A young lady, not too much older than Josh, sat down next to Josh with her sazerac. It was, out of all the pubs he had been to during the entire PFL postseason, the darkest drink he had seen. He didn't even bother asking for a whiff, instead sipping on his lemonade as Goldenrod kicked off, Wyndon's receivers letting the oblong ball bounce out of the back of the end zone for a touchback, giving them the ball at their own 25 yard line.

"Wyndon's the favorite, but I grew up in Goldenrod. I want to see them win," Josh answered as the game's commentators went through introducing Wyndon's offensive line and Goldenrod's defensive line. It was cold in Wyndon. Very cold. Fans were covered in heavy coats. Josh knew, though, that both teams were used to the cold.

"How you doing tonight?" he asked. "Elite Ranger Devlin or Gym Leader Devlin, but I go by Josh." His smiling face quickly turned to a scowl as a whistle out of the speakers caught his attention. There was a penalty against Goldenrod on the very first play of the game, the referee announcing the obvious jump offsides from the Johto team's defensive back.

"Neutral zone infraction, number 60, defense. 5 yard penalty, first down."

"Are you kidding me...?" Josh trailed off. "Come on Goldenrod, you know better than to be so jumpy!"

Josh's eyes widened a little when he heard Cianwood. "A fellow Johtonian, I see! Technically I'll be a dual citizen in a month or two, but for now my home is in Johto. Cianwood's got a hell of a baseball club." Indeed, Goldenrod was big; it was by far the largest city in Johto, with Olivine being a distant second. The rest of Johto was quite rural.

"Great to meet you, Lou," Josh replied. "Doing well - just enjoying some football! Funny you speak of Rustboro - that was one of the cities I was offered my Gym at! Ultimately I decided I wanted to run Mauville's Gym due to the centralized location. Ranger tickets take me all over the region, as you can imagine. It's nice living somewhere central."

The topic of the weather came up, but Hoenn's weather was anything but tropical ever since Kyurem Glaciated the area around Oldale Town. "Since the meteor, the weather's been all kinds of messed up. You'd never see snow in Hoenn, and now there's been--"

A loud cheer interrupted Josh, drawing his attention to the football game. Wyndon's quarterback had thrown a rocket of a pass far down the field, their receiver making a miraculous catch and evading a Goldenrod tackle to take the ball all the way to the other side of the field for a 50-yard touchdown. "They better show this again." And they did, in slow motion, from several angles. "Wow, into that much coverage, that's a hell of a catch. Seven well earned points." Goldenrod had a lot of work to do after Wyndon kicked the ball back to them.

"Yep, I remember," Josh smiled. Of course he would know a lot about Johtonian sports clubs and competitions. "I don't watch a ton of individual sports; I think team sports are more interesting. That doesn't make individual sports any less impressive, of course!" He pumped a fist as a fake handoff caught Wyndon's defense napping, picking up a big gain. After being stopped on second-and-short, the Goldenrod team would need three yards to continue the drive, and a 56-yard field goal attempt would be a risky play if they were stopped.

"Mauville may not be the largest city in Hoenn, but it's the most densely populated; because of how restricted it is geographically, it's one of those cities that has to grow up, not out," Josh added. "It's why my Gym is on the city line; the actual Racing Grounds are technically in the country and not the city. As for a resolution of my own? Mine is something I've struggled with for years: to stop being so hard on myself."

Josh guffawed when he heard Lou's remark about picking the wrong region. "And that's just one. There are so many of them in Hoenn that I've been able to go riding on three different ones before. And counting. Never a dull moment here, I tell you what."

Josh raised his glass of lemonade to toast with Lou as their server arrived to take their order. "I'll have the Full Moon Steakburger, medium well, no lettuce or tomato, please." The Gym Leader turned to Lou. "Do you want to split a cheese curd appetizer, too? They have this zesty dipping sauce I wanna try. Normally I try to watch what I eat a little better, but it's a special occasion. If you don't want it, I can always take half of it home."

Regardless, once their orders were both placed, Josh would listen to the woman's concerns. "As someone who studied the Johto Beasts and Unova's Sacred Swords a ton when I was younger, it's been amazing to meet them. Virizion and Raikou are unbelievably fast. Riding them across Hoenn was an absolutely unforgettable experience. Humbling, too, especially Raikou. Raikou's been my favorite--"

A roar from the bar's patrons drowned out their conversation as an excited announcer covered a play that made Josh double fistpump: "Pass is caught in the end zone! Touchdown Goldenrod, no flag! I think Wyndon was looking for offensive pass interference on that one." The extra point went through the uprights as well, tying the game at 7.

The two teams exchanged three-and-out possessions as the first quarter came close to winding down. "Like I was saying, Raikou has been my favorite Pokémon since I was a child."

"If it's anything like the other places I've been watching the PFL postseason, you won't be disappointed," Josh promised to Lou as he listened to her story about her Machamp. "Oh, don't even get me started about Hoennian customs. I have a Rapidash, Persian, and Floatzel ready for me to ride again, but they've been ping-ponging between Johtonian and Hoennian customs for months. It's beyond frustrating." It had to sound unusual to someone not familiar with very large or even Alpha Pokémon, but yes, his Persian was a racing Pokémon. He was named Herc for a reason.

As the first quarter was wrapping up, Josh let out a loud "No!" after a Goldenrod defender wrapped his hand around the arm of Wyndon's wide receiver, drawing a penalty flag. As the referees convened to discuss the flag, the broadcast replayed the long pass to the end zone. "Ugh, you can't do that," Just sighed. "You can't substantially impede the receiver's ability to catch a pass. That's a penalty." The ruling on the field was disappointing but unsurprising:

"Pass interference, defense number 60. The foul occurred in the end zone. The ball will be placed at the 1 yard line. First down."