She smiles and hums the Pokemon theme song under her breath, and also resumes digging in.

"I don't want to take away peoples' choices. I guess sometimes it's for their own good - or for others, like criminals, but it just sounds creepy, you know?"

"Yeah, I get that. Choice matters. It's important. At the same time, I'd rather be tangled up in someone I can help than have 'completely free choice' with no one around. All my choices come back to getting involved with people, at the end of the day."

"Mom told me, whatever life throws at you, you can always choose to be nice. It's not like anyone's ever completely free, anyway. Bound to the almighty dollar - or Kisses, I guess. Or, you know, kisses, if you care a lot about that, or any number of other drives... Oi, enough depressing stuff. Let's talk about something fun. Like... Music!"

The-Very-Best.wav

She transmits, smirking as her clear memories of the vocals come through.

Sable nods at Lenora, then giggles at the fond memories. "Okay, what was your favorite game of the series?"

"I played a lot of them. Ruby, I guess, but that might be mostly nostalgia."

Sable bounces and grins. "Sapphire, for me. Hoenn was my favorite region in any case, but I had to have Latias."

"We couldn't really afford to get lots of new ones. I've played Yellow and Ruby through like ten times, though."

"Understandable. I wouldn't have been able to play as many as I did without rampant piracy."

"Oh, Nintendo absolutely hates that. Heh. I do download old abandoned games sometimes. Ones you literally can't buy."

"Yeah, I have no pity for Nintendo. It's even worse, now, because my Inkborn nature seems to explicitly prioritize cultural reach over sales, so piracy is literally just as good for me."

She sighs softly. "And yeah, I hate when games get completely lost. I'm glad piracy helps make up for some of that, but sometimes we don't get to 'em in time, and that sucks."

She shakes her head. "Bah, no point dwelling on that. What's your favorite piece of abandonware?"

"Oregon Trail."

"Ooh, I know that one! They let us play it in computer lab if you typed fast enough."

"Same! Favorite part of elementary school."

They keep chatting about games and music as the food steadily disappears. The lemonade is very good.

When it's all done, Lenora insists on paying up for everyone, and actually argues with Mama Grendel to be allowed to tip, from what can be overheard.

This display of generosity earns Lenora a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek from Sable, and soon enough the group find themselves outside the restaurant once more.

"We're all going back to the house, right? I want to make a potion, Lenora wants a break. I guess I don't know about you, Sable."

"Hmm... Probably need at least a bit of a break myself, and at some point probably some studying of my own."

"Housewards it is. I don't really feel like walking, but too bad. Still need to see about my Mothergifts too, come to think... I don't have the talent for it like you two. Yet, possibly."

Sable nods. "It's probably a 'yet', nearly everybody has 'em, and most people can advance their skill with 'em at least a bit. After we get home, I could pull up the visualizations I looked at when I was learning how, found 'em on HexVPN."

"Kind of pointless until I do what the boss man wants, as I understand it. But can't hurt, I guess."

"If I remember it right, it said that nearly everyone should be able to at least summon 'em, though at absolute zero-rank it'll take ten minutes of focus. So it'll be informative, I think."

"Sounds like a plan." She smiles.