[FIN] Nexus

[Gwennythe]

News of the events at the Pokécon had been rather unsettling, especially with people she personally knew, apparently, caught up in the events and, indeed, some not yet returning, as far as she was aware.

It was a mission that Tambrey would be lying to say she wasn't glad that she hadn't had to go on; her leg, finally healed, still gave her twinges of uncomfortable pain and, though she was mission ready- she knew she could cope- she honestly still didn't feel mentally prepared.
There hadn't been enough training, of herself or her pokémon, at this, finally stronger, condition quite yet, for missions that could end up quite as taxing as that one would have been.
Besides, being among trainers like that; she'd just have felt guilty, she was sure.

At least she -could- finally get off the base though.
The Rocket, dressed casually in sandals, jeans, and a comfortable blue top, a cardigan tied around her waist, shouldered her bag as she entered Camphoreon's library.
The Summer air made the city 'muggy' and a little stifling, but the air-conditioned building (poorly or not) and it's scent of vast shelves of books could make her forget the heat in an instant.

Team Rocket's library was nice, but there was something about public libraries, and just occasionally, there were books here that she never seemed to find on the base.

The dark-haired woman didn't bother with computerized searching, or asking for a librarian; her ponytail bobbed as she, focusing on trying to eradicate any lingering trace of a limp, navigated the shelves, pulled the book she wanted, and set out to find a seat, and a table, to read at.  

[Tori Honoo]

Unfortunately for Tambrey, she would find most of the tables in the library taken, scholars researching for their papers and theories, children seeking tales of pokemon and masters, people vying to spend their day in quiet solitude with a book to lose themselves in.

However, one small boy, and his pokemon, a charmander, sat contently at a table alone, flipping through a large encyclopedia in search of something, pausing only a moment to look around at everyone else. Upon spotting the woman searching with her book in hand, he noted the lack of seats around the other areas and offered a little wave-- if she wanted to sit with them, she was more than welcome to!  

[Gwennythe]

Well, at least the library was... popular.
She wasn't fond of the crowding at all, but it was nice to see so many people actually enjoying books; no doubt a lot of this probably had to do with the League being in town as they had been, and the Pokécon... In fact, she was pretty sure she'd seen a standee of a couple of members on the way in, now she thought about it...
Oh, well... It meant finding a table was a lot more difficult.
With a little sigh, Tambrey put her book under one arm and reached to push her glasses up before looking around properly; full, crowded, a little creepy, a little loud.. aha, there was a spot there that was free and had... a waving little boy.
She checked to make sure she wasn't standing in front of his friend, or his mother, or something, before approaching the table with a smile.

"Uh, hey. So, this seat would be free?" She made sure to ask, laying a hand on the back of the chair she meant, not willing to steal it if he had been trying to get someone else's attention.  

[Tori Honoo]

Jace offered a bright smile as the woman approached, and nodded at her question. "Yeah, sure! That's why we waved at you!"

The charmander just looked at the boy, then to the new human, shrugging a little. He hadn't exactly waved alongside his boy, but... he didn't mind her either.

"We were lucky and got this whole big table to ourselves, but we don't mind sharing," he smiled, moving to scoot his massive pile of books over to give her more space if she needed it. Almost every cover displayed words or images related to either dragon types, trainer tips, or legendary pokemon...but mostly dragon types.  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh, good!," Tambrey smiled, amused, for some reason, by the explanation. "That's very kind of you, thank you; it's so busy in here today. Getting this table to yourself really was lucky." She agreed, but cast an eye over all the books he'd taken down. She guessed they were acting as a pretty good accidental deterrent.

He seemed young, but perhaps old enough to have started a pokémon journey. There was a Charmander present after all- she smiled to the creature and then cast her eyes over the books again, paying more attention.
She saw the books with trainer tips and then noted all the dragons, sprinkled with some Legends.

"So, are you starting your pokémon journey then?" Tambrey asked, as she sat down at the space Jace had cleared for her. The book she'd picked out, that she now placed upon the table in front of her, turned out to be a collection of folk tales.  

[Tori Honoo]

Jae beamed, his cheeks flushing pink. "No problem!" he told her, his whisper almost exaggerated to suit the library setting... Or so he deemed appropriate.

The boy and his charmander watched as the woman joined them, and Jace continued to shift his books, closing the one he had open in favor of another, this one full of diagrams of different Pokemon. A page featuring an aerodactyl was quickly found, and there it stayed.

"Nah, not yet," he sighed, shrugging a little, though his expression betrayed his disappointment. "Mom says we have to train here first, before we're allowed to travel by ourselves. She says it's dangerous."

The charmander looked as though it agreed with his mother.  

[Gwennythe]

The woman watched Jace flick through and choose the page with an Aerodactyl on it; she smirked slightly and reached across to tap a fingernail lightly on the image.
"Those were very cool." She had a hunch she'd be in good company in that opinion.

"Well. That is probably a very good idea, y'know; she's right." Her own voice had taken on the funny whispering that the boy had decided to do.
"It gets pretty rough when you go out on your own; better the two of you know each other as well as you can before settin' out on something like that. Just means you're extra ready to take on any battles, right?"  

[Tori Honoo]

He looked up at her when she tapped the page, his eyes blinking a moment before he tipped his head. "Wait, you've never seen one in real life, right?" He looked back to the picture, as if searching for information in the text surrounding it, then up to her again, giggling. "You're not old! They're super rare now! The only one I even know about it Dragon Master Lance's!" That made sense, though, since Champion Lance was the coolest and best dragon trainer ever.

He nodded at her, his gaze wide and serious as she seemed to agree with his parent's judgement, though he frowned a little after he thought about it. Grown ups... geez. They were right, though, he guessed. He didn't see how his parents couldn't be. "Yeah! Chester and me are best friends!" he said, breaking his whispering just a bit as he suddenly reached over to hug the charmander. Chester only sighed, and threw the boy a fond look. "He's gonna be awesome! Chester's totally cool! He knows ember really well already!" he boasted quietly, but with clear, genuine pride.  

[Gwennythe]

"Pfft, thanks." Tambrey smirked at being informed that she 'wasn't old'; it was good to know, she supposed. "Oh, I've never seen one up close," Thankfully "but I do know they're pretty cool..."

Oh dear. Talking about Lance, already? It wasn't a secret, of course, around the base of just what Team Rocket had managed to do; many considered it a real triumph, but Tambrey'd never really managed to bring herself to feel quite the same way.
"Well, they are super aggressive right?" She asked, trying to remember what she knew of the fossil-pokémon off the top of her head. "So it clearly takes someone like a Dragon Master to tame 'em."

Well, that was adorable. Tambrey watched the boy hug the Charmander and smiled. It was somewhat comforting to hear, even so early, that the kid before her and his fire type had a good understanding of things like that.
"Well then, it sounds like you two are going to be quite formidable!" She complimented, following up, a little amused, with; "I suppose I can look forward to seeing you win the competitions on TV then?"
She was reasonably sure of his answer, and though guilt niggled at the back of her mind about her own life, she found it fun to talk to the young trainer.  

[Tori Honoo]

Jace accepted that she hasn't seen one in real life easily. Made sense and all. "Yeah, they're fossils now," he told her, "So that means they're real hard to find. But this one," He flipped to a page showing a long green Pokemon, this time a sketch instead of a detailed picture. " This one is impossible to catch! It's called a Rayquaza...One of the legendary ones."

He nodded again, bright eyes seeking hers out once more. "Yeah, if you don't train them right like Lance or Clair, Dragons can be really mean and scary... But still awesome! I'm gonna be a dragon master one day and be friends with both of the best dragon masters! They're cousins, you know," he told her knowingly, as if that made a difference in what he said. "And they're from Blackthorn, like me, so. It makes sense, I guess." Because, yes, obviously he was destined to be a Dragon trainer.

Chester was let go from the hug, though he stayed close to his boy, listening to the conversation patiently. It was nice, to watch the child interact with other humans.

"Yeah," he shrugged, looking back to his book and not stressing his answer a bit. Of course he would be on TV competitions one day. "I dunno how long it'll take, but yeah!"  

[Gwennythe]

"Legendary huh? Very very neat! Do you really think it's impossible though, or maybe, just maybe, just nobody has managed to catch one yet?" Tambrey gently teased, adding, in an almost offhand manner, probably aiming to fan his enthusiasm a little "Y'know, there must have been a first trainer for all the other pokémon, maybe one day /someone/ will be the first Rayquaza trainer, huh?"

She ran the two subjects together, nodding very sagely, as if agreeing completely regarding the comments about dragon masters and Blackthorn.
"Wow. That's really neat, and I bet a dragon master would probably be the most likely to catch a legend right? Come to think of it," She tapped her chin gently "aren't Dragonites /nearly/ legendary themselves?"

The woman leaned back a little, regarding the Charmander carefully for a moment, then the boy again; it was sweet to see trainers just starting out, as long as she didn't think about her own life too much- then it became a little guilt-inducing.
She definitely agreed with the boy's mother, she decided, that training in relative safety was better before attempting his journey, but part of her rather wished it wasn't so necessary.
The boy certainly seemed responsible enough, just from talking to him, but with the right attitude, for a journey... but he was young, even if at the officially allowed age for registered trainers, and the world was kind of scary, even because of people like herself.  

[Tori Honoo]

He paused for a moment, as though considering her words carefully. "Oh, I dunno...! Maybe that really could be done!" His eyes lit up, and his smile returned full force. "Maybe one day I'll catch it! I dunno how long I'd keep it just for me, though... All the legendary pokemon are so strong! And they all have big jobs, right? Maybe I could help it though! And it might let me ride on its back!"

His eyes widened again, and he nearly started bouncing in his seat, instead choosing to rise to his knees in the chair to be a little higher at the table. "Uh, yeah, Dragonites are awesome," he giggled. "Lance has one of them! It's his team leader, or it was last time I heard." A shrug. "My mom really likes Dragonairs though, but they're so girly!" he laughed. "But yeah, I guess they could be. All dragons could be though, cause of how strong they are." He stopped for a moment, then flipped through his book again, this time to show her a full page spread of an massive dog. "Did you know that Arcanines are actually 'legendary' kinds of pokemon, even though they're not really all that legendary?" Yep, perfect segway. She had said that Dragonites were like legendaries, so obviously, the new comparison--though arcanine weren't nearly as cool as dragons-- was spot on. And he was really enjoying talking to the woman, as if excited to share his 'vast' knowledge with her, and learn a little more from her if he could.

Chester continued to sit loyally at the boy's side, though he looked around the large library at the other people as they passed and shifted at their tables, gathering information of his own.  

[Gwennythe]

"Maybe!" Tambrey agreed, humoring the idea. There was absolutely no point, she thought, in not agreeing with the boy, in discouraging such dreams.
She smiled as she watched him get excited to talk about Dragonites and launched into telling her all about the pokémon, and other pokémon in relation.

The mention of Lance could have become a little awkward- a pang of guilt, despite how little she ever had to do with such things personally- and so she was glad that he didn't seem to linger on it.
"Oh but Dragonairs are very pretty as well as strong!" She interjected, jovially, then mocked up looking surprised to hear about Arcanines.
"Really? Well they are pretty amazing pokémon; have you ever seen someone riding one?"

One of the pokéballs on Tambrey's belt wriggled a little. They were somewhere interesting, it just knew it, and it had been in the ball for so long! The pokémon inside wanted to be let out and see where they were! It knew this wasn't the base.  

[Tori Honoo]

He absolutely beamed as she repeated him, but quickly frowned in a look of confusion, though his expression was more humorous than anything. "I think it's a girl thing..." he shrugged, "I wouldn't mind having one though! They really are super strong, and besides, they have to evolve from Dratini into that before they can be Dragonites, so," He shrugged, before looking as though he remembered something "I petted a Dratini once! Back at a festival thing they did when I was little! It was super smooth!" he exclaimed, before shrinking a little as someone close by shushed him. He had forgotten his whispering, and as his cheeks flushed bright pink, he quickly adopted the softer tone again. "Riding an arcanine? No way! That sounds so cool! They're huge!!!" A light giggle. "They wouldn't be as fast as a Rapidash, or anything, but I bet they're nice to sleep on in the winter time!" Warm and cozy, he thought, with all that fur on it. Best pillow ever.

Chester chuckled a little, then sneezed, covering his nose for a second with his claws before looking again at the book his boy seemed so enamored with.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey nodded sagely, listening as he talked through about Dratini-line evolution, smirking as he mentioned thinking that liking Dragonair might be a 'girl thing'. He certainly seemed to have a good grasp on the evolution of the pokémon though, and she supposed, after he'd mentioned where he was from, that perhaps the culture of Blackthorn really did instill a lot of knowledge about dragon types after all.

"Oh, sorry, my fault." Tambrey apologised, holding a hand up to the person who had shushed Jace, and smiling apologetically, before turning back to the boy.
"Really? I've never touched one; they do look very smooth and kind of slippery though."

She grinned as he was already comparing fire types; clearly this boy just had pokémon in his head all the time, she supposed. It had to be nice, to be that young again, and that sure of everything... To be so happy about things.
"Yeah they are really big; it's impressive to see a rider. I bet they really are; like a nice warm, heated bed, except you can talk to them and ride them. That is pretty cool; though I met Charmanders are pretty warm for hugging themselves?" Not fluffy maybe, but Tambrey couldn't help herself but bring the little fire type back into the conversation when she heard him sneeze.

The ball wiggled again; something out there had /sneezed/ and it wasn't a human and that meant there was a friend out there to meet.
Tambrey looked down, then looked around the library.
Jace, and others, had their pokémon out and some were far larger than even the one that was causing the ball to wriggle... And, she supposed, as distinctive as he was, it was extremely unlikely anyone could relate the pokémon to Team Rocket, as she'd never really used him in any public kind of mission anyway.
She plucked it from her belt, spoke to it; "Only if you're quiet, okay?" and then clicked the button, releasing a slightly abnormally coloured Bayleef, who immediately trotted over to peer at Chester with a silly, friendly, smile on his face.
"Excuse me. Treestar was just really eager to come out; I guess he could tell you and your friend were nearby."