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Jon stared out over the area of the Cobalt Coastland and let himself take in the view. The wind came in from the sea nearby and blew through his hair and he put down his cane on the ground just next to himself. He could see most of the coastlands from where he had sat himself not too far from the Galaxy Team's campsite. It was quite a beautiful sight to behold. Pokemon of all kinds were milling about all around, though he had his eyes specifically on a clowder of wild cats, Glameow he thinks they are called, that were playing around in the grass on the trail just a bit off from where he sat.
Technically he was supposed to be taking notes on the pokemon he sees, but he was more than content to just watch the glameow interact with each other. He watched as they lounged around basking in the afternoon sun, looking as if they were the most important beings in the universe. Jon was inclined to agree with that assessment.
They seemingly existed without a care in the world, something that Jon wished he himself was able to do.
Jon knew that he was the cause of a good many terrible things happening in Hisui. Between the very likely chance that his arrival in Hisui kickstarted the frenzies, which in turn caused an innocent Akari to have to fix them, the pain he himself had personally caused her when he took her Story in that… Hunger of his, not to mention the few others that it had happened to, and the entire non zero chance that he had been the cause of the Distortions themselves, there was a lot that he had done to the people of Hisui. He was lucky that Akari had the worst off position of those he took Stories from, as well as the only other one to fully remember what happened during it.
And even still he was lucky that the village kept him around. Not even counting the Story incidents. He hardly had done anything to contribute to the village itself since he had awoken from that coma. He was just a parasite that took up space and hurt people. Was he even human? Or was he just another one of those creatures that Akari had reported inside those distortions? Maybe it would be better if they just-
“Mrrp?”
The sound of a cat cut off Jon's negative thoughts.
“Ah!” Had he gotten so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice when the wild cat had come right up to him?
Apparently he had.
“Mrraw” the cat meowed, judging him as it walked around him. For what he didn't yet know.
“He- hello there.” Jon greeted the cat, just letting it waltz around him. There was something about this glameow that felt different to the other ones. This one was actually fairly friendly to him, rather than running away or attacking.
In fact, the cat had just begun to crawl onto his lap.
Jon let it. He wasn't using his lap for anything important anyways and who was he to deny a cat the napping spot it chose?
The cat curled itself in his lap and appeared to start trying to sleep. Eventually, when a few minutes had passed, Jon decided to risk his luck. He slowly reached out his scarred hand to the sleeping glameow and then stroked it behind its ear. It purred in approval when he did.
“Well then, it seems like this is it for me,” Jon joked to himself. He couldn't just move the cat and it definitely wasn't going to move anytime soon. It is an acceptable way to go out, being sat on by a cat until he starves or some other pokemon showed up and put him out of his misery.
The glameow batted at his leg in response. Jon almost got the feeling as if it was saying that it was saying that he couldn’t die yet. That he still needed to give it scritches. He had to admit his interpretation of the cat's actions did make some great points.
Jon stayed there with that glameow, petting and playing with and showering it with compliments (and a few nonsense words that had felt apt enough for its beauty), for the next few hours as the sun slowly set. The cat had wrapped its curled tail around his heart, even with the quick scratching he had received when he did something that had incurred the cat's anger at one point. By the time night had fallen, he didn't really even think he could just let it go. It felt like it reminded him of something or someone he just couldn’t remember yet.
Actually… he had some of those pokeballs on him didn't he?
Slowly, Jon pulled out an empty pokeball from his satchel. He could just drop it on the glameow, it shouldn't be that hard of a capture from what he heard. He could just drop it on it and he'd capture and be able to keep this cat that had reminded him of something from that past he couldn't recall. Keep this being that had warded off those negative thoughts. He could be selfish.
But…
Jon had already forcefully taken something from someone. He had scarred her for life, just like he was. He-
He didn't want to do that again.
Jon's grip on the pokeball changed and he instead chose to hold it out to the glameow. He would let it make the decision. If it wanted to stay wild, then it could just leave. He would not rip its freedom from it.
“Do you,” he began, some part of him feeling slightly stupid for talking to it like this, “Would you like to come with me?”
“Mwrrp?” From his lap the glameow looked at the pokeball curiously.
“I- I'm not the best person, hell I can barely stand up sometimes, and I-” Jon began to ramble to the cat, but it suddenly cut him off by pressing its head against the pokeball, letting the latch click open, and going inside the ball. The pokeball clicked closed before it shook in its place. Once, twice, three times, and then a small firework came out of the top of the ball and Jon smiled.
It had chosen to come with him!
Quickly, Jon let back out his new cat, and began to pet it more, much to its delight.
“I think it's about time we head back to camp, isn't it?” Jon said once he finally forced himself to stop petting the glameow. It gave a “mraw” of agreement as Jon picked up his cane and got up from where he had sat for so long.
“That does remind me actually,” Jon Saif as he began to walk back to the Survey corps’ camp, “If you're to come with me, I think you'll need a name. A distinguished one too for one refined as yourself. How about… the Admiral?”
The glameow gave him a decidedly negative meow in response.
Jon chuckled a bit at that. “Alright, how about… the Duke?”
That was also a no it seemed.
“The Duchess?”
Similarly shot down.
“Well then maybe…” Jon checked his cloudy memories for another title, “How do we feel about, The Captain?”
This one didn't get shot down.
“The Captain it is then!” Jon laughed and as the sun finished setting behind them, a random, familiar thought played in his mind. A quote from something long ago that he barely remembered. Maybe, just this once there could be a happy ending.
So why did he feel it wouldn’t last?