dash rapidash dash

[the_very_best]

Morning - early morning, as it's always possible some phenomenon will only appear before sunrise in a way that she can't find simply by staying up past dark - finds Bella having let herself out of the Tower (conscientiously not letting any Porygon out into the wilderness). She never walks if she can help it. Fireflower is much more surefooted, and enjoys the exercise more. She hauls herself up onto the Rapidash's back.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"Quite. I like old books. Even the weird genre fiction with no Pokémon anywhere. It's like authors a few thousand years ago resented them or something."

[bitofafiction]

"Or something."

[the_very_best]

"You have a different idea?"

[bitofafiction]

"Some of the imaginary creatures from those old books are... oddly consistent."

[the_very_best]

"Some of the fictional Pokémon that appear in modern fantasy crop up in a lot of different authors' works, too," Bella points out. "If there's a way to evolve an Eevee into a Spectreon, no one's discovered it yet, but that doesn't stop every hack novelist from giving their special snowflake a way to do it."

[bitofafiction]

"Never mind, then."

[the_very_best]

"I'm not saying I don't wanna hear your theory, I'm saying whatever your theory is probably isn't the only explanation."

[bitofafiction]

He shrugs uncomfortably.

[the_very_best]

Aw. She didn't mean to make him uncomfortable.

[bitofafiction]

Well, here they are regardless.

[the_very_best]

"Sorry," she says after a silence.

[bitofafiction]

"It's fine," he says. "I am frequently reminded that I am oversensitive."

[the_very_best]

Would he appreciate shoulder-pats? Bella may have one or two or three going spare.

[bitofafiction]

After a moment, he smiles.

[the_very_best]

"I do want to hear the theory, if you don't mind telling me," she says, tilting her head. "I can keep all my objections quiet if you like."

[bitofafiction]

"Not right now, I think."

[the_very_best]

"Okay." Pause. "When I was little I thought that Pachirisu evolved into Emolga and no one could convince me different," she offers.

[bitofafiction]

...He grins.

"That is cute."

[the_very_best]

"I thought this," she goes on, "because I'd read a book about a Pachirisu that wanted very much to fly, and made friends with a variety of flying Pokémon but ultimately didn't stick with any of them because of this or that, and ultimately learned to be content with what it was, and I thought that was a dreadful ending and it really ought to be able to fly one day if that's what it wanted to do."

[bitofafiction]

"If only it had found Tony," he says, "he would have built it a jetpack."

[the_very_best]

"See, there you go," says Bella. "That would've been a much better ending - instead of 'be the thing you got assigned to be in the cold hard lottery of life and don't go around wanting things you aren't natively able to do' it'd be something like 'a bad friend might give you a ride, a good friend will give you the power to fly by yourself'. Much better."

[bitofafiction]

"I agree completely."

[the_very_best]

She grins at him. "I'm hoping that when I find an immortal Pokémon it agrees with us too. A bad immortal Pokémon wants to keep all the eternity to itself, a good immortal Pokémon wants immortal friends."

[bitofafiction]

"Best of luck."

[the_very_best]

"I wonder why they're so secretive. If I were immortal I imagine I'd publicize it and write a book about how I did it so everyone else could be too. Maybe I'd be less complacent about it if someone could stuff me into a Pokéball without a by-your-leave. Maybe the immortal ones aren't as well-suited to the lifestyle."