the simplest of things [red]

[cynthia]

we study the past so that we might not repeat our mistakes

the ruins are a favorite place of hers -- and not just simply because they are in sinnoh, her home region. this place is filled with remnants of the past, to the brim with the markings of lives long gone. even in the middle of a war, in the middle of what some would call nowhere, cynthia breathes in, and feels at home. the sun beats gentle rays of sunlight on her shoulders, the dark fabric of her coat seeping the warmth in and settling it against her skin. it's a stark but welcome change from kalos weather; even in her travels between regions, there has been no place quite like sinnoh. no place quite like home. the fact that she's about to meet one of her old friends and introduce him to the solaceon ruins -- and whoever can just say that in sinnoh, where everyone knows the ruins? -- is just more sunlight in her veins. roserade beside her is making the most of what she can, spreading her petals wide and basking. (war has made her wary, and isn't that a sad thing?) cynthia tucks her hands into her pockets, stares at the side of a still-standing wall on the outskirts of the ruins and its inscriptions of unown, and waits with a smile on her face. RED

[RED]

He spots her from high above the clouds, a lone figure in black, and points at her, the faint growl by Charizard is enough indication that he understands, and the pokemon slows his descent towards Cynthia. It was a thoughtful preposition, who was he to refuse such an invitation, especially to a place he's not familiar with. He'd been to Sinnoh before of course, but had barely done any sightseeing other than that near the gyms. Ruins. He remembers Cinnabar and it's broken down mansion, though it seems that this is a cave rather than a broken down house, so he figures there something different about this place.

It doesn't take long for Charizard to land a short way away from Cynthia, mindful of the Roserade and careful not to get his fire too close. If anything Charizard actually flashes a toothy grin at the Roserade. Red slides off Charizard's back with practiced movements, automatically giving the lizard a pat on the head.

He smiles at Cynthia as a greeting, taking off his cap and tucking it away under his arm, as if a show of respect. He takes a quick look around them, not a person in sight. He breathes a sigh of relief. At least he doesn't have to worry about some trainer trying to battle him. Today, he decided, he would be a tourist and properly explore these ruins with gusto.

He recognizes the impressions on the wall, if anything familiar with the Unknown during his journey at Johto. "So these are the ruins..." He trails off, before looking at Cynthia expectantly, as if waiting for her to lead the way.

[cynthia]

we study the past so that we might not repeat our mistakes

it doesn't take red long, and cynthia has to admit, she's sort of surprised by that. knowing red, she'd assumed that he'd at least take some time to make sure there aren't any other trainers around to challenge him. she'd done her part on that, at least -- she'd asked lucario for an aura check of the area to make sure that there weren't any other researchers or tourists around. he'd agreed to it, but had gone back to his pokeball straight afterwards for a nap. she's not quite sure if she should be amused by that or not. when the charizard lands roserade gives the fire lizard a cheeky grin of her own, waving her roses around in front of his face. she doesn't even worry about the possibility of being burned -- she's not vain enough to mind a little singeing. cynthia grins at red in response, both at the removal of his signature hat and the quick glance-around. "these are the ruins," she says, and she smiles the smile that is well-known among other researchers as her precursor before she descends into the rapid-fire comparison between different myths, the variations of myths, and her own theories. but she won't subject red to that -- hopefully. she's still not quite sure yet, and red does make for a wonderful listener. "these inscriptions," she says, and raises a hand to run light fingers over them; they come away lined with a thin coating of dust and dirt. "match the types of unown that we know. if we compare them to our own written language, they're remarkably similar. we've proven so far that the unown resemble our own ancient writing and hieroglyphs enough for the first stages of translation, but since our record of history from that time is still unfortunately small, we don't know whether our written language was based primarily upon their forms or not." the solaceon ruins are not, in fact, the best place for unown research -- the ruins of alph in johto are far more suited to that -- but the sinnoh ruins still have enough evidence and sheer history that cynthia believes that the trip out here with red is worth it. she turns to him and charizard, where roserade is still standing with them. "there's more on the inside of the ruins, though, if you're willing to get out of the sun." roserade looks unhappy at that, but she simply gives her pokemon an apologetic smile. she'll make it up to the pokemon later with even more time in the sun, but for now -- she's giving a tour of the ruins for red, and it's his choice, really. as his guide for it, cynthia doesn't mind either way. RED