes him up marginally further. He plops down on the kitchen chair next to where Steven was sitting and yawns widely.
"Mn. Thanks. Cynthia mailed you?"
"Yup. She wants you back at Canalave to go visit Cresselia with Dawn, I don't know who that is."
"A good kid. Strange, but trustworthy aura." She's really not a kid anymore. That's not going to stop Riley. "When, how, you coming?"
"Next few days; dunno, we can always just use a plane for once if we want to do this quickly; you couldn't leave me behind if you tried, Ri."
Riley groans and lies back. "Planes are pricey. I'm glad you're coming, though."
"Don't worry about it." As unenthused as he is about inevitably taking the job, Steven is heir to the largest business in Hoenn. He can afford plane tickets, they're really not that bad. He gives Riley further bits of information he's gleaned from Cynthia's files as Riley sits and only pays half attention.
Riley still isn't used to being anywhere that isn't incredibly secluded, and while Mossdeep is a very tiny city it's population density is nonetheless greater than that of Iron Island which he's used to. He's also not used to the fact that he can feel people very acutely now. He's not even trying at all, but can still tell when someone walks by the house as their aura makes itself known in the edges of his consciousness. Occupying himself with this distracts him from Steven's conversation, but he feels he picks up enough of the basic facts that it's fine.
Until Steven catches him at it, that is. He leans over and flicks Riley's forehead. "Did you catch any of that, or were you just staring blankly into space?"
"I got most of it. The important bits." He's not entirely wrong, the important bits as far as he's concerned is what Steven already told him about first. The lore as to why he's doing these things he'll look into later when he's inclined.
Steven lets him have that one and settle for staring curiously at Riley. Riley allows this for about three seconds before asking what Steven wants.
Quite a few things, which he has to think about for a second to find the correct phrasing. There is definitely a beat where he holds his hands out explanatorily, opens his mouth, and nothing comes out. He decides to just go for it. "So, about last night when we kind of had a moment and you also panicked and kissed me a bit because you thought I dream-died?"
Riley goes a tad pink. Surely there is a less weird way to say that, but he can't really think of one either. "That- was definitely a thing I did, yes."
"Do you think that's a thing that could happen regularly, perhaps? Ideally without the emotional distress. ...Also ideally in a situation where you would also think about dating me."
Riley snorts. "I'll see what I can do about the first two. As for the third, I have thought about it and I'll say that if we make it through running around legendary pokemon territory without dying or something, I will take you on a fantastic date."
Steven beams so unabashedly at Riley that Riley's further embarrassed at how purley gleeful Steven is. Apparently he's easy to please, Riley thinks to himself as Steven rambles a bit before going back to his readings with an air of being enormously pleased with himself.
Passenger planes are not exactly a hot commodity throughout the world, pokemon being far more accessible and easier to use to get from town to town and regionhopping accomplished much like road trips would be. They are, however, very quick and due to their relative unpopularity Steven doesn't have much difficulty securing transportation to Hearthome for the next day. Much easier to fly to Canalave from their as opposed to from Mossdeep.
The actual plane ride is completely uneventful, though Steven's pretty sure getting on and off it nearly overloads Riley, as there's not many landing points except for within large cities. With Riley's aura sensing developing into something more acute, he's having more difficulty than normal switching it off. Like in Mossdeep, when he could feel the colours of passersby, except now there are exponentially more people out and about and the colours are very disorienting. Steven has to stick close to give Riley something to concentrate on (which he would do regardless), lest the aura guardian get sensory overload and shut down in the middle of a hallway.
Aura superpowers, not as fun as advertised.
They make it safely out of Hearthome with Riley only once getting disoriented. Canalave isn't much better in terms of population density, but Riley's somewhat been able to adapt to the situation. He'll have a killer headache by the time he leaves Canalave, but at least he's not walking into walls or hiding in an alleyway. He'll live. Skarmory had ferried them to Canalave's PokeCenter, outside of which Dawn is waiting.
She stands still and proper outside the entrance, not showing much of any emotion when she spots Riley. She waves at him, which is all he's going to get and pretty good as far as Dawn greetings go. Riley greets her and politely introduces Steven.
She points at Steven with a quirked eyebrow.
"Yes, he's coming with me. Are you, or are you just our compass?" Riley replies.
Dawn shrugs silently and gestures for them to follow her as she sets off toward Canalave pier.
"Cynthia's worried," she finally speaks up, halfway to their destination. Her voice is very quiet. Steven's surprised to hear anything from her at all, though Riley just takes it in stride.
"I'm aware. I appreciate both of your concern, but I will be fine. I have you all with me."
Dawn casts him a glance that says she hopes so as much as an expression can communicate that. Riley smiles encouragingly at her. She casts her gaze forward once more and says nothing else until they get to the far northern pier.
Dawn points outward to the edge of the horizon. There's absolutely nothing visible in the direction she's pointing, though the fuzzy edges of Iron Island are barely discernible off to the right. "Straight north from here, you'll see it. Ferry might take you. Or surf." The ferryman both will do any favour Dawn asks as she saved his son, and has sympathy for anyone having the same problem. She gestures over at the boat, from which the sailor leans over the railings, interested in the proceedings. Dawn gives him little attention, he is not who she cares about at this moment. Instead she turns and fixes her determined gaze on Riley. "Want me to come?"
"Only if you want to."
She takes a step back indicating she'll decline. As many legendary pokemon as she's run into, she tries to make a point of not bothering them when it's not necessary for her personally. She doesn't need to attach herself onto Riley's quest. He'll be fine. He looks awful, sure, but that's what Darkrai does to people and he's not comatose yet. That's the important part. Dawn gives him a passing star. She switches to evaluating the man Riley's got with him. Also looks determined, and like he wouldn't listen to anything she had to say that he didn't like. Dawn respects that at well. She nods to them both.
"Cresselia can be ...aggressive. She means well, but her island is sacred." She gives Riley a meaningful glance. With how Cresselia reacted defensively when all Dawn wanted was a feather, she doubts the pokemon will be very enthused if Cynthia was right and Riley is actually personally tainted by Darkrai. "I doubt you will have to battle her, but do not go expecting an easy conversation." She pauses again, regathering herself. Riley has rarely heard her talk this much in a single sitting before.
"I hope you make it," Dawn finishes. She doesn't intend to sound foreboding, her tone is as amicable as she can manage.
"Thank you. We'll come back soon enough. Stop by Iron Island sometime, I'll make you cocoa and I want to see your Lucario."
Dawn replies only with another small smile that Riley interprets as her acceptance of the offer. He will indeed see her later. That much is certain. While Dawn plans entirely on leaving Riley to his own devices, that doesn't mean she doesn't want to ensure that he returns to Canalave in one piece.
Cynthia would also come after her if she didn't report back as soon as Riley came back. Dawn would prefer to avoid getting in trouble.
It will be a while, however, so as Steven and Riley chat with the ferryman Dawn meanders off. Once mentioned, hot chocolate sounds like a much better idea than sitting around a chilly pier for a few hours. She'll be back soon enough.
For the time being, Seven and Riley still have to leave. The sailor seems nice enough, though a strange man the keeps gruffly rambling about his past experiences around the island. A lot of nonsense about being incapable of getting too close during the wrong phase of the moon and so forth, a point Steven deems null as the sun hasn't set yet, and tonight's half moon is not on the man's list of inappropriate phases. This doesn't stop the captain (a man named Eldritch, which Steven probably shouldn't find amusing but can't help himself with how much this guy seems to prophesy doom) from continuing to mutter darkly about how unfortunate is that he has to bring more people to the Island. He still allows Riley and Steven on the boat, a fairly small one, so they can set off without resorting to surfing pokemon.
It's a long boat ride, a majority of which is spent either in silence of quiet mutters of conversation between Steven and Riley. As much as they'd like to say they'll be fine and are unworried, the combined efforts of everyone's foreboding is getting to them. Dusk is falling by the time Fullmoon Island rises into view. It doesn't seem like anything special to Steven, though Riley's fingers tightening around his hand indicate otherwise.
Riley could tell the island was approaching before it was truly visible. A tight feeling in his chest and a faint pink glow on the horizon belied its presence. It multiplied when the actual body of the island became visible, his nerves worsening as the glow from the island's aura practically matched that of the setting sun's light. Everything gave off a bright pink glow. not so much that it was too bright to look at, it was by no means a painful pink, but it roused Riley's discomfort and very clearly gave the message that something lives on this island.
Something very strong that, if Dawn and Eldritch were anything to go by, would not be happy to see him.