Watching Decorations Go Up [open]

[haspokemon]

Characters: Red and anyone else
Date/Time: December 15, late morning
Location: Celadon City fountain plaza
Warnings: None
Summary/Notes: Red is monitoring the decorations outside of Celadon Department Store.

Comments

[mind_dive]

Tate couldn't seem to stay in one place. He had arrived in Vermillion from Olivine just a little while ago, but had quickly moved on to Saffron and then to Celadon. He would have stayed longer in Vermillion but .. it was kind of freezing since the sea swept in cold air. Tate wasn't used to it.

Anyway, it was around that time of year and since he was still in Kanto, Celadon seemed like the perfect place to shop for Christmas gifts. Kanto had a lot of things Hoenn didn't have, and he figured Liza would love something foreign. Exotic - or whatever she called it; girls were weird. So Solrock and him were on ~Mission WINDOWSHOPPING~ Tate had taken a moment to gaze at the huge tree but went back to his shopping quickly (shopping was hard, okay, it took concentration). He wasn't really paying attention to where his Solrock wandered off to.

So Red didn't like the feeling of looking over someone's shoulder? How did he feel about a giant space rock looking over his?

[haspokemon]

Red felt his body shiver, so he zipped his jacket up to his chin. He thought that was odd knowing that he bundled up well for today's temperatures. It almost felt like he was reacting for another reason.

He tried focusing on his clipboard, was it something about the project? It was hard to read the lettering with some sort of moving shadow blocking his light-

Red turned around quickly and found himself face to face with a pair of eerie red eyes. "W-WHOA!" he jumped away, falling into a crouch. His clipboard clattered to the ground nearby. "Is... that a Pokémon?" His hand automatically reached for the Pokédex in his back pocket. It beeped in his hand and registered the mysterious being.

Red stood up and closed the device. "Solrock, huh? Never seen one before. You're probably with a visiting trainer, huh?" he spoke to the floating sun.

[mind_dive]

Solrock murmured softly in response, hovering closer. It picked up the fallen clipboard with Psychic and returned it to Red.

At that moment, Tate realized something was missing and that there was distance interfering with his connection with his pokemon. He could vaguely hear the cryptic space speak of Solrock and turned in the direction it came from. Much to his demise, it was with someone.

Tate rushed over as fast as he could, quickly grabbing onto one of the Solrock's rays when it was within reach. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" He spoke to the pokemon but then turned to Red. "I'm sorry, was he bothering you?"

[haspokemon]

"Thanks," Red smiled at the Solrock as he took the clipboard and noted its psychic powers. Good to know if he was ever facing one in battle. He heard someone running closer and address him. Turning to face the source of the voice, Red could see a young man roughly the same age as he; this person must be Solrock's trainer... he seems familiar.

"Oh. No, it's fine." Red nodded and gave the Solrock and his trainer a small, reassuring smile. "I'm glad he came by. I've never seen this Pokémon before; we don't have Solrock in Kanto."

[mind_dive]

"He's too curious for his own good," Tate smiled in return, holding back a breath of relief. "Yeah, they're mostly in Hoenn. Some are in Sinnoh, I think."

Now paying full attention to the other trainer, Tate could see that he too seemed familiar. In fact wasn't he ... he looked kind of like that trainer from Kanto. You know, THAT TRAINER. Tate's mind screeched to a stop. Oh. It was Red. RED. redredredredredohgodTHATTRAINER. Wait - wait no, he still had to be cool. There was no use embarrassing himself by acting like a fanboy.

He tried to keep his hand steady as he held it out to offer a handshake. "U-uh ... I'm Tate .. by the way. We, um, talked briefly over the network."

[haspokemon]

Red mentally felt a light bulb pop on. Of course! He's spoken with so many trainers over Silphnet that it was difficult to remember them all. He felt a flush of embarrassment as he tucked the clipboard back under one arm and held out his free hand to take Tate's to shake gently.

"Hi, Tate. I'm Red. Well, I guess you knew." his voice died a little as he felt rather silly. "So you made it to Kanto." He paused and mentally slapped himself for describing the obvious. "...That's good. Do you like it?"

[mind_dive]

He was touching Red. Ohmygod.

Tate shook back, firm but still small, and took his hand back to hold onto Solrock again. "Yeah." He laughed lightly, feeling a bit of Red's embarrassment.

"I was in Johto earlier. For the uh .. haunted house thing," he paused, thinking. He'd have to head back to Hoenn soon for the holidays, but he knew he'd be right back in Kanto afterward. He held on tighter to Solrock. "It's cold."

That was a dumb way to answer and Tate felt dumb. "Err... But I like it. Always have."

[haspokemon]

Red nodded at Tate's straightforward answer, glad that he was enjoying his time here. "Yeah. I guess it's warmer in... Hoenn right now?" he wondered. Red realized he was probably asking the obvious again. Hopefully, he also remembered right from their last exchange on Silphnet and got Tate's home region correctly.

"Oh, right." he shifted his clipboard from under one arm to the other. "I said I'd show you something in Mt Moon. Do you still want to go check it out?"

[mind_dive]

Tate wouldn't have been terribly insulted if Red had gotten the region wrong anyways. He was more embarrassed (a happy sort of embarrassed) that Red remembered their exchange at all. But he nodded right back; yes, it was a lot warmer in Hoenn. But also wetter.

"You did," his smile became a bit shyer. "Yeah, I would love to. If you still don't mind showing me around, that is." Manners. Always manners.

[haspokemon]

Hearing Tate's answer, Red relaxed his shoulders. Their exchange over the network had been brief but pleasant, so Red had some idea of what to expect. However, speaking to Tate in person reassured Red that this gym leader could be a good friend.

"Great," he looked down at the calendar on one of the schedule sheets, then returned his attention to Tate. "Are you free next Monday?"

((sorry for extra notif, fixed continuity oopsie))

[mind_dive]

"Sure," Tate nodded. "Next Monday is perfect." He was mentally rolling at how much traveling he would be doing, and planning just how and when he'd get around to Hoenn and back to Kanto in time - but this was too good to pass up. He'd been curious about Mt Moon since Red had mentioned it over the network.

"Oh, um, you're .. I should probably let you get back to work." The Psychic laughed a bit awkwardly, tugging on Solrock again. The Space Pokemon just murmured a disgruntled noise of disapproval when he did so. "But I'm really looking forward to Monday now. Umm.. meet outside Mt Moon, I guess?"

Commence worrying that he was being too forward.

[haspokemon]

Red also nodded in return. "Yeah, there's a Pokécenter there. We can meet inside." He rather liked talking to Tate, so the disappointment hit him as well. The time and place to chat was not now, Red realized. The weather was bearable, especially after all that time on Mt Silver, but the volume of people was what bothered him the most.

"I should keep working," he reluctantly admitted. He touched the brim of his hat. "Monday. Nice to... meet you in person, Tate. I'll have Pikachu with me next time."