It's okay. I'll be happy to be your spreadsheet reader if you'll continue to be the one who herds me off to my bed when I spend too much time giving in to the munchies and almost pass out while eating thanks to sleep medications.

Skill issue.

She holds on to fingers and just won't let go.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmar_...

The dad-brain has really taken him over, but I'm not going to mourn for him, because he's much funnier this way.

If I'm being fair to the people in my day to day life, I *do* happen to say the most outrageous things with a straight face, which is apparently pretty convincing to most people, because I sound more educated than I am.

So to be clear, I am very much not prone to violence. But I do honestly like sending people several times my size flying, and I am lucky to have friends who like to be thrown over the shoulder of someone they can probably punt if they try hard enough. Win-win.

[They decided to not mention the timeline shenanigans, and that it was their original timeline's instance of their father who had taught them to be an overbearing force as a leader, not the Giovanni who would later adopt them. To anyone that didn't know the latter man, it was semantics anyway.]

Apologies, that was vaguely off topic...

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that contrasting what I'd been taught about being a gym leader when I was young, versus actually seeing the results of a typical leader, allowed me to change my mind, and naturally think about it. A lot.

Honestly, that man should have gone into tournaments instead, he would have found it much more fulfilling, and maybe he would have decided to not make his mommy issues everyone else's problem!

[A pause, then clearing their throat.]

At some point her went from trying to nurture the upcoming generations, and instead wanted to expend power over them, until he got too busy with Rocket to even do that.

[They then let out an exasperated sight.]

I noticed that even trainers that didn't seem to have much potential had a good experience, learned from the process, and became better for it, even though I knew for a fact that Brock could have crushed them much faster. Once it got through to me, I understood one of father's lesser known failings.

Simply beating down your opponent when they're a beginner trainer is... Well it's counter to the point. And I slowly learned that, hearing how the various trainers, both those who got the badge and those who didn't, would talk about it.

I guess that the urge to follow in Red's footsteps hold strong appeal, even if you could feasibly fight your hometown's leader first...

Anyway, hearing them talk about their battles over the year really helped me mature on that front.

[They gave a relieved smile.]

I admit, if you'd asked me a decade ago I would have been focused solely on winning - that was my father's approach, and what I'd been taught, and also I wasn't very good at taking hits to my ego. Since I was working in Pewter though I got to see a lot of newbies.

The point is after all to act as more than a mere measuring stick, but to encourage growth, even in those who are more than capable of defeating you handily. It's not about winning at all, because winning is far easier than being a proper challenge.