Margo continued to put on a cheery face for her friend, returning his thumbs up as the crowd continued chattering amongst themselves excitedly. While she wasn't exactly worried for Indy, she was worried about what exactly Jack had in store for him. After all, he had lost against him before, so he had to be pretty tough presumably. A thought struck her, the girl pulling her backpack to her side and shuffling through its contents in search for her scratched up pokedex. The poor machine probably hated her already, but whenever she did drop it, she would apologize for three minutes straight.
Photography wasn't her favorite medium, but perhaps part of being a good artist would include being well-rounded in every medium. Or at least familiar with it. Margo swiped through to find the camera and put her pokedex up, taking a quick (and a little blurry) shot of Indy just before he threw his pokeball onto the battlefield. She kept taking photos every few moments, not wanting to miss anything, but slowly her photos began more and more towards the dirt as her own eyes wanted to see the pokemon in action. Their exchange of sleep powder definitely showed the crowd who was battling at what level--or perhaps it was more of who was coordinating at what level? Margo wasn't sure, but the glittery flecks dusting around the edges of the field were entrancing. She nearly jumped as someone seemed to spoke to her, looking up at the tall man next to her as he gave her a bright smile, dropping her pokedex in a fluster as he asked her if she knew Indy.
Margo scrambled to pick up her pokedex, looking back up at this handsome stranger with a sheepish smile, forgetting to apologize to her poor pokedex this one time. "U-Uh, yea.. We kind of know each other? We're kind of friends.. I mean, at least, I think we are? We had a fight over him calling my pokemon ugly, then he wouldn't really apologize sincerely--which is utterly rude--and then we went to the gym together and had a battle and he won but he was kind of a gloat about it and then," Margo stopped abruptly, her freckled face starting to glow a bit red as she realized she was rambling. Sometimes she tended to do that when her emotions got the best of her, kind of like this morning with Indy in the pokemon center. She took a breath and nodded affirmatively at the stranger. "Yes, I know Indy."
Mori gave a small laugh at Margo's reaction, nodding thoughtfully as he turned his attention back to the battle, watching his little brother realize that people were actually cheering for him. It was sort of sweet, seeing his brother in this lime light. "Hey, my name is Mori, by the way." Mori realized he hadn't introduced himself, quickly fixing his mistake before moving on with his conversation. "What's your name? Did you guys meet shortly after you started your journey?" Mori looked at her with the same charming smile, quickly adding, "Assuming you're on a pokemon journey, that is."
Margo wasn't sure if it was because he was so tall, or because he seemed so much more mature than herself, but something about this stranger was making it hard for her to keep her thoughts in a straight line. She felt sort of awkward that he was even asking about her--what did he need to know about a teenager like her? However, New Margo put an end to this thinking quite quickly. 'He's cute! Let him ask all he wants, including our number!' Margo tried not to giggle giddily at her thoughts, instead focusing on his words but letting her eyes return to Indy's battle; perhaps not looking at him would help her focus.
"My name is Margaret, but I'd rather be called Margo. We actually just met the other day... I suppose I'm on a journey, but maybe not for gym badges or coordinating ribbons. I guess it's a journey to find myself? That probably sounds dumb. I'm from Unova originally and I think I was missing something to life there... I don't really know. I'm here now though and I'm trying to perfect myself for a career of being an artist. Something to that effect, anyways." Margo let out a quick, nervous laugh as she brought her pokedex back up to eye level, her plan of looking at the battle instead of the stranger appearing to make her less flustered at the very least. She snapped a picture of Indy's Vivillon as it exited Mothim's Hidden Power, the dust reflecting brightly in the lens.
Mori listened to Margo, the girl acting how any teenage girl would act around an older boy, he supposed. Still, it was interesting to see it directed towards him, the charming smile still on his face as he followed her lead to watching the battle. Indy wasn't half bad from the looks of it, and the crowd was starting to realize that he might be giving Jack a run for his money. He felt a strange sort of pride swell up inside of him. 'That's my brother out there, making this kid work for his fame.' But with this pride came a bittersweet sensation, remembering that perhaps he didn't deserve to feel proud of his little brother, to let himself support Indy in this way. He tried to push the thoughts out of his head for a moment, listening to Margo's voice. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at her, a slight sadness seeping into her words from the sound of it. "Well... you're quite far away from your family, huh? You're pretty brave to be in this new region all by yourself."
Margo, while not entirely giving Mori the attention he deserved as he spoke to her, wasn't blocking him out completely, only about halfway. She was letting herself get entangled with the battle before her, watching it both over her pokedex as well as through its camera, capturing vital moments as well as the expressions on Indy's face as he battled. A small shrug came from her at Mori's response. "I guess I'm brave... but not really." She paused as she squinted through the lens, hoping to capture the spark of determination in both trainer and pokemon's eyes. "I kind of, well, I guess I ran away from my family. I didn't leave anything to let them know where I was going or where I am. I don't know if they have a clue where I could be. I do miss them, and I have their phone number, I just can't bring myself to talk to them right now. They didn't understand me. They were breeders and I just... I'm not a breeder. They put me in a box and... I don't know. It's like a plant, I guess. They put me in a tiny planter's box and gave me all the things I needed: sun, water, soil, whatever. But I was more of a plant that needed room to spread my roots, more space to really thrive and live, and they just... didn't give that to me. So I left." Again, Margo wasn't truly paying attention to Mori so as he turned during her little unknowingly truthful speech, she didn't feel his eyes upon her.
Morado felt his heart go out to this girl. She had runaway from her parents, all the way in Unova? That was an awful long way for a girl to go just to prove a point about who she was. In some respects, she was silly for thinking that would be a good idea, but in other respects maybe she was braver than he had given her credit for. He thought back to what she had said about being an artist, seeing her look so intently into her camera and trying her best to get nice photos, he wondered if she had any work to show him. "I suppose if they didn't give you enough room, you had to make room, right? If you want to be an artist, that's awesome--of course, if you don't, that's also cool! Do you have any sketches I could look at?"
This, however, got Margo's attention, looking up at him with bright eyes. She wasn't sure if he was making fun of her--he sounded quite earnest though, and why would an older guy be lying to her? He wouldn't get anything out of it, so instead she trusted Mori, holding her pokedex in one hand while her free hand rummaged around in her backpack once more. She pulled out a medium-sized green sketchbook and held it out to Mori. She wasn't embarrassed about showing her work to people, often willingly handing it over and asking their opinions. Sometimes she had a hard time taking criticism but she always remembered their words, making changes to her coloring or techniques. "Here. This is all I have on me, I had more at my house but I could only really afford to bring this along and some of my materials." Margo gave Mori a small smile, before returning to her pokedex, still taking pictures every now and then, but now keeping an eye out for Mori and his reaction to her sketchbook.
Mori returned the smile, taking the green-covered sketchbook and holding it delicately. He opened up to a random page, and found a pencil sketch of a Throh and Sawk locked in combat. The Sawk had his leg above the Throh's head, the red pokemon holding his leg just above his skull. It elicited a sort of tense emotion. He flipped through a couple more pages and found a charcoal sketch of three little Pidove nestled together in a nest. They looked adorable, comforting one another in the warmth of each other. A few more pages and something really caught Mori's eye. It was a watercolor painting, slightly crumpled because the paper of the sketchbook wasn't the best for the paints, of a woman on a Zebstrika. She had flowing red hair, pronounced against the pale blue background and daring green eyes, a sort of 'come at me' smirk placed on her lips. She was posed on her Zebstrika so casually, the fierce pokemon glaring out onto the horizons and giving off little electrical currents on the ground, the grass around its hooves burnt. It was a beautiful picture, despite the paper being crinkly. Mori went to get Margo's attention, to express his like for her sketches, but she was shouting, along with the rest of the crowd. It seemed that the battle was over and Indy had lost, but everyone was still cheering from the excitement of the battle. And it was in this chaos that Mori realized he needed to get to work.
Margo barely registered Mori leaving, quickly handing back her sketchbook with his perpetual smile before rushing to the other side of the battlefield. She was too busy shouting for Indy, closing her pokedex and shoving it along with her sketchbook into her backpack as she hurried to his side. "You did amazing! I'll have to look through the pictures I took later to give you a glimpse of what it was like being on the outside! Not to say the inside wasn't just as amazing, but I think you know what I mean--a different perspective or whatever." Margo paused, clasping her hands in front of her and smiling at her companion. "Do you hear everyone? I told you winning wasn't everything, loser." She said the last part jokingly, hoping it wouldn't hurt Indy's feelings too much. She heard Indy say the stranger's name, her brows meeting in the middle suddenly. "What?"
Her attention was grabbed by a large Dragonite, the pokemon holding Indy's opponent and his sister by their scruffs, that handsome stranger coming to the two and shouting to clear the crowd. Did he just say little brother?
Margo switched between Mori and Indy, unsure of what to say. She suddenly felt more flustered than when he had first spoken to her. "You're his little brother?" She whisper-shouted to Indy, her hand enclosing around his wrist in disbelief. Her face went red once more as he spoke directly to her, giving a quick nod and trying not to giggle to herself. No way did this guy just challenge her to a battle sometime. He had a friggin Dragonite! "Please tell me you have his number, right?"
