[Fin] Fresh Inspiration

[TawnyAngel]

When the gangplank finally went down he was keen to get off the boat but there was a press of people who also wanted to get off and were more willing to shove then he was. Taavi waited just back from the impatient press of humans and accompanying pokemon, picking distractedly at a loose bit of paint on the ship's rail as he stared upward. It was hidden from view now of course - he'd been following pictures of the construction - but it was still somehow exciting and disappointing both at once. What did you have to do to actually get inside?

Eventually the rush around the gangplank cleared, leaving him free to shoulder his huge backpack and step off the boat onto sacred soil.... Paving. Nobody else seemed to be paying much attention to their surroundings, they were all rushing to get somewhere or looking at phones or pokegear so they could work out where they ought to rush to. And what about him? What was he going to do next?

Taavi moved out of the way of the gangplank and tried to work that out. He'd need somewhere to stay tonight, preferably, and food at some point soon because the food on the boat had been expensive and he'd already eaten everything he'd brought along with him. Maybe he could find some local knowledge? He didn't really want to turn his phone back on to look for information online, he knew there'd be more messages on it that he didn't want to read.

While he waited for a decision to arrive he fetched Valour's pokeball out of one of the pouches on his belt and release the Braviary. "Well, we're here," he reported brightly. "Go stretch your wings while I work out what to do next?"

The large flying type squawked agreement, lent forward to preen his hair briefly, and then took off in a rush of wind that totally messed up the tumble of black again anyway. Taavi smiled and shook his head slightly, smoothing a hand over his hair and looked around again. Right, plan. No problem.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Another beautiful day! Alice leaned over the railing to look down into the water below to watch the various aquatic pokemon swim by, her Sylveon peeking over the edge to look too. Both sets of eyes lifted to the boats whenever one docked, and the thoughts of both went back to when they themselves arrived on one such boat not too long ago. "I can't believe it's only been a couple weeks," the girl said wonderingly to her fairy-type, and the lithe pokemon made a noise of agreement and gently curled one ribbon around her trainer's wrist. Only a couple of weeks, and none of them could understand pokemon yet. Her father was only a little disappointed, but he was only too eager to continue researching the egg as much as he was able. For Alice, it was less a source of knowledge and more an opportunity, and she could only hope it would lead her to be able to hold conversations with her Sylveon.

As the latest boat's arrivals disembarked and dispersed into the inner parts of Camphoreon proper, Alice folded her hands behind her back and turned on her heel to address her pokemon, "So! What d'you think we should do, Cass? We could go take more pictures along the beach, or we could go find somewhere to have lunch..."  

[TawnyAngel]

Lunch? Lunch sounded good. Even better the speaker didn't look intimidating. Taavi shifted his pack on his shoulders a little and approached with a hopeful smile. "Um, hi. Sorry, I wasn't meaning to eavesdrop, but I heard you mention lunch? Do you know where I could get something to eat around here? I just arrived and," he gestured to the ship, "the food on there was really expensive so.... Um, breakfast slash lunch would be great. Oh! And your Sylveon is beautiful, did she come from a breeder?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The Sylveon frowned thoughtfully at her trainer's question, but before she could give any kind of response, they both started at the stranger's approach. "Oh! Um, hello," Alice said in reply, her eyebrows raised in surprise; clearly she hadn't expected to be interrupted or engage in interaction with a stranger at the moment. The surprise disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared initially, and a friendly curiosity took its place. "Ohh, you did? I know a couple places nearby, most of them aren't that expensive," she assured him. Her head tilted to one side a bit and her bright gaze swept over his person. He did look like he'd just arrived - either that or he just looked hungry.

The Sylveon visibly perked at being complimented, and she offered the stranger a pleased trill as she moved closer to gently headbutt his leg. "Syyyl!"

"Thank you!" Alice beamed. "She is beautiful, isn't she? Her name is Cassandra, and yes, she did - my mother bought her for me from an Eevee breeder for my tenth birthday. Do you have any pokemon?"

Cassandra chose this moment to interrupt, loosing a querying "syyl?" as she moved two ribbons to rub at her belly, hoping to convey her desire for food.

"Oh, right - lunch," Alice said with a nod, then amended her statement to add, "or breakfast-slash-lunch, rather. There's an inexpensive cafe this way," the girl gestured with her free arm down the boardwalk. "Would you like to eat with us?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Phew! She was as friendly as she looked. Taavi smiled and went down on one knee to offer his hand out to the Sylveon for investigation. "Hello there beautiful!"

Oh, and not only a recommendation but company too? Great! "Thank you, I'd like that a lot," Taavi replied, smiling up at the white-haired stranger and smoothing a hand back over his disorderly tumble of hair again. "And I do, I got him for my tenth birthday as well actually! He's up there," Taavi pointed to the soaring Braviary. "His name is Valour... Oh! And mine is Taavatti, call me Taavi. Who're you?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Cassandra made a pleased trilling noise at his compliment, then stepped forward to sniff at his hand for a brief moment. Once inspected, she bumped her forehead into it. Attention? Petting? Please?

"Of course!" Alice said. While she had debated whether or not to offer - she didn't know this person, really - it would be terribly rude to talk about getting food, suggest a stranger go somewhere, then go somewhere else to get food at the same time. Really, they were both hungry and both needed breakfast-slash-lunch, so it only made sense to go together. Besides, maybe it would be fun? It also helped that someone else was newer than she was.

Mention of his pokemon and the gesture to where he was made the girl look up -- and up, as she raised a hand to her forehead to block out the sun to see a dark shadow wheeling overhead. Was it a shadow, or was it simply darkly-colored? It was difficult to tell at this height, but it made her curious all the same. "Valour? That's a lovely name. Oh! Taa--sorry," her cheeks pinked and she tried his name again, "Taavatti? Taavi?" She wasn't used to names like that, and hoped she hadn't butchered it too terribly. "Mine is Alice. I'm sorry, I completely forgot to introduce myself before, too."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Taavi, that's right. It's Finnish," Taavi explained with a slightly apologetic smile, he was used to people struggling with it a little by now. He did like his name, but at the same time sometimes he wished he had something a bit more normal... Normal for the League regions that was. "And thanks, um, about the name. I didn't actually choose it but I've always thought it suited him, he's a Braviary."

As he spoke Taavi was busily petting Cassandra's head, rubbing and scritching behind her ears or wherever else she turned toward him for attention. "It's nice to meet you Alice, and you too Cassandra!" Much as he had mixed feelings about the intensive breeding practices required to produce pokemon like her he couldn't deny that she was beautiful, she had a good temper too and seemed to be in perfect health and that was what really mattered.

Right though. So... Should he suggest they start going to the diner? He didn't want to seem pushy, and he was enjoying petting Cassandra, but he was also very hungry.... It was probably best to wait for Alice to say something, she'd been planning to go for food anyway so he doubted she would want to just hang around here. Still, he'd wait until she said it.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Okay, she didn't think she'd butchered it too badly... He wasn't upset or anything about it, at any rate, and that was what mattered most. "You didn't choose it?" She echoed, seemingly briefly confused until a thought struck her. "Oh, did you trade for him?" Such a practice was rather common, she knew, though she hadn't actually engaged in it herself. Cassandra had been her one and only for so long - until the boat ride to Kodo - and she couldn't even entertain the thought of parting with her, trading her away for another pokemon.

The Sylveon made loud, pleased noises at the attention, turning her head this way and that to ensure all areas received a good, thorough petting. She even deigned to wiggle the butterfly-shaped bows at her ear and under her chin, making them appear as if the wings were fluttering a bit. Not that she'd practiced doing so in front of a mirror countless times before or anything, of course not.

"It's nice to meet you too!" They weren't walking yet, and he didn't seem to be making any motions towards doing so... Was he not ready yet? Did he not want to go yet? Cassandra certainly looked like she was enjoying herself... "Um," Alice started uncertainly, her hands finding something to fidget over in the form of smoothing down her sundress, "did you want to go now, or, um, wait a few minutes...?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, I'm good to go!" Taavi replied, and an observant person might notice that he looked faintly relieved for a moment when Alice spoke. After giving Cassandra a last scratch - and a wide smile for the adorableness of those strange bows - Taavi straightened up, using the rail to help a bit against the weight of his bag. Now safely upright again he looked upward, waved to catch Valour's attention, and gestured in the direction Alice had indicated earlier before setting off at an unhurried walk.

"I didn't trade for Valour but he was already named when my dad gave him to me," he explained, feeling a faint pang of grief at the thought of his father but managing to cover it up by offering another small smile. "He was caught by one of the other rangers as a Rufflet; he's a strange colour and so they didn't want him getting into the wild breeding pool because they had no way of knowing where he'd come from, he could have been bred badly or something. When he turned out to be healthy though he needed a home, and I was turning ten so my dad bought him from the adoption centre and gave him to me."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While she didn't miss the look of relief, she wasn't entirely sure what he was relieved about - maybe he was just really hungry? - and quickly dismissed it. "Okay!" So saying, she turned and started walking beside him, with Cassandra trotting along beside her, a ribbon still wrapped securely around her wrist lest they get too far apart.

"Ohh, I see," the girl said with a nod, taking a moment to process the information. Rangers and breeding pools and adoptions... "Do the rangers normally do that? Catch pokemon with different colors to keep them from breeding, I mean," she added quickly, then after a few moments of thought she asked another question, "What region are you from?" She couldn't recall Kalos having many rangers - but then again she'd spent the majority of her time in Lumiose. And as big and diverse a city as it was, she typically only hung around a couple different parts of it. If there were rangers there, either she didn't recognize them or they spent their time somewhere else.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah, not all the time," Taavi shook his head. "I mean, they're usually really rare in Unova - that's where I'm from - but at the time there'd been a problem with rogue breeders who were doing inbreeding to develop unique colour lines quickly. One got caught out and released their stock - thought they were getting rid of evidence I think? - so there was concern that any abnormally coloured pokemon could come from that." Taavi gave a slightly apologetic shrug. "Uh, it was a long time ago so I don't really remember all the details I'm afraid... but what you actually asked was if it was something rangers do all the time which it isn't. They might try to sedate a strange looking pokemon to give it a quick check over, if appropriate, but not capture them just because they're a unique colour. A lot of the time unique colours in the wild comes from species interbreeding and isn't an issue at all, or just a mutation like melanism or leucism of course."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Oh, ohh, I see," Alice replied with a quick nod of her head. Yes, that made sense, though now she was curious about how many rogue breeders Unova had... Did Kalos have any? She hoped not, it was so beautiful a place - it probably didn't. Happily setting the thought aside regardless of how right or wrong she was, she continued, "I understand that. They'd want to make sure all the unnaturally colored pokemon didn't come from that and are healthy, right? Though it sounds kind of, um, a little dangerous? Is it?" She paused to aim a questioning, vaguely concerned frown at him. "I don't think rogue breeders like that would be too, ah, too happy about being found out."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Ah, well, not safe," Taavi shrugged, "but if anything bad's going on then the rangers would work with the police. Theoretically, heh, the rangers shouldn't be in the sort of trouble they're not trained for. Angry wild pokemon? Yes. Angry criminal humans? Less so. But yeah, I guess being a ranger isn't the world's safest job but it's not really super dangerous or anything." Theoretically anyway.

"So uh, have you always lived in Kodo then?" Good topic!  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Ah okay, that's good," the girl said with a pleased nod. That made much more sense. "It sounds like a really interesting job - getting to work with pokemon a lot, and keeping them safe. Kind of like, um, a guardian or something!"

Had she--? "Oh, no," Alice said with a quick shake of her head and a sheepish smile. "I actually just moved here a couple weeks ago, myself. We're from Kalos," here she gestured to the Sylveon still trotting along at her side, "from Lumiose City. We've both lived there our whole lives, though Cassie's only about ten years old," she finished with a smile. Conveniently they arrived at the aforementioned restaurant at that time, so Alice pushed the door open and entered with her Sylveon, then held it open for Taavi to enter after. "Here we are!"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Thanks, and that's right!" Taavi agreed enthusiastically as he followed Alice into the diner. "It's a great job but, um, being here was more of a priority." It wasn't going to be easy, he was sure of that, but he was excited to be here and even for the challenge! He'd still miss his job, his friends and all but a fresh start was exciting right?

"Heh, and not just me then. What do you think of Kodo so far?" Was that a free table over there? Taavi gestured to it and gave Alice a questioning look.