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--- plot:mawne:2025-03-08 [2025/04/05 18:10] – Addendum for today's session! pinkgothic
+++ plot:mawne:2025-03-08 [2025/06/14 14:25] (current) – Conclusion pinkgothic
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 <color #884400>Yes, she was. At times more than she liked to admit. Less lying and more framing. "Zoan was one of the ones I thought *enjoyed* battling," she said plaintively to her palms. Paused, and then reluctantly acknowledged, "And that only makes things worse." She'd been second-guessing all her past interactions with pokemon for the last few days, and now Adelaide needed to add a third and fourth guess too.</color>
-"Why did you think Zoan liked battling?" Jagdish asked. By tone, it was a perfectly neutral question - he wasn't assuming it was some grand faux pas to get the impression, he wanted to understand, presumably so he could figure out how to affected the defence narrative.
+"Why did you think Zoan liked battling?" Jagdish asked. By tone, it was a perfectly neutral question - he wasn't assuming it was some grand faux pas to get the impression, he wanted to understand, presumably so he could figure out how it affected the defence narrative.
 <color #884400>"Eagerness to fling self into action, and increased liveliness and 'pep' afterwards," Adelaide answered. "I've tried to find other forms of stimulus since, like toys. I've had most luck with those wriggling pillows, the ones that irregularly move for a minute every so often." And if Zoan was actively distressed by it instead, that pillow would be getting removed. Or given to Taio, who seemed to find it an enjoyable belly massage.</color>
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 <color #884400>And if she had to deal with the Council in future, provoking them now was unwise. She could pile up more justifications for her choice if she put an effort in, and thereby convince herself not to gibber in terror, right?</color>
-✘ **IN PROGRESS**
+Mew had righted itself as Adelaide spoke, standing on Jagdish's shoulders on its hindlimbs, its forepaws pressed against the side of his skull as it leant against it, but its deeply curious gaze lingered unmistakably on Adelaide. The tail had tugged itself free from Jagdish's twirling motions and was now flicking to and fro somewhere behind his shoulder, visible only whenever the twitch brought it far enough to the side - but it did, easily, revealing the range of motion was currently notably high.
+Jagdish was merely nodding. "In that case, we should discuss what points of ignorance to keep. From our conversation now and the conversations with your pokémon, I personally think if we ditch the social pressure angle entirely, we can still salvage the narrative arc nicely if we simply work with the assumption that you mistook pokémon capacity for battle for pokémon being, in some sense, designed for battle - that it is natural for them to battle, like we see wild Tauros do amongst their own species for social dominance, except with each other. The Tauros may not enjoy this battling in the moment, but it is a natural part of their behaviour."
+<color #884400>"Which meshes with the common view in Kanto and Johto that pokemon thrive with or even require battling for their own health," Adelaide said slowly. "Or at least that teaching is common enough for many trainers to use that argument with me, on the S.S Anne."</color>
+<color #884400>In Rattata, tail lashing was a sign of agitation. In Marill, of excitement. She suspected that in Mew it was the latter, too.</color>
+"Exactly." At this, Jagdish glanced to the side pointedly, and raised his left hand to ease fingers between Mew's paws and the side of his head, gently prising Mew away from his face. The pokémon took the opportunity to - in a split second motion - wrap itself around Jagdish's arm instead, tail and all, provoking a bit of a sigh in him.
+"That said, the core of it is notably distinct from the 'enrichment' angle. It's not enrichment for the Tauros to fight each other; it's an unpleasant thing that must be done, because the instincts demand it. Absent other Tauros, there are no instincts demanding it, and no need to do battle, and the kind thing to do with a Tauros would be not to expose it to such a situation in the first place. But it is nonetheless //natural// to the Tauros and they are built to withstand it," he mused. "Similarly, even if one assumed pokémon battled by nature, it does not necessarily imply it is needed for them to thrive or to be healthy."
+<color #884400>She nodded, and grimaced to herself. Yes, she expected that to be a topic that was returned to repeatedly, in ways deeply unpleasant to herself. Which she was trying hard not to think about. "And providing alternative 'enrichment'... framing it like that is possibly a poor idea?" Adelaide checked. Because that was, in many ways, what she had been doing in recent years. "The act being good, but the motivation misguided."</color>
+"It's not necessarily a 'bad idea', but it'll definitely be picked apart. I expect you'll be made to retreat to the core I was talking about, at least if you're willing to acknowledge that you knew that your pokémon could get hurt and be unhappy about battling, at the very least at the outcome," Jagdish mused. "As long as you're ready for that, and you can raise that point without tying yourself into a pretzel when it gets deconstructed, you can raise it."
+<color #884400>High risk, likely no reward, and a good chance of getting herself into trouble? "Ah. So. Likely not something to bring up, and only to address if or when questioned on the topic. And I can't claim true ignorance on the risks of battling, not when 'no battling in the corridors' was always a rule for many good reasons." She resisted the urge to bury herself in tea. "Quibbling about the low //probability// of that happening won't help, either."</color>
+Since it was morning, they did not continue discussing deep into the night. Instead, Jagdish eventually broke to do some chores and tend to some pokémon that were using other parts of the cathedral as a kind of hotel, convened with the increasing number of Legendaries mostly parked outside, summoned Adelaide for a late lunch, where he cooked a rather larger amount of fish than was necessary for two people and brought the rest outside for his esteemed guests, spent some of the afternoon discussing strategy details with Adelaide, and at supper time announced, with the same kind of matter-of-fact distant emoting that she was gradually getting used to, that the trial was going to be at dusk of the next day.
+It was an odd thing to be told over a three course meal. By tone it all sounded like it was happening to someone else. The Legendaries had all gathered but one who would arrive over the course of the day tomorrow. Perhaps it was to be expected that such immortal beings were not prone to boredom, but it was still striking that they did not arrive all at once, to a predefined date and time. Instead, the trial's timing simply seemed to follow in their wake.
+<color #884400>Tomorrow evening felt far too soon. Normal legal cases took weeks if not months to prepare! But there was nothing normal about this, was there? Telepathy and teleportation were time-saving advantages, but it was still unfolding at a breath-taking rate.</color>
+<color #884400>And yet, the dreadful anticipation did no favours either. A longer wait would give her more time to work herself into a state, without the time to finally collapse and regather herself after. So perhaps this was for the best.</color>
+<color #884400>That thought failed to be comforting.</color>
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