Manish was nervous. It wasn’t like this was his first time out in the Birchwild Grove, nor was it his first time getting a new pokemon. But it felt different this time. The two “gift” pokemon he received were special. Mainly because they were the first gifts he received that weren’t cats. That in and of itself was important. Manish was so tired of getting cats. He did make the effort of looking up his new pokemon first, so he at least sort of had an idea what they were about. Kind of. Most of it went over his head, but still, it was the thought that counted, right?

He was making his way through the Birchwild Grove. Again. Really he just wanted to welcome his new pokemon alone without his menagerie of pokemon, most of whom had very loud personalities. Best to ease them into it when he had the chance.

Manish took a deep breath and nudged at a mushroom with his foot. Okay, he could do this. It was fine, nothing he hadn’t done before. Manish gave a soft underhand throw of the pokeball and waited with baited breath for the pokemon to appear.

With a flash, his brand new Shroodle appeared. It was…cute? Yeah, Manish was fairly certain cute was the correct term; with it’s large eyes and small body, it definitely qualified as cute. But also was a little uncanny. It reminded him of something, but couldn’t quite figure out what. He shook his head to focus; that wasn’t important. He had a new pokemon to bond with.

“Um. Hi? Hello, I’m uh, I’m Manish. And uh, and if it’s okay with you, I’ll be your new trainer? If you want?” He gave the Shroodle the same speech that he has uncomfortably practiced on many pokemon before.

The Shroodle took its time looking around before focusing it’s very large eyes on Manish. <You’re my trainer, hmm? And what makes you qualified to say as much?>

Manish was taken aback. Sure, he always assumed his pokemon wouldn’t want him, but this was the first time one actually asked for his qualifications. Which he wasn’t totally sure he had. “Oh, uh, well, let’s see. I uh, okay so I don’t really know what I’m doing, um, most of the time? But I try? Really hard? And um, I mean, if you don’t want to fight, you don’t have to, that’s totally optional! If you just want to uh, not do that, that’s fine with me.”

Shroodle narrowed its eyes, <Hmm, okay, let’s see what you got, then. Trial run. We do a fight, you prove you are good at this whole ‘trainer’ thing, and then I decide.>

Manish nodded. “Yeah, that, I mean, no one has asked that before, but uh, yeah that makes um, that makes sense. If it helps, I’ve been standing in this forest for uh, for a bit now and wild pokemon usually attack right about now.”

Shroodle stared at his face for longer than Manish would prefer. “I promise. They almost always show up right about now. Or I guess, maybe when I am trying to nap? They really like showing up when I nap.”

<Hmm.>

Manish and Shroodle stood in very uncomfortable silence while they waited for something to attack.

Yep. Horrifying. Manish grimaced as Shroodle shot out a stream of acid that bubbled on the Paras’ shell. If he knew it was always going to be like this, Manish would have tried harder to not end up with so many poison types, but here he was with a veritable fleet of them. And if it was in there nature…well, who was he to argue against that.

“Good, uh, job. Yep. That’s um, real uh, melty?”

<That’s a weird compliment you know that right.>

Manish stared at Shroodle while mushrooms sprouted around his feet.

<Yeah, alright, that tells me all I need to know. So come on, what next? You’re still on the clock, so to speak.>

“Oh! Oh right. Um. Okay, so uh, use Scratch.” Now that was a move Manish knew wouldn’t be totally traumatizing for him.

<Boring.>

Oh. Maybe avoiding trauma wasn’t going to be the best bet this time around. Really he shouldn’t have been surprised; all his pokemon were fans of scarring him for life, why would Shroodle be any different?

"Sorry?"

<Whatever, let's get this over with.> Shroodle scuttled across the ground till she was within striking distance and lashed out at the Paras.

Shroodle really lived up to her word. With just a few well placed swipes, Paras was down for the count. “What uh, what are the conditions?” He took the time to dig through his bag to find a pokeball to catch Paras in.

<Hm? Oh right. My conditions. Look, you seem to not know what you’re doing, but you’re still pulling it off. I can respect a classic ‘fake it till you make it’ attitude. So conditions of me being your new ringer. One: You gotta give me a name. A cool name. Two: How do you feel about some casual vandalism? Like, destruction of public property, but in a fun and flirty way?>

Manish stopped, perched over Paras awkwardly. “Uh, what?”

<What part are you ‘what’-ing?>

That kicked Manish back into gear and he tapped Paras with a pokeball. “Um. Sorry, no, I got it. Okay, a name. How about. Hmm, Ocean? Father once did a job where a coworker was named Ocean and he knew things about art and also always had a plan?”

<Oooh, we love a good genderswap. Okay, that’s good with me. And the second part?>

Manish kicked at some mushrooms on the ground. “Well uh, well I don’t really know a lot about vandalism, but uh, isn’t it like, breaking windows and stuff? Because I don't really want to break any more buildings. I did that enough with the world heritage site and I really don't think I can do it again.”

The newly named Ocean jumped back, <What? Dude, no, not at all. Well, actually I guess some people do that. Also, that's kind of badass and we'll definitely be talking about that later. But no, man, I’m talking about art! You know, graffiti? Taking a blank canvas and creating something beautiful where The Man doesn’t want beauty to exist?>

Manish lit up, “Oh! I like art! I mean, I don’t think I’m good at it, or anything, but art is good. I like looking at it. Does that mean you’ll teach me?”

<Manish, my dude, my guy. I am about to take you on a glorious anti-establishment journey that starts with the wonderful world of painting where losers don’t want you to paint.>

“That’s uh, that’s not bad, right?”

<Art is never bad,> Ocean assured.

“Well, I mean, I guess when you put it like that, yeah, that uh, that sounds nice. I want to learn graffiti! Also, who is 'the man'?”