Maru was still tired from the long run she endured. "W-wait for me guys!" she quickly caught up to the group and decided to pop out her fennikin again. The Fennikin immediatlely went over to Zoe and they started playing. She picked up the Fennikin and held it for a while. "Oh! I never gave you a name! Hmmmm....what about Fari?" She asked to her new friend. "Chaa!" The Fennikin yelled in delight. "Alright! Fari it is then!"
"Yes, my name is Daphne. And those are both amazing goals. But I guess that you are right, both would be taking up a lot of time. Combining them would be a hard task." Daphne contemplated the enormity of the task of being both a Pokémon Professor and a Frontier Brain. She felt daunted by the whole thing and shook her head, as if to clear it. "A Frontier Brain, huh? I don't think I have heard many people that want to be a Frontier Brain. That is until you." Daphne gave Aurik a soft smile as she looking back from where she was walking next to Kirie. The auburn haired girl was looking around to get a feel for the region. It certainly looked different enough from her home region. Her smile grew wider as she heard Maru naming her Fennekin. Maybe traveling wouldn't be so bad as she feared.
"I want to become a main performer in the musicals." said Arno as he followed the others, completely oblivious to their looks and reactions to him. "I was raised with the Pokémon Contests in Hoenn, and the musicals still allow me to perform in front of people, but are different enough that it feels completely different. Plus, the Pokémon in a musical get to do a lot more stuff themselves, whereas in a Contests they mostly just follow their trainer's commands like a battle."
Tamariel had calmed down again and while listening to the others he suddenly remembered he'd yet to give the totodile he got from the professor a name and decided that now was a good a time as any to name it. Calling out the totodile it beamed at him as he picked it up to have a good look. "Hmm...How about Bruce, do you like that?" He asked the totodile that started chatting eagerly "Bruce it is then. Now don't run too far off okay." Tamariel then put down Bruce down as he could explore a little. The little totodile ran up to greet his fellow water type, Virion, waving at the squirtle he chattered a greeting. Seeing it gave Tamariel an idea "Oy everyone, how about we have a proper introduction round when we camp tonight? Since we're gonna travel together we might as well try to get to know each other better and also introduce the Pokémon we had before Juniper gave us a starter. Plus the introduction at the lab got kinda messy since some arrived late myself included. How does that sound?"
Kirie was aware that Daphne was walking next to her and heard all they spoke about. Aurik wanting to be in the Battle Frontier, Arno wanting to be a performer and Tamariel suggesting they give proper introduction when they camp. She was definitely not hell bent on introducing herself so quickly, save for her name, but since they were to work in a group, things cannot hide forever. "That seems a good idea." She responded with a smile towards Tamariel. Quinzel chasing Phyllis who was running around the group, using the soothing aroma atop the leaf on her head as she passed by the various members of the team. From the way she stopped and waved her leaf to every trainer and Pokémon, she was making an attempt to recognise them. Phyllis however had run into Prince and knocked him over. Fearful of the Piplup's wrath, she bowed her head rapidly as Quinzel took her in her arms to get back to Kirie.
Gazing at Tamariel with calculating eyes as he pondered his suggestion, Taidana responded with a smirk. "That seems like a good idea, will help ease tensions certainly." Looking around, Taidana mumbled to himself, "That and Reiji hasn't been out in a while so he won't be happy, best to put that off for now." Narrowing his eyes in an attempt to shield them from the glare of the sun, Taidana hummed in thought as he noticed the sky starting to gain an orange hue. "Might be best to start considering a camp site so we're ready for when nightfall drops."
Looking up at the sky, he indeed noticed the sky emitting an orange color. "I suppose so. I didn't bring any kind of tent or sleeping bag or whatever, though, so... yeah." He said, with his voice gradually being filled with more and more regret. "It's fine, though. I wasn't gonna go to sleep anyways. I woke up really late." But his trek to Nuvema Town had worn him down. He wasn't gonna say anything about it, though, as he found a nearby tree and sat beside it. He put down Ganjo, and at the same time Cloud 9 flew off of his shoulder. "You two can help them out with anything if you want to." Both Pokémon looked at him, slightly tilting their head, with the Swablu thinking that Aurik is just being lazy. A few moments later, both of his Pokémon turned around to meet and greet the other Pokémon in the group. Aurik took off his bag and pulled out his laptop. "If anyone wants to ask or need me for, like, anything, I'll be over here." He says as he opened up his laptop.
Daphne nodded at the men who suggested that they should set up camp. Virion had been talking to Bruce for a while. The Squirtle had jumped down from Lucina's back and had walked next to the excited Totodile. The Ninetales padded gracefully next to her trainer, careful not to hit anyone with her many tails, as the girl took off her pack and grabbed her camping gear to set up her tent. "Should we all cook for ourselves tonight or do we want to share that with everyone?" Daphne asked of the group. She personally was used to cooking for big groups, so she had no qualms about doing it. But she imagined that not everybody was willing to trust someone else's culinary skills.
"I'm alright regardless. Do you guys need some wood or other things to build a fire? I'll go scout around for a bit, if you guys see fit you can come along." Kirie responded once she was done preparing her sleeping bag nearby Daphne's tent. She marvelled at the sight of the setting sun for a while, before waiting for a response. Quinzel was rummaging through Kirie's bag and had fished out a bottle of Fresh Water. She waved it at the other Pokémon present, as though she wanted to share it with everyone. (Random question: Do Pokémon drink Fresh Water, or do they pour it onto their injuries?)
Taking up his place slouched against a tree, Taidana watched the rest of the group set up with nostalgic eyes remembering the last group he traveled with even if it was much smaller than this. It was when his eyes caught sight of the Nidorina with the water bottle did he remember what he was dreading to do. Reaching into his coat pocket, he winced in preparation for what was to come when he felt the cold metallic touch of a Pokéball which he then pulled out and raised to eye level. "Well, no point putting it off." Tossing the ball into the air, it snapped open allowing a flash of white light to escape that then formed into the hulking form of his, not that he would admit, favourite Pokémon. The 250+lbs beast stood hunched over as he stared dryly at his trainer with hints of annoyance in his eyes. Seeing the accusing stare of his Pokémon caused Taidana to grin nervously. "Look, Reiji. I know what you're think but I didn't forget about you, I've just been... Busy." The hesitation in his wording was apparently a bad move as Reiji's eyes narrowed before it raised its fist up and slammed it into the ground causing a small tremor to go through the ground beneath it. Giving a growl of its name, Reiji dragged itself over to his trainer before dropping beside him and closing its eyes in rest. Glancing at Reiji in thoughtful surprise, Taidana eventually shrugged and smiled as he began to sit beside the Pokémon, "Apparently he isn't so ma-YAWOCH!" Giving a shout of surprise as he felt a fist slam into his back, Taidana landed face-first into the ground before staring at Reiji, ironically mimicking the Pokémon's stare from before, as it continued to rest 'innocently'.
"I'll help with the firewood." Arno said. He stood next to Kirie both of them seeing if anyone else would join them. Monroe was sitting up in a tree with Cinder on his head. He seemed to agree to getting the firewood, as did Cinder. In fact, Cinder was already collecting twigs from the tree.
"C'mon Spire, let's see if we can get a good branch to sleep," Zachary said before he ran over to a tree and jumped towards it, kicking off it, the momentum and height allowing him to grab a branch, and climb upwards. Spiral followed, pushing him up if he needed the climbing strength.
(( @[member="Lunar-Peacle"] : I dunno. I'd just think that they drink it.)) As Aurik was typing away, he felt a sudden tremor, messing up his typing, followed by a branch falling onto his noggin. "Owww!" He yelled, rubbing his hand on the sorest spots on his head. "All right, who-" Aurik started, but the moment he laid eyes on Taidana's Slaking, he immediately shut up. "Those things may be lazy, but no way am I picking a fight with it..." Overhearing Daphne, he HAD brought his own food, but..... hey, you take food where you can get it, eh? "Oh yeah, I wouldn't mind if we had ourselves a group meal." He says in her direction, then looks back down at his laptop as he goes back to his rapid typing. Meanwhile, Ganjo and Cloud 9 look for a way to help out with the fire how they can... or at least Cloud 9 is. Ganjo was more focused about Daphne cooking for everyone, and jumped up with his hand raised. Cloud 9 did what some would consider a sigh and decided to just help get Firewood.
"I will make Spaghetti then." Daphne decided, laughing at the excited Chespin, who was still jumping up and down. She grabbed the biggest pot she had and set out to prepare the food, luckily a clean stream was nearby, so she had no trouble getting water to cook with. "Aurik, if you need an aspirin, in case you get a headache, I have some in my first aid kit. That goes for all of you." The auburn haired girl used a tree stump to function as her table as she chopped the vegetables with practiced movements. Her Ninetales was already directing her Squirtle on how to make a stone circle for the campfire.
Prince didn't follow his Trainer, as he was definitely not going to climb and sleep in a tree, added to the fact he had no idea how to climb, so he walked over to Daphne and patiently watched her prepare the food. Spiral had climbed down after he helped Zachary upwards, and was now assisting Lucina and Virion in making their stone circle.
"A group meal sounds like the perfect way of starting things off, after we've eaten we can have a proper introduction round. I can start since it was my idea; you know to break the ice." Tamariel was loosening the tent kit from his pack when he noticed Daphne's ninetales and squirtle were beginning to make a stone circle for the campfire. "Wait a second you two, there's too much grass around here we gotta clear a patch first. Even if we have water types there's no need to take that risk in case of stray embers or sudden winds." Tamariel then pulled a small shovel out from his pack and cleared and patch about 3 feet wide, pretty was it not with the ground bared but barely anyone camped on this route so there was not really any campsites with a already worn down fire area. When the Pokémon were done with the circle Tamariel dug a pit in the stone circle he intended to put some coal he had in his pack there just so they could start the fire they would still need wood since there was maybe 10 pieces left at most which wouldn't be enough for the entire fire but it would make a good start. Mortis was walking around the camp or rather he was guarding it while checking out all his new traveling companion but still keeping a respectful distance of 3 feet like his trainer had taught him while sniffing out the air around the other trainers since not everyone liked getting a houndoom up close and personal. Tamariel dumped the coal and a few branches he's gathered into the fire pit; since others were out gathering firewood he's only gotten enough to start the fire. "Would you do honor or shall I?" He asked Daphne's ninetales as he motioned a hand toward the pit.
Lucina appreciated the help from the human male and crooned her gratitude at him. She inhaled slightly and a small, controlled flame shot out of her mouth. The Ninetales knew that the male belonged to the Houndoom that was patrolling, so she didn't step closer to the male. Daphne smiled as she brought the pot over. The tall girl patted the fox on her head for a job well done. She briefly placed the pot down and had to fend off her Squirtle as he wanted to take a bite. She turned to the man after making sure that the Pokémon would leave the food alone. "Thank you for helping the Pokémon with the pit. And I am sorry for fighting with Arno earlier." She spoke softly to Tamariel. The blue-eyed girl placed the tripod over the fire before hanging the pot over the fire. Lucina went over to Mortis to introduce herself to the Dual-type.
Kirie had come back with some wood, only to see Tamariel working on it already. She felt a mild twinge of disappointment that she and Arno probably went to get wood only to see a stone circle made, but at the same time glad they were helping too. Nevertheless, she placed the wood nearby Daphne, which she hoped they would notice. "I brought back some firewood." Walking back away from them, she waited while Daphne prepared the meal, and noticed Taidana face down on the ground thanks to his Slaking. Better make herself useful in another manner. Walking over to him, she tried to shake him. "Um, Professor? Are you okay? Do you need something for that blow?" I have a cold patch if you need it... " Beside her both Quinzel and Phyllis tried to check on him, Phyllis more so by tickling him with her leaf, and Quinzel ready to do something stupid. "Quinzel, don't---" Quinzel apparently was about to splash some water onto Taidana but one glance at the Slaking froze her motions as she stood back.
Glancing up as he heard a voice above him, Taidana blinked in confusion before registering the question. Smiling gratefully at Kirie he replied, "No no, I'm use to this by now." Forcing himself up to his knee he glanced fondly back at the resting Slaking, "Reiji's always like this, just his way of showing he cares I suppose." Glancing down the other two Pokémon, he leaned over and placed his hand on top of the Chikorita he chuckled, "Hello there, how are you doing?" It was at that moment he noticed the slight hesitation caused by his Pokémon causing him to raise an eyebrow. Using his other hand, he gained the Nidorina's attention and smiled comfortably, "Don't worry about Reiji there, he's just a big softy." Hearing his words Reiji let out a huff of annoyance and rolled over to face away from the group, causing a nervous laugh to escape Taidana.
Cloud 9 came back with a few twigs in her beak, even though it sounded like they had enough. Before dropping them, she looked to her left and saw the Slaking hulking over her. He must be almost 59x bigger than she is! Amazed to see such a Pokémon as big as that, she almost forgot what she was doing. A few moments later Ganjo poked her back, and pointed to the stack of wood near Daphne. Chirping... or at least, attempting to chirp in a fashion that seemed thankful, she slowly walked over and put the twigs in the stack... before flying onto the arm of Reiji, almost staring at him. "C9, get down. Don't go off bothering him like that." Disappointed, she flew down, off of Reiji's arm. Moments later, she turned around, staring at the Slaking again with her head tilted to the side. Aurik didn't notice this, however, as he was continuing to look down at his laptop, reviewing the facts about a few Pokémon, and trying to remember what Chespins can do. He was talking to himself at a very low voice about the text he was reading.
