Chapter Text
The first time that Florian noticed the color change in his hair, he (mildly) freaked out and for all the wrong reasons. Having a pretty conservative mother, he had grown up with some tight restrictions when it came to hair dye and piercings. It was hell trying to convince his mother to let him dye his jet black hair into something (anything) more fun and although it was pretty disappointing how boring the new color was, Florian felt he was finally able to tick off one of his biggest bucket list items when he first walked out of the salon with deep navy blue. Charley was happy too, getting to share her client’s excitement over colors. She was his usual stylist and up until that point, she didn’t do anything more than a cut and style. His 109th call back to his mother finally bore fruit when she had agreed to a color change so long as it was close enough to black. And it was. It was so dark that it really only looked a little blue when the sun hits right. But, it was a step forward. To have it ruined less than a week later, was certainly a bummer.
Last he checked, seafoam green was not navy blue, far from it in fact. Squinting at his reflection, his heart only skipped half a beat at the strange strands of green here and there. What the hell is that? Florian reached up, hair still wet from the shower, and tried to see if it was some weird remnant of the shampoo or what not, but it was all across his head and no, pinching and pulling down on the strands did not remove them. It was almost like he’d gotten green highlights, but instead of them being in bunches, it was on an individual strand level. Every few strands was starting to shimmer a weird minty color, some more vivid, others only starting to peak out from under the navy blue.
It’s the chlorine. They do weird things to hair dye. Florian reasoned with himself, recounting the misadventure of when Miri, his Miraidon, had ran out of fuel (he doesn’t know the exact biological terminology of whatever propels a Miraidon in the air) and plummeted into some random poor Cortondo resident’s backyard pool. The only good thing from it was that it was practically 3am (don’t ask why he was up and about instead of being back in his dorm or at least camping out) and not a soul saw him, not even the pool owners. He’d quickly crawled out of there, drenched, and rushed back to the dorms and showered; bruised pride and nothing more. Miri (he swore) rolled its digital eyes almost like accusing him of being a bad pilot to which he throws back, “You’re a living thing that has a brain of your own. You could’ve landed a little earlier.”
Which brought him here, standing in front of his mirror, trying to tug off the oddly colored strands. The dye work was probably ruined and he’d have to stop by the salon again. Maybe this time, he could get away with a even brighter hair color and just…blame it all on chlorine. Yeah, a blessing in disguise, Florian thought with a smirk. Weird seafoam color, here I come!
“I don’t know,” Penny said the next morning, clearing her own plate by feeding the last bit of scrambled eggs to her Sylveon, “I’ve never dyed my hair, maybe you should ask Mela, but I’m pretty sure any chemical alterations would come in patches, not stray strands like grey hair do.” She waits for Florian to finish his own food before getting up with him to return the plates, “But I’m sure you could just touch it back up.” She says, trying to cheer her friend up. You certainly could afford it, she doesn’t say, recounting the HEFTY look of Florian’s wallet when they’d last hung out together after class and the other had treated Nemona, Arven, and her to lunch. She doesn’t hold it against Florian either. He guy was simply never one to boast and brag about money, although his spending habits could use some financial advice.
Florian sighed, “I spent all that time trying to convince mom only to mess it up four days in,” he waves a thank you and good bye to the lunch staff, “But maybe you’re right. Let me ask Mela.”
“What? You don’t think my red hair is natural?” Mela snarls at him before Eri calms her down and gives Florian an apologetic look, “Sorry, it’s 7am and the coffee hasn’t hit yet” before turning to Mela and reminded that it was their boss who turned Florian in her direction, “Oh right,” Mela tones down and then answers after a long 2 minutes of silence between the three of them, “I’m pretty sure she’s right. Not patches though, the whole head, and if you wash it right out after a swim, it shouldn’t cause any damages either. You said you went right back to the dorms to shower?” Mela tugs at a few of the shimmering strands, “They might discolor or stain but they shouldn’t look iridescent and shine like metal or gems or…” she yanks at a few more strands, “affect it on a strand to strand level.”
“Maybe you just got off lucky? It’s probably way less expensive to touch up a few strands.” Eri offers. I’m pretty sure the salon would charge me the same price whether it’s a full job or just a few drops of dye, but Florian doesn’t say that out loud, only thanks them before heading off. He wasn’t about to let last night’s bad luck ruin the rest of today’s adventures.
Which was heading right back down into Area Zero.
The official request from Director Clavell was to please continue to stay away from Area Zero. Nobody needed much convincing to follow through on that order. It was a freaky place and they got what they needed from the place. Really, with the Professor’s AI robot gone now as well, the gang didn’t even have a reason to go back anymore. It was a somber trip back out, but even Arven looked a little better after he finally got his closure. It was a done and done deal; go play somewhere else. In fact, with so much chaos in a span of about a day and half, the group wanted nothing more than calm and peace for the rest of the semester.
Well, everyone except for Florian, but nobody needed to know that. He’d been bored, having now finished the gyms, tackled the elite four, aimed and achieved championship, fought titans, found some godly bunch of herbs to cure one of his best friend’s Pokémon, took down a gang of delinquents, beat the professor’s AI and practically saved the world, completed his dex, released some calamities into the world (Oops? Blame Raiford? At least he caught then all?) and now even beat out the strongest trainers in the school, Geeta and Nemona included, in the Academy Ace tournament. There was nothing more to do and while Florian was never a huge action chaser or adrenaline junky, ever since his life took a leap off the sanity cliff, something about all of the excitement ignited a fire deep in him and he couldn’t stop. With the treasure hunt still going on, it was all the excuse the fifteen year old needed to be as adventurous as possible.
He figured that, nobody really batted an eye when Florian kept on pulling crazy stunts, like fighting those really strong black raid crystal Pokémon (although, truthfully only he and Mr. Jacq knew about that), why would they care if he went back to Area Zero? After all, he swore up and down to himself that the Pokémon down there were 1000% more tame, manageable and way less dangerous than even the black raid Pokémon were. If he could handle those raid Pokémon, he could handle the (in comparison) much weaker Area Zero ones. All excuses, he knows, but they were good ones…right?
Nowadays, the gate remained open. After their little stunt down there, Clavell and Geeta had led a few small investigations into Area Zero, but with the professor gone, the time machine permanently shut down, and the place being an overall mess of strong Pokémon (which Florian disagrees with, but thought it sounded too cocky to say out loud), the expeditions were closed down once they got enough data for an incident report. Why they didn’t relock the gates, Florian didn’t know, but nobody really ever snuck in there anyway.
There wasn’t really any crime in Paldea. No actual mob groups, no gangs (if you excluded Team Star who were, in the end, just a bunch of misunderstood bullying victims), no illegal hunters, and generally the region was relatively peaceful. The league didn’t have to fear any poaching of the strange future Pokémon and so far (at least), nobody attempted any. Florian remembered overhearing some teens discussing the gates, back when they were still shut, as a hotspot for the local Medali kids to use as a hazing or dare spot. Other towns had “stay overnight in the haunted house” dares and Medali kids had “stand in front of the gates all night” ones, but he didn’t know if anyone actually attempted to go inside, now that it was open to the public at least.
The place just exuded this unpleasant feeling, like it was cursed and unholy. They were probably right though. There was at least one body buried somewhere down there, the original professor’s, and who knows if there wasn’t another random or ten other deaths since? And…it was spooky and unnatural. Everything about it was unnatural.
Area Zero was always like worlds away, almost like a different dimension, every time he visited. No rain or snow above, not even when it was absolutely pouring outside, touched even the highest cliffs down there. It didn’t matter if it was night or morning outside, it was always bright. It was always day. His rotom phone worked, he’d once requested a flying taxi out, although the taxi driver gave him quite the stink eye the entire flight. His watch worked. Everything still worked even if sometimes there was a weird static to conversations.
“It’s eerie,” Penny once said and even Nemona agreed. The battle obsessed champion, who had practically drooled over every single strange Pokémon they’d encountered down there, hadn’t made an attempt to come back either. That alone spoke a lot about the place.
Florian disagreed though. He thought Area Zero was beautiful. Stunning. Jawdropping. He’d live here if he could…The champion always had an eye for the Great Crater and Area Zero, even back before he’d moved to Paldea and it all started from a single pamphlet. Despite being just a tri-fold piece of paper, he felt like the region’s greatest enigma was calling for him.
“Did you pack your bag? It’s a long flight, but it’ll be a good chance to stay away from those devices you’re always on.” His mother smiled, grabbing more boxes and shoving them in front of the house where his uncle was helping stack into the truck. He was going to help his sister drive it up to the company in charge of shipping them to their new home. It was the last time Florian was going to see Uncle Jack or his cousin, Angela.
“Yeah. Promise. No more gaming and only reading for all of the next 20 hours,” Florian gave an awkward smile and, feeling just a little bad about it, Vanessa handed her son the packet she’d been reading. It was a travelers guide to Paldea and in it, she said excitingly, “you’ll even find all you need to know about Uva Academy!”
Oh yeah, his new school. Florian sighs, stepping back into the house to sit out the rest of the move (to be fair, he argues, he helped the entire morning and earned a rest too), absent mindely flipping through the guide. There was no need for the Uva section and he skipped it entirely. As soon as he heard about the move, the region, and the new school, he went right to researching. He’d be leaving all of his friends here in Sinnoh and he was not about to turn his life into a school drama movie staring an awkward teenager who had no friends but ends up as the school’s most popular kid with all the girls crushing on him. (That’s so cliché, he thinks to himself). So he read up every possible article he could find regarding the Academy.
Florian flips the page again. There was a whole page dedicated to the smaller towns of Paldea and the larger cities and towns that did have a gym leader had an entire two page spread dedicated to them. There was something about an olive roll which Florian thought was kind of dumb, *flip* some snow boarding articles next to an “Intro to Glaseado Mountain” passage, *flip* something about camping, something about sandwiches, *flip* regional Pokémon…
*flip* “Intro to the History of Paldea and The Great Crater”
Florian stopped dead in his tracks, his fingers still hovering to turn the page over, a palm under his chin, bored from all the skimming. The Crater Florian reads, his eyes falling on the photo of the mountains, Is it even a mountain range if it’s just the outer rim of a crater? He thinks to himself. I never paid attention in geography. Is that the same? I’ve never heard of craters this big though.
He finds it impossible to look away from the picture, a pristine and glossy image of “The Great Crater” staring back at him, drawing him in. He’s practically leaning into the 50 page guide, closer, closer, like the crater is calling him through the book. Closer…closer…The crater was shimmering now as if the magazine-like image was glowing. Literally glowing. Closer…
”Now don’t fall asleep on me,” Florian snaps up and rubs his eyes, they burn as if he hadn’t blinked in the last few minutes. “Uhh, sorry. It’s early?” Yeah, it was a good excuse. Good enough, at least, according to the watch he’d shoved in his bag 20 minutes ago. It was probably closer to 8am now, their flight was leaving at noon, but they were going to be doing that “arrive stupidly early” thing that mothers insists on.
“I know baby, just hop in the car. Your uncle’s almost done and promised he’d lock up for us. Go say bye, we’re heading out a few minutes early for a bit of breakfast. No way we’re eating an airport meal that’s 10x the price of a normal one.” Florian nods and ruminates over those words, Go say goodbye. Ah right. Reality hasn’t quite sunken in yet, but he’s starting to feel the tickle of it in the pit of his stomach.
He’d grown up with Angela and she was his best friend. He was pretty close to Uncle Jack too, the stand in father figure after his own fucked off somewhere. Go say goodbye, the words are ringing over and over again and he forces a smile on his face for his mother, “Yeah, okay.”
Vanessa smooths out a stray few strands of hair sticking upwards and gently reminds him, “We’ll still visit every now and then and we can always video call.” As if they were the same thing, he thinks to himself. Another nod and another, “Yeah, sure, no problem.” Both knew it was going to be rough, neither commented on it. It’ll be alright.
He hands back the guide with on last glance at the crater before leaving. What the hell was that?
So yeah, one could say Florian had been obsessed with the crater since then. He never showed it and he definitely didn’t risk expulsion by toying around with the one biggest rule of the treasure hunt, but he would be lying if he said he didn’t spent a good chunk of the initial hunt just hanging out at the base of the crater’s outer wall. Sure, he was mostly able to distract himself through most of it, keeping himself busy with helping Arven find the herba mysticas, training and battling against the gym leaders and Team Star leaders, or finding oddly colored Pokémon…
Like how mothim hang out in front of lanterns, touching the glass, but never actually getting to go inside and touch the actual light source. For the better I guess.
But then they did have an excuse to go down there and he didn’t know how, but Florian managed to shove all his excitement down, and agreed with a “that’s what friends do!” He loved his little band of idiots who probably fell somewhere on the crazy spectrum; his “will fight against literal giants” friend, his “mob boss” friend, and you can’t possibly forget the battle hungry Nemona. But at that exact moment, when Arven had requested for Florian’s help…Florian’s heart only thumped for the idea of getting to go into Area Zero. And yes, he felt like a bad friend, the kind that really only remembered about their own self-interests. This little, probably suicidal, mission should’ve been about Arven getting his closure, but Florian made it about himself. And it hurt even more when an ignorant Arven beamed back, not knowing of Florian’s real intentions.
Just think of it as helping a friend out and the exploration part being the bonus, not the other way around, he thinks to himself. Another reasonable excuse. He was always good with those.
That first lunge into the abyss was horrifying. It felt like they were falling forever and even though Miri was capable of gliding now, nobody cared until all their feet were planted solidly back on ground again. Florian almost stopped breathing when he’d finally opened his eyes, taking in the view. There was something ethereal about the place and he could feel his heart hammering at the base of his throat, threatening to pop right out.
Everywhere they looked, there were crystals, similar to when his Pokémon terrastalized. When Florian had moved to touch one of them, Arven had stopped him, saying something about “strange” and “we should be careful about everything here.” There was something tense and uneasy in his voice, and Florian nodded. Nobody mentioned that they were all now breathing in alien sparkles that were floating absolutely everywhere so touching a crystal was probably the least of their worries. And then they all nearly died, with nobody uptop (outside?) even knowing where the hell the four had gone. Now that he thought about it…there probably wouldn’t have even been bodies for the funerals if things had gone as the Paradise Protection Protocol had planned and for that, Florian did shiver a little.
But nobody was here to stop him now as he held a hand to the crystals. They were cool to the touch, even the ones that were close to the chockingly bright light that surrounded the place. It was the same when he’d, out of curiosity, had his iron moth (because of course he caught all of the strange future Pokémon by now) send out a flamethrower at one. Despite the charred rocks surrounding it, the iridescent and transparent crystal itself remained untouched and undamaged and when Florian placed a hand on it afterwards, cold still, huh?
Curious. But that wasn’t what he came for. Florian stops. What was he here for? He had continued to come back time and time again, and he couldn’t figure out why. Just like the crater had seemed to call him through the book, the same feeling pulled him in, and this time the hook dug deep. He knew, because it was time that kept bleeding out. He returned over and over and over and he still didn’t know why. It’s just…calm. That’s all. Quiet. There was no other human soul here and he could do whatever he wanted. Which I’ve never done either. He didn’t come down here to read or picnic or whatever people do when they say “It’s just a calm place to relax and not be bothered while I finish XYZ.” So what was his XYZ?
He didn’t really know. Florian simply removed his hand from the stingingly cold crystal and moved on towards the very center, the Zero Lab.
The first time Florian came back down here, after their little mission, he had gone the exact way as when he had dived in with Arven, Penny, and Nemona. Except, instead of diving from the platform, he simply flew off the highest point of the mountain ranges that the crater was surrounded by, the outer rim. His heart pounded as the clouds rushed by him, all the same, and for the 50 something times afterwards, his heart kept doing so. Even if the crater and its crystals did beckon him in, it didn’t stop the very human fear of falling to his death, although he knew and trusted Miri better than that. Biology and psychology wasn’t about to just go and listen to some crystals after all.
And then he would ride. The first time back, he rode Miri the entire way back down, despite there being teleportation rings now (because who trusts machines that tore apart you on an atomic level and then piece you back together in another place?). Most of the wild Pokémon didn’t bother him much, although after tens of dives, he knew which exact groups of Pokémon to stay the hell away from, strange future or “normal” ones alike. Running from a mean ol’ tauros once was terrifying enough, no thank you. And that was up above! Not that he’d seen one before, but who knew if there were still undiscovered future Pokémon that were future versions of an angry tauros? He didn’t want to risk it.
The last few times back though, he walked. At first with his oddly blue Sylveon by his side, his partner in action, and Miri other times, and then without. There was one time he came with nothing but Sylveon and Miri’s pokeballs on his belt, the rest of his team in his dorm. Reason? That eluded him just as much as the reason for coming down here. He doesn’t know why he did that, but hey, in the end, none of the Pokémon attacked and even if they did, Ribbons was strong enough to take the entire area with his monoblasts. He didn’t really need his full team. If he got tired? He slept on one of those weirdly clean beds. Well…he didn’t really know if they were clean, but that was besides the point. And it was only once! I only did that once! His full team was back with him now and Florian argued, to whom, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know a lot about…a lot.
Florian finds himself in the fourth station before long and he just sits, taking in the room. It was the only station that was utterly trashed and sitting here felt creepy, the creepiest of anywhere else in Area Zero. This is probably where the professor died…he shivers. Funny, how a little spook unnerved him more than any of the roaming and very much living dangers that were outside these walls. But it was a justified spook; fear and psychology taking over again, no matter how brave he’s been in these dives. Generally, he skips the last station, seeing as it was too busted to be a comfortable resting spot anyway, but today, he hops in for a quick sit.
He cleans up. He can’t do much about the giant fallen canisters and there’s dust everywhere, but there was a broom. He might as well, if he was going to keep coming back down here. No need to get mine lungs too. He stacks some books, most that were complicated chemistry or biology references, some notebooks, and some other books that he recognized from the Academy’s library. There were a few loose xerox copies of the Violet Book and he eyeballs it before shoving it on top of his growing book pile. He’d only read these pages for the 900th time since coming across them in the library.
There were odd food bits, which he doesn’t touch, sweeping the moldy pieces out the door and letting nature outside take care of those things. More notebooks and references, clothes (whose he doesn’t know) a pair of shoes, Oh shit, what if it’s the professors?, and so many notes, some sticky and some just scrap paper. Most of them formulas or reminders like a colleague’s birthday, reminders to grab a souvenir from Medali before returning home to Lianne, or odd psyduck drawings probably boredom doodles. Do scientists even have a boring moment on expeditions?
The notes, he brushes them into a pile. It’s not like there’s trash pick up down here, so in a corner they would stay. He’s about to finish up and leave, to continue down to the Zero Lab, when one more catches his eyes. It’s under the bed and he debates leaving it for next time, but decides against it. What’s one more to the pile?
“Long term exposure to tera crystals may cause xxxxx” it reads and Florian stops. Oh. He’s never considered the consequences of being exposed to the crystals over and over during the dives. After all, the Pokemon that he terastalizes seem to be fine and kicking and constantly carrying the tera orbs didn’t have any odd effect on him or any other trainers, nor was any of it noted in a book or taught at the academy.
The note had originally been in pencil, a light scribble, made only lighter over time. However smudged the first half of the sentence was though, it was already a miracle that it was still somewhat legible. Enough to get the message across to him at least.
And then, Florian almost comes to his senses. Why was he down here again? His ears are ringing and the room spins. Suddenly, the station feels like it’s trapping him and as he steps out to grab some “fresh” air (can you really call it fresh when its polluted with crystal particles?) and he wonders, is the crater trying to trap me down here too? For once, Area Zero too feels dangerous.
And yet, he feels his feet moving forward, down towards the lab, not back up. Florian doesn’t even know if he’s in control of his body anymore. His guts screams for him to GET OUT. His body is reacting otherwise and for once, he’s starting to feel a dreading and gnawing sensation in his stomach. He wonders if this was exactly how Arven, Penny, and Nemona felt.
The calm of the time machine room is enough to get his stomach to settle back down. He reaches down and pats his belt, his full team’s with him today and their presence gives him reassurance that everything’s alright. Everything was alright, he reminds himself. The professor was gone and so was the AI who, as threatening as his programming was, was a pretty all round good guy, at least for a robot. That’s what a lifetime of sci-fi movies told him anyways. It was always the AI that rebelled or turned bad and AI Turo was far from that. Almost like an inverse. There was no threat. No threat down here. Nothing’s off, nothing’s odd. But Florian can’t push the feeling of worry away anymore. Was that feeling always there? The time machine room felt a little more alien to him today.
He sits on the ground, towards the edge where the crystals met with the floor and expanded upwards and all across the ceilings. It’s where he always sits to stare off into the crystals. These ones gave off a certain type of energy that the others outside didn’t. Even when he stood still, they moved and pulsed, the colors changing despite his own viewing angle staying static. What threat is there? None. There should be no more. All of this shit that had happened was because a professor had gone a liiiittle nutty. Both he and his AI creation were gone now and that meant there would be peace in Paldea again.
But the future Pokémon were already here before the time machine. What brought them here? He recalls his conversation with Arven and frowns. His senior had a point and he had brushed it off initially, they both did, but in the absolute stillness of the room, he’s had a moment to reflect on that memory. Suddenly, once again, the room feels like its spinning and Florian’s thankful he’s already on the ground, but the nausea of vertigo hits him with full force. He can’t tell if he’s dizzy from stress or the illusion of things moving from the surging crystals in front of him. He places his backpack on the ground and fluffs it up to make it less lumpy. There’s nothing really soft in there to make for a good cushion, but he tries anyway. He’s been taking short naps down here for Arceus knows how long and the cool ground was helping. Or maybe it doesn’t. Who knows, because Florian himself was already out like a light before his head even hit his makeshift pillow of a backpack. He doesn’t even know if he actually fell asleep as intended or if he lost consciousness.
There was so much noise, he couldn’t tell what it was that woke him up. His rotom phone was ringing, ceasing only for a second in between because message notifications were interrupting the ringtone. One eye cracks open painfully slowly, and then the myriad of noises explodes in volume so Florian finally relents and opens both eyes, sitting up just as quickly as he'd opened his eyes and stared at the crystal room in confusion and then at his entire team of Pokémon, making all sorts of noise before finally calming down.
Damn my head hurts. Florian rubs his eyes and his Pokémon all stare back at him, waiting for a response. “Uh. Why are you all out?” Rello hands him his phone, the ringing and pinging bouncing off the walls, only serving to make it sound like there's more messages than there really was (he hoped). Ahhhhh fuck. Florian thanks his Pokémon and looks at the time and date first before so much as glancing at the texts, the incoming call song having stopped right that moment leaving a new banner that read "missed call 53." It was 18:09…and two days later. I slept for 49 hours?!?
Florian repeated that out loud to his Pokémon, some nodding, some unsure, although both of his future(?) Pokémon and Miri had nodded yes. He assumed they had some natural internal circadian rhythm not affected by Area Zero after having lived here for so long. How long though? How long have the paradox Pokémon actually been down here?
Florian final looks at his message board:
53 from his mother
32 messages from her as well.
12 missed calls from Penny.
10 from Arven
4 from Nemona (Wow! She sure has faith in me!)
73 from the group chat between the four of them.
And a handful of others calls and messages from a combination of Larry, Rika, and Clavell as well as his uncle and cousin.
48 hours. Minimum time needed before reporting to the police for a search party in Paldea. He bites his lower lip, chewing on it.
He bolts upward, only to crash right back down when dizziness hits him, so he gives it a go a second time with Rello’s help and Miri doing the heavy lifting with his backpack. He tries to come up with a few plausible excuses for his disappearance and finds a couple of weak ones somewhere in his fog-addled brain. As he recalls all of his Pokémon, he lets the excuses surface and bubble while pushing the worries back down again. He can’t recall why he’s here in the first place and now his biggest worry sits in the very far corner of his brain, If my Pokémon hadn’t tried to wake me up, how long would I have gone on to sleep?
His reflection shocked him so badly, he almost toppled over again and the only reason he didn’t was because he had been holding onto Miri as he walks over to a section of step rocks where he could better mount Miri. He simply didn’t have his usual strength to climb on, adding yet another item to his worry list.
Florian waves at the crystals, it waves with him. He winks, and it winks. He tugs on his hair and so does his reflection. Yep, that’s me and that’s Miri… the Pokémon stares at him, a look full of concern. Florian doesn’t turn to look at his Miraidon though, fixated only on his crystal reflection, which he doesn’t fully believe in. He doesn’t even believe in his phone camera when he uses it to check too and finally turns to Miri and asks, “Do I have more of Nexo’s color all over my head?” Miri nods and Florian groans, Definitely not chlorine. His glimmora was another oddly colored one (his whole team was) and now, his hair practically matched its petals' colors, maybe off by only a few shades. The word exposure peeks at him in his memory and then fades away again. He couldn't recall why that word popped up and at the sight of a wild Iron Jugulis, he knew he couldn't stay down here in his vulnerable state to ponder about it either.
Florian grabs at and checks his phone again, 18:21, They close in about an hour half…he muses, stepping onto the rocks and then on Miri's back who quickly propels forward as soon as the Pokémon was sure its trainer had a good grip.
The stylist only “Mmmhmmms” at him through his entire story. Florian was pretty sure Charley didn’t believe him in the slightest, but then she goes, “Yeep. Totally seen that before.” She gestures at the entire salon of empty chairs, him being the last client of the day and winks, “I remember being young and getting truh-aaashed with stolen alcohol," then a firm hand on his shoulders, “but for the sake of your poor kidneys, please consider something else until you’re a little older. Trust me, alcohol ain't that great." Oh shit, she believes me!
He’d told her that he was out and about celebrating his glimmora’s 100th battle win, seeing as the ore Pokémon was the newest addition on his team, the baby. He had celebrated each of his Pokémon’s 100th win, so it wasn’t a total lie, except that Nexo’s 100th celebration is 300 wins late, but Charley doesn’t need to know that. He’d gone on a “teenage rebellion outburst and bleached and dyed his hair to match his Pokémon and regretted it as soon as he woke up. “Mom’s gonna kill me!” he begged Charley, hoping it added to the authenticity of the story. He didn’t need it though. He already looked messed up enough, pale skin and hair tousled.
She gets started immediately, going on and on, spilling tea from whatever gossip she’d heard that day (Florian desperately hoped he wasn’t going to make it onto tomorrow’s Charley Tabloid) but then stops and frowns and Florian follows suit, “What?”
“I don’t know. What dye did you use again?” Florian panics, “I can’t remember. The box is…somewhere on a field…why?” Charley pulls at a patch over and over, and shrugs, all chipper again, “Nothing. Just thought it looked a little too professional. It’s really well done. You sure you didn’t actually get drunk and cheat on my salon and me with another stylist?” she joked. Florian puts his best grinning through a hangover look and quips back, “Are you saying drunk me is trying to get sober me to stop my Pokémon dreams and become a stylist?” They both had a good laugh and she applies some of the same colored dark navy blue dye on his head that she slathered on only a days ago, “It’s so shimmery and shiny!” Florian doesn’t reply to that line.
5,000 Pokedollars later, he walks out of the salon and lets Charley close up on her own. It was a hefty tip on his part, but it was worth it. She took him on a dead last minute call and still fixed his hair all up and as he camps out, he finally remembers his phone.
Pulling it back up, he looks at the building messages again and immediately calls back his mother first who naturally picks up right away and Florian feels a pang of guilt, Was she waiting right by the phone?
“FLORIAN!” She’s practically in tears, “Where have you been?!?” He calms her down and said that he’d spent the last few hours running all around his usual training spots trying to find the phone he’d dropped two days ago, that he only realized it was gone this morning. “No text, no calls, no nothing!” she wails like he hadn’t said a word. When he had left, he’d promised that, although he couldn’t be back every single day, he was going to call every night and every morning, with texts to supplement in between. He thought it was annoying at first, but Florian knew it was all just love from his mother. Still though, 53 calls in 48 hours was a little overkill, “You could’ve dropped a note?? At the front desk of your school? You could’ve told them to give me a call? That you lost your phone and would get back to me after you'd found it?"
Oh right. Duh…but then Florian grimmaces, I probably wouldn’t have thought of that either even if it wasn’t a lie. He could be pretty airheaded sometimes. “I’m sorry. I promise I’ll be more careful mom! I won’t drop my phone again and I’ll know to go straight back to the school so they can let you know too," he recites her words. He doesn’t say next time because he knows that would just result in another 25 minute long lecture on just those two words alone and when she finally calms down with one last scolding, they hang up on the note that she now has to call her brother to let him know he’s okay.
Florian hangs up, letting out a huge sigh of relief and checks the group chats and messages next. Similarly, the trio had been worried about him and he gives the same excuse, resulting in a surge of messages (and a meme from Penny). The ones from Larry and Rika were mostly just the group chat (that he somehow ended up in) which consisted of the elites, Geeta, and Nemona and mostly filled with memes, which was the mos surprising because none of them struck him as a meme-ish type. Nemona and Mr. Hassle, though, did posted a quick request for status here too, asking about Florian’s whereabouts because his mother was calling the school non-stop. He fires off an “alive over here” text into this chat too, blaming his “lost phone” again along with an apology.
Strawberry finishes spraying down the plates and they’re all nice and clean, ready for another sandwich making session again. Relieved, he opens his backpack for the ingredients, “Okay, whose turn is it to choose the ingredients?”
He felt calm again, but his stomach still turns. While they hadn’t fully surfaced back up just yet, he could feel the worries and the unanswered questions starting to peek out from the depths of wherever he stored them at the moment, Why did I wake up down there? How did I even end up in the time machine room?