IC CONTACT

[blueser]

"Hello... Whatever... Don't worry about me. I'm doing peachy over here! I was just looking for something to do! Wanna battle me again?"

[telepathy | Pidgeot-mail]

Comments

[golisolation]

I won't disagree with you there, but do I look the type to go to libraries? Do I look the type welcomed at libraries?

[He probably went to them as a kid to read about bugs. Probably is banned from every single one in Alola because of his bugs.]

Oh yeah? D'you think you can take me on, huh? I'll look forward to seeing what you can pull outta your ass next time, then.

...Also, I didn't win because of the mega-evolution. That was just flexing.

[blueser]

...What's that supposed to mean? You sit down and read, what's so hard about that?

--What'd you do that you wouldn't be welcome??

[So many questions... Not that it's hard to imagine Guzma picking a fight or something stupid. Sheesh.]

Yeah, whatever. Make your excuses now, I don't wanna hear you crying about it later. [All this posturing. Boys.]

[golisolation]

Shit happens.

[That's... all he has to say on the matter.]

Uh huh, same. I think I've dealt with enough of your crying to last a fuckin' lifetime.

[blueser]

I don't cry when I lose...

[Except that one time, but we won't talk about that either.]

[Or honestly anytime he loses to Red.]

...Where'd you learn that stuff? Lame-o Stone said he went to the Kalos region to learn that...

[golisolation]

We'll see about that, won't we?

[He's just teasing as he do, but maybe it's a touch insensitive... Another thing he do.]

Never been to Kalos. Maybe some of them came to Alola, who knows. It ain't traditionally Alolan...

[He's just being cagey to be cagey. There was of course that pair of trainers from Kalos who seemed intent on sharing the keystones with people. They hung around the Battle Tree, and Guzma had made a habit of going there himself. One can only wonder where he might have gotten his...]

[blueser]

[Blue frowns to himself at that non-answer. Did he steal it or something...? Not his business, if so, but that doesn't help him very much.]

So where do you find those stones, anyway? I've never even heard of them in Kanto... Pewter Museum's got nothing like that.

[A power that tests the bond between trainer and Pokémon... Blue wanted to prove to himself, to his team, that he'd made real strides in that regard. This stone could help him do that, right...?]

[golisolation]

[He could have stolen it, once upon a time. But he actually got it through legit means, but his caginess doesn't help anything.]

I'm guessin' Kalos is where they originate. Maybe they get imported in. Guess Kanto's just behind on the times, huh?

[Yeah, he's gonna take that wide open dig at Kanto while it's there. Thanks for that, Blue.]

[blueser]

[SIGH he KNEW that was coming]

If I was gonna be bothered with that lame taunt I wouldn't have given the opening...

[Sends the image of his eyeroll, just to get the point across!]

So you're not telling, is that right? Just say it.

Whatever. I'll find one myself when I go home.

[golisolation]

[In reply Guzma gives the image of his hand flipping Blue off. Maturity!]

I thought it only right to go for the low hangin' fruit, seein' as that's often all you can reach.

[This feels nice. Getting into this sorta petty bantering. Better than the yelling and contention of before.]

Go to Kalos. That's about all I can really say, yo. Like I said, they ain't from Alola.

[blueser]

[Stupid oniichan.]

Kalos, huh. Gramps said he had a colleague there that offered to sponsor me if I wanted to study, but I hadn't decided yet...

I'm not really cut out for that stuff. But if they got interesting battles, then maybe I should...

[golisolation]

Heh, yeah from what I've heard, shit's pretty lit over there. But, like I said before, never been, so maybe it's all bunk.

If your family's got the dough to send your ass to other regions, maybe you should come see Alola, too.

[Not that this conversation will matter once Blue leaves this place. But, whatever. Guzma's not interested in contemplating the sorta shit that's both comforting and disheartening.

The kinda shit existential crises are made of.]

[blueser]

Yeah, maybe.

[Even if Blue's thinking the same thing... What are the chances he'll even remember any of this, to know that he should go?]

Except I already know the trainers are all lame, so if I go there, it's to enjoy the weather, heh!

[golisolation]

Oh yeah? I didn't realize you met every trainer on all four islands. When did that happen, huh?

[There's clear amusement through the feed.]

But I wouldn't fault you. Most tourists come for the sights and the weather. We're pretty new with our league and the Battle Tree, but it's starting to gain traction.

[A point that would have been sore with him before, but he's... alright with it, now.]

[blueser]

If they're all like you guys, I don't gotta.

...Battle Tree, huh? What's that, the local Battle Facility?

Johto just opened one, too... But I can't get over there often when I have to cover the Gym. What a pain... At least there's the Fighting Dojo at Saffron....

[At least that Champ kid called him often enough to battle, there. He wasn't so bored, with an opponent like that.]

[golisolation]

Uh-huh. You know you just sound scared, seeing as you haven't beaten me yet.

Of sorts, yeah. Trainers pair up against each other, two Pokèmon each, and y'see how far up you can go. There's these dickheads from Kanto who run the joint, they're pretty alright as far as trainers go, I guess.

[The irony being that HE'S TALKING ABOUT RED AND BLUE. TO BLUE.

But, he's too much of a stupid jackass to fully remember their names, or what they look like. At least, at the moment. It doesn't help that this Blue is nearly 8 years younger than the Blue Guzma's familiar with, so it'd be a little odd to make that realization so immediately, especially when it's not like he's super familiar with them.]

Hey, quit your bitchin'. Not everyone gets that sorta chance to be a captain—uh, gym leader, whatever.

[What a fucking slip to make.]

[blueser]

Dream on, no way I'm scared to battle you.

Hmph, probably because Kanto trainers actually know how to battle. [He sure sounds awfully, smugly proud. Though. He wonders who the trainers were running it...] I wonder... Anyone I know...? Did you battle them?

[Luckily for Guzma, Blue doesn't get the meaning behind his slip up, and just assumes it's a cultural thing.] ...Well, I guess. I like it fine- I don't have any problem with teaching junior trainers or anything like that.

But I get sick of sitting around in one place. I like traveling better, I think... Just seeing the same things over and over gets stale.

[golisolation]

Not scared, yet you don't wanna take on Alolan trainers 'cos they might be like your boy. The trainer you ain't beat yet, huh?

[There's a laugh that goes through the line.]

Yeah, you're a shining example of one, huh? But, yeah I've battled 'em. Beat 'em too. Ain't no thang. Can't remember their names though, so tough luck!

[Guzma's truly the stupidest idiot. Guzma's glad he doesn't know shit about Alola, not that he's actually sensitive about it anymore. At least, not as much. It's still a let down, something he thinks about when he's alone sometimes. An opportunity he'll never have, an experience he'll never live. What it had meant to him, and what it became once it was denied him. Again, and again...]

...How does that all work, huh? Gym leaders. Do you age out of it, or?

[blueser]

Puh-lease.

[Stupid useless oniichan. Oh well, Blue figures it probably doesn't matter... It's not like he knows every trainer in Kanto. What's the chances he knows them, anyway?]

[Guzma's question surprises him a little, but he's happy to answer.]

Age out...? No, the Leader is the Leader until they decide to retire. They're all sort of different, though. Some of them have been handed down within a particular family for generations, like Fuchsia City's Gym; others just get appointed to someone by the League, if the previous Leader retires without a protegé or something to take it over. Like when I took Viridian. In Saffron City there were two Gyms, until one beat out the other for the League certification.

[Blue pauses thoughtfully, Guzma's question making him curious.] --Do you gotta be a certain age to be a Leader or Captain or whatever?

[golisolation]

[There's a long silence on Guzma's end. He listens, but there's a strange sort of feeling that feeds through the line. Not quite envy, but there's a certain... pang of something. Distance, yet niggling.

Had Alola... had the Trial Captain positions been something like that, then maybe he wouldn't have felt like he did when he didn't get picked. He wouldn't have felt like it was a time crunch to prove himself, like time and hope was slipping through his fingers like sand. Maybe he wouldn't have done half the stupid shit he did.

But there's no point to dwell. No point to be envious of a system that might not have failed him, when it wouldn't change anything. The time had passed, the damage was done, and he's where he is now. The feeling doesn't leave, and maybe it intensifies a little as he answers Blue's question.]

Yeah, you gotta be at least eleven to take on the Island Challenge, which is the Alola's way of recognizing new trainers as the real deal. Once you pass that, you can qualify as a Captain. Don't mean you'll be picked though, no matter how qualified you might be.

[There's a slight edge to how he says it. He's less beat up about it, but it still stings sometimes.]

Anyway, once you're twenty you can't be one no more. The Kahuna for that island then picks a new one, but there's been times when the Captains picked the next one. That's a bit rarer.

So, if you got eyes on the position, but one don't open up before you turn twenty, tough luck, kid! If it does, then you might not get picked anyway. You could spend almost a decade tryin' to get yourself into the position, and all that work is for fuckin' nothing!

[He's... rambling. Maybe he's just tired, and his head is swimming, and maybe he's feeling a little more vulnerable right now. They've been chatting for a while, and he might not be passing out every 20 minutes because of his weariness, but when he's awake long enough, he gets... rambly. His walls lower a little. And with this being all telepathy? Yeah. Yeah.]

[blueser]

[Blue listens, and frowns to himself, and between that nagging (familiar) bitterness, he can already see where this is going. He'd question why the position is set up the way it is- why only those ages? What was the purpose of all of that??]

[...But it didn't really matter. That wasn't why they were talking about it, anyway. Not anymore...]

[He doesn't really know what to say, but he doesn't want to say the wrong thing for once, so he just doesn't- he just thinks about the familiar sensations coming across the crystal, his turn to feel a strange familiarity.]

[golisolation]

—It's all such taurusshit... shit needs changing, but that's up to the Kahuna and the Tapu, not the people it actually effects, yo.

[It's then he realizes he's maybe... overshared a bit. That information, while technically answered Blue, came from a place way too personal. There's a flash of heat from embarrassment through the line, dipped in heavy awkwardness.]

...Anyway. As you can see, shit's pretty different.

[blueser]

The Tapu...?

[Blue doesn't quite understand how everything in Alola works- the Kahuna are above the Captains, and the Tapu are...]

Aren't those the legendaries in the Alola region? ...They commune with people that much?

[What a strange idea, coming from a region where the legendaries could hardly be proven to exist, much less appear to humans regularly...]

[golisolation]

[Talking about the Tapu is a decent enough segue. He's not so mad at them, as he was before, and even less so with them as he was with the traditions in general. After all, the people perpetuated those, even if they were to honor the Tapu.]

Yeah, they're the legendary of each island, they choose their Kahuna to hold out the traditions of Alola. They're pretty fleeting, but they show up to those they deem worthy, or so wretched that they take care of them themselves.

[The implication is pretty obvious there.]

Before Nanu was chosen as a Kahuna, there was one before him. Tapu Bulu gave that guy an early retirement, if you get me.

[Guzma was there for that. Saw the wrath of the Tapu himself. He was following that Kahuna around with all those other misfits, and they pissed off Bulu something fierce. But from the ashes of that old group rose Team Skull with Guzma at the helm. A tragic opportunity, and Guzma has ever been the opportunist.]

[blueser]

Things must get pretty bad around there if the local guardians have to clean up. [He sounds more surprised than smug about it. What the heck were people doing that was so bad, the legendaries had to take care of it...?]

[Then again, he had known Nanu was a kahuna or whatever, but to hear he had a direct line to a legendary was surprising. What the heck was a guy like that picked for?] Musta been pretty bad if a guy like him was chosen after that...

The birds don't mess in human business at all... Well, I'm not the one to ask about them.

[Dredging up just a small taste of that old, stewing bitterness again.]

[golisolation]

It ain't too common of a thing. But we're kinda bound by the will of the Tapu. Just how it is.

[Unfortunately, is what he doesn't quite add. Even he was bound by it, a realization he made a long time ago, but one he didn't like much. He didn't like being bound, or restrained, yet he seemingly kept finding himself with a yoke around his neck more often than not.

He catches that bit, and there's a bristle. He'll ask about those birds in a moment, he's gotta set Blue straight about Nanu first.]

What you got against Nanu, huh? He's a little rough and can be a bit of an ass, I'll give ya that. But! He's a decent fuckin' dude. Way better than the last Kahuna. Keep your mouth shut on shit you don't know nothing about, kid.

[Don't you talk shit on his mentor, Blue!]