Woooooo it's been a second but after nearly a year of giant chapters only, culminating in the 5k-word Trainer Ball, I present to you: a chapter that is exactly 2000 words long.
(also no I didn't realize it's been nearly a year since I started the Lake Valor Tournament yikes time moves fast)
Anyways I realized I want to publish the next few very exciting chapters fairly quickly ahh so we'll see if I can manage that.
The morning after the Trainer Ball, I walked Thomas to the pier south of the Valor Resort. "How long does the trip take?" I asked him.
"It took all day last time, but that was to west Sinnoh instead of east," he said. "So a little longer than that."
"And you're coming back on the fourth?"
"Yep. I'll meet you in Eterna City."
"Okay."
He opened his arms for a hug; I walked in and held him tight. We hadn't been apart for more than a few days in the last several months; for the next week and a half, I'd be missing someone who'd become a constant.
"Safe travels," I said to him.
"You too," he said, turning to walk toward his ship.
I waited on the dock as the ship prepared to set sail. I knew something big had happened last night – it was like some of the clockwork inside of me had been smashed apart, and now I was piecing it back together in a way that worked better for me. I couldn't pinpoint the difference, but the air in my lungs felt changed. It was… it was a shift in eons. A new phase of my life.
Thomas's ship started out onto the east sea. I waved until he was gone, then brought out Def to teleport me to Twinleaf.
For now, though, it was the holidays. I could figure out what had changed after that.
It had snowed in Twinleaf, so Megan and I immediately met up for a snowball fight. The two of us plus my pokemon spent most of the day throwing snow at each other and building forts and snowmen, stopping only to run to Megan's house briefly for lunch or hot chocolate. In the evening, we returned inside for board games.
Tricia was in Sunyshore for a week visiting her extended family, but Megan and I hung out just about every day. A lot of it was snow, along with pokemon training and going to see a movie and one day that was so cold that we stayed inside and painted things.
And, um… I think… Megan was one of the reasons I was waiting to figure out what the new eon meant. She asked about the Trainer Ball at some point, and I sort of brushed it off as uneventful. She knew Lucas and I hadn't danced, but I didn't tell her that Thomas and I had. It… It felt like closing off a possibility? Which made me feel weird and kinda shitty to think about.
In a moment of holiday benevolence, I told my mom about the dance. I hadn't told her anything about my love life in years, but I gave her a few details now. I told her about the boy I liked and the girl he'd danced with at the Trainer Ball, hoping for empathy. This was a mistake.
"You need to let it go," she said immediately.
"I'm working on it. I'm just letting things happen."
"No, you need to make it happen," she said seriously. "If he's in a relationship with someone, you can't have feelings for him."
"They're not in a relationship."
"Not that you know of."
"How is it getting in their way? I'm not doing anything."
"You just said you asked him to dance, knowing they like each other," said Mom. "Having feelings for him is inherently destructive. It's a threat to the two of them."
Which made me feel really great and wonderful and not like a terrible person at all. I went over to Megan's to sulk and lose seven games of Peanuts (still the more enjoyable part of my day).
I'd started to keep one earbud in constantly to anchor me in time. I told Megan about it, and she started playing music whenever I was over. Mom kept trying to make me take it out for manners' sake, particularly at the dinner table. This became the only time of day I timeskipped (because you can bet your ass Dialga took advantage of it). Megan and I ate at her house or went out to dinner downtown a few times just so I could keep the earbud in and stay anchored.
On the last day of the year, a package appeared in the mailbox. I'd have been wary if it hadn't been addressed to "Lyn Meyers."
I unwrapped the brown paper exterior, revealing a box and a note:
Thought this might help. Happy holidays, Lyn.
Inside the box was a pair of hearing aids – that is, a pair of wireless earbuds designed to look like hearing aids. With these, I could stay anchored but not look unfocused – just disabled (which, frankly, was accurate, although I don't think you'll find "time-loosened" on any lists of disabilities). The fact that it was from Looker made me think it probably had communication abilities, too. It was useful in about five million different ways, but thoughtful most of all.
I wrote down a present to get for Looker once the shops reopened.
Megan and I celebrated the new year at her house. The next day, Tricia returned from Sunyshore. We knew we only had Friday and Saturday to hang out with her, since she was going to her main research site on Sunday and I was leaving on Monday. So we immediately met up for board games (the snow had half melted at some point and refrozen into ice).
Megan had gotten The Voting Game over the holidays, and this was our first time having enough people to play it. There's no end goal to the game, other than voting on various attributes to give each other. I got "most likely to be a Pokémon champion," Megan got "best baker," Tricia got "most likely to become a little old lady who knits." Megan and I each got twice as many attribute cards as Tricia did.
It was… partly that, but partly how easily Megan and I talked about nothing and everything, having spent the last week together, and how Tricia didn't know any of our references to snow stuff and tournament stuff and holiday stuff. Whatever the cause, though, I suddenly felt the distance Megan and I had developed with Tricia. Or maybe just me. I don't know.
But, you know, it was Tricia. Maybe she hadn't noticed.
On Saturday, Tricia messaged us to say she couldn't hang out after all. Massive bummer.
Megan and I ended up going downtown for Hoenn food that night, having spent the day together as usual. The night was cool and crisp and our shoes crunched on sand and snow. I tentatively linked my arm through Megan's and squeezed, just for a moment. When I tried to retreat, she clamped my arm in hers and wouldn't let go.
My heart stumbled. There was panic in it, but also warmth, and hope, and guilt. There was the sense that this was what I had been hoping for all along, but also a powerful sense of you idiot, you don't even know if you have feelings for her, don't lead her on!
And then I looked across the street.
In the front window of a café, I saw Tricia and Maya sitting at a table. Tricia was talking, looking sadder and more serious than I'd ever seen her. Maya was listening intently.
Megan and I kept walking. I felt sick. Tricia telling Maya something instead of me or Megan implied so many things, and all of them made me feel awful. I thought of the day before, and our growing distance from Tricia, and Maya saying at Tricia's birthday party that a friend should know what friends need, and I felt a sense of guilt that wasn't new, but had crept in over time.
"What if…" I said to Megan that night. "What if we went with Tricia to the ironworks tomorrow?"
So the next morning, having communicated with Tricia overnight, Megan and I teleported with Def to Floaroma and walked north through the flower fields to the river. Tricia and Maya were collecting various samples on the north side of the river. Def teleported Megan across to them.
"Can we make a quick stop first, actually?" I asked when he returned for me.
A few seconds later, we were on the lawn of the Valley Windworks. Annie and her dad were outside, kicking a ball around (Annie was doing most of the kicking in big leg strokes that sent the ball careening across the lawn. Rusty was mostly jogging after her.).
"Hey, how are you?" Rusty asked, spotting me.
"I'm doing well," I said. "I was wondering if I could drop Promise off for the day?"
"Sure thing."
So Prom got to play with an old friend instead of returning to a place of bad memories. Having no such memories (of that place) myself, I teleported back with Def.
Megan and I trailed around after Tricia and Maya as they collected and analyzed samples. Maya kept side-eyeing us, but Tricia seemed delighted to get to show us her job in person, and I tried to take in all the specifics she threw our way.
"…so you place all the samples in here," Tricia said, pipetting river water into the last available cell, "and then you close it…"
She snapped the lid shut and pressed a button on the portable device. "It's pretty simple," she admitted.
"The data analysis is the fun part," Maya added.
I laughed like it was a joke, but Tricia nodded and said, "It really is. It's like decoding secret messages about the ecosystem."
We ate lunch on the riverbank while waiting for the machine to run. Conversation was pretty light, but I kept stressing out over every minor detail that invisibly paired me with Megan and Tricia with Maya. I didn't want to lose Tricia. Especially not to this girl I barely knew, who seemed so… possessive of her.
The machine gave a chime. Tricia looked at its screen and frowned. She swallowed a bite of her sandwich and said, "Weird."
"Lemme see?"
Tricia handed the machine to Maya, who also frowned. "Weird is right."
"What is it?" I asked.
Maya gave the device back to Tricia, who said, "You know how I told you the water around here is cleaner than it used to be, even before the ironworks was built?"
"Yeah?" Only barely, but I didn't want Maya to know that.
"We came back to analyze it more thoroughly, and it turns out the far bank is still pretty polluted, but one tributary on this side is extremely pure."
"So… what's that mean?"
Tricia and Maya exchanged a glance. "This river is mostly runoff from Mount Coronet," said Maya. "But that water passes by civilization on its way here, so even without pollution from the ironworks, it's still pretty contaminated by the time it gets here."
"Eterna City put in place some new policies last year, and we thought that's why the river's been getting so clean," said Tricia. "But if that was true, the purity wouldn't be this uneven."
"I mean, maybe if the current swung that way…?" Maya got up and walked down the bank, looking up and down the river.
"It's more likely that the tributary is the reason why the river's so clean," said Tricia, pointing to an inlet about a hundred feet downstream of us. "But that doesn't explain why… honestly, that tributary should still be a little polluted just from the residue of the ironworks. But the water is so clean, you could drink it."
I looked up into the woods. The trees around here were mostly lush evergreens, but a few in the direction of the ironworks were charred from the fire that had started here and spread to Eterna Forest.
"Let's check it out," I suggested.
Maya stayed behind to retake some samples, just in case it was a fluke. The rest of us packed up our lunch and followed the tributary uphill.