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Café Plaisir: October's Jaunt: Tower of Tragedy

by October Flixard

Mature: Harsh Language

Another week had passed at Café Plaisir. Another week of early mornings, of arguments with Pouncer, of flipping chairs and serving customers, upsetting customers and occasionally servicing customers... of bunking off from work with Chai and meeting up with Colin for pleasant evenings, of evading Eclipse and hiding from Rain Flower. All the things that had started to become October's everyday life.

Part of him still rebelled, against the very idea of him having a routine, a fixed point, an even semi-predictable course to his day. October's life had always been a rollercoaster of inter-planar chaos, just the way he liked it. In a magical dungeon one day, causing chaos upon a starship the next, investigating a curiosity on a dead world the day after and failing to make friends in the grandest cities of the multiverse, they day after that.

Compared to all of that, life at Café Plaisir was spectacularly dull. Why, he had barely risked death at all since he had gotten here... there had barely been a single explosion and the only magical artifact was one he had crafted himself.

He had a growing resentment about it. A shrinking patience. A snappier turn... his attitude, which had been improving from the start had begun to slip again and he in turn tested the patience of even his closest friends and allies.

He had told himself he had been feeling trapped, frustrated... but... in truth, maybe it was because he was getting used to it. Him, the troublemaker of a thousand worlds, the chaotic streak across the multiverse, an accidental creation caused by disaster slowly spreading beautiful entropy and glorious fun... He was getting used to familiar sights, familiar faces and daily habits, himself in turn becoming a familiar sight to others. It was... thus by extension, perhaps HE was becoming... mundane.

How could he accept that..?

"Oh, come ON! October!" said Chai, glaring at him in frustration.

October looked away, frowning.

They were stood in the service corridor around the back of the Kitchens, with the morning's course of breakfasts-in-bed before them. Three trolleys of covered meals put out for them to deliver, just as usual. Just another part of the daily routine.

"You can't be fucking serious," said Chai, "NO!"

October sighed, angrily, practically retching the air out of himself, "I really can't be bothered with this, Chai."

"What," said the Umbreon, who could be loud and sharp when he wanted to be, "and you think I can? Why the fuck should I have to do your share, October?"

October's frown deepened... and his muzzle twitched into a snarl. Barely suppressing that, he turned to look at Chai again, angrily, "Because I can't TAKE this anymore, Chai!" he said, without looking around at the Umbreon, "Every day, the same shit. We take these plates up to the rooms, we say, 'Oh, good morning, I hope you're enjoying your stay at Plaisir!" he was speaking a mockery of his own customer-service tone, "Let me know if you need anything and I'll go get it for you!' ...fuck!" he growled softly, "If one of them actually asks for something today I will set them on FIRE."

Chai's frown didn't slip or soften at all during his outburst. The Umbreon stood right up to his tantrum with a firm face and just a slight and well timed raising of the eyebrow, a questioning look in his sharp, red eyes.

Suddenly feeling very foolish, knowing he shouldn't be talking to his friend like that, October looked away again.

Chai was silent for a while longer, "Alright," said the Umbreon, "This time... but this keeps on, it's gonna be a bit fuckin' rich you telling ME to get MY shit together."

October took in a short breath of relief followed almost instantly by a regretful sigh, instantly feeling like an asshole, having effectively bullied his friend with his temper.

The Ninetales' ears flattened back against his skull, shame instantly filling him... itself followed by a pang of irritation. Two weeks ago he wouldn't have been self-aware enough to realise what a dick he was being. Chai's look had shoved, well, practically stabbed the realisation into him.

Of course, in similar situations in the past, Silver had always been soft with him and he had learned nothing. Other people had tried shouting at him and he had taken pleasure in the conflict to satisfy his temper. Chai's look on the other hand was anything but soft. In fact it was hard enough to pierce his grump.

"Look, Chai, I'm sorry-" he began, looking up from his thoughtful gloom.

"Good," said Chai sharply, walking past, already pushing one of the serving trolleys past him, "Go take a smoke break."

October couldn't quite bring himself to watch the Umbreon go.

Suddenly, "October!" came a bright and hurried call, so loud and sharp that it had October looking up and Chai pausing in his stride. "October!" they called again. It was distinctly the voice of Colin.

The Sylveon appeared at the end of the corridor ahead of Chai and seemed to look frantically each way except the right one before his big, blue, frantic eyes seemed to find October and the Sylveon started skipping hurriedly down the corridor towards him.

Chai watched him go past, over the linoleum at speed. October winced, "Colin, slow down!" he warned the Sylveon.

Colin seemed to realise his error a bit too late and wore a worried expression as he tried to slow down. The de-clawed Sylveon's soft paw-pads found little purchase on the smooth and clean service corridor floor, however and he was practically skating up on his tip-toes, trying to skid, when he slammed into the braced and sitting October. There was a soft 'fwump' as the Sylveon's head briefly disappeared into the soft, thick fur of October's chest ruff.

Jolted, but not injured by the soft impact of the flying Fairy, October just about had the presence of mind to slip a tail behind the stumbling Sylveon before he feel backwards onto his head. His hindpaws still skidding on the floor, Colin struggled his way back onto his feet.

It was almost funny enough to give October an amused smirk. Almost...

"October!" said Colin again, quickly, "You have got to come to the main bar!"

October raised an eyebrow. Oh, did he now? He wondered what this was about, expecting another telling off from someone or other, perhaps another customer apology. Still feeling irritable though and thus reluctant to get up and go, he said nothing in response and simply waited for the Sylveon to start making sense.

Chai remained, staring at the scene as Colin picked himself up only to keep dancing about on his paws, still seemingly unable to settle in front of October.

"What's this about, Colin?" asked October, quietly.

"There's a..." began Colin, who paused, annoyingly to catch his breath, before speaking frantically again, "There's someone who wants me to come get you, October! A silver-skinned Vaporeon!"

October's eyes widened suddenly. For a moment, he even stopped breathing.

"A silver Vaporeon?" asked Chai, from down the corridor, looking very curious and taking his paws from the trolley.

Colin nodded at the Umbreon rapidly, "Mmm-hmm!" he said, "He's really shiny, like, really-really silver!"

"Is that..." began Chai, awkwardly, "...Silver, silver?"

October just about remembered to breathe and began to sit up, unsteadily, his heart resuming, his head giddy, he nodded as he did.

Chai frowned, "Thought you said he was a Glaceon?"

October shrugged broadly with a growing smirk... Then caught the offended looks his two Eeveelution pals shot him for his indifference. As if he was implying they were the same to him.

"Don't look at me like that," said October, now speaking almost as frantically as Colin, "Silver could be one or the other. He's a shape-shifter too, except he can do as he pleases, with full control..." he began to move, heading towards the end of the corridor, "...must be feeling..." he muttered, picking up speed, "...whatever!"

-

They watched October skitter down the corridor at a pace that Colin couldn't hope to match. He flew over the lino and burst through the door at the end to skid carelessly into a turn on the carpeted floor, ripping holes with his claws without noticing or caring in the slightest. He bounded towards the Main Bar, his nine tails animate behind him.

Behind him, Colin and Chai shared looks and set off after the loping Ninetales.

They found him in the main bar, looking puzzled, until he saw the napkin, left out in the middle of one of the otherwise freshly clear and clean tables, sitting prominently with something written upon it in large, scrawly marker pen.

Colin skipped out from around the corner with Chai slinking along behind him, wondering what in the world was going on.

"Where's Silver?" asked Chai, casting curious glances around.

Colin made a curious, high-pitched noise to second the question.

"Waiting for me," said October, starting to softly chuckle.

"Waiting..?" asked Chai, frowning slightly.

October chuckling grew, rising until it became laughter.

Colin and Chai shared looks of confusion. Chai's frown deepened.

Colin tilted his head, "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Hahaahhh..." said October, sniffing, "That clever Dragon. No wonder I didn't get it... look!"

Picking up the napkin between a pincer of two claws, the Ninetales presented it to them. In block capitals, it had written on it, "SELFINTROSPECTION" in a messy, curved font that had blotched on the napkin's surface.

Chuckling for a second longer, October suddenly declared, "SELF-INTROSPECTION!" at the top of his lungs and began to laugh louder as he started to fade from view.

Colin's eyes went wide, "What!? What's happening..?" he cried in panic, "October..!"

October kept on laughing.

Chai frowned. Chai had seen him do this before, the first night, on the roof. He knew exactly what it meant, "He's leaving," said the Umbreon, quietly.

Colin looked around at him, with wide eyes, "Leaving!?" he repeated in confusion, "What, but..!?"

Chai didn't look at Colin, he looked at the fading form of October until it had disappeared completely. Then he kept looking that way.

"He's leaving!?" asked Colin, squeaky panic in his high voice, "but... how, why..?"

"Silver gave him the keys back," said Chai, in a flat voice, with an almost imperceptible grumble to it, "so he's waiting for him, back where October came from."

"Oh..." said Colin, suddenly brightening, "Oh..!" and then drooping, "Oh..."

Chai looked away and turned back towards the service corridor, leaving Colin to think and feel loudly by himself.

"He'll be coming back, wont he..?" asked Colin, quickly, "He wouldn't just leave without saying goodbye, even!"

Chai's muzzle twitched into a ferocious expression, unseen, but only for a hidden moment. He had his voice just about steady when he called back, "...and what the fuck about him makes you think that, huh..?" as he walked away from the Sylveon and the sad, whining noise that he made...

* * *

The sensation of being folded inside out passed with the fading-in of the Planar Gate Room. October rematerialised amidst fantastically beautiful sliding brass panels and odd, ethereal glows. The room softly groaned and chuckled around him with unknowable energies, feeling at once like home.

Home! Home at last! His heart soared in spirit to be back here once again! This room, this portal to anywhere in the multiverse, this place to which he had returned from every extra-planar adventure, most often with Silver (or with Silver following close behind.)

He had often returned laughing and today was no exception. Though today he wasn't laughing at something he'd done or some moral victory he'd won, but in sheer joy at having come home.

He bounded out of the gate room and onto the stone staircase that wound up around the outside of the tower, around its many rooms and sectors, its vaults and mysterious facilities. Familiar sights, all, despite their strangeness. He ignored the labs and vaults and mysterious places, the guest rooms, the kitchen... even the swag rooms full of glorious cool shit from a hundred incredible adventures. None of it mattered in the least to him.

He ran straight up to the large open room that the disaster of his creation had conveniently cleared into a large, master bedroom. His and Silver's room. He practically exploded out of the stairwell, looking for any flash of Silver for him to pounce instantly and exuberantly upon.

He didn't see any.

He paused, skidding to a stop on his paws on the cold, stone floor, though his tails were still high with glee. He began to look around more carefully... he began to notice things. Absences.

The armour stands... the weapon racks, the shelves, the chests, the bed, the wardrobes, the surfaces all... where October's bow, quiver and Rapier hung, there was no longer a Greatsword... On the armour stand next to the one bearing his chain shirt and leathers, was an empty one no longer bearing silver's heavy, yet revealing partial platemail... Where a heavy and brutal-looking gauss-shotgun had sat below October's adaptable laser-longarm, only the long and comparatively slender rifle remained.

There were a great many absences in this large, cluttered room... and the presence of a note, on the bed.

October wasn't thinking, didn't know what to think... a sort of shock descended upon him as he wheeled and and hopped heavily onto the bed to read the note.

He read it in silence, his tails slowly drooping behind him.

It was in a curvaceous and cute style of handwriting very particular to the usually big and muscular Dragon-form that it belonged to. The hearts and little circles instead of full stops as well as the little faces were unmistakable and unrepeatable by any sane mind. There wasn't even the slightest chance of forgery.

"HI FLIXY!! <3

I'M REALLY SORRY I'M NOT HERE, BUT I FIGURED THAT IT WAS PROBABLY BETTER THIS WAY. ^'.=.'^;;;

I'M SORRY I LOCKED YOU OUT OF THE TOWER. I WANTED TO KNOW IF YOU WOULD BE ALRIGHT. -'.=.'-

I KINDA NEEDED TO KNOW IF YOU WOULD BE ALRIGHT, BECAUSE I'VE BEEN DOING A LOT OF THINKING WHILST CHECKING ON YOU WITH THE TV BALL..."

"Scrying Orb..." corrected October quietly, by habit.

"...AND I THINK YOU'LL BE OKAY. WHENEVER I CHECKED IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE GETTING ON WITH SOMETHING THAT WAS FUN FOR YOU."

October's eyes bulged. What in all the hells of all the worlds had Silver been watching? Of course, knowing October's Luck and Silver's Timing it would have been nothing but everything Silver wanted to or really didn't want to see. October didn't so much suspect this as consider it a grim certainty.

"...AND I'M SURE NOW I'VE ONLY BEEN HOLDING YOU BACK FROM THE THINGS YOU REALLY WANT TO DO, TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO, STOPPING YOU FROM DOING WHAT YOU WANT AND GENERALLY BEING YOUR BIG SCALY DUMBASS WHO LOVES YOU BUT DOESN'T REALLY MAKE YOU HAPPY. U'.=.'U

IT'S ABOUT TIME I STOPPED CLINGING TO YOU LIKE A BIG SILVER BALL&CHAIN WHEN YOU'RE NOT REALLY WHAT I WANT EITHER. -'.=.'-

I TRIED TO CHANGE YOU. I REALISE THAT WAS STOOPID NOW. YOU ARE WHAT YOU ARE, YOU CAN'T BE ANYTHING ELSE. THAT THING YOU ARE IS WHAT I FELL IN LOVE WITH, BUT I CAN'T LIVE WITH YOU. U'.=.'U

I STILL LOVE YOU, BUT I CAN'T BE YOUR LOVER ANYMORE. ;'.=.';

I'M SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG. YOU'VE WASTED YOUR WHOLE LIFE SO FAR STAYING WITH ME OUT OF PITY AND I DON'T WANT THAT ANYMORE. ;'.=.';

YOU BE FREE MY WILD FLIXIE FLAME. <3

YOUR DRAGON LOVES YOU, ALWAYS! <3

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 ;'.=.';

<3

P.S. DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME. I'LL FIND SOME BIG DUMB BRUTE IN NO TIME. YOU KNOW ME! YOU WON'T HAVE TO PUSH ME TO DO IT ANYMORE AND I WON'T BE JEALOUS OF YOU EITHER. SO IT'S ALL GOOD NOW! <3"

October remained staring at the note for some time, in silence.

* * *

"Oh, but I hope he's okay..!" moaned Colin, wandering around behind Chai, not actually doing any work.

Chai growled softly, almost inaudibly, but otherwise just got on with what he was doing, following the labels that told him which rooms to take which meals to, whilst Colin babbled and fretted behind him.

"I mean..." said Colin, "I'm sure he wouldn't just leave unless it was urgent, right?"

"Sure he would," said Chai, quietly, "just for the sake of skipping this shit."

"What... stuff..?" asked Colin, looking mystified, "...and stop swearing all the time!"

Chai ignored the second part, sick of hearing it today. "This stuff," he said, quietly angry, "You know, Colin, work." He bashed the trolley with a paw, loudly rattling it and its ceramic covered serving bowls.

"Oh..." said Colin, looking worriedly at the tray and the loud noise, "Well I didn't think he was THAT lazy."

Chai laughed, but without much humour.

"Well," said Colin, "What are we going to tell Mister Pouncer..?"

"Nothin'," said Chai, "Not our problem."

"He's our friend!" said Colin, a wail in his high voice, "They'll go after him again! Oh, I don't want October to get in trouble..."

"They only caught him last time because they were quick," said Chai, quietly, "October said something about a wake he'd left that the psychics had prised open so Eclipse and Firenze could follow him. It's probably too late, already."

Colin whined.

"Anyway," said Chai, sharply, "Are you gonna whine all day or are you going to help me get some work done? I'm doing it by myself, here!"

"Oh!" said Colin, putting his big fluffy ears back and widening his eyes for a second, before bouncing back, "I'm sorry, Chai! I'll help!"

"Great," said Chai, nonplussed.

Colin immediately yanked one of the serving dishes off of the trolley with his ribbons and checked the note. Chai thought for sure that the ceramic dome lid would come right off, but the Sylveon's balance was disappointingly perfect. That could have put a smile on Chai's face.

Instead, Colin pranced off with the bowl in grasp to go and politely knock on someone's door with a paw and greet them with a bright and cheery, "Good morning! I hope you're enjoying your stay in Café Plaisir!" he recited it perfectly, with apparently genuine cheer, his voice lowering to say, "Here's your breakfast... let me know if there's... anything else I can do for you, sir..."

Chai shook his head and got on with his tasks silently.

* * *

It had been a while since he had been in his Flixard form. He'd thought he would have had a bigger reaction to it. He'd had a list of things he was going to do with his hands when he got them back. He'd adapted well as a Ninetales and Fox paws were more dexterous then you'd expect, but there were some things you could only do with long fingers and a proper thumb.

He hadn't done any of them. He'd barely cared. He hadn't even cared for the pain of transformation. It had just been a delay that had frustrated him. He just about noticed how cold and small he felt. How alone without the background chatter of his tails, but that was nothing to the absence in his heart.

He was about five-foot-six of bipedal Fox lizard, mostly black, with a crimson underbelly. A sharp mix of vulpine and reptilian features that he had assumed first of all. It had been in response to Silver, the creature that had found him and shown him by example what corporeality was, that precious metal of a person...

He ran through the grand, beautiful city, through ten thousand years of Magocratic glory. Towers a mile high connected by beautiful sweeping bridges and vast, hanging gardens loomed all around but as much as he loved the place, he barely saw them. He was looking for any flash of silver that wasn't a guardsman's sword.

He was dressed oddly in chain shirt, leather boots and trousers and a polyester t-shirt, with various other anachronisms. He hadn't tried hard to blend in, it wasn't like they didn't know of him here.

He heard the shout, for the fiftieth time that day, "THE FLIXARD RETURNS! BOUNTY IS A THOUSAND GOLD, ALIVE TO THE LORD, FIVE HUNDRED DEAD AN' ANOTHER HUNDRED FOR PAIN!"

They really didn't like him here. It was like they didn't appreciate a masterful joker. Still, he kept out an eye for the adventurers that would surely soon mobilise at the offer of such a rich bounty. He was at exponential risk every moment he stayed here, dodging guards, but he was getting desperate.

He had already checked out the grand arena, where the great lunkheads were to be found. He had checked the nearby bars... and the boy bordellos October used to drag Silver to... and then further afield, to the stylish shops and the little pretty places he knew that Silver loved. That he might have come back to now that he wasn't attached to someone who had gotten himself banished from the city.

A wake of chaos followed October. Broken shop windows, tumbling wares, trampled flowerbeds, decorative trees hacked at with swords that surely missed a quickly ducking Flixard and occasionally, never more than necessary, speckled with blood.

There was not a single sign of Silver, though. None. No-one had seen a thing no matter how he had questioned them and pursuit was closing in rapidly.

He had already tried all their other favourite magical places.

In the end, as he was cornered at the bottom of a mile-high alleyway, cordoned by a hundred guards, under the eyes of a thousand onlookers and facing a party of mighty-looking warriors of spell and sword, all October could do was close his eyes and say, "Self-Introspection."

The Planar gate accepted the password and whisked him away, an instant before an arrow would have struck him in the chest.

* * *

"Where IS he?" said Mister Pouncer, frowning down at the pair of them.

Chai rolled his eyes and looked away.

Colin whined unhappily and answered, "His fiancé came! He left a note! October said the words and he disappeared! Chai thinks he's gone home! I'm sorry!"

Then, after his rapid-fire blabbing, the Sylveon burst into tears.

Pouncer's eyes widened slightly, quirked an eye-ridge sharply and then looked at Chai, "Is this true..?" he asked simply, over the Sylveon's loud weeping.

"Yeah," said Chai, "Pretty much."

"Eugh..." Pouncer sighed, then shook his head, "Well, tell him he's going to have to make the time up, for as long as he's away."

Chai frowned, "We've got no way of contacting him."

Pouncer turned away, "He'll be back. Tell him then," said the Grovyle, quietly.

Chai frowned at Pouncer's back as their Supervisor turned and left, apparently busy with more important matters then the likes of his floor staff.

Colin continued to wail. Chai looked upwards, despairingly, so the nearest clock, willing 2pm and the end of his shift to come sooner.

* * *

So it was that a bizarre looking creature strode on six legs across the sharp, craggy, bright and starkly blue landscape, avoiding the purple, jagged boundaries of the predatory vegetation patches here.

He paused and raised his front half from the ground, taking on a more centaur-like aspect. The antennae of the spearmint-green carapaced creature twitched, scenting or fazzing out the air, seeking any sign of the one it sought. It was a strange mix of angular lines, somewhere between vulpine and insect.

He had once again become used to the strange taste of the peculiar mix of gases indigent to this planet. Now it was the taste of the strange metals he wore, the chain-shirt hanging poorly-fitted around his upper thorax and the rapier grasped by a segmented, chitinous tendril opposite to his poorly-braced laser weapon. Both had been put to heavy use in the last few hours.

Unfortunately, the atmospherosenses detected nothing of the one he longed for. He calculated dimly that despair was becoming logical.

So many possibilities investigated, increasingly desperate. So many forms, so many agonising transformations willingly undertaken... with nothing to show for it.

He was beginning to accept that with the entirety of the multiverse available, the possibilities for evading him were literally infinite. The one he sought could be anywhere, anywhen... in any form. He could quite possibly have even temporarily discarded his conceit of always having a silver-coloured exterior.

During the past few hours, he had visited space stations, starships, caves, cities of almost every technological level. He had been engaged by magical, technological, cybernetic, psionic and mechanical entities, many of whom had identified him as a troublemaker from past experience. He had been a Vulpeculan, a Vorcha, a Verpine, an Irken, a Krendark, a Fox-folk, a Silerian Pouncer, a cloud of energy and force-fields, a Thin Man, a sharp and skinny Diamond Dog, even a sharp-featured, creepy-looking young human. He had NOT spared himself the forms and places he hated as long as there was the slightest possibility that Silver might have gone there to avoid him.

All for nothing.

He had been everywhere...

...and he had nowhere left to go.

* * *

"I'm worried, I don't see how I can't be worried," said Colin, walking side-by-side with the patience-strained, grim-looking Umbreon.

"Uh-huh," Chai responded. Barely.

"Ooooh..." whined Colin, musically, "I really hope that he's alright and he comes back soon, I really do..."

"Uh-huh," grunted Chai.

They were coming up to the very back of the employee quarters, finally. Chai had cast an irritated glare at what had formerly been his own door on the way past. If it had still been his door then he would already be rid of Colin.

Suddenly there was a ribbon on his shoulder. Chai slowly looked around at it, then began to frown at Colin.

"Are you alright..?" asked Colin, "because you're looking... not alright, Chai."

"I'm fine," muttered Chai, "Just tired."

"Tired?" said Colin, frowning just a little, though still looking very concerned, "Aren't you worried?"

"No," said Chai, flatly, "He's fine. Probably better than ever."

"Oohhh..." moaned Colin, "That's sad, I thought he was having fun, here..."

Chai shook his head and looked away, wondering how Colin could have ever gotten the impression that hard work and schedule could be something October could enjoy.

"Maybe you should sleep in my room tonight, Chai," said Colin, "I could use the company... and someone to talk to... I'd really appreciate it."

"No," said Chai, plainly, "I'd appreciate the chance to sleep. Without a snoring, stinking, kicking, humping rug of a Ninetales around, as it happens."

"Ohh!" said Colin, practically squealing, "That's a terrible thing to say, Chai!"

Chai shrugged and gratefully noticed that they were coming up to Colin's door.

"Won't you please reconsider, please..?" asked Colin, whinily.

"No," said Chai, quietly, "See you tomorrow, Colin."

Colin moaned, whined, made all kinds of sad noises, but ultimately, in a piteous voice, said, "...Okay..."

Chai walked right past his door and over to October's, bashing it barely open with his head and slipping nimbly inside, just as quickly as he could get away from Colin.

The near-darkness of the indigo-lit gloom was welcoming. The relative silence was wonderful.

October's scent, filling the place, was less so. Chai found himself crinkling his muzzle and frowning... until he couldn't anymore. His face fell. He made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a cough and then stuck his claws in the awful carpet, just to worry at it destructively.

No, no, he wasn't letting any weakness leak out of him. So he got his shit together, like he always did... and then he advanced on the bed. Dammit. He really did need to lie the fuck down...

He leapt up onto October's broken, sagging bed and it wasn't until October barely turned his low-hung head to look at him that Chai realised he was there, with a sudden jolt and a little barked Umbreon cry.

The Ninetales had been so still that he had seemed inanimate. More than that, he wasn't putting out his usual heat. His eyes didn't have their usual green glow... and as much as Chai wasn't an aurasensitive Pokemon, it seemed like some intuitive presence was missing to his Dark-type nature.

"October!?" asked Chai, his eyes briefly wide.

October nodded, slightly, but didn't otherwise react.

"You're back?" asked Chai, starting to gather himself.

October nodded and lowered his head.

Chai had a lot of things he wanted to say as he stared at the big, downcast Fox. He had things he wanted to shout, snark, remark, he had never quite made up his mind what he would have said when he probably never saw the Ninetales again.

There was so much to say, but not say, that all Chai ended up saying, in a hoarse and hissed voice that made a mockery of the composure he was struggling for, was; "Why..?"

October remained silent and dropped his gaze.

Chai stared insistently. It was hard to make out October's exact expression. Indigo light didn't work so well on crimson fur.

Chai summoned his aura and made his rings glow, lighting the room up in a yellow glow that revealed the perfect misery on October's face.

"Because..." said October, with none of his usual spirit, his green-on-black eyes widening pathetically in a way that Chai had never seen before, "I have no-where else to go..." He looked utterly despondent.

Chai stared, speechlessly at October. In all the time they'd hung around together, he'd never once seen the Ninetales lacking spirit.

Chai had seen a lot of misery in his life...and walked right by it. But this time, he found he couldn't turn away, couldn't stop staring with his own eyes wide. There was nothing droopier than a droopy Ninetales. Nothing sadder than a blue October.

Chai tried to slip back to his usual self, narrow his eyes, come up with something sharp to say, tried to close the breach in the wall he had built around his heart... but he couldn't.

Chai did something he hadn't done since he was small and brown, then.

Chai leaned forward and he put his forelegs around the Ninetales' shoulders, hugging him tightly. Ferociously tightly when his claws, right with his muscles, went and pulled him in as tight as he would go, all on their own.

October made a whine. Another noise that Chai had never heard out of him and seemed to twitch, as if he might struggle...

"You idiot!" said Chai, with an uneven voice, "What's so bad about us, right here, huh!?"

...instead the Ninetales chin ended up on Chai's shoulder. He shook once, silently.

"I'm sorry, Chai," said October, whinily.

"Don't be fuckin' sorry," said Chai, his voice more emotional than he'd have liked, "Just don't run off again... Pouncer'll be pissed and Colin'll be pissed and..." Chai sniffed, "I'll be fuckin' pissed if you don't let us help you sort out your shit!"

"I'm sorry," October said again, shaking again and again.

"...and stop that!" said Chai, sniffling, "You're making me do it, you pussy!"

October actually started laughing, for less than a second, then started crying, at the same time. He continued doing both as Chai's hold on him tightened.

The door burst open, then. Colin stood in the light of the doorway.

At such a high pitch that it was a wonder that the jar of lost things didn't shatter, Colin shrieked, "October, you're back!" and leapt across the room in three bounding strides.

The soft but fast impact of the Sylveon knocked the pair of them over and ribbons were about the pair of them before they knew what was happening.

An instant later, Colin's face was buried between their chests, his paws on both of their backs, hugging with as much strength as was in the slight Sylveon. Colin was instantly wailing with tears.

He was also using his soothing touch, instinctively using his Fairy-type powers so that soon, he was the only one crying. Though there would be a lot of sniffling, still to come.

For once Chai wasn't angry at him for it. It wasn't good for a Dark type, but it had to be better than this crying shit.

They were a pile of sniffling, bubbling mess when the door crashed open again.

Rain Flower appeared in the doorway, "Alright, what are you doing in here, Redtales!?" she was animate, leaning down into every angry sentence, "Rain Flower needs her afternoon naps! You're gonna get another spankin'!"

They all looked around at her at once, with tear-streaked faces.

The little Vaporeon creased her face, "Alright, this is some weird stuff, even for me." She cocked her head, curiously, "What'cha doin'..?"

Chai gave a barky little cough to get the Vaporeon's attention and then his sharp red eyes bore into the Vaporeon's own big dark eyes with what could only be described as a look of death. One that communicated exactly what the Umbreon intended without saying a damn word and instantly conveyed that whilst Chai wasn't very big himself, he was more than big enough compared to the even smaller Vaporeon to be considered a mortally dangerous predator. It was probably a Dark type thing. He was never quite sure.

Whether Rain Flower received and understood... or whether whatever waves of crazy it was that Vaporeon received simply had a change in the tide, Rain Flower was suddenly backing up, shaking her head.

"This is too weird, even for Rain Flower!" said Rain Flower, "...and I was a porn star, you know! You're all perverts!"

October started laughing, as the door swung shut behind her. Colin and Chai looked at him first in puzzlement, then with a smirk growing on his face, Chai joined in. Colin wasn't long after.

So it was, that life went on at Café Plaisir, though October would go on to take a few days off as a result. Still, though his heart was breaking, he had somewhere to be, after all... and through it all, friends, who he was more than ever grateful for.

Things could never be the same, after losing such a love, but he knew that things could be far worse and at least, were not quite as bad as they seemed.

Not with the friends that he was beyond fortunate in having, every one and all.