"Squirtle? (What exactly did you do with it?)"
A day later, Squirtle saw his chewing-gum gadget again, but by the time Sylveon brought it back, it had already suffered some damage.
A small tooth mark had exposed the electronic components inside, clearly ruining its disguise.
"Nia..."
"Squirtle? (Learned Bite? That's good. At least this toy died for a worthy cause.)"
Sylveon had borrowed it for a simple reason: Baby Eevee seemed to have entered a new phase lately, wanting to put everything into its mouth and give it a try.
To teach Baby Eevee a lesson, Sylveon had planned to use the gadget to give the little one a taste of how cruel the world could be.
But it hadn't had much effect on Baby Eevee either, and unlike Sylveon, Baby Eevee had no ribbon tentacles, so biting was the only option.
In certain peculiar ways, Baby Eevee showed the same persistence as Squirtle, and one hard bite had broken the thing.
Seeing Sylveon looking rather dejected and apparently guilty about it, Squirtle didn't take it to heart at all. It was just a toy. If it broke, it broke. He'd already had his fill of playing with it anyway.
Ever since discovering that the electric-shock gum could only shock him and barely affected anyone else, Squirtle's interest in it had steadily waned.
It ranked second on Squirtle's food blacklist. First place naturally went to food so awful he couldn't swallow it.
"Squirtle. (All right, don't worry about it. If you really feel bad, just help me with a few chores later.
Isn't that how you pay your 'rent' anyway?)"
Squirtle gave Sylveon a reason to stop dwelling on the matter, though judging by his behavior afterward, his desire to slack off might have played a bigger part.
At least