The Bunny Slope || Roark & Candice
If you donât think coal miningâs one of the manliest professions in the world, youâre full of crap. Youâre packed in a tiny hole god knows how many feet beneath the surface of the earth with nothing but the whirring and grinding of machines way bigger than you to keep you company, and every day you pray that youâll live long enough to see the sun again.
Roarkâs life, in retrospect, is one big tightrope walking act. One wrong step, and he could be sent falling to the groundâor, in this case, under the heavy gears of a continuous miner.Â
Neither are very favorable situations.
Heâs seen men and Pokemon alike die, seen horrific injuries not meant for mortal eyes, been stuck in situations that seemed void of all hopeâ
But nothingânothingâcould prepare him for this.
"Candice, are you sure Iâm not gonna die?" he asks with a slight tremor in his voice, looking down the curve of the winding and dangerous ski slope ahead. Okay, so itâs actually the bunny slope, and the end of it is only thirty feet down, but to him itâs terror incarnate.Â
Heâs shaking so hard that he might just fall out of those heavy downhill-skiing boots, and he attempts to calm himself, pride too much to allow himself to show weakness in front of a fellow Gym Leader.
But, oh Arceus, why did he agree to this?
Itâs not like he needed skiing lessons. He could just take the lift back down andâ
He was past the point of no return.
He had to man up and do this thing.
"So, uh," he asks Candice after a long pause, clutching his poles for dear life. "First things first. How do I not fall?"
