"Zzzrnowha?" Odd gave a strange, tired yelp, accompanied by a startled jump in place. His eyes became focused once more, and he looked over his surroundings, obviously confused before his face folded back into neutrality.<br/><br/>The boy lived up to his name, and had spent the last two hours, or however long it had taken to move from the campsite to Mt. Moon, in a drowsy state of complete, mental absence. He had been unresponsive to prodding and barely moved from his spot on the ground, where he drooled silently while his eyes looked unfocused at the sky. Eventually he had fallen from a sitting position, and would have drooled on the ground if Gilbert had not been sitting next to him to intercept the fall with his shoulder.<br/><br/>When the others left it seemed to take all of Odd's strength to stand up and walk slowly after them with his arms hanging limply down his sides and his mouth open, occasionally snoring softly, giving him a distinct zombie-like appearance.<br/><br/>And so he had walked, keeping only just enough speed so as not to be left behind, and it was not until he reached Mt. Moon that he came back to his senses, energized and ready to spelunk.<br/><br/>Except, he could not; the caves were closed, which did not matter much to one with the power of an abra. Even if it seemed a waste of his abra's precious resources, he could bypass roadblock with ease. This strategy, of course, meant he had to leave his new companions, but then again, why should he not? Now that they had offered him protection on the roads, while his abra was exhausted and his cubone beaten to the point of fainting, they no longer offered him anything beyond good company, the value of which was nullified by the absolute terror Odd still felt for the void monster, Irvine.<br/><br/>Although, why did he want to go through a cave? His cubone could benefit from the training it would receive from bashing geodudes and any other living boulders, but at the same time there was the problem of zubats. His cubone had little that would work on anything flyinG. At the same time, abra was a psychic, and should make short work of anything poisonous, if it only possessed a single offensive move. Unfortunately all abra did was teleport and read minds.<br/><br/>"the caves of Mt. Moon are closed! The clefairy here are very sensitive, and tonight is the most important night in a hundred years for them! When the comet comes through--"<br/><br/>Clefairy ritual? Odd pondered the implications for minute, looking very clever for a boy his age as he rubbed an imaginary beard on his chin.<br/><br/>"I want one," Odd said solemnly to Isaac, whom he had unknowingly followed during the time spent as a zombie. "A clefairy. This is a golden opportunity."<br/><br/>either Isaac did not understand or he just did not care, so Odd felt it appropriate to explain himself. Given the problem of the zubats, Odd realized he needed people around him, and he would greatly prefer to continue travelling with the people he knew over any strangers.<br/><br/>"Clefairies are rare. I believe they are desirable to most trainers because of this, as well as because of their pink, round nature. Earlier today, I saw a little girl with a clefairy-shaped doll, and I suspect if her parents could, they woud give her a real one. Perhaps their considered cuteness is what has lead them to becoming rare in the wild, prompting them to be hunted even more intensely by pokemon collectors who feel a compulsive need to catch them all. Regardless, my reasons are grounded more in practicality, as well as in imagination and potential, and - hey, get back here!"<br/><br/>Either something more fascinating was happening, or Isaac was ignoring him. Odd was a kid, and for all the advantages that gave him, when it came to the kindness of strangers, it also seemed to imply his opinion was inherently worthless. At most he was allowed to chime in on debates such as "let us eat, what are you all in the mood for?"<br/>Odd did not have a destiny for himself in mind, but he did not consider one which relied on democratic processes.<br/><br/>"It knows metronome!" Odd yelled as he ran after Isaac, determined to prove that he had a point, and a mind. While talking, Odd noticed himself taking a mental note, stating that his first goal in life was to prove himself worth noticing.<br/>"By extension it knows every move in the world! Even moves it cannot learn, or should be physically capable of performing! A clefairy can, involuntarily, fire hyper beams, or use vine whip, despite not having any vines to whip! That pudgy little thing is even capable of extreme speed, and it does not even know it."<br/><br/>Odd ran in front of Isaac and stared up at him with defiant eyes and a frown on his thin, pale face.<br/>"I believe pokemon can learn from watching. In combat it is not practical to assimilate moves, when you should be avoiding them, but if my cubone and Gilbert's cubone train under my supervision, and they know different attacks, then I am sure one can teach the other. That is the basis of education, and as trainers we would be useless if we were incapable of actually training the things to do tricks. A clefairy knows all the tricks!"<br/><br/>"I need a clefairy and a camera. I will then have it use a thousand metronomes and record them all. I do not expect to master the metronome itself, and learn how to direct it towards an intended, rather than a random, move, but I do hope that at the time where the metronome becomes another move, it will give adequate information about that other move to teach it to other pokemon, when recorded and replayed on video, as many times as is necesarry."<br/><br/>Odd took a step back and smiled at his own cleverness, before admitting to himself that his plan did rely on him being right on all assumptions, especially the one where the metronome actually offered insight into the replicated move. Odd humbled himself and with a twinge of regret admitted it, before Isaac could call him a child, whose imagination was running away with him.<br/>"It might not work, I concede, but the potential of a succesful prediction would be invaluable to trainers world-wide. I think the potential benefits of my idea dwarfs the risk of sneaking into an enclosed cave. We could wait until the road opens, but, as I said, clefairies are rare, and we might never have a better chance to catch one with minimal effort."<br/><br/>Odd smiled politely, once more stroking his invisible beard, and began heading towards the pokemon center, which he had been too zombified to consider entering until this point.<br/>"Gather up the others, they listen to you more than to me. I will have my cubone healed, and we can be on the way towards our... what would this be if it worked, a destiny? It seems like something worth being on, for certain."