I noted shifting timelines as a result of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's DLC in my last piece, "Star in the Making." Just to get it out of the way, know that this takes place following the events of the DLC epilogue. Full spoilers.
Otherwise, this piece is also more of a direct follow-up to the budding relationship between Nemona and Carmine in my story "Apples and Olives," so make sure you've read that first if you want to see the full unfolding arc!
Love these dweebs sm I wrote most of my first draft on an airplane last week. They deserved the undivided attention.
And Kieran too, I guess.
(love you bulb boy)
Carmine's wheeze sinks to the rocky cavern floor. Slinking, arrhythmic steps from blocked heel boots ripple through her heavy breathing.
Left…
Right, left…
Right…
Left, right, left…
Every sway brings her closer to the blinding white mouth of the quiet cave.
Carmine ducks into her right arm. Her eyes are too adjusted to the flickering torchlight of guideposts. Natural daylight burns straight through her retinas to the occipital lobe, which leaves her head throbbing. She keeps her fingers wrapped in fluff from the nape of Mightyena's neck, guided entirely by the Dark-type's sight and smell.
Mightyena barks, like a cracking whip. Her claws scrape along the ground in a deep-chested gait that fluctuates to anticipate her hobbled trainer.
They crest the cavernous maw. Carmine lowers her arm as she feels the sun beat upon her raven hair. Her wincing golden eyes open and white vision fades, bringing a pair of silhouettes into sharp focus.
In a slick of drought-yellowed grass not far from the cave, Nemona tugs on the sleeve of Kieran's white tracksuit and points his gaze toward the arena-observatory that towers above Alfornada's boxy skyline. His jacket is zipped halfway over a red, BB League tank top; its deep V pulls wildly from Nemona's energy.
"-and Tulip is among the strongest Gym Leaders in Paldea. One of her aces, Espathra, is also a fave of La Primera. That can't be a coincidence, right?!"
"Um… Right."
Carmine coughs, the acrid char of smoldering ceramic kilns on the breeze doing little more for her asthma than the dank, still musk of Alfornada Cavern. She tears open her yellow fanny pack to find a scarlet inhaler — the segmented body curving into a rounded green mouthpiece. After a quick shake under the watchful eye of wild Galarian Sinistea, Carmine primes the device with a spritz of loose mist.
Ksshrt! Ksshrt!
Teardrop panels pop around the mouthpiece when the canister is pressed, completing the faux Yanma's obelisk position.
She expels all the air out of her lungs, the inhaler comes to her lips, and its spray joins her deep, raspy breath.
Kssssshrt!
Carmine's chest swells.
Nemona moves to attention with a bright smile, leaving Kieran off-kilter as he balances a bulging, two-tiered hiker's backpack. The navy blue hand-me-down is nearly twice his size.
"Took you long enough!"
The Kitakami girl frowns, her face is pale and sickly. She sputters a medicinal breath.
"It's…" Carmine wheezes. "Not my fault you both have…" She sniffles. "Inhuman energy."
"It wasn't much worse than Oni's Maw, sis."
Kieran spins around, but needs an extra beat to not topple over.
He's greeted by an intense snarl from both Carmine and Mightyena.
"Oni's Maw is WAY easier to get around than that… Abyss!" Carmine rummages back into her pouch. Mightyena sits proudly on its hind legs. "And it has OPEN AIR that you can BREATH."
Kieran rubs a hanging ribbon of black hair between his thumb and forefinger. Symmetrical strands fall past both temples from a purple bulb loosely bound by a yellow scrunchie.
"Guess so," he mutters. "I didn't think it was so bad."
His sister returns Mightyena in a flash of digital red light, and then glowers to Nemona. She finds the tawny girl is not keeping abreast. Nemona's upper body is contorted to crane her neck as far away as possible.
Carmine raises an eyebrow. "You good?"
Nemona whips back toward the siblings with a treasure's glint in her orange eyes.
"Oh! Before we hit the city, I've gotta show you this primo spot." A sprig of green hair bobs as she pumps her arms. "The lighting is still perfect!"
Carmine's razor-sharp lashes narrow. A Nasty Plot brews behind golden eyes.
"Fine," she sounds indignant. Her head lulls toward Kieran. "But I know how excited you are to see the festival. You should go on ahead of us."
"What?!" Kieran's mouth flops like a puppet's. "No fair! I want to see the primo spot too."
The older sister tenses. She pivots on her heels, nostrils flaring. With two strides, she's on top of Kieran, fists shaking in a boxer's stance.
"Don't blow this for me, Kiki." Her words hiss like steam through clenched teeth.
Kieran flinches at her broiling quiver. Then, he just as quickly returns to a neutral stance, and meets his sister's eyes with a deadened stare.
"… It would probably be easier if you just, like, talked to her." He pushes in his hip with a bent arm. "You do know that's an option, right?"
Carmine's fury is extinguished. She is dumbfounded.
A quick glance finds Paldea's young champion staring into the middle distance, holding a visor hand over her eyes.
"I am NOT taking relationship advice from my younger brother right now," Carmine grumbles. "Especially after the month you've had."
She does a soldier's turn and crunches her foot in the grass. The Kitakami sister flaunts her two-tone hair, briefly exposing red ribbons underneath. Nemona soon returns from the standing daydream and grabs Carmine by her uniform sleeve.
"Alright!" She announces before guiding Carmine onward. "¡Vámanos, Blueberry!"
Carmine stumbles after her.
"W-We'll be back, Kiki. Don't have too much fun without us."
"¡Adios, Flamigo! Try not to tumble off the plateau!" Nemona laughs.
Kieran watches the girls melt into the shadow of mountains on the near horizon. He tweaks at hair again, pulling both hanging strands over his nose.
"Wowzers…"
Carmine trudges behind Nemona's righteous march, failing to hide her breathlessness. She expected to rest after their sightseeing hike, perhaps with a plate of fried dough. Clearly that hadn't come to pass.
A herd of Gogoat tracks their path atop a ledge on the nearest cliff face.
"My brother…"
Carmine gulps air. Nemona glances back without missing a step.
"Unbelievable, right?!" Carmine power-walks to catch up. "He's got a kid's energy again, with a 'champion's' confidence." She clears sweat-drenched hair from her face with a sniffle. "It's the worst of both worlds!"
Nemona giggles, her gloved right hand against her cheek.
"I think it's sweet he got his zhuzh back. Great for battles!" She tilts her head with pressed fingers. "And I'm glad you both visited before going back to school."
Carmine's expression curdles. Her hands shake at her sides.
"Well we needed a vacation from our vacation after that mochi nonsense!" Carmine tugs her bangs at the root with strained fists. "I can't believe Florian got a VIDEO of me doing that stupid dance! So fucking embarrassing…"
Nemona looks down at her feet, playing with her purple uniform tie.
"I'm just upset Pecharunt ruined my new battle strat!"
"Uh… Huh." Carmine's gaze half-lids seeing Nemona's rare state of dejection. "That's the worst bit, is it?"
Nemona's shoulders sink, and her arms dangle by her knees.
"I love surprising Florian. Then he sees my Tera Type swap when I'm not even conscious?!" She sighs. "Decepcionante."
"Mmm."
Carmine rolls her eyes.
A pack of Yungoos runs past the girls. They chitter and weave through scratchy green grass, with twin rays of red-hot Bullet Seed on their tails. The assaulting Scovillain lumbers after its prey.
Low Key Toxtricity puts on its electrifying performance for particularly frilly Espathra, not far from a glittering den where Gumshoos waits to guard its progeny. Seven Kilowattrel glide atop brisk spray from the Western Paldean Sea, far past an abrasion coast and layered plates of ledges that form the plateau—
"It also sucks we don't remember battling together!"
Carmine's illusion of privacy is broken in an instant. She's dazed and confused.
"Wha-?"
"C'mon Blueberry, you know!" Nemona grins, poised and quivering with excitement. "An Earth-shattering Double Battle, me and you against Florian and Kieran? Caramba, my heart aches knowing we missed it!"
Fair Kitakami flesh is dusted red.
"Guess I hadn't thought about it." Carmine's golden eyes set behind a slice of lashes. "Too busy wondering which of Kitakami's legends Florian will blow open next."
"There are more?!"
Nemona skips ahead and kicks up dirt with a quick pirouette. She starts walking backward with a still-regal gait.
Carmine meets her with a measured stare and purses light-painted lips.
"Well, Ogerpon and the Lousy Three are the bigguns." Carmine straightens her fanny pack, and then crosses her arms. "But yeah, there's a few more."
"Like what?"
"Well…" She rolls her head. "There's this story they tell in Johto, right? Big tower burns down—"
"In Ecruteak!"
"That's it."
"Penny doesn't really like that story." Nemona stuffs her hands into the pockets of her violet shorts. "Some retellings say Eeveelutions were the Pokemon that Ho-oh resurrected. Pobrecitos..."
"Regardless." Carmine interjects, golden gaze scattering. "Elders say Kitakami hosted the original reincarnation."
"Really?!"
Nemona stops walking, engrossed. Her amber eyes twinkle as she crowds Carmine's personal space.
Carmine pushes a hand to her hip and splaying out some hair.
"Yeah." She raises the index finger from her hair and swirls it around. "There's this forbidden cave on Oni Mountain, by the Crystal Lake. Folks call it 'The Ogre's Throat.' Centuries ago, some spelunkers found a fossil they say looked like Entei with a Bastiodon head.
"Whoa!"
"So you say." Carmine scoffs. "Apparently Ho-oh wasn't too happy with its first draft. Hence modern Entei with a regular head."
Nemona's hands clasp beneath her chin. She wiggles side-to-side, loosing a dreamy sigh.
"¡Que genial!" The Paldean girl swoons. "An Entei/Bastiodon hybrid…" Lips curl into a crooked smile. "I'd love to battle them."
"I knew you were going to say that." Carmine clears her throat. "Is that your answer to everything, Nemona?"
"Well, can you think of anything more exhilarating than a good battle?!"
Nemona's arms explode out with a cheery laugh.
The Kitakami girl's cheeks run hot against the navy blue uniform. She clenches her teeth and fists in equal measure, nails digging into her palms.
"… I can think of a few things."
"Oh?" Nemona twinkles with a boisterous grin before she twirls around to start marching. "You'll have to show me one of these days, Blueberry!"
That effortless cheer drives Carmine insane. She snarls, hands back in their shaking boxer's pose. Hair crisscrosses her face in loose ribbons.
But she takes a deep breath.
She takes a dee-ee-eep breath.
Then, she follows Nemona's footprints in the grass, forward toward a strange saucer shape beginning to poke into view around the curve of the mountains.
The walk is quiet. Despaired Carmine struggles to keep up; her boots drag clouds of dust the rest of the way. But her attitude shifts as they transition from grassy knolls to a rocky bend, dipping into a bowl carved out from the Alfornado Mountains.
"Oh…"
Nemona grins at the blossoming surprise on Carmine's face as her neck cranes up the leaning tower of stone and charcoal bricks. Going from its base, sunk deep within a crater lake, to battlements of rounded platforms atop two rung ladders, Carmine looks ready to fall backward.
"… wow."
A roaring waterfall fills this basin from a far cliff side, obscuring a gnashing school of red- and blue-striped Basculin. At least a dozen of the angry Water-types watch a Gogoat that's perched on a ledge at the opposite side of the tower, dipping its snout in the lake. Lapping ripples emanate out.
Salty spray stings Carmine's nose as she steps up to a moistened signpost. A small gray Pokemon flees as she approaches, leaving its gold coin behind.
| ~ The Leaking Tower of Paldea ~ |
| One of the Ten Sights of Paldea |
"One of 10?"
"Magnífico, right?" Nemona rests her gloved hand on Carmine's shoulder, causing the sister to tense. "You've seen the Grand Olive Orchard out that-a-way."
She curls her free hand into an outstretched thumb.
Carmine's lashes strike the air in rapid succession.
"… Guess I wouldn't mind seeing the rest."
"Oye, that's the spirit!"
Nemona draws back. A quick sleight of hand on her retreat rewards the girl with Carmine's dormant Rotom Phone. She pours over its case, adorned with a grid of Gothorita ribbons (Nemona knows it isn't Gothita, nor is it Gothitelle; she's seen the vinyl figure that Carmine keeps on her dorm room shelf during video calls).
"Cute choice," she applauds under her breath.
Only then does Carmine's steely-eyed glance find her missing possession. A few rear pats reveal an empty back pocket, and then the Kitakami girl stomps out silted rock.
"Hey!"
Nemona stops her short with an outstretched finger, a waggling dismissive metronome within the howling wind-swept chasm. "Not so fast, Blueberry. We're not leaving 'till we get you a better Instagatr profile than your scowling school mug shot!"
Carmine guards herself with crossed arms. Navy fabric on her uniform sleeves bunch as she claws into them to still her angry tick.
"This was all a social media ploy then?" She spits. "You didn't just want to show off a pretty thing?"
The tawny girl lets her ponytail and green strand dangle over her right shoulder.
After a beat, she responds with a click of her tongue. "We've got a saying in Paldea: Matar dos Wattrel de un Lanzamugre."
One would be forgiven for thinking Carmine called Mightyena; her low growl mulls around the Leaking Tower.
"I only understood one of those words, Nemona."
Nemona giggles, shielding her mouth with alternating red-and-black nails.
"It means I'm happy to look at two pretty things at once!" She lobs Carmine's phone, which lights up and gravitates a few feet away. It clocks horizontal, and Nemona holds her thumbs and forefingers in a camera box shape. "Now c'mon, strike a pose for me! Be fierce, like a mighty Cresselia on the field of battle! ¡Vamos!"
Carmine can't stay mad. Her fingers ease off strained fabric, and the seething rage in her face turns to a rising tide of scarlet.
She really hopes this wasn't another misread social cue.
"… Guess I am prettier than some dumb old tower, huh?"
Nemona starts whipping her hand to get Carmine going.
"And smarter too! It's so cool how many myths and legends you've got packed under that gorgeous hair."
The Kitakami sister comes to life with a laugh that bounces around the mountain bowl. A Clodsire rises to the murky surface with two Paldean Wooper on its back, to harmonize with bellowing vibrado.
"Alright!" Giggles continue to crack Carmine's facade. "Shut up."
Carmine throws her head forward to send the full bramble of ribbon hair into her face; it's practically a magic trick watching the sea change from black to red as the underside is exposed. Then, she pulls it all behind her yellow hairpiece with one long drag of both hands as she straightens out. Two stands fall in an 'X' over her nose
With her hair set, Carmine takes a slight angle to frame her good side (the left). She flicks her hand up near the beauty mark beneath her eye, index finger and thumb folded into a little heart. A slight smile of mystique crosses her lips.
The shutter sound of a camera reverberates. It repeats five more times.
"¡Espléndido!" Nemona cries, clapping with a gallant grin.
As the phone returns to Nemona's hand, its owner likewise returns to her resting moody face.
"I'd never guess you didn't have a phone until, like, two months ago!" Nemona doesn't look up. Her fingers tap wildly against the screen.
Carmine pushes in her hip with a bent arm, and saunters over.
"I appear in OTHER peoples' photos, you know. Like Lacey, Amarys." She tries to look, but Nemona continually ducks the phone out of view. "I just don't, you know… Personally like that much tech."
"You go to the most state-of-the-art academy on Earth." Nemona scoffs. "How do you survive?"
"Sometimes I close the blinds to keep out fluorescent dome light…"
"What about when people need to contact you for enrollment junk?"
"Oh." Carmine clears her throat. She kicks dirt impatiently. "Well, Gran's got an old desktop at the house. I think she runs an online knitting store."
"Making a mental note to check that out…" Nemona's voice peters. Her tongue prods the salty air while she performs emphatic final taps.
"There!"
Nemona presents the screen, showing off Carmine's new Leaking Tower profile pic in a fin-shaped red oval cut from Instagatr's blue banner top.
Then, "Bling!"
Nemona immediately pulls it back.
"Oye! You got a like!" She lets out a giddy little sound while scrolling. "Somebody named 'TheDraysterBB'?"
"Ugh." Carmine snarls with hunched shoulders. "That asshole MUST be stalking me."
"I'm sure it's not so—"
The Paldean girl goes quiet as Carmine's phone dings again. She squints and starts mouthing the newly posted comment. Whatever it says causes her to stop halfway. Her mouth pulls into a hard line.
"Mm. Okay yeah, that's mad Morgrem energy."
"Right?!"
Carmine snatches her phone back to contemplate ways of handling Dreyton.
In the meantime, Nemona's phone also goes off. Rather than the default jingle, it plays a cheery pop riff, like something out of a Lisia show.
She looks happy at the name. But when she opens the text, her expression falters.
Arven seems panicked.
Fun fact, the actual text is visible in a screenshot on the AO3 version of this fic. Check it out if you're interested!