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randomwriteronline · 1 year

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"Warden Melli!"

If Melli could have pretended not to have heard that, he could have just turned around and started walking extremely fast away from the Sitrus tree he had been harvesting berries from; but since it was absolutely impossible for anybody with mostly undamaged hearing to miss that shout, he groaned loudly and faced his Pearl counterpart as he clumsily slid down a small slope to come meet him.

"What is it now?" he whined snappily, glaring at the man through his narrowed eyes so venomously he could have overwhelmed anybody's blood with toxins.

Unfortunately, Warden Ingo had proved multiple times to be immune to poison.

So he stared right into the younger warden's pupils, not at all put off by the hostile look lodging itself into his haunted face nor seemingly recognizing the antagonistic tone: "I was hoping to speak with you," he answered candidly.

"Then be quick," Melli hissed as he yanked another berry from the tree: "I don't have time to waste with the likes of you."

"Oh, of course! I would not want you to run into delays on your schedule because of me - I will be very quick, I promise," Ingo reassured him. Before his Diamond counterpart could roll his eyes and scoff, he kept true to his word and got straight to the point: "I only wished to compliment you on your handling of Lord Electrode!"

Melli’s hand stopped halfway to the mostly full basket. He creased his brow, blinked, gripped the Sitrus in his hand a little tighter, and turned properly to the older man with a grimace stuck between confusion and distrust.

“What would that mean?” he asked.

Ingo adjusted his hat by th visor, a motion that would have conveyed his slight embarassment better if he had managed to wipe that frown off of himself: “Ah, I apologize, I recognize that was excessively vague - you see, I was warned before transfering here to look after Sneasler that Electrode was an extremely capricious Pokémon, capable of shaking the mountain to its foundations with detonations of great magnitude at the slightest hint of displeasure. “

The younger man curled his nose like a disgruntled Stunky and twisted his lip. Sure, the Lord of the Hollow was moody and powerful, but that was no way to talk about him.

“But despite having lived here nearly a year now, I’ve yet to experience anything even slightly close to such behaviour!” the other continued, speech suddenly turning emphatic: “In fact - and I hope you’ll forgive me for making assumptions based on my approximate knowledge on the matter - from what little I’ve seen of him on occasion, Electrode had always struck me as being mostly perfectly content and at ease! I can only attribute such a positive state to you working hard in order to make sure his every need is met! I would expect no less from a warden, of course, let alone one as fond of this Lord as you are, but the consistency with which you do so is quite remarkable - especially considering the challenges posed by his irritable tendencies!”

Almost in the same way one wakes from an unplanned nap, Ingo realized very suddenly that he had shifted his bright eyes to beam directly into Melli’s as he had spoken, volume of voice rising steadily, and that the other warden seemed now to make himself small in front of all this intensity, as if he were attempting to retreat in his own shoulders.

The foreigner quickly looked down to his own feet in mortification, pulling his hat lower upon his face to better relieve him of all that exhausting eye contact.

“Please forgive me, I... I got quite carried away for a moment. I only - I fear I was overzealous with my explanation, I did not mean to come onto you so strongly,” he mumbled, sheepish.

In the small bout of silence that followed he managed to mentally file a complete and exceptionally thorough formal complaint against himself for disturbance of the peace and catastrophic failure at what was supposed to be a simple interaction meant to form a positive connection with another human being - both equally unforgivable crimes that would have had to be rectified by either an entire day spent wallowing in mortification or a death sentence, the latter of which he would have very gladly accepted as his fate.

“Thank you.”

For a moment he did not realize that it was Melli who interrupted his stream of conciousness, because that voice so thin and weak barely resembled his.

When Ingo dared rise his gaze again (there was always the possibility that a lightning strike would have burnt him to a crisp to kindly let him known that was the wrong course of action) his Diamond counterpart struck him as suddenly looking incredibly young. Maybe it was his almost frightened expression, or the way his shoulders closed in on his chest, or how he nervously picked at his nails, or that strange tone with which he’d spoken.

Sneasler’s warden tilted his cap in a curt nod of aknowledgement before he could keep on staring any longer.

“I will let you resume your usual schedule now!” he excused himself quickly: “Once again, my honest praise for you well-done work. I apologize for having derailed the course of your duties. Have a good day, warden Melli.”

The younger man nodded quietly; he looked without a word at the foreigner speed away with an abnormally stiff gait, embarassed beyond belief.

Iscan sat away from the trimestral celebration, enjoying some peace and quiet. Festivities got quite overwhelming for him - so nobody thought him rude for stepping out of the settlement for a breather every now and then during these occasions. Plus, it was a nice clear night and the air was just cool enough on his skin to give him pleasant goosebumps.

Quick steps made him turn his head back towards his home, and he smiled welcomingly at Melli as he took a seat beside him and scooted closer, leaning his head on the wide chest while the older warden wrapped an arm around him.

They enjoyed the chirping silence of the Mirelands like that, for a little bit.

Then the younger played with a lock of hair and mumbled rapidly: “He said ‘m doin’ well.”

“Hm?” Iscan hummed, not having been paying attention.

“The Pear clan’s foreigner warden, Ingo - he said he thinks I’m taking care of Lord Electrode very well,” his friend repeated.

At that he nodded, pleasantly surprised: “Oh! How nice of him.”

It wasn’t often that Melli got positive reinforcement, what with his insufferable charade of superiority usually grating everybody else’s nerves into fine dust and discouraging them from offering him any sort of kind words about his work since he apparently praised himself abundantly on his own anyways; so he was very glad for Ingo taking the initiative to do so even though, logically, he was subjected to the pompous performance the most out of anybody else in Hisui.

The sound of fingers fidgeting had him wait patiently for the overthought subject of the evening.

“Why would he do that?” the younger warden whined quietly, honestly distraught: his tone was an almost perfect replica of the one he used as a kid when crying about someone pulling his hair or tripping him into a puddle.

Iscan cocked an eyebrow: “You didn’t like what he said?”

“No - I mean - he’s right, no? He’s gotta be, since Electrode loves me--” (and the older man knew that was no exaggeration, but honest truth) “--But why?”

The warm dark hand on Melli’s shoulder squeezed it comfortingly as Iscan tried to figure out something the other would have accepted as a possibility, eventually settling on a tentative: “Maybe he just wanted to be nice?”

“But that makes no sense!” his little cousin argued, furrowing his upset brow enough to give himself a headache if he kept that going: “I haven’t been exactly nice to him, so why should he feel like he should be with me? And he’s never in need of anything, so I don’t know what he could want in return - maybe he just wants me to owe him something, so he can use that to get me to do what he wants when he needs it most?”

The long sigh that deflated the chest he leaned against instantly worried Melli with the horrid thought of having annoyed the only person who liked him.

But Iscan tilted his head and twirled a strand of lilac hair between his fingers: “Look, now...” he began very gently: “I’ve heard a little about Ingo from warden Palina, and if I can trust what she’s told me - and I assure you I can, because she was very honest with me - he’s exactly as polite and nice as much as he’s strange. So I’m fairly certain that he told you how good of a job you’re doing because he really thought that, and just wanted you to know.”

A soft hum rattled the thin frame under his arm.

“Even if I’ve only been insufferable?” his cousin insisted weakly.

“Maybe he said those kind things because of that.”

“What do you mean?”

“That he might have wanted to get some good blood flowing between you two.”

“You really think so?”

“I don’t see why it shouldn’t be like that.”

Melli exhaled quietly.

He curled a little closer to his only human confidant.

“I don’t know what to do about that,” he mumbled.

“Well,” the larger warden laid his head on top of his as he hugged him properly. “I guess it wouldn’t be that bad of a start to be nice to him back, no?”

Some Zubats screeched happily further away, and Iscan hoped with all his heart Ingo would have liked the candy truffles and Pecha berries his cousin would have inevitably drowned him in, as the only way he could be honestly kind without betraying his carefully crafted mask was through edible gifts.

#pokémon #pokemon legends arceus #warden melli #submas ingo #warden iscan #random writing #my three favorite lads! here they come!#iscan is the most balanced out of the three of them and man if it doesnt say smth #iscan upon underperforming in an interaction: oh no 3:} ive embarassed myself #melli and ingo upon underperforming in an interaction: i got a bad grade in Human which means i am now viable to be Hunted For Sport #i want them to be........... on good terms...................................#ofc in game ingos annoyed by melli bein mean n stupid and mellis mean n stupid bc hes gotta be with this noodle of a teen comin over #but also..... good terms...... sorta pals.....#ingo: how can i make a meaningful positive interaction with my fellow warden? i know! genuine praise for something hes good at!#melli whos never had someone compliment him for that: (shortcircuits)

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