Frontier Town Nina's Place

[Jackie Cat]

Laura nodded. Jade got it – and she felt like she got whatever Jade was trying to express. 'It' being the emotion you got after a few months post-spacio-temporal displacement in reality. Howls.

At least she could get some weird comfort out of someone else mentioning the internet. That was definitely a real thing, somewhere else in the multiverse. Laura still missed calculator apps and online thesauruses – not so much social media.

"For what it's worth, you seem... simultaneously 'about sixteen', and a bit older than that at the same time," said Laura. "I kinda like 'sixteen twice' – you're not not sixteen, but... I dunno, you've seen some shit?"

She really had, was the thing. Not that Laura knew all of it, or anything.

"I feel kinda like I just turned nineteen a couple months ago, and also like it's been a year or two since then. The closer to the present day I think back to, the fuzzier it gets. I keep feeling like I'll be going back to the first few weeks after I set out – helps that I did that in winter, and it's cold as fuck in Luctemar lately."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Another sip of warm drink, another slow wave of relaxation. The instinctual flicker of hesitation that always came with talking about her age thankfully remained just a moment. Laura had never made her feel like... like she was too young to be doing what she was doing. Like she was just a kid, even though she hadn't felt like a kid for a long, long time. And, well... she was grateful for that.

"I can't imagine having to wait that long to set out," Jade admitted. Not that she wanted to make Laura feel bad about that fact or anything. She quickly added, "What was it like, finally starting your journey?" Starting in winter was pretty strange, for a lot of reasons.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura winced a little, and made a mock-grimace at waiting that long.

"Uh, well, it wasn't exactly fun or cool or triumphant, you know? Mostly... cold and lonely. I mean, at first there was this brilliant 'fuck-you' feeling of defiance, this sorta 'righteous anger' type of emotion. But it turns out you can't keep that up for too long when you're freezing your tits off."

She frowned, blinking at herself. The expression felt odd to say after months of living as a howling Meowth.

"Um, anyway. It was pretty unglamorous for a while? Lotta bumming curry off of wild area stewards to make ends meet and fobbing off and blocking relatives trying to get a hold of me for my parents. And, uh, the shittiest tent-pitching ever, probably – woke up in a fucking freezing puddle this one time.

"I had... so little idea of what I was doing, outside of strategy and theory and pokémon husbandry that was all totally irrelevant for half my team. I had a gogoat I didn't even catch myself, and a rune-yamask who basically stalked me until I caught him? I felt like a complete muppet for like, the first month or so."

She snorted at herself – it was kindof absurd.

Of course, things had turned way the hell around after that. After Malachai.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade couldn’t help stifling a small laugh. “Oh man, you’re making me real glad I started in the summer, even if it wasn’t a normal start at all.”

She’d shared plenty of stuff about the Rebellion, about the anti-Rocket training, but she spent considerably less time thinking back on the awkward liminal space that was waiting around for the S.S. Anne.

“I, uh, I definitely know how you feel about the whole ‘no clue what I’m doing’ thing, though. I sorta got lucky that Vermilion had a decent trainer camp I could crash at for a few weeks, but there was a lot of living off instant ramen and wondering if I was making a huge mistake.”

Jade glanced out the window, imagining camping out in the cold and the rain, or even the snow, and had to suppress a shiver.

“But like… I think it’s cool that you went ahead with it,” she went on, looking back at Laura. “Even though it was a mess and your family, uh… wasn’t cool with it. But you did it anyway.”

 

[Jackie Cat]

A trainer camp, huh? Sounded like a bigger version of the little community spots Laura had hung out at so often early on. Instant noodles were a familiar necessity. Maybe their starting-out experiences weren't so dissimilar after all.

"Oh, uh, thanks," she fumbled, at Jade's validation. Cool? She was cool. "It's not like I didn't feel like I was making a huge mistake for a while there, but... I'm still glad I did. I think I'd have just turned into a complete zombie at uni, otherwise – and hey, I've even got a few badges, now. Maybe I'm not good-good, but I'm good enough to compete. I think I have a TSR of, like, eighteen-hundred or so?"

A flash of memory— Her teeth clenched so tight she felt it in her neck. The announcer's warning over the tannoy. A growing shadow and the downblast of great wings.

"Two-thousand," she corrected. "I hit two-thousand after my last gym battle."

Her TSR – Trainer Skill Rating – was a relative grading system, like ELO for chess. Below a thousand for novices and amateurs, just above for anyone competent. Sixteen-hundred or so was locally competitive, the kind of score a talented rookie might have after half a season. Two-thousand was when you started to think seriously about calling yourself pro trainer.

(Before he lost, before the scandals, the Galar champ – Leon – had been the best in the world, the only trainer ever to reach a score of three-thousand. Now nobody had a score that high, not even Gloria.)

 

[Chibi Pika]

Those numbers didn't immediately mean anything to Jade—even if it was a metric that existed in her world, it wasn't one she knew about (maybe Rudy or Darren would've known). But it sounded cool, and she had a few badges too, which anyone could understand.

"I got a couple of badges too, but, uh... didn't really go anywhere with that since I wasn't trying to enter the regional championships or anything." Not like Rudy who'd gone and made it to the finals.

Jade leaned an elbow on the table, thinking back to their previous conversations. "Remind me—you said that was related to finding your Purrloin, right? Like you needed a certain number of badges, or...?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura nodded. "Yeah, the corporation that has her is also one of the companies filling the trainer sponsorship gap after Macro Cosmos imploded. Figured I needed the money, and getting a sponsorship means getting a foot in the door to investigate them from inside. Somehow."

She sniffed, and shrugged, and reached for her own drink again.

"Anyway, they gave me a little preliminary support, but threshold for the actual sponsorship and getting a deferred first-partner and all that was five badges. In other words, breaking into the latter half of the circuit. The Galar gyms can get brutal once you're in the second-half of your tour. Most of the leaders are these, like, hyper-competitive tryhards – my fifth was this nutjob who interrupted the finals a few years ago even though he'd been disqualified, or something? And he's a Fairy-specialist. So, you know, I was kinda shitting myself given my ace was a dragon."

Her mouth twitched into a slightly smug little smile, tempered with lingering embarrassment about just how panicked she'd been at first, how humiliating it had been for those awful seconds at the end where it had looked like she'd have to forfeit...

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade imagined being in that spot, maybe not in a gym battle necessarily—the gym battles had never been so high-stakes for her, and definitely not a necessary stepping stone for her goals the way that it'd been for Laura. But a critical battle against a team of ground-types when Nine's lightning had always been the team's trump card...

Jade gestured with her mug. "But hey, you beat him, right? Even with the disadvantage. I bet it would've been a cool match to watch."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura blew a nasal chuckle, and nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty dramatic. Galar's so pumped up on sensationalist sports fan juice that nobody bats an eye at, like, stupid crazy entrances, so—"

Wait, was she going to explain? Yeah, she didn't know how to back out of this without ruining the vibe. Fuck it, why not.

"Well, uh, it's like this. Malachai, my noivern, was – is – my strongest team member. And he's pretty pushy, always expecting me to deserve to be his trainer by working my arse off and all that. And so when I was freaking out about fighting Bede – the Fairy guy – he got all pissed off at me for, y'know, being a bloody wimp? I guess also for not being confident in him, or myself, or whatever. So, he, uh. He took off."

Jade would be able to tell that admitting this meant Laura's guts going cold and falling out, probably, but laughing it off would just feel wrong. So she didn't. Having your pokémon bail on you fucking sucked, and maybe Jade would judge her for that, but whatever.

"But like, I guess he got through to me, 'cause I didn't no-show the match. Went in there determined that even if I lost, I'd at least make that wanker work for it. Did better than I expected, but not enough to win. Then, while I was blue-screening and waiting for the announcer to call the match..."

She laughed at the drama of it. Mal would never admit it, but he was absolutely a fucking diva.

"He swoops out of the air and bails me out. Crowd goes nuts, thinking I'd, like, planned it?? But no, he was just watching to see if I'd piss myself, and when I didn't, he decided to give me another chance. Just barely scraped a win after that. Massive type disadvantage, only decent move I could use was Shadow Ball, I don't think I breathed for a solid couple minutes, but we won. Howls, I don't even know what I'd've done if we hadn't."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade couldn't help laughing. "Oh man? That is way more dramatic than anything I've got." Not to mention the fact that this was Galar, where major gym battles could have the kind of audience that something like a League conference would draw anywhere else.

(Laura'd had a Pokemon leave her team, but he'd returned. That kept lingering in Jade's head for some reason.)

"I can't really follow that up, but, uh..."—she leaned back in her seat, eyes trained upward—"I guess our fourth gym match was pretty cool. There was this one part where Firestorm—Charizard, if you don't remember—was up against Magneton, and he was in a spot where even a single Thunderbolt would've been too much, and we really couldn't afford for him to go down there, so we had to—" She carried on with recounting the story, feeling maybe a little bit like it wasn't cool enough to tell, not after Laura's, but she kept going anyway, and it felt nice.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura held her warm cider close and listened with delight, the anxiety sloughing off at the realisation that, no, Jade didn't judge her harshly for Malachai leaving. If anything, she'd relaxed a little herself. Now the chat almost felt... peaceful. Nostalgic.

"Ouch, that had to be tense," she said, venturing a little encouraging crosstalk. "What was the play?"

Talking shop about pokémon battle. Howls but she'd missed this. She put up her paw for Nina to swing by with refills – right now, all she wanted was to keep trading stories like this with Jade, feeling normal, feeling like friends.

This way, she didn't miss home so badly as before.

<><><><><>​

 

[Tetra]

Not long after defeating Alexander...

Koa was in an incredibly good mood. Celebratory, even. Alexander was gone for good, the world was a little brighter, and his body was aching slightly less, enough that he could walk around without wincing every few steps. So when he'd stumbled into Silver on the street by chance, he impulsively invited him to grab a meal. It was getting just late enough for dinner, and he was craving some simpler heartier foods (it never really stopped feeling weird to go to Wandering Zera, even though nobody questioned his age).

So it was that a short time later they were seated at a quiet table in the far corner of Nina's, with two drinks and orders of food on the way. Koa had opted for a sweet fruity beverage (virgin of course).

He raised his glass with a grin. "To destroying evil shadow dragons?"

 

[Cresselia92]

Wow, what a stressful series of events that has been! Between enduring the violent madness of a genocidal hydra, getting his mind ravaged with horrifying scenarios of wars and destruction, and Giovanni leaving Forlas in a shower of sparkles, Silver couldn’t deny that he was feeling… overwhelmed, if not mentally taxed, with all those rapid changes.

Still, he tried to focus on the bright side: now that both Alexander and Team Cipher were gone, things were finally taking a positive direction. Stumbling upon a good-spirited Koa further confirmed his thoughts and thinned his inner tension — their efforts had definitely been worth it, and they deserved a chance to unwind and have some fun. Just like regular teenagers did.

When Koa lifted his glass, Silver flashed the Electrike a wry grin and copied the gesture, making the ice cubes of his (non-alcoholic, of course!) leppa cider clink. “To destroying evil shadow dragons and kicking their not-so-sorry arses back where they came from!”

He lapped some of the golden liquid and whistled to himself, enjoying its blend of fresh and bitter.

“So, I’ve heard you partnered with Zapdos,” he started, grabbing a piece of jerky with his free paw. “It must’ve been quite the experience to battle alongside a legendary, huh?”

 

[Tetra]

Koa chuckled at Silver's toast and clinked his glass, not bothering to suppress his grin. He hadn't realized just how badly he needed a real win.

In response to Silver's question, his grin broadened evenmore and his eyes lit up. It felt surreal every time he thought about it. Flying up into the stormy dungeon, battling the shadows, and then helping Zapdos attack Alexander.

"It was sick," he breathed, his voice filled with awe. "Dream come true, kind of. Even if Zapdos is more stubborn than any of my pokemon back home," he added with a laugh. Even if Zapdos was a Saint and had an attitude it was still a legendary in a way.

"And I heard you fought off Alexander almost single-pawed with your group. That's pretty sick."

 

[Cresselia92]

Silver's grin widened, his chest puffing up a bit at that comment. "Ah! So you've heard!"

While Silver didn't attend the after-victory party with the Escarpa clan, he found out from others that Nova had told everyone about their quest and the defeat of that tyrannical Hydreigon. And to the surprise of no one, rumors quickly spread and some guest by the barbershop even acclaimed his bravery and strength. He had to admit that it felt good to be doing good!

"Yeah! That bunch of punks were no match for me!" he boasted proudly, before quickly adding, "And for my team, of course. Without Nova's sturdiness and Grace's healing powers, things wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly."

Satisfied with the ego boost and with giving credits where they were due, Silver munched on the piece of jerky, his mind wandering a little. "I might sound crazy, but it's still... I dunno, so surreal. How everything is just over? Alexander, Cipher... both gone, just like that." His eyes narrowed a fraction when he reminded himself that Giovanni was gone, too, but he tossed that thought to the back of his mind.

"Well, it was 'bout time we had a break from all that madness, don't you think? Shadows, infested dungeons, psychopathic criminals and warlords..." He frowned, rethinking about the intrusive thoughts infesting his mind in the Voidlands, and his voice darkened with bitterness, "Good riddance."

 

[Tetra]

Koa raised his glass to that. "Good riddance," he echoed, his voice edging into a snarl unconsciously. "To all of them. Especially Alex." Too bad Ein- He decided to leave that thought alone.

He rolled his eyes. "It was starting to feel like I- We'd never be rid of them." Even cured of the shadow affliction, Alex had been a dark cloud in the back of his mind that Cipher and Ein had only added to.

It was hard to miss Silver's unease though. Why did he seem bothered...? Oh. Giovanni. Something prickled under Koa's skin, sympathy mixed with an understanding that made his stomach churn. "It does feel weird though," he murmured. "Like taking a breath after being underwater too long."

He grinned again, somewhat forced. "But hey, it's over and we can finally relax properly. We probably won't have to worry about shadow problems anymore." Subtly, he watched Silver's reaction.

 

[Cresselia92]

Silver narrowed slightly his eyes as he mulled on Koa’s words, before exhaling a soft sigh and staring down at his drink, in an attempt to appear calmer. “I… I guess so, yeah. At least it’s progress, and progress is always good.”

And yet, there was that dastardly side of his mind that insisted that they couldn’t really lower their guard. Not yet.

“But jeez, being a hero sure is a tough job, huh? I bet that if I were to meet my past self from three years ago, he’d say that’s a massive headache that’s not worth the time and effort,” he joked, a cheeky smirk returning to his muzzle. After all, he couldn’t really deny the self-centered and egotistical part of his life.

The Sneasel took another sip of his drink, his mind jumping and latching onto some of Giovanni’s final words…

"Your true foe... will be the institutions they have already set up. I would know... It is how my empire came to be."

“Still, those shadow problems…” Silver quickly leaned forward, shooting a curious stare in Koa’s way. “What if they were a mere symptom and not the cause of this world’s problems? I mean, Alexander and Cipher have been dealt with, but they still took advantage of this world’s rules for their shady businesses.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, before murmuring a couple of questions, “What if corrupted rules are the real issue? How could someone rewrite them?”

 

[Tetra]

At Silver's comment about his past self, he snorted in wry amusement. "If I met my past self I think I'd sock him in the jaw," he said with a good humored chuckle. Though it no longer itched at him the way it had before, the thought of the person he'd been back at the start of his journey was a strong reminder of who he didn't want to be.

"I was a total know it all, and I only cared about my plans and cool pokemon. Was a jerk to my starter." The admission came easily, somehow it was easier to say to Silver.

Silver's next question made his nose wrinkle and he rolled his eyes, though the irritation was clearly not directed at Silver. "If it was up to me I wish we could just beat up whoever made them, change the rules." The answer was flippant though.

Exhaling, he took a sip of his drink to wet his throat and clear his mind. "I think we still have to fight to change it. Maybe we would have to fight the one who made the rules. But if we can also help other people fix things... I mean look at Sonora and Greasewood. She's Sheriff now, and she'll help make the town better."

He fiddled with his glass, drawing circles in the condensation. "Every time I think I know something, I realize I don't know. But... I met Cynthia once, she told me that everyone in this world has a responsibility, even small things... I guess we just have to try to do ours."

He fell silent, a thought gnawing at him. His gaze locked onto the table instead of looking at Silver when he spoke. "Don't you get sick of it though? Do you ever wish you could do more?"

 

[Cresselia92]

"I was a total know it all, and I only cared about my plans and cool pokemon. Was a jerk to my starter."

“…You too, huh?”

In an instant, the snark evaporated from Silver’s demeanor, and the faint tones of understanding and sympathy touched his features and softened his gaze. “I bet my Feraligatr would have many stories to share about my rookie days, heh.”

Fully aware how painful it could be to relive shame and guilt, Silver deemed it best to divert from that topic. Whatever had happened between Koa and his starter was a deal from the past, and he could tell that the other boy had learned the lessons he needed to learn and was a better Trainer because of them.

Instead, he let the Electrike voice his own opinion about the other matter, the curiosity burning bright in his gaze. And… whoa, did Koa really meet Cynthia? That Cynthia, the Sinnoh Champion?

We really are way more alike than I had imagined…

"Don't you get sick of it though? Do you ever wish you could do more?"

As soon as those questions reached his ears, Silver stiffened, feeling a chilling sensation spreading through his body.

“…Of course I do.” Bitterness rang loud in his voice, and his eyes roamed away, focused on nothing. “Very often. It’s… something that plagues my mind from time to time.”

Silver exhaled a regretful sigh and leaned back on his chair, tapping the border of the table with a claw. The taps were easily drowned by the surrounding noises, but the gesture alone seemed to bring some clarity to his mind.

“There have been many moments I wished I could do something different, to do and be better. Something, someone, that wasn’t a failure, a sign of weakness.” He grumbled something under his breath, but calmed himself down with a shake of his head and another sigh. “As much as I hate to admit it, sometimes you can’t not fail, be it because of a lack of knowledge or because of a lack of skills. It’s just… a part of learning and growing as a person, I guess.”

Silver straightened his stance and his voice gained some strength back. “But don’t get me wrong: making mistakes definitely sucks and it’ll probably never stop sucking, especially if you mess up or fail while doing your best. Though, you kinda learn to live with those unfair odds, too?” He shrugged. “Take it from someone who changed his ways after getting demolished by a certain Dragon Champion in Johto.”

 

[Tetra]

"You are better!" Koa said forcefully. He needed Silver to know that. Silver needed to know that. "You're not a failure, you're a great trainer and a great fighter. And you're here, that says a lot." His voice wavered with emotion and he realized he'd started to speak too loud, gotten carried away. He wasn't even sure why, just that hearing Silver's regret made his chest twinge. The thought that Silver would think that about himself...

Clearing his throat he lapped self-consciously at his drink for a moment, then nodded at a passing waiter for a refill.

"Yeah... That's true though. Took me a long time to learn that, that its... okay to mess up. It really sucks." Which he supposed, was underselling it. Looking back, every mess up and mistake ate at him. Sometimes still did. Maybe it was the atmosphere or high from their success, or getting used to talking to Odette, but being more forthright with Silver was easier. "Yeah, it really won't stop sucking."

He poked his glass with a paw, his gaze unfocusing for a moment. His thoughts swirled with the ice in the glass as he moved it.

"Sometimes it just feels like... you'll never be good enough, you know?" There was a sense that the 'you' was Koa, not just nebulous. "Like you just want people not to think badly of you."