Somewhere beyond the horizon...

Charon thought her joke was innocent enough, but apparently it wasn’t to him much to her dismay and as she expected.

She mentally scolded herself for being insensitive to whatever insecurities the kid had, but judging from the way he was looking down at himself and his suddenly flushed face, she touched on something she really shouldn’t have mentioned.

She lightly jabbed his shoulder in an attempt to calm his stuttering, “Hey now, I’m not gonna bite.”

This was one of the things she hated about this generation’s group of kids, they just didn’t have the spine her generation had, and it was probably all thanks to those computers and phones sucking all the life out of them. “Anyways, what’s there to be so nervous about?” She sighed, “Don’t those trainer schools teach you some grit or attitude? You can’t be a pro without some pluck in you!” Charon then smacked the kid’s back to slap some spirit back into him, just like how her dad would do to get the spunk into her and her sister for a tedious day of fishing.

“Come on, come on, you’re a man aren’t ya? Show me some of that school pride!”

Her jab to his shoulder caused him to jolt a little. His face flushed more but he forced a smile and a laugh. “Y-yeah, of course!” It was all just joking around here. What was he so worked up for? Calm down. Everything’s okay.

He’s only on his last chance to prove himself to everyone, but it’s okay!! It’s okay. All jokes and smiles here. It’s always sunny in Alola.

Still, he couldn’t help but blink. Grit? Attitude? Pluck? He wasn’t sure half of what she was saying but all those words did not sound like something that could apply to him. Still, he could at least...try-- Her slapping his back caused him to jolt again. The nausea flared up again but he did his best to swallow the sick feeling back down.

“Y-yeah?” He spoke up, before shaking his head. “I-I mean-- y-yeah! I uh-- i-it’s a good school, I-I’ve heard! Th-the best in the region--” The only one in the region, but still. “I’m really excited to g-go!” It wasn’t a lie, necessarily. He was also just really, really nervous.

[❀] ::  ❛ Hm? ❜ Élise listens carefully as the young man explains how to care for a Pokemon egg. Wow! She’s certainly in luck! Although he seems quite nervous, he does seem to know quite a bit about hatching eggs! She nods along as he offers her his advice. An incubator? Oh yes, that’s right! She’s heard of them! She thinks that maybe her sister used one on her school travels when she hatched her first egg.

Tilting her head, she watches curiously as he searches his bag. So she needs to keep the egg warm and keep it moving… that shouldn’t be too hard! Then again, she is having a somewhat difficult time carrying this egg. Unfortunately, it’s quite heavy and just a little less than half of her size. She certainly doesn’t want to drop it and hurt the egg- she is its temporary guardian after all!

❛ Truly? Are you sure it’s alright? ❜ Her eyes widen as he hands her a green cloth tote bag. Gently, she places the egg on the soft grass beside her and takes the sack. It’s soft and warm- surely this will keep the egg safe and warm. Slipping it over her head, she wears the bag like a messenger bag.  ❛ Is this how I’m supposed to wear it? ❜ she asks, adjusting the bag’s arm on her shoulder. Carole, now beside the egg, watches with interest as her trainer fiddles with the new item.

❛ Thank you, by the way, for all your help. Would you mind terribly helping me place the egg in this compartment? I’m afraid I might not do it correctly, ❜ she begins, looking back up at the boy. Suddenly, it hits her that she’s forgotten something.  ❛ Oh, dear, I don’t think I happened to catch your name! My name is Élise Leclair. It’s nice to meet you. ❜

By the time he was finished rambling, he seemed to deflate a little. Usually his ridiculous ravings like this netted him some...less than savory reactions, especially from people his own age. People have thought him a nerd, thought him better than them--especially with his family--or would just outright say they couldn’t understand him in between all his stuttering. With the language barrier he was already starting to come across in his Kalos adventures, he was most afraid of the third.

But the girl didn’t seem offput by his behavior at all. She was just as bright and chipper as when he began, nodding along thoughtfully and staying engaged. He couldn’t help but smile a little at her reaction to the bag. “I-it’s okay! I d-don’t think I’ll be using it again s-soon,” he admitted. He’d gotten his first egg under some pretty extreme circumstances, and he doubt it would happen again anytime soon. Besides, he had enough Pokemon to deal with already without taking on another infant.

He took a step back as she took it from him, slinging it over her shoulder. When she asked for confirmation on her style of wear, he nodded. “Y-yup! Th-they make backpack style as well b-but...m-most trainers use backpacks f-for other items, I-I’m pretty sure.” At least he did, with the bulging bag that hung from his own shoulders. 

At her asking for help, he snapped to attention, nodding quickly. “Y-yes of c-course!” He maneuvered over to the egg, looking it over from various directions. Truly, this egg was a fair bit larger than Tobi’s had been, but it would probably fit in the bag, right? It had some stretch to it, surely. Taking a deep breath, he reached down and wrapped his arms around the girth of it, hefting it up against his chest. The weight of it did cause him to stumble back a little, just as it had with the girl, but he managed to catch himself. “A-alright, h-hold it open!”

[❀] :: Looking up, Élise spots someone she doesn’t recognize. A young boy with dark hair and eyes, who also appears to be around the same age as her. Curioser and curioser! He must be a traveling trainer or tourist of some sort; after all, she knows most ( if not all ) of the children who live in Laverre.

❛ Oh, it’s quite alright! We all appear to be undamaged, yes? ❜ She says, brushing off the apologies. No harm, no foul, no? ❛ Besides, it seems like I’m the one who walked back into you. I’m terribly sorry if I hurt you. ❜  Her Florges, Carole, nods at the comment and flutters her long, leafy lashes.

Carefully, she looks back down and adjusts the egg in her arms.  ❛ And yes! It is! ❜ she answers, her eyes sparkling at the mention of the Pokemon Egg.  ❛ My friend, Carole and I found it while we were on the trail. It was abandoned beside a bush, so we decided to bring it back here and try to hatch it, ❜ she explains, briefly gesturing an elbow toward her teammate.

She’s still hunched over at this point, the egg hovering just above the ground in her arms.  ❛ Speaking of which… do you happen to be a trainer? Or perhaps know anything about hatching Eggs? I’m afraid this is my first time trying to do this… ❜ Unfortunately for her, that might be rather obvious at this point.

He was expecting something of a snippy remark, or an outright scolding from the girl across from him. At least, that was usually what he got from his fellow classmates. But instead, she simply brushed the whole thing aside, despite the fact that the situation could have turned out way worse for that egg. He blinked at her in surprise, glancing between her and the pokemon floating next to her--Carole?

Her question took him by surprise. ‘No,’ the thought hissed in his head. ‘Not until you can earn one lousy badge.’ Still, he quickly shook it away. That didn’t have anything to do with what this girl needed help with--and that he could provide.

“Ah...y-yes, I am! A-and I do! Uhm...m-my father, he...w-works in a lab,” he spoke vaguely. He didn’t really like letting people know right off the bat who his father was--it tended to shape how to perceived him. “A-and they hatch eggs there a-all the time. I-it’s easier with incubators, o-of course, but it’s p-possible in the wild too. I-I did once!” He smiled, thinking back to the careful and cautious week he spent fawning over the slightly cracked egg that would become his Trapinch, Tobi.

“H-here!” Sliding off one of the shoulders of his backpack, he went to unzip it and started rummaging through all of his things. “Th-the most important things are to k-keep it warm and k-keep it moving--eggs are n-normally moved around a lot by their p-parents, s-so that’s why travelers t-tend to be the best breeders. Here--” He finished his rambling to pull out a green cloth tote bag, similar to the ones that people might bring to their local Pokemart.

“Isn’t it? I always get plenty of these when I visit, they’re hard to come by where I live now so I always end up coming to Alola often.” 

Watching him go at the spicy malasada actually lifted her mood a little bit as well, it helped that he resembled a shy Dedenne which touched a soft side in her heart.

“It’s called a malasada. They’re like one of the most coveted things in this region asides for the Z-crystals found here or whatever.” Charon finished up her portion of the malasada and brushed the crumbs off of her shorts, she might as well keep the little guy company until his parents came around, it’s not like she had any plans for the rest of the day anyways.

“So.. Is this your first time here? Well, it’s kind of obvious with how you’re dressed.” Charon snickered at his somewhat cliche’d ensemble, he fit in perfectly with the rest of the tourists that came around, her snicker then grew into laughter once she imagined him matching with the rest of his family.

“Sorry, sorry. I just imagined your parents wearing the same thing as you and..” She cleared her throat now realizing that laughing at a little kid who was in a horrible mood seconds before was probably a bad idea, “Anyways, where are your parents at?”

Kaito continued munching on the malasada, reveling in the jolt it left in his on his tongue. It seemed to revitalize something in him. Then within a few moments, it was gone. He already found himself wanting some more. He was starting to understand why these things were so coveted. 

But just as quickly it all plummeted again. When she commented on his outfit he looked down at himself, flushing deeply. Was it really that obvious? Were people looking at him? Were they going to laugh at her like she was? Then she brought his parents into it and he could feel himself turning absolutely beet red. Did she know who his father was? Arceus, he did look like him in this outfit, didn’t he? He couldn’t help it! The loose and comfortable attire kept him from sweating too much!

❝  What are you starin’ at? ❞

Her voice is honey sweet – on par with the small smile already forming on her lips. She tilts her head quizzically, hums as if to gourd the absolute stranger into answering her question. But the more seconds pass, the more Zinnia’s patience is tested.

She’s nothing wrong with what she’s doing after all. Perched atop her mighty Salamance in the middle of public, it’s no wonder that she’s already caught the eye of several passerby. Was riding your Pokemon around not normalized here, after all? It was already customary practice in the Draconid Clan back in Meteor Falls, after all…

She strokes the top of her Salamance’s head.

Gemino purrs.

❝  Didn’t your mama ever teach you some manners? ❞  Zinnia asks. ❝ When someone – ‘specially a pretty little lady like me –           is asking you a question, you gotta answer it.                    …Haven’t you ever seen a Salamance before, bud? ❞

It wasn’t that Kaito had never seen a large or scary Pokemon before. But nothing quite this large or this scary. And certainly not in a place so public. While out in the wild, he always tried to prepare himself for whatever was to come. But just walking around town--well, maybe it had been silly to let his guard down. And yet, he had.

So when he turned the corner and was met with the large face of a ferocious dragon, of course his first instinct was to yelp and scramble backwards. Instinctively, his hand reached for a Pokeball, but he couldn’t bring himself to grab any. Who was he going to send out against a beast like this? His Treecko? His Swellow? No, if he was clearly going to die here, he couldn’t bring any of them with him. He would just have to stand here like a terrified child and wait for his demise.

But then a voice spoke over the top. It practically had him doing a double take. From his angle so low, he couldn’t even see whoever was speaking from above. For a moment he wondered if it was the Pokemon itself. He just stared, eyes wide and slack-jawed as he couldn’t bring himself to breathe, let alone speak. 

“Oh geez, you looked like you haven’t eaten, slept or even blinked in the past 24 hours..”

Charon broke off a generous portion of her spicy malasada to share with the stranger, she didn’t want to be hearing about how they found some random person half dead in the park on the news later. “Here, you look like you need it way more than me anyways, so.. Perk up! You’re in Alola, the sunniest, most relaxed region in the world. There’s no place for a frown like that.“ Granted, Charon wasn’t exactly the best at cheering people up, but at least it was something; she gave them some food after all, isn’t that enough to turn someone’s mood up? 

The Alola region. Kaito had done so much research preparing himself for this part of his journey. The Island Challenge was his last hope to make a name for himself and differentiate himself from his sister--sure, he hadn’t gotten badges like she had, but he’d have something else! That thought alone had been keeping him from completely falling apart.

...Even though he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it. By the time he landed at the Marina on Melemele island, the reality of his situation was beginning to sink in. He felt positively sick--a fact illustrated by the way his legs wobbled once they hit solid ground. He felt like he’d been at sea for hours...maybe it wasn’t too late to turn back? He could always give a try at that other school in Unova--

But the crowd of people getting off the boat pushed him further on the Marina. In the end, he extricated himself from the crowd and stumbled to the side of the pier, just watching everything. He at least seemed dressed for the occasion--goofy t-shirt, cargo shorts, brown sandals, the pinnacle of fashion, just like his father. But his face was telling a totally different story.

He gasped and jolted slightly at the sound of someone’s voice, talking to him. Gripping the straps of his backpack, he blinked at her in surprise before glancing down at her offering.

“H-huh? Ah-- wh-what? Oh. Uhm...th-thank you,” he murmured, gingerly taking the piece of food from her hands. He turned it over in his hands--despite how nauseous he felt, it looked really good and, much like she intended, food always did make him feel better. He took a small bite, and the taste immediately kicked in.

[❀] :: ❛ How curious… ❜ Sitting by the Laverre pond, Élise stares at a rather strange object in her lap. Gently, she lifts the oval-shaped object and brings it close to her face. The item is a bit weird in appearance  — why, with its unbalanced halves, odd geometric patterns, and smooth-but-tough texture, she wonders how it ever managed to blend in with the bushes of the nearby trail. Although decidedly unusual, the young girl knows eggsactly what this is.

❛ I’ve never seen a real Pokemon Egg up close like this before, ❜ she mumbles, adjusting her hand so that she can trace the patterns.  ❛ Do you really think it’s going to hatch soon, Carole? ❜ Turning towards the Florges, she sees the Pokemon nod sagely beside her.

❛ Oh, I can’t wait! I wonder what it is? ❜ There is a glimmer in her eyes as she speaks. Placing the egg back on her lap, she slowly stands up; however, her movements are a bit awkward.  ❛ It’s still a bit heavy, ❜ she says, leaning forward as the egg’s weight pulls her, and more importantly, her arms closer to the ground. As the Florges approaches to help her, Élise moves backward, and right back into someone.

❛ Oops! I’m sorry! ❜ Spinning around, she turns to apologize to the person by her.  ❛ I didn’t mean to bump into you like that. ❜

As much as Kaito was enjoying the various schools he was attending, the greatest part of his journey was those times between semesters--when he would get to actually go out and explore the region. Just himself, his Pokemon, and all the wonders that the outdoors had to offer him.

Thus far, Kalos had been a truly beautiful location to traverse. Everywhere he went gave him new sights to behold and the farther north he went, the more calming everything seemed to get. He couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his cheeks, despite the...unfortunate circumstances he found himself in.

At this point, he’d already challenged several gyms in the regions--and lost to each one. Just like he’d done in Hoenn. Just like he’d done in every region that he’d been to thus far. But...it was okay!! It was okay. He was still learning. And once he got the ball rolling with one badge, he was sure more would be to come. At least...that was what he told himself on the way to Laverre City to challenge Valerie.

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