You know, if I were Crawford, that'd be my cue to coach you on all the ways that asshole might be setting you up to betray you at worst or let you down at best.
Since I'm not, why don't you try taking a guess at their motive? It's not like you're in any trouble if you get it wrong, if you're just talking it out with me.
At first I was just asking the general public about new species of Pokemon I'm unfamiliar with. They were a breeder too, so they answered. They acted concerned about my wanting to train Pokemon that would remain loyal to me as well as competitive in battle. They told me to be careful.
I asked them why they even care about what happens to me, or what I do, and their response was... "why shouldn't I care about you?"
That's when they offered to help me.
[...]
I think they will try to take advantage of me, if I were to ever actually be foolish enough to take them up on their offer.
[He writes "The lengths she went to were ridiculous. Foolish.", looks it over, and then erases it. What was the driving force that kept pushing her along? It wasn't simply the goodness of her heart.
It was love.
...instead, he keeps it short, perhaps to avoid the risk of being a hypocrite. Yet at the same time he knows that if Schuldig were around, and his powers weren't so dampened, he certainly would have caught that.
So the moral of the story is, learning things about people makes it easier for you to read them. Which means it's harder for them to get one over on you.
[Nagi hears Schuldig come in, but he doesn't look up. He's still got his attention locked on the Gear in his hands, quietly tabbing through different apps. He's half sitting up, half lying against the pillows on his bed- still supremely frustrated by the fact he can't just be in the corner with a computer like back home- and there seems to be an Abra attached to his chest like a baby koala. It doesn't look like it's going to be moving any time soon, no matter how many times Nagi has tried to peel it off. At the foot of the bed lie his Pikachu and Vulpix, both curled up and asleep.]
[He comes into the room without preamble, closing the door behind him and taking up a position against the wall like he owns the place. Typical Schuldig, really.]
Well enough. ..he doesn't listen very well, though.
[The Abra lifts his head sleepily, looking over at Schuldig with ears slowly twitching. Well....hello there. He's just....going to lie his head back down and remain put, yep.
Actually, none of Nagi's pokemon seem to listen to him all that well. The Pikachu has his own agenda, the Vulpix is as vain as sin and loyal to a fault to anything and all Rocket related endeavors, his Ralts is terrified of him, his Eevee has enough energy for twelve Pokemon and the attention span of negative twelve, and his Shark wants to kill him.
Not exactly the Pokemon adventure he'd been expecting, honestly.]
Eh, that'll change once you start putting the fear of god into 'em a little.
[He tilts his head, narrowing his eyes as he fixes them on the Abra, and gives it an experimental mental nudge — mostly just to see what'll happen when it feels it.]
[It perks up almost immediately at that, surprised by the sudden, unexpected intrusion. The way the claws gripping Nagi's shirt tighten cause him to look away from the Gear's screen and back over at Schuldig.]
You can control your Pokemon?
[LIKE- okay that didn't come out right, but...he figured he'd at least sortof know what he was doing, if nothing else.]
[He does hope you know that battling does not constitute physically beating the other Pokemon into submission with your bare hands BECAUSE THAT'S CHEATING.]
[He shoves his hands into his pockets, thus resulting in two things that no one was surprised about.]
Early on I went out on the routes and caught a bunch of Abras all at once. They train as a team. I've got one Dark-type — it resists Psychics, so it's good for keeping the others in line — a couple of Ghosts, and a handful of other vicious little bastards. Why?
[Schuldig he knows that, you don't have to tell him, gosh.
But anyway.]
Psychics, Dark, Ghosts, and...miscellaneous.
[He mumbles to himself, tabbing through what are probably PokeDex entries on his Gear. For a while he doesn't say anything else, keeping his eyes focused on the screen. Tabbing and tabbing and-
Finally putting the Gear aside and standing up, the Abra hanging on to him forced to Teleport to avoid being thrown to the floor, reappearing on Nagi's shoulder.]
What can you still do here, Schuldig?
[There's a clear tone of frustration there as he watches Schuldig, trying his best to ignore the claws gripping his shoulder. Apparently this is really what's been on his mind, and not so much the Pokemon he asked about. It's no wonder that Schuldig has an entire team of Abras of his own, which are no doubt all Kadabras by now.]
[Unsurprisingly, that question gets a sort of frustrated noise out of him as well — not actually directed at Nagi, but in a sort of spirit of commiseration that gives away that yes, he knows exactly what Nagi is upset about, and it's been bothering him for literal months now, and only now does he actually have a safe opportunity to voice it to a confidante who'll understand.]
Damn little. I can read the Pokemon; I can't read the people, they're trainers. That's why I've been working the psychic team so hard — they can do it for me as a middleman, but if they're not fast enough...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
text;
Since I'm not, why don't you try taking a guess at their motive? It's not like you're in any trouble if you get it wrong, if you're just talking it out with me.
text;
I asked them why they even care about what happens to me, or what I do, and their response was... "why shouldn't I care about you?"
That's when they offered to help me.
[...]
I think they will try to take advantage of me, if I were to ever actually be foolish enough to take them up on their offer.
text;
There are such things as sentimental fools who want to help people solely out of the goodness of their heart. Remember that girl Sakura?
text;
It was love.
...instead, he keeps it short, perhaps to avoid the risk of being a hypocrite. Yet at the same time he knows that if Schuldig were around, and his powers weren't so dampened, he certainly would have caught that.
Lucky him, he supposes.]
I remember her.
text;
Either way, it made a damn mess of things.
text;
text;
You can't start predicting a person's motivations until you know something about them.
text;
Either way, I don't care what their motivation is. I don't plan on ever contacting them.
text;
You'll pick it up eventually.
text;
[He'll leave the people reading to you. That's your forte, not his.]
Any luck with your...carnivorous precipitation?
text;
text;
text; → action;
action;
action;
[He comes into the room without preamble, closing the door behind him and taking up a position against the wall like he owns the place. Typical Schuldig, really.]
How's it been behaving?
action;
[The Abra lifts his head sleepily, looking over at Schuldig with ears slowly twitching. Well....hello there. He's just....going to lie his head back down and remain put, yep.
Actually, none of Nagi's pokemon seem to listen to him all that well. The Pikachu has his own agenda, the Vulpix is as vain as sin and loyal to a fault to anything and all Rocket related endeavors, his Ralts is terrified of him, his Eevee has enough energy for twelve Pokemon and the attention span of negative twelve, and his Shark wants to kill him.
Not exactly the Pokemon adventure he'd been expecting, honestly.]
action;
[He tilts his head, narrowing his eyes as he fixes them on the Abra, and gives it an experimental mental nudge — mostly just to see what'll happen when it feels it.]
Mine all stay in line just fine.
action;
You can control your Pokemon?
[LIKE- okay that didn't come out right, but...he figured he'd at least sortof know what he was doing, if nothing else.]
action;
[What a nice smile, Schuldig...]
action;
What did you do to them?
[He does hope you know that battling does not constitute physically beating the other Pokemon into submission with your bare hands BECAUSE THAT'S CHEATING.]
action;
When you're doing delicate work, there's not a lot of leeway for fuck-ups. So I make sure they're not gonna fuck up when I need them.
action;
What kind of Pokemon do you have?
action;
[He shoves his hands into his pockets, thus resulting in two things that no one was surprised about.]
Early on I went out on the routes and caught a bunch of Abras all at once. They train as a team. I've got one Dark-type — it resists Psychics, so it's good for keeping the others in line — a couple of Ghosts, and a handful of other vicious little bastards. Why?
action;
But anyway.]
Psychics, Dark, Ghosts, and...miscellaneous.
[He mumbles to himself, tabbing through what are probably PokeDex entries on his Gear. For a while he doesn't say anything else, keeping his eyes focused on the screen. Tabbing and tabbing and-
Finally putting the Gear aside and standing up, the Abra hanging on to him forced to Teleport to avoid being thrown to the floor, reappearing on Nagi's shoulder.]
What can you still do here, Schuldig?
[There's a clear tone of frustration there as he watches Schuldig, trying his best to ignore the claws gripping his shoulder. Apparently this is really what's been on his mind, and not so much the Pokemon he asked about. It's no wonder that Schuldig has an entire team of Abras of his own, which are no doubt all Kadabras by now.]
action;
Damn little. I can read the Pokemon; I can't read the people, they're trainers. That's why I've been working the psychic team so hard — they can do it for me as a middleman, but if they're not fast enough...
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;
action;