victory_road | [Closed log]

Entry tags:

[Closed log]

Who: Sion and Ryner
Where: Their house/property outside Ecruteak
When: The morning after prom
Summary: Canon updates mean terrible things and buttloads of guilt
Rating: PG, because this is denyuuden and we can't have nice things
Log:

The sun still hadn't risen yet when Sion awoke, blinking. That in and of itself was no surprise, it was a rare occasion that he slept through a night uninterrupted, but he immediately noticed that something was off. This wasn't where he'd remembered falling asleep to begin with.

And it was dreadfully familiar.

He hadn't seen this place in months, but it took only a moment for the memories to come rushing back. Both the long time he'd spent here, as well as all that had happened in Roland since then. And yet despite it all, here he was again, as if nothing had changed. The same bed, the same room, the same house... Every he and Ryner had done together in their time in this strange, nonsensical world.

Then, of course, there was Ryner. Sion could hear his even breathing, still sound asleep. Not that that was any surprise, Ryner could probably sleep through the end of the world if he were allowed to. No, that was no surprise, but rather the fact that they were still both here, after everything that had happened. After everything that Sion had done.

It was too much for Sion to bear.

"Sol?" Dusk was giving him a concerned look, watching him intently as he carefully moved to climb out of the bed. Of course she'd sense that something was amiss... Sion shook his head, holding a finger to his lips and glancing meaningfully in Ryner's direction; they didn't want to wake him now, did they? Then he reached out and gently stroked the absol's head, his expression sorrowful.

"I know it's asking a lot, but could you do me a favor?" he asked, as quietly as he could manage. Dusk gave him an inquisitive look, and Sion rummaged through some of his things until he came up with a pokeball. Her pokeball. "I need a little time to think. By myself. So..."

The look of concern remained, but Dusk was clearly conflicted. On the one hand, she wanted to make her partner happy, to do as he said. But on the other, there was something very, very wrong right now, some sort of disaster just waiting to happen, though she didn't know what.

Sion just gave her a sad smile. "Please," he said. "That way I can still have you nearby, just in case," he promised.

"Sol..." It was reassurance enough. After all, when had Sion ever given her reason to doubt him? He'd certainly never done anything to break her trust before, so while still a little reluctant, Dusk complied, returning back to her ball. Then, quietly, Sion turned, opened the drawer of the nightstand, and placed it inside, closing the drawer behind it.

That done, he straightened, and still moving as quietly as possible so as not to wake anyone else, threw on some clothes and slipped out of the room. Then it was over the railing and landing softly in the living room to walk over to the front door. Of course, it was impossible that none of the pokemon would be awake, but a simple shake of his head and muttered "not this time" was sufficient for those cases, at least. Which meant that soon enough, he was quietly closing the door behind him and stepping out into the predawn gloom.

And within moments, he was out of sight.

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Dusk did manage not to fall--barely--though there was certainly a good deal of scrambling and scrabbling at the loose rock on her part. Once at the top, she was greeted by Fio, and the two promptly got to work tracking the trail, moving back and forth to make certain that they didn't miss anything. It certainly appeared that it made for the woods, however.

"Paras...?" the paras looked at her curiously. It had just been napping here before all this commotion.

"Fairy fair?" A human! Long, silver hair. We're looking for him, it's really important. But if you haven't seen him, that's okay too. ...Is the gist of what Rose is saying to the poor Paras, sorry Paras, you're getting wrapped up in nonsense.

Before following the Arcanine and Absol toward the woods, though, Ryner glanced up at Gail. "Hey, can you guys check downstream a bit for me?" In case the idiot king had decided to double back or something.

Gail, for his part, gave a hoot of acknowledgement before he flew off to do just that.

"Paras..." No, it hadn't seen anything, it was napping, after all.

In the mean time, Dusk was waiting somewhat impatiently for Ryner to catch up, with Fio waiting somewhat less anxiously beside her. They'd definitely managed to narrow the trail to this point, at least--while the sun had dried any traces of water tracked up from the river to here, the scent still remained, and this was one of those gaps were it would be easy to slip into the woods without leaving many signs of one's passage.

"Clef~" Oh, well, thanks anyway! Rose said as she scamperd off to join the others.

Satisfied that the other potential path was covered, Ryner followed toward the woods. "All right, this way then."

Dusk and Fio needed no further urging to plunge into the forest, though at least they took enough care so as not to accidentally trample the trail as they went. Fortunately, as the forest deepened, it appeared that Sion's own exhaustion must have been catching up with him--the occasional broken branch or freshly fallen leaf leaving clear indication of his passage.

Downstream where Gail was flying, nothing appeared to have changed from when they passed that way before.

Well, if there was nothing out of the ordinary this way, then there was no reason for Gail to continue down this path, so he turned around to fly after the forest crew.

As for Ryner...

...Clear indication, huh.

Too easy.

"Be extra careful, okay?" he said quietly, making sure to pay even closer attention to the sides of the trail himself. (Which was exhausting, but for an important cause.) "If he's leaving this clear a trail, there's a good chance he's trying to throw us off."

So far, there was nothing that indicated Sion had been doing anything other than pressing forward. Well, up until a point where a particularly large, dense patch of undergrowth blocked the way. On close examination, Ryner might find evidence of someone trying to push their way through it, but evidently Sion must have given up, as the trail veered off to the side at that point. Dusk immediately started trotting down in the new direction, though heeding Ryner's warning Fio took a moment to give the undergrowth a thorough examination (or, well, as thorough as something the size of an arcanine can) before moving on.

Ryner didn't quite trust it.

"Hey Rose, can you go through there and see what you can find?"

"Fairy!" With a salute, Rose started squirreling her way into the undergrowth. Perhaps a big dog might not be able to examine it properly, but a Clefairy is small and nimble.

"Sol..." To her credit, Dusk did pause to wait for Ryner when it became clear he wasn't following yet, though she certainly looked less than patient about it.

In and on the other side of the undergrowth was... nothing. Either Sion had been there and done an incredible job of covering his tracks, or he truly had given up after his initial failed attempts.

It didn't take too long for Rose to scour the place, but she eventually crawled out and shook her head. Nothing there, Dear Partner.

"Ahh, well, thanks. If we'd skipped it, you know that's where he'd be hiding. Come on."

Time to keep following the dogs, then.

Dusk for one was obviously relieved to be on the move again. After so long with so little by way of clues, she was perhaps understandably eager. Still, she and Fio managed to refrain from rushing too much, which was perhaps a good thing, as there were points where the trail was less than clear. Although, after following it a while, it began to curve back towards the stream, albeit angling for a point much further upstream than it had left it, should it continue in that direction.

...Great. Just what was needed, to find that the trail leads back toward the stream. Dammit, Sion Astupid, you are such a pain in the ass...

Still, wary as he was of Sion's desire to not be found, and therefore wary as he was of the path itself, it was the best clue they had right now, so while he kept an eye out for anything, anything at all, continuing down the trail was probably the best idea.

Harper sent out another psychic listening wave, though. Because we must be getting closer, right?

Perhaps the earlier psychic scan had tipped Sion off, or perhaps he was out of range; either way there was no sign of his presence just now.

As they continued, the path did indeed eventually make its way back to the stream. While it was now a good ways upstream of the point it had branched off, and there wasn't nearly so much tree cover up near the stream's edge, the water still flowed in a small stony ravine. Which the trail led straight up to the edge of.

At the sight of the ravine, a tiny, frustrated corner of Ryner's mind almost hoped that Jehra and Marian had found Sion in the Pokemon Center and were sitting on him right now. Would make this search pointless, sure, but would serve the asshole right.

But that probably wasn't it.

He breathed out a frustrated sigh. "Dammit Sion..."

And then he went back to looking for anything, anything at all that might indicate where the idiot king had gone. He could have started in the stream again, or he could have crossed, or he could have even gone in, washed his scent off, and doubled back.

The trail led straight to the edge, with no sign of deviation or picking up again on the far side. The sides of the ravine weren't terribly high here, however, only perhaps five or six feet, so it wouldn't have been too far a leap to jump down. It was hard to tell from a glance though whether anyone already had, at least from standing up top.

...Well, no sense not looking.

He turned to the Arcanine. "Hey Fio, mind checking down there?"

Better to send the one who wasn't on the brink of exhaustion before things were certain.

Fio had been trying to avoid the water, but, well, there was no helping it at this point, was there? So there was only a moment's delay while he looked for a good spot large enough to land on before leaping carefully down. He then took several long moments examining the area near where Sion's trail left off, pausing at one spot or another before looking back up at Ryner.

"Arcanine, arcanine-nine."

It seemed that there were traces that Sion had been there... but where he went next, Fio wasn't at all sure.

"All right, good job. Can you check the other bank now? Just to make sure." It didn't look like Sion had climbed up the other side, but you never knew.

He then motioned to Dusk and proceeded to go back down into the stream himself.

Fio wasted now time leaping back up again, shaking the water from his paws before setting to scouring the opposite bank. Dusk meanwhile similarly wasted no time herself hopping down after Ryner, though eager as she was to get on the move, she wasn't sure which way to go.

Neither was Ryner, to be honest. Did he continue up-stream, or did he start downstream to be a pain...?

Damn you, Sion Astupid.

"...Goddammit..."

As Ryner tried to look for any possible indication, Harper sent out another psychic call to the Pokemon in the area. Excuse me, have you seen a human man with silver hair pass through?

Upstream, while the stream still ran through a ravine, the going was more or less clear as far as could be seen. With the occasional overhang or alcove or such, of course. For that matter, as the stream climbed, the edges of the ravine were widening out a bit, though it might be some distance still before there was another good spot to climb out.

Downstream, well, it wasn't far to the upper end of that densely shaded patch from before. Aside from the shadows, the walls were high and steep, and rocks, roots, and limbs appeared to occasionally make passage difficult.

Harper got a confused mixture of responses back at first, mostly of forest-dwelling pokemon who recalled someone like that earlier. For what little that helped. Perhaps being more specific would help?

The problem being, Ryner could easily see Sion taking the more difficult path. Out of self-punishment, or to try and throw off his trail, or just out of spite, didn't matter.

Did you see which way he went? Harper asked of the Pokemon who had responded. We really need to find him.

To the stream? Apparently none of the local pokemon listening in had paid the matter much mind. Though to be perfectly fair to them, it was rather hard to see anything in the little ravine from anywhere but the very edge.

Would you happen to know which way he went at the stream? Just 'to the stream' wasn't very helpful, not that the Meowstic was going to express that.

In it? Evidently, whatever pokemon Harper had ended up in contact with was somewhat on the slow and/or unobservant side. Apparently they weren't as lucky as with the vulpix before.

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