#i suppose “thing (the attempt to connect to others meaningfully) i gave up on finishing” applies to them as well

[szilverer]

thing i gave up on finishing

no rambling this time just close-ups bc tumblr likes chewing on the quality it seems. rly like how this one good marsh-wolfie came out

went ham experimenting with layer effects & actual lineart continues to be my biggest enemy.

[sansvirtuosity]

Death of the Trader, Life of the Trade

Gladion and Moon (and some Type: Null because I love him). Read on AO3 here! Canon-divergent retelling of the ‘Get out.’ scene with a ridiculous amount of artistic liberties taken. Meant to be Gen, but can totally be viewed through shipping goggles if you want. 

Summary from AO3:

Moon gets caught in the rain, and the motel where she hoped to find shelter is entirely booked.

A fic about rivalry, and learning to be kinder.

The small roadside motel looked grungy, there was no doubt about that. But it was raining hard, and Moon couldn’t stand another second in the frigid weather. She burst into the main office with little grace, dripping water everywhere. The owner stood up in surprise from behind the counter, and put out his arms in a futile attempt to dissuade Moon from walking any further into his dry room. Moon cared little for the dirty carpet that she was inadvertently soaking, preoccupied as she was with finding shelter. Motels always sketched Moon out, and under any other circumstance, she never would’ve stopped here for even a second.

“The sooner I get a room, the sooner I can disappear.” She said, fishing in her bag for her wallet.

The owner shook his head, still staring wide-eyed at the water that Moon tracked in, “There’s no room. I’m completely booked up,” he sighed and finally tore his eyes away from the mess and gave Moon a harsh look. “Kids these days. No respect. If you’re that desperate, there’s another kid here your age. He prepaid a few months of rent, and he’s just as disrespectful of my carpet as you are. You’d get along great.”

“Is he a pokemon trainer?” Moon asked.

When the owner nodded, Moon considered her options. Would she mind staying with someone else if they let her? What if they were dangerous?

But she had her pokemon with her; she wasn’t afraid. She could fight anyone who would try and take advantage of her. Her run-ins with Team Skull proved it. Right now, she just wanted to get out of these wet clothes and into a hot shower.

So, she sighed and ineffectually ran her hand through her wet hair, only serving to tangle it more. “Which room is he in?”

“Second door down. Now get out, and don’t you dare come back in here unless you’re dry.”

Moon nodded tersely, vaguely annoyed by his anger. It’s not like he kept this place spotless to begin with. What was he complaining about? She turned on her heel and ducked out of the building as quickly as possible.

The wind whipped her hair around her face without mercy, and Moon hugged the wall as close as she could while she made her way to the indicated room.

When she arrived, she noticed that the window was unusually bright, and she could see into the room without much trouble. Their blinds weren’t drawn. Even though it felt vaguely like trespassing, she leaned forward to try and catch a glimpse of the person inside.

A monstrous face was staring back at her. Instinctively she froze, but she recovered quickly; a habit she picked up from pokemon battles.

She knew this face. Type: Null, the experimental chimera pokemon that Gladion stole from the Aether Foundation. That meant the kid with no respect for the motel owner’s carpet was none other than the last person she wanted to see right now.

While she stood there, cursing fate for putting her in this situation, Null turned away from the window and ran to his trainer. Moon vaguely saw movement from the corner of her eye, and then the door opened with enough force to make her jump out of her skin.

“What are you doing out here?” Gladion asked, looking her up and down with a critical eye.

When he saw that she was soaked through, she almost swore he looked a little sympathetic for a moment. But surely she was imagining it. He hated her. Even now he avoided looking her in the eye.

“I got caught in the rain,” she said honestly. “I was trying to get a room for myself, but the owner said the rooms were full.”

Before Gladion could say anything, he was pushed out of the safety of the doorway from behind, and Null wiggled past him to make his way over to Moon. The odd pokemon sat directly in front of Moon and looked at her expectantly. Gladion made a motion towards Null, seemingly to try and get him inside, but when Null made no move to attack, he paused midway, looking curious.

Moon carefully brought her hands up, making sure Null could see the movement, and scratched the pokemon where the edge of his helmet rested on his neck. Null leaned into her touch. Gladion’s eyes opened wide, and his hands dropped to his sides.

“I’ve never seen him act like this.” Gladion said, incredulous. “He’s normally very aggressive with people he doesn’t know.”

Moon raised an eyebrow, and gave Null a final pat on the head. Null stood up and casually walked back into the room, looking thoroughly satisfied. The pokemon didn’t seem so bad; it was his trainer who always felt aggressive.

“Well,” Moon said, stepping close to Gladion, cognizant of the possibility that her display with Null could convince him to let her stay until she dried off, “I’m not exactly a stranger. We’ve fought before. Twice.”

Gladion still looked shaken up, but he held her gaze for the first time since he opened the door. “Who are you, really?

“Someone very cold. And very in need of a shower.”

Gladion snorted, and stepped back into the doorway. He waved her inside. “Well, I guess you can use mine. Any friend of Null’s is welcome here; I’d never do this, normally. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if you ran back out into the rain and I never saw you again.”

Moon stepped into the room, intentionally giving Gladion a wide berth. “Charming.”

Gladion shut the door behind them and slumped forward, letting his forehead rest on the cool wood of the door. Without looking, he pulled a towel off of the dresser next to him and threw it behind him. Moon caught it deftly before it hit the ground.

Null looked between the two trainers from his cushion next to the bed, his head cocked to the side.

Maliciously, Moon grumbled, “I’ll be out before you know it. Then you can get back to brooding and not having any friends, or whatever it is that you were doing.”

She entered the bathroom without waiting for a response, and Gladion returned to his bed, flopping face-first into the mattress. One of his hands hung down from the side, and Null pushed his hard face into it. Gladion curled his fingers around Null’s helmet protectively, and sighed heavily into the pillow.

Moon finished her shower as quickly as humanly possible, and gratefully changed into what dry clothes she had. She had nothing but her pajamas left: a pair of flannel pants and an old tank top with a peeling starmie decal on it. Not the most flattering outfit, but she didn’t mind. The only person who would see her like this is someone who couldn’t care less about her. She didn’t have to impress anyone tonight.

Moon stepped out into the main room to find Gladion on the floor next to the bed, rhythmically brushing Type: Null. The pokemon snored away peacefully, his chest rising and falling with every breath. Gladion looked up at her when she came out, but said nothing. He just continued brushing his sleeping pokemon.

Moon couldn’t stand it.

What was his problem? He acted like an ass to her every time they met, but now he looked like the textbook definition of loneliness. It pissed her off. If he needed friends, he could start by not being so abrasive.

Before Moon could say anything to that effect, a sudden realization struck her. Maybe they were similar. She herself was always ready for a fight and it was hard for her to keep friends, because she always came off as aggressive or sarcastic. Eventually she starting worrying about pushing her friends away so much that she started coming off as defensive of everything she did, and it made her sound selfish. No one wanted to be around someone who was always frustrated with themselves.

Maybe Gladion was more like her than she wanted to admit. She watched him haphazardly throw himself into the fight at the Battle Royal Dome, and watched him try and fail to make a connection with the members of Team Skull. Maybe he was so rude to her because he was afraid that she’d reject him. That’s why he pissed her off; she recognized the things she hated about herself in him.

“Hey, I’m out of the shower.” Moon said quietly, careful not to wake Null. “I should probably get going. I don’t want to keep you awake.”

Gladion nodded without looking her way.

Moon cleared her throat. Someone needed to break this cycle between them. She supposed it could be her.

“Thanks,” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “For letting me hang out for a while.”

Silence.

Moon readjusted her bag, and turned to leave. She heard Gladion say something softly that she couldn’t quite hear.

She turned back around. “What was that?”

“I said,” he reiterated, “that it’s expected to rain all night.” He held up his phone, which even from across the room was obviously a cheap throw-away, to clarify. When Moon didn’t say anything, he pocketed his phone and ran his hand through his hair. He put Null’s brush down and stood up sharply. “I’m saying I wouldn’t hate it if you wanted to stay here until it stops raining.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

They lapsed into an awkward silence, and after a while, Gladion sat down on the edge of the bed. Meaningfully, he looked at her, then looked back to the bed.

“You can sit here.” He gestured to the spot next to him. “Don’t look so worried. I’m not going to do anything, I swear. But if you keep standing there like that, I’m absolutely going to throw you out.”

Gladion fished out a TV remote from somewhere deep in his bedsheets and turned the TV on, adjusting the volume for Null's sake. He leaned back into his hands and turned his attention fully away from Moon.

Moon was grateful for his lax attitude. The last thing she wanted was for him to make a big deal out of something so simple.

She dropped her bag on the floor beside the bed, where she noticed he kept his own belongings, and joined him on the mattress.

For a while she watched TV with him, with them both occasionally mocking the weird programs that they ended up finding in the early hours of the morning. It was almost… nice.

Before she knew it, Moon fell asleep curled into a ball at the foot of the bed.

Gladion didn’t have the strength of will to wake her up or move her, and with some adjustment, he found his own spot on the bed beside her and allowed himself to fall asleep, unafraid of what she’d think of him in the morning.