Talks with a grass trainer

Vali was a little surprised to find Ellie walking up to her after dropping off Balto, but supposed it was a nice change compared to her other opponents thus far in the competition. They headed to one of the small gardens off to the side of the pokemon center. Aragorn began playing with Treecko and Houndour once the three were introduced. She released Elrond and set him to watching the three causing Ellie to jolt a bit in surprise, "He's willing to do that?"

"He is. We're a family. Pack, after all," Vali said as she sat down on one of the provided benches and looked at Ellie as the older girl did the same, "Vileplume, he's the leader, isn't he?"

"He is," Ellie confirmed looking only slightly surprised, "He's been with me since I was around eight years old. For a member of the Oddish-line, he's always been a bit hot-headed which has always left him to be a bit of the odd one out. Being around Treecko's helped, he's still bull headed though,"

"So you wished to speak with me?" Vali asked earning a nod.

Ellie leaned back a bit, "I've always had great difficulty talking sense into Vileplume, but Balto managed it."

"He's always been good at that," Vali reached to her ear where the lingering scar from Balto's reprimands lay, "Talking sense into people is something he's always been good at even if it doesn't actually mean he can talk,"

Ellie let out a soft laugh, "Funny how close we can be to our pokemon rather than humans, huh?" Vali hummed in agreement, "I was hoping that you might be able to help me figure out a way to get Vileplume to listen to me better, but if its all Balto..."

"Just try talking to him is all I can say," Vali told her, "Communication works both ways, a partnership will not work if there is no communication between either side. Try asking a psychic-type to work on deepening your bond, Elrond has helped my pokemon and I do so,"

"Isn't it a bit creepy though?" Ellie asked eyeing Elrond carefully.

Vali shrugged a bit, "It was at first, but you learn to get over it especially when it comes to your pokemon who will see every single part of you and never judge," She smiled as Elrond sent warmth towards her, "But thanks to it, my pack and I've grown even closer since I've been able to understand things on their level in ways that I couldn't before just as they could do the same for me. It's almost scary actually," She looked over ran her fingers over Balto's empty pokeball slot and Smaug's, "At some points, it was almost like we were being blended together as our connection grew."

"W-what?!" Ellie looked at her in alarm as she jerked away from looking at Elrond.

Vali nodded lightly, "Sabrina called it the beginning of a phenomenon called 'Psychological Mergence Connection' which happens when one begins to dive too deeply into the psychic connection between pokemon and human without some kind of barrier," She let out a soft laugh, "Psychic-type pokemon have natural barriers, so it isn't a big problem, but others don't normally have those barriers meaning it is a rather large problems among them if such connections form. It's why telepathic connections between non-psychic-type pokemon and humans are ill-advised unless one is a psychic human," She was going to try and figure out how to mimic such a connection with her magic if possible since there had to be some kind of possibility out there, "But deepening the bond between pokemon and human is possible just so long as one doesn't go too far."

"How far is too far?" Ellie asked with a frown.

"I'm not the best person to answer as there are times when I am not exactly me," Vali warned her with an apologetic smile, "My advice is to speak with Sabrina for advice and to actually have suggest someone to help deepen your bonds. If anyone would know of someone trustworthy enough to do it, she would,"

"I'll keep that in mind," Ellie's frown deepened a bit, "I'm going to speak with her a bit further before I make any decisions about deepening my bonds,"

"A good decision though I hope my words don't scare you off," Vali grimaced a bit, "I dug a bit too deeply on my own without proper supervision is all and paid the price for it. Sabrina is helping me pull myself together and I'm young enough that the damage will repair itself though I'll likely be always carry a bit of a wild edge to myself," She felt a slight brush against the edge of her sense and smiled lightly, "I'll let Sabrina explain it. Hello, Sabrina,"

"Greetings and congratulations on making it past the prelims, Vali," Sabrina greeted as she entered the garden causing Ellie to scramble to her feet while Vali followed at a much slower pace, "Hello again, Ellie, Elrond, Aragorn. It would seem that you already guessed why I've come, Vali, though only a small portion of this visit,"

Vali smiled warmly at Sabrina as Aragorn raced over with Houndour hot on his tails, "I'm also assuming we're going to be working through some more of the damage and seeing to my mental shields as well."

"Correct," Sabrina bent down to greet Aragorn and looked at Houndour with a slightly soft expression, "They should be getting ready to release Smaug soon,"

"I'll be waiting in the pokemon center then," Vali said with a light nod, "Ellie, I do hope that you'll consider deepening your bonds. It's truly a wonderful thing to do,"

"Vali is one of the oddest trainers you've met, isn't she?" Sabrina commented after Vali had left them with her pokemon in tow though Houndour had been reluctant to leave.

"Very," Ellie shifted a bit uncomfortably not sure how to act around the gym leader.

It had taken Ellie three seperate tries to beat the coldest of the eight Kanto Gym leaders and even then it had only been by the skin of her teeth. Being this close to the most powerful psychic once more was surprising, she had thought it would be years before it would happen again and yet here she stood. Not only that, a first year trainer had spoke to one of the most powerful gym leaders like it was nothing and acted so at ease. Not only that, she acted like it wasn't even the first time it'd been like that or even the eleventh. The girl jolted as Sabrina spoke, "That's because Vali has always acted like that. With all of us gym leaders save for perhaps Giovanni, she's acted as a regular person around us. It's actually refreshing especially for me."

"I-i see," Ellie felt a paw on her leg and looked down to see Treecko, "Hey, Buddy,"

"Vali wanted to deepen her bond with every single one of her pokemon to the same depth as the one she shares with Elrond," Sabrina explained as Ellie bent down to pick up Treecko, "She wanted to hear their voices just as clearly as she heard his and Elrond agreed to help her try. Together they worked on trying not knowing what exactly would happen," A soft sigh left the gym leader and she actually looked sad, "It's very lucky that Delia noticed the changes in Vali when she did and that they started with just a single pokemon rather than every single one of them otherwise I'd be scared to think of what would happen,"

"What do you mean?" Ellie looked at Sabrina with a frown.

"Vali started to deepen her bond mainly with her partner going into the point where they began to experience the Psychological Mergence Connection," Sabrina explained as she levitated one of her pokeballs, "During this time, pokemon and human began to mentally merge. Many things can happen at the end of this process though usually it ends with both parties dying due to pokemon and human minds being completely incompatible. If Vali and Balto were compatible with the merge being able to complete, one of their bodies would have to die as the resulting mind would have to take over one of the bodies and usually the human body would perish as a result as the pokemon body would be preferred due to being stronger,"

"But Vali said she thinks of all her pokemon as partners," Ellie murmured slowly.

"Which is why I'm thankful she didn't try to deepen her bond with all of them to that point," Sabrina shook her head slowly, "If that had happened, she would've made them all brain dead as her mind and theirs would've been torn in multiple directions. If by some chance they somehow managed to make it work, they would've been floating in limbo as the resulting mind would've had far too many bodies and they would've perished,"

Ellie frowned at that, "So why deepen the bonds at all if that's the danger?"

"Because the danger is only if you go too far," Sabrina replied slight smile forming, "Vali pushed too far and thanks to us stopping it, we can reverse the damage to a point. Deepening you bond is amazing and you'll never regret it especially when you realize the benefits offered to you,"