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“It’s been so long I honestly forgot,” he cracked quietly as he pulled out some bills as well and handed them over as well.

“Apparently not. That fucking cold snap was… far, far colder than what I’m used to with them around,” he added as he looked around furtively and crammed the last of the food into his mouth. It felt so unreal, not being able to communicate with the second presence in the back of his head now.

Had he gotten so used to their presence by now…?

“Handegg rulings are confusing!” he exclaimed with another heartier cackle, throwing his hands up in mock celebration. “I should take you to watch the World Cup next time it rolls around. If not the World Cup, maybe one of the bigger association matches.”

As for the question of the actual game?

“Depends, really.”

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“Look, the last time I was down here that wall wasn’t there. Ever since I was like, what, ‘excommunicated’ and kinda banned from coming down here that wall may have grown there. As to how long it’s actually been there I have no idea. I’m not sure,” he mused quietly as he knocked once, twice, a few times on the frigid wall to ascertain its thickness.

At the mention of fire, though, he visibly cringed.

“I’m telling you now, El, fire and us don’t go too well together,” he added. Which, a few seconds later he realized, made complete and total sense. No wonder he hated the fucking summer.

He’d always been adverse to fire, which was kind of hilarious considering he didn’t have a single active Fire-type in his usual rotation of Pokémon (yet he had quite a number of them on his roster).

(Funny how that shit worked out, wouldn’t you say?)

“Let me try,” he continued, and knocking a few times on the ice, he then stood there, gone all quiet and such.

‘Hey. Are… are you there?’

He supposed, he had his friend to thank for the last minute alert that the Dragon’s Den was open.

It was a rare miracle in and on itself that the place was opened to the general public, so here he was to grab this very rare opportunity to pay a visit to this normally closed-off place.

Making the journey on Ro the Metagross, he then slipped in just before the place closed accompanied by his number one, the best, his iconic trademark.

After the last person had rung the bell, he approached the place quietly, making a quiet wish of his own before ringing the bell afterward.

---

Metagross learned Dragon Hammer, replacing Agility!

“I find it… you know, pointless.”

This, coming from someone whose maternal family was known to be part of the upper echelons of wealth back in Alto Mare—yet his nonnas and nonnos insisted that they live a simple life and not to think too much of material wealth. Such a disparity, wouldn’t you think so?

“Could’ve used the funds to pay for the venue, for the entertainment, for… for everything… and redirect it to where it’s really needed,” he continued quietly, crossing his arms a bit as he looked around and saw that he wasn’t the only one coming in late—there were also some surprise last-minute stragglers who wanted to crash in and make off with the promise of free food at the very least.

At the mention of ‘policeman’, he cringed for a few moments.

“I’m not a policeman in that sense of the word,” he added in that same hushed tone.

“See, that’s the thing. After that? No communication ever since,” he mused quietly.

“I feel mentally naked right now.”

And that’s not even mentioning the meeting that all the members of the AQUA initiative had! He thought it was wise not to mention this because it was a more… personal matter, something he was hoping Elinor Anderson would help him look into from what they’d talked about earlier that evening.

After watching the resolution of the challenged call, he cringed.

“Damn. That’s harsh, take a timeout as a penalty… at this point, in the football I’m familiar with it’s just basically keeping the ball away from the goalkeeps and wasting time to run it down and wait for the penalty kickoff shootout at this point,” he went on as he finished off the last of his order.

“Well, the worst that could happen is you may get some part of your body frostbitten. And I have no idea how bad their frostbite can get, seeing as I’m literally immune to the cold,” he went on—although he said the last part in a quiet tone in case there were eavesdropping ears around them.

“I’m pretty sure they’re going to put up a fight, so I’m going to ask you one more time—are you absolutely sure you want to go through with what you’re thinking of doing?”

Weather Trio forbid if there was an Ice Heal powerful enough to stave off this kind of frostbite.

He’d… actually been dreading this day, to be honest. Ever since he’d been summarily banished and forbidden from approaching Shoal Cave without the snarky one’s say-so, he…

To be honest Lars hadn’t been able to sleep properly the past few weeks because of the abrupt radio silence in the back of his head.

It’s like—when you’ve gotten used to a particular presence in your thoughts, only for it to suddenly pull out and just leave you hanging in mid-air? Something like that.

For good measure, he’d even thrown his overcoat atop all the layers that Eli had on—he was pretty sure she was freezing her ass off.

Him, however?

He’d turned up and led the way through the cave proper in nothing but his usual attire—which was a plain black shirt, jeans, and boots.

(He is immune to the cold after all.)

Accompanying them was a strange equine Pokémon that looked like it had no eyes—but in reality was hidden by the sharp, icy mane they sported.

“Yeah… and there’s the matter of that.”

He gestured at the extremely thick ice wall—no manner or amount of squinting could reveal what was on the other side of the cavern.