Frontier Town Industrial Park

[Tetra]

Clawing back annoyance as she spoke, he tried to listen. She was right, which somehow made it more annoying. Get a grip. He hadn't expected it to be easy or simple but there were too many moments he felt so helpless. As she spoke, he squeezed the metal bar harder, twisting it more, wondering what her point was. Maybe she'd tell him to let it go. She was probably right.

Instead her question caught him off guard and he blinked, staring at her for a moment. "Uh..." He paused, tipping his head. "Same as anyone I guess? I'll just get over it. Ignore it and focus on something else or train. Maybe try to figure out a solution if I can." His times training with Kitto or helping Rascal felt so far away now.

 

[Sinderella]

Again, she nodded in understanding. "Mm, okay. I see," she said, pushing herself up to stand and walking over to him. When she was close enough, she gestured to him. "Can I level with you? I'm a recovering anger management patient; I know a thing or two about settling your head over shit like this," she explained. "It might help. If you'll let me. I don't want to impose on you, though."

 

[Tetra]

Koa gripped the bar in his paws tighter. He almost wanted to say 'No thanks, I'm good'. Walk away. In another time, maybe he would have. But it was Odette, and this was Forlas, and he still remembered the cold allure of shadows, and how he'd lost control.

What kind of trainer would he be if he passed up a chance to learn from Odette? She of all people understood, from everything she'd told him of her life back home...

"Okay," he said finally, uncertainty tainting his voice.

 

[Sinderella]

She smiled warmly at him, and took his agreement as invitation to fully approach him. She stood at his side, still keeping a comfortable distance away before letting her hands fall to her sides.

“I know it’s gonna sound stupid, because it sounded stupid to me when my therapist taught it to me,” she explained. “But this might help frame your way of thinking and approaching how and why you’re upset.”

She took a deep breath. “When you feel your anger coming on, before you do anything, regardless of what your knee-jerk reaction is, you need to stop,” she paused as she raised her hand, “catch yourself, and walk yourself through it using ‘I’ statements.” She smiled again, this time almost embarrassingly, as if she was anticipating pushback. Nonetheless, she continued.

“Let me give you an example. When I was younger, far younger than you, I used to get mad at the drop of a hat. Usually at the other kids in my school classes. My knee-jerk response was to beat the shit out of them, without fail. Obviously, that didn’t go over well after the fifth or so time,” she recalled, rolling her eyes as if the thought annoyed her.

“On top of honing my excess anger into things I liked doing, I had to learn to settle myself in the event my usual hobbies weren’t available to get me through a moment. So, if I was at school, and some bastard kid started giving me grief or did something I didn’t like, before I acted, I’d stop, shove my hands into my pockets to catch myself,” she put her hands into her skirt pockets to drive the point home, “and logically talk myself down.

“So, the example. A kid would call me short. Topical.” Another eye roll. “Hands in pockets. Then the mental walk-through would be something like…I just got really mad because he called me short. I really don’t like it when people call me short. I think it’s mean and I don’t think I did anything to warrant it. I wanted to hurt him for being mean. I know hurting him won’t change the fact he called me short. I want him to leave me alone. I need to tell an adult he’s bothering me and they’ll get him to stop bothering me. I need to walk away to go find an adult. If I walk away I don’t have to engage.”

She held her arms out to her sides, like she’d just finished a presentation. “Granted every instance won’t always be the same, but the gist is there. Use your ‘I’ statements to tell yourself why you’re mad, what you wanted your reaction to be, or what it was, why your reaction might not be helpful, how you want to be treated, what a better course of action could be, and what you need to do to re-focus on that better course of action. It sounds like a lot, but it might help you change your mindset in the moment, and lessen the intensity of what you’re feeling.”

 

[Tetra]

Don't say that sounds stupid don't say that sounds stupid don't say- "That sounds kinda stupid."

Mentally wincing, he added, "sorry. Uh... It's good advice." At least Odette admitted it sounded ridiculous when she'd learned it. It was hard to imagine how just talking himself through anything would help. Like Drapion or shadows or everything Wes had said. It wasn't like it could fix anything.

"Soooo I just. Talk through why I'm mad in my head?" The thought made him squirm and his pelt itch, but he'd agreed to hear out her help. He couldn't turn her down now. Another, more uncomfortable thought occured to him, that she'd expect him to try it now. Maybe he should... He fidgeted from paw to paw. "What if I can't think of a better course of action?"

 

[Sinderella]

She raised her hands as if admitting defeat. “Look, I hear you. But as I figured out with all things therapy, a lot of it sounds stupid and impossible until you actually take a crack at it. Learned that the excruciatingly hard way.” Still am, she thought doubtfully.

“But, in short, yes. The idea is to use a logical progression to bring yourself down from an angry high and approach it from a more healthy mindset. Or something,” she said, averting her eyes. “I’m not schooled in this shit, this is just what I learned and it helped keep my temperamental ass in check.”

To his question, she seemed to ponder it for a second. “Hm…” she hummed. “Sometimes it doesn’t immediately come. Or it doesn’t it seem obvious in the moment. But it might help for you to take that gap to focus more on coming to terms with your feelings around your anger. Y’know, figuring out the trigger and acknowledging why it’s there. Maybe figuring out how you can steer things in a better direction using what you have in your current power. You might find an answer in there. Sometimes it also helps to say it out loud, or write it down somewhere. Hearing it or reading it also helps, from my experience.”

 

[Tetra]

A journal sounded awful. One place where anyone could find out any secret. Shaking aside the thought, he nodded in understanding. "That makes sense I guess." It wasn't far off from some of the stuff Kitto would say. Maybe if he got better at keeping a clear head he could fight better too...

"A friend back home told me once, 'let your anger fuel your fists, not your mind' so its similar." If he just thought of this as an extension of that, maybe it would help. Not with Wes. Maybe it would quench some of his burning anger over everything happening.

"I'm mad because Drapion is gone." The words slipped out without him meaning to say them out loud. Awkwardly, he glanced away from Odette. He didn't really want to say more than that, but another part of him felt like he needed to.

His paws curled into the earth again. "I wanted to help him and its not fair that he's gone right when I was starting to make progress. I hate how everything keeps going wrong." Because of me. He glared at the ground. "I wanted to do one thing right but I guess thats still too much to ask."

 

[Sinderella]

I suppose it depends on if he means that literally or figuratively, she thought with a nod. Or the situation.

His attempt sounded promising…until that last part. Clenching her teeth into a loose grimace, she kneeled down so she was at eye level with him. “That’s…a good start. But let’s reframe that last point. That’s not coming from a place of logic, it’s still coming from that high,” she said gently. “You did do something right. You attempted to get through to it when pretty much nobody else was going to, and it disappearing was out of your control. I think, somewhere under that blue fur, you know that. Can you try that one more time?”

 

[Tetra]

What, now he couldn't even do the stupid anger thing right either?

Biting back the reflexive irritation (and the urge to roll his eyes), he managed a nod. I'm just angry about everything because... I feel like I'm failing the team. I need to listen to Odette's advice. I know she knows more about this than me and I know she's not belittling me.

"Uh right. Yeah. I tried-" he swallowed. "I did something good helping Drapion. I'm upset that he's gone but-" The words stuck in his throat. He could still feel that knot in his chest. "-I know that wasn't in my control." It didn't change anything but it felt nice to think he'd tried to do one decent thing. You tried but you still failed.

A heavy sigh escaped his jaws and he looked up at Odette. "I'm not giving up though."

 

[Sinderella]

She could tell this was hard for him. She tried to remember the first time her therapist had recommended this exercise to her. She couldn’t have been older than 7. She vividly remembered how hard it had been for her to explain her most recent anger spell. How she’d gotten so frustrated that she yelled outright. Koa, so far, was already taking the annoyance and exasperation of it so much better.

Tilting her head, she knit her brows at him and smiled. “Well, if it helps, I never thought you were going to. I just think you’re in the clouds right now and you need a little bit of a kind anchoring. The team needs all hands on deck at this point, so I definitely need you to help me outweigh the stupid that runs rampant among some of these people,” she said, hoping it would do something to lighten the—or specifically, Koa’s—mood.

“But, that was good. I know right now, it probably doesn’t feel like much; more a hassle than anything. But, it’s one of those things that gets easier over time. It’s like training a new ‘mon. Practice makes perfect, helps it evolve, now I’m getting weirdly metaphorical, you know where I’m going with this,” she snickered. She then sighed, shaking her head as she exhaled, before looking back at Koa.

“Did any inkling of a solution come up while you were thinking?”

 

[Tetra]

"Thanks," he murmured.

Koa took several moments before answering her question. "I don't think I can do anything," he said heavily. "Not about Drapion. I tried searching for him but I couldn't find any traces... I think Alex took him, somehow. But we might be able to find Alex and Ignatius, if what Aige saw means anything. That's all I can think of." The words stung. He'd tried, but even if the team did manage to find Ignatius, there was no gurantee it would mean finding Drapion again. Or that he could be saved.

"Well, that and training to fight Cipher."

 

[Sinderella]

Odette rolled her eyes around as she bobbed her head back and forth. "I don't know, those seem like pretty good starts to me," she said. "Not everything is going to have a solution that's so black and white. Sometimes you just need starting points, and those feel like good starting points."

She gestured around to Koa's carnage on the rocks. "And it looks to me like you're already ahead of schedule."

 

[Tetra]

The knot of anger in him loosened a little. "Hah, thanks," he said, grinning slightly. "Gotta make sure I'm ready for whatever else we fight." Or whoever else. The memory of how quick he'd succumbed to shadows and worse yet, how even Wes...

That night was still etched in his mind. "Have you been training at all? I mean in other abilities... Not like. Regular moves. Shadow stuff." He knew he needed to but it was hard to feel as confident as he had last time they spoke.

 

[Sinderella]

Good, he was smiling. Progress was progress.

Odette pursed her lips and averted her eyes away, exhaling through her nose as she did. “Yes,” she said. “Here and there. I hate that fucker, but…Alex had the right idea about channeling his Shadow to his second head.” She nodded over her shoulder to Jawile. “It’s a lot easier than I was anticipating. This stupid thing is already a hose for my more unsavory thoughts, so routing Shadow through it is like…I don’t know. It feels easier that way.”

Looking back at him, she raised a brow. “Have you?”

 

[Tetra]

"Not exactly," Koa admitted. He had, a little. And a part of him still believed they would have to but it still brought back that unpleasant sensation. The cold chills and that tempting allure. And the memories of fire and tooth and claw.

"Trying to be careful after... Last time." He studied Odette for a moment, the question that had been at the back of his mind for awhile bubbling to the surface. "How are you holding up after that fight? I think you got hit worse than me."

 

[Sinderella]

Odette supposed she didn’t blame Koa for not touching Shadow again. In general, it was…a lot. Probably even more for someone his age. Probably even more after what had happened with fucking Alex.

But, she’d have rather left him dwelling on that instead. Maybe turned it into another round of pseudo-therapy. Shifting the subject onto her and her well-being wasn’t exactly in the cards, and she wished it had stayed that way. The question brought back bits of the fight, from Seth, to the shadows, to the biting, to Wes evolving, to the rocks flying, to the fire, so much fire—

She didn’t realize she’d spaced out until she blinked, and found herself staring at the sand. She inhaled sharply and squeezed her eyes shut, shaking the fog out of her mind. “Sorry,” she said. “Went on a little trip.”

With a sigh, she opened her eyes and looked back at Koa, smiling crookedly, trying to play off her little moment. “I’ve been hit with far worse things,” she said earnestly. “It’ll take more than a couple rocks to completely knock me on my ass.”

 

[Tetra]

Somehow her response didn't fill him with any confidence. It was nearly the exact response he'd said to her back after the fight. Maybe a week ago, or after the fight it was a fine answer. And in some small way it almost stung a little. He didn't want her to say that if it wasn't true. He wasn't sure if Odette didn't trust him, or maybe she just didn't want to talk about it, which he couldn't blame her.

"Liar." He grimaced, realizing how harsh he'd come off. "Sorry!" he said quickly. "I just mean... you didn't let me get away with that kind of answer just now. I'm not stupid, I can tell it bothered you." Despite his awkwardness, he met Odette's eyes with a firm gaze. His heart knotted. "We're friends, right? I'll listen if you want to talk." It was the least he could do after what Odette had done for him.

 

[Sinderella]

Odette flinched involuntarily at his call-out, watching silently with her dumbstruck expression as he struggled to backpedal and apologize for how curt he’d sounded. She stared at him for a long while before a stunned grin flicked the corners of her lips upward. She snickered, which soon grew into a giggle, and before she knew it, she was laughing quietly into the palm of her hand.

“Oh, wow,” she said in a light wheeze. “You fucking got me. What goes arounds comes around, I guess.” It was very clear she wasn’t at all bothered by it; more surprised than anything. She took a couple of deep breaths to settle herself, but the smile didn’t fully leave her face.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “You’ve been pretty vulnerable with me; I guess it’d be the very mentor thing to return the favor, huh?” She pursed her lips in thought. “Or…I guess the friend thing, in this case.”

Was it weird for someone her age to be friends with someone his age? Was that a thing that could happen? Was it inappropriate? She supposed if they could be in Pokemon bodies nothing was that weird or impossible.

They’d fought together. They’d trained together. She’d taught him some things. He’d confided in her. So far, he hadn’t given her a reason to not trust him.

Yeah. That was a friend if she’d ever heard of one. Like the little brother friend she’d never had. The thought made her chuckle to herself. But her smile was soon replaced by a pensive frown.

“I don’t like fire,” she said distantly. Then, she scoffed. “Actually, that’s an understatement. The professional wording for it would be that I’m traumatized by fire.”

It was there that she hesitated, but she soon relented with a deeper sigh and reached up to pull down her right sleeve, revealing the beauty marks that were eerily shaped like the burn scars on her human body. She presented her arm to Koa, then pointed at one of the marks. There was no mistaking that it was in the shape of bite marks, and they repeated in multiple spots across her arm.

“It’s only a case of hyperpigmentation here, but on my human body, these are fire fang bite and burn scars,” she explained. “That, uh…that guy I told you about. The one I pretended to date. He, uh…he had a houndoom partner. And things got a little messy one night. It ended up on me, and everything else ended up on fire. Almost lost my arm, it was—“ She cringed, and shook her head. “It was a mess.”

She pulled her arm back to run her fingers over the marks. “So, you know. Being fire fang’d by another dog ‘mon in the middle of burning brush wasn’t exactly a sunshiny moment for my psyche. This body heals better than my human one, yeah, but still. Not something I wanted to live through again. So it’s…been a little rough.”

 

[Tetra]

At least she wasn't angry. In fact, he found himself chuckling a little as she laughed. Friend. Odette was a friend. The thought brought a spark of warmth to his heart. Not just a teammate or someone he worked with in battle, but a friend who would confide in him. And he could confide in...

His expression grew somber as she spoke, telling her story. It made his skin crawl to hear that someone had done that, and a Houndoom on top of that. That explained why she'd reacted oddly when he told her about his team. Beneath that, he felt angry, angry that anyone would hurt her like that.

"I understand," he said softly, once she finished. "I mean, not exactly. I know its not the same for me but back home a creature or illusion or... Something. Something that looked like an Entei set fire to Amity Square, and it almost killed me." His words felt hollow as he spoke. That felt like lifetimes ago, he'd barely thought about it. Barely thought about how he could have died. "My Houndoom saved me actually."

He pawed the ground awkwardly. "I know its not the same or anything but... I don't really like fire anymore either," he said with a dry chuckle, averting his gaze. Bit of an understatement. "Now that we know, we can watch each other's backs though. We can help each other if... anything happens again." There was an earnest, but serious edge to his voice.

 

[Sinderella]

Well, it wasn’t a stunned silence. Rather an attempt at empathizing. One she wasn’t expecting at all.

She cut her gaze back to him for a moment, trying to parse what he’d just said. “Entei…” she muttered. She didn’t know much about the dog trio, but she supposed that didn’t matter. One of them in Koa’s world—or, rather, a possible illusion of one—had almost had him burned to death. She felt her heart clench with an intense sense of sympathy.

“Fuck, man,” she said. He really did understand. Perhaps it wasn’t as targeted as what Dorien had done to her, but it was similar enough. But his houndoom partner had saved him, and the utter relief she felt knowing that little bit of information was astronomical. See, not all houndoom were bad. Koa had a great partner in one, it seemed. She was so happy to know that.

“I didn’t know that,” she said. Obviously. But she’d had no idea he was struggling with the burning brush during that battle either. Granted, she’d totally dissociated, and was totally out of it afterward, but knowing he was likely in a similar state of turmoil as her left her with an odd, warring sense of comfort and a need to protect. She didn’t know what to do with it.

“…maybe one of us can learn hydro pump at some point,” she said. She’d wanted to keep a straight face, but ended up chuckling tiredly into her palm. Apparently, trying to force humor at terrible moments was still her go-to. But, she figured Koa might be someone who appreciated it.

“Thank you for telling me this. It sounds weird to say, but I’m glad I’m not the only one with a crazy fire aversion,” she said. She’d started mindlessly running her fingers over her arm again.

“And…I’m sorry that happened to you. But, I’m glad your houndoom partner has your back and got you out. He sounds like a great friend to have.”