In an alternate universe, this post looked entirely different...

Fog blankets the towering Timberlands, adding to its eerie allure. Finn, whose first experience with Asper had been in these very woods, seems utterly unperturbed as he squints at some marks gouged in tree bark.

"Are these the trail-markers you were talking about?"

Eyes of crystalline blue flick to the petite catgirl that disguised his college friend. Tuesday has spent a lot of time in this place, but she's found only a pond rather than the rumoured lake the two now hunted.

"Guess this'll tell us which way we shouldn't go. Oh!" Finn reaches for his bag. "I still haven't shown you the egg. Look!"

From a bag that was certainly too small to hold it, a large blue-and-white egg shot through with red veins is retrieved. It looks much the same as when he'd last laid eyes upon it, and no sounds come from within.

"I sure hope you're alive in there, bud." He taps gently on the shell. "It'd be a real fuckin' scam if this was decorative."

TALKING TO THE EGG hasn't done him any good so far, but he couldn't be faulted for trying. People spoke to their Pokemon all the time in this game; even Finn, who had Poke-speech disabled so they couldn't talk back.

"Apparently," Finn shrugs. "I looked it up after I got the drop. It's a water-type, so that's perfect for a swimmer like me." He smirks. "And it's what we fought during the raid... well, before it turned into C0DI3."

He's told that story before when he'd gone out with his friend for drinks while the businessman was in Ireland on, well, business.

His nose wrinkles at the suggestion.

"Drives me mad when they talk," he gripes, "But I guess I could give it a try..."

He's in his menus when the Cryogonal sneaks up on them, so he doesn't notice it at first. When he closes the menu, having turned Poke-speech on, he thinks at first that it's Tuesday's signature Cryogonal. That is, until it attacks him.

"Ai!"

He sends out his Mudkip to THROW ROCKS at it.

<BULLSEYE!> Hearing Caher's yell startles Finn, who readjusts his grip on the veined egg as he's readjusting to this new reality.

"Sorry for nearly dropping you, Kyogre. Can you talk?"

No, Finn, it can't talk. It's an egg.

Finn chuckles as Tuesday agrees.

"My starter's a brat. Really soured the experience."

Caher doesn't seem too bad, though, mostly because he doesn't speak again after his excited outburst. They weren't so bad when they didn't talk your ear off or insult you, as Emperor had a habit of doing.

Finn frowns, considering the Cryogonal.

"Yeh, maybe. They seem pretty useful."

First, though, they'd need to take out out.

"Looks like I never healed my team after the last time I went out. Oops."

He could retreat and take his still-conscious Mudkip to a shrine, but instead Finn allows the injured mud-fish to continue its battle against the deadly snowflake. They were just pixels anyway, who cares if they got knocked out?