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Rain was falling down softly on the the taxi that made its way to Saffron City. Seated on the backseat was Owen, with a small Pokéball in his hands. They had not told the crowd that he had graduated with – possibly – the highest marks in school. He had just been another student in a small que of successful students that had succeeded in gaining their certificate for keeping Pokémon. His parents had been in the auditorium: his mother had been proud and his father had applauded with a forced smile when he was called to the stage to receive his diploma and the red-white Pokéball that he had now in his hands. Just like everyone else. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Owen stared at the little button on the Pokéball, while the cab-driver tried to find the way to his apartment. He had hoped that he would receive a bigger applause than the other students, that he would get a gold-and-silver Pokéball, that he would at least be mentioned as a remarkable student. Just. Anything. Anything that would distinguish him from the others. Anything that would prove that he was better than the others. But nothing had happened.
He hadn’t dared to open the Pokéball yet, afraid of what it would hold. Hoppip, Caterpie, Ledyba, Sentret. He knew what kinds of Pokémon were given to new licence holders. There were potentially strong Pokémon among them, but also some weird creatures that you wouldn’t want to give to your worst enemy – from a scientific point of view. There were of course those idiotic girls that loved Hoppip to death, but Owen preferred Pokémon that had a little more mystery to them.

At last they reached Owen’s apartment. Owen paid the cab-driver with the money that his mother had given to him after the ceremony. He had tried to avoid his parents, but that had proved to be harder than expected.  
As soon as he entered his living room, he dropped his diploma on his desk. The apartment he lived in consisted of three rooms: there was a bathroom, there was a living room plus kitchen plus study room and there was a bedroom that could barely contain a bed and a very small closet. Most of the apartment was already filled with papers and books, despite the fact that Owen had moved in just two weeks ago. He had tried to make it his own as best as he could, and that meant there had to be lots and lots of resources for information, such as a computer, a laptop, a tablet and books, lots of books.
Now there was only one thing missing in this small house: a pet. Well, to be honest, Owen wasn’t the kind of guy who really wanted a pet, or even liked Pokémon for that matter, but he was sure that the Pokémon he had been given would be interesting to examine. He knew that there was still a lot to learn about Pokémon, not just for himself, but also for the rest of the world.
Owen turned the Pokéball in his hand and then, finally, threw it in the air. There was a red flash and then a blue jellyfish appeared. Owen stared at it for just a second and then hastily returned the Pokémon to its ball. A Tentacool, eh. Owen had had lessons and he knew that a Tentacool wasn’t able to survive outside of water very long. It’s body shrivels when it is washed ashore, he thought, and more facts followed: A dual-type Pokémon, water/poison, which makes it weak to electricity, ground and psychic, but strong against twice as much types, for example fire, bug and steel. Could have a Liquid Ooze or Clear Body ability, I should try to find that out as soon as possible. It could also be interesting to experiment with its ability to control other Pokémon. 50% of all Tentacool are male, but male and female Tentacool hardly differ, so…

Owen sat down at his desk and placed the Pokéball in front of him. Now it was his task to make the most of his Tentacool. Find its ability. Extract its poison. Use its psychic powers. The possibilities were endless.

Absorbed by his own thoughts, Owen started to scribble on a piece of paper, writing down several statistics in relation to Tentacool. Here and there a question mark appeared: how deathly were the poison stingers at the top of its tentacles? Would a Tentacool be able to think by itself? Though a Tentacool had a large head, most of its body (99%, if you had to believe the general accepted encyclopaedia) consisted of water. Taken into account that probably the remaining 1% consisted of skin and/or tentacles… well, that didn’t leave a lot of room for brains.
A knocking sound at the door made Owen startle. What was that? He didn’t expect any visitors! Even his mother wouldn’t visit at this time, so shortly after they had talked to eachother… would she? No, she would call beforehand, just to make sure he was at home.

Slowly Owen made its way to the door and when he opened he saw an odd-looking girl. Owen, who didn’t have any sense for fashion or interest in clothing styles, immediately concluded that this girl had borrowed some clothes from her brother, her little sister and her Granbull. Or she didn’t have any money and these clothes had been the cheapest she could find. Either way, in Owens eyes she appeared ridiculously shameless.
He was still staring at her, when she started to talk: ‘Hi, I’m looking for the Pearson family. They…’ But she never reached the next word, for something else had caught her attention. Owen couldn’t supress his annoyance. Just finish of your sentences, will you?

The girl seemed very excited to see the Pokéball lying at his desk. She couldn’t stand still for a second, while firing all sorts of questions at him. Luckily he was very good at finding order in chaos and remembering her questions. (Not that her questions were important. They were all very flat and easy to answer).
‘Calm down please,’ he said, while wondering if he should let the girl enter his apartment. He always thought of girls as kind of stupid. It had been proven that some girls could reach the same level of intelligence as some guys, but up until now he hadn’t met any girl that talked about anything else than boys or clothes. He had to admit that he hadn’t talked to many girls, though.
‘I just got my Pokémon an hour ago, or so.’ He took a look at his watch. ‘One hour and fifteen minutes to be more exact. I’ve just discovered that the Pokémon I got is a Tentacool. Water/poison. Probably around 2'11" tall, though I haven’t had time to measure him yet. I don’t have a swimming pool or bath and, as you undoubtedly know, a Tentacool won’t survive long without water. I’m still wondering what to do with it, though. Fighting will be a good way to obtain the right to buy more interesting Pokémon, but there are many more ways to make use of your Pokémon. I was just trying to find the best way to deal with Tentacool. Maybe I’ll sell it, so I’ll have enough money to buy a better one, but for that I’ll have to check what kind of Pokémon are currently for sale. And that must be all the answers you need. Now, please, will you be so kind to tell me why you are here or otherwise… just leave. I’ve important things to work on.’  

The girl was ferocious. Well, what else could he have expected? She had probably never even seen a Pokémon. Her view of Pokémon purely consisted of age-old tales that were completely torn out of context. Or even worse, but even more likely: fairy tales.
She was almost yelling now and it was clear that she really, really, really believed that Pokémon had feelings. Okay, Pokémon had feelings, even Owen couldn’t prove otherwise, but he was absolutely sure that those feelings were very fragile and very basic. They certainly shouldn’t be treated like they were of more value than humans.

‘No, I have never had a real encounter with a Pokémon, as you call it,’ answered Owen, when the girl finally had reached the end of her speech. ‘And there’s a good reason for that: every sensible human should stay out of the way of wild Pokémon. They shouldn’t be trusted. They only live to eat and to feed their children and in the wilderness they are far too dangerous for any human being. You said they are smart because they can learn attacks that control all kinds of elements?’ His lips curled a little, to show an arrogant, little smile that made clear that he felt himself superior. ‘That doesn’t even prove they have brains at all! Attacking other creatures or defending yourself against them is the first thing every breathing thing learns, because that is the only way to stay alive. A dog, a cat, even a caterpillar knows how to defend themselves! The fact that Pokémon still need to learn attacks more likely proves that they are by far inferior to human beings, for human beings can exist without being strong or having a thick shell. Humans can survive because they have brains, because they can rearrange nature, because they can think in an abstract way! Pokémon can’t do that. They can’t ask the questions that really matter, they can’t find the answers on more complex problems. They can eat, they can attack, and sure, they can be happy, but in the end they only live to die. No, wait.’ He stared at the distance, as if he was in some kind of trance. Then he continued his speech: ‘No, that’s not true. They don’t live to die, they live to serve the way of life. In the original Nature they made sure the circle of life continued without interruption, but nowadays they make sure that humans can live their life to their full extent without having to bother about electricity. The functionality of Pokémon has hardly changed and for them, well… if they really bothered about being slaves of mankind, they surely would have made clear right away. But no, there has never been an uprising of Pokémon, so that means they are perfectly fine with the way they are used right now. If they are as clever and as sensible as you say they are, they wouldn’t need a human like you to speak for their minds.’

He didn’t have to wait long for her response. It was clear that she didn’t had any patience and she clearly never had learned to discuss in a civilized way. Her tone of voice, her eyes… her complete body language showed her frustration. He had to admit: he was frustrated to. But he had learned to suppress that kind of feelings (any kind of feeling, actually. Feelings were quite annoying and should always come at the second place. The brain should always be more important than the heart). Frustration in a debate was never an advantage. It showed that you were out of good arguments and that you already knew that your opponent wouldn’t give in.
The girl threw all kind of words at him, but there wasn’t a single fact in her arguments. It was clear that she was using her last bullets; soon her gun would be empty and she would go away. Knowing that, he looked at his watch to see how long they had been standing here, discussing the right of Pokémon. At that exact moment she ended her speech and said, headshaking: ‘You have a lot to learn.’

Now, that was a way to make him angry. His eyebrows lowered and he bit his lip. It was okay that she didn’t look at the world in the way he did - after all, she didn’t have as much knowledge and brains as he did – but that didn’t mean she had the right to insult him! On the contrary! She should have respect for all that he had already learned in the short period that he lived on this earth, for it was so much more than she knew!
Civilized as he was, he let her finish her sentence instead of parrying her words right away with arguments and facts. He knew a diploma didn’t say that you were smart, not even if it had “summa cum laude” on it, but it was more than she could show him… it was the prove that he was more intelligent than she was.

‘Do you know where the Pearson family lives?’ the girl asked all of a sudden. He stared at her for a moment and then said: ‘The who? No. I’ve never heard of them. They are probably just as interesting to me as those Meowth and Glameow that live in the dark little alley. You can’t raise your fist for every darn stupid creature that can’t survive on it’s on! First and foremost we came to this earth to be of use to the Everything. There is nothing to prove that, I am well aware of that, but I’m going to prove that one day. There must be a reason why we came to this earth. Nor Pokémon, nor Mankind is born to just live and die. We must make good use of the time that is given to us and put our emotions aside. What’s the life of a single creature to me, if there are still questions that need an answer. Why would I care for their lives, if I don’t even know what life is? And don’t say that life is to love, to smile and to be happy, because emotions are only a second in time…’ His voice softened and someone who would pay attention to his behaviour would see some kind of ache. The yearning for an answer. ‘There must be more to life than just… that.’

Owen knew it was useless. He, nor she, could ever convince the other of his/her wrong. He knew she was wrong, and yet she thought he was wrong. Still, he couldn’t just close the door and pretend he didn’t care for her opinion. In the end, he cared for every opinion on this damned Earth, for what use was it to be the smartest person around, if everyone thought you had the brain of a caterpie?
Meanwhile, the girl was rambling on about emotions: they guide use, she said, they teach us. Owen thought back and remembered the times he had broken into tears during exams and bullying. What use had those tears? She obviously had never cried. Or she thought there was no way to escape those dark emotions.

‘You’re a troubled little fellah, aren’t ya?’ she said after that. A little smile appeared on her face, but it wasn’t a kind smile. Owen looked back coolly, thinking of what he should – could – say to convince her of her wrong way of thinking. But then she said goodbye and off she went.
Owen stared for a moment after her and then closed the door. He felt an unpleasant anxiety, like he had somehow failed. He had failed. She had laughed at him like he was some kind of loser. He wanted to believe that she was the only one who would laugh at his way of thinking, that she was the only one who was so stupid. But was she? What if this “Pearson family” that she was talking about thought in the same way as she did? How many people thought emotions were more important that brains and success?

This isn’t over, he thought. I’m going to prove that with just plain thinking you can do so much more than with those overrated emotions. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but one day she’ll see that I was right all along!

OOC: Even een oud topic omhoog gehaald om weer in te komen met Owen :P