She waited twenty seconds before picking up the Poké Ball.
That felt reasonable to her, it probably wasn't as Ravina held it away from her face.
“Okay.”
Nothing.
“I'm letting you back out.”
Nothing.
“If you start another death scene, I'm putting you back.”
Still nothing. Ravina narrowed her eyes and pressed the release.
Red light spilled across the floor as Victor reappeared in a curl of purple gas.
Ravina pointed at him immediately. “Talk.”
Victor blinked. “Good evening.”
Ravina's finger remained extended. “Again.”
“Good evening?”
She slowly turned toward Cinder.
“Ok, I'm not hallucinating… He talks.”
Cinder stared at Victor.
“Yes,” Victor said. “Astute.”
Cinder's flames ignited and Victor drifted backward. “Ah.”
Ravina put her hand against Cinder's shoulder. “Easy, my Fireball.”
His flames lowered as Victor watched. Closely.
Ravina looked back at him. “Victor?”
He bowed as much as a floating sphere of gas could bow. “Victor.”
“You're sure?”
“I would hope so.”
“Who named you?”
Victor's smile changed, just slightly.
The tower creaked and His gas moved around him. “I don't remember.”
Ravina's expression softened as Victor continued before she could say anything.
“I remember the name.” He looked toward the dark rafters. “Not the voice that gave it.”
For a moment, there was no performance, and then he turned back. “And frankly, if they expected gratitude, they should have left better records.”
Ravina smiled, but filed the moment away for later.
“Fair.”
Victor circled her once.
His gaze moved over the fox ears, her short shrine garments and tail.
“And what, precisely, are you in this cabaret?”
Ravina looked down at herself again “Currently?”
“Preferably.”
“A waitress.”
Victor stopped. “…No.”
“Yes.”
“You entered an ancient haunted tower after sunset dressed as a shrine maiden.”
“It's a themed cabaret.”
Silence for a single moment. “You serve drinks.”
“Mostly.”
Victor slowly smiled, and Ravina already knew she did not like that smile… or perhaps she liked it too much.
“I have made,” Victor said, “an excellent decision.”
Ravina groaned and Cinder looked at her with concern.
Owlbert: Hoot.
Ravina looked up at her owl. “Yeah.” She smiled. “I think you did too.”
Owlbert blinked. As Victor looked between them. “What did he say?”
Ravina paused. “I don't know.”
Victor gasped. “Then how do you communicate?”
“We pay attention.”
Victor stared at her. Then at Owlbert. Then Cinder as Something thoughtful passed through his eyes. “Charming.”
Ravina sighed. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“Back to the Center.”
Victor looked offended. “I have just been captured and your first instinct is medical bureaucracy?”
“Yes.”
“Cruel.”
“Responsible.”
“Worse.”
- - - - -
Going down Sprout Tower with three Pokémon took longer than going up with two. Mostly because Victor insisted on narrating.
“The weary company descends.”
“Victor.”
“Victorious, yet changed.”
“Victor.”
“Bound now by strange new threads of fate…”
“Victor!”
“Yes?”
“You can just come downstairs.”
A pause. “I could.”
“Please.”
Victor lowered himself beside her, and for almost thirty seconds, he was quiet. Then:
“The stairs are symbolically resonant.”
Ravina laughed despite herself, and Cinder nearly clipped the railing and Ravina caught him by the shoulder. “Easy, Fireball.”she cooed as He corrected himself
Victor watched the exchange. “Newly evolved?”
Ravina looked at him. “You can tell?”
“He is wearing his body like borrowed formalwear.”
Cinder glared and Victor smiled. “No insult intended.”
Ravina scratched Cinder's neck. “He's getting there.”
Cinder leaned into her, Victor watched that too as Owlbert flew ahead. Paused at the landing and waited. Exactly where Ravina expected him.
She smiled. “Good boy, Owly.”
Hoot.
Victor looked between them. “You have an unusual household.”
Ravina thought about home. About her mother, about six enormous veteran Pokémon, about Ito and about everything else.
“You have no idea.”
At the entrance, the night attendant looked up as Ravina approached the desk.
Owlbert landed beside her, Cinder stood against her leg. Victor floated over her shoulder.
The attendant stared as Ravina smiled. “Rattata problem's slightly better.”
The man's eyes moved toward Victor. “So I see.”
Victor bowed. “Victor.”
The attendant blinked, and Victor smiled. “I live here no longer.”
The attendant looked at Ravina. “…He does that.” Ravina offered as Victor drifted toward the door. “Come, mysterious priestess.”
Ravina closed her eyes. “I'm a waitress.”
“A temporary limitation.”
“Victor.”
“My muse?”
Ravina opened her eyes. “No.”
Victor's grin widened and Cinder made a suspicious noise and Owlbert hooted.
- - - - -
The Pokémon Center's night desk was quieter than the afternoon shift. Ravina stepped through the doors with Cinder beside her, Owlbert overhead, and Victor floating over one shoulder.
The nurse behind the desk looked up and Ravina stopped.
“April?”
April Hunsie looked up from the terminal. “Ravina.”
Ravina stared.
“How are you here?”
April's expression remained perfectly neutral. “I walked.”
Ravina stared harder.
April sighed.
“Private staff access, I'm temping here for now.”
“So you're working here now?”
“Tonight.”
April turned the monitor toward herself again. “I cover several Centers when staffing, specialist care, or if someone needs a favor.”
Ravina gave a questioning look as she approached the desk, “So you could be in Cherrygrove tomorrow?”
“Potentially.”
“Azalea?”
“Potentially.”
“Goldenrod?”
“If somebody has committed a sufficiently serious scheduling crime.”
Ravina smiled. “Good to know.”
April's gaze shifted past her and settled on Victor.
Victor smiled. “Madam.”
April looked back at Ravina. “You caught a Gastly.”
“He caught himself.”
“I see”
Victor looked pleased. “I appreciate a woman who accepts testimony without prejudice.”
April gave a sigh and gestured to an examination room. “may I examine you?”
“With appropriate reverence.”
“That is not an answer.”
Victor paused. “Yes.”
“Thank you.”
Ravina and Victor followed April into the examination room where she employed a combination of instruments to examine Victor, a spectral density sensor, air-quality probe, thermal reader and something she described as a Psychic energy reader. All before she explained:
“His outer gas layer is unusually controlled.”
Ravina leaned closer. “Meaning?”
“Meaning you're not unconscious.”
Ravina leaned away again. “Helpful.”
Victor looked wounded. “I have been exquisitely considerate.”
April ignored him. “Wild Gastly are hazardous at close range. Their gas can irritate the lungs, disorient, poison, or render a person unconscious depending on concentration.”
Ravina looked at Victor. “And him?”
“He is actively filtering the cloud nearest you.”
Victor bowed. “Hospitality.”
“Don't assume every Gastly will do that.”
Then Ravina considered herself lucky, as a thought came to mind. “Can I pet him?”
April looked at Victor. “That is his decision.”
Ravina held out her hand and Victor looked at it.
For a second, her fingers passed through purple vapor, it was cold and nothing else. Then the gas thickened. Resistance gathered beneath her palm, not fur or skin. Something like dense winter fog pressing back.
Ravina's eyebrows rose. “Oh.”
Victor smiled. “Consent made physical.”
April paused. “Accurate.”
Ravina looked between them. “Did Victor just make a medically useful observation?”
“Do not sound so surprised.”
April cleared her throat and looked over some notes on her medical tablet.
“Now about his needs, food and water, He doesn't need meals on the same schedule as Cinder or Owlbert.”
Victor gasped. “At last, freedom from breakfast.”
Ravina ignored the commentary as April continued. “Gastly primarily sustain themselves through ambient energy. Emotional residue, psychic activity, certain environmental energies.”
Ravina glanced at Victor. “So all the drama is nutritional.”
Victor became solemn. “Art sustains me.”
April sighed. “Unfortunately, that may be literally true.” and then continued, “ there are some environmental needs to be concerned, strong wind is a serious one in particular.”
Victor's expression actually changed and April noticed. “You know?”
“I dislike being distributed.”
Ravina snorted. “Distributed?”
“Across several postal districts.”
April continued. “On exposed routes or during storms, recall him. He can hold himself together against moderate wind, but it costs energy.”
“Humidity?”
“Helpful. Dry air isn't immediately dangerous, but he'll expend more energy maintaining density.”
Victor sighed. “Mist is luxurious.”
Ravina looked toward the windows, wondering what the weather of Johto would be like as they traveled.
“One more thing.” April looked directly at Victor. “Dream feeding.”
Victor blinked and Ravina looked between them. “What?”
“Some Gastly can consume dream energy, particularly once they learn techniques suited to it.”
Victor smiled faintly. “A delicacy.”
April's expression sharpened. “Ask.”
Victor's smile disappeared. “Naturally.”
“Every time.” there was a short beat. “Yes.”
Ravina noticed the exchange and filed it away as April finished registering Victor and added a note to Ravina’s Trainer Card:
GASTLY — ENVIRONMENTAL CARE FLAG: WIND EXPOSURE
Ravina looking at the card. “They put weather warnings on Pokémon?”
April nodded. “For trainers who enjoy arriving at Centers with preventable emergencies.”
“…Fair.”
“If I'm not at the next Center, tell the attending nurse he's accustomed to close human proximity and can regulate his outer gas.”
“So you're not following me around Johto?” Ravina joked.
“Absolutely not.” A pause. “Concider this a coincidence”
- - - - -
At the center's entrance, Ravina adjusted the strap of her bag with a sigh “Okay. lets go home boys”
And started down the road, Cinder fell into step beside her as Owlbert took the air above.
Victor floated backward in front of them. “So.” Ravina already disliked that word.
Victor gestured toward her uniform. “Tell me about this cabaret.”
Ravina looked at him. “No.”
“Is there music?”
“Yes.”
“Dancing?”
“Sometimes.”
“Costumes?”
She stared as Victor looked pointedly at the fox tail.
“…Yes.”
His grin became enormous, and Ravina sighed again
Behind her:
Hoot.
She glanced up at Owlbert. “Yeah.” Then she smiled. “This is going to be a problem.”
Victor spread his vapor like arms opening to an invisible audience. “My dear Ravina.”
Lantern light caught in his eyes.
“I intend to be several.”