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The New Normal - 5-6
🕑 Added 2023-09-04 06:25:35 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 5-6 – A Frosty Transition
The sound of polite applause reverberated throughout the VIP room as we all clapped for Lorelei’s victory.
“It looks like Walker’s finally on his way out.” Agatha commented with a smirk, “Shame, he was such an easy target for my barbs.”
“I’m sure he would be happy enough to escape from your tormenting.” Lance replied sarcastically as he stood up. “Come, we should make our way down to greet our newest Elite Four member. Remember, whatever disagreements you may have with her personally, it is our duty to welcome her into the Elite Four. Don’t let the reporters whip up a scandal.” He reminded, while turning to stare at Will. Will nodded at the silent message.
After that, we all followed Lance and made our way to the arena, where a sullen Walker was shaking hands with an ecstatic Lorelei. The latter looked like she was doing her best to restrain her displays of enthusiasm.
As soon as Walker saw us approaching, he said a few more words to Lorelei before he separated from her, walking away to confront the line of reporters that were waiting starvingly to question the two.
“Congratulations to you, Lorelei.” Lance greeted the winner with a smile, “I hope you are ready for the new responsibilities and duties that you have just earned yourself.”
“My thanks, Champion Lance.” Lorelei replied formally with a slight bow, trying but failing to conceal her excitement, “I am most honoured to have won myself this position.”
“Indeed, I should hope so.” Lance said. “Admittedly, I was concerned about the method by which you used to challenge for the Elite Four. It reminded much of what I disliked about the latter period of your uncle’s reign as Champion. However, I have witnessed your determination and struggles through your battle just now, and I can safely say that I approve of your drive to free yourself from the pit that you found yourself in.”
Lorelei gave off a small smile at the praise, “…I’m glad you don’t hold my uncle’s mistakes against me, Champion. I…was not the biggest fan of my uncle either, and would never intend to follow in his footsteps. At least, not politically.”
“Does that mean you’ve no intention to reach out to his ex-supporters in order to solidify your political base?” Will asked prudently with a frown, “I’m sure you would be a great rallying figure for them if you wanted to be.”
She shook her head, “No. To be fair, I haven’t really given much thought to the politics of being in the Elite Four.” She admitted shamelessly, “I’ve been far more focused on preparing for the actual match against Walker.”
“That’s-! That’s ridiculous! Why would you not-” Will spluttered out before being cut off by Agatha.
“Because most people have other things in their minds besides politics, young man.” She said before laying a comforting arm on Lorelei. “Ignore the bluster of men. You did very well, dear. And you should be proud of your efforts.”
Lorelei stared in utter surprise at Agatha’s gesture of kindness but recovered quickly and nodded softly towards her. “Thank you, Elite Agatha. There is…much that I need to learn now that I’m in the Elite Four. Unfortunately, my uncle never really got the opportunity to inform me about how I should act, so I’m really learning as I go.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it.” I said to her, “I didn’t really know what I was doing either. I flew by the skin of my teeth for the most part, and sometimes I still think I’m just making stuff up as I go. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.”
“You better get a hang of it fast, though.” Lance added seriously, “Your victory over Walker was a good one, but it was also a very close thing. I’m not sure if such a victory could deter any future challengers looking to make a name for themselves in the Elite Four. I hope you don’t forget that your position here is only determined by your ability to hold it through your own strength.”
Lorelei nodded firmly at Lance’s words, a steely look coming through her eyes. But before we could talk any further, a League Official hesitantly came up to us and told us that they had finished speaking with Walker and now it was time for the winner’s interview. Nervously, Lorelei was escorted onstage as it was time for her to face the horde of reporters.
As Lorelei was tasked with herding off the hungry reporters’ questions, I walked over to where Walker was standing by himself.
According to the rules, any fallen Elite Four member was allowed to make one challenge within a month of their defeat to any other Elite Four member. This was a one-time thing, and a subsequent loss meant that you had to re-challenge the Indigo Conference to re-earn your challenge rights.
Thus, Walker technically had the opportunity to challenge any other Elite Four member to regain his old position, though I sincerely doubted that would happen.
“Walker, I’m sorry that your time in the Elite Four is over.” I said to him.
“Oh, John? Didn’t expect you to be speaking to me.” He said with slight surprise, “But yes…I’m afraid that my skills just weren’t good enough. Maybe there were some truths in all those slanderous rumours after all…” He sighed, but he didn’t seem too bitter. If anything, I felt a sense of relief from him.
“Well, try not to linger on it too much.” I comforted, “After all, you still have a Gym to return to, right? I’m sure your brother would be happy to welcome you to help out around the Violet City Gym if you need something to do.”
“That’s true enough. I guess it’s not like I’m returning to nothing.” He said, slowly forming a fond smile, “I guess I could use my newly found free time to start training up my son, Falkner, for when it’s his turn to be the Gym Leader. He just started his journey a few weeks ago, but I’m sure now that I’m out of the Elite Four that I can find time for him.”
“Are you going to be speaking to the others before you leave?” I asked, gesturing to where the other Elite Four were standing.
Walker shook his head, “No…I don’t think I’d be welcome. Agatha would probably say something cutting again, and Lance never hid the fact that he disliked me. I’ll make my way out myself.”
“I see.” Was all I said, “Well, in that case, I wish you all the best. Maybe we’ll see each other again. And, for what it’s worth, your few words of kindness to me when I was first introduced in the Elite Four helped me more than you knew. So, thank you for that, Walker.”
He looked surprised for a moment, before shooting me another smile, a genuine one that reminded me of when he first welcomed me into the Elite Four. It was one full of nostalgia, and the reason why I couldn’t find myself to dislike the guy despite our differences. “You’re welcome, John. I find kindness to be something that should be freely given wherever possible. It’s not served me that well, but, regardless, I wish you all the best as well. Good luck. And I hope to see you again one day.”
We shook hands, possibly for the final time, before the two of us separated. Walker went away, likely going home, whereas I reconvened with the remaining Elite Four members.
“I miss anything?” I asked them as I returned.
“You missed something fairly interesting.” Agatha replied with grin, “Lorelei openly stated that she wasn’t going to be following Pryce’s old policies, and she openly distanced herself from Pryce’s old supporters. Those idiots are in for a nasty surprise.”
“Oh, wow. Huh. That’s interesting.” I commented, “So, that means that we aren’t going to get a resurgence of Pro-Pryce policies. Thank Arceus.” I thought aloud.
“Indeed, I’ll be looking forward to seeing what she proposes in the future.” Lance said with a nod, “Though, this definitely has turned out better than expected. I respect her more for not just following in Pryce’s footsteps. Oh, speaking of which, where’s Walker?”
“He left. I just said goodbye to him.” I answered.
“Oh? He just left? Well, ok then.” Lance dismissed with a wave before he turned his attention back to Lorelei. “Come, I think it’s time to rescue our newest member from those nosy reporters. Let us reconvene at the VIP room, I have some small announcements to make.”
Several minutes later, the five of us met up once again in the VIP room.
“Right then. Unfortunately for you Lorelei, you’re going to have to pick up about how we do things here pretty quickly.” Lance said as Lorelei frowned worriedly, “We’re going to be having the next committee meeting tomorrow. I expect you all to be there.”
Lance turned to Lorelei, “That does mean that you won’t be able to have any time to gather up any political support or make deals before the meeting, but it does mean that you’ll have the opportunity tomorrow to start making yourself known. I hope you are able to make use of the opportunity. Otherwise, I’ll see you all there. Thanks for coming today.”
After that, we all split apart. But before I left, I caught in the corner of my eye Agatha beginning to converse with Lorelei about something. I was curious about what they were speaking about, but ultimately left the two of them alone as I made my way out as well.
Perhaps I’ll find out more during the committee meeting.
==========
The next day, I found myself waiting inside the committee conference room for the meeting to start when Lance came up to me with a concerned expression on his face.
“John, I have something I may need you to do in the future.” He began.
“Uh, okay. What’s up?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, Lorelei’s victory over Walker has generated some criticism from a few of the more prominent members of Indigo last night, mostly from Johto. Nothing overt of course, and you certainly won’t see any of this on the news, but my sources from Blackthorn tell me there is some rising discontent at her victory.” He explained.
“What? Why is that? She won fair and square.” I puzzled. “Don’t they have other things to worry about?”
“Yes, and I agree with you.” Lance nodded, “But apparently some people were upset that Lorelei made use of a loophole to earn her chance to fight Walker in the first place. Mind you, it is a very small minority, but as a new Champion, it’s something that I need to be concerned about. I hate dealing with these whiners as much as you do, but it’s part of my job now.”
“I see, so what do you need me to do?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“I figured that this might be a good opportunity to hit two Pidgey with one stone.” He replied, leaning forwards, “You see, I’ve always intended to do a quick inspection of all the Gyms in Indigo as soon as I had settled in as Champion. And now that I am, I thought why not use this opportunity to scout out the Gym Leaders and see if they’re discontent with anything; see if we can try to resolve any issues they have with my leadership.”
“I plan for you to be assigned to the Kanto Gyms, and Lorelei to the Johto ones. It’ll give her the opportunity to make nice and prove herself to them. I’m sure she’ll welcome the opportunity.” He continued, “You’ll likely be accompanied by a few League Officials so that they can actually do a preliminary inspection of the Gyms while you’re at it.”
Thank Arceus I checked up on the Waterflower sisters before Lance did something like this, “Yeah, sure, I have no problems with that. Let me know if you’re going through with it.” I replied.
“Good, and thanks. I’ll owe you one for this. I’ll speak to Lorelei and make the announcement soon. Thanks for this. And I do hope the committee passes the proposal as you hope. It’ll do great for our relations with Hoenn.” He nodded to me before walking off, finishing off his preparations to host the committee meeting.
With that done, the committee meeting fortunately proceeded with no big issues. Lance proposed for the Contest Hall idea to be implemented, and there must have been a lot of backroom dealings because it was almost unanimously approved.
The more debated topic was about where these Contest Halls would be established. That moved us to the discussion phase, where people began mingling around to secure and reaffirm any agreements.
I already made all the deals that I needed to, so I ended up just observing how our two new Elite Four members interacted with the Committee. Unsurprisingly, Will proved himself once again to be an eager politician as he began speaking to a few members that I recognized were all representatives or Indigo’s larger business interests.
On the other hand, Lorelei, true to my expectations, was not approached by anyone. Her denunciation of Pryce’s old policies isolated her from would-be supporters, and many others likely were hesitant to approach who they saw to be no more than Pryce’s niece.
Ironically enough, Lorelei’s lack of support for Pryce’s ex-supporters probably was the final nail in the coffin for them. And I expected them to be relegated to political obscurity and be voted our shortly.
Feeling bad, I decided to approach her.
“Hey, how are you settling into the Elite Four? Must be a lot to take in at once.” I said to her. “Did Lance tell you about your upcoming trip to visit all of the Johto Gyms?”
She blinked, surprise colouring her features at my approach, “It’s fine, and yes, he did. Besides, my position now might look bad, but I can guarantee you that my victory over Walker has opened up many opportunities to me that weren’t available before. This is nothing.”
“Well, it’s good that you’re able to see the bright side of things.” I replied with a smile, “Oh, and in case I didn’t say so yesterday, congratulations on your victory. I hope we can work together well in the future. Good luck dealing with the Johto Gyms.” With your poor reputation was left unsaid.
“Thanks John.” She said, before a nostalgic smile formed on her face. “You know, you were partially the reason why I decided to challenge Walker in the first place. I saw how successful you became, and I asked myself why I couldn’t achieve the same. Thus, I trained and prepared for my battle, and did everything that I could to ensure my victory.”
“Hah! That’s very good of you.” Agatha interrupted with a bark of laughter, stepping into the conversation, “Don’t let yourself be held down by the idiocy of others. Pave your own path. That’s what I did. How else did you think a female Ghost specialist like me managed to make it in the Elite Four?”
Agatha then gestured towards me, “If you’re looking for political support, this young man over here is probably your best bet. He doesn’t have the ego the other two have. I’m sure he’ll be willing to help.”
Lorelei looked surprised at the offer of support as she looked between the two of us, but a nod from me seemed to reassure her. “Um, okay. Thank you very much for this, both of you. But what is it that you need me to do?”
This time I answered, “Honestly, this would be like an investment for me. You have no political support now, but that’s not going to be true forever. If you manage to hold on to your position, then you’ll eventually become a political powerhouse in your own right. Thus, I’m looking to ‘invest’ into you by sharing my power with you to earn your support and favour so that I may make use of your power and connections later.”
In other words, I would hang around Lorelei and introduce her to a few committee members that were friendly with me, so that she could advertise herself and start making acquaintances. In exchange, when she does have some power of her own, I’d hope that she would be more favourable with me thanks to my earlier support.
Demonstrating that she had inherited more from her uncle than just his love for Ice types, she readily agreed to my offer. “I accept. I already have a great deal of respect for you, John, so I would be happy to be in your care for the time being.”
“Just don’t seduce him!” Agatha mocked with a grin, “My apprentice has already marked her claim! And I won’t let her lose!”
I tried really hard to not let a blush show on my face, but I’m pretty certain that I failed. Lorelei chuckled at my expression, but the two of us started walking around where I helped introduce Lorelei to a few friendlier committee members.
Those mostly consisted of those who approved of my ideas of further unity with Indigo. In fact, Lorelei’s origin as a Johtonian actually endeared her more to them, and they mentioned that a political friendship between a Kantonian and a Johtonian to work together for a united Indigo was good optics. I agreed.
Surprisingly, Lorelei said that she was also very much in favour of working to unite Indigo. She said that the continued divide between Johto and Kanto would only make things worse in the long run.
And even more remarkably, she also began speaking about her goals to make use of her position in the Elite Four to root out corruption and other blatant acts of nepotism.
“Corruption and nepotism has been commonly associated with my uncle’s time as Champion, and I am sad to say that I have been similarly affected by such claims.” She said to the committee members, “Therefore, I hope that by proving to the public that I will take a firm stand against such acts, I will be able to scrub off the stigma of nepotism from my own reputation and earn back the public’s trust once again.”
That was well-received by everyone, and I similarly agreed with her thoughts. I didn’t want Indigo to be brought low by rampant corruption and nepotism, so I was happy to support a full cleanse.
Although, that might put her at odds with Will since pro-business policies and corruption were often found in bed together. But that was no skin off my teeth. Besides, despite all his posturing, Will was a pretty honest person. I didn’t think he would be against such policies either. I couldn’t say the same for business ‘friends’, though.
After a quick round of pleasant introductions and discussions, Lance called for the end of the discussion phase and moved on to the speeches and voting. I gave my own standard speech about wanting to support inter-regional relations, and the other Elite Four joined in on my comments.
Lance evidently came through with his end of the agreement, as Cerulean City was proposed and agreed upon by a good majority. Perhaps seeing that it was likely to pass even without his contributions, Will also made sure to get his money’s worth and joined in on the agreement. This both ensured that the proposal to construct the Contest Halls in Cerulean were guaranteed to pass, but also so that he would fulfil his end of the bargain, meaning that I would have to fulfil mine as well.
That wasn’t really an issue. I had already informed mayor Henry about what Will wanted, and he was more than happy to allow for more investment into Cerulean.
Anyways, I was very happy and relieved to see my first ‘big’ idea passing like this. Since it had foreign policy implications, Lance was off to inform his counterparts at Hoenn about the idea, and to start issuing invitations for anyone who wanted to come over when the facilities were built.
In the meanwhile, the Indigo League had their own specifications for what they wanted to be built. Since the Contest Hall was supposed to be a grand display of Indigo’s cultural history and wealth, it needed to be a grand and spectacular building which would be able to accommodate any and all visitors from Hoenn.
It was going to be an expensive undertaking, which fortunately meant that the Indigo League was going to foot the bill. That was relieving; I was worried that Cerulean City might not have been able to afford to build such a structure.
Furthermore, Lance also informed the committee that he would be making a public announcement shortly after, where he would be announcing an inspection of all of Indigo’s Gyms, overseen by Elite John and Elite Lorelei for Kanto and Johto respectively. Since this was something that didn’t need the approval of the committee, they couldn’t do anything to stop it.
That caused many to break out in hushed whispers, and some were looking around nervously. I wondered what that was about.
Lance said more details would be shared in the announcement itself, but aside from myself and Lorelei, we were all free to leave.
As people started to leave, Lorelei and I made our way to Lance.
“Okay, as I said, you two will be overseeing the inspections of the Gyms.” He said to the both of us, “But, you don’t really need to do anything. The League inspectors will do the heavy work. Instead, I want you two to try to talk to the Gym Leaders, and hopefully identify any grievances they may have.” We nodded.
“Now, there is a reason why I chose to send the two of you.” He turned to me, “John, you’re very well liked in Kanto. Even a blind person could tell that. And I figured that you would be best to send to speak to the Kanto Gym Leaders about what they think about having a Johtonian Champion once again. They were burnt by Pryce before, so I hope to not follow in his footsteps.”
I nodded understandingly, and Lance turned to Lorelei. “Lorelei, you’re the opposite. You’re not liked at all.” Lorelei grimaced at his words, but Lance kept speaking, “But, frankly, I find that quite ridiculous. I enjoyed your battle against Walker, and I was pleased to see your determination. Thus, I am giving you an opportunity to prove yourself to both the members of the League and the Gym Leaders of Johto that you aren’t the villain some are making you out to be. Are you able to do this?”
“Yes sir.” She said firmly, eyes blazing determinedly once again. “I won’t disappoint you.”
“Excellent. Like I said, you’ll be sent off tomorrow early in the morning. Don’t worry, you won’t be expected to stay at each Gym until the inspectors are finished, since they’ll be doing most of their investigations off-site.” He explained, “They told me that they shouldn’t take too long per Gym, so it won’t be long before you can move onto the next Gym. Of course, if you want to stay for longer to chat or to look up something yourself, you may.”
“Try to get all this done within the next few days before the next Committee meeting. Anyways, that’s all. Good luck.” I nodded once again and began making my way out, though Lorelei was stopped by Lance before she could do the same.
“Oh, and Lorelei, let’s exchange contact details so you can forward me any ideas you might want to propose for the next meeting.” I saw her nod out of the corner of my eye as I left.
I left the Indigo Plateau and sent out a quick message to mayor Henry, informing him that the proposal had passed just like I hoped and that the Contest Hall would be built in Cerulean City, paid for all by the League. I also let him to know to expect to be contacted by some construction workers in the near future.
He quickly responded back with a thankful message and seeing that he didn’t need me for anything else, I made my way home to wind down after another day of politics.
As I got home, I quickly changed and joined my parents at the dinner table, who had just come back from their little trip from work, where I discussed the latest events with them.
“So, how was Lorelei?” My mother asked curiously, “She seemed stiff and unfriendly on television.”
I rolled my eyes, “They were probably trying to villainize her so that it could fit their narrative. She’s actually quite nice in person.”
“Oh? Really? That’s interesting.” My dad commented, “Is she better than Walker?”
“Dunno about that one yet.” I shrugged as I swallowed some rice, “Walker was actually a good man, despite our differences. I’m actually a little sad to see him go.”
“Hm…he looked much stronger than I thought he would be.” My mom said, “Thought he’d lack that little bit of ‘oomph’ in his fight. But he seemed to fight quite hard.”
“Everyone made him out to be a weakling because he was compared to the likes of John and Lance.” My dad remarked, “But he still made it into the Elite Four. That counts for something.”
Then he continued, “Oh speaking of which, we got invited to a luncheon with some other big businessmen of Cerulean. Was that your doing, John?”
“Uh, no. Not directly, at least.” I answered, before shooting them a smile. “But congratulations! Is there something you’d like to achieve there?”
My dad shrugged, “Not really, besides just introducing ourselves. If it goes well, we’ll have an in with the big movers and shakers.”
“I’m quite nervous about that, to be honest.” My mom admitted, “We were only poor farmers a little while ago, I’m not sure-”
“You can.” I interrupted, a little more forcefully than I intended. But she was about to say something I really didn’t want to hear from my mother. “You are NOT just poor farmers. You are more than that. We’ve all worked hard to do so. You can stand up to them and be proud of all you’ve accomplished with the family business.”
“Our son’s right, Angela.” My dad added with an approving nod, “Now, no more of that. Let’s just finish this dinner and head to bed early. We have a big day tomorrow.”
My mom nodded, and with a small smile, she continued with her dinner. After that, we wrapped up dinner and I made my way back to my room to get some rest. I had a full day of Gym Inspections coming up tomorrow, and I needed to be well-rested for it.
A.N. And Lorelei’s beginning to settle into the League! She’s not exactly popular right now, but maybe that’ll change in the future!
And I hope you all enjoyed that sendoff to Walker. He’s not a bad man, so I didn’t want to bash him. I hope it was a good goodbye.
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Big thanks!
Comments
Shisui34
Love the chapter and story. Happy to see everything going smoothly for John. Would love to see him mentoring Lorelei and giving advice for how to deal with some of the gyms. Also would suggest for him to do the gyms in a random order to try and find shady businesses happening in 1 or 2 of the gyms.
