The Dave
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A Viper in the Hole, Chapter 10
🕑 Added 2024-10-30 13:28:59 +0000 UTCFive minutes after handing Spinarak’s ball off to the Pokécenter Nurse, Ran finally relaxes when she returns to the front desk with a comforting smile. She assures him that Spinarak will be fine to travel by the next morning, while Ekans is already back to tiptop shape after just a few minutes spent in Chansey’s care.
Ran gratefully thanks the nurse, his worry over his pokémon, which he’d suppressed during his battle with Bugsy only to resurface with a vengeance the moment he’d left the Gym, now finally abating once more. Next to him, his father offers him a final pat on the shoulder, congratulating him once more before heading off to work now that Ran’s match is over and his pokémon are all fine. Ran himself returns to Bugsy’s gym at a brisk walk, eager to catch the last part of Karolina’s match and at least briefly catch up with Josie before she has to go to the waiting area ahead of her own match, but as he enters the spectator area it’s only just in time to see Karolina and her Jynx teleport away, leaving a thoroughly unrecognizable battlefield behind.
The Mr. Mime that was previously on duty gets recalled by the referee, a well-rested one taking its place for the next challenger, as the first one gets a clearly well-deserved break. Whatever the details of the match, somebody had some powerful Ice- and Ground-type attacks in their arsenal, because the previously flat grassy field has been turned into a craggy, icy wasteland that looks like Ran imagines the foothills of Mt. Silver might.
Just then, Josie reaches him, clearly on her way towards the waiting area. Her eyes, gleaming with awed shock, are larger than he’s ever seen them as she grabs him by the shoulders with both hands before shaking him vigorously.
“You missed it! That was incredible! She had a Piloswine! It knew Earthquake and Blizzard! She pushed Bugsy around like a chump! Then he finally beat it with a Scizor, though I don’t think it was his starter, after which she used a Weavile that ran circles around them!” She rambles enthusiastically, leaving Ran little choice but to let her wear herself out for a few seconds, before finally gently peeling Josie’s hand off of his shoulders.
“I’m sorry to have missed it Josie,” He admits honestly, “I’ll look the footage up later tonight and you can do a play-by-play, alright? Focus on your own match for now.”
“Please,” Josie immediately dismisses his words, though they do appear to have jarred her out of her previous fangirling at least, “I’ll burn right through him. Five minutes, tops, and we can go have lunch.”
“Sure thing,” Ran agrees easily, sidestepping his friend and gently pushing her on towards the waiting area as he does so, “Good luck!”
With Josie refocused and on her way, Ran finally gets to pick out a seat for himself as the final trainer before Josie makes his entrance and starts his battle with Bugsy once the field’s been restored to its proper state by the beleaguered cleaning staff. Clearly an unsponsored rookie like himself, Ran initially wants to root for the challenger, but when he’s announced as having no badges yet and starts off by sending out a Rattata, Ran’s interest soon wanes. That his second pokémon is a Bellsprout, something Ran finds out after just two minutes when the challenger needs to send it out once Rattata has gone down to Bugsy’s Weedle of all things, does him no favors either.
The fight ends shortly afterwards, the short and one-sided match doing wonders for the Gym’s schedule, after Ran’s match ran over its allotted time earlier. As the defeated trainer stalks off in disappointment and Bugsy returns to his part of the field once more, Ran’s hand idly drifts to the new pokéball at his side. He waits politely for Josie to walk through the doors and lock eyes with him, at which point he shoots her a thumbs up, but once her attention locks on Bugsy, he’s typing away on his pokégear.
It’s the work of less than a minute to discover that his new acquisition is housed in a Luxury Ball, which supposedly makes wild pokémon friendlier and more open to receiving training. It leaves Ran curious about what kind of poison-bug-type might justify or mandate such an expenditure, but before he can research the matter further, the match begins and his attention shifts firmly to the field.
Over the next handful of minutes, Josie confidently dominates the match from start to finish, letting Chief the Growlithe enjoy himself with his new chew toy in the form of the poor Caterpie that Bugsy starts off with. A few String Shots connect and it looks like his plan has some merit, until Josie has Chief use Flame Wheel to defeat Caterpie and burn away all the sticky threads that were bothering him in one fell swoop. Bugsy then brings out a Pinsir, which puts on a strong showing and gives Chief a run for his money.
The fight reaches a cinematic finish when Chief once more uses Flame Wheel, only to be caught in a Vise Grip before he can make firm contact. Both pokémon struggle to overcome the other for a few seconds, roaring flames licking away at Pinsir’s body as it does its best to squeeze the pokémon between its enormous horns into unconsciousness before fainting. Chief comes away victorious however, Pinsir’s grip growing slack mere moments before the flames cut out, as an exhausted, but still standing, Chief triumphs over the exhausted Stag Beetle Pokémon.
Ran cheers enthusiastically as Josie receives her own Hive Badge from Bugsy, his friend showing far more crowd awareness than Ran by actually turning to the spectators and offering them a gracious bow, which only intensifies the applause she receives for her strong showing. Ran isn’t jealous of the warm reception she gets, even if it makes the crowd reaction he received earlier, somewhat lackluster. To the layman’s eye, fire-types are simply far more attractive than poison-types, as they always offer visual spectacle and, thanks to pokémon’s thick hides and fascinating biologies, rarely cause any visually unappealing injuries.
His own team is less-suited to flashy displays of raw power. Slowly grinding your opponent down or waiting to pounce in singular decisive strikes, as poison-types generally become dependent on as they grow stronger, is a far less well-received way of battling. But the crowd’s adoration matters little to him, compared to the importance of succeeding as a trainer.
If the choice ever does present itself, he knows very well which of the two he values more. Although admittedly, in that regard, Josie is seemingly well on the way to having her cake and eating it too. Rather than let such thoughts sour his mood however, Ran merely claps for his friend as he gets up from his seat.
Now that they both have their badges, it’s time to look forward once more. As he slowly meanders out of the bleachers and towards the front lobby, where Josie should join him once she’s finished with her own brief conversation with Bugsy, he runs down a mental checklist.
Josie will have to check Chief into the pokécenter. They should both go and get lunch afterwards. Then there’s time to make sure they’re both fully stocked up on the necessary supplies for the journey through Ilex Forest and to Goldenrod City. Next, he has a new team member to meet. Once that introduction has hopefully gone smoothly, they can put the team members that didn’t get any work in at the Gym through a light work-out before finally joining his father for a final dinner to end the day and their stay in Azalea Town comfortably.
It’s a sensible plan and one that, once Josie and he are properly reunited in the lobby, is swiftly carried out. Once she’s finished boasting about her fantastic performance, that is.
Throughout their visits to the Pokécenter, the sandwich place and the local Pokémart, Ran steadily starts to become more energetic, nervous energy slowly starting to leak out of him in tapping feet and fiddling fingers. Fortunately, Josie doesn’t pay it much mind and the slight annoyance from the Pokémart’s clerk doesn’t really matter to him anyways. Especially not when his anxiety is quite justified.
After all, Sinnoh pokémon are quite rare, with direct contact with the other region still limited to the higher echelons of the Indigo League. Consequently, very little information about their pokémon is general knowledge in Johto and there’s little more to be found on the net even if you go looking for it. So curiosity-driven anxiety is a very normal reaction to have, under the circumstances.
Finally, they make their way to Ilex Forest, claiming a large enough area for both of them to get some work in without hindering each other, before Ran finally starts to unclip his pokéballs. He releases Ekans and Golbat first, Luxury Ball heavy in his hands as the two pokémon appear in flashes of red light and look around curiously, soon focusing on the black sphere in Ran’s hand.
“We beat Bugsy, Golbat,” Ran explains first and foremost before further clarifying their current situation, drawing a congratulatory screech from the blue Bat Pokémon before he flies up to the nearest tree branch, clearly more comfortable once he’s looking at the world from an upside down point of view, “Spinarak isn’t with us right now, she got hurt pretty bad, so she’s at the Pokécenter, though she’ll be fine by tomorrow morning.”
Ekans winds comfortingly between his legs as Ran mentions Spinarak’s injuries, before finally slithering away a handful feet to curl up on a nearby large stone. His displeased hiss makes it quite clear that the stone isn’t warm enough for his tastes, but it clearly isn’t uncomfortable enough for Ekans to give up on his seat either.
“As a reward, we didn’t just get the Hive Badge and a TM though. Bugsy also gave me a pokémon from Sinnoh. It’s supposed to be a poison-bug-type for now, though if or when it evolves, it’ll lose the bug-typing, according to Bugsy. That’s all I know, so be ready for anything, alright guys?” Ran asks his two present team members, receiving clear unspoken answers from both as Golbat’s eyes narrow to suspicious slits whilst Ekans turns from lounging lazily to coiling up in such a way that he can shoot forwards rapidly to attack, if necessary.
“Alright, here goes.” Ran announces, before finally pushing the Luxury Ball’s large button, not throwing it to release the Sinnoh pokémon at a distance but instead releasing it relatively close by. It’s riskier, because if the pokémon’s aggressive he’s closer to danger, but the value of not having to waste time or attention on catching the rebounding Luxury Ball should at least enable him to return it quicker, if necessary.
The typical red light arcs down towards the ground in front of Ran’s feet, before rapidly solidifying into a pale purple pokémon. Four short legs attach to an ovoid torso that runs parallel to the ground. At its rear, a menacing tail, covered in segmented exoskeletal armor before terminating in two white claws, rises into the air. At its front, teal oval eyes sit on a small almost egg-shaped head from which two small arms equipped with sharp white stingers point threateningly forward. Finally, its mouth is framed by two intimidating white fangs that seem ready to tear into flesh at a moment’s notice.
“Sko-rupi!” The new arrival announces brightly, teal eyes darting around for a moment, the pokémon’s small field of view keeping it from catching sight of Ekans or Golbat, before settling on Ran.
“Hi,” Ran greets it drolly, “My name’s Ran. A few hours ago, I beat the guy that traded for you and he gave you to me as part of my winnings.”
Skorupi’s eyes narrow in thought as it processes what Ran tells it, before it sags slightly, seeming disappointed at Ran’s words.
“I don’t really know anything about you yet, Skorupi, except that you’re a poison-type and that you’re from Sinnoh,” Ran admits next, trying to get the unpleasant parts of the meeting out of the way as soon as possible, “We’re in Johto, in case you didn’t know that yet, and we don’t have that much information on the different kinds of pokémon that live back where you came from.”
The displeased hiss that Skorupi lets out as he continues to explain the situation is discouraging, though when it bends its tail to let the claws of its tail scrape threateningly along its own back, Ekans and Golbat interject as one. Golbat’s screech and the rattling of Ekans’ tail are enough to make Skorupi freeze in place for a moment, before it spins sharply in place to catch sight of the source of the threatening sounds, its tail shooting out instinctively to try and counter any sneak attacks.
With Ekans and Golbat both still in their previous resting places, it doesn’t hit anything, of course, but the sharp looks both of Ran’s more trained pokémon give the newcomer are clearly enough to cow it into listening once more, as it slowly turns to face Ran once more, tail lowering and visibly relaxing.
“Those are Ekans and Golbat, two of the other three members of the team. Spinarak isn’t with us right now. You’ll get to meet her later, if this conversation goes well,” Ran easily continues, finally able to turn the conversation to what he hopes will be the enjoyable part, for both Skorupi and himself, “All of my pokémon are poison-types and I’m hoping to become a real specialist with a very strong team. Our goal for this year is to collect eight Gym badges, which we win by battling against a town’s strongest trainer, so we get to fight in the Silver Conference, where all of the strongest trainers in Johto compete against each other to prove who the strongest is out of all of them.”
His words clearly strike a chord with Skorupi, as his second bug-type visibly perks up, looking at Ran eagerly rather than threateningly.
“I’d like it if you joined our team,” Ran continues, finally getting to the crucial point of this first meeting, “You’ll have to listen to me and get used to training a lot, because I’m not the type of trainer who only ever tries to get stronger by battling. But my methods work, because we only just started on our journey a bit over a month ago and we’ve already won two badges. Plus, my other pokémon have all grown a lot stronger under my training already. Golbat was a Zubat when I first caught him, to give you just one example.”
Golbat lets out a proud, affirmative screech at those words, though Skorupi doesn’t turn to look at the flying-type again. Its quivering tail makes it clear that Ran’s words aren’t missing their effect however.
“If you’re up to it, I’ll be putting you through your paces to try and find out just what you can do today. Tomorrow, we start traveling towards the next city. Assuming you can keep up with the others, you’ll get to have your first battles over the next couple of days. So, are you interested?” Ran finally finishes his spiel, falling silent as he awaits Skorupi’s reaction.
“Skorupi! Sko sko skorupi!” Bugsy’s gift shouts enthusiastically, compensating for the limited mobility of its head by bobbing its tail up and down instead.
“Great,” Ran smiles happily, “Let’s start off by seeing what moves you know! Turn to face that tree over there and have at it!”
Skorupi moves to obey immediately, leaving Ran barely enough time to open his tab with notes on his pokégear before attacks start following one after the other. It takes some research, some assistance from Ekans and Golbat as well as a fair bit of patience, but ultimately he’s looking at an impressive list of seven moves, including one that’s been sorely lacking from his team up to this point.
Poison Sting, Leer and Bite are standard fare, whilst Hone Claws and Poison Fang add much needed power and menace to Skorupi’s arsenal, but it’s the final two moves it shows off that have Ran beaming. First, Skorupi’s fangs and claws gain a menacing mossy green glow as bug-type energy is concentrated before his pokémon bursts forwards with surprising speed, four sharp body parts digging deep into the tree it’s been targeting all along.
It takes a fair bit of research, but Ran eventually determines that Skorupi just showed them Fell Stinger, a punishing bug-type attack that boosts the user’s strength if it’s used to decide a fight. Excited as he is about the potential ability to completely change the momentum of any battle, it pales in comparison to the excited whoop he lets out when Skorupi shows its final move.
It starts with Skorupi’s armor glowing purple, briefly growing bristly with hundreds of tiny barbs, before it starts shaking, the barbs flying off in all directions and landing in a wide scattered area all around their makeshift battlefield. Once Skorupi finishes, Ekans immediately moves into action, serving as an improvised sweeper as he slowly clears Skorupi’s spikes away in an ever-expanding circle with Ran at its center.
Ekans remains entirely unaffected by the many barbs even as they contact him before dissolving, solidifying Ran’s good cheer as it fully confirms the move’s exact name.
“You know Toxic Spikes!” He cheers ecstatically, racing to Skorupi and hoisting the surprised pokémon up into the air with a broad smile, almost dancing on the spot in joy.
Skorupi cries out plaintively, tensing uncomfortably in Ran’s hands as it’s clearly unhappy about its new position some six feet in the air, but Ran is deaf to its complaints for the moment, too caught up basking in the unexpected stroke of good fortune. Fortunately, Ekans knows his trainer well, as the purple Snake Pokémon lets out a series of variations on its name, likely communicating at least some degree of context to Skorupi.
Whatever Ekans ‘says’, it’s enough to ease Skorupi’s mood at least, as it once more relaxes in Ran’s hands. Finally, as his arms start to strain from holding the not inconsiderable weight above his head, Ran calms down and sets Skorupi down onto solid ground once more.
“Sorry about that, Skorupi,” He apologizes, finally calming down properly, “Toxic Spikes is a huge part of any poison-specialist’s plans and none of the others learn it naturally. This is going to make a lot of stuff significantly easier, both for your own fights and for us as a team, if you can help Ekans and Spinarak learn it.”
Ekans offers an affirming hiss, as Skorupi ponders Ran’s words for long seconds before, finally, clicking its tail claws together cheerfully. The bug-type’s good cheer draws another smile from Ran, before he finally turns the team’s attention to training once more.
“Alright, we’ll table Toxic Spikes for now. Golbat, do a quick patrol to make sure we’ll have plenty of room to work with, I’ll set up an obstacle course for you in a bit. Ekans, start with Stockpile, it’s great that you pulled it off in a Gym battle, but you need to manage it even quicker. Skorupi, you and I will be starting out together. Now that we know your moves, it’s time to get a baseline for your physical stats. We’ll start out with sprints, let me measure out a track for you.” Ran rattles off, his two more experienced pokémon dutifully getting to work, unlike Skorupi, which narrows its eyes at Ran in displeasure at the mention of sprints.
Ran shrugs apologetically, even as he draws a line on the ground with his foot before striding away measuredly, counting his steps mentally as he goes, “I know it’s not fun, but I need to know what you’re good at and what you’re not as good at. The others all went through this shortly after joining the team as well!”
Ran isn’t an expert on Skorupi’s body language just yet, but he cautiously classifies the combination of Skorupi’s downcast eyes with its lowered tail and stingers as ‘sulking’. Accurate or not, Skorupi does move obediently towards the line Ran prepared for him. With an encouraging smile, Ran prepares his pokégear’s stopwatch, before counting Skorupi off.
It’s only the first of a series of physical tests he puts Skorupi through over the next hour, only pausing briefly to set up Golbat’s obstacle course. Once that’s all done, Golbat gets some one-on-one training whilst Ekans and Skorupi pair off. Though Ekans is still struggling with Scary Face, which Skorupi appears to show an intriguing amount of interest in, Toxic Spikes is too much of a priority for it to be postponed. Thus, Skorupi can immediately prove his value to the team, by instructing Ekans in its use.
Soon enough, the sun is setting and they get ready to leave Ilex Forest once more as they meet up with Josie and her team again. Skorupi is initially hesitant around the unknown fire-types, but relaxes somewhat when Ekans and Golbat greet Josie’s team with friendly sounds. Josie herself examines Ran’s new acquisition curiously for a few seconds, but atypically doesn’t otherwise address the matter.
Shortly afterwards, their pokémon all recalled once more, they’re having dinner with Ran’s father, the conversation dominated by him as he keeps the focus firmly on the day’s earlier Gym battles. Ran nearly glows with pride as his father repeatedly praises his earlier performance, clearly impressed by his son’s prowess as a trainer. Josie for her part seems somewhat contemplative, though she does enthusiastically contribute a retelling of her own battle when Ran’s father eventually asks her about it.
Once she’s finished, she deflates slightly again when Ran's father briefly congratulates her, before turning the topic back to Ran’s own battle, clearly more than happy to discuss Ran’s second badge match for a fifth time that evening. Eventually however, the evening comes to an end, Josie saying her goodbyes as she returns to the pokécenter whilst Ran joins his father to do the dishes.
Dish towel in hand, Ran is caught slightly off-guard when his father finally seems ready to move on from discussing his fight against Bugsy.
“I didn’t actually expect you’d succeed like this, you know,” His father offers casually, his attention seemingly more focused on scrubbing away at a stubborn spot of dried out sauce than on their conversation, “I thought you’d come back with your tail between your legs, maybe a few badges in hand, savings used up and team permanently scarred. You could make a comfortable enough living here, working for the Gym or maybe working for Kurt or the Kiln more formally.”
Ran does his best to keep his focus on the cutlery he’s drying, his voice carefully neutral as he asks a question, “Why did you encourage me to try then, back when I didn’t get the sponsorship?”
“Because if I hadn’t, you’d have regretted not trying for the rest of your life.” His father answers dryly, attention shifting to the pots and pans now that all of the smaller dishes have already been handled.
There’s a deliberate detachedness to his father’s voice that’s enough to finally give Ran pause, his gaze drawn irresistibly towards his father’s figure, half-dried plate in his hands temporarily forgotten.
“Why’s that?” He urges cautiously, unsure of just how to handle his father’s odd mood.
“Because,” His father starts to say, pausing to let out a heavy breath before finally continuing, “Living life without at least one or two battle-ready pokémon relegates you to being a second-class citizen. It makes you weak, pliable, defenseless. Long ago, having a pokémon was for the privileged few. But nowadays, owning a pokémon is increasingly becoming a requirement to avoid being relegated to the underprivileged.”
“The wealth gap is still prohibitive, don’t get me wrong,” Ran’s father continues to say, “But since the War, people’s priorities have shifted. Those that didn’t have pokémon were burdens on their communities. Burdens that couldn’t always be carried by those that did. The vast majority of the people that died were those that didn’t have pokémon to defend them or, if necessary, sacrifice themselves for them. If we’d had a pokémon to protect us, it might have won your mother enough time to get away as well.”
Ran freezes entirely, as his father’s explanation falters with an audible hitch in his voice. After another deep breath, he continues once more, “The war is over, it should never come to that again. Kanto might treat us like an afterthought, but we lost far too much and far too many to even think of ever facing them on the battlefield again. But there’s still plenty of other dangers out in the world. For me, it’s far too late. I don’t have the time, the savings or the license to even buy a pokéball, let alone train a battling pokémon. But you, I figured you’d get some experience in only to end up here, maybe down a dream but at least in a position to make a respectable living here with the status of having won a badge or two. That would’ve been enough to set you up for a good life.”
“And now?” Ran asks tentatively, when his father falls silent once more, “Why are you telling me this?”
His father finally turns to meet his eyes, eyes showing faint signs of tears as he looks at his son, “Now, I’m convinced that you’ll be going all the way. That I’ll be watching you on television at the end of the circuit. That you won’t ever be living full-time under my roof again.”
“Oh.” Ran replies eloquently, not quite sure what demeanor to adapt at the sight of his father being openly emotional. Before he can do much more, his father acts instead, sudsy hands coming up to grab him by the shoulders and draw him into a strong embrace for a few surprising seconds.
Ran doesn’t even get a real chance to respond to that either, dish towel and plate in his hands trapped between their bodies and leaving him unable to really return the embrace.
Then it’s over, as his father releases him, loudly clears his throat, looks at the remaining dishes and speaks, “Right, you finish up here, I’m going to go play cards with the guys. I’ll lock the front door behind me. I’ve got the early shift tomorrow, so I won’t be around when you wake up. Make sure to lock up and keep me posted on your progress, for real this time. I’m proud of you, son.”
“Thanks dad, love you!” Ran manages, the final words needing to be shouted to even be heard, as his father swiftly leaves the kitchen, the front door audibly opening and closing only seconds later.
He’s left standing alone in the kitchen, vaguely shell shocked by the past ten minutes. Ultimately though, he finally continues drying the dish he’s been holding for multiple long minutes at this point. After all, there’s still more dishes to be done.
Comments
The Dave
I'm gonna plead the fifth on this one, not that these questions will be answered in the short term, but I'll play this close to the vest for a while yet at least. As Ran advances in strength and becomes more attuned to the overarching plotlines happening in the larger world, this'll become a larger thing.
Wiggy
Huh, interesting worldbuilding here. I guess Johto got the worse of it in this timeline, eh? Wonder if Oak ended it and became the first champion in this version? I don't think he's been mentioned at all yet.
DiscoT
Fingers crossed, i hope it's a sniper Skorupi and if possible combined with focus energy. Just a complete crit monster with cross poison and night slash wrecking fools.
Mrsean22
Pretty interesting chapter. Skorupi has pretty good moves from what I can tell. And yeah Ran learning about might be difficult at first but think he'll get the hang of it. Yeah Josie pokemon were made for this gym but eventually fire isn't gonna be helpful. Ran probably better at adapting than Josie with his background and type of pokemon he trains.
Heraclitus
Okay, Skorupi is adorable. And I enjoyed the bit of lore/world building dotted in to Ran's conversation with his dad, even if it wasn't objectively reliable.
The Dave
Lot to unpack here: - Josie is sheltered in a lot of ways and it has been over a decade besides. She's going to put her foot in her mouth plenty of times, though Ran at least, due to personality and himself not remembering losing his mom, is a lot calmer about it than some others might be. - Abilities are a thing, they just won't often be explicitly called out, depending on situation though, their effects do factor in here and there, sometimes being called out, other times being more understated. - Gym battles are recorded, but not for the lower level challenges. I haven't quite settled on a hard badge count yet, though I'm inclined to say 5 badges and up, for the point where taping matches becomes the norm. I figure it makes sense for them not to tape every single Gym battle both to afford inexperienced lower-level trainers some modicum of privacy (especially if they crash and burn) and to save on costs. Spencer will just have to look at Ran's trainer profile, see the new badge and cope and seethe from that alone. - Bugsy's blind spot for Ran (and Spencer) will only shrink further as he gets a better feel for them and as he grows in his new role. The full realization of just what it means to be unsponsored will sink in through exposure and time. - Karolina some kind of relation to Pryce? Makes sense.
TempestK
Interesting stuff here. I'm guessing that Bugsy is probably going to speak to Falkner to try and get some help figuring out how to approach Ran. His dad's emotional distance due to his wife, Ran's mother, dying during the conflict with Kanto gives some things more perspective. As does the fact that they didn't apparently have a pokemon of their own before this. I really wonder if Josie is aware of how many lingering scars her region left on Johto. It's unlikely to come up for a while, but it's probably going to be addressed at some point, at the very least with Josie asking what happened to his mom with her standard lack of tact. Figuring out Skorupi's personality is going to be fun, and I'm left wondering what his ability. Not only his tbh, all of Ran's mon's abilities haven't really been touched on. If the gym battles are recorded and available to be watched via the pokenet, then it's possible that Spencer may check in on Ran, expecting to see him getting trounced or otherwise using similar strategies to what Spencer did with Falkner. Cue the outraged rant when Ran uses a "sub-optimal" strategy and still managed a clear win. Especially when Bugsy very clearly had stacked the deck against him. I wonder if Bugsy had taken time to consider that Ran's been working with his three teammates for over a year and a half years, so he's been getting influenced by their TE for almost as long as Bugsy has been training, even if he didn't have as many mon as Bugsy did. Karolina is likely some kind of relation to Pryce from the way she seems to have a high-powered ice-type team. Probably why she felt like she could get away with asking for 8-badge matches across the board.
The Dave
Another meaty chapter, but one that I didn't feel comfortable splitting. With no interlude planned, this'll throw off the 1 chapter in 2 parts per week structure for a while, but I figure that's preferable to me throwing yet another short interlude in already. As for contents: - Karolina is an intriguing figure, she'll definitely be reappearing later down the line. - Josie did well against Bugsy, considering the type match-up, this was only ever going to go one way. Still, one wonders what happens when she runs into opponents she can't just overpower... - Skorupi has joined the team! Ran's going to be struggling for a while, as he tries to work with a pokémon he doesn't have countless hours of preceding research on. I think that, once you all get a better look at Skorupi's personality, he'll quickly become a favorite. - Conversation with dad: Heavy stuff, huh? Keep in mind that Ran's dad has his own biases and some of his assumptions and declarations should be seen in that light, in other words, they aren't 100% factual. Also, though the spin I put on the pokéverse does give the region a rather heavy and dark past, I'm not looking to write a full on grim war tale here. This heavy conversation is needed to establish background and set some stuff up, but it's not going to become the overarching mood of the whole narrative. As always, I'm open to feedback and discussion and look forwards to hearing from you all. Thanks for your support, everyone!
