Oh, dear Arceus. Why was she even here?

It was impossible to say no to this guy Zac, though. He was just so nice and earnest and upbeat, that she'd agreed to his "interview" without a second thought. 

Well, now she was certainly having second thoughts, especially once she'd realized that there would be a camera. Of course there would be a camera. This was an interview. She wasn't stupid, and she really should have thought of that before...

Oh well. It was too late to do anything about that now. So, she'd dyed her hair reddish blonde rather than the golden blonde she normally sported, and piled it up into a bun as opposed to letting it fall freely down her back. Long hair was a truly versatile method of disguise.

"This place is perfect," said Ethel, smiling. She'd have to pretend she knew anything about the place, now. Ugh, what was it called again? Jumpluff's Java, or something? No, that didn't sound right. Hopefully the topic wouldn't come up again.

"That's a good question," she noted, thinking for a second.

"I like to visit libraries, often. If they allow for my Pokemon, then that's an added bonus. The atmosphere of a library is just nice and calm, even if I don't always go there to read something."

Rally peeked his head out from Ethel's bag, the Minun's eyes and long floppy blue ears visible. Ethel smiled.

"This is Rally," said Ethel. "He looks cute, but he can be a little rascal."

Rally squeaked in indignation, and Ethel laughed quietly.

Ethel caught someone looking at them as they sat and talked about Rally. The waiter glowered at them, as if they were doing something terribly wrong by being here.

Ethel had only been here a couple of times before, and she'd always been relatively quiet. Zac, though, was more enthusiastic, so it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine...

"Hm, is there some history between you and this cafe?" she asked. "You seem... familiar to this place."

Anyways, there were other topics to cover that were more pressing. When Zac addressed Rally and mentioned that electric types must have had pent-up energy, she pursed her lips, and thought a little before replying.

"I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it," she began, "but I do have to object to that. This instance is relatively harmless, but firstly, it's not true. I have a Vikavolt as well, who's a lot more calm and collected. And, second of all, a stretch of that same logic is what allows people to say that all dark types are evil, or that all poison types are sneaky and underhanded. And that leads to abuse."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry for being a downer. I know you had good intentions, but...

"And I actually caught Rally when exploring Mauville's power plant! It's a great place to find electric types, and it's interesting to me that Pokemon like to settle in manmade places such as that."

Zac Ramsay

Ethel smiled at the anecdote that Zac provided, but didn't comment otherwise. It was more or less what she'd expected from what he'd said about bringing his Pokemon to libraries, and from the way that waiter was eyeing them. Plus, the conversation was moving quickly. More quickly than she'd expected when she'd expected this invitation.

She nodded at Zac's owning up to his slip-up. "That's exactly what I mean," she said. "It's hard to change your mind on things like this, especially when it's sometimes not something people see as bad at all. But it's still important that people take steps to change, and the first step is recognizing it when it happens." She smiled at him. "Thank you for taking that step, incidentally."

And then the interview immediately went to shit.

No, it wasn't that bad. She was overreacting. After all, it wasn't a pointed question, and the way Zac had phrased it, there was a lot of wiggle room for her to escape saying the whole truth.

On the outside, she didn't show any of this, her face schooled into a practiced expression of solemnity. "Who wasn't involved? I haven't encountered a Poipole or Naganadel myself, but the events that led up to their... introduction to Hoenn have colored everyone's view of them-- and the whole situation-- badly. And that's why what I mentioned earlier is so hard to achieve. It isn't easy to forget a terrible thing you saw someone do when someone else, who might look and act the exact same, is right in front of you."

The other topic was much lighter, if still serious, and Ethel responded animatedly. Of course she did. This was a line of discussion that had been absolutely trained into her, even if she had since realized that she had been extreme.

"This is important to think about, as well. Pokemon can live in manmade places, and the spread of urban landscapes mean that many have turned to doing so. Similarly, humans can live in the wilderness, and surely, if our cities and towns were getting overrun by forest or desert, a few of us would be forced to turn to doing so as well. That doesn't mean that we should, or that Pokemon should. As urbanization continues, we should be careful to plan for Pokemon and their habitats as we continue to build. It's certainly not impossible," she added. "There have been places in the world where humans and wild Pokemon live in harmony. Fortree City, here on Hoenn's own soil, is an example of how we can build, and leave wild habitats intact."

Zac Ramsay

Unsurprisingly, the topic of the alien invasion was not easy to escape. It was on everyone's mind, and Ethel had demostrated her willingness to talk about what might have been too heavy of a topic for other people featured on Zac's show, so it made sense that he'd want to stay on it.

Ethel's lip quirked in amusement when Zac looked around furtively before quietly releasing his Minior. His rhetorical questions, however, remained serious, befitting the topic of discussion.

When he was done, Ethel shrugged. "Honestly, I won't pretend to be an expert on the Ultra Beasts, the Megalopolans, or the events of the war." This was not as true as she implied. She'd been reading up recently, finding out as much as she could and keeping around the important details. After all, this was a monumental occurrence no matter who you were, what your passion was, or anything else, because aliens had invaded Hoenn. Intelligent aliens existed, and they wanted to eat humans.

She looked down at her neatly folded hands, pensive. "I'm not saying that we should embrace the Ultra Beasts and the Megalopolans with open arms. Arceus knows they've given us little reason to. However... we've learned from these events that there are aliens with an interest in Earth, and that means there may be more, somewhere out there. And if they come here and see a world of people who are hostile to aliens because of their prior experiences..."

Here she shrugged again. There were a lot of thoughts whirling around in her head, and she had to think carefully about which she wanted to put on the table. "I think, according to the League-- please, correct me if I'm mistaken-- the Poipole that have been subjected to the antidote, as well as other Ultra Beasts that have spent longer periods of time on Earth, have become more manageable over time, and they start to behave more or less like any other Pokemon. I think we can integrate these newcomers into our society. It just takes patience and effort, like many things of worth."

The Megalopolans themselves were a much more difficult topic to argue this perspective with, so she figured she'd let Zac pick up the conversation on that topic if he wanted to. Ethel didn't know just how deep in Zac was willing to go with weighty and controversial topics, but she didn't want to make him uncomfortable, so she erred on the side of caution.

Part of her still couldn't believe it. Here she was, talking about aliens on Earth with a straight face. Who would have thought?