[color=0076a3][center][h2]Sebastien Tomas[/h2][/center][/color]

A circus indeed.

Sebastien wasn’t sure how to respond to those comments; whether he should play along with the banter or not. In the end he merely smiled along, thanking Nordrin for the welcome and raising his glass towards Hestia in the same spirit. From there things became livelier as more people arrived and he was allowed to fall back into the background as an observer; the Ground-type trainer Mika showed up with what was apparently a rare Pokémon, a Raichu but in looking for attention. There were more Pokémon here than he had expected, but even he knew he was somewhat of a rarity for a trainer in terms of how much time he spent with his Pokémon just hanging out.

The young champion was coerced into giving a speech and all things told it wasn’t a bad one; a little saccharine, a little safe, but good. You wouldn’t know the kid was terrifying in a battle to look at him know, being bullied by people who had tried and failed to take his title last year.

If the goal of inviting him here was for him to make friends, then so far he was doing a poor job, but if it was for him to have a chance to get to know these people who was ostensibly going to be working with from now on, he thought he was doing fine.

He was learning a lot.

Up until today his only interactions with these people had either been through a TV screen or brief meetings before and after his battles against them; in other words, the kind of interactions someone in the general public would have with a celebrity. Short, scripted, pre-planned to an extent; their pre-battle taunts were things they’d likely said to a hundred challengers before him, their congratulations or commiserations when he won or lost the same. The Galar gym leaders were a colourful bunch, practically by design; they were media personalities and he had always assumed that most, if not all of those personalities were deliberate. The hot-headed Dragon-type trainer, the cantankerous chef, the space-case Electric gym leader and so on. Now that he had had a chance to peer behind the curtains as it were, he could see that he was only a little bit right; some of the people he had seen so far fit their onscreen personas while others did not.

Like the woman who had just clapped him on the back a lot harder than was probably warranted; he hadn’t remembered her being quite so crass in their short interactions in the past. Maybe it was just the influence of the alcohol, or maybe she toned down when she was dealing with the public. Either way she seemed to recognise him, as a challenger rather than just as the new face, which made her the first to do so. He smiled along with her congratulations, as he had with the others, but something she said prompted him to say more this time.

[color=0076a3]“I haven’t made it anywhere yet. I’m not stopping until I make it all the way to the top.”[/color] He clinked his pint glass against the drink she had raised, before gesturing with it towards where Ryker was still standing. [color=0076a3]“Even if that means beating him before the rest of you get the chance.”[/color]

[@Psyker Landshark][@Ambra]