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[...pfffheh.]

I'll believe it.

[Of course he spontaneously recovers train trivia. That makes sense. Gladion is grinning, for the moment.

(Now approaching the tiger!)]

[Ingo doesn't crack a smile, of course, but he chuckles lightly. Yes, yes, fair enough.

And, oh! There is the tiger! It seems to be a popular animal, but it's easy enough for two monsters to make their way through the crowds to a position where they can easily see into the exhibit. Ingo raises his eyebrows. Of all the animals he's seen, the tiger is the one which most looks as if it could be a Pokemon.]

Oh! It looks as though you mixed an Arcanine and a Luxray! I would have taken it for a fire-type, if I saw it anywhere else!

Reminds me of a Persian, in the body. [Sort of Incineroar in the face, but eh. Gladion goes into his pocket for Silvally's Pokeball and holds it by his chest so it can have a look too, if it wants.

The zoo has still not stopped being kind of novel, as a concept. Like, yeah, zoos and parks and gardens where rare Pokemon just live for viewing exist, Gladion's been to a few, but they're not usually this...general? This controlled? This casual? The vibe just isn't the same.]

Persian...yes, I have seen those! You're quite right!

[It often takes him a moment to place the names of Pokemon that aren't native to Hisui, but he can usually do it! As a professional trainer, he supposes it behooved him to be familiar with many different kinds of Pokemon!

Now that he's really looking at an animal in an exhibit, the entire concept of a zoo is really hitting him in earnest. The tiger is sleeping, apparently perfectly content, and the enclosure seems both large and natural enough to be comfortable for it. Ingo expected all of that, of course; Gladion wouldn't patronize an establishment that treated its animals cruelly! It's just that there's really nothing like this in Hisui at all. He can't imagine anyone there even coming up with the idea for one!]

Are there...zoos like this, in the future? We do not have any such thing, of course - though I suppose some of the townsfolk in Jubilife like to watch Pokemon in the pastures!

...Sort of. [Is there something to lean against? Gladion wants to lean on a lamppost or railing or something. There is now, and he does.] Most of the Pokemon viewing attractions I can think of are more like...nature preserves. Or gardens. Or aquariums, since there's the whole issue with [vague gesturing like a tank, or glass?] seeing underwater.

[Once again, there's a conversational door into Perilous Territory! Once again, Gladion turns it over in his hands and thinks, okay, maybe this isn't such a huge deal.]

The conservatory at Aether Paradise was open to the public. That was kind of like this, where you stayed up on walkways instead of walking right through the habitats. But most of the Pokemon there rotated through, since they were still actually wild, just being rehabilitated. Mostly, people see rare Pokemon in person if they're with a trainer, I think.

[Ingo hums thoughtfully, nodding. That all sounds about right. Pokemon aren't like animals - you wouldn't have to take such pains to prevent them from escaping or attacking visitors, he supposes. Not if they were living there of their own accord, and surely it would be illegal to keep them in such a place against their will!

There are likely such people anyway. But at least they wouldn't be able to openly set up shop as a tourist attraction.]

Rather like the pastures that way, then! Most of the Pokemon who live there were captured for study, for the Pokedex. The Survey Corps will train with them for a while, and I suppose they also take that opportunity to study us in their own way! So few Pokemon in the area have trained with people before, after all, so they have no way of knowing what it might be like! Some of them choose to stay with a person they've grown fond of, and others depart for the wilds again after a time!

[Ingo's trained a few of those, who were very interested in competition if not in a permanent residence. He doesn't begrudge their going; even a temporary partnership can bring about opportunities for many new and exciting battles! They're probably out there terrorizing their wild rivals though.]

I quite enjoyed the aquarium here in Bavan! I've taken a ride with Lord Basculegion once or twice, but it was a...rather alarming experience. I find I prefer dry land.

Water is...I think it's just a lot less of a hassle when it's not so cold. [But he might be a bit spoiled on that front. SHRUG.] I like the aquarium, too. Feeling kind of...surrounded? In a peaceful way. [again SHRUG.] Might just be that there wasn't exactly a lot of foot traffic that night.

[Whereas there are plenty of people here right now!]

That was certainly a factor for me! Though I have gotten far more accustomed to the crowds here!

[He certainly doesn't seem frazzled by the number of people here at the zoo, like he would have been in the early months! It's mostly a good thing! But also a tiny bit discouraging, because Ingo knows that part of it is the wide berth people tend to give him since his changes. Even now, despite how popular the tiger exhibit is, he could easily spread his wings without hitting anyone.

He doesn't, of course. That'd be very inconsiderate! Instead, he reads the little "tiger facts!" plaque in front of the railing.]

Ah...they are the largest in the cat family! Their territories are usually...elsewhere, I suppose.

[He doesn't recognize any of these place names, really! And, oh, they mark their territory by scratching and scent marking. Ingo flashes back to his urges to claw and rub on everything around their house!]

[How about he doesn't bring up the whole "I wonder if they know they're supposed to live somewhere they'll almost definitely never get to see" thing to Ingo...]

I don't think any of the big cats live wild in Ryslig.

[don't! worry about it!!!]

I have not heard of any who do! They say strange creatures live in the depths of the woods, where there is lingering fog, but I do not imagine those are natural animals. In any case, I have never seen anything out there larger than a deer!

[Not that he's been making a habit of venturing very deep inside. Ingo's not eager to run into those fog pockets himself. But he's gone up the trees nearer the house pretty often; the desire to be tall doesn't strike him as an instinct that needs to be suppressed because he's always rather liked heights.]

Yet.

[thinking about the katt and that groundhog. God knows what other kinds of Unauthorized Fucking Creatures are roaming around out there, conveniently undocumented and excluded from everyone's assurances that "oh no animals definitely don't breathe fire". He should probably expand his research to mythical animals, if things like that are going to keep happening.

The tiger, in the course of doing its tiger things, bats a big rubber ball into its pool and jumps in after it, splashing and rolling and gnawing at its toy...]

There is always a "yet", isn't there? One cannot make any predictions around here.

[Who knows what might happen? But, at least for the present, he's pretty sure there's nothing worth worrying about out in those woods. Even if he met a tiger...Ingo cocks his head. Normal-type, can't resist flying or poison attacks. He could probably beat it in a battle.

His ears swivel forward as the tiger attacks the ball.]

That looks fun! [For...tigers, obviously, is what he means. Not for manticores.]

[True this...and Gladion hums, never super enthusiastic about not being able to predict or prepare.

But for the present...

Uh-huh.

A tiny little tapping noise from Silvally's ball seems to agree with him. Gladion squints a bit at the tiger.

No points for guessing what he's thinking.]

...I was thinking of taking Silvally to the junkyard now and then. For exercise on some broken furniture or something, since there aren't many appropriate opponents here. [To say the least.] Reminded me.

[Hint, nudge.]

Oh, yes? That sounds like a good idea! It must be difficult, to be a Pokemon with no one to battle here - certainly, that little Rockruff would not be an appropriate opponent!

[He Does Not See It!]

[lord.]

You and Emmet should check it out as a training spot, too.

[Alas! His bluff has been called! Ingo looks the other way for a moment, apparently flustered. Maybe it's unreasonable - quite possibly it is - but he still feels rather a lot of shame about indulging his instincts.]

Ah - well, yes. That might be a good idea! I do not know if Emmet has had quite the same issues...

But his monster type is another physically strong one. [DON'T WORRY INGO HE HAS AN OUT FOR YOU.] Easier than finding a good boulder to hit around here, and a lot more options for materials. That's what Silvally and I did to figure out the extent of its strength, back at the very beginning. That and logs.

[...]

But, you know.

[He is becoming a little protective of their woods and wanton log destruction would be extremely annoying.]

Ah. That is a good idea. We have wrestled once or twice, but of course we did not do anything in earnest!

[Just, you know, it happens sometimes when you are siblings and also hunting monsters! And yes, he knows about Gladion's feelings regarding the trees....he always goes pretty far away when the urge to scratch becomes too powerful.

Ingo considers his claws for a moment, slowly extending them.]

I've never been in a real fight at all, like this.

[But it seems likely that it'll happen eventually.]

I've gotten some sparring in. [With Chie.] But it doesn't cover all the bases.

[He'll hit to knock her off her feet or drive her back, but he won't test the far end of his vines' grip strength on her. And that's really the only potentially-deadly-to-monsters attribute he has at his disposal - his venom doesn't work well on them, his claws are sharp but not all that sturdy, and the plain strength of his limbs is easily outclassed by most other types.

With ripping claws, or a gargoyle's searing touch, it would be a different story.]

[Ingo nods.]

If...if we are preparing for a fight with another monster, I ought to practice with my venom. But that is not something I would risk outside of a life-or-death situation! If I am much like a Gliscor, I think I could learn to administer different doses, but there is really no way to test how much would be non-lethal.

[Outside of, you know. Just risking killing someone? Another person might experiment on their prey, but Ingo won't risk killing a person slowly. Really, he doesn't much like the idea of fighting someone at all...but he remembers the red haze. Sooner or later, something will go wrong.]

But of course, it is foolish to rely on a single powerful move. Some more claw practice would not go amiss! It's quite different from fighting with a knife!

[don't worry about his knife fight history]

[Moon would have some idea about how to handle that whole...venom situation. And thinking of that makes him wistful about another thing or two about her, and wondering if there's really nobody from home he'd rather tell about what's happened to him here than some girl he's met fewer than ten times. Genius hero or not.

Oh well.]

I want to think... [Hm. He's not sure how to come at what he's thinking - as something he hopes, or something he's planning out, or something he wants advice on? Gladion crosses his arms and watches the tiger for another second or two, rethinking. And then giving up on that specific train of thought, vague as it was. He shakes his head. Instead: something a few steps to the right.]

Silvally was the second Pokemon I ever trained. First was a Porygon. Lycanroc is all I have to compare them against firsthand, but I'm under the impression that both of them were a little different from the "average" [literally one-handed airquotes this] experience.

[this is going somewhere]

[Ingo tilts his head in agreement.]

You are the expert on Silvally, of course! But I have trained with a Porygon in the past! Only briefly - it was a wild one I befriended shortly after it arrived in Hisui, and it did not ultimately decide to remain with me, but I did help it adjust in return for some demonstration of its abilities. It was certainly a unique experience for me! Though of course, that may simply come down to a lack of familiarity.

[He's told Gladion about how alien the creature appeared to everyone in Hisui, after all. Ingo's good at reading Pokemon who aren't what one might call "normally" expressive. He'd feel like rather a hypocrite if he weren't! And of course, he even has an unknown futuristic Pokemon as a part of his primary team. But Magnezone and Probopass had not quite prepared him for Porygon.

Was that because it was created by humans in the future? But that's true of Silvally as well, and it's never really struck him as unusual. Maybe it's just because he still doesn't really get computers.]

[Yeah...]

They have a lot of their own quirks, even in the future. The main one is the way their capabilities change over time. Obviously they do change, but a lot of what they can do was programmed into them, and practice doesn't improve those specific things the way it does for most Pokemon, or you or me.

Like, accuracy. [One of the first systems he figured out the nuances and limits of.] If I practiced shooting arrows, over time I'd get more accurate, both from getting used to the motions and because doing it over and over sharpened my understanding of how aiming works.

Porygon use algorithms to aim at moving targets. In any one situation, they can tighten the accuracy of their next move by spending time collecting data on a target's movements, as long as they have the spare processing power for it. But they can't change or update the algorithms they use without evolving.

...In practice, a Porygon can improve its overall accuracy - by improving other functions, freeing up processing power. But those differences mean it doesn't benefit from aiming drills the same way a more biological Pokemon does.

[Ingo listens, brows arching slightly.]

I wish I had understood that at the time! I practiced with it much as I would have any other Pokemon! But in retrospect...I suppose I can see what you mean. It did improve overall, but in some areas there was a certain...rote quality.

[He doesn't sound frustrated or anything by that! Once Ingo realized that things were simply going to be that way, he'd let it go - but he could see it frustrating another trainer. One who both didn't understand how Porygon worked and didn't know what it was to be unable to do things that seemed to come naturally to others. Like, say, making proper facial expressions.]

Right. There's a lot of aspects like that, where they don't get more efficient, just more powerful. Or they learn by collecting more data, but the way they make decisions is a lot slower to change...

[And there's so much he could explain about Porygon (and can't just refer someone to user manual for all the theoretical nuts and bolts, anymore), and it scratches one of those lingering itches, but he had a point and needs to follow it. Some other time, he'll explain the soft stuff - how people don't usually catch Porygon by accident, and what's expected of them, or maybe how he got along with his first Pokemon.]

Anyways. [Uncrosses his arms, sticks his hands in his pockets.] Where Silvally was different wasn't because it doesn't learn. It was...the other way around from Porygon, actually. It learns fast. It had to learn a lot about accuracy, and...about everything. But I've never seen it improve in overall power - like it was made to be as strong and fast and sturdy as it could possibly be, from the beginning. It didn't have to grow into that power over time. So we had to start with control. And that was most of the rest of it, too.

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