gratitude

[the_very_best]

Bella flies away. She visits her parents, hits up the guild for matches and wins enough to pay her guild dues, and tools around random wilderness beating up on the wildlife.

She doesn't really expect to hear from Sherlock and Tony again.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"I'd be interested in the results if you ever did. I suppose you'd have to go a bit out of your way to hunt them up."

[bitofafiction]

He shrugs. "I like a challenge."

[the_very_best]

Bella laughs a little. "Come to think of it, I think some of Charlie's standard-issues might've been boxed before he got them. I'd have to ask, but it wouldn't surprise me."

[bitofafiction]

"I will happily talk to them if so," laughs Sherlock.

[the_very_best]

"I'll call him after I talk to Renée about Porygon sweaters," says Bella.

[bitofafiction]

"Perfect."

[the_very_best]

"Maybe I should just call now, Renée will be home now and by the time she lets me off the phone Charlie probably will be too," muses Bella, and she starts cycling through apps on her Pokétch.

[bitofafiction]

The boys leave her to it.

[the_very_best]

Bella departs the tower to avoid disturbing them, although if they happen to be curious they could open a window. She phones Renée, makes small talk, listens to Renée talk about ill-fated baked goods, then explains that she has this friend who has this problem with these Porygon, and she was thinking sweaters. Renée takes the idea, squeals over it, and says she'll start figuring out a pattern right away. And she's going to let the kindergarteners vote on colors. Joy. There's a little more catching up - stories from the school, news about neighbors and Renée's Pokémon - and then Bella hangs up.

[bitofafiction]

"Did I hear that right about the kindergarteners?" inquires Sherlock, out of the window.

[the_very_best]

"Ah-huh. Renée is going to pitch the idea of Porygon sweaters to twenty-four five-year-olds and get them to help her design them," sighs Bella.

[bitofafiction]

"Well, that is bound to have entertaining results."

[the_very_best]

"Maybe some of the Porygon are in fact five years old?" suggests Bella hopefully.

[bitofafiction]

"I believe that some of them are!"

[the_very_best]

"There we go, then, there should be relatively little trouble matching sweaters to wearers unless Renée has more attention span than I credit her with."

[bitofafiction]

He laughs.

[the_very_best]

"Is it, like, a secret that you can understand Pokémon? I can find some other way to tell Charlie that you want to talk to his," Bella says.

[bitofafiction]

"It is not something I would like the entire region to know, but I don't have an intrinsic objection to explaining it to Charlie as long as he is not the gossipy sort."

[the_very_best]

"Charlie isn't. Renée is, but I had no reason to mention it to her," shrugs Bella, and she dials.

"Hi, Dad! Hey, before you got your team, were they boxed? He was? Okay, I'm asking 'cause - no, Dad, I did not switch projects. But I have this friend who can understand Pokémon, when they vocalize, and - Actually, no, that never occurred to me. I can ask him. But the thing I wanted to ask you is whether he could talk to yours about what being boxed is like. I know you can't easily pick up and travel, Dad, this would just be if he were in the area. Okay. Thanks!"

She hangs up. "He wants you to apply for a job with the cops to listen to Pokémon witnesses to crimes. And if you're ever where he is he's fine with you talking to his 'mon."

[bitofafiction]

"That," says Sherlock, "is an interesting notion."

[the_very_best]

"It'd pass the time," laughs Bella. "If you wanted to. Obviously it's optional. You could probably even do it from here, as long as it works over the phone? Maybe it's body language or range-limited psychic powers, I dunno, that'd make it harder to work from home."

[bitofafiction]

"I have never tried it over the phone. I don't frequently have reason to phone a Pokémon."

[the_very_best]

"Wanna try it? I'll go out a ways, toss somebody, call you? Zag's smart enough to understand phones."

[bitofafiction]

"By all means!"

[the_very_best]

Bella wanders out of earshot, and tosses Zag and explains the experiment. And then she calls Sherlock.