[FIN] Hi By Omission

[Suudonym]

Sorey and Mikleo departed from Camphoreon City just a while later than originally intended, passing through suburbia and into the open outskirts. After consulting their map, they had decided to follow the eastern side of the mountains southward, spend the night at the base of the mountain, and hike to the ruins site the following day. The sun was shining pleasantly for now, but at this time of year, they knew very well just how quickly the daylight would fade, and neither of them were especially interested in attempting to forge a path up the mountains in late autumn darkness.

Mikleo commented as they walked, casting a glance over his shoulder at the town receding into the distance behind them.

"What, you mean at the store?" Sorey clarified, confused. "How do you figure?"



Sorey lifted his hands lightly in a shrugging gesture, "Maybe they're just polite?"

Mikleo gave a short, dissatisfied grumble.

"Hmm..." Sorey raised one hand to his chin thoughtfully, cupping the other around his elbow. "Honestly, I never really understood why people think it's weird in the first place. Other trainers talk to their pokemon. Why's it only weird when I do it?"

to me, you talk with me,> Mikleo explained.

"It's not like I really know what you're saying, though. Not exactly, anyway. It's more like... I know what you're trying to say?"



"Ehh, I don't know if three individuals are a reliable representation of the entire region," Sorey considered. "Like you said, the clerk may not have said anything because we were customers, Rosie may have been being polite, and as for Joey... He had a lot on his mind; he may not have even really noticed that I was talking to you. Oooorr maybe talking to pokemon isn't as weird as everyone tries to make it out to be and Kodo's just the only place that seems to get that."

Mikleo snorted.

"Nothing wrong with a little optimism!" Sorey said, pausing and resting his hands on his hips. "Worst case scenario, my guess is wrong and I learn a new way to think about the situation."

the Vaporeon replied. He took his human companion's cue and seated himself, curling his finned tail around to the front of his body.

"Oh yeah? Then your glass must be full of coffee: bitter as the day is long."

Mikleo's tail flicked mischievously, and his posture tensed.

Sorey held his hands up defensively, "Wait, don't--!"

Heedless of the plea for mercy, the water-type pokemon sprang up onto Sorey's shoulder, maneuvering to settle his front half on the human's head and smacking at the side of his face with his tail. The unwilling perch, bowing under Mikleo's weight, turned his body and shook his head in an effort to free himself of his burden, complaining all the while, "Gah, Mikleo, get off! You're so heavy!"



Sorey caught sight of a pointing paw in his peripheral vision, and he turned to follow its path. Some distance ahead, far removed from the city, was a structure of some sort. Sorey tilted his head at the unfamiliar piece of architecture, prompting Mikleo to jump back down to the ground. "Uhh, I'm not sure," he said. "Some kind of building?"

Over the next several minutes, the pair closed the distance between themselves and the building in question. The architecture was obviously modern - even recent - and it bore an emblem above the door that Sorey and Mikleo recognized as belonging to the Pokemon League.

Mikleo guessed, but Sorey, studying the sign posted in front of the door, shook his head.

"It says it's a trainers' center. I remember seeing it on the map, but I'm not really sure what it is. I think there's two of them on the island."

Mikleo repeated.

"I'm not sure. Do you want to check it out?"



"Yeah, you're right," Sorey agreed. "Maybe after we see the ruins."

With that decided, they passed the entrance to the building and continued on their way.  

[Blood_Goddess]

It was getting late; Ray suspected she probably had about half hour more of light before she would find herself traveling back the dark shade of the mountains.
Mossy eyes scanned the glow from the snow peaks her face tucked into the tall collar of her jacket casually, while her usual curtain of gray hair fell over one side of her face, blocking out much of her features.
Having had settled herself by a small collection the trees a good distance away from the Trainer center, the older trainer watched in silence as a young green boy she had brought here hurried toward the building, growing further and further away until he disappeared within the building.

She was hoping to get him here before it got too late, but a call from a friend of hers in Sagestone had prompted her to make a stop in the town before they could get underway to the center. As a result it was looking like she would need to leave him here a day longer.
“He’ll probably find his own way back,” She noted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she pushed herself off of the tree. The weight on her back also shifting as the folded wings of the Crobat clinging to her back twitched with her movements.
“-Knowing him.” Stretching her arms out before her, lazy eyes drifting over the building for a few more seconds, in silent consideration while she stretched and prepped herself to return to the forest,
People going in and out of the building, Trainers returning from the mountains and forest to get back into the building before the deep cold set in. It was their safe zone, the shiny trainer center, the base for the League. It would have been a pretty cool place; Ray had to admit, back when she was part of the League herself she would have taken joy in a place where a dense population of Trainers to battle existed.

One of the trainers in particular caught her eye, and an eyebrow slowly slid upward as he and his Vaporeon took notice of the center, He was close enough to her for that she could hear him speaking, clearly to the Vaporeon. They spoke to one another and then continued on without entering.
That was a bit odd already; people didn’t usually travel out here unless they were looking to take part in the center, it was at least unusual enough behavior that it caught her attention.
The other thing was his clothing, Grand Ile.

“You know back in my day we didn’t have cozy trainer centers to stay in at night.” Ray spoke allowed at the boy and his Vaporeon drew past, pulling her arms up to cross over her chest, shaking her hair out of her face a little so that she could look him over better with a broad smile.
“It’s hard for the kids to pass up something like that, You must be made of some pretty tough stuff.”  

[Suudonym]

The sound of someone speaking caught the attention of human and pokemon alike, and it only took a glance to see that the speaker was addressing them. Mikleo eyed the unfamiliar individual carefully, but Sorey, lacking a single shred of suspicion in all his person, paid more attention to the words themselves than to the person who said them.

"Oh, so it's lodging?" he concluded, casting a look back at the building. Trainer center... He supposed that was one way to interpret the concept of a pokemon center for trainers: a place for trainers to rest. "I actually wasn't sure what it was," he admitted, "but sleeping indoors isn't really for me anyway."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Her eyes opened a little more in apparent delight at the boy's words, and she let off a soft chuckle "You didn't even know what it was- alright alright."
A slight tilt of her head as she listened a broader grin spreading over her lips
"Its that in part yes," she looked up toward it "Its a safe place for trainers to stay and get stronger without having to risk the dangers of Team Rocket." She glanced back down at him "That's the idea anyway. As ideas go, its not bad."

A light shrug joined her comment, though she waited a moment in silence before she spoke again "You're a survivalist then huh?"  

[Suudonym]

The name Team Rocket caught Sorey's attention, and he immediately looked down to Mikleo, finding the Vaporeon's eyes upon him. They didn't need words to know that they were each thinking the same thing. Curious as he was, though, Sorey put his questions aside for the time being, for the sake of being polite. He'd find an opportunity to ask soon.

"I don't think it's anything worth putting an -ist on the end of," he replied. "It's just the way we've always lived - what we're used to."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Ray noted when something she had drawn a response from the two younger team, the looks that they shared with one another before he continued to speak to her.
"Oh really?" She tilted her head, sounding a little surprised by his confession "Well that's interesting,"

This was really interesting, Ray had to admit. It wasn't like she never met people who preferred to live outdoors, but she was certainly interested in this individual's story.
"I'm going to have to throw some observations out at you then. You're new here, aren't you, But you're not too new since you've been here long enough to be affected by the Egg." She lifted a finger to flick it out and point at the boy "Water type." then look down to the Vaporeon who she gave a wink "Lucky you"

Her eyes squinted again as she looked him over "... I want to say Grand Ile, but Grand Ile isn't know for having good relations with their pokemon populous, and there is no way you haven't spend most of your life, if not all of it with Vaporeon. So.. special case?"  

[Suudonym]

Sorey was used to people being surprised by his lifestyle. He had learned long ago, the first time he had ever set foot in Snowbelle, that his way of life differed greatly from what was considered normal. It didn't really bother him, though - it was just the way things were for him, and there was no point in being self-conscious about it.

The flow of the conversation took a confusing turn into the realm of words that Sorey knew the meaning of very well but had no clue how to piece together contextually. He looked to Mikleo again, wondering if the pokemon might have understood, but the Vaporeon shook his head. He, too, was at a loss.

"Yeah, today's my first day here," Sorey said. "I'm not sure whether or not that's long enough to be, uh... 'affected by the Egg.' I'll be honest - I don't exactly know what you're referring to."

As she continued, he raised a hand to the cloth around his shoulders, "Because of my mantle, right? Someone I met earlier guessed the same thing." Kind of interesting, that. Apparently Grande Ile and Kodo intermingled quite a bit for the style to be so easily recognizable. "It was actually a gift from someone; I'm from Kalos, myself."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Ray's head jerked back slightly with a look of surprise.
The movement and the answer from the human was shocking enough to stir the pokemon hanging from the harness straps on her back, the Crobat opening his wings though to give himself momentum eventually leading the large bat to the women's shoulder where he peered out from behind her at Sorey and the Vaporeon with one squinted eye.


Ray put a hand on her hip with a small frown, glancing over at Impact as he too took an interest in the boy that she had been speaking with.
"Hm- I'm usually wrong about a few things, but I seemed to have been wrong about all of it in this case, even Grand Ile... Kalos then. Sorry about that."
an eyebrow arched as she reached her other hand up to pull the collar of her jacket away from her lower face, freeing her expression a little more.

"It can't have been the first time being here. And you know, the Egg of Arceus, They're saying its the power of the Legendary god who gave you the power to talk to water types." she looked between the two "I saw you two talking to each other."  

[Suudonym]

Ray's surprise was answered with the same from Sorey, who began to wonder from the response if he had said something wrong. Even the Crobat that appeared from around the woman's arm (he gave a smile and a dip of his head in polite greeting) seemed to be confused.

"Oh, I don't mind," Sorey said, readily dismissing the apology. "The style must be pretty distinct." As she continued and explained her meaning, the boy's eyes widened. Arceus? He'd learned so much about the pokemon during his travels around Sinnoh, but this was the first he had heard of an 'egg,' let alone one that would--

Mikleo said, interrupting his human companion's thoughts. this is a normal reaction! The people at the store were weird after all.>

Sorey gave a trailing laugh. "Well, let's learn a little more before we go around calling people weird, okay?" He returned to addressing Ray, "I'm sorry, this really is the first I've heard of it. I've been talking with Mikleo foooor...?"



Sorey resigned himself to the vague explanation, "Yeah, a long time. It's not just water-types, I could understand just about all the pokemon who lived in the village well enough to have a conversation with them. It takes a while for me to get as good at it with other pokemon as I am with Mikleo, though - we've been together our whole lives."  

[Blood_Goddess]

For a moment Ray stood where she was completely still, and for the first time in her life she was left... well, rather speechless.
Impact however pushed himself a little higher onto her arm, his tiny feet clinging to her easily, though he opened his wings to allow him to balance easier.

Impact asked his slanted eyes widening.

Ray herself glanced from Impact to The Vaporeon, her own lips turning down into a frown. "... Would you mind explaining this?" was all she seemed to be able to say.  

[Suudonym]

Mikleo nodded, feeling somewhat proud of his human pseudo-sibling,

Strange looks were something Sorey had gotten used to, but he was far from similarly accustomed to being an object of fascination like he seemed to have become now. He lowered his gaze and mulled over the requested explanation. "Uhh, well, it's not really a 'direct translation' kind of thing, for one thing - although there are certain things that he says the same way every time, like names. For everything else, it's more like... Hmm." He crossed his arms and furrowed his brow in thought. "I'm not sure how best to describe it... It's sort of like, I learned how pokemon convey things? If that makes any sense." He shrugged his shoulders lightly, dropping his hands back to his sides. "Growing up, my family consisted of one human and a whole bunch of pokemon, so I got used to the way they communicate. Plus one of the pokemon living there could speak plain English directly into my head, so his translations really helped me learn the best ways to listen and interpret."  

[Suudonym]

Blood_Goddess

Impact crawled up a little more to frown at the Vaporeon, Looking as if he wasn’t entirely sure how to take that news. He would accuse them of lying if he hadn’t just heard the two talking with one another as if the trainer was a water type.

Ray herself was looking highly skeptical the more Sorey was talking, enough so that she re-crossed her arms over her chest. It wasn’t until he got to the Pokémon who was able to communicate with humans from inside their heads. Her interest seemed to peak and she tilted her head slightly.
The only Pokémon she knew could do that was Northern, The small Cloned Legendary.
But Cloned Legendary had only been popping up in the last few years or more.
“A Legendary?” Ray asked
she lifted a hand to her face, brushing the hair out of both her eyes so she could regard the younger human more clearly. She honestly didn’t know what to think about this. She had been around pokemon her entire life; she had known countless people who have been around pokemon their entire lives. People who, like her, dedicated their whole existence to understanding and working with pokemon, And It had never even seemed a possibility to understand pokemon on the level of being able to communicate verbally with them on the same level as human communicate with one another.
They had the next best thing, through bonds and long hard work they could get to know individuals, body language was the most important thing, certain gestures and sometimes certain noises. But it could never translate beyond that.
“I don’t know what to say to you kid. Trainers for generation have accepted that as a mysterious impossibility. The fact that this egg has been granting people the gift to talk to pokemon has been something of an overwhelming situation to deal with. on top of that, you knew a Legendary? a Legendary right? Those are the only ones I know to be able to talk like that.”

 

[Suudonym]

"Yeah, I sort of figured that out when traveling around Kalos and Sinnoh..." he said. "Even though it seemed like it was perfectly natural, people always seemed a little weirded out when I talked to Mikleo."

the Vapreon concluded.

"But anyway," Sorey continued, "he did sometimes call himself a 'legendary' pokemon, yes. It was odd until I got to Sinnoh and learned more about legendary pokemon as a whole; it was hard to think of him as something out of legends when he was just... a normal part of my childhood." He shrugged lightly. "His name is Mewtwo. I'd offer to introduce you if you're ever in Kalos, buuut he's a little reclusive. Oh, by the way," his laid-back demeanor shifted in something more serious, "if it's okay to ask, could you tell me a little more about Team Rocket...? Mewtwo always said that Team Rocket disbanded a long time ago, but what you said earlier made it sound more like a current issue."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Its become pretty natural, since most of the population can at least speak to one type. You won't catch me any less awed by it!" She announced. Though it seemed she still had yet to know if she could speak to any type of pokemon. She knew there was a potability that she wouldn't be able to, since it wasn't unheard of that some people just never get the ability. But she tried not to jump the gun, there were other types she hadn't tried yet.

The tall women crouched down, placing her elbows onto her knees "... Holy Giratina kid, you had some crazy childhood." she reached a hand up, her long fingers brushing up over her face and forehead.
"Mewtwo..."
Her eyes slid back up to him when he asked about Team Rocket, a slight crease in her brow joined a frown and she lowered her hand back onto her knee
"Geeze what is with people's habits of strolling onto this island and not knowing anything about Team Rocket." She lifted a finger to point at him in a chastising manner "That is the downside of always living outside, you REALLY should check up on current news every now and then."
Pushing herself back up to her feet hands on her hips "Team Rocket is a huge problem, for the last... Hm... six years I want to say. They're centered here on Kodo, League suspects they have an HQ here, but they've got reaches out to the other region." She tilted her head with a light frown "Thats why this island has those Trainer centers. Team Rocket isn't shy about attacking people, stealing pokemon. They've been messing with the Legendary pretty bad too- like I said, big problem."  

[Suudonym]

It was sort of unbelievable to think that everyone in the region could understand the words of pokemon, or at least of certain types, after spending all of his seventeen years having never met someone who communicated the way he did. He was glad, though; he knew trainers and pokemon were typically close, but there was something special in being able to understand what your companion was saying to you.

He raised a hand to the back of his head and laughed sheepishly. "I know, I know," he said. "I do try to catch up on current events when I get a chance, but..."

Mikleo finished.

Sorey cleared his throat, dismissing the unsolicited (albeit not incorrect) comment. He was more concerned with the explanation about Team Rocket than with giving a retort anyway, and he listened with all due attention. When she finished elaborating, he dipped his head in thought. "I see... I guess we'll have to be careful too. When you say 'messing with the legendaries,' what does that entail?"