[FIN] Turned a leaf, and back a page...

[Gwennythe]

Sandalwood City.
A lot of trees, a lot of educated types... A lot of chattering birds and chittering bugs... A few memories.
This was such a contrast from the desert and yet... this still felt absolutely a part of it. Like a rickety rope bridge from one place to somewhere new.
She'd been on that rope bridge over two years ago now, moving from safe- home and frustrating academia- to her dangerous life of explosions, science labs, bizarre 'super villain' style individuals... and more friends than she'd ever had before.
This place. This was not a safe place.
It did not /feel/ safe.
With recent developments though, she needed to retrieve a couple of old items from a storage area she'd managed to persuade her mother to help rent.
Tambrey, also though, for reasons she could not explain, had decided to take a walk and revisit old haunts. She didn't know why she had to, and she was nervous and, perhaps, paler even than usual, as she crossed one of the elevated walkways.
There was a half-hearted attempt at 'disguise'; contacts replaced glasses for one, hair worn loose under a blue 'Alice' band.
Treestar was loose- she supposed he'd enjoy the nature here as well as being an unfamiliar pokémon to anyone who /might/ still be around to recognise her.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abigail inhaled deeply as she strolled along the elevated walkways in Sandalwood, breathing in the distinct scent of the evergreen trees. It chilled her nose a bit, and she hugged her coat around her more snugly, wishing once more that now that the holidays were over, the weather would start warming up again. Anytime now, really.

She was not built for the cold.

Iona didn't seem to mind it though - the Pikachu seemed perfectly content to perch on her new owner's shoulder, peering curiously at everything. Duncan was out as well, his ears hanging close to his body and his arms hugged over his chest to keep warm. He didn't like the cold either, but he wasn't about to complain. He didn't complain about anything, and he wasn't about to start now.

Iona's bright red eyes continued to flit from one curious thing to the next - and one such curious thing was a brown grass-type, one that the Pikachu had never seen before. With a curious tilt of her head and a questioning 'pi?' the electric mouse hopped off Abigail's shoulders and bounded across the walkway before she halted beside Treestar.  

[Gwennythe]

Treestar was fascinated by the trees- they were different to the Chikorita's leaf but still fascinating and green. He'd seen strange plants before, on trips outside of the desert to places like Jinko and such but these were still a rare enough sight for him to be irresistibly interesting.

Therefore, like his trainer who was rather lost in thought as she huddled into a purple scarf, Treestar was not quite prepared to suddenly find a Pikachu in front of him.
He squeaked out a 'Tree', sounding a lot less 'grown up' and 'manly' than he'd have liked for a first impression, then tentatively looked Iona over and waved his leaf in greeting.
<>

Tambrey, who had been looking down at the time, at least, halted before she tripped over anyone, but blinked, confused, to see her grass type talking to an usually decorated Pikachu. The red colours might have been worth considering a target if she were 'on duty', she noted with a little sadness that such a thought would just creep in now and some gratitude that she was 'off duty'.
She looked up to see if where the Pikachu might have come from.
"Um. Hello." She directed the greeting toward the pokémon a little, as well as toward the approaching trainer.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Iona's mouth formed a small circle as she stood on her toes, tilting her nose up - almost as if she wanted to sniff the leaf the Chikorita offered in greeting - but she settled back down and lifted a paw instead. she said brightly. the Pikachu corrected after a moment's pause, and then more decisively, She turned and offered a soft "chuuu" at the human girl, her tail twitched a bit and the lights wrapped around it glowed softly.

Since nothing particularly bad was happening as a result of Iona's interruption, Abigail didn't bother to hurry over. Instead, she walked casually, and stopped not too far from the small group and then offered a polite wave to the girl. "Hello there," she said happily before clasping her hands in front of her. "You've a beautiful Chikorita there. Did you get him from a breeder? ...oh! My name is Abigail, by the way," she added sheepishly. She couldn't help it if pokemon were the first things she looked at - being a breeder kind of had that affect on you.  

[Gwennythe]

<> The Chikorita greeted brightly, wiggling his leaf around happily, though maybe a little bit clumsily. <>
He pointed one stumpy leg toward the approaching human. <>
He noted the other pokémon too, tilting his head and offering a little leaf-wave, though a bit more shy; he knew Pikachus, but he didn't think he'd met that other type before.

Tambrey found herself knocked out of her thoughtful, slightly nervy, mood a little by the apparent greeting from the cute electric type but the glow from the lights seemed to make her eyes widen a bit. There was definitely an almost panicked, if just for a second, step back from the yellow pokémon.
She wasn't phased by Abigail cooing over Treestar immediately; if nothing else it gave her a second to calm herself down over the sudden realisation of being close to an electric-using pokémon.
"Oh, um, thank you. He, uh, was a gift actually- a birthday gift." It /had/ been a while, now she thought about it- not even her last birthday- another reminder of how lax she'd really been about training... "His name is Treestar. Um." Did she use her real name? She had to for the storage unit, and she was only really disguised to avoid any awkward conversations in case familiar people were around.
"Brey," She chose to introduce herself, managing a smile. "Nice to meet you, Abigail. You have a lovely Pikachu- nice, um, accessory." She then nodded toward Duncan "I haven't seen many of those before, either. Very cute."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She retorted easily, dropping onto all fours and wiggling her tail, though the tone in which she said it was quite happy. Iona beamed at him and replied,

She paused and went back up onto her hindlegs and looked behind her as Abigail walked up, then she smiled back at Treestar. she said, frowning as her ears drooped and she scratched her head with a forepaw. She was suddenly intrigued.

"Ohh, how lovely," she said with a bright smile when Tambrey mentioned that Treestar was a birthday gift. "He looks very handsome. Lovely conformation, too," she added as she tilted her head to one side to get a better look.

Duncan looked affronted at the 'cute' comment. "Lah-?!" With a huff, he (re-)folded his arms over his chest and turned to look the other way.

Abigail just chuckled and patted his head, which he didn't seem to appreciate either. "Iona is my Pikachu - I found her just after the fancy ball the League held, and she's very sweet. And this," she gestured to the still offended Lopunny, "is Duncan, my Lopunny. I used to breed them, as well as a few other pokemon," she added after a few moments, hoping that would explain her tendency to study pokemon more than she thought she probably should.  

[Gwennythe]

<> His leaf whirled around, in some vague attempt at pointing at all the trees around. <>

"Thank you!" Tambrey found herself responding brightly. It felt really odd, but it was nice as well, to receive such a compliment on her pokémon from a stranger. Still, she couldn't help but slightly wish he was evolved and felt compelled, as though embarrassed, to offer a bad explanation.
"He's very very sweet as well- I mean... Maybe he could evolve soon, but we haven't really been working for that properly."
She listened, blinking as Duncan seemed offended- slightly understanding it as she received his name- but smiling again at the both of them as they were introduced.
"Well it's nice to meet all of you... Um. I hope I haven't upset Duncan." She leaned forward a little to address the rabbit pokémon "I clearly meant to say you were handsome." Tambrey looked back to Abigail again.
"A breeder? That always seems such an interesting job... I... do something similar... but actually the only real 'breeding' my pokémon ever did was accidental. I've got a Pidgeotto and see, she, er, kept flying off for a bit... Eventually I followed her to see where she was going; found her on the roof with a friend's Pidgeot and some eggs. What's it like to... actually just breed pokémon f'r a living? You don't anymore?" She wasn't sure how far was acceptable with questions like that when you'd just met somebody, but hopefully she wasn't 'being too rude' or 'nosy'.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Iona placed her front paws on the bridge as she raised a hind paw to scratch behind one of her ears, one of her bright red eyes closed as she did so. Once done, she straightened up again. she explained with a shake of her head, her ears swaying as she did so.

The ex-breeder smiled and chuckled a bit, and waved her hands at the girl. "No no, Brey - it's very nice to meet you, by the way, I forget if I said so before - don't worry about him evolving. Honestly, he'll probably evolve once he's ready to. I know it took Duncan ages before he evolved."

The Lopunny looked a little less offended at the change from 'cute' to 'handsome' - he could understand the confusion though - but when the conversation was quite obviously leading to breeding, his ears drooped and he walked off to the end of the bridge and flopped down, letting his legs dangle over the edge.

Abigail watched him with a small, sad frown before offering a smile to Tambrey again. "Oh yes, it was very interesting - I learned quite a lot about Buneary and Lopunny. I did it for about fifteen years, actually." Wow, had it really been that long? Ugh, she felt old! "Well," she said with a thoughtful frown, "it depends on the individual pokemon you want to breed. They have to be biologically compatible, first off, and if they like each other then it's easier."

She leaned a bit closer and raised a hand to and lowered her voice, as if sharing a special secret or something. "Duncan absolutely adored his mate, Nessa, and they were my main breeding pair - they had quite a few eggs over the years - but Nessa was stolen about two years ago now." She straightened up, her voice returning to normal volume. "I was divorced about four years ago too, and those two events ended up leading to my business declining so much I had to sell off practically all of my stock. So I sent my daughter off on a pokemon journey, sold the large house we had and moved here, and rented an apartment." She smiled again. "That's why I don't do it anymore, though." A pause. "What is it you do?"  

[Gwennythe]

Treestar tilted his head as he watched this. He'd seen it before, this behaviour, but never up close. One stubby hindleg raised, tried, and failed to reach where his 'ears' might have been. Clearly he couldn't do that then.
<> Well, he knew about those then. <>

Tambrey seemed a little buoyed by this at least; "Really? I mean. I honestly think some of it is that I get really kind of lax on training... Or training properly anyway, but... Duncan's clearly trained well and if you were a breeder then you must know a lot about it." Experience often seemed a greater indicator than knowing the science alone; Pokémon were weird like that.
The Lopunny had suddenly walked off and Tambrey looked worried and guilty all at once; surely she hadn't said anything to offend the rabbit this time?
She listened to Abigail explanation and then found herself tensing and leaning forward slightly herself, mirroring, almost, what Abigail did.
"Oh." Tambrey straightened and shuffled herself awkwardly, looking over at Duncan and then back at the older woman. "I'm sorry." She offered, sadly. "It is... nice here though." As though that could be some kind of consolation. "Uh. I'm a... researcher, kind of. I mean. I'm like... an apprentice researcher. You know, uh, science and all that. Lots of travelling and stuff. Kind of... like a pokémon journey," She lied "so... Do you hear from your daughter a lot?" Hrm. This was getting slightly awkward; she frowned a little, thinking of her own mother.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Iona giggled at Treestar as he tried to mimic her behavior. She wiggled in excitement. are weird,> she agreed.

"I don't actually train my pokemon in the.. pokemon trainer sense," Abigail admitted with a frown. "I hope that makes sense. All of mine were trained how to behave in a house, of course, and most of them have good manners, but I don't actually battle or anything." At Brey's apology, the former breeder shook her head with a small, sad smile. "No, it isn't your fault - don't feel bad." Some part of her still held hope of seeing Nessa again, but after so long she mostly doubted it. She cherished the memories she had of her instead.

She nodded while listening to Brey, trying to take it in. "That sounds really interesting," she said as she folded her hands in front of her with a smile. "So you are kind of similar - although it's like you're more in the genetic realm of it and I was in the biologic realm."

At the mention of her daughter, she brightened. "Ohh, I do hear from her quite often, yes. It's a rule though - she's only 14 - so if I don't hear from her every couple of days or so I start to get worried."  

[Gwennythe]

<> Treestar sounded almost as though he /just/ realised such a fact. <>

"Oh!" Tambrey nodded "No, that does make sense... Sorry- I travel a lot and my... uh... colleagues and supervisors and stuff... We all kind of have to make sure our pokémon are trained in case of... wild pokémon or, you know, accidents and stuff. I... forget it's not just a 'thing' that people do. House training though, yes... Um, that too. All- erm." She paused- couldn't really count the spider even if most of it was kind of a lie. "Almost all 'f mine are well behaved f'r that kind of thing."
She stopped again, making sure her words were in order before carrying on.
"I'm still sorry though, just the same..." Tambrey meant it, she found. "Um. Anyway. Yes, I guess so. Same kind of thing. I really do get interested in... well... how they /work/. They're amazing and- well," She gestured at Treestar for emphasis "he looks different, other pokémon behave differently... Abilities... It's all so weird and fascinating." She blinked. That was a little more... enthusiastic rambling than she'd intended.
Slightly embarrassed, she nodded.
"Anyway. That's a good rule... My m'ma didn't really like the idea of a pokémon journey when I was younger... and we had lots of stuff to do at home anyway... I understand why not, but I still think journeys are good ideas... the couple-of-days rule makes a lot of sense though." There were people like her and her teammates around after all... Journeys would toughen young trainers up a bit- give them a chance against... Team Rocket (she sighed in her mind, wrong attitude probably, but nothing to be done about it beyond thought, at least) and the like, even if, perhaps, putting them in that danger in the first place.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Iona asked, tilting her head to one side, then grinned. Outside was nice! And, well, outside was where she lived! Or used to live, until she met Abigail. the Pikachu admitted as she lifted a forepaw to scratch her head again in thought.

"Oh, yes, of course," Abigail nodded in agreement. "I understand completely - you never can tell with wild pokemon, can you?" Some of them were just so nice and friendly you'd thought they were domesticated, and others.. Well, others were scary and dangerous. That was probably one reason she never wanted to be a trainer.

She brightened at the talk of genetics though. "It is fascinating, isn't it? I guess I had to deal with genetic parts too - hereditary abilities and moves, and all of that - but most of it was just biology. I can safely say out of all of the bunnies I've had, I don't think any of them looked or behaved the same."

Abigail nodded at the rules. "I never went on a journey myself, but Mina's been interested for quite a few years now, and I figured she was getting older and more able to take care of herself." Not completely, of course, and she of course still worried quite a lot, but she also didn't want to hold her daughter back from something she really wanted to do. "Yes, I think they're good ideas too, as long as they want to go on them. Mina definitely did."  

[Gwennythe]

Treestar shuffled his little legs and twitched his leaf.
<> He admitted, brightening though as he listened to her talk about how old she was. <> The Chikorita thought aloud. <> His leaf waved in Duncan's direction.

Tambrey nodded along... Ye-es. That was it. Somewhat technically true, sometimes, but not /exactly/ why she trained; good enough cover though.
Unpredictable pokémon /did/ feature on some missions, of course.

Oh, good. Her rambling hadn't led to any odd looks. Someone was, in fact, agreeing with her. She turned her head to admire Duncan again as Abigail talked about the bunnies she'd bred. "I do kind of hope I get a chance to raise another egg from one of mine one day. It was... really fascinating and just... nice, to do it that first time and the hatchling- she's turned into a lovely Pidgeot now... Hm. I'm sure Mina appreciates it; y' seem like a really good mother."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Iona's ears drooped at the mention of bad people and unfriendly pokemon. she said with a frown as she dropped back onto all fours, as if to hunker down there and avoid anything scary. Not that there was anything scary right now, but... She glanced back at Duncan, who was still moping across the bridge, then shook her head at Treestar. really old, and I guess was with my human for a really long time, but I only met them not too long ago. So he wouldn't know, either.>

Abigail looked back at Duncan as well, and the Lopunny either didn't know he was a topic of conversation, or he did, but simply chose to ignore them. "It is nice," she agreed quite readily, her eyes still on Duncan. "Very nice, and very fascinating. I only kept one of their offspring, and he's still a little Buneary. Fully grown too, of course, seeing as he's about two years old now, but he hasn't evolved yet. I think he just likes being a Buneary," the former breeder speculated.

She wasn't expecting such a compliment, however, and she turned a surprised gaze towards the girl. Her face flushed with pleasure too, and she smiled brightly. "Thank you Brey; that's such a sweet thing to say."  

[Gwennythe]

<< I don't think I do either but I do like adventure... Or I think I would.>> The Chikorita poked one little forefoot at the walkway bashfully.
He only looked /more/ interested when Iona mentioned that Duncan was 'really old. He didn't seem to mind that Duncan 'wouldn't know' and took a step toward the rabbit pokémon.
<>

Tambrey listened and smiled at the idea of a baby Buneary. The idea of a pokémon 'just liking' to be what it currently was was interesting. Come to think of it, though, she wasn't sure if Treestar even knew much about evolution. Maybe he -liked- being a Chikorita, but maybe he didn't know he could be anything else. He'd met another of his species, evolved, once before, but she wasn't sure if he'd /known/ that. Perhaps they needed some kind of 'talk' or special training to get such a point across, in case.
Abigail's reaction to the compliment came before she could pursue the question she realised she wanted to ask, but she was pleased to see it.
"Oh, um, you're welcome. 'S true." She smiled back; apparently just very slightly surprised by the reaction- a compliment, she supposed it had been, but it had, to her, just been an 'observation'. "Could I ask a question?" Nevermind that she /had/ been doing so already, suddenly it felt more apt to ask first.