"You ready to start?" I quipped, swinging my legs. I'd taken a seat on the wooden fence, and Lane had just sat cross-legged on the ground, leaning against the fence a little ways away.

"Sure. You start."

I paused, thinking for a moment. I had a ton of questions to ask, and knowing my luck, I'd only get two answered before Lane locked up on me. Social skill failure, remember? "Have you ever been to any of the other regions? Kanto, Johto, et cetera?"

"Yep. I was born in Hoenn, in Verdanturf Town – it's a little place, don't feel stupid if you don't know it – but my family and I moved to Hearthome when I was about three or so. We've stayed there ever since." Lane shrugged. "My turn!" He suddenly halted, his expression turning pensive. "Okay, I'm out of good ideas. Have you been to any other regions, or are you from around here?"

"I'm from...very, very far away from here. A region called America, from...Texas City." I supplied. Close enough. "I started my training here, though, and while Sinnoh is the only region I've visited aside from my own, I do know pretty much everything about the other regions and their Pokemon. I blame too much reading." Lane simply nodded to this, looking a little confused at the name America. "Either way, me again. Why is your hair gray? Aren't you a little young for gray hair?"

"Genetics. I was born with it. Besides, there are some people with weirder natural colors. Green, blue, even pink here and there. I got my gray the same way you got your dirty blonde."

"Brown," I intervened.

"Whatever, brown. Next question. Do you have any siblings?"

"Please, don't remind me," I groaned melodramatically. "Three brothers live with me and my parents back at home. I have a blended family. Two of them are my stepbrothers, and the littlest is my half-brother. Same mom, different dad. And then I've got another half-brother, and a half-sister that live far from me. I'd give an arm to have a sister I could see regularly, but...meh."

"Really? I've got more than enough sisters to spare, you can have them." Lane snickered. I stuck my fist in the air.

"Deal, buddy! My turn again. How long have you had your Pokemon, and which was your first?"

"Since I was six, and my first would be Yoshika. My oldest sister goes to other regions a lot on business – she's an adult now – and she brought Yoshika back as a sort of present for me, since I wasn't really allowed out of the house then, and I 'needed a friend', as she put it."

"I see." This little explanation roused at least a dozen more questions, but I shoved them back down. His next question came just a few second later, and it took me by surprise.

"What are you scared of?" I didn't expect anything so direct, and certainly not something so potentially troublesome. But it couldn't really hurt to answer – my fears weren't anything too bad.

"Oh, so many to choose from..." I joked. "Well, when I was littler, I used to be terrified of spiders...spider Pokemon, but now I'm pretty much only genuinely afraid of two things. Needles – as in the doctor's office vaccination type needle, not pine needles or sewing needles or anything. That'll rile me to tears in record time. My other fear is more long term though. I'm...I'm a clingy person. There is next to nothing I wouldn't do for a friend of mine that I trust and love. I'm absolutely terrified of losing my friends, especially when I'll never get to see them again. That will drive me to near insanity. Losing a friend will keep me up at night, tug at my mind every spare second I'm left alone with my thoughts, and generally make my life suck."

Lane seemed to process this for a bit before nodding. "I can understand that. It's never really been a problem for me, but I get where you're coming from."

"What are you scared of, then?" I prodded. "I told you, now you tell me." He stared for a bit, his eyes narrowing just a little – I doubt I would have noticed if he'd been any farther away – but he did eventually answer.

"Dying. Dying and being forgotten, but mostly dying." he told me. "I've been afraid of that for as long as I can remember."

I shivered, the topic unnerving me a little. "Yeah, gotta agree with you there. I don't want to die."

"What sane person does? I can't understand how people could be suicidal. Throwing your life away because someone broke up with you or something? Ridiculous." Lane's voice had taken on a harsh, bitter tone. The questions started bubbling up again, and it took a lot more effort to strangle them this time.

"Well, I doubt you'll be forgotten." Suddenly it occurred to me – Lane. Lane wasn't an important character in the game, did not exist in the game, and thus should not exist for me to socialize with in my current situation. This suggested the absurd proposition that I was not in my game, and somehow managed to dream all this madness up (which would be a feat even for my lucid dreaming self). It struck me as ironic that Lane feared being forgotten when he probably wasn't even real in the first place, but I shook this off. It can't hurt to see how this ends up, crazy lucid dreaming or no. Besides, this is fun, sore muscles and stiff joints aside.

"Huh? Did you say something?" Lane snapped me back to reality, his look one of true bewilderment. "Coulda sworn you said something, but..."

"What did you think I said?" I asked, confused myself now. He shrugged.

"Didn't catch much, but it was something about dreaming and fun or something..." He rolled his eyes. "Ignore me, I'm just being an idiot again."

This freaked me out. Lane hadn't been very specific, but he was spot-on to what I was thinking. I did eventually shake this off, assuming it to be a very lucky coincidence of sorts, but it still clung with me a bit.

"Well, next question. Your turn, Lane." I pushed, hoping to get away from that topic while there was still a chance. The subject change worked, and my next question came immediately. "Favorite color."

The game took a more petty direction after that, and after the exchange of a few trivial things, like said colors (mine's purple, his is red) and some other little things, it more or less turned into a game of Would You Rather. While I was still curious about what I hadn't gotten answered, I was glad to see that he was actually enjoying the conversation, getting used to me more or less.

A full hour of this passed (hey, who doesn't like Would You Rather?) before my Pokemon, who had just been socializing off by themselves, started putting up a fuss. For once, it was easy to tell what they wanted, since my own stomach was trying to gnaw on itself.

"Okay, lunch break, then we get back to...doing productive things."

"Like what?" Lane asked, standing and stretching. I just shrugged in response. There was still a good part of the route behind us that we hadn't yet covered, there was always room for training, the Lost Tower was calling my name... My thoughts were promptly interrupted by an eager suggestion from Lane.

"The Solaceon Ruins! I heard those are really neat, and those symbol Pokemon are there!" I got cold chills when he hinted at the Unown – reading the Lost Silver creepypasta once upon a time hadn't scared me then, but I'd had time to stew on it. But by this point Lane looked to be very revved up about visiting these ruins, so who was I to kill his fun? Maybe I could just go train or something while he looked around.

"Uh, sure, you go ahead and do that. But I'm not much of a fan of the ruins, so..."

"Oh, c'mon, it'll be fun!" Lane pleaded. This exchange continued for a while, eventually condensing to a simple 'yes, no, yes, no' fight, until I broke down and said okay. He allowed himself a brief moment to shoot me a 'Ha, I won' look before he bolted for the edge of town, and the large rocky hill that housed the ruins. I had no choice but to follow, and my team allowed me to reball them for the time being, minus Kira. He stayed with me.

Next stop, the local region ruins.