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]

"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.

[bitofafiction]

"Hello, Bella. Hello, Zag."

[the_very_best]

"Hi," says Bella.

"Lin, lin, lin," says Zag.

[bitofafiction]

"Crystal clear," laughs Sherlock. "Thank you, Zag."

[the_very_best]

"Linoone."

"What'd he say?" laughs Bella.

[bitofafiction]

"'Testing, testing, testing' and then 'no problem'."

[the_very_best]

"Noone! Lin linoone?"

[bitofafiction]

"According to Bella, I am psychic," says Sherlock.

[the_very_best]

"Did he ask how you do it?" Bella laughs.

[bitofafiction]

"Yes he did!"

[the_very_best]

"I thought so. My Zag's nearly as curious as I am." Bella scratches his head.

"Linoooooone linlinlin."

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock laughs.

[the_very_best]

Bella hangs up the phone and wanders back towerward with her Zag at her heels, nuzzling the backs of her legs every few steps and threatening to trip her. She tolerates this with good grace. "So you work over the phone," she says.

[bitofafiction]

"Apparently so."

[the_very_best]

"You want me to bring you a job application from Charlie's department, when I swing by with the Porygon sweaters?"

[bitofafiction]

"I think that is a fine plan."

[the_very_best]

"Charlie'll be thrilled."

[bitofafiction]

"Hooray for Charlie."

[the_very_best]

"How amenable are the vocalizations to exact-words translation? That'll probably come up if the 'mon are being witnesses."