"Luka!"
A voice penetrates her dreams. She grabs the nearest pillows, or fluffy things on her bed and shuts out her ears, groaning loudly.
"Luka, wakeup!"
She throws a doll to the wayside, a little olive colored creature, an indistinguishable substitute. Luka blinks, groaning loudly, coming to her senses and opening her eyes to her little hole upstairs. The bed takes up the majority of the room, while a desk and a calendar makes the other. Luka shakes herself awake, shouting back.
"I'm coming Lene, gimme a sec!"
And by a sec she means several minutes. Luka kicks her feet off the bed, slowly rising too with a loud, painful groan. Her whole body is a wreck from last night, disheveled and worn.
It still made no sense. All she did was defend herself, what could be so wrong about that? Anyone would defend themselves, Aqua too, so what was wrong about that? So what if she messed up Aqua, Aqua or her promoter would do the same thing if she was in her place.
Luka shakes her head, she is just thinking in circles. What matters is she has money, money to give to her momma.
She opens up the door to her room then traipses downstairs. Lene already has a soup brewing, her broth of the day, and has a bowl already at the ready for Luka to dig into. The second she takes a seat, Lene fills up her bowl, then goes back about cooking. Mixed Berries and vegetables broth - the usual.
"Um, thanks ma." Luka chuckles.
"Oh you don't need to thank me unless you're paying me, I do this out of the goodness of my heart." She motions to the bowl. "Eat up, the soup doesn't eat itself you know."
And so she does, taking a spoonful of the warm, not-necessarily delicious substance and swallowing her whole. Upon taking a gulp, Luka looks to Lene, raising an eyebrow.
"H-Hey!" She stammers out. "How's things going uh, payment wise, guild wise?"
"Oh, there is no guild here silly, but the explorers gobbled up all of last night's broth like nothing. As for payments, well…" She stops stirring her pot, then looks behind her. "I thought I told you to stop worrying about those sorts of things, dear."
Whilst her glare faces her down, Luka reaches into feathers, pulling out a pouch of coins she sends sliding across the table with her wooden spoon. She continues to eat while mother curiously plucks the pouch, counting the dozens upon dozens of coins inside. The old Mandibuzz looks back with confusion and awe.
"This is…" Lene stutters. "Where did you get all of this?"
"At my new job." Luka says with a smile across her face. "I told you I was finding work and I found one last night, they frontload the pay so I'm giving you all of that to pay off the house and do whatever with. Don't spend it all, okay?"
Lene shakes her head.
"Oh no no, I wouldn't. Say again where did you-"
"At my new job.'
It finally registers to the Mandibuzz as she drops the question altogether, lifts the giant bowl of soup and waddles it near the door, sitting it briefly on a bench right next to it. She pants.
"Darling, I wish you only the best in your new job, so don't you ever forget I'm rooting for you, okay?" Lene looks back, grinning from one side of her beak to the other. "You don't need to be working yourself to the bone because we still owe a lot, not enough to pay off with a couple of bounties. You can take it easy, you're young. I don't want anything other than to you be safe, okay?"
She understands well, she had spent way, way too long searching for any kind of job in this tiny town. It so happens that working herself to the one in a battling league happens to pay the best for her time, and she has Aqua - whoever she is - to thank for not dealing with anything visible. She does not have a black eye or any other obvious signs of a battle well fought, just a general sense of tiredness the excuse of a day's long work can hide.
Lene squints her way once more, then motions at the door.. The Hawlucha scampers up to the door to hold it open, and Lene goes free, offering her a smirk in goodbye.
"Don't worry about it, job's boring anyways, I promise I'm not going out into dungeons to pay off our debt, okay?"
"Okay" Lene nods. "Don't do anything silly while on the job, you hear? Or else I'm gonna have to show up and teach you a lesson."
She has never seen her angry, and she would love to keep it this way. Luka gulps, nodding her head agreement.
"Alright, see you later!"
"Take care!"
And out the door Lene goes. Luka shuts it right behind her, finishing up her bowl of broth and taking a much needed, deep breath.
Goodness, thank goodness she never asked too much about the how, what or why she earned all that money. The sooner the debt is gone, the sooner they can do whatever they like with this place; turn it into a whole business if they want to. She really does not care about the debt itself, she cares about making her momma happy, and Lene, despite her confusion, was pretty darned pleased with her turning a new leaf and paying this off.
Thank goodness.
She slurps down all the puffy, soupy berries, then chugs down the rest of the broth, throwing the empty bowl into the sink. She has to show up by the vanilluxe place, where Aqua is supposed to be waiting for her.
Out the door she goes, breathing in the fresh air blowing in from the nearby Sea. Pokemon Paradise, for all of its faults related to realty and charlatans, is a beautiful place, with houses of stone stacked high in their narrow-thin lots, ascending from one street to the other running above them.
Their abode is similar, though theirs does not have an entrance or anything facing the second story street, their building is a little hovel right next to town square wherein her rich dad - whoever he is bought and left the debt on their lap. It is prime real estate, perfect for shops, but rather than a shop theirs is nothing more than a home sitting awkwardly out in the middle of Paradise' square.
At least this means navigating the town is much easier. Upon leaving her house, Luka cuts through the streets, making her way past stalls chock full of all sorts of pokemon selling their wares to a wee little building past it and by the shore. The building, a shop, belongs to vanilluxe, and who else is waiting for her in the morning other than the Sneasel-thing from yesterday.
Aqua waves towards her. She already has a bowl of iced Pecha ready for her. Luka sits herself down and starts to peck away at it, awkwardly nibbling at the ice-cold thing.
"Didn't think you'd come back." Aqua speaks, smiling.
"Me neither, makes the two of us." Luka bites into the freezing-cold treat. "You erm, didn't need to get me one."
Aqua motions back at the stall. A grass-type snake is operating it, quickly feeding their customers ice cold treats before their vines wilt and freeze into nothingness.
"Thank them instead." Aqua says with a smile. "Anyways, you shaked on it yesterday, so I thought I'd ask again: are you serious about joining me in a gang? I sprung it onto you on the moment, so I thought I'd ask again just to make sure when you are actually lucid?"
"Lucid? I wasn't on anything yesterday."
Aqua shrugs, she mutters under her breath.
"Could've sworn…mustve been the sleep…"
And she quickly picks up. "Anyways, Luka Diamond, did you give it any thought or am I going to have to leave you the dust?"
"I did." She sputters out.
The Sneasel-thing looks at her, raising an eyebrow at her. Her makeup really makes her eyes look more intense than they'd ought to be, and after a moment of stern silence, Luka speaks.
"Look, as long as you make sure my momma's paid well, I'll sign up for anything you got, okay?"
Aqua extends a hand across the table, filling her face with the icy treat with her other. Aqua takes it once again, and gives it a shake as dramatic as yesterday.
"Deal." Aqua says, finishing off her own little bowl with a final bite. "Been looking forward to getting a real partner other than the usual jobbers they give me, ain't nobody in this league wants to sign up with someone as nasty as me."
"Nasty?" Luka chuckles. "You seem pretty fine to me."
"Well, you're not in the league for starters, and secondly I'm supposed to be a bad guy. I'm always meant to lose, except when I don't and cause problems for everyone else. I am a Heel, and I don't have anyone to fight with me short of other newbies like you." She shrugs. "No offense to you of course, but those others don't last long, they usually give up before you do."
Really sounds like they are being put through the wringer, these new people. Luka takes a deep breath, getting herself together before the inevitable question slips from her beak.
"What, did you think I'd give up?"
Aqua takes a moment too long to answer, finally returning her genuine question with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Honestly, yeah."
How fun. Not even her one foot in this world of battling has full confidence in her. Luka sinks her head into her palms. Aqua reaches across the table and flips her gaze up to her.
"Look, don't be rough on yourself, it's not cool and it makes you look lame." She says. "If you're gonna be part of my crew, I'm gonna make sure you make it near the top and make enough money for your momma to be happy. You got that?"
What is she supposed to say, thank you? This is too much all at once. Luka gulps, then nods her head wildly.
"I got it."
"Good, great, fantastic stuff!" She ruffles Luka's cheeks before letting go. "I'm heading back to the stadium, I expect you there soon, there's gonna be a doubles match tonight and I want you on my team."
"Tonight?" Luka sputters.
"Yeah, tonight! What, did I stutter?" Aqua glares over her shoulder, standing out of her seat. "Me and you, partners in crime, I'm gonna ask Jones to tell whatever idiot the boss sent to team up with me to bugger off so you and I can wreak havoc together. It's gonna be lots of fun, trust me!"
Lots of fun indeed, she is absolutely gonna get her back broken by whatever actual fighter is there to mess up the villainous Aqua. She shakes her head, sighing. What has she gotten herself into now?
"I'm not the best fighter, you-"
"Shut-up! I'll cover you, don't you whine at me!" Aqua shouts. "Come on, come down by the arena round sundown, I'll be waiting for you, got it?"
She absolutely does not have any choice in this matter, the one thing Luka can do is nod her head fervently and say yes to everything this Sneasel creature can say. Aqua slides out of the table and waves to her, Luka waves back, and she departs down the crowded streets of pokemon paradise.
Just what in the world has she gotten herself into? If Lene finds out, she will absolutely gut her for lying about this whole - this whole everything! It what seems to be a burgeoning happy, she drowns out those thoughts with icy food, freezing those doubts solid..
On her way back through town she swears she can see a couple of onlookers follow her wherever she goes, whispering things about how she was the one pokemon in a very long time to knock sense into aqua, about how she is the best newest-up-and-coming talent the fighter's league has to offer. All this gossip she tries her best to ignore, pushing through crowds of onlookers reading about last night's game, heading all the way up to her old abode.
She leaves a sack of grain on the front table, locks the door, and scurries upstairs to her room, locking it too in a panic.
Too much, too much has been going on in this short amount of time.. Tonight, just like yesterday, she is to show up there and fight for Aqua's throne or whatever.
And such, she closes her eyes, drifting into a nap.\
The door to what one of the guides had said is Aqua's place rattles in place. Luka shakes the handle to no response, whoever is on the inside is quite obviously ignoring her.
"See?" The little voice of a geodude grumbles to Luka. "I don't know what you're here for, but she sure does not know y-"
And before the rock type can even finish his sentence, the hinge unlocks, and the door creaks open. Aqua is inside, sitting on her chair, adjusting her makeup in a mirror whilst beckoning to the flying mon she knows is waiting at the door. Luka invites herself inside, locking it behind them, and observes the room.
Other than the addition of these mirrors and seats, the room is the exact same as the place Jones had her holed up in. As a matter of fact, Jones is already here shooting glares at the bird. Aqua grabs a nearby stool, pulling it up to her mirror and offering the seat.
"Come" she says. "I'm just about done myself."
On the dresser is a small seashell-shaped clasp with various holes, each filled to the brim with glistening material. She dips her claw into the red one of these, drawing menacing patterns around her eyes. If her gaze was killer earlier, then her gaze now was outright murderous.
Upon taking a seat next to her, Aqua looks down at the feathery pokemon, then at her reflection, she scoffs.
"It's only gonna be poison, just close your eyes and stay still for me, okay?"
"Only poison?"
She shuts her eyes, and before there is time to properly question it, she sees Aqua tip her clawed fingers into the darkest of these divots and holds her claws right up to Luka's face. Luka gets the message, and lets them do their magic.
Claws trace around her eyes, small streaks feed downwards from the rings around her gaze. She keeps her eyes tight as could be till Aqua finally backs away, putting her hands on Luka's shoulders, and showing her to the mirror.
"Open your eyes."
She blinks once or twice, slowly adjusting, and sees her reflection staring back at her. Her eyes are surrounded by these drenched-looking streaks of ink, black as could be, they make her yellow eyes pop in the dim light. They look nice, almost.
"Fantastic!" Aqua shouts. She lowers her head till she is level with aqua's. Both hers and Aqua's have the same look about them. "You look fantastic, don't you?"
"Erm…thanks?"
The room shakes, a voice calls outside the door, yelling at the top of their lungs.
"Aqua, you got a minute till show time!"
Oh yes indeed, she does have a minute till showtime, and this very last minute she spends dragging a bottle of wine from out her dresser and taking a swift shot. She hands it to Luka, she politely refuses.
And it is at this point, after all the makeup, the drinks and everything else, the third pokemon in the room finally speaks up. The Craindos looks up from the pamphlet he had been given, glancing at them to.
"Is that seriously your partner for tonight?" He scoffs. "She messed up last night, I had a whole rigmarole to run through just so you can fight tonight after you caved in before you should have."
"Yes, she is. Do you have anyone better to sign me up with? Let's be serious, she did a pretty good job last night even if she did mess up." Aqua glares at the rock-type. "Who really cares if she was supposed to lose majorly or not? The crowd didn't care, they loved her."
"And that is exactly the problem, Aqua. I didn't expect to have to front for newbie talent till she made this a problem." The little pokemon glares at Luka. "You should've just pretended to faint after the first move, it'd have saved you a lot of trouble, saved me the stress, and maybe I'd have given you the money I owe to the company."
"What do you mean?" Luka plops away from the mirror, staring the pokemon down. "Are you saying because I didn't give up you now owe everyone money? Wasn't it you who brought me aboard?"
"Yeah…" He flinches. "And it's because of you and only you, I owe everyone. Now will you get out there and do your job right this time?"
"Twenny seconds!"
A voice booms from behind the door. Aqua gets out of her sea, and shushes Luka towards the door, muttering under her breath to the flying-type.
"Just do your best, okay? Just fight well, and don't worry about being hurt."
Luka stammers.
"Alright."
The Sneasel-thing smiles, opening the door, letting the screams of the crowd wash over them.
