Marlon may seem like someone who easily goes with the flow and doesn't concern himself with trivial matters like pride, but that perception can be a bit misleading. The current final gym leader of Unova actually takes great pride in his athleticism, and his recent string of losses is beginning to bother him.

When Marlon sees a fellow water-type expert who is so influential and important that even he recognizes it, he begins to feel something he has never experienced before... it might be dread.

"Hey, man," he waves at Wallace in return, then stretches his arms high above his head. He needs to loosen up his muscles. "Jus' gimme a sec, gotta stretch after that last one."

Pretty soon, he's ready to go, and someone in the background counts down... 3... 2... 1.... Go!

Marlon is undeniably athletic, though he doesn't quite possess the same grace and fluidity that Wallace has mastered. Still, both of them smoothly transition into handstands, quite an impressive feat for Marlon, considering how much of a workout today has been for him.

Nearly 15 minutes go by...

"Dude... You're really into this, huh!" In the end, Marlon is no match for Wallace, who still looks as fresh as a morning daisy while Marlon kneels in the sand. Man, that did NOT feel good.

"You're strong as a gnarly wave, man. You win this one."

the surprise which fills them upon reading the message does not stop at merely a widening of eyes, as it more than readily bleeds into the rest of their expression: unparalleled lift of brows that undeniably shoos the right away beneath the drape of tucked bangs, the slackening of neck accompanied by the drop of their jaw (successfully) hidden by their scarf, and the pause which comes over them / halts all movement of their hand against the belly of their gym's dewgong -- and (rightfully) earns a warble of confusion. "i what?" -- they can't help it; the incredulity draws words from their tongue as they read over the message for the third, fourth time.

it's as the surprise begins to simmer off that they feel heat rising to their cheeks, and another protesting warble coming from the dewgong's throat that grusha looks down / resumes firm rubs against pelage-covered blubber. ( mespirit, help me... ) they look back to the floating rotomphone, and they feel the heat of the blush deepening in their cheeks, ( ... or perhaps help @rcguish, here. )

[ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ📲ᴡᴀʟʟᴀᴄᴇ ] i [ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ📲ᴡᴀʟʟᴀᴄᴇ ] have no idea what you mean [ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ📲ᴡᴀʟʟᴀᴄᴇ ] or what he means, for that matter.

their hand lifts to their face, the cup of their palm pressing against their mouth from overtop their scarf.

[ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ📲ᴡᴀʟʟᴀᴄᴇ ] quite a statement in every sense. [ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ📲ᴡᴀʟʟᴀᴄᴇ ] i guess, it's amazing what good food can do [ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ📲ᴡᴀʟʟᴀᴄᴇ ] yeah?

Hello Ms. Rika, and good morning. I hope this email finds you as well as it can. I'd like to get in touch with you as soon as you're available to discuss the events in which have occurred in your region, particularly in respects to some of the Academy students. I understand that I am not privvy to much of the happenings in Paldea, however I have express concerns due to the fact of those involved being young adolescents. One of them being from the city which I have been raised and sworn to protect. As I'm sure you're aware of, our timezones may force us both to communicate at less than preferred times of the day, however I am willing to chat at any point that works best with your schedule. This is of the utmost concern and importance to me. Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon. Wallace Arikawa

Well this wasn't the business email. This was her email. Reading through it, she can parse a few things. One, someone she knew gave this person her personal email. Secondly, it was about a very particular topic that was privy to only a few select individuals.

Which narrowed it down to a few people.

Wallace, from what Rika understood, was no anyman from Hoenn. Wallace was a very well known, very popular and very powerful person. The last thing Rika needed, or wanted, was another region becoming involved in what was going on in Area Zero.

She yawns, grabs her mug of hot chocolate for the day, and puts on her blue light filter glasses.

Good morning Mr. Arikawa. I appreciate you sending this missive to me personally. If I am not mistaken, I know of the individual you are speaking of, and am doing everything in my power to make sure they are as safe, sound and supported as possible. I am coming into some free time, and am actually able to travel to Hoenn if you would like to discuss these matters in person. I feel that it would be more grounding rather than time zone impared emails. Please let me know what time would be best in order to make this visit happen. I want nothing more than to ease these concerns. Also if you would like anything from Paldea brought over as a souvenir. Rika

u good lmao

in his brain, wallace is just an extension of steven. he's not a separate person he's just steven 2.0. despite this he doesn't hate wallace and can be civil when they talk

i think wallace actively chooses not to invest the emotional energy in lance that steven and silver do. to him lance is just A Guy Who Is An Asshole But Is Just Some Guy. lance just isn't important enough to him for him to invest any sort of energy into. he saves that energy for people who do matter like steven and silver

i know we discussed this before but yeah wallace understands lance's whole "not seeking forgiveness" thing. whether or not he approves of it doesn't matter, he gets it that not everyone wants to be forgiven for their mistakes or cares about it.

it depends on the specific obsession but generally, uh. badly lmao his obsession typically directs itself as protection of whatever he's obsessed over more than any other reaction so that's a recipe for aggression if there ever was one lmao

the entirety of the yellow arc was a result of his obsession with protecting pokemon and the forest, and that went absolutely badly for everyone involved including himself.

he's a bit obsessed with keeping gloria safe now that he's claimed her as his kid, tho that's to a much lesser degree, and he's going to train her into the ground about it.

dear mr wallace,

hello sorry my last email didn't go into a lot of detail but we're fine now!!!! no one died. which is great! the falling off a cliff bit was less great but my rotom phone caught me and we're not in the crater anymore so it's fine. we're on our way back to school now to tell the director what happened

that's where we were going btw, into the area zero crater. the professor called me and asked me and my friend to come and see him there for. reasons? i don't think i was ever very sure on why actually but um! we got our other friends and went? except it was not the professor, it was his ai.

the professor's dead btw, i don't think anyone knows that yet? can you maybe tell someone for us or something???? apparently he got mauled to death by a pokemon years ago and his ai has just been pretending to be him to everyone, or something i'm still not clear on whether or not people know it was an ai or not. i was kind of trying not to die and didn't pay a lot of attention about it after he started throwing pokemon around to kill me

i'm going to bed now i'll write you again later thanks for all your help

yippee