Food sounds delicious.. {Route 3- Open!}

[America]

"Arrrgghhh...I'm SOOOOOOOO hungry!" the whine was loud, and somewhat annoying. Alfred sighed as his stomach growled up to him, sounding like a revved up motorcycle. He had just left town, and he was already feeling hunger getting the best of him. He knew he should have saved that last cheeseburger for the trip out here. He glanced back towards the city, wondering if he should just go back and get more food, but eventually decided it would waste time and kept walking.

"Huh..I wonder how Brooklyn's doing.." he murmured to himself, pulling the Bulbasaur's Pokeball out of his pocket to look at it. He frowned as he breathed on the Pokeball's surface, using his sleeve to polish it up. It didn't seem fair that Brooklyn had to be cooped up in such a small space all the time. Huh. How exactly did that work, anyways? He would have pondered it more had his stomach not roared like an angry bear.

He whined and complained to himself some more, but eventually quit after he realized no one was around to listen to him. He glanced back down at the Pokeball again. He tapped the little button with his index finger and jumped back as the ball opened, and Brooklyn appeared in a flash of bright crimson light. He would have to get used to that.

"Bulba!" the small dinosaur grinned up at him, and Alfred couldn't help but smile back. He glanced back at Brooklyn's bulb, wondering how good it would taste, but quickly shook the thought from his head.
"Hey there, little buddy!" Alfred greeted, realizing he had never really introduced himself, "My name's Alfred, and I'm gonna be your trainer from now on!" Brooklyn's bright red eyes shined with happiness. The little Pokemon seemed to be fond of his new trainer.
"Bulba, Bulbasaur!" he replied, tackling Alfred down to the ground.

"ACK!" He tipped backwards, landing down on the side of the road. Brooklyn lept up into his arms, nuzzling his face affectionately. Even though he had just been tackled to the ground by the Pokemon, Alfred just couldn't be mad with the little guy. He pet the bluish-green Pokemon's scaly head, picking him up as he got back on his feet. "Here, you can ride with me!" He helped Brooklyn develop a nice perch on his shoulder, which seemed to please the Bulbasaur as he continued to cuddle against Alfred's face. Okay, maybe he was a little too affectionate. They both jumped when Alfred's stomach grumbled up again. He laughed as Brooklyn stared down at his stomach in wonder.

"Don't worry about it! I'm just a little hungry is all!" he assured the dinosaur. A little was a bit of an understatement. Brooklyn nodded like he understood. He sniffed the air, and after a few more minutes of walking he lept off of Alfred's shoulder.
"Bulbasaur!" he said, trying to get Alfred's attention.
"Huh? What's up, Brooklyn?" he replied, catching the Pokemon's gaze. He followed it up to a tree, and his mouth started watering. "I-Is that a tree full of Pecha berries?" he murmured, Brooklyn nodding in response. He jumped up, trying to reach, but the branches were way out of his grasp.

"A little height isn't gonna stop me," he grumbled, taking his beloved bomber jacket off, laying it carefully on the ground. He spat on his hands and rubbed them together, and jumped up on the tree's trunk. He held on tightly, his knuckles starting to turn white. Brooklyn was trying to get his attention, but he didn't notice. His sole focus was on the tree. He started climbing up, but didn't make it very far before he lost his grip and fell flat on his behind. Brooklyn winced slightly. He tried getting Alfred's attention again, but again he didn't seem to notice. After several dozen more tries, Brooklyn finally decided he had seen his trainer suffer enough. He whipped his vines out from his bulb and gently wrapped them around Alfred's chest, pulling him back a ways. He glanced back at the Pokemon in confusion. Brooklyn simply reached up with his vines and severed the stems of several fruit, causing them to fall and hit the grass with a gentle crinkling sound. Alfred's eyes shined brightly.

"That's great, Brooklyn! I can't believe I didn't think of that!" he laughed, Brooklyn looking a bit bashful from the praise. Alfred scooped the berries up and slung his jacket over his shoulder. "C'mon, let's go eat these together!" He sat on the edge of the path, separating the berries into two equal piles. Alfred scarfed his down loudly, while Brooklyn ate them at a slower pace. Well, at least he wasn't hungry anymore.

..For now, anyways.

[england]

By that point, Arthur had learned some of the ins and outs of what in the world was going on. He knew that these little creatures were called Pokemon, and he knew that he could carry six with him. He knew that he had to carry them with these things called Pokeballs (which, to him, seemed like an innuendo AND a scam, all at once). He knew...a lot of things, kind of. Enough to get him started, anyway.

But his little Squirtle friend wasn't much fond of Pokeballs, even when Arthur put him in one just so that no one could "capture" him.

So Arthur found himself walking down the dirt path, carry-all with five Pokeballs and some potions and other chemist's supplies in it over his shoulder, with Squirtle toddling along beside him.

"Where to, then?" he asked his little companion.

"Squirtle!" Squirtle replied.

"That's profoundly helpful," Arthur drawled, and then sighed, looking up at the clear sky. "Well, there's one thing to be said for this new change, I suppose," he mused. "There's a lot more sunshine than I'm used to." He looked down at the Tiny Turtle, and wondered if the meteor had made these Pokemon from existing creatures, if some turtle somewhere had been gifted with sentience and the ability to speak, but fell off the wrong side of the Tower of Babel. He wondered if the meteor brought the Pokemon with it, but if it had then...how could they be everywhere, so fast? There was literally nothing left of Earth as he had known it.

"I used to be something," he mused aloud to the little creature, as if it cared how far he had fallen in the world. "I used to have land, for one thing. There were a lot of us who did - enough to cover every country in the world. I wonder what became of the oth--" he trailed off, when he saw an all-too-familiar shock of spun-gold hair - Amber Waves of Grain - and a well-worn bomber jacket sitting under a tree. With some Pokemon that looked like a small dinosaur of some kind. With an unfortunate growth on its back.

"America?" he called, disbelievingly. Well, of all the Nations to have run into, at least it hadn't been Francis. He pulled up short, a few metres away. Squirtle stopped next to him, and looked up at him and then over at the boy and Pokemon under the tree.

"Squiirt?" the Tiny Turtle asked, and clung a bit to Arthur's trouser leg. It was all he could do not to scoop Squirtle up and carry him on his hip carry him like he had once carried so many little colonies, like he had carried the ingrate sitting along the edge of the path, but he still didn't know his little partner well enough to know if he would approve of that. "Squirtle Squirt Squirtle..."

"There there, easy goes," Arthur soothed. "He won't do us any harm. See, he has his own little companion as well." If Arthur knew one thing about Alfred, he knew that the lad wouldn't do harm to a butterfly (unless he suspected it of Communism, or Terrorism, or-- So maybe it wasn't as cut and dry as that. But he was fairly certain that Alfred wouldn't hurt him).

Arthur moved closer, closing the gap to about two metres. And yes, it was indeed Alfred sitting there. He'd know that face anywhere. Arthur wasn't sure if he was relieved, or if he wanted to find some way to blame the American Nation for what happened to the world. Speaking of -

"How has life after the meteor been for you, lad?" Arthur asked. "I see you've been quick to go native."

[America]

Alfred paused in mid chew when he heard what he thought to be a familiar voice. He glanced up and what his mind had told him was correct. It was definitely England. Now this was a surprise for him. He had not been expecting to meet up with any of the nations he knew out on that path, least of all England. It wasn't as though he was upset to see him, it was just a pleasantly unexpected surprise. He grinned up at Arthur, some of the berries still in his mouth.

"Hee, Engwan!" he called, swallowing the rest so that he could speak understandably. He coughed a moment as one went down wrong, but that was fixed easily. He frowned slightly at Arthur's last comment, but laughed it off easily. He knew the man well enough to know when to take his biting remarks seriously.

"Y'know, I can't really complain with how things have been going since that meteor struck," he replied smoothly, patting Brooklyn on the head as he spoke, "I mean, these little guys are great!" Sure, maybe that wasn't entirely true. He did wonder how and why things turned out the way they did, or what had happened to the other countries. Since England was standing before him, that obviously meant that at least some of the others were still around. But even if they were around, their native lands no longer seemed to exist. What did that mean for them? He shook his head for a moment, pushing these thoughts away. It wasn't like him to think too deeply upon things like this. He usually left that to other people, like the other blond that was standing so close to him. His eyes trailed down for a moment and he could feel himself grin when he spotted the small blue turtle that was clinging to his pant leg.

"Hey! It looks like you got yourself a Pokemon too!" he noted, slowly stretching as he got himself up on his feet. Brooklyn glanced sideways in curiosity at Squirtle, taking a small step towards him.

"Bulba, Bulbasaur!" he greeted, quickly moving past his first awkward step. He trotted over to the little turtle and warmly cuddled up against his side, not particularly noticing any discomfort at the up-front welcoming gesture. "Bulba!" Alfred couldn't help but laugh at the scene. It seemed like this Bulbasaur was...a very affectionate little fellow, even to complete strangers. He winced slightly to himself as he remembered the small bruise that he had received as a result of this..attraction.

"It certainly seems like Brooklyn already likes your Squirtle!" he chuckled, glancing back down at the spectacle again. He couldn't help but wonder if the little dinosaur would act like this every time he met a new person. His eyes flickered from Brooklyn to Arthur and he hoped to god that he wouldn't show him the same kind of tackle-cuddling love he had previously experienced as well. Luckily, that didn't appear to be the case seeing that he was too enthralled with Squirtle to really pay much attention to Arthur.

"So, uh,"he stuttered, turning his attention back to the slightly shorter man, "How've things been going for you after the whole meteor incident? I haven't really seen much of any of the others.." He wondered to himself if Arthur perhaps knew more of the events that were occurring then he did, which was pretty much next to nothing. Not only that, but he was curious as to how the other nation was faring within the new world that they were so suddenly thrust into.

[england]

Arthur's first response was to raise his eyebrow at the uncouth way that Alfred, apparently, hadn't matured at all. Clearly, cutting the umbilicus that tied each Nation to its lands wasn't nearly as disastrous as it could be. Arthur rolled his eyes fondly and shook his head, moving closer. His eyes quickly scanned the edge of the path for a place to sit where he wouldn't get his trousers dirty or damp. At the remark about the little creatures that now inhabited their world, Arthur glanced down at his own, which seemingly drew Alfred's eyes there as well. "Yes, well, it's more like the little fellow found me. But he has grown on me," Arthur remarked, trying to sound more a long-suffering, gruff gentleman. He had thought Squirtle would glance up at him.

But Squirtle was kind of drawn to Alfred's little dinosaur. "Squirtle Squirtle," he replied, and froze after he was rubbed up against so abruptly. But then he realised that the Bulbasaur didn't mean him any harm. He let go of Arthur's trouser leg, and one little three-toed hand experimentally stroked the little plant dinosaur's callused head. The other had to catch himself on the grass-type's bulb, because Bulbasaur was leaning so heavily against him that it nearly knocked him over.

Arthur watched these goings-on with interest, looking quickly to Alfred when the other one spoke, half-wondering if he was going to call off his little monster anytime soon. "I suppose so," he mused. "Is he always this affectionate?" He supposed there was no harm in it. Squirtle seemed not to be too put off by it, so in all likelihood they could leave them to their own for a few minutes. Arthur turned all his attention to Alfred. "Wait, you named your companion Brooklyn?" He wondered if he should make a mental shift in pronouns for the little dinosaur-thing.

"Considering I should have ceased to exist?" he asked, with just a twinge of sarcasm, you know. "I'm really just quite happy to have survived the severance of my lands. Though...I feel I'll miss my island," he murmured, because it was all well and good that Alfred could see so much positive in this new world order, but there was a more severe side to it as well. The mention of the others gave him pause. Briefly, he wondered if there were those who hadn't fared as well with the severance of their lands as he and Alfred had. He wondered if any of the (former) Nations that he used to know were...dead.

"I'm afraid I haven't seen much of anyone else either," he said. "Which seems strange, because this whole world seems to be something straight out of Japan's Saturday morning cartoons..."

[America]

Alfred couldn't seem to stop smiling down at the two, glad that they seemed to be getting along pretty well. Brooklyn seemed to be enjoying the patting of his head just a bit too much, tackling Squirtle over gently with affection. He still continued rubbing up against him, still not noting any sort of discomfort.

"W-Whoa! Brooklyn, you can't keep tackling people over like that!" Alfred explained, causing a pair of red eyes to glance up at him, "I know that you like do that if you like someone, but you shouldn't. Someone could get hurt, after all!" The little dinosaur seemed to realize that what he had done was causing trouble, and he quickly whipped his vines out to tip the turtle back up onto his feet.

"Bulbasaur.." he murmured in apology, withdrawing the vines back into his bulb and taking a step back sheepishly. Alfred smiled warmly. He was glad that at least the Bulbasaur seemed to realize what the problem was. Alfred turned his attention back to Arthur, laughing when he asked if this was how Brooklyn always behaved.

"Well, I can say that he does seem to be a bit..overly affectionate, doesn't he?" he mused, feeling a slight throbbing in his shins from his previous experiences with the little dinosaur's love issues. He grinned brilliantly once he was asked about the scaly Pokemon's name, being quite proud of it.
"His name sure is Brooklyn!" he bragged, quite matter-of-factly, "'Cuz Brooklyn's an awesome name. Besides Liberty and Justice, it's one of the best names out there!" He made a mental note to name any future Pokemon he managed to capture one of those two names, since they really were great names, after all.

Alfred looked down at the dirt, kicking up a small cloud of the stuff before shoving his hands into his pockets. "Yeah, there's definitely a lot of stuff that I'm gonna miss from home, too," he agreed. Mt. Rushmore. The Statue of Liberty. The Grand Canyon. The Empire State Building. The White House. After that meteor hit, it was all gone. He frowned, as the gravity of what had happened had finally begun to settle upon him. He quickly pushed the thoughts from his mind. He'd worry about all of that later. Right now, he needed to focus on what was still here. And, at least, Arthur was still around. He hoped that the others were all alright as well, somewhere out there in their new world. He didn't want to think of the worst case scenario. They were definitely not the only ones left.

Arthur hadn't seen any of the others either, but still he refused to think that something bad had happened to them. He chuckled at that last comment. "Heh, yeah, it certainly does seem that way, doesn't it?"

[england]

Arthur started when his little companion was knocked arse over teakettle, rocking helplessly on his round shell for a moment. "Squirtle!" he gasped, and knelt down to help him just as Squirtle disappeared into his shell. When the tiny turtle was set upright, he was set onto the base of his shell, and his little blue head peeked out.

"S-squirtle..." the poor thing murmured nervously, and slowly crept out of its shell once Bulbasaur took a step back. Arthur reassuringly ran his hand over his little friend's shell, rubbing gently before he got up again (and ignored the way that his knees creaked and his back popped).

He rolled his eyes at Alfred's exuberant explanation of the name. "But why would you...I mean...Oh, nevermind." He sighed, and rolled his shoulders. He was still a bit heartsick and confused and lost. It was disorienting to have lost himself so thoroughly, in this world that felt like it had no place for him. He had never been in need of a compass before: even on the high seas, he had found his way by the pull that he had felt toward his land, his island that may have been small, may have had its share of battle scars, but had its share of charm.

And now, not only was that connection severed, but his land was gone. There was nothing, as if it had never existed. How could the world have changed so quickly? Had the world changed quickly at all, or had their immortality held them cradled in a coma through a million years of evolution?

Arthur tried to shake off those thoughts, but they lingered a heavy stormcloud over his head. He was never as good at actually lying to himself as Alfred was.

"Do you have any idea how this world works?" Arthur asked suddenly. "I fear I've hardly picked up enough to get by, but...well, you're undoubtedly younger and more...How is it, 'with it'? ...than I am. What...is there to do?" He prayed there would be something. Without his land, his politics, his country, he needed something to do, and the best way to find something would probably be to learn more about...well, if not the lore of the land, then at least its function.

And besides, he had overheard Kiku and Alfred commiserating more than once, heads bent over their Nintendo SDs (or whatever), over something or other to do with 'Pokemon'. Maybe there were similarities.

[America]

Alfred let Arthur's last few words roll through his mind a bit before he decided to answer him. He was trying to figure out a way to explain everything he knew without having to spend hours going over it all. He couldn't really sense Arthur's bad mood and swirling cloud of emotions, his atmosphere radar about as nonfunctional as it ever was.

"Well, a lot of this seems to me to be pretty similar to these video games that Kiku gave me awhile ago," he began, figuring he'd start off easy. After all, that did seem to be the case seeing as how Squirtle and Bulbasaur were standing right next to them. What he didn't understand, however, was how the meteor had somehow brought them out of the game and into real life. He'd deal with that later.

"If the world now is similar to those games, then what we want to do is capture as many of these Pokemon as we can," he continued, gesturing down at the two. At least, according to Ash Ketchem, they wanted to 'Catch 'em all!'. "We'll probably end up having to battle wild Pokemon, as well as a variety of other trainers." Because, for some reason, just looking at you made them want to fight you. Did trainers really stick out that much to each other? How did they know he wasn't just a regular guy? And why did they never move? Didn't they have to eat or sleep? Come to think of it, did the main character ever do that stuff? He felt his thoughts spinning far from their current topic again, and he snapped himself out of it.

"We'd have to travel around the new world and see all there is to see of it. It's always smart to travel in groups, so I think we should stay together for now." he finished, speaking in a rather matter-of-fact tone. It wasn't often he knew more about something than Arthur; Heck, this might have even been the first. He felt a pang go though his heart as he thought about going out to see the world, remembering once again that everything he had known had changed. He glanced at Arthur warily, wondering how he was faring with all of this, seeing as he had known their old world far longer then he had. It was about at that moment he finally understood that he was far more troubled about the current set of events than he was.

"As long as we stick together, I'm sure everything'll turn out just fine!" he said, flashing one of his signature smiles as he clapped Arthur on the back, "Even though the world's changed, we're still here, aren't we?" He didn't know whether or not his words were helping him any, but he wanted to at least try to help the other former nation feel better, even if only a little.

He looked down, feeling something rubbing against his pant leg. Brooklyn was trying to hide himself behind his legs, still too embarrassed to come back out of hiding. It seemed like he was still feeling pretty bad about what he had done. Alfred reached down to give his head a reassuring pat, and he felt his face flush as his stomach growled with the force of a growling tiger. Brooklyn jumped slightly at the sudden noise, glancing sheepishly up at Alfred. "Bulba?"

Great! Now's definitely not the time to be hungry again! he thought, whining slightly to himself when his stomach roared once more.

[england]

Oh trust me, it was hard for Arthur to admit that Alfred knew more than him on any subject. When informed that, yes, this was similar to those video games, he groaned audibly. "I'm not sure how, but I feel like you're responsible for this. Turning our world into a video game? For God's sake!" Perhaps he was slightly angrier now simply because the world had been replaced by a video game world. Their world, rich in culture and history and and and -- and everything that they as Nations were made of -- was gone, and replaced with a video game world?! If it hadn't been a meteor responsible for this, Arthur would have throttled the guilty party.

And he supposed now there was nowhere to get a decent cuppa, either. Bloody brilliant.

He was trying not to stew. He was probably failing horribly, but he was trying not to stew. He had literally lived through the end of the world (as he knew it), and now was face to face with a new reality that...made no sense.

"The shopkeeper told me that we can only hold six Pokemon at a time. I assume this means that there's not too many different species?" Because clearly, what did you do with the others, if the goal was to capture all of them? (More importantly, what was keeping you from carrying more than six? Was there some kind of magic in this world that whisked away any additional ones? Where were they taken? WHY DID THIS WORLD SEEM TO LACK ALL SEMBLANCE OF LOGIC?) "This whole thing seems like a scheme on the part of whoever makes these little red and white balls to get money out of naive young people," he muttered mostly under his breath. After all, he had befriended his Squirtle just fine without pelting it with a little red and white ball.

He nodded dumbly at the idea that they needed to stick together for the moment. He really didn't particularly like the idea of wandering around aimlessly with no familiar face other than his Squirtle. No offense to the little dear, but if he didn't have someone from the Old World with him, telling him that this was how things were, like it or not, he would start to think that this was all a dream.

Forget the cuppa, he could go for a stiff drink right about now.

Arthur had lived for almost two thousand years. Some of that was lost to a time before history, when myth and reality intertwined and danced together under a blanket of faerie lights. But most of it he remembered. He remembered a time when Alfred was so young that the lad probably didn't remember without the help of history books. He remembered Jamestown, Roanoke, Plymouth, all of the first settlements in the New World, back when Alfred was small and cute and filled with promise (and his, completely and utterly his). He remembered teaching the lad how to read and write, raising him on Shakespeare and the Bible and Latin texts as well.

Alfred's life - America's life - was little more than a drop in the bucket of all that Arthur had seen in his long life. To say that he was troubled by the idea that there was nothing left, was like saying that the ocean was damp.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the brilliance of Alfred's grin, and the warm, solid hand clapping his back exuberantly. At first, he looked at Alfred like he was barking, but then the smallest of smiles came to his face. "I suppose you're right," he mused. "I apologise, I'm not feeling...quite myself, anymore."

He looked down when he felt a tug on his trouser leg. Squirtle stared up at him with a curious expression, concern in his orchid-coloured eyes. "Squirt?" He rested his hand on the tiny turtle's smooth head.

"I'm all right," he asserted. The sound of Alfred's stomach growling drew his attention to the American. "Oh, have you not eaten yet today?" Arthur asked, surprised. "Hamburgers are a little scarce, I'd bet." Wh-what was that? Arthur being a little bit playful?

[America]

Alfred was initially taken a bit aback by Arthur's accusation. How on earth would he have even been able to do something like this? Sure, the former superpower had been capable of quite a lot before the meteor hit, but surely he wasn't capable of anything of this magnitude. After fuming to himself for a moment, he realized that Arthur probably didn't even mean it, and that this was just his way of letting out some of his frustration. He decided not to take what he said to heart.

Alfred couldn't help but laugh at his comment about there not being many species of Pokemon. He immediately shut up, remembering that Arthur had absolutely no idea, and he really didn't want to make him any more angry or upset then he already was. "Well, there's actually over four hundred different Pokemon species out there," he replied, scratching the back of his head, "We can only take six of them with us at a time, but the rest are stored in a PC system."

He thought about what he said and realized how absolutely absurd it would likely sound to someone who was just learning about Pokemon, especially when that person was Arthur. He still could never figure out how it worked exactly, but he had never questioned how it worked as long as it did.

His expression softened, giving Arthur a lighter, more sympathetic pat on the back. "Hey, there's no need to apologize, alright?"he replied, doing his best to try and cheer him up. He knew he was treading on thin ice, and he had the feeling if he tried to say anything more about it, he would just make the situation worse.

Alfred could feel his cheeks starting to flush a little, laughing as his stomach grumbled again. "Yeah, it kinda sucks now that there's not a McDonald's on every street corner," he joked, glad to see that Arthur's mood seemed to be slowly improving, even if it was just a bit. "Brooklyn and I had found some berries earlier, but as you can guess those weren't exactly as filling as I'd thought they would be."

Brooklyn perked up a little at the mention of his name, but when he realized that he wasn't being directly talked to he settled back into his bashful, embarrassed state. He glanced out behind Alfred's leg over at Squirtle apologetically before hiding again.

"Hey, uh, you wouldn't happen to have any food with you, would you..?" he asked, figuring he would give it a shot. If he was lucky enough, Arthur would have some food with him that he didn't make himself. He hoped, at least.

[england]

Arthur was trying, bless him, he really is trying to make sense of this world, not shut it out, not take his new-found mortality and jump off a bridge with it. It would probably be better not to take much of what he said to heart for a while. At least, until he got his sea legs back. Or had any sort of bearing as to what he could or could not make of himself. When Alfred laughed in his face, Arthur's brows furrowed and his lips pursed. If Alfred looked close enough, he could probably see Arthur's hackles going up like a spiky little hedgehog.

"Over four hundred?!" he repeated incredulously. Squirtle looked up at him curiously, and then decided that his partner's raised voice had nothing really to do with him. Arthur's look of silent, stewing bitterness changed abruptly to a prompt incredulity. He looked down at his Squirtle, and felt as if he was staring into some abyss. He looked back up at Alfred's earnest, naive face. Maybe he was staring into a rift in the Matrix. "Why on Earth would you want over four hundred Pokemon, if you can't even carry any more than six with you at a time? There's no way you'll be able to give them all the same amount of attention! You're consigning some to a lifetime of neglect and loneliness in...in a computer, for God's sake!"

Squirtle stared up at him. Just coming off of a rant that bitter, all Arthur could see in those wide orchid-coloured eyes was "Please don't let that happen to me." Then Squirtle turned back to Brooklyn, and smiled, holding out his "hand". "Squirtle Squirt!" he invited, which probably meant something along the lines of "This is boring, let's go play!" He edged closer, and took hold of Alfred's leg to support himself as he peered around for his new friend who was hiding not-so-inconspicuously.

At the question as to whether or not he had food with him, Arthur seemed to quickly remember something. He slung his carry-all down off of his shoulder and set it on the ground, uncinching the top and rummaging around inside. "As a matter of fact," he muttered to himself, "I do, at that. Squirtle found some apples, and when I went to the shop they had some of these-" he pulled out two pretty impressively-sized apples, and a couple of individual-wrapped rice balls. "-Which I know I've seen around Japan's house before. I stocked up as much as I thought expiration dates - and my wallet - would allow, as I didn't know how long it would be before I found another town." Never. Ever. Mess with the foresight of a man who lived and traveled in a time before even horses were widespread.

"I also heard rumour that in some city or another there's a 'department store' which should have cooking supplies as well as other necessities, so I think for the sake of having a renewable food supply we should likely head there. Unluckily enough, maps seem fairly rare." He ought to know better, by this point, than to attempt to apply Earth logic. Either with Alfred, or to this not-quite-Earth. But he could try.

[America]

Alfred put a hand thoughtfully to his chin. He had never really stopped to think why he would want to have over four hundred Pokemon, just that he would have them if he ever needed them. He looked down at Brooklyn and realized that Arthur was right, it would be an impossible task to give that many Pokemon his attention equally. Maybe things in their new world were more complicated then he had initially thought. Ash Ketchem never seemed to have these kind of problems.

"Well, I suppose you're right about that," he acknowledged, shrugging his shoulders slightly, "I guess maybe befriending that many Pokemon is a little bit..extreme..." Just imagining trying to take care of that many made his head start spinning.

Brooklyn looked up at Squirtle, his sheepishness ebbing away when he finally realized that he seemed to have forgiven him from their previous incident. "Bulbasaur!" he chirped happily, glad to have a friend to play with. He tapped Squirtle's outstretched hand with his head, quickly dashing away from him a moment later. It seemed like he was trying to start a game of tag with his new friend. "Bulba!"

"Dude, those apples are huge," he murmured, feeling his mouth begin to water. Just the thought of biting down into that luscious, crisp fruit was enough to make his stomach grumble again, and when he pulled the rice balls out afterward, it turned into a full-on roar. "I'm glad that at least one of us was thinking ahead," he admitted sheepishly, noting that in the future it would probably be smarter to pack more food for the trips out of town. He was so used to there being some sort of fast food restaurant or gas station just about everywhere, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind that he should have brought some food from town with him. That was just something else he'd have to get used to.

He carefully took one of the apples from him, as well as one of the rice balls. He shined the red peel on the side of his jacket before sinking his teeth into the crispy fruit, reveling in the burst of natural sugars within. "Itth rewwy goo! Fankth a wot!" he called, small bits of peel and some of the juice dripped from the corners of his mouth. As usual, his lack of any civilized eating manners was...rather unappetizing. Also as usual, he either didn't seem to notice or just didn't seem to care. After he swallowed the delectable bite, he swapped over to take a large chomp out of the rice ball, almost shoving the entire thing into his mouth as he did so. His eating habits were absolutely appalling.

"Viff ith goo, too!" he added, spraying Arthur with a small cloud of crumbs as he did so. He really needed to learn to say it and not spray it. "Oopth...Thowwy 'bou tha!" he apologized, swallowing what was left in his mouth before shoving what little was left of the rice ball into his mouth. With his newly freed hand, he dusted the crumbs off of Arthur's clothes, reaching up to wipe a few off of his face. After a few quick chews, he swallowed the rest of the rice ball before he set to work on the apple again.

[england]

But...wouldn't it make more sense, even if you had to battle other trainers, to just have one well-balanced team who knew you, and you knew them, rather than trusting anything to the whim of a pokemon who might be bitter at you for leaving it locked up as data in a computer for god only knew how long? It was one thing to play a video game, but it was another thing entirely to have a sentient little creature who lived with you, ate with you, slept with you, like a pet or a child, and consider looking your companion in the eyes just before you put him into a computer.

The admission from Alfred that Arthur might be right drew a pleased preen from the older former Nation. Arthur did have his share of sense, you know. Alfred would do well to consider his wealth of experience from time to time. "Take it from a former empire: one's attention can only divide so many ways, Alfred. Six may even be pushing it," he informed him simply.

Squirtle looked down at his hand when Brooklyn gave him the affectionate little headbutt, and then he grinned at his new friend and ran off after him, laughing. "Squirt!" he bubbled excitedly, and chased after Brooklyn. "Squirtle!"

Arthur felt vaguely dirty, at Alfred's remark about the size of the apples, as if it was a thinly-veiled euphemism of some sort. But despite that, he felt a sense of pride, as well. He couldn't remember a single time when Alfred as a Nation, as America, had so openly appreciated England's efforts.

Perhaps this wasn't entirely bad, after all.

Arthur hefted his own apple in his hands, tossing it back and forth and shining it on the sleeve of his shirt. He rummaged around in his sack for the Swiss army knife he had salvaged from somewhere. He knew Alfred's eating habits. Or, well, he knew how bad they usually were. So he did his best to ignore it, and found his knife. "I know," he remarked. "I've been traveling for a while. I get hungry too, you know." He flicked open the biggest blade, and caressed the shiny red peel of the apple with the flat for a minute, divining the best place to cut.

Just as he had decided, and broken through with the satisfying little 'snick', he was showered with crumbs. He froze, and slowly turned to fix Alfred with an icy look. "I'm going to have to re-teach you your manners, aren't I," he said. It wasn't a question. He flinched a little and pulled away from the hand brushing crumbs off of him, spurring himself into action and brushing them off of himself. "Absolutely abhorrent. Your manners are simply atrocious. Really, I knew that, but it seems they've deteriorated even more." He was ranting about little things, now. It took his mind off of the utterly depressing big picture. Just let him have his moment.

[America]

Alfred took one look over at Brooklyn, and after that single glance he knew he'd never be able to capture more than six Pokemon, no matter how many he thought he wanted before. He was already so attached to the little dinosaur, he knew that he would be just as connected to any other Pokemon he managed to catch. There was no way he'd be able to shove them in a computer for who knows how long, and be able to look them in the face without feeling guilt and shame. Six sounded good.

"I guess maybe I should, huh?" he replied. He hoped six wouldn't be pushing it. He felt like biting his tongue. If he kept admitting that England was right about all of this, he was probably going to let it go to his head, and start telling him how to do just about everything. And that was definitely not how he wanted their journey to go along.

Brooklyn kept at a steady pace, doing his best to keep out of Squirtle's tag range. "Bulba!" he called back, turning his head to look. This was probably not the best idea, because he ended up tripping over a protruding tree root on the side of the path, but he jumped up quickly in good health. "Bulbasaur!" he called, trying to make up for lost time. But in his rush, he ended up tripping over his own feet.

Alfred thought about his words and nodded. It kind of reminded him of the days he had originally went to settle out in the west. Back then, he had to stock up on a heck of a lot of food before moving out that way. At least a month's worth. But surely this new world of theirs wasn't that low tech, right? The towns couldn't be to terribly far apart either, right? He definitely needed to start buying more food.

He wiped his mouth off, pulling the apple away slightly. He finished swallowing before speaking again. "Hey, I apologized it to you, didn't I? I'll just eat while not facing you directly from now on, ok?" he replied, ignoring the 'abhorrent' comments on his manners. Sure, he knew they were bad, but that's just how he ate. He'd been doing it for a long time, and he saw no reason to change his eating habits now. Maybe he'd just chew a little less, 'open mouthed'.