welcome to calamity! we are an au pokemon site based in hoenn. we do not have canons so you can pick them as your fcs! we have a short one hundred word word count. and you get to also pick your own starter! calamity is going to focus on providing users with a good and stable plot line to follow. this helps each character progress and some might even have a play in affecting the plot! we hope you enjoy your time here and if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask.
hey guys! we've finally hit our three month mark! let's stay strong. the activity check and gala have ended, if your character has been archived and you need them back please pm one of the admins! unfortunately, noods has steped down from his admin position. make sure you say your goodbyes here!
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JUNE 18TH, 2015
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hello calamity! we're nearing the two months mark in a few weeks. how time flies! right now we have two things going on that need your participation. the first is an activity check! it is impotant that you check in so you don't lose your face claim. the second is the otm nomiations! we're doing it a bit different than last time. so please submit your nominations in. a vote thread will be up in the next few days. there will also be a formal event coming very soon, so keep your eye out for that. keep being cool!
we're currently about to host calamity's first contest in slatepor. trainers are flocking to the city to see, the city's been trying to get good pr since the gala, and it seems to be working! they're asking for both coordinators and volunteer judges to sign up.
CALAMITY is a roleplaying forum inspired by the popular franchise POKEMON, which does not belong to us. the skin was crafted by PHARAOH LEAP of GANGNAM STYLE. special thanks to SPIRAL for contributing ideas! all art on the forum does not belong to us unless stated otherwise, while all written works belong to the members who posted them. DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING that is not yours, please. thank you.
It was an early morning, but that was Leah's favorite time of day. A lot of what she did was in the early morning, and today she was sitting at the lavish beach house she had on rent, enjoying the finer things of the morning. Like the golden sun rays and the beautiful clouds. Despite her nature she did admire beauty when it was proven to be worth her time. Mornings were a literal shining example.
Her hair was done up in a stay-at-home bun, and even though she wasn't expecting anyone to come to her house today she was dressed finely in black jeans, a tank top and a cute, short checkered shirt over it with the sleeves folded up. She had gloves on, but these were her painting gloves- white, although through the layers of multicolored paint, the gloves had already lost their natural sheen.
Her brush was in between her fingers as she painted, her eyes alight with fire and focus. Disruption would be met with death. The brush moved swiftly, elegantly, creating a fine picture of black and red. Black hair, maybe. Or maybe it was a black rose- it was hard to tell. The drawing was in its initial stages and it was a picture Leah could never seem to finish to matter how hard she tried. Because in the end, her thoughts would always drift to the card in her pocket. Not her business card, no. The card with a picture of an empress on it, the card which Ai had signed, all those years ago...
Ding, dong...
Tch.
She got up, annoyed, and then threw of her gloves to reveal crimson painted nails. Whoever freaking disturbed her...she walked to the door, her face an angry rage as she threw it open.
cain's been in hoenn for a while. when he left, he never expected anybody else to come over. safe to say, it was a big surprised when he encountered ko on route 101. it was an even bigger surprise when he heard that leah's moved over here as well. it hit a note in the depths of his small, sad heart.
leah's special. cain could admit that in the past. he can admit right now if anybody asked. it was her that broke his heart in high school, but not by normal means -- noo, she had to be completely gay. as in. not return his feelings gay. friendzoned, basically. and although it stung and hurt, cain couldn't help but still want something more. they definitely didn't fit in the normal boundaries of a friendship.
so he gets a bouquet of flowers, -- and no, there is no weed in it -- some chocolates, and heads to leah's apartment. she looks as pretty as ever when she finally flings the door, in all her anger and rage. cain can only give her a smile, hunching his shoulders slightly in sheepishness.
"flowers?"
looks like the hanged man is looking for the empress's forgiveness today.
Somehow, across heaven an hell, death and palaces, fire and ice, her past had caught up to her in the strangest of ways. In the form of a hanged man carrying flowers to pay homage to an empress. Cain’s sheepish smile took her back. Way back, to days where she was still doodling on the back of chemistry notebooks and being followed around by a pack of subordinate sheep-teenagers while she lived on chasing a girl that was literally too good to be true.
The sheepish smile took her way back, to the days of a clandestine hangout and pool tables and daring bets and weed and parties. To someone named Max, to spitting at the face of a boy who thought he could lead something. To someone’s death, to hateful words, to a house of cards.
Her rage dissipated and she was left with a vacant stare. Finally Cain spoke, the time between her opening the door and him opening his mouth elongated to an eternity by all the flashbacks she had.
"Cain," she said, her voice a whisper as though someone knocked all the fire out of it. "You idiot!" she shouted,her breathing returning to her at a crazy rate as she seemed to pant with no real excuse to be tired.
"Flowers, really? And wow you remembered my favorite chocolate..." She rolled her eyes and then reached forward to give him a quick hug, only allowing for three words to be said before she pulled back:
"I missed you."
Probably not the three Cain was looking for but it was the best he was going to get, because after that a smirk came back to her face, and she grabbed the bouquet and invited him in her house with no hesitation at all.
"Not as cute as the place we had but..."
She slammed the door after him and the leaned against it, sniffing the flowers before cocking and eyebrow at Cain. "Do I need to be worried for weed in here?"
the nostalgia hits cain like a truck. it feels like high school again -- before things went sour with everyone. before ai disappeared and leah and max were fighting. cain couldn't really remember much after that, but he can surely remember the old beat up hideout they had, full of parties and alchohol and all sorts of wild antics teenagers were known for.
it was the fun life. after the confrontation the house of cards had fallen. what fragile foundation they stood on got ripped apart, and cain found himself falling into the deeper parts of the illegal world -- full of drugs and gangs and nothing good. it's not like alchohol. there was an innate sense of danger that came with the parts that cain threw himself into. and it stays with him, today.
he stands there awkwardly as leah remembers. a look of recognition crosses her face, and she yells his name. cain can't help but crack a wider smile at leah when she finally says something. his name. the way she said it made him like again, like it hasn't been dragged through the dirt and stepped on.
"hi leah." he says, and he's crushed into a small hug. "how can i forget?" he says, leaning into the hug. he would return it if he could, but there's flowers and chocolates in his hand. a little expensive, but there's no price tag on the profound connection he has with leah. she's one of the people that he regrets leaving, next to ko.
"i missed you too." he says. he walks inside the house, eyes scanning each individual prop that made up of a home that screamed leah. he eyes the painting. it's elegant but clearly unfinished. the strokes of black and red lines the canvas, but cain can't really tell what it is for sure. "you paint?" he asks, and that's the moment leah asks about the flowers.
he snorts. everyone knows that he smokes, but cain would never bring it to someone who hasn't asked for it. he winks, "you know me best. because i'd totally bring you weed flowers."
Like everything else with Leah, the hug was full of emotion and passion. Cain's voice was still as hazy and strange as it always had been, like he was permanently high, but also permanently happy. There were a few things she liked about high school, and Cain had to be one of them. Cain would always be one of them. Leah could give less of a damn about the rest, but Cain, Ai, and Max were something else. Something too complicated to explain but too simple not to enjoy.
Cain is probably sincere in his words, and even though as Leah locks the door she's smirking, a part of her remembers the horrible day were Cain had confessed his feelings to her. It's easy enough to push the thoughts aside as she eyes the flowers.
Cain's question is answered with a snappy, "Of course I do." And Leah moved her way towards the canvas, her body swaying with every move. "I don't just spend my whole life high as wonderful as that might be..." As she walked she let out a bout of laughter at Cain's antics. "Hey, hey. Marijuana flowers are pretty beautiful. If you look at them at the right angle."
Her musing goes on as she looks at the canvas before turning back to Cain, a smile on her lips. "We have a lot to catch up on. I heard the Hanged Man was gone for good, but you're back from the dead? And in Hoenn..."
Her voice trailed off, her eyes speaking wordlessly about the message she had recieved. From an unkwon sender. Had it been Cain? Did Cain receive the message as well? She wanted answers. She would kill whoever was sending her these messages. They sounded too much like Ai. And slander to the dead, on behalf of the Hanged Man, was something she could not tolerate.
cain knows that leah is an artist, but he never expected her to keep going with the hobby after high school. she sounds like she'd be a fashion designer or something, but obviously it isn't what happened. he'd gotten wind that leah's a coordinator now. unexpected, but strangely fitting, cain supposes.
he snorts. "at what angle? they look like they can stab and poison you." it's fact. "they're spiky and not at all elegant as say, a rose." cain says with a smile, leaning in towards her ever so slightly. it's her favorite lower, she knows. he sits on the stool in front of the canvas, eyeing it carefully as they talked. they do have a lot to catch on. it's been at least a couple years since they've last seen each other.
he fibs. leah couldn't know about his new life here. about aqua and rory and his spiral into debt. "i uh, wanted to start a new life after all of that..." cain drifts off, waving off the rest with a flick of his hands. he too had gotten a message, but he doesn't really think much of it. he as surprised as leah to find her here. last time he saw her was after he told her that he liked her...
he still thinks he does, sometimes.
cain shakes his head. they cannot, and will not ever be together. it's a lost cause, but his heart never seems to listen. cheesy, but it's true. "what about you? the empress has left her throne back in johto?"
It was something she had supressed at school, to be honest. She hid her art notebook and showed them to friends- the beginning of highschool had been full of a stranger Leah, one that tried to hard to be am empress. But things had changed when she'd gone out of the closet, when she'd turned blunt and daring- turning to more of her true self than the beginning years of high school had been. At the beginning she had been empress according to what society wanted, but she ended being the queen of a land she herself created.
And that was what she wanted to do with coordinating.
"From the top, they look like the perfect amount of beauty and danger," she stated simply, glaring at the canvas as though intimidation would work on art. "Well yeah. Roses are of course, the most beautiful." She turned and smiled at him, before teh smile disappeared.
"Too pretty. They kind of piss me off." She caught herself mid-way, though, and laughed happily. She wasn't sure why, maybe it never occurred to her how serious she could be until she was with Cain, who was somewhat the opposite of her fire.
"Really?" She asks, sharply catching onto him. "A new life, huh..." But then she sort of did believe it. Cain had been affected by Ai, too. Everyone had. "Ai..." she mumbled, looking a lot more mellow now. She turned back up to Cain, ears perking up at the question.
"Carving a new one in Hoenn, obviously," she said, smirking. "So? Walking around trying to defeat the elite four and all that?"
cain had liked leah from the moment he saw her. she was beautiful, charming, and fiery all at once. but when she came out of the closet, it turns out that she's even more blunt then he could ever imagine. she's the true empress, and cain was more attracted to her than anyone else, however distant. it took him a while to accept that leah would never be romantically attracted to him, but when he did he found that he was content with their platonic, close friendship.
and that's how they got here. cain listens to her, embracing the assertive, quick way of talking. he'd always known that roses were leah's thing. but then he smile disappears, and she catches herself. leah can only joke in the blunt, concise way of an empress. cain laughs with her, a light chuckle. she always has an intense way of doing things, in contrast to his carefree life.
when he tells her his goals, leah's quick to catch on to his bluff. he freezes, but then she does kinda buy into it. because it's the truth. just not all of it. he can tell that she misses ai as much, if not more, than he did.
"yeah...couldn't stay back in johto anymore, you know?" he sighs. cain could tell that leah's going places, just knowing her. there's ambition in those fiery red eyes, one that's not easily quenched. sometimes he wishes that he could have some of that drive.
"you could say that..." he says, hunching his shoulders and shrugging off the lie, "but i'm here just to kinda live life. see the sights -- you know, all that tourist things but a bit more permanent. you?"
Leah doesn't need to dig deeper into Cain's present, she doesn't need to ask him what he's up to. Because in a way, they completely cool with each other, no matter what. There were times when they'd just be talking and one of them would blurt out some absolutely scandalous and the other wouldn't so much as a bat an eyelid. So even if he was hiding something, Leah would respect that. Respect. Huh. THat wasn't a word she used often.
"Yeah. Hoenn seems fine, though. Ripe for conquest for an army of zombies. Led by the one the only hanged-Cain, yeah?" She smirks, trying to lighten to mood. "Just what I said. Carve a throne in Johto. And design clothes, become a coordinator. I'll show the world what it's missing--" She paused, listening to him for a bit, letting her head rest on her palm. Sometimes she was so aught up with herself she forgot what other people wanted. But it was only with Cain that she actually felt bad for that.
"Hm. Yeah. That's a good idea," she mumbled, getting off her chair and heading to the couch. There was more than enough space for both of them but Leah sat on Cain's lap instead, messing with his hair boredly. "We could go around tomorrow, get high, drink..."
Her voice trailed off, leaving it up to Cain to decide what they were going to do today.
he's glad that leah's not prying into his business. she's content to leave him alone with his own issues, which loathes and hates all at once. one one side it's good that he doesn't pull anybody down with him. but on the other side he's all alone. there's no one to help him unless he asks, but he can't look past his ego enough to do that. and cain supposes, that he doesn't really mind. he can handle himself just fine, and leah knows that. she respects his opinion -- which is nothing short of a miracle, because the things she gives respect to are far and few in between.
he's eager to stray away from the topic at hand. "that's general cain, to you." he snorts. he drifts off as leah keeps talking. cain is more than content with listening, but when leah actually takes the effort to pause he's suddenly glad that she takes the time to listen to what he says, too. nobody really does that anymore.
he leans back on the couch, and lets his eyes follow leah as she stands up and moves towards it. she settles herself on his lap. all at once he feels the surge of affection and longing for leah, what could have been. cain's heart beats in his chest. it's so loud that he's almost scared that leah could hear it, even though that's probably impossible.
he plays it off easily. a lazy smile forms on his face. his hand slowly drifts across her arm. a thoughtful look crosses his face before he finally makes another decision.
She gave him a quick mock salute, laughing internally at how stupid all of this was. It had been too long since she'd enjoyed some company, and Cain's was simply the best. Despite what all had gone on all those years ago, she was glad they could stay like this. Life was chaotic, and as good as that was (she'd be bored if she had too many friends, after all), she needed a cool constant, like Cain.
Leah found comfort on his lap, and soon enough she was leaning into him, with his hand on her arms. She'd laugh if anyone suggested she ould do this with anyone, but Cain was different. And maybe, even though she'd never admit it, the House of Cards as a whole, was different. Leah sighed, and Cain's look turned thoughtful. He gave a quiet answer, and Leah's smile became wider at the thought.
"Sounds like a plan, General Cain," she remarked, smirking as she put one leg off his lap and then the other, lifting herself up with the remnants of her dignity. She crossed the room to grab a purse, and gestured to the door.
"We have something to toast to, so hurry up," she added, sort of mysteriously, in an effort to get Cain up quicker, something of an idea forming in the back of her spontaneous mind.
cain bursts out laughing at cain's mock salute. he even returns it - as much as he could in this position - to leah. he's glad that she could enjoy herself around him. it's not often that she can be silly. leah lives up to her title around most people. the empress. aggresive. cold. alpha bitch. but for some reason, she isn't around cain. a strange emotion washes over him as he realizes that, because it feels like they could always be something more, but. that's unfeasible, cain knows.
leah lifts herself off his lap and goes to grab her purse. cain follows, although he's a bit curious. "something to toast to?" cain asks, tilting his head slightly to the side. he doesn't really question it though, because it'll be fun regardless of what leah has planned. he has a faint feeling that it'll be a drink of course, but leah knows this town more than he does. he trusts her.
cain opens the door, "after you?" he asks, putting one hard behind his back. he bows slightly, since he's only a lowly general compared to leah. the air is slightly salty since it's right next to the beach, but there's a quiet urban feel around the town. he smiles, wondering what she had in mind.
Leah's so glad to have Cain back, and even happier that they dont need any of that sentimental bullshit- no crying or soft smiles. They're back to joking around and platonic snuggling, like always. Her heat skips a little beat at the word platonic, and she forces her mind to skip the flashback that threatens to play. It's over. Cain is over her now. He has to be.
She spins around to face him, a delicately surprised look on her face, that morphs into a smile. "You'll see," she says, and Cain seems okay with letting her take the lead. He holds open the door and she walks through, used to the gesture by many members of the male community. In fact she almost forgets to turn back, give Cain one of her rare silent thank yous, and then head forward into the pleasant afternoon air.
"We are going to the tavern, my humble peasant," she said, her tone turning into something quite suited to an empress, and she took his hand, dragging him across the street and into the daylight. It was a funny scene- a girl with brilliant red hair dragging a shady looking blonde through a bustling town full of people to stare and be stared at.
She slammed open a door to a rustic old place, something that she didn't quite like, but whatever. She sat down at the counter, and gestured for Cain to do the same. She then tapped the counter, and briskly asked the waiter for two drinks. She turned to Cain with a far different expression, something more kind and playful.
She raised her glass in the air.
"To us!" she finally said, smiling. "For getting through the horrors of Social class and highschool, for managing to meet in Hoenn once again. Never change, Hanged Man. Never change."
She drank the glass down, and watched Cain with a smile.
cain has always preferred the type of friendship where they could easily act as if they hadn't been separated for years. they can pick things right up, and it wouldn't be awkward or boring. there's no drama or questions. it's just two people enjoying each other's presence.
he can joke and tease all he wants, because their friendship would never change. it's hardly likely that they would get into a fight, and cain would rather back down then ruin what they have now. he'd love it if they could do more. be more than just friends, but it's unfeasible. impossible, because leah can't just change her orientation in a day. and he's okay with that. cain's accepted that fact, despite the longing and pain.
the hanged man would do anything for his empress.
he smiles at leah and follows her out the door. she said that they're going to a tavern. cain tilts his head a little to the side with a crooked grin. a tavern? "how fitting." he drawls, rolling his eyes every so slightly. it's not until leah makes a sudden move that he breaks his composure. cain looks down as surprise as the sudden heat wraps around his hand. she probably took it because she needed to drag him somewhere, but the fact still stands. they're holding hands.
cain sits himself on top of the chair and leans against the table. leah beckons the waiter over with an air of confidence. soon enough, there's two drinks sliding over. cain takes his and smiles. leah's small cheer is strangely comforting, "to us!" and with a little tap against her glass he throws back his head and lets the sharp tang of the drink flow down his throat.
it settles in his stomach. cain starts to feel satisfaction of the drink. warmth spreads to his body -- he feels lighter, like his thoughts aren't there to weigh him down. cain sighs slowly, letting the bad thoughts go with it. he just wants to enjoy this moment with leah for now. his yellow eyes lazily drift to leah, watching her fiery, sharp red ones.
