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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 6:18:14 GMT

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Mission Link

The bomb had been set up by an arsonist's Pokemon. Electrode was never a Pokemon anyone was happy to see, even if completely docile, and in this regard, the Electrode and leveled half the town center into rubble and had previously set the nearby trees ablaze. It was quickly quelled, but the damage was irreversible.

Now the rangers had to help with the reconstruction. Callan lifted the end of a giant log, his body covered in soot. Freshly cut from nearby wood, the rangers were assisting with the rebuild efforts, at least to seal off the open space in the town halls.

Despite the events of the mission, he felt it was a good time, now that he was with Lars, to talk about something that he needed to say to him since after the events of their Ranger Meeting. "Been a while since we've done a mission together." He began, a smile on his lips. "How're you doing after the meeting?"

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 6:35:32 GMT

☆ ro / genderless (he/him) / clear body / meteor mash, psychic, telekinesis, agility, bullet punch, magnet rise

Whoever had the audacity to start blowing up shit—really needed to get their ears (and perspective) checked. Really, why blow things up now when the threat of something much more larger (not to mention worse) loomed on the horizon…

It was a good thing they were out here to help, and while he’d actually cheated a bit (Ro the Metagross was helping out somewhere lifting ruined wreckage with his Telekinesis) Lars was over here hauling ass with some planks of wood to help with patching up the walls and the like.

“I don’t know if I can say I’m really fine,” he began with a dry crack, a smirk on his face. “Getting everything reorganized in a rush is a mess. So I’m taking shit one day at a time.”

And of course, of fucking course he’d stripped topless. While the weather was turning to the colder side of things, fact of the matter was that all this hard work was bound to make people sweat. A lot.

(Make that of what you will.)

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 6:44:30 GMT

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Callan himself had decided to not use his Pokemon for now. As much as he wanted to ease the tension, there was something about carrying the weight of a log by yourself he couldn't quite get in his every day activities. Whether it was in Teravolt or in the gym, and now... well, that was part of why he had wanted to talk to Lars.

"That was... that was not a smooth meeting." Callan began, remembering the pie still covering the side of Elinor Anderson's face. "We have our hands full, that's for sure." Which made his next sentence even more difficult to say, but Lars needed to hear it. "I actually wanted to talk about this to you for a while but, I guess we never really had the time." Callan briefly turned to Lars, who had under the weather, removed the top layer of his shirt.

He imagined that did quite a bit for League advertisement. "I was contacted by Commissioner dahlia goode, I'm going to be joining the Elite Four." He smiled, "I might not be able to do as many duties as I used to, so... I'd like to do as much as I can now before I go. But it might impact what I can do in the future."

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 6:57:32 GMT

You know how a proud parent watches one of their kids finally graduate from university, crossing the stage and getting their diploma?

That… was as close of a description as he could get for this particular moment.

“Shit got out of hand, definitely. I very rarely switch modes but when I did, back then—I had to because. Well. You know. Can’t have the gathering embarrass themselves hook, line and sinker in front of the Council now can I?”

A moment of dry laughter as he hoisted up the planks on one shoulder. Never mind if there were passersby starting to stare at them because well. (He was shirtless, after all.)

“Well, in front of one of the Council at least. We got lucky because it was Elinor Anderson and not anyone else.”

He cringed for a few moments. What if it was FERNANDO SILPH or GABRIEL BLACK who was present at their meeting instead and saw the meltdown? Definitely not a good way to curry up favor.

Callan’s next words made him stop.

“Wait. You—what?”

He blinked in disbelief.

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 7:07:22 GMT

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"Yeah," Callan replied, sharing the moment of disbelief with Lars. But it wasn't because he wasn't confident in his abilities or that he felt he was unqualified for the job, but rather that Dahlia had even taken notice of him. He'd never met her before, so he had been wondering, "I had thought you or Melody Miro or Elinor Anderson had put my name in the recommendation. But apparently I've been picked as an option for the Elite Four."

Callan moves his log and passes it over to a cadet, who stabilized it, as they shifted the large building block into place, a Diglett pops underneath, construct a perfect sized hole as they lower the beam into the ground. Callan turns back towards Lars afterwards. "So... wanna grab a drink, to celebrate after this?"

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 7:29:07 GMT

“First off, if it was me I’d have asked you point blank if you wanted the position before nominating you. If it was Eli, well, I’m sure she’d ask you first at least. Or at least ask me about what I think, because we both know you and all that,” he hummed with a nod—very nearly smacking the incoming cadets as they came in to get the planks of wood he was carrying as he turned around to face them.

Whoops!

(To be fair, he was distracted.)

“Isn’t there like, some kind of qualifying exam for that?” he hummed a few moments later, muttering hurried apologies as the planks were taken away and he reached for the sandpaper left lying atop a pile of wood before grabbing another plank and sanding it down.

Clearly someone was distracted. And it wasn’t Callan.

“Hopefully you don’t forget us when you ascend formally to the position, you know,” he added with a knowing grin. Of course he was down to drink afterward.

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 7:55:24 GMT

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"Yeah, I might have thought so. But still, I'm quite surprised." Callan remarked. Regardless, he still had the option to decline the invitation, but Callan was ever a person who sought to take the next step forward. But still, he had to have someone who he knew was at least partially responsible for getting him to take the first step out of the muck.

"I won't." Callan replied. "I view the Elite Four position as a responsibility, I'm sure I'll get a few extra perks but..." His eyes turned slightly darker, "I'll also be in the crossfires a lot more, I imagine. And quite frankly, it's not just an achievement I'm looking for, I genuinely want to see what I can do to help Hoenn as a whole." He paused as he helps Lars with the sandpapering of the beam. "That, and if being a rock star didn't change me already, I don't think adding an Elite Four title will do much either." Callan chuckled.

"Why do you think the League is so naturally conflicting?" Callan asked, out of the blue. "Where do you think the problem comes from?"

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 9:07:03 GMT

That question made him stop from the sanding motions for a few moments to look up and consider.

“If you ask me, really…” he trailed off, humming thoughtfully.

“Ego. I don’t know why. But it’s always with the egos.”

That was an observation he’d noticed. He would always be quiet in his own corner, watching everyone argue over… things. Some of the arguments didn’t even really deserve to be fought over, if he was being honest to himself.

“Everyone sees things in their own way, and when they meet someone who doesn’t like the way they’ve outlined shit, well… conflicts of interest are bound to happen. That’s my observation at least.”

Picking up the piece of sandpaper, he continued smoothing down the wood.

“Well, you know how it is. Put a bunch of people in a room and have them talk, well, tempers are bound to explode from time to time.”

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 9:58:44 GMT

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Callan paused, remembering the scene at Ranger's Rising. A single statement taken the wrong way, a putdown, the need to stand out and point out the mistakes of others. "Yeah." He agreed, though he had never seen the AQUA Assembly before, he had been reading, as part of his job, on the events of the past several assemblies and several confidential files relating to the events that were coming forward.

He had to say, Hoenn had a lot to deal with, catastrophes on every corner, people were on edge and there wasn't enough recognition to go around. "It's not a surprise to me, really." Callan replied, turning towards Lars, as he finishes the sandpaper on his side. "We teach strength and power are everything, even in the Gym Challenge system. But accountability, duties, discipline, care, these are sidelined. Maybe it's a byproduct of so many different conflicts but..."

Callan pauses, "We have to live for something. That is what Rocket has that we don't. They have a purpose, a united effort to take down the league. What do we have, except the constant battle and strife that we have to deal with every day? The fires that we put out, then reignited, until everyone's souls burn out?" Callan stops. "We need a 'why'. Otherwise we have viper pits in meetings where everyone pushes their agenda, no one knows how to listen."

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POSTED ON Sept 29, 2022 19:27:37 GMT

“I guess… it’s why, when I go for my Gym challenges I never go for the usual traditional style of battle to prove that I’m capable of doing what needs to be done,” he hummed thoughtfully as he turned the piece of wood he was sanding down over to get at the opposite side.

“Strength may mean a lot to most people, but I value flexibility. It’s kind of why, until now at least all of my Gym challenge attempts have been on the non-traditional side, because I know power isn’t supposed to be everything.”

Power.

What was it with power that drove people mad?

“I definitely agree with you on the accountability part,” he continued quietly. “Not everyone stops to take five minutes to go over what they did and accept that there are consequences for each action…”

The sounds of smoothing wood tided him over, making him think about the entire damned thing.

“People just want the ‘right now’, but not the ‘why we gotta do this shit’, that I’ll agree on,” he nodded.

This was quite honestly an insightful conversation.