a liar

Barry felt a wave of melancholy wash over him as Marie Ayers began to recount her pressure-filled upbringing and present circumstances. It was admittedly very hard for the blond to stay quiet as the Ace Trainer spiraled deeper into her own sad mindset, his fists clenching at his sides. Couldn’t Marie see that she was in the quarterfinals of a premier tournament? Didn’t Marie also bear witness to the showcase she had put on her previous opponent? No–she was too busy measuring herself to the impossible heights of her brothers. The Twinleaf native’s mind flashed back to him hopelessly staring up at his own father’s Battle Tower…deep down, he definitely knew the feeling, that desperate desire for recognition.

Marie’s tears fell to earth, and Barry decided that enough was enough. Without hesitation, he put his hands on her shaking shoulders and squeezed gently.

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     She didn’t pay attention to Barry as she recounted her tale. She couldn’t bring herself to pay attention, considering her walls as a liar were falling, and she just didn’t care. Sure, it’s a miracle that’s she’s opening up about her past and herself, but that was only because of what happened beforehand. Would she have opened up otherwise? Probably not. Ah, she’s still lying to herself, even with her walls falling and her whole world falling in on itself in a sense. She can’t let go of that, even when she’s so weak and pitiful. Then again, it’s just a part of who she is and it’s something that she’s probably never going to be able to let go of, even if she’s able to change.

     Her self-loathing thoughts are mercifully cut off once Barry places his hands on her shaking shoulders and squeezes gently. Everything in her body is telling her to shake him off and just run away but she can’t bring herself to do so.

Well, that escalated quickly.

Barry watched with a dropped jaw from the battlefield sidelines as Marie effortlessly _destroyed _her opponent, launching speedy attacks that left his head spinning. Where had she learned such skills? The blond could sense a certain _angry fervor _behind each of her successful blows–something more personal was on the line, obviously.

He’d only caught a bit of the battlers’ pregame banter, but Marie seemed teed off about something that was said: she held herself sternly upright as she dismantled the Kalosian challenger, a ruthless glint in her usually complacent eyes. Barry shivered slightly as the Ace Trainer told the hapless opponent off, the sheer confidence in her voice clashing with the image of insecurity that she had put forth just moments before the duel. It was as if a different side of Marie had been unleashed, and the massacre was mercifully over in minutes. As the Kalosian skulked away, the results came in over the PA: all victors were now in the tournament’s quarterfinal round.

What just happened?

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     Well that’s...not was she expected.

     Barry grabbing her by the shoulders takes her by surprise and she half pays attention to this words, half wanting to push him away from the sudden contact. Still, he is right. If she was that serious in all her battles, she’d win easily. Then again, she’s confident in her abilities of course, but she rarely gets well, as serious as she did then. Though most of that was her channeling her anger at the Kalosian challenger, but he got the message it seemed.

     Once Barry had let go of her, she couldn’t help but feel...guilty? She wasn’t sure what she was feeling, but she didn’t like the look of concern the other was giving her. True, she had acted quite differently, since most of what she had been fueled with during the battle was anger, so maybe that was why? Marie wasn’t one to really change much from her usual stoic self, but whenever her family was brought up, she couldn’t help but get effected by it. Most of the time she just shut down whenever it was brought up, going quite and just wanting to get out of there but this was different. She wasn’t going to let him get away with thinking she was an easy opponent. It had worked obviously though.

The starting horn fired off its blaring drone from above the playing field, signifying the start of the next round. Trainers scattered to find their spots on the various basic battle areas strewn about, but Barry’s attention was focused on Marie. She had started telling him her strategy, but the blond could tell that her focus was elsewhere. The Ace didn’t even react to the whistle’s whine, for Arceus’s sake!

“Earth to Marie! Are you zoning out again?” Barry prodded, snapping a finger to get his companion’s attention. “C’mon, you gotta get In The Zone if you wanna beat this next guy! Every opponent deserves your concentration!”

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     Of course her attention was elsewhere. Anytime Kalos was brought up she just kind of...froze basically. She’d spent so long trying to avoid it and well...depending on how things went here she probably wouldn’t be able to avoid it. Her family was so well known, that anyone from their would probably recognize her easily. She didn’t even hear the whistle that signaled the start of the next round, she was really out of it.

      “Ah!” Barry snapped a finger at her, getting her attention once again. “You’re right, I need to concentrate. I need to if I want to win, right...” She hadn’t spaced out this much in a long time; she was normally more together but well...it was hard when her past seemed to be catching up to her, and she couldn’t stop it.

“And why would you need to do that if you were the runner-up in the Sinnoh League, hmm?”

The grin on Barry’s face dropped off the face of the earth, replaced by typical red-faced indignation.

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     There’s something akin to a smirk on Marie’s face as she watches Barry’s expression change at her comment. Though what he says is true in a way, that you’re always learning. She’d have to agree with him, even after all her years of traveling, she was still learning in many ways as well.

     She lets out a sigh at Barry’s words about her sleep schedule. It’s horrible and she knows it, but it’s hard at times to fall asleep when your mind won’t shut up about well...everything really. She didn’t need to bother him with those kind of thoughts and such, so she just nods at his words.

     Marie listens to what Barry says about her upcoming opponent, trying not to tense up at the mention of him being from Kalos. It should be fine, provided he doesn’t say anything, but she just doesn’t know. Still, she takes notes of what he says.

fluster my muse | accepting!

     “Barry, wha-” There’s yelling from the other side of the door that gets her attention, especially the mention of the tournament. But she’s pretty sure she didn’t sleep in that much, right?

     Opening the door reveals one Barry with a somewhat strained expression that fell away with a sly smile replacing it, and of course Barry would do something like this. Of course he would, though he probably is concerned about her erratic sleep schedule. 

Well, this mysterious redhead sure took everything in stride! Picking up on her quiet confidence, Barry grinned and put his hands on his hips. This stranger was a good trainer–he just had a sixth sense for these sort of things. She was still in the thick of the winners bracket, after all.

But…

“You look exhausted!” Barry scolded suddenly, with all the force of a stern mother. “Look at the circles under your eyes–did you take the overnight flight directly from Kalos? Gee whiz…”

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     Well, he was right with her being exhausted. She hadn’t slept well the night before, and she had arrived days before the tournament started, so it wasn’t jet lag or anything of the like. Plus she hadn’t been to Kalos in...a long time so flying from there wasn’t what happened.

     Marie walked him as he sat down on the bench next to her, revealing what seemed to be an endless supply of snacks (she had to wonder how bottomless his pockets were as the snacks kept coming) before grabbing one of the crunchy bars and a pack of peanut-butter crackers.

     “You are right about me needing my energy, I’ve just been...having trouble sleeping lately, so that’s probably why I haven’t had the energy I need.” It was a guess, but probably what was causing her to have a lack of energy. She munched on the crunchy bar she took while listening to what Barry had to say. She was thankful he was here, now that she thought about it.

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     How anyone could resist the chance to rematch her was something she couldn’t see anyone refusing, especially Calem. She had beaten him quite spectacularly the last time they battled, so she could only imagine he was looking forward to the chance to do so. She’d be lying if she said that she wasn’t looking forward to the chance to battle him again as well.

    Light holds up her tail – the reddish glow keeping the darkness at bay.

There was that at least. It was not much considering their circumstances, but it was something.

The Kanto native surveys her companion in the dim light, her brow slightly furrowed.

“For the most part, but I think my ankle got twisted.“

This was truly turning into some kind of adventureland fairytale. A twisted ankle, trapped within a cave, a dying quest and the exhaustion.

“Don’t worry about me.”

     Well, at least they weren’t completely in the dark, Leaf’s Ampharos serving as their source of light. So there was that, at least.

     Marie watches Leaf carefully from her position on the ground, Maia and Raiden are nearby still, watching over the two of them.

     At least only one of them was harmed, and it’s not like it was too big of a deal. At least her ankle wasn’t broken.

     After all, that would be quite the problem, rather than it being just twisted.

     Though, it would be quite the thing otherwise.

Barry was having a bad day.

He had come into this tournament excited for the chance to compete on foreign Kanto soil, but his hopes for victory had evaporated after just two battles. His first opponent took advantage of Barry’s impatience, using highly-defensive Pokemon and a stalling strategy to provoke the impatient blond. Eventually, with his partners whittled down by a brutal combination of poison, burns, and entry hazards, Barry conceded and was sent into the loser’s bracket.

In the bottom bracket, hanging on to his tournament life, the Twinleaf Town native did no better, coming up against a Trainer who exclusively used Double Team. Barry could only watch in horror as his Pokemon missed their attacks, over and over again–ultimately falling to an onslaught of speed. He was out of the tournament, at the lowest possible placing. Nobody else (especially his friends back home!) could know about this.

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     “Mmmhhh...what?”

     To say that being rudely awaken from her sleep was not what she expected was probably the understatement of the year. True, she knows that sleeping during a tournament probably isn’t the smartest thing to do, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t sleep well the night before, probably due to her nerves about the tournament and well, the dream she had that night didn’t help as well. Ghosts of her past that wouldn’t go away.

     Sitting up from her sleeping position and stretching, she looked to she a boy with blond hair talking to her. Was he the one that woke her up? Marie knew that she was the first one in this round so she should’ve been fine, but maybe he was just worried about her sleeping during a tournament. Still she takes the Poke Ball in front of her, before coming up with a response.

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     While it wasn’t quite a full smile (they were still quite rare from her) it was close. Or at least close enough for Calem it seemed. Maybe someday she’d open up enough to get a full smile out at him, or just in general. Only time would tell after all.

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Well, crisis averted it seemed. Marie did considering Calem a friend, or something like that. She didn’t really know how their friendship was with how distant and guarded she was. Plus, considering the two hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in years just added more complications to their relationship, despite how it might seem to others.