...Jolteon's grumpiness is surprisingly cute.

Gruuump.

She's actually fairly willing to come stand near Ellie, though, putting her ears back only a little threateningly when the police arrive.

Ellie doesn't mention that Jolteon came from the direction of the lab when she gives her statement, only that she showed up after the group had gotten here.

There's some curiosity, but Jolteon's sulking suspiciously enough that she doesn't get poked too much.

And then - once Ellie relays Flareon's statements - they can head back to the city.

Back to the city and then to the trainer hostel where Ellie can get a big enough room and collapse face-first into the bed.

Intrepid jumps up to very aggressively cuddle her Ellie.

Flicker takes care of getting Jolteon fed and mostly shepherded away from anyone it looks like she might bite.

Jolteon parks herself in a corner to glare at everyone, naturally.

While Flareon goes to check on her dad - then slinks back over when he's still asleep (and the nurse has confirmed he's still doing okay) to go hang out around people who are... Actually moving. And not making her constantly worry.

This mostly ends up with her very carefully inching closer to Jolteon, stopping every time the other pokemon growls, but, well, neither of them disrupts Ellie, so.

As long as no one wakes up her human, Intrepid's okay.

She does poke Flicker and hiss in the umbreon language at her a bit before Ellie's usual wake-up time to get Flicker to swap cuddle positions with her so Intrepid can make Ellie breakfast and coffee without worrying about her human being insufficiently hugged.

It's been a long day. Ellie wakes up slowly.

Her Intrepid's here to join her in morning snuggles (after showing Jolteon and Flareon how to get into their food) until she's more ready to face the day. Breakfast won't go bad all that fast.

Snuggly sylveons: a very good thing about the world.

Ellie returns to full functionality in time.

"So. Opinions on plans for the day?"

She makes sure Ellie eats and has all her coffee, watching a bit worriedly.

"Dunno how many more leads there are..."

"If Jolteon knows something and is willing to use the psychic collar, that might help?" Flicker suggests, glancing at Jolteon.

Jolteon does not look very enthused about that plan.

"Mm, it's getting to the point where I'd like to build another of those. But I need money to buy the components. ...Also need money to feed all five of us, come to think of it."

"We found out lots of good stuff. The police should give us reward money or something."

"Usually the phrasing there is more like 'information leading to an arrest' or something. I guess we could ask."

Headbutt. "We can also focus on gym competitions a bit... If we were in one spot a lot we could do translation stuff between pokemon and humans with the collar. Some people researching might pay for that? Especially anyone looking at like pokemon communication stuff."

"Yeah, maybe. Think we will be staying here for a while, anyway."

She nods. "We need to look into the disappearances and stuff. And that'll make doing all the gym challenges hard, too..."

"Right. So, for the benefit of our newcomers, Intrepid, Flicker, and I are on a gym challenge. Or we were, before we stumbled into this mess. I think our priorities are shifting a bit now. However, a point in favor of continuing the gym challenge is that it's a relatively easy source of money."

Jolteon chirps. That tone is possibly agreeing?

Flareon looks more thoughtfully unhappy, though.