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tomorrow there'll be more of us
if you don't think eevee is the best pokemon you're lying to yourself tbh
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It's a fine spring morning when Ellie Pine, Junior Research Assistant, finishes the invention that will make her name. Eventually. Once she demonstrates it. And probably improves it a little, right now it requires psychic talent but-

Direct, two-way communication between humans and pokemon. It'll be a game-changer. She screws the cover plate shut and hooks it to the nylon strap.

She whistles. "Eevee! Here, girl!"

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Her eevee comes running with a happy trill, jumping up easily onto the table and sniffing at the things her human's been tinkering with forever.

Curious mrrp?

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She holds up the collar for inspection.

"What do you think? Cute enough to wear?"

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Sniff sniff, thoughtful mrrrr...

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And bright chirp!

She headbutts the collar.

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"Cool."

Ellie slips the collar around Eevee's neck just above the ruff and buckles it closed.

"Can you hear me?" she thinks in Eevee's direction.

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!!! "Yes!!!"

This is amazing, she can talk to her human! Her human is definitely the smartest. (Can her human hear non-word thoughts too?)

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"Ha!" Ellie laughs in triumph. "It works! I knew it would!" She doesn't seem to be able to hear Eevee's non-word thoughts as she gropes around for pencil and paper.

"Okay, gotta write this down... Can you describe, um, can you describe what this feels like for you?"

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"Yeah!" She stops to try to put her thoughts into actual words. This is really hard, actually, she's never thought in words - sometimes she'll imagine-remember her human saying things but it's hard to remember the exact human mouth noises spontaneously (though she can recognize them) so she usually imagines her human making normal noises and then in her head she just knows what her human means like she does when recognizing words. 

"I have to make specific words for you to hear me, apparently? And that's really hard. I'm not having to direct them at the collar I don't think? And I don't think it's just picking up on everything meant for you, since it didn't get normal thoughts I wanted you to have."

She scrunches up her face a bit. "This is giving me a head-full like I'm focusing too much," she says after pausing to let her brain think actual thoughts. Probably her human wants to know that. "But it might get easier; I don't imagine words very often." Another pause to have thoughts. " - This is one of the things where words are dumb, it isn't a headache because it doesn't hurt, it's that thing where a thing in your head is too big to have proper thoughts while you're doing it so I need to know what I'm saying before I start making words, and words are so slow and being patient is also a head-full thing."

The pauses to think are significantly shorter than how long it takes her to actually communicate, even though she's 'talking' faster than humans usually do when speaking out loud. (She has some emotional inflection, but not a lot, too.)

"Words are incomplete in general, they don't say all the shades of things I'm thinking because there's too few of them, and they get extra inefficient if you want to be at all specific."

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Scribble scribble.

"Humans learn words really young, you're older than that development-wise... But your vocabulary is still pretty good, even with the gaps you've identified... How would you compare this to communicating with other pokemon?"

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She likes being complimented by her human and trills about this.

"I like listening to humans so I've tried really hard to learn words! But making them means I have to run the recognition process in reverse."

And hum.

"It really varies? I can understand other eevees really well, but the less a pokemon is like me the harder they are to understand. With another eevee - " Pause to think, then: "There's two ways of talking? But they're not both 'talking,' your language just doesn't have enough words. But the way everyone uses all the time is the immediate way. It's body language and sounds, and I think there's a bit of kinda psychic stuff, because espeons are really good at reading people and really easy to understand, but umbreons come off kind of... Flat."

"You can communicate about emotions with that, and stuff immediately around you, and actions in the immediate past or future - like a command for someone to do something now, but there isn't a default thing that means a time so you can't say specifically when. You can also communicate... Simple? Emotional? Opinions and intentions about something someone else brought up."

"But then there's also the... Depth way? If you want to talk about distant stuff, or really abstract stuff, or complicated opinions with a lot of caveats and if-then. And that's psychic. It's harder if you don't know someone or trust them, and it's harder with non-eevees and harder with pokemon less like us. It's easier with psychic types, and impossible with dark types. So espeons facilitate discussions a lot, but umbreons can't really depth talk to anyone else."

"You can also kinda guess which eevees will be espeons or umbreons based on how reserved or communicative they are."

"And words are less communicative than the depth way, but more communicative but not as quick and easy as the immediate way."

Pause.

"Umbreons might actually have a words language, come to think of it, but I don't know it."

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"This is fascinating. Can probably get a paper just out of this..."

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Heee!

"That's great!" She brushes against Ellie, gently enough not to disrupt writing.

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She pets Eevee with her free hand.

"My other idea was to do a Gym challenge. Build a full team set up with the transmitters and see how far we can get. If you're up for that."

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She snuggles into Ellie's hand.

"That sounds fun. And I'd be excellent at it."

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"I'm sure you would be, clever girl." Scritch scritch, scribble scribble. "All the way to the championship."

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Trill!!!

"We could find an umbreon, too! And you could figure out how they talk."

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"All sorts of cool things could happen."

She switches to another piece of paper and dashes off a quick note. "Can you take this to the Professor? It's our leave of absence request."

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"Sure!" She grabs it in her mouth. "Can the Professor understand me too?"

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"Still won't be able to. He's not a psychic."

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"Aw."

She hops down, though, and goes to take the note to the Professor.

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Professor Oak is not that difficult to find. The genial, gray-haired man is showing a group of schoolchildren a trio of "starter" pokemon, so called because their individual typing and morphology are relatively easy to understand and differentiate between. The charmander seems to have the most young fans, followed by the squirtle, then the bulbasaur.

The professor spots Eevee coming into the room, sees the note she's carrying, and beckons her over. The starters blink curiously at her as he bends down to take the note, and the children make excited noises. "As you can all see," Oak says, "we have a visitor! Everyone, this is Eevee. She's partnered with one of my research assistants."

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Happy excited trill! Eevee lets the Professor take the note, waves her tail and flicks her ears in a fairly friendly manner at the three other pokemon (though they're different enough from her than their body language is kinda weird and opaque), then runs up closer to the children, mrrring.

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Many of the children would clearly like to pet the cute and fluffy eevee!

Professor Oak claps his hands for attention. "What's the first rule when you see another trainer's pokemon?" he asks.

"Don't touch without permission," comes the chorus.

"Very good. Now, as Miss Eevee is here at the lab often enough to count as one of my employees, I know her well enough to say she's all right to pet. So form a line, one at a time, stick to the top of the head and be careful of the eyes and jaw."

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She makes very appreciative, happy noises while she's being petted.

(She should tell Ellie to tell Professor Oak to actually let her know when there's kids here so she can meet them. And get pats.)

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Oak gets Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur lined up as well for the children who've taken their turn with Eevee or would rather go for those pokemon first.

After about fifteen minutes when everyone's had their turn, the kids' teacher reappears and gets them rounded up for the next stop on the tour.

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Aww.

Bye kids!

Eevee gives Professor Oak a friendly chirp, then has a thought - "Hey can you hear me from over here?" she directs at her human.

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The lack of response seems to indicate no.

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Well maybe her human just can't telepath back.

Eevee goes to find her human.

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Ellie is right where she was left, though she's switched to typing on a computer.

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Eevee chirps, then, "Hi! I think you couldn't hear me from all the way over by the Professor."

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"Oh! Hi, yeah, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a line of sight thing. Could maybe push it further with practice or higher quality components, but this is about the limit of my operating budget."

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"Okay." She jumps up to nuzzle her human. "Can we get more budget in championships?"

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Cuddle.

"Yeah. You get a grant for starting a Gym challenge the first time, and gyms'll give you a cut of the advertising money if you agree to let them broadcast your match. Plus there's a culture of wagering on friendly matches with trainers out on the routes, though you have to actually win to collect."

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"Fun! Do we need more pokemon first to do a championship?"

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"League regulations specify a maximum team size of six. Most serious trainers hit that cap, but there's an expectation that you'll fill your team out as you progress."

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"So we could start with just me?"

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"We could."

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She wiggles her entire body!

"The others on our team should be eevees, too! We're the best."

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"You are, it's true. And I'm pretty sure that the transmitter will work best on species that have an innate psychic talent or the potential thereof, like espeon in the eevee line."

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"Further proof we're great."

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She pets the top of Eevee's head.

"Try not to puff up so much you float off."

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"But then I could have a wing harness and fly!"

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Hee. "Okay, little miss aireon."

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She trills, short and staccato, in what's possibly an eevee-style giggle. "I want to evolve into one of those!"

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"Breaking new ground all the time."

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Headbutt. "Reaching new heights, more like."

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"Pfft." Ear scritches. "Okay, I should have seen that one."

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Rumbling mrr!!!

"Where do we start?"

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"The closest gym's in Viridian, which is about a day's walk north. I just put in my registration for the challenge, so after lunch we'll get supplies together, and then we can leave tomorrow morning."

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"Good!" Nuzzle. "...I'm tired but also I want to talk to you. You're nice. I've had lots of things to say since ever."

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"There'll be lots more days to talk."

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Happy, agreeable chirp!

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Pet pet.

She's got some more administrative things to take care of for now.

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That's okay. Eevee can curl up watching her human for a bit, then go entertain herself and get her energy out before it's evening.

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Ellie takes care of handing off her other open projects at the lab, and gets the necessary supplies for the trip (tent and bedroll, cookware, firestarters, travel food) and a trainer bag to carry it all in. Professor Oak treats her and Eevee to dinner, and gives Ellie a Pokedex as a parting gift.

The next morning, it's the road headed north out of Pallet Town for Ellie and Eevee.

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She gives the Professor a friendly parting headbutt and a message through her human of "Thanks for being cool!"

She is so bouncy about getting on the road the next morning. Literally. Each jump is bringing her up to about level with her human's waist.

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"Looks like someone's ready to get going," she says, shouldering her bag.

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"Both of us!" she says after some focus, in amidst the excited chirps.

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She laughs. "You're not wrong." And off they go! The start of the great adventure is at hand.


The road to Viridian City is fairly quiet. The greatest obstacle they're likely to face is a nest of broody rattata or a particularly aggressive pidgey.

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Eevee has a lot of fun beating up other pokemon! Not, like, anyone who seems to just want to be left alone, but that pidgey can get knocked around a bit!

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The pidgey is a little too aggressive to properly use its flight advantage, and with Ellie behind her calling tactics, Eevee soon has it on the ropes.

Ellie tosses out a pokeball that grabs up the pidgey in a beam of light and snaps shut. It falls to the ground and wiggles, then gives the click of confirmed capture.

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She noses the pokeball. "Why'd you bother doing that? I just bruised him a bit, so he's not like badly injured..."

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"The Professor will make a disappointed face at me if I don't at least try to fill out the 'dex a little before I see him again. Plus I'd like to try the collar out with a pokemon that has no recorded psychic tendencies. And if he decides to join the mail service or whatever, we can make a little on the commission to fund upgrades."

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She giggles. "Okay. As long as you remember that only cool pokemon can join our team."

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"I'll give you the final veto, how about?"

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"Of course." She rubs against Ellie's leg.

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Pet pet.

Ellie picks up the pokeball, and on they go.

Later in the day, they come across a a garden of bellsprout in the midst of a turf war with some rattata.

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Pounce!!!

Eevee isn't taking sides, here, she's just causing CHAOS! Though she'll bap anyone seriously actually trying to injure each other; real war is against the spirit of pokemonness.

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This does indeed cause a lot of CHAOS! Neither faction was really expecting a completely unrelated pokemon to barge in and start causing trouble.

Everyone backs up to regroup and take stock of the new situation. The bellsprout chime uncertainly as the rattata chitter and hiss.

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She laughs and sticks her tongue out at them. 

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They make various threatening gestures at her.

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Do they want to do anything other than gesture? 

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...Nnnot with Ellie standing right there, no.

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She laughs and flicks her tail as smugly as eeveely possible.

They can suit themselves! (She bounds off back to Ellie.)

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"Enjoy yourself there, did you?"

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Chirp!

"No one here fights very well. But I had fun anyways."

(She left behind more than a few friendly rivalries when they set out on the road.)

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"We'll find more entertaining fights as we go, I bet."

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"In the championships, maybe."

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"And we'll have to go through Viridian Forest to get to Pewter after this. Might meet someone in there."

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"Sounds fun."

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They can start walking again.

"Do you think you might want to see Mr. Brown again, while we're in the city?" she asks after a while.

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"Yeah! He was kinda boring sometimes, but he was nice. And - "

Her thoughts skitter a bit. "...Uh how do I refer to people in human? Like, specific other humans or pokemon? There's that leafeon I like there, but the nice leafeon, not the annoying one, and I dunno how humans tell everyone else apart?"

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"Call them by name, typically. Or title, if that's unique enough, but names are usually more so. Like, Professor Oak is the only Professor in Pallet, so you could say either Oak or Professor and people would know who you meant. But if you wanted to refer to me, you would have to call me Ellie, because there are like a dozen Junior Research Assistants."

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"Huh! I didn't know that!"

"Ellie is a pretty name!"

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"Thanks."

"We could come up with one for you too, if you wanted."

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Trill! "I do!" Giggle. "People should be able to brag about me by name."

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"Okay! So for humans, names are given in a couple different ways. It can be something that sounds nice, a word that happens to mean something else, or the name of a different person you want to reference or honor. Sometimes multiple of those at once."

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"Hm! All of those sound good... It should definitely be pretty, but also something else - but I don't know what I'd want my name meaning, or if there's anyone other than you I'd want to honor..."

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"Well, virtue names can be a good starting point. And you can translate them into different languages and maybe find some sounds you like, too."

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"What's a virtue name?"

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"A name that's a virtue, like Hope or Patience."

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"Patience doesn't sound like me at all. I'd say a virtue would be something like 'Fierce' or 'Intelligent.'"

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"Fierce can be bold or brave or daring. Intelligent could be quick or clever or smart. If we look at Old Kantonese..." she pulls out her phone and fiddles with it. "Fierce gets us... hm, not much. Yuu, maybe. For intelligent- ah, lots more. There's Kei, basically a direct translation. A couple variations on smart and beautiful, Michiko, Chika... I can look into other regions, too."

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She hums. "Maybe a bit more, yeah..."

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Ellie continues listing of names as she scrolls through, occasionally running off into tangents if she finds something neat and Eevee expresses interest in a derivation.

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Lots of these are very pretty, but Eevee doesn't feel strongly drawn to most names... She ends up thinking she'll do just a virtue name, but a real virtue, not Patience. This ends up a debate between things like 'Clever', 'Valiant', and 'Intrepid' ("Are virtue names all nouns?") or 'Curiosity', 'Sojourner'...

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Virtues are usually qualities or states, so yeah. Nothing says she can't detour to a related verb or descriptor if she wants to.

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She tilts her head. "I think I like Curiosity and Intrepid best," she decides. "But I don't know which one's better."

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Hum. "Of the two of those, I like Intrepid better. You can change later if you find something you like more, too."

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She laughs. "I'll be Intrepid, then! Intrepid Ellie's Eevee..." She tilts her head. "Ellievee would be a cool name too actually."

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"You can take it as a surname if you want."

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She headbutts her Ellie. "Intrepid Ellievee it is."

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She laughs, blushing a little.

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That is an excellent look on her Ellie! Intrepid trills happily.

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"All right, you. Come on, we must be almost there by now."

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Well Intrepid Ellievee isn't the slow one here, is she? (She demonstrates this by running ahead a bit and glancing over her shoulder.)

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Ellie lengthens her stride to catch up.

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Then they'll definitely be there quite quickly!

Intrepid isn't so interested in the whole process of taking the Pidgey to the Pokemon Center to be treated and given the spiel about his assorted options. She's fine poking around the city nearby until Ellie's ready to go get food and such for themselves or to head over to the Eevee House near the outskirts (close enough to the forest that Intrepid got to feel like a Brave Explorer a lot as a kid without ever being in serious danger, and that the less human-social adults can actually properly get away from the city without a ton of effort, but close enough to the city to be in walking distance of most important stuff).

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Pidgey's deal is not that complicated to sort out, and can basically be left in the competent hands of the Pokemon Center staff after Ellie signs the appropriate paperwork about it.

Mr. Brown at the Eevee House is delighted to see both Ellie and Intrepid again. He compliments Intrepid on the choice of name when Ellie tells him she picked it for herself. It suits her.

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It does! Though Ellie helped a lot. Also, Ellie is very intelligent and made a very cool psychic collar and they are going to explore so much, so Intrepid will get to live up to her name even more!

(She has Ellie relay all this, of course.)

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A Pokemon Journey, is it? How exciting. Ahh, it reminds him of his own youth, setting out to see the world with a bag on his back and a poochyena at his side...

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She listens a little bit but starts trying to make excuses before he gets too deep in the ramble. (Not very graceful excuses, admittedly.)

She wants to go say hi to her other friends here, after all! (...Has anyone left lately? Or are there any interesting new people around?)

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There's been some turnover but the adult residents are basically stable and most of the others in her age group are still around.

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Okay! She'll go say hi, then! 

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Ellie will stay to chat with Mr. Brown while she does that.

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She's gone for a decent amount of time, but she does come back to find Ellie after a bit.

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"Hey. I'm going to get a room at the hostel for the night, do you want to stay here or there?"

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"With you!"

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"Sure. Let's go get some dinner, then."

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Intrepid has restaurant opinions! Mostly 'sorts of cuisine Pallet Town is too small to have.'

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They can get something Unovan, then.

Afterwards, Ellie's shiny new League card gets them a room at one of the trainer hostels. It's not too big or fancy, but it's still comfortable.

"We should talk about the challenge rules before we visit the gym tomorrow," she says as they get ready for bed.

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"Yeah. I know some of the general idea but not any specifics..."

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"So basically, it's a team versus team knockout match. No limits on switches, but only one item apart from what the pokemon can use and carry themselves. The Gym gets to set the terms of the match, so sometimes they'll throw something like a doubles battle or a water arena at you, but they still have a favored type so you can have a strategy going in apart from that."

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Hum. "So it'd be good to get someone else on our team before the first Gym?"

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"It'll give us a little more slack, yeah. But you have to battle through Gym Trainers before you can face the leader, and they use those plus how many badges you already have to determine what level of challenge to give you. It's supposed to be hard but not, like, out of reach.

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She nods. "I want to give a good challenge, but we can also just keep our eyes open for other team members but not rush it, then."

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"That's probably the best course of action. We can also test just the first level or so of the gym to see where we're at."

"The other thing is- only the pokemon fighting are allowed to be out in the arena. While it's just you that's fine, but when we find another partner, I'll have to use pokeballs for the match."

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She hums. "I think I wouldn't mind being in a pokeball," she concludes. "As long as it was only a little bit, and especially if the interesting stuff was being recorded. I've just always refused them 'cause I don't like missing stuff."

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"Yeah, it'd just be for the duration of the match, basically. I think it's to test the trainer, their capabilities not only as a strategist but also a leader."

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"Hm, yeah. 'Cause if I could tell you when to tag me in, you'd be doing less... Also I bet some teams get overexcited and might try to interfere in the ongoing match, and telling everyone they've gotta be in a pokeball if they're not fighting makes it fair and keeps that from happening."

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She nods. "There's probably multiple reasons for the rules. Makes sense, for something so big."

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She nods.

"When are we setting out?"

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"There's a gym her in Viridian, but the leader is out of the city a lot. He's on the board for a bunch of charity organizations I guess? And likes keep personal tabs on things. We can check it out in the morning, see if he's here and decide if it's worth it to start here."

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"Okay." She yawns. 

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"Talk more in the morning?"

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She nods and nuzzles her Ellie.

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Pet pet.

Sleep time.

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Intrepid's pretty snugly. 

Though the next morning, she's back to excited about checking out the Gym.

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Then that can be their first stop. Unfortunately, there's a sign out front informing people that Leader Giovanni will be out of town for the next three weeks.

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Aww...

That means probably the Gym in Pewter City will be their first, then?

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Ellie would rather keep moving than hang around, yeah. But it does give them a chance to find some more friends, they'll be going through Viridian Forest to get to Pewter. Speaking of which route, Mr. Brown actually mentioned a favor he'd like them to do to Ellie while Intrepid was catching up with her old friends. Apparently there's an umbreon that's been sniffing around but doesn't feel like making themself known. He's pretty sure they're living in the forest and since Ellie and Intrepid'd be passing through anyway, he'd like them to see if they can't check the umbreon's doing all right.

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Yeah! They can definitely do that.

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Cool. So Ellie wants to go back to the Pokecenter and test the collar with Pidgey and finalize arrangements there, then she should pick up some extra supplies while they have access to the market here, but after that they can leave since they'll be several days in the forest anyway.

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Okay. Intrepid can go at least pick out supplies, maybe? Speed things up.

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Sure. She'll need to take the collar back first, if they're separating.

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...Hm. Intrepid likes the collar though... Maybe she'll stick with Ellie, then.

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It's not like she wouldn't get it back pretty quickly.

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She giggles.

Maybe Ellie just needs to hurry up on making a second.

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Apparently!

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That'll help when they get a bigger team, too.

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It would, yeah, but it comes back to the budget question again. She probably could afford to get another one together, but if they don't have a specific long-term use, she'd rather hold off a bit and maybe be able to just do a better one to start with.

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That makes a lot of sense, yeah... And is another reason for them not to look too hard for another team member before they've won some matches anyways.

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Off to the Pokecenter for now, then.

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Intrepid bounds along with her, and is a very good sport (though she pouts a bit) about having her collar taken off to be tested on the Pidgey.

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The test doesn't take long. (It does work, but maybe a bit less well than for Intrepid. More trials will be needed.)

Then, more supplies. Mainly antidote, but also a couple paralyze heals, awakenings, and some more potions.

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Intrepid has a few opinions on useful supplies, and a few on definitely less useful supplies (they need to restock on treats).

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Well... okay, maybe a few. (Ellie gets the feeling that a poffinmaker would probably be a good investment.)

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Nuzzle.

Best Ellie.

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Intrepid is lucky she's so cute. Wouldn't get away with nearly as much otherwise.

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She turns large, watery, criminally adorable eyes on Ellie.

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Ellie gasps dramatically and staggers backward, hand pressed to her heart.

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She giggles, pressing against Ellie's legs and staring at her with sparkly eyes. "I'm the cutest!"

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"Too cute to handle."

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"Of course I am. I could weaponize my cuteness, if I wanted."

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"-Actually, you should try that."

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" - Really?"

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"Yeah. Well, I mean, if you want to try for a sylveon evolution."

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She hums...

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Then turns the sparkliest cutest eyes ever on Ellie. "You really think I'm as cute as a sylveon?" she asks, the sparkles in her very large eyes growing.

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Flustered! "I, uh, well, that is... yes?"

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Are those hearts in her eyes? Those are possibly hearts in her eyes. "And you love me most, and you'll make me some spicy-sweet poffins?"

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"A-anything you want."

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- She starts glowing!

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-Oh what, seriously?

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Intrepid settles into a sylveon! (A very very cute one.) And starts extremely excitedly trilling and rubbing around Ellie's legs.

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"Look at you! Little miss fancypants over here." She crouches down to pet Intrepid better.

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Pats!!! She purrs and pushes her head into Ellie's hand. "None of them felt right before!"

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"Hope this does now."

Some of the other shoppers come over to offer their congratulations.

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She's very gracious about accepting congratulations!

Then, to Ellie: "You promised to make me spicy-sweet poffins."

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"I was under mental influence at the time." But she stands to put the required dried berries in the basket.

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She rubs against Ellie's legs, purring more. "But you still really like me."

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"Yes, I still really like you."

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Headbutt. "Good, 'cause you're my favorite."

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She laughs.

"Let's go check out."

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"Okay."

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Off to the register. The clerk winks and gives them a discount on the berries for a freshly-evolved sylveon.

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She trills happily and passes on her thanks. 

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And then it's time for them to get going.

An older gentleman and a weedle are demonstrating pokeball technique for a group of youngsters in one of the fields next to the path they take.

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She waves her tail in a pretty friendly manner, but doesn't see a reason to stop their walk toward the woods.

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The older man calls the pair over and asks if they'd be willing to help with a battle demonstration.

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She glances at Ellie. "Sounds fun," she says, "And it'll be practice being a sylveon before we get in the forest..."

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Ellie hesitates.

The man's eyes twinkle. "A hundred-fifty flat fee, plus another hundred-fifty stakes."

She grins. "All right. Rules?"

"Let us say... three hits."

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Grin. "Let's go!"

She gets into a ready position, waiting for the signal to start, stretching a bit, tail wagging and now tendrils adding in to the excited waving.

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The weedle squares up across from her, wiggling its horn.

Once the kids are backed up, Ellie and the man count down from three together.

Then: "Intrepid, Quick Attack" / "Weedle, Poison Jab!"

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Pounce!

She's fast, and while she isn't entirely used to being sylveon-shaped, she's been fighting for a good while, and she's talented. 

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She's quicker than Weedle, at least, and her hit knocks the jab off course.

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Score!

She keeps pressing, taking advantage of her speed - trying to stretch herself, too. And she can use that technique she pulled on Ellie, make the Weedle falter at least a bit...

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The next lunge is noticeably less forceful.

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She pushes the attack, trying to get in another solid hit. She only needs to get up to three...

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The weedle stops attacking for a moment. "String Shot!" the man calls.

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"Intrepid, dodge!" Ellie shouts as the weedle puffs up their cheeks.

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Very dodge! She does not want to get weedle string on her nice soft fur!

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The sticky string whiffs by-

-but tags the end of one of her streamers, pinning it to the ground.

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- Waaaahhhh!!!

Intrepid yelps, tugging at her streamer quickly, but it doesn't come free.

She only needs one more hit, though... Baby Doll Eyes turned all the way up, with tail wagging to say Weedle should definitely come over here? 

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Oh they're coming over all right, point first. Intrepid's immobility plus the old man's encouragement seem to have gotten past any reluctance they have.

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"Fairy Wind, Intrepid!"

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Deep breath and loud roar, kicking up a wind storm in front of her. Not a very polished one, but...

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It's enough to knock the weedle down.

"Good! Again."

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Roar!!! A bigger, harsher storm this time. 

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The weedle goes tumbling end over end, and that's the match.

Ellie and the man both call halt, and she goes over to Intrepid to help her cut loose from the string.

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Intrepid's pretty sure she wants to take a bath first stream they pass. This stuff is icky.

Still, good fight! She bounces happily a bit at Weedle.

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Weedle waves somewhat dizzily back at her.

Ellie and the man congratulate each other, then tap their phones together to transfer the funds. The old man turns back to talk to the kids, who sound like they have about a million questions apiece.

Ellie goes to Intrepid. "Ready to keep going?"

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"Yeah!"

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"Great." On they go.

"Congratulations on your first win as a sylveon."

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"Thanks!"

"You helped a lot. You're really smart."

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"I'm glad."

"What do you think we need to work on?"

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"I need to pay attention to my surroundings differently. I'm not used to these," she waves a white tendril, "Or to being this big."

"Also in general figure out what moves are gonna be easier now I've evolved and learn some more fairy type stuff."

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"I know about a couple of the common ones, but more would be good, yeah. I can look online for information, or if you want to hop in a ball for a couple minutes, we can hook it up to the 'dex and get a scan for specifics."

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"Hopping into a ball works. Then I can look at stuff, too! ...You know I think I want to learn how to read, then I could do research on my own..."

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"That'd be cool. Not so easy to do while walking, but it can be an evening activity."

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"After we get tired for the day."

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Nod.

"Do you wanna try the ball now, or wait on that too?"

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"Hm... I think wait on that."

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"Sure."

As they keep walking, the forest gets closer, dense and dark and green. There's a ranger station on the edge where they can register their trip. Ellie picks a 'medium' duration, so if they don't check in on the far side after three days, someone will come looking for them.

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That's pretty smart... And Intrepid doesn't think they're going exploring, yeah, they're just heading to the other side right now. 

Onward? 

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Into the forest, to see what adventure awaits.

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Intrepid goes into the pokeball first thing once they settle for camp, then after that - reading!

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Reading! Humans usually learn to read with stories, rather than lists or datasheets that information about fairy moves will probably be in.

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"What sorts of stories?"

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"All sorts of stories. Stories about people and pokemon, cities and fields, adventures and daily life..."

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"We should read stories about sylveons! Or other eevees, I guess."

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"Let's see what we can find..."

Filtering for the combination of 'introductory reading level' and 'sylveon' gets them a story about an eevee that doesn't know what to evolve into because they don't know which one is best, so they go on a trip and meet all the different evolutions and see each of them face a problem they can solve and a problem they can't. At the end, the group has to confront a ghost and the main character is the one to do it because they're the only normal-type. The story closes with them deciding that they don't have to pick right away, because everyone has their own strengths, even just as they are.

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Aw! That's cute! (Though Sylveon is clearly the best pokemon here, Intrepid can empathize with taking your time deciding.)

Intrepid has at best the ability to recognize what symbols are writing, but she's learning decently quickly at least in terms of short-term memory. (Helps that she knows the language better than most early readers do.)

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They can go again tomorrow night.

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Yeah! Keep practicing.

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That's the key to it.

Ellie does some research about fairy moves Intrepid should be able to learn before turning in for the night. The next day, she has two she thinks they should focus on: Draining Kiss and Dazzling Gleam.

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Hm... What do those do?

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Draining Kiss is like the fairy version of Absorb or actually Leech Life is a better comparison because that's a physical attack too. Dazzling Gleam is another special attack like Fairy Wind, but should work better on heavy pokemon that can't be blown over easily.

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Does Draining Kiss involve actually kissing her opponent?

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It can!

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It sounds fun, but harder to practice without an enemy to target, someone who doesn't mind being drained she guesses...

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Yeah. Probably there'll be people at Pewter Gym at least, battling's basically all they do on a day-to-day basis.

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So maybe they can work on Dazzling Gleam on the way... Though Intrepid will have to practice away from Ellie. And on improving Baby Doll Eyes and Fairy Wind...

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Sure.


There are some opportunities as they travel through the day. An aggressive beedrill, a migrating swarm of caterpie that has to be persuaded to go around Ellie, a couple bug aficionados whose teams want to show off...

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She has fun with all of these, getting nicely tired and therefore settled a bit energy-wise by the time they make camp.

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Reading is a bit easier when you can stay still.

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Seems like it! (And being lower on physical energy means she's far more content to stay snuggled with Ellie.)

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Snuggles are also good.

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Intrepid drifts off to sleep in the middle of a sentence.

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Sleepy baby.

Ellie softly shifts them both into a better sleeping position.

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It's then very startling when, several hours after night falls properly, a loud crash echoes through the forest near them - and another few smaller crashes.

Quite possibly getting closer to their camp.

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Ellie sits bolt upright.

"Intrepid?"

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She yelps, falling off Ellie and landing on her feet, the fur along the base of her spine raised.

"...We should move."

Still, she positions herself in between Ellie and the approaching crashes, tendrils waving.

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There's a guttural roar.

"-That was a venusaur and he sounds angry. Moving is a good idea." She gets up and stuffs the strictly necessary items into her bag.

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She protects her Ellie until her Ellie's ready to move aside, trying to figure out exactly where the venusaur is heading...

And then flinches when the shadows at the edge of their small clearing move.

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 - An Umbreon emerges, barely visible in the sliver of moonlight making its way through the trees. She glances at Intrepid and Ellie as she sprints out of cover -

Then skids to a stop, flipping around, ears back in uncertainty, tail flicking an alarm, trying to tamp down on the glow from her yellow markings.

She mrrs, softly, lowly, red eyes wide and bright - a glance to Intrepid, and a shiver runs up her body, a barely parse-able run!!!

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"Okay, let's go." Look to the umbreon. "You too, come on!"

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She trills her own soft alarm to the umbreon, flicking her tendrils toward Ellie.

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...Suspicious mrr.

Then she inches a bit closer to the two - and then darts past, stops, and looks over her shoulder. (She's moving very quietly.)

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"Run now, talk later." Ellie starts moving.

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Run!!!

The umbreon seems to know where she's going, at least, leading the two toward a fallen tree with what seems to be the start of a tunnel under it (though she's faster than them in the dark undergrowth). She pauses at the entrance, ears flicking, tail rigid, staring back into the darkness behind them.

(The tunnel's a good side for an eeveelution, and a normal venusaur definitely won't fit - which means Ellie will have to crouch.)

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Small price to pay for staying out of the way of an upset venusaur. She wriggles inside.

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Intrepid wiggles in after her - the tunnel's decently deep, at least, they shouldn't be visible from the entrance.

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The umbreon follows last, keeping her distance from Intrepid, successfully tamping down the glow of her markings enough she vanishes in the gloom.

And, outside, slowly, the crashing approaches - then continues, receding away from them until it's barely audible.

Umbreon doesn't seem inclined to move until a little bit after it's vanished entirely from even her sensitive hearing.

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"...Think it's gone."

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She trills at the umbreon.

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And the umbreon squints back at them, before - almost reluctantly - emerging from the tunnel and going to stand at the top of the down tree's wide trunk.

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Intrepid wiggles out of the tunnel, standing near the entrance but continuing to wave her tendrils at the umbreon.

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Ellie squeezes out.

"...Mr. Brown asked us to check on you. If you had any message."

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Uncertain mrrrrrrrrr. Her ears are back a bit.

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Intrepid tilts her head, then goes to nudge their bag. "We should give her some of my poffins," she says. "And also normal food. I think she's hungry."

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"All right." Ellie gets those out, setting them down on the ground and then backing away.

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She sits between Ellie and the food, rumbling contentedly and waving her tendrils invitingly.

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...She sniffs the air very suspiciously, before creeping closer, hesitantly grabbing a spicy poffin then backing off with it to scarf it down while watching the two warily.

She makes a surprised, pleased noise, darting forward again to grab more food. The pattern - dart in, grab food, back off, eat - repeats until she's finished everything there. She's a lot more relaxed by the end, though. 

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"Feeling better?"

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She chirps.

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Smile.

"Good."

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She hesitantly walks a bit closer.

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"Can you invite her to go sit at our camp with us? For tonight. We can share breakfast then."

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"We're going to go back to camp until morning. Hopefully it's salvageable. Do you want to come with us?"

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She hesitates, then nods, walking a little bit closer to the two - though still not in grabbing range.

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Back to the tent.

It's a little crumpled, but not irretrievably broken.

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And looks like the few things they didn't have time to grab - mostly the mess kit - came through intact, too, and they hadn't lit a fire last night since it was pretty warm.

Intrepid's getting the sort of shaky exhausted she does with an adrenaline crash and would like to go back to sleep, now.

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They can curl up together again.

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Yeah! (Snuggle snuggle.)

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Umbreon, of course, doesn't enter the tent with them, instead lurking in the shadows outside the clearing.

Though she's still there in the morning, at least, peering hesitantly out of a bush.

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"Good morning," Ellie yawns. "Want some breakfast?"

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She mrrs, probably agreeably, and emerges from the bush, approaching cautiously - but closer than she had last night.

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Making friends through the power of easy food.

She sets about getting a breakfast ready.

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She creeps closer and closer, inch by inch, as more food is revealed.

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Intrepid's doing her best to look friendly - but not too off-puttingly enthusiastic - and non-threatening. It helps that she really wants food, too.

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Ellie has enough for two pokemon and herself.

Eat up, folks.

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Umbreon's pretty hungry! But she doesn't eat her way through the stores entirely, and they'll still have plenty for the trip, even if their new bottomless pit friend accompanies them the entire way.

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"We're headed north to Pewter," she tells the Umbreon. "Are you staying in the forest?"

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...Uncertain rumble.

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"Well, if you want to travel with us even for just a little way, we'd love to have you."

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Agreeing chirp!

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She hums, shifting a bit uncertainly, then nods.

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"Great." Ellie starts packing up the camp.

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Intrepid has opposable tentacles and can help now! So they're ready to go pretty quickly.

Intrepid bounds ahead of them a bit along the path, then back, then ahead - often wiggling at the umbreon specifically.

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She's trotting along behind Ellie as they walk toward Pewter City, eyes narrowed at Intrepid every time the sylveon gets close.

And, one dart away, umbreon tenses -

And gives chase, scampering quickly after the other pokemon.

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She laughs, darting around, leading the umbreon in a little game of chase (progressing forward along the path at roughly Ellie's walking speed, at least).

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She jumps, closing on Intrepid -

Bop!

(She darts off before the sylveon can recover from having her nose bopped. Seems they're going to play tag, now.)

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Aw, cute.

It's good Umbreon can have fun.

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The two get tired after a while, falling into a more companionable ramble along.

Umbreon does get a bit more hesitant as they approach the edges of the forest late in the day - around the time they'd usually make camp, though if they decide to push through they could get out of the forest around sundown or a bit after.

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They've still got time.

"What say we break here for tonight?"

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She chirps. "Sounds good to me."

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The umbreon relaxes a bit.

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"Cool." Ellie puts her bag down and gets the tent set up. "Anyone want to make poffins tonight?"

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Excited trill!!!

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Umbreon makes a curious noise.

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She digs the berries out and tosses them halfway between Umbreon and Intrepid. "Pick your favorites."

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They quickly concur on a mix of spicy and sweet - Intrepid leaning a bit more sweet, the umbreon a bit more spicy, but they're willing to split the difference to make it easier.

("We definitely need to recruit her," Intrepid says to Ellie. "Where else will we find someone who knows what the best poffin flavor is?")

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She laughs as she mixes the dough.

"It would save on berries if we can just buy in bulk."

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 - Mrrr?

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" - Oh, she can't hear me."

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"Intrepid thinks we should recruit you," she says to Umbreon. "Purely based on your taste in poffins."

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She makes a surprised noise, eyeing Intrepid.

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She grins and waves her tendrils.

"I wanna figure out the umbreon language," she sends to Ellie. "She should get to talk to us, too..."

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"She also wants to learn to talk with you more effectively. I invented a collar that lets pokemon talk directly to humans, but it works off psychic principles."

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Thoughtful 'mrrr.'

Then she looks at Intrepid and - probably that is a word, it sounds far more language-y than pokemon vocalizations usually do, even if it's not quite something human vocal chords could trivially reproduce.

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She does her best to say it back! It only comes out a little mangled.

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Sigh.

She corrects Intrepid's pronunciation.

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Wow. Umbreons do vocalized languages, apparently.

She contemplates whether other dark-types are similar while folding the selected berries into the poffin mix, and keeps half an ear on the conversation as she finishes cooking them.

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Umbreon appears to be teaching Intrepid some sort of phoneme song. (She has a rather lovely deep voice, actually, and a good amount of talent at singing.)

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Intrepid does not have a good amount of talent at singing! Still, the phoneme song seems to be really helping her learn to make all the different noises.

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Mrrr she wants to take notes but that might be rude...

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"Maybe you can ask about notes? Or recording?" Intrepid sends her after a bit.

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She flips the poffins over in the frying pan.

"...Do you mind if I record this?" she asks Umbreon. "It's really fascinating."

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She thinks for a few long moments, then shakes her head.

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"-is that a yes recording or no recording?"

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She chuckles and nods once.

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"Okay, cool." She gets her phone out and sets it up to record.

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She runs Intrepid through the phoneme song again, then starts on another song, which possibly involves counting (possibly eevees or pokemon; the word that's changing the least - though the language sounds like it has weird pluralization rules - is introduced by the umbreon by pointing to Intrepid with her paw and saying it, pointing to herself and saying it, then gesturing between them and saying the dual form, then gesturing to Ellie and saying something that might've had a 'not' involved, attached to the same word).

There's not a ton they can get through before the poffins are done, of course, but the umbreon seems to be a pretty patient teacher.

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That's pretty neat. Ellie asks Umbreon some questions while they eat, getting a feel for how correct her intuitions were.

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Mostly correct! Some of the weirdness with counting comes out, too - their language has a base nine counting system, not a base ten, and the weirdness with the plurals was that they have a separate form for 'one [noun],' 'two [nouns],' and 'three [nouns],' and instead of a set plural form after that, the first three forms repeat - so 'four [nouns]' and 'seven [nouns]' both use the 'single' form for the noun, while 'five [nouns]' and 'eight [nouns]' uses the dual, and 'six [nouns]' and 'nine [nouns]' use the triple. (An unspecified number of things always uses the triple form, which is the simplest and is what umbreon gives when asked about the word for a noun.)

Words for negation are apparently kind of complex, but the word the umbreon used for Ellie was pretty much 'not an eevee,' and the counting song was in fact counting eevees - umbreon says 'nine eevees' a couple times, slowly and broken up into word parts, until it becomes apparent they share a root.

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This is all really cool!

...Does Intrepid want to do reading or keep working on this tonight?

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...Hm. This is super cool and fun, but her head's getting kind of full, and she thinks it'll help her brain if she switches to a different kind of learning? And then the umbreon can take a break from teaching her.

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Sure.

Does Umbreon want to read along?

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Given how she starts squinting, that might sound suspiciously like it requires being in touching range.

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Well. Technically, yeah. Ellie doesn't have a great solution for projecting the text here. If she had a portable screen or something she could flick the text over to it and make the words big enough to be seen from further away, but she doesn't.

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Yeah she's going to stay over here. (But she doesn't seem very offended by the offer, at least.)

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All right. Ellie and Intrepid will just curl up together, then.

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Intrepid doesn't mind. She likes cuddling Ellie, and the umbreon's not being unfriendly anymore, so.

Reading! She's getting to where she needs Ellie's help with the words a lot less, though she might also be memorizing this story.

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They can switch to a different story, maybe. Ellie's always liked this one, a myth about Arceus and the creation of the world.

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It's pretty, yeah. (Snuggle.)

Intrepid drifts off to sleep while cuddling Ellie again.

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Ellie waves good night softly to Umbreon.

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She waves back, then curls up to sleep. 

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Sleep time for everyone.

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Umbreon follows them again the next day, playing with Intrepid some - and then pausing, still hovering in the trees' shadows, as they reach the forest's edge.

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"The offer to come with us still stands, if you want. It's been fun, traveling with you."

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Intrepid trills her agreement.

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She hesitates...

Then steps out of the forest, following them.

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Ellie smiles.

"Welcome aboard."

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She smiles back, a bit shyly. 

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Hee.

So, first order of business is to check in at the station and get their names crossed off the list of people who are known to be in the forest. Then they're back on the road north to Pewter City, which is nestled up in the base of the mountains, further away from the forest (otherwise they'd have to call it the Pewter-Viridian Forest).

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She stays well away from the station, but falls in as they walk north, spending a bit making assorted curious noises about Pewter City before Intrepid tempts her into more games of tag. 

...And then they get to city outskirts, and into city proper, and Umbreon does not approve of crowds, nope, not at all, zero, especially not crowds sometimes containing undisciplined grabby hellbeasts, also known as 'children.'

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Hm. This could be a bit of a problem, then. Let's stop and figure it out (safely away from the children). Ellie and Intrepid do need to do things in the city proper... They could set up a camp outside that Umbreon could stay at, and then go in by themselves? Or- if Umbreon is willing to walk closer to Ellie, she can keep other people away. Or a pokeball, that would be another way to get by them. If they can get to the hostel, there won't be crowds inside... But probably Umbreon doesn't want to be surrounded like that? So the camp would be the better idea.

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Intrepid can also run interference. Stick between Umbreon and any kids and be very pettable. And there's probably paths with fewer people, and future times they go out with Umbreon, they can do so when most humans - especially kids - are in work or at school... 

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Mrrrr.

Pokeball seems to be a 'no.' Some back and forth establishes she's willing to try walking closer to Ellie, with Intrepid between her and grabby people, and she's willing to try the hostel.

(She actually seems kind of reluctant or even unhappy about maybe staying alone in a camp.)

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All right. They can walk together.

This strategy is mostly successful. A combination of Ellie waving people away and Intrepid distraction particularly unruly children gets them at least a small bubble of space all the way to the hostel, where Ellie is able to negotiate for a larger-than-average single occupancy room.

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Intrepid's tendrils are also strong and long enough to physically block anyone very insistent - though she indeed parses as significantly more pettable, being both cute and also friendly (most children who do not have an adult actively running interference before they touch a strange pokemon can read 'low unhappy rumble and flattened ears' well enough to give the umbreon her bubble).

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Umbreon is very obviously stressed but has stayed near Ellie and hasn't fulfilled her body language's promise to run away and/ or bite even once. 

Though once they're in the room she goes and hides under the bed. 

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Yeah that's fair.

Ellie places a couple of the spicy poffins on the floor next to the bed and backs away.

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...Her paw emerges after a minute to pull one under the bed with her.

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Ah, good.

Ellie gets her things organized and sits at the desk to write up some of her notes from the past few days, both on Intrepid's progress in learning to read and the umbreon language.

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Intrepid curls up contentedly at her feet - sadly, the desk isn't big enough for both a sylveon and Ellie's notes. 

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The umbreon finishes off the poffins over the next little bit, pulling them under the bed one by one, then just lurks for a bit - but, after the room's been quiet for a while and neither of the other occupants have tried to interact with her, she slowly emerges from under the bed to sniff around. 

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Ellie glances over but keeps working.

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She stills when Ellie moves, then keeps investigating once it's clear it was only a glance. 

After she's sniffed every nook and cranny, she starts testing the bed's softness, eventually deciding to drag some spare linens and pillows from the closet into a nest in the corner of the room nearest the window. 

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After Umbreon's had time to do that, Ellie puts her pencil down and stretches.

"Intrepid and I should go check out the gym here. Do you want more softs or anything?"

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She chirps - seems to be 'more softs,' mostly. 

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"Okay."

So first down to reception to snag an extra set of linens, back to the room to drop that off inside the door, wave to Umbreon again, then they can head to the gym.

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Umbreon builds up her nest and then vanishes entirely inside it.

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Meanwhile: gym!

Intrepid's excitedly prancing - and spending more time staring around at the city in interest, now that she's not having to worry so much about keeping people from touching Umbreon.

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Pewter City is more old-fashioned than Viridian, the buildings generally smaller and made out of grey stone quarried locally, more people in traditional dress as their daily wear.

The gym is a broad, low building on the western side. Inside, it seems the gym is mainly underground, with the building housing only a waiting area and changing rooms. The walls are lined with plates of stone inscribed with the names of successful challengers and their teams.

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"Is this a rock and ground type gym, mostly?"

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"Mostly, yeah. Brock works with an onix that's pretty famous and there's lots of geodude natives."

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"Okay! Don't think I'll have any special advantages here..."

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"No type advantages, but you should be faster than most and rock doesn't resist fairy the way it does normal-type attacks."

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"I'm very fast, yeah."

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"Speedy little girl." Ellie ruffles the top of Intrepid's head.

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She giggles and nuzzles Ellie's hand.

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Next up is signing up for the challenge. For first badge challengers, Brock doesn't institute any special rules, so it'll be a straightforward match. Before that, they'll have to defeat three gym members. There are also practice classes offered to help pokemon and trainers improve themselves and their teamwork. Ellie registers for a class that'll help them work on new attacks and the first gym battle the day after.

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Exciting!!!

(...Probably they won't be convincing the umbreon to fight in the matches with them any time soon... But maybe she'd like it? Fighting's a great hobby.)

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The pokeball during official matches is probably going to be a dealbreaker, yeah. But maybe she could get in on some of the hobbyist matches.

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Yeah! She should get to have fun, at least.

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They can bring the idea up. Back to the room? Or does Intrepid want to explore the city more?

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Hm... They've been walking a lot today, and it's getting kind of late... Maybe explore just long enough to find somewhere for dinner and somewhere to restock on food?

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They could get takeout and bring some back for Umbreon.

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"Yeah! Get her something tasty."

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"Okay." So they're on the hunt for that. A curry place not too far from the gym advertises 'Spicy Hot Hot Go Bowls' seems promising.

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Ooooo looks (and smells!) yummy, and there's a corner mart nearby, too.

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If Intrepid can hold their place after she orders, Ellie will run down and pick up the other supplies they need.

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She can do that, yeah!

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Efficiency!

Ellie gets back just before their food is ready, and then they can go back to the room.

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Umbreon pops out of her nest nose first, sniffing, when they enter.

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"We brought food, if you're hungry."

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Chirp!!!

She wriggles out of the nest, bounding over - getting actually a bit closer than she has so far, even more than during the walk to the hostel.

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Ellie sets the bags from the corner mart down and portions out the the curry.

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She's willing to get about four inches from Ellie's hand while waiting for curry to be set in reach, apparently.

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Intrepid is prancing.

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Friendship is getting closer to happening. She puts the bowl down and retreats to eat her own.

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Enthusiastic noms!

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The food is pretty good.

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She got Umbreon a different flavor than for herself, and when the other eevee starts slowing down, she makes a few curious noises in Umbreon's direction and mimes sharing some.

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...Hm.

Okay, yeah.

(Renewed enthusiastic noms!)

Umbreon's getting clearly sleepy by the time she finishes, probably from a mix of the long day and the large meal.

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Ellie and Intrepid will try to be quiet for reading practice, then.

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Probably doesn't hurt for Intrepid to try silent reading, too, she's been reading out loud so far.

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Sure, that should help stretch her capabilities.

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Gives her an excuse to reread the ones she's been moving past!

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It does.

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Intrepid does her best, though she ends up mouthing all the words, and very quietly whispering some, but - she successfully avoids preventing Umbreon from falling asleep in her nest.

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Probably. The other eevee isn't exactly visible under all those blankets.

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Call that a win for tonight, still.

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Happy nuzzle.

"I like her. I'm glad she's relaxing some..."

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"Yeah," Ellie projects. "I hope she gets keeps getting more comfortable around us."

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"I think as long as we just keep being friendly..."

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Snuggles.

"Yeah."

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Nuzzle. "It's getting to be our bedtime now, though."

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"Good night, then."

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Sleepy snuggles!

And a good night's sleep for tomorrow morning!

Intrepid gets up well before Ellie, softly wriggling out of her grasp, stopping to check if she's still sleeping after Intrepid jumps to the floor.

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Sleepy mumble.

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Her human's so cute. Intrepid gently tugs the blankets back around Ellie's shoulders, settling them, and waits for Ellie to drift back to sleep before going to dig out some food (prehensile tendrils are so great) and then nose Umbreon's nest.

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...Curious nose?

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She makes a shushing motion and points to the food she'd transferred to a little go bag, then points at the door, tilting her head.

(It's currently not yet dawn, and the street outside is about as quiet as city streets ever get.)

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...Headtilt.

She crawls out of her nest, shaking her blankets off, then goes to the door, waiting for Intrepid to open it before heading to the hostel's exterior door, staring out at the dark city.

...There's streetlights, which she doesn't approve of, but...

She doesn't exactly like being cooped up.

She steps outside.

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Heee.

She picks up the go bag and closes the room door behind them, loping after Umbreon and then darting ahead, flicking her tail invitingly and then leading the way to a forested park she spotted the day before. It's not exactly huge, nor a very natural forest, but it's big enough they can get away from the site of buildings on a few trails, and it has pretty flowers along the paths.

Picnic?

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Picnic!

After morning tag, of course. Exercise is better before food than after.

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Intrepid thoroughly agrees!

She's familiar enough with cities to steer Umbreon back before morning traffic begins - a little bit after dawn, and Ellie's probably not awake yet so they should be quiet, though she might be stirring some...

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Still sleeeeeepy.

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Intrepid gets a cold breakfast prepped and set on the tiny kitchenette counter, then quietly peeks through things until she finds the coffee maker and figures out how to use and program it. She knows about when Ellie tends to wake up on days like this, so... Set coffee to be ready at that time, then stealthily return for more snuggles!

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(Umbreon watches in apparent fascination, then goes to slink into the hostel's common room in search of... Actually just literally anything to entertain herself with that doesn't involve humans. She can drag a magazine to a forgotten corner, maybe.)

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Ellie wakes slowly, as is her wont, but the coffee definitely helps and earns Intrepid some extra pats.

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Excellent!

(She does this every morning coffee's a reasonable thing to make, but, well. It never stops creating a warm glow in Intrepid's chest to set things up for her Ellie.)

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"Where'd Umbreon go?" she asks once she's together enough to notice the absence.

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"I think the common spaces? We went out to a park to have breakfast before the sun came up, and she was sniffing at the magazine rack when we were coming back in. Though she probably grabbed something and hid..."

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"Right. Well. We should let her know we're heading out."

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"Okay! To the Gym?"

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"To the gym!"

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Bounce!

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Umbreon has in fact liberated the common room of a small stack of home and garden magazines and found an out-of-the-way bench to curl up under. She looks up from one of her magazines, tilting her head, when Ellie and Sylveon find her.

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"We're headed out to the gym, probably for the whole day. Do you need anything before we go?"

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She thinks, then touches her paw to her mouth and makes a noise a lot like the one Intrepid makes when begging for food, then a questioning noise.

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"I left some pre-cooked things on the table in the room, you should be able to get to them. We'll bring dinner back again. If you want we can try to get back for lunch, too."

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Hum, and then she hesitates and shrugs, feigning nonchalance a bit awkwardly.

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"We'll see how things go on our end, then."

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She nods and picks up her magazines, intending to return to the room with them.

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Ellie won't get in her way.

Off to Pewter Gym for her and Intrepid.

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So what's first on the agenda?

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First up is the class! There are three trainers from the gym and a lineup of tough-looking graveler to run it. The students will be splitting up based on what kind of moves they want to practice: physical, special, or status. Ellie and Intrepid are going to be in the physical group to begin with, which is the smallest. Rock-types have generally high physical defense, so most trainers try special or status moves to get around that.

Also in their group are a young boy with a machop and an older girl with a Galaran meowth, fur stiffer and shaggier than the ones native to Kanto.

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She greets them cheerfully. (Learning a variety of moves is fun, and Intrepid does tend to have fewer, weaker physical moves...)

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Once everyone's introduced, the instructor goes over what moves they'll be practicing and how to tell when a graveler needs to stop for a break. (The graveler are very self-important about being tough and hard to break.) There's a stock of potions for injuries.

So with the precautions taken care of, they can spread out a bit and begin.

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She's fast and enthusiastic! She's gotten better about tracking where her body is, too, though she still takes risks when fighting. 

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The graveler will kindly point out where she is seriously overstretching herself (with a fist or body-check, as appropriate).

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She finds that teaching method pretty funny, actually, giggling every time she's knocked down. 

She also doesn't make the same mistake twice.

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Meanwhile, the humans are being helped to take notes about their partner's performance by the gym trainer, pointing out what sorts of calls they should be making with their wider perspective.

The class runs until a little before lunchtime. At the end all the students line up to thank the teachers, and then they're dismissed.

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She's really sincere and cheerful in her thanks.

Then, to Ellie: "Do we have time to get lunch back to Umbreon? Or at least check on her?"

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"We don't have anything formally scheduled, so I think we should."

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"Yeah. I think she might be lonely, actually? Or worried about getting bored... I would be."

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"Yeah." They start heading back. "Feel kind of bad about just leaving her, but also don't want to force crowds on her..."

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"It's... Tough. I'm hoping to do more stuff like taking her to the park when people aren't around, but... I do need to sleep... But maybe she can start sleeping while we're out and exploring on her own at night? A lot of umbreons like being nocturnal anyways... And she might relax over time?"

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"We'll see, I guess."

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Nod.

Should they get takeout for lunch again?

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Maybe just throw something together with what they have in the room. They can do takeout for dinner.

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She nods - that'll be faster, too, and then they can spend more time hanging out with Umbreon.

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Back to the room to do that, then!

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Umbreon is curled up half under the bed with a lot of magazines, and she makes a small pleased noise when Ellie and Intrepid return.

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"Hey. We thought we'd make lunch- not at home, but with stuff we already have. Want some?"

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Chirp!

She wiggles out from under the bed.

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Hee.

Three servings it is!

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She isn't prancing around Ellie's feet like Intrepid - probably fortunately, it's hard enough as it is not tripping over one eevee - but she is making doe eyes about the food, and she'll even let Ellie's hand get pretty close while setting it in her reach.

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"Here you go girls. Enjoy."

She sits at the table to eat her own lunch.

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Happy noms!

She settles in to groom herself after, apparently very relaxed.

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"We'll be going back out for the afternoon. Do you want input on what we get for dinner?"

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Hmmm..

She nods a little.

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"All right." Ellie grabs a piece of paper and writes down the different restaurant types she's seen here so far, spaced more than a paw's width apart. "So here's what we've seen so far..." She puts the list down in front of Umbreon and reads it, tapping each one as she does so.

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Heee.

She examines the paper, humming, then taps a few sorts of very flavorful cuisines - fortunately there's a good bit of overlap with Intrepid's tastes. She taps some of them more times than others.

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"Noted. We'll be here for a while longer, so we should get to try most of these eventually."

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She makes a very pleased noise.

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Intrepid trills and nuzzles Umbreon.

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"How's everything else? Holding up okay?"

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She hums, thoughtful, and nods to her magazines with a little shrug.

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"Enough reading material for now?"

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Small shrug.

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"Option to come with us is always open."

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Uncertain mrrrr.

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"Up to you, of course, and again we're going to be here a while longer."

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She hesitates a bit more then shakes her head a little.

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"Okay. We'll be back for dinner."

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Small chirp.

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Then back to the gym for Ellie and Intrepid. Their afternoon is more freeform, and they can take advantage of the gym's amenities: obstacles courses, training weights, practice arenas, and so forth.

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She has a lot of fun with the obstacle courses!!! Intrepid goes zoom!

The other stuff is important too, though, and she takes breaks from sprinting around madly to work on picking stuff up with her tendrils (and just general strength really) and on aiming her more damaging but finickier to actually use (so far) attacks at training dummies. She makes a few friends amidst all this, especially other pokemon hanging around the obstacle courses a lot, challenging a few to races.

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A gym trainer mentions that they have races every so often; Ellie thinks they should sign up for one if they're here long enough.

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Oh that sounds excellent!

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She'll see if they can work it out, then.

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Heee thanks! 

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Should be fun for everyone.

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Nuzzle!

Umbreon might be willing to be in the audience too if it isn't very crowded, audiences don't move around a lot. 

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That would be nice. Ellie's thinking about staying up late and maybe asking her to go for a walk this evening.

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"I think she'll like that a lot, yeah."

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"Cool. About ready to head back, then?"

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She nods with a smile. 

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Then a quick stop to pick up food, and back to the room.

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Umbreon actually comes near the door of the room to greet them this time! She's sniffing the air eagerly.

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"Hey. Have a nice afternoon?"

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Small chirp.

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"Great. We brought dinner, as I think you've surmised."

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Big doe eyes!

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"I guess you're hungry, huh?"

She starts setting dinner out.

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She is quite hungry it turns out! And appreciative of the food.

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Ellie keeps up a mostly one-sided conversation about what they did at the gym today, pausing to translate any comments Intrepid has.

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She listens with clear interest and some longing.

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Maybe she could come to watch the race.

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Intrepid doesn't think there'll be too much of a crowd, too, so Umbreon could sit away from other spectators.

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She hums and nods, a bit slowly.

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It'd be a nice group activity.

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Grin.

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Speaking of which, would Umbreon like to take a walk later tonight, once most people have gone home?

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Yeah!

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Intrepid laughs and headbutts Umbreon.

And, on their walk - she spots a sign for a library.

"Hey, I bet she's bored with just magazines actually - wonder if she'd like staying at the library some of the day?"

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Ellie asks. "We can drop you off tomorrow morning, if you like."

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Extremely excited trill! She nods.

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"Can do."

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Intrepid smiles exceptionally smugly. "Books are great," she says. "Maybe we could spend a little time in the library too? Find new stories for me to read."

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'Sure can."

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She laughs and bounces a bit as they're walking. 

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That's as good a lead-in as any for her to start chatting about her favorite stories.

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Umbreon listens fairly intently!

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Hopefully she picks up some good ones.

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She nods enthusiastically!

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The walk eventually winds its way to its end, and Ellie curls up with Intrepid for sleep.

Next day, they head out for the library early, to get there when it opens. Ellie quietly asks the desk people to keep a bit of an eye out that no one's bothering Umbreon, but today isn't generally a busy day so it shouldn't be a problem.

Ellie and Intrepid have a midmorning battle, their first official one at Pewter Gym. The opponents are a gym trainer with a geodude and a rockruff; Intrepid can easily dance around the geodude but the rockruff is fast enough to give her more trouble.

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She gives it her all! She's been getting really quick at getting off Fairy Wind, which helps a lot.

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With some quick thinking and moderately clever tactics, they can score two knockouts to win the battle.

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Smug bouncing commences!

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Cute!

They should go celebrate.

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Yes! They can pick up very spicy takeout and then take Umbreon to the park for lunch? Or maybe dinner...

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They can stop by the library and ask her opinion.

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Okay! 

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Off to do that, then.

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The librarian can point them to Umbreon pretty easily, who's hiding under a desk in a little-used corner of the library with a tidy stack of books she's reading. She looks up and huffs a bit quietly when she sees Ellie and Intrepid.

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"Hey. We won our first match, so we thought we'd celebrate a bit. Do you want to join us either now or later tonight?"

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She hums and glances toward the door, tilting her head.

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"Can't bring food in here, so it'd be outside yeah."

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...Hm.

The library's near some woods...

She stands and then looks sadly at the book she was in the middle of.

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"We can check that one out if you want."

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She grins and nods.

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Ellie goes to scoop the book up.

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Umbreon goes to put all her other books away on the to-be-reshelved cart.

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Ellie checks the book out with her trainer's license, and then they can go find a quiet bit of park to claim.

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Heeee.

Umbreon ends up resting pretty closely to Ellie and Sylveon while she eats, hesitantly so, glancing at Ellie a lot.

She's actually in arm's reach, right now.

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Ellie smiles, but keeps eating her lunch.

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Intrepid sets up a soothing, contented rumble, laying a bit nearer Umbreon.

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And Umbreon hesitates after lunch...

Then seems like she wants to follow them, rather than going back into the library.

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"We could visit the science museum. It's supposed to be pretty good."

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! Heeee. Trill!

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"Take the afternoon off?" she asks Intrepid.

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"Definitely!"

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"Let's go, then."

Pewter Science Museum is in the north of the city, near where it peters out into the foothills of the mountain range. The primary focus is geology, but this is fairly broadly interpreted such that there are digressive exhibits on how that study intersects with other fields, such as archaeology. There's actually a rather nice display of fossils from the local digs the museum sponsors.

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Oooo archaeology, Umbreon apparently has a new special interest. Fossils are so cool.

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There's an informational sign to the effect that a lab on Cinnabar Island is experimenting with techniques to recreate "lifelike" simulations of ancient pokemon from their fossils.

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...That sounds like a bad idea. She huffs.

Humans are so stupid.

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"Not a fan?" Ellie asks, wandering over and glancing at the sign.

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She nose-points at 'lifelike simulations' and huffs again. 

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"Oh. Hm. That does seem slightly dubious, depending what exactly they mean by 'lifelike'."

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It's not dubious it's dumb! 

Though humans tend to underestimate the stupidity of other humans. 

She huffs and turns to look at something less dumb. 

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There's an exhibit about meteors and the rare metals they can bring to unexpected places when they crash, which ties back into the previous one as well with a discussion of the theory of panspermia, that life was brought to the planet from elsewhere in space by a meteor crash.

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Okay that is cool and also something you should actually be investigating. Good job whichever humans are poking meteors and not ancient pokemon.

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Whatever humans are poking ancient pokemon, they don't seem to be associated with the rest of the museum.

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Very good. Then she has a wonderful educational time the rest of her trip with absolutely minimal annoyance at human stupidity. Lovely when that happens. 

(Rocks are so cool. Some of them are made from LAVA. She likes those best.)

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Rocks are pretty cool. The museum lived up to its reputation, in Ellie's opinion.

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Yeah!

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So it's about dinnertime now, they can get takeout or go to a restaurant or go back to the hostel.

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...One chirp?

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Takeout and eat at the park, then?

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Sounds good! 

(She does hide in a convenient alley while food is being acquired.)

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Entirely reasonable of her.

Then they can find a nice spot for a picnic dinner.

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She seems to favor a larger, more forested park, curling up in some shade on the edge of a clearing very far away from people. 

She's watching Ellie and Intrepid a lot while she eats. Seems thoughtful. 

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Ellie flicks a bit of rice at Umbreon's nose, playfully.

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She scrunches up her nose and then laughs.

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"Deep thoughts for a little umbreon?"

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"Mmmm."

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"Well, don't let it spoil your food. I don't think the muk and grimer will appreciate it as much."

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Nope! It's her food. 

She turns back to eating with a little smile, finishing fairly soon after - a bit before Ellie and Intrepid.

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She won't have to wait too much longer for them to finish up.

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She doesn't go to pack up right away, just - hesitating. Sending Ellie especially a lot of short glances. 

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"-Something you want?"

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"...Ah." Small noise, and she bites her lip.

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She settles back down. "Well, take your time."

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Intrepid snuggles against Ellie, trying to look politely interested but not pushy. It's a hard balance. 

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...Mrrrr.

This would be so much easier if they weren't nice. Umbreon could just preemptively run away. 

She's absolutely ready to run away now but she doesn't want to

...Deep breath. 

...More pause to even her breathing, and -

Slowly: "I can. Speak human."

Her words are a bit fragmented, her accent incredibly thick, like her mouth and vocal chords aren't quite meant for this. 

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Surprised blink.

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Uncertain mrrrrr.

She looks very skittish. More than she did when Ellie first met her, actually. 

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Uhhh reciprocating verbalizations is probably a good idea here-

"I honestly was not expecting anything close to that and am not quite sure what to say. It seems like you're expecting me to react poorly to this which I would guess in some way ties into why you don't like crowds and preferred to live alone in the forest so I don't want to- do anything that will remind you of that."

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She relaxes a teensy bit. Still kinda wary, but. 

"...You're. Nice."

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Bit of a smile.

"I'm glad you think so."

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Chirp! (It's true, Ellie's the nicest.)

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She smiles and moves closer, a bit hesitantly, until she's in arm's reach again. 

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"Is it okay it I pet you?"

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She nods. "Yeah."

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Pets!

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Pets!!!

This feels so amazingly nice. (She has been petted before, of course, she had a human she was protecting when she became an umbreon, but - )

(It's been a while.)

She starts rumbling deep in her chest. 

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Nuzzle! Ellie should definitely scritch her ears.

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She can absolutely do that.

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Umbreon is a melty, purring pile of black fur soon enough. 

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"You're really very cute, you know."

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Heeee!

Headbutt. "You're good. And pretty."

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"The prettiest," Intrepid sends to Ellie, for all that Umbreon can't hear her. (Though she does also produce an agreeable trill. Also, if Umbreon is getting satisfied, Ellie does appear to have a second hand...)

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Yes, Intrepid can have pets too.

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Good! Snuggle!

(She drapes a tendril gently across Umbreon's back. Double snuggles?)

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(Double snuggles.)

"Very good," Umbreon murmurs in between purrs.

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Hee.

"Glad you like it."

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Nuzzle. 

"I like you."

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"Then I am honored indeed."

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Heeee! 

She's content to stay like this until Ellie or Intrepid want to get up, it seems. 

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Not too much longer, unfortunately. There's sleep to be had and things to do tomorrow.

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She glances up at Ellie as they're standing. 

"I don't - want anyone else to know. About - this."

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"Okay. I won't tell."

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"Thanks."

Back to the hostel, then? 

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Yep. Ellie sets Umbreon's book down within her reach.

"Do you want to go back to the library tomorrow?"

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Hum.

"I might - want to go with you? If there's not too many people..."

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"Mm, about as many as the museum, probably."

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"That's okay... I want to watch Intrepid."

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She trills and headbutts Umbreon.

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"She is pretty well worth watching."

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"I am."

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Umbreon laughs. 

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"It'd be good to have another perspective on our performance, as well."

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Enthusiastic nodding!

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She smiles a bit shyly. "Okay."

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Smile.

"Think we had best get ready for bed now, then."

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Nod.

(She still goes to curl up in her nest, of course. Nest good.)

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Still Ellie and Intrepid together, then.

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She's not quite ready to share nighttime cuddles yet, anyways.

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And so the next morning, it's a party of three to visit the gym.

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Umbreon is very skittish on their walk to the gym, but it does help a lot that she's now willing to press as closely to Ellie as possible without tripping the girl.

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She helps keep Umbreon calm.

What're they doing today?

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More obstacle courses in the morning, in the afternoon there's a couple slots open for practice battles.

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Ooo, battles!

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Should be fun.

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Yeah!

Obstacle courses first, of course - Intrepid has a lot of fun with these still.

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They can start doing the ones with randomly-falling rocks that Ellie has to call out for Intrepid too.

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Oh, this one's exciting, and differently challenging than the others... Helps Intrepid not get so much in her own head, too, so she's listening to Ellie more...

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And Ellie's getting snappier at callouts too.

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Then, after a nice lunch in the park (giving Umbreon some time away from people): battling!

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Battling! Mostly what they get here is a broader survey of the various rock-types they'll encounter progressing forward in the gym challenge.

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It's fun all the same.

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Umbreon steps forward after the second practice bout, making a curious noise and glancing at Ellie.

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"Want to try?"

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She nods.

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"Need to strategize a bit first, figure out what moves you've got. Unless you want to go in alone?"

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She shakes her head.

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"All right."

Ellie finds a list of commonly-known umbreon moves and begins reading them off.

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She has most of them, apparently.

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Cool; so she can be up next and Ellie will do her best to direct her.

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She's actually better than Intrepid at listening for directions, though her and Ellie's unfamiliarity with each other balances that in the opposite direction.

Still, she's having fun.

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That's important as a starting point! The rest will come with practice, if she wants to keep this up.

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Yeah. She seems to.

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They can do a couple more today before dinner, then.

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Heeee.

Then: dinner! ...Probably still eaten as a picnic or in the hostel room.

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Yeah, it'd be nice to be able to have some conversation with it.

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Yeah.

Once they're settled down: "That was fun."

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"It was. Seems like you've got some experience."

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"A little!"

Then, pausing, and continuing sadly: "I used to have a human, a - while ago."

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"Mm." Gentle pat?

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Nuzzle.

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Cuddle.

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"D'you want to talk about them?"

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She hesitates, then shakes her head. "Not now."

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Pats. "Okay."

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She snuggles into Ellie's side.

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"Think you might want to do more of it? The battling."

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She hums, then nods.

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"Intrepid and I are doing a gym challenge. There's rules with the formal matches, pokeballs and that, but if you don't want to deal with that there'll be plenty of informal training stuff like today."

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"I was fine with pokeballs with my human, but I haven't been with anyone else, but - I didn't like anyone else."

"I like you."

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"We can test it out later. No commitments."

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Headbutt.

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Ear scritches.

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Purr!

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Cute!

And some for Intrepid, as well.

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Yes excellent. No forgetting the best girl! 

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Too many of those around for that to be possible.

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She giggles and flops into Ellie's lap enough she can also be curled up by Umbreon.

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Hee.

What a pleasant way to spend the evening.

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Her pokemon quite agree.

The next morning - could Intrepid and Umbreon both do training stuff at the same time? Or maybe bring books...

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Both are possible. Perhaps a practice battle between the two of them? Though Intrepid may have to go a bit gentle, considering the type advantage. But Umbreon's experience might help there too.

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Sounds good to Umbreon.

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Yeah! Fighting is fun! Though Intrepid doesn't do 'going easy.'

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Umbreon wouldn't want that anyways. 

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Ellie will just be on standby with the potions then, hmm?

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Sure. 

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All right then, clever girls. Let's go.

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Intrepid's going to win, of course. 

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She's welcome to think that! 

(They fight each other to a pleasantly exhausted standstill, of course.)

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They both did well. Good job.

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Smug wiggle! 

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If they're both up for it, the other major area the team needs to work on is incorporating pokeballs, release and return.

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Intrepid is. 

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Umbreon nods.

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All right. So Ellie will get a training dummy and a quiet corner, and take out two pokeballs. Her idea is that the two of them will take turns attacking as she calls them in and out.

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Okay.

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Works for Intrepid.

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Step one: into the balls. Ellie brings the first up to lock on Intrepid, and tosses it gently.

Bonk. Shwoop.

Then it's Umbreon's turn. Bonk. Shwoop.

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It's a bit disorienting - but neither Intrepid nor Umbreon react poorly.

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Then onwards with the training. Ellie works on her throwing technique and speed at switching pokeballs, and periodically sets the dummy into a new configuration between releasing one or the other of her girls.

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This is actually kind of a fun challenge - and Umbreon catches on to the rhythm pretty quick, faster than Intrepid does.

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Nice.

Ellie starts throwing more complicated orders when she comes out of the ball.

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She jumps to meet the challenge!

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A productive training session, then. Ellie feels confident about scheduling another challenge battle for the next day.

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Intrepid and Umbreon do, too.

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Heee.

In the room that night, she turns to Ellie and asks, "Did you name Intrepid?"

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"It was a bit of a collaborative effort, but yeah. Do you want a nickname too?"

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Deep, thoughtful hum. "...I think so. 'Umbreon' isn't - me."

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"All right. What kind of names do you like? We started with human names for Intrepid then circled around to virtue names and kind of expanded from there to find Intrepid."

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"Don't think I'd like any human names, yeah. Something I could just translate into the umbreon language would be nice, I don't already have a name in that..."

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Ellie pulls up a list of broad descriptors and sets her phone where Umbreon can read it. "Okay. Which ones speak to you?"

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Hum... "Curious, free, dangerous... I like the glowy ones, though the small shiny stuff more than like stuff for the sun..."

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Ellie pokes her forehead ring. "Glowy fits, yeah."

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She giggles and then starts glowing.

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Hee.

"Okay, let's see. Glowy, shiny, sheen, glint, glimmer, flash, sparkle..."

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"I like sheen and glimmer and sparkle, glint is pretty but not quite me, glowy sounds like a kid came up with the name and flash sounds like it's from a comic book... Shiny just seems a bit off. Maybe too common a word?"

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"Those are all good. Do you want more human words based on those? I don't know umbreon language to translate to that..."

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"Hm, there's some short words for different kinds of 'light in darkness', which are pretty... Glimmer's close to one of those, but Sheen is more like - something shining you didn't expect to shine, is I think closest word? And Sparkle is - well. Sparkling. Like crystals."

"More human words like those might be good, though."

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"All right... Flicker, gleam, twinkle, scintillation..."

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Scintillation is pretty but too long... Gleam has the same problem as Glint... She thinks she likes Glimmer and Flicker best so far? Flicker also makes her sound really fast.

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"Flicker's good. Want to go with that?"

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"Yeah!"

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"She should be an Ellievee too," Intrepid sends to Ellie, chirping.

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"Intrepid would also like to extend you an offer of adoption into the Ellievee clan," she laughs.

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Shy smile, and - "Yeah. Flicker Ellievee."

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Heee! Happy nuzzle! 

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"Nice to meet you, Flicker Ellievee."

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She laughs and rubs against Ellie's leg. 

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Pets!

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Purr!!!

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Excellent.

They've got a little bit of time in the morning for some last-minute training.

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Flicker doesn't want to tire herself out too much, but yeah a refresher can't hurt. 

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One they turn out to need, when the battle rolls around. Their opponents are chunky graveler and a trainer who's almost as buff. The trainer's sharp and crafty, and has good synchronization with the graveler, who is abnormally speedy.

It takes a bit of work to set up and pull off the combination attacks that will wear through their defense.

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A challenge they're up for!

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And in the end, a win well fought.

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Heee!!!

Intrepid prances around, laughing.

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Flicker's more tired than Intrepid, but - she's really happy, too.

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They both did a really good job!

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Heee!

She ducks her head and then rubs her cheek against Ellie's leg.

"We should celebrate!"

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"Every win deserves it," she agrees lightly.

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"Of course."

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So off to find something suitably celebratory.

The rest of their time in Pewter passes much the same, with training and library and picnics. Their final challenge match at the gym is a doubles battle, against a sudowoodo and a boldore. Brock himself brings a pair of geodude and an onix. Ellie, Intrepid, and Flicker have to stretch in new ways to overcome those, but they manage it. Boulder Badge in hand, it's on to Cerulean City via the Mt. Moon pass.

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Intrepid is bouncing so much the entire way! 

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They get to the other side of the pass without any real incident - discounting 'Intrepid sticking her nose into things' - and onto the road down toward Cerulean City proper. A little bit later - there's a distant cry, and a very upset flareon runs onto the road a bit ahead of them, spinning and looking around.

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"Hey!" Ellie calls. "What's wrong?"

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She spins toward Ellie and runs closer, wailing - then jerks her head back the way she came.

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"Something must be wrong, come on," she says to her partners, starting to jog over to the flareon.

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She makes a worried noise, and both she and Intrepid follow in Ellie's wake - Flicker tries the umbreon language, some other eevees know it - 

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Nope!

She does however start leading them down a side road - easily missed what with all the bushes crowding the margins - frequently glancing back over her shoulder.

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They're still following.

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She leads them to a small homestead, a little bit run down but mostly well taken care of. The door's open, and the flareon wastes no time running inside, wailing at Ellie again, then leading her to a bedroom on the main floor - which has an older man collapsed on the bed, skin pale and drenched in sweat, cheeks flushed, breathing a bit strained, apparently unconscious.

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Oh hell oh hell-

First aid, first aid, what is the first step- Check pulse, call emergency services. Okay, she can do that. She gets the operator on the line, responders are dispatched, and the operator begins to talk her through what to do until they get there.

It's about ten minutes before the rescue pidgeots arrive.

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Unhappy worried flareon remains unhappy and worried!

She does anything she's directed to, and stays out of EMS's way, but she is so stressed about that and does not want to be left behind but ambulances don't take ride-alongs. So instead she is going to worry.

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Ellie can call a taxi to get them all to the hospital.

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Intrepid does her best to help reassure the flareon during the wait. Taxis aren't as fast as ambulances.

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Beats walking.

"It's gonna be okay, you know? We'll be there soon."

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Small whine.

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"I know it's scary, but he's in good hands."

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She nods.

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By the time they get to the hospital, the doctors will have had enough time to make a diagnosis.

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The flareon doesn't mind Ellie and the other eevees being in the room, and she's fortunately the human - Mal's - next of kin.

It seems that he ate something very poisonous, though they're not sure how he managed that (it's not exactly a local plant), and quietly the doctor admits there's a worry of foul play, and Officer Jenny's been contacted. The prognosis is currently fairly good - Mal's healthy for his age, and he got help really quickly - but he's likely to be hospitalized for at least a little bit, and he might be sleeping or sedated a lot for the next few days. They'll need to wait for him to wake up to make a more certain estimate on how long his recovery might take, though.

The flareon is - rapidly shifting to angry-determined, actually, her eyes narrowing.

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Yeah, this is worrisome.

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"I wonder if the flareon knows something," Intrepid sends to Ellie. "Officer Jenny might have a typing board, but you gotta be able to read to really use one - maybe we can offer her a chance to use the collar?"

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"-Can we talk to you?" she says to the flareon. "In private?'

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She nods.

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Over to a quiet corner then-

"So. It seems like you have some reason to believe in the foul play hypothesis. Intrepid's collar, here, lets her talk to me directly. It should also work for you, if you want to share what you know with me."

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She hesitates...

Then nods.

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"All right." Ellie unclips the collar from around Intrepid's neck and transfers it to Flareon, mindful of her ruff. "Just uh. Try thinking at me."

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"Does this work?"

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"I can hear you, yeah."

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"Okay."

"And - yeah. I think someone poisoned dad. On purpose."

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"Why?"

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"People have been disappearing. We noticed at first when some of dad's human friends vanished, but - we've been poking, and there's been some pokemon who don't have humans disappearing too. From a lot of places. Officer Jenny knows, but everyone who's vanished isn't - like, people who talk to law enforcement officers. Or who have permanent addresses, a lot of the time, so - they can't really prove there's even something to investigate, and all the police forces are tiny and just - normally going and making disappointed faces at dumb teenagers. Not like handling crimes."

"So dad's been investigating. He's part of the community, you know? The human one being hit. And I've been trying to talk to the wild pokemon, and the ones sort of - on the edges of cities and stuff. And - "

"There've been sorta vague threats. To stop looking."

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"That's- not great."

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"Yeah. It's - bad and scary."

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"Is there anything specific you want me to tell the police?"

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"That I think dad was intentionally poisoned. We haven't bought any new weird exotic foods, lately, and he's careful about not getting food poisoning or anything. Oh, and remind Officer Jenny about the threats we got."

"I haven't seen anyone strange around, though, and I dunno how dad was poisoned. I didn't smell anything off, but it's probably worth having someone with better senses go through all our stuff. Officer Jenny and any coworkers accompanying her have my permission to do that, but no one else."

"I also don't think whoever did this is likely to stop just because we got dad to a hospital in time. I'm... Really nervous about that."

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"Maybe they can... put a watch on him, or something."

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"Maybe..."

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"You can probably stay with him while he sleeps."

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"...I don't want to. I want to find out who did this."

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"Okay. Let me write up your statement for the police, then you can sign it."

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"Okay. Thanks."

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She gets some paper to do that and reads aloud as she writes it, then Flareon can make her mark at the bottom.

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She does, biting her lip a bit.

"I wanna stay here until I can talk to Officer Jenny," she says, "But then I want to go looking."

"I - "

"Will you stay in case I need to say stuff? I can use the tablets but they're really slow."

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"Yes, I'll stay."

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"Thank you."

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Eventually, Officer Jenny arrives. She takes the statement Ellie wrote up for Flareon, asks a few clarifying questions and appends the responses. (Flareon is asked to sign off on these again.) She agrees that the circumstances are suspicious enough to justify a guard, at least until Mr. Reynolds wakes and can provide his own testimony, at which point further avenues of investigation might open.

...Off the record, Jenny thinks that there is a pattern here someone's trying to hide, with the missing pokemon and humans. There's not enough solid evidence that she can do anything official about it, but she's going to get in touch with some contacts in INTERPOL.

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Flareon nods.

(She wants to try to do something herself. Poke around.)

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...Does she want help?

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If help's being offered, yeah. 

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Ellie's is, and probably Intrepid and Flicker too.

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Intrepid nods, seriously.

(Not being able to talk to Ellie is - weird, but she's learning the umbreon language a little, so...)

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Flicker nods too, making a soft sound.

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"So yeah. We want to help."

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She smiles a little.

"Thanks."

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"Where do you usually get your food? That might be a good place to start..."

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"A couple different places," she says. "I can show you them... They're mostly nearish."

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"Cool. Let's get started."

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And off! They mostly shop in town, though the flareon tells Ellie they also grow some of their own food - mostly just spices nowadays, though, dad's back isn't what it used to be and he's not very good with plants anyways. Mal's favored shops appear to mostly run towards 'farmers' market' type stuff. No one's seen anything weird, and there haven't been any outbreaks of food-borne illness, and Mal never orders ahead or anything anyways - he just shows up, grabs stuff from the general piles, and pays and leaves. Doesn't even set stuff down and wander off from it.

"If it was just us - might be something closer to the house? The spice garden, or - I guess a powder on something dad would've touched? Or maybe the well?"

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"The well'd probably be easiest to tamper with unobserved..."

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"...Yeah. I dunno how to detect poison in water, though."

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"Chem's not my focus, but I can run some tests to start with."

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She nods, thinking and frowning. "And the hiking store sells kits to purify water. They might sell stuff to test it, or know who does - probably just for normal water contamination problems, though..."

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"We could see if the hospital's gotten any test results on your dad done yet. Might narrow down what we're looking for."

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She nods. "That's smart. Let's."

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Back to the hospital. Since Flareon's next-of-kin, she should be able to get the information if she asks.

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She does! 

They have enough to narrow down what Ellie needs to test for, at least. 

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She'll need to pick up some supplies, and find a place she can set things out. The house, maybe, or they can bring the samples back to the city.

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The house might work. And be faster, too...

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Probably, yeah.

Shall they head out, then?

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Sharp nod.

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Ellie collects some disposable gloves, glass containers, and a selection of reagents. Then it's back to Flareon's house.

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The tests take a little while to run - but they do turn up positive. The water seems to be poisoned. 

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That is... not good.

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No not at all! 

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Flicker's sniffing unhappily around the grounds. 

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"Got something?"

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She glances a bit warily at the flareon, then - "Yeah. Smell's kinda - familiar? Over here."

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"From- before?"

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"Yeah. Think so."

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"Mm. Is there a trail, do you think?"

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"...Maybe?"

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"That's probably our best bet for finding the one who did this quickly."

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"Yeah. Even if we go get someone better at following scents - the police might not be able to spare anyone, and the city's a while back..."

Sniff sniff. "I think I've got a good enough trail, anyways."

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"Okay." She calls Intrepid and Flareon over to tell them that Flicker's found a lead.

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"Okay. We're following it."

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Serious nod.

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Everyone's on the same page, then.

After Flicker.

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Flicker leads them deeper into the mountains, a bit slowly.

"This smell... Isn't one of the people who had me..." she murmurs after a bit. "Only smelt it briefly, right before I escaped."

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"...Good you got away when you did, then."

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"Yeah. They were moving me - I don't know why, they didn't say in my hearing, but seemed like they weren't keeping me much longer."

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"Maybe we can get some answers about that, too."

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She nods, slowly.

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Further into the woods, alert for trouble.

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Trouble! 

Also known as: an explosion, a burst of smoke into the sky, a swoosh of flame, and then a very angry and/ or freaked out jolteon running toward them from the explosion.

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"Ah!"

"Hey! Wait!"

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She skids to a stop in front of them, snarling, hackles raised and jagged.

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"Whoa! We're on your side. Or, I'm pretty sure we are, anyway."

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Mrrrrr!

She doesn't bristle any less! But she does chance a quick, sharp glance over her shoulder.

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"Can you check it out?" she asks Flicker and Flareon, nodding towards the fire.

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"Yeah. I'm good with fire."

She darts forward.

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Flicker nods and follows.

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And Intrepid presses closer to Ellie, ears back in worry.

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Gentle scritch.

"Someone poisoned a well not too far from here," she says to the jolteon. "We've been tracking them."

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...Mrrr.

She seems a bit less wary, maybe? And then jerks her head back at the way she came.

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"Seems to lead there, yeah."

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She glances back at the smoke again and gives an annoyed huff.

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"Did you, um, leave any evidence?"

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Careless shrug.

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"Right." She chews on her lip a bit. "Well, based on my admittedly sketchy knowledge of these people, I can't really blame you for that..."

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Small huff.

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Sigh.

"Yeah."

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Flicker runs back over, soon enough, and, panting, "There was a hurt human, but they're alive and also they're running and slipped out a back door, and we couldn't get it open - Flareon's still trying, but they were the person I smelled. There's a lot of empty cages and stuff. We didn't see any bodies, or anyone else hurt."

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"Shit. Do you think you could find where the back door should be up here?"

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"Dunno. We can look, but there's lots of places."

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"Mm. How's the fire look?"

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"Lots of smoke. It's all high, so it's not reach us, but - it smells bad. You'd have to crouch."

"Don't think anything's still burning, though..."

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"Should get Flareon out. I'll call Officer Jenny."

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"I'll go get her."

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"Okay." Ellie gets her phone out.

"-If you don't want to stick around for the police, that's fine," she says to the jolteon. "But we could use your help, if you do."

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...Extremely uncertain mrr.

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"You can also just hide in a bush and decide later, or relay stuff while hiding in a bush," Flicker says, then shakes her head and darts off to find Flareon.

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...She edges towards a bush.

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Sure, bush is fine.

She doesn't mention the jolteon while talking to the police.

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The police don't seem to find this suspicious, and also Officer Jenny is imminently on her way with backup, and would like Ellie to please stay safe.

(Flareon emerges, looking kind of vaguely annoyed, following Flicker out.)

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"Guess you didn't find anything else?"

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"Not really. There's some dropped stuff the police might be able to get something from, though."

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"Hopefully."

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She 'mrrrrs' unhappily.

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"Yeah." She crouches down to hug Intrepid. "I know. Not what I wanted either."

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Unhappy snuggle.

(She doesn't like this whole situation but she really doesn't like someone else having her collar, which feels silly and unfair and petty but it's hers and it's how she talks to her Ellie...)

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"Think you can trade off for a bit?" she asks Flareon, pointing at her neck.

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She nods. "Yeah, I don't mind. I'll paw at your leg or something if I need to say something and can't wait for a tablet."

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"Cool."

She swaps the collar over to Intrepid.

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She doesn't even have many specific words! She would like to be picked up but maybe not while there's an evil guy maybe escaping.

"Should we - go after or look for the human more?" she asks, pressing against Ellie's leg (it makes her feel a lot better being able to talk to Ellie, at least).

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"Harder to stick anything to them if they're not in the facility, and we'd have to restrain him somehow and I don't want any of you on an assault charge, which is more likely if there's a bigger organization here."

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"Okay."

Lean.

"I don't like that there's people doing this."

"Are we going to stay until the police get here?"

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"I think we should be able to hitch a ride back with them, so."

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"That makes sense. Though the jolteon might not want to ride along - dunno how wary she is of people."

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"Maybe, but- I'm tired. I want to sleep somewhere comfortable tonight. And Flareon should have a chance to check on her dad."

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She nods. "Yeah. Maybe we can tell jolteon where to find us, if she doesn't want to ride along... She could go hide at Flareon's house, maybe."

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"Yeah, should sort that out before other people get here." She ruffles Intrepid's fur. "Thanks for reminding me."

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Headbutt! "You're welcome!"

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Pet pet.

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She calls over to Jolteon. "Hey, we're probably going to try to catch a ride back to the city with the police. If you want to come with us, you can, or you could ask Flareon if you can crash at her house for a bit. Or head off somewhere else, I guess."

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...Mrrrrrrr...

She sticks her head out of the bush, squinting.

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"Flareon's got food and a pretty nice house," Flicker says to her, "Those people do know where she lives, but might not come looking... But we can help keep an eye out for them if you're with us."

"Ellie's nice, though. Those people tried to buy me, and I ran away and then met her, and she's only helped me."

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Suspicious mrrrrrr.

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"Maybe at least come get food? We won't tell the police where we found you."

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...Hrm.

She nods, slowly.

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"Sounds like a fair compromise."

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She huffs a little and crawls the rest of the way out of the bush.

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...Jolteon's grumpiness is surprisingly cute.

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Gruuump.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Intrepid jumps up to very aggressively cuddle her Ellie.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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Snuggly sylveons: a very good thing about the world.

Ellie returns to full functionality in time.

"So. Opinions on plans for the day?"

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

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

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

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Jolteon does not look very enthused about that plan.

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"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."

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

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

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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."

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

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

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"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."

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Jolteon chirps. That tone is possibly agreeing?

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Flareon looks more thoughtfully unhappy, though.

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"Do you have a thought you'd like to share, Flareon?"

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She nods.

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"Intrepid, if you don't mind?" Assuming assent is given, she'll swap the collar over.

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She gives assent, mostly squashing her reflexive internal 'but it's mine.'

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"I don't want to leave dad," Flareon says to Ellie, "But I do really like you guys, and I like battles."

"Dad has money, too, and like months of food stored up, and there's our house - but we'd have to bring in outside water to stay there - but if you're in this city for a bit we could use all that?"

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"I'd feel a bit bad about using his supplies if he's going to need them while he recovers," she says.

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"We can ask when he's awake. But I think all of us should be fine eating my food..."

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"That would help, if you're okay sharing."

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"I am!"

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"Great."

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Headbutt?

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Hee.

"Okay, so Flareon's donating food. That takes some of the constant drain off. We should go grab some of that first so we can then focus on other things. I think the first thing I want to do is build another collar or two; some of you can continue the investigation while I do that if you don't want to sit around?"

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They all nod.

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"All right." Stand. "Let's get going."

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She wants to go check on her dad first (the doctor thinks he'll be waking this afternoon), then to her house! They should possibly check anything really easily poisoned for that, but it seems to have been just the well that was hit - but there's definitely plenty of pokemon food, and Flareon thinks ahead to have them bring something to transport stuff in. (She also wants to get things like her bed and blanket and stuffed toys and favorite bowl, since she wants to stay closer to the hospital.)

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Sure, they can grab all that too. Does Flareon want to set up in Ellie's room, or somewhere else?

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"Here's good if you don't mind. The hospital doesn't really have anywhere for me to stay."

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"Sure."

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"Thanks. You're good."

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"Well, I'm trying."

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She giggles and headbutts Ellie, softly.

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Scritches?

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Scritches!

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Cute!!

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Heeee.

Off to the hospital first, then?

(She can also give the collar back to Intrepid.)

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Sure. If Flareon's dad hasn't woken up yet, then Ellie will go on to buy the parts she needs.

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He hasn't, though it looks like he will soon...

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Does Flareon want to stay here, or go on?

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...Go on.

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All right. Next stop: shopping!

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Shopping! Intrepid likes this best - and knows enough about Ellie's work to be useful here - so for the other three it mostly ends up a chance to lounge in a nearby patch of green.

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Something for everyone.

Ellie has just finished up when she gets a call from the hospital. Flareon's dad is awake.

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They should head over, then.

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Right away.

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Her dad is indeed awake! And well enough to receive an excited lap flareon! He scritches her ears and asks how his little mouse is doing and she wrinkles her nose at him.

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...Intrepid's going to sort of hover awkwardly outside the room, how about.

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Yeah, let them have their reunion.

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Flareon does call over through the collar after a bit - "Dad's not feeling well enough to really talk, but the police took his statement already and there wasn't much... But he says we can use his stuff. He needs to meet with some specialists and stuff still to figure out how long he'll be recovering."

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"Should we leave you here for now?"

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"...Maybe a little bit? And come get me around - dinner, maybe?"

"You should take the collar, though, since I won't need it."

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Ellie enters the room to do so.

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Flareon heads over to her, and her dad waves weakly from the bed.

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"We'll be back to pick Flareon up later this evening," she says, bending down to unclip the collar.

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She headbutts Ellie, while her dad says, "Alright."

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Pat pat.

Then back to the room at the hostel to start on construction.

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Fun!!!

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Jolteon's pretty interested, it turns out, and tries to perch herself with a good view of what Ellie's doing.

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Ellie can explain the mechanics as she goes!

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Cool! Jolteon listens very intently.

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It's nice to have an appreciative audience.

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It's nice to have cool science explanations!

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This one goes faster than the original, and Ellie has a working collar by the time they should be thinking about going to pick up Flareon.

"Want to try it?" she asks Jolteon.

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She thinks, then - nods, a bit slowly.

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"All right..." She slips the collar around Jolteon's neck carefully and fastens it.

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"...Hello?"

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"Hi! How's it going?"

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"I like the design stuff!"

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"Yeah, so do I. Took me a while to come up with it."

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"Ellie's really smart!" Intrepid says. 

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"She does seem to be."

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Snicker.

"Thanks."

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Headbutt! "The smartest."

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"There you have it, straight from the most impartial of observers." She ruffles Intrepid's fur.

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Giggle. "I have very good taste."

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"Of course you do."

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Jolteon snickers a little.

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"You guys about ready to go pick up Flareon?"

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"Sure!"

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Back to the hospital, then.

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Flareon's sitting in a visitor's chair in her dad's room and looks up when the nurse knocks on the door, then jumps down and pads over.

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"Ready to go?"

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She glances at the nurse - who assures her that she'll tell Flareon's dad where she went if he wakes up before she's back (he appears to be sleeping) - then turns back to Ellie and nods.

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Then back to the room for dinner!

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Heee. Flareon definitely likes hanging out with the others, even if trading off collars and relaying things to Flicker (partially through Intrepid, who knows the umbreon language well enough by now) makes for some weird logistics for conversation.

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Ellie will have to get started on a third, then.

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She's not sure yet how long they'll all be together... But she would like to be around her new friends for a while more.

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A week or two, at least.

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Hm... She'll spend as much of that time with them as she can, then.

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Sounds good.

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Flicker smiles and nuzzles Flareon. "Maybe we can steal you for a gym challenge or two."

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...Ooooo...

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"That'd be fun, yeah."

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She laughs and nuzzles Flicker back. It's her turn with the collar, so, "It would! Some of them are kinda far, but once dad's feeling better I can travel."

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"There is Cerulean Gym, but given how many water-types they have you might wanna skip it."

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"I actually like swimming, but, yeah. Not the best match ups."

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"You could watch us, though!" chirps Intrepid, who has the other collar (and then continues translating for Flicker).

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...Hm.

She nods.

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"We'll do our best to put on a show for you."

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Heee. "Thanks!"

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"Got to make it worth your time."

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Headbutt. "Watching you always would be."

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"Aww, thanks."

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She giggles.

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Yawn.

"Well, I think it's about bedtime for me."

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...Hum.

"I really don't like sleeping in hospitals, and dad doesn't like sharing a bedroom anyways... I don't think he'll be awake right now to say goodnight, too, so - can I stay the night?"

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"Of course."

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"Thanks."

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"We're going to have to start looking for hostels with bigger beds, soon."

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"Or maybe a sled or something to carry more beds like Flareon's around."

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She giggles. "But then that reduces cuddling opportunities!"

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"I could take the blankets off the bed, just use you."

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Thoughtful hum. "Sounds lovely. And very efficient in cold climates."

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Ellie laughs. "All right, cuddle girl. Let's go to bed."

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Nuzzle! "Let's!"

(...Fortunately, Jolteon ends up curling up with Flareon in her bed, given Flicker's decided to join Ellie and Intrepid. The bed really is getting crowded.)

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She will have to figure something out about that. But later. Tomorrow, maybe.

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Yeah. Later. Snuggles now.

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Flareon wants to go check on her dad the next morning, of course, but - she's otherwise a bit at a loss, here...

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If they're going to proceed with the gym challenge, they should check out the facility here.

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Okay! That sounds fun, and Flareon knows it pretty well - dad used to be a champion, and he still sometimes does battles with her.

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Maybe she can give them a tour.

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Yeah! It'd be fun.

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Shall they make that the day's activity, then?

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Sounds good!

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Cool.

The Cerulean City Gym, lead by Misty, overlooks the bay, and combines dry training areas with multiple pools of varying size and salinity, and a few roped off areas of natural water. In addition to standard services, they also offer swimming lessons for trainers who want to keep up with their water pokemon.

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Flareon has opinions about which pools are the best - though they're all kept up well - and also suggests anyone very fluffy like her go in the showers before getting in the pool. Minimize shedding.

(The swimming lessons were fun when she was an eevee, though she hasn't needed them since - she has a favorite teacher from those, though.)

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Does anyone want to take some swimming lessons while they're here? Not today, necessarily, but at some point.

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Yeah no.

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Might be fun. 

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Not really centrally Intrepid's thing, she doesn't think, but won't hurt! 

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Would Jolteon want to do something else while the others are swimming?

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Maybe some of the dry training area stuff?

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They can split up for that, then.

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She nods.

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It'd be good for her and Jolteon to get some one-on-one time if she wants to battle with the team.

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Yeah!

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They could probably start now, actually.

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Jolteon's okay with that if the others are.

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They could try out the recreational pool, at least.

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Yeah, they can entertain themselves. Maybe Flareon can give them swimming lessons!

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Shoulder bump.

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Cool.

So, Jolteon. Obstacle course? Training dummies? Exercise weights?

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Training dummies seem fun to start!

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All right. Let's see what she's got.

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Lightning! And lots of it! (Also she's very quick and good at physical attacks.)

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Very nice.

"You're pretty strong."

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Smug smug. "I am."

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Ellie laughs.

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Snicker.

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"So what do you want to focus on getting better at?"

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"Think I want to get faster, mostly?"

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She nods. "Obstacle course'll be most helpful here, I think. Can add some of the surprise blocks too, to help your dodging and get us used to working together."

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"Yeah. Also - anything I can practice attacking quickly? I have trouble sometimes with fights like that, especially against multiple opponents."

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"Could set up a cluster or series of dummies, and then do time trials?"

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She nods.

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"Might need to schedule a room for that though, so let's stick with the course for now and do that tomorrow or later."

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"Okay."

To the course, then.

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Running! Jumping! Surprise blocks Ellie calls out for her!

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Both fun and educational!

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Successful gym visit, then.

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Yeah!

They should check on the others too, eventually.

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Hopefully everyone else had fun in the pool?

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Yeah!!!

(Flareon is very wet. The amount of wet a flareon can get is incredibly impressive, actually, given all the floof. She's the only one still swimming around when Ellie comes to check on them, with the other two lounging on some comfortable towels.)

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"You guys about ready to go?"

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Nods all around!

(And Intrepid has dried off by now, so can go rub against Ellie's legs without leaving wet fur everywhere.)

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Flareon jumps out of the pool and shakes herself vigorously. (...And now there is additional water everywhere!)

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Pfft. Ellie spits out some hair.

"Can I get you a towel, o wet and drippy one?"

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"They have a fur-dryer machine here, actually. It's fun!"

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"Maybe let's try using that first next time, hmm?"

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"But then I have to be really drippy all the way over to it!"

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"Oh. The horror."

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Giggle.

To the fur dryer, then! (This involves standing in a booth with quite a few powerful fans from nearly every direction, air heated and dry, and it leaves Flareon a giant poofball.)

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"Need to get you a comb, girl."

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"You'd need a really big one."

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"Clearly."

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"The pharmacy might sell some."

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"Let's stop on our way back, how about?"

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"Okay!"

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They find a nice big comb with a happy little flareon face on the top of it. After brief consideration, Ellie also gets a shorthair combs for Flicker (Intrepid has one already). For Jolteon, there's a special brush to deal with her thicker pins.

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Ooo, nice!

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They can have a hairbrush party tonight.

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Heeee. Fun!

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And productive.

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Comb party seems to get Jolteon over the last of her physical shyness, too (though she does warn Ellie about grabbing her or touching certain places with a 'I will bite if I do not like your reason' attached).

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Ellie will make sure to be careful with Jolteon in those regards, then!

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Thanks.

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It's good to have clearly defined boundaries.

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Serious nod.

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It's also good to have clearly pins on your ruff, which Jolteon now does. Very distinguished-looking.

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Heeee, yeah! She doesn't like being all tangled.

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They can make this a regular thing, then.

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Sounds wonderful to her.

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And to the others!

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Their time in Cerulean City goes on. Ellie and the team make progress on the gym challenge in between the training and recreation. Jolteon's the star because of the type advantage, but the others get their turns too when she needs a rest or they face a quagsire or marshtomp or similar counter.

Officer Jenny informs them that the body of the man Flicker and Flareon saw at the lab was found. They're not sure about cause of death, but it doesn't look like it was any of the wounds he had sustained while fleeing. He was headed south, paralleling the road to Saffron City. The police there have begun searching for any known associates of his.

Flareon's dad continues to recover.

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Flareon talks to her dad a lot, then, one day, tells Ellie - "He's okay to leave the rehab place soon, but the doctor stills thinks he should be living with someone else who speaks human and has thumbs and stuff, and... He's not all that healthy, now. He says he's worried I'll get bored, and he doesn't want me getting stuck as his caregiver..."

Fidget. "I - dad encouraged me - I wanted to know if. I could travel with you?"

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Aww. Hug!

"Of course you're welcome to join us. We love having you around."

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Heeee! Snuggle!

"Does that mean I get an Ellievee name, too?" she teases.

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Laugh.

"If you want one."

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"Yeah!"

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"What corner of wordspace should we start our search in?"

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She hums. "Well, I like fire words, but a lot are kind of stereotypical..."

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"Maybe fire-related words? Colors?"

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"Could work! Don't know about stuff like 'red,' but color words that're also other things could be cool."

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"All right, let's check some lists. Color words... ruby, garnet, crimson, scarlet, burgundy, gold, amber, xanthous..."

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She giggles. "Xanthous is a really silly sounding word. I like... Garnet, crimson, ruby, and amber. Crimson sounds like more of a color than anything else, though, so maybe not that... And Amber's kind of more girly feminine than I usually feel..."

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"Garnet is nice."

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"Yeah. It's really pretty. And refined!"

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"Do you want to be Garnet, then?"

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"Yup! Garnet Ellievee!"

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"Nice to meet you, Garnet Ellievee. Welcome to the team."

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Bounce! "We should tell the others!"

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"Let's go back and do that, then."

And so they go.

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"Congrats!" Flicker says. "Welcome to the team, Garnet."

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Intrepid just headbutts Garnet, since it's currently Jolteon's turn with the second collar. 

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And from Jolteon: "Wait we can just ask for those?"

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"If you want one, yeah."

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"Yeah!"

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"Okay. What sorts of words do you like?"

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"Sharp ones!"

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"How surprising," Ellie says, in the tone of a person who is not very surprised at all.

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She sticks her tongue out. 

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"All right, sharp. Spike, keen, blade, edge, stab, slice, cut, needle, prickle, sting..."

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"Spike and prickle are silly... Needle's wrong tone... Keen, blade, edge, cut are all close but maybe not quite..."

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"Do you want to look at nouns, adjectives, or verbs more?"

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Hum. "I think nouns, first? But some adjectives might work..."

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"Mm... Blade, shank, sword, saber, razor, knife, katana...?"

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"Hm... I like blade and knife the best of those... One of those two, or something like them, maybe..."

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"We're getting to being about as specific as we can, following this thread."

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"Well, there's types of knives, right? But I don't mind Knife."

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"I can look up different knife designs if you want."

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"Sure. Can I look at them, too?"

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"Sure." Ellie runs the relevant search on her phone and sets it where Jolteon can see it too.

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Hm... Lots of these are really cool, but also lots of them are named some variant on 'knife' or something hard to spell... Stilettos and daggers look super cool, though. 

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Ellie likes stilettos. Thin and elegant.

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They are! It's a good name, too.

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Does she want to go for that, then?

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"Yes! Stiletto Ellievee!" She laughs a bit.

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"Stiletto Ellievee! Please make her feel welcome, everyone."

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Headbutt! "You two will have to agree on nameday cake designs now," Flicker teases.

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"I get first dibs, because I got my name first." Still, Garnet brushes against Stiletto, nuzzling her. 

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You know what tendrils are great for? Joining crowded group hugs

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"We can always do two cakes."

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"Best of both worlds."

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"And I'll have to get around to finishing that third collar."

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A very firm, serious nod from Intrepid.

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"Should start that now, actually..." She goes to fetch her tools.

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"Let me help!" Stiletto says, trotting after.

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Intrepid's tendrils are pretty handy, too - she claims Garnet's collar so she can be Ellie's other assistant, and so the two less technologically inclined Ellievees can wander off a bit.

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Practice makes perfect, and she has this one together in record time.

"Garnet!" she calls.

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Garnet runs over!

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Ellie bends down to fasten the collar on.

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She prances and then headbutts Ellie. "Cool!"

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Nuzzle! And, to Ellie: "Now we just need to get you rich enough you can make really fancy upgrades."

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"Pull off some fancy battle tricks and get us a sponsorship deal."

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"Hm... Sounds fun. We've got a theme going on, after all, and we're the most charming team out there - shouldn't be hard."

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"Hopefully!"

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She rubs around Ellie's legs, purring.

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Cute girl. Pets!

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Pets!!!

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"I think we still have time for at least one cake tonight."

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Oooo!!!!!

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So quickly out to pick up some cake, and then they can have a little party.

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Heee. Wonderful!

(Stiletto and Garnet do eventually agree on a cake flavor and design.)

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Oh good.

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Yeah! 

Garnet is a bit of a cake hog.

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Next time maybe they'll get more.

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Sounds good! 

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They can also brainstorm ideas for neat battle tricks while they eat. There's probably something they can do in doubles, since they can talk on the fly...

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They'll probably have to cut Flicker out of double plans like that, since she can't use the collars.

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Maybe she can help with pre-battle strategizing?

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Yeah! That'd be fun.

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Great.

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Intrepid has some ideas already for combination tactics!

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As expected of her cutieness.

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Heeee!!! (Headbutt purr.)

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They can discuss until bedtime, then go try things out tomorrow.

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Okay!

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Tomorrow: initial results look promising. They win both the next stage of the challenge matches and a couple side battles, netting some extra cash and interest from the general population of gym-goers about the tactics they showed off.

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Intrepid is definitely the most smug about their rising popularity, though the others do plenty of their own preening.

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(One of their new fans is a vaporeon who doesn't seem associated with any particular human; she's definitely one of the ones analyzing them more. Ellie and the others have seen her around the gym's area before - but never in the battles or with a human, actually.)

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Maybe she'll come talk if they keep winning.

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Maybe! Or Intrepid could go up to her. She likes making new friends, after all!

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If Intrepid wants to do that, she should feel free.

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Headbutt!

And bounding over to the vaporeon!

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Who chirps in greeting and bumps noses with Intrepid!

And she seems pretty talented at psychic-style deep talking - her mind nudges amusement-interest-entertainment-excitement-battle at Intrepid.

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Purr!

She nudges approximately the feeling that sums up to 'Ellie is great' mixed in with 'battling is fun' and 'wanna fight?' back at the vaporeon.

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She returns a smug 'you're on' chirp.

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Heeee.

"Ellie, we need somewhere to fight!"

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Ellie finds them a small arena they can battle in.

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Excellent.

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Vaporeon's no slouch, though, and they agree no humans for this battle -

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She successfully gets Intrepid on her back paws and then all the way to pouting about losing.

(They're gonna need rematches, now.)

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"That was pretty impressive," Ellie congratulates the vaporeon while administering consoling pats to Intrepid.

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Consoling pats are excellent, so she gets over her grump very quickly and chirps an agreement.

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Heeee.

The vaporeon preens.

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"Been coming around here long?"

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Small nod.

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"Haven't seen you in the battles before..."

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Shrug.

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"Don't have anyone to fight with?"

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Small nod.

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"Are you looking to find someone?"

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Friendly chirp!

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"Want to come get dinner with us? You can meet the rest of the team."

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She considers this a bit, then nods.

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"Cool. We're just about done here for today, if you don't have other plans going on."

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She shakes her head.

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Then off to collect the other Ellievees. They're eating out tonight.

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Excellent!

Wins definitely call for celebrations.

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Another good reason for Vaporeon to join them.

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Chirp! (Vaporeon brushes against Stiletto a bit.)

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So most of the people here like spicy food; is that okay with Vaporeon?

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She nods, trilling.

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Excellent.

To food!

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Food! Vaporeon apparently likes way spicier food than anyone else present. Hideously spicy. The staff seem to know her, though, and don't question her life choices about exactly how many peppers this curry really needs.

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That's. Uh. Pretty impressive, actually.

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Smug nom.

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Heh.

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She seems to be having fun, even though she can't join in the conversation properly. 

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Oh good. Ellie's doing some translation anyway, for Flicker.

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Everyone else Iikes her, too, though she seems to be getting on best with Stiletto and Garnet right now. 

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Does she want to stick around after dinner? They can go to the park or something.

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She nods.

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Once there and in relative privacy, Ellie can explain about the collars and how they enabled some of what they did today.

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Oooo! She definitely seems interested, sniffing at the others' collars some. 

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Maybe someone wants to volunteer to let Vaporeon try?

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She can borrow Garnet's collar.

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Thanks, Garnet.

Ellie unclips the collar from Garnet and fastens it on Vaporeon.

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She lifts up her chin, lets Ellie fasten it, then wiggles a bit, feels the collar.

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"What do you think?"

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Hum. And: "Kinky!"

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Blink blink. "...What."

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Intrepid pats Ellie's leg. "She doesn't actually mean the collar part like that, you know," she says to Vaporeon. 

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"Sadly," Stiletto mumbles. 

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Intrepid slaps the back of Stiletto's head with one of her tendrils.

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"Um. I've lost my train of thought a bit."

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Vaporeon snickers.

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"Wait, what happened?"

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"...Vaporeon's first comment with the collar was 'kinky'."

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Garnet snickers.

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Flicker sighs. "That's inappropriate to say, you know," she says to Vaporeon. "If you don't know someone would be okay hearing it. It can make people really uncomfortable."

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Vaporeon tilts her head quizzically. "Sorry," she says to Ellie.

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"It's okay. I just, um, wasn't expecting that."

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She nods. "You're cool and smart and pretty so I don't want to make you uncomfortable," she says agreeably. 

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"Well. Thanks."

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Heee. Headbutt?

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Pats.

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Very excellent! 

"I'd like to fight with your team," she says after a good few pats. 

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"I think we'd be happy to have you."

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Intrepid chirps and says "Yeah!" as the others nod.

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Vaporeon grins. "Thanks!"

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"Welcome aboard, Vaporeon."

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Heee.

She nuzzles the other eevees when they come up to congratulate her, especially rubbing her face on Garnet with a, "Fluffy!!!"

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"Your fluff is approved of," Ellie informs her.

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Chirp!

She nuzzles Vaporeon back. 

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Cute.

"Guess I've got to make another collar now."

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Heee. "Probably! But I can let Garnet have hers back most of the time until then."

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"Shouldn't take too long. If we win tomorrow like we did today, I'll be able to get the parts easily."

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She nods. "I'm very good at winning."

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"Hope so."

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Smug smug. "We can have more competitions. I'll prove it."

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"Tomorrow, how about? We should rest up."

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"Okay."

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"We've got a room if you want to join us, dunno where you've been staying..."

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"Mostly assorted places? Not attached to anything."

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"You can come back with us, then."

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"Okay!" She brushes against Ellie.

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Off to bed, then.

...She really needs to figure something out about the sleeping arrangements.

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Maybe a bit. Soonish, at least. 

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Intrepid will, of course, always be welcome to cuddle.

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The natural order of things. 

Maybe for group cuddles they can take a page out of Flicker's book and make a giant floor nest. 

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Sounds like a good idea.

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Heee.

They'll need a lot more blankets and pillows, though...

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They can request some more.

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They should! 

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To the front desk!

Blankets and pillows are obtained!

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That means time for cuddle pile!

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The biggest.

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Probably not the biggest possible, but definitely up there. (Snuggles.)

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Ellie has a very restful night.

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So do the others! Puts them in a good place to win tomorrow. 

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Indeed it does. They win enough in the morning that Ellie can afford another collar, and there's time left over for Intrepid and Vaporeon to have a rematch.

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Wonderful! 

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Intrepid gives it her all, squeaking out a win at the end. 

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Hurray!

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She laughs and prances a bit.

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Pretty girl.

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Giggle. "The prettiest!"

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"Yes you are." Ellie ruffles the fur on Intrepid's head.

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Nuzzle!!!

"The others get to be other sorts of good looking, I suppose."

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"Very gracious of you."

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Giggle! "Naturally. I'm the prime example of grace, beauty, and everything related."

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Hee.

"We should go pick up the supplies."

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"Okay!" Intrepid and Stiletto can help again. 

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Ellie goes ahead and does two at once this time. Just to have a bit of margin.

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Probably not that bad an idea, with how apparently quickly they're finding new friends. 

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That's her thought as well.

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Intrepid headbutts Stiletto. "You're just happy not to be the baby anymore."

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She headbutts Intrepid a bit harder. "Does that make you the little old lady?"

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Haughty sniff. "I am not old, thank you very much."

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"Just experienced."

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"An expert! Especially in being an Ellievee."

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"Matriarch and exemplar of her clan."

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Giggle. "Though 'matriarch' sounds like it's circling back around to 'old lady.'"

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Ellie winks at Stiletto.

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Innocent look. "'Matriarch' definitely doesn't at all imply you're old."

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She sticks her tongue out.

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Ellie laughs. "Princess, then."

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"Correct."

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"A pretty pretty princess."

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She preens.

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Giggle.

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Nuzzle!

And off to work on the collars.

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And soon enough, they're done!

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Good! Garnet hasn't minded sharing, but it's of course better not to have to...

(She's taken to swimming with Vaporeon a lot, too - Garnet's not winning any races anytime soon, of course - but it's nice not needing to borrow either Intrepid or Stiletto's collar to chat.)

Speaking of competition- they've only got a few of the tougher battles left before their badge, right? Especially the water ones, Vaporeon can help a lot with those. 

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One more qualifier then the leader, Misty, yeah.

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Vaporeon is definitely up for helping with that. 

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Having someone who can shrug off water attacks is an excellent expansion to their tactical options.

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Heee. And doesn't leave them with a fire type as their only strong swimmer. 

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They haven't had a pool match yet, but that will probably change.


And indeed, it does. Both their next challenge match and the final are in water arenas. The former is a little rough as they adapt to the setting, but for the latter they're able to scratch out a comfortable win.

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Calls for a celebration!

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Indeed it does.

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Vaporeon would like to have their celebration dinner at the park, actually, she's in the mood to run around. 

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That's perfectly doable. Spicy picnic celebration!

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Heeee, awesome. 

She spends a lot of the picnic playing chase or hide and seek with whichever of the other eevees aren't too tired (most of them, and all of them at least some of the time; they're a high energy bunch, even if Vaporeon's got the others beat there).

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All those peppers must go straight to her zoomies.

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A valid theory. 

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Hee.

...Does Vaporeon want a nickname?

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Yeah!!!

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All right. What kinds of names should they look at?

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Deep hmmmm...

She doesn't really know. She likes pretty stuff, and soft stuff, and tasty stuff, but that's things she likes, not really what she is...

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Naming yourself after something you like can be valid.

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Giggle. "True. Though I think I want a name that sounds pretty, the most."

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"We can attack it from the direction of the phonemes, if you know what sounds you like?"

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Hum.

"I like b's, n's and m's... Also l's and r's and w's. Some other consonants aren't bad, too, though vocalized ones like b and d are prettiest."

"Don't care as much about vowels, though 'oo' and 'yu' sounds are really meh. Sounds like 'ih' and 'eh' and 'uh' flow well."

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"Billow, willow, relative, miniature..."

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Giggle. "Not relative or miniature. Billow is nicer than willow, but still... Too soft? I guess?"

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"Banana. Monster. Loyal."

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"Banana sounds funny!" She says it a few times, giggling. "...But not a name, it's too silly."

"Monster and loyal are neat."

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"Do you like those or should we keep going?"

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"I like them!"

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"Which one's better as a name?"

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Hm that is a very big decision. 

"Loyal, I think," she says after a lot of thought.

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"Good to meet you, Loyal."

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Happy noise.

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Suppose this means another nameday cake. Ellie should learn to bake.

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Ellie's really good at poffins! They could have a cake-sized pile of those. 

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That'd definitely make fairly apportioning easier...

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And having actually edible food for everyone who isn't Loyal!

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A spicy cake doesn't sound very good, no.

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You could maybe do some sweet and spicy pepper icing, but it'd be a very tough balancing act. 

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Loyal sticks her tongue out at Intrepid. 

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Double spicy poffins would probably be good, though.

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Oooooo yes.

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Ellie will whip up a batch of those for Vaporeon, and then regular spicy and sweet for everyone else.

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Everyone else appreciates it.

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And this way Loyal doesn't have to worry about Garnet stealing her food!

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An unexpected but welcome benefit.

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It's very important. 

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Indeed.


The next day, they can begin preparations to move on. Ellie purchases a bike and a trailer to make carrying the increased amount of supplies easier.

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Fortunately her eevees don't expect to need rides very often, and especially not all at once. She'd need a much bigger trailer, otherwise. 

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Probably a bigger bike, too.

Does Garnet want to visit her dad before they leave?

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Yeah! She can introduce Loyal and show off the badge, and it'll be nice to say goodbye before heading out.

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While Flareon is doing that, Ellie gets a text from an unknown number. It suggests she and the eevees stop by a certain farmhouse on the way to Saffron City.

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Sounds very suspicious. 

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That it does. Though looking at a map, it's practically right on their planned route...

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They'll have to stay on their guard. Flicker doesn't like the feel of this. 

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Yeah...

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Is their chosen route the one everyone normally takes? 

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It's one of two, for people traveling on foot.

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So that the farmhouse is along it is probably planned, for convenience, but might not indicate someone was spying on them. Or at least not that well.

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Saffron is the next closest city with a gym to Cerulean.

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Yeah. It's a pretty obvious next stop.

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So they could just be a little cautious as they pass by, and check it out if things don't seem too sketchy.

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Hm... Maybe, yeah.

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They can see what happens.

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They can beat up anyone who tries to give them trouble. 

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That's the spirit.

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Snicker. "Being the coolest team comes in handy, sometimes."

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"A lot of the time," Ellie counters. "Well, shall we go?"

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"Yeah, let's," Intrepid says, followed by a chorus of agreements from the others.

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Then off they set.


Near the middle of the next day, they approach the farmhouse's location.

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The Ellievees are so leery of this, but nothing looks very suspicious... 

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Except maybe the espeon laying along one stone wall, possibly sleeping.

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"Hello?" Ellie calls.

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She lifts her head and chirps, perking her ears up some.

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"Do you know who lives there?" She gestures at the house.

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She nods, seeming amused a bit.

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"Are they home?"

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Chirp!

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"...Is it you who lives there?"

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She nods, clearly amused.

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"Were you also the one who asked us to come by?"

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She nods, more seriously.

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"Why?"

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She hops over to Intrepid, and, after a wary exchange of looks, points her tail at Intrepid's collar, then tilts her head.

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Ellie digs the spare collar out of the pack.

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She nods, coming up to Ellie. 

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En-clip!

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"So," she starts, "I know you guys were poking those disappearances. I've got some info I'm pretty sure is new to you - and wouldn't mind your help."

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Ellie repeats that for Flicker.

"...Yeah, we sort of hit a dead end."

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"Okay. I've got maps and stuff inside." She turns to run up to the door. 

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Ellie follows.

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So do the Ellievees, though somewhat warily still.

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Inside! 

There's a huge, low table in the entry - a big open set of rooms - with maps, newspapers, reports, and assorted other things spread over it. The Espeon has several seating cushions spread around it, and she heads over to one on the other side from the door.

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"You have been working on this."

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She nods. "For a while. I've been trying not to let on that I am, which slows things, too."

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Ellie starts to examine the papers more closely.

"This is bigger than I thought."

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"Yeah. It's been going on longer than the police have caught, too, and over a bigger area than they're investigating right now."

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"Mm. Don't like that..."

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"Yeah. It's not good. But I've been finding some patterns - think I have some possible locations for a central facility."

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"Hmm." She chews her bottom lip. "Kinda want to check that out..."

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"It's why I contacted you guys."

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Nod.

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"Are you up for helping me with this?"

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"I think we would be." She turns to poll the team.

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There's general agreement, most strongly from Stiletto and Flicker.

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"Let's get them."

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"Yeah. They've hurt enough people."

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"Right. We're in."

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"Thanks. That'll make this easier."

"For where to investigate first: here, I think." She indicates a point on the map - one of the nearer sites.

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"Seems like a good target."

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Flicker squints at it. "That's pretty close driving from where I escaped, too."

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"We're definitely taking them out."

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"Definitely."

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"Do we want to go straight to that, then?"

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"It's close enough to get to in reasonable time."

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"And I don't want to leave them free to keep doing this."

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"Right. Any other information you have on this place?"

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"A little. Not as much as I'd like."

She has elevation maps for the area - including historic ones, and ones close to the start of the disappearances, with differences and signs of construction noted. She's figured out what could have been built under there - a range of stuff, with uncertainties noted. She's been sniffing around things like private security companies, trying to figure out if any of those are providing guards - she thinks there's a decent chance some of the guards will be professional, but that most might not be top notch. She doesn't have much concrete, though, not yet.

Additionally: she has a kinda incredible and possibly illegally obtained set of financial records of various companies and such who she think have interacted with the culprits ever. She has a rough estimate for the budget the program is operating under per facility, and has used that to create a list of known entities that could have the right resources, as well as vague sketched profiles of what an unknown entity might look like here. She has a few profiles of known pokemon smugglers, including notes on if they might be working with the culprits. She has a lot of notes on individual disappearances. This last stuff is all mostly guess-work or unprocessed evidence, but Espeon doesn't think she'll need a ton more to use it to narrow down actual culprits.

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That's enough to make a rough plan of approach. And decide what to do about any people who might be there.

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Stiletto votes 'lots of thunder bolts.'

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If no one has any objections to that...?

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Garnet suggests adding fire.

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The Ellievees seem to, as a whole, be very in favor.

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Tear it all down and let Arceus sort out the survivors, then.

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Though there might be prisoners... They'll want to not, like, just blow up the base.

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Which would also destroy evidence of any further bases or whatever, and Espeon would like to not do that.

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So they'll search it first.

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Yeah.

How do they want to do that? They'd cover ground faster if they split up...

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Ellie would prefer they all stay together.

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Flicker prefers the same. Splitting up means they'd be easier pickings if they got targeted in return.

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Right.

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Anything else? 

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Think that's about it. They can approach from this side here, then sweep through.

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Espeon agrees on that approach. She does think they should bring an easy way to map and record the facility, and possibly some way of backing up any data...

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Ellie can set up a geotrack link between her phone and the Pokedex.

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Smart. Espeon also has some small, nearly invisible cameras that can attach to a collar.

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That works too, if people are okay with it.

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They are; probably it won't hurt to do both. 

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Right, then they'll get those set up and set off.

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Intrepid and Jolteon can help with the tech, then - yeah. Out towards the maybe-facility, to scout at first...

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Maybe-facility: ...maybe there.

Patrolling guard in a dark uniform and accompanying golbat who attack on sight: definitely there.

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Bad decision for them! The Ellievees outnumber the golbat a lot.

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Stiletto focuses on taking down the human - preferably also stopping them from alerting anyone. 

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Golbat manages to spit up a few blobs of poison before getting overwhelmed.

The guard's radio proves insufficiently insulated to survive Stilletto's attack. And the guard's not wearing rubber soles, either.

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Well he's not dead yet, so as far as Stiletto's concerned, she's been rather nice.

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Garnet goes to nose around the guard, looking for anything like keys they can steal. 

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He has a cardkey clipped to his belt, next to a flashlight, truncheon, and a holster of expensive-looking pokeballs.

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Flashlight's probably busted, but other stuff should be usable. 

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Ellie stoops to grab the cardkey and the rack of pokeballs.

"Not full," she announces, examining them.

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"They might've been for capturing intruders? Most people who'd stumble on the base out here would be local forest pokemon, or someone migrating..."

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"Seems likely. Let's find a door."

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Sneaking around's a bit hard - but Loyal's got good eyesight, and spots the door first.

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Ellie swipes the card to open it.

There's no detectable alarm or guards waiting on the inside.

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Hm... Espeon doesn't think there's anything quiet, necessarily... Still, she thinks she and Flicker should go first, as the sneakiest ones here.

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Good idea.

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So: slinking ahead, ears forward, listening. 

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No sounds of anyone nearby, but a camera at the end of the hallways, not covering the entrance.

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Hm... Is it moving or stationary, can they tell where it's pointing - is it even on...

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Seems to be watching the route into the rest of the facility. No indications of its power state one way or the other from their vantage point.

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Well, they can slink back to consult with the others about it - they obviously could disable it, but if it's being actively monitored, she bets that'd be noticed.

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Electronics just break sometimes, right? Could they make it look like the wiring just went faulty or something?

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Maybe if they just nick the wires where they go into the wall... But they should probably behave like that puts them on a timer, after.

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Yeah... Even if it doesn't go out entirely and just looks like it glitched, someone will probably check on it. 

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Better than the facility explicitly looking for them, still.

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Garnet thinks she could make the damage look less intentional, at least.

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Go for it.

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She does. (She thinks she manages to avoid being in its line of sight during.)

"Okay, let me know when you're crossing, I can wiggle the wire more out."

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"All right." Through they go.

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No alarms go off before they're past the camera, at least.

Any other obstacles as they keep sneaking? 

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Not unless you count a surprised looking technician in a white lab coat through the next door.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be in here!"

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She pretty sure they are, and also that she's the cutest, prettiest eevee in existence, and he should definitely stare admiringly. 

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The tech fumbles his next couple words and blindly reaches out to slam the alarm button.

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Loyal tackles him before he can. 

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He goes down with a grunt!

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Hm, the best would be to get him answering questions, then take care of him and move on as quickly as they can...

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Guy seems pretty intimidated. Ellie will coordinate psychically with the Ellievees to decide what questions to ask.

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Flicker takes on glowering at him menacingly.

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Most of the initial suggestions are stuff like what they're doing, who he works for, who else works here, and it there's any prisoners. 

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This lab belongs to Team Rocket, who will bring humanity to the next level of its destiny by any means necessary. And that's- that's all they're getting from him! (He sticks his chin out firmly, apparently plucking up the will to stand on this point.)

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Loyal hums, clearly amused, and circles behind him. "Ask what the next level of destiny is."

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Power beyond dreaming, to shape the world and touch the very stars.

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"Like spaceships?"

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Innate power.

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"Like cyborg spaceships?"

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...He doesn't feel like he needs to continue responding to these questions.

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Awww.

Well, what're they capturing pokemon for? 

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That is another question he doesn't feel like he needs to answer.

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Stilettoo's getting tired of this. She snarls, baring her teeth, bristles crackling with electricity. 

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Yelp from the downed tech!

And a pair of security guards appear, with a houndoom and an arbok.

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Attack!

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Finally something to do. 

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The guards send out a pair of koffing and a muk that start to fill the area with poisonous gas and toxic sludge, forcing Ellie and the Ellievees away, into an adjoining room.

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Intrepid works on forcing the gas away, trying to give her team some openings. 

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Stiletto is pissed and isn't being very careful with her lightning, beyond avoiding friendly fire.

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Espeon does not like this at all...

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As they retreat, one of Stiletto's attacks hits something in the walls that triggers an emergency lockdown. A thick metal barrier slams into place between them and the guards, shielding them, but also trapping the team.

A large machine in the center of their room is humming ominously.

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Stiletto slams herself against the barrier, yowling.

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Intrepid turns to eye the machine, her hackles rising.

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The machine starts throwing off blue sparks, crackling angrily.

"I think we're in trou-"

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It explodes, cyan light washing over everyone.