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Victor watched, fascinated, as the Umbreon did its work. He was happy enough to see the Poochyena rise to its feet, but felt a sudden rush of embarrassment when Josh mentioned the necessity of recovery moves. He looked down at Solomon, the Espeon now looking up at him, and stared for a brief moment. In his panic, he had completely forgotten that Solomon knew Morning Sun, the sort of counterpart to Kamuy's Moonlight. Aaaaand that was probably why Solomon had been trying to get his attention in the first place. Victor thought it probably would be better not to mention that to Josh, or else he'd look like a total moron. Clearing his throat, he turned back to the Elite Ranger, [break][break]

“Damn, I'll have to keep that in mind going forward. You think the little guy is gonna be okay?”

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Victor strained his ears so he could listen to Sterling's soft-spoken explanation, and the older man nodded thoughtfully in response. It made sense; the eggs in question were probably buried unseen in the sands of the beach, and Victor wondered what it would be like to watch the occupants' exodus to the sea. [break][break]

He also noted the Wingull that had begun to congregate nearby and frowned. Before arriving in Hoenn he hadn't thought it possible for any individual Pokemon to be evil per se, but Wingull edged dangerously close to that territory. [break][break]

They were callous in how they operated, and despite the vacant stares of their slow-blinking, pitch black eyes, Victor had experienced their ruthlessness firsthand. They'd watch, greedily, waiting for the first sign of weakness, and then strike. Victor silently lamented every hot dog he'd ever lost to the ravenous birds during his times spent on Slateport's beach, and dismally recalled how a Wingull had swiped what had been his last cigarette, still burning in his hand, during a week he found himself stranded in Dewford. He leered at one in particular that he was certain was trying to make eye contact with him, and sipped his scalding hot coffee deliberately as he stared back at the bird. Victor's mind was made up; he couldn't leave this kid to face these winged devils alone. [break][break]

“You need a hand?” Victor offered, “I'm not much of a Trainer, but I've got a couple of Pokemon with me. Should be enough to keep the birds at bay.”

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Victor thought he was going to have a heart attack. [break][break]

He had been so focused on furiously scrubbing the face of the obelisk that he hadn't heard the woman approach, nor had he realized that the Shuppet had been lurking so close by. He yelped in surprise, nearly spilling the open bottle of water on himself that he'd been using to clean the monument, [break][break]

“Oh, I, uh-” Victor stammered, trying to regain his composure as quickly as possible. He swallowed hard and turned to the magenta-haired woman to address her properly, “I mostly just came to check the place out. I'd seen it in passing, but when I got up close, I noticed how damn filthy the memorial was. It just... seemed like a shame, you know?” [break][break]

Explaining his fevered rationale served to cool the anger that had been burning inside him just moments prior. With Victor's luck, the young woman probably thought he had a screw or two loose, so he felt a little relief when she turned her attention to the Shuppet. [break][break]

Something about that was warm and endearing. The gentle affection she showed towards the wild Ghost Pokemon reminded him fondly of Naomi; his late wife would have been just as kind to a feral Nidoking as she was to her own Ninetales. Considering this, he glanced over at the Mismagius that accompanied the young woman, and noted how the carefully the Pokemon illuminated the immediate vicinity with it's fire without setting anything nearby ablaze. Between the woman's well-trained Mismagius and the Shuppet that was immediately taken by her (or at least, seemed to be, the way it floated about and positively beamed at being addressed by her), Victor wondered if she was some sort of Ghost-type specialist. Noting her comment addressed to the Shuppet, and his own curiosity piqued, Victor thought it couldn't hurt to ask, [break][break]

“Out of curiosity, do you and your mother have a preference for Ghost-types?” he piped up, hoping he sounded more casual than nosey, “They're fascinating, really. There are few other types of Pokemon so deeply entwined in the human experience; our feelings, our fears, and our ideas of what happens to us after we pass on.” [break][break]

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he contemplated this. The red fabric charm, an omamori, still lay neglected at his feet, having gone unnoticed by it's owner.

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Victor hadn't exactly expected a man to come riding up on an Espeon that quite significantly dwarfed his own. He was also certain that the Umbreon following behind was probably the biggest example of its species he'd ever seen, but maybe Hoennian Pokemon were just built different? That wasn't particularly hard to believe, with some of the other oddities Victor had heard of occurring in the region. Either way, he was relieved that someone was here to help, especially so when he considered the credentials Josh had mentioned in his introduction. Elite Ranger, Gym Leader; surely he'd be able to help the sick (or injured? Victor wasn't sure) Poochyena, [break][break]

“Phew, am I glad you were nearby. I'm Victor,” he replied with a sigh of relief, “I found this little guy over here; he's in a bad way, but, uh, I don't know what to do for him.” [break][break]

He gestured to where the Poochyena was still laying in the grass. Looking over at the little pup, the Pokemon's nose quivered anxiously, perhaps leery of the group of people and Pokemon that had begun to form around it. Solomon sat near it, eyes fixed on the creature with an eerie intensity, not bothering to acknowledge the presence of Josh or his Pokemon upon their arrival.

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Hoenn was a weird place.[break][break]

Victor found that he'd developed a bad habit for getting woefully sidetracked whenever he had a specific destination in mind. He had begun to suspect that, between this fact and the wide variety of weird stuff that happened to occur in the region, it was some kind of bizarre liminal space (though hey, if that was the case, it could make for good content for the blog or for a magazine overseas). He certainly hadn't expected to find himself trekking along the path to Route 104, hot coffee in a dingy old thermos in his hands, when he had originally set his sights on Mt. Pyre. He had realized, oh hell, Mt. Pyre is on the other side of the damn region, but there wasn't much that he could do about it now except try to course-correct and make his way over. [break][break]

Speaking of oddities, Victor also hadn't expected to see a teenager? Child? Crouched on the beach wearing board shorts when it was cold enough for Victor to be wearing a thick jacket and scarf over the rest of his clothes. Maybe there was something wrong? He cautiously approached, sand crunching under his shoes, and nearly jumped out of his skin when the figure whirled around to face him, [break][break]

“Woah, hey!” Victor exclaimed, nearly flinging his coffee into the air. Making sure he held the thermos as tightly as he could manage in his left hand, he raised both arms in what he hoped looked like as much of a peace offering as he intended it to be, [break][break]

“Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I, uhh, just wanted to make sure you were okay? Just didn't expect to see a kid in shorts in temps like these.”

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He looked down at his map, up, and back down again, crumpling the edges of the worn paper in his increasingly tight grip. Despite having lived in Hoenn for the last few years, Victor had managed to get himself not lost exactly, but definitely off-course.[break][break]

His original destination was Mt. Pyre in eastern Hoenn, but he had just now realized he'd spent the last forty-five or so minutes walking west. The Espeon at his side aggressively rubbed his head against Victor's leg in what was less of a bid for attention and more a demand for it, [break][break]

“Yeah yeah, I read ya loud and clear, Sully,” the man muttered as he relented, rubbing the top of the purple feline's head. He stowed the map away and looked around. Victor was halfway to Verdanturf... probably? He could still see the red roof of the Day Care in the distance behind him, and to his left and right were small ponds, the one nearest to him flanked by patches of tall grass. He peered into the lush green foliage thoughtfully. When was the last time he'd caught a Pokemon? He wasn't much of a Trainer; his Pokemon were more for companionship than anything else. [break][break]

Speaking of companionship, Solomon was due for some scritches behind the ear. He looked back down at the purple cat, only to realize that his Espeon was also staring with a peculiar intensity at the same swath of grass Victor had just been eyeing. His forked tail flicked in apparent agitation, and Victor swore he could see the red gem in the center of the cat Pokemon's head momentarily pulse with light. Victor tensed; Solomon was much better at sensing danger than he was. [break][break]

“What is it, boy?” Victor hissed, eyes darting back towards the grass, “Whaddya see?” [break][break]

Solomon took a couple of weary steps forward toward the grass, the gem on his forehead now pulsing with light at regular intervals. He suddenly looked back at Victor and mewled, high and almost pleading. Victor scrambled over to see what his Pokemon had found. [break][break]

Lying near the edge of the grass, chest heaving with rapid but shallow breaths, was a Poochyena laying on it's side. It's red eyes briefly landed on Victor, and the Pokemon tried to raise it's head, though whether to bark or bite Victor couldn't say. Apparently the dog-like creature didn't even have the strength to do that, only able to just barely lift it's chin before dropping it's head back down. Victor couldn't tell what exactly was wrong, but it whatever it was, it was bad. [break][break]

Looking around, Victor was desperate to find someone, anyone that could help. He couldn't leave the poor little guy, but hell, he sure as shit wasn't qualified to triage whatever affliction had struck the Pokemon. Not seeing anyone in his immediate vicinity, panic began to well in Victor's chest. There was probably a variety of sensible things he could do; call the authorities, send Solomon to go get help, or check and see if he had any Potions. But in his moment of panic, Victor didn't think to jump to any particularly sensible course of action. He had decided that the most apparently logical thing to do was shout, [break][break]

“Hey!! Is anyone out there? I need some help!”

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He'd seen the solemn obelisk at the edges of the night market, the stone figure cutting a striking silhouette as the moon illuminated it from above like a spotlight. The structure itself was maybe seven or eight feet tall, surrounded by circular benches made from the same material as the obelisk itself. Victor told himself he'd come back to check it out the next evening, and here he was, fingers tracing over cravings embossed over it's sleek, marble face. [break][break]

Even though the last few rays of sunlight from beyond the horizon didn't provide much illumination, Victor almost immediately recognized what the carvings were; names. Specifically, the names of dozens of lives that were lost when a horrific Ultra Beast had leveled the night market a few years prior. Victor stopped, contemplating this as his rough fingertips worried at one of the angular corners of the structure. Where had he been when this tragedy occurred? [break][break]

Ah, that was right. He'd been with Naomi in a little cabin they'd rented just off of Route 113. She was still well then, mostly, and had delighted at the way the volcanic ash trickled down like snow. Victor swallowed a lump that'd formed in his throat; her name wasn't on this memorial, or any other, but she'd died in this region like the rest of these poor bastards. Hoenn was a place that just seemed to take, and take, and take from the people stuck living in it. [break][break]

He was angry now, at this stupid terrible place that took his wife and who knows how many other innocent people. As Victor pulled his hand away from the monument, he looked down at his fingers to find them caked in dust. This made him angrier, somehow; this was a tribute to people who had lived, and loved, and who had been fucking butchered by a freak disaster that was in no way their fault, and no one even offered them the courtesy of maintaining the site of their final resting place? Victor ground his teeth and angrily fished out a handkerchief and a bottle of water from the shoddy old messenger bag he'd set at his feet. Soaking the rag with clean water, he began to angrily scrub at the surface of the monument, but neglected two things as he did so. [break][break]

The first was that a small, red fabric charm had fallen out of his pack when he'd grabbed his makeshift cleaning supplies. It's gold embroidery caught the fading light just so, and the thick white cord that tied off the top was stark to the point of almost being luminous in it's own right. The second was that there were a pair of yellow and blue eyes watching from just beyond Victor's periphery, lapping up the wellspring of anger in his heart like a starving beast, hoping to gorge itself on his misery. [break][break]

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Victor hadn't been expecting company tonight, and hell, when was the last time he'd actually made small talk with anyone? Days? A week, maybe? It was a little embarrassing to admit, but he worried that his social skills were starting to get a little rusty. He hastily swallowed the scalding hot mouthful of dumpling and smiled back at the younger stranger that had approached him, [break][break]



“I am; food's great, fresh as it gets,” Victor responded amicably. Uhhh, shit, what would be a totally normal and appropriate follow-up? Dumbly, he looked down at his tray of takoyaki, covered in sauces and dried fish flakes dancing under the heat of the dumplings, and looked back up at the stranger. Victor extended it out to him alongside an unused skewer, [break][break]




“Want to try a bite?”