Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Berry harvests are going incredibly well! Tuli knew that it would be a good idea. Ginter had been so against having a spot to settle down, partially for their brand and partially for the sake of robbers. But Tuli didn't need a place to store anything, she wanted a place to farm!

One, because she and Sandile think it's fun, but two, because this is a practically infinite supply of her stock! And they don't need to worry about taking too much from wild pokemon. It's not as if the things can actually give them any sort of payment for it, or even understand that they sell that sort of thing, like humans can. Sure, leaving enough berries for wild pokemon leaves her short on materials sometimes, but that's better than to let a pokemon starve because of her, in her opinion. As someone using the environment for her own gain, she owes it to nature to leave some for those who need it more than her. 

Tuli smiles to herself as she slices an oran berry from its stem. She holds it up, observes it. It looks perfect to sell. 

She's learning as she goes. She's not sure if she should be cutting branches holding berries from the metaphorical root, or if she should just pluck the berry, or if she should cut the twig holding the berry onto the larger branch. It hasn't been long enough for her to observe their growing patterns just yet. For now, she'll switch between them. Having twigs is useful for crafting, anyhow!

She puts the berry into her woven basket, then moves onto the next. She cuts the remaining four berries in a pattern, inspecting them before placing them carefully into her basket. Oran berries bruise dreadfully easily. 

Once she's finished with this bush, Tuli stands, taking the basket with her. It's only a few feet she has to walk to get to the next oran bush. This has a few bruised or otherwise unfit to sell berries on them, so she simply tosses them to the wind for the wild pokemon. 

Sandile squeaks up at her. She pets it between the eyes, and it closes them and smiles as she does so. “Do you want one? Y'know, you could have an oran berry now, or, if you just wait a teeny bit, you could have a pinap berry.”

It looks up at her with big eyes, then does a little jump. It squeaks again. Tuli laughs. 

“Okay, okay. I'll hurry.” She finishes up with this bush, then goes to the next. Cheri berry is next, then a pinap berry after that. It's not too long to make the poor thing wait. She takes a different basket, so as not to cross contaminate, and drops the cheri berries in there instead. 

Tuli hears footsteps behind her. Multiple pairs, actually. Perhaps Volo has actually returned in a timely manner. Or, because she recognizes Ginter's footsteps, perhaps he's been found and dragged back by him. That'd be funny. She turns her head in the direction of the sound, hoping it's true, even though there'd certainly be more chatter if it did happen to be Volo.

It's not. Of course not. 

She doesn't really care, though, because the sight before her is much more interesting. It's Ginter, with a man hanging off of him, arm over his shoulders. Shinx is trailing close behind them, big eyes looking all worried as it tries to keep up. Tuli tilts her head.

“Who's that?” She asks, dryly. Putting emotion in her non customer service voices is always too annoying. Ginter was the one who wanted this place to be more hidden, if it had to exist, so…?

“Don't know.” Ginter huffs, clearly out of breath. He walks, and the other man stumbles, to the cliff side they're perched near. Hiding under a steep run-off is pretty convenient, even though it only hides them from one angle. Ginter helps him sit against the rocky wall, and the hand that was over Ginter's shoulder flops unceremoniously to the ground. Tuli blinks slowly. 

Why hasn't she seen this person before?

And, oh. She thinks she'd remember. He's surely wearing… something. 

Tuli notices blood on his arm as she's looking him over. Gah, it's rude to make fun of someone who's injured, isn't it? Doesn't change that he's not dressed for any occasion at all in the whole land of Hisui, but y'know. 

“Do berries heal up humans?” Ginter leans and cracks his back, then rolls his shoulders and drops his backpack to the ground, not before checking to make sure he doesn't crush his shinx.

“... Not efficiently.” Tuli shrugs. “They ‘heal’ just like normal food does. 's not like humans are just other species of pokemon”

Ginter shrugs and sits down. Shinx follows with a little pep in its step, curling up by his feet. Ginter turns his attention to the mysterious man, and so Tuli does as well. She takes a cheri berry from the basket and tosses it to him. 

“Hey! Guy.” She gets his attention. He looks up at her with very tired and confused looking grey eyes. He's still breathing sort of heavily, lips curved harshly downward. “What's your name, guy?” 

He simply breathes for another moment, bringing a hand against his chest. Just as Tuli is about to turn to Ginter and tell him that he picked up a guy who doesn't speak their language, he speaks. “... I am Ingo.”

His voice crackles. Tuli raises a brow. “Ingo?” She parrots, making sure she heard it right. 

“I’m afraid I don't know where I am.” He continues, like he hadn't heard her. He looks significantly more pitiful as he picks up the berry and looks at it oddly intently. He glances between the two Guild members. “Is there anything you can do to help me?”

Ginter turns his attention to Tuli, lifting up his hand and grunting slightly as he shifts himself in his seat. “He said the exact same thing to me.”

Tuli leans forward to him. “Can you say anything else, guy?” And immediately doesn't use his name. It's much easier to say ‘guy’ than remember everyone's name. She doesn't have room for all of that. 

Ingo looks surprised at her. After a moment, “Um. Yes.” He clears his throat and nods. He looks down at the berry again, then just holds it in his lap like he doesn't know what to do with it. 

Tuli looks to Ginter for help, but he seems sort of checked out. Who knows how long he walked carrying not just that backpack, but also a whole nother guy on him. Ginter is honestly a bit old to be carrying that backpack anyhow, let alone along with another fully grown person's weight, so she'll let him rest. For now. 

She turns fully to Ingo, landing on her knees as she twists from a sitting position. She waves Sandile back to its ball as she crawls up towards Ingo. “You should eat that.” She says. 

Ingo nods slowly. “It… smells good.” he says, but does not eat it, and wears an expression that says maybe he does not think it smells good. Tuli reaches for his bleeding arm. He flinches and pulls away from her.

“Calm down.” She says. “I'm not a doctor, but I want to see. What happened?”

“... I don't know.” 

Ingo slowly puts his arm out again, and Tuli takes his hand and pulls it towards her. His tattered sleeve falls a bit down his arm, but only rags continue past his elbow.

This weird blue strip of cloth is wrapped around his wrist. It looks a bit tight, so Tuli directs her attention to his hand. He's wearing a glove, so she takes it off. He doesn't look like it made him very happy, but she did it too quick for him to complain. She tosses it to him to hold. She pinches the nail of his pinky finger between her index finger and thumb. The undersides of his nails are caked in dirt and dry mud. 

When she lets go, the base of his nail takes way too long to turn back to pink.

“Who tied this?” She asks, working to undo it. 

Ingo stutters, and his other hand goes up to try and stop her. “I-I did. Please let go.”

“It's this that needs to let go. You'll lose circulation in your fingers.” It's quite an annoying knot, but she gets it and slips it off of him. Well, for the most part. The wound started to scab, and has latched onto the fabric in doing so. “I'll get you actual bandages. Ginter, do you have potions?”

Ginter grunts in response, but she hears him going through his bag. She holds her hand up, and in no time, a potion is thrown into it.

Ingo looks down at her, nervous and confused, brows pulled tight, and he's either biting or sucking on the inside of his lower lip. 

It's quite the gash, honestly. Impressive. She doesn't want to pull the rest of the strip of fabric off, because she might cause it to bleed again, and she doesn't know how deep that scab goes. She figures she'll let Ingo do it himself. He'll know his limits. 

“Can you pull the rest of that off? Carefully. I'm gonna make you a gel.” Spray type potions don't work well on human injuries. They just don't last as long as they'd need to to really soak in and do work. However, when mixed into a paste with a second berry, especially when bandaged on, they tend to heal come morning. 

“Um.” Ingo blinks slowly, looking down at his wrist with a concerned look. Tuli doesn't get it. If he wrapped it himself, surely he's already seen the wound. She goes for the Oran basket and takes one out. 

Tuli stands. She's got a mortar and pestle somewhere around here. She walks around to where she left her bag and rummages through it. 

“Sandile?” She looks to either side. The little thing has dug itself into the dirt. It looks towards her with its big ole eyes. “Want half?” She holds out the oran berry, “Only half.” and bends down to allow him to reach.

It pops up out of the dirt immediately and takes a chomp of almost exactly half the berry. Tuli breathes a little laugh through her nose. “Chew it.” She reminds, then tosses the remainder of the berry into the bowl. She sprays a liberal amount of the potion into it, and then mixes it together. 

As the process needs to be repeated a few times, she stands and walks towards Ingo. Maybe so that he can see what he's doing, or that she can check his progress. He's gotten the cloth off, but is now bleeding, and is trying to make sure it doesn't drip anywhere by cupping his gloved hand under it. Geh, gross. 

Tuli huffs and turns back to her bag. She should just bring it over at this point. She has some very basic medical supplies here. Being a travelling merchant isn't something to sneeze at in their climate, so she makes sure she's always stocked up. There's a clean rag and some bandages in here, so she takes them both out, holding the potion by the trigger in her teeth. Too many things to carry. 

She walks over to Ingo and hands over the rag. He still hasn't eaten his berry yet. 

“'ake it.” She says, and he seems to get her meaning. He uses his bloodied hand to take it and wipes his palm, then holds it over his wound. He stutters like it hurts to move. 

She puts the roll of bandage on the ground aswell as the mortar and pestle. She takes the potion from her mouth and continues making the mixture. “Put pressure on it,” Upon thinking about what he's just done with that strip of cloth, “But don't, like, cut off your circulation or anything. If your fingers get cold, don't press so hard. And also don't let it dry.” She corrects.

Ingo blinks slowly. He looks like he didn't get a single word of that. Tuli sighs and figures she'll just hurry up with the mixture and let him fumble around as he pleases. 

It doesn't take very long for it to become a concentrated, blue gel. “Here.” Tuli says, turning to Ingo, and also evidently startling him. “Give me your arm.” He looks down at it, concerned, then holds it out for her. 

Tuli nods. “Thank you.” She scoops up a bit of the gel into her cupped fingers, then smears it over the wound. Ingo flinches, making a painted noise and curling his fingers. He starts to pull away, but Tuli grabs his wrist first. She smiles at him, “Almost done.” and he seems to relax a bit.

She uses pretty much exactly all of what she made, making sure to cover the entire area. She can also see some scratches around his wrist, so she covers those too. 

“Anything else I should know about?” She asks, tilting her head. 

Ingo shakes his head slowly, then seems to realize something. “... My other arm… is in quite pain.”

Tuli turns towards it. The sleeve isn't as messed up on that side, not ripped or torn. It's still got a large cuff on it that the other side doesn't have. “Hm.” Since his clothing seems unscathed, he likely just hit it real hard. 

She goes back to the first arm, Ingo's said clothing getting in the way of her assessing the wound on his other arm. “How do you not know how you got this?” She takes and unsticks the roll of bandages from itself with her teeth.

Ingo dips his head. “I'm afraid I cannot remember.” He winces as he again raises his unoccupied hand to his chest. “I… feel as though I fell from someplace. I have a vague memory of the fall itself, but I fear it feels as though I just woke up on the ground in the middle of… nowhere. I was… hoping someone would recognize me.”

Tuli tilts her head. “Well, if it helps, I travel for a living. I'm not even from here, I've come a long way. If there was someone who would recognize you, it'd probably be me. And I've never seen someone wearing… the stuff that you are.” She shrugs, then starts to wrap the wound. It'll keep the gel in place and prevent any wandering fingernails from pulling on scabs or dead skin. 

Ingo's frown gets even more pointed. “Ah, so then, you've never seen this emblem before?” He looks upward at his hat, like he can see past the brim at the circular symbol on its badge. 

“Nope.” Tuli shakes her head. She ties the end of the bandages in a little bow once she's finished wrapping him up. 

“Ah… I see. I apologize for expecting otherwise.” Ingo nods slowly, solemnly. 

He's kind of. Super pitiful. It makes Tuli wish she had a better way to help.

“Erm, ah, well…” She tries to think of something. Nobody else would be more knowledgeable on random things and (currently existing, that is) places than her, honestly. But Ingo doesn't know that, and who knows, maybe it's a specific insignia that someone else specializes in that Tuli herself never happened to hear of? “I may be able to connect you with someone. But no promises. They probably don't know anything, but we can try.”

Ingo looks up at her with big eyes, the bottom corners of his lips kind of pinching together like a purugly. “Really?”

Tuli makes a face. She doesn't mean to curb his excitement, but, “Try not to get your hopes up. I really don't think it'll work. But we can try.”

Ingo's mouth sort of flattens. “Thank you very much. Trying would be more than enough.”

Tuli tilts her head and smiles a bit. “Well then, you can count on me to do my best.” She swipes her thumb across her tongue, then across the edge of the last part of the bandage, to seal it in place a bit more securely. “You're all set. Now, what's up with your other arm?”

“I'm not sure exactly.” Ingo shakes his head as his now bandaged hand goes back to its default position. “It's just.. painful to…” He pauses. “Well, do just about anything with.” 

Tuli notices that the ‘default position' actually seems to be supporting that arm, so he doesn't need to do anything with it. Still, he was moving it earlier, and seems to have full motion of his hands and fingers, so it's not like it could be halfway to falling off or anything. 

“Well, let me take a look at it.” Tuli reaches for his hand. Ingo gives it to her, and it takes Tuli a minute to register how to gesture for him to take the coat off. “Oh. Uh, you have to take your coat off, I have to see it.”

“Oh.” Ingo looks down at his arm, then sort of tugs away from Tuli. “... No.”

“No?” Tuli looks at him, confused. “I don't…” she tries to think of reasons he’d want to say no. Maybe he thinks it'd be too painful to move around and get it off? “I could, help you get it off if you needed.?” 

Ingo shakes his head. “No thank you.” He says, voice still. “I'll be able to handle it on my own.”

Tuli blinks. “Um. Well, okay..?” She supposes it's easier on her, but she was sort of already in helping-mode. It takes her a minute to get out of it. “... Where does it hurt..?” Maybe she can still ascertain if it's just bruised, if he dislocated it, if it's broken? 

Ingo lifts his right hand and gestures to his arm, sort of high on his bicep but lower than his shoulder. So, probably not dislocated then. 

“Can you twist your wrist?” Tuli demonstrates with her own hand, “like this,” flipping her palm from a downward angle to an upwards facing one. She observes Ingo's face as he tries, and he absolutely has trouble with it, face screwing up in pain, but he does manage it most of the way. 

If it hurts that much to twist his wrist while the direct pain comes from so high up his arm, it might be broken. But, she's not really sure what Ingo expects her to do about it if he doesn't want to take his coat off. 

Realistically, she should splint it, but she can't do that over his clothing. “Well, um,” she scratches her neck, then shakes her head. “Just try to keep off of it the best you can, I guess. Ice it for a little while a few times a day.” 

“Ice it?”

“Yyes,” Tuli looks towards her backpack, but she doesn't think she has any ice on her right now. “I don't have any right now, but I'm basically asking you to hold something cold against it. It'll make it a little less uncomfortable. Cold always makes things feel better.” She shrugs. “Well, in moderation, at least. Maybe we should spend some time in the icelands for you.”

Ingo hums. “I see. Thank you.” He nods. While he's seemingly in the thankful mood, he turns towards where Ginter is sitting. “And thank you too, sir, for saving me.” Ginter looks up at him. “I don't know what I would have done.”

“Don't mention it.” He shakes his head and puts his hand up, showing a palm. “Anyone would have done it. It just happened to be me.” he sits up a bit, resting his hands on his knees. “You're welcome to stay, but we don't exactly have a safe place for you to stay in. We don't stay in one place very long.”

“...” Ingo thinks for a moment. “Well… How much longer will you be staying here?”

Ginter huffs. “We'll be staying until sunset.”

Ingo looks up towards the sky, then tilts his hat down. “That's more than enough for me. Thank you.” He leans back slightly, relaxing. He shuts his eyes. Tuli isn't sure what he's expecting to do. Maybe he'll tag along with the group until they come across a settlement or a camp. Actually, now that she's mentioned it, Tuli is sure Ginter wouldn't mind going a little out of his way to do that — in fact, he probably wouldn't let anything else happen. He didn't say it, but he definitely wouldn't let Ingo just wander off. Especially not after dark. 

For now, he just seems to be resting, so Tuli sighs and stands. She goes back to her bushes. She looks around for Sandile — it wasn't helping her out, so it's probably still settled halfway underground somewhere. Tuli can't deny it dirt time, either way, so she finishes up berry collecting. Well, tries, anyway.

More more more interruptions, as more footsteps start approaching. Same direction, so it's not Ginter or Ingo getting up. Good ending is that it's Eshim, and bad ending is that it's Volo. Place your bets. 

Tuli turns around. It's Volo. She stands up and walks to meet him halfway. “Where have you been?”

“Ah!” Volo obviously isn't actually surprised, grinning, showing both of his palms. “You're accusing me of doing anything but my work? I can't believe this!” He turns his head away, shutting his eyes in feigned offense. Tuli raises a brow at him and says nothing. She sees him peek his eyes open and start smiling, looking at her and gauging her reaction.

“Yeah, yeah. You're lucky we were still here.” She shakes her head, then sighs. It's kind of annoying that he got here before Eshim, because they're so much more reliable. Tuli supposes that not being reliable means you could end up showing up sooner than expected. She glances back to that guy, or, she means, Ingo, then back to Volo. “Can you keep your energy down a little bit?” That'd be nice. She knows the answer will be no, but a girl can dream. 

“Well!” He laughs through it, “I can certainly try.” Volo glances down at the garden, then spots sandile. He continues sort of pointedly looking around, like he's making a game out of looking rather than saying. 

He spots Ingo.

“Hmm?” Volo tilts his head to the side. Tuli sighs, because she knows exactly what that kind of dumb, high pitched humming sound means. So much for that. “Someone new..? Well, I never!” He grins. “Why didn't I know about this!” 

Tuli doesn't actually catch any anger or anything in his voice, he's just using the expression as an excuse to say something to show his excitement towards the new recruit, but he still leans over her. It's a bit of a habit of his, crossing his arms and lifting one hand to his chin, leaning over Tuli so that their heads are more or less vertically aligned. 

“How didn't I know!”

“Well,” Tuli snorts, shrugging at him. “When you leave for days at a time, and nobody can get a hold of you, you miss things! Who knew.” She snickers a little bit as he stands back up and looks sheepish. “You have to be somewhere we can reach you if you want to be notified of things.”

Volo gives her a funny little laugh and adjusts his hat, making this little lopsided smile, but then his ‘I can make eye contact with someone' senses start tingling as Ingo looks up at them. Volo zeroes in right away, starting to move before he even turns his body towards Ingo fully. He walks right up to him, arms folded behind his back, as if he were going to try and make a sale. Which, his method is just.. so… Well, even if it's a little bit nerve wracking to be approached in such a way, Tuli can't argue with his numbers… though his average would be even better if he didn't spend so much sinnoh-damned time goofing off. Ingo stands as he's approached.

“Hello there!” He's not using the customer service voice he normally does, but is still too upbeat for the circumstances. He puts his hand out. No way Ingo will shake it. “I heard that you've fallen from the sky. Quite a feat, mind! Both in the fact that you're alive, but that you got up there to fall in the first place!” And how did he manage to hear about it so quickly? No way word got out so fast. Volo just has his ways, Tuli supposes. He always does this.

Ingo blinks slowly, instantly overwhelmed. “A-ah..” he straightens his posture and tips his hat to him. “Well, n-not quite. I do not think I fell, rather, appeared… I don't see how I could have gotten up there.” He shakes his head. “Though, either way, I fear I do not remember how I accomplished such a feat.”

“Mmm.” Volo nods slowly as he makes a humming noise, listening along. He puts his hands on his hips when he realizes Ingo is finished speaking and picks up the slack. “Maybe it's better that way! Falling from such a height would leave quite an impression.” He nods to himself, then glances around as if checking to see if anyone can hear him. Which, as Tuli shouldn't need to mention, is sort of dumb, considering he knows that she and Ginter are in earshot. “I don't mean to pry, but, how are you faring? I know you haven't been here long – but what is the outlook?”. 

He's sort of beating around the bush, so it goes entirely over Ingo’s head. “I'm- sorry, I'm not quite sure what you mean…”

“Aha! Of course, sorry. I won't dawdle.” Volo shakes his head, still smiling. “What I mean to say is—and if you're happy with staying here, that's fine! If you'd like to live and rebuild somewhere in this land, don't let me stop you there, but!” He puts his hands out. His voice darkens. “But, you must have come from somewhere.” Volo puts a hand on his chest. “And I believe I have the unique facilities to find out where that is, and perhaps, I could get you out of this plight entirely.”

Ingo tilts his head. Tuli is wondering how Volo could be so forward. He didn't even know this man existed 10 minutes ago and now he's assuming everything about whatever happened so that he can include his weird interests! She just huffs, because he won't listen to her if she tells him to stop. “Well,” Ingo starts. Volo looks at him like he's supposed to know what he means. 

“Odd items have been popping up lately…” Ingo doesn't say anything for the whole of three seconds, so Volo starts speaking. He puts one hand over his chin–and he's not being presumptuous about that, at least. “We haven't quite been able to pinpoint where they're from yet… perhaps you're from the same place!” He leans in a little closer, and Ingo raises a brow. “If you think finding that out will be beneficial to you, just let me know at any time! You know, I was–”

“Volo!” Ginter shouts at him from a little ways away. “Leave him be.” He doesn't actually get up from his seat, but Volo stands up straight and looks at him, nodding. 

“Yes sir!” He says, saluting with a smile on his face. He doesn't really back off of Ingo for a moment, only taking a step away when he visibly gets an idea and looks at Ginter with a much more determined expression. “... If he's new, that means he needs training, right!”

Tuli realizes what he's doing almost immediately and also takes an offensive stance. “Hey, wait-”

“What?” Ginter tilts his head, raising a brow. “I really wouldn't say he's a new recruit.” He then shakes his head. “He just doesn't have anywhere else to go. I'm sure I don't have to explain why leaving him to his devices is unsafe.”

Volo gets another idea. “Well then!” His head snaps towards Ingo. “Would you happen to have an interest in helping us out!”

Ingo sort of looks just about done with him, but maybe his face doesn't accurately describe what he's thinking, because he makes a little shrug and taps his chin with the hand on his less-injured arm. “Well, I'd like to do what I can. You've helped me, after all.”

Volo stands up straight and whips back around to Ginter with a big smile on his face. “If that's the way he feels!”

Ginter buffers for a second, staring at him and processing. “That's.” He sighs and raises his hand, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We're merchants. He's asking if you want to join and also travel and sell goods.” Ginter wrings one hand, gesturing like he's going through the motions. “It's a profession. And a dangerous one.” He leans forward and points at Ingo to accentuate his point, as if Ingo were a child being chastised. “It's not just ‘helping us out,’ as that one would have you believe.”

“...” Ingo shakes his head. “Between wandering aimlessly and having a job that allows me to help people,” he nods to Ginter. “I'd much rather the latter.”

Ginter seems a little uncomfortable, but he sighs. “Fine. But we still don't-”

“So then he would need a mentor!” Volo repeats himself. He puts his hands together, in the typically sinister way, then raises his hand. “I'll volunteer! I'll be able to-”

“It should really be me!” Tuli feels like its time to step in, running in front of Volo. He'll be so insufferable with another reason to not do his work! And he'll talk that poor man's ear off. That's too cruel of a fate for any person to bear! “You know much better what I do all day, and it's what I'm supposed to do.”

Volo runs up and pushes her to the side, keeping his hand on her shoulder as he leans forward past her. “I'm extremely efficient! It’s–”

“Not the way we should be teaching a new recruit how to do things!” Tuli ducks under Volo's arm and steps forward. 

“It doesn't matter how I spend my time as long as I'm making quota, and I'm making way more than that! That wisdom has to be shared!” Volo puts his arms in front of Tuli's face as he steps forward in turn. 

“Think about how troublesome having two Volos would be!” Tuli reaches up and yanks Volo's arms down, leaning over them to get ahead of him. 

Ginter does not look amused at all. 

“Two Volos means two–”

“Stop.” Ginter sighs. Heavily. He shakes his head and puts his hand up to signal them to shut up. Tuli and Volo both freeze. Ginter closes his hand into a fist, then points at Tuli. She perks up, eyebrows raising. “Tuli, he'll shadow you.”

Tuli grins. An innocent man, saved! 

“Volo,” Ginter redirects his hand. “You teach him how to battle.” 

“Yes!” Volo pumps his fists in delight. Tuli rolls her eyes, but at least she got what she wanted. Volo is better than the rest of them at working with pokemon, so she supposes this makes the most sense. She just likes to bicker with Volo, honestly. Ginter probably would have picked this if she'd just volunteered regularly, but Volo has such an infectious frantic energy that she can't help but act accordingly. 

Tuli actually looks at Ingo. He doesn't look like he knows what's going on, but that's not new for him or anything. “Hey,” she says. “Do you know pokemon?” 

Ginter continues her thought, “Yes,” and Ingo turns to look at him, “Our line of work is dangerous. You'll need to be able to protect yourself when the need arises. And it will arise.’” 

“I know.” Ingo nods. If Ginter found him in the wilderness, and he's as injured as he is, maybe he already got into some trouble with wild pokemon. They can definitely be vicious if they want to be. He turns towards Tuli again, now answering her question. “I think I do, if not by name.” Ingo looks down at his own hands. “I really think I do.”

“Then you'll be a natural!” Lending no time to sentiment, Volo only gives him a moment to react to his voice and look up at him before he tosses a pokeball in his direction. Ingo's eyes are wide as he tries to keep it from falling, almost juggling it between his hands before he finally catches it and holds it in his careful grasp. “We don't want to be out after dark, I assume, so we should get going soon!”

As Ingo starts to walk towards him, “Nobody is going anywhere!” Tuli calls. “You were so busy not asking about him that you didn't know I was just telling him to stay off his arm. We gotta give him a few days, at least. He definitely won't be able to lug around a backpack like this either way.” 

“Well’e can hold a pokeball, can't he?” He gestures to Ingo again, brow quirked in defiance. 

“Give it a few days.” Tuli repeats sternly, holding her hand out towards Ingo. “I can take that back.” She offers. He slowly returns the pokeball to her, and she turns and places it firmly into Volo's hand. 

“Days?” Volo's face drops, looking quite like Shinx whenever it isn't getting what it wants. Luckily, Tuli is not as susceptible to Volo's puppy eyes as Ginter is to his partner pokemon's. “How am I supposed to know if I won't be out in a few days?”

Tuli snaps her hand and hits him in the chest, and Volo yelps. “Ah! Okay, okay.” He puts his hands together like he's thinking. “I think I'll head out early so that I can make it back in time, then. That'll work out, right?” He tilts his head like he's actually awaiting an answer. Tuli sighs, because he'll probably do it no matter what she, or anyone else for that matter, says. “It'll be convenient! I can't tag along with you guys for however long, I'll just keep checking in.”

“Yeah, whatever. Don't get yourself killed.”

“I won't! I never do!” 

— — —

Having time to do a little scouting was convenient after all! He also did a bit of investigating. This guy is really down on his luck, huh? Volo went to so many people he ended up having to loop right back around to Ginter, and got the most information out of him! Crazy. But it helped him form a plan. 

And, see, Volo is sort of happy he had to wait a few days, because that meant he could meticulously choose a location to do their training! Because now, he doesn't have to do any wandering around, he doesn't have to do any deciding, and he can make the space evoke just about what he wants it to. So, 

“Here we are!” Volo opens his arms. He hops and matches his footsteps to specific rocks as he leads the way up to a plateau. Ingo walks behind him without jumping between the rocks. “I wanted to find someplace nice and open. And not very many pokemon will be up here, either, so I doubt anything will get in our way!” 

He turns to walk backwards, facing Ingo. He's got his fancy new uniform, as well, though it doesn't really look as affiliated as he should. Still wearing the jacket and his hat, but Volo supposes it's better than nothing. Even though he doesn't fully look the part, he makes a pretty good guild member, as far as Volo is concerned. Nobody has put him on the field yet, but he has a strong suit that perhaps nobody else quite has!

He's so creative. Can come up with a use for anything, a reason to buy it, no matter what it is! He seems to have prior knowledge of things as well, which is convenient, but also intriguing. 

He also knows the names and probable functions of items retrieved from areas of space-time distortion. Interesting, very very interesting. Either that, or he's just that good at bullshitting. Both are extremely useful skills.

“That's.. Good.” Ingo sounds a bit unsure, so Volo nods and supports him. 

“It is! Listen,” Volo puts his hand out like he's offering something, offering an explanation. “People sort of only recently started being alright with working with pokemon. And they're right for being hesitant!” As he approaches the area he scoped out, specifically the spot he wanted to stand in, he takes Bow's pokeball off of his belt and tosses it in his hand. “Pokemon do hold incredible power, incredible power. So having one or two on your side will always be useful.” He stops walking, gestures to the area. “This is where you'll learn! For today, at least.” Gotta keep the options open.

A large open space with a manageable to climb pathway in the direction they're coming from, and a steep, unsafe run-off across from them. Contrasted with a beautiful view of the land, of course. Volo gestures for Ingo to walk further from him. “Stand a little away from me, pokemon battling can get a little messy!”

“Alright.” Ingo nods his head and does so, inspecting the area as he walks. He stands a good ways away from Volo, around four paces. 

“Good! Now,” Volo holds the pokeball out. He walks towards Ingo to show it to him closer up. “This is a pokeball. It's sort of like a little terrarium for pokemon! It makes little sense to the average person—it takes advantage of some sort of shrinking ability native to all pokemon. Ah, they really are marvelous creatures!” He tries to curb his excitement, because he has a job to do, but ohh, it's just so fun to talk! 

Ingo looks down at the ball and lifts his hands, like it's second nature to him. Volo places the ball into his grip. “There are a lot of different kinds of pokemon, but don't worry about learning them all. Hey– hey, you should make a pokedex, has anyone set you up with one?” Upon a moment of no reply, probably because he changed topics so quickly, “You can borrow mine for now! I never write things in it on the field anyway” He shakes his head– he's getting off track. “But! What I mean to say is. This is a pokemon called a togepi.” 

“I see.” Ingo inspects the ball, turning it in his hands. It fits well, and he holds it in the proper way as well, thumb and middle finger on the triggers. He squeezes, and properly triggers the mechanism to set Bow free! 

There's a small flash, and Ingo stumbles back slightly, snapping his eyes shut. “Fantastic!” Volo praises—he didn't even need to tell him what to do! “You're a natural!”

Bow makes her usual little noise when she appears, smiles as she looks up at Volo, then opens her mouth and tilts her head when she sees Ingo. He looks down at her and bends down. 

“Why, hello there.” He holds his hand out, as if he could give her a handshake. “My name is Ingo.”

She looks at his hand, then smiles and coos at him, waddling forward. She puts her wing against Ingo's finger. He gently shakes it. Volo can't help but smile. 

“It is very polite.” Ingo looks up at him with a very happy look. He, factually, is not smiling, but his expression reminds Volo of a smile either way. 

“She is!” Volo agrees. Because she is! He didn't teach her that, she just is that smart! “Now,” Volo steps back to his proper place. “She'll work with you for the rest of this session, if you'll have her.” Volo searches for his newest member, a pokemon he caught specifically for these training purposes. He wants to mostly test Ingo's attacking prowess, so he chose a bulkier pokemon. A 4 times weakness multiplier isn't the best, but this little guy isn't for real competition. “She knows few moves right now, but she'll get stronger! Now,” Volo takes out Scizor’s ball and releases him. “Show me what you can do.”

—

Ingo fumbles around for a surprisingly short amount of time. It's clear he knows what he's doing, just can't properly harness it. He has some pretty fantastic potential. Such prowess… not only that, but he has a pure heart and such curiosity that could be able to rival Volo's own if he really put his mind to it. Above all else, though, it really seems like he just wants to go home. He obviously didn't come from here. Volo might just be able to help with that. He would consider himself the closest thing this region has to an expert on places anywhere other than ‘here’!

Volo goes through the motions of a few basic battles. Ingo looks displeased, even after winning—maybe he can tell Volo wasn't actually trying to beat him. He's too busy gathering information. And wondering about things.

Why is he so good at this, yet have no idea what he's doing at the same time? He has to have had some sort of connection, maybe in a past life. Maybe in his past life. His own curiosity can't be held back anymore. After healing up their pokemon, Volo asks it straight up. “Where did you come from, Ingo? You know I can't help but wonder!”

Ingo thinks. “I don't know much of it.” He shakes his head, sort of solemnly. “I know I have some sort of a bond or connection with pokemon in general. That is about all I have gathered, I fear there's nothing more, I have no recollection. Except…” He glances up at Volo weirdly, then looks down. “Well… it, it may just be coincidence. But, I… whenever I see my reflection, I feel like I see another person looking back at me.”

Volo hums, resting his chin on his knuckles, one finger resting by his temple. “Hmm.” Feigning ignorance of what he's about to say, pretending it's from the top of his head, a lighthearted thought, “I wonder if it's someone who inadvertently got left behind.” He looks upwards absentmindedly, like he's trying to think of what to say next. “I sure hope that time is paused, wherever it is that you're from. I know I wouldn't like to have someone I love disappear like that!” He laughs like it's an impossible thought, and Ingo takes the bait. 

Ingo's frown deepens. He tilts his head down further, the brim of his non-guild hat obscuring his face. “I… yes, I do hope that is not the case. I don't want to have left anyone behind.” He sighs sort of heavily, turning his head out past the cliff side and into the beautiful scenery below. Volo's eyes also trail to the view. He takes a step to Ingo's side—the side closer to the path they followed earlier.

“I don't remember, either. If that were to be true, then I've left them behind in two ways, rather than just one.”

Volo puts a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, don't be so down.” Ingo turns to look at him, so Volo leans forward and makes it easier. “You know, you happen to be talking to the one person that might just know how to get you back.”

Ingo's eyes are tired, hopeful. “Really?”

Volo smiles and nods his head without a word. 

He moves his hand to Ingo's back, swivelling his body and pushing him along. He doesn't need to, Ingo would follow him either way, Volo just thinks it's funny that Ingo still gets so surprised and stumbles to catch up, even though Ginter does this sort of thing literally constantly. “i can show you why I think that.”

“Alright.”

Down, down the mountain they go, across some sets of plains, Volo brings Ingo to a set of very particular ruins. “It seems as though those who knew about this being are almost entirely gone, now.” He explains, words light and airy, carried off by the crisp wind. “You'd be hard pressed to find anybody else that even knows its name.” Volo steps around the crumbled statue, abandoning Ingo, brushing dust from its stone base. “But I do.” Ingo follows him with his eyes, now that he isn't being led anywhere. Volo kneels by the front of the statue and opens his arms, hands looming forward as though he were speaking of a ghost. 

“There is a being, one that could rip apart the very fabric of all that we know. The very existence of space and time, it means nothing to it.” Volo turns his head and smiles at Ingo. “Something like that must be why you're here now, do you follow?” He tilts his head, however it must only be an expression, because he doesn't wait for Ingo to reply. “Some sort of being, meddling in a place it doesn't know, doing things it has no right to do. That's what this is. To undo this error, we must simply recreate it with more… tact!” He laughs a little bit, unable to help himself. Ingo nods in response to his rhetorical question.

Volo stands up again. He sort of can't keep his hands from shaking. The excitement of simply being able to explain this story to somebody, to convince somebody else, it's all so intoxicating. “You've seen the space-time distortions! You know it's possible. Nobody knows why they're happening, but I have an inkling.” His voice starts to shake with the effort of keeping his hands still, and once he realizes it, he allows them to shiver for the sake of producing clear sound. He can't have Ingo thinking he's some sort of lunatic, after all. “With a bit of skill and luck, we need only harness its power, and with its power,” he inhales, “I can bring you home.”  

Volo is sort of conscious of how crazy he sounds all of a sudden, realizing in retrospect he probably should have tried to compose himself better or wait a little longer, but, despite that, Ingo looks extremely intrigued. He looks back and forth between the tattered statue and the very...well, maybe eager is the best word? excited? very ominously smiling Volo. Slowly, like he's not sure if he can trust him, “... Do you really think so? Is that even possible?” 

“I do, and it is.” Volo says. “To be honest with you, once upon a time, I was in a very similar spot to you!” He laughs. “I more than understand what you're looking for. There must be a way to get you out of here, since there was a way for you to get here, right? And it must be the same thing that brought you here.” Volo points at Ingo, tapping his chest with his pointer finger. 

“Ever since recently, these space-time distortions have been popping up. They're not safe, I wouldn't like to show you from anywhere but a distance, you could get hurt, however, I bring it up because you've already shown yourself to have some sort of a connection to them.” Volo takes a step forward and puts the hand on Ingo's shoulder instead.

Ingo blinks as he inches backwards. “I have?”

Volo nods. “One of the items Ginter had you make something up about. You knew what it was.” His voice becomes less strained as he strays from his previous topic. “None of those guys at the guild had any idea.” He gestures a thumb at his own chest. “I had retrieved it from a space-time distortion. If you know what those sorts of things are, strange devices with even stranger functions that none of us could even hope to guess… perhaps they're from the land you're from. Perhaps that's how you get back.”

Ingo is silent for a while. 

“I can't do it alone. I'd need your help. But, together, perhaps we can get you back.”

He still doesn't answer. ‘Perhaps’ he's come on too strong. Dropped too much information at once. He should pivot, keep the option open, so Ingo still feels in control.

Ingo looks up at him suddenly, almost surprising him, conviction in his eye. In the moment it takes him to start speaking, Volo catches on, and grins ear to ear before he can even say the words.

“What do I have to do?”