Nakano Saito
Date: June 15 (26yo); 1 Month prior
Location: Solaceon Ruins, Sinnoh
Pokemon Team: Chu the Pichu, Tochi the Parasect, Fluffy the Flareon, Hanu the Infernape, Aero the Aerodactyl, Yuki the Froslass, Silenus the Sceptile
Interactions: Ezio Farello (DarkHydraT)
The Flareon gave Ezio a very unamused glance when he said not to aggravate it, having already fired off a small ball of flame at the Unown.
Naka shrugged at Ezio's question, unsure herself. "Maybe it was just as afraid of the ghastly wailings happening here." She hummed in thought, the Pichu on her head still shivered at the thought of going down there.
Listening to the woes of her mouse, she chuckled. "Well, I don't think it's going to solve much just staring into a hole. As interesting as that might sound for you, I do want to get further into the ruins." She then looked up at the Unown, who still hovered above them, flitting about. "Well, even after a rather sad Ember-" earning a scowl from her Flareon. "-I don't think it's going to do anything to us. Let's go further."
Right as she turned, that ghoulish noise rang out through the corridors, sounding like it did indeed come from further in the ruins. The Unown's body began to glow and Naka whirled around as she saw other Unown appear from the walls. She chuckled sheepishly, the Flareon hopping off the Bastiodon's back to run to Naka's side. "I think we really should go now." She looked back at Ezio, waiting for him to go with her before she just ran for her life.
Nakano Saito
Date: July 25 (26yo)
Location: Public Hot Spring – Dogo Onsen Yamatoya Honten, Cianwood City, Johto
Pokemon Team: Silenus the Sceptile, Hattie the Hatterene, Mudster the Swampert, Apollo the Paldean Blaze Breed Tauros, Brontis the Chikorita, Minnie the Mienshao
Interactions: Esther (kyuukestu)
That's the shortest one???
Man, this girl really liked her long names. It amused Naka greatly. Naka watched Pyrrha for a moment, finding the recklessness adorable and even amusing. Maybe that Surskit was getting to her, as she recalled Surskit was the mischievous one. She wasn't sure about Feebas, yet.
She listened to Esther's naming conventions, finding it vastly interesting that she chose nicknames that would help have them grow into the traits the name stood for. Presence and merit...
That her merit was present? It was certainly interesting. If Esther had an aspiration for Feebas to be confident, then Naka realized that the reason for such a name was to give the Feebas even more confidence and build self esteem. So she was right in assuming Feebas was not confident in herself. Even more so, as Esther explained Feebas's origins, she then realized that this Feebas was owned by someone else. Someone else in the contest scene, most likely. Why else would they have a shiny Feebas?
So, the possible bad self esteem was much worse than Naka thought.
Sighing, Naka let her eyes drift with the steam up to the air as Esther asked, extremely relaxed and calm thanks to Brontis's aroma.
"Certainly a wonderful name. Back when I was a kid, I named my Pokemon after their physical traits." She chuckled. "Fluffy the Flareon, because he was the fluffiest Eevee - and now Flareon - I had ever seen. Plus, I was ten." She laughed, then focused back on Esther. "As for stage fright? Hah..." She scratched the back of her head, clearing her throat. "I also have really bad stage fright. Performance fright when it comes to battling and public speaking. If there is a large crowd, I feel like they're going to judge me hard for failing - for not being as good as they thought I should be with the Pokemon I have. I feel like they're going to harass me for being a shit trainer and not treating my Pokemon right." The disgust she felt talking about it rose, making her lip snarl in contempt as her eyes darted away, but the feeling ebbed due to the Chikorita trilling and slapping Naka's forehead with a twirl of his leaf, getting a chuckle from her.
"Hey, now." She smiled, petting the Chikorita's cheek. "I would try to distract myself, put myself in a different headspace, but while there are a lot of tricks, the only good one I've found is just trying to find the source of the problem as to why you feel the way you do and tackling that. Putting yourself in a different headspace is just a bandage to cover up the issue, but that issue will never go away if you don't take care of the source. It'll just feel like you're getting better, but only when you are not yourself, and at that point you aren't true to yourself anymore. At that point, you're just trying to use someone's expectations of you to be someone you're not. It's not something you can get rid of over night, but it'll take a lot of care and training." She sighed and looked back at Feebas, then to Esther. "Getting out of this stage fright - whether it comes about from feelings of inadequacy or just general fright of failure - is possible. It just takes a while. Exposure therapy could potentially help. It's what I'm doing, going through the different tournaments and stuff to fight against my own fear. I don't know if it's working, but I think I'm making progress."