Collections of Elegant Formulas: Chapter 3
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Silver and Amanita walked together, a few paces behind Fennel, who tried to keep pace with Black and Julie while waving her arms wildly. Silver wore one of Julie’s bracelets on his left wrist, bowing out his elbow slightly as he adjusted to it. They walked a worn path through Pinwheel Forest, light filtering through the leaves.
“You know,” said Amanita, “there’s a road.”
Silver turned his head slightly, looking past her into the dark Unovan grass. “Black thinks it’s dangerous to take the direct route.” He saw a flash of red moving through the green, and lifted his head slightly; Crobat swooped past his head and flew off into the grass.
“I just want to get back somewhere with a computer.”
“The Internet will still be there when we get to Castelia City.”
Amanita rolled her eyes. “I have the Internet on my Xtransceiver. What I don’t have are the tools I need to figure out how tapping PC Box communications allows you to clone legendaries.”
“Mmh.” Silver turned his head back, scanning the trees. His eyes caught on a Pidove on a branch, or a Venipede crawling up a tree trunk; back in Johto he could spot anything suspicious, but here the Pokémon’s movements were unfamiliar and their colors stuck out. How was a Venipede supposed to be camouflaged anywhere?
“If you just imagine that the network connection is like a hose, you can’t cut the hose or the water just goes everywhere, but if you put a little pinprick in the hose, you still get water out the other end and no one is the wiser, right?”
Silver watched Eevee jump back and forth from Fennel to Julie, sometimes walking alongside them, sometimes resting in Julie’s arms. It was, apparently, possible for someone to spoil that Pokémon more than Green had.
Amanita continued talking. “The problem is turning the little jet of water you get out of the punctured hose into the water coming out the other end. It’s all water, but how do you make sure it has the same ratios of... contaminants, and such? The metaphor stops working here, but you get the idea.” Silver did not get the idea. “Because the Pokémon is digital and not analog, you actually can have the water in multiple places at the same time without having to resort to any sort of amplification.”
Crobat swooped over and landed on Silver’s shoulder briefly, touching a wing to his cheek, and then it swooped away again. Silver nodded his head, his eyes brightening slightly. When Crobat vanished back into the grass, he turned to Amanita. “I, uh-”
“But you still have the problem that every Pokémon transferred digitally has a special code embedded that binds it to a specific Pokeball!” Amanita paused for a moment and then stuck her finger in the air in front of her, her hand bouncing slightly as she walked. “There’s a way around this, though, that none of us had thought of!”
Silver coughed. “Um, isn’t that bad?”
“Yes, but it’s brilliant!” At this, Julie turned around, making eye contact with Silver briefly. Both of them made harried faces at the other. “There’s no good way to manufacture a Pokeball to fit an existing Pokémon, though. The encryption is one-way. You could conceivably brute-force one individual Pokeball’s code, but even with a birthday attack that would take quite a long time.”
“When the Pokémon was born matters?”
“It’s part of the data structure, but that’s not what a birthday attack means. It means-”
Silver raised his hand, Julie’s bracelet dropping down his wrist. “What does it mean for us?”
Amanita shrugged. “For you, it means there are a lot of Kyurems instead of a lot of everything.” She smiled, making a fist. “For me, it means I have work to do.”
-
“Greetings, Dragon Master.” Iris bowed nearly to the floor, the ribbon trails from her sash coiling on the bare wood, kicked one leg out in a flourish, and then hopped back to standing. “I come from Unova, and before that from the Village of Dragons. I request an audience.”
Lance looked over his shoulder without turning around, legs dangling off of the platform. “A formalist? Are you an islander or something? No one actually talks like that.”
Iris tapped her foot lightly, holding her arms behind her back. She leaned forward slightly. “That’s how I was taught I should greet an elder! Is that not a thing anymore? Because the bow-kick is really awful for your joints.”
“They don’t even do that anymore in Hoenn. Is Unova really that backwards?” Lance tossed a pebble into the lake, watching the ripples dissipate.
Iris leaned forward a bit more, and a bit to the left, trying to see Lance’s face. She stopped tapping her foot, stretching her arms back to balance her weight. “Is this an audience then?” Lance turned all the way around, glaring at her, and she put on her best smile. “If it weren’t you wouldn’t actually be talking to me, right?” He turned back around, and started to stand; Iris hopped back to the entranceway and called out Excadrill.
Lance turned around, holding a Pokeball, his cape billowing slightly; when he saw Excadrill, he lowered his hand, and shook his head. “Is this some kind of joke?” Iris straightened her back, and Excadrill lifted his arms, adopting a ready posture. Lance shook his head again, and put his Pokeball back on his belt. “I refuse your battle. Get out.”
Iris dug her fingernails into her palms. “A trainer traditionally does not refuse a battle.” Excadrill looked up at her, relaxing slightly, until she stamped her foot and the Pokémon returned to battle stance.
“A Dragon Trainer traditionally trains dragons. That is a... spiral mole, or something.” Lance turned back around, looking out at the water, watching a distant Dratini slide through the water. “I realize you Unovans have to make do, but you could at least have brought a Haxorus.”
Morty slid around the entranceway and put a hand on Iris’s shoulder before she could step forward. She pushed his hand off but held still, and after a few deep breaths, she recalled Excadrill, staring at the back of Lance’s head. “I expected better from a Dragon Master. I guess Johto’s just that kind of region, huh?” Lance whipped his head around, and the two glared at each other. Morty looked up at the ceiling, and made eye contact with his Gengar, who shrugged and phased onto the roof.
It could have gone worse, he supposed.
-
Living on the peak of Mt. Silver required certain adjustments to the green-haired youth’s routine. He quickly re-adjusted to a baseline state of discomfort, although he never stopped feeling cold no matter how long he spent curled up with blankets and a fire-type. There wasn’t very much to eat, although every once in a while Red would vanish for a while and come back with fresh produce and groceries - N assumed that he left the mountain, but he couldn’t actually be sure. Red would always leave Charizard behind to keep N warm, so N didn’t mind.
The top of the mountain was often too loud for speech, and so N adapted. Talking to Red was a lot like talking to Pokémon; one couldn’t get a precise answer from him, but every dip of his head or fidgeting motion had some meaning or resonance. Red’s Pokémon, particularly Lapras, were somewhat more talkative. From what N could piece together, Red and his Pokemon had fought in many battles, but decided they wanted to get away from battles and find another kind of strength. Whatever it was, they hadn’t found it yet, so other than occasionally accepting challengers, they stayed on top of the mountain.
Twice, a challenger had arrived. Both times, Red had pushed N out of sight, and held his hand out to indicate that N should not interfere. One of them was a young woman in a parka and overalls, who battled Red to a standstill. Both of them enjoyed the encounter, smiling broadly and looking almost warm when the battle was over, but they never once exchanged words. All N saw of the other was a man in a black jacket with spiky hair; this man, Red did not battle, but when he left, Red looked drained as if he and his Pokémon had fought for hours. N asked Pikachu what had happened, and Pikachu just laughed, refusing to answer.
On the coldest nights, Red would hold him while he slept, shivering, and never speak. It was the only time that N missed Black, who had whispered him to sleep every night that they were together, sometimes telling him that things would be all right well after both of them had fallen asleep. With Red, it was just that things were all right, and he expressed that through not changing anything. So when Red challenged him to a battle, N knew it was only because something was not right, and for that reason, N felt forced to accept, even suspecting that it would change something. He should not have expected to stay on the mountain forever.
-
N waved to Julie from a dark alleyway, and whisper-hissed “Hey, you.” Julie stopped short, Black and Silver continuing to walk, and stared at herself.
“How... what?” She lifted her left hand and reached out toward N, who lifted his left hand in parallel, and then started snickering, the sound slightly hoarse. Julie’s back straightened and she ran into the alleyway, nearly tackling the man in an explosion of green hair. They both smiled broadly, and N’s smile continued to grow, melding into his face as the illusion dissipated. Julie pounced on him and squeezed him tightly. “Zoroark!”
The Pokémon’s laugh resonated at multiple pitches, echoing off the walls of the neighboring buildings. “Indeed. I see in your absence you have learned to shift your appearance as well! I’m very proud of you. I didn’t think humans could do that.”
Julie pushed her hair back. “It’s much harder for us.” She peeked out the alleyway; the men had disappeared into the city, Eevee following.
Zoroark put a hand on Julie’s shoulder. “You came back because of your father, I’m sure. I want to help you.”
Julie turned around and shook her head. “I’m running away as much as I’m running toward him. I can’t fight him, I’m just helping the people who can until...” She looked up, watching a Joltik jump between the two buildings and scuttle away. “I don’t know.” She looked Zoroark in the eyes. “You’re better off staying out of it entirely.”
Zoroark laughed again, the tones darker, and dug claws slightly into Julie’s shoulder. “I am already in it. And so are you. What do your ideals tell you to do, Harmonia?”
“That I can’t fight him, even if it’s what needs to be done.”
Zoroark’s eyes closed, and the Pokemon crouched slightly, and then in front of Julie stood Julie, identical save for a teal bauble holding her hair back. She extended a Pokeball to Julie, and the trainer met her own eyes. “If it’s what needs to be done, there is always a way.” Zoroark modulated voice to speak as Julie. “Well, Harmonia, is it? Let me hear your Pokémon’s voice again!”
-
Silver and Black sat on a bench in the central square of Castelia City, Eevee curled up on Silver’s lap. Black ate a Castelia Cone, grumbling to himself.
“Of course N left.”
“You mean Julie. And she’ll be back, you’re being paranoid.”
“Look.” Black leaned way back, watching clouds gather north of the city. “I know you’re all infatuated or whatever. But she leaves. It’s what she does. She left when she lost to Ghetsis, and I didn’t see her for months. She left after we’d been dating for like two years. I guess I should be relieved that she didn’t stay that long this time.”
Silver lifted his hand to object, but then put it down on Eevee’s nape, stroking gently. The Pokemon chirred and nuzzled at his fingers. He remembered running away from Kotone, time and time again, and her seeming infinite patience in greeting him every time he came back. She must have felt this way. How did she never take it out on him? “I did that, too.”
Black sat back up. “You ran away from your rival?”
“Constantly.”
He frowned. “You don’t seem like an asshole.”
“You don’t actually know me. I’m a tremendous asshole.” Eevee looked up and nodded slightly. “But that’s not the point. The point is that she keeps coming back. This is the third time?”
Black pounded a fist against the bench, making a passer-by jump. “It’s like the hundredth time. When we were together, I’d sometimes spend weeks waiting. One time, eventually, there was nothing and I just had to give up. And now this. Just in time to see me disgraced.” He glared at Silver. “Wearing a dress, all up on some Johto fop.”
Silver looked back at Black, and lifted his hands defensively. “She’s not all up on me. And it’s not a dress, it’s just a skirt and a blouse.”
“Wait, you... There’s a difference?”
“You date women, you pick these things up.” Silver shrugged, and Black continued to stare at him skeptically. “Look, if she really left you in the lurch a hundred times, maybe you’re better off, but if there’s anyone who’s not going to think you’re disgraced for losing a Pokemon battle, it’s going to be the crazy girl who taught Zekrom Protect.” He scrunched up his face. “Protect.”
Black laughed slightly. “Okay, sure. So you don’t want to sleep with... her?”
Eevee perked up and chirred slightly, and Silver rolled his eyes. “I’m here to take out Team Rocket? You know, criminal mastermind taking over an entire continent?”
Black reached down to his hip, resting one hand on a Pokeball. This gesture caught the attention of a couple strolling by, who stopped to watch the former Champion about to battle a stranger. Black sighed and let go of the Pokeball, waving them off, and finished off his Castelia cone, the last drops stuck on his fingers. “And a jerk on top of that.”
“You have no idea.” Silver’s laugh was bitter enough that Black winced.
-
Silver and Amanita walked together, a few paces behind Fennel, who tried to keep pace with Black and Julie while waving her arms wildly. Silver wore one of Julie’s bracelets on his left wrist, bowing out his elbow slightly as he adjusted to it. They walked a worn path through Pinwheel Forest, light filtering through the leaves.
“You know,” said Amanita, “there’s a road.”
Silver turned his head slightly, looking past her into the dark Unovan grass. “Black thinks it’s dangerous to take the direct route.” He saw a flash of red moving through the green, and lifted his head slightly; Crobat swooped past his head and flew off into the grass.
“I just want to get back somewhere with a computer.”
“The Internet will still be there when we get to Castelia City.”
Amanita rolled her eyes. “I have the Internet on my Xtransceiver. What I don’t have are the tools I need to figure out how tapping PC Box communications allows you to clone legendaries.”
“Mmh.” Silver turned his head back, scanning the trees. His eyes caught on a Pidove on a branch, or a Venipede crawling up a tree trunk; back in Johto he could spot anything suspicious, but here the Pokémon’s movements were unfamiliar and their colors stuck out. How was a Venipede supposed to be camouflaged anywhere?
“If you just imagine that the network connection is like a hose, you can’t cut the hose or the water just goes everywhere, but if you put a little pinprick in the hose, you still get water out the other end and no one is the wiser, right?”
Silver watched Eevee jump back and forth from Fennel to Julie, sometimes walking alongside them, sometimes resting in Julie’s arms. It was, apparently, possible for someone to spoil that Pokémon more than Green had.
Amanita continued talking. “The problem is turning the little jet of water you get out of the punctured hose into the water coming out the other end. It’s all water, but how do you make sure it has the same ratios of... contaminants, and such? The metaphor stops working here, but you get the idea.” Silver did not get the idea. “Because the Pokémon is digital and not analog, you actually can have the water in multiple places at the same time without having to resort to any sort of amplification.”
Crobat swooped over and landed on Silver’s shoulder briefly, touching a wing to his cheek, and then it swooped away again. Silver nodded his head, his eyes brightening slightly. When Crobat vanished back into the grass, he turned to Amanita. “I, uh-”
“But you still have the problem that every Pokémon transferred digitally has a special code embedded that binds it to a specific Pokeball!” Amanita paused for a moment and then stuck her finger in the air in front of her, her hand bouncing slightly as she walked. “There’s a way around this, though, that none of us had thought of!”
Silver coughed. “Um, isn’t that bad?”
“Yes, but it’s brilliant!” At this, Julie turned around, making eye contact with Silver briefly. Both of them made harried faces at the other. “There’s no good way to manufacture a Pokeball to fit an existing Pokémon, though. The encryption is one-way. You could conceivably brute-force one individual Pokeball’s code, but even with a birthday attack that would take quite a long time.”
“When the Pokémon was born matters?”
“It’s part of the data structure, but that’s not what a birthday attack means. It means-”
Silver raised his hand, Julie’s bracelet dropping down his wrist. “What does it mean for us?”
Amanita shrugged. “For you, it means there are a lot of Kyurems instead of a lot of everything.” She smiled, making a fist. “For me, it means I have work to do.”
-
“Greetings, Dragon Master.” Iris bowed nearly to the floor, the ribbon trails from her sash coiling on the bare wood, kicked one leg out in a flourish, and then hopped back to standing. “I come from Unova, and before that from the Village of Dragons. I request an audience.”
Lance looked over his shoulder without turning around, legs dangling off of the platform. “A formalist? Are you an islander or something? No one actually talks like that.”
Iris tapped her foot lightly, holding her arms behind her back. She leaned forward slightly. “That’s how I was taught I should greet an elder! Is that not a thing anymore? Because the bow-kick is really awful for your joints.”
“They don’t even do that anymore in Hoenn. Is Unova really that backwards?” Lance tossed a pebble into the lake, watching the ripples dissipate.
Iris leaned forward a bit more, and a bit to the left, trying to see Lance’s face. She stopped tapping her foot, stretching her arms back to balance her weight. “Is this an audience then?” Lance turned all the way around, glaring at her, and she put on her best smile. “If it weren’t you wouldn’t actually be talking to me, right?” He turned back around, and started to stand; Iris hopped back to the entranceway and called out Excadrill.
Lance turned around, holding a Pokeball, his cape billowing slightly; when he saw Excadrill, he lowered his hand, and shook his head. “Is this some kind of joke?” Iris straightened her back, and Excadrill lifted his arms, adopting a ready posture. Lance shook his head again, and put his Pokeball back on his belt. “I refuse your battle. Get out.”
Iris dug her fingernails into her palms. “A trainer traditionally does not refuse a battle.” Excadrill looked up at her, relaxing slightly, until she stamped her foot and the Pokémon returned to battle stance.
“A Dragon Trainer traditionally trains dragons. That is a... spiral mole, or something.” Lance turned back around, looking out at the water, watching a distant Dratini slide through the water. “I realize you Unovans have to make do, but you could at least have brought a Haxorus.”
Morty slid around the entranceway and put a hand on Iris’s shoulder before she could step forward. She pushed his hand off but held still, and after a few deep breaths, she recalled Excadrill, staring at the back of Lance’s head. “I expected better from a Dragon Master. I guess Johto’s just that kind of region, huh?” Lance whipped his head around, and the two glared at each other. Morty looked up at the ceiling, and made eye contact with his Gengar, who shrugged and phased onto the roof.
It could have gone worse, he supposed.
-
Living on the peak of Mt. Silver required certain adjustments to the green-haired youth’s routine. He quickly re-adjusted to a baseline state of discomfort, although he never stopped feeling cold no matter how long he spent curled up with blankets and a fire-type. There wasn’t very much to eat, although every once in a while Red would vanish for a while and come back with fresh produce and groceries - N assumed that he left the mountain, but he couldn’t actually be sure. Red would always leave Charizard behind to keep N warm, so N didn’t mind.
The top of the mountain was often too loud for speech, and so N adapted. Talking to Red was a lot like talking to Pokémon; one couldn’t get a precise answer from him, but every dip of his head or fidgeting motion had some meaning or resonance. Red’s Pokémon, particularly Lapras, were somewhat more talkative. From what N could piece together, Red and his Pokemon had fought in many battles, but decided they wanted to get away from battles and find another kind of strength. Whatever it was, they hadn’t found it yet, so other than occasionally accepting challengers, they stayed on top of the mountain.
Twice, a challenger had arrived. Both times, Red had pushed N out of sight, and held his hand out to indicate that N should not interfere. One of them was a young woman in a parka and overalls, who battled Red to a standstill. Both of them enjoyed the encounter, smiling broadly and looking almost warm when the battle was over, but they never once exchanged words. All N saw of the other was a man in a black jacket with spiky hair; this man, Red did not battle, but when he left, Red looked drained as if he and his Pokémon had fought for hours. N asked Pikachu what had happened, and Pikachu just laughed, refusing to answer.
On the coldest nights, Red would hold him while he slept, shivering, and never speak. It was the only time that N missed Black, who had whispered him to sleep every night that they were together, sometimes telling him that things would be all right well after both of them had fallen asleep. With Red, it was just that things were all right, and he expressed that through not changing anything. So when Red challenged him to a battle, N knew it was only because something was not right, and for that reason, N felt forced to accept, even suspecting that it would change something. He should not have expected to stay on the mountain forever.
-
N waved to Julie from a dark alleyway, and whisper-hissed “Hey, you.” Julie stopped short, Black and Silver continuing to walk, and stared at herself.
“How... what?” She lifted her left hand and reached out toward N, who lifted his left hand in parallel, and then started snickering, the sound slightly hoarse. Julie’s back straightened and she ran into the alleyway, nearly tackling the man in an explosion of green hair. They both smiled broadly, and N’s smile continued to grow, melding into his face as the illusion dissipated. Julie pounced on him and squeezed him tightly. “Zoroark!”
The Pokémon’s laugh resonated at multiple pitches, echoing off the walls of the neighboring buildings. “Indeed. I see in your absence you have learned to shift your appearance as well! I’m very proud of you. I didn’t think humans could do that.”
Julie pushed her hair back. “It’s much harder for us.” She peeked out the alleyway; the men had disappeared into the city, Eevee following.
Zoroark put a hand on Julie’s shoulder. “You came back because of your father, I’m sure. I want to help you.”
Julie turned around and shook her head. “I’m running away as much as I’m running toward him. I can’t fight him, I’m just helping the people who can until...” She looked up, watching a Joltik jump between the two buildings and scuttle away. “I don’t know.” She looked Zoroark in the eyes. “You’re better off staying out of it entirely.”
Zoroark laughed again, the tones darker, and dug claws slightly into Julie’s shoulder. “I am already in it. And so are you. What do your ideals tell you to do, Harmonia?”
“That I can’t fight him, even if it’s what needs to be done.”
Zoroark’s eyes closed, and the Pokemon crouched slightly, and then in front of Julie stood Julie, identical save for a teal bauble holding her hair back. She extended a Pokeball to Julie, and the trainer met her own eyes. “If it’s what needs to be done, there is always a way.” Zoroark modulated voice to speak as Julie. “Well, Harmonia, is it? Let me hear your Pokémon’s voice again!”
-
Silver and Black sat on a bench in the central square of Castelia City, Eevee curled up on Silver’s lap. Black ate a Castelia Cone, grumbling to himself.
“Of course N left.”
“You mean Julie. And she’ll be back, you’re being paranoid.”
“Look.” Black leaned way back, watching clouds gather north of the city. “I know you’re all infatuated or whatever. But she leaves. It’s what she does. She left when she lost to Ghetsis, and I didn’t see her for months. She left after we’d been dating for like two years. I guess I should be relieved that she didn’t stay that long this time.”
Silver lifted his hand to object, but then put it down on Eevee’s nape, stroking gently. The Pokemon chirred and nuzzled at his fingers. He remembered running away from Kotone, time and time again, and her seeming infinite patience in greeting him every time he came back. She must have felt this way. How did she never take it out on him? “I did that, too.”
Black sat back up. “You ran away from your rival?”
“Constantly.”
He frowned. “You don’t seem like an asshole.”
“You don’t actually know me. I’m a tremendous asshole.” Eevee looked up and nodded slightly. “But that’s not the point. The point is that she keeps coming back. This is the third time?”
Black pounded a fist against the bench, making a passer-by jump. “It’s like the hundredth time. When we were together, I’d sometimes spend weeks waiting. One time, eventually, there was nothing and I just had to give up. And now this. Just in time to see me disgraced.” He glared at Silver. “Wearing a dress, all up on some Johto fop.”
Silver looked back at Black, and lifted his hands defensively. “She’s not all up on me. And it’s not a dress, it’s just a skirt and a blouse.”
“Wait, you... There’s a difference?”
“You date women, you pick these things up.” Silver shrugged, and Black continued to stare at him skeptically. “Look, if she really left you in the lurch a hundred times, maybe you’re better off, but if there’s anyone who’s not going to think you’re disgraced for losing a Pokemon battle, it’s going to be the crazy girl who taught Zekrom Protect.” He scrunched up his face. “Protect.”
Black laughed slightly. “Okay, sure. So you don’t want to sleep with... her?”
Eevee perked up and chirred slightly, and Silver rolled his eyes. “I’m here to take out Team Rocket? You know, criminal mastermind taking over an entire continent?”
Black reached down to his hip, resting one hand on a Pokeball. This gesture caught the attention of a couple strolling by, who stopped to watch the former Champion about to battle a stranger. Black sighed and let go of the Pokeball, waving them off, and finished off his Castelia cone, the last drops stuck on his fingers. “And a jerk on top of that.”
“You have no idea.” Silver’s laugh was bitter enough that Black winced.
-