Collections of Elegant Formulas: Chapter 5
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Julie sat close to the fire, glaring across it at Black. Black leaned against a tree with his arms crossed, glaring back. Further from the fire, Silver tried to set up a tent, getting three stakes in the ground before realizing he had the attachment points backwards and pulling the whole thing out of the ground. He turned to the two, and shook his head. When they didn’t move, he turned back to the tent, unraveling it and pressing the first stake back into the ground. It sank back into the dirt easily, Silver stomping on it twice making the head flush with the moss on the ground. He tugged at the tent near the cable threaded through the stake, the stake shaking slightly but not pulling up.
“Black, your tent is impossible.”
Black stepped forward from his tree and walked over to Silver’s side of the clearing, snapping a branch under his shoe. “It looks like you were doing fine until you tangled everything for no reason.”
Silver frowned. “It was backwards.”
“It’s symmetrical.”
Silver threw the last tent stake on the ground. “You do it if it’s so easy then.” He huffed over to Black’s tree and leaned against it, mimicking Black’s pose, but glaring at the tent instead of at Julie. “This is some Unovan nonsense.”
Julie and Black both turned to him. “Hey,” said Julie, “Don’t bring Unova into this. Our tent designs are perfectly fine.”
Black disconnected the corner straps from the remaining pegs and untwisted the tent. “Can you even claim to be from Unova at this point?”
“Look, you can’t-”
Julie cut Silver off. “Let’s do the math!” She smiled at this, and leaned back from the fire a bit. “I was born wherever, and didn’t get picked up and brought to Unova until I was four. Then I stayed until I was sixteen, and left for a year, and then came back for around two, and then was gone for... what was it, six?”
Black drove another tent stake in with a single stomp. “Seven.” He kicked at the stake. “You memorize everything else, but not that?”
“Time is confusing when you spent ten years locked in a room.”
Black finished putting up the tent in silence, not looking at Julie. Silver stepped forward from the tree and walked up to the fire, warming his hands. He made eye contact with Black briefly; Black bit his lip. A large branch in the fire cracked, and Silver jumped back.
“Julie,” Black said carefully, “I thought...”
Julie stood up, making Eevee wake up and stare up from the grass at her. “Yes, I did say I wouldn’t weaponize my childhood at you. It was a statement of fact.” She reached for her cube, fidgeting, and sped up her speech. “Do you have a problem with that statement Black?”
“I - seriously? This?”
Silver raised a finger. “Um.” Both of them turned to him, waiting. “Maybe we should... calm down?”
“This is calm,” Julie snapped. “I am calm. This is calm.”
Black stared at Silver. “You are terrible at this. Just, no. Don’t even try to defend ... her, okay?” He unzipped the tent. “I’m just going to go to sleep, there’s no point in having this conversation.”
“But I’m trying to defend you,” said Silver, and even Eevee looked up at him in shock.
-
Dear Cynthia: You’re into legends and legendaries, so you’ve probably heard of Ho-Oh, the bird who sets itself on fire and comes back every couple hundred years. Did you know that once when it set itself on fire, it changed Pokemon into other Pokemon? Unfortunately there’s only one and it doesn’t really like to set itself on fire on command. I even tried asking nicely! At least I got the chance to see it.
When I asked though, Ho-Oh did give me some of the ash from the last time it did the burning thing. Everyone here is convinced it can bring back the dead, which is a little scary, but maybe it can do something about our Kyurem problem? Is it safe for me to come back with it yet? I’m tired of Kanto, most of these people are pretty awful. It’s like they’re so good at relating to their Pokemon that they’ve forgotten how to relate to other people. Except Lance.
He’s just a dick.
-
N stood on the peak of Mount Silver, holding a Pokeball in his right hand, staring at Red, who stood fifty feet away with Pikachu at his feet. He took a deep breath, still not used to the cold in his lungs, and released Vanilluxe, the Pokemon exuberant in the ice storm. Red released Lapras, and the two Pokemon stared at each other for a moment. Lapras cried out and charged at Vanilluxe, snow and ice whirling around its body as it moved. N waved his arm, and Vanilluxe used Flash Cannon, the steel-type move knocking out Lapras instantly, dissipating its Blizzard. N noticed his hands were shaking, and shoved them in his pockets, waiting for Red to choose another Pokemon. After a long moment, the trainer called forth Charizard, who roared confidently. Vanilluxe prepared to use Frost Breath, but Charizard was faster, digging claws into the ground and sending Vanilluxe straight into the air with Flare Blitz.
N recalled Vanilluxe before it hit the ground and switched in Carracosta, flexing his knees and staring into the wind. Battling Red reminded him of battling Black, the one time they had, and he found himself caring about winning for the first time since the defeat of Team Plasma. Carracosta readied itself to use Waterfall, sliding back a full ten feet when Charizard’s Air Slash slammed into it mid-preparation. Standing next to N, Carracosta dipped its head, and N nodded in response. The waterfall went off next, as if the hail briefly melted and swirled around Charizard, pushing it down into the snow, steam coming up from the ground. Red smiled slightly, and pointed to Charizard, who flapped wings to re-enter the air only to face Carracosta’s Aqua Jet and fall back into the snow, smoldering. At this, Red smiled broadly, recalling the Pokemon and turning his hat around. N tensed up briefly, and then his shoulders relaxed, the tension feeling like it poured out the top of his head.
When Venusaur came out, leaving huge footprints in the snow, Carracosta was ready with another Aqua Jet, but Venusaur barely flinched; Carracosta then slid over and used Crunch, biting down on Venusaur’s flower, but that only made the Pokemon roar, rear up, and unleash a Frenzy Plant that N’s Pokemon had no chance to withstand. N sent out Archeops, the bird Pokemon flying up into the air and quickly stabilizing even in the wind. Red looked up at the Pokemon and for a moment looked confused - N realized suddenly that Red had never seen Unovan Pokemon before, and was battling based purely on the moves that his Pokemon were using, and the appearance of the Pokemon. Archeops, being a fossil Pokemon unique to Unova, looked rather unlike anything Red had ever seen. Archeops used Acrobatics, slamming into Venusaur but astoundingly the Pokemon still stood. Red recalled Venusaur anyway, and then stood still, the wind rippling his clothes but his body unmoving. N stood up straight, waiting to see which Pokemon Red would release.
A lightning bolt struck Archeops from nowhere, and the Pokemon tumbled to the ground, falling sizzled into the snow. N recalled Archeops and stared at Red, noticing sparks still flying from Pikachu’s cheeks. In anger he grabbed the cube from his belt, twisted around the pattern, snapped something open, and called forth Zekrom, whose roar briefly pushed back the hail, the boom of thunder echoing across the mountain. Pikachu jumped forward, and the Pokemon shot lightning at each other, electricity arcing between them and lighting up the sky. Eventually the two Pokemon were surrounded by light so bright that N had to turn away. When he looked back, Zekrom lay weakened on the ground and Pikachu’s tail gleamed silver, taking on the consistency of metal.
Without knowing quite what he was doing, N sprinted into the fray, jumping between Pikachu and Zekrom and falling down between them. Pikachu stopped short and looked up at Red, confused, who walked over. Zekrom breathed slowly, watching N carefully, waiting for a command. When Red extended his hand to help N up, both Pokemon relaxed, Pikachu spinning around and falling into the snow next to Zekrom. N stood, and Red hugged him, placing him close enough to speak into Red’s ear.
“I don’t want to battle,” said N. Red nodded. “I want to be someone different from this.” Red nodded again, and squeezed N. “But I’m stuck being the son who battles. I can’t be who I want to be.”
Red frowned. “Why not?”
-
“So you decided to transition because you didn’t want to battle?” Black sat next to Julie by the fire, with Silver on Julie’s other side, each of them holding one of her hands. “But... girls can battle? Couldn’t you have just not battled as a man?”
Julie shook her head. “No, I mean, of course girls can battle. I can battle, if I have to. But battling and being male weren’t things I chose. I wanted to decide who I was. And so I picked me.”
Black squeezed her hand and turned away. “And not me.”
“Well.” Julie watched the fire, which was lower now, many of the branches they had collected burned down to white. “That wasn’t the point, but yes. I felt like you expected something specific of me that I didn’t want to give. And before you ask,” she squeezed his hand back, “I don’t know what that thing was, either.”
“Did you find out?” Silver looked over at Black, who was still turned away. He picked ash out of his hair with his free hand, letting it drift onto the grass.
“Not really, no.” Julie’s left knee bobbed up and down repeatedly. “I kind of got lost in... being not instead of being?”
Black let go of Julie’s hand and stood up. “That doesn’t even make sense. You mean not being.”
Silver shook his head. “No, I think she means being not.” Black rolled his eyes and started to pace. “Look, you know how when you’re Champion being the Champion is this thing, this role you wear, on top of being who you actually are? You’re Champion and you’re Black at the same time, and the overlap can get really confusing?”
Black stopped, staring down at Silver. “How do you know that? You’re no Champion.” Silver bristled, tugging lightly at his hair, but said nothing. Black stepped close to him. “You can’t even bring yourself to battle at all when things get serious.” None of them spoke for a moment, Silver twisting red around his fingers and looking up at Black blankly. “You’re not even responding to me!” With this, Black pointed at Silver’s face. Silver’s hand flew out of his hair and grabbed Black’s, grabbing his wrist. Silver pressed his palm against Black’s, interlocking their fingers, his skin cool against Black’s, fingertips nestled between Black’s knuckles. Black squeezed back, and closed his eyes for a moment. “...Oh.”
“Are you done?” Silver tugged gently, and Black sat down. Black looked at Julie, who shrugged a shoulder. Black shrugged in response. “Kotone told me, once, that to figure out which part of her was Champion, and which part was Kotone, she had to go away for a long time, and be not the Champion, be everything but the Champion, and see which things fit. It took her four years. It took me much longer, and frankly, maybe I didn’t do a very good job if I can’t work with my Pokemon when it counts.” He took a deep breath. “This isn’t the first time I’ve thought maybe what has always been too weak was me, not my Pokemon.”
Julie shook her head. “You’re no weaker than us.”
“Speak for yourself!”
Silver shook his head. “At this point, it’s not important.”
Black was incredulous. “We have to be stronger than them, or they’ll beat us! They already nearly have! How can you say it doesn’t matter?”
“Because we have to be stronger than them collectively.” Julie reached across Silver and offered her other hand to Black, who touched it with one finger, as if to make sure it were real. “Us, our Pokemon, together. It’s not about badges or who’s the champion or type advantage, we just have to...”
“Have to run away once our weakness is revealed? Have to vanish for years to figure out some sort of not-being? Have to vanish on the way into the city and -”
“Black.” Silver stared through his hair.
“Oh I’m sorry, I guess we have to just watch slackjawed while Pokemon battles happen then! I guess we have to just stand there while-” Silver twisted his fingers, making Black wince. “Well, what do you want me to think? You can say this all you want, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
Julie grabbed Black’s hand. “I’ll be there. I’ll fight by your side.”
Black snarled. “Prove it.”
Julie sat close to the fire, glaring across it at Black. Black leaned against a tree with his arms crossed, glaring back. Further from the fire, Silver tried to set up a tent, getting three stakes in the ground before realizing he had the attachment points backwards and pulling the whole thing out of the ground. He turned to the two, and shook his head. When they didn’t move, he turned back to the tent, unraveling it and pressing the first stake back into the ground. It sank back into the dirt easily, Silver stomping on it twice making the head flush with the moss on the ground. He tugged at the tent near the cable threaded through the stake, the stake shaking slightly but not pulling up.
“Black, your tent is impossible.”
Black stepped forward from his tree and walked over to Silver’s side of the clearing, snapping a branch under his shoe. “It looks like you were doing fine until you tangled everything for no reason.”
Silver frowned. “It was backwards.”
“It’s symmetrical.”
Silver threw the last tent stake on the ground. “You do it if it’s so easy then.” He huffed over to Black’s tree and leaned against it, mimicking Black’s pose, but glaring at the tent instead of at Julie. “This is some Unovan nonsense.”
Julie and Black both turned to him. “Hey,” said Julie, “Don’t bring Unova into this. Our tent designs are perfectly fine.”
Black disconnected the corner straps from the remaining pegs and untwisted the tent. “Can you even claim to be from Unova at this point?”
“Look, you can’t-”
Julie cut Silver off. “Let’s do the math!” She smiled at this, and leaned back from the fire a bit. “I was born wherever, and didn’t get picked up and brought to Unova until I was four. Then I stayed until I was sixteen, and left for a year, and then came back for around two, and then was gone for... what was it, six?”
Black drove another tent stake in with a single stomp. “Seven.” He kicked at the stake. “You memorize everything else, but not that?”
“Time is confusing when you spent ten years locked in a room.”
Black finished putting up the tent in silence, not looking at Julie. Silver stepped forward from the tree and walked up to the fire, warming his hands. He made eye contact with Black briefly; Black bit his lip. A large branch in the fire cracked, and Silver jumped back.
“Julie,” Black said carefully, “I thought...”
Julie stood up, making Eevee wake up and stare up from the grass at her. “Yes, I did say I wouldn’t weaponize my childhood at you. It was a statement of fact.” She reached for her cube, fidgeting, and sped up her speech. “Do you have a problem with that statement Black?”
“I - seriously? This?”
Silver raised a finger. “Um.” Both of them turned to him, waiting. “Maybe we should... calm down?”
“This is calm,” Julie snapped. “I am calm. This is calm.”
Black stared at Silver. “You are terrible at this. Just, no. Don’t even try to defend ... her, okay?” He unzipped the tent. “I’m just going to go to sleep, there’s no point in having this conversation.”
“But I’m trying to defend you,” said Silver, and even Eevee looked up at him in shock.
-
Dear Cynthia: You’re into legends and legendaries, so you’ve probably heard of Ho-Oh, the bird who sets itself on fire and comes back every couple hundred years. Did you know that once when it set itself on fire, it changed Pokemon into other Pokemon? Unfortunately there’s only one and it doesn’t really like to set itself on fire on command. I even tried asking nicely! At least I got the chance to see it.
When I asked though, Ho-Oh did give me some of the ash from the last time it did the burning thing. Everyone here is convinced it can bring back the dead, which is a little scary, but maybe it can do something about our Kyurem problem? Is it safe for me to come back with it yet? I’m tired of Kanto, most of these people are pretty awful. It’s like they’re so good at relating to their Pokemon that they’ve forgotten how to relate to other people. Except Lance.
He’s just a dick.
-
N stood on the peak of Mount Silver, holding a Pokeball in his right hand, staring at Red, who stood fifty feet away with Pikachu at his feet. He took a deep breath, still not used to the cold in his lungs, and released Vanilluxe, the Pokemon exuberant in the ice storm. Red released Lapras, and the two Pokemon stared at each other for a moment. Lapras cried out and charged at Vanilluxe, snow and ice whirling around its body as it moved. N waved his arm, and Vanilluxe used Flash Cannon, the steel-type move knocking out Lapras instantly, dissipating its Blizzard. N noticed his hands were shaking, and shoved them in his pockets, waiting for Red to choose another Pokemon. After a long moment, the trainer called forth Charizard, who roared confidently. Vanilluxe prepared to use Frost Breath, but Charizard was faster, digging claws into the ground and sending Vanilluxe straight into the air with Flare Blitz.
N recalled Vanilluxe before it hit the ground and switched in Carracosta, flexing his knees and staring into the wind. Battling Red reminded him of battling Black, the one time they had, and he found himself caring about winning for the first time since the defeat of Team Plasma. Carracosta readied itself to use Waterfall, sliding back a full ten feet when Charizard’s Air Slash slammed into it mid-preparation. Standing next to N, Carracosta dipped its head, and N nodded in response. The waterfall went off next, as if the hail briefly melted and swirled around Charizard, pushing it down into the snow, steam coming up from the ground. Red smiled slightly, and pointed to Charizard, who flapped wings to re-enter the air only to face Carracosta’s Aqua Jet and fall back into the snow, smoldering. At this, Red smiled broadly, recalling the Pokemon and turning his hat around. N tensed up briefly, and then his shoulders relaxed, the tension feeling like it poured out the top of his head.
When Venusaur came out, leaving huge footprints in the snow, Carracosta was ready with another Aqua Jet, but Venusaur barely flinched; Carracosta then slid over and used Crunch, biting down on Venusaur’s flower, but that only made the Pokemon roar, rear up, and unleash a Frenzy Plant that N’s Pokemon had no chance to withstand. N sent out Archeops, the bird Pokemon flying up into the air and quickly stabilizing even in the wind. Red looked up at the Pokemon and for a moment looked confused - N realized suddenly that Red had never seen Unovan Pokemon before, and was battling based purely on the moves that his Pokemon were using, and the appearance of the Pokemon. Archeops, being a fossil Pokemon unique to Unova, looked rather unlike anything Red had ever seen. Archeops used Acrobatics, slamming into Venusaur but astoundingly the Pokemon still stood. Red recalled Venusaur anyway, and then stood still, the wind rippling his clothes but his body unmoving. N stood up straight, waiting to see which Pokemon Red would release.
A lightning bolt struck Archeops from nowhere, and the Pokemon tumbled to the ground, falling sizzled into the snow. N recalled Archeops and stared at Red, noticing sparks still flying from Pikachu’s cheeks. In anger he grabbed the cube from his belt, twisted around the pattern, snapped something open, and called forth Zekrom, whose roar briefly pushed back the hail, the boom of thunder echoing across the mountain. Pikachu jumped forward, and the Pokemon shot lightning at each other, electricity arcing between them and lighting up the sky. Eventually the two Pokemon were surrounded by light so bright that N had to turn away. When he looked back, Zekrom lay weakened on the ground and Pikachu’s tail gleamed silver, taking on the consistency of metal.
Without knowing quite what he was doing, N sprinted into the fray, jumping between Pikachu and Zekrom and falling down between them. Pikachu stopped short and looked up at Red, confused, who walked over. Zekrom breathed slowly, watching N carefully, waiting for a command. When Red extended his hand to help N up, both Pokemon relaxed, Pikachu spinning around and falling into the snow next to Zekrom. N stood, and Red hugged him, placing him close enough to speak into Red’s ear.
“I don’t want to battle,” said N. Red nodded. “I want to be someone different from this.” Red nodded again, and squeezed N. “But I’m stuck being the son who battles. I can’t be who I want to be.”
Red frowned. “Why not?”
-
“So you decided to transition because you didn’t want to battle?” Black sat next to Julie by the fire, with Silver on Julie’s other side, each of them holding one of her hands. “But... girls can battle? Couldn’t you have just not battled as a man?”
Julie shook her head. “No, I mean, of course girls can battle. I can battle, if I have to. But battling and being male weren’t things I chose. I wanted to decide who I was. And so I picked me.”
Black squeezed her hand and turned away. “And not me.”
“Well.” Julie watched the fire, which was lower now, many of the branches they had collected burned down to white. “That wasn’t the point, but yes. I felt like you expected something specific of me that I didn’t want to give. And before you ask,” she squeezed his hand back, “I don’t know what that thing was, either.”
“Did you find out?” Silver looked over at Black, who was still turned away. He picked ash out of his hair with his free hand, letting it drift onto the grass.
“Not really, no.” Julie’s left knee bobbed up and down repeatedly. “I kind of got lost in... being not instead of being?”
Black let go of Julie’s hand and stood up. “That doesn’t even make sense. You mean not being.”
Silver shook his head. “No, I think she means being not.” Black rolled his eyes and started to pace. “Look, you know how when you’re Champion being the Champion is this thing, this role you wear, on top of being who you actually are? You’re Champion and you’re Black at the same time, and the overlap can get really confusing?”
Black stopped, staring down at Silver. “How do you know that? You’re no Champion.” Silver bristled, tugging lightly at his hair, but said nothing. Black stepped close to him. “You can’t even bring yourself to battle at all when things get serious.” None of them spoke for a moment, Silver twisting red around his fingers and looking up at Black blankly. “You’re not even responding to me!” With this, Black pointed at Silver’s face. Silver’s hand flew out of his hair and grabbed Black’s, grabbing his wrist. Silver pressed his palm against Black’s, interlocking their fingers, his skin cool against Black’s, fingertips nestled between Black’s knuckles. Black squeezed back, and closed his eyes for a moment. “...Oh.”
“Are you done?” Silver tugged gently, and Black sat down. Black looked at Julie, who shrugged a shoulder. Black shrugged in response. “Kotone told me, once, that to figure out which part of her was Champion, and which part was Kotone, she had to go away for a long time, and be not the Champion, be everything but the Champion, and see which things fit. It took her four years. It took me much longer, and frankly, maybe I didn’t do a very good job if I can’t work with my Pokemon when it counts.” He took a deep breath. “This isn’t the first time I’ve thought maybe what has always been too weak was me, not my Pokemon.”
Julie shook her head. “You’re no weaker than us.”
“Speak for yourself!”
Silver shook his head. “At this point, it’s not important.”
Black was incredulous. “We have to be stronger than them, or they’ll beat us! They already nearly have! How can you say it doesn’t matter?”
“Because we have to be stronger than them collectively.” Julie reached across Silver and offered her other hand to Black, who touched it with one finger, as if to make sure it were real. “Us, our Pokemon, together. It’s not about badges or who’s the champion or type advantage, we just have to...”
“Have to run away once our weakness is revealed? Have to vanish for years to figure out some sort of not-being? Have to vanish on the way into the city and -”
“Black.” Silver stared through his hair.
“Oh I’m sorry, I guess we have to just watch slackjawed while Pokemon battles happen then! I guess we have to just stand there while-” Silver twisted his fingers, making Black wince. “Well, what do you want me to think? You can say this all you want, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
Julie grabbed Black’s hand. “I’ll be there. I’ll fight by your side.”
Black snarled. “Prove it.”