The Dave
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A Viper in the Hole, Chapter 4, part 1
🕑 Added 2024-09-18 12:04:58 +0000 UTCEventful as Sprout Tower and meeting Josie were, the remaining days before Ran’s scheduled Gym challenge pass in that weird flow state where he’s very aware of each day passing and gets plenty done every day, but it still feels as if time’s flying by at an almost irresponsible pace. His team, liberated by fuller pockets that don’t have to keep as close a track of medical expenses as in the previous years, improves in leaps and bounds. They grow so swiftly and prove so dominant over the majority of other rookies’ pokémon, that Ran is left cursing the fact that his entire team so far consists of pokémon that evolve relatively late, compared to a lot of the other common pokémon he’s encountering.
In the grand scheme, the timing and number of evolutions has no real impact on a pokémon’s total potential, but despite those facts, evolution remains the most tangible way to measure growth for a lot of pokémon. Of course there’s exceptions, like pokémon that evolve from exposure to a Fire Stone for example, but Ran still finds himself envious of people whose starter gets to evolve twice. Because with Ekans having been with him for three years and having grown rather strong over that time, it really feels as if he’d have evolved by now, if there were a stage between Ekans and Arbok.
Such musings on evolution are never far from his mind over the remaining week-and-a-half Ran spends in and around Violet City. He revisits the battlefields around the local school and has some carefully selected matches, unlike Spencer, who claims use of one of the fields so often that he’d probably try and put his name on it, if he could get away with it. He semi-reluctantly meets up with Josie for another chat over lunch, exchanging pointers and experiences, limited as those are as two trainers still in their first month, and sharing ideas for the remainder of the season. He even goes fishing for a day, Zubat’s Absorb making short work of the myriad Magikarp he hauls up throughout the day, though a live capture only policy does prevent him from earning a nice bit of pocket change.
Ultimately however, the day that really matters finally arrives. They head to the Violet City Gym bright and early, out of some idle hope that maybe there’ll be a no-show or two allowing them to get in ahead of their late morning time slots. Of course they have no such luck, leaving them stuck waiting around idly. Normally, they’d go inside, pay for a day-ticket and just watch the Gym Leader’s other matches until their own turns come up. But for both Spencer and Ran, this is their first Gym. That means something in Johto.
Specifically, it’s a rite of passage, proving definitively that a young trainer is ready to set out and leave the safety of his or her known world behind. It’s a final opportunity for the local Gym Leader, in his capacity as a guiding figure, to make sure that only those that are truly ready actually leave town properly and set out. Of course there’s a few exceptions, with Goldenrod’s status as a big city for example having led to them somewhat letting go of the traditional view of the Gym Leader as every young trainer’s guardian.
But Ran isn’t from Goldenrod, he’s from Azalea. Traditional Azalea Town, which clings firmly to its history and its relatively small population. When he’s announced as Falkner’s challenger for a first badge whilst hailing from Azalea, people in the crowd will immediately cotton on to the implied lack of approval for said challenge from Ran’s hometown Gym. In traditionalist Violet, which already has the misfortune of seeing a disproportionate level of first badge challengers due to its geography, he’s not expecting a warm welcome from the crowd.
If he were to go in early and ‘scout’ Falkner ahead of his match, that’d be another mark against him. It’s a perfectly acceptable approach that some will argue shows a basic understanding of strategy and respect for your opponent. But in Johto, for your first badge outside of your hometown, it just isn’t done. Once more, it’s a cultural matter, as it is meant, in a way, to repay the hometown Gym Leader for their trust in the young trainer’s ability, as signified through their, by that point usually acquired, first badge. Beating the ‘unknown’ challenge presented by another Gym Leader is a way for the trainer to prove that ‘their’ Gym Leader hasn’t made a mistake in letting them win their first badge.
Going in early, watching Falkner’s matches for an hour and then challenging him at a first badge level, whilst coming from a town that has a proper hometown Gym? It’s technically allowed, but it would mean stepping on some of the core values on which Johto’s identity is built. If the crowd realizes as much, they’re likely to try and eat him alive.
Not that Ran actually cares about the crowd’s opinion at all, of course. Specializing in poison-types all but precludes him from the crowd’s adoration right from the start. But if Falkner himself were to take offense at either or both violations of ‘how things are supposed to be done’, the consequences might be severe. Barring the fact that Falkner would simply have to bring out a stronger pokémon than his normal first badge roster to handily wipe the floor with Ran, the loss of the winnings Ran was counting on plus the delay to his own timeline might be debilitating.
Thus, entering early and entertaining themselves by watching some other starting trainers challenge Falkner isn’t an option Ran is willing to entertain. He wouldn’t be surprised if Spencer didn’t care, with how brusque he’s shown himself to be of late, but when Ran glances curiously at his companion, it’s clear that Spencer isn’t quite willing to chance an early entry into the Gym either.
Sadly that doesn’t change the fact that Ran and Spencer are over an hour early and have no real way to occupy their time, other than fiddling with their pokégear or discussing their strategies for facing Flying types yet again. With things having been weird between them for a while now, conversations only having grown sparser and more stilted over their stay in Violet City, Ran isn’t surprised when Spencer soon starts typing away on his pokégear, likely exchanging messages with some of the stronger opponents he faced during his reign of terror over the local school’s arenas.
Ran for his part has a significantly smaller list of contacts to message. First, there’s his father, whom he sends a quick general update before promising to send a longer recap of his first Gym Challenge in the evening. Secondly and depressingly already last, there’s Josie, whom he’s exchanged a bare few messages with every other day or so ever since meeting her. Not out of any particular fondness for the cocky girl, but as another rookie with a clear budding type specialization, she offers a solid yardstick for Ran to compare his own progress against.
Their messages have been sparse and dry to this point, with either usually only responding to the other out of boredom or during downtime. Which is why it’s a surprise to feel his pokégear buzzing on his wrist mere moments after he’s sent Josie a message telling her that he’s waiting to challenge the Gym and asking her what she’s up to.
Opening the little text bubble, Ran reads Josie’s message: “Sounds like you could do with a distraction.”
Begrudgingly, he’s about to write back to admit as much, when approaching hoofbeats draw his attention. Glancing up, Ran notices a grinning Josie trotting towards Spencer and himself, as she’s sitting comfortably on Ponyta’s back.
“Well now what do we got here? You boys know loitering’s frowned upon around here now don’t you?” She teases, as Ponyta draws to a halt in front of Ran.
Before he can respond however, Spencer takes offense at the - to him - unknown girl’s words, “We’re not loitering and what business is it of yours what we’re up to anyways?”
Josie looks at Spencer in surprise, caught off-guard by the snappish reply, but before the blonde can fire back, Ran speaks up, “Spencer, Josie’s joking. She and I met at the Sprout Tower and had a number of Double Battles together. Josie, I’ve mentioned Spencer before.”
“You did,” Josie agrees, a sharpness to her grin that was missing earlier, “Though you didn’t mention the, ahem, short temper.”
With how much emphasis she puts on the word short, the double entendre is impossible to miss, leaving Ran to sigh tiredly and turn to Spencer apologetically. He’s found that just how abrasive Josie decides to be fluctuates from day to day, but no matter what, it takes some getting used to. Which ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, as Spencer is, or at least used to be, relatively even-tempered. But the one thing Ran’s learned over the past years, even before setting out on their journey and encountering his friend’s more combative and argumentative side, is just how vulnerable the other boy is to mockery.
“Oh I remember you now, you were at the school our first night here. Didn’t show up again after that though, once I started dominating. What, afraid you’d face some actual competition rather than… what was it again, a Rattata?” Spencer retorts waspishly.
Josie snorts indelicately, “Nah, I was so disappointed by the lack of proper trainers that I didn’t go back after the first time. What, you think you can take Ginger here because you’re hot shit amongst those losers? I’m more than happy to throw down, buddy boy.”
Before Spencer can respond once more, Ran intervenes sharply, “Spencer, chill out. You’ve got a Gym battle in under an hour. Josie, stop winding him up.”
Josie raises her hands innocently, agreeing easily enough, but Spencer merely shifts his ire from her to Ran.
“Don’t tell me what to do! In fact, don’t talk to me at all right now! You talk to your friend here, I’m going inside and I’m challenging Falkner first!” He heatedly demands, before turning on his heel and storming inside.
“Jeez, what crawled up his ass and died?” Josie asks in surprise, as she lazily dismounts Ginger before recalling her starter.
Ran merely looks at her without bothering to hide his annoyance, which leaves Josie waving him off as if she’s swatting at a pesky mosquito.
“Please, whatever that was, it was bigger than me rattling his cage a bit. Don’t tell me he’s always like that. You’ve been friends for a few years right, there’s no way you’ve been tiptoeing around him all this time?” She asks, disbelief clear in her voice.
“No it’s-” Ran starts defensively, intending to confront Josie with her own overly abrasive words, before pausing, struggling for a moment to find the right words as he begrudgingly realizes that Josie has a point. If Spencer had always been this quick to anger, there’s no way they’d have spent two years planning a journey together without falling out seriously and permanently. In fact, Spencer’s behavior’s been off for a while.
“He’s been irritable and obstinate ever since Bugsy became Gym leader and threw off our original plans.” Ran voices his own realization out loud, forgetting his intended reprimand of Josie, as her disbelief shifts to curiosity.
“What do you mean, threw off your original plans? Come to think of it, you never finished that story about your town’s sponsorship from back in Sprout Tower…” She trails off, drawing an annoyed sigh from Ran as she hits on the unpleasant topic.
Begrudgingly, he explains the whole story, starting three years ago with his loss to Bugsy, all the way through his preparations with Spencer and up to Bugsy’s triumphant return and the sour conclusion that they couldn’t stomach challenging him for their first badges. At the end, he feels surprisingly drained, the story taking more out of him than he’d expected.
“Dude… That’s kind of lame.” Josie replies, any drained or tired feeling immediately forgotten as Ran’s own anger flares up sharply once more.
“Lame?” He demands angrily, offering the other trainer a single opportunity to explain herself.
“Yeah, lame,” Josie repeats nonchalantly, “you spent two years preparing together and then threw all of that overboard in the last week because your ego couldn’t handle being a rookie while the guy that beat you three years ago is a Gym Leader now? What, you think it’s gonna be any more impressive when you show up later in the season for a later badge? He’s still going to be better than you and face you with less than his best. Newsflash, Ran, if you want a shot at getting ‘even’ with the guy, it’s going to be after making it to the Conference, when you can challenge him at an Elite level, rather than in his capacity as a Gym Leader.”
Her words rankle, cutting deep as Josie gives voice to doubts that have been slumbering in his own mind for who knows how long. Still, if she wants to prod at his sore spots, then it’s about time he takes a blind swing at something that’s been bothering him in turn.
“You want to talk about lame? Where does running to Johto because you’re afraid you can’t hack it in Kanto despite getting a rare starter rate?” He replies acerbically, his words a partial shot in the dark but clearly hitting a mark despite being based on more than one assumption, as Josie’s own temper flares in response.
She growls angrily as she takes a step forward harshly, closing some of the gap between them, Ran straightening up but not backing down in response, “Oh fuck you dude, you know nothing about why I came here. Nothing! I’m here because my dad won’t support me trying for Kanto’s circuit until I’ve proven I’m good enough on the ‘B-circuit’. Which I would’ve told-”
“B-circuit!?” Ran cuts her off indignantly, glaring at Josie angrily with a tense jaw, offended by her casual dismissal of the entirety of Johto.
Josie scoffs derisively, waving her hand dismissively as she replies, “Go to Kanto and go complain to my father if you want to, they’re his words.”
“Oh and because your dad, oh, I’m sorry, because your ‘father’ says it, it’s automatically true?! What’s he ever done on the circuit to make him an authority?” Ran snarls back defensively, seizing onto Josie’s wording as a possible vulnerability and looking to dig into any potential weakness her relationship with her father might hold.
“Seeing as pretty much every Rapidash at the Conference-level comes from his stables, he’s a hell of a lot more of an authority than you are!” Josie shouts back, temper fully flaring up in response. Before Ran can try and dig further however, she carries on heatedly.
“The only catch for getting me my starters, was that I do my first circuit here, to make sure I get any teething problems out of the way without running the risk that someone of actual importance would see me fall flat on my face.” Josie asserts, the sheer casual dismissiveness of her words almost cutting Ran deeper than her actual anger.
He can only listen in disbelief as Josie, by echoing the words of her father, casually disparages Johto’s entire trainer culture.
“And yeah,” Josie sighs explosively, clearly winding down, “It’s also pretty fucking lame that my first circuit basically still has the training wheels attached. But at least I’m not betting my whole future on some flimsy ass plans without having a solid fallback option… like you!”
Ran glares furiously at Josie, completely freezing up out of sheer anger, unable to formulate a comeback as she uses her privilege to take dismissive shots at everything he’s been working towards for the past three years. Josie, for her part, takes a few deep breaths, before finally, calm seems to overtake temper once more. As it does so, her eyes widen slightly in sudden realization.
“Shit,” She declares almost sulkily, innate defensiveness clearly finally getting caught by logical thoughts once more, “I didn’t want to talk about this.”
Ran doesn’t manage a response, simply stunned by Josie’s disparaging view of his whole region, as well as the way she demeans everything he’s worked so hard to achieve already. His hands clench angrily as he has to fight the instinct to grab Ekans’ pokéball or do something rash. By the time he feels ready to form any kind of verbal response, the girl has already disappeared inside of the Gym.
Which leaves him stuck with no real available outlet as a lot of conflicting emotions vie for his attention. Indignant anger at Josie is the major one, though there’s also amounts of guilt, at his own sharp digs about her dad, and frustration at himself, over the way he let her stun him into silence. Then, there’s the whole Spencer situation, the new insight into which he’d almost forgotten about due to the ensuing altercation. Finally, initially seemingly forgotten but rapidly becoming more and more present once more, until it is so dominant as to mandate the suppression of all other thoughts and emotions, is the building tension from his approaching Gym Challenge. Confused feelings or not, right now, he needs to focus on beating Falkner and winning his first badge.
Comments
The Dave
There is a larger issue at hand, but as for Ran and Josie... well Josie isn't the kind of person to let things fester, so keep an eye out, I'd say.
Wiggy
Well... that happened. Three cheers for ethnic tensions.
