[catch-all]

[nightyorb]

Who: Riz, Boober, Mando, Gobo, Eda
Where: Partially Saffron City, partially Goldenrod City
When: June 30th
Summary: Riz is very small and thinks he is kidnapped. You can imagine how stressful this is (for everybody else)
Rating: gen

Comments

[singlespacedad]

Crumbs everywhere! It's fine; Steed the Durant scuttles into the kitchen and starts munching down the crumbs Riz drops.

"The queen is really smart. She made a plan for herself and all the knights to climb up to the dragon's nest while the sun was rising. We all did, and realised the prince was in the nest, and he was still alive."

Mando falters in his storytelling for just a second here. He's bungled this slightly with the titles, and has to think fast to explain what happened next.

"The prince's father was a knight too, and when he saw his son, he dove into the dragon's nest to get his boy back. That's when the baby dragons woke up."

[nightyorb]

The moment Steed scuttles in, Riz actually goes still in shock, one peanut butter cracker falling to the ground (face-down, of course). "That's a super big ant!"

Yes, yes, Mando is telling a story, but has he seen this? Has he seen this massive ant that is just right there? Riz has never seen an ant that big! He had once seen a big one in the park, one that had wings and his dad had said was a new queen ant, but that ant had nothing on this goddamn monster of an insect.

"Did you know that if you put copper pieces down ants won't come inside? My grandma says that."

[singlespacedad]

The moment that cracker hits the floor, Steed pounces. Any food on the floor is free real estate for ants!

"Huh?" Mando bends to look under the table, like he didn't just see Steed come scuttling in. Maybe there was a different super big ant in the house. "Oh, that's just Steed. He'll eat whatever you drop on the floor."

Just between Mando and Riz, he doesn't think Spicy does a very good job feeding Steed. The Durant is always coming and begging food from Mando.

"Did she? That's good advice." It's advice Mando will file away and tell Boober about later. Or actually... "You should tell Boober. He spends the most time in the kitchen and I bet he'd be really glad to have some advice about getting rid of ants."

[nightyorb]

Riz's first impulse is that he will immediately go tell Boober because he enjoys sharing information with other people. Unfortunately, that impulse is dampened by another tiny little fact.

"Boober is a bad guy though."

[singlespacedad]

"Oh? Why do you say that?"

It hurts Mando's heart to hear Riz call Boober a bad guy, even if he knows this is temporary. They'll all be laughing about today soon enough, but it still hurts to hear. He's also wondering why he's immune from being called a bad guy, and if it has anything to do with him looking like a knight.

[nightyorb]

"He kidnapped me!"

Unfortunately for Boober, he had been the first person Riz had seen when he woke up, and therefore the responsibility for the whole situation had landed on his shoulders. Within Riz's kid mind, that made sense.

[singlespacedad]

"Hmmmm."

Mando isn't quite sure how Riz came to that conclusion, but hey, that's probably because his little kid hadn't started talking yet when he got taken to Pokemon land. The twists and turns of the very young mind are still a mystery to him.

"What makes you say that?" Mando is keeping his voice very calm and neutral, not accusatory at all. "Have you been making a case about it?"

[nightyorb]

Riz nods enthusiastically, clearly so excited to tell anyone about his case, that he'll even tell Mando who may or may not be another bad guy. "Yeah! I'm gonna show it to my mom when I find her and she will arrest everybody. Did you know my mom is a detective? She is the coolest!"

Whether he is five or fifteen, clearly the fact that Riz Gukgak loves his momma hasn't changed one bit.

[singlespacedad]

Mando gestures at the remaining crackers. "I didn't know your mom is a detective. That sounds like a very cool job. Why don't you eat the rest of your snack and tell me about her?"

It is super endearing that Riz talks about his mom exactly the same at five as he does when he's fifteen. The vocabulary and sentence structure may have improved, but the sentiment has not.