ACTION

[kaidont]

[You know who's, for once, not found outside Union? This guy.

Partly because of the people camping outside. The city officials might be all chummy with them, but he almost got trampled by a rampaging Nidoking because of them, and he doesn't feel like talking to them nicely. Or handing them any piece of technology, for that matter.

He knows himself well enough to know he'll just start fights if he tries interacting with them, so he's keeping himself inside the walls for now. It's probably best after this mindless training anyway.

The other reason is currently resting against his legs. His egg finally hatched, revealing a Trapinch... which is cool and all, except it keeps kind of falling forward with the weight of its own head if it's standing on the ground... and he can't keep it burried all the time. Especially when you live in a tower.

So his baby Trapinch is slowly following after him, bumping its head against his legs whenever they stop. He would have lost his patience long ago, had his newly evolved Floette not been calming him down.

Be careful not to fall into any holes. Thankfully, they shouldn't be too deep]

Comments

[at_too_low]

[… Oh.]

... Well, no one's really stopping you. You can talk to miss Mari and move back out if you want to. It was your decision to come and it'll be yours to leave, too.

[kaidont]

Wh-- [augh, you're doing that on purpose] I was joking, you idiot.

Besides, what'd you two do without me. Someone's gotta be there to keep an eye on you. Do the heavy lifting, get trampled by Nidokings, that kind of thing.

[at_too_low]

[--Laugh]

Well, in our defense, you kind of jumped in front of the Nidoking yourself.

[kaidont]

Yes? That's what I'm here for, isn't it?

[at_too_low]

Come on, you know we're glad to have you around even without you bravely sacrificing yourself for us in battle or moving furniture around.

[kaidont]

[His eyes flit away for a fraction of a second]

Yeah yeah.

[at_too_low]

That's your "get off my back nerd" voice.

[kaidont]

Yeah maybe you should. [Oops, he's hurt, and it shows in his voice]

1/2

[at_too_low]

[Wh-- he backs away a little, blinking in incomprehension. He was mostly trying to joke]

K-Kaido?..

[at_too_low]

... Sorry. Did I say something wrong?

[kaidont]

[Damnit, don't make that face, it makes it hard to be mad at you]

... it's fine. Forget it.

1/2

[at_too_low]

... if you say so.

[He pauses and looks around awkwardly, trying to find something else to talk about. Sadly, nothing quite presents itself yet]

I-I didn't mean to hurt you. Sorry.

[at_too_low]

[Alright alright that'll probably just make you angry again-- okay here look Trapinch's dug a new hole!! Let's talk about that]

Hey, do you think if we got Trapinch a box of sand at home he could just dig there?

[kaidont]

[... he'll accept the change of subject]

Maybe--it'd need to be pretty deep though.

[at_too_low]

Yeah. Probably would be a pain to get enough sand, too, and drag it back home... Still, a good alternative for winter or rainy days.

[kaidont]

[siiiiiigh] I just hope he evolves fast.

[Guess who's gonna be doing more intensive training in the future]

[at_too_low]

Haha, you're a bit out of luck with that. Trapinch are... uh, slow starters. Not as bad as some other Pokemon out there, but still. And next you'll have him flying around giving people headaches.

[kaidont]

Brilliant.

[at_too_low]

Well, that stage of life is much shorter at least! It evolves again pretty soon after that, and the last evolution is kind of a marvel. I think it's rather worth the trouble preceding it! I've never seen a Flygon myself, but the sound of its wings is documented to be like singing! I'd love to hear that. I wonder if that means that they get better control of their wings as they grow up and evolve?

[Yep, that's Atsuro for you.]

[kaidont]

... maybe, yeah. I still don't know how they go from this [gesturing towards the hole] to dragon, though.

[at_too_low]

[He laughs]

Yeah, sounds weird, doesn't it? I think it mostly has to do with the middle evolution, though. The first stage - Trapinch - can be compared to a kind of... a larva, yeah. That makes sense if you think in the context of the first two stages - you wouldn't be surprised if you just had Trapinch and Vibrava, yes? It's like the Caterpie line, really, just that the cocoon stage doesn't take nearly as long. And, well, going from that, it's much easier to see Vibrava evolving into Flygon, yes? They're not that far apart, strictly speaking. Flygon is just a more... complete, polished version, biologically speaking.

[kaidont]

[... it does make sense when you put it like that]

[at_too_low]

[Never underestimate the infodumps, Kaido. He grins when he sees you're listening and actually paying attention.]

Evolution mechanisms are pretty cool, aren't they?

[kaidont]

I guess.

[at_too_low]

[... He snickers at that. Usually you don't even finish listening to him]

I find it interesting how it manifests in Enlightened, too. I mean, we don't go through transformations as extreme as Pokemon do, but it's still impressive.