Kepler could just see Isaac’s face with the little banner beneath him reading ISAAC MERLO - MEW-MAN WITNESS, crying his testimonial on top of some severe sounding background music. “Well, it’s Hoenn,” Kep said, shrugging, “so if it was to happen anywhere, it’s here.”

Kepler’s university had been a place shrouded in myths and legends, stories of gods and monsters, and Hoenn was parsecs above Sinnoh in sheer magnitude of bullshit deity nonsense.

“It would make the crazy monster believer thing more… believable,” he allowed, imagining Isaac with a hook arm and an eyepatch running away from an ominously ticking Sandile.

Isaac and Ashley shared a streak of something adventurous that Kepler just did not have. Or, rather, his was morphed, mutated. He was endlessly curious but scratched his itch with numbers, science-- not running through risks at breakneck speeds.

He’s not good at reading people so he misses all the telltale signs that Ash is hiding something, instead offering a small smile at the faux injury his new friend seems to be feeling.

“I’d have a snack, thanks” Kepler called after Ashley as the latter retreated into the kitchen. When he was gone, the tiny smile was replaced by a frown.

“Me and my big mouth.”

But this is what you got, with him.

Isaac Merlo Ashley Shepard
he's such a dick im sorry

☉

Kepler couldn’t help but giggle at Isaac’s wonderfully self-deprecating humor, though he tried to hide it behind the heel of his hand.

“Can’t do it either, huh?” he asked, referring to the beard thing. Kepler was lucky he had leg hair. The testosterone was not strong with this one.

But like most of his past experiences with anything close to friendship, he soon found himself alone, palm over his mouth and fingers curled up towards his cheek, frowning at the floor. He wondered if he should maybe excuse himself and let the other boys enjoy their meal in peace.

He can hear them talking in the kitchen and is really trying his best not to eavesdrop (read: not trying at all, actually) and he hears his name and soon after the word cute and it literally takes every under-developed muscle fiber in his body to not jump up and bolt because, wow. His face turns red and he more properly hides it in his hands, willing the rosacea to go away before they come back.

“Do… do you guys need help?” he half-asks, half-chokes, dropping his hands to turn a little on the couch. “Carrying stuff, I mean?”

Isaac Merlo Ashley Shepard

☉

He can still hear them talking and now he definitely feels like he should excuse himself and let them do-- whatever the fuck it is they would be doing if he wasn’t here. This feels a lot like flirting. Doesn’t Isaac have a girlfriend? Didn’t that break his heart, like, three hours ago? Oh, god, he was really not good at this socializing thing.

Before he could think of a good way to extrapolate himself from this scenario there was Isaac, hoisting chocolate-covered strawberries in his face. Kepler takes one with a slightly shaky hand, holding it between his fingers.

“I do not know how to do that,” he confesses in a panicked whisper, face still red from before, fighting back the urge to reach out and grip Isaac by his collar and scream HELP ME in his face. He doesn’t do it, though, by a hair’s fucking breadth, because Ash is back and grabs a strawberry and sits next to him and Kepler is somehow cold and sweaty at the same time?

“Sc-science,” he squeaks, swallowing his own tongue and struggling to put his feet back underneath him. “Uh, I mean. I also… play video games, sometimes.”

He was not a man of many talents. He was barely a boy of one.

Isaac Merlo Ashley Shepard

☉

If looks could kill, Keplers would, at that moment, be drilling right into Isaac Merlo’s brain and scrambling what little of it the boy apparently had like eggs for breakfast.

Still, he settles in for the small talk, listening intently as Isaac describes his Long List of Super Cool Past-Times.

Ashley Shepard admits that his Thwackey-- Grookey?-- monkey beats him in Mankey Ball and Kepler laughs before he realizes it isn’t a joke.

“You… you also have opposible thumbs?” he offers, falteringly, unable to stop the smart ass comment from escaping his mouth but able to soften it a little with a question mark and a small smile at the end.

“Your… your bike was called the Screaming Metal Deathtrap?” Kepler asks, puzzled. "And you... willingly got on it?" He just narrowly bit back the here’s your sign that wanted to roll off his tongue.

At the mention of battling, Kepler hums, thoughtful. “I’ve never liked battling, either,” he confesses, completely blind to the fact that Ash is outright lying. “I mean. I’m used to having to defend myself but, like, a real, you know, twelve paces away turn and face each other battle? Seems kinda pointless.”

Conserving energy was one of the key principles of thermodynamics.

Isaac Merlo Ashley Shepard

☉

Isaac grabbed Kepler’s jab at Ash also having opposible thumbs and ran with it in a way that had Kepler concealing giggles behind his palm again. It made him feel a little bit less like a jackass for pointing out the obvious. "Sorry."

This new concept of his own dagger-sharp humor used less like a weapon and more out of something like affection was completely foreign to him… but something he was quickly wanting to learn.

Ash’s interaction with Bongo was absolutely adorable and Kepler found himself wishing he had a Pokemon who was 1/10th that cute.

The blonde continues to wax poetic about his apparent death machine and Kepler catches onto something and cocks his head, curious. “What happened to it?” he asked, noting Isaac only spoke of his (less than trusty?) bike in the past tense.

Isaac also chooses to wax poetic about battling and Kepler drops his hand and leans his head to the side with a hum. He could appreciate a decently presented argument but… all his experiences with battling had been for the sake of his own life-- like against the cultists, or his abusers, growing up. It felt weird to take that and make it an everyday thing, like profaning something sacred, holy-- even though Kepler was the least religious person on the face of the earth.

“It sounds pretty when you say it like that,” he allowed, tipping his head towards Ash in acknowledgment of them both saying the same kind of thing. He was wary of driving the conversation down another dark path and forcing either Ash or Isaac to have to take a breather out in the kitchen, as he’d done before. “None of my Pokemon really… desire it, though,” he said, struggling to find the words. “They prefer to do mundane things like Ash said. Or at least I get the impression they do. Merc might be the exception to the rule but he’s… special.”

Mercury fell into canon-specific violence like a duck into the water-- but he wasn't bloodthirsty, didn't crave combat. He was really good at it, though.

Isaac Merlo Ashley Shepard

☉