Coming back to Littleroot is honestly the last thing Wren would like to do. But he has questions that can’t be answered. Or, they could be, if Levy Alinsky would text or call him back. There’s a deep seeded fear in his belly that it’s because his friend is still down there. Wren found his pokemon partner wandering through the chaos that day, when elijah gardner carried him out on his gogoat.[break][break]

But there’s been no sign or word from the other boy. Only the dirty owl mask that he’s almost certain Levy had been wearing that day, if it really was him. It’s held in shaky hands as his gaze drifts over the edge, down into the darkness.[break][break]

(Wren still doesn’t want to admit, even now.)[break][break]

“Oh!” Wren whirls around, eyes going round with a look as if he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t. And really, that’s not even the case. The area isn’t restricted or anything.[break][break]

But maybe he shouldn’t be out here given the cast and boot his foot is done up in. It’s bulky and clumsy, and really, he’s enough of a klutz that he could fall right in if he steps wrong. In his surprise, the owl mask falls right through his fingers to the ground again.[break][break]

The face he finds is a familiar one, though. “Hi! Elijah, right? Fancy seeing you here..” A nervous giggle stutters up from his throat, further adding to the ‘caught red handed’ effect. “Ummm…I’m not..I don’t know. I don’t think so.” He doesn’t know how to answer the question. The trainerless salandit sitting by his foot looks droopy and forlorn.[break][break]

If Sal can’t sense Levy Alinsky , then that probably means that, no, Wren hasn’t found what he’s looking for.[break][break]

“Do you live here?” His face reddens, “In Littleroot, I mean. Not the sinkhole..obviously.” He’s always been a nervous babbler.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

elijah gardner [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-salandit"]

while wren stumbles across his answer, elijah's expression grows flatter and flatter. his sharp, judging gaze is the most jagged of his straight face's features.[break][break]

and it is aimed directly at the ranger's bumbling self. though, in the periphery, elijah can perceive the melancholic slump of his salandit and that is answer enough.[break][break]

"i'm a bit of a wanderer. go from place to place."[break][break]

he stretches out an arm, thick limb surging before wren's face as he reaches to examine a plant.[break][break]

"lookin' to buy a flower for yourself... or for someone else?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

wren rourke [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-florges"]

Only a quick flit of his gaze up to Elijah’s face tells Wren that the older man is unimpressed with his fumbling. So, he tries his best to get it together.[break][break]

It feels like he’s trying to get it together a lot lately.[break][break]

“Oh. That’s neat. So this isn’t your shop, then?” he asks as his attention drifts over the flowers. “They have some nice winter blooms here.” It’s an absent thought, just a remark based on what he knows from his studies.[break][break]

His expression pitches in a confused frown. “For someone else..?”[break][break]

Wren looks down at Salandit, and then back over his shoulder at the sinkhole. “Maybe…Forget-me-nots.” Color reddens his face. The last bit wasn’t meant to be uttered aloud. But maybe Levy Alinsky would come back and see them? Find them, and know that Wren would do something silly like that as a sign he’d been there looking?[break][break]

But silly is exactly what that is. And he’s only making a fool in front of something he’s developed an odd sort of respect for.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

elijah gardner [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-salandit"]

"nope."[break][break]

not his shop. it's too busy to be, anyway. an eyebrow raises at the mention of winter blooms, the particular vernacular peeking out from wren's tongue like a blade of grass forgotten by the trimmer.[break][break]

"those are pretty. just need to pinch off the dead flowers after blooming."[break][break]

elijah does not prod, but his stern expression is ceaselessly stabbing.[break][break]

"you a green thumb too?" he grunts. "wouldn't take you for one. no offense."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

wren rourke [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-florges"]

“Oh…do you have one? Not here?”[break][break]

The events of Littleroot are temporarily forgotten. “Yep! Don’t want to harm the whole batch.” Wren nods eagerly.[break][break]

“Hm? oh, yeah!” Some of his apprehension fades, at least for the moment. “I’m mostly taking online classes right now, but I’m studying botany. And my dad is in agriculture, so..you know, kinda grew up around it.”[break][break]

That telltale friendliness of his seeps back in, steadily growing with every word. The nervousness he felt over Elijah’s flattened expression and blunt tone fluttering away with the breeze.[break][break]

Intimidated or not, he was the one to help Wren when he needed it. It will do Wren well not to forget that fact.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

elijah gardner [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-salandit"]

"sorta. i sell in slateport market sometimes."[break][break]

elijah rubs the back of his neck. scratches. blunt fingers tow across short, brusque neckline hairs.[break][break]

"online school for botany? seems backwards to me." he almost spits. "gonna have your own farm? own shop?"[break][break]

he grumbles.[break][break]

"better to grow your own gifts than to buy 'em."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

wren rourke [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-florges"]

“I’ll have to look! That’s where I was in school before they stationed me out in Ever Grande. But yeah! It sounds dumb, but it’s mostly all technical theory classes right now so, it’s okay…”[break][break]

His head tilts. “Plus I practice on my own! Umm, I dunno what I want to do with it yet.” He’s only twenty-one, after all.[break][break]

“Oh! I don’t disagree!” he replies brightly, eyes wide with more enthusiasm than has reached them in days now.[break][break]

He has all the look of an excitable yamper, really.[break][break]

“I mean, I didn’t come all the way out to Littleroot just to buy flowers here, you know? Not when Petalburg has so many options— oh, that’s where I’m from, I mean. Petalburg,” he continues babbling away until he sort of realizes that he’s told on himself.[break][break]

He isn’t there for botanical purposes. His laugh turns into a nervous titter. “But, uh, yeah…hahah..”

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

elijah gardner [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-salandit"]

"petalburg huh. i frequent those woods."[break][break]

elijah wonders where the delivery of that admission landed on the scale of normal to serial killer. [break][break]

the apothecary hardens his stern face. though, the expression can soften when graced by the overpowering radiance of wren's enthusiasm or the flickering light of his titters.[break][break]

"can do a lot with it." elijah says. [break][break]

he reaches for a planter with forget-me-nots: cygnoglossum blues. elijah's large hand holds the planter firmly as he tilts the small flowers for inspection.[break][break]

"it just depends if people appreciate your work or not... if your schooling turns out to be shit, and you want some real experience, i could help." he raises a brow.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

wren rourke [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-florges"]

“Oh yeah? It’s a wonder I haven’t seen you then. I basically grew up exploring them.” With Levy Alinsky, who he still can’t find. But that’s a thought he pushes out of mind for the moment.[break][break]

Perhaps that should also raise some flags about Elijah, given the fact that he’s never run into him. But at the same time, he’s been in Evergrande the last several months training. So it would make sense, and it’s something that Wren easily explains away. No serial killer scale here.[break][break]

“I don’t disagree. I think flora can be used to promote a lot of good.” All that good, holistic stuff, y’know? He watches Elijah handle the planter, head tilting in curiosity. Though his temporary quiet is quick to fade.[break][break]

He shifts in place, and normally that would be a foot-to-foot movement, but given the cast he’s in all he ends up doing is clunking it against a large terracotta planter holding a massive aloe plant. But the noisy tonk is quickly drowned out by his enthusiasm. “Really? That would be so cool! I mean, I don’t know what you do exactly. But it sounds like it would be a lot more fun than just learning theory without the hands-on aspect, y’know?”[break][break]

Maybe that’s an inconvenience to the other? But then again, why would he offer if he didn’t want to help? Wren was awfully busy with a lot of ranger stuff, but at the same time…he wanted to be able to use what he learned in the field too. It feels like a win-win that way. And way more functional and productive than the combat the region has been subjected to.[break][break]

At least, that’s his opinion, anyway.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

elijah gardner [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-salandit"]

the tonk draws a wince out of elijah's face. the cast is a jarring reminder. to be in a town torn by rift and war one day, then to be in the same place, picking plants.[break][break]

however, the ordinary day hides the quiet suffering of recovery.[break][break]

"'course it'd be more fun." elijah almost blows a raspberry. "there's shit out there that the schools are too afraid to teach."[break][break]

he raises a brow. lowers his voice so that only wren and the plants can hear him.[break][break]

"considering how far deep you were in the sinkhole, i'm guessing you're pretty brave?" he speaks with calculated and subtle sarcasm.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

wren rourke [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-florges"]

Wren has to stifle the short lived flare of pain in his foot, but it’s fine. Even if it’s a reminder to the both of them of that day. The circumstance that made their lines cross in the first place.[break][break]

“Hm?” he blinks up at Elijah, still smiling. Eyes wide and blithe. “What sort of things are you referring to?”[break][break]

It’s more than obvious that it’s not a baiting or suspicious question. It’s all simple curiosity in pure, innocent form.[break][break]

But then comes a new question on Elijah’s end and Wren cows, just slightly. A nervous titter of laughter, a slight falter in his grin. His eyes dart to the side—easy tell.[break][break]

“Oh. Er, well I wouldn’t say that bravery was something I was thinking about then.” An anxious answer, but an honest one. Albeit evasive. He’s never been a decent liar.[break][break]

Levy’s salandit, sensing the shift in his demeanor, claws his way up Wren’s pant leg into he can hold onto the reptile. Warm scales and steady presence in a small, onyx head burrowed against his next.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

elijah gardner [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-salandit"]

"oh? then what were you thinking about?"[break][break]

elijah decides to prod now. like vines traveling up and through a fragile lattice, the apothecary attempts to entangle the other in his green work. his business. for now, he doesn't know if he's doing this out of the good will of mentorship or for some ulterior motive down the line.[break][break]

time will tell, he supposes. team rocket may have other ideas.[break][break]

"i just ask 'cause some of the work i do can be dangerous." he says. "dangerous plants. locations. people."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

wren rourke [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-florges"]

He blurts it out before thinking about it— “A friend. I mean, er, I was looking for him. A friend.” Only a friend? Of course not, but Wren isn’t about to admit that when he can barely admit it to himself.[break][break]

Something shifts, though, and while he’s usually content and a little oblivious, he senses it this time. Maybe it’s because he knows where Elijah’s affiliation rests.[break][break]

On the other hand…Wren finds factional divide to be a more massively gray area than would likely be approved of by older League members.[break][break]

Curiosity admittedly is a driving factor as well—separate from any stance he might take. This aligns with his own interests. “I’m not scared, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Soft and lamb-hearted? Yes, sure fine. But Wren had never been one to shy away out of fear.[break][break]

In fact, he puffs up a bit right then and there (metaphorically, and also a bit literally from the way his cheeks inflate slightly as his brows pinch together in fixed determination.) “I’m not scared of you, either.”

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]

elijah gardner [break]
mission / repeat for wren

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-salandit"]