Ignatius had drank before. Been buzzed. Drunk, even. But wasted? Blasted? Absolutely smacked?

Not until today.

The whole "kicked out by his dad" ... thing ... was still a fresh wound, gaping and occasionally gushing blood.

And like any fresh twenty-one-year-old might, Ignatius came to the conclusion that alcohol was the solution to all of his problems.

Had he tried forming healthy habits? Nope.

How about therapy? Absolutely not.

The Splashfest was a perfect storm: opportunity and an excuse came together to form an absolute mess of a human being.

Oh, and wasn't there something about an oncoming meteor? Doomsday? End of the world? That was a bonus. Why not just drown it all out?

Drunk on a dangerously high number of whiskey shots, the world barely existed to Ignatius. People and Pokemon were fuzzy shapes. The once-vivid blue sky diluted and swayed with the ocean.

Earlier on, Ignatius had dropped Vesper's ball and released her; a happy mistake, as the Absol now shouldered most of his weight. They zigzagged along the beach, with Vesper guiding Ignatius between people and ensuring he didn't stumble through any sandcastles.

But when a young child fell and knocked into her, Vesper looked away.

In that moment, Ignatius spotted a cute green Pokemon with twirling flowers. He beelined for the Bellossom and reached out to pinch a petal between his fingers. "You're the prettiest Bellossom I've ever seen and I want to catch one just like you some day. How can you have evolved from something as repulsive as Gloom?" he turned to the nearest person and said, "Isn't that crazy? How something as nasty as Gloom can evolve into a beautiful Bellossom? Talk about the ugly duckling, right?"

After a giggle, Ignatius squinted and said, "Is this your Pokemon? Where did you get it?"

---

Party:

 

Tag: Elisabeth Fiorelli

Daffodil. Pretty name for a pretty Pokemon. "Oh, the Petalburg Woods? I haven't been there yet. How is it?" Ignatius said, sitting where he stood. He rested his elbows on his knees and focused on the woman. She wore a yellow top and a floral pattern... skirt? was it a skirt? Ignatius furrowed his brow, trying to figure it out without staring and seeming weird and... was he creeping her out?

It took a few seconds, or maybe a minute, but he finally finished processing her words. "I battled a wild Gloom once with my Absol and I couldn't get the stench out of her fur for weeks. My parents made her sleep outside. Couldn't just leave her out there like that, so I slept outdoors too."

"Ignatius," he slurred his own name, then added, "but you should call me Iggy. It's sooooo much easier. What's your name? I bet it's something fancy. You seem like a fancy person. I haven't come across many Bellossom trainers who weren't fancy, you know?" What a funny word fancy was. Antsy. F-antsy.

Then something hit him: "Wait, did you say I threatened the Gloom? I don't think so. But sometimes Vesper--my Absol--she gets... protective of me. She thinks everything's dangerous, so maybe she threatened it," he said. "Why do you think they're misunderstood?" He wanted to learn, but whether he'd actually retain anything was up in the air. Did it matter?

Confident that the young child was safe with their parents, Vesper returned to her trainer's side, eyeing the situation. She headbutted him. Time to go.

"No, no, I want to chat," he said, fumbling for her Pokeball. He found it, only to drop it. It rolled underneath the woman's chair. He groaned and said, "Why don't you make friends with Daffodil here? She seems so nice."

Vesper sat down and blinked at the Bellossom, neutral as could be.

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli

Elisabeth. Fancy, but in a more classical way than he'd anticipated. He expressed this aloud: "Oh, I was thinking you were... I dunno, an Antoinette or an Esmeralda. Elisabeth is nice. Easy to say and remember."

Too out of it to read between the lines, Ignatius took everything she said at surface level. He nodded along, listening but not really listening. "Ohh, really now? I've only been to Slateport and just north of it so far. Haven't really been given any instructions to leave the area," he said, oblivious to his slip-up and the questions it could invoke.

Ignatius plucked a Pokeball from a strap on his backpack. "I do have a grass type, though. A Treecko. I found its egg," he said, careful enough to not reveal that he had, in fact, stolen the egg.

After a single bounce on the floor, the Pokeball popped open and released Thyme. "He recently hid in a tree for hours on end. Are there any tips you could give me for raising him? Or maybe you could just, like, help me out? I'd pay for someone to give me tricks on handling grass-type Pokemon. He's my most difficult Pokemon so far. Do you only raise grass and bug types?"

Arms crossed, Thyme rolled his eyes at his trainer's criticisms.

Elisabeth gave her piece on Gloom and nature being unpleasant. Ignatius' mouth hung open a bit as he absorbed the information. "Nectar? Isn't that what Combee uses to make honey?" Fertilizer and ... perfume? His nose wrinkled at the thought.

"And to be honest, when people are scared, we do unpleasant things, too." Her words rang true. He sighed, then said, "Yeah, I'm proof of that. But that's a long story."

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli