#zaiyakua

[chounaifu]

" One week till I see the Barbie Movie with the boss. "

[tranquillitates]

❛   revelation . + reverse | @zaiyakua |❛   revelation .   show  my  muse  evidence  of  a  lie  they  told .

"do you deny any of this?"

there's betrayal written over the professor's face, but it holds nothing compared to the agony that oak feels. he's hurt. he trusted giovanni, he trusted that the man wouldn't betray him but this?

"do you have an ounce of regret for anything? have you ever told the truth in your life?"

[invictarre-archive]

@zaiyakua asked: Describe Me! / description meme

You recognise him immediately. It's something about the way he holds himself, you think - that silent strength that exudes from all elite Trainers. You've seen it in the likes of Opal and Mustard, in Raihan, in yourself, and you've learned to recognise it everywhere you go.

But even if you weren't so observant, so familiar with the body language of powerful people, you'd know without question who you were looking at.

You'd become Champion mere months after Red. It had led to no shortage of comparisons and future predictions, the League officials keen to take note of the Kanto prodigy's weaknesses and ensure that his mistakes were not repeated in you. Truth be told, you'd never paid Kanto much mind before, far too preoccupied with the roaring excitement of Galar's battle culture and preparing to seize its crown as your own, but all this talk of Red had your interest piqued.

A night researching him turned into several days, those days into a week, and soon you'd spent every night for a month reading up on the region and its important people. You'd decided that you wanted to meet Red one day, that desire only growing once you'd noticed your shared taste in ace pokemon. You decided that you were going to work through the Gyms one day, too, collecting their badges just as you'd collected Galar's.

More research had followed that decision, a careful analysis of your future competition. Fuchsia, Cerulean, Vermillion - a lot of these towns were named after colours, you liked that - Viridian...

But that last Gym had brought you more questions than answers. Its Leader had been changed recently, now a boy who couldn't have been much older than you, but there was no explanation as to why. The former Leader - Mr. Giovanni Sakaki, a stern-looking man whose expression you'd found difficult to read - had apparently been there years, only to disappear at the eleventh hour. There'd been no official statement of resignation, as far as you could tell. No announcement. He was just... gone.

If you hadn't been fascinated before, you certainly were now.

The library had been bled dry, the internet largely unhelpful, and yet you still had so many questions left unanswered. Every attempt to bring him up was brushed aside or met with vague remarks that 'everything has to change eventually, child' or 'you're better off keeping your focus on Galar, young man', only adding to your frustration. You were a Champion now, just as responsible as any grown up! Why did these people insist on never talking to you like one?

But it was no problem; you knew how to get the answers you wanted. Going to the Chairman was a total waste of time, earning you nothing but a shoo from the room and a reminder that good Champions stay out of affairs that don't concern them, but not everyone was quite so keen to shut down your interest. One of the handymen for Wyndon Stadium was Kantonian, the one with the Machoke, and he was more than happy to tell you everything he knew.

He wasn't a battler, so his experience was unfortunately limited, but nonetheless you'd learned a lot during those conversations.

You'd learned that Blaine liked quizzes, a bit like Ms. Opal. You'd learned about Erika and her penchant for cute Grass types. You'd learned more about Red, about the similarities you'd shared with him and the differences that kept you separate.

You'd learned about Giovanni. You'd learned that he was strong, just like you'd suspected, the last Gym Leader in the circuit and the final hurdle separating challengers from the Elite Four. You thought you remembered reading that he'd been part of the Elite Four, before; you'd wondered how that differed from the role of Gym Leader, of Champion. You'd learned that he was a Ground specialist, a type of Trainer you didn't currently have in Galar's Major League. Some said he'd been the strongest Trainer in Kanto before Red had hit the scene. Some said he'd been the strongest Trainer in the world, something you took great exception to.

You'd learned, to your great disappointment, that he'd stepped down from the Viridian Gym around the same time you'd been busy winning the Champion Cup, and had yet to show any intention to return.

You'd frowned and asked the nice, Kantonian handyman where Giovanni was now. You'd asked why someone would leave their Gym so suddenly, when they'd clearly had such a passion for battling. Hadn't it been fun? It was most people's dream to become a strong Trainer, how could he abandon it?

The handyman had laughed, standing up and brushing off the back of his legs. You'll have to ask him that yourself, should you ever meet. But sometimes, he'd said, you need to leave one dream to pursue another.

That had been eleven years ago. You're older now, and all too familiar with the feeling of needing to leave, no matter how much you might love your current position. How many times did you flee to Galar's skies, desperate for even a single moment of peace? How many times did you feel the weight of your responsibilities upon your shoulders, the pressure to stay strong even as the cracks began to show? Just because you hadn't resigned didn't mean you'd never seen the appeal of it.

You never did get a concrete reason why Giovanni left the Kanto League. You're not going to ask, either. You don't intend to squander this chance to finally meet someone who'd interested you for so long, not when there's too many other, better questions waiting on the tip of your tongue.

(First one being: Do you still accept challenges, sir?)

[gnzma]

👍

vibe check ; ACCEPTING

"Who the fuck are you. Return to Yakuza: Like A Dragonite for the PS4 and XBOX One."

[chounaifu]

[tumblestonesa]

@zaiyakua said: as innocent as I am :)

"i will not deny that i made mistakes, but there was no law they could point to that i actually broke. i've already pledged to help those hurt in the unfortunate accident involving eternatus."

[crueliste]

✉ (another one where he is just very insistent)

✉ - push my muse back down when they try to get out of bed

" sirrrrrr, " of course he complains about it, despite of the searing pain that obnoxiously slowly healing bullet wound on his chest gave.

field work, especially the kind proton indulges in, comes with a high chance of injury. the traitors and deserters his unit chased down had nothing left to lose –  much the opposite, the majority of them chose death over being dragged back to face the consequences. but that was significantly less fun. / @zaiyakua / manhandling.

[tranquillitates]

❛   wink . | @zaiyakua | ❛   wink .   wink  at  my  muse . 

it takes close knowledge to catch oak's expression falter. there's always a chance of encountering this man when he's out of pallet, but he never expects giovanni to be quite this bold with him. and yet- he continues the seminar as if he hadn't noticed the other man, waiting only until he'd finished for the day to seek him out.

there's anger in the professor, for all he's in control of it. "i didn't think my seminars would be of any interest to you."