{RP} The S.S. Wishmaker - Tides of Witchcraft

[[Desolate Divine]]

Jon and Alyssa Drake
Safe House G
Affected RPers: @Neo Emolga

Jarena called out for Jon to come in, so he tapped his keycard against the door, , as Alyssa turned the handle.

The pair walked in to find the three girls sitting in the lounge area, watching the TV.

"This is my wife Alyssa. Alyssa, you know who these three are." Jon said, as he walked over to the coffee table, pocketing his keycard with his left hand, before grabbing the Pizza box he had supported by his broken right hand against his torso, and placing it on the coffee table. Jon began to notice fresh blood appearing on the bandages, unaware that the heat of the box was increasing the bloodflow to his hand.

"S***..." He muttered to himself, before making his way to the ensuite, "Sorry, I gotta clean this up."

Jon began removing the bandages he had applied himself, before running his hand under some cold water to slow down the bleeding. Once it had slowed down enough, he soaked the bandages in some hot water, wringing them out, and leaving them on the counter in the bathroom to dry as he grabbed a bit of paper towel to try and put pressure on the parts of his hand that were still bleeding.

As he did that Alyssa sat cautiously on one of the couches.

"I figured you were probably starting to get hungry, so Jon and I stopped by one of the shops on the way here." She explained, "While he was in his meeting, I did some digging and found an interview you did with a teen magazine a few years back Jarena, where you said your favorite pizza was Pepperoni? I hope that's still the case."

Jon returned via the kitchenette, grabbing some plates with his clean hand before placing them on the table and taking a slice of pizza.

"Help yourself." Jon said, gesturing to the food, "I have spoken to the Steven, Cynthia and Lance, who I pitched my idea to, and they accepted it. Well, Steven and Cynthia did. Lance is too damn proud to see the bigger picture, but was outvoted by the other two."

"Right now the most important thing for everyone is that the witchcraft is covered up. The problem is a lot of people saw you two turn eachother into Pokemon, and footage is online of it, which means it will be tricky, but not impossible." Jon explained between bites, nodding towards Violet and Jarena, "Lucky for you, this whole thing is still pretty freaking unbelievable. That three of the top trainers have actually been using supernatural powers to cheat. And this is going to work in our favour."

"In order for people to not believe something that was seen like this, the cover up needs to be both something more believable, and something people want to believe. And this plan will tick both those boxes. A story of a hero rising up to take down a villain." Jon continued, "Tonight, Cassandra, you will battle Avery. Whilst I think Avery does deserve a win here, there will be other tournaments, and whilst this plan could still work if they do win, it would have much better chances if you won. Then tomorrow night you battle me in the final. If you beat Avery, I will do whatever it takes to beat Ethan and see you in the final, and I wouldn't make that sort of claim if I didn't know I could beat him. If you lose to Avery, I will throw the match so you and I face off for third place tomorrow evening."

"Right now Steven and Cynthia are tracking down a trainer with a Zoroark, who is strong enough to be competing at this level and obedient enough to follow my instructions even though I'm not its trainer. I was a little worried about how difficult that may be, but Steven and Cynthia think its a pretty safe bet they will find one, so I am not too worried. I will spend the day showing it all the footage we have available of you two turning each other into Pokemon, and any other supernatural stuff you did, and get it to create illusions that replicate it close enough that nobody would suspect it." Jon said, "Zoroark are not telepathic Pokemon in anyway. Their illusions are distortions of light and sound, capable of fooling hundreds of people, which means that if filmed, the illusions are recorded. During our match, I will send Zoroark out as my second Pokemon, and it will accidentally start creating an illusion of the scene from earlier today that everyone saw. And if that doesn't make me look suspicious enough, Latios will come out next. But what is most important Cassandra is that you need to beat me, and make a damn good show of it."

"After this, the league will investigate Jon Drake, and determine that he planned on using his Zoroark to create an incriminating situation around Violet and Jarena, as well as have his Latios steal their belongings, to use as blackmail for Cassandra to throw the match. I will even write up a psychotic blackmail note to help. However the Latios was badly trained and didn't follow instructions and go invisible. Jon Drake will be branded a cheater, banned for life and the case closed. That girl who was talking to us when I first approached you, and any others who can't be tricked will be located by the league and made to sign NDAs." Jon explained, "In the eyes of the public, you three were victims of someone using false pretences to cheat their way through the tournament, but Cassandra was the hero put this bastard in his place. It's a story that is more believable than the three of you using witchcraft, and that people would actually want to believe. I've seen how crazy your fanbase is about you. Makes me kinda glad I stayed out of the spotlight."

"Here is what happens to you three after all this is over. Lucky for you, the league cares more about covering this up than punishing you, and any sort of more severe punishment right after this story is told will surely raise questions. Jail time was never really an option, because no current laws account for witchcraft being a thing. We might be able to push an assault charge, but even then it is stretching it massively. Moving forward I think the league will be pushing for the wording of laws to change to cover such things without straight up revealing the existence of it, but right now, there isn't much we can do in terms of charging you." Jon explained, "Additionally, any sort of public ban right after this would raise questions and discredit the whole cover up, and if the cover up is discredited, everyone knows about the witchcraft, and we are dealing with situations like this one every six months. So the league have agreed to the following punishment for you. A five year ban, kept completely hidden from the public. This is the last official League competition for this season, so you have a few months before anyone starts expecting you to compete. Once a bit of time has passed from now, you three will announce a temporary retirement, and give the three champions another chance to win their titles back before they get it back by default on your retirement. And it being a five year ban, once that is up, you can return to competing, minus the witchcraft, seeing as if you never compete again, it will eventually draw attention back to this cruise, and we don't want people digging up the truth ten years from now."

"Right now your Pokemon are in my care, Cassandra, and Jarena and Violet, your's are in the care of Jimmy Kendo and Avery Miller. I arranged it that way because I hope by now you can trust that when we say we will look after them, and that we aren't going to act like that a**hole who was an Azurill." Jon added, "They will be returned the day the cruise ends, other than during the battles, once your sentence is officially finalized."

"In terms of finances, your sponsors will not find out about this, but you will be expected to pay back what you illigiitimately won from the league. Granted, the league will be lenient in regards to how you go about paying it back, and over how long. A reasonable monthly target will be set, and as long as you are showing that you are making an effort to reach them, they will not seize your assets and leave you homeless." Jon explained, "If you don't dawdle and sell off the estates and fancy cars pretty quickly, you should be able to quite easily find somewhere more modest to live, relatively comfortable, and keep the league satisfied with your efforts to pay them back."

"This next bit is up to you, but once you have paid half of the debt off, you will be given the option to work off your debt if you'd like." Jon continued, "As much as we try and cover it up, some people will still think what you did was real, and whilst it won't be as frequent as if we do nothing, something like this will happen again, and having someone like you advising will definitely allow us to keep things somewhat normal. Or you can tell the league to deal with it on their own, and keep paying off your debt the way you had been prior."

"As for Alyssa and myself, Jon Drake will disappear." Jon explained, "I mentioned before that my dad was a peice of s**t. Truth is, my name is actually Ryan Mason. Jon is my middle name and when Alyssa and I married, I started using her surname socially speaking, and for tournaments, so that if he gets let out of jail, he isn't going to see me on TV or something and know how to find me. Or at least, that was the case. With Jon Drake now publically hated, I guess it is time to hang up that name, and start going by Ryan again. The League will make a fake file for Jon, and when enough time has passed, and I can make myself a bit more difficult to recognize, I may return to competing as Ryan, or I may not. We will see. Either way, Alyssa and I will have to move, and find new jobs. Alyssa agreed to take my surname, and had been thinking of starting her own company anyway, so this is probably a good opportunity to make that happen."

"Don't think of this at all like you're causing us problems with this arrangement." Alyssa said, slightly surprising Jon, "Truth is, a lot of this has been on the table for a while, minus the being branded a cheater thing. This is just a good push in the direction we wanted to go anyway."

Alyssa started holding Jon's hand as she continued.

"Truth is, ever since we got married, we have both wanted to have kids, but have just always had things going on that made it not the right time." Alyssa explained, "Our apartment in Lilycove really isn't the sort of place we want to be raising a kid, we both travel way too much in our jobs, and-"

"And I didn't want my kids to inherit my issues." Jon explained, "I have been running from my dad for the last fourteen years, the last ten going as far as to use a different name, dye my hair and tattoo myself so that he couldn't recognize me. Alyssa knew all of this from the moment she met me, because she guessed I wasn't who I said I was and I begged her to keep it between us, but she chose to live this life of secrecy. I wouldn't have married her if she didn't make it abundantly clear that she was willing to live this life, and she wouldn't have married me if she wasn't. But I know too well a kid doesn't get to choose their parents. I don't want to have to tell my own kid that they gotta use a fake name so their grandpa can't find us, or that they have to keep who we are secret."

"This whole arrangement means we have to move, but we'd been looking at buying a house anyway, just not able to afford it. But since Jon is giving up his livelyhood for the sake of the league, they are compensating him for it enough that us buying a house is now possible." Alyssa said, "If now is the time when I leave BattleNET, I can wait a little while before working again."

"And I've realized that for me it's time to stop running." Jon explained, "It's been fourteen years, and until recently, I have still thought of myself as the scared little kid, hoping his dad wouldn't notice him. And whilst that's what it took to survive back then, now it's holding me back."

"So if everything goes according to plan, and we cover this up at this cost, don't worry about us." Alyssa explained, "It's nothing we really could have prepared for, but we will be better off for it in the long run."

"Though there is just one more thing I gotta add in here. Once this is said and done, there is not a thing I can do to stop you from using your magic. There are no laws against it, and as long as you aren't doing anything like this or anything to harm other people, I am not going to tell you that you can't keep using it." Jon explained, "But, if you do use it, and someone sees, everything we are working for with this arrangement will be gone in an instant, and nothing will be able to cover that up. Your sponsors will probably come knocking, and fans will turn their back on you. And people who realize that they lost because of this will probably not be too forgiving. I just want to make sure you know that. That even if we pull this off, it will still be a balancing act for the rest of our lives."

"It's a lot to think about." Jon explained, reaching for another slice of pizza, "But I honestly think we can pull this off, if you're willing to try and help make that happen. As I said, Steven and Cynthia represent the league right now, and they are for all of this..."

"What do you think?"