RIGHT NOW I'M LOOKING AT YOU AND I CAN'T BELIEVE

[sculpted]

Who: Alex Armstrong (sculpted) and Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi (enjoymyatelier)
Where: Goldenrod City
When: Pretty much now!
Summary: Kayneth is heartbroken. Armstrong decides to help. Hilarity ensues.
Rating: M FOR MASCULINE (also like PG-13 at the worst)
Log:


Major Alex Louis Armstrong had a plan.

His dear friend, Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi, had recently suffered a terrible loss, and it broke Armstrong's heart to think of him suffering! So he had decided to pay him a visit and have a good old man-to-man chat about things.

Armstrong didn't have a tendency to drink too much, but he'd purchased quite a nice bottle of wine with the money remaining from his defeat of Whitney, and was more than ready to spend the night consoling poor Lord Archibald about the disappearence of his fiancee!

However, he hadn't called ahead to tell him he was coming.

...

Well, surely that wouldn't be an issue!

Comments

[enjoymyatelier]

...thankfully for everyone involved, Kayneth was not injured and, after some deliberation, proceeded to open the door. This didn't mean he looked good, exactly-he looked somewhat tired and was still sporting some of the, er, facial additions that the mutations had left him with, but he was... functioning. Yes.

"Well, what is it, then?"

[sculpted]

Armstrong visibly flinched as Kayneth came into view. Good lord, it was worse than he thought!

"M-Mr Archibald....how are you?!"

Barreling his way into the room without waiting for an answer, Armstrong promptly placed his bottle of wine on the nearest table and approached his friend once again, extruding good will and helpfulness!

"I have brought you a gift of vintage wine from Hoenn, and I see my arrival was justly required and not a moment too soon! Please, do sit down, and I will pour you a glass!"

Because if words couldn't help the poor fellow, maybe a strong glass of red would.

[enjoymyatelier]

"I'm perfectly-"

...oh. That was a fairly nice surprise, given that Kayneth could certainly use a stiff drink and, well, the quality sounded as though it was something out of his price range-an odd consideration to take in mind, given how he'd taken luxury for granted back home.

"...fine with that idea," he said, reworking his initial protest and proceeding to do as he was asked.

[sculpted]

With an extra-dazzling look in his eyes, Armstrong produced two glasses from his jacket (which was quite a feat, considering how small it was on him!) and filled them both with pure flair, a trait passed down in his family fo-

....well, you understand.

"I must admit, Kayneth, that I'm a little concerned about you."

Now that they were alone, Armstrong decided to be bold and use Mr Archibald's first name! Surely they were on first name terms by now?

"Was there anything you wanted to talk about regarding what happened recently?"

And he gently handed over one of the glasses, taking care not to spill a drop. It simply wouldn't do to ruin Kayneth's drawing, after all.

[enjoymyatelier]

...Since when were they on first-name basis? Well, it wasn't like Armstrong was beneath him, so it wasn't anything he was personally offended by.

...really, though, this wasn't anything he wanted to discuss.

"I'm perfectly fine," he said, as he took the glass of wine and began to sip from it. "I've simply been suffering the aftereffects of whatever these... mutations are. That particular disappearance just happened to have very poor timing."

...he was trying to keep a stiff upper lip. He was trying very hard to do that.

[sculpted]

....Armstrong could notice Kayneth struggling to keep himself composed. A man as free with his emotions as him became, over time, very sensitive to those of the people around him. He swirled the wine around in his glass, but did not drink from it as of yet.

"I just want you to know that I understand what you're going through, although maybe not to quite the same level."

After all, he hadn't been engaged to Hughes. He hadn't loved Hughes. At least, not in the way Kayneth obviously loved his fiancee. But at the same time, the loss still dug at his heart, occasionally bringing him to tears if his mood was already low enough.

"It's....well, it's one of the worst things about befriending people here, or meeting those you know from home. At any second, they could be taken from you, with no explanation or warning, and you're left with nothing but the memories."

Sighing, Armstrong allowed himself a small sip of wine. It tasted good, at least. He'd chosen well.

"You shouldn't be afraid to express your grief, especially if it's starting to bottle up. If you do that, you'll never be able to get over the loss."

[enjoymyatelier]

He didn't want to talk about this. He had been doing... well, he hadn't been doing fine, but he'd been dealing with it, and he was almost to the point where he didn't have to deal with it-and he couldn't stand the way people talked about it.

"Would you all stop talking about this sort of thing as though people who leave are dead?" he said, more snappishly than he probably intended. "It's not even remotely like that."

[sculpted]

Kayneth's words made Armstrong think back to when he had that conversation with Hughes regarding his nightmares. Where the man dreamed that back home, he....well, was dead. It made Armstrong shudder slightly, but he was quick to regain his composure.

"No no, of course not; that's not what I was trying to imply. It's more the fact that they're...gone. It's not death, no, but it's still painful for those of us left behind."

Swirling his wine again, Armstrong watched the way the liquid slid up and down the sides of the glass, as if the answer to his question was immersed somewhere within in.

"I just want you to know that you have people who do care about your well-being, that's all."

[enjoymyatelier]

Kayneth took another good, long sip of wine-he knew he probably wouldn't have reacted as strongly if he hadn't had a conversation along those lines a while ago. He really just needed to get a handle on himself, here...

"...Yes. I'm aware," he said, somewhat sulkily. "People just have a tendency to be overly grim about it, that's all."

...it was really difficult to figure out how to respond to that last bit, because it wasn't the sort of thing he heard often. He didn't feel shocked by it or anything like that, it was just... strange. That wasn't exactly a thing mages said. So, in lieu of replying, he just stared contemplatively at his wine glass, because that seemed to be fairly popular during this conversation.

[sculpted]

The silence reigned for a little while, with Armstrong taking small sips of wine as he tried to get his thoughts together. This sort of topic was one that was very unique to this world; he'd had conversations about death before, but nothing about this...sort of dimensional limbo. Death was final, ultimate, irreversible, but the way Johto worked ensured you were left with a small amount of hope that your beloved person could return to you, because technically, they could.

Rather cruel, really.

"I know, and I understand that. If you no longer wish to discuss it, we don't have to. I believe I have said what I wanted to say, anyway."

Draining his glass, Armstrong placed it gently back down on the table and smiled.

"I have been thinking, Mr Archibald, and I believe it is high time that the two of us got out of Goldenrod City. There's a whole world out there that we haven't explored; more cities, the ocean, mountains and lakes...I think we should have ourselves a bit of an adventure. What do you think?"

[enjoymyatelier]

"I believe my feelings on that are clear," said Kayneth, taking another swig of wine. He didn't have to be told that it was cruel, especially given the timing... god, he didn't want to think about the ramifications behind what had happened, but he couldn't ignore them, either. Nevertheless, he wasn't about to talk about them because nobody had to know.

...at least now Armstrong was talking about things that sounded interesting.

"Yes, I quite agree with you. I've been meaning to continue collecting Gym Badges, and there are plenty of things I want to investigate about this world. I'm quite sure that will be difficult to do if I stay in Goldenrod, but I'd really rather not travel alone."

Given that Armstrong seemed to be offering, that wasn't going to be a problem. Honestly, he really wasn't the worst person he could travel with, either-at the very least, he probably knew how to set up a tent.