[attr="class","sideinfo"]

[attr="class","text"]
The request for his assistance by Caleb Harcourt had been an unexpected one. It made sense, of course, to ask for the extra hand given his position in Lilycove, but Lam actually knew very little about Nautica itself, beyond what he’d read in reports or gleaned from local residents. He hadn’t had the pleasure of really meeting angelo vestri before the man’s disappearance–a disappointment given his own fondness for aviation.[break][break]
But their abandoned building had always loomed on the coastal part of town, not all too far from the gym itself.[break][break]
“No problem,” he replied in lieu of actual greeting, brows furrowing slightly. The distinct lack of cheer was evident, heavy in the silent husk of a room. His eyes found the archen, head tilting curiously as it regarded him. The message came through easily enough–the concern obvious in the reptilian bird’s demeanor.[break][break]
That, along with the obvious tightness in Caleb’s voice–the sound of a man on the brink of losing composure that was being held onto with a slipping, white-knuckle grip.[break][break]
It was familiar to Lam, that desperation to keep things together. To seem in control of his faculties, because he wanted to appear as if he could handle anything. When really that was far, far from the actual truth.[break][break]
The gym leader picked his way through the empty space, avoiding scattered paperwork and dusty, abandoned furniture until he stood alongside Caleb. “Least I could do, really,” he continued, hand raising to clasp the ranger’s unoccupied shoulder. Atop his head, Poppy cooed her own consolations–round, orange eyes blinking at the man she now recognized as familiar.[break][break]
The one with the lapras.[break][break]
“I didn’t know angelo vestri or skyler dross. They cleared out not long after I stepped into my position, I think, but anything you think I can help with, it’s no problem.” His head craned to try and catch Caleb’s eye. “Just tell me what we’re looking for here, exactly.”

[attr="class","ooc"]

[break]

[attr="class","credit"]MADE BY GUNSMILE

Caleb was jolted out of his melancholy reverie by Lam's hand on his shoulder. He glanced down at it for a brief moment, then met the gym leader's kindly gaze.[break][break]
"I told myself I was coming here to find any clues as to their whereabouts - or even the whereabouts of Latios and Latias." Kyogre, unfortunately, seemed beyond their current reach. "I - and the League - need all the help we can get right now, " he admitted to Lam, allowing the vulnerability of heartbreak to bleed into his voice. "But I think what I really needed was...closure."[break][break]
Axel exchanged a look with Poppy, a silent acknowledgement regarding the growing bond between their trainers.[break][break]
Caleb shifted, crouching down to rummage around on the floor, fingers settling on the edges of a hastily hand-drawn map of what he thought might be Shoal Cave. Had Angelo made this, or perhaps his wife?[break][break]
"I knew Angelo well. He was one of my first real friends here, in Hoenn. And he saved my life, twice."[break][break]
He pulled out the map, lifted it to his mouth and blew the dust from its wrinkled surface. Guilt bubbled up like pooling magma, threatening to burn: he'd never properly thanked Angelo for the Sootopolis rescue. He'd disappeared soon after that.[break][break]
"I thought perhaps you'd be able to help me look for him. Angelo was a pilot, known for flying all over the region." A wry smile touched his lips, then. "But you're our resident flying expert now."

TAGS – lam logan[break]
NOTES – Mission | Location: the abandoned Nautica HQ[break][break]
"I was aware that I had been looking for him on every street, in every crowd."
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","sideinfo"]

[attr="class","text"]

He couldn’t remove the ache from Caleb’s loss, of course. There was no undoing the void a sudden disappearance caused. There was a tinge of familiarity in it—boyhood memory of a mother who left, but it was a foggy thing now.[break][break]
He couldn’t take it away, no, but he could understand it, and endure it without flinching away from the raw ache that drove his companion here today, to this vast, hollowed out shell of a building.[break][break]
Lam’s head tilted at the mention of Latios and Latias. “Do you think we could actually manage to track them down?” Were they even still in the company of the man Caleb desperately hoped to locate? Kyogre certainly wasn’t connected with the pair, given the tumult it had continued to cause out at sea. Raging with primal fury.[break][break]
He nodded, though—listening as Caleb explained the truth of his intentions, though his closeness to the matter was evident in the way he carried himself now. The slump of his shoulders, the grief that wore itself into every corner of him.[break][break]
“Did you find that here? Or do you think there’s another step before you do?” he asked carefully, not perusing through the discarded items and papers in the dusty expanse of the warehouse as the ranger did. He simply watched.[break][break]
The pidove on his shoulder blinked knowing eyes at the archen, and then tucked her head under one dainty wing to preen. Efficiently leaving it to Lam to salvage what he could.[break][break]
“He sounds like a true friend.” So why did they leave? It was a question that floated through his mind out of curiosity, rather than any sort of acerbic skepticism.[break][break]
Ruffling a hand through his hair, he regarded Caleb with a steady eye. As reassuring and earnest as he could, “Whatever I can do to help, I will.” The pull of his mouth edged toward a grin. “If flying’s what you need, I’ve got you covered.”[break][break]
Just as quickly, though, his brows furrowed, “All I need to know is where to start, I guess. Any maps? Typical routes you’re familiar with?”[break][break]
Anything that would help Lam fill in the blanks due to his unfamiliarity with Angelo.

[attr="class","ooc"]

[break]

[attr="class","credit"]MADE BY GUNSMILE

"Track them down? Well..." Caleb considered. On the subject of Latios and Latias - or really, the subject of legendary Pokemon and their various whims and tendencies, as a whole - he was sorely uneducated. But he knew one person who might be able to help him figure out where a pair of dragons might be hiding. "Not sure. But I know someone else who can help."[break][break]
Lam's voice was soft with empathy, and it caused Caleb to look over at him with a sudden earnest respect. This was the sort of man who ought to be a role model for Hoenn's citizenry. Too many of the League's elite were narrowly focused on their own power, as well as their grudges against Rocket.[break][break]
"He was a true friend," Caleb agreed, quietly. "Until he left without warning."[break][break]
He'd had his reasons, of course. But Caleb could not help but feel a pang of bitter discontent for having been left out of Angelo's plan. And now Kyogre rampaged dangerously through Hoenn seas without the influence of its former Patron, Angelo's wife. Latios and Latias were missing when they could be fighting for the League. It all felt so...abrupt.[break][break]
And selfish.[break][break]
"Anyway," Caleb cleared his throat. "There are surely maps hidden amidst this mess." He waved a hand at their surroundings. "But mostly, I was thinking you could send out some of your Flying types to search the islands between Lilycove and Mossdeep. That would have been their initial route out of Hoenn, and if we go by sea..."[break][break]
Kyogre might attack them.[break][break]
"I'm just looking for clues as to where they might have gone. Angelo and Skyler. Latios and Latias. Hell, Angelo had Victini's soul dew or something weird like that - anything, Lam. I'm just looking for an edge..." Concern creased his brow. "It feels like war is on the horizon, you know?"[break][break]

TAGS – lam logan[break]
NOTES – Mission | Location: the abandoned Nautica HQ)[break][break]
"I was aware that I had been looking for him on every street, in every crowd."
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","sideinfo"]

[attr="class","text"]

“Yeah, I mean–” Lam considered what he meant in saying as much, “Pokemon like latios and latias are probably going to do as they please, but…if they didn’t part on ill terms, it might be useful, right?” Maybe they would be able to point to the right direction, if he and Caleb only reached dead ends on their own. “Hm?” His glance flickered to Caleb’s, curious for confirmation. “And who’s that?”[break][break]
He met Caleb’s eye evenly, smile steady and reassuring. Whatever concerns or doubts the ranger had, he’d meet them with an open mind. There were plenty of others who wouldn’t be so willing to lend that ear or shoulder, but Lam had never seen the point in being closed off to others in that way, no matter where they’d come from or what experiences had led them to now.[break][break]
“Perhaps they had to leave with no word?” he offered, though it felt a bit like an empty comfort. To leave so suddenly, and to remain out of the range of any possible contact didn’t bode well, no matter the cause that drove Angelo and Skyler to virtually disappear.[break][break]
It was enough to make him wonder–given the furor that had overtaken Kyogre. It remained a mystery as to whether or not the source of such erratic behavior was because it felt betrayed, or if it had broken away from skyler dross of its own, frenzied accord. It was an answer that they didn’t need to dwell on right then.[break][break]
“We’ll find something, I’m sure of it.”[break][break]
He shored up his confidence. Even if it wasn’t the sort of good news that Caleb probably hoped for, a sense of closure would surely be better than nothing at all. Better than this–an empty room and scattered papers. Dusty furniture and that yawning, hollow feeling of feeling like you couldn’t be trusted with something so important.[break][break]
“Sure,” he answered, automatically moving to a different desk to paw through a different stack of papers. “Any routes in particular that would be important to them?” Lam hummed quietly, lips pressed together as he considered. “I can do that. I have some sharper-eyed scouts.”[break][break]
He didn’t have to finish the sentence for Lam to understand. The gym leader nodded. “Better to avoid Kyogre, yeah. I’ve had to help redirect it a couple of times. We’ll lose time and ground if we do that. If you’re comfortable flying, and higher altitude, we can probably follow any leads on a cloudier day. Make us harder to spot from the water.”[break][break]
A slow breath followed, and he shifted on his feet as the sense of foreboding rose like a tide in his chest. “Yeah, I know,” he agreed quietly, brows furrowed. “So let’s get off the ground before we’re swept up in everything else.”

[attr="class","ooc"]

[break]

[attr="class","credit"]MADE BY GUNSMILE

"Councilwoman freya morningstar," Caleb answered honestly, trying not sound like he's bragging. "She's an expert with dragons. I've been training with her fairly regularly these days. It can't hurt to ask her what she knows about Latios and Latias, you know?"[break][break]
Lam was a gym leader, so maybe he was already acquainted with the members of Hoenn's council. Either way, it wasn't a subject Caleb felt like lingering on.[break][break]
He appreciated Lam's attempts at consoling him, watching him rifle through the discarded paperwork from across the room. Axel ruffled his feathers, then hopped up onto a nearby shelf, doing his best to look as if he, too, were helping with the search for clues.[break][break]
"I can understand Kyogre's rage," Caleb admitted softly. "This world is a harsh place. Plenty to be angry about."[break][break]
The bond between Kyogre and Skyler had been severed because she left, presumably, and Caleb could not blame the woman for following her heart - if that's what she had done. All the same, it never felt good to be the one left behind.[break][break]
"I don't mind flying," he continued. "I can take Daisy, my Dragonite."[break][break]
A glint of something metallic caught his eye within the desk drawer. He pulled out a small key, eyeing it curiously. Was there a safe hidden in the warehouse? Or, perhaps, there was a locked door somewhere that he could now open. He pocketed it.[break][break]
"If we can get close enough, we should investigate the sea routes around Sootopolis. I also want to go out to Dewford, and look around there too."

TAGS – lam logan[break]
NOTES – Mission | Location: the abandoned Nautica HQ)[break][break]
"I was aware that I had been looking for him on every street, in every crowd."
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","sideinfo"]

[attr="class","text"]
“Oh, Freya!” Lam nodded emphatically, nodding in understanding as his eyes lit with recognition. The formal title faded as he recalled his own meeting with the councilwoman, and how they had both shed their titles in favor of casual reference. Though, that probably didn’t count in the right now, huh? “I should’ve thought about that. She tested my battling against Jirachi not so long ago. I don’t think she was much of a fan of the lil guy.”[break][break]
Lam still maintained that the wishmaker was the most adorable little terror out there.[break][break]
“I agree, though. Surely she might have some idea about how they operate. Even if it’s, like, a vague awareness.” He shrugged, easily following the flow of the conversation as the topic shifted.[break][break]
Personally, he wasn’t too huge of a fan of large, rampaging fish. Or fish in general. But he refrained from voicing the sentiment. The last time he’d caught sight of it, alongside Greyson Connors as it rampaged in the wide expanse of a stormy, sapphire sea, he’d thought that he wouldn’t like to see it even more enraged. “It’s strange,” he remarked, his own voice quieting, “Sometimes I wonder if it’s Hoenn. I never really felt that way in Alola.”[break][break]
Of course, that was probably just the rose-tinted nostalgia of home. Or just receiving a hefty dose of reality as he drifted closer to the League’s center. Drifted, he could’ve laughed at that. It was more like centripetal motion. The harsh, unyielding pull of gravity forcing him into orbit.[break][break]
He shook his head to dispel the thought—he was there for positive reinforcement. Not to drag them both down to the ground.[break][break]
“Daisy, that’s a good name for one,” he remarked lightly, a lopsided smile tugging at his mouth as he pawed through a short stack of papers that had been wedged under an empty, dusty coffee mug. There was a ring stain lining the inside.[break][break]
“That’s a good idea. Preference on which one you’d want to start with?” He tugged open a creaky drawer and it groaned on its hinges in the vacuous room. He held up the old map that had been folded inside, squinting at the routes charted to make sense of them.

[attr="class","ooc"]

[break]

[attr="class","credit"]MADE BY GUNSMILE