Another day

[gold_drum]

A - Route 1

It's an ordinary day like any other, and if you pass by Professor Banyan's lab, you'll see Gold practicing kendama tricks out in the yard, too absorbed to notice you. He's not very good, but not disastrously bad either. Say hi to him?

B - Professor Banyan's house, backdated to the day after the summer festival

This morning, almost as soon as he wakes up, Gold sets out to look for Professor Banyan, hoping he's turned back to normal by now.

"Professor?" he calls out as he wanders around the house.

C - backdated to the day after the summer festival, closed to golddream

Once that's done, Gold's retreating to his room and calling Kam's number on his Pokegear.

"Hey Kam, I met another me," is how he greets him.

Comments

It's a good icon! XD

[gold_drum]

"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.

[golddream]

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_drum]

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."

[golddream]

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.

[gold_drum]

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.

[golddream]

"...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."

[gold_drum]

"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...

[golddream]

"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.

[gold_drum]

"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.

[golddream]

"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.

[gold_drum]

"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!"

[golddream]

”Is that so?" He didn't mind--Gold was Gold, and Silver was Silver. It wouldn't be fair to either to compare the two. "I just need to get better so I can trick him."

He'll admit that much. Although he does notice Gold going quiet, making Kam wonder if he's said to much. Honestly being on call with someone wasn't something he did often--but if it was Gold (or Kris if she were around), he found he didn't mind.

"I'll keep that in mind too. ...I better let you go. I wouldn't want to keep you from doing whatever else you had planned."

[gold_drum]

"Yeah, I guess you should try it on more people then, for practice," Gold admits. "But I don't gotta, so I won't!" He blows a raspberry over the phone playfully.

"Alright, talk to you again then! Seeya!" Gold says, and waits for Kam to hang up rather than doing it himself.

[golddream]

"Fine, fine." His tone is softer and the fact it's followed by a chuckle meant he found the little stunt to be amusing. "You got me there."

Gold you weirdo, not that Kam was questioning it when the other hadn't hung up. He'll instead without another word cut the line on his end. Gold won't be able to see it, but there's still a bit of a smile on Kam's face before he carries off.