John walked through the corridor of 221B, leaving Sherlock alone in his mind palace. He had been shunned from the room and had no intention on going back. He walked to his son's room where he hadn't made a noise. "Hamish?" he asked as he knocked on the door lightly.
"Come in," a small voice called back from inside.
John opened the door tentatively and poked his head in. There was his little boy sitting on the floor, organizing what looked like to be training cards that were like a sea around him. John opened the door further and walked in, looking at all of the different coloured cards that were scattered about the floor. "What are these?" he asked as he gathered some into a pile and picked them up.
Hamish stood up abruptly and ran over to his father, being careful as to not step on anything but floor. "Don't touch those!" he exclaimed, taking them from his father's hands and quickly organizing them back to where they were in their piles. John looked at him with a raised eyebrow, then around to all of the cards that were on the floor. "What is all of this?"
Hamish huffed and went back to his spot on the floor as he looked through the cards. "I'm organizing these cards," he mumbled, sounding annoyed. He shuffled through them, standing up and putting a stack in one corner of the room before returning back to the only clear spot on the floor.
John tilted his head to the side and took another look around to the various piles and stacks of cards. "What kind of cards are they, 'Mish?" he asked, inching closer slightly, dodging the scattered piles. Hamish kept his eyes on the ground as he reached over and grabbed some more. "They're Pokemon cards," he muttered under his breath, his patience wearing thin.
John bit his lip, obviously a tad concerned about his son acting so cold. He walked over to the twin bed and sat down, being careful as to not disrupt any of the cards or papers that were scattered on the bed and floor. "Where'd you get them?" he asked, eyeing the papers that were scrawled on with pencil.
"I found them..." He muttered, itching the back of his head
John furrowed his brow and looked to Hamish. "I may not be Papa, but I am pretty sure that was a lie." He took a deep breath as Hamish looked up to him with his bright blue eyes.
Hamish shuffled in his spot slightly. "It wasn't a lie. I found them," he said, annunciating each syllable. There was hurt in his eyes as his father didn't believe him.
John looked down. "Sorry..." he mumbled, not feeling very happy with himself. "Um... Where did you find them?" He asked as his son got back to his work with the sorting. He tried his best not to fiddle around with his gold ring at the silence.
Hamish kept seperating the cards. "Well, I've collected them. The used bookstore. The alleyways. Friends..." He mumbled the last word, turning around on his knees and working on the other side.
John cocked his head to the side. He opened his mouth to say something, but Hamish was obviously not in the mood to talk about it. He sighed, feeling distant. "So what system do you have of... organizing them?" he asked, trying to sound as interested as he could about what his son was doing.
Hamish shrugged slightly, "It's complicated... I don't think you would understand..." He mumbled.
John pursed his lips, looking around again. "I could try to understand. Maybe I could even help you, if you want." He looked down over his son as he kept switching back and forth from the piles around him, protectively.
Hamish took a deep breath and turned around so he was looking at John. "There are many types of Pokemon. The divisions that I have seperated them in are; Fire, Water, Grass, Lightning, Psychic, Metal, and Fighting. From there, I divide them into subdivisions. Dark, Energy, or just regular. There are also cards that are 'Trainer' cards and 'Multi-type' cards. They go in a pile over there in the corner. Useless, if you ask me. Once I am done dividing them into their subdivisions, I am going to put them in order from least HP to greatest HP. If they have the same amount of HP, I put them in order alphabetically. Some cards are in better shape than others. I'm not sure how to organize them yet. If I have multiples of a card, I keep the one that is in worse shape than the others and put the good ones over there on the desk." He pointed, not taking his eyes off his father.
John listened to him intently, trying his best to keep up with the whole system. Once he was done, he looked around the room in a whole new light. "Okay... I am sorry for messing up one of your piles," he apologized, watching as he started scattering yellow cards about in front of him.
Hamish shrugged. "That's fine. I'll just re-organize it. It's fun," he waved dismissively, not looking up to John as he worked next to him. "I don't have anything better to do. Plus, those were the Psychic cards. I don't have a lot of them."
John flexed his left hand and balled it into a fist at the statement and how simply he had said it. "Well, I am still sorry. And why do you keep the ones that are in worse shape instead of the good ones?" he asked, looking over to the pile that was forming on the desk. "Surely the better ones will last longer."
Hamish just kept sorting through the cards, standing up and bringing a handful carefully over to a pile in front of John's feet before returning to the humongeous pile that he was sitting at. "Because they have seen more play time. More action. And the bad shape ones have more character to them. You can see all the battles they have been played in," he smiled, looking at a Nine-Tails which had a bent corner and a crinkled side.
John looked to him with a sad look. He sighed and picked up the papers on the bed carefully. "What are these?" he asked, flipping through the many pages of charts. Hamish looked up to John, standing up and sitting next to him on the bed, taking a few of the papers himself. He showed John one of the papers. "See, this is Charmander. He evolves into Charmeleon. Then the third stage of the evolution is Charizard. I keep them in a list, stage ones going in alphabetical order, vertically, then the other evolutions next to them horizontally." He pointed out on the paper.
John nodded, understandingly. He looked at the paper that he was holding. "So this is... Bulbasaur." He pointed at some of the scrawled letters. "He turns into Ivysaur. From there, he becomes Venusaur." He nodded, looking up and down the paper.
"He or she," Hamish said, looking down at the papers. John looked up to him with a raised eyebrow. "What?" Hamish looked to him and nodded. "He or she. Pokemon can be either female or male in any evolution." John pursed his lips, looking back to the paper with a nod. "Yes, yes... Of course..." he mumbled.
Hamish flipped through some more papers, trying to put them in order as they had been scattered across the bed. "I need to cross them out. Once I organize them, I am going to cross them out and see which ones I have left and try to trade them with people, if they want to trade..." he mumbled, sliding off of the bed and returning to his work.
John put the papers he was holding in with Hamish's. "So how come this, Pachirisu, does not have any evolutions?" John asked, trying to get Hamish to talk to him.
Hamish didn't look up from his cards as he filed through them. "Not all Pokemon have to have an evolution. Some can be lonely... Others can have large families of evolution. It just depends," he shrugged simply, sighing under his breath.
John nodded and pursed his lips again, feeling like Hamish was acting a bit quiet. "With these cards, are they just for decoration and trade? Or can you actually play with them?" He wanted to keep him talking.
Hamish stood up and walked over to the desk and placed three pristine electric cards along with the others. "You can trade and play with them. You trade them to get more better and powerful cards." He paused for a moment, thinking back over his sentence. "You trade them to get more powerful and better cards. Sorry..." He mumbled. "But you use those cards to battle other people's, like a game. I don't have anyone to play with though, so I just collect. Everyone says that Pokemon cards are stupid... I don't think they are."
The tone in Hamish's voice broke John's heart. He sounded so accepting of the fact that there was no one to play with, and it was saddening. "I would play with you," John blurted out. He cleared his throat slightly. "I-I would be glad to play with you, 'Mish."
Hamish looked up to John, a huge smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. "The game is a lot more complicated to explain, but I think you'll get it." He said, already gathering cards from the good pile to make two decks.