Once Mister MegaTen had completely vanished into the Master Ball and the capture jingle had finished playing. Luka permitted himself a brief moment of giddiness. He had dreamed of becoming a real life Pokémon Trainer ever since he was ten years old! It was one of the few wishes his family's vast fortune could not grant for him. After all, how could money buy something if that something did not exist? But now he had the power to reach further than he could have ever hoped to one day prior. And seize things even he believed he would never truly grasp.
Once he had calmed down, Luka decided to check on his Starter Pokémon right away. He looked down at the Master Ball and closed his eyes. With a flex of his willpower, Luka projected his mind into the pocket dimension contained within the Master Ball, hovering over the trees as a disembodied presence. After taking a moment to enjoy the view, he willed the current location of Mister MegaTen into his mind and went there. Once he spotted the Jersey Devil, Luka willed a moonbeam to shine down onto a nearby spot to get Jehoshaphat's attention and then willed himself to gradually become visible in the moonlight.
"Hey there. I figured I'd quickly check in right away to make sure you have a good first impression of the place." Luka said. "How are you enjoying it here so far? Is everything to your liking? If there is anything I can do to make the place feel homier, you need only ask me and I will make it so."
"Hey there. I figured I'd quickly check in right away to make sure you have a good first impression of the place." Luka said. "How are you enjoying it here so far? Is everything to your liking? If there is anything I can do to make the place feel homier, you need only ask me and I will make it so."
"Oh! Good evening!" Jehoshaphat had ducked behind a nearby tree as Luka's image materialized, but now he poked his head out to look at his host. "I, uh. Didn't expect you so soon. I do appreciate your concern, but my needs really are very simple. It's not the barrens, but it will do nicely until I can return home." His large, black eyes blinked slowly. Moonlight glinted off the many sharp, pointed teeth that his mongrel snout was too small to contain.
Luka snapped his fingers and movement could be heard off in the distance as deer manifested within the pocket dimension. "The larder should be adequately stocked now." Luka declared. "If that's all you need for now, I shall leave you to settle in." A moment's flex of will power later, Luka was back in the limo. Attaching the Master Ball to his belt, Luka willed the limo's interior to return to its original proportions, stepped out of the car, and made his way up to his penthouse.
Tie Scene concluded. Luka develops his Tie with Jehoshaphat Leeds,
1 "Mister MegaTen is a unique and interesting new pet." 1
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2 "Because of Mister MegaTen, I can now live out my fantasy of being a Pokémon Trainer." 2
After a good while of having to take a moment to calm down, breathe, and collect herself from...this entire incident, Emily finally was ready to face the world again. At least now she had this cool ability, her Eidolon, but...with it came the responsibility of upholding her end of that deal with Santana. Her mind turned on who he could possibly be, but in the meantime, there were two other matters on her mind.
First was the phone and wallet. When she looked towards the dumpsters, she noticed that Ashley had already gone to collect them. She'll have to leave those two items to her.
There was another matter to attend to: The Crow. She can speak with him! Now might be a good time to speak with him. Upon finding the Crow, she speaks to him, "May I speak with you for a moment?"
Should the Crow agree to speak with her, she'll begin the conversation, "I realize that you might not remember, and you probably just wanted food at the time, but...I wanted to take a moment to thank you,"
The Crow had been deep in thought when Emily approached him. Well, maybe 'deep' wasn't the correct term. Animals, even intelligent ones, didn't typically ponder on things the same way a human might. They live in the moment rather than ruminating on past events or planning far into the future, and while the Crow had gained a boost in sapience, he was still getting a grasp on how to probably use it. In fact, it was only now, after he and his companions were out of immediate danger, that he was able to properly process the changes that had happened within him.
It hadn't struck him as odd when he found himself able to fully comprehend human speech, nor when the humans had been able to understand him. In fact, it had felt perfectly natural, like he had been conversing like that his whole life. Now that the dust settled, he was starting to realise what a monumental change this was. He was in the process of trying figure out what opportunities this power of communication opened up when Emily asked to speak with him. "Huh? Oh yes! Go ahead," he said. He, of course, did remember her from before today, when she had offered him food. She wasn't the only human to do so, obviously, but the number humans who willingly gave things to the Crow were much smaller than those who he had, ahem, 'liberated' of their belongings, so much so that he could clearly remember each instant quite vividly. Again, it wasn't something he thought about often, but were he to see one of the people, he would instantly and vividly be able to recall them.
He'd remembered Emily almost instantly when he'd seen her in Santana's bar, and while the situation had been overall strange, her presence had been oddly reassuring in a way that the other familiar face, Luka, had not.
He tilted his head to the side. "Thank me? For what exactly?" he said, wondering if all these new thoughts had knocked a memory loose from his head. People didn't normally thank him for taking things from them, even when they were willing to part with it.
Emily had somewhat expected the Crow to ask why she was thanking him. She took in a deep breath through her nose, readying herself emotionally, before she began answering him, "For...being there at that time," Knowing that that succinct answer would probably confuse him, she elaborated, "...When we first met, long before this near-death event, I...was not okay. I went through...quite a betrayal," She easily remembered how much that event hurt her, and how she had been ugly crying when the Crow showed up.
She continues, trying to not tear up at the memory and keep her emotions in check, "...I thought I was completely and utterly alone, but then you showed up. Even after I gave you food, you stuck around for a while, and didn't seem to want or ask for anything else. At that time...you were more of a friend than anyone else I knew,"
She finishes, "So, thank you, for being a friend then,"
Yeah, Emily's explanation didn't do much to abate the Crow's confusion. If anything, it made him feel even more like he was missing something.
Strange. His mind was buzzing with all these thoughts and feelings, this new layer of information he had never had access to before... and yet it all made him feel like he understood everything far less.
It was a less than pleasant feeling, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do about it. Still, he had enough awareness in that moment to realise said unpleasant feeling was not Emily's fault. Apparently, when they had first met, she had been feeling a very different, yet much stronger unpleasant feeling, and his presence, despite the fact he had been unable to comprehend what she was going through at time (and still wasn't sure if he understood it now), had made it... better? At least a little?
Okay. He could comprehend that much, at least. Now he just needed to figure out an appropriate way to respond.
"You're... welcome?" the Crow said.
Yup. Nailed it.
... Okay, maybe he needed a little more than that.
"The Crow is always happy to lend assistance... even when he has no idea what he is giving assistance with!" he added, before a thought occurred to him. "Why, err, were you so distressed, may I ask? What is this 'betrayal' you speak of?"
Emily immediately noticed that the Crow didn't understand her answer from how he answered her. When he asked about why she was distressed, Emily bit her bottom lip as she thought carefully and started, "Hmmm...How do I put it...?" It would be clear to Crow that Emily is trying to figure out a way to answer his question without confusing him like she did before.
She then remembered that he stole the phone and wallet from the Agent earlier, and upon realizing that, she mutters, "Oh yeah!"
Plagiarism is theft after all!
She starts her answer with a question to the Crow, "You know how you took the phone and wallet from the agent back there?"
After giving him a moment to answer, she continues, "That sort of thing happened to me that day. Someone I trusted stole something important from me. Under normal circumstances, physical objects like the phone and wallet can be returned and the matter easily resolved. However, what was stolen from me wasn't a physical object, per se. It was something I took a lot of time on and worked hard to create. I was proud of that creation. That person didn't just steal it though. They claimed my creation as their own and made sure that people thought of me as the thief,"
Emily's voice cracked a bit as she said the word 'thief'. She fought hard to keep back her own tears and emotions as she explained the situation, hoping to help ensure that the Crow understood her conundrum. She was glad to say that the tears that pricked at her eyes didn't appear on her face.
The Crow nodded along as Emily spoke, doing his best to understand to her conundrum... though admittedly, it was difficult. From his knowledge about humans, they were very serious about the whole concept of 'personal property'. If he took something from another animal, they would give chase and try to get it back, but once he was far enough away with his prize, there was nothing they could really do about it and would usually accept it. Crows were a little more tenacious, but even they sometime had to admit when something was a lost cause. Humans weren't like that. They were attached to their things, so much so they had all these rules about what belonged to who, and would go through great lengths to get their things back or at least get some sort of compensation.
The Crow supposed there was something admirable about that, though he got the sense that Emily might not be in the position to do much within the boundaries of human law.
So he suggested an alternative.
"Well, when people wrong me, I don't sit in distress," he said. "I'm angry, yes, but I use that anger. If someone has wronged you, you should do something to, how do you say, 'get even' with them." He nodded sagely. "Sometimes I tell other crows about it, and then we all band together to harass them." He gave another, more affirmative nod. "So who is this person? Me and the boys will go find them and show them what's what."
When Luka made it back to his penthouse, he found only Montague waiting there for him. Jesse had to depart after receiving a call about some sort of fixer business that urgently required their attention. Before leaving though, Jesse had bade Montague make it abundantly clear to Luka that they would be speaking of what had happened at the diner when next they met. With that in mind, Luka immediately took a seat at his penthouse's dining room table and willed a pizza into existence. After all the excitement that he'd come from, Luka had worked up something of an appetite. An appetite much larger than Luka had expected, apparently. As by the time he had finished the pizza, his hunger had not abated. And so Luka willed a second pizza into being.
"Young master?" A voice spoke up then in confusion and concern.
Luka looked to see Montague watching him, obviously uneasy at the sight of Luka devouring a large pizza and then moving on to another. "The night's events have left me rather peckish." Luka explained. "...Ravenously so, it seems. Probably just a side effect of my newfound powers. Nothing you need worry yourself about, Montague."
"If I may ask, young master, what are these newfound powers of yours?" Montague asked as Luka took a bite of pizza.
"Whatever I want them to be." Luka declared after taking a moment to properly chew and swallow the chunk of pizza in his mouth. "I am now able to impose my wants upon reality. I need only will something be so and it will be so."
"Imposing your... wants." Montague repeated.
"Indeed." Luka confirmed. "Anything I desire is now little more than a thought away... You need not fear for your job security though. My power only has a reach of 15 feet, so I'll still be needing you for fetching things beyond my reach." With that said, Luka returned his focus to his pizza. A pizza that left him no closer to feeling full after finishing it than the first pizza did.
And so Luka conjured up a third pizza. Then a fourth. Then a fifth. Then a sixth. But no matter how much he ate, Luka felt no less hungry. Luka moved to manifest a seventh pizza then, but Montague beat him to the punch, placing a pizza he had been preparing in the background for the past five pizzas.
"Montague?" Luka asked in confusion at why the butler would bother doing this.
"I have a theory." Was Montague's simple reply.
Seeing no harm in humoring the help, Luka took up a slice and took a bite. It was the most delicious morsel Luka had tasted all month. Now don't get me wrong, the pizzas Luka had summoned were tasty too. But Montague's pizza blew them all out of the water in terms of taste. And on top of that, Luka found that his hunger was satisfied by the time he had finished his food.
Luka looked to Montague then. His face a silent request for an explanation.
"You said your powers let you impose your wants upon reality, yes?" The butler answered the unspoken question.
"...Oh of course these kinds of shenanigans would throw this in somewhere." Luka said, quickly catching on to the implication. "My powers allow me to bend reality however I want... Only however I want. It will never give me what I need."
"Just so, young master." Montague agreed.
Luka looked up at his butler and smiled. "Well, Montague... you didn't need to worry about losing your job before. But now you can be certain."
Montague smiled back at his charge. "My certainty didn't falter for even a moment to begin with, young master."
Luka has a Tie Scene with Montague and develops his Tie.
1 "Montague is my most loyal servant." 1
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2 "Montague is as wise as he is loyal." 2
The next morning, Luka started his day with a Limo ride. Bound for the venue selected to host day three of this Twelve Days of Christmas Parties, Luka whiled away the drive by willing a fawning entourage into existence to occupy the empty seats of the passenger compartment. As a multitude of faceless men toasted his name and a throng of fawning faceless females worshipfully waited on him hand and foot, Luka thought back to what Montague had told him before.
Luka's powers let him manifest anything he wanted, but nothing that he needed. In this particular instance, Luka had wanted people praising his name. And he had gotten precisely that. But between the empty platitudes and hollow affections he had heard and received a thousand times before, and the fact that none of the people he summoned had a face, Luka concluded that what he truly needed was the esteem and praise of those he had not willed into existence.
Unsummoning the faceless fawners with a thought, Luka looked out a window as he slipped into deep contemplation. He had received a text from Jesse earlier, informing him that they were at the party and wanted to speak with him alone when he got there. Already knowing what it was that the fixer wanted to talk about, Luka had sent a simple reply of "Understandable. See you soon." back to them. No doubt Jesse still wanted answers regarding what had gone down on the tail end of the Boxing Day afterparty. Luka wasn't entirely sure how he would approach the conversation. But then again, Luka was rarely entirely sure about his approach to anything. The Indy Ploy was the greatest thing ever, after all. Making it up as he went along was always a lot more fun than planning things out ahead of time.
Luka was pulled from his thinking by a familiar sight beyond his window. Walking along the street was none other than one of the girls who was roped into this situation along with him. Ashley Whitlock... Or perhaps not Whitlock. She didn't take her surname being recognized all that well. Luka recalled her saying something about wanting her surname changed to Herrera but being unable to for some reason. Luka wondered if that might be something he could help with. After what he had tried to pull during the standoff at the diner, Luka figured he should probably extend some kind of olive branch. "Montague? Pull over in front of that girl there." Luka ordered.
"At once, young master." The butler dutifully complied with the request.
As the limo came to a stop, Luka rolled down the window and leaned out as Ashley drew near. "Miss Herrera." Luka said to Ashley in friendly greeting. "Running into you again so soon is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. I'm on my way to meet an acquaintance of mine. One who might be able to help you with your name changing difficulties. If you're free to tag along at the moment, I could introduce you if you like."
The orange haired teen looked at the limo with what she sees as reasonable suspicion for a brief moment she considered the logistics of throwing her books on her and running away.
No the library fees would be too expensive and she needed to be able to get back there.
"How much of this is planned? How much of this is a whim?" she asked before the man as her eyes narrow.
"Changing names is a long process even without my father intervening, he sure made it look easy though." she told Luka before adding.
"So I don't think you have an acquaintance that could pull it off, this isn't a thing you could throw money at."
"How much of this is planned? How much of this is a whim?" Ashley asked with narrowed eyes.
"Planning is for the weak." Luka declared.
"Changing names is a long process even without my father intervening, he sure made it look easy though." Ashley said. "So I don't think you have an acquaintance that could pull it off, this isn't a thing you could throw money at."
"Don't count Jesse out until you've met them." Luka replied. "You'd be surprised by what they are capable of... You'd be surprised by a lot of things regarding them. Keeping people guessing is a hobby of theirs."