Haha more deep dive. Counting ones I did out of order I think I'm close to caught up.
"...Gardevoir line?"
"Hmm…nah, too clingy. And I already have Fairies covered," Erika replies as she writes something down in her notebook.
My sister in Xerneas you have no room to talk. In fairness though, I probably wouldn't want to be a Pokémon who could read Erika's mind.
"Meowscarada?" They're pretty rare in Paldea, but not unheard of. They'd fit pretty well with her battle style since the Sprigatito line is known for being tricky and mischievous. You think one of the Gym Leaders, Brassius Neopoli, has one on his personal team.
"...maybe, but it's pretty hard to get one right now. I'd either have to buy from a breeder or convince a Trainer of one to give me an egg. It'll be much more feasible as a 4th or 5th."
I do like the idea of The Great Detective having
a weed cat so she learns to have any fucking chill a Phantom Thief Pokémon, and it's a great glass cannon to back up Cornelia's bulk. Sprigatito is of course a starter in Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, so not something you can catch, which would be the reasoning behind Erika saying she can get one from a breeder, or wherever it is that professors get starters.
"Let's see, according to her, I need 'A member that can cover Carbink's offensive and mobility shortcomings'. She also wrote that 'get better at improvisation' advice you provided, but since she is an actual professional, I have no choice but to listen." You roll your eyes and throw one of Erika's pillows at her, which Cornelia telekinetically catches. You give a sheepish smile to the unamused Pokemon.
Just realizing that Cornelia regularly uses telekinesis despite not being Psychic-typed. I guess because she doesn't have any limbs and just kinda hovers. And some of her rock moves are basically telekinesis with rocks I guess. Also fun fact I just realized about Drilbur, she neatly counters Cornelia, who otherwise is probably the strongest mon in our class for countering Roland. Sure would be nice if we were rivals with anyone besides Nemona.
"Why not a Scyther, then? It fits both of those criteria." It'd cover some of the weaknesses that Cornelia has and would give her team a much needed offensive option.
"That's..hmm…they'd fit, but that'll be a difficult addition to my team. I'd have to convince them to willingly join, since there's no use getting a second Pokemon that won't even listen." You restrain yourself from snorting. "...and it's a good habit to establish. The problem is convincing them, and after that, well…" A rather ill-fitting grimace finds its way to Erika's face.
This is the route she's gone down, so I'm sure we're going to have lots to discuss about the Scyther I very much hope is named Dlanor, but this is a couple of interesting things already. First, I'm happy that we did the recommendation because
the ship is growing on me it's good to get the perspectives of your friends, especially your friends with, let's say, opposite specialties - Erika is highly educated and confident but has immense trouble relating to people and Pokémon, whereas we're naturally charismatic and empathetic but have the academic- and self-awareness of the Slowpoke who gets pranked at family reunions.
The other thing I'm noting here is itself a combination of two things. The first is the implication from somewhere deep in my ancestral memory - the anime, probably - that Scythers are proud and rather fussy Pokémon. Convincing one to join willingly is more than simply besting it in combat and it deciding to tag along, it has to respect you, being the lawnmower ninjas they are. The second is, well, Erika having a hard time believing she could get a Pokémon to respect her (as opposed to our natural dragon charisma), which we're going to elaborate on here.
"...Fede has a tradition of raising human children communally alongside Pokemon," she finally says. "Aside from other human kids, I was raised alongside Cornelia, Gertrude, and Jill, a Hatenna and a Swirlix." Erika looks out her room's window as she speaks, like she's in a faraway place. "I was never the most sociable kid when I was young. Carried on into my teens, so I didn't get along well with a lot of other wild Pokemon around the place."
This is an intriguing tradition, and is the way that Fede is closer to the strange, fey world of the Pokémon than the rest of Paldea - in a way unique from the also strange, fey world of Eryn Village in Trails. Human and Pokémon don't just live and work alongside each other, they put them on exactly the same level as equals, and so Erika's social awkwardness carries over to the Pokémon she sees as peers.
Gertrude is, as I explained about Cornelia way back when, the name of another one of Erika Furudo's angelic sidekicks from Umineko: When They Cry - a more senior angel than Cornelia, and the elegant big sis of the group. Presumably this version is working on that if she
looked like this last time Erika saw her. Like Cornelia, she focuses on trapping and barriers to bring miscreants and genre-forbidden elements to justice, and like Carbink, Hatenna grows up into a very capable defensive Pokémon.
Jill...there's no Jills in When They Cry as far as I know and it's a common enough name that anything I say would be speculative. There is a character named Jill in Trails, a very minor but persistently recurring tertiary character in Trails in the Sky, but thus far no one from Trails has shown up under their own name so unless Fede started borrowing our naming scheme I don't think this is it.
Since she's a Swirlix I hope her full name is Jillato, though.
"Whenever someone from Fede heads off to the outside world for a Journey, they're usually accompanied by two Pokemon for their own safety, a Pokemon they've been raised with since birth and one they've convinced to join them before they leave." She gestures to Cornelia's Pokeball. "You can probably see how that ended for me." Oh.
"It's rather embarrassing, but the reason I was a mess when you first met me was because I was trying to convince a Wingull to join me, and, well…" She looks genuinely embarrassed, and you can see tears starting to form by the corners of her eyes.
Umineko is the Japanese name for the black-tailed gull and a common though unofficial translation for the title of the story Erika's name and face come from is "When the Seagulls Cry". I guess this one was especially salty.
Also here's a funny image I randomly came across on discord while writing this. It'll be gone in a few days but it's not funny enough for me to bother rehosting it
You - and by you I mean Mariana - can tell that Erika really hates her inability to relate to people. She's a genius, right? She's from Fede, the place most in-tune with the world of Pokémon, right? She clearly knows secrets that make her even more knowledgeable, right? So why can't she do something so basic as befriend a seabird? As a gifted kid with no social life, I recognize the serious self-disappointment that comes from failing at a task when you're used to succeeding at what you want to do with little effort. It sucks. A lot. And not learning how to deal with it is part of where you get the burnt-out gifted kid archetype, where when we start failing to get things on the first try, we don't know how to deal with the failure and just...quit.
That's it. You stand and walk over to where Erika's sitting. Ignoring her protests, you pull her up and hug her.
"I'm not gonna lie and say you're a social Beautifly, but you're a close friend and I'm sure you'll find a Pokemon you'll get along with." The hug is kind of awkward since she's a head shorter than you, but you put as much affection as you can behind it. After a moment of hesitation, she finally returns it.
I've made fun of a certain visual novel RPG in the past for equating "hugging a crying girl" with volunteering for her romance route but also: Jesus fucking Christ, just propose to her already.
Also it's hard to comment on the friendship between Mariana and Erika without sounding like I'm satirizing homophobes but like. They are unironically
also really good friends.
"Goodnight, Erika."
"Goodnight…Mary." You give her a look, and she rolls her eyes in return. "What? The twerp uses it, why can't I?"
You hear Erika's door lock behind you, and then the muffled sounds of someone screaming into a pillow. It's good that she's letting it all out. You, however, still have a part of your daily routine to do.
Listen up everyone, I have big news!
These girls are gay AND Atleantaean--
Heading downstairs, you say hello to Missy and Wiggly, who are watching a weird show on TV–something about a chemist in Unova. After grabbing some food from the fridge, you make your way over to Leaf's office, somehow still unused aside from your sessions with Espurr, and lock the door behind you. You see your shadow wriggle beneath you, meaning that Missy has already split off a shade to watch over you.
You had asked Leaf how Missy does that a few days back, and she'd told you it was something about using Night Shade and Poltergeist to split off a simulacrum of Mismagius for multitasking. You wonder if it's possible for Roland to do something similar once he's grown enough and even fully evolved.
This ties into one of Arvis's move reworks, incidentally - Night Shade being "Ghost-type Substitute" instead of a fixed-damage attack. Personally, I like the idea of balancing Roland's Ghost and Dragon abilities, utilizing both, since Dragon moves are great for offense and Ghost moves are great for utility and trickery.
You spend the rest of your time after class, battling and winning against other first years, and even fight Manuel for the first time outside of the Round Robin. Roland with Agility is already too fast for Gawain's to keep up with, but despite that, the battle lasts a pretty long time since you're practicing an attritional strategy with Roland: wear away at the opponent with Will-o-Wisp and Infestation, while using Double Team and Agility to minimize the damage taken. So far, it's been serving you pretty well–you even have a winning streak going.
"Oh? You're my next opponent, Mariana? It seems Roland's gotten faster, huh?
Had. You had a winning streak going. You turn around to greet Nemona, who's just finished up her own match for the day. Huh, it seems she fought Erika. You wave to Erika, trying to get her attention, but she runs off looking embarrassed after she sees you. Did she lose that badly to Nemona?
"I wanna have a fair fight, so I'll use Mercury against you, Mariana! Also, Sunny wants to rest." You give her a thumbs-up, trying your best to make sure Nemona doesn't notice your eye twitching.
It's close.
Genuinely close. But close is not enough to beat Nemona. It'll never be enough.
Bit of a tautology there, Mariana's inner monologue.
I think this practice session went well, awkward midpoint to Roland's journey from Badge 1 to Badge 2 though it was. The chain of "failing to read the room" of Mariana not getting Erika and Nemona not getting Mariana is kind of deeply hilarious also. Now that we have another Major Battle coming up, making use of Roland's mastered moves is going to be very important - that dastardly Drilbur ain't going nowhere if we keep pumping it full of dragon ghost bug things.
What a bother.
She waddles out of the door with Mariana close behind her. The moon hangs overhead. She knows not why that human, Strangling Flowers, had forbidden her from going out during the day, but it is fine. She likes the moon. Mother had said she was born under a full one.
So. POV change to Espurr/Renne here, our first Pokémon POV since first meeting Roland. Notably this Quest, while not as laser-focused on one POV as some, is pretty sparing with perspective shifts: one scene with Roland, two very brief scenes with Elise (one of which is in the update after this), and the occasional cutaway to Leaf for a cutscene that hints at the larger plot Mariana is unaware of.
Renne has poetic (and rather morbid) names for characters - Strangling Flowers is Leaf. I'm going to posit that Renne's psychic senses show her details of other peoples' minds, and her names for them are descriptive of that perception. Aside from maintaining a plant association, the descriptive name probably has to do with Leaf's traumatic backstory as a child soldier (as far as I can tell) and the effects it's had on her adult persona - the life of someone who's seen the best and worst the world of Pokémon has to offer: beautiful but choking.
Mariana follows, pink and blue threads of kindness and patience wrapping all around the human, near suffocating in their saccharine smell, but she skims the human's surface thoughts and there it remains, that little thread of white hot ambition going deep, tethered to two places: one to somewhere in the building she had left, the other to somewhere far far away. Is the human even conscious of that? Doubtful.
Mariana gets to be Mariana, though. Renne seems to think our kindness a bit cloying even if it benefits her, but she's more interested in our ambition - our rivalry with Nemona is the obvious thread, and less obvious is some unknown, distant goal. Not the Pokémon League - that's just up the hill, geographically speaking. Could it be a Treasure of Ruin? Something else in our homeland? A destiny we don't know about outside the story yet?
Also probably not surprising that the psychic empath sees emotions as threads of color.
Pink: Kindness
Blue: Patience
White: Ambition
And the idea of emotions as threads that bind people, either to themselves or to others...very apt.
The human's shadow writhes, and there is their chaperone for the night. Not a shade this time; it seems her request has gotten the full attention of that Spectre, Sorrowful Jubilee. The Spectre is, of course, unable to help herself. She sips, just tiny droplets, of the purple sorrow of Mariana, a consistency like wine. Greedy thing, as she already drinks much from Strangling Flowers. She says nothing, of course, as the thread of sadness is taken and wrapped around the Spectre, strengthening her further. She has no need for it. The Spectre is already stronger than even her jailors, bar a handful.
Mismagius, and perhaps other ghosts, feed on negative emotions. That's fine, tbh. It's not like Missy is causing them, they're just vibing with Mariana's anxiety and Leaf's depression. "Sorrowful Jubilee" is a pretty apt description of what a cheery prankster ghost who feeds on misery would look like, though.
Or maybe it's not the anxiety. Maybe it's the hidden root of it that's "sorrow". Renne isn't telling, though. It
is good to know that Leaf's probably Elite Four-level Pokémon could beat up most of whatever horrorshow organization is experimenting on Pokémon, though.
Purple: Sorrow
She continues to waddle, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of humans and Pokemon alike. She is careful to never let the Well leak, her ears forced shut, as she half-listens to whatever Mariana says about this or that, planning to remember the colors and noises later when she is asleep as Munna had taught her. She will not ruin this night. Thankfully, very little other humans are out to ruin it for her.
So a surface read might conclude that The Well is an expression of the overwhelming power of her Phantasmal moves and a result of the experimentation that gave them to her, but no, Espurr are just
like this, constantly having to hold in massive Psychic power that's too big for their tiny, glassy-eyed bodies, specifically by covering their psychic emitter organs with their ears. The reason every Espurr has a thousand yard stare is because they're constantly focusing on not just exploding with psionics and blasting people.
Pokémon. You know, the game for ten year olds.
The experimentation
probably made things worse, though. It's interesting that she has a coping mechanism developed for this (that sounds suspiciously like psychological dissociation), and that she was instructed by a Munna (who doesn't get a colorful name). Once again we see psychic perceptions associated with color, as well as sound (although that might be speech - Renne dissociating human speech away to parse it later and safe might be why she's so standoffish in conversation even if she's willing to act and interact).
Mercifully, the Wyrm has decided not to do so either. He is obediently wrapped around the neck of his mistress, like her younger brothers clinging to Mother despite their age. He has no Name yet, so he is Wyrm to her, with Chains of Pride and Ambition, like cold iron wrapped all around him. A Wyrm through and through, and yet, it is that little thread that was not there when they first met that most interests her. It is a strange color, a feeling that is not easily put into words.
A cocktail mixture of regret, bitterness and betrayal, woven together when she tried to kill Mariana. She's known it for a while now, but the serenity of the environs has given her the focus to confirm.
Renne has as Mother, and brothers. Are we talking literal Meowstic who laid her egg and other children of the same being, or something else? Unclear. But Renne knew her mother long enough to learn from her.
Roland lacks a Name, capital N. Wyrm is just a descriptor of the Dragon-type, as Spectre is for Ghosts. Capital C Chains as well, rather than threads, for his emotions, and as Renne comments, his Pride and Ambition are typical for Dragons. I've been interpreting the Names Renne calls others as descriptors through her psychic perceptions. Perhaps Roland doesn't have one because he's so young he hasn't really formed an identity yet? Perhaps there's some trial, some passage he needs to "earn" a Name.
The Wyrm—Roland hates her.
That is the issue with Spectres. Beings of memory clinging to remnants of emotions (or is it the other way around? She does not remember her Mother's lessons). A Spectre is incapable of forgetting, truly forgetting, for memories and experiences are what wove the tapestries of their forms.
And there's the party conflict. Roland loves Mariana, and hates Renne for trying to kill her, even if Mariana herself couldn't give less of a fuck since she's fighting Elise for this year's Shirou Emiya Toxic Selflessness Award and also a genuinely nice person who recognizes when someone isn't in control of her actions.
This is an interesting take on the Ghost-type, probably the Type with the broadest variety of interpretations in Pokémon fanfiction. I wouldn't even take Renne's assessment of the type for completely granted fact, but Ghosts as "memory" makes an incredible amount of sense. They're the idea that lingers after the thing itself is gone, the immaterial impression upon the world, the spectre of past events...and that can take the form of grudges.
I wonder what Missy and Rin are memories of.
Hatred: unknown color, implied to be a mix of other emotions
She is…unsure of what to feel about his hate. She remembers the relief and the hope, like a refreshing breeze, when he had come to her aid. He had reminded her of Natu, especially with how he acts with Mariana, before—
Hm. She's ruined the night for herself after all.
What a bother.
First mention of her Natu friend, who will come up more later. Also doesn't get a poetic name though.
I desperately want these two to be friends and not suffer from stupid, unwanted vengeance. I just hope they can work it out, or we can be in the right place to save them the unneeded pain.
She stops waddling, stopping in the middle of a small park and looks off in the distance, letting a little of her power leak while ignoring the sound of alarm from Sorrowful Jubilee. She feels the threads that bind her, the threads that make up the tapestry of HIS Creation, the changes done to her by the humans had granted her strength, allowing her to tap into the Well of power within her, an Espurr's birthright.
HIS Creation - Xerneas the creator of life, almost certainly (her psychic color vision even fits with Xerneas's rainbow antler theme). I wonder, again, if she uses the same archaic type names as the Geomantic Church because she's one of the faithful in her own way, or if the Geomantic church got the names from Psychic Pokémon.
Also confirmation that while Espurr's psychic powers are natural, the experiments on Renne allow her to tap into
more of it.
She thinks of home. She feels her connections to her kin, brothers and sisters, and to her parents. She does not remember how she was taken, only the noise that broke the Well, broke her control over it. She long agonizes over what had happened to all she knew.
She tries, but she cannot reach them. Cannot envision them. No color, no sound, no smell comes to her. She is not like Natu, whose change had brought him sight beyond sight.
She chooses to interpret this as her being too weak to reach them. There will be no more for now–better, the uncertainty. The Well closes.
Renne describing how she was taken from her family in vague terms, and not being able to connect with them psychically from here. None of her enhanced senses are picking them up. "The noise that broke the Well, broker her control over it". Hm. An anti-Psychic weapon?
Natu again, a fellow experimental subject. While Espurr's psychic powers usually manifest in flavor text as telepathy and telekinesis, Natu's psychic power is usually referred to as foresight or prophetic ability, and it sounds like the experiments on this Natu enhanced that, either giving it the abilty to see the future or to see the present far more distantly than Espurr.
Looking around her, it seems she's managed to worry Mariana. Save that worry for yourself. It is not over yet. She tells her as such, and the grimace that made its way to the human's face is precious.
They walk in silence now. The Wyrm glares at her from his perch around the human's neck. The Spectre is quiet, contemplating her and what she had attempted.
Opening up her psychic Well to use it even just to do a little psychic google search is enough to unnerve people around her, though. And being ominous and vague about it isn't really helpful to Mariana even without her telepath allergy.
Actually it's interesting that Renne doesn't seem to be picking up on what's causing her telepathy to cause Mariana pain. Must be buried pretty deep in there for her not to even be curious about it.
She…could try to find out what had happened to her home. The stars will guide her. She could teleport away and dodge those looking for her. It should be possible with the metal on her neck gone. She would not meet the fate of Munna and Natu, she is sure of it. She could—
Renne contemplates taking the chance at escape, and implies that Munna and Natu did the same before being caught thanks to those tracking chips. Hers is not only broken, but gone, so it's
feasible...
She reaches into his mind and listens.
'Rejoice, ungrateful one. My human has decided to allow you to attempt an escape. She will distract the Sorrowful Jubilee as best she can. Leave or stay. I care not which, though I doubt you'll make it.'
I'm...unclear on this 'dialog' here, actually. Roland was admittedly a couple months younger when we got his POV and very close to newly hatched (manifested?), but he didn't sound like this. This sounds exactly like Renne's mode of narration, although maybe Pokémon just talk like this when they're being serious. And then Roland uses the Name of Missy, which...maybe that is an inherent Identity in the 'language' of Pokémon and not just flowery description. Maybe it's something Leaf and Missy have through collected life experience. It honestly feels more likely this way but I just don't have enough data to determine where it comes from yet.
Fine. She will make an attempt.
She waddles as fast as she can–levitation would give away what she is doing. She can do it once she is far away enough, but–
She stops before she can even make it to the gate, her own shadow having turned against her, wrapping around her legs. When did the Spectre get a shade there?
What a bother.
Renne does decide to make a break for it, but we flub our distraction roll. For the best, really.
Also, what a bother count: 3
Also I just realized why Espurr's mode of ambulation is described as waddling. It's not just the short stubby legs, it's that they levitate when they actually want to move quickly.
'Worry not, Spectre. I will not flee anymore.' It is pointless now, but at least Mariana had tried. She peers into the surface of her mind, and finds the human more worried about her than she is about herself.
How cute. Her kindness is near cloying. Reminds her of Mother whenever she'd misbehave, playing with the other creatures of the grove.
Fine. She will play nice from now on.
Even the cat thinks we're a mom. And it looks like the escapism subplot ended before it got started.
Half-pitched game theory: Leaf insisted we go out at night to make sure Missy would have shadows to work in. Her night shade tricks are probably a lot harder at noon.
Their group waits until Strangling Flowers finally arrives, scolding and pulling on Mariana's ear. They are escorted back to the dorms, the Wigglytuff, Boundless Care, behind her and scolding her all the while. She cannot find it within herself to care, not when she is busy laughing (internally) at how the Wyrm curses at her for getting his human in trouble.
This night has mostly been redeemed. It seems she hasn't ruined this one quite as thoroughly as the others.
Hmm.
The cat's despressed too though. Glad she had a good time.
Boundless Care for Wiggly seems pretty on the nose.
And then she gives us a name for herself, 'Renne'. The lowercase n on name seems relevant there - she might or might not have a Name yet.
For the past two days after Espurr's trip outside, your time after class has been taken up by basically being Leaf's secretary. You take her calls, double-check her documents and papers, and even get her coffee. Punishment detail, she calls it, but you really don't regret it too much. Even if it's just the first part of said punishment detail, according to Leaf.
Flavor-wise, our punishment for Renne's escape attempt seems to have been rolled into our Class Prez duties. Understandable since I think Leaf just wanted a personal assistant out of that anyway.
Class VII will be divided into two groups, one with four students and another with five. One group will be assigned tasks in the west of the settlement amongst the grasslands and hills, including the river, while the other group will be assigned to the forests, farms, and the Badajoz Plateau to the east of the province. You'll have to congratulate Erika for being right—
We're all familiar with the Field Exercise by now, but just doing the asside here that this is
mostly how Field Studies work in Trails of Cold Stell, but not quite. Mainly, the 4/5 (later 5/6) group split is, as well as the general principle of "go out into the country and do sidequests to get to know the people and problems of the Empire so you can be well-informed and ethical protagonists when shit hits the fan later." The difference is that in ToCS, each group headed to a different locale instead of splitting up a single one, with the exception of the Heimdallr Field Study (because Heimdallr is hueg). Mainly this seems to have been to establish Class VII as going to every major location in the Empire despite only 6 field studies fitting into the plot.
Also as a reminder because I think people have missed this: Field Exercises are a Class VII thing. The Gym privileges are for Mesagoza students generally, but people who aren't us still have to schlep across the country on their own time. They also aren't getting a school curriculum of 80 hours of JRPG sidequest unskippable.
[] Berry Hunt from Caller Erika:
"…Look, I know Rangers are starting to become decrepit everywhere outside of Fede but this is ridiculous. I've been calling for over a week now! Anyways, my request is that you find and deliver a number of Wild Berries found in the outskirts of Mesagoza. The ones in the stores don't have the kick I need for my purposes. Also some Oran Berries, these ones can be store bought. They're for a friend anyhow. Deliver them to the Academy Town if you know where that is."
- You and Elise will both roll 1d20+PROW each. I will take the higher rolls of the two. DC 16
- Improve Bond with Caller Erika and Elise
- Gain 8,000 Pokedollars
- Gain 300 PROW XP
And finally, the major Ranger work we didn't pick. Erika mentions (in her usual idiom) that Rangers are still a big deal in Fede, which is both interesting and kind of expected given Fede's special cultural relationship with Pokémon. The special berries she's looking for are implied later to be part of her Scyther plans, and the Oran Berries are clearly her trying to up her romance flags with us by helping feed our bottomless pit of a Dreepy. The only reason I regret not taking this one is seeing the look on her face when she realized she accidentally contracted us to pick up a gift for ourselves (and the fact that there's no way we'd have realized that was happening).
[] I Need a Stick from Unknown Caller:
"My darling Fennekin is within the cusp of evolution. Research has led me to find out that their evolution, Braixen, requires a decent stick or branch to serve as a conduit for their psychic abilities. I seek the help of you rangers finding me a decent one in the outskirts of Mesagoza. It has to be one steeped in Grass Type Energy. I'd go myself but I've been forbidden to leave the environs of the city, and my guardian is a rather protective woman. I will pay quite handsomely for your help in this regard, extra if the ranger named Elise Montenix is available."
Okay actually I am gonna cover the vote we did pick because there's a couple interesting nuggets in the specific text that I don't know if they're covered in the prose of the next update. Other than the special evolution requirement for Fennekin->Braixen (wherein it starts walking on its hind legs and using a stick as a magic wand), Theodora also mentions that she's forbidden from leaving Mesagoza, presumably outside the context of Field Exercises, presumably by Dad de Medali. I'm going to put a pin in this because it's interesting, and I'm also not positive that it's true. But let's take it as established when we're analyzing things later on.
Also between our would-be girlfriend and Elise's, only one of them bothered to look up our part-time employment. Although I suppose Elise has been at it longer than we have.
Next time:
S T I C K
