victory_road | Second Spell: Across Time. [Partially backdated.]

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Second Spell: Across Time. [Partially backdated.]

Who: Keldor and...
Where: Hisui or Johto
When: The past or the present
Summary: Backdated stuff from the Hisui event and some current day things.
Rating: Unrated
Log:

Hisui #1: It'll be a few days yet before everything's fixed and people are sent back to their proper time, but before that happens, Keldor's making yet another attempt to catch one of the native Growlithes before time runs out.

The clock Keldor should be worrying about right now is the "day clock". It's already sunset, and that means the diurnal 'mons will soon be punching out while the night shift punches in. Already a flock of Zubats and a few Golbats are heading out with a big case of the munchies. Their Crobat leader hasn't arrived yet, but when it does, it's gonna notice Sakura and recognise her as a potential enemy.

Rocks will need to be deployed, but unfortunately for Keldor, there's a Voltorb amongst them, and when he grabs it, the result is predictable. It might even look like the taserings from Despicable Me 2, but we won't confirm that.

While he's recovering from the shock of a lifetime he might need assistance. First to drive off the 'bats thinking he's now been zapped into a lunchable, then to help him back to consciousness, and then hopefully to help him catch his Growlithe.

Hisui #2: One day and one electrocution later, it looks like Keldor's made a fast friend with the Voltorb he accidentally grabbed last night. He's not quite sure what to make of it, but the Voltorb doesn't seem inclined to want to leave [despite all efforts to shoo it away], so it looks like it's going to be part of the team for the foreseeable future.

Johto: It's good to be back, even if where he is isn't his original home. Ganpi, Fukiran, Gingko and Momiji are eager to get to know their new friends before Keldor's pokegear informs him that he's got one too many pokemon on-hand and the limit is six. As much as he'd really like to work on training Sakura and his second Growlithe, he did spend a lot of money trying to get Fukiran's egg, so he'll be kept while the other is sent to the box [as will Sakura].

Now that that's out of the way, it's time to get to work.

Everyone is behind on their training and they need to make up for lost time.

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[Keldor grins.]

I intend to, especially with my allies to help me.

[Basically yes he does.]

Good!

[Radley smiles, glad that he has people to help him.]

Who knows, maybe someday I'll get to visit and I'll find you on the throne.

That is possible. And I would like that. Very much.

[Pause. His heart is in his throat.]

Friend.

I would too.

[He blinks, surprised, and smiles.]

Friend.

[This. This is what it means to have people you can truly count on. It's something he's working on with his friends at home. Trust-building. Because if he succeeds, he'll need them even more when he's on the throne as he rightfully should be.]

When I first came here I had no idea what to expect. But, much to my surprise, it has been a most beneficial thing to have done so.

I am ... glad that I have come to these strange lands.

I'm glad you did too.

[Radley smiles more. He loves his Pokemon, but he's often lonely for friends he can converse with. He's happy to have found another.]

... I wonder if the people who are brought here are chosen based on what they can learn or what they can give to make this place better.

[If so, he wonders all the more what his purpose is.]

That is a distinct possibility. One worth contemplating upon.

I wonder if the people would answer what they feel they've learned or contributed if I ran a survey for research's sake or if that would be too private.

If you made it voluntary you would not have to worry about invasions of privacy too much.

But it can be done when we get back.

Yeah, I could do it on the Network and people could be anonymous if they want. It would definitely be voluntary. I wouldn't wanna force anyone to do it.

[He feels a stab of guilt again as he remembers when he had lied to Kalin to try to force him to keep working for him. It had only been once, and out of complete desperation when he had thought he would lose Kalin, but he still feels terrible. He had vowed never to stoop to Malcolm's tactics, and that one time he had done it....]

[Hmmm... Radley seems to be anxious about something. Or upset.]

Are you concerned that you might inadvertently coerce someone into doing something against their will?

[Might be Keldor's turn to do the listening and the supporting.]

Nah.... I was just remembering.... I tried to be a leader back home, but it didn't always go the way I wanted it to. I wanted to be different than my rival, but ... at least once I wasn't ... and I hurt someone I really cared about.

[He doesn't mention that Kalin had hurt him every day by rejecting his attempts to be friendly. He has since learned things were not as he had believed with Kalin.]

[Keldor thinks about it for a moment. Once again he's found himself in a situation where he must give comfort to another. It's a skill he knows is worth practising; especially if he's going to reclaim what is rightfully his.]

Nothing in life ever goes the way we expect it to go all of the time. There is what we want things to be, and then there is what actually happens. Especially when it involves other people.

And even good people err despite their best intentions. Hurt others despite their best intentions.

[He stops. Thinks. Did Randor err, too? It's something to ponder on.]

If you care enough about how your actions affect others that it troubles you that they inadvertently hurt another, but your rival does not, then it proves that you are different from them.

Yeah. A lot of the time I ended up having to compromise or something worse would happen. My rival set up this system where we'd each put up somebody to play this card game that's big in my world. Whoever lost would go to work for the boss of the winner in his mine. I treated my miners fairly, but my rival Malcolm didn't. He tortured them to try to force them to work harder. And the town was locked down. He had big tanks and I couldn't rout him out with my forces. I had to play his game and keep him from completely taking over, but meanwhile, people were suffering in his mine.

The guy working for me at the last, he was really good and I thought maybe he would finally be the one to help me overthrow Malcolm. But he finally revealed to me that he wanted to lose so he'd be sent to Malcolm's mine and be tortured. He felt like that would help him atone for some things he'd did before he met me. And I was desperate, I thought I'd lose him, and I threatened him that the device he was wearing to hold the cards would blow up and hurt his arm if he tried anything funny like deliberately losing. I don't know if he believed me or not, but his friend sure did. I guess that's why ... they both abandoned me to the mine when we all ended up there.

[He looks away.]

Malcolm definitely never cared about what he did. I cared a lot, and still do.

[What sort of world..? He'd like to ask. Maybe to voice some outrage. But then, what would give him the right to criticise another world's barbarism when Eternia has its own? An entire people being subjected to a kind of original sin scenario isn't the same as forcing servitude out of the loser of a card game, but it's still barbarism.

Apples and oranges, in the end, are both fruits.]

What you were doing was to protect as many as possible to the best of your abilities in a situation with a slim chance of changing it. Against someone who gave you few options to choose from, and the ones you had were never good. A situation that would make anyone question themselves and their decision-making.

But perhaps, by coming here, you will be given what you need to put a stop to this atrocity. To finally bring it to an end and free everyone.

[Radley gives a wan smile.]

Thanks. At least I can be grateful that the mess is over, back home. Malcolm and his brother were overthrown shortly before I came here. In the end, I couldn't save the town, but at least someone did. Ironically, it was the guy who wanted to lose, and his friend, who put a stop to it.

[But it still hurts, that he was unable to be involved in that. After fighting so long, he had ended up consigned to the mine and tortured himself, abandoned and forgotten by those he had trusted. Now he longs to be able to make a positive difference here, since he is haunted feeling he failed his town.]

Strange how these things work out, and who it is that ends up the hero. And while it might not be the ideal ending, at least the ordeal is over and no one has to suffer further.

Yeah. I'm grateful for that.

[Radley smiles.]

That's the most important thing.

[But the pain is still in his eyes. There's a lot he hasn't said or explained.]

[Keldor has noticed it, but remembers that Radley did not press him to share anything he wasn't ready or willing to share. Radley gave him that courtesy; Keldor will do the same.]

That, and having friends you can rely on.

Yeah....

[He smiles sadly.]

Friends who won't run away out of fear when you need them the most.

[He can't blame them for being afraid, and yet ... it still hurts.]

You need not worry that I am running away. Especially not out of fear.

[Soldiers don't run. At least, not those who are brave.]

[Radley smiles.]

I'm glad.

[He sighs, figuring he'd better clarify now that he said that much.]

I know they were just kids, really, not cut out for what we ran into ... and me being publicly humiliated and losing in disgrace just shattered whatever hope they had that Malcolm and his brother Lawton could ever be taken down. But ... it's hard to get over that hurt and terror over being left alone in such a deadly place.

[He frowns.]

I should, though. They never meant to hurt me. They never thought things would really get so bad that I would ...

[He trails off.]

You would what?

[If it's "run away in fear", well. It can't have been Radley's fault, could it?]

Whatever it was, you must have had just cause to do it?

... I died. They tortured me with electricity until I was almost dead. I lost all hope and ... I died.

[He looked down.]

But ... when they found me, and I saw their grief, I had the strength to fight to live.

[Everything clicks into place now. Radley's reaction. His fear. The fact that he doesn't want pokemon of a certain type.

All those memories. All the fear. Thinking that what had happened before was happening again.]

You were right to be concerned about my wellbeing, and your fears are not unfounded. It is possible that the damage done could have been more extensive, especially if help had not arrived.

But I am recovering now, much thanks to you, and while I cannot promise that another pokemon will not attack me in the future, I will exercise caution around them to avoid a similar fate.

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CW: References to torture and depression

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CW: Torture, Death

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