"Not even for a fellow champion?" Ithica asked. "That's mean, you're mean." She made a face at him.

Red grinned. "Yup." Not even a little apologetic.

"You have spent too much time as a super-powerful mountain hermit," Ithica said. "You're not allowed to go back to Mount Silver until you're more socialized, it's decided." She grinned.

Red rolled his eyes but he was still grinning, so he wasn't exactly protesting.

"No arguments, excellent," Ithica said, grinning. "So. We'll head towards Vermilion tomorrow, and take a ferry out to the Orange Islands." She paused for a moment. "Oh I hope it's festival time on Shamouti Island, I desperately want an excuse to try to find Lugia."

"A week or so," Red told her. "Shouldn't be hard." He shrugged a bit. Because of course he kept track, why not?

Ithica grinned, and nearly cackled.

"Excellent," she said. "I'll round the islands, grab the treasures, poke a sleeping Lugia, and hopefully not piss off the other three birds in the process. And THEN I'll move on to the Orange League."

Red shook his head, amused. "You do that," he agreed mildly.

Ithica rolled her eyes.

"You're no fun," she said. "Come on, haven't you ever wanted to do something like this just for the fun of it?"

Red smirked at her. "Sure," he agreed. "I did, and I went and did all that a while back."

Ithica looked at him for a moment, and then grinned.

"Well, then, if you've already done it all, then maybe you'd want to take a ferry out to the newest region to open its borders," she challenged, grinning. "I've heard recently that Alola is welcoming foreign trainers now to take the Island Challenge."

Red nodded. "They are," he agreed. "I haven't been to Alola yet."

Ithica grinned.

"Oh this should be good," she said. "I suddenly want to take the Island Challenge." She weighed her options for a moment. "There's options now, hm..."

Red snorted. "You've got time to decide still," he told her. "Until we reach the ferries, at least."

Ithica waffled about the decision for a bit.

"The Orange Islands," she said finally. "I want to be there for the Guardian festival. Alola after."

Red nodded. "Done," he agreed easily, because clearly it was that easy and would be done.

Ithica grinned.

"Excellent," she said. "And eventually I'll circle back around here and take down the Indigo League." She paused for a moment. "Though maybe I should do Johto first? I mean, Johto and Kanto share the same League, so it wouldn't make sense to fight the League before getting all sixteen badges, would it?"

Red snorted quietly. "You can challenge now," he pointed out. "You don't have to have all sixteen."

"Oh I know I can," Ithica said. "But it's not like the games where I need to challenge the Indigo Plateau twice for plot reasons. There's no sense in taking them on twice if I don't have to."

"No," Red agreed. "Once is enough." He made a brief face. "Twice is excessive."

Ithica grinned.

"I'm sure you would know," she teased.

Red gave her a bit of a sideways look at that but didn't protest, instead just smirking faintly and shaking his head.

Ithica grinned and stretched a bit, sighing.

"So tell me about yourself a little," she finally said. "I mean, I know some o the basics, I think. You're from Pallet Town, right? And Pikachu was your starter? From Professor Oak?"

Red nodded. "Sounds right," he agreed with a faint smile. "Started as soon as I could. Went everywhere I could." He shrugged.

Ithica grinned.

"Did Blue take the Eevee you were supposed to get?" she asked, thinking way back to when she had played Yellow version. "Or was it more of a 'overslept, nothing left' situation?"