Want an ice-cream soda?

     Percival would have simply offered his tail to the other Pokemon had the hand been extended, but he nonetheless smiles a bit.

     “Ser serperior. Ser ser serperior ser.” (Neither have I. Our name must be quite unique.)

     “Ser ser serperior.” (The pleasure is all mine, Percival.)

      His eyes drift towards Ice now and his expression becomes one of curiosity once more. “Ser serperior?” (And what about your companion?)

     “That’s right,” Noir replies, reaching up and putting a hand upon Percival’s head in a manner that suggests pride, “Percy here was my first Pokemon. We’ve been a team for a pretty long time now…eight years, I think? Something like that.” It’s been some time since he took his first steps out of Nuvema Town with his friends, and he’d like to think that he’s done his fair share of growing since then.

    The tone of which Ice asked him about being a trainer strikes him as a bit odd, though, and he looks at him questioningly.

      “Does that mean you’re not a trainer?” he inquires. It’s not like it’s that big of a deal if Ice isn’t a trainer, but people don’t usually walk around in places where Wild Pokemon are more prone to appear if they aren’t one, and the Gallade that’s with him appears to be his…yet now that he looks more closely, the man doesn’t have any obvious Pokeballs on his person, though they could easily just be put away somewhere, so he’s not sure.

He looked over at his old friend, “gal gal gallade, gallade gal.” (That’s Ice, my former lab assistant and now partner.) 

“Gallade...gallade gal.” (We’re here in Unova for some sort of... international community service, I believe. Or, more like he is and I’m just along to help.)

“Ding ding, you got it.” Ice nodded, “though for the moment I’m not much of anything either. Maybe a ranger errand boy.” He was smiling but looking closer he didn’t look too happy about this situation; but knew damn well he was not in a position to complain. It was shocking enough that he’d been let off the hook enough to walk about independently in another region.

     Percival unwinds himself from around his trainer and sits up, finally freeing Noir from his grasp. He looks closely at the Gallade and his companion, almost sizing them both up, though there’s no hostility in his demeanor, only curiosity.

     “Serperior?” (Percival?)

     The Serperior tilts his head slightly, looking almost intrigued, then says, “Ser serperior ser…ser ser serperior.” (That is my name, too…what an interesting coincidence.)

     “Oh, no, it’s fine,” Noir reassures, standing up carefully, as his legs are kind of asleep from staying in that position for so long, then dusting off his pants a little bit, “Percy likes curling around me like that when we sleep, but I can see why you’d think something’s wrong, so don’t worry about it. He’ll be all right without his afternoon nap this one time, I’m sure.” There’s something obviously teasing in his tone, and he laughs whenever Percival makes a huffing sort of sound in response.

     “My name’s Noir, by the way. It’s nice to meet you!!”

“Gallade? Gal gallade.” (Really? I’ve never met anyone who shared my name before.) 

He would’ve almost gone to extend a hand to him, but quickly realized the serpent of course had no hands... unless those vines counted as hands...? Better to not ask. He still smiled at his fellow Percival regardless.

“Gal gallade!” (A pleasure to meet you then, Percival!)

Ice’s first impression was just about how upbeat this guy was, almost reminded him of Kellyn in a way. This normally gave him some annoyance, but Percival seemed to be having a nice time with this Serperior and Noir hadn’t actually done anything yet. There was always a yet it seemed.

     His Serperior isn’t curled around him tightly enough that it’s particularly uncomfortable or anything, though he can’t very easily get free, either.

     It’s not that big of a deal, however, and he’s thinking about getting comfy and attempting to nap himself whenever he feels a light prod, making him open one eye in question. “Hm?”

     He looks up, first seeing the Gallade, then the person approaching behind him.

     “Oh, hello.”

     Noir smiles at the two of them in a friendly manner. He tilts his head back and reaches up, gently scratching at his Percival’s chin in an attempt at rousing the large green serpent from his slumber.

     “Hey, wake up, Percy. Say ‘hi.’”

     Percival makes a soft sound of protest, but nonetheless starts waking up, red eyes opening slowly and blinking a few times before he lifts his head up and regards the strangers standing before them.

     “Serperior ser?” (Who are you?)

Percival looked at the snake before him tried to look as friendly as he could, it felt easier said than done when you were a pokemon associated with a former criminal. “Gal gallade,” he spoke. (Pardon me, I was concerned that something seemed off but apparently not. My name is Percival.)

Ice however was not nearly as inviting as his green friend was, though that mostly came from how he was raised in Almia compared to wherever this guy was from. He at least tried to be amicable before speaking, “hey, didn’t mean to disturb. Percival here is true to his nature as a knight in shining armor, I think he thought something was wrong but clearly that’s not the case.”

     Kellyn hopes that he can actually be helpful in this situation; he can tell that Ice is truly remorseful for his actions, and that fact is what’s making him want to do what he can to fix this.

     “That’s good.”

     He spends a moment gently stroking Anastasia’s head with a warm smile on his face. But he can feel Ice’s attention on him and Kellyn doesn’t want to let him down. So he breathes softly, the puff of air visible in the form of a white cloud due to the frigid temperature of Almia Castle, as he shuts his eyes for a few seconds, considering carefully what he wants to say and how he wants to say it.

     “I know you’re angry at your friend,” Kellyn eventually says, regarding Ice from the corner of his eye briefly, but keeping his attention on the Froslass, “And I know that he hurt you.”

     “And I wouldn’t be saying this if I didn’t really think he was sorry for everything he did, but…”

     “I know he is, and I know he misses you. If you don’t forgive him, that’s your choice, but do you think you could maybe listen to what he has to say?”

Ice felt like he was holding his breath the whole time after Kellyn asked, Anastasia had simply been enjoying the moment of attention but also glanced at Ice in the corner of her eye. Considering Kellyn was the reason why she’d been freed, she thought that perhaps she could do this for him even if she was angry with Ice for everything that happened. She gave a small nod towards the ranger, and looked expectantly at Ice. A look he could read clearly as ‘give a good explanation, or don’t bother coming back’.

The fact she looked again at all at least got him to properly breathe again, and he paused to think it over. He wasn’t sure he wanted Kellyn to hear this but, he didn’t seem like he was going to just leave them to talk. He was left with no choice, lose his oldest friend or take a chance and let a ranger hear a moment of his perspective on the incident with Team Dim Sun.

“I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me Anastasia,” he spoke to her with more sincerity than anyone had ever heard from him before. “But I didn’t know what the miniremos were actually doing. I was told that it was something like a ranger styler, only it was a smaller version of a bigger machine they were going to make to allow people to convey their feelings to pokemon without needing a styler or pokeball. It sounded like it would be revolutionary, to skip an entire step like that and still be able to be understood.” He stared down at the cold floor as for the first time the shame was washing over him and he wasn’t the only one to hear it.