[archie looks at james, then down to his empty stein. he gets up and disappears into the bar crowd for a few minutes. he comes back with a tray of strongly smelling shots. he's now graduated to grain alcohol.]
Tell me about them.
[he's gonna do a shot for each one, because he's put the tray in front of himself. james still has those martinis!]
[James's eyes grow distant. His partners have usually learned new attacks for him. Either he needed to be saved or he was weeping only and they wanted to cheer him up...
The one time he ever put honest effort into training one of his partners, he'd failed. He'd given Cacnea away to a Gym Leader in the end so it could reach its full potential.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
...What do you mean?
no subject
[he stops for a moment, trying to figure out how it even--]
Hyper Beam can literally vaporise stuff!
no subject
[He waves a dismissive hand through the air.]
I've been nailed by Hyper Beam let's see... At least a dozen times now.
[A thoughtful pause.]
Most of them came from the same Tyranitar, though....
[He's not quite latching on to Archie's point.]
no subject
Tell me about them.
[he's gonna do a shot for each one, because he's put the tray in front of himself. james still has those martinis!]
no subject
[He drums his fingers against his jawline, thinking.]
The Tyranitar belonged to a poacher. My chums and I tried to punch it out to give our Pokémon time to escape but it brutalized us pretty badly.
Fists aren't so effective...against...
[He looks at the line of shots, then looks at Archie.]
Hold on, are you turning my misfortune into a drinking game!?
no subject
[he does one of the shots, shaking his head, then pushes the tray towards james.]
Why'd you keep meeting it?
no subject
I only met this one once. It got a lot of hits in, that's all.
[With his spare hand he lifts three fingers.]
Took at least three Hyper Beams.
Drink up.
[He knocks back the one shot and puts the glass down with a grimace.]
...Woof.
no subject
Worst I've taken is a Take Down.
no subject
[He sips from the martini, suddenly unsure if he quite understands the unspoken rules of this game.]
Why'd you get hit by it?
no subject
[he rubs his beard, then does another shot. just because he wants to, apparently.]
Mrgh-- ah! No, I have taken a Hydro Pump and a Waterfall, too. Teachin' new moves, an' being the unfortunate target of the practice, and all that.
no subject
You've taught your partners new moves?
no subject
Of course I have. I've had them for quite a while and it's poor strategy to keep the same moveset for too long. They get bored of it.
no subject
[James's eyes grow distant. His partners have usually learned new attacks for him. Either he needed to be saved or he was weeping only and they wanted to cheer him up...
The one time he ever put honest effort into training one of his partners, he'd failed. He'd given Cacnea away to a Gym Leader in the end so it could reach its full potential.]
[James waves a dismissive hand.]
Sorry.
[Sigh of envy.]
no subject
[he shakes his head.]
I can show you, if ya want. How to... moves.
[his eyes are getting glassy this grain alcohol is WRECKING HIM.]
no subject
I don't know how you keep knocking those back.
no subject
[whatever that means, he does not elaborate, because he does another shot. then just... lays his head down carefully on the table (thunks it down).]
...Need a break though. Shit.
[night, archie.]
no subject
[James stands up and claps the other man on the shoulder.]
Thanks for the martinis.
[And with that he puts his cap back on and strolls out of the bar.]