Frontier Town Old Town

[Cresselia92]

Silver tilted his head and twitched his ears, appearing intrigued by Archie’s suggestions.

“Oh! So kinda like berry shakes or Apricorn juice?” He began tapping his chin and humming to himself before nodding. “Huh. Y’know what? That’s definitely worth a shot. I was planning to bring some tea with me, but adding some Aspear and Sitrus slices…”

The now-Sneasel mused some more, before giving one last nod and flashing a warm grin. “I’ll definitely consider it. Thanks for the advice!”

Silver stopped by a stall with scarves and bandannas of all types, and grabbed one of them in his paws. By judging the texture, that seemed wild Wooloo fur. Soft and an excellent insulator. However…

“Honestly, I’m not too worried ‘bout the cold,” he began, before placing the scarf back where it was and resuming walking.

“I’m a mountain Sneasel. So, I’m literally genetically made to endure freezing temperatures and reduced oxygen.” Silver began fiddling with the feather on his head, both for entertainment and to reinforce his point. “As I found out on some anatomy books, my head feather works like a thermometer. As soon as it detects a drop in temperature, my body grows fluffier fur to better handle the cold weather. It might not be as efficient as a dark Sneasel, but heh! You can’t have everything!”

He chuckled softly and rolled his eyes. “Kinda embarrassing whenever that happens, if you ask me! Besides, producing all that fur is an exhausting process! Which is why I bought plenty of jerky. It occupies little space and is highly caloric, which is perfect for a species that has an extremely high metabolism.”

Talking about his experience in a new body reminded him to ask Archie how he felt about his own experience in his own body. Silver was quick to amend that moment of forgetfulness. “Ah! By the way, were you always an Oshawott, or… something else? I never caught that detail…”

 

[Weazel]

The Oshawott flashed the Sneasel a thumbs up. To be honest, he couldn’t imagine lugging all the supplies required to brew tea up a mountain, himself. Maybe Silver knew he was going to be traveling with a Fire Type? Would certainly make things easier on that front at least. Either way, he certainly wasn’t going to criticize, the Sneasel had been a wandering trainer after all, he probably knew what he was doing.

Talking about ‘mountain’ Sneasels and ‘dark’ Sneasels as if there was a distinction between the two did catch his interest, though. Archie had never heard of anyone make such a distinction before, though maybe there was in Silver’s world? Come to think of it, the Sneasel’s coloration was fairly abnormal for the species, maybe there was more to that than he’d originally assumed? Deviations from the standard morph weren’t exactly rare in his original world, he did recall. Although Pokemon always took their mother’s species when bred, mix in enough of another Pokemon on the father’s side and you’d start getting different traits showing through. There was a whole school of Pokemon Breeders that would specifically cross the same two species again and again over multiple generations to produce desired traits in the offspring.

… Why was it that he kept remembering useless factoids instead of actually important things? Well, he guessed he’d take it over remembering more horrors of the apocalypse…

“Actually, I didn’t know there was a difference between Sneasels like you’re describing. Are you saying you’re not the standard Dark-Ice Type?” The Oshawott asked, “Can definitely confirm that jerky’s great, though. There’s no such thing as a feral Pokemon in my world, so the only way to get meat that doesn’t involve cannibalism is to harvest it from Mystery Dungeons, so for long excursions where you can’t rely on a dungeon showing up, cured meats are basically a must.”

Silver’s question about his own history caused Archie to hesitate momentarily. There… Really wasn’t any reason to hide it anymore. And Silver was a trustworthy comrade, possibly even a friend.

“In my previous world, I’m an Oshawott,” he said, before adding, a little quieter, “In the world before that, I was a human.”

 

[Cresselia92]

“Actually, I didn’t know there was a difference between Sneasels like you’re describing. Are you saying you’re not the standard Dark-Ice Type?”

Silver grinned, recalling the many times folks mistook him for a regular Sneasel. And truthfully, he was mistaken about himself, too. “Heh! That makes the two of us. But no, I’m not. I’m Poison and Fighting, actually.”

He nibbled once more at his Poffin, just as a faint nostalgic gleam shone into his eyes and his grin turned into a thinner smile.

“One of my partners back home is a Sneasel, and he’s one of the typical Dark- and Ice-type variants, so I’m familiar enough with the species. But when I reached this world I noticed these,” he brought the claws of his free hand to his face and wiggled them, “and I understood that there was something unusual about me, so I did some extensive research. Purple claws mean venom.”

He chuckled a bit, mostly to lift his mood once again. “And they and my fangs mean I’m an obligate carnivore and hunter, too. Jerky is a lifesaver for me; I’m not really too keen on hunting ‘mons myself, not even wild or feral ones!”

“In my previous world, I’m an Oshawott,” he said, before adding, a little quieter, “In the world before that, I was a human.”

After hearing those words, Silver’s mood deflated once more. The thin smile was gone, and all he could show was a serious and sympathetic expression.

“…I see.” Silver sighed and looked away. “So this isn’t your first rodeo, huh?”

The now-Sneasel stared at his Poffin and nibbled a bit more of it. Though, his bites were much smaller, and even his chewing had slowed down significantly. Not feeling in the right mindset to eat the snack, he stored it away in his belt bag and took a deep breath to psyche myself up somewhat.

“…It must suck, though,” he said, his voice low and cautious. “It’s just… it can be rough enough being forced to leave behind the people you care about from one world, so… I can’t imagine how it must be like to miss out people from two worlds.”

Unconsciously, Silver rubbed an arm and gazed blankly at the floor. Reminiscences of his time wandering in the then-foreign Johto flashed into his mind. Alone with a team who stayed with him mostly out of obligation and unable to return home… because he technically didn’t have a safe home anymore.

And excluding a few people he knew he could trust, if he began thinking hard about it… his experience in Forlas wasn’t much different than his time as a beginning Trainer. He might have gotten used to that kind of situation, but that didn’t make certain feelings much easier to handle.

“Sounds… very lonely,” he murmured, twiddling his claws and refusing to make eye contact.

 

[Weazel]

There was a subspecies of Sneaael that was Poison and Fighting Typed? He wondered what sort of adaptions brought that sort of thing about. He'd heard about Sandshrew and Vulpix adapting Ice Typing to survive the colder climates of Alola's mountains, but Sneasel losing its own Ice Typing in mountainous regions? Maybe it was to survive predators, or better hunt prey? He knew Poison had an advantage over Fae, but, didn't Fighting suffer against the Fairy Type? So many questions, but it seemed rude to pepper Silver with then.

"Ever consider evolving your Sneasel?" He asked instead.

Mentioning his status as a two time world hopper seemed to take the wind out of Silver's sails, though. Was it just that the Sneasel was a particularly empathetic individual, or did something he say hit a little close to home? Maybe some combination of the two?

"To be honest, I don't have a lot of memories of my human life. I feel like I owe it to everyone to remember as much as I can, but," the Oshawott sighed, and shook his head, "The more memories I recover, the more I wish I didn't remember any if it, sometimes. But I know that's selfish of me."

He was the only one left who could remember, after all. Still, Silver seemed kind if miserable, so maybe he shouldn't be getting into all that. How to recover from this?

"A-anyway, I do miss all my Pokemon friends, but I just remind myself that once all this is over, and we're all sent home, it'll be like I never left," he said, "Really, I'm more worried about forgetting all of you guys once we go home."

Wait, that wasn't going to make things any better either!

"I'm not unhappy," he insisted, a little lamely, "How about you? Counting the days until you can see your Pokemon again?"

 

[Cresselia92]

‘Not unhappy,’ Silver mused, and this time he turned his head to look at Archie. His piercing red eyes scrutinized the Oshawott’s own dark eyes, in search of some ‘gotta-say-something-to-not-worry’ telltale signs, but he couldn’t find anything. ‘I guess you can’t really miss something if you don’t know what you’re missing in the first place.’

Still, he realized that he was letting himself getting carried away by his train of memories and he didn’t want to dump his angsty teenager woes on the Oshawott. So he pulled himself together with a deep breath and by crossing his arms, almost as if wishing to shield his heart.

“Yeah…” He cleared his throat and nodded with conviction, and this time his eyes and voice burned with renewed fervor. “Yeah! I’m doing well enough! I just… got lost in thought, that’s all.” A soft chuckle escaped his lips and he waved his hand reassuringly. “I tend to think a tad too much at times. But I’m okay, really!”

Happy thoughts. He needed to focus on happy thoughts. Or at least, maybe bittersweet ones.

“Still… yeah, I kinda miss my team and my human friends. I can’t deny that. I know that when I’ll be back it’ll be like I never left, but that doesn’t change the fact they aren’t here, y’know?”

The now-Sneasel shrugged and flashed a tiny smirk. “But whatever! Enough of that demotivating stuff! You wanted to know ‘bout my Sneasel, no?” His smirk widened. “Well! As far as I know, he’s looking for a way to evolve. However he’s very young, and he still picks fights with wild birds to steal their feathers. Dunno why; maybe he thinks that to evolve into a Weavile he needs to get extra feathers by beating up birds?”

 

[Weazel]

“Oh, well, if it’s overthinking you want to talk about, you’ve come to the right person,” Archie deadpanned. “I’ve never exactly been what you would call decisive.”

Well, it seemed like the crisis was successfully averted. He’d gotten Silver rambling about his Sneasel rather than asking questions about Archie’s past. The change of topic definitely seemed to brighten the other mustelid’s mood, and the Oshawott merely listened as he walked them from stall to stall, picking out a few foodstuffs here and there. But, with the topic of evolving, he eventually did have to ask…

“How about you? Thinking of evolving?”

 

[Cresselia92]

Silver automatically opened his mouth to respond, but blinked in astonishment and closed his jaws slowly when he realized that he didn’t have an answer to that question.

“That’s… Huh. It’s just… I’m not sure ‘bout that, to be honest.” The now-Sneasel’s smile turned into a straight slit and he began twiddling his claws, embarrassed. “The thing is… I dunno if I can actually evolve. I’ve tried looking for info ’bout mountain Weavile in the local library, but found nothing.” He sighed and shook his head. “And I never got the chance to investigate further. With all the stuff that happened recently, I had no time for research.”

Silver found some stalls selling healing berries. Oh, he needed those! But while his body picked the goods and paid for them, his mind was busy thinking about his potential evolution: A navy blue Weavile with silver undertones and a cool feather crown. That sounded and looked so badass!

“…Y’know, I really wonder how evolution feels like, now that I think ‘bout it.” He let out a mirthful series of dooks and pumped his fists. “If I can truly evolve, then I’ll surely become faster, sturdier, and much stronger! Definitely much, much stronger!”

He nodded to himself, satisfied with his little mental gymnastics, and faced Archie.

“Ah! Since you’re an Oshawott, that means you could evolve twice!” He smirked and flicked his ears, sounding curious. “So! Looking forward to your future growth spurts?”

 

[Weazel]

The Oshawott hummed to himself. It seemed odd that, for all the research Silver was able to do on his species, that he wouldn’t find anything on his evolution? Surely mountain Sneasel still evolved? At least, he couldn’t think of any of the regional variants back home that didn’t! Well, hopefully he wasn’t accidentally taunting the mustelid with an unobtainable goal or anything like that. He did have to smile at Silver’s little dooking war dance display.

He didn’t answer the Sneasel’s question immediately, instead taking the time to reflect on Silver’s own concept of evolving. Faster, sturdier, stronger. All true in a practical sense. And Weavile wasn’t a huge deviation from Sneasel, and likely wouldn’t require that much adapting to. But then, that was all easily true of Dewott, as well. He’d still be himself, but even so, evolution felt like such an intrinsic part of being a Pokemon, he felt like to evolve was to give up some piece of his humanity. And to do that, would betray all the people who used to live on his world. He looked down at his paws, and couldn’t help frowning to himself.

“To be honest, no,” he admitted, “Something about the idea feels… Wrong, somehow. I’ve been trying to convince myself otherwise, but, not much luck so far.”

From a purely practical standpoint, if he didn’t get over himself soon, he was going to start turning into a liability on the field. At this point, he was going to start stunting his own growth. None of his efforts to keep pace were going to matter in the long run compared to the pure boost that evolving provided. He wished he could just be excited about the idea like Silver was.

 

[Cresselia92]

“…Wrong?”

That… wasn’t the answer Silver was expecting. Tilting his head and his feathers twitching, he stared at Archie with a perplexed expression. “Why’s that? What about evolution feels wrong to you?”

While he couldn’t grasp how Archie was feeling about the matter, there were many reasons for any ‘mon to have mixed feelings about potentially evolving. They often ranged from anxiety-inducing for ‘mons with multiple evolutions or wildly different body shapes to extremely thrilling for ‘mons who didn’t change much or wished for some skills that only evolution could offer. And yeah, evolution wasn’t gradual, like the growth of a tree or a human, but he still couldn’t think of any scenario in which it could be seen as ‘wrong.’

“I mean, I know it’s gonna be a series of drastic changes — and Samurott in particular sounds quite extreme — and I know big changes can be scary, but…”

Silver cut himself off with a soft gasp, and his eyes widened. He wasn’t 100% certain about it, but what if that was the crux of Archie’s plight?

“…Wait. Are you afraid of evolving?”

 

[Weazel]

He frowned. Was fear really the right word for it? Maybe? It wasn't the idea of evolving itself that scared him, but what it meant about him.

"Evolving is an experience intrinsic to Pokemon," he said, "I'll never be human again. But I feel like, if I take that step, I'll be forsaking my old, human life for my new Pokemon one."

Which, was stupid. Like Wes and Odette had said, ultimately what he did here was meaningless. This body wasn't real, evolved or not he'd still be an Oshawott when he returned home. He wouldn't even remember he'd evolved. He just... Had to get over himself! It was just taking him longer than he had any right to.

"I'm all that's left of my world. There's no one else to carry on its memory," he explained, "If I do something so tied to the Pokemon experience, I feel like I'll be turning my back on my human identity. And if I do that, I feel like I'm betraying the memory of my entire world."

He shook his head, "Which, is ridiculous. There's no one to judge me for my choices. I'm not responsible for carrying the weight of a dead world on my shoulders. No one else would care, no one else would even know! ... But I'll know. I guess that's what I'm scared of."

 

[Cresselia92]

Silver stared at Archie in shock, his eyes wider than they have ever been. His world… died? There was only one word that immediately tumbled out of his mouth, “…Gods.”

What could he say about a bombshell like that? That definitely wasn’t how he expected a simple talk about evolution in a freaking market to turn into!

Okay. Okay… Keep calm, clear the mind! Okay. He didn’t know the best way to reassure someone, but… but he was gonna try! All he needed was to follow his guts and keep his heart a bit more open. Maybe. Hopefully.

After exhaling a deep breath to steel himself, Silver traded glances with the Oshawott, and an odd calmness shone through his face and body language. Slowly, he reached out for the Oshawott’s shoulder and placed his paw on it, keeping his claws fully retracted. Every single movement was calculated and steady, as he couldn’t afford to falter. He needed to stay strong… for his teammate.

“Archie,” he began with a soft voice, “I can’t imagine nor claim to know what kinda odyssey and feelings you went through. I’m not even sure if there’s anyone who can completely relate to your experience.” He gripped the Oshawott’s shoulder a bit tighter, but still gently. “But… there’s something else I can say. Some words of ancient wisdom from my world.”

With his free paw, he motioned to his entire body. “The body might change, break, and repair itself constantly…”

Then he tapped his forehead. “And the mind might gain and lose knowledge with age…”

And finally, he placed his paw on his own chest. “But the soul, the heart, the core, the essence of your true you and all its connections with others’ souls… now that’s the one thing that’ll never change about you.”

Silver shook his head fiercely. “Bonds might become invisible over time, but they’ll never be gone. I mean, only because your parents might be faraway or gone, you’ll never stop being their… their child.” He looked down, thinking about his own family back home. The family he hadn’t seen in years. “I… I think that a world could be like a… a big parent for everyone? You’ll always be your world’s child, no matter what, and as long as you’ll cherish those bonds, then… you’ll always carry a part of it and its inhabitants inside of you. Nothing… can take that away from you, not even the almighty god of all creation, let alone evolution.”

Once that was said and done, Silver pulled away from Archie and began twiddling his claws nervously, unsure whether what he was trying to say went through or not.

“I… sorry if I spouted stupid nonsense or whatnot…”

 

[Weazel]

… Oops. He hadn’t… Actually meant to say all that out loud. But, judging by the look on Silver’s face, he absolutely had done exactly that.

“I-I’m sorry. That was- I shouldn’t have dumped all that on you,” he said, shooting the Sneasel an apologetic look. What was with him lately? He needed to cut it out with this sad sack attitude. Hopefully the change of scenery of getting out to Little Scriven would shake him from this funk…

Silver’s paw on his shoulder broke the Oshawott from his thoughts. His fellow mustelid’s speech was impassioned and earnest, though Archie couldn’t really say he was fully convinced of it. Did a bond still exist if no one remembered it? Biologically, yes, he was still the child of such-and-such and so-and-so, but there was more to being a parent than biology. He couldn’t remember their faces, couldn’t imagine their voices. The things they did together, the lessons they taught him. Did he love them, did they love him? It was all a blank space in his mind. It was like that for so much of his world already. How could he cherish it, if most of his memories of it were of it dying?

Still, Silver was clearly trying to help, and Archie appreciated it. There was nothing wrong with the way the Sneasel thought, in fact, it was probably a great degree healthier than the thought process the Oshawott fond himself trapped in. It was another opinion, like Wes’s and Odette’s, that he could work over in his head to try and get over this hump faster. And with Wes and Koa apparently descending into a blood feud, and Steven running off to who knew where, he needed to get over this, so he could be strong for his friends again. They were going to need him as much as he needed them.

“It’s not stupid,” the Oshawott said, shaking his head. He shot the Sneasel his best reassuring smile. “I just need time to reflect, I think. Too stubborn to have an epiphany like that.”

Now it was his turn to reach out, and pat Silver on the shoulder, “But, thank you. I really appreciate your words of wisdom.”

 

[Cresselia92]

Silver paused when Archie reciprocated the shoulder pat, still not too used with physical contact, but he got over his inner awkwardness much quicker than before and gave him a shy smile. “Um…You’re welcome. And don’t apologize, really! We all need someone to listen to us, once in a while.”

Gingerly, he tapped the Oshawott’s paw with the blunt side of his claws, and his smile widened a little. This time, on his face there was a hint of fondness.

“Those words have been told to me by an important someone, at a time when I felt lost, alone… and weak.” He muttered the last word with a tone brimming with regret and shame, but once again he refused to let those feelings consume him and he smiled defiantly. “Heh! I was kinda an idiot with a tunnel vision back then, and I needed someone to give me a rough pep talk and another perspective to help me grow.”

Another perspective, huh…

Tragedies aside, it was interesting to see how much things were different across universes. Archie did all he could to preserve the legacy of his world, while Silver would have gladly ditched and forgotten everything about his own. And yet, both situations had a common thread: the need for time to mull things over. Silver needed his own time to make mistakes and find his path out of his inner darkness, and now it was Archie’s turn.

“So! I hope you’ll find the answers you’re looking for, sooner or later.” Silver gave the biggest, most encouraging smirk he could offer. “I know you will. You’re strong; you can do it!”

 

[Weazel]

“It’s important to have people who can give you a little tough love, from time to time,” the Oshawott mused. Silver probably knew all that already, by the sound of it. He’d heard it all before from an important someone, huh? It was good to hear Silver had someone like that. He seemed like a good kid, maybe a little rough around the edges. Archie got the feeling he’d go far with his Pokemon, once he was back home. “Sounds like you’ve done a lot of growing. I’ll have to try to follow your example.”

He kept his voice light and joking, but, inside he still felt more than a little uncertain. To be honest, strong wasn’t something Archie knew if he could consider himself. He was physically capable – for an Oshawott – sure, but there was more to strength than power. Ignatius – as an Empoleon and as the Mayor-King of Frontier Town, had plenty of power, but, ultimately, he’d proven to be a weak man. Maybe in time, Archie could become strong in a way that actually mattered. But first he had to get his own head in order.

“Well, I think maybe the grand metaphysical questions can afford to wait for another day,” he said, briefly gazing upwards to judge the progress of the sun across the sky, “For now, though, I think we both still have a fair amount of preparing to do for our expeditions!”

 

[Cresselia92]

Silver nodded, his smirk turning from encouraging to cheeky and his arms raising in mock defeat. “Hehe! No objections from me! That was more than enough deep philosophical talk for an entire week!”

It’s not like Silver didn’t mind deeper topics or some brain teasing, of course. However, they often felt way beyond his pay grade and experience, and he didn’t want to mess anything up or upset others by giving the wrong answers. He already did plenty of damage in the past with his abrasive attitude and temper issues (which were still a massive work in progress), so he preferred to limit the risks of violent confrontation, especially mental and psychological.

I guess that means trying out some smaller talk… Something simple and hopefully not depressing.

“So, what was your profession before to came here in Forlas?” he asked, his ears twitching in curiosity. “D’you enjoy it?”

The now-Sneasel left out any mention of ‘human world’ or ‘Pokémon world’ on purpose. He deemed it best to let the Oshawott pick which world he was the most comfortable talking about.

 

[Weazel]

The pair’s shopping took them next to a stall that, among other essentials, had a few flasks for sale. The craftsmanship was all over the place, and no two flasks looked alike. This was probably a second-hand reseller, rather than someone selling their own work. Still, Archie picked up two of the larger, more promising looking ones, one in each paw, and studied them closely.

“I’m an Adventurer back home, part of a guild,” he said. “It’s not too different from the kind of bulletin board work we do here. Dungeon delving, outlaw capture, item retrieval, caravan guard or personal escort. Search and rescue’s a more specialized field, but we do sometimes support professional Rescuers on more dangerous jobs. Yeah, I’d say I enjoy it, you can never expect any two days to go exactly the same.”

He held out the larger of the two flasks to Silver, which came with its own drinking cup that could be used to cover the whole top half of the flask, keeping the actual screw on cap and mouth free of dust and grime, “How’s your flask, by the way? This one might be a good upgrade for you.”

He set the other flask down. It had a decent capacity, but it’d lost its strap somewhere along the way, which would’ve made it awkward to carry on long journeys. “Before that, I don’t remember a whole lot, but I know I was a Ranger, stationed in Unova’s great desert, between Castelia and Nimbasa.”

 

[Cresselia92]

Silver simply listened to Archie’s story, following him closely as they walked through the various stalls and would-be customers. By then, his steps had become lighter and swifter, as he felt less bothered by the excess of stimuli from his crowded surroundings.

So, Archie was an Adventurer in his second world. Hmm… It seemed like Guilds and explorers were extremely popular as organizations and profession in most Pokémon-centered worlds, just like Leagues and Trainers were in most human-centered worlds. And that was quite the interesting similarity, he had to admit.

Before he could pour more thought into the matter, Archie extended a flask, which was definitely bigger than the one he had already.

“Huh, sure. Lemme check…” he replied, before grabbing the flask and turning it over and over, looking for potential holes and defects. He also grabbed the cup and pressed it against his muzzle to check its size — his muzzle slipped into it effortlessly, so he wouldn’t have struggled while lapping liquids. “Hmm, yeah! This should be good! Though, I’d need to find a shoulder bag because my belt b—”

Silver blinked when Archie mentioned his past human life, and he couldn’t help but wonder how things would have been if they met under other circumstances. She surely wasn’t pleased whenever she had to deal with Rangers snooping around her places and meddling with her businesses…

“A Ranger, huh?” he asked, tilting his head. “And from… Unova… Right. There’s an Unova in my world, too, but it’s very far from Kanto and Johto. Never been there, but… well…” he shrugged casually, “almost everyone knows ‘bout it. Mostly because of some accident involving some loons called Team Plasma, who wanted to summon some legendary dragons to separate humans and Pokémon or whatever.”

Silver frowned and shook his head. “Which is… so stupid. Humans and Pokémon have lived together for millennia! Where’d they got such an outlandish idea?” He paused, reflecting on the opinion of some members of the team, and he let out a frustrated sigh. “I know you don’t remember much, but… d’you have to deal with something like that?”

 

[Weazel]

Plasma? The Oshawott folded his arms, and tried to knock a few memories loose. The name sounded familiar, to be sure. He rolled it around in his head, and eventually an image did start to come to mind. A black and white banner billowing in the wind. It bore a coat of arms, divided per pale into white and black halves. A blue stylized letter P and Z spread across both halves. Silhouetted figures in robes surrounded the banner. There was something almost sinister about it.

“They’re… An environmentalist group?” He said, though his voice betrayed his uncertainty. “You said they tried to summon Legendary Pokemon to separate humans and Pokemon? I don’t remember anything along those lines, but…”

They’d been one of the groups upset about the plan to urbanize the desert route, he remembered that much. Had dividing humans and Pokemon been their ultimate end goal in his world? It certainly sounded pretty extreme.

“If they were going to do in my world what they tried in yours, I think the world ending interrupted that,” he muttered, before shaking his head. Now wasn’t the time to go back to that topic. So instead he busied himself digging out a handful of coins to pay for Silver’s new flask, and passed them along to the sales ‘mon.

 

[Cresselia92]

‘Err, the world ending’s gonna stop literally everything, though…’ mused Silver, making extra sure to keep his commentary strictly mental. ‘Steer clear from that specific topic, just like you’d avoid the Voltorb at the Flip…’

“Heh, well, if you’re looking for environmentalist groups, there are those idiotic Team Aqua and Team Magma with their idiotic ‘expand the sea’ or ‘expand the land’ propagandas.” He shrugged while rolling his eyes. “Really dunno what’s the deal with all those teams with their weird ideas… but whatever! It’s not really something we can do anything ‘bout, unlike Cipher.”

Silver observed the exchange of money with genuine confusion. Wasn’t Archie spending more money than he ought to? But then he quickly realized that he was paying for his flask, and he stared at the Oshawott in disbelief. W-why?

“Oh? But… I could’ve bought the flask by myself, y’know…” he muttered, but before he could protest further, the vendor dropped the flask in his claws. The now-Sneasel stared at the flask in his grasp, dumbfounded, finding himself struggling for words.

“I… huh… I appreciate the thought, but… you shouldn’t have. You’ve got your own expedition’s expenses to take care of, and…”

He trailed off, not really sure how to finish his sentence. The gestures, the interaction… why did those simple acts of generosity confuse him so much? Why did they feel so… familiar, almost nostalgic?

And then, a simple image danced in his mind, bringing him a blend of emotions he didn’t know how to properly filter: Kotone. That sweet, brown-haired girl with her silly ponytails and an adorable smile that never left her face. Always so kind, so empathetic, so patient, so… friendly. Everything he wished he could be. But he could never be.

“…This might… seem a weird question, but… what’s your secret?” he asked slowly, carefully, almost with embarrassment. “How d’you connect with others so… effortlessly? I… I don’t get it.”

 

[Weazel]

Magma and Aqua, huh? Those didn'tring any bells, but, again, they didn't necessarily mean they hadn't existed Their ideas certainly sounded goofy! He kinda wished they were fighting a group of kooky environmentalists, instead of Cipher. At least with an environmentalist you could assume their heart was in the right place... Silver was saying something.

"Hm?" Archie blinked. He looked from the money in his paw, over to Silver, and then down at the flask in Silver's claws. "Oh."

As the team lead back home, Archie had been the one in charge of finances. He handled all the money. That included making payments for all the supplies. So he'd just... Fallen back on old habits! Well, it wasn't that big a deal.

"I got a big payout off a job I did with Gladion and Astrid, so I can afford to buy a few gifts," he said, before shooting Silver a cheeky grin, "Consider it an investment, from one Adventurer to another."

Silver's follow up question took the wind from his sails, and caused his grin to slip a little. He searched the Sneasel's expression, trying to determine if the question was asked earnestly or if he'd accidentally crossed a line somewhere. His fellow mustelid seemed embarrassed, maybe, but there wasn't any hit on anger or annoyance, or anything like that. So, he folded his arms, and tried to think of a good answer.

"To be honest, it doesn't come easy to me, either. My partner back home, though, he's got that kind of magnetic personality. Charming, outgoing, naturally charismatic; the kind of person people want to be friends with. The kind of person I wanted to be, but wasn't," he explained, "At first, I was just emulating him. Trying to imagine how he would respond, what he would do, what he'd tell me I should do. I've found that, the more I did that, the more it's started to come naturally to me."

Putting it like that, it almost made him sound fake. Hopefully Silver would understand what he meant.

"When you're trying to improve yourself, it's good to have a role model, someone you can look up to," he added, feeling more than a little lame.