farawayplace | [in which the rich brat has to work for the first time in his life, probably]

"Thank you. I'll have that, then."

He still clearly had no idea how to handle money, he picked everything! On someone else's budget, which didn't seem to occur to him until after Gold pays.

"... I'll make it up to you."

...That is a bit more money than Gold was expecting. He can't help a bit of a cringe when he sees the amount, but pays for both of them anyway.

"It's fine, it's fine," Gold says anyway, waving Trip off and grabbing the oden bowls and the chopsticks, and giving Trip his, along with the receipt. "Just pay me back when you can."

Once they leave the store, Gold asks "So, where do you wanna eat? I'm fine eating here, but if you wanna eat somewhere else that's cool." As long as they don't go too far, since he's not sure how far Trip can go in his condition. Gold then takes the cover off his bowl and takes a sip of the broth, before putting the cover back. "Mm, tasty." It's nice and hot too, perfect for a cold day like this.

Actually seeing the price made him cringe too. He just had no idea how much things costed... he's never had to think of it before.

"I will, I promise."

Being asked where he'd like to eat just made him feel guiltier.

"... anywhere's fine. Here's good. Listen, I'm sorry."

He set his own bowl down on the nearest surface and pulled up his sleeve to take off a blue-accented black watch of some sort. "Here, my Xtransciever. I don't want you think I'm some scummy guy who took advantage of your kindness. If I don't pay you back in time, you can sell it. It might not be as popular here as it is in Unova, but it's still good tech, and you can still make calls with it. access the internet..."

It's probably not the smartest thing to give up right now, when it was one of the ways he listed to contact him, but parting with his camera's unthinkable, so... pawning off the Xtransciever.

Gold stares at the offered device with surprise. That looks pretty expensive, and way more advanced than Gold's Pokegear. He's really itching to accept it and keep it, but...

"Isn't your phone number on those flyers you put up?" Gold asks, looking dubious. "So if you give me that, I'm just gonna get calls from people looking for you. No thanks."

Since Trip did say it's fine to eat here, Gold sits down on the ground with his back leaning against the store wall, the bowl in his hands. He puts his disposable chopsticks away in his pocket since he never did learn how to use them.

"Let's just eat before you worry about paying me back, alright?" Gold says, brings the bowl of oden to his lips, grabs a daikon slice with his teeth, and bites into it with a satisfying crunch.

"You're... right," Trip said, bringing it back closer to him, frowning.

Why didn't he think of that? A little cold and hunger shouldn't make it this hard to think, should it?

"... sorry. I couldn't think of anything else. I just have my camera and my Pokemon and I can't give up either..."

Gold's suggestion sounded best, so he took up his soup again and leaned against the same wall.

The smell from Gold's bowl was really good (or at least, what he could pick up from it with the wind blowing much of it away), so Trip was eager to dig in too. He wasn't the best at using his chopsticks either, but when Gold put his away, he pouted in disappointment, but said nothing.

He really thought he could mimic Gold and learn to use his better... well, he'll just have to do his best. The nicest thing you could say about him is that he split the wood neatly and at least seems to understand the basic concept of fixing the bottom chopstick and moving the top one against it? But the chopsticks are criss-crossing aaand he just somehow lost an entire chopstick in the soup...

He didn't want to eat directly out of the bowl! The soup's delicious, but he'd rather only drink the broth directly from a bowl, he wanted to pick everything else up.

"I don't really want your Pokemon or camera either," Gold says. But Trip really seems like he wants to give him something, huh? "If it means so much to you, maybe gimme something cheap but important? Then when you pay me back, I'll give it back." He'll leave it to Trip to decide what it'd be.

While eating, Gold keeps glancing at Trip's difficulties in using chopsticks. Yep, he knows how that feels. He lets out a little laugh when Trip's chopstick falls in the soup, but tries to hide it by blowing in his soup afterwards.

"Try stabbing them with the stick," Gold advices. "That's what I do when I gotta use those." All the ingredients in oden are big enough that he figures it should work.

He made a face, trying to retrieve the fallen chopstick with its brother.

"... you know that's the wrong way, right?" he asked, still pouting a bit, but fine.

He pushed it out enough to retrieve it, although he made a face at touching the wet chopstick. Unpleasant... but it wasn't really as bad as all that, especially as it was warm and the weather was cold.

"Hmm... well, I suppose it'll be fine this one time, since I don't have any other choices."

He did! He absolutely wanted to give him something!

"Cheap, but important..."

He set down the food a moment, feeling invigorated, even having just this much of the food. "Alright, I have just the thing."

He pulled off his backpack and began searching inside of it.

"Yeah, but whatever works, works," he says with a shrug and takes a big bite of konjac. While chewing, he keeps an eye on Trip, making sure he manages to get something eaten despite his chopstick troubles.

Oh, Trip thought of something? That's nice.

Seeing him dig through his backbag reminds Gold of something, and he sets his own food down and searches through his backbag. He pulls out a bottle of milk (magically fresh and perfectly edible thanks to game mechanics) and pops it open, taking a swig. Ahh, after salty food he needed some of that.

Trip watched Gold drink... from a milk bottle... he kept in his bag and felt very confused.

Trainers from his world simply did not do that. He wondered if the milk was very recently bought or special in some way. Maybe it was like one of those long life milk boxes? He didn't really know how those worked...

Putting that aside, he very carefully carried something very small hidden between cupped hands, shielding it with reddish fingers from the cold and wind as if it were some delicate baby bird...

"Here. Keep it safe, okay?"

It was... a rather gaudy chibi keychain that resembled, should Gold recognize him, the former Champion of the Unova region Alder.

It's normal milk from a normal bag. This is just how milk and bags work. That's basic!

Gold thinks about offering Trip some milk too, but... this is something he wants to be selfish about. He got these milk bottles from his dad back in Johto, shortly before arriving in Ultern. Since he doesn't know when he'll be able to see his dad again, he wants to save the bottles for as long as possible.

And what Trip's got seems very precious to him, as well. Gold doesn't recognize Alder, but he recognizes the value. He sets his milk bottle down carefully, then accepts the keychain with both hands, cradling it with care.

"I'll keep it safe," Gold agrees with a nod. This'll go in the Key Items pocket of his bag.

~~Don't you use his catchphrase against him, Gold!~~

Seeing Gold handle it with just as much care earned a genuine smile from Trip. He felt more at ease, leaving it in Gold's care.

"Thank you. He's my goal. The person I admire the most..." he said, before sitting back down to continue his meal. "How old is the Trip you know, anyway?"

Depending on his age, he's probably already a big fan of Alder. He's partly asking just to advise keeping it out of his sight so he doesn't break it if he's very young, although he wasn't generally the kind of kid who'd break toys, which is what he might think this is...

"Huh, cool," Gold says, taking a closer look at the keychain before placing it in the Key Items pocket.

"I dunno," Gold says with a shrug. "He's like, this tall?" He shows an approximate height of how tall little Trip is next to him. He's not really a good judge of how old kids are.

Little Trip may have talked about Alder a few times to Gold by now, but it's not like Gold would recognize the man by appearance. Still, hearing Trip talk about that is ringing some bells, but is the person Trip admires still the same as the one little Trip admires? Gold doesn't want to assume.

“So, maybe seven or eight,” Trip said.

He was pretty short… might be even younger.

“It’s Alder sir. He was the Champion of the Unova region before Iris. I got to meet him for the first time around that age… might be okay if you just explain it isn’t a toy and received when I met him again.”

"Oh, so that's Alder," Gold says, settling back in his sitting spot and grabbing his bowl. "That makes sense. He's talked about him a lot. You're still a big fan?" That's kind of cute. "He's a smart kid, so I bet he'll understand if I tell him it's important to you."

"Sorry, he probably talks your ears off about him... I practically worshipped him. He's the reason for my journey. I became a trainer to fulfil a promise and..."

At the question, Trip drank a bit from the bowl, although it burned a little. Maybe he should give it a moment longer to cool..

"I wouldn't call myself a fan, not the way I was before. I still love him, but meeting him again, when I finally became a trainer... I realized I'd been naive. Maybe it's his age or maybe he just made that kind of promise to a lot of kids and I just thought I was special this whole time..."

He went quiet and watched the steam from his soup twist and billow with the wind.

"It's fine. It's fun listening to somebody talk about something they like," Gold says with a smile, and genuinely means it. Even if he doesn't know Alder, little Trip's enthusiasm about him is great.

Gold listens to Trip thoughtfully, and nods.

"I don't really have anybody I ever idealized like that," he says, "But I kinda get it. It sucks when somebody who's supposed to be good turns out to be a jerk. I met the Champion of Johto a while back and he was just... kinda scary. He almost killed a guy and didn't even care, just because the guy was in Team Rocket... Oh, that's an evil team, I dunno if you know them." He frowns, annoyed just thinking about Lance. "I'm glad I wasn't a fan of his. I hate those kinda people, who care more about morals and justice than... than actually being a good person."

Gold pauses.

"Ugh. Sorry to load all that on you," he says, kind of embarrassed. He's only just met Trip, and here he is oversharing all kinds of things. It's all because he feels so familiar after knowing little Trip. "A-anyway! Alder's not as bad as Lance, but that still sucks! You deserve better!"

And Gold ends that sentence by loudly slurping on broth like it'd hide his embarrassment.

Trip watched him quietly, then shook his head. "It's nothing... I feel the same way. It's funny... I don't usually tell anyone this stuff either."

Was it just being this hungry and tired that made him not care? He talked so much about his pride, but right now, it certainly wasn't holding back any of his words.

"... Alder sir isn't a jerk. He doesn't try to be such a great person... I guess I just idealized him, like you said, from meeting him once when I was little and from what I saw on TV. Doesn't compare to the kind of guy Mr. Lance was. I only saw Mr. Lance on TV... I kind of know Team Rocket, but not directly. They clashed a bit with some kinda... cult-like evil organization here—no, back in Unova, I mean..."

"I never ran into either team, but someone I know ran into Team Rocket once."

Bianca, another one of Ash's rivals in the Unova region.

"They definitely caused a lot of damage, though, especially to the bridges. That's as far as I've seen with my own two eyes. I guess for me, it was also just having to accept Alder sir is human, flawed like everyone else... sometimes in kind of really unacceptable ways, but I could still learn from he. He could still inspire me to become a better person. He gave good advice and answered my questions, even if he couldn't remember my name to the end."

He could still be hurt or have mixed feelings about him, but he still truly admired and respected Alder, even if it was now in a more balanced way, aware of his flaws.

After having a bit more soup, he actually laughed a little and pushed his hair out of his face. "Man, after what you said, saying that the worst I'd seen Alder sir do is nearly get arrested for obstructing Officer Jenny's work by hogging her motorcycle and flirting persistently with her... and just bothering younger women in general even after they shot him down sounds stupid."

"Yeah, I guess that's both of us then," Gold says, watching his oden steaming. Maybe there's something special about eating oden on a cold day together, while sitting on the ground and neither of you know how to eat chopsticks, that makes you want to talk.

"My bad. I dunno Alder, so I only know what you told me. I guess I gotta take you for your word and say he's all right, then. Of course Lance is worse, no question about that."

Finding out Trip actually knows about both Lance and Team Rocket is a bit of a surprise, but Trip seems to know more about the world than Gold does anyway.

"Huh... Team Rocket does bad stuff no matter where you go, I guess. Back home, too... They stole a friend's Slowpoke, and tried to steal some money from me..." Gold's expression darkens, and he glares at his oden, fingers tightening around it. "And they took over Goldenrod City." And he'd been on his way there, to save his friend, when he ended up in Ultern. It still stings whenever he remembers it. "But still, they're all still people! I can't forgive treating them like they're less than human just because they do bad things!"

He notices he's crinkling the cardboard bowl and relaxes his hold, expression going back to normal. He lets out a small laugh, before eating some of his oden, thinking things through while chewing. He swallows, then speaks up again.

"I think... even if Alder's not done such bad things, it's gotta sting more for you, right? Since you liked him so much. Me finding out Lance was awful was bad, but he was just some guy for me. I didn't feel betrayed or anything. So... I think your experience was worse than mine."

Yeah, seeing a guy you idolized flirt with younger women is definitely worse than seeing a guy's Dragonite Hyperbeam a person. Makes perfect sense to Gold.

A strange camaraderie...

He listened to Gold's story and noticed the spike of anger, before Gold calmed himself.

"Maybe it's not something that can be compared... who had it better, who had it worse, does it really matter? It still hurt, either way, and goes to show you can't put people on pedestals. They'll just disappoint you."

Trip called out his Serperior and Tranquill, Serperior coiling around him and Tranquill alighting on his arm. He offered them some of the vegetables from his bowl.

"... Castelia city got attacked a couple of times, not just the bridge, but never found out if Rocket or Plasma were behind the Venipede thing too, or not... some kind of human activity set them off, attacking humans and flooding the city."

"...Yeah, true," Gold says with a sigh. "It's not a contest of who's got it worse."

Not like he's ever really put people on pedestals... Not that he remembers, anyway. But he only really trusts people if he's seen bad sides of them already.

Gold chews on an egg while watching Trip call his Pokemon out. That's a pretty cool snake, he thinks. He feels a bit awkward not feeding his Pokemon while Trip's feeding his, but he's got plenty of food at home - er, Professor Banyan's lab, he means - for them.

"Oh, the Team Rocket back home did something kinda like that too. They were using some kinda radio waves to make Magikarp evolve. I dunno if they were gonna make them attack the city, but we stopped them pretty quickly. So maybe the Team Rocket in your world did the Venipede thing too." Gold's pretty sure by now that him and Trip are from different worlds.

Serperior notices the look and raised his head to fix Gold with a piercing glare.

"The meal is Gold's treat, Serperior," Trip said, reaching up to stroke Serperior under his chin, at which the haughty snake practically melted into the touch, smiling happily.

He watched Gold curiously after that, but still had a haughty air about him.

Tranquill didn't take much interest in Gold until after he said that... and it took Tranquill a bit longer to react or he was wholly distracted, fully focused on eating. Some time after Gold finisehd speaking, Tranquill made a soft, cooing sound, before looking at Gold, tilting his head.

"... it's possible. The Venipede were agitated by some kind of unnatural, manmade activity that sent them out of their homes. They started moving into Castelia city because they didn't have anywhere else, so they clashed with humans. They're poisonous to the touch if they don't trust you, too."

Gold just nods and smiles in response to Serperior's glare. His Pokemon, however, are less enthused about it. Still in their translucent Pokeballs at Gold's waist, they start making noise. The tinny, muted, small voices of an Umbreon and a Togetic trying to pick a fight can be heard, as well as a Furret telling them to calm down. All in Pokemon language, of course.

"Chill, guys. I'll feed you later," Gold tells them, unaware of what they're actually saying.

He smiles and nods at Tranquill as well.

"Huh, that must've sucked," Gold says and keeps eating, with no real knowledge of what a Venipede is and what the scale of the crisis was. "What's a Venipede, anyway? Some kinda poison and water-type?"

...Trip never did specify what kind of 'flooding the city' he meant.

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[1/2]

[Trip 🤝 Gold: failing at chopsticks]

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[and then, there's Cilan, who can bring out a table, tablecloth, cloche, pots, pans... from a bag]

[bags are just magic in every Pokemon world]

[yup!]

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[it is... a bit of a sore spot]

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[originally, yeah, it was supposed to be Plasma, but a real life disaster kind of... retconned it]

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