"Remember when we were starting out…? You used to make me feel like we were soaring into space. On nothing but a wing and a prayer."

A giggle. "If I had it my way, I'd want to just stay here and listen to all of your colorful flying metaphors forever. If… if everything wasn't weighing us down so much, maybe we could just stay up in the air…?"

A sniffle. "But that's the problem with being on cloud nine for so long, isn't it? When you're that high, and you finally stop flying… it's a much harder fall back down."

A sad chuckle. "…I think you missed your calling as a poet."


Larry may not be the one for all the extra attention after Iono leaked his and Katy's relationship to the world, but Katy was having one of the best and busiest weeks of her life.

Iono's broadcast had brought plenty of young tourists to Cortondo to see Katy and get their mouthful of the tasty treats offered by Patisserie Soapberry. Katy even had to corral some of her staff to send for more shipments of ingredients mid-week because by that Wednesday, they'd already run out of stock.

Now it was Thursday, and Katy got up in the morning ready for another day at work. She'd been putting up with some of Iono's rabid fans sitting right outside waiting to snap pictures and videos with her in frame for their own social media clout.

But luckily, Iono came through with her promise, and Katy saw much fewer of those kinds of fans who were crazy just to see her.

That did little to change her customer output however, as today Katy walked down the street towards her shop and saw a line of people gathered outside, stretching all the way across the business next door and almost into the one next to that.

Katy walked up the crowd and addressed them. "Are all of you in line for us?"

The line-waiters noticed Katy and they all clamored for her.

"I'll take that as a yes!" she laughed.

Katy was surprised to see some of them get out their autograph books.

"Can I have an autograph, please Miss Katy? I'll stay for dessert too!"

"Me too! I don't have yours either! I love you so much! And your sweets!"

"Autographs? You want mine?" Katy was in shock. "Yeah… sure! I'd love to give those out!"

She eagerly filled in everyone's books with her stylized cursive signature and even endowed some of them with little doodles of bugs and winking faces. And true to their word, they all stayed in line to sample some of Katy and her team's delicious delicacies.

She scooted her way past the crowd into the store and immediately hunted for one of her junior chefs Damian.

"Damian, we're going to need some tables put up outside!"

"I already did that, Chef!" he said, pointing out the window. "It shaved off maybe a third of all those people!"

"Wow, we've got our work cut out for us today."

"There you are, Chef!" Krista called out from the front counter. She was balancing stacks and stacks of cakes on both her arms.

"Having fun, Krista?" Katy laughed.

"You said I was being put under trial period for running my own place! Is this it?" Krista asked, half-sarcastically.

Katy giggled, and immediately went to set up in her station.

Within time, they had a full mass of people inside the main dining area. Krista decided to take the opportunity to improve her crowd control skills.

"Alright, let me hear some noise! How many of you are here for delicious treats from all of us at Patisserie Soapberry?"

A chorus of cheers and yeah's sounded. Katy heard all of this from the kitchen and was delighted.

"And…! Always gotta know, is anyone here today hoping to challenge the Gym Leader of Cortondo, Katy, for the coveted Bug Badge?"

Katy held out her ear in anticipation. …But her smile slowly faded as the air was met with silence instead, and murmurs in the negative. One person even said quietly, "I forgot she was a Gym Leader."

"Oh… Well, that's okay!" Krista responded, feeling a little awkward. "More time for everyone to get their sugary fills!"

They all cheered as Krista made her way into the kitchen.

"Sorry if I got your hopes up there, Chef."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Krista. The school year's starting to wind down, so… I guess the students have just had their fill of Badge collecting."

She shrugged, putting on the best smile she could. Krista tugged at her collar.

"Hey… this is probably a bad time, but… I should also let you know that Larry called earlier and said he probably can't make the lunch date you two had planned."

"Oh." She nodded glumly. "Did he say why?"

"Uhhh… he, um… he's actually got a bunch of Gym Challengers lined up today."

Katy tried to stay stone-faced. "…O-oh."

"Yeah, um… I guess I just figured that if, plenty of people wanted to challenge him because of that Iono thing, that maybe…" She trailed off. "So, yeah. I-I'm gonna wash my hands from all those cakes and then join you in a minute."

Krista swiftly left to use the washroom, feeling embarrassed. Katy rested her elbows on the cutting table. She took a deep breath of serenity to try to get rid of the negative feelings she could sense were rising up.

This led her to glance towards an open door to her left.

An open door to a room that was sort of a private office for Katy, whenever she was getting ready between working as a chef and as a Gym Leader, since she wore more stylized accessories for her Gym Battles like special gloves and the alternate chef's hat with that quirky bug antennae design on it.

It was also a little room she would retreat into when she was feeling stressed and needed to just breathe for a moment, and had a few items of personal paraphernalia that served as boosts of encouragement.

Like a picture frame hanging on the wall looking right out into the kitchen, which showed what appeared to be a much younger Katy, surrounded by a team of Pokémon, all celebrating something exciting.

Katy saw the picture and gave it a half-hearted smile.

"Let's you and I both do our best today, okay?"


That was Thursday. Then Friday rolled around.

Rika stood in the elevator for what started out as a normal day. Having a moment of aloneness in there, she craned her neck a full 360 degrees to stretch it out. Rocked her legs back and forth for a bit. And then allowed herself to take a couple of deep breaths.

This was how she grounded herself every morning to prepare for another day of work at the Pokémon League building. There was finally coffee in the office again, that also helps.

Stepping out onto the floor where her cubicle was, she was instantly greeted by what had come to be an increasingly frequent sight the past few weeks: despite Rika's job requiring her to arrive a half hour earlier than everyone else, one other person was already set up at his station hard at work.

No points for guessing who.

With an amused but sympathetic smile on her face, Rika shrugged off her navy jacket and huffed out loud.

As she passed by, she went "Another day, another dollar, right?"

"Tch," was Larry's only response.

Despondently, Rika set her jacket down over her chair. … Her new office chair, of course.

"Y'know, I think I preferred the Larry from two weeks ago," Rika snarked. "He was a lot funnier."

Larry's head was slumped so low it was inches from just hanging over his desk completely, his fingers just mindlessly tapping on the keyboard like everything but his hands had been zombified like a Parasect.

"Honestly, I wish I could go back to where I was two weeks ago too," he muttered. "How did my tasks seem so much more… manageable then?"

Rika shrugged as she started up her computer. "Maybe you were just… feeling more driven then. You had a lot of energy."

"…Maybe."

Larry remembered that two weeks ago, he truly felt like he was on cloud nine. He and Katy had only just recently confessed their feelings, so he figured the subtle jubilation he felt from starting a new relationship was indeed driving him forward in his job for a while.

Thinking about this only made him sneer and want to curse out Iono even more. What should've been an even bigger drive to motivate him, the night he and Katy kissed and said "I love you" to each other for the first time… instead turned into a week of getting mobbed by teenagers and having to deal with confrontations from both her and Geeta…

Already, whatever spark he would've felt from that wonderful night had dissipated thanks to all of that chaos. And the increased workload was just diminishing his spirit even further.

But, in that moment, he remembered how much he was cherishing his time together with Katy… and what he was truly working for.

"That's right, I made a promise," he muttered to himself. "Work would never come between us. I have to make sure it doesn't…"

Rika, waiting for her computer to finish booting up, heard all of this from her desk, but chose not to say anything.

She knew, of course. It's not like it wasn't obvious that something had happened to Larry to greatly improve his mood, and having fallen in love with someone was the most likely candidate.

Between her multiple roles at the League, looking after Poppy, and her own friendships, it's not like Rika had the downtime to be watching streamers like Iono. But Hassel has plenty of students in his art classes who do, and so he informed her of the leaked video in confidence, especially since he knew a scandal like that between two Gym Leaders would be of great concern to Geeta.

But Rika also knew he told them out of regard for Larry's well-being. Hassel, even more than Rika, was constantly observant of Larry's mood shifts over the past several months, and with Larry often refuting attempts at conversation, Hassel would instead turn to Rika to air out his feelings of concern towards the man.

Hassel cares a lot about Larry. This much, Rika knew, was obvious. And she did too. She felt she was the closest person who could relate to Larry's strife serving multiple roles at the Pokémon League all at once… and even then, she wasn't a Gym Leader like him. So however much pressure she was feeling in her job at any given time… she knew Larry must always be feeling it tenfold.

That's why she secretly hoped just as much as Larry did that this new relationship he was building up with Katy would work out. Because she knew better than anyone…

He really needs this in his life.

That morning proceeded in bliss for a little while. But everything changed when Larry got a notification on his computer, a message from Geeta.

"Hmm? When compiling the monthly quota report, please be sure to cross-reference your… summary on the… Rotom Technologies Expo?" he quietly read out loud. "What is she talking about? I never did that."

Rika heard this mumbling as well, but this elicited a much different reaction… one of alarm. Her eyes jolted upon hearing this, and she leaned her chair towards him a bit.

"Oh! Uh… Sorry, that must be one of mine," she said a little nervously. "I'll just take care of that, don't worry about it."

"Oh." He began typing. "Well, I'd better let Geeta know that then."

"WAIT!" Rika cried all of a sudden. "You don't need t—"

"Already done." After sending the message, he turned to Rika, looking puzzled. "…What's the issue?"

"Eh-heh! Oh… nothing." She tried to return to focusing on her work, but heard a ping on Larry's computer that took her out of it.

"'I'm talking about what you wrote and submitted to Slakoth last Tues—' Okay, something weird's going on. I have to check this out."

Rika looked even more panicked now. "Larry. Larry, wait."

Larry opened up Slakoth, the work-based messaging app he, Rika, Geeta, and several other employees used to communicate with and send things to each other, and opened the dropbox. His eyes furrowed more and more in confusion as he looked over things.

Rika had pulled her chair in so close she was practically looking over his shoulder. "…Larry?"

"What—what is this?" muttered an increasingly confounded Larry. "I didn't write these. But… TPS reports? Battle data reports from Kitakami? Item usage numbers? I was… I was wondering why I wasn't getting any invoices on some of these. But—but, who wrote them? And… why are they submitted under my name!?"

"I— I don't know. You know what? Must… be a naming error? I can just—"

Larry spun his chair around, and faced Rika. His face was unreadable, it just… wasn't a happy one.

"Did you do this?"

Rika's eyes darted around, not wanting to answer. This only served to make Larry look more suspiciously at her.

"Umm, okay. If you promise not to get mad, then… I can totally explain—"

Much to her shock, Larry quickly stood up from his chair and fiercely pushed it in, causing a loud bump at his desk.

"You've been doing paperwork under my name!?Without even asking me!?"

Rika stammered, trying to do damage control. "This is just—this all came from a place of good intentions, okay? If you'll just let me explain it all to you—"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW!?" Larry bellowed. He had a frightening look now. One of anger and complete indignation. "This is a… this is a violation of all work ethics! You had— what gave you the gall to do this!? And… and how'd you even get my password to submit them under my account!?"

"As chief receptionist, I have access to everyone's—" she rapidly tried to explain, but then stopped herself. "Look, it doesn't matter. I meant to tell you eventually, honest. And I know it doesn't seem like it, but—but, it was really for your benefit—"

"What do you mean my benefit!?" Larry interrupted, running his fingers through his hair. "I—you… This throws everything into disarray! I thought I was finally getting on top of all my assignments! But… with all of this, all of these supposed to be my tasks, I—I'm three times more behind than I thought I was!"

Rika didn't know what to say at this point. She was feeling embarrassed, anxious, and completely guilty. And Larry only seemed to be getting more and more riled up, his face beginning to sweat.

"This… this is the worst news I could've possibly received! I was barely handing what I had now between all my roles and that dumb kid harassing me and trying to spend what little time I have with— with my personal life, and… and now this!?" His words were starting to tremble, as he felt his heartbeat getting louder and louder in his head. "You're telling me I never had it under control to begin with!? It was all just… spiraling? Out of control!? What have you done to me, Rika?"

Rika went from looking anxious and guilty to being scared watching Larry's movements.

"Larry, are—are you okay?"

Larry, suddenly, found himself convulsing in strange ways as he fell back, partly on his chair, but stumbling towards the floor.

"Why is everyone against me? What have I done? Was it all a lie? Is it happening again? Is everything too much? My life too far out of control? Am I a bad person? Do I even deserve happiness?"

These questions were all coming out at a mile a minute, and Larry's eyes were wide and jittery. His entire body shivering, while sweat down his face.

"Oh my gosh, you're—you're having a panic attack," Rika recognized.

She instantly got up from her chair and calmly walked over to Larry who was still somewhere between the chair and the floor.

"Do you… do you need me to hold your hand?" asked Rika.

"It's—it's happening… Darkrai is finally taking me, please don't let him take me…" Larry responded somewhat incoherently.

"It's only me, Larry. Who's Darkrai?" Rika wasn't sure if this name was a Pokémon or someone from Larry's past, so she decided to grasp his hand in hers. "Darkrai's—Darkrai's not here, okay?"

Larry's eyes were shut and his breathing intense.

"It's me, Rika. I'm here with you," Rika said, hoping her voice and touch would help guide him back to the ground. "You're alright, Larry. You're here, in the Pokémon League building, in Paldea. You're in your office. It's just you and me here. Everything's okay."

"…promise?"

"I promise."

His eyes opened. And gradually, but surely, Rika heard his breathing begin to slow, and he suddenly swatted her hand off, which for Larry was actually reassuring.

"Feeling better now?"

As he used his arm to hoist himself up back into his chair, he struggled to get hold of his breathing. Unfortunately, he still looked cross.

"Better? No. If anything, I'm still feeling terrible right now…" he stewed.

Rika put her hands on her hips. "What happened there just spoke more than words ever will. I think we both need to take a break from all this right now. Let's head to the break room and just hang out for a while. Then we can talk this out."

Larry didn't seem to be having it, though. As he got fully back into position, he was still side-eyeing Rika very gruffly.

"You know what you've done to me, by doing this?" Larry huffed. "You've given me false hope. You… you made me think I was in control of everything, that I had fewer obstacles in front of me and that it was possible to overcome them. But… but now I know that was never the truth. It's all just walls… huge walls. And I'm all out of rope."

He put a hand to his head in exasperation as he gazed once again at the revealing dropbox tab.

"And now… now I'm already thinking. Thinking about… what I think to do to remedy this… What I might…" he gulped. "Have to give up…"

Rika put a hand to her chair. "I think—I think you'll wind yourself up again if you try to get all this worked out right here and now. Look, I'll talk with the boss and arrange a long weekend for you, okay? It's the least I could do now."

She heard Larry beginning to blow steam through his nose.

"Why?" he asked drearily. "So you can do more of my own work for me and make me look the slacker?"

"You know that's not what I meant."

Larry didn't say anything, or even acknowledge this response. He just sat there and continued to brood.

"Okay, yes! You're right!" Rika desperately declared. "It was wrong of me to take up all those assignments behind your back, and I definitely should have run it by you first! I freely admit that. But I—it came from a good place, okay? Hassel and I… we've both noticed how badly you've been handling things these past couple of weeks. How all this stress is practically eating you alive. We just thought—"

Larry's chair swiftly circled around.

"I… am… FINE!" That last 'fine' was at a louder octave than Rika had ever heard come out of Larry. "I do not need everyone pitying me, or worrying about 'poor Larry' and how much his life sucks. I'm a man. And part of being a man is being able to look after myself and take care of all my needs without people throwing bubble wrap over me!"

"Okay, listen. I hear you, alright?" Rika pleaded, still trying to speak in a low enough voice. "But… look, you need to calm down first. You've just had a panic attack. And I can tell you've gotten very little sleep lately, all of that stuff mixed together is going to raise your heart rate and make you—"

"Oh, you can TELL all of that, can you?" Larry barked. "You can just read me like an open book, diagnose me with all my problems and tell me what to do to fix myself!"

"No. I can't. You're right. But… take it from me, it's okay to need help, and the longer you try to deny that to yourself, the more you end up trapped in a spiral of self-destruction. I've been down this road before. And I know people out there who want to help y—"

"If you're about to recommend me your therapist, I don't even want to hear it." Larry scoffed. "Like I need MORE things to put time into."

Rika, rather than arguing further, decided to sit back down in her chair and face him. Larry was breathing heavily again, but with enough silence to let it mellow out, he began to calm down a little bit. Rika gave herself some deep breaths, closed her eyes, and then continued.

"I… I genuinely didn't know that doing this was going to hurt you that much. If I had known, I wouldn't have done it. I really was just trying to help."

Larry didn't answer right away. When he did, his voice was still gruff, but also nowhere near as loud.

"Have you considered that maybe I'm not someone who wants to be helped?" he asked her. "We've been working in the same space for long enough that you should know by now, how I operate. Everything I do… every task that needs getting done… I'm never satisfied until it's been done to the most absolute perfection. I can't… tolerate anything less than that. It just brings me even more stress."

Rika nodded. "I know that. And I've told you before, that I'm pretty much the same way. I'm a perfectionist to… really, a toxic degree, if you ask anyone who knows me well enough. I just… I've been working on recognizing when I'm pushing myself too far. And… I think maybe you need to start figuring that out for yourself too."

She sighed before continuing, "And… I think it starts here. Let's be real here, you shouldn't be doing all of this yourself. For someone who works as a Gym Leader, and an Elite Four member… Like, of course, appreciate the hustle and all that. But… the problem isn't just that you have too much work, it's that you spend too much time working on it and worrying about it!"

Larry shook his head. "It's my job. It's what's expected of me. And I was hired… to do that job. If I needed someone else to do my job for me… then what am I even earning my salary for?"

"I get where you're coming from, Larry. I totally do. … But still. I have a right to be concerned for my friend, and you—"

"You and I are not friends," Larry sharply interrupted her. "We work together in the same building. That's all it is. Nothing more than that."

This seemed to be what finally broke through Rika's level-headedness. She looked legitimately shocked and hurt upon hearing this, and began to back up onto a nearby chair, finding her legs suddenly weak.

This broke Larry out of his stir, and his face started to show regret, not realizing his words were going to cut that deeply.

He was about to say something to try to remedy, but just then…

"EH-HEH-HEMM."

A loud throat clearing cut through the air in the room like glass, and Larry and Rika's eyeballs both almost jumped out of their skills. With a sudden feeling of dread, their heads slowly shifted to the source of that voice…

…and found probably the worst person who could've overheard all of that standing there, arms crossed, and glaring at them both.

"As soon as you children are done squabbling, I want to see the both of you in my office," Geeta said very sternly. She looked Larry's way. "You first."

With that, La Primera turned her heels and walked with sharp steps to the elevator.

Rika and Larry were still looking horrified when Hassel awkwardly walked out of the nearby conference room.

"How—how long has she been here?" Rika asked in a terrified manner.

Hassel rubbed his head awkwardly. "We were… right in the conference room over there for, pretty much the whole time. We got here early because she and I had important things to discuss privately."

"And she heard us through the walls," Larry gathered, grasping the bridge of his nose.

"They're… pretty thin, unfortunately. And… one of the things we were discussing was Larry's recent output." He looked Rika's way. "She knew those reports were coming from you, Rika. She recognized your writing style."

Rika looked down to the ground ashamed.

He gave Larry a look of sympathy. "And for what it's worth, I spoke in your defense. I don't… think she's looking to fire you. But she's very displeased and she has a lot of things to say. You'd… better not keep her waiting."

Hassel started heading back into the room to gather his things. Right before his face disappeared, he looked both their ways and said "And… I'm sorry. Really."

After he left, Rika awkwardly tugged on one of the suspenders of her pants. Larry sighed with resignation, and quietly made his way to the elevator.

"Hey…" said Rika.

He turned back around.

"I'm… very sorry too. About everything."

"I know."


The doors closed in front of him, and the elevator began to ascend.

He looked up like he was awaiting his doom. Larry was thinking very worryingly about a lot of things now. All that extra paperwork. The state of his job. … Of other things.

A bit of sweat went down his face. He felt his heartbeat rising again. Perfectly normal, in this case. This is how he always felt getting ready to face Geeta.

Right? This isn't another panic attack.

He seemed to feel more anxious as he tried to assure himself. The room started to feel like it was spinning.

Thinking quickly, he took out his phone and began to dial a familiar number.

"Ring… ring…"

"Hello, Patisserie Soapberry," said a male voice.

"Katy!" he called out.

"What?"

"Sorry. I—I need to talk to Katy."

"Can I ask who's calling?"

"It's ME! Larry!"

"Oh—oh! Yes! Sorry! Uhh, hi Mr. Larry sir." Larry rolled his eyes. Damian. Of course. "Umm… unfortunately, Miss Katy's not here right now. Right?" he called out to presumably Krista. "Yeah. She has a Gym Battle going on right now. I can leave a message for you?"

"No, no, that's alright…" Larry refused, taking deep breaths. "Just—sorry I called."

He hung up.

Not being able to reach Katy, he at least tried to think of her in order to steady his thoughts. Picture her warm smile… And imagine what she was doing right now.

A Gym Battle… That must be nice. Hopefully that's got her happy.


One would think. Katy had been clamoring for some Gym Battles of her own, so having someone finally come up to Cortondo looking to challenge her today should've counted as a blessing.

But Katy's face as she walked down the stairs from the Battle Court, stairs that felt longer than they used to be, was a grim countenance to all that. Her eyes seemed to be fixed to the floor. And her expression didn't change.

She didn't just seem deep in thought. She looked as if she were deep inside of herself, just an empty husk of a Shedinja on the outside.

Katy didn't even seem to notice her two Gym Trainers as she walked past them, still not looking up from the ground as they acknowledged her.

"Hey… don't feel too bad, Miss Katy," said Antonio. "You know, when I was watching that Fletchinder use all those fiery moves, I guess I forgot it was a Flying Pokémon there too. And that Heracross was… well, yeah."

"I know you'll have the next one aces," Esmeralda assured Katy. "I'm looking forward to it!"

Katy smiled and chuckled at them. "Yeah."

They meant well. She knew they did.

But it was taking so many muscles for her to smile right now. This was all starting to feel so routine. The easy mistakes, the reassurances, the false hope… Was this all her life as a Gym Leader amounted to now?

She looked back at them again, more glumly now.

"I'm… sorry."

They both looked at each other, confused.

"For what?" Esmeralda asked.

"…Nothing. I guess… I was just thinking out loud. I'd better just—head back to the shop now."

Katy remembered when juggling the Soapberry and the Battle Court was a fun hustle. Running back and forth between the two. She remembered how that feeling like she was living a double life, one side on the sweet end and getting to let out her fiercer side on the other, gave her such a thrill.

…Now she was just wishing the road back to Patisserie Soapberry was a lot shorter.


Patisserie Soapberry was still somewhat hectic when she walked in, but definitely nowhere near as much as it had been the past week. Those crowds had thinned themselves out greatly. The novelty of Katy's appearance on the Iono Zone had already started to wear off and Cortondo was steadily returning to its status as a quiet town.

And a slowly dying one, Katy fretted. She remembered talking over this with a town elder the other day, how Cortondo's future was seeming more and more dire without something as big as the once-a-year Grand Olive Harvest to draw in more tourists and residents.

Katy knew the woman was biting her tongue from saying, "If only there was a good enough Gym Leader to attract more challengers and Pokémon fans here."

…Well, at least, that's what she figured was the unspoken truth.

"Hey there, Damian," Katy greeted. "Still haven't burned the place down yet?"

"Oh! Miss Katy! Larry phoned for you while you were out."

Katy's eyes widened. "He did? What did he say?"

"Um… well, he asked if you were there, and when I said no, he just… accepted that and hung up, I guess?" Damian shrugged.

"…Oh. Okay. Well, thank you for telling me."

Katy tried to keep a happy face as she next greeted Krista at the counter.

"About ready to take a load off, Krista?"

"Hey, Chef!" Krista greeted back. "You just missed the lunch hour! You should've seen me go, I was flying through orders!"

"Oh, I'm so glad to hear that! I'd better join you before you steal all the good tips!"

She dashed off to the kitchen, and went over to the counter. And then…

It was like it all came out at once.

She found herself instantly hunching over the counter, her whole body getting hot with bitterness and turmoil.

"Missed a call from Larry, missed lunch rush…" She muttered. "And all for some… stupid battle where I just acted like an idiot!" she cursed with venom. "How did it get to be this way?"

She saw a drop land on her sleek counter. And then another. She ran a hand over her cheek and felt tears dripping down.

"No. No, come on… Pull yourself up girl, don't cry…"

But it was hard to stop the tears from streaming down.

Katy tried looking around for something to distract herself. That's when she noticed the open door.

And that same picture of her celebrating.

She wiped the tears from her face, marched over to that room, got up to the picture frame, and ripped it off the wall.


Wings… Clouds…

The glare from the sun as it gradually found itself setting.

There's not much else to look at when you're high up in one of Paldea's Flying Taxis. Larry would sometimes wish these cabs flew as low to the ground as the ones he's ridden in Galar.

But, just as Corviknight was phased out from Paldean cabs in favor of training Squawkabilly due to too many incidents of Tinkaton lobbing rocks up at the steel birds, he figured the decision to fly these cabs up in the clouds must be related to those same concerns.

Anyway, it's not like it mattered tonight.

Detaching himself was second nature to Larry. His brain was so frequently wired full of stress and activity that shutting it off every once in a while seemed like the way he maintained his ability to function.

Perhaps it was also runoff from just how detached he had to be while meeting with Geeta today.

He latched onto all the important bullet points, of course. Blah blah blah, "most unprofessional you've been on record and it can't keep going unnoticed". Yadda yadda, "we need to synergize all together to keep the League as best it can be".

Projections upon projections of her toxic insecurities. And… something about needing to seek a medical professional.

Larry knew how bad things had gotten. He hadn't expected whatever episode happened to him in the office today, and still wasn't sure that was going to be a one-time thing. He knew his behavior wasn't helping the already struggling League maintain itself.

And of course, his mind couldn't stay off all the extra paperwork Rika had been doing on the side, paperwork that under Geeta's strict instructions, she would be helping with no longer. It was like another ball and chain had been fixed and attached to his legs.

But hey. I got my overtime hours back. Whoop-dee-doo…

His eyes were fixed to the window, watching the clouds and the occasional bird Pokémon in the sky. Days like today really took him back…


A sniffle. "I just don't want us to drift away… I don't want to see you become a ghost, and fly away forever."

"Trust me, Helena. You'll never see the back of my head. The only ghost that you'll see flying away is a… a Drifblim. That's—that's Flying and Ghost, right?"

A laugh. "Alright, Mr. Normal. Why don't you leave the wings and the poetry to me, huh?"


Larry let out a heavy sigh as he saw the brown plains of Cortondo slowly push through the clouds and gleam on the horizon, a visual reminder of the one last task he had for today, the one thing he had to do right now to get himself back on track.

"Oh, Helena," he muttered quietly to himself. "I'm stuck in a time loop…"