Just a Little Nap [OPEN]

[Bianca Moreno]

January, First Week

I have mad haggling skills.

Bianca smiled gleefully at the fishing pole in her hands. Getting the price reduced by a whopping twenty-five percent had been an impressive accomplishment, if she said so herself. She had drawn on all of her knowledge of fishing from her years here to point out every last single flaw in the merchandise and haggle the poor fellow into the ground. She may have exaggerated a little, sure, and she'd admit that. It was actually a pretty decent pole, all things considered, though it really did look like someone had been having mock sword-fights with it.

And, no, of course she hadn't used that particular description at the time because she and her teenage youngest sister tended to do exactly that when their parents weren't around to watch them. No siree. She was completely innocent of such tomfoolery.

There was also no way that her mad skills had been assisted somewhat by her low-cut top. Nope. She was simply just that awesome.

The sheer glee of receiving her first two pokemon was in no danger of wearing off, and so she had a distinct spring in her step and was humming idly to herself as she made the walk from the store with the destination of the ocean in mind. She'd let out said pokemon not long after successfully earning her discount, and now the two of them were glancing at one another as they followed at her heels, the looks on their faces seeming to be asking if they should be worried about her.

Before either of them could come to the conclusion that maybe they should make an escape attempt, however, Bianca was side-tracked by a semi-open area with a few benches to rest on and immediately near-skipped over to one to take advantage of it. She gently leaned her new pole against the bench after she sat down, and plunked her dark shoulder bag on the ground near her feet, before grinning brightly and patting the spot next to her as she looked at her pokemon.

One last wary glance at each other, and they seemed to decide that even if their new master was crazy, a cheerful sort of crazy wasn't so bad. The sneasel climbed up onto the bench and sat near the edge, glancing sideways at Bianca, while the spritzee outright fluttered up to perch on her knee and look up at her with big, orange eyes.

Bianca couldn't help but giggle, and she reached out a hand to gently stroke the poofy feathers on top of the little bird's head. "Well, hi, there," she cooed. Then she looked from one pokemon to the other, and abruptly realized something, "I really should give you two names, shouldn't I?" She rubbed the back of her neck in a way that almost looked a bit sheepish.

It had honestly never occurred to her until now, the idea of names. Her old pokemon friends had never had them, mostly because she'd been a kid, and calling them Meowth, Murkrow, and Skitty had made sense to her because they were the only meowth, murkrow, and skitty she knew at the time. By the time she'd grown out of that, the 'names' had stuck and trying to call them a real name had never felt right. Now, however, she was an adult--by one definition of the word, at any rate--and this was a fresh start.

The problem was that Bianca had never had to name anything in her life. What in the world should she call these two?

"Maybe I should name you two after members of my family," she commented, thinking aloud. The spritzee gave a small, curious twittering noise at this suggestion and the sneasel perked up and turned to face Bianca more, her feathered ear pricked forward slightly. Encouraged by this positive reaction, Bianca looked to the sneasel first. "I bet Izzy would get a kick out of that, having a pokemon named after her. Isabela..." A small pause to think, and she said, "How about I call you Bela?"

The sneasel tilted her head slightly, considering this, and Bianca smiled. "I think it suits you. Eres muy bella." When her words resulted in a confused stare, she gave a small laugh. "Right. I'll have to teach you two Spanish. I said 'you are very beautiful.' That's what 'bella' means. Beautiful."

The sneasel looked surprised, then broke into a smile, showing a set of cute little sharp teeth. "Sneasel," she purred, running a paw over her feathered ear in a way that sent Bianca into a fit of giggles.

"Glad you like it." She shook her head a little. Maybe she was starting to understand why Ms. Nguyen had thought the two of them would be a good match. However, that left the spritzee, but as she looked down into those expectant eyes she found herself drawing a total blank. With a hum of thought, she leaned back against the bench and closed her eyes. She inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of salt on the air. She was going to miss that. She'd miss a lot of things, but that was certainly on the list.

Twenty-five years since the portal opened. Twenty-five years of people building this beautiful city that had become her home. Twenty five years with a family she would have never had in the old world. Her mother, father, sisters, and her niece.

Her niece would absolutely love the little spritzee. Would probably latch onto the tiny birdie and not let go. Bianca wouldn't blame her, either. Such an adorable little bird, with such soft feathers. Spritzee smelled nice, too. Nothing would replace ocean air as Bianca's favourite smell, but still.

"My niece's name is 'Lily,'" she said suddenly, opening her eyes to look down at that expectant gaze again. "Maybe I should give you a flowery name, too? Like Rosa. It means, well, rose." There were old world roses that had been pink, right? She remembered something like that. Vaguely. Roses smelled nice, too. It fit to her.

Rosa seemed to agree, since she fluttered right onto Bianca's shoulder with a gleeful twitter and rubbed her beak against her cheek affectionately. Bianca laughed and patted her on the head. "I take that as a yes, then?" Another, louder twitter was her answer, and she laughed again. "Good."

She noticed that Bela was looking at her, and Bianca glanced from her new sneasel to her own unoccupied lap, and she lightly patted the thigh closest to where Bela was sitting. She received her second surprised look of the day, but it was followed by the Bela taking the invitation and gingerly crawling into Bianca's lap, where she settled herself and looked up. Bright green met ruby red, and Bianca chuckled and lightly scratched behind Bela's ear to reassure her.

This was nice, just sitting here. Not exactly productive, but nice. Bonding with her pokemon was important, anyway, since they'd be facing the unknown together. The feeling of Bela sitting her lap was calming, and she found herself idly stroking the sneasel's head as the people of Port City continued their bustling lives around her. Her eyes closed again, and she gave a small sigh, with a little, contented smile on her lips.

It would be so easy to just doze off, right here...

[Celia Silkwood]

It was the last day to enjoy the sights and sounds of Port City for the woman, at least for a while. She was fresh out of the Emissary with belongings stuffed into the worn-out purple rucksack strapped to her back but the City offered nothing for her anymore. The last helping hand it held out to her was the Ambassador herself and that barely lasted the entirety of the morning. The rest of the day was left to be determined, which seemed as easy a decision as putting it off until later. The suggestions given to her by Nguyen didn't go unnoticed, of course. Celia simply didn't feel like skipping down the dirty road just yet. New Pallet would be waiting for her with open arms no matter how long she waited; Port City, on the other hand, would be waving goodbye to one of its longstanding citizens. Such a goodbye felt surreal now, and she didn't feel comfortable saying it just yet.

Celia picked her way through the busy streets with a hand firmly clasped around the strap of her bag; she'd rather not lose her only possessions to sticky fingers this early in the game. She wasn't sure on where she was going, merely letting her legs carry her forward while her mind spun silently in her head. Thoughts twisted and turned, each pulling faint memories to the forefront before whisking them away in brie remembrance. The gardener held so much history in this place, how could she ever think of leaving? The deceitful notion was waved off by a shake of her head and determined set of her jaw. Anita had said all that was needed to be heard--there is simply no room to accommodate a farm of any kind.

When she came across the resting area, she sighed with relief. Now that the image of welcoming benches sat fresh in her mind, Celia began to notice how tired her legs felt. Just how long had she been walking? The question hung in the air and remained unanswered for now, quite possibly for good. All Celia cared about was resting for a moment.

Or a while.

She paused by numerous benches (closer to two) before moving on to the next in line with a grimace twisting her face. There really wasn't a reason behind her dislike other than a speck of dirt here and a questionable stain there. None of it really mattered in the long run; having one more dirt stain on her shorts wouldn't hurt any. Celia was much too proud to park her rear on the rubbish with seeing eyes everywhere, even though she lacked the fame the 'higher-ups' possessed.

A frown played on her lips when she spotted one worth sitting on. On it sat one woman decked in rather nice attire plus two: a pink...thing and another...thing. Words failed her as she searched for the names that matched the pokemon but she only spent few precious seconds pondering in the end. Celia wasn't that friendly towards pokemon when it all boiled down. Sure, there was a hit of respect somewhere buy they were just animals. In fact, she was sure someone somewhere was sitting down to a nice helping of pink bird. It was just how the world was.

"Excuse me," Celia said as she bent towards the napping woman. There may be enough room to squeeze herself in but asking might help avoid any misunderstandings if the stranger was to find herself scrunched up next to an unfamiliar face upon awaking. "Excuse me," the cultivator repeated, adding a clap of her hands for extra measure.

[Bianca Moreno]

Bianca was something of a heavy sleeper. There were only two things that woke her up quickly with any reliability, those being her mother's voice and the smell of fried cokra. Everything else tended to get a subconscious reaction of 'can't it wait?' and thus her first reaction to the hand clap was a small shift and a mumble that not coherent enough to even determine what language it was in, and clearly could not even charitably be called half-awake. It seemed Bela and her new trainer really were very alike, too, as the sneasel had fallen into a doze barely moment after Bianca and her reaction was to shift backward and snuggle closer into Bianca's midsection, content to ignore the other woman entirely.

Rosa, thankfully, was still awake, and she decided to be helpful by twittering and batting at Bianca's cheek with her wing to try to help rouse her. This seemed to tip the scales, as Bianca soon blinked her eyes open as she gave an irritated mumble of, "What is it, Ro--" before she noticed the other human standing there. "Oh. Hello."

Here, Bianca's sleepy mind ran through three thoughts one after another, those thoughts being, Wow, she's tall, followed by, Hey, she's kind of cute, with, Maybe I should say something other than just 'hello,' not far behind. She straightened her posture a little, reaching up a hand to fix her hair--her purple bandanna did a good job of keeping it in place, though, so there wasn't much to fix--as she put on a friendly smile, a twinkle in her bright green eyes. "Something I can do for you?" she asked with genuine cheer as she tried to push away the urge to yawn.

Bela, meanwhile, opened one red eye, flicked it in the direction of the newcomer, then opened both and looked up at her with a blink, curiosity now piqued.

[Celia Silkwood]

Celia's brow furrowed when her initial attempt at waking the woman went ignored. Even the sleeping furry pokemon curled on her lap shifted deeper into slumber. How she ever made it through life with such an easy way of snubbing the world in place of sweet dreams, Celia might never understand. She feared even thinking about it in case the laziness (as she liked to call it) was contagious through thought alone.

She straightened herself with a look of irritation plastered across her face. Her hands rose again with an ounce more strength waiting to bring another clap--this one planned to be louder and more noticeable than before--to travel through the air. Luckily for all four of them, it wasn't needed. The pink bird worked to urge her owner to join the land of the living and was successful in the end. Celia feigned a bright smile, bringing her raised hands together in front of her.

"Hi!" she responded in a high voice, fighting to keep it from taking on a condescending tone. Before she could say anything else, the sleepy stranger beat her to the punch. Celia nodded only once in a sharp motion but took her time in asking. Brushing her own hair out of her face (and mimicking Bianca to a point), Celia tipped her head forward and gestured at the empty spot.

"I'm sure you're capable of doing plenty for me but I really wanted to know if you didn't mind sharing this bench with me," the gardener asked with a brief glance of disdain at the Sneasel. She was less sure of sitting down now that it was awake but it obviously fit for being out in public as there didn't appear to be any ropes attached to it. Nevertheless, she didn't let her eyes stray much from its own. One could never be too careful around wildlife, not matter how well trained they were.

"I'm not one of those 'questionable' people so don't worry about being bothered," Celia added as an afterthought for the woman's peace of mind. It was only polite, after all.

[Bianca Moreno]

Bianca smirked a little at the request. Hard she may be to rouse, she tended to at least shake off the drowsiness quickly, and looked more alert by the moment. She still didn't quite catch the look that was shot in her pokemon's direction, but Bela sure did. Her ears pinned back and she gave a look in return that appeared  nearly as disdainful and seemed to be asking 'do you mind?'

At the assurance from the other woman that followed, Bianca couldn't help but quirk a brow slightly with a faint chuckle as she said, "Well, that's a relief to know." A questionable person, however one defined that, didn't tend to announce such, so announcing that one was not questionable just seemed a little odd to her. They also didn't tend to target someone with a sneasel in their lap, if they had any sense of self-preservation, so it wasn't like she was all that worried to start with.

Speaking of, Bela gave a little huff and turned away from the other woman's scrutinizing gaze as Bianca slid to the far end of the bench to make room. "And I'm certainly not one to mind company." Especially someone so pretty, she finished, mentally. She didn't quite trust herself to properly admire without getting caught, but perhaps once they were both sitting down she could sneak a few glances.

"The girls and I were just having a bit of rest before we headed to the ocean for some training," she added, by way of a conversation starter, as she gestured at the nearby pole. Fishing for pokemon to train one's battling skills on was certainly not an unknown practice, at least not to Bianca, so she felt she didn't need to explain its presence further. It was then she noticed how sullen one of her 'girls' looked and frowned down at the sneasel in her lap. "Is something wrong, mi gatita?" she asked, the term of endearment coming to her lips without much thought. 'Kitten' was a bit of an odd thing to call a weasel pokemon, but 'mi comadreja' did not have the same ring.

Bela's ear twitched at the odd words, and she looked up. She then gave a small shake of her head at the question and forced a bright smile and a cheery chatter. Nope, nothing wrong. Everything was fine here. Bianca didn't really believe her, but decided to let the matter lie and simply give the sneasel a scratch behind the ear, which Bela downright melted into. Rosa, not sure what was going on, just gave the newcomer a curious, and slightly confused, look from her perch on Bianca's shoulder.

[Celia Silkwood]

Celia couldn't help the feeling of being mocked at first but waved it off as stress. Everything was changing so fast! It was all for the better, right? It had to be; she would have never agreed to jump into the wilderness if not for personal gain, and anything that lifted her up from the depths of poverty was bettr than what she had. No matter how selfish that sounded, it was the truth. Celia would love to bring her family with her so they can share in whatever wealth came her way but each had their own goals in mind. She, like the black haired woman, had new family to care for. If she could ever consider a pokemon family, that is.

She took the seat with a slight smile, letting it waver between a frown on her lips as she brushed off the bench in habit. There wasn't much dirt, of course, but the motion helped put ease into her mind. Her eyes flicked between Bianca and the sneasel for two quick successions before finally planted herself down--so far, so good.

She nodded absentmindedly as her temporary company prattled on about her plans. She hadn't thought of sparking a conversation which was why she added nothing more to her question. All she wanted was to enjoy the nice view of her hometown in simple silence, nothing more. However, Celia wasn't that rude and gracefully accepted the idea of chatting the best she could.

"Mm, sounds fun," Celia said with a grunt as she maneuvered to remove her backpack, "I take it you're well versed in training those?" With a pointed finger gesturing at the bird and weasel on one hand and the other hand quickly pushing her bag close to her legs, the gardener thought about her own locked away in its carrier. It felt like a crime keeping the bud pokemon hidden away from the bright sunlight, even more so when sitting next to someone covered in their pokemon. She mad no move to let the budew out, however. There was a great lack of trust between er and the plant pokemon not to mention the complete absence of any sort of bond. There would be time for working on all of that later when she didn't have the worry of losing sight of the budew in the chaos of the city. For now, Celia shifted her focus back on the woman and her companions.

"I'm Celia, by the way," she said with hand extended.

[Bianca Moreno]

Bianca watched the other woman brush off the bench, trying not to quirk a brow again. She really was a bit of an odd one, wasn't she? Not that I'm one to talk, she pointed out to herself. Still, her using the word 'those' to refer to her pokemon made her finally quirk that eyebrow. Bela's feathered ear twitched, and she wasn't sure if she should feel insulted or not; Rosa didn't seem to care much about the choice of words, herself, and merely gave one of her little twitters, as if trying to answer the question herself.

Bianca perked up and smiled at the offered name and hand, and she started to move her own hand before she paused and glanced at it. She had been petting a sneasel this last little while, after all, and if Celia pausing to make sure the bench was clean was any indication, Bianca didn't think she'd appreciate sneasel fur. She made a point to brush her hands off first, then reached out to give Celia a firm handshake, careful not to squeeze too hard; she'd already made that mistake with the Ambassador. "My name's Bianca. Pleased to meet you, Celia. And my girls here are Bela and Rosa."

Bela gave a small chatter when her new name was spoken, though her cheer still looked a little forced, and Rosa twittered again when she heard her own afterward, a bit more energetically, and nodded at Celia.

After Bianca retracted her hand, it soon moved to rub the back of her own neck, briefly, before returning to scratching Bela's ear. "As for being well-versed, well, I've only recently decided to make a career out of it, but I've had pokemon for a lot of my life, so I know my way around training, yeah." Her eyes flicked away from the other woman, and her easygoing smile vanished for a moment, replaced by a very sad look in her eyes that itself vanished in a blink of eye as the smile reasserted itself.

She didn't need to think about that now. She didn't need to think about how strong her old murkrow had been at the prime of his life, before old age and a ruined wing took him away from her. Seeing that murkrow in the Emissary among her potential starters had hit her a little harder than she'd expected it to. She subconsciously reached up to pat Rosa on the head as she made the attempt to steer things away from herself and toward her new acquaintance. "What about you? Don't suppose you have any pokemon?"

Bianca knew that one was a bit of a long shot. Not a lot of people in Port City had them. Or rather, not a lot of people who had them stuck around in Port City. Still, she knew from experience that asking such a question could often get a person talking about their feelings on pokemon in general, and that was always fascinating to listen to from somebody.

[Celia Silkwood]

Celia gave a quick grin as she noted the way Bianca wiped her hand. So maybe she did come off as a little anal-retentive but, honestly, would you want to sit on someone's leftover dirt? Or any unknown mess that somehow found its way to only the most commonly used objects around? She thougt about correcting the woman but chose against it. Bianca might actually be a neat-freak, for all she knew, and jumping to blind conclusions never proved to be helpful with first impressions.

Not that Celia went into this for the sake of impressing the woman, of course.

The grin slowly softened into a placid expression as the introduction panned out to include the two pokemon. Both seemed to know when their name was called as each perked up respectively. It was odd and confusing for the gardener, which must have shown on her face. She could feel her jaw part in surprise and her nose wrinkle in amazement. Whatever Bianca had done during training, it obviously worked.

She shook her head to pull her mind away from the pair before it dipped into far-off contemplation about their owner's techniques for fear of losing track of the current conversation. She nodded a bit too enthusiastically than what she was used to, causing the heat of embarrassment rush to her cheeks. It's not like Bianca knew Celia wasn't a bubbly, easily excited person but just knowing it was a result of barely paying attention was humiliating in itself. Still, Celia worked past the humiliation by ignoring it the best she could. Although it was an unhealthy option, it was the only way she faced her mistakes.

The spotlight soon turned to shine down on her. She wasn't expecting the other to stop talkint about herself but, again, she felt silly to make such a conclusion before really knowing Bianca. She took the question in stride though made no move to grab her pokeball from the bag.

"I do, just one. He doesn't have a pet name, though," Celia replied with a small pat on her bag, "I don't have any plans on makiny a career, as you said, out of training so naming him wasn't first on my list." She paused to push an annoying strand of hair behind her ear then motioned at Rosa and Bela. "I take it you're a researcher...or something?"

[Bianca Moreno]

Bianca tried not to smirk too much at that enthusiastic nod and following blush. It looked really cute, but she had no idea how Celia would react to knowing she thought that, so she kept her mouth shut. The response to her question, again, just seemed odd. Not the fact that the pokemon didn't have a name--plenty went without such, after all, her own childhood pokemon included, and names didn't have the same significance to a lot of them--but the fact that Celia didn't even mention a species when referring to him; the use of the words 'pet name' also threatened to raise her brow. She didn't really get a chance to react properly to it, however, due to Celia's question.

That sent both of her eyebrows up for a moment, and Bianca couldn't help the amused smile and the chuckle that escaped her. "Definitely 'or something.'" She leaned back against the bench a little bit as she clarified, "I'm a mercenary, actually. I'd certainly love to help out a researcher someday, though." She did have a lot of respect for such people, but she wasn't sure she was really qualified for such pursuits, nor did she think she'd be all that happy analyzing data all the time. Being the hired muscle to help protect them from feral pokemon they were studying, though? That was much more her cup of tea. "I'm mostly just working on training and building my team, while doing some jobs around town, for now. Best to be prepared and equipped before I hit the road, after all."

But enough about me. Really, Bianca thought as looked for another question she could use to swing the topic in Celia's direction again. For a moment, she wondered if Celia also preferred to listen to other people rather than talk about herself. If that was the case, this was probably going to be an interesting conversation.

"Your pokemon, though...What species is he, if you don't mind my asking?" She was really quite curious now. She was also curious as to what Celia did for a living, since she said she didn't make her career out of pokemon but had one, but Bianca decided to limit herself to one question at a time, lest she start sounding overly nosy.

[Celia Silkwood]

Celia raised a brow at the word 'mercenary'. Though she knew it was used as only a title, the meaning behind it held a more selfish set of ideals (as if she really should be the one to judge). Hired for their strength in exchange for money, money, and more money; it was a job meant for only the fittest yet widened to include whatever pokemon happened to fall into their hands. There was bound to be abuse of power, skill, and those unlucky animals somewhere down the line. However, Bianca didn't take her as one of those people but plenty of people hid behind a mask.

Then again, Celia was just making assumptions based on her own, uneducated conclusions once more.

She dropped her eyes down to her back and listened in silent contemplation. Should she be doing the same? Building her budew up until he was fit for travel? She really didn't plan on making any stops or detours while on the first route, but she couldn't predict the ways of the ferals that populated it. Of course, sticking around town would likely leave her in a fit of procrastination until her packed bag was unpacked and she was occupying her old room at her parent's place. On the other hand, the town might yield something worthy of adding to her tiny list of companions.

The thought train slowed as Bianca slung another question her way. Centered around her pokemon, Celia wasn't sure the reason behind it. It was just an animal, why was she suddenly so interested? Nevertheless, she replied with the calmest expression she could pull. "He's a budew, nothing fancy." No elaboration was made but it left the words hanging uncomfortably in the air. She shouldn't leave it all to Bianca to come up with a way to further the conversation, even if Celia didn't go out looking for it in the first place.

Pointing another finger at Rosa and Bela, she repeated the same question asked of her. "And what are they?"