Luke's Interview With Alex

Luke had stayed later than usual at the ranger station on this particular day, and he was already prepping to get an earful when he got home. Overtime is overtime and Journey's admittance to Naranja Academy came with a hefty fee. Luke massaged his temples as the incident report on poachers based near the Great Marsh began to blur. He rubbed his fatigued eyes and placed the report back on his desk and stretched as he looked around the station. It was just him.

"Selene is gonna kill me." Luke mumbles to himself as he stands, daring not to look at his watch to see just how late he stayed. Looking back at the paperwork on his desk, he figures he doesn't need to proof read it anymore and should turn the damn thing in already. He picks it up, places it in a folder, and then leaves that folder in the organizer hanging from Gardenia's office door.

As he turns to leave, he gets a whiff of some acrid aroma causing him to sneeze loudly. When his eyes open, he finds himself standing in a small, carbon black room with a standard black office chair and a wooden desk with absolutely nothing on it except for a paperweight shaped like a Glimmora. There is also a Glimmora hanging from the ceiling that is a bit unusually high in order to accommodate it. on the opposite side of the desk is Alex, sitting in a more luxurious office chair. The door suddenly shuts behind Luke and locks them in the room.

“Well, that was weird. Don’t worry a lot about that. Hello there. My name isn’t important. I’m just here to ask you a few questions. You’ll return to wherever you came soon enough.”

Reflexively, Luke pulls on his elemental connection to generate six jagged stones that float in orbit around him. The Glimmora above, just as reflexively, begins to bloom silently as it awaits further instruction.

“Okay, I see you’re not too thrilled about this, so-“, he said as he moved his chair back and reached into the bottom right drawer of his desk, with both of his arms pulling out two stacks of cash, “-if you complete this, I’ll give you fifteen thousand Pokedollars. Should be enough, right?”

Exactly enough. Luke sits, but doesn't dismiss his rocks.

“Alright, let’s start. I noticed that you’re dressed quite strangely. Why is that?”

"Ranger uniform."

“Interesting. Can’t say I would ever wear something like that.”

"Then don't be ranger."

“Anyways, next question. What’s that thing you got there”, he said as he pointed to Luke's Capture Styler.

"Styler. Standard issue."

“How much is is it worth to you?”

Luke raises an eyebrow, "Is that what the 15 grand is for?"

Alex coldly and quickly says "No." and then says “It’s just a question.”

“I have a little thing of my own”, the boy said as he used his left hand to reach under his shirt and pulled out an Amulet Coin. “It’s interesting to see, what people carry with them, that’s not useful." He took a pause.

"Has it ever come in handy?"

Luke sits, a little confused by the question. "Is my standard issue Capture Styler... handy to me... as a ranger?"

The boy furrowed his brow, trying to think.

"You workin' off a script or somethin'?"

The only quips back, "No, not at all" and chuckles.

"Okay, we're about at the halfway point. Tell me what kind of music you like."

Luke sits back in his chair. Music, he was brought here to talk about music? He scratches the back of his head, "uh, I used to be in a rock band called MindSwitch with some friends of mine. Played drums. Listened to a lot of different stuff, but rock and metal are some of my favorites."

 In a slightly condescending voice, he said, "Now, do you really like metal? Or are you just into the entry level stuff? Name some artists and subgenres. Go."

"Classic heavy metal I guess? Can't beat Iron Maiden. I've been listening to a lot of industrial metal lately. Like Celldweller, I know, I know, it's electronic rock, but definitely influenced by Industrial metal."

"Close enough, It's good that you're actually familiar with true metal, if a bit strange. I don't listen to that stuff a lot. Not bad, though."

"Alright, well, now I've got a deal for you. For an extra five thousand Pokedollars, all you've got to do is listen to this song and tell me what you think about it. Can I see your phone?"

"Uh, sure." he hands the boy his phone, still with the thin plastic film adhered to its screen under the protective case. He takes an orbiting rock and plays with it absentmindedly.

Alex then opens Luke's phone and frowns at the clutter of apps open. He brings up All That May Bleed by Watain.

Luke listens, nodding along with the intro. He seems particularly impressed with the drums.
When the song ends, he asks for it to play a second time. Afterwards he nods and says, "The voice is jarring as an instrument, but I reckon that's the point." He furrows his brow. "The other instruments are pretty solid though. I imagine you're more interested in my reaction to the message? And I won't lie." He takes a second to categorize his thoughts. "I don't know what any of this means. Whatever it is, it sounds like he means it though."

The boy appeared to be a bit confused. He responded, "Indifference? Very strange. I thought this would be the kind of song that always leaves an impression. Moving on..."


"Pokémon. Let's talk about Pokémon. What is your WORST Pokémon?"

"Worst?" He sounds confused. "Like behaved?"

"I know someone one of your six comes in last place. For me, it's Dragalge. It's gotten me through a lot, but it's also got one of the lowest BSTs out of any fully evolved Pokémon I have, even getting edged out by Revavroom and Corviknight by a few points. The second spot of my team, has frankly always been a bit weaker. But that's okay, as long as the role I use it in checks out, right?"

"Rolewise? They all fill certain roles and do so well. If we're talking purely battling I guess my Magnezone? It's a special attacker and so I can't truly pull out its full potential since I tend to focus on more physical moves. Which is really more my failing than its.

"What's your favorite Pokémon-", the boy said to Luke in a slightly odd tone.

"Torch, he's my-"
"-That you haven't caught." the boy interrupts.
"...Torch."

The boy gave back a slightly condescending "Nice".

"What's your favorite Type?"
Hard to say really, I don't focus on type too much. If I had to pick I'd probably go rock since I'm connected.

The boy took a sigh, for some reason trying not to seem rude this time. "I don't have any strong opinions on those, frankly. I tend to like the moves more than the Pokémon, but they're generally not offensive to my senses. Usually, though, only the dual types are worth it."

"Okay." Luke shrugs.

After a brief moment of silence, the boy asked Luke, “What was the worst battle you’ve ever had?”

"The one I had with my friend. It wasn't a league friendly match if you catch my drift. Future Sight hits hard."

“Fascinating. I think you could have won by switching in to a dark type.”

"My Pokémon wasn't the target." He says flatly.

"A lot of times, we think about the Pokémon that we like. We sometimes go as far as to walk tens of miles just to catch them, and sometimes we go even further. But you know what's something we don't think about a lot? The Pokémon we HATE. Tell me about the Pokémon that you hate."

Luke frowns, "Hard to hate Pokémon."

"Can you at least tell me about the Pokémon that you dislike?"

"not off the top of my head."

The boy stares blankly and then moves on.

"Okay, we're almost at the end of this, so I'd like to introduce you to a view. An idea. I won't say that this is necessarily my view, but it's something. Something that I've been meaning to share with people. You see, people usually think of Pokémon as their friends. But not everyone does. Some view them as tools. Possessions. To be used. I think these people are unfairly judged, because of how pervasive this 'friends' mentality is. But what say you?"

"You're describing poachers. I hunt poachers." Luke said dryly, eyes narrowing.

"Hey. Don't get all worked up on me. I didn't even say that I viewed them like that".

"I didn't say you did."

A moment of silence passed.

"Well, I guess that's it. As promised-", he said, while reaching into the drawer again, "-here's your twenty thousand Pokedollars". The boy nonchalantly slid the stack of cash across the table.

"keep it." he stands and lets the orbiting rocks fall around him. That last question ruffled his feathers and so his pride and honor kept him from taking the money.

The black plastic door suddenly unlocked. "You can go now, You'll end up back where you were."

Luke walks out after littering stones across the room. He sneezes and is back in front of Gardenia's office, the entire encounter forgotten. He looks down at his watch. "I'm on the couch tonight for sure."