Pokémon Legends: Court of Kings

[Jump Einatz]

Now that the gears were back in place in Salieri's head, she felt like a dork for mistaking Zack for a noble. What she thought was high born pride and a noble's outfit was just a jerky guy wearing the same outfit as the rest of the Kalosian herd. And while she was definitely in the wrong for stealing his notebook, it was too late to apologize. No, I can't really say sorry to this guy.

"Your 'big bro' didn't give me a fight. He bored me to sleep," Sal asserted to Helena, stepping in front of Zack to take his exclusive conversation position.

"I guess it's my bad, though," she added on over her shoulder to Zack with a huff of disappointment. "You're not a blue blood after all, just a touristic conformist. I bet that chicken scratch notebook's just full of hot spots to visit and cafes to blog about."

Durendal knew Salieri wouldn't give up her position in the matter, even though it was pointless. How can you take the high ground after a failed petty theft? He stepped next to Loki and and sat down crosslegged, hoping that being next to the sleepy Abra would exclude him from being a part of this.  

[Spinne Biss]

"Sally, you need to chill out," Helena said. She nodded to Loki who would teleport suddenly, appear behind Salieri, try to grab on to her and, if successful, he would teleport her over the fountain, let her go and then teleport away.  

[Jump Einatz]

"I told you, don't call me-"

And for the second time today, Salieri disappeared midsentence and rematerialized high in the air. "-Sally DAAAAAMNIT!"

Splash! She was dunked into the drink, and rose up steaming. Her blood ran so hot the water could have evaporated off of her. Sal sloshed her way out of the fountain, ignoring the looks everyone else gave her, and marched back over to Helena and Zack.

Her chest heaved as she tried to control her breath. She looked to Dune, the epitome of collected, for his opinion. He softly shook his head. It wasn't a fight worth picking, as much as she wished it was.

"Fine. Whatever, I don't care anymore" she muttered as she took off her bandanna and wrung it dry. "I shouldn't have taken your stupid book. You're no Cyrano De Bergerac, anyway..."

Sal pinched her brow and closed her eyes. The humiliation began to subside as she recollected that even if Zack was harsh, it really was her fault. What would Moze say about it? Probably that it was important to choose your fights carefully if you wanted to win them. Don't get mad, get even, that's what he'd tell me. I can wait for that, I always have...merde, I really hate this Abra though.

"You suck," she grumbled to Loki. A short pause later and she looked up at Zack. Maybe she wasn't going to get the catharsis of toppling a noble out of him, but she would still try to get something, anything.

"You were just came from Lumiose, yeah?" she rhetorically asked Zack while wringing out her hair. Thankfully Sal's pants were waterproof, but that was the only part of her outfit that was. Her shirt and short hoodie clung tightly to her torso, and she was thankful she decided not to wear white today.

"Then tell me something. Do you know anything about the noble that fell out the window?" She wrapped her bandanna back on her head and folded her arms, looking intently into Zack's eyes. The question didn't come out as authoritative like almost everything else she said. She really wanted to know.  

[Marsuru]

Zack roared with callous laughter when Loki put Salieri in the fountain. Helena's Abra was making it clear that he had to teach Serene how to use Teleport, and soon. He had to admit that he was impressed with how resilient Salieri was proving. He didn't even mind the comment suggesting he had a blog; the less she thought of his notebook, the less likely she was to try and steal it again.

Her question threw him, however. Dropping any trace of amusement, he caught her eye contact for a second then sighed, looking away.

"I was there when it happened," he said, giving Helena an apologetic look. He would have told her later, but still felt sorry for keeping her out of the loop. She'd have wanted to know, he was sure. He frowned at Salieri. "What's it matter to you anyway?"  

[Jump Einatz]

((Zack's blog is titled "Blowing Thing Up"))

Durendal's face was still expressionless, but he perked his head up when Zack said he saw what had happened to Gabriel Leroux. A enigmatic twinkle appeared in Salieri's eye. Was it fear? Hope? It was hard to say.

"The nobles-"

She bit her tongue and looked up and away. Spouting off about how much she despised the nobility of Kalos, and how she had been training long and hard to secure her sweet revenge on them was one thing. But doing so in the wake of a noble's death would draw the wrong kind of attention to her. And she already had that kind of attention as it was.

"Let's just say I'm not a fan," she told him, looking Zack in the eyes once more with her fists balled up at her sides. She took a step forward, and said in a quieter tone, "It wasn't an accident, was it?"  

[Spinne Biss]

Helena had to admit there was humor in Loki's pranks when you weren't on the receiving end. Her second attempt to hide her smile after one of Loki's pranks left her with half of one as she looked at Salieri.

Then Zack opened his mouth and it vanished completely, and a look of concern replaced it.

"Morbid," Helena snapped at Salieri. "Are you okay?" she asked as she turned to Zack.  

[Marsuru]

((Dear Blog, today I had a blast))

"Yeah, I'm fine," Zack said. It wasn't every day that you saw someone die, but he felt strangely unaffected. The creature in black, however, had him a little troubled. He didn't like mysteries.

"No," he said to Salieri, "I don't think so. The guy got thrown out of a window by something in a white mask wearing all black. Never seen anything like it. Couldn't even tell if it was human."  

[Spinne Biss]

Helena eyed Pangoro's black fur and white face suspiciously. "It wasn't this guy, was it?"  

[Marsuru]

"No," said Zack. "That'd require it to be more than a useless, stalking lump."

Pangoro let out a yawn that sounded a bit like a complaint, but quietened down. He had found a nice patch of grass to seat himself, and was sat in a slump. Every now and then, passing Rookies eyed him fearfully and sped up their pace.  

[Jump Einatz]

A white mask...wearing all black... Salieri never heard of anything like that before. Zack's doubts about the being's humanity only raised more questions.

She took a quick look at the Pangoro and decided it was either disobedient or didn't belong to the siblings. Maybe both. But it was just an afterthought. The mystery of the murderer's identity was at the forefront of her mind.

Sal rubbed her chin, electing to ignore Helena calling her morbid. Even Sal couldn't deny that she was indeed a morbid person. As much as she hated the nobles, they didn't bring about feelings of murder in her. Thinking about it made the subtle scar running across her nose tingle. There was one more question she had to ask, though.

"You didn't see a Whimsicott there, did you?"  

[Marsuru]

"Should I have?" Zack folded his arms, growing a little agitated. Salieri was asking him more questions than the police did. "I don't think I've seen one of those since getting here. They kinda fell out of style in Unova after that one kid got eaten."  

[Spinne Biss]

There was definitely a heavy mood that followed Salieri's questions. Helena pursed her lips in a pout as the girl kept on about the murder. It wasn't going to help her mood any, and it was unlikely that Zack felt much better about it with all the questions. Though she'd get depressed and he'd probably just get angry.

"So hey," Helena said as she stepped over to her brother. "Leaving Morbid Miss Sally behind, why did you have me come all the way out here?"  

[Jump Einatz]

A spark of relief crossed Sal's face when Zack confirmed there was no Whimsicott. "Okay, okay." Clearly she wouldn't get much else out of him.

At the third mention of "Sally", Sal grabbed Helena's shoulder and spun her back. "I swear, 'Helly', one more time and I-"

And then a very random, surprisingly generous thought crossed her mind. Something that could potentially be fun. And if she played her cards right, rewarding. She lowered her hand off of Helena, and switched from angry to smirking.

"If you stop calling that, I'll give you something good."  

[Spinne Biss]

Helena squeaked when she was turned to face Salieri. She expected the girl to be angry and shout more, so the sudden generosity caught her off guard and her face showed as much.

"Okay, but I'm not calling you Sal," she said.  

[Marsuru]

"Yeah, her name's One Shot, we've been over this," Zack said, throwing Salieri a teasing smirk.