[FIN] Discoveries Abound

[TawnyAngel]

Splash.

The Noodleair floated away.

Taavi laughed and shook his head, now stretching out his other leg. "I'll make it up to her." He could tell that she was mostly joking but still, he could have thought of something better.

"How about we look for berries first?" Taavi suggested after a moment, searching Abel's face for signs of approval or disapproval as he let Swift and Melody out of their pokeballs. "Um, if that suits you? I just want to let Kielo and Mulder out into the water first."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel chuckled again for a moment before the amusement faded into a small grin, and with his pokeballs stashed back in place he stuck his hands into his hoodie pockets. Vanessa watched him do so, blinked down at her own pockets, and attempted to do so as well. "Sure," the blond agreed easily, offering a shrug along with the response. "Anything's fine with me, really."

Isaac turned to Abel's remaining three pokemon apart from himself.

Sonia replied simply, idly flicking one ear as she glanced around at their surroundings. They seemed safe enough - for now, at any rate...

The quiet Mareep asked as she turned to look up at Vanessa.

The Lopunny turned a vaguely frightened look back at Tabitha. she replied quickly, anxious at the mere thought of being separated. While she didn't think they'd leave her there alone, the thought of her last experience alone in the woods was not one she was at all eager to repeat.

Tabitha offered her a calm smile, stepping a bit closer to the taller pokemon.  

[TawnyAngel]

Tabitha was good for Vanessa; given their circumstances he knew how hard it was for Abel to keep another pokemon fed and healthy but he was glad she'd come along, her kind calm nature was a pleasure to have around the place. "Are we all sticking together then?" Taavi asked, looking between Abel and his pokemon. "Great, I'll just go let the water types out then I'll be with you!" Poor Vanessa, she looked so nervous! Hopefully today would be a good experience for her, it wasn't that often that she got out and about.

Taavi shrugged out of his backpack and headed down to the shore, where he released Mulder and Kielo into the calm water. "We're here!" he announced unnecessarily to the pair; Kielo kept her face above water to listen and so he spoke slowly and clearly, her hearing wasn't made to work out of the water. "We'll be here a while I expect so enjoy the water! Oh, um, and tell Scully I'm sorry I compared her to a pool noodle."

Mulder gave a musical laugh and shook his head. <>

Taavi watched as Kielo dipped below the surface and as Mulder carefully reversed out of the shallows before turning to head out into deep water, where he too sank out of sight. He then turned back to Abel and the assembled pokemon with a broad smile; "Alright, great! Berry time!"

<> Valour said, indicating upward with one wing. <> With that the large avian pokemon hopped a polite distance away from the group of terrestrial creatures before launching himself into the air.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When Taavi rejoined Abel and his pokemon, Caleb followed after him with his ears back. Isaac asked, ears perked.

he replied,

<Caleb,> the psychic-type admonished, flicking his own ears back, so the Growlithe looked away with a huff. That done, Isaac turned to Valour with a more polite expression,

"Alright then, after you," Abel replied to Taavi with a smile and a gesture to the woods. He didn't know the best spots to pick berries - or any spots, really, save for what he'd heard from Taavi - so he was content to follow for the moment.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Right!" Taavi rubbed his hands together and cast around. "That way," he said after a moment's deliberation, pointing to illustrate and grabbing the bucket he'd brought along in his backpack. Inside were several smaller tubs that those with hands could carry around. "Okay, so, who would like a tub and who want to carry the bucket?" he asked of his companions. "I actually brought some string too so we can rig up handles for the small tubs if needed! I figure we fill the tubs and then empty them into the bucket, no need to worry too much about berry types I don't think? A mixture might be quite nice."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah, a mixture sounds good," the blond agreed, and then, rather than answer for himself just yet, he turned to address his pokemon. "All right guys, who wants what?"

Sonia glanced down at her rather sharp claws, flexed them a moment, then held them out as she replicated Taavi's voice and word choice as an auditory illusion, "The bucket?" She was rather ill equipped to pick such delicate things such as these, and felt she'd be much more likely to spear them than pick them.

"Okay," Abel nodded, then looked to the rest of his assembled pokemon. Since they'd more or less already paired themselves up - whether intentionally or not - he pointed at Tabitha and Vanessa, and Caleb and Isaac. "So you guys want a pail?" His Mareep and Espeon nodded, while the Lopunny hesitated and his Growlithe huffed at the thought. "All right, perfect. Sounds like we need three pails, with some string for two of them, so..." With that settled, Abel moved to get the pails ready for himself and his pokemon. After a minute or two of fastening and passing them out, he stood with a pail of his own in one hand, while one pail hung from Tabitha's mouth and one similarly hung from Caleb's - the latter looking much more displeased about it than the former. "Okay," the blond said as he turned back to Taavi, "I think we're ready now."  

[TawnyAngel]

"The bucket it is!" Taavi replied to Sonia, passing it over with a smile before moving to help Abel construct the string pails.

Soon enough the containers hung from their quickly crafted handles; Taavi nodded agreement to Abel's assertion. "Seems like it!" he agreed, passing one of the pails to Swift and picking up his own before starting towards the area he'd suggested. "And if you're not sure what something is please ask before you pick it, I don't want us to end up sick for days because we accidentally something toxic," he added with a grin to Abel and the assembled pokemon. "I only made that mistake once! I thought I was such a smart kid, finding nice berries all by myself while Dad went fishing! That camping trip ended with a trip to A&E so, um, woops. I was fine! As you can tell. But I had awful stomach cramps for days so let's not go there."

Now that they were out here, far far away from the noise and bustle of the city and any chance of seeing Alyssa he could feel tension he hadn't even really been aware of ebbing out of his body. They really needed to do this more often.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sonia accepted the bucket with a quiet noise, then stayed out of the way as the pair of humans set about stringing up some of the pails.

Abel and his pokemon followed after Taavi at an easy pace, all of them glancing around at their surroundings at various intervals as they went along. "All right," the blond said with a nod Taavi probably wouldn't see. "I dunno about these guys," he gestured to his assembled pokemon with the jerk of a thumb, "but I don't normally go picking berries often at all - as in, never in my life - so I'll probably have to ask you a few times." While berry picking seemed a simple enough thing to do, he had no idea how many toxic or poisonous ones there were and didn't particularly care to find out several hours after consuming one. Or several.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Heh, it's all good, that's what I'm here for!" Taavi replied cheerfully as they approached the treeline. "Ah, see there?" Taavi gestured to a short, dull orangeish bush with red and yellow berries and some lingering white flowers on it. "Leppa berries, does everyone like those?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Uh," the blond replied eloquently as he squinted at the small berries, "I dunno, I've never had those before." Well, only one way to find out, he supposed; he walked over to the bush and picked one of the berries from it before popping it into his mouth. "Mm," he said after a moment, "those are pretty good. They have a lot of flavor to them. What d'you think, guys?" As he asked his pokemon, he pulled a few more berries off and passed one to each for them to try. After a moment or two of thought, he pulled another one off and knelt down to offer it to Swift.

are pretty good,> Isaac agreed with a nod, savoring the taste on his tongue and trying to pick out the various flavors.

Sonia shrugged; she didn't particularly care one way or the other.

Caleb disagreed as he wrinkled his nose, his tongue sticking out a bit.

Vanessa shook her head as well, for once agreeing with Caleb,

Tabitha began,

Based on his pokemon's variety of responses and the looks on their faces, Abel shrugged at Taavi. "Looks like a pretty even split for those ones. What other berries are around here?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"...Um." Taavi vaguely registered Abel's voice but he couldn't begin to think of a response; he was staring at Vanessa. "Um. Hey. Vanessa? Could you... say something else?" Staring and putting her on the spot wasn't something he would normally do, ever, but he was almost completely sure that he had just.... "Did you just say 'I don't like them either'? Err. I'm pretty sure you did." He wasn't going to get excited though, no, not until he was sure but actually his headache had faded away so... so....  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Taavi's request gave Abel and his pokemon pause, and unfortunately all of them glanced over at the Lopunny. Vanessa immediately started anxiously clasping and unclasping her small hands together as she stared up at Taavi with wide eyes, effectively freezing up once he put her on the spot even if that hadn't been his intention. Feeling everyone's eyes on her - whether they actually were or not mattered little - she made an unhappy noise in the back of her throat, reached around behind her head, and hastily pulled her hood down over her head. Her large ears flopped forward over her shoulders and obviously couldn't be hidden, but it at least covered part of her face and that was good enough for her.

"Aww, Vanessa," Abel said as he set his pail inside the bucket Sonia held so he could bend down and wrap his arms around the Lopunny, "it's okay, there's nothing to worry about." But, huh... Could Taavi really understand her? His friend had been hoping to understand a type of pokemon for ages now, so it was about time for the ability to manifest.

Tabitha said soothingly as she took a step closer to the taller pokemon and leaned lightly against her leg,

Vanessa said uncertainly, but wilted before she could get anything else out.

The Mareep suggested patiently, though she didn't wait for a response just in case Vanessa tried to disagree. Something.>

something!> The Lopunny blurted out, then immediately pressed herself closer to her trainer.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Wow." Yep. So. That... that was definitely a thing. "Wow. Um, okay firstly I'm really sorry for making you uncomfortable Vanessa, and thank you. Um. Okay. Cool. This is... this is pretty cool." A slightly dazed grin started to spread across Taavi's face and after a few moments he laughed, pulled his pendant out from underneath his shirt and kissed it. "About time right?" He really wanted to grab and hug Vanessa but nope, that would be seriously unkind, and so instead he stooped to scoop Swift up and swung the Vulpix around. "Wheeeeeeeeee!"

<> Swift replied, closely followed by; <>

Okay he hadn't heard the words but he'd understood that just fine from the tone of voice and the slight flailing. "Sorry!" Taavi tucked the little fire type in close to his chest instead and, still grinning like an idiot, turned to Abel. "Best berry picking trip ever!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel and his pokemon watched Taavi's display - or, all of them except Vanessa did - and the blond chuckled a bit. Yep, he could understand her. About time. "Yeah? You're not excited or anything, are you?" He asked with a grin. Of course he was, but it was fun to tease him.

Vanessa shifted a bit in his arms, so Abel patted her head through her hood. "Don't mind him Vanessa, he's just excited because he can understand what you're saying now. You can talk to him and have conversations from now on. Cool, yeah?"

Tabitha commented brightly, smiling up at the Lopunny. To convey this point to the humans, the electric-type bent her head down to pick up her pail again.

"Ah, Tabitha's right," the blond said when he saw her pick her pail back up, "we haven't picked any berries yet. Are these the only ones that are around here, or are there other kinds too? I bet Vanessa would really like the sweet ones, yeah?" This he aimed both at Taavi and at the Lopunny as he drew away from her a bit, trying to get a peek at her face, but she kept the hood drawn securely over it.

she said quietly after a moment or two.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Pfffh, excited? Me? Whatever gave you that idea?" Taavi laughed as he set Swift down on the ground again and recovered his own pail. "Um, I doubt these are the only ones, and if we're looking for sweet ones thennnnn...." Taavi fetched his pokegear out of the pouch on his belt and pulled up an image to show to everyone. "That's a Mago bush and this is a Pecha bush. Pecha are more common, I'd be surprised if we didn't see some! If we're really lucky we might find Watmels, this isn't their natural err... is habitat the right word for plants?" Taavi blinked and then laughed at himself. "You know I actually can't remember for the life of me but yeah, they're a subtropical plant but you know what trainers can be like for planting random things wherever they like! Some might survive but the fruits probably won't get to be very big. Might still be tasty though! And technically we'd be removing an invasive species if we picked all of them so if you do see one go nuts!"

So this meant he understood normal types right? Vanessa's, ah, strangeness gave him a slight pause but it had to be right? And that meant he'd understand Valour! How great was this? Aaaaaaah!