[ti]open[/ti][001] born to run

Huh, what the—

One moment he was accompanied by a guy that had a Piplup, the next he turned to the side and saw that… he was alone.

After trying to search for the player who had the username ‘Octagon’ and turning up no results, he could only wonder… what happened? Where’d the luchador guy go?

(Also, shame that the Piplup also disappeared. Those Pokémon were mysteriously not on the Beta Island, or so the rumors said.)

Anyway, he would square his shoulders for a few moments before taking another look up at the house; and then for a few moments he thought of changing the internal language of his game to Italian (for the true immersion) but thought against it; instead he chose to lay everything out in French—he did need the practice for his third language, after all.

Once he’d made sure to step on the outside doormat, he would walk inside—wondering how the in-game ‘Mom’ would compare to the—to the…

Shit, the North American server really did things different, huh? He could recall that it was either a nonna or another close relative in the Italian-side of the game, but… that was a long time ago now, wasn’t it?

[tangent=“Ma? Are you here?”]“Maman? Êtes-vous ici?”[/tangent] he would call out—huh, even the language changed to French? That was amusing.

[tangent=“In the kitchen!”]“Dans la cuisine!”[/tangent] would come the reply; and after very nearly getting lost (in his own house, yeesh, what kind of a son was he) he finally found ‘her’, the in-game Mom, chopping vegetables at the kitchen counter.

[tangent=“How are you?”]“Comment vas-tu?”[/tangent] she would ask him; he would hold up a hand and mutter a short, [tangent=“I’m fine,”]“Je vais bien,”[/tangent] before grabbing a seat on the nearby counter.

(As he had no idea what to do while she was chopping up vegetables!)

[tangent=“Have you heard from your father lately?”]“As-tu eu des nouvelles de ton père dernièrement?”[/tangent]

“No,” was the simple answer.

[tangent=“Always out somewhere, doing who knows what,”]“Toujours dehors quelque part, faisant on ne sait quoi,”[/tangent] she would begin to complain; and here was the point where he had to bite down a snicker as ‘Mom’ launched into a tirade involving how someone shouldn’t overwork themselves to the point of not coming home and asking about them—about how someone who knew they had a kid would at least come home every once in a while to check in on them, things like that.

(Which was classic, all things considered. He had a pretty normal life outside of the game; albeit everyone was living in different parts of the United States. How long had it been since they scattered? Too long!)

[tangent=“…which is why I want you to go out and bring him home!”]“…c’est pourquoi je veux que tu sortes et que tu le ramènes à la maison!”[/tangent] she would end with a rather violent slamming noise of the knife on the chopping board; sending the eggplant flying.

[tangent=“Me? Ma, can’t you do it yourself?”]“Moi? Maman, tu ne peux pas le faire toi-même?”[/tangent] he would blink; before watching her grab another eggplant and beginning to chop it up with a little more violence in her gaze.

[tangent=“You know I want to! But nobody will keep an eye on the house!”]“Tu sais que j'en ai envie! Mais personne ne surveillera la maison!”[/tangent]

Yikes, okay, maybe that was a mistake, he thought as he flinched; the noise of the chopping knife meeting the chopping board with some aggravated violence against unwarranted vegetables.

He would then settle for the ‘peacemaker route’ and hold up his hands; the better too calm her down.

[tangent=“Alright, alright, I’ll try to find him! No promises I can bring him back in a day, though,”]“Bon, bon, je vais essayer de le retrouver! Je ne promets pas de pouvoir le ramener en un jour, cependant,”[/tangent] he would reply back; calming her down somewhat. Alright, there… that seemed to work. At least the kitchen knife work was a lot less violent now than it was a few moments ago.

[tangent=“Before you go searching for him, I have something to give you,”]“Avant que tu partes à sa recherche, j'ai quelque chose à te donner,”[/tangent] she would reply; putting down the knife and disappearing out of the kitchen and into who-knew-where inside the house.

Several minutes would go by, before she made a return with a box. It certainly wasn’t any kind of Nikes or something like that, but it was a nice, sleek, black box outlined with thin red lines.

[tangent=“Take these with you,”]“Prends-les avec toi,”[/tangent] she would gesture at the box. [tangent=“Maybe you can find him faster when you’re wearing that.”]“Peut-être que tu pourras le trouver plus rapidement quand tu porteras ça.”[/tangent]

He would then crack the box open and see the Running Shoes, which he picked up and let out a low whistle of appreciation. It was strange, how the game knew what kind of style the players preferred…

[tangent=“I’ll try and get him home, but no promises I’ll get him back in a day,”]“Je vais essayer de le ramener à la maison, mais je ne promets pas que je le récupérerai en un jour,”[/tangent] he would remind her quietly; the Running Shoes vanishing from his hands and slotting themselves into his inventory a few moments later with a blinking notification.

[tangent=“When you do bring him back, I’ll prepare your favorite food,”]“Quand tu le ramèneras, je préparerai ton plat préféré,”[/tangent] she added, wiping her hands down on the apron before picking up the knife once more and returning to her knife work.

[tangent=“Alright, alright. I’ll come by and check in every once in a while,”]“Très bien, très bien. Je viendrai de temps en temps pour vérifier,”[/tangent] he added once she’d returned to what she was doing in the kitchen.

“See you,” he would add—but in English, before waving at her in farewell and making his way back out of the house.

Phew.

That… that was a rather intense French workout… not to mention really crazy.

Who knew how all the other players’ Mothers reacted whenever the player would show up and get their Running Shoes?

He would snicker quietly as he flipped the language settings back to English, and be on his way.

bwahahaha