“I’m inviting you out to lunch, silly.”

He was briefly distracted by the very strange spidery thing that Gabe was busy belching fire at. He’d never seen a Pokemon like that before.

“What is it?”

Sibella, meanwhile, had discovered a Tangela nearby and, having grown bored, was playing catch with herself by flying up high, dropping it, and swooping back down to catch it, on repeat.

Alexei Ivanov
grass/bug/flying
catch attempt tangela
<3 <3

☉

It was absolutely incredible the kind of power this single individual held over him-- this horrible, wonderful feeling of living or dying at Alex’s whim. His chest is rising and falling in rapid measure as he struggles to find his breath, and orient himself.

"Did-- did you plan this? All night?”

A thrillion notion, if a bit terrifying. He sobers a bit, head tilted where it lays back on a pillow, miraculously right where he needs it amongst the others strewn amongst the mess they’ve made of the bed.

"You're beautiful, you know that? I love you so much."

You're not gonna cry, Guillermo, you're not gonna cry.

Well. More than he already had.

Alexei Ivanov
post nut clarity

☉

Cora had found will, and boy, was he in a pickle, and with no cheese. The Wooloo was tangled in some rickety thorns, baa-ing and squealing and trying to rip himself free, to no avail. Cora stood by, momentarily useless, because all she could think to do was grab and shake, and, well, that didn’t seem like it would help much in this scenario.

Memo was pushing through the gloom with Shivani at his side, and actually stumbled upon the caught Wooloo before Alex (probably because Alex was busy being accosted by strange, dung-throwing bugs). “Oh, Will,” he admonished softly, kneeling by the Wooloo and wondering what to do. It wasn’t long before Paloma caught sight of them and rerouted, too, and soon there was a whole group of Pokemon around the distressed Wooloo.

Memo felt like the warren gang gathering around Bigwig in the snare.

Enter the Gallade, drawn by the cacophony of screaming sheep. He assessed the situation and quickly went to work freeing Will by slicing through thorns and by the time he was done, only the slightest bit of floof was missing-- although Will did now look like a sponge with bites taken out of it.

“Thank you,” Memo said, as he was turning Will’s head this way and that to assess the damage. “Now, what did you have to run off for?”

Will bleated loudly in his face. Frollo echoed it from his position on Memo's shoulder, right in his trainer's ear.

Memo winced.

The Gallade cocked its head, took another look at them, and decided it really couldn’t chance to leave them out here on their own, because they were obviously all idiots.

Alexei Ivanov
ghost/psychic
catch attempt gallade

☉

Like clockwork, or the world’s most predictable weather pattern, a flush of red sprawled itself across Alex’s cheeks, and his hastily hissed warning made Memo duck his head and laugh into his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Okay, okay. Um, so what I meant was, instead of punching out the whole Wooloo, maybe just, do a bit here, and a bit here--,” he indicated the spots around the outline with a finger, “--so that we get the silhouette of it? That way it still looks like a Wooloo and not a… void.”

Alexei Ivanov
tricking or treating

☉

For some reason, Alex calling him bald put the fear of god in him, and he shook his head harder.

“No, no. This is fine.”

It was, he supposed, a part of… learning. Learning to be okay in his own skin. Learning to take advantage of his new life, while being able to pick and choose the parts of his past one that he wanted to show through.

Learning to be himself.

“It’s better than fine. It’s good.”

Why fight it? Something harmless, that rooted him back in times that, while they weren’t happier, were no less a part of shaping him-- just without as many sharp edges?

“Thank you for your help. I think I’ll leave it down for… a bit.”

Until it got annoying and he twisted it again. But that was always going to be a part of him, and he was going to have to stop running away from it, and things like it, sooner or later.

Why not start now?

Alexei Ivanov

His petulance wants him to say yes, point blank-- yes, he will dwell on it forever. Yes, this latent feeling of misery is just what he deserves. But he bites back the knee-jerk response and quiets, slightly, under Alex’s stern gaze.

“I… don’t know what to do,” he admits, and its the truth, “I feel like… if I just move on I’m… doing you a disservice. I’m taking advantage of the gaps in your memory. I feel like I owe it to you to remember.”

That was the crux of the issue. If Alex could just properly get mad at him, yell at him, scold him, then forgive him, it would burn away like a cleansing fire. But he couldn’t. So Memo had to carry it like his own cross, his own penance.

Something hardens in his own eyes.

“I… should have been with you. I should have made sure-- you were blind, you were… I should have protected you better. So, yes. Tell me. Tell me what I failed to keep you safe from.”

[attr="class","mintag"] Alexei Ivanov

Of course, Alex would continue to poke, to prod. Of course he would want to know.

“I don’t… so, you know how you don’t… feel the same kind of physical attraction as other people? There has to be an emotional connection there first, right?”

That’s what he’s gleaned of their relationship so far, at least.

“I don’t… I don’t think I can--,” he amended, after a beat, “feel pleasure the-- the same as. Other people. I’m broken.”

Reprogrammed. Misused. Denatured.

[attr="class","mintag"] Alexei Ivanov