The whole room was silent. Tony stopped recording for a moment and stood up, stretching his arms. Curio occupied herself by downing the rest of the beer bottle until there was no more left. Well, she tapped the bottom of the glass, trying to get a few last droplets out of it. Shine went to his trainer for comfort, letting Tony stroke his head as he thought about Curio's interview.

He knew a part of it already from what she told him at his bedside, but hearing her confrontation with M first hand put the rest of it into perspective. He knew everything of that event that was previously repressed: M's run in with the Luxio pack, his sister, the grave in the wild base. It would still take a while for Shine to fully process as the spot ached where the missing eye was, but the fog in his mind lightened up at least. For Curio to bear the brunt of that and be the dominant storyteller there, surely that must've taken a toll on her too.

"Do we still want to continue?" Tony asked, slumping onto the chair. "Your choice, you two."

Both Shine and Curio nodded in reply.

"I've gotta wrap up something," Curio said. "The worst is over for now, so I might as well cap this off with what happened. I think you get the picture though about M."

"Yes." Tony frowned, looking to Shine. "I, er, still don't know what to think about that Marowak, though I want to be impartial for this interview."

"Think what you want; I don't care." Curio took a deep breath, tilting the bottle in her metal arm. She looked at it as if she was inspecting the label on the glass. "Random question: what are your parents like, Tony?"

That came out of nowhere. Where was she going with this?

"I'm sorry?" he said.

"Ah, you don't hafta answer if you don't wanna. I just wanna know if they treated you right."

"Ah." Tony placed his hands on his lap, drumming his fingers on them. "Well, yes. They were tough times. We weren't exactly well off, after all, but we pulled through together. And I still talk to them, even though they're in Alola, so that says something about our bond, at least."

"I liked them when they came down here," Shine said in the midst of his head pats. "They seemed more like friends with Tony than, you know."

Tony chuckled, ruffling Shine's mane. "You're not the only one who says that."

"Well, not everyone can say they go on pub crawls with their parents, I don't think."

"Sounds like the dream, there, going out with your parents and such." Curio sighed, gripping the bottle tighter in her metal fist. "I asked because of this M thing. His mother, and you know, the thing with my Dad and Bolt and whatnot. You know what, fuck those three. Fuck the lot of 'em."

The mood of the room changed. Shine straightened his back, fixing his gaze on the subject on the couch.

"You know, if I were in their shoes, I wouldn't have done that, no matter how hard it was. Whatever you're goin' through, you don't take that shit out on your own kids."

She sighed, closing in her metal fist on the glass.

"I, just, I just don't understand why they had to be such horrible people. Why do-"

The bottle shattered in her hand, fragments falling into her lap. Curio immediately sprang up, wiping the glass off of her and onto the couch as she muttered various swears under her breath. Shine also sprang for the dustpan and brush, grabbing it with his mouth and dropping it by Curio's side.

"Sorryic!" Curio hiccuped. "Sorry, didn't mean to make a mess."

"No, that's fine, Curio." Tony downed the rest of his bottle. "But I know what you mean. It's hard being a parent. I just consider myself lucky I was raised by the right people." He hummed to himself. "I can't say I've experienced something like that in my childhood."

"Yeah, well, good." She was done picking all of the bits up as she placed the dustpan in the corner of the room. For good measure, she patted herself down before sitting back on the hot seat. A moment passed. And then, Curio laughed, stifling herself with her paw. Shine looked on, unnerved by all of this. He didn't want to go as far as to say that about Bolt, even though the heartache was real. But was that the right reaction for him to have?

"Oh, sorry, I don't find any of this funny, just, aw man." She clutched her chest, still snickering. "Okay, I'm good. Might just be the booze talkin'."

"You sure?"

"Yup. Homestretch, baby. Nowhere else to go from here but up. Yaaaaaaaay."

(Okay, so. Sorry, I don't have a good question for all of this. My head's a little overstuffed at the moment.)

It's fine. I said you needed a drink for that.

(True. So, what happened? With Shine? With M? And after all of that with GeL?)

Well, lots of things. But let's just get to the part where GeL finally went 'don't let the door hit your tail on the way out' to M. Not that we wanted to, but whatever.

For his last day, M returned to the wild base with us, and naturally, everyone there was on guard. When your school is basically your dorm as well, word spreads fast. Since it was his last day, I tmade sure nobody turned on him while I was around. The first thing he did was check out the plaque by his sister's grave. Indeed, it read 'Camellia (for M)', with a new bundle of fresh flowers. That Marowak stared at it for a while.

"Ca… aa… mmmmmmm…" M traced his claw over the inscribed letters, repeating them in order. "Ca…me-lee-ah. F-o-r M…" He pointed to himself, a smile spreading across his face. "That's my name!"

"You read that?" I asked, perplexed.

"Y-yes, I think." M sat back, bringing his paws to his lap. "I tried to learn what they taught me. It didn't work. But now, I…"

"Again, you learnt something. You know what numbers and letters are. You're aware of yourself. You should be proud of those things."

"Maybe. Maybe I'd like to learn later. But I don't belong here. Not smart enough."

"That's nonsense." I sat back with my paws behind my head, staring up at the fake sky. Even though it wasn't real, it was still nice to look at every once in a while with all those blues and whites. I took a deep breath, imagining I smelled cut grass around me, if I knew what scent that was. "Smarts don't matter. I'm not smart. And I know you tried as well, so you weren't just goofing off. They said it wasn't your fault."

"I know." He stood up, appearing above me. "I like it here. The Pokemon are nice. The staff are nice." His eyes drooped. "I'm not nice. I've hurt people here; I can't change that. And I don't want to be enemies to everyone here." He sat back down in front of me, cradling himself. "Will… will Shine see me? I want to say I'm sorry before I go."

I saw Shine in the infirmary a few times, since I was allowed to now, and for the first day or so, he took it really hard.

(It was like my brain was being poked by a skewer non-stop with my eye missing, even when I was hooked up to the charging station.)

Yeah, basically that until he took the painkillers. He was a bit slower on the uptake since he was constantly tired, but at least he could've talked that way. So in short, I relayed what I had learnt about M through that aura-digging session, and from there, he asked specifically if he could see M at some point, only if he wanted to, which was a no brainer.

"He's up," I said, looking to the door. "And yeah, he should be fine with that, but it might be a bit of a shock when you see him."

However reluctant he was, I knew he wanted to power through it regardless. So, M tilted his head up, determined. "Alright, let's go."

So, infirmary time again. I stopped outside the door to take a breather, holding onto M's paw just so he could be seen with a guardian. While I was allowed on certain grounds, I didn't just want to barge in, so I tapped at the door with my spike.

"Yes?" The nurse peered out, eyeing me first. "Oh, Curio, of course! And…" Who else did it lead to but M? Her face took on a more sour expression then, as if M had just guffed in the halls.

"It's fine," I said. "Shine wants to see him, and there's no… wait a sec." Never mind where I put the dang thing, but I pulled out a note from Cartwright saying M was under my supervision.

"Do you mind if I stay in the room then?" She crossed her arms, still not pleased by the whole thing, and who could blame her? "I was still in the middle of doing a check up on Shine, and, well, you know. But I trust you."

She stepped back, allowing me and M to enter. You know what the infirmary looks like by now, so just focus on Shine for now. His wounds were all patched up, and even though that bed was hideously oversized for a Luxio, it looked comfortable. It didn't change the fact that his eye was missing. Still no chance of bringing that back. But when he saw me, Shine smiled and tried to adjust himself in bed so he could sit up. He only had the energy to move his paw.

"Curio," Shine croaked, "you… brought…" That was when he caught M. His lips creased into a frown, though on closer inspection, I didn't see any anger inside it, just trepidation. I didn't even need to look into his aura that time; if he was outright scared, he would've curled up into a ball there. Still, when M saw Shine again, I had to reassure him that everything was fine since he squeezed my paw.

"He won't lash out at you," I whispered, kneeling over to him, "just relax."

M muttered, trying to form the words under his breath. "Okay." He sighed and looked to Shine. "S-Shine. I'm… sorry."

Silence. Dead silence. I could tell he had more to say, but again, had trouble putting it into exact words. Kind of like me when I started learning the human tongue. Shine seemed rather perplexed, as much as he could've reacted in that drug-fueled haze. I knew the meat of it though, so I wanted to throw him a bone. "Do you want me to help?"

He shook his head. "Won't count if I don't do it myself. I…" M continued, glancing at the spot where Shine's right eye used to be. "I… wasn't thinking. You… not your fault. All mine. All mine. I…"

M pulled himself away from my paw and ran to the corner of the room, taking deep breaths. The nurse was still wary of him, and I suspected she would've taken action if he was left to his own devices, so I stepped in, joining M.

"I…" he said, "can't do it. Can't. He'll never forgive me."

"Hey," I whispered, stroking the back of his head, "Shine's nice. I'm sure he'll understand, and besides, you did say you were sorry right there. So…"

I hoped Shine would respond, and fortunately, he had his paw up, wanting to speak. So I tried to wrangle M back there. "Let's hear what he has to say. It'll be fine."

His breathing slowed, and in time, he took my paw again as we walked to the side of the bed. Shine gained a little bit more strength and turned to his side to look straight at the Marowak.

"You… went through a lot… I'm sorry… you…"

"No, no, no." M shook his head violently. "Why are you sorry? You did nothing."

"Those… never mind. Curio told me."

I'm not sure if M was pleased to hear that, but who else would've let Shine know about what happened?

"I-I'm still scared," he said, a little more lucid this time. "I can't forget about that day, that moment when you chased me up the stairs. I thought I was going to die. Do you know what that feels like?"

M went stiff. "You… Yes. Like… everything goes slow."

"Yes, that."

More silence. It was starting to become deafening at that point, and wanting to break it, I just dropped into the conversation. "…and?"

"Sorry." Shine forced a laboured chuckle. "I… know what to say, but have a hard time saying it." He pondered for a moment, then at last, back to M with a slight smile. "I think I understand. You…um… you must've been just as scared as me, I guess. So… I…" One peek into him said forgive, but for whatever reason, he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. I knew he wanted to, though.

Before he could complete that thought, the door opened. Bolt stepped in, that Manectric I knew all too well. I watched as he entered, suppressing the urge to lash out at him, especially since he was in the same room as Shine. He went to the nurse first, asking her if he could see Shine as well, which she accepted. Then it was his turn to stand next to Shine. I half expected Bolt to lecture him again about being weak, but to my surprise, he licked his face, getting a chuckle out of Shine.

"Tickles," he said.

"I guess so," Bolt grumbled, looking to M next. He licked him across the face as well, which seemed to snap the tension between them. "Oh, M, you look a lot better than you did before."

"S-sorry," he said. "For knocking you out, and for Shine. I dunno if he—"

"I know what you're thinking. Sorry if I interrupted you two. We're going to leave soon." He stepped back, clearing his throat. "But first, I wanted to apologise for the trouble I caused you three."

That came as a surprise. "You did?" I blurted out, regretting it. Bolt just grunted in response, brushing it to the side.

"If I had been more aware of both your troubles, Shine, M, this wouldn't have happened." He looked to Shine first. "I… should have listened to you before when you were trying to talk about your problems."

"Yes," Shine said, frowning. "S-sorry, but I can't forget that either."

"That's fair. And M," to the Marowak next, "well, you'll see. I'll tell you more about it later, okay?"

He hummed to himself, looking to Shine once more, since this probably would've been the last opportunity to say anything. Slowly, he approached that bedridden Luxio, cautiously raising his paw to touch his. I kept my guard up in case anything else happened. Thankfully, nothing did, as Shine grasped at his paw, holding it there and looking into each other's eyes. They lingered on that moment for a long time as Bolt patiently waited beside the bed. Both their thoughts were in tune with one another, saying what words couldn't have expressed. Finally, M released his grip and joined Bolt as he headed for the door.

I followed, and in the hallway, there was the ranger, Lucy the co-director, Azzy the teacher and his human partner Mack.

"Thank you, Curio," Lucy said with a reluctant bow as M and Bolt joined the group. "We'll take it from here."

As relieved as I was to have M off my paws, it seemed like things were whizzing by too suddenly. Already, we were about to say our last goodbyes before seeing each other off.

"Um," I started in human, "where is he going?"

M cocked his head, trying to listen into my speech, though whether or not he understood it was up in the air. Putting that aside, Lucy stepped forward, about to explain.

"He'll be under Bolt and the ranger's supervision. Part of the ranger's duty is rehabilitating wild Pokemon, but this isn't an ordinary case, is it?"

"No." The ranger took her gloves off and rubbed her bare hands. "GeL's contacted a professor, someone who can give M more of a closer look, but for now, he'll be under my wing."

"And, well…" Bolt sighed as static bristled across his fur. "I'm out of a job anyway." Before Lucy could respond to that, he chuckled. "But they said I'd be better off looking after M and helping out the ranger. They need more Pokemon like me, apparently."

"I mean, takes a wild mon to know a wild mon, doesn't it? Bonus points if they can talk."

"Indeed. Well, we still don't really know what to do with him. The poor guy's still undecided, but—"

"I want to help as well," M said, turning back to his tutor. You should've seen Bolt's expression; anything other than resting bitch face was an odd look on him. "If… um, if there are other wild Pokemon that are struggling out there, then I want to find them." M touched one of his scars, running his paw across his face. "They don't deserve to go through what I went through."

We were taken aback by that. Of course, I was happy to hear that after all he said, but it still didn't erase his past. Bolt smiled though, and relayed what he said in the human tongue. Finally, the ranger knelt down to pet M without fear, and he lowered his head to allow her to run her fingers through his scales. Better than him almost chomping her hand off.

While they were doing their own thing, I looked to Azzy and Mack, who both had bags slung across their backs, since I guessed they were clearing house.

"What about you guys?" I asked, still a bit saddened that they quit, well, more for Azzy. I had talked to Mack occasionally, but there was nothing too special between us, so I barely mentioned him for a lot of this interview to be honest. "Did you talk things out with GeL?"

"Yes," that blue rabbit said, "we've mostly patched things up, but me and my partner decided it was better for the both of us to leave anyway."

"I was kind of piddled off with how they handled your family stuff myself, for what it's worth," Mack said.

"I-it's fine," I said, still unsure. "I understand why they did it."

"Yes, we respect that." Azzy frowned. "After everything else that happened, we just couldn't. So, me and Mack are going to go back to do what we did before this project."

He talked about it a few times, but basically, before GeL approached the two, they had travelled through a lot of different regions to pass on their skills to Pokemon, hired by quite a few clients who were interested in teaching their Pokemon the human tongue amongst other things. What they were doing wasn't really illegal since they were just doing it privately, not as a whole schooling thing like GeL were doing. And they were getting a bit of bank from it as well, depending on who hired them.

"That sounds nice." I hummed, trying to process my thoughts on the whole thing. "Still sucks to see you go like that, teach."

"I know." Azzy took my paw. "It's a shame to leave everyone here behind after teaching them for so long. But I've made my goodbyes and they seem to be doing fine, so I wish them all the best. And you especially…" He leaned in for a hug and I returned it carefully with my chest spike still there. "I hope you'll find your place here."

My place, huh? Since everything went Aspear-shaped, I hadn't decided what my place was or even if I'd continue what I did before in the focus sessions. Even when Azzy pulled away from me, I still couldn't think of a reply to that. And yet…

Well, to cut the crap, I decided to stay in the end. You know as much already. At that moment, Lucy still asked if I wanted to come with them or discuss further to find somewhere else, but I had already decided. Really, I had nowhere else to go, but even if I had, I'd be missing all my friends, I'd be missing all the memories I made there, and I'd be missing out on my studies. Even if I wasn't sure where I wanted to take my art, after thinking about it and watching all those films, ideas sprouted like seeds in my head. I wanted to try my paws at a few of the things, including making those mini figurines I saw in that film. If I found a niche there, then that would carry me through to the rest of my studies. If I was being somewhat selfish, hearing M's experiences made me decide that it was better for me here.

In any case, the rest were glad to hear it, though that didn't make our last goodbyes any less bittersweet. Azzy, M, even Bolt, would be going back to the outside world while I'd be back here. Before I saw them off for good, I wanted to speak to M again, alone this time, so we did exactly that, huddled next to a wall away from the group.

By the relaxed expression in his eyes and the way he carried himself in general, he had changed somewhat. Still, I had to make sure he was alright after all that.

"M," I whispered, "you seem a lot better since… you know."

He mumbled, scratching the bottom of his chin. "I'm not sure… It's… scary, thinking about everything. I still think about Camellia. I don't think that will go away."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, not knowing that same sort of grief myself, so I just nodded.

"Things will be hard. I still get angry or sad sometimes." He smiled ever so slightly. "But… things will get better. I'm sure."

It's sounding a bit redundant at this point, but we also hugged it out before he left, except for longer than ever this time. After a while, his thoughts flooded into mine, and I saw one last memory there, of him and Camellia holding each other as they watched the sunset together. She still had the leg that time. The canvas of his mind was awash with reds, yellows, oranges and purples, with everything drenched in a warm haze. Eventually, his mother joined, wordlessly watching the two with sadness in her eyes, but she shrugged it off and joined them too, pulling them into her embrace.

And that's all she wrote.

(That's all for the second year?)

Eh, there is something else I wanna get to. But after everything with M went down, our studies continued as normal. Lucy became the new language teacher, and there weren't any problems with the gap in the staff there. Rhode stood in as my tutor from then on, who I'll get to in a bit. But with no one left to tutor Shine after he recovered, wait, who stepped in?

(Allister, the writing tutor.)

Alright, got it. So there was still a little bit of 'oh, where the hell do we go from here' after M left. But I ain't gonna talk about that. The aftermath. GeL apologising to everyone and all that. The slow build up to stuff being normal again. I will say, things got better once we put that aside. I got on with my focus and found my love for miniature sculpting instead. Once I got my paws around it, things fell into place. Others struggled, since Hans, that Ambipom, wasn't sure of where he wanted to go outside of training, except he was learning different things outside of battle that would've put him on par with a trainer. At least he was as full of piss and vinegar as ever. PZ, who had evolved into a Weavile, stopped making games, though he still wanted to code. How he did that was beyond me. Bran the Machoke kept changing subjects. I think the Gastly must've evolved into a Haunter.

Actually, her name was Poof, and I might have an interesting story to tell about her journey later. But I don't have enough time to go through her lot, so let's just focus on the bigger picture for now.

Abraxas, well, I didn't really bother. I wouldn't have peed on him if a Charmander lit him on fire. However, I didn't hear anyone else complaining about him since he got that detention, and when I passed by one of the rooms one day, I took a peek at his aura and saw him practising the cello. It sounded awful, but at least he had his energy focused on something else other than bitching for once.

There was a lot more that happened on a day to day basis, but there's literally no way I'm gonna be able to cover everything though. I'd be here until next morning yapping about it, so I'm gonna shut up and stick to one night. Do you remember what I said about Lexy playing the guitar and making a band and all that?

(Yes?)

Well, he and his friends put out a mini-album, from what I remember. I don't know what you really call those things—-

(An EP.)

Yeah, whatever, dweeb. Point is, he actually had a few songs they made up on their own, so he was performing as an opening act for another band in Veilstone and wanted people from the facility to come along, including Ellie, and, well, you guessed it, me.

(I didn't guess. Last time you talked about Lexy, you didn't seem on good terms with him.)

Yeah, well, we patched things up since then. He said he was sorry for excluding me before, so we moved on. Besides, I was his partner for the sake of his studies, so I couldn't have burned the bridge there. In any case, GeL approved my visit to the place on the condition that Rhode looked after me throughout the trip. That, and I think he needed an excuse to get out of GeL for a bit as well. But as a precaution, he gave me cozies to wear for my spikes in case I bumped into anyone, which he wore himself. They were a bit tight, but I felt a bit safer going out in the knowledge that no one would be shishkobabbed on accident.

So that marked the second time I ventured outside GeL. I'll skip the long, boring bus trip and just get to the part where we stepped out into Veilstone City. Rhode thanked the driver as he guided me down the steps. It wasn't the first time I stepped foot into that city, but it was the first time I saw the outside other than the museum. So when I stepped off, I was in some sort of... thing. It was dark and had lots of other buses, all lit up by the streetlamps. Already, there was so much aura around me, I didn't know how I'd react at first. But it was fine. I remembered Rhode's breathing exercises whenever I felt overwhelmed, and I had him by my side. So he led the way.

Going through traffic was a weird experience as a Pokemon. Having to wait by the stop lights for the first time was a bit unnerving, especially with all the honking going on. I thought the cars were gonna swerve into the pavement and hit us. But once their lights turned red and ours turned green, Rhode took my paw and guided me through the road. So we were on the other side, safe and sound. Now we were out into the actual city area, and seeing the streets in all their glory, I had to stop and take in my surroundings.

It was nice to feel the breeze on my fur for once, the sight of real trees as well as the feel of the cool concrete underneath my paws. This was smack dab in the middle of a series of buildings which shot up several stories into the sky, all with humans and Pokemon hanging around and with lights glowing through the windows, giving me a view of the people inside. Just like the windows into their rooms, their aura gave me a window into their lives. Some were just chilling and watching TV. Some were playing beer pong with their Pokemon helping out. I even saw someone's Infernape hanging upside down on one of the balconies by their tail, casually eating a berry while their trainer smoked outside. It was night, but it was a warm sort of night, and the sky was clear, filled with stars. I was in awe of the whole thing. There was so much life everywhere.

"Quite the sight, en't it, lass?" Rhode said.

"You could say that." Not that there was much to say.

The more we walked, the more the town came to life before me. Some kids were having a battle with a Piplup and Chimchar in one of the neighbourhood roads we walked through. I thought of Dawn and Ash for some reason; we still watched that show, after all. Once we got further into the city, we passed by a few entertainment centres as well, where other trainers pulled levers down on machines with blinking lights while their Pokemon watched with bated breath. That must've been a casino or something. Even further than that, a pair of Glameow brushed past my legs, which got my attention. They seemed to be strays with their fur all frayed and their coat having some sort of slimy sheen to it. They stopped to stare at us two for a bit, then went on their way as they strutted through the streets, long tails intertwined with one another.

Sue me, I saw into their auras. They had seen a lot. Territory fights that ended in deaths. Motherless cubs roaming the streets. They also saw figures completely clad in black clothing, which was a complete mystery to me. But at least they had each other. The times they'd spent curled up beside air vents on the rooftops, keeping away from the cold night. The times they'd work together to catch their prey. The times they thought of having a litter together. Those thoughts and fleeting comforts would've been enough to last them through even the harshest winters.

"What you thinkin' about?" Rhode asked, patting my shoulder. Right, back to reality. Well, honestly, I was still in a lovestruck haze, but I didn't want to admit that to my tutor.

"Nothin'." I glanced to where the feline duo disappeared. "C'mon, let's go."

It would've only been a few more minutes until we reached our destination, according to Rhode. But during that walk, that gave me time to think, time to look back at that couple. I guess I hadn't really thought about those sorts of feelings before. There wasn't anyone that really interested me, not yet, but still, there was that growing hunger. Like something you didn't know you wanted yet, but felt was right anyway.

"You've got plenty o' time there, lass," Rhode blurted out. That was random. Or… wait, I connected the dots and snorted.

"None of your business!" I yelled. "Jeez, invasion of privacy, much?"

"You're one ta' talk, how many times've you peeked in my mind?"

"That's different! And hey, we all know you have the hots for Lucy!"

"I—" That must've touched a nerve. "I walked right into that one. Well, we have a… let's say, professional relationship."

"Excuses." I stuck my tongue out.

"Do that again and I'll yank it off." He gave me a wide smille. "But nah, don't feel like you hafta find a partner yet, lass. And when you do, well, keep that between yourselves, but just know it's a healthy thing to explore while you're in you-know-what. Oh!" He stopped, putting his paw in front of me. "I will let you know somethin' else. That place that must not be named, well, in time, once you're a bit older, you can start going out on yer own trips."

"Really?"

"Yeah. That won't be for some time though. Until then, come next year, we'll be doin' something like group trips as well. How'd you like that?"

Those all sounded exciting back then, even more so later on when we'd go on them for real. But that's for another time. We still had a gig to attend. So, a few minutes later, we reached our destination, going into an alleyway to where the club was. In my head, I expected it to be much bigger from the outside, but amongst the other shops that were closed, the doors to the venue were open where a few humans waited outside with kits, some of them smoking. All of them were clad in some sort of makeup or ridiculous hairstyle, but amongst those, I picked out the one with the green mohawk as Lexy. Ellie was by his side, wearing shoes this time, thank god. Lexy picked us two out and waved at us.

"Hey!" he called, "glad you could come!"

"I wouldn't 'ave missed it for the world!" Rhode said as he approached, attracting the attention of Lexy's other groupies. I came in too, though I took a step back when I got a bit too close to the cigarette stink.

"Duuude," one of the younger members said, "did he just…"

"And his t-shirt, holy crap!" Another member pointed at Rhode's chest, which had a pattern of 4 black bars with some bold text to go along with it. "Didn't know Pokemon listened to Obb Stag!"

He just shrugged. "Didn't know there was a rule that Pokemon couldn't. I'm a patron o' the arts all the same!"

"Damn straight." Lexy said. "Oh! I didn't tell you about them, did I? These are my friends, Rhode and Curio!"

Rhode just smiled while I awkwardly waved. Friends was a bit of a stretch since we were mostly classmates, but it was nice to be called that.

"What do they do?" the older member said.

"Can he speak too?" the young guy said, pointing to me. Okay, what?

"She," I corrected. "Do I really look like a guy?"

"I think you got your answer there, mate," Ellie said, trying to hold back her laughter. The younger member slunk behind the group in response to that.

"I mean," Rhode chimed in, "in all fairness, it ain't obvious, is it? We kinda look the same, like a lot of Pokemon. But let's say I was a girl. What am I supposed ta' do, put on makeup?"

"Okay, okay, whatever." Lexy put his hand up, reigning it in. "But yeah, Rhode, well, it's a bit hard to explain, but Curio here's an artist!"

I put my paws behind my back. "Eh, I'm still learnin'…"

"You're too humble, Curio!" Ellie said, patting my arm. "I mean, with all the lessons we've had together, I think you've come a long way!"

"So your girl's worked with her before?" the older member asked Lexy. He nodded in reply. "Huh, well colour me curious."

Before I could respond to any of that, Rhode pulled something out of his own backpack: a miniature model of a Riolu sat atop a tree. That took weeks of work, with me just figuring stuff out on the fly, like how to cobble the right materials together and learning how to paint it. It was still pretty basic and I didn't really want massive amounts of praise for it. The older member thankfully hummed and said "not bad."

"Again, still learnin'." I smiled, seeing how interested the others were. "I wanna make better stuff than this, so I've been practisin' a lot."

"Fair play," the older member said. "Keep at it."

Rhode put it back in his bag; any longer and I probably would've begged him to stop showing it off, then Lexy gestured to his group.

"We should be ready for the sound check soon, so we better go in. See ya, Els."

She smiled as they went in with their instrument cases, but not before they waved at us too. My insides felt like Butterfree were fluttering in them, but still came away from that conversation pleased. So anyway, we came in after them, going down the steps to some sort of underground club.

Humans crowded around the bar and stage areas with no Pokemon in sight at all; the odour of sweat and beer surrounding us. The floor was sticky as well, which I groaned at. Already, I felt out of place there, and that wasn't even getting into how damn noisy the place was. There was chatter all around, and even though I suppressed my aura, with that many people smooshed together, it felt crowded in there. Music blared from the speakers as well, which was not only loud, but aggressive, with lots of drums, distorted guitars and growly vocals. Seeing this, Rhode handed me a set of earplugs, which wasn't really designed for my canine ears, but did the job well enough that it stopped being so overwhelming.

"Nervous?" he asked, which I nodded to. "It's natural."

"Don't other Pokemon come to this place at all?"

"Nah, lass. It's not really meant for them in mind, though I'm sure there's some that come in here. It's not like we're banned or anythin'."

"True." I glanced at a few of the patrons, some old, some new, that stared at us.

"Hey, listen," Rhode said to me in the human tongue, I guess for their benefit. "Don't worry about the looks we're gettin'. I'm sure they don't mind us here, and that they're just interested, is all."

"But what if someone doesn't want me here and—"

"Ah, bollocks to that. You know what, if anyone tries to pee on your parade, tell 'em to get stuffed. It's not their problem and they shouldn't be yours, understand?"

The bystanders turned away from us. I took it they got the picture, but I still wasn't sure. I didn't want them to feel awkward around us, and from what I read with their aura, that was definitely the case. Not antagonistic, just not sure how to react with me around. There it was again, that feeling of being singled out. I turned towards the front door and would've walked if it wasn't for Rhode's paw brushing against mine.

"Hey. Y'want a drink? Nothing stiff, just something that might ease you in a bit."

Despite my fears about how this would all go down, I couldn't say no to free stuff. Hooray for mooching off of people, I guess. I won't go through the whole process of ordering, though it was my first time actually giving money to a human in person. Rhode let me handle the remaining change, and when the person behind the bar asked for the money, I counted it up and gave it to him, trying not to notice how slow I was going with the line behind me. But anyway, I passed that stage, and we both had a pint of cola to drink from, so we sat in a quieter place of the club where there was a free couch for us to sit on. At last, time to relax. I took a sip of my drink; the first time I had anything fizzy like that, mind you, and hiccuped. Well that was something, but it tasted nice anyway, and I took another cautious sip.

"Yeah, not the healthiest thing, mind," Rhode said, taking a swig of his own, "lots o' sugar. But think of it as a treat."

"Thanks a lot, teach." I swirled the pint glass in my paw and sighed, glancing at the walls. Guitars, punk posters and records were mounted on there, giving it a retro vibe, not that I was cultured enough to understand that. Still, it gave the place a nice atmosphere, or it would've been if it weren't for the presence of the other humans. "Does it… get easier?"

"Huh—hic!" Even Rhode found the drink a bit too much for his taste buds. "Huh?"

"I mean, talkin' to humans, or at least bein' with them. When I'm on my own with 'em, I'm fine, but in a place like this… I still dunno. Just so many people in one small place."

"Yeh, I get what you mean." He patted me on the back and smiled. "I do think you've come far though. And that's somethin' we'll work on building your confidence with next year. Once we start goin' out more, we can give you more freedom there. Just take it in little steps."

"Yeah, I guess so."

He hummed, taking another swig.

"I put you on the spot earlier with that figure thing, didn't I?"

"Oh, n-no, just not what I expected." Another awkward sip. "It's not like I—" Another poorly timed hiccup. "Not like I'm like a pro or anythin'."

"Still, no shame in showin' it off. And who's to say you won't be?"

I sank further in my seat, still feeling under pressure. Again, I enjoyed making art, but whether I could make something of myself doing just that, I didn't know. And those were big shoes to fill, even though it was impossible for me to wear them. At least it seemed to be.

"Okay, okay, I don't wanna heap too much on you, lass." He leaned back. "But you have plenty of time. These clowns here—" he gestured to the row of humans lining up— "they've had lots of time to go through life an' fail. Twenty years, thirty years, even more. You're barely even four years old, a teenager in human years, if I recall. Plenty of time left for you to just explore stuff, huh?"

He gently nudged my arm with his elbow.

"I mean, yeah, there's lots of stuff I wanna do. But what if I do… just okay? What if I don't end up havin' my stuff up on display or somethin'? Would that still be enough?"

"That's not the point." Rhode put his glass down on the table. "We're not expectin' you to change the world or make lots of money or become famous or whatever. You don't need to impress anyone, really." He turned to me with a warm smile. "Just do what makes you happy."

That got me to smile as well.

"Anyways…" Rhode took his glass once more. "The world's your Cloyster. Don't mean to be schmaltzy or whatever, but I believe in you lot, no matter what you guys do. Let's just make the most of it, huh?" He raised his glass between us, tipping the bottom forward. "Cheers to another three years!"

I saw that glass-clinking move before in a movie and wanted to do the same. In my excitement, I raised my glass too and nudged it against his. He glugged his and I did the same with mine, swigging it down in one big mouthful. It might've turned into a bit of a belching contest after, but I'll spare you the details.

So, time passed, and eventually, Rhode guided me to the pit in the middle. It was cramped in there, and I was worried my spikes would catch someone when I remembered I had those protective covers on. Still, I had never been in such a crowd before. That Butterfree feeling rose up again, and it wasn't just the fizzy stuff in my system. Then, Lexy and his band came along to a quiet mix of cheers, instruments all in hand.

No fancy intro, no bells and whistles. Lexy strummed the first distorted notes of his guitar and the band joined in, crashing drums cymbals, slapping bass strings, and the young member in the front yelling into the mic. This was a far cry from the stuff Lexy played during our check up sessions together. For the first minute, it just seemed like noise, and I just stood there, taking it all in while the rest in front bobbed their heads in rhythm. Was I not getting it at all? I thought about turning away when Rhode joined in, doing some sort of a jig. The way he stepped in tune and moved like he didn't have a care in the world; that was a new look on him. I tapped my feet along with the song, finding a groove there, and then, just danced.

I lost myself in the rhythm. I became yet another figure in the crowd, stepping in time and stomping my paws to the pounding amps. There was no other feeling like it, not even watching films, making art, or battling, it was something completely different. It was great and fun and tiring, but really awesome and…

Okay, I'm gonna shut up now.