[ @pkmn-monochrome - interaction thing i can’t send as an ask bc long and images]

The dark of the Pokemon tower is never something that has bothered Red. Never something that would, certainly not after seeing much worse and being much older.

At this point, really, it’s a kind of eeriness he’d come to miss. It reminds him of simpler times- days when a young boy only had to fear things like ghost stories, and shadows that lurked in the dark.

He knows very well that this place is not the Pokemon Tower he knew, of course. He’s not stupid. This place was only built in its image, the miserable ending of a game dyed in grey and built out of spite.

He runs a hand along the wall of the staircase he descends, feeling the cold stone, yet also the intangible data, dull static and code under the fingertips. Watches in quiet fascination as the textures distort and corrupt under deliberate contact, the broken foundations of Generation 1 reacting to him, (same as always,) but a touch more stable from the fusion of the bastard remakes keeping it grounded.

Any damage caused is meaningless, the existence of it debatable as a whole, as he passes through a loading zone. Half of him watches everything fade to black, the other half just continues down the steps that are as tangible as anything else here is to someone within the game. Everything is right- just as it should be.

Either way, it’s not like it’s his game to break. That would be plain rude, especially with the risk of killing someone!

Intrigue in this world, curious as it may be, isn’t why he’s here.

Nah. He’s more interested in something else.

Or, someone, to be more precise.

Having finally found who he’d looking for, Red steps off the stairs and into another layer of this endless graveyard, whistling as he finally lays eyes on a certain monochromatic individual.

“Y'know…” he chides from across the room, “A graveyard’s a pretty cliche place to spend eternity, don’t you think?”

He snorts at his own remark. “Course, I guess it’s not like you had a choice. The sadsack that made this game could’ve picked something a little more outside the box, is all I’m saying. Do you think they’d bury bodies in the Viridian Forest, maybe? Or swimming offa Route 20, try a little watery grave… Oh, Champion’s Road could be pretty morbid!”

He sighs and folds his arms, shaking his head at himself.

“… Nah, I’m joking. I can see the vision. I could give less of a shit about this place, anyways…”

His eyes gleam, and a menacing smile spreads across his face.

“I’m more interested in you. A glorified reskin of Pokemon Tower ain’t shit compared to you. A little bug told me about some sentient Red-Leaf kinda amalgamation with the memories of a real person, and I just had to look into it and come to see for myself. Lo and behold…”

He spreads his arms out in some kind of almost-mocking grand gesture.

“Here you are! Cody, right? In the flesh, or… I suppose your problem is the lack thereof, heh.”

He begins to approach, moving slowly and never once looking away. He stalks forward, every step careful and deliberate, teeth bared in a grin that holds no happiness but oozes with amusement.

“I’ve got so many questions, I don’t even know where to begin. You’re really something special… One of a kind, fully aware of everything. Knowing what life both here, and out there, is really like. I’ve seen players that would kill to even get a chance to stand where we do, but… You want out more than anything.”

Scratching his chin, the man walks around them at a slight distance. Red gets the thought that Cody wouldn’t want something like him anywhere near them. At least he can respect that.

“Suppose the courteous thing would be to ask a question- that’s the tradition around these parts, right? Constantly interrogating you so you don’t have to sit here, alone with your…”

His eyes flicker to the two GHOSTs at Cody’s side.

“… Thoughts. And the like.”

He hops onto a grave nearby, sitting with his ankles crossed. Respect towards the dead be damned, every tomb in places like this were about as sacred as Halloween decorations.

“Here’s what I’d like to know, Cody.”

His smile widens further- for a brief moment, the glitches on his body seem to spread to the air around him, cutting through the gray with burning streaks of red, white, and yellow.

“You have your hacker’s memories. Some of them. ANY of them. It’s enough. You’d know what it was like to be them. You know what it was like to be human. You know both worlds.”

“What is it like? To be real? To be something more than code. How different is it from this?”

“What was it like to be HUMAN?”

He jabs a finger forward, pointing at them as the static that flared up around him quickly subsides, clearing the air back into the typical oppressive atmosphere of the endless graveyard.

“I want to hear it from you,” he finishes cooly, “someone who has been on both sides of the screen. You could tell me better than anyone.”