[FIN] So Many Question Marks

[BlackFireKitsune]

A chilly winter breeze rolled along the sidewalk and blew past a small group; Albiore ruffled his feathers from his perch atop Ion's shoulder, while Yulia walked a bit closer to Jozette, who obligingly exuded more heat for the smaller humanoid pokemon. The fire-type flexed her paws around the straps over her shoulders and used them to once again readjust the small backpack that flopped against her back with every step. Oh well, at least it wasn't heavy today.

Ion paused a moment to offer a quiet smile to the pair of them as they followed along behind him, then continued on his path. This morning he'd decided to take the day off from working - a more common occurrence now than before, given the utter lack of new happenings or information to report on - and so had decided to spend the day with his pokemon. The morning had thereafter been filled with a park outing complete with picnic and battling, and as the day wore on into early afternoon, his pokemon met his suggestion of lunch at a restaurant with obvious enthusiasm. He wasn't quite sure which restaurant just yet - obviously one that was pokemon-friendly - but he'd figure out which one to go to once they got to an area of the city with more restaurants. With that thought in mind, he pulled his hoodie closer around him in deference to the chill in the air, then continued forward, one gloved hand around his staff as he used it as a walking stick and the other in his hoodie pocket.  

[TawnyAngel]

By his best guess he had a week left, maybe two if he was lucky and the bailiff was busy with seasonal trade. Did more people get evicted over the holidays? He didn't really know and it didn't make a lot of difference. Now that it was all pretty inevitable he was keeping himself busy with selling anything he couldn't carry with him when he- well, when he got kicked out. He hadn't bought much since arriving so there wasn't a whole lot and it wasn't worth a whole lot but no way was he leaving anything behind if he had a choice. He resented the money and effort he'd put into making the place a bit less crappy now. He was half tempted to put the cupboards askew again but he couldn't quite bring himself to be that spiteful because whoever lived in the apartment next would be somebody like him, somebody in a tough situation. Whoever they were they would have cupboards hung nicely and doors that closed smoothly and no damp, and that was something.

Having just put a couple of packages in the mail to buyers of small items from his soon-not-to-be apartment Taavi stepped back out into the cold, fastening the buttons of his coat and snugging his scarf tighter around his neck as he went. Where now then? He didn't have much else to do today, so he guessed it was go back to the apartment and keep on avoiding letting anyone find out what was going on. He was going to have to tell everyone eventually but... well it felt like if he kept it from them it wasn't really happening. He wished he could ask Sasha if he could stay with him for a little while but that obviously wasn't an option, or even just tell him so that somebody knew - so that he could cry and rant - but Sasha just seemed to have his life so together, he was too ashamed to admit that he didn't.

In this state of mind Taavi almost walked straight into a stranger, almost; he managed to halt just before that could happen and mumbled an apology. He turned to move on but then recognition dawned and he spun around to face the green-haired man again, his gloomy expression twisting into anger. "You!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Someone was approaching, Ion couldn't help but notice. This particular someone appeared rather dejected and preoccupied. So preoccupied, in fact, that the stranger looked like he was going to walk right into him, so Ion stopped and instead moved to the side a bit to give him more space to pass, though he still... Ah, he noticed; at the apology, Ion offered his own in turn with a nod of his head - his voice identical to that which Sync had used with Taavi before, albeit quieter - and moved to continue his path, while his pokemon followed suit.

The harsh word caught his attention but he could only assume it was spoken by someone else and meant for someone he'd already passed - he wasn't nearly that egocentric to think that everything anyone said was related to him - and add to the fact the voice sounded quite unlike the quiet, mumbled apology, so he merely kept walking instead. Yulia continued as well, though Jozette couldn't help another glance at the stranger. Said glance made her pause, eyebrows raised when she noticed that his expression had morphed to something so different so quickly.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hey, hey, don't walk away from me!" Taavi snapped, moving quickly to cut in front of the green-haired b*****d. "Well?" Taavi threw his hands up in the air and then clenched his fists by his sides, his teeth gritting tightly together. "Are you happy? Did you get a kick out of it? Did you?" He was willing to be that the a*****e hadn't expected to see him again but hey, here he was and he was damn well going to make sure he knew what he thought of him.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Again the voice spoke up and again Ion assumed it was meant for someone else, but the stranger abruptly blocking his path quickly made him rethink that assumption. He halted just as abruptly, his eyebrows lifting as confusion filled his expression. What was he talking about? Did he know him from somewhere...? Should he remember this man? Quickly he cast his mind back, trying to think of a time he'd met this individual before, but just as quickly he realized he was at a loss. "I'm sorry," he began in apologetic tones that matched a similar apologetic expression, rather unsure of what was going on, "but may I ask what you're talking about?"

Albiore wasn't nearly as okay with this as Ion seemed to be, and with a frightened chirp he fluttered off his trainer's shoulders and swooped up to the nearest lampost, keeping himself a safe distance away from any potential violence. Jozette ignored the Pidgey - for now, at least - and she moved a step closer, ears flicking back as she leveled the stranger with a glare and warning growl. Unlike the other two pokemon, Yulia tilted her head a bit and asked the fire-type a soft question but did not receive an answer, so instead she stepped closer and peered around Ion's leg to observe.  

[TawnyAngel]

What he was talking about? Was this guy messing with him again or was what he'd done so every-day to him that he didn't remember doing it? How many other people had he done things like that to? "Are you kidding me?" Taavi demanded incredulously. "Meat Palace? You making your Vulpix trip me up - where even is it today? - and then all the complaints you made? Sounding familiar at all?" Where was that poor Vulpix? The pokemon he had with him today almost seemed to like him! Probably they didn't know any better, probably he told them they were lucky to have whatever scraps of kindness he tossed their way. He wouldn't put it past the guy to have got rid of the Vulpix actually, maybe these pokemon were all new to him and didn't know what a piece of work he was yet. He hoped for their sake the b*****d got bored of them soon and sold them rather than just shoving them in storage forever.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Meat Palace, Vulpix - Vulpix? Weren't those the little fox-like fire-types? - tripping, complaints... "I don't think I've ever been somewhere called 'Meat Palace'," he began hesitantly, as if saying the wrong thing would make this stranger explode, "and I've never had a Vulpix... I.. made my Vulpix trip you up, and then complained..?" He reiterated, brows furrowing in mounting confusion. What was he talking about? None of this sounded familiar at all. "Are you sure it was me?"

From beside him Jozette growled a little, disliking the manner in which this total stranger was speaking to her trainer.  

[TawnyAngel]

"What?" Taavi turned to Jozette, scowling but not sounding hostile now he was addressing a pokemon. "Didn't he brag to you? Or has he hidden it? Playing the nice guy with you, is he?"

This guy had some nerve, that or something was seriously wrong with his head! "Yeah, I'm pretty sure!" Taavi snapped, turning back to the other human and tensing with controlled anger as he did so. "I mean I'm not about to forget the face of the guy who got me fired! Or what, was it your evil twin that did it? Please! Look if you were just having a bad day, and took it out on me, and now you feel bad that's- well that's no help to me is it? But you could at least admit it rather than pretending it never happened!" No job, no money, no prospect of a new job anytime soon, and soon to be no home. What was he going to do? He was going to have to tell somebody soon.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

For a moment the Braixen looked surprised - Ion? Brag? Him? - before she resumed her growling at this man who obviously didn't know the first thing about her trainer.

Pretty sure? Well, he had to be at least somewhat sure that whoever had done this looked relatively like him... Green hair and green eyes weren't so terribly uncommon, were they...? "I don't have a twin," Ion replied with some surprise, "though I do have six older brothers. I'm really sorry, but none of this sounds familiar," he admitted in even more apologetic tones, if such a thing were possible. "You're sure it was me?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Six older...? No, no it was the same guy, he was just trying to put him off because he'd been called out and he didn't like it! He might seem really confused but he'd been good at acting, right? At first he'd acted like a perfectly normal person, okay annoying but still normal not crazy awful!

"No," Taavi shook his head sharply, "he looked- you looked exactly like you." Well that had come out sounding dumb hadn't it? Why could he never come up with clever stuff to say when he was angry? "So if it's not you, then I guess you do have a twin you don't know about?" The sarcasm was heavy in Taavi's voice with that suggestion. "Because that guy looked exactly like you. Ugh- look," Taavi threw his hands up, "I don't know what I'm even looking for here but you're not going to even admit it are you? Or what, is it a split personality thing? Because I don't think split personalities really work like that, if you're going to try that." Did they? Maybe, he actually didn't know but if this guy didn't either then perhaps he wouldn't bother tryingthat sob story/lie.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

He looked exactly like him. Exactly. That was a very precise word to use. "He looked exactly like me," Ion repeated aloud, processing the statement and turning it over in his mind. If he looked exactly like this other person, then it stood to reason there were strong resemblances, and who else did he know with a strong resemblance to himself than his brothers? But it couldn't be, all of them were in Grande Ile. "No, I don't have a twin or a split personality," Ion assured him innocently with a shake of his head, though his expression remained thoughtful. "He looked exactly like me - green eyes, green hair.. His hair looked the same," here he gestured to his hairstyle, "and his clothes?" Clothes were easy to change though, but they could've given some hint as to what was going on.  

[TawnyAngel]

Okay the constant niceness was kind of putting him off his stride, he was hard to be angry with somebody who just kept on sounding apologetic at you. Taavi tried anyway. "Well he- you- whoever didn't have that," Taavi gestured to Ion's staff. "I would have remembered something like that. I think you had your hair done different? But it was the same length and colour and everything, and your eyes were! And you were wearing..." Err. "...Clothes? Normal clothes. Jeans I think? Dark colours." Could he be wrong? He couldn't be, could he? No, they looked identical!... But if he was wrong then he was shouting at a random, apparently very nice stranger for no reason.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ion blinked and took a moment to glance at his staff. "Well I don't always have this with me, but I usually do more often than not," he explained as he turned his focus back to the stranger. "Especially if I'm going to walk around the city..." That sounded somewhat like his brothers, but they couldn't be here, they were all in Grande Ile. He would've heard if one of them had come to Kodo, surely. Regardless of his doubtful thoughts, he pulled his wallet out of his pocket and from it produced a small photograph of seven young men ranging in age, but each had some shade of green eyes and green hair in varying styles with varying clothing, except said clothing wasn't normal by Kodo standards. Each wore clothing in the Grande Insulaire style. Ion asked doubtfully as he held the picture out for Taavi to look at, "It wasn't anyone here, was it?" They would have told him. Of course they would have told him. They would have.  

[TawnyAngel]

...Oh. He really did have six brothers, yep, there they were. "Uh." He hadn't gone and shouted at a completely innocent person for on reason had he? Taavi stepped closer to look at the picture, his body relaxing and his expression shifting from anger to confusion. They all looked really pretty similar but two of them-

"There... or there? Uh." Taavi pointed at one young man and then another who, to him, looked exactly like the first except he had a fancy hairstyle. Taavi then looked up at the man holding the picture, who looked exactly like those two in the picture and exactly like the guy from Meat Palace. "You're telling me you two aren't twins? And... You... really don't know what I'm talking about?" Oh no. Really? Really? But... but they looked exactly alike, it wasn't his fault he'd thought it was him!... Well it was, actually, wasn't it? He didn't want it to be but that didn't mean it wasn't.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

If Taavi looked close enough at the small picture, he might notice that one held a similarly gentle, almost apologetic expression while the other looked like he wasn't even remotely interested in having his picture taken and didn't bother to hide his contempt. "Yes," Ion replied apologetically again, then pointed to the annoyed-looking one, "he was the fifth born, and I was the seventh. So," he paused and frowned, thinking about the implications of this, "you're sure it was one of us?"