"Well if it isn't the wandering merchant, Volo. Shirking your work to come pester me again? Even beneath a bleeding sky, you never change."
"Always a pleasure, Mistress Cogita. But I'm afraid I'm not here today to learn more of Hisui's myths and legends."
"No 'mistress,' thank you. Just Cogita. And this is?" the woman in black mused, sipping a cup of tea.
"Why, Alia is the lady of the hour. She's the one who quelled the frenzy of all the Pokémon nobles, believe it or not." Alia smiled at the older woman as Volo's togepi flapped its arms; she gently nuzzled the egg Pokémon.
"Ah, the poor wretch you spoke of. Lost in time and space. Dear me, lost one... It seems I'll be able to fulfil my duty at long last, thanks to you." Alia wasn't sure what she meant by this, but listened intently. This woman, Cogita, seemed to know a lot more about her predicament then Alia herself. Maybe she would know how to fix everything. "I am to guide you, lost one. For the task of preventing great disaster falls to you. The rift in space-time must be mended, lest time and space themselves be thrown out of balance. Come, you may enter my dear hideaway. There's much to be told."
Cogita elaborated on the space-tine rift, and how Alia ought to go about reparing it. According to her, there were lake guardians she needed to consult to create something that would allow her to "bind the world together." She had to seek out the guardians of Lake Verity, Valor, and Acuity to construct this fabled item, something she called the "red chain." It was a lot to take in at once. Alia felt nervous knowing the fate of the region seemed to rest on her shoulders. Part of her concluded that even if it wasn't entirely her doing and she simply fell through a hole in the rift, she would at least do what she could to make things better. She owed the people who took her in at Jubilife Village that much.
Alia sat outside the hideaway, her train of thought haulted by a soft tone of voice.
"Is everything alright, dear?" Alia blushed softly as she turned to see the merchant, standing by. "Cogita has a nice workbench too! If you need any materials, I'm always happy to help." Volo sat adjacent to her on her level. The difference in their heights seemed to disappear as both sat up, looking to the reddened sky above.
"Thank you very much--it's kind of y'all to want to help, even when others are not so keen on strangers like me being around. I wouldn't blame them since it's better to be safe than sorry, but--" Alia paused. "Sometimes I wonder why people who haven't done anything wrong get the shorter end of the stick." Volo's eyes widened with interest at this. "Like how bad things happen to good people or people who have their heart in the right place... or vice versa."
Volo gently wrapped his left arm around Alia's back, masagging it in an effort to comfort her. He truly empathised with what she was getting at, it seemed. "I want to have faith and believe, but when bad things happen to good people or good things happen to bad people, it feels like there isn't much to have faith in, y'know?" Alia stared at the bleeding sky, then snapped back to reality. "Sorry if that came out of nowhere. I tend to think about these kinds of things a lot. As a researcher from my own time, I've always invested in questions surrounding the human condition--what makes us who we are? Where are we going? How will we get there? That kind of stuff."
The blond man pulled Alia into a warm embrace. "You're quite the intricate thinker, dear Alia. Those are some of life's biggest questions--questions nobody has an easy answer for." Alia felt she was just rambling away; it came as a delightful surprise that she wasn't the only one who wrestled with those kinds of questions.
"Sometimes, it doesn't seem fair." Alia thought of how she was expelled from the Village once she had quelled all of the Nobles in the land. She only did what she was told and truly had her heart in the right place in doing so, she thought. She only did it because the leaders of the Diamond and Pearl Clans were worried about their Nobles, and the safety of those living nearby. She wouldn't intentionally do something to cause harm to anyone, yet she was "punished" as if she had... Alia crawled into Volo's lap to reciprocate his hugs. After feeling so lost physically and emotionally, she felt safe and found.
The two remained huddled together outside the Ancient Retreat. Alia looked up at Volo, snickering, "that hat is silly!"
"Oh really?" A smile spread across his face.
"Yes! It's like a baseball cap, but it's fluffy!"
"A baseball--?" Alia forgot that baseball wasn't something around these parts. It was an Unovan staple from back home along with basketball, football, and tennis. She used to watch some of these sports in Nimbasa City wity the bois on weekends since weekends were for the bois.
"Baseball is a type of sport from my time. The games are long and there are different bases. To win, you have to make it to home base and run through the first, second, and third, bases." Alia giggled at the thought of what she said.
"What's so funny?" Through her contagious grin Alia added,
"Baseball is also an elaborate euphemism for doing the dirty."
"Oho, is that so?" Volo smiled back at her.
"Yes! So there's first base which is kissing, there's second base, which is touching breasts, then there's third base which is fingering, and lastly home base: intercourse."
"How interesting!"
"Then there's pitching and catching." Alia continued on enthusiatically. "A pitcher is the player who throws the ball out, while the catcher is the one who needs to receive it."
"I see! Would you mind demonstrating this game for me?" Volo inquired respectfully still supporting the other in his arms.
"Well, we'd need a bat and a glove... and a whole team to pla--ooooh! Oh! Oh! Oh! You mean the other kinda 'baseball.' Well, sure! I can show you how to play," Alia giggled, snatching his fluffy Gingko Guild baseball cap clean off his golden silky scalp. "...cheeky boy."
Bind the world together? That's doable.
