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[attr="class","bisc"]The brunette listens to the ranger’s explanation in respectful silence. But his body isn’t as polite—there’s a lot of lower body wiggling. Just saying the w-word seems to have conjured one. He nodded along, doing his best to be respectful and not think about how the seams on his pants lined up. “So, uh, you grow a tail or something?” That’d be pretty cool, actually. It’d be sweet for Halloween! “I’m not even sure what I’d do with something like that.” It didn’t help that most of his Pokemon were girls—it’d probably make the whole sync thing difficult.

Again, he didn’t move immediately to interrupt. Dual-colored eyes just stayed focused on Shalin’s face as she cried. Images of his own war zone flashed through his mind. Pools of corrosive poison with half-eaten faces staring up from them. “I do understand.” Even if it was fuzzy and felt more like a comic book than real life at this point. “They can conscript you, but they can’t make you pull the trigger.” And, in the heat of battle, sometimes cowardice was the right choice. “I mean they could, but then it’s not—well, it wouldn’t be your fault.”

The man shifted to face the Type: Null as Shalin continued. “I mean—” Biscotti wasn’t the best at avoiding peer pressure. It’d driven him to drive everything from nails to pushpins into his arms. His lack of reaction made them laugh and grin. It helped the baker feel like something bigger. “If they wanted her so bad, why didn’t they make her?” His voice is uncharacteristically bitter. He knows the answer: blackmail.

“But what would they have done if you said no? If you hate fighting, it’d hit me as the right thing to do.”

As history shows, peaceful protests were often the real needle movers.

Seeing the dark spots on the napkin, he fished out another. The ending of Shalin’s worries echoed back to them endlessly in the car. “I don’t trust either of them—” A fact that he’d never voiced aloud, he realized. “My dad was a ranger for years.” The kind of guy who broke his back for his family (all eight of them). His jaw presses more tightly together. “And then, he comes here and vanishes.”

Now, his sister was chasing the trail like a dog its tail. When she finally caught its end, he hoped she could handle what was on the other end. Some part of him preferred this strange, in-between zone. His yellow eye fills with tears, the blue one uncharacteristically sharp.

He scoffs. Scarred hands tighten in his lap. “They act like they’ve never heard of him.” A grown-ass group of people playing peekaboo with someone’s life.

Notes

☉

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[attr="class","bisc"]The closer Shalin came, the redder Scotti’s cheeks turned. Sure, he swung both ways but girls intimidated him. Maybe it’d been all those talks with his sisters about respect and consent. His hands vanished into his pockets, so he didn’t accidentally touch anything. His chin, meanwhile, tucked closer to his chest—as if to respect himself from the woman’s femininity. “Uh—” Honey eyes dipped to the spot where a tail wouldn’t be. “--that’s good. I don’t do much but walk.”


“No.” Again, there’s a surprising firmness to the brunette’s voice.

“They can scare you, but there are a lot of jobs out there. It's not worth selling your soul over.” Sure, rangers were a go-to for people who wanted to help Pokemon, but it wasn’t illegal to be a good person.

Maybe open up a training facility or something. Or, heck, she could just deliver pizzas or something. The rest of her sentences made him frown. But, then, he smiled. Maybe in an attempt to add some levity to his anger—being judgmental made him uncomfortable. Like his pants were too tight.


Luckily, the girl’s future dreams were nowhere near as offending as her past. “Okay.” He sounded skeptical. “Then what?” This sounded a lot like a plan he’d make. “Change it from the inside out or something?” It didn’t sound very likely. Was that why his dad went missing? Kicking up too much stink? “Won’t they just fire you then too?” To him, it seemed like this girl had a bad case of imagined helplessness.


The Ferris wheel began to inch downward back toward the platform beneath. But this stuff made it so Scotti couldn’t even enjoy the view. “You might think I’m a coward for this—” His breath was shaky. His hands curled up on his worn cargo pants. “But I’d just quit. Build my own thing. Screw them.”


And, in his twenty years in Galar, he’d gained plenty of experience building things from scraps.

Notes

Shalin Nariya

☉

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[attr="class","bisc"]The brunette listened with his typical politeness. At a consistent interval, Biscotti would make an encouraging noise.

Even if he didn’t think captains should be a-okay with playing mad scientist., it wasn’t right to interrupt. Mom hated that stuff. Which, in a house with eight kids, totally made sense. Still, as she talked, he couldn’t stop his hands from curling into his pants.


A small chuckle emerged. Which kind of made it sound like he was laughing at her dreams. Which he totally wasn’t—not outside anyway. “Sorry, I—it makes you guys sound like mailmen.” Still, if that was the kind of stuff she wanted to do, what was stopping her? People chased tornadoes all the time! They even built Hot Wheels to do it. The talk of force made him wince.

“They’re desperate?” His voice faded to a half-hearted mumble. “I dunno.” He’d lived at war for 20 years and was no closer to understanding why people wanted to kill each other than before.


Again, he nodded. “Well, I, uh, wish you luck.” Hopefully, she didn’t need to off any more Pokemon to get that promotion. It seemed like a lot of work to lodge a formal complaint though. “Couldn’t you just start a petition or something? If you guys helped so many people…” Then, surely, someone would sign it. And, since the League was all elected, they’d have to listen to the people. Probably. “It seems like a lot of work.” Not that he was scared of that; Biscotti was just scared of blood, sweat, and tears that ended in nothing.


He nodded as she stood up to say farewell. He did the same thing. His Runerigus popped briefly out of his skin to wave a slow, fond farewell. “You’re, uh, welcome.” The brunette muttered. Confusion was evident. What’s she thanking me for? I just called her a monster and told her to kick rocks. Not sure what to do with the invite to share information, he just quickly rattled off his phone number. Was that lot in common an insult?


“Hey,, Shalin.” He took a deep breath. “You got this.” Even if they didn’t agree on her past, she did seem to want to do better. Which, as his dad said, was worth a lot. It should be encouraged. “I hope you and Lathiel, you know…” Reach some kind of understanding.


Turning around to wave goodbye, he tripped over one of the Ferris wheel’s wires and almost ate a bunch of dirt.


The world’s got to keep you humble.

Notes

Shalin Nariya

☉