♘ ⚓ || As exhausting as the trek to Petalburg City was, Eldes had to remind himself that the days and nights he spent squeezed behind boxes and boxes of cargo had sapped more energy out of him than anything else could. If he could survive a few months living in a dumpster behind a brothel in Pyrite and a few days in a ship’s cargo hold, he could manage fumbling to another city with his joints still painfully stiff from the journey.
As for money... well, he planned to figure that out once he found a Pokémon Center to spend the night at. At least the first night’s lodging was free--or so he had been told. All that mattered was that he and his Pokémon found a place to rest.
It was a flash of red that gave Eldes pause. Red hair. Red hair so much like his own. Red hair that was--
He’d left Orre to escape his old life. In Hoenn, where nobody knew who he was, he could start anew. It was the last place he ever would have expected to find the boy who defeated Cipher. He never would have expected to find his Arceus-forsaken son.
Oh, Arceus, no. He’d already made eye contact.
“E-excuse me, uh... is there a Pokémon Center in this town?”
Too bad Eldes could hear the tremor in his own voice.
“Oh, what’s the use? You recognize me, don’t you? You know exactly who I am; I can’t pretend you don’t.”