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It is not hard to comply with Cyllene's directive, of course.
Laventon quite enjoys when Rudolf visits. The boy is thoughtful and deliberate in how he works with the young pokemon in the professor's care. He brings much-appreciated alternate perspectives that lead to fascinating avenues through which an investigation could be approached.
He is a good kid!
Today was no different, and saw the boy working with cyndaquil on some sort of identification or hide-and-seek enrichment. Whenever Laventon looked up from his notes, they were either in the midst of rooting around various spaces, or the boy was being climbed upon, and he couldn't help laugh with them whenever cyndaquil would succeed.
It was hard to say how much time passed like that before Rude addressed him directly.
"Professor? Have you ever heard of something called genes or genetics?"
"Genus?" he hummed thoughtfully a moment.
Then, "Yes, I do believe that is a taxonomic distinction that has been proposed."
"Um. Cool," Rude frowned, clearly confused. "I didn't do real great at that part of science class - never remember what order all that stuff goes in - but I'm talking about, um, I think it's called heredy-- heredity?"
"The passing of characters from parent to offspring?"
"Yeah, sure. That."
"Oh, how interesting!" Laventon said, setting his work aside to have his full attention in this conversation. This boy was so full of surprises, he felt he might miss something, otherwise.
"I didn't realize you yourself had a background in the natural sciences," he continued, beaming. "And husbandry, no less!"
"Huh? Well, no I-- not really?" Rude spluttered.
"Like, everybody has to do basic life science stuff in school where I'm from. What are animals vs what are plants, and that Mendel guy and his work with pea plants and grass types, and it starts kinda early, but I wasn't-- Sorry, I'm getting into the weeds, here."
Rudolf rolled cyndaquil over in his hands to let her swing herself back up, and the gesture seems to steady the boy.
"We learn that genes are pretty much the building blocks of all living things and there's still a lot we don't know about them. Even in my time, genetics is a huge field of cutting edge research."
Laventon did a giddy little jig-step. "How marvelous that there are still mysteries to be unraveled!"
"... Yeah. That's one way to look at it... But.... Some in my time looked at it as a way to force an advantage where there wasn't one before. To... make weapons. Or try to, anyway."
"Oh. How barbaric!"
"Yeah."
Cyndaquil clambered up Rude's arm, across his shoulders, and back down the other but this time Rude's smile didn't reach his eyes. The little pokemon huffed, blowing a strange, indigo smoke in the process.
"... Why are you telling me this, Rude?"
The boy won't look up, instead fidgeting with the sash around his tunic.
"Just... It's... I hope your pokedex teaches people to be kind. And maybe all that stuff won't... won't be a thing."