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Lokix everywhere. Lam watched from a somewhat removed distance as they scurried around, kicking out at passersby with their springy legs, regardless of if said passersby were attempting to catch them or not. He wasn’t usually a big guy, but there was something interesting about these ones. An aesthetic effect that made them look like they were right out of a kamen rider episode— which was actually pretty cool.[break][break]

“You think if I manage an extra cool defense pose, they’ll respect me more?” he asked of his pidgeot, who only paused from his preening to coo skeptically. “Yeah, you’re right. Better to just go for it the tried and true way.” He laughed before sending Hermes in so that he could go for the catch.
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“Yep. Hometown.” So far, everything is calm—maybe due to Lam’s determination to remain as calm as he can. But how long can that last? “Pretty idyllic right now, I don’t trust this mist to not cause problems with it.”[break][break]
“Sounds good. I’ll keep an eye out for any other defenses.” He pulls back on the pidgeot, and the bird swings in a half circle to arc around the outcropping in surveyal. But it quickly becomes clear that Remy has found the opposition first.[break][break]
Lam frowns, though Remiel is obviously not there to see. He can hear the echoing cries still, and figures Remiel must be closer to the flock than he is.[break][break]
“Do you need back up? Are you sure you want me to wait, and not come to you?”[break][break]
Hermes treads his wings in air as mist swirls around them. As he waits for an answer, he scans the stretch of recreated beach, waiting for something to rise up and corrupt it just the same as Remy seems to be facing now.
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Though the Great Tusk falters back under the brunt of the attacks from Matias’ pokemon, once it regains its footing, the oversized beast presses forward—tusks swinging to and fro as it charges the nearest target in a HEADLONG RUSH.[break][break]

As if in a warning cry, Lam’s altaria calls out, the shrill tone ramping up into a DISARMING VOICE that swells and crests in an outward wave toward the paradox pokemon’s large ears as the swablu attempts to stun it in its tracks with a spew of DRAGON BREATH.[break][break]

In a last ditch effort, Lam presses at the speaker, allowing the sounds of the fight serve as the scramble that takes over the radio channel he’d managed to scan for. Hopefully it’s enough to serve as a means to cause confusion.

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He hasn’t been back since that day Dewford came under fire. And admittedly, it’s a relief when Remy doesn’t press on the subject, eager as Lam is to forget that it ever happened.[break][break]

“More potent? I can’t imagine..” It was enough to make him shudder with pronounced drama. “I can’t imagine it was. At least now it seems to have, uh, diluted some, I guess.” Not that it really eliminates the effects it likely had on the other at the time. The Star Soiree was something he’d only heard here and there in passing–an occurrence that happened long before he’d ever turned up in Hoenn.[break][break]

Just the same as Remiel had issued consideration, Lam doesn’t ask further, either. He lets it rest– reluctant to dredge up past haunts for the other man too. A small huff of laughter carries across the comm. “Oh, yeah. Well, sort of. The mist is rebuilding Hau’oli over here.”[break][break]

At least, it looks like Hau’oli on the surface. He doesn’t necessarily trust the way it could twist and warp into something ugly.[break][break]

He hears the roar as well. It carries through the mist with reverberating force before a strong gust buffets his pidgeot back–almost like the flap of powerful, webbed wings circling.[break][break]

Lam leans against the wind, closer against Hermes’ back as he squints through the fog at what looks like a solid, uneven structure rising up like a spire. “Think I see a rocky outcrop or something, maybe it’s coming from there? Careful, though– I think that dragon is circling.”[break][break]


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The deafening bellow that rumbles through the mist sends a tremor under his skin, and all too quickly, Lam is pulled from what he’s doing to look up sharply as the Great Tusk comes into view.[break][break]
Underfoot, the earth trembles from its heavy, thundering steps as its long, curled tusks swing toward them in threat.[break][break]
“We took too long.” (Thanks, captain obvious.) Or really, he took too long, really, but he tries not to fixate on that.[break][break]
“Back up, Matias,” he directs his own pokemon as they burst from their own pokeballs. Mallow sweeps forward before the light of an activated tera orb engulfs her. Meanwhile, the much smaller swablu creates her own MIST to fan out and further obscure them, pale and icy in comparison to the bright pink of the interdream mist.[break][break]
Lam scrambles back for the equipment, trying to get it all bundled up.

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[attr="class","wiingtop3"]BI ING BI ING

[attr="class","wiingtop4"]EVEN THE REVOLVING EARTH, AS IF MOCKING ME, KEEPS TWISTING AND TURNING

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Lam spent a fair amount of his alone time in the bird house. But when he stole away these days, it wasn’t to see the pidove that roosted there. Well, for the most part. Tucked away in the desk in the corner, he’d hidden a pokeball– and it was there that he let the shiny stunky out to stretch its legs and have some socialization. “You are a gift,” he’d told it the first time he set them loose and cradled them in the crook of his cast-arm. “A really super special gift. And I want you to be a friendly one.” Unlike his own stunky, who liked to set off stink bombs for fun. Though Rook coddled even that one as much as his own.[break][break]
As far as stunky went, this one had a pretty nice disposition, and didn’t really require all that much temperament training luckily. Sweet and lazy–and obviously keen on being pampered, rather than spend its time trotting around the confines of the birdhouse, it wasted no time in draping itself over Lam’s lap to accept the idle smoothing of Lam’s hand over its fur. His own stunky’s fur was sorta coarse, but this one was plush and soft. Attention given to the brushing of its bright magenta and cream fur whenever Lam let it loose.[break][break]
“Think we can pull this off?” he asked them absently, which only earned a purr from the pokemon. Reaching into the drawer again, he fished for the ring box hidden behind a bunch of brushes and paint tubes in the back of his drawer.[break][break]
As he let the stunky droop its chin on his plaster cast arm, his fingers scratched at its belly. His other hand flipped open the snap lid of the box with his thumb so he could look at the contents. Two rings nested together, but it was the one with the inscription of Rookidee on the inner side of the band that he smoothed over with a finger, a dopily soft smile perched on his lips. Rubbing away a smudge against the white gold he thought he saw. “Maybe the matching rings are too corny,” he muttered, “maybe all of it is.”[break][break]
It was pointless fretting. And the stunky emphasized this by cracking one eye open at him, and then promptly shutting it again as it hunkered down closer for more attention. “Yeah, you’re right. He loves that sorta thing.” Lam knew that the superficial concerns weren’t the real source of his nerves. All of them borne from that night after the island.[break][break]
The what ifs about his job and his safety and Rook’s safety. The instant self-chiding that immediately followed the thought as he reminded himself that Rook had told him he didn’t need protecting. Sure, by the time he actually…did this, it would have been a few months later and it had mostly blown over and he wasn’t actively getting himself hurt, but… [break][break]
Dumb. He was being dumb.[break][break]
He shouldn’t have been worrying about whether or not Rook would say yes. He’d been given no reason to think he’d say no. Maybe that was just a natural part of the whole ordeal– he didn’t know. It wasn’t like he’d ever proposed to someone before, let alone entertain the idea that he actually wanted that finality with someone. Not before Rook anyway.[break][break]
He couldn’t even smoke to mellow those jitters, because knew as soon as he did, the secret would come tumbling out. And he felt that nervousness at a near constant rate now, always humming in the back of his mind. Ever since he’d affixed a date to it, despite having this stupid set of rings since the summertime. After Sinnoh. He just couldn’t shake the subtle feeling that he was so obvious, or that Rook would know he was up to something at least.[break][break]
There was excitement too, of course. The thrill that came with knowing what he wanted, and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life. The surety in it, and the butterflies that erupted in his stomach at the imagining of how Rook would react, and the look on his face that Lam tried to picture. None of his ideas would do the real thing justice. This right here was a symbol of what mattered most to him. That everything they’d fought about, all those responsibilities and obligations and pressures fell to the wayside next to this. Next to Rook.[break][break]
“Lam, you out there?”[break][break]
The sound of his voice made Lam startle, like his aggressive, spiraled thinking had summoned Rook right to him. His shoulders hitched, fists closing tight around the velvet box. Hopefully the sound of its hinge snapping shut was muffled enough and didn’t echo through the space to reach Rook’s ears. Okay, maybe that was a little bit paranoid.[break][break]
“Uhh, yeah!” he called back, scrambling to replace the box back in the far corner of the drawer before gingerly sliding it shut. “I’ll be right there.” He made a show of scattering some more seed for the excited pidove, who flocked to the new feeding spot. His hand smoothed over the plush fur of the stunky again.[break][break]
“Sorry, friend,” Lam cooed, scratching their ears as a low rumble came from their throat. His own voice dropped to a hush “Time to go back into hiding. I’ll come back and let you exercise some more later, okay?” The pokemon tilted their head, demanding one last pat before it disappeared back into its pokeball again.[break][break]
A plaintive noise followed the question that had been called out. A sure sign that if Lam didn’t hustle he’d be met with more whining, or Rook would finally give up and come into the room. Which normally wasn’t an issue, but the last thing he wanted was to be caught red handed. He tucked the pokeball next to the box and slid the drawer shut again once his decoy supplies filled the front space of it again.[break][break]
“Coming!” he called, hoping he’d managed to assuage his partner. Just in time, too, as he met Rook in the doorway. “I guess it’s time to go?” An astute observation delivered as he registered the sight of Rook in his coat, shoes on.[break][break]
“You think?”[break][break]
He grabbed his own off the hook, awkwardly slipping it on as one sleeve caught on his bulky cast. He definitely wasn’t gonna miss that. “Okay, let’s go get this thing off.” It was a relief, really. One less visible reminder of their argument from weeks ago, and his consequential guilt over worrying Rook.[break][break]
A surer hope that things would only go up from here. He just had to successfully keep it a secret for a little while longer, and not blow his own cover.

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[attr="class","wiingbot2"]post-rt / mid-late novemberish

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