Jack adjusted his glasses again before stuffing his hands in his pockets, rocking on the balls of his feet. Small-talk was inevitably boring; you could learn a good bit about someone by how they acted around strangers, but Jack had the fairly unwavering opinion that after enough time, most people were simply boring in some way or another. Thatâ€™s why he had so few friends, he supposed, and even then he hadnâ€™t ever really spent much time hanging out when he was younger.<br/><br/>â€œI took my summer off to backpack through Johto. Nice place! I canâ€™t wait to hit it up when weâ€™re done with Kanto. There really arenâ€™t any native dark-types here for me to study, and thatâ€™s sort of my focus in terms of research. Iâ€™m from way out in Unova; donâ€™t know if any of you have been that far away from here. At least Johtoâ€™s pretty close.â€ Jack offered in response, glancing at Irvine. â€œThatâ€™s actually where I met up with Irvine, here. Iâ€™d offer a friendly wager on a potential battle or something, but Iâ€™m sort of afraid heâ€™ll be a bit too into it for it to beâ€¦ friendly.â€ he explained. He sheepishly grinned down at Irvine â€œI think weâ€™re just starting to get the hang of friendly.â€<br/><br/>In reality, Jack was still trying to get used to Irvine. He was certain that the way heâ€™d acquired the Sneasel wasâ€¦ dubious, especially compared to how most people in the group had probably gotten their pokemon. Jack slid his backpack down with Shades atop it and slumped down against it. â€œSooo, Irvine. You alright? I mean, you had an okay time against Brock and all, but youâ€™ll be able to get to the pokecenter tomorrow morning no problem, right?â€ Jack asked the Sneasel, expecting little more than a vaguely bitter glare in response. â€œIf youâ€™re tired or something tomorrow we can have Othello or Kicks take the lead. Honestly I think you did more damage to Shades than Brockâ€™s Geodude did.â€<br/><br/>Jack always felt like something of an idiot when he tried to talk to Irvine; the Sneasel was such a loner that even if Jack knew more about him, heâ€™d certainly still not be able to actually hold a conversation with him. The whole understanding pokemon thing came more naturally to some people than others. Jack could read Kicks like a book, and Shades likeâ€¦ a considerably smaller book. With large print, and one sentence per page. Perhaps that wasnâ€™t entirely fair, but the dense little Sandile was always a bit of a stone.<br/><br/>Irvine, however, was rather intelligent. Any idiot could look at him and see that; he was calculating and vicious and very good at scaring children. Jack had a lot of respect for him; even if Jack preferred to try and appease people and at least make the motions of being diplomatic. Irvine was competitive, and thatâ€™s something that Jack liked because in reality, thatâ€™s how heâ€™d pretty much grown up. Get the best grades, get the best internships, and now when he was out in the field of academia, there was only room for the best. Well, the best and the ones who tried to steal from the best. Jack wrote his notes in a three-layered cypher heâ€™d memorized in his second year after he caught his roommate copying them.<br/><br/>â€œSo, Irvineâ€¦ is there anything in particular youâ€™re going to want to do? I mean, we can go straight through the gyms, or we could take some detours if thereâ€™s anything interesting. I figure all this is as new to you as it is for me. I donâ€™t think either of us is really familiar with this whole typical trainer business.â€