"Look, you're an amazing trainer, one of the best I've ever faced..." Celeste conceded, avoiding Seb's expectant gaze. For once, she'd graced him with a few words from her beautiful mouth instead of running the instant their battle ended. "...But quit stalking me!"
This didn't discourage Seb's wide, excited eyes, which stared up at her like a puppy's and devoured the exclamation in her voice like a treat. Celeste wasn't fond of that look, for it reflected an underlying quality about him that bothered her. Even if he hadn't made lewd remarks or been annoying, she quietly despised the fact that a battler so talented treated her life's passion like it was nothing, wanting to be a famous singer yet still fighting evenly with her.
"By the way, I heard your singing..." she added, feeling her own dream disrespected, "...and it's terrible."
The girl walked away, confident that Sebastiano would never bug her again. Not only did she inwardly disapprove of him, but she also hated herself when he was around. The guy brought out a different side of her that was far less kind and intelligent than her usual demeanor. She'd always been more interested in Pokémon than humans, but she'd never encountered a person who evoked such a strong reaction from her.
The force of her words had hit Seb much harder. Just as Celeste faded into the distance, so too did his mind into darkness, and he crumpled against a tree, processing her last scathing statement. He'd been torn seven years ago after his disastrous appearance on Kalos's Got Talent, but that paled in comparison to the heartbreak he felt now. The girl he'd loved and chased across an entire region had dismissed him, calling his singing terrible and repudiating the whole reason he'd fallen for her in the first place.
"Hey uh, Seb, you okay?" asked Gabe, placing a concerned hand on the man's shoulder. He was still hurt from the bout with Celeste, but he couldn't imagine what his partner was going through. "You're not gonna shoot up a Trainer School, are you?"
The butterflies had risen from Sebastiano's stomach and flown too close to the sun, scorched to the earth by the girl's temper. He felt like a miserable, W-sitting Japanese girl whose eyes had been gouged out and stabbed to death with a butter knife exactly 1,857 times—which clearly didn't make sense, because in the Pokémon world, the nonexistent country of Japan was divided into Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Johto, and even if Japanese people were real, working a knife into those narrow slits was pretty much impossible. Besides, who gets stabbed to death with a butter knife? Only someone whose substance is as flimsy as a piece of paper, which was exactly how Seb felt now. If there was an accurate way to describe his emotions with stupid, oddball similes, this was it.
"I'm just fine, Gabe..." he seethed. "But I'm about to end this woman's whole career."
This didn't discourage Seb's wide, excited eyes, which stared up at her like a puppy's and devoured the exclamation in her voice like a treat. Celeste wasn't fond of that look, for it reflected an underlying quality about him that bothered her. Even if he hadn't made lewd remarks or been annoying, she quietly despised the fact that a battler so talented treated her life's passion like it was nothing, wanting to be a famous singer yet still fighting evenly with her.
"By the way, I heard your singing..." she added, feeling her own dream disrespected, "...and it's terrible."
The girl walked away, confident that Sebastiano would never bug her again. Not only did she inwardly disapprove of him, but she also hated herself when he was around. The guy brought out a different side of her that was far less kind and intelligent than her usual demeanor. She'd always been more interested in Pokémon than humans, but she'd never encountered a person who evoked such a strong reaction from her.
The force of her words had hit Seb much harder. Just as Celeste faded into the distance, so too did his mind into darkness, and he crumpled against a tree, processing her last scathing statement. He'd been torn seven years ago after his disastrous appearance on Kalos's Got Talent, but that paled in comparison to the heartbreak he felt now. The girl he'd loved and chased across an entire region had dismissed him, calling his singing terrible and repudiating the whole reason he'd fallen for her in the first place.
"Hey uh, Seb, you okay?" asked Gabe, placing a concerned hand on the man's shoulder. He was still hurt from the bout with Celeste, but he couldn't imagine what his partner was going through. "You're not gonna shoot up a Trainer School, are you?"
The butterflies had risen from Sebastiano's stomach and flown too close to the sun, scorched to the earth by the girl's temper. He felt like a miserable, W-sitting Japanese girl whose eyes had been gouged out and stabbed to death with a butter knife exactly 1,857 times—which clearly didn't make sense, because in the Pokémon world, the nonexistent country of Japan was divided into Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Johto, and even if Japanese people were real, working a knife into those narrow slits was pretty much impossible. Besides, who gets stabbed to death with a butter knife? Only someone whose substance is as flimsy as a piece of paper, which was exactly how Seb felt now. If there was an accurate way to describe his emotions with stupid, oddball similes, this was it.
"I'm just fine, Gabe..." he seethed. "But I'm about to end this woman's whole career."