[Fin] Songs around the campfire

[Gwennythe]

"Goes with the territory?" Lin queried, wondering what was meant; he gave a nod though- most people went to apartments, or houses or just... inside for most of their lives. Sure, there were nice luxuries inside, but he always ended up feeling trapped in the end.

Jeeves sniffed hungrily, and seemed to be trying to stand on tiptoes, to get at least a glimpse of the food he could smell already.
This action seemed to prompt Acorn to creep back around to the front; giant bird or not, those smelled really good...

"Ah. I've never been off the island." Lin felt like he should explain; just in case the distance to Hoenn was... common knowledge or something.
"No." He answered, as he was asked about the egg. "But I heard a lot about it. I don't know how necessary it really was but Groudon showing up at all was rather awesome and the..." Did the stranger know about the 'talking' thing? Probably. That was a 'sensational' piece of news and the fact that Taavi even asked about the egg... perhaps that was the whole reason for him coming from Hoenn... "The effect it has. Very cool. Long as they keep it out of the hands of the Rockets. Last thing we need is them controlling something like that. Who knows what else it can do..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Too right!" Taavi agreed vehemently, frowning darkly and shaking his head. "I'd heard there were a lot of problems with them here recently. Can't they just learn to stay down? Use pokemon for profit!" Taavi gave the pan another rather vigorous shake, clearly illustrating his feelings on the subject.

A moment later however his expression softened as he spotted Jeeves trying to lean up. "Mind the fire," he warned, probably unnecessarily. "They won't take long, promise. Anyway, the territory," he nodded to Lin, "I, um, I was a ranger back in Hoenn so almost all our work was outside especially at my level. Higher ranking rangers got more paperwork, and had to spend time training less experienced ones.... I was never really interested in that though, all I wanted was to be out in the field doing my job." Taavi shrugged and smiled almost apologetically, as though he'd done something wrong by being disinterested in climbing the career ladder. "I don't know if Kodo has rangers as such?" Probably too much to hope for really, it was a small region and until recently there'd been little to no league presence here at all.  

[Gwennythe]

Oooh. This was interesting; he had almost the same sort of... reaction that Lin felt should be -everyone's- reaction to Team Rocket...

"... I like you." Lin declared, then supposed he should probably elaborate. "A lot of problems. They've been 'round a few years though. They trash the place like they own it and they never care who gets hurt in the process..." His fists were clenched for the last part, and he and the Snivy shared a look... This seemed to bring him back into the more relaxed mood he'd had a moment before.
"A ranger though? That's really cool. I saw a movie, I think, about rangers once. No, I don't think we really have them. I'm sure I'd have run into them by now. Sagestone has 'guides' though, and there's the KSO... I don't think the KSO really deals with poachers or anything though... Just Rocket... But, hey, that's a fine target and focus in my book... Went on a mission with them once." The boy mused, then changed focus again, back to the topic of rangers and the lack thereof. "You could probably be the first to establish a presence or something?"

Jeeves had nodded and grumbled, a glance at Lin, separate to the one about the Rockets- he knew the boy wasn't so fond of fire. Though honestly it was more 'fire types' that made him nervous now, and Jeeves rather shared that.

Acorn waved a paw at the pan, as though willing the food to be ready to eat.  

[TawnyAngel]

Taavi beamed like somebody who'd just won a free day trip to a thing they love; Lin liked him! Would it be weird to say 'I like you too?' it probably would. "Um, yeah." Taavi smoothed his free hand over his hair and gave the sausages another shake with the other. "When I was thinking of coming here I was reading up and-" his expression darkened again and he shook his head, silent for a few moments. That poor girl, murdered at a ball. All the people injured in the contest they'd attacked. So many more stories besides. "Some of the things they've done are just... how can they do all that just for power and profit? What sort of person joins an organisation like that? I'm glad that there are people dealing with them properly now and that their base was destroyed." And turned into a base for the league! That was pretty satisfying.

"Oh, um, but I don't know about that," Taavi looked a bit pleased by Lin's suggestion, but mainly embarrassed and flustered. "I mean, I don't know if I could do something like that. Um. Though it's probably needed...." No, no going off on wishful thinking, he had to be practical here. Once he had a job and somewhere to live he could start looking into the future again. He couldn't do something like that though, he couldn't imagine all the work and skill that would go into setting that up. "Kodo seems to have a lot of uniquely coloured pokemon?" he added in a querying tone.  

[Gwennythe]

Lin rolled his shoulders; it wasn't quite a shrug because a shrug would be too... too trivializing... He wouldn't do that to Ruff's memory, and yet he didn't quite have a better action to express how he felt.

"Rockets. People who join Team Rocket are those who are Team Rocket." He stated, quite calmly, as though the somewhat paradoxical statement made the most sense in the world.
He could have rambled on about how evil they were, how he wanted to personally dismantle the entire thing, beat every rocket he found...

"Well. It's a thought, right? Maybe one day." Lin was rather aware that Taavi /had/ actually mentioned he'd rather 'just got here' in the grand scheme of things... He was camping out so as not to wear down the welcome in the trainer center after all... "People do things here. A lot of it's amazing." It didn't sound like he counted himself among them, but he didn't sound like he minded that- more that he was quite happily awestruck to know about them.
"Ah." His expression darkened slightly again, but he felt the balls who held occupants with a gentle caress for just a moment before replying.
"Rocket. They even pollute the wild." Sometimes he wanted to find the scientists and try feeding them to their own creations; he'd seen first hand how difficult it could be for some of the 'unusual' wildlife to survive. How could a Spinarak hope to avoid birds for long, or even hunt in the trees, when it was a bright pink?  

[TawnyAngel]

"So it's them." Taavi frowned again and gave a serious nod. "I did wonder. I mean, unique pokemon can be beautiful," he gestured to Valour, "but they should only be bred responsibly, and you ought to be careful about strains getting out into the wild. That's why I have Valour, actually. There were some rogue breeders around Unova, ten years ago now, inbreeding their stock to try to get unique colours quickly. When they realised the rangers were onto them they released a lot of the pokemon to try to get rid of evidence, so there was a big push over the next few months to pick up strange coloured pokemon in case they were from the breeders not just, um, like a cross between two species that sometimes interbreed or something. Valour was a Rufflet who got picked up, and though he turned out to be fine and healthy he kind of imprinted on people and didn't seem to want to go back to the wild so he came to me...." Oh, and Lin hadn't asked for any of that. "Err, sorry, bit of a ramble there," Taavi said apologetically.

Leaving the sausages to their own devices for a little while Taavi then opened up the bread rolls and fetched out his hunting knife. It was a big knife, designed for cutting through anything that might need to be cut on a long expedition; bread rolls were a bit of a doddle for it. With the rolls opened Taavi gave the sausages a quick check and then opened the cheese up; it was a fairly large block of something orange and tasty looking. "So, um, help yourselves if you like," he said with a nod, setting the oversized knife down on the rock next to the rolls and cheese. "And maybe? One day," he agreed with a smile and a nod. "I'd like to improve the conditions for wild pokemon and make sure their habitats are preserved as much as is possible. A lot of people just... don't really seem to think, or realise the harm their actions have. Cause. Err. Heh. You know what I mean."  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh definitely." Lin readily agreed, making a decision rather quickly in his head; he liked Taavi- he liked that they held the same kind of beliefs apparently, and he could certainly appreciate Valour...

"Don't worry about it. Actually that was really cool. Saved me asking and stories are the best part of... this. I've been told." Lin gestured to the campfire and the shelter, meaning 'camping'. Personally, he thought eating and sleeping was the best part of 'camping' but that was, he supposed, because he 'camped' without other people -a lot- of the time. Like, almost always when he wasn't around Ray...

Acorn threw her paws in the air and, aided by Jeeves who joined her excitement more subtly, did just that, trying to help herself to cheese by ripping off a corner instead of using a knife, until Jeeves, also ignoring the knife seemed to be suggesting he could try cutting it with his leaves...

Moriko placidly nipped at the surrounding vegetation, still giving lingering glances toward Valour every now and then.

"Thanks... And, yes, I know what you mean..." He agreed, before broaching the subject he'd reached his decision on.

"Actually. I have two more with me. Do you mind if I let them out to join us? I... think it would be appropriate given our conversation too."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, good, then! Um, that I didn't ramble too much and that you know what I mean." Taavi smiled, both at Lin and at his pokemon friends' joy at the offer of cheese. "And of course not, I'd love to meet them. Heh. I think talking and meeting new people is a good part of camping too. Also cooking when it's not raining, that's pretty good too." If it had been too wet it would have been rolls, cheese, and carrots with no sausage whilst huddled in the shelter which wouldn't be half as much fun as this. He just hoped he had enough food to go around everyone.  

[Gwennythe]

Flash after dull flash happened as soon as Lin had his permission, and two somewhat small, one smaller than the other, pokémon were soon peering at Taavi with interest.

One, a strange looking and rather orange Igglybuff, and the other a mostly black and red, with some hints of white, Chikorita.

"Uh. Well then. Taavi and Valour, meet Gregson and Loro, and you guys, meet Taavi and Valour; don't worry, they're nice!" Lin reassured.

Gregson's second reaction was to turn to stare at Valour, and then try to puff himself up to look more important and impressive in front of the impressive bird.

Loro just shyly sniffed toward the food, her interest piqued by the smell of cooking; Lin did not cook outside of winter.

"I like the rain. But when I'm off the ground, under some shelter, and it's not a downpour. Anyway, these guys are," He gestured over them "as you can see, different."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hi there, nice to meet you both!" Taavi smile to the new pair of pokemon. They were both pretty but a long way from natural, especially Loro. Usually he would worry about the breeding behind such pokemon but now he could be fairly sure that they or their parents had been bred by Team Rocket, and he was certain that however they produced pokemon wasn't nice.... Well, he was glad that Gregson and Loro had found their way to Lin, that was all. "There's cheese and carrots if you'd like to help yourselves to any and these sausages are nearly done too," he informed the pair, peering in at the sausages as he spoke. Yep, nearly ready by the looks of it.

"The rain is lovely when you have somewhere dry to be," Taavi agreed, now turning to Lin with a grin. "And so long as your stuff stays dry too. I love the sound it makes, especially in a forest, and the way the world smells afterwards. Refreshed, right? Hehe, I just don't like cooking in it and I really wanted these sausages."  

[Gwennythe]

Loro flicked her leaf back and forth and then waggled her front leg until Lin gave her a carrot.

"Loro was, uh... Well, I hatched her. I took the egg out of a, well I think it was a smugglers den? Black market pokémon trading anyway."

Gregson waved a stubby little arm dismissively at Taavi and then marched toward Valour. He was a big tough important pokémon, and so he was going to hang out with the big tough important looking bird pokémon.

"Oh yes. That's the best smell in the world."  

[TawnyAngel]

As the strange Igglybuff approached Valour lowered his head a little to be closer to eye level. <>

"Smugglers?" Taavi remembered something else Lin had said and continued; "Was that the time you worked with the KSO? And, right? Especially this time of year."  

[Gwennythe]

<< It was, it was... Valour, hm? A fine monicker, very fine indeed.>> Gregson wore a serious, stiff expression, as though he was trying to look 'cool' and that there was any kind of importance that he 'approved' of the bird's name.

"Oh, no, when I worked with the KSO, we were chasing them after their base had been located. Right before it blew up..." Well, now, this gave him a chance to earn some bragging rights and look a bit impressive. "Got a medal for that. I can show you if you'd like? But nah, I was with a group of trainers, going after a friend of ours because she was looking into the shady stuff. Still stay with her pretty often actually. Tends to be a forest dweller like me, just she's been at it longer..."  

[TawnyAngel]

Valour blinked, turned his head to study Gregson through one eye and then turned around to look at him through the other just in case what he'd just heard made any more sense that way. He guessed that monicker was something to do with his name but he didn't know quite what it might be. <> he supplied, it seemed like a reasonable response to him and it was a good little story by way of introduction. <>

"Oh, really? You were there? Wow! Um, yeah I'd love to see it if you don't mind," Taavi replied, wide-eyed and clearly very impressed. Fighting for a great cause like that, he really admired it. He then abruptly felt terrible as he remembered when he'd tried to do something he'd thought was as worthwhile as that. He'd been an idiot. Taavi gave the sausages another shake, focusing briefly on the physical task to give himself a moment to shove down the guilt and the betrayal and horrible mixture of other emotions surrounding that piece of stupidity. "So, um, who's this friend of yours?" he added with a smile that wasn't quite so quick and warm as his previous smiles had been. "She sounds cool too." The implication of this of course was that Taavi thought Lin was cool, which he did. Lin had life pretty well sorted as far as he could tell and did all sorts of amazing things.  

[Gwennythe]

<< Aheh, uhuh. I see. It's a very good name. Very apt. My name?>> Gregson straightened up a little and tried to look impressive as he said << It's from a book.>>

Lin rummaged in his bag to find his medal, holding it up when he found it, offering it for Taavi to take and inspect if her wanted. It wasn't quite as bright and shiny as when he'd been given it.

The implication rather went right over Lin's head; Lin often /pretended/ he thought himself to be cool, or 'pretended to be cool', but he didn't really have the ego he sometimes pretended to possess.
He did think Ray was cool though.
"Yeah, she is. She was one of the guides in Sagestone. She's very tuned in to the world."