to know the unknown

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WHO Sefton, blessddrgntamer, swatwithdragons and motherlanders.
WHAT ^P_KM_NT_RN_R Sefton needs a place to go after ecoterrorism goes way too far out of hand in Hoenn. He retreats to find his half-sibling in Blackthorn, whom he only knows about through the news and his mother's stories.
WHERE Blackthorn, in the Johto region.
WHEN Early 1994. Sefton is 11½, Lance is 20.
NOTES Continues over in the live-action pokémon musebox.

The road was beginning to give way, path widening into something more respectable and well-traveled. He was so close. So close to safety and finally finding the other half of his family. Not that his mother had ever let him down or did less than her best to raise him, but something had always been missing as he had grown up. Maybe he would find it here.

For that, Sefton was almost grateful to Teams Aqua and Magma for their insane plots that were literally destroying the Hoenn region in an effort to make it more habitable for pokémon. Who cared if all the people living there wouldn't be able to adapt or survive all the rapid changes as long as the pokémon were happy, right?

Sefton grunted disdainfully and picked up the pace. Glalie hovered behind him, matching his speed and watching his back. They were both exhausted from the journey, evading the authorities on the off-chance they would simply deport him back to Hoenn if they discovered him, not to mention fighting off all the wild Pokémon in the area that wandered too close. At least the nudge in the back of his mind usually gave them advance warning...

They were almost there. Just needed to make it toward the gym, announce his intentions to seek shelter with the clan...

"So close," he breathed.

Comments

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"Library?" Eyes widening, Sefton scooted off the chair (grabbing the book he had left there as an afterthought) and moved after Lance in anticipation. He could definitely get behind the idea of perusing a library, especially if there would be some sort of secluded corner to hide in while he read. He made a quick detour to put the book away before trailing after Lance, Glalie rising and quickly doing the same for Sefton.

[swatswithdragons]

Lance waited until he was sure they were following before setting off, holding the door open for boy and pokemon before closing it and heading down the corridor on slippered feet.

"Has anyone explained the pillar-signs to you yet?" he asked over his shoulder as he went.

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Sefton shied away from the arm holding the door open, Glalie allowing its master by before even attempting to get through the space. Sefton's own bare feet slapped quietly against the floor.

"No...?" It was a request for elaboration more than a statement, quiet curiosity permeating the tone.

[swatswithdragons]

Lance nodded and halted by a pillar on a corner intersecting two corridors, pointing at a strip of purple crystal set into one side--the side pointing down where they're just come, in fact. "The pillars have signs on them. This shade of purple points toward the wings where the living quarters are."

He pointed to another, differently coloured strip. "This points you toward the library." With a nod of his head he indicated the pillar on the opposite corner, indicating the two other corridors, so Sefton could compare. That one didn't have the library-mark on it at all. "Pillars indicate which tapestries doors are hidden behind, too--you'll find that useful for when you start your chores, since most of the washrooms are hidden like that."

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Sefton stood near the pillar, sticking to the side Lance was not on, and peered at the strips. Then he moved across to the other pillar.

"Where do these go?" he asked tentatively, turning back to Lance. Hesitant, since he wasn't sure how much Lance was willing to explain, but also curious since it seemed like such an odd system. Why not just use regular signs? Before Lance could really answer his first question, Sefton continued, "What kinda chores'm I gonna have to do?"

[swatswithdragons]

"Well ..." Lance gave a brief explanation of the 'sign-post' colour codings, using the four pillars in that intersection as an example. The coloured tiles in question were put together like a mosaic, a sign-post hiding as a decoration to indicate what could be found in each direction. In the past, the clan had been afraid of invaders and structured the estate like a warren, unwilling to leave overt labels.

"As for chores, all of them." Lance turned away down a corridor and moved off, fully expecting Sefton to follow. "You'll rotate through them so you get a good grasp of the sorts of basic jobs you'll need to do when you're older. As for what you'll start with, I imagine that will depend on who's short-handed at the time."

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Sefton was quick to trot after Lance, slowing slightly once he reached his usual distance. "When I'm older?" repeated Sefton in confusion. Then, he mentally corrected himself. It wasn't like he wouldn't spend time here when he grew up, either; he would definitely have to figure something out for visiting between both parts of his family. "Um... okay."

[swatswithdragons]

"When you're older and keeping your own home," Lance clarified, only barely glancing back over his shoulder. "Cooking, sewing, washing, pokemon-care, basic handyman skills--those sorts of things."

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Sefton nodded thoughtfully. He already knew how to cook and wash well enough (they were something of necessities on the road) and he took pokémon-care very seriously. Without being able to touch his pokémon, it fell to him to make sure they knew he cared for them in other ways, along with just the basic upkeep. Now that he had Magnemite, he was also learning of the different temperaments and routines. He wasn't sure what someone could teach him about it that he would really be able to apply.

"Okay," he repeated, sounding more sure this time. "S' not too bad..."

[swatswithdragons]

That assertion got Sefton another sidelong glance over Lance's shoulder. Well, at least the kid wasn't unwilling--a lot of trainers, even ones who knew how to cook and clean, balked at the idea of still more chores.

Then he looked ahead again. "If you're conscientious," he said as if in afterthought, "they may let you do some chores around the smithy too." The carpenters' shed had been his favourite place, but the smithy hadn't exactly been far behind. It just wasn't a place they let many of the children stay.

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Sefton didn't really have reason to refuse; any sort of activity was one where he could concentrate on things other than all of his other senses. Reading or training were the easiest distractions, but chores gave him focus, too. Lance's look merely earned a small tilt of the head from Sefton.

"Smithy?" he repeated, the word unfamiliar to him.

[swatswithdragons]

"The blacksmithy," Lance said, and repeated the word in English in case Sefton would recognise that better. "We could outsource our metallurgy or move onto plastics, but there's no point. The estate's not too big for it yet, and things built in the smithy will last longer anyway."

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"Oh," came the quiet exclamation of understanding. Sefton continued on, in a reasonable volume, to ask, "What kinda stuff d'you make there?" After all, when one thought 'blacksmith', they generally thought 'medieval weaponry', right? That was how the media depicted it, anyway.

[swatswithdragons]

"Training equipment," Lance answered, "sometimes weapons, but not always. Sometimes training armour--protective equipment sometimes needs some fine metal-work, but some of our advanced students train with weights or actual armour. Nails, pins, bindings, kitchen utensils. Handles. Baskets. Stands."

The sort of mundane things most people never even thought about, because they were just a part of an object they took for granted. It was true, though, that the estate was too small and past objects too well-made to really need the smiths' work every day. That was why they sold their work to the city at large too.

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"All that's made here?" Sefton asked with some wonder in his voice. It had never really occurred to him to think of where such things came from, and learning that there was such a place to learn about it was right nearby... well, his curiosity had been sparked, to say the least.

[swatswithdragons]

"Of course," Lance said as he turned down another corridor. "It's how they were made in the centuries past--that or carpentry. The city's residents at large have chosen not to industrialise the town too much, so there's still a call for a lot of these sorts of jobs. We've got a stone-mason on the grounds too."

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"What else's there?" While Sefton didn't want to bog Lance down with anything he didn't want to answer, still wary of overstepping any sort of invisible bounds, it seemed like Lance was willing enough to educate him.

[swatswithdragons]

"On the grounds?" Lance asked, and then went on without waiting for an answer. "The carpenters', the smithy, the stone masons', the pokemon clinic. The greenhouse and gardeners' workshop." There hadn't been a tanners' workshop on the grounds for a while now, but there was still one in the city where they got their leather.

"The potters, weavers and leathercrafters are inside the mountain, but on the ground floor and let out onto the grounds." The dragon tamers' equipment was still specialised enough that they had to have their own workshops for the last two--the weaving of the elemental cloaks were a clan secret and the leather had to be specially worked to resist the strain of battle.

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"So I could do chores 'round places like that if I'm good?" asked Sefton. If he had to do chores, after all, he would rather do the ones that sounded the most interesting - and, perhaps, the most educational.

[swatswithdragons]

"You'll have to learn to do all the things we have chores for," Lance said as they rounded the last corner to see the huge wooden (and closed) double-doors of the library in front of them, "but once you've learned the basics for the rest I can arrange for your chores to be focussed on those things, yes."

Not that they might be especially practical for the average trainer, since Blackthorn City was pre-modern even by the standards of cities who wanted to stick with their roots, but they'd be interesting.

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Those doors definitely looked important, and Sefton could only imagine what laid in wait behind them. He turned up to them in wonder, perhaps a little excited, to temper against the rest of the day so far. It hadn't exactly been an easy one.

"I'd like that," he said, just barely above a murmur.

[swatswithdragons]

Lance acknowledged the boy's words with a nod, but otherwise didn't turn and didn't see Sefton's awe. He just strode right up to the library and pushed the doors open, standing aside for Sefton to enter. The inside was almost cavernous, with high vaulted ceilings and pillars in-between the rows of shelves. Only one wall looked out onto the grounds, but it took advantage of the fact with many high windows; if it were daylight, the room wouldn't be in the least bit dark or musty. Even now, it was well-lit.

There were broad stairs to the side, leading onto a balcony-like second storey, and a long arcing counter on the other side where the archivists guarded the doorway. One of the two on duty looked up and smiled, bowing, at the sight of Lance. "My lord."

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Sefton hesitated at the doorway, clearly not enthused at the idea of going first. The hesitation was (somewhat) appeased when he caught sight of the library itself, and he carefully skirted inside, Glalie trailing behind with a lingering look to Lance as it passed.

"It's so big...!" he said. He turned every which way to take note of everything without doing an entire one-eighty and possibly overbalancing himself; it wouldn't do to accidentally bump into someone just because he was excited. He looked over immediately when the archivist spoke and seemed to shrink back just enough as if to make himself less apparent.

[swatswithdragons]

The archivist chuckled and the other grinned, though while still turned away. Apparently eavesdropping was a habit. "That it is, young sir."

"This is Sefton," Lance said, "he's going to be staying with us for a while and showed interest in the library."

"Oh, did he?" The first archivist perked up. "Well, then, if you require any aid, lad, feel free to ask any of the archivists."

"Take a good look at the uniform," Lance added, "since it's how you'll know an archivist from the other clan members." Like all the clan uniforms, the archivists' were purple and cut in a similar fashion to the clan's non-flightsuit outfits, but it was the lack of a cape and the insignias on the lapels and shoulders which indicated they were different.

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"Um..." Sefton turned to look at the archivists more closely. He didn't know what he was looking for, specifically, that would tell them apart from anybody else in the clan, but that didn't mean he couldn't take in the outfit as a whole to compare with other ranks later on. He gave a small smile once he figured he had remembered enough of what seemed like the pertinent details. "Okay. I can do that."