Quote Originally Posted by Morzone View Post
Alright, time to -hopefully- get some leads. I'll go down and talk to (16) Lephley the Tropius about their mate Penelope the Aurorus. I'll inquire into recent events before her death, Where she worked, who she hung out with, and perhaps if she had an argument with someone, saw or found something odd, or maybe she herself was acting odd. I'll also inquire if Lephley himself has seen or found anything odd, just to be safe.
Interview Rapport: POSITIVE
+1 Shared type (Grass)
Intimidation +1 Interviewee weak to Poison
Modesty +1 Weak to Flying

With the intention of speaking with Lephley, a Tropius kindergarten teacher, you head to Brookheights School close to home time and ask reception if you can schedule a meeting. The receptionist pages Lephley, who shows up a few minutes after a replacement teacher was called in to supervise the unattended children for the short time that their teacher was absent.

You see the large form of the dual type trudging slowly down the hallway. You can see eyes filled with pain, and judge that the poor Tropius has not been dealing well with Penelope's death over the past few days.

"Amia, is it?" she asks, leading you into the staff room which is empty at this time of day. She offers you a seat and asks, "What brings you here?"

You explain that you are here to ask of her about the Stalkers, and of the death of her "mate" Penelope. The Tropius seems taken aback, slightly confused.

"Mates? Legends, no!" she snorts, and you get the feeling that if circumstances were brighter, she might have laughed. However, the dinosaur Pokémon merely shakes her head slowly, the fruit on her chin clapping against one another. "To have a mate meant very little to either of us in the end. Such ties could not compare to the unbreakable bond we shared. We were the dearest of friends, old Penelope and I. We met as younglings, barely a few months old. Our parents were friends and we became better friends than they. After their minds faded and their bones turned to dust, our friendship remained. Decades ago we had mates of our own, but even as they passed, our friendship did not. After every challenge, every hardship, our bond grew until it was unbreakable... Even in death we knew we would have each other's backs, but...it came too soon. Never did I expect...n-never did I..."

A breath caught in her throat and she forced tears back. Oxygen seeped through her nostrils, circulating about her body to calm her down.

"The Stalkers forced her death. They gave her to Utopia too soon. We had yet to share more experiences and memories with one another... I just can't... I can't believe..." She clenched her teeth. "You can't imagine how lonely it is to live for decades upon decades alone. Over a century did our friendship last. Nothing was more important to me than the safety of my oldest, most trusted and loyal friend... The Stalkers took her from me just as they took me from her. If ever there was a time that I wished upon someone the most painful of deaths, it would be now, and it would be for each of those heinous monsters."

Lephley takes another moment to compose herself, and although you can see that she seems to be managing the loss of her oldest friend on the outside, you guess that her internal suffering is great. Although she stands before you, it is almost as if the Grass-type is simultaneously in a distant land. Alone.

"At the Cloudrise Tower, where Penelope and I were neighbours, lies a lantern which I know has a connection to those wicked beings. I know of Mahyen's family's suffering, but one thing I have not mentioned to her yet was that I used to see her mate outside the tower at times, as if something there kept him coming back... He was crippled by a different Stalker who...killed Penelope. But each of them are as deserving of termination as each other."

She leans her long neck down to look you dead in the eye. "Find whoever did this. Please. And know that if I am killed just as my best friend was, I will not be afraid, and I will fight for my life. I refuse to leave the city and abandon my kids," she continues, which you understand means her class. "If you are interested in helping Uru's child, who is in my class, please come and talk to me at another time. But for now, I must be getting back."

She exist the room, having to duck her head significantly to fit through the doorway. She turns back to you. "Thank you for speaking with me... May your investigations lead you somewhere bright and bring you success. Do not hesitate to strike, just as they did not hesitate to extinguish Penelope's life."

You are left alone in the staff room for a while as you contemplate her words, then leave the school.


Amia the Roserade (M: Grass/Poison)
Health: 4/5
Sanity: 3/4
Perk: Lockpick | Learned Abilities: Rescue/Escape
Failed Assassinations: 0/2