[PRP] An Encounter At The City's Edge!

[BlackFireKitsune]

The young noble heartily agreed, and gave a bright nod to show that agreement. She certainly loved to learn about anything she could. The thought of believing regardless of the actual situation gave her pause, and she tilted her head in some bemusement. That... actually made a great deal of sense, and presented an entire other side of an argument that she didn't even knew existed. Was that why Pascal always lost - because she obviously didn't believe in him? Were his battle shortcomings her own fault? The thought left her very unsettled and mildly distressed, and she peered down at her Buneary as her hands raised to her cheeks again. "Really? Does that help?" Oh, she hadn't been believing all this time; were all of his losses really her fault?

"Oh! I have two, too!" She was pulled from her negative thoughts to something much more positive and enthusiastic. Her eyes widened as the small bat flew around overhead, and she instinctively ducked a bit when he flew too low or too near. "Ohh! It's so cute! What is it? What's it's name?" Oh, but she had asked too, so she pulled a pokeball out and released her bay Rapidash. "This is Epona! She doesn't really battle though."  

[Gwennythe]

"It totally does!" Henrietta insisted, happily oblivious to the idea that Nicolette might be taking it as any kind of unintentional criticism. "Gummy's... Kinda special! But I know he's /really/ special and he can totally win every time! He doesn't every time, but I know he can!" She beamed, hoping the example was clear enough.

"She's Winglet!" The purple-haired trainer replied to Nicolette's questions. "She's my Zubat! Yeah! She is /super cute/ but she's awesomely tough too!"

Her eyes widened as Epona appeared.
"Wow! She's so cool! How come she doesn't battle?! She'd be super tough! And I bet she could really help Pascal train too!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The example, luckily, was indeed clear enough, and Nicolette brightened as she nodded enthusiastically, determined to believe in Pascal and encourage him as much as she could from then on. "Alright," she agreed eagerly, nodding again and smiling more at Henrietta's words. "Thank you for sharing that with me; I hope believing in Pascal will help him win more in his battles." She really hoped it would. It probably would though; Henrietta seemed to fully believe in both of her pokemon, and Gummy had clearly won their battle. "And Gummy looks wonderfully special! And adorable, too," she couldn't help but add with another smile.

"Winglet?" She repeated, her smile brightening at the name. "That's such a cute name!" A Zubat? Huh.. "I've never heard of a Zubat before... ..oh! Oh!" Nicolette pulled a pokedex from her bag, and after a couple moments of messing with the features - she was still not fully used to the device just yet - it began to display information about Zubats. "I keep almost forgetting that I have a pokedex, and they're so helpful," she said, a light blush in her cheeks at the thought of forgetting about it again. "Do you have one?" All trainers did, right?

Epona snorted lightly, a little amused at the girl, and leaned her head down so she could whuffle lightly at Henrietta's purple hair. Nicolette's blush deepened a bit as she glanced from the other girl to her Rapidash, then back again. "Oh, well, um.. My parents purchased her years ago for me to ride, but I never even thought of battling until I came here. No one trains pokemon or battles them in Grande Ile, where I'm from; there are no pokemon trainers there," she attempted to explain. "And she's never shown an interest in it, not like Pascal has, so I kind of figured that she didn't want to, I guess.." Was that really the case though? Gummy hadn't seemed nearly as eager as Pascal to battle, but he still did anyway - and won - so maybe whether she was eager to or not didn't matter as much...?  

[Gwennythe]

"It totally will!" Henrietta agreed with a grin, and put her thumb even higher up for a moment.

Gummy received the praise quietly, his tail swinging back and forth for a short moment before he chose to look up... Not quite at the Rapidash, more just past her, gaze lost somewhere in the sky.

"You've never heard of a Zubat?!" Henrietta looked more than a little surprised; if she'd thought about it, being from a place with a lack of trainers probably made the fact make sense, but to someone who lived and breathed training it was just an incredible idea.
Still, that meant that Nicolette got to learn all about them as new so, she guessed, as surprising as it was, that made Nicolette quite lucky.

"Winglet's awesome /and/ cute! She was the first pokémon I actually caught!" Henrietta then nodded, but looked sympathetic, as Nicolette fiddled with her pokédex. "Yep! I got one too! My first one kinda got eaten but I got another one! Hi!" She giggled as Epona suddenly seemed to be snuffling at her head and she reached her hands up to see if the horse-pokémon would let her pet her.
"Huh, so you can ride her? She's /really/ big!" Hen' was a little wide-eyed, looking up at the fire type. "I've never even know there were places without trainers! I guess not all pokémon like battling but if you haven't asked her, then I guess you wouldn't know either... Maybe try asking her about it?! She might really wanna battle and then be awesome at it, but you might be right and she might not! Gotta let them choose though! I know Gummy likes to battle! He never backs down from it!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Henrietta's disbelief made her a little uncomfortable, and a light blush crept into her cheeks as she shook her head 'no' to her question. Thankfully the feeling didn't last, and Nicolette eagerly moved onto the next topic. "Really? Pascal was the first - well, only - pokemon I've caught so far," if you could even call that 'catching.' Her expression faltered a bit though at the girl's statement. "...it got eaten?" What... How had that happened? What had eaten it?

Epona looked down at Gummy as he looked at her - or, well, more like at somewhere just beyond her - but focused instead on Henrietta, and allowed the girl to pet her without any hint of complaint.

"Hm? Oh, yes," the girl went on, pulling herself from her brief confusion to continue the conversation. "She is big, and I can and do ride her quite frequently," she explained, then paused as an idea visibly struck her, and she brightened as she asked, "If you'd like, you can ride her sometime." A brief glance told her that the hornless Rapidash was still focused on Henrietta, so she smiled and folded her hands in front of her. "I'll ask her another time; for now, I think she's enjoying your attention."  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh, really! That's cool! He really is awesome! How did ya catch him?! I bet he totally wanted to battle you right?! That's how I got Winglet! Oh! An Absol ate it!" Henrietta 'explained' "But it's alright! I got a new one!"

Henrietta seemed happy enough gently petting Epona, and seemed pleased to hear that Epona was, apparently, enjoying the attention, but she sounded enthusiastic about the prospect of being allowed to ride the pokémon at some point.
"Oh really! That would be so totally awesome! Man, she must be so awesome to ride right?! Both of your pokémon are so totally cool!" Well, she thought all pokémon were cool, but still, she certainly meant it.