Forum Thread

After Ellie had calmed some after Katana's attack she got up and started making some curry for herself and her team. When she had finished a wonderful aroma wafted around the train as the rest of Elle's party* were released from the pokeballs on her belt.

(*How Ellie makes curry, but obviously some things are diffrent
*Ellie's team:
1: Cream (Female Gmax Eevee, starter!)
2: Babs (Female Scorbunny)
3: Ace (Male Rookidee)
4: Bolt (Male Yamper)
5: Kaila (Female Ralts)
6: Zella (Female shiny Zubat, gift from mom)

---

Charlie raises a hand up, signalling to Suvansh that everything was alright and dismissing his offer for a handkerchief. But she couldn't help but note that his power must've had something to do with... Well... She still wasn't totally sure. Telekinesis maybe? But he didn't seem to have any control of the movement of the tomatoes. Maybe he can create explosions? No, there was no fire or forces at play. What had he done? Stabbed a tomato. Maybe air manipulation?
She mentally slaps herself. She shouldn't be thinking this way. But then again, maybe it wouldn't be a bad odea to take note of other people's powers. Just in case they ever fought? Finding that the tomato had splattered onto the gang patch, she simply tears it off and throws it away. Her brow was furrowed as obvious disgust fills her gaze at touching the patch. One last job her boss's words flow in her head. After this, you'll be free to live your life, with enough money to not ever have to fret about a thing. Her hands clench and her jaw tightens as she holds back the words that she desperately wants to tell him. But knew that she never would- the real reason why she stayed.
Realizing that she won't get much out of Suvash- or was it the other way around?- Charlie returns to her seat. She leans against the window and stretches her legs across the plush bench. Shutting her eyes and resting her head on the window, one would think she was asleep. Instead, she was awake, and carefully listening to her surroundings.

---

As the smell of curry wafted into her carriage, Echo visibly relaxed, and walked silently over to Ellie, careful not to step on any of the pokemon. “Smells good” she commented, gently gesturing with the knife in her hand, as she watched Ellie making the curry.

---

After awhile, Akiro stopped pacing. He was tired enough that his anger had simmered, and he didn't feel as pent up as before. It would have been better if he had been able to take his anger out on something, say, one of his opponents, but that time would come. Now, Akiro was actually hungry. He took a seat, not even noticing that there were others on the side of the table, though he did question why there were tomato splatters on the table. Whatever. He focused on digging into the steak, but there waas still some pent-up energy left over so his movements were quick and harsh, slicing into the steak and cutting it apart. As he was eating, he glanced up and slowly stopped, realizing that he wasn't alone. Well, that was...that. He didn't feel like socalizing, so he took the plate and moved to another part of the train, muttering, "Sorry, I'll leave you alone." He found another part of the train and continued eating, moving the plate onto an empty table.

While Akiro had promised that he wouldn't make alliances, that didn't mean that he had to completley ignore them. After all, he had to know their strengths and weaknesses. He wasn't about to go betraying anyone either, which was why he had to be as detached as possible about it. But when he saw Rui in the corner as he looked around the room, his heart ached. She didn't look like she was any older then a kid. That was just plain cruel. Even his father had been 18 when he entered the games. A kid shouldn't have to do this at all. That wouldn't be right. The least he could do was offer her a kind word, she looked terrified. He walked over, kneeling beside her. I'm only doing this because it's not right that she should be here at all, he thought. Akiro didn't want to seem overlyfriendly, so, keeping his distance, he said softly, "You okay, kid?" That was the best he could do, the boy wasn't very good at being empathetic most of the time.

---

Suvansh nodded and then as embarrassed as he was, put his hands down and sat. His face brightened just a bit when he saw Akiro sit at his table, hoping to strike a conversation, as strict as he looked, but then Akiro left too. He had no choice left. He sent out Flare. The dragon like Pokemon sent out a roar, that probably all of the people in the train heard. Suvansh gently stroked him, trying to get his tail away from the seats. He calmed Flare quick and had him sit beside him. He just be hungry he figured, and he broke a piece of steak and gave it to him to eat. He kept petting him. While they didn't really converse, this small action made him a lot calmer, and felt like he wasn't all alone for the first time since his name was called out at the selection.

---

Her heart pounded as another human being made their way towards her. She was still trying to recover from the previous experience, it was all too much for her. The smell of the curry just poured a heap of salt on the wound, it was terrible... “You ok, kid?” How was she supposed to respond to that? All she could do is slightly shake her head, not making any eye contact and continuing to clutch her stomach and stare at the floor. She couldn’t help but to want Akiro to stay and talk, but she knew that was very unlikely to happen. Akiro clearly wasn’t the type of person to chat, much less comfort anyone. Besides, a small child talking to someone who was close to being an adult? That never went well, at least in her eyes.

Lesia’s attention immediately went to that delicious smell, she didn’t care about anything else in that moment. Wherever there was food, she was there. She quickly went up to Ellie and her team and gave a big smile. “Omigoshthatsmellssogoodcanihavesome!?” She blurted out, her words barely even making any sense.

---

Akiro's mind went back to when he was the kid's age. Most of the time, he'd be slumped in an alleyway, broken and bruised. The poor kid looked like she was terrified in general, but he didn't know if it went deeper then that. Akiro didn't want to pry, and he certainly didn't want to socalize. But he couldn't help but stay. Something told him it would be better for him if he at least talked to her, but it sickened when he thought that in order to walk out alive, he'd have to kill her. There was no way the games would last that long. But what else could he say? He finally gave in. He couldn't just leave the poor girl here, she looked like she was going through a lot. "I can see you're preety scared. I..." Why would a kid try and betray him? He might as well try. "I'm scared to. I don't know what you're feeling right now, but the least I can do is try and calm you down now." He sat down next to her. "What's your name?"

---

A small chill ran down her spine as soon as he started talking, startling her for a brief moment. So... he was scared too? Well, in this situation you would be a psychopath if you weren't scared. She noticed he had hesitated in the middle of his sentence, giving her the thought of him having a hard time talking to her about how he really felt. When he asked for her name, her mind went blank. Everyone she met already knew her name, so she didn’t have to think about it much... After a long time in silence, she finally said something with a very low and soft voice. “Rui... My name’s Rui...” she finally lifted her gaze from the floor, her blank, murky, and dull blue eyes looked at him sadly. She was a little calmer than she was before, even after focusing on her breathing.

---

Akiro nodded slowly. "Rui..that's a preety name." He wasn't sure what else to say, this was the first time in awhile he'd had a proper conversation. The girl seemed terribly sad and tired, probablly what he would have looked like if he hadn't started fighting back. "Akiro," he said, "My name's Akiro." Gah, what else was he supposed to say to this poor girl? "Well, uh, did you..what did you do before the Games?" He visibly cringed. Obviously she wouldn't want to talk about that.

---

Before Akiro had asked that dreaded question, Rui began to quietly mutter his name. She didn’t know a lot of names, or a lot of words for that matter, so this was hard for her to keep track of. The very little education she had limited any sort of conversation she could muster, including this one. Then, the question hit her. ”If anyone asks about you, say nothing. You don’t want them to know, do you?” Her mother’s scolding echoed in her mind. She was always told this repeatedly the very little times she was allowed to leave the house, and she made sure to remember it. She always thought it was for her own good too, so she didn’t think otherwise. “N-nothing...” was all she said, not even able to hide the fact that it was a lie.

---

He hesitated when she started to mutter, at first not realizing that she was saying his name. When he did, Akiro relaxed. She seemed much more tensed when he asked what she did, so he assumed it was a sensitive topic. "I won't bother you about it," he said quietly. "Doesn't seem like you talk much, huh?"

---

The remark about the amount she talked made her turn her head back to the floor in silence, letting out a sigh. Here she was, being the less talkative person in a conversation with someone who seemed conservative and cold. Well... she couldn’t judge a book by its cover, could she? “I-I’m sorry...” she replied, realizing that this probably was a pointless conversation. She couldn’t keep doing this... She had to make her last moments alive last, and she couldn’t do it like this.

---

Akiro sighed. "Kid, there's nothing to apologize for. Seems like you don't want to talk to me. Just say the word and I'll leave you alone." Why was he trying so hard? He wasn't even an extrovert and he was chatting it up with someone he might end up killing. That thought made him sick, and he pushed it down.

---

She didn’t exactly know how to respond to that, in fact, it didn’t even register to her that she appeared that way. It’s not that she wanted him to leave, but she didn’t really know how to interact with him. All she could think of was a simple question, one similar to the one he had previously asked her. “What was your family like...?” She said, a little more loudly this time so he could hear her clearly. The word “family” left a bad taste in her mouth after what she had seen her parents do. It was hard for her to determine if they were a “family” or not...

---

Akiro sighed, unsure how much he wanted to open up. But then again, why would it make a difference? Eventually, either one of them, or maybe both of them was going to be killed. "My dad's dead. He was a tribute. My mom...that's a different story. She used to care about me, but, for reasons I don't understand, she hates me. But it'll all be over soon, won't it?" He avoided looking at her, unsure how she would react.

---

So he didn’t have a stable relationship with his parents either, huh... “Oh...” she felt a little regret asking the question, but what was said was done and she couldn’t do anything about it. She was tempted to answer her own question to try and make it less awkward, but her mother’s reminder made her hesitate. Well... she wouldn’t be going back to them anyways, it didn’t matter anymore, did it? “My parents... didn’t like me either... I didn’t expect them to after knowing they were forced to raise a freak...” at this point she was just repeating what she had heard, but she didn’t show any signs of hatred for them as she said this.

---

Ellie nodded at the both of them. "Once this is done you can have some." She gave them each a smile as Zella perched herself on top of Echo's head as she waited for Ellie to finish.

Kaila the Ralts looked in Lesia's general direction as she tried to gauge the current mood, seeming to find Lesia not a threat she slowly floated over to her. "Ra?"

---

Lesia was too focused on the food to notice the ralts at first, but after Ellie’s approval she gave her a tight hug. After she let go, she saw the ralts out of the corner of her eye and she jumped, turning towards it and letting out a small scream before covering her mouth. She had no clue what it was or why it was floating, it was all new to her. She had a feeling it was similar to the eevee, since it was also something completely different than the animals she was used to seeing.

---

Flinching in alarm from the sudden scream from Lesia, the Ralts darted behind Ellie's legs, peeking out at her. Ellie laughed a little. "It's okay Kaila, she won't hurt you, she just got a bit spooked." Very slowly, the Ralts came out from behind Ellie and landed halfway between her trainer and Lesia, looking up at her again.

---

"Kid, I seriously doubt that you're a freak. You seem fine enough to me, and you shouldn't call yourself things like that. A lot of people have strange abilites, but that doesn't make them any less of a human." Akiro was surprised by how easily he had done that. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, his anxiety starting to show a little. "Your parents have choices, and-" he paused. His mother had made choices and chose to be an awful parent. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he continued, the anger at his train of thought showing a little in his voice, "You shouldn't blame yourself for them." He buried his face in his hands. "I'm sorry, I just-Gah, why is it so hard to talk to people?!" he muttered.

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