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]

"Rapidash," says Fireflower.

Bella slides off Fireflower's back, stumbles, and catches herself. "That was fun," she says breathlessly, trying to untangle some of her hair from the windblown state it has gotten into.

[bitofafiction]

"Strika," Watson says agreeably. He does seem very even-tempered.

"It was!" says Sherlock.

[the_very_best]

"Raprapidash. Raprapidash?"

"Tony seemed to have been exhausted, so I guess we can do the aerial installment another time," giggles Bella.

[bitofafiction]

"Zeb," says Watson. Sherlock laughs and pets him.

"Yes, that does sound reasonable."

[the_very_best]

Bella pets Fireflower. "You did good, sweetie." And she puts her away. And she gets her hairbrush out of her bag and attacks her ponytail. "That was a rush, she's almost never running flat out when I'm riding her."

[bitofafiction]

"I don't frequently get a chance to experience Watson's top speed, either," says Sherlock. "It was enjoyable."

[the_very_best]

Bella finishes disentangling her hair. "All right. Now what?"

[bitofafiction]

"Good question."

[the_very_best]

"Could have a non-racing type rematch. I dunno, I do other things, just I'm usually in other places when I do them."

[bitofafiction]

"Other things such as...?"

[the_very_best]

"Let Renée teach me to knit, wander into houses in arbitrary towns and get into conversations there, explore miscellaneous wilderness, I tried making my own Pokéballs from whole Apricorns once, I think about the best ways to address immortal Pokémon if I ever find any, I once went through a brief phase of entering Pokémon Contests but decided I didn't like it. Also I read a lot and do extensive self-analysis but neither thing is a particularly companionable activity."

[bitofafiction]

"And how did the Pokéball project fare?"

[the_very_best]

"Well, I only made two, so I don't know whether to attribute the fact that they completely failed to work to poor craftsmanship or to luck."

[bitofafiction]

"How do Pokéballs in fact work? I don't actually know. Tony undoubtedly does."

[the_very_best]

"I don't know about the mechanics of it. Let alone how people can get 'mon into PCs, which is part of why I don't do it and have never owned more than six. I was just using an instruction booklet on hollowing apricorns that gave step-by-step walkthroughs for various apricorn colors but didn't say anything about the whys and wherefores."

[bitofafiction]

"Hm," he says. "Any interesting conclusions about how to address immortal Pokémon?"

[the_very_best]

"I figure I should come at the ulterior motive obliquely," Bella says. "Probably should spend some effort demonstrating myself harmless and indicating that I do not intend to try to catch them, because I bet they get that a lot and it hasn't yielded results so far anyway."

[bitofafiction]

"How does one demonstrate harmlessness to a legendary pokemon, I wonder. Perhaps you should bring Tony along. He's very charming."

[the_very_best]

"And you too, maybe, in case I track down one that can't speak human."

[bitofafiction]

"I would be happy to help."

[the_very_best]

"Awesome. The explorer and the charmer and the psychic translator."

[bitofafiction]

"Hm," says Sherlock.

[the_very_best]

"Hm?"

[bitofafiction]

He shrugs.

"'Psychic' sits oddly with me, but I cannot actually offer a competing explanation."

[the_very_best]

"The magic translator?" suggests Bella archly.