bravenewworld

[Video; Filtered to Armin and Roxas]

[A day or two after the tournament and the discovery Rise had made...Sora decided maybe it was time to try to mend bridges. Or at least, own up to his own mistakes. And so, he leaves a video message for them.]

Hey guys....

Listen, uh...[how to phrase this] I'm still...kinda mad that you locked me in a closet for two days. That wasn't cool, okay?

But...I'm sorry I didn't listen to you two about the tournament in the first place. I got too wrapped up in my own ego and didn't think things through. You guys are my friend and brother. I should've stopped and at least hear you guys out before I made a decision.

So...sorry. About all that.

[Action - Pokemon Habitat]

[A little while later after that's over with, Sora can be found near a pond in the Pokemon Habitat. The man-made pond itself is devoid of Pokemon except for one large Gyarados sitting in it. Like all Gyarados, she's huge and pretty scary looking. However, Sora is too busy trying to give her directions regarding a large rock next to him. And for some reason, his clothes and hair seem to be pretty damp.]

Okay, Dory- let's try this again! Just break the rock! I know you can do it!

[The Gyarados gives out a terrifying roar that sounds fitting for a Godzilla movie to get pumped. She raises herself up, opens up her wide jaws and-]

[Slaps the water with her tail as Dory uses Splash. The slap is powerful enough to make a big enough wave to get the first few rows of Seaworld (or rather- Sora and the rock) wet, but besides that it's not very effective.]

[Sora groans as he wipes water off his face. Maybe she really did forget that she evolved.]

Uh...good try, Dory!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's... a little abnormal. [He rubs the back of his neck] Usually they're pretty wild when they evolve. She's kind of... still got that... [what's the nice way to put it...] "Magikarp"y look in her eyes.

[he strokes his chin thoughtfully] D'ya think she needs someone to lead by example?

Well, Dory's Dory- I guess! [because that makes sense] I mean, sometimes she has tantrums, buuut- she seems to forget about them after thirty seconds.

[Yep, still the forgetful fish]

Lead by example? Like another Gyarados?

Hoo boy. Well, she won't ever be able to do much if she doesn't learn anything other than splash, so, let's see what we can do.

[he grins] Yeah! I don't have one of those lying around, but I have something better. Robin!

[the unfamiliar darumaka makes a curious "Maa?" sound and hops out of the water. Then he reveals his true self, his illusion fading away to reveal a little black fox. A zorua! He shakes water out of his fur, poofing up a bit]

Robin's a Zorua. He can make himself look like just about anything. Can you do it, kid?

[Robin nods, letting out a little "yap!". He's eager to show off his ability. He jumps back into the water. He glows and the glow stretches up and out of the water into a fully grown male gyarados. Robin lets out a ferocious roar! ... then bonks her playfully on the head]

A Zorua...?

[he watches with interest! He really wasn't sure what to expect. But a darumaka turning into a fox and then into a gyarados- wasn't it! So making a "Whoa!" as that happens. What a pokemon!]

[Except Dory freaks out with the roar and playful bonk! OH NO SHE"S BEING ATTACKED BY A GYARADOS RUN SHE'LL GET EATEN]

[And so, Dory uses Splash]

[Robin seems confused. He looks down at Lea. Who facepalms]

Wow. We have a lot of work to do.

[it seemed like Dory... didn't understand she had evolved and was scared. Lea gestures to Robin with his fingers. The zorua-gyarados leans his head down as Lea whispers something in his ear. Robin nods, then abruptly... shrinks.

To about half the length of a normal gyarados. And instead of roaring, he makes the playful "yap" noise he made earlier. LESS SCARY YES?]

[Sora just awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. he knows Dory can be a great pokemon! Rea..lly...]

[Except whoa! The gyarados shrunk! Dory seems very confused by this, at how the other one was so much smaller.]

[And then after a moment, as if she's totally forgot, she seems delighted! She reaches over and gives a pat on Robin's head with her tail]

["You shall be called Squishy and you shall be her squishy!"]

[Which Sora now starts to cover his whole face with one hand as he understands what Dory is saying. No Dory...no...]

[Squishy? His name isn't Squishy, it's "Robin"! Robin Goodfellow! He huffs and slaps her tail away with his]

[lea gets one half of the conversation from Robin, and he can extrapolate the rest. He shakes his head] Robin, show her how to break a rock, ok?

[Robin nods. Suddenly a rock appears behind him! Luckily, hidden from Dory's immediate view so that she doesn't get freaked out by magical illusory rocks. He moves aside a bit and aims his tail at the rock and lets loose.

The rock shatters! Into a bunch of little pieces. Because it's an illusion. But it's definitely something a Gyarados can easily do. See Dory? It's easy!]

[OW SQUISHY, BAD SQUISHY. That made Dory sad.]

[But oh now Squishy is breaking rocks! That's a neat trick Squishy! Dory seems very impressed!]

Okay see that Dory?! Now you do it!

[YEAH SHE CAN DO IT! YEAH. SHE IS GOING TO BREAK THAT ROCK AND SHOW SQUISHY]

[Wait what was she doing? o.o]

["Squishy" seems... completely baffled. He looks at Lea again. Is she for real? Is she actually a real person? Lea only offers a shrug.

Robin shakes his head and creates another illusory rock. This time he he makes sure he has Dory's attention by whapping her lightly with his tail. Pay attention!

Another rock, another smash! Now he carefully moves her tail with his so it's resting on the rock. Break the rock, Dory!

Maki, meanwhile, seems to find the whole thing hilarious. He's sitting in the shallow water, playing in the mud, and laughing like a little jerk at your dumb fish, Sora]

[SHE IS VERY REAL AND VERY SPECIAL OKAY. Just...special]

The rock, Dory! Break it!

[But oh right! The rock! She can do this! She can show Squishy up!]

[So this time, she'll turn to the rock and roar. And instead of using Splash- Dory uses Bite and chomps down on the rock like it's candy. Aw yeah]

You did it! Great job!

Well, congrats! She did the thing. Pretty intense jaw power, huh?

[Lea nods to Robin, who nods back and goes back under water. More light, and then the little fox swims to shore and shakes off. He heads to try ground to groom]

She seems to uh... have attention problems.

Yeah! Sure is!

[SO PROUD OF YOU DORY. Petting her head again to show how much!]

Uh...yeah. She said she has some short term memory problems? It runs in her family.

[...]

At least, she thinks it does.

Uh... huh. Well, you'd think evolving would fix that, but... [Lea shakes his head, smiling a bit and putting his hands on his hips] But maybe not.

Yeah...looks like not.

But it's okay! We'll work around it! Dory's a good Pokemon.

You've got a lot more patience than me. [Lea could probably do something with this problem pokémon, but hell. It'd take a while]

Really? But isn't tutoring Pokemon your job?

Well yeah! But... Most pokémon aren't -- [hopeless causes. Ahem. No, that's too mean. How to put it delicately...] -- aren't so unique.

Oh...

[He can guess what Lea means by unique. Weird, stupid, useless, hopeless.]

I know my Pokemon aren't the most talented around, but they're my friends. They're there for me when I need them, so I wanna be there for them too. That's all it is.

V

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