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

[[Desolate Divine]]

One Year Later...
It was half past six in the morning, when Jon groaned at the sound of a baby crying. It was the fourth time since they tried to get to sleep at 11pm the night before

"Do you want me to get her?" Alyssa asked groggily, as she rolled over.

"No, I will check in on her." Jon said, as he got up, and started to get dressed, "I gotta get up anyway."

It had been three weeks since Amelia Drake was born, and almost exactly a year since Jon had taken the High Sea's Tournament Title on the S.S Wishmaker. In those three weeks, Jon had made sure to take as much of the burden as he could, seeing as starting today, the next twelve weeks would keep him busy, and Alyssa would be having to shoulder the burden a little more on her own.

He made his way out of the master bedroom of the small caretakers house they lived in on Mossdeep Island. It wasn't the cottage he and Alyssa had originally hoped for, as that had sold by the time they were ready to buy it. Instead, the house they bought was a little more expensive, meaning they still had to get a loan for it. However the property they bought contained an old monastery and lodge for the people visiting, with a house for the caretaker to live in.

After his battle with Cassandra, she told Jon something that had stuck in his mind, about being a good teacher. From there an idea was formed, and this property being for sale made the timing perfect. He had spent the good part of the most year, doing whatever he could to get League grants to fund the project, and today was going to be the official opening of it.

Jon made his way to Amelia's room, where she lay in her bed, crying like baby's do, as Jon and Alyssa had learnt very much so in the last few weeks. The air wasn't tainted with a certain smell, so Jon was able to cross that off the list, gently picking her up and trying to comfort her to no avail, eventually deciding to try and see if she was hungry, making his way to the kitchen, where he found Alyssa in her dressing gown, preparing breakfast.

"You can go back to bed if you want Liss, I can handle it."

Alyssa laughed, before opening the fridge and passing him Amelia's bottle.

"Nah, I know when I gotta cut my losses and give up on sleep." she said, "If we're both up, might as well enjoy it."

Once the bottle was warm, Jon held it to Amelia's mouth, who very quickly took to it, quietening down, as Jon found the headache that had formed start to cease.

"So how many are you expecting?" Alyssa asked.

"Five." Jon replied, "They'll be here at 11am."

A lot had happened in the year since they got off the cruise. Much to her bosses dismay, she published both the interview with Cassandra from the bar, as well as the footage of Lance attempting to attack Violet and Jarena and frame Jon, before being given a beatdown. Lance was already detained by the League, and whilst a few sympathized with him out of hatred for the Diamond Ladies, his reputation plumetted, with him being trialed and thrown in jail for a considerable amount of time. Conversations ended up happening about the amount of authority given to League Champions, especially seeing as they earnt that title based purely on battling skill. Jon had been consulted by the government about it, given his involvement, however he ended up siding with allowing the champions to retain their authority that they currently had. Lance may have been an example of that going wrong, but Steven and Cynthia in his eyes were great examples of that authority being in the right hands.

Whilst Jon had hoped people could learn to look past what the Diamond Ladies had done, they proved very quickly that wasn't going to happen. Whilst it became less front and center over time as the media realized they were beating a dead Rapidash, the public opinion of them was still soured, so it was hardly a surprise when they disappeared from the public eye. He had been in touch once since that night at the bar, but outside of that, he knew very little of what was going on. He hoped that eventually people would realize there are bigger issues at hand in the world than them, but he wasn't going to hold his breath.

As for Jon's image, the public opinion of him couldn't be more polarized. On the one hand, he was hated for the incident in his battle with Ethan, the damage his Latios did, the brutal beating he gave Lance, and the inteview he gave, defending the Diamond Ladies. But on the other, he was praised for his battle with Cassandra, brutal honesty about his role within the investigation and the situation overall, and his fighting off Lance when he tried to attack Violet and Jarena. On one side, people were demanding he be given a lifetime ban by the league, and on the other, to his horror, people calling for him to take Lance's position as Indigo Champion.

Alyssa had been on leave from BattleNET for a while, having been there nearly ten years and aquired a lot. At this point, she wasn't sure whether she would return. As much as she had loved working there, she felt like she could do more for the battling community working for herself. As well as being a mother now meant she would spend some nights awake, and some days trying to catch up on sleep. Something more flexible would definitely be a bonus.

The last year had been quiet, in a sense there was no life-threatening circumstances, with one exception, but a lot going on. Jon had spent a lot of time doing what he could to raise money to fund his new project, and get that prepared. The lodge and monastery needed a lot of work to be used for what he needed and that work didn't come cheap, however the winnings from the High Seas Tournament, as well as the odd compensation for an interview, or even the winnings from the occasional invitational tournament helped, in addition to knowing the right people in the League to get funding.

Morning passed and eventually Jon managed to get Amelia back to sleep. It was 10:45am before he left the cottage, making his way down the path towards what used to be the monastery, to unlock the front door, before hearing voices from the front gate.

"Goddamn, they're early." Jon thought to himself, as he headed to the front of the property to greet the trainers who would be training under him over the summer, passing a brand new sign that seemed to clash with how old everything else around it looked.

The Eon Academy.