Ran wanders out of the Goldenrod City Gym with a new badge tucked away and an evolved starter in his pokéball on his belt. The grin that's plastered on his face probably looks a bit silly, but that doesn't bother him in the least. All that really concerns him in the moment is tracking down Josie and helping her process her own disappointing result against Whitney.

Whether she needs to scheme or be consoled or simply allowed to vent, that's something he'll figure out when he's found her. Before he can even try and figure out where she might be however, an unexpected hand claps him on the shoulder.

"Congrats Ran, that was a great showing," Josie says, appearing by his side following her own exit from the gym, "Or at least the part I caught was great."

Caught by surprise, Ran stumbles for a moment, "Uh, thanks. I looked for you in the crowd but I didn't spot you. What parts did you see?"

"I came in just a bit before Golbat got pancaked," She responds, managing a moment of levity before her expression finally turns somber, "I'm sorry about missing the start of your match, though. Between the pokécenter and coping with getting my ass kicked, it took me a bit longer to get back to the Gym than planned."

Ran nods in agreement, starting to slowly walk towards the pokécenter alongside Josie as he waves off her explanation, "Don't worry about it. I appreciate you coming to watch at all!"

Josie doesn't respond, a morose silence falling over her as she trudges along by his side. For a long minute, they walk side by side in silence, as Ran looks for a way to broach the topic. Ultimately, he opts for the straightforward confrontation that Josie would likely choose if their roles were reversed.

"So, you lost." He declares decisively, Josie visibly startling as her head whips around so that she can stare at him. Ran for his part doesn't meet her stare, instead keeping his eyes down the road as they continue to walk towards the pokécenter.

"Wh- Yeah, so?" Josie stutters for a moment, before snapping back at him sharply, instinctively defensive at the imagined provocation.

Ran shrugs lightly avoiding eye contact as he remains calm and responds with feigned nonchalance, "Well I figure neither of us was expecting that, is all. Where's your head at, right now?"

From the corner of his eye, he sees Josie visibly deflate for a moment, before she squares her shoulders once more, clearly choosing to confront the topic directly, as expected.

"Honestly? I feel terrible. I cried for a bit once I finished handing in my team at the pokécenter. I only stopped because I got angry at myself over my performance and because I was missing out on your match." She tells him, her voice vibrating with frustration at the topic.

Ran hums in acknowledgement, finding himself understanding Josie's feelings with remarkable ease, "I wouldn't have blamed you for not showing up."

"I know that," Josie scoffs dismissively, before continuing to explain herself, "I would've been pissed at myself for letting a setback control me like that, though. That's not my style."

"Fair enough." Ran accepts before falling silent once more, assuming that now that he's got her talking, Josie will start venting properly without further prodding.

"I just wasn't expecting to lose, let alone get my ass kicked the way I did," She fumes, kicking at the ground mid-walk even as she continues to speak, "Whitney had this whole strategy, while my plan was basically just 'be stronger and flame on'. Be honest, when did you realize I was losing?"

"Uh, I caught on to Whitney's plan when she had Furret use its first Agility instead of fighting back," He answers honestly, before hurrying to try and assure Josie that he's not trying to be demeaning, "Though I did have to look up whether it learnt Baton Pass to be sure! Without that, it would've taken me longer."

Josie huffs, kicking away another imaginary pebble as she processes his answer, "Figures. I honestly thought we'd be fine when the Smog actually poisoned that Furret of hers. I was just going to have Chief turn up the speed with some Agilities of his own and then beat the snot out of it. She completely blindsided me with the Baton Pass."

"I mean, it's hardly a very common strategy." Ran offers, looking to console his friend, but yet another scoff from Josie makes it very clear just how she feels about that particular argument.

"Doesn't matter, I should've caught it. My team is strong enough to win its third badge. We lost today because I wasn't good enough. It's time I faced the facts: I haven't been a very good trainer. Between you, Grady and now Whitney, I've lost the last three matches where I didn't have either a type-advantage or a stronger pokémon than my opponent. Dude, Grady used a Chinchou against us on a battlefield without any water and we still lost!" She continues to vent, before finally falling silent just as they reach the pokécenter.

Busy as always, the pokécenter's main lounge is hardly the place to continue the conversation just as Josie is clearly getting emotional, so Ran lets the matter rest for a moment. Instead, he focuses on talking to the nurse on duty for a bit, turning in Arbok, Golbat and Aria for treatment. It leaves him light, with only Skorupi still on his belt, but that's better than nothing. Just a single look at Josie's empty belt is enough to remind him that he could be a lot worse off.

In fact, a glance around the lounge, at some of the trainers hanging around with completely empty belts is a perfect reminder of his own relative luxury. Turning to face Josie once more, Ran looks at her inquisitively, waiting for her to lead the way to a place to continue their conversation.

His friend doesn't immediately oblige however, instead looking conflicted for a few long seconds, before huffing. Arms crossing across her chest, she finally looks him in the eye as she speaks with a defeated voice.

"I appreciate the talk, but I kind of want to process this a bit more on my own, right now. We'll catch up later?" She offers, to which Ran can only nod in surprised acceptance.

Josie mutters a quick thanks, before turning on her heel and heading out the pokécenter's doors once more.

Which leaves Ran standing around purposelessly for a moment. He glances around indecisively for a moment, as he considers his options. With most of his team in recovery and exhausted, a proper training session is completely out of the option. Visiting the Tunnel and spectating a few matches, or returning to the Gym to do the same are both options, but that'd require leaving the pokécenter and he kind of wants to stay close by so he can get his team members back as soon as possible. So the obvious answer is using one of the center's computers to brief his father on his progress.

Mind made up, he wanders over to the computers to do just that, only to find all of them occupied and with two other trainers waiting ahead of him. Quietly joining the line, Ran fiddles with his pokégear, considering texting instead of mailing, only to discard the thought swiftly. A properly sweeping description of his Gym battle, as the man surely expects, would take far too long to type out on a pokégear's tiny keyboard.

In fiddling with his pokégear however, he's reminded of someone else whom he definitely can text right now. Putting thought into action, he's soon typing away even as someone finally leaves their pc, the line of waiting trainers shrinking to just Ran and the guy directly ahead of him.

Ran: Beat Whitney 3-2! Jigglypuff - Raticate - Miltank. Tough one, but we managed it. Ekans evolved afterwards!

Within seconds, his pokégear vibrates strongly as responses start flooding in.

Grady: WOW!

Grady: COOL! 😀😀

Grady: CNGRTZ!! 🥳🥳

Grady: U R SUPER AWESOME!! 🎉🎉🎉

Grady: ARBOK?!?! SICK!!! 😎

Grady: MILTANK?? 💀💀💀

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Before Grady can continue to bombard him with tiny reaction messages, Ran hurriedly responds.

Ran: Mind the message spam. I don't need my arm vibrating off.

Grady: Right. Sorry!

Grady: Congrats! That's huge! You've got to tell me all about it! You guys want to meet up? I'm training near the docks.

Ran: Not right now, but we could get dinner together if you don't have plans yet?

Grady: Aww, can't. Mom's making meatballs. I can come by before though, where you @?

Ran: Pokécenter, waiting for my team to recover. Don't have plans to go out before dinner so if you're headed this way in the next few hours, I should still be here.

Grady: Sweet, will do!

Ran: Cool, I'll either be in the lounge or in my room.

Grady: 👍👍👍

Putting his pokégear away, Ran looks up only to realize that not only has the guy that was still ahead of him long since occupied a computer, but by this point two other pc's are free to use. At least nobody showed up while he was occupied with answering Grady, allowing him to easily claim one of them for himself.

It's quick work to open up a mail to his dad. Usually, writing updates for the man is something he struggles with a bit, but with the battle still fresh in his mind and his mood still soaring, the words come out with surprising ease. Without getting endlessly effusive, he writes out a clear description of the fight, from Ekans and Aria's trouncing of Jigglypuff all the way to Ekans' eventual triumph over Miltank and the resulting evolution.

Just typing about Arbok's evolution is enough for his earlier grin to return, though it does raise other questions in turn. With his mail to his dad done, Ran taps away at the screen idly as he ponders which issue to tackle first. Coming up with a name for Arbok is extremely tempting, as it's something he's been waiting more than three years for, but obviously that'll have to wait until his starter is actually present to weigh in on the matter. So he can either actually put proper thought into where to go from here, or his plans for Route 35.

With Josie's unexpected loss against Whitney to take into account, where to go from here is a topic he doesn't quite want to touch yet, so he first turns his attention to Route 35. A few familiar search queries are enough to leave him with a pair of tabs open. The first has a rough map of the area north of Goldenrod and East of Olivine, whilst the second has information on the uniquely dimorph Nidoran-line.

Originally, way back when he'd first started planning his team outside of this starting three, adding Nidoking, Gengar and eventually Venusaur had made for a perfectly planned six-pokémon team. But Skorupi, whose curiosity and easy affection have rapidly won Ran over completely, has changed that picture. He's still unclear on just what typing will replace Bug upon his fourth team member's evolution, but neither grass nor ghost are looking particularly likely.

Ground… feels more plausible. A lot more plausible, even. Which would theoretically make a Nidoking excess to requirements, assuming Skorupi's evolved form can take on the role of the designated Steel-type counter. That would leave Gengar as the rare poison-type that can contend with psychic-types and Venusaur as the best grass-poison-type and his chosen second counter to ground-types, following closely behind Crobat and overtaking Aria in that area.

Of course, even with the assumption that Skorupi can 'take' Nidoking's intended place, giving up on the poison-ground-type also means losing out on the extremely diverse pool of moves the Nidoran-line is capable of learning, albeit with the assistance of Technical Machines in a lot of cases. Which might be a problem, as type-coverage is extremely important in the higher tiers of the Conferences. That's a huge point in Nidoking's favor and, with his pockets once more full and likely with some more time to kill in Goldenrod than expected, it'd be the perfect opportunity to invest in a TM or two early and get his new team member up to speed before they'd even set out for their fourth badge.

On the other hand, going north now and capturing a member of the Nidoran-line leaves him with only a single 'slot' unfilled before he's even figured out just what Skorupi will evolve into. Also, it'd give him five team members before he's even got his fourth badge, which feels like a lot. Sure, things are fine and dandy now, but it's not as if he's at the point where he can just casually fill his roster out even further. He's still working on integrating and figuring out Skorupi. Not to mention the upkeep of having to feed five pokémon every day.

It'd be fine in the short-term, but they'd only need a few unlucky breaks - a few lost matches, a mishap whilst out training, a lost Gym challenge - to start cutting it very close from a budgetary point of view. It currently isn't an issue, their great win/loss-ratio and successful Gym challenges having provided exactly the kind of major boost to his cash reserves he'd originally planned for back in Azalea Town. But between the shopping expenses, the need for an expensive trip to and from Cianwood in the not-too-distant future and the likely lull in his income during those trips, another rise in expenses on top of what Arbok's evolution is sure to cause, might not be the best idea.

Then again, Nidorino or Nidoking would have been a very large part of his eventual strategy for the Olivine City Gym. With the terrible match-up Steel-types form for his chosen specialization, the Nidoran-line's access to both ground- and fighting-type attacks is an obvious answer to rebalance the scales. However, Arbok knows or will shortly know Fire Fang, now that he's evolved. He can learn a lot of ground-type moves too, if also with the aid of Technical Machines.

If Skorupi then also evolves in a beneficial way… over-committing to countering steel-types will leave his team too weak to psychic- and ground-types, which are, as far as their ability to hurt his own pokémon, arguably a greater threat than steel-types. So… He should hold off on getting a Nidoran or Nidorino. At least for now.

He lets out a heavy sigh, relieved to have come to a decision, before considering the matter of traveling once more. His arrangement with Josie has worked out well, but neither of them has really brought up where to go after Goldenrod City. To Ran's mind, the answer is obvious.

Take a ship to Cianwood, then Olivine, Ecruteak, Mahogany and finally Blackthorn. The most efficient route which ensures no need to double back whatsoever. The main issues are the relatively expensive boat trip from Goldenrod to Cianwood, compared to the busier and cheaper Olivine-Cianwood connection, and the postponement of visiting the most likely place where he might acquire a member of the Gastly-line until after his fifth badge. Because only having Aria to counteract psychic-types is just not an option in the long term.

So the most obvious alternative is going to Ecruteak first and then either turning East or West from there. Turning East and challenging Mahogany and Blackthorn might save them from some of the absolute monsters Pryce and Clair tend to use at the highest badge-levels, but then they'd be running into extra strong steel-types later. Finishing against the fighting-types they've got a huge advantage over would be nice, but getting to that point would be challenging to say the least. Heading West would once again leave Mahogany and Blackthorn until last, but at that point it'd just be offensively inefficient to have gone to Ecruteak from Goldenrod, essentially forcing him to complete an extra half lap of the Goldenrod-Ecruteak-Olivine-Cianwood circle, just to get back to the point where starting with Cianwood would've put him naturally.

To him, taking the ship to Cianwood as soon as possible is really the only logical and acceptable option. Though Josie might not feel the same way. In fact, he's pretty sure the area around Ecruteak City is known for its significant Vulpix-population.

What if Josie deliberately wants to come back to Goldenrod later, rather than sticking around now and challenging Whitney again in the short term? From her point of view, going from Ecruteak, where she could add a Vulpix, to Olivine, where she'd have the major type-advantage, to Cianwood, where the nearby Safari Zone would be the perfect opportunity for her to add a fifth team member, before then returning to Goldenrod City with three extra badges, an expanded team and a fresh load of courage might make a lot more sense.

It's actually almost annoying how much sense that route might make for her, if she decides not to rechallenge Whitney before leaving Goldenrod. Then again, they've been making great time so far. Assuming they keep anything even close to their current pace, they'll have months to spare at the end of the circuit before the Conference begins. So would it really be so bad to 'lose' some time by returning to Goldenrod and repeating the Goldenrod-Ecruteak stretch?

Perhaps not, though it's a clear second choice to heading for Cianwood first.

Though it will depend on what Josie wants to do in the first place. If she's up to challenging Whitney again within a few weeks, they can just go train in the area leading towards Ecruteak. Josie can catch a Vulpix, if she wants one, he can work on solidifying his team's movesets, strengthening them further and exploring just what Skorupi is going to be capable of. Then they can come back, watch Josie beat Whitney and travel in his preferred direction after all.

Hanging around near Goldenrod for that long isn't perfect of course, but it doesn't sound too unappealing either. Then again…

Frustrated at going in circles, Ran finally huffs and logs off from the pc, getting up and stretching his legs as he realizes just how much time appears to have passed while he was busy theorizing. Just a single look out the nearest window shows how much the light outside has changed, clearly showing that although sunset is still a ways off, dinnertime is fast approaching.

Wandering towards his room in the pokécenter even as he idly considers just what to do about dinner, he spots a familiar shorter figure standing in front of his room door, seemingly just having finished knocking and waiting for an answer.

"Grady!" He greets the usually exuberant younger trainer warmly, even as he closes the distance further, "How'd your training go?"

Grady turns around, only for Ran to almost stagger backwards at the near-literal stars in the younger boy's eyes.

"YOU BEAT WHITNEY! YOU'RE A WIZARD!" Grady actually shouts, loud enough for most of Goldenrod City to hear.

"Grady, inside voice!" Ran snaps back hurriedly, the younger boy instinctively slamming his hands over his mouth in response at the reprimand, only to keep staring at Ran with twinkling eyes.

Sighing, Ran nudges the younger boy to the side, so he can open the door to his room.

"Come on in, though if you don't watch the volume, I'm not telling you anything." He allows warily, as Grady nods energetically before darting inside before Ran can even fully finish opening the door.

Amused and ego admittedly somewhat boosted by the younger trainer's admiration, Ran follows him inside. Despite the warning, there's nothing wrong with a bit of well-deserved idolatry from Grady. The least he can do is give a factual retelling of his achievement.