Eight hours of standing around and answering people's questions on subjects he was barely acquainted with...

Well, he did volunteer. No use having regrets now.

At least his companion was handling most of the work.

"Yep." He said, reaching up to adjust his straw hat. "Thanks to you, mostly." He admitted shamelessly, winking at her.

"I know nothing about water type Pokemon." He said, before gesturing with his head to the little spider at his feet, who waved one of its many legs at the lady as if on cue. "Other than this cutie anyway."

They must have really been pressed for volunteers; his only qualification for the job was lots of patience and the ability to stand still for long periods of time without complaint.

Thankfully though, his companion was right: it had been a relatively light day. Enough so that she could handle all the visitors while he stood around, folded his hands behind his back, and smiled at the children who couldn't seem to get enough of the straw hat.

All in all, not a particularly equal partnership here, now that he thought about it.

"Hn... Maybe I should be the one to take care of cleaning this place later." He said unprompted, turning his head to look at her. "I wouldn't be contributing much here otherwise, eh?"

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TAG: cait alfric

No point in taking the Janitor's job away from them, he supposed. Though that did leave him with no way to contribute.

At least she didn't seem to be holding his uselessness against him. She was being fairly amicable! He couldn't help but answer earnestly, despite his lack of interest on the subject.

"Mostly just Kanto's side of 'em. I'm not terribly well read on Hoenn tradition." Good thing they taught the basics of the local religion in School. He would have been even more ignorant otherwise.

"I've heard about Kyogre... somewhat." He said as he joined her in front of the ancient piece, looking up to it with mild curiosity. Of what he saw, he wondered how much was reality and how much was artistic rendition. "Created the sea, got into a spat with Groudon, mostly won the spat?"

Last bit was admittedly his interpretation- but when one of them had 70% of the Earth covered in their element, it was hard to consider the conclusion of the fight a draw as his teacher had tried to convey.

"What's a Manaphy, though?" He asked shortly after, tilting his head at her. "'nother Ancient, I take it?"

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TAG: cait alfric

This had somehow turned into a theological lesson.

Given the context of their assignment, it made sense. He really needed some education on the subject if he was going to be doing this job properly.

Though this was a tad quick and loose. Better than school at least.

Manaphy turned out to be a little more interesting than he thought. "A pokemon prince? Huh. What does rallying the people mean, though?" Obviously, it meant he could make the people follow him... but why though? For what purpose?

He wasn't particularly faithful or religious, so he tended to skip on the symbolism and metaphorical meanings of legends and go straight into the practical- ironically impractical as that may have been.

His head snapped back to his impromptu teacher at the mention of the Johtonian legend.

"Oh, I know that one." Kanto and Johto were deeply tied nations; he knew quite a few Johtonian stories, and he suspected the people of Johto were well acquainted with Kantonian legend as well.

"How would a Flying and Psychic pokemon survive deep under the sea? Doesn't it supposedly live in a trench?" How had anyone gotten close enough to even study it so thoroughly? He doubted a pokedex would give any info on it.

"Huh? Favorite?" He said, tilting his head before shrugging. "Uh. I dunno. There's not any 'Bug-type' Legendary pokemon that I know of."

He paused.

"I guess there's one. I've only heard of him from a few classmates though. A Kalosian legend... The bringer of life, Xerneas."

A legendary pokemon that dabbled with and protected all living beings... Yeah, he liked that one a lot more than the others.

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TAG: cait alfric

That he understood, but...

He couldn't help but wonder. "Pokémon royalty that ruled over humans, though?" Some pokemon were even smarter than humans, but even they had eventually found themselves in a pokeball.

"Wonder how many of pokemon lead humanity before these little gizmos." He said as he produced his Dewpider's pokeball, spinning it on his finger ponderously.

Arceus did indeed work in mysterious ways. At one of her many examples, he couldn't but chuckle, then smirk.

"Careful there, you just stepped over a playground landmine. Kids in Kanto got into mudfights over Charizard's 'Dragon'ness all the time." Despite one side of the argument being factually wrong.

"I've got nothing for the Cubones. Nidoking and Nidoqueen, my guess is the moonstone radiation that makes them evolve has a high chance of making them sterile." He said, scratching at his chin.

He turned his gaze back to the Kyogre's painting, examining it as she spoke. She had lived an eventful life, it seemed- so many legendaries.

"Huh. Maybe I should stick around ya; you seem to have their attention." He said with a laugh. "Who's 'your god', though?"

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TAG: cait alfric

"Oh, that's another one I know." He said, "So you guys came from Johto?"

She had met the guardian of the forests.

"... Did you see it time travel? Did you get to time travel?" He asked, eyes wider than before.

Wouldn't he have loved to have a chance to time travel? One chance is all it would have taken to save Kanto and his parents.

His line of thought came to a crashing halt. The heck was this wishy-washy mentality...?

He shook his head, reaching up to tip his hat. "Sorry about the silly question, uh..."

He glanced down at her name tag.

"Cait. Don't worry about preachiness or whatever, it's fun to 'ear 'bout Legendary pokemon. Must have taken my school's teach a masterclass to make it better than hypnosis at sending ya right to bed." He said, yawning at the memory alone.

That man's droning monotone could put to rest even the most dedicated of students.

"Thanks for the lesson- looks like we'll have to stop now, tho." He said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb, were a few new visitors were beginning to file in.

"How about we pick this up another time? You seem to know your stuff- and I ain't learning anything from school anyway." He said with a chuckle as he turned to face the visitors, stretching his arms above his head with a grunt before waving cheerfully, tipping his hat at 'em.

"Step right up, ladies and gents!"

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TAG: @