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

[bitofafiction]

"It is not that."

[the_very_best]

"Then I can overlook your failure to publish! Do you know what it is?"

[bitofafiction]

"I have my suspicions, but I don't imagine they are especially plausible."

[the_very_best]

"You could tell me anyway."

[bitofafiction]

"Perhaps I am a Ditto in disguise," he deadpans.

[the_very_best]

"...Okay, I know I offended you last time you suggested you had an unusual theory about a thing, so I'm not even going to address that one."

[bitofafiction]

He laughs. "Sorry."

[the_very_best]

"No big deal."

[bitofafiction]

"Do you suppose it's dinnertime yet?"

[the_very_best]

"Nah, not really, unless you guys eat really early."

[bitofafiction]

"Our schedule is flexible, insofar as it can be said to exist at all. But you're right, it's early. How shall we pass the time? Beat up the wildlife? Go ask Tony how Pokéballs work?"

[the_very_best]

"I would actually really like to know how Pokéballs work, d'you suppose he's up for an impromptu lecture?" laughs Bella.

[bitofafiction]

"There is," says Sherlock, "one easy way to find out."

[the_very_best]

"Let's go perform the experiment."

[bitofafiction]

Laughing, he heads for the tower.

[toblameforit]

Tony is on the ground floor, sitting at a computer with a Porygon in his lap.

[the_very_best]

"Hey," says Bella. "Which one is that?"

[toblameforit]

"Bella, this is Bob. Say hi, Bob."

"Pory," says Bob.

[the_very_best]

"Hi, Bob," says Bella. "So, we were wondering how Pokéballs work and Sherlock says you probably know."

[toblameforit]

"I do know," says Tony, "but unless you understand five-dimensional topology and space-folding, the explanation is pretty much 'um, magic?'."

[the_very_best]

"But you can do it with apricorns even if they don't work as well as the techy kinds, apricorns just - grow that way," laughs Bella, "are they magic?"

[toblameforit]

"The inner curvature of an apricorn has a natural—"

"Gongon," says Bob, and bails out of Tony's lap. Tony cracks up.

"I think I'm boring the Pokémon," he snickers.

[the_very_best]

Bella giggles. "That," she asserts, "was cute."

[toblameforit]

"In terms less likely to make my pointy cuddle-buddies abandon me: Apricorns just do the same thing naturally that manufactured Pokéballs do with careful engineering."

[the_very_best]

"I should tell Renée about your issue with pointy cuddly 'mon, I bet she'd knit at least three fluffy Porygon-shaped sweaters before she got bored."