blue is a force to be reckoned with. captain darts between knox's legs and the vaporeon gives chase, swiping fast enough to cuff her opponent on the ears more than a couple of times. captain's cheeks sizzle with frustration, but rather than lash out, she scampers away faster than the vaporeon can follow. blue chuffs with laughter and then sits, coiling her tail around her so she can lick one of her paws.

knox squats next to her to give her scales a scratch just under her neck. her frills shiver and she purrs with delight. and then she blinks. a couple of drops of rain patter against her and knox looks up. only a few scant clouds cover the sky, but they empty for them regardless, drizzling on trainer and pokemon below.

he smiles and opens his palms wide. blue stretches out on the side of the trail. captain comes back then, when they are suitably distracted, and clambers up knox's back. she tugs on one of his ears and he cracks open an eye, smile beaming as he recognizes the passerby.

samuel carter

☉

there's a trainer and a vaporeon ahead, and a pikachu. the trainer and the pikachu he recognizes and because of that recognition, his absol lets her tense shoulders relax.

approaching knox and the pikachu, sam held out a hand to give knox a handshake. more of a habit than anything else.

"what are the odds of seeing you here?"

he'd give the statistical answer if he had a calculator. while he could do the maths, it was a lot to do in his head, and he didn't really thing the actual statistics mattered.

knox prescott

"isn't that what most stalkers say?" knox says, but there is nothing but humor and mirth in his voice. he is more muted today, more grounded, because he's bled himself dry and fucked up one too many missions. probation is until the end of the week and until then he's backpacking it. he doesn't mind it so much, except for the itching of his veins and the way his throat is always dry. 

sweat licks at his skin, but that could be written away by the sun shower. just gotta get to lilycove and take a ferry down to slateport. summer's waiting for me there. 

he coerced his sister into taking the family yacht out and he's hoping he'll look starved enough to earn himself some pity from her by the weekend (not that she's ever pitied him before. no, with her, it's about giving him money to flaunt her own power and...)...he runs a hand through his hair, derailing the train of thought. 

be in the here and now and fuck, fuck, fuck, how'd you forget his na--"sam carter. what brings you down the mountain?"

samuel carter

☉

"is it?"

there's a smile on sam's face as he closes the distance and gets a bit closer. knox remembers his name and he finds himself happy about it. why? well he's usually relieved when he's remembered. only makes sense that this boy who makes him comfortable brings him happiness when he's remembered.

"i've never met a stalker before to know. though i suppose you could have gotten your thesis by means of research, rather than experience."

while sam's reunion is underway, absol is meeting these other pokémon for the first time. she's polite, sits by sam and watches them. she only tenses when she can DETECT a scraggy coming in for an attack on the others. a well timed SLASH causes the scraggy to stumble backwards and whine.

without much thought, he's tossing a pokéball. he always feels like he should collect the straggling wild pokémon who have the gall to attack him and his absol.

// capture attempt SCRAGGY

knox prescott

he's had his fair share of awkward encounters from someone he's brought to his bed - and later found that the coincidences themselves weren't that to begin with. and yet, he doesn't produce a glib response for sam, just smiles and shakes his head at the wonder of it all. because this most certainly is chance. 

are the gods above laughing or smiling down at him?

while his absol manages to toy wish a scraggy, blue chases the tail of an unfortunate litleo. water spurts from her mouth and wards the creature off; when it gets too far away, she pads back with disappointment now that her playmate is gone. 

he'd been on his way out, hence their paths crossing, but he immediately turns around and starts walking the way he came. summer can wait. 

"allow me to escort you to fortree, since you've established you aren't, in fact, stalking me."

// skipping litleo

samuel carter

☉

"mm, i feel like royalty. my own personal guide through this dangerous route."

absol wanted to snort but held herself back. instead, she watched the vaporeon and the pikachu closely, walking beside sam on the side opposite that knox walked.

"i might not be a stalker, knox, but i feel as if the jury's still out on you being one or not."

it's a tease. subtle, playful. one given in full jest with a raised brow to emphasize his mockery.

knox prescott

"spare me, your honor. it was merely fate, i swear." he holds his hands up in mock surrender. and then he drops his hands, yawns, though it's only mid-afternoon, and drops his hands in the pockets of his capris. 


he may be less delirious than the last time he conversed with sam, but he's still the same knox. still that same boyish smile, faraway (but still, somehow, in the moment) look, skinny hips with a languid swagger. captain nuzzles against his side, though she doesn't seem quite happy about the sticky sweat he has on his cheeks.

"so what is in fortree?" he asks, genuinely curious. "here i thought you were some mythical being bound to pyre." he wiggles his fingers for emphasis.  

samuel carter

☉

sam snorted at the notion that he was a mythical being bound to mt. pyre. no, that was yvettel, wasn't it?

"ah, good to know that my tattoos are having the desired effect."

the jest is given as he looks toward knox. he's watching where he's walking enough to steal glances. just to see what expression he's making, study him. because he's curious, wants to know more.

usually he can't be bothered to look at people on purpose but there was so much going on in knox' eyes...

"i'm on my way to foretree for work, sadly. there's a couple there that want to rework their living will and testament. i try to make as many 'house calls' as i can. some people aren't comfortable meeting me on the mountain itself."

knox prescott

"i do love me a man with tattoos," knox says with a wink. he's always toyed with the idea of getting his own (after all, needles don't bother him), but he bounces between loves and desires too quickly to pin any solid idea down. and really, if he did it it would be to irritate summer, and he hasn't become that vengeful (or childish) yet. 

he's oblivious to sam's stares because he's busy idly reaching a hand up to scratch captain's cheeks. and to do something with his hands, with his shaking fingers. his heart and his gut and his arms are telling him to turn around, that the faster he gets to lilycove, the faster he gets to summer, and the faster he gets to his cash. 

he chews on his lip. he's not too lost in his thoughts that he misses sam's words, however, and he looks at him, eyes alight with something akin to admiration. 

"that's...so kind of you." he pauses. "never really thought about that, you know? like yeah, why would i? i'm not old as dirt, but...it's gonna happen one day." he's rambling. he tends to do that. but without the crystal vision, he's not as eloquent.

interestingly, he's almost nervous. "how do those sorts of meetings usually go?"  

samuel carter

☉

"how it sounds."

that seemed like he was cutting the topic short. he's not, proves as much by elaborating and looking forward down the route.

"as much as i'd like to say it's all emotions and wonder, it's mostly just paperwork and signatures. writing the will has become easier since transfering into the digital age. i make quick notes while i'm there on my phone, email them to myself, write it up in my spare time back at mt. pyre's office."

then it dawned on him maybe knox meant, how did the meeting go as in the flow of events.

"wait, did you mean, how are the meetings constructed?"

knox prescott

how does one face death? how does one face the future beyond their death? this is what knox was asking. this is also what knox doesn't know how to put into words. but listening to him talk takes some of the magic out of it, and he supposes it should, but it's still...strange. this is common. this is normal. 

he doesn't think about the future. not like that. 

"do they ever get, like, emotional?" is that what he wants to ask. gods, he must sound like an idiot. he frowns. 

samuel carter

☉

he can see it. there's something knox isn't asking and sam isn't a mind reader so he can't quite figure out what it is. however, he won't push. people bring up what's on their mind eventually or they get over it. just depends on the level of stubbornness, and he supposes he'll find out knox' level this way.

"sometimes there is. depending on how close to death they are." like this elderly couple he was going to see. "the elderly are a middle ground of emotion. but those who have surprisingly fallen ill and only have a short amount of time left to live, those tend to be more emotional. the most emotional, i'd argue."

knox prescott