♔ endgame

There's a brief, eerie silence as he does so, but soon enough his eyes open and he whirls back around with a smile. ]

Not Reshiwhat-- Reshiram! He is... a dear friend of mine. I shall introduce him to you!

[ Hearing that made him feel a little bit guilty; more often than not, Red never supplied anything interesting enough to justify any sort of happiness about meeting him. Most often he only gave short syllables of no meaning, at best. Maybe this time could be different, though. Maybe now was the time to start being interesting. However being interesting meant, exactly.

He could start with speaking. ]

Ah... I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?

My name is N.

She had a little trouble listening to N’s rapid speech, but she managed to keep up.

"You’re right. It was my choice." She said as she stood up, prompting Tik-Tak to stand as well. The Doduo looked between the two, an expression of worry on its faces as it whistled softly at Sabriel. The pokemon’s quiet plea for Sabriel not to be upset were ignored as she continued.

"Isn’t that good for you. How nice it must have been for things to go so swell for you. Lucky you.” She growled. “Don’t you think I’ve tried to get some other work? Fate, or whatever nonsense you might believe in, hasn’t been so generous to the rest of us.”

Sabriel ignored N’s question about her other skills. “Come on, Tik-Tak, let’s go. We’re done here, I’m getting tired of this.” She turned from the young man whose name she never bothered to learn and began to walk away.

He didn't say anything more, but did look up to face Sabriel again, glaring in silent frustration as she disregarded what, in his mind, were attempts at helping her.

A part of him did believe strongly in fate, and he didn't think that to be nonsense at all. It couldn't be that his second chance had only been given to him out of sheer luck. Still, uncharacteristically, he no longer felt like arguing. He only continued to scowl until Sabriel began to walk away, his expression softening briefly to return Tik-Tak's apologetic gaze before he turned away again.

He didn't want to follow Sabriel as she stormed off. It was pointless arguing with her anyway.

... But perhaps that was just it. Had he been arguing against her too much? He genuinely thought of her as a good person, yet he had actively rejected her perspective. The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt... And he certainly wasn't out to make enemies.

Honestly, Red had been very surprised to hear how highly others seemed to think of him the first time he’d been spoken to about it. He’d never thought what he’d done was particularly heroic; really, he’d only ever acted out of lack of other choices.

But even after he had learned of his popularity, it never deterred him from returning to Mt. Silver. Never being a fan of much social interaction in the first place, there was nothing about his apparent fans that was compelling enough to draw him back into civilization entirely. Mt. Silver was far too convenient for his own needs to be easily convinced to leave as much as he might have been expected to.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of a way to fit all that into one or two words, so he merely shrugged slightly. ]

[ He frowned in disappointment. He had hoped to get something a little more poignant out of someone so noteworthy. Then again... maybe he was just being too hasty. He cleared his throat and attempted a smile. ]

No matter...! I suppose you haven't isolated yourself completely if you are speaking with me now. [ ... Even if said "speaking" on Red's part thus far consisted of vague gestures and one-word replies. ]

[But he can’t follow N at all.]

I've heard people across both Kanto and Johto tell stories about you. They call you a hero. I wanted to meet the one they spoke so highly of.

But then N got his answer, and something in his mind clicked. ]

Red. [ He blinked, looked Red and his red clothes over again, and smiled. ] I see. Pleased to make your acquaintance.

It’s different against people. Humans are evil pieces of shit, but Pokemon, they just work off what they know. They don’t got ulterior motives. Anything even close is ever because we fuck them up, right?

What you say is true to an extent. I don't believe... all humans to be evil, but they-- even the good ones, sometimes-- lie. Pokemon don't tell lies. Their hearts are open. Though a number of factors can change that, it's... wrong, that way. Unnatural.

That said, Pokemon are highly intelligent. They have their own motives, and not all Pokemon are dependent on humans. There are other reasons abuse exists. Humans have technology that can combat a Pokemon's abilities-- poachers are everywhere, and devices like Pokeballs are commonplace! Capturing a Pokemon against its will is still abuse.

Uhh… well, I… never found it very, uh, enjoyable in the first place? [He was going to say ‘interesting’ but had a feeling N would be offended. Fucking hell.] And besides, I’ve never really needed math, I mean, I mostly do battles and stuff…

[He pauses, frowning. At the moment, he was basically trapped in the Rocket base with no idea what the future held for him, besides being bored. Hell, he thought, maybe he should give math a shot. It couldn’t be all that bad.]

[ A part of him knows not to expect Silver to agree to being taught anything by him, so the reply is a pleasant surprise. He's ecstatic. Of course, he shows it by suddenly beginning to talk at an extremely rapid pace. ]

Will you really?

Well. [ He looked vaguely thoughtful. ] I have standards. If they’re a straight up asshole, I refuse. I don’t need money badly enough to deal with people that get on my nerves. And if for some reason I find them or the job proposition disgusting, I’ll turn it down. For the same reason.

"Right, right."  Her face went red again.  She had known that Horsea had been angry, but she didn’t know that her losing her patience had an effect on Horsea’s self-esteem.  Making plans to buy an ice cream cone for the Pokemon as a sign of her remorse, she nodded at his advice.  “Yes…  I’ll try."

Horsea tilted her head at N, surprised that he was consulting her.  He had seemed so much more at ease during their conversation.  "You’re fine," she trilled.  "Go on."

Bianca’s face became redder at the mention of the “garden."  How much had Horsea told N?  She glanced at the Pokemon.  "Calm down," Horsea’s expression said.

"Alto Mare, she means," Bianca said softly and quickly.  “Where we come from.  But I go to school at the University."  She gestured towards the city.  “We visit whenever we can, but classes and homework take up most of my time…"

Her throat tightened.  For some reason she felt terribly afraid that N would tell her to bring Horsea back home, that this life was confining her Pokemon, and to keep her in Goldenrod would be cruel.  She wasn’t sure why she cared so much about what N had to say, anyway; she had seen, in person, Horsea enjoying herself with the other Pokemon on her dormitory floor, and if Horsea didn’t want to stay here, she would have made it clear, right?

"University..." he echoed carefully, as if the word was something entirely foreign. He knew it was some sort of educational institution, but that was the extent of his knowledge on the subject. "I see. That's... quite a predicament."

If he had been speaking to her a couple years prior, he would have quickly told Bianca that her Pokemon were more important than the requirements of school, that she was certainly being cruel and oppressive and deserved to have Horsea taken away... But he was here now to help them be happier together.

"Horsea said that she has friends here and that she is not unhappy, but it's only natural for her to miss her home." He frowned, tapping at his chin in thought. "But it's also clear to me that you value her companionship a great deal. I suppose it would be best for there to be some sort of compromise... Maybe taking up battling with help stave off that homesickness?"