farawayplace | Another day

It's fine, death is only temporary in Ultern! ~~Not that Gold knows that.~~

"He does? Yeah, that seems like him," Gold says, thinking of the impression he got of Etharon. The guy definitely seemed like somebody who would hang out with criminals, just like Gold himself. "So is it okay to ask Attila? Just making sure."

Gold gives no more information about Attila to Kam, on account of knowing how important Attila's privacy seems to be to him, so there's no way for these two to find out they're thinking of the same Rocket.

"...Don't worry about it. I wanna help you meet him!" Gold says with a smile, after a slight pause. It feels a little like helping his Silver, so Gold didn't even think about not helping.

"I'll be fine, I can handle that guy. I might not even need to meet him if everything goes right!" His plan is to have Ken ask Attila, after all.

~~gasping pikachu dot png~~

"Go ahead and tell him. It doesn't sound like there's much of a choice, and I'm not about to let go of any opportunity that rises." Silver's privacy? Sorry, that's forfeit for the time being for being weirdly elusive.

That's fine, Kam wasn't exactly being forthcoming about having a seedy contact already on Ultern. ~~The hilarity when the both realize-~~

That pause Gold had, was a little concerned. Kam would have to keep it noted in the back of his mind for the time being.

"If you don't need to meet the guy, that works out even better I'd say. There would be less of a risk involved."

"Alright, I will!" Gold says, far too casually cheerful about the concept asking a criminal to stalk somebody.

"I know, it's a great idea, right? I dunno how long it's gonna take though, but I'll call you back when I hear something!"

Absolutely nothing to worry about anything Gold ever said!

"...I've got nothing but time on my hands here. There's no problem in waiting."

Plus Kam was reeling in his hopes of Silver being found right away. He wasn't even sure just how long he's been tracking the guy to begin with.

"Is there, anything else you wanted to tell me? Otherwise, I'm thinking of going to track down any clues on Silver, myself. As far as I can tell this place isn't exactly as big as Johto so he can't be that hard to find."

"Anything else? Hmmm..." Gold thinks back on his conversation with Etharon. Was there something else that might be important to mention to Kam?

"Oh yeah, I did mention the name Vasily to him, in the middle of other names I heard that other me's in other worlds have. He acted pretty natural, but he focused on that name a lot, so that was the first clue I had that he was probably from your world. But anyway, he seemed smart, so he probably figured out already that there's somebody from your world in Ultern, and that I've met them. Or I've heard about them. So uh... take from that what you will, I guess?"

He paused at Gold's admittance to saying Vasily's name to Silver. He didn't know Silver's relationship with Vasily, all things considered. He couldn't help wonder how Silver may have felt hearing the name from Gold.

"...I'll keep that in mind." He sighed. "Better he hears that name from you over anyone else."

There's a sigh before he continued.

"I don't know how close the two of them are but he cares enough to tell me to look out for Vasily. So he probably doesn't mind hearing that name from someone that looks like his own twin."

Edited (misfire h) 2023-09-29 18:12 (UTC)

"That's good, then," Gold says with a sigh. He was a bit worried he might've ruined something for Kam by hinting at Etharon that he knew about Vasily, but if Kam didn't mind it was probably fine.

"So... you think he would've gotten pissed off or something if I didn't look like him? Why's that?" Gold asks after a short pause. "He seemed like a good person and a cool dude, but also like he was hiding a lot. He laughed and joked when he didn't want me to see what he was thinking. I'm the same way, so I could tell. But he's good at it, so I don't really get what he's like."

"That's..." that had Kam give thought too. Would Silver have been on edge if it had been someone else? He had never thought to ask the other about his own life, and assumed a lot about him when they had first met. "I'm not sure. I really hadn't seen him get angry too much, even at me when I was nothing but hostile."

At the comment about how Silver acted, there's a sigh.

"He's like that, yeah. I used to think he was just taking everything lightly, but maybe he just didn't care. Not about people who were around him but about himself. It was just easier for him to make light, so no one would care. What an idiot. If he didn't want people to care he should have just stopped holding his hand out to help to anyone who was remotely in trouble."

It did make him think--just how and why had Vasily and Silver turn out to be so different? Was it really just the difference in how they had been raised? There's a sigh, as he had no answers to that one.

"At least that makes it easy to get close to him, physically speaking."

"So what were you worried about, then?" Gold asks. Why was it so relevant for Gold to be the one who told Vasily's name to Etharon?

"...Yeah," Gold just replies, unable to really say anything else. He feels like he knows how Etharon felt. Though, in Gold's case, he was convinced nobody would care about him no matter what, so he tried to keep a distance from them so he'd never have hope of it.

"Yep, he's easy to talk to," Gold says, then an idea pops in his head. "Hey, you think he'd talk to another you if he met him? I mean, you said he's avoiding you for some reason, right? I don't really get it, but if you pretended you were another you from another world, maybe he'd let his guard down. Like, you could act like you're really peppy or something so he'd never think it was you."

"...let's say hypothetically you've got a twin you've never mentioned to anyone for whatever reasons." Kam of course, wasn't aware that Gold did have a twin (it hadn't come up after all-). "How would you feel if someone approached you, and brought up their name to your face? Someone you've never met before? ...it's just a guess, but in Silver's case he'd have ran. He didn't like anyone digging into his life, including me."

Not that he blamed the guy. He didn't talk about his own past either.

Kam too became quiet, letting the silence hang between them until Gold spoke up. At his suggestion, he became thoughtful. He wasn't sure how convincing of an act he could put in front of Silver, but... this was a place where people from different realities and times converged somehow.

"I could give it a try. He's already met you, and no doubt other people here. There's no way he can say I'm not the guy he knows."

"I dunno, I'd think that was normal," Gold says with a shrug. "My twin's got her own life, so if somebody I dunno came up to me and talked about her, I'd just think it's somebody she knows."

Just casually bringing up that he's a twin, as one does. Granted, his and his twin sister's relationship is probably a lot more distant than most twins, but since Gold recalls Kam mentioning he didn't even know Etharon had a twin until he met him, he figures Etharon and Vasily weren't always together either.

"Yeah, that's a plan! You should try it out!" Gold cheers. (He kind of wants to see Kam try to act peppy, too.)

Kam's quiet when new Gold info just dropped. So he had a twin too, and found it normal huh? Of course it gave him a second to consider Gold's answer, and think of both Silver and Vasily. What would have things been like if he had met them both...?

"...I wouldn't know what that's like." Kam admitted. "No one brings up my family to me." And if they did, usually it was someone he shouldn't trust, but he wasn't about to say that to Gold. He didn't need to know those details anyway.

When Gold cheered on re: acting peppy he grit his teeth. Just the idea alone made him internally cringe but if it were to trick Silver into believing he was someone else...

"There is someone I could...use as an example..." Sorry Kris, wherever you are.

"Oh," Gold says, a bit caught off guard by the reply. He's not sure what to say to that. "Uh, is that bad or good?" All Gold knows about Kam's family is what he's told him before: his mom wasn't around, his dad was crap and he probably didn't have siblings. So it's probably good nobody brings up his family to him, but the way he said it sounded kind of wistful?

"Yeah, that's good! If you got somebody you can try to pretend to be, that'd make it easier! Hey, you can practice with me if you wanna. I'll even try to act like somebody else too!" Gold says. Maybe he could try to act like his Silver, or like Trip? That sounds fun.

"It's good." Came Kam's simple response. Will he elaborate? No, sorry. Gold didn't need to know the knitty gritty about his life and... the more he thought on it, it was probably safer that way.

There's a sigh, when Gold offered to help practice. Did he mean right now? ....he probably did mean right now, right this moment. Closing his eyes he mentally gathered himself (and glad no one was around for this). The next moment he opened his eyes as he spoke up once more.

"Hi! I'm Kam! I'm from New Bark Town, and my best friend and I are competing on who can fill up our Pokedex the fastest!"

End. Him.

"Alright, cool," Gold says. He figured that's how it was.

Gold waits with bated breath to hear Kam's impression... and it doesn't disappoint.

"That's great!" he responds excitedly, then recalls he should be going in character. "I mean... ahem." How would his Silver or Trip react to that? He'll go with Trip, since he can practically hear Trip's response in his head. Adapting a smug expression, he straightens his back and lowers his voice.

"Good luck with that, because I'll be filling the Pokedex faster than either of you," he says with a pompous, dismissive tone.

Gold going along with it somewhat helps, even if he felt like dying on the inside still. Yet if it was to trick Silver... he had to do this. There was no guarantee Silver would willingly talk to him otherwise.

"Wow, that makes you and me rivals too!" He's putting in all the cheer he could muster. How did anyone do this for long? It's exhausting-. "Let's both do our best, okay?"

Gold doesn't even have time to think that Kam's funny, he's too focused on getting in character himself. Now how would Trip respond to that? Gold taps into everything he heard Georgia say about past Trip for inspiration.

"Hmph, as if," he says dismissively, still with that smug tone. "I will be defeating you, but I'll pretend I don't know you the whole time."

Kam becomes silent on a moment just to think how Kris would reply to something like that. Or even, how Silver would respond.

"Haha! That's okay because I know who you are, and that's what matters!" He'll state in a cheerful, matter-of-fact voice. "Don't count Doduos in a basket quite yet! There's no telling who'll reach that finish line first!"

Yeah that sounded sappy enough for either of them to be saying. ...probably.

Now how would Trip react to that? Hmm, he'd be rude, probably. Time to be rude, then.

"Well I don't know you, you obvious - no, obnoxious, uh," he pauses, muttering to himself. "Is that too rude? That's too rude. Ahem! Try your best, whoever-you-are, but it won't be enough, because when it comes to Pokemon, I'm... Shit, what's the word. Unparalled! No. Un... parabled? ...I'm outstanding!"

Trip likes big words, but is what he's saying enough like Trip, or is that just generically pompous? Eh, it's good enough for acting purposes. Forgetting words is not, though. He should probably try to stick to his own vocabulary.

"...ha...haha." He didn't mean to but a laugh escaped Kam, the more this continued. "You know,"

Gold can't see his expression right now nor did Kam realize the fond smile he was wearing as he spoke.

"You can just be yourself. Not that I don't appreciate your help."

"Hey, I'm still practicing!" Gold says, acting playfully offended. He can hear the smile in Kam's voice, and is glad he caused that.

"No problem! This is pretty fun. Maybe sometime I'll try an act like this on somebody who's just drifted in and see how well I can keep it up!" Gold says with a grin. "You were pretty good too! Based on your voice at least, but you gotta have a good smile to keep the act up, and I can't judge that over phone. When I was younger, it took me hours of practicing in front of a mirror until I had a smile that fooled people! Maybe you should try that!"

Gold has a feeling Kam's expressions were probably not too convincing, but he doesn't want to say that straight out, since Kam seemed pretty embarrassed... The fact Gold used to practice his smile is something he'd rather not tell people, but Kam's practice reminded him of himself, so he shares it and acts like it's no big deal, even as his fingers tighten around the Pokegear when he says it. Kam probably wouldn't judge him for it, right? They're similar in some ways, after all...

"You could give it a try, yeah." Kam agreed, smiling still. At the mention of practicing how to smile made Kam think about Silver. It made him wonder just how much he knew about him had been an act on his part too. He still only knew as much as Silver was willing to impart with him. "I could give it a try myself. I really hadn't have a reason to act before now..."

If Silver really was from the same point as him, he just might runaway and make it that much harder to find him.

"I'll just think of all the goody two shoes I've got in my life when I look at the mirror."

He won't bore Gold with the details of how before he simply obsessed over becoming stronger. Or how he was sure Silver kept wearing a figurative mask, as a means to protect himself. He didn't need Gold to be reminded of any unpleasant moments of his own past either.

"Next new person I meet, I'll try the act on them!" Gold decides on the spot. "That'll be fun. How about you? Wanna do it too, Nugget buddy?" He eggs Kam on. They already decided on using the same fake name on Kam's suggestion, so maybe this could be the same kinda thing.

"Yeah, that's the ticket," Gold says simply. The phrase 'goody-two-shoes' kind of has a negative feeling to it for Gold, of someone who's not actually a good person, but he doesn't say anything about it. Much like Kam, he doesn't want to burden him with the weight of his past.

"I'm sure you can do it." He couldn't help but encourage Gold--but his question gave Kam pause. Acting around someone other than Silver...? He wasn't sure he could do it--but if he were to convince someone like Silver, he would have to fool others first. That, and upon hearing their shared nickname being brought up, Kam knew he wasn't about to leave Gold hanging. "If that's how you feel, then I'll do it too, Nugget. Let's see which one of us can trick the most people."

Not that it was an actual competition but--at the end of the day, Kam still had that competitive streak in him.

"In any case, ...don't forget to reach out to me for anything. It doesn't have to be about anything related to him." While he did appreciate Gold's help, and was eager to see Silver again he didn't want it to seem like he only wanted to talk to Gold about his complicated friendship with SilvEtharon.

"Yeah!" Gold cheers, but then pauses. "Why's it gotta be a contest though? I don't wanna trick that many people, that'd get boring after a while."

Unlike most protagonists, Gold doesn't have much of a competitive drive.

What Kam says next surprises Gold, and he takes a moment before he replies.

"Oh. Uh, yeah, of course!" he says, gathering cheerfulness into his voice. He somehow didn't expect Kam to want to talk to him outside of Etharon-related business. He's not sure what else to call him about, honestly, but maybe he'll figure something out. "I'll keep that in mind! And same to you, call me about whatever you want!"

Another day

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I rushed to make this icon just for this tag askjsfjks

It's a good icon! XD

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