Chapter 22: Settling in, part II
Chapter 22: Settling in, part II
Clavell's steps echoed through the hallway as Sada and Turo followed, hand in hand. The woman didn't really know what to expect out of this place: she knew it was a place of learning, but she couldn't really picture how it worked. Did people just... read books and had other "scientist" explain stuff to them?
« The Pokémon market is over there, while the infirmary is on the other side of the hall... in these wing are most of the classrooms. » Clavell was explaining.
They passed a series of rooms with closed door, and Sada couldn't help but glance inside, squeezing Turo's hand to tell him to slow down a little.
The "classrooms" were full of people, all sitting and intently watching one person that was standing behind a table on an elevated platform. Everyone seemed to have their own notebook and they were taking notes, following what the teacher was writing on a big white wall with a pretty big pen.
In the next classroom, she saw one student raise their hand and ask a question she couldn't hear, while in another they passed everyone was divided into groups around big tables, drawing or even sculpting things out of stone. So it wasn't just a place to learn about... scientists stuff, you learned about everything!
It was a place to practice whatever you wanted to do and find what you liked, it was incredible!
She gave a quick look to Turo by her side, wondering if this is how he had learned to draw, just practicing in these classrooms with a teacher.
At the very core, it wasn't any different from her mother teaching most people in the tribe the basics of sewing, or any other craft. What was amazing to her was the... freedom they had in doing those things. They didn't have to worry about gathering or hunting down food, so they could devote so much more time to it.
She wanted to be a part of it. She really wanted to. But... the fact that you needed a "Pokémon", which was how people called creatures here, saddened her. If only she could have had Winged King by her side, learning all these wonderful things together, exploring this place that was completely new to her with him and Turo... in a way, it would be a dream come true. It would make her situation more bearable.
But... another Pokémon... she didn't even know anything about the Pokémon that lived in this time.
They passed through the classrooms, then the "laboratory" which was apparently where Clavell usually worked, the "Pokémon market" that sold what looked like Master Balls of a different color and so many other things she couldn't even begin to imagine the use of, and a lot of other places before coming back to the entrance where all those books were.
Sada couldn't quite help staring at them, just itching to get near and try to read even just the title to know what they were about.
« Is there some... work here with books?» She asked, almost not daring to hope it. If she could help and get money and get to use these books at the same time, it would be perfect!
« You mean... library assistant?» Clavell asked, a pensive look on his face.
« Umm...» She tried to not have her eyes dart towards Turo, but she caught him barely nod in her direction to her side.
« Y-yes. Could I... do that?» She asked.
« I would have to ask... but we have so many books here, having an extra someone to help the students find what they need is always useful...» He mused.
« Oh! Please do!»
---
Getting used to working in the Academy's lunch hall had been rough. Sadly, there had been only one available spot working at the library, and he had gladly left it to Sada - even just the little happy jump she had done had been worth it -
It was rough not because Turo thought it was a bad job or anything, but for a much more practical reason: he had absolutely no idea how many little details were involved in operating a kitchen in this time.
... or even his time, he had to admit.
Mostly because most of everything in his time was automated. Dirty dishes? He just slid them in the sink and they automatically got cleaned, before getting teleported back to their place in the cupboard, ready to be used again.
He had never even thought about having to load and unload a dishwasher (in a certain, precise way even! There was a certain technique to it, in fitting as much as possible inside), or Arceus forbid, having to wash them manually, but they set him to do plenty of both in his first couple of days. Sometimes he would help serve meals during the busiest hours.
Sometimes he would clean tables, or mop the floor.
It was all physical work he was most definitely not used to, and he would come back to Clavell's house at the end of his turn completely spent.
They apparently couldn't live in the dorms if they didn't enroll, so while Clavell had reassured them that they could stay in his home as long as they wanted (in part, Turo suspected, to try and gleam something from the both of them), he didn't feel comfortable intruding on the man's hospitality like that, so he had started to look for a place for Sada and himself to live in, without much success. Too many questions, people that wanted to see documents and credentials they didn't have. Understandable, in a way, but...
Turo let out a frustrated sigh as he finished filling one cart full of trays from last dinner. He started pushing it towards the kitchen, and happened to pass by a student still sitting at one of the tables, portable computer opened near his half finished dinner- the laptop was a ridiculously large thing, at least from his perspective, but it was probably the best they could do at the time... it still even had a CD tray.
« I don't get why it never seems to reach this part... »
Turo slowly stopped pushing the cart when he saw the unmistakable sight of lines of code on a screen, now listening with his full attention. He couldn't recognize the programming language in particular - probably something long obsolete and practically forgotten in his time anyway -, but he could recognize the general structure and syntax that had stayed consistent in so much time. Much like in mathematics the plus sign had never changed in millennia, so hadn't the basic syntax and concept of programming: a for loop was still a for loop. The student looked like a twenty something man with bizarre two toned hair in two different tones of purple, and looked pretty frustrated at the moment.
« It doesn't even give me an error, it just...»
« ... that's because the code it's not doing what you think it's doing.» Turo said after throwing a glance to the screen.
The young man jumped and turned around, staring with comically large eyes behind a pair of hexagonal glasses.
« What?»
« The variable you are checking in the if condition is probably changing value somewhere before that, by mistake. I bet you probably made a typo somewhere and are assigning some other value to the variable, when you meant to initialize a different one.» Turo added, walking closer to look at the screen over his shoulder. His eyes scanned the code up and down, looking for what was probably the problem, until... he pointed to the screen.
« Here. You reassign the "color" variable instead of "cry", so "color" always has a different value from what you expect.»
The man squinted at the laptop for a moment before gasping.
« You're right! How didn't I see that, I spent an hour pouring over it- thank you!» He turned around, grinning.
« You get so used to reading your own code spotting these kind of errors can be tricky... are you finishing that?» Turo added, pointing to the student's half eaten and now probably cold dinner.
The student looked surprised, almost like he had even forgotten the food was there.
« Uh... I... yes, actually.» He grabbed his fork and started eating again.
« You work here? Haven't seen you around, are you new? How do you know so much about coding?» He asked.
« Ah, name's Jacq by the way.» He added.
« Programming is... a hobby of mine let's say. Romero Turo. Are you studying in the scientific course?» He asked, but they got interrupted before Jacq could answer.
With a loud squawking sound, a Murkrow suddenly swooped in from an open window and towards them. It landed on the table flapping his wings, and went to grab the spoon Jacq hadn't used to steal it away.
« Hey! Let that go!» Turo tried to scare the Pokémon into dropping it, but it seemed way too used to doing it, because it simply flapped his wings and let out a little "caw" sound.
... was it mocking him?
« ... you want something shiny to steal? Here.» He threw some spare change from his pocket on the table, and the Pokémon's eyes snapped to it, the little coins shining under the light. Turo could almost see his little mind try to decide what to do: it couldn't grab both, so it had to let the spoon go-
The Murkrow grabbed one coin between one of its talons and, hopping rather ungracefully on the table, flapped his wings again and took off, disappearing out of the window again.
Turo was left looking after the bird, mouth hanging open, as Jacq laughed.
« ... clever little bastard.» He shook his head, incredulous.
Bested by a bird. That was a low blow.
« Yeah, that Murkrow often comes here, everyone is used to it. There's quite a number of them around the school, his nest is probably on the Academy's roof.» Jacq chimed in with a last chuckle.
« Anyway... you said it's a hobby? You could probably teach here!» He added.
Turo sighed; how was he supposed to give a realistic answer that didn't make him look suspicious? He also had really no clear idea of how the technology level was in this time yet. He probably couldn't teach things over the very basics for fear of introducing stuff that didn't even exist yet... like he had done with writing in the Paleolithic... but things could't get conveniently forgotten in this time.
« No, really... you probably know more than me, I just had a similar error so I recognized what the issue was... What are you even programming?» He tried to divert the conversation on something else.
Jacq kept muching on his peas for a while, before showing him the screen and clicking on another window, opening a text file.
« It's my project for this year's Treasure Hunt! You know how some trainers collaborate with their local Pokémon Professor to register data about the Pokémon they catch, and they periodically submit the data for reviews? I want to create a system where everyone can do it... even better if it's done automatically! We could study species much more easily if literally everyone could contribute, you would have so much variety in data! At first I had thought of a website where you fill a form with data about your Pokémon... you know... height, weight, special characteristics, where you obtained it... but...»
« ... but that would be boring and everyone would just forget to do it after the first couple of times.» Turo finished as the student nodded.
« Exactly! So I started looking into ways to integrate it into something everyone would have. A professional Pokédex is not something everyone has, so I started to look into the new Pokénav model made by Devon, in Hoenn... those are pretty popular right now... if I could make a little... add-on or something, that you can install on it... Professor Clavell's been helping a lot!» Jacq explained, going back to his code.
Turo couldn't help but smile a little at his enthusiasm. A system to automatically send data about every single caught Pokémon to a central database... it sounded so simple yet brilliant, and someone obviously had to have implemented it first. He didn't really know if the technology of this time could make it possible. You would need some really precise sensors to automatically get all the data about the Pokémon... trivial in his time, but he had no idea how accurate they were here.
« So you are working on this alone?» Turo asked after a minute as he cleaned the table.
« Pretty much, yeah. I'm usually working in the computer lab though... hey, can I come to you if I have another dumb error?» Jacq asked, and Turo had to chuckle a little bit.
« ... sure.»
---
Sada had gotten the job for working in the Academy's library in the end. And she loved it! There were so many books about so many things! Books that collected stories, books full of pictures and the name of every plant or Pokémon - Narjik would have loved it - , there were even cooking books! And so, so so much more.
« Um, Lady Librarian...»
Sada turned around, meeting the eyes of a small girl with red eyes. The wide hat she was wearing looked way too big for her, and she was continuously pushing it back up so it didn't fall over her eyes.
« Oh! Yes! That's me! What is it?»
« I'm looking for a book... it's a story about a Charcadet. I wanted to finish reading it...»
« Char-ca-det?» She repeated, thinking. Pokémon names were a big problem for her... and Pokémon in general, actually. She had learned the names of the ones you saw in the city more often, like "Swablu" for the little cute birds with fluffy wings, but not many more.
« Do you remember the title? » She asked.
« It's "Charcadet's Ad"... Ad-something.» The girl replied.
Mmm... not much to go on, but there could't be that many books with the Pokémon's name in the title, right?
« All right! Let's go look for it together!» She answered with a big smile, taking the girl by the hand.
Most of her day was spent like that: keeping the book organized, helping the students find what they needed, and occasionally sneaking a peak into some book that caught her interest... which was quite easy to do, since most of them did. There were just so many things to read!
As much as she loved helping with the library in the Academy itself, she had to admit that she sometimes needed a bit of time to herself. There were just so many people around, and she just... wasn't used to it.
Sometimes, she just needed to try and get away from the city. So on the "weekend", because apparently people had decided that days were divided in a group of seven and in two of those the school was closed, she had dragged both Turo and Clavell with her for a little trip outside the city, just for a chance to actually see some real nature and trees.
The constant noise of the city, the traffic, the buildings... she needed to get away from it all.
There were still too many traces of civilization for her liking when they passed Mesagoza's southern gate: the Pokémon center, the flying taxi passing overhead sometimes... but it was already a completely different scenery from the city. There was dirt on the ground! Actual, dusty dirt instead of paved roads, and there was mostly silence.
And there were Pokémon. Her right hand went to her shoulder, grasping for a weapon that wasn't there out of instinct; Clavell hadn't let her bring her bow, "unless you use it to shoot a Pokéball instead of arrows".
« Are you really so used to having a bow with you?» Clavell asked, evidently noticing her gesture.
The sudden question made her jump, unprepared. She tried to disguise the gesture by pretending she wanted to actually scratch her forehead in thought, but she knew he hadn't been fooled.
« Yes, I... we did it like this... in Kalos. A small village...»
In a sense, she was telling the truth.
« ... uh. Didn't know Kalos education put so much emphasis on survival skills. Interesting.» Clavell commented.
Sada opted to not comment to avoid giving him any more information that could put her in a difficult position, instead focusing her attention on the wild Pokémon that were around.
« They really don't attack...» She commented in a low voice, watching a couple of light yellow and brown four legged Pokémon examine them curiously from a distance, but not with hostility.
« Most Pokémon near Mesagoza, like those Fidough, are used to seeing people and are pretty docile to begin with. » Clavell explained, pushing up his glasses.
It still was so strange to her, that you could just... walk up to one completely unharmed. Right at that moment, one of the "Fidough" ran near them and barked, wagging their stubby tail while looking intently at Clavell. Sada tensed up again, and Turo slowly moved a couple of steps behind her, both hands in the pockets of the large brown jacket he was wearing, watching the situation with the same curiosity.
« Is this new for you too?» She whispered in her language, a bit surprised. Turo simply nodded.
Clavell, on the other hand, looked completely unfazed. He observed the Fidough closely, before grasping one of the Poké Balls on his belt.
« You want a match?» He asked, and the Pokémon barked again. He threw the Poké Ball, and a sleek black beast with a pair of magnificently curved horns came out of it. Sada gasped; it looked quite similar to some of the creatures in her time, but with much less white bones all around its chest. The howl it released was quite haunting, but it didn't move an inch after appearing. It fascinated her: as scary as it looked, it really was obeying Clavell's commands!
« Use Ember... but don't overdo it.»
The Pokémon opened its maw and released a stream of fire against their opponent, and Sada had to gasp again when the little Fidough was completely engulfed in it. She expected it to cry out in pain and run away, but instead, the Pokémon braced its legs and stood its ground, growling.
After a moment, it started to shine, and Sada recognized it as the Pokémon evolving, like they often did. Its skin grew red and brown, and a pleasant smell started emanating from it. After it was finished transforming, the Pokémon barked happily and ran away, Clavell's Pokémon barking after it before going back to its trainer for some praise.
« Wait, you... let it go away after just that?» Turo asked by his side, sounding surprised. Clavell nodded, before starting to explain.
« That Fidough looked ready to evolve. You can tell from their skin; wild Fidough that want to grow stronger look for matches against fire-type Pokémon or bask in the sun, training to sustain higher and higher heat. This makes their usually moist skin dry up and harden, until they evolve into Dachsbun and become completely immune to fire attacks. I wonder if this Fidough-er, Dachsbun now, learned to recognize trainers that have a fire type by smell and approached me for that reason. I decided to help give him that final push.»
Sada didn't understand the explanation completely - too long and filled with overly specific words-, but she understood that Clavell had done it to help the wild Pokémon evolve, even if it would give him absolutely nothing in return.
That was so... strange. And beautiful, in a sense. Helping a wild creature for no gain... there was a strange mutual respect going on between Pokémon and humans in this time, even if they didn't live together.
And Clavell had done it all after a single glance to the Pokémon! Turo looked similarly surprised.
«... Impressive.» He muttered.
If studying at the Academy would make her able to do this... well, it would be amazing and she would love it, but... then what? It wasn't like she could go back to her tribe and actually make use of that information, she thought with a little twinge of sadness in her chest.
... no use thinking about that now.
She forced a smile back on her face and clapped a couple of times.
« That was amazing! » Sada said. « So that Pokémon was "Fidough" before transforming and "Dachsbun" after... what is the name of this one?» She asked pointing to Clavell's Pokémon, before realizing that not knowing the names of Pokémon was probably quite weird. She threw a little glance at the older man, but for once, he wasn't looking at her strangely.
« ... ah, of course. Kalosian has different names for Pokémon, right? Some students from Kalos also have trouble at first. This one is called "Houndoom"... it should be "Demolosse" in Kalosian, if I remember correctly.» He answered after a moment.
... well, it looked like her excuse of being from Kalos was turning out to be useful in more ways than one.
So this one was "Houndoom"... she still didn't quite like or understood the rules for giving Pokémon their names (her method still sounded much more useful), but she had to absolutely learn them all. After all, how many could there even be?
They resumed their walk, Sada pointing out different Pokémon to Clavell, who recited their names and usually some little bit of info about them. He seemed to know so much about them; what they ate, their behavior, if and how they evolved... it was incredible. Turo was mostly silent, following them a bit behind, trying to not slow them down too much.
« What Pokémon is that?» She asked after a while, pointing to another small, four legged beast. It had brown and cream colored fur with a more orange tuft of fur on its head, and was prowling carefully in the tall grass, eyeing what looked like a couple of white rats as it shuffled towards them.
« That's a Litleo. Strange...» Clavell commented, looking intrigued. « They usually live east of here... since she's alone, I guess this one must have just left her pride.» He added.
« Pride?» She didn't recognize the word. She watched the "Litleo" stalk closer to her - evidently a female, Clavell must have been able to tell somehow- prey. She wasn't doing a really good job of it: her footsteps were completely silent, but in her eagerness, her tail was twitching behind her, and she was moving her ears a bit too much, instead of trying to keep them as flat on her head as possible. With all those unnecessary movements, she would just attract the attention of her prey and scare it away.
And that was exactly what happened a moment later, the couple of rodents scurrying off and the Litleo pouncing out of the grass to try and chase them down.
« Their family. Litleo live in big groups, raised by their whole family. They hunt and live together, raising their young. Once they grow big enough, they are left on their own and leave to find other Litleo or Pyroar - their evolution- to establish another "pride".» Clavell explained.
The Litleo was pawing at the hole in the ground where the two white rodents had disappeared. She let out a surprised yowl when suddenly a dozen or so of the same creature burst out of their den, all attacking her at once. The Pokémon breathed fire exactly once, then decided to retreat, running off in their direction. She watched the Pokémon run past them and hastily climb a tree, looking around with scared, wide eyes.
... something in the whole scene struck a chord in her; she felt a weird sense of affinity with the creature. A little huntress left all alone, away from her family... she found herself moving a couple of steps towards the Pokémon. The Litleo hissed and tried to breathe fire down at her, but was evidently out of breath, managing only a little puff of smoke. Her chest rose and fell with quick, panicked breaths.
« You were very brave.» She said to the Pokémon, sitting at the base of the tree. From her bag, she took out a little "snack" they had brought with them to eat on the road, something called a "sandwich" that had what looked like strips of smoked and dried meat in it. She offered the meat to the Pokémon, like she had done with those eggs and Winged King months ago. The Litleo looked at it with some suspicion, but started to slowly climb back down to approach it- and by extension, her.
It... it was fine, wasn't it? She wasn't betraying Winged King by showing kindness to another Pokémon, a little one that was scared and alone just like she was.
And, as much as it pained her to think about it... Winged King was gone. She hoped that it had kept living with her tribe... or maybe found someone else to steal food from, who knows.
The Litleo sniffed at the meat, then bit down on one piece. A couple of seconds later, it sat down and started chewing, holding one part of it with her front paws, now watching her curiously. Behind her, Sada was vaguely aware that Clavell and Turo were whispering something between themselves, but she paid it no mind.
« You know... I'm also all alone here.» She added. Could the Pokémon really understand her?
« We could... stay together. I can teach you how to hunt better.» She smiled.
She heard Clavell approach and hastily push something in her hand. Sada looked down at it. A Poké Ball, one of the red ones.
With this... the Litleo would be considered her Pokémon. She could enroll in the Academy if she wanted.
But most importantly... she would have her by her side, forever.
... was she ready for it? Sada looked at the Litleo.
... Winged King would have grumbled because he would have to share his food with someone else, but then probably grow fond of her, she thought with a little smile. She could picture him sleeping curled up all around the Litleo, keeping her warm.
That convinced her.
She showed the Poké Ball to the Litleo. Did she even know what it was? It looked like she did. She had probably seen humans use them against other wild Pokémon ... maybe even other members of her pride. The Pokémon sat staring at the Ball for a while, then looked up at her. A low purring sound came out from her throat, and she slowly approached Sada to sniff her hands.
Then, she touched the Poké Ball with one paw, disappearing inside it. Just like Turo's Master Ball had done, it shook once, twice, three times, and then went still.
Sada slowly picked the Poké Ball back up, surprised at actually feeling a certain weight in it now that it wasn't empty anymore.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but it felt warm in her hand.
« Congratulations. She will be a wonderful companion. » Clavell said from behind her, and she simply nodded, not quite sure what to say. She heard movement as Turo sat down beside her and squeezed her shoulder.
« I'm sure Winged King would have loved her. She suits you. Well done. » He whispered in her language, and she felt a couple of tears roll down her face as she simply nodded again, holding the Poké Ball to her chest.
---
The fact that Sada had actually decided to keep another Pokémon with her had surprised him a little bit. He understood why she had done it: she wanted to train Pokémon, to study them... and so did he, truth to be told. He still couldn't quite picture himself with any other Pokémon except Miraidon by his side... but Mirai was gone. Or... didn't even exist yet, to be exact.
It was strange to think about. All those years they had shared together... all the times they went riding, all the times Mirai had jumped on his bed when he was a little kid, the first time it had shifted to his battle form, that time it had somehow ordered pizza.. were now only memories that existed only in his head.
It hurt.
Turo sighed and turned his attention back to Jacq's laptop; the guy had ran up to him during his break begging him to take a look at some other weird error that had popped up, and now he was sitting in the mostly empty mess hall, scrolling through the code.
« Hey look. It's your friend.» Jacq chuckled from beside him, elbowing him slightly before nodding towards the window, this time closed.
Turo turned to look: the Murkrow from a couple of days ago was sitting on the windowsill, staring straight at him and occasionally pecking the glass. It looked like it was holding something in its beak.
Turo grumbled unhappily: those birds pretty much circled the Academy as soon as the sun went down, looking for shiny objects to steal from students and teachers alike. They were a menace. What did it want?
He got up and approached the window, glaring at the Murkrow. Yeah, it was definitely the same Murkrow from the other day: he could recognize the weirdly shaped feathers on his head.
« No luck getting inside today, uh?» He taunted the little bird, and it cawed, pecking the glass again and dropping what he was holding.
It was a coin, a different one from the one Turo had thrown to get him to leave. Turo blinked, leaning forward to look closer, and the bird impatiently pecked the glass again.
« Nice try, but I'm not letting you inside.»
More cawing sounds.
Turo stared at the little Pokémon; he was most definitely sure it was just trying to trick him again, but the Pokémon seemed quite intent on showing him the coin. If it wanted to steal something, why bring a coin...?
Turo opened the window the slightest bit, not enough to let the Murkrow slip in, and the Pokémon threw the coin at his feet, flapping his wings.
« Wait... you want to give this to me?» He wondered, picking it up. It was a bit bigger than the one it had given him, and looked pretty new. Probably some change he had picked up from the street, dropped by who knows who.
« I've heard Murkrow bring gifts to people they like. He probably liked the coin you gave him and wanted to do the same for you.» Jacq spoke up behind him.
Turo grumbled, opening the window a little more. The Murkrow hopped inside and perched on his shoulder with more cawing sounds.
« Tsk, get off me!» Turo tried to wave the Pokémon away, but it squawked and with a flap of his wings, simply perched on his other shoulder.
Turo sighed. He... he had to admit it was kind of cute, in his own weird way, but...
The feathers felt incredibly smooth and soft against his neck as the Pokémon started to chew on his hair and earlobe, cawing.
Great. What was he supposed to do now? The little bastard was cute, and looked quite smart. He liked that in a Pokémon.
And... if he got him officially registered as his Pokémon, he could enroll in the Academy along with Sada. She hadn't done so already, probably feeling uncomfortable at the idea of being alone. But... this way they could do it together...
« ... ugh. Fine. Let's go buy a Poké Ball from the Poké Market for you and get you registered.» He grumbled, heading out into the corridor with the little bird perched on his shoulder.
---
« So... here are the forms you need to fill to officially become students. You both want to enroll in the scientific course?» Clavell asked.
« Yes.» Sada confirmed, eyes shining. All three of them were in Clavell's laboratory, discussing the details to get them registered together.
« All right... we can... work out something for all the necessary data... birthplace... age... name...?» Clavell raised his head from the stack of papers, looking straight at her. Sada hesitated, biting her lip.
She had thought about it, a lot. She had looked at books in the library, searching for inspiration, for something that fit. Something that she could think of as "her", even just a little.
« ... Alba. Alba Sada.» She said after a moment.
« That's a lovely name.» Clavell commented, writing it down.
« As for your first Pokémon... Litleo and Murkrow, right?»
« Correct.» Turo interjected, one hand brushing against the single Poké Ball clipped to his belt.
« Do they have nicknames? Just out of curiosity. You don't have to decide immediately. Some people don't give nicknames at all.»
« ... I assume "Sneaky bastard" breaks a school rule or two? » Turo asked, managing to get a smile from the other man.
« ... offensive names are not permitted. So... we can work on the rest after I'm done with today's lessons. Your trainer IDs will take a couple of days.
For now, this is the list of books and learning materials you're going to need, those are your dormitory rooms, and I suggest you go to this clothing store in Mesagoza to get measurements for your uniforms.» Clavell explained, pushing a little stack of papers over to them and hurrying out of the lab, his own books and a stack of graded papers under his arms.
The two of them were left sitting alone, stunned.
« ... measurements?» Sada asked, excited. She was going to see how they made the school clothes?! To make so many surely they used some amazing sewing technique!
« ... I had completely forgotten about those uniforms. Arceus. They may look okay on a kid, but... ugh. And wearing them is required, isn't it? » Turo grumbled.
Sada laughed trying to picture him in any of the various uniforms she had seen the students wear.
« I want to see you wear that hat!»
« That one isn't required, thank Arceus. I miss my suit. At least we can stop invading Clavell's house... let's go look at our dorm rooms. » He sighed, standing up. Even as he was acting all... well, "grumbly", she could see that he also was looking forward to it. He offered her his hand, and she took it, intertwining her fingers in his.
« So if we complete this "scientific" course here at the Academy... will people call us "Scientist Sada" and "Scientist Turo"?» She asked as they walked out of the laboratory.
Turo smiled a tiny bit.
« I don't think so. What people call you depends on what you actually end up doing... » He started to explain.
« So... maybe something like Clavell! "Professor Sada" and "Professor Turo"! »
« ... no way that's going to happen.»
I thought a lot about what Pokemon Sada and Turo would end up with as their "starters"
My first thought was present counterparts of some paradox pokemon of their time, but then I changed my mind. They were too "advanced" as their first Pokemon in a sense. (Not to mention that with all his current aaaaangst Turo would have sent that poor Ralts running away crying)
I wanted two Pokemon that could be found near Mesagoza and they could reasonably encounter in their daily life, and that they would somehow resonate a bit with and decide to adopt more than actively go look for them and catch them.
They are both still mourning the loss of Koraidon and Miraidon in a sense, so I needed two Pokemon that they both had nothing to do with, as a fresh start.
My first thought was present counterparts of some paradox pokemon of their time, but then I changed my mind. They were too "advanced" as their first Pokemon in a sense. (Not to mention that with all his current aaaaangst Turo would have sent that poor Ralts running away crying)
I wanted two Pokemon that could be found near Mesagoza and they could reasonably encounter in their daily life, and that they would somehow resonate a bit with and decide to adopt more than actively go look for them and catch them.
They are both still mourning the loss of Koraidon and Miraidon in a sense, so I needed two Pokemon that they both had nothing to do with, as a fresh start.
