[Fin] Peaceful Afternoons

[TawnyAngel]

Humm?

Dith followed the small pokemon with a faintly bemused expression on his face; did she want something from him other than for him to follow? Was she trying to go somewhere away from prying eyes? Seen as she kept teleporting ahead of him Dith picked up his pace a little so as not to keep her waiting too long. "Where are we going?" he asked, looking down at her - and the pokeball she held - quizzically.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Dith's question received an uncertain noise in response, and Yulia paused again. She didn't have much trouble communicating with Ion - mostly because she had little need, Jozette had a much easier time communicating with him than she or Albiore did and so did most of the talking - but she wasn't entirely sure how to convey her intent to a complete stranger. She frowned thoughtfully for a few moments before an idea struck her, and she stopped to face him more fully.

She pointed at him before placing one hand over half of her face - about where her eye would be, if it were visible - and then pointed to the hospital. After a moment or two to let that sink in, she patted the pokeball in her arms, placed her hand over the same spot of her face for a second or two, and then turned to point out into the city uncertainly. Once finished, she turned to look up at Dith to see if he understood her meaning.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah... I was never very good at charades," Dith said, frowning as he tried to decipher the message. "Eyes, you want to show me- or Ion?" Sounds like eye, in the hospital, that made sense right? "Ion's... pokeball? The pokemon inside? Uh.... sorry I think you've lost me. Shall I just keep following you for now?" Ion, the pokeball... the city? "Ah, wait, he wanted to take the pokemon somewhere? Is that it?" It was the best guess he had for now at any rate.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah... At least he got half of what she was trying to convey; she wasn't very good at charades, either. She nodded her head to that bit, at least, to make sure he held onto that piece, before she strode over to his feet. Reaching one hand out, she gently patted his leg and looked up at him meaningfully before pointing at his face, then placed her hand over her face again - the same side that his eyepatch was on.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, me?" Not Ion, eye patch? Or maybe the first bit had been Ion still? "You want me... to come with you and the pokeball to somewhere in the city? I can do that but where? A pokemon centre?" If that was what the Ralts meant then at the same time he could get one of his ground types out and they could have a translated conversation, al fresco of course. "I think there is one not far from here," Dith continued, getting out his phone to check, "and if we go there I can retrieve somebody who can translate?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Aha! Yulia pointed at him when he said 'pokemon center' and made a pleased noise while she nodded her head vigorously. It was even better that he thought there was one nearby; he must've been here before. As he got out his phone to consult it, Yulia clasped the pokeball in both hands and peered up at him, waiting for him to find it and take the lead. She would have been happy to do so had she known where she were going, but the fact of the matter was she did not, and so had to try and ask him to do so.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Da, here we go," Dith nodded and crouched down so that he could show the small pokemon could see his screen. "We're here," he pointed, "and the pokemon centre is just here, about five minutes walk? Often hospitals and pokemon centres are built close together." It made sense; if a trainer was badly hurt their pokemon might be too.

"If we ride on Dolly we can be there quicker." Dith continued, taking the fire horse's pokeball from his belt and giving Yulia a quizzical look. "Does that suit you?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The Ralts eagerly looked at the screen to try and understand the map he showed her, the nodded her head eagerly at his offer. Their close proximity made sense to her, too, since this was such a case.

Riding there on Dolly was indeed much quicker, and once they arrived Yulia teleported off and, once inside, she teleported up onto the counter to attempt to play charades with the nurse there, although this time she tried to repeatedly point at her shoulder. "Um," said the nurse eloquently, "we'll take care of it, don't worry..." Whether or not she understood the pokemon - her dubious, uncertain expression hinted at 'not' - she accepted the pokeball Yulia offered to her and turned to set it on the machine behind the counter. As she did so, she turned her head to offer Dith a smile, "Your Ralts is very cute. Does she need to be healed too?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Shoulder? He definitely didn't understand that one. Dith smiled at the nurse apologetically and shrugged. "Ah, she's not mine actually but I think she's alright. I met her trainer in the woods, he had an asthma attack and so I brought him to the hospital and now his Ralts has brought me here. Honestly I have almost no idea what is going on, but she wanted to come here so I guess she knew that whoever is in the pokeball needed taking care of?" He was still mildly concerned that the pokemon inside was stolen, the other possibility so far as he could tell was that it was something quite rare that the men had wanted to steal themselves? He had no idea at all, but if it was the former then he was damn well making Ada explain to relevant authorities how she had got him into this mess. Egh, he really hoped it wasn't stolen or that - if it was - the 'real' owners just... quietly went away somewhere. Dealing with uniformed pigs was not top of his to-do list, today or ever.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The nurse's eyebrows rose. "Oh? Well, I hope he recovers quickly," she said honestly as she removed the pokeball from the machine and offered it to the little Ralts with a "here you go!" Yulia shook her head emphatically though and didn't take it. "Ah... Hm. If that's not it, then..." After a moment's hesitation the woman asked, "Is it hurt more - does it need to be treated?" At this Yulia nodded, so the woman nodded as well, passed the pokeball to her and scooped her up into her arms. "All right then," she said amiably, "I'll take you both into the back to get your friend treated by someone who can understand you, so you can explain better. I'll be back in just a minute," the nurse said over her shoulder to Dith before disappearing through a nearby door.

Almost literally one minute later the nurse returned without Yulia or the pokeball, and she turned a bright smile to Dith. The center was more or less empty at the moment, and since she had no other patients to treat or trainers to help, a bit of friendly conversation wouldn't be too out of the question. "It was very nice of you to bring his pokemon here. Is he a friend of yours, or...?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Part of him had wanted to stay with Yulia and the unknown pokemon to find out what it was and possibly what was going on here but when it was clear he wasn't really invited he chose not to press the issue and occupied himself with his phone for the short while the nurse was gone.

"Ah...." Dith scratched his jaw; how to explain this? "No I've never met him before," he admitted after a few moments with a shug, "but a friend of mine had met him before so when we ran into him in the woods she was keen to help. Not that I wouldn't have been anyway but," another shrug and a lopsided smile, "I supposed she served as an introduction? Not that we were able to speak much.... There was a bit of an incident actually, some men were chasing him and," Dith frowned and gestured vaguely, "I tried to find out what was happening but then they attacked us.... I think they wanted that pokeball, actually. What was inside it? I was not exactly able to ask under the circumstances."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Her eyebrows rose once more in surprise as Dith explained the situation. "Oh dear," she said at length, "yes, I imagine under the circumstances he wouldn't really have been able to explain much... No one was injured beyond his asthma attack? Was it Team Rocket?" The last question gained a slightly harder edge as she asked it, but her focus had turned to the machine behind the counter as her fingertips glided across its touch screen, bringing up information on recently healed pokemon. "I didn't give it more than a quick glance when I healed it, so I only saw that it was a Ponyta... Ah, here it is." So saying, her hand withdrew from the machine so as to avoid obstructing her vision as her hazel eyes darted across the bits of data it displayed - bits of data she read off aloud, "Ponyta, male, currently registered to one Ion Fo-- uh... Faw--..." Her cheeks turned pink and she said instead, "I'm just going to butcher his last name. Um... Oh, here, it looks--"

From the back room came an angry, pained whinny followed swiftly by the voice of another nurse attempting to soothe the distressed creature. The nurse at the counter glanced up at the door but the noises soon quieted, so she returned her focus to the machine to finish her sentence, "It looks like it's a shiny, so that may have been why they were after it. He's certainly not very strong just yet, being at such a low level, but shiny pokemon are generally sought after... And I don't know the extent of his injuries from here," she finished, looking up at him apologetically, "so we'll have to wait until they're finished to find out. I could go back and ask..." She trailed off as her gaze drifted to the door for a few moments, then back to Dith again, "...but it's probably better to wait, just in case."  

[TawnyAngel]

"No," Dith shook his head with a slight smile, "nothing worth mentioning. Ion though, that's him." So the pokemon was his afterall, that was a relief! The fact that it was a shiny explained a lot too; Dith shrugged expressively. "People are very strange about shiny pokemon, especially considering the range of colours and patterns of pokemon here in Kodo! I suppose the rare always has an allure though." Certainly his father's shiny Gardevoir had always drawn envious looks.

"I will wait," Dith continued with a nod, "I don't have to be anywhere urgently today, and I'd like to be able to go back and tell Ion how his friend is doing." Now that he knew it was his friend not somebody else's stolen friend! Phew. Those men though....

"Ah, the men trying to steal the Ponyta though, I don't know." Dith frowned darkly and shook his head. "They may have been Team Rocket but they didn't identify themselves as such; just opportunists perhaps? They didn't try very hard to hurt anyone badly for whatever that is worth." They could have set the Growlithe on Ion but they hadn't, that was worth something he supposed.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"That's good," she said with a nod, expression relieved, and then nodded again as she tapped at the machine to close the window of information on the Ponyta in question. "They can be, yes," the nurse agreed as she chewed her lip thoughtfully, brows furrowed, "and you would think that they'd be more interested in some of the more exotic colors and patterns more, but shiny pokemon are very rare... I suppose we won't really know for certain without asking them ourselves," she finished with a huff.

Setting aside the topic for the moment, she moved to organize a few empty pokeball trays on the side of the counter for whenever more trainers came in to heal their teams. "That's good; since his Ponyta needs more treatment than just being healed up, it'd probably benefit them both for someone to be able to relay information about his condition or further treatment, since he isn't here to hear it himself. Mm.. It's hard to tell sometimes if something that happens is because of Team Rocket or not; if they gave it up that quickly then I'd be inclined to think they're probably not..." She trailed off again, a thoughtful frown on her face.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmh, agreed," Dith said with a frown, unconsciously reaching up to rub the scars on the side of his face. "Team Rocket is tenacious when they want something, that much can't be denied." And Snowy was in there somewhere. It was strange how conflicted he felt about having reported his one-time friend's likeness to the KSO; Jack had ditched him on his wedding day when he was supposed to be his best man and since then repeatedly kept him hanging for replies to calls and letters after that before vanishing all together. He knew that he had never really 'got' people but he'd thought.... Ugh, no, not right now.

"I'll be glad to help," Dith added with a brief nod, "like I say I have no urgent appointments and my next shift is not for two days, I can wait here to hear about the Ponyta and then take news back to Ion. Is the Ralts still with him? The Ponyta I mean."