farawayplace | Enter: Ultern's Pokemon Professor!

Entry tags:

Enter: Ultern's Pokemon Professor!

EARLY MORNING - THE BANYAN RESIDENCE
[There's a welcoming scent of coffee wafting through the air. It seems to be coming from the lone home in the middle of the route as the windows are left open. The sun was only starting to rise, painting the surrounding scenery with reds and oranges, as the waves create a gentle splashing sound.

The person within the home seemed to not be big on security, as the front door at the front deck of the home was propped wide open with a rocking chair. Unsurprisingly there's a Pokemon perched on top of it--a yellow skinned Chikorita that could be easily mistaken for a shiny one, if it weren't for the fact its leaf was green. Perhaps it was there to soak up the light from the rising sun.

Not soon after, a man--barefoot, and not quite yet dressed for the day will step out onto the deck with a mug of coffee in hand.]

Ah, another wonderful morning. Don't ya think, Chikorita?

[The professor grinned wide while taking in the seaside view.]

MORNING - OUT IN THE YARD
[You know what's the best thing to do in the mornings? GARDENING!

The Pokemon Professor of this region--Professor Banyan is seen with his signature sunglasses, and straw hat already on along with a pair of gardening gloves. His iconic white lab coat is nowhere to be seen on his person so it wouldn't be a surprise if anyone mistook him as some ordinary gardener.

He's watering the flowers, and other plants in the yard (that wasn't fenced off) before turning his attention to the grass type Pokemon who congregated around him. He has a Sprinklotad in hand as he smiled wide.]

Now don't push! I've got plenty of water for everyone!

AFTERNOON - SEASIDE TRAIL
[Professor Banyan, the Pokemon Professor of this region will be out and about on the beach. He could be find doing the following:

►Sitting on the beach, seemingly relaxing. Who wouldn't want to take a moment to kick back and soak up the sun when the weather is nice and sunny? For whatever reason there's a Staryu that's laying right next to him, no doubt also sunbathing.

►Taking notes of the surrounding Pokemon! He has a notepad in hand, with his gaze set on a pair of Tentacool happily swaying along with the waves, to a nearby Sandygast that sat on the sand where a curious little Pikachu with brown paws, and a light colored belly sniffed at it.

In fact he might even approach any nearby Trainer who had their Pokemon out of their Pokeball with his eyes lighting up with intrigue and interest despite being hidden behind his sunglasses.

►Out training or really, playing with his Pokemon as Professor Banyan, still out on the sandy beach is now seen with a trio of Pokemon - a yellow skinned Chikorita, the brown pawed, light colored belly Pikachu, and Staryu. There’s a confident smirk on his face.]

Alright, are you three ready?

[He’s holding what’s clearly a sparkly ball in his hand.]

The one to get this the fastest wins! Here goes!

[He’ll be seen winding up his left arm before throwing the ball as far as he could across the beach. In an instant Pikachu and Chikorita dashed through the sand leaving Banyan alone with Staryu. Noticing this, he chuckled before kneeling next to Staryu to place a hand upon it.]

They’re getting faster, aren’t they?

(🌺Feel free to choose any of the prompts to interact with Professor Banyan! He's more than happy to upgrade any trainer's Pokedex, or even hand one out to those who ask!🌺)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...Normal? Oh that's right, he didn't have his lab coat on right now. Not that he needed to wear it at the moment.

"Gold, huh?" Banyan took a moment to eye on the trainer, and then nodded. "No need to worry, I'll take note of it."

The Hoppip at first seemed to peek out again when Gold waved at it. Although still hesitant to move away from the Pokemon Professor, its eyes did express some curiosity towards the young boy. The same goes with the Floette that was now peeking out and slowly floating near Banyan's head. And the Professor took notice of that.

"...I'll tell you what Gold, if you and your Meganium ain't in a hurry, why not stick around and with these little fellas for a bit?" Banyan gestured to the Pokemon around him. "They're not used to being around humans quite yet, so they're real shy."

He then made the attempt to get these Pokemon to reveal themselves.

"Come on now you two, say hi to the kid!"

"Oh... I guess we're not in a hurry..." Gold says, a bit distracted and charmed by the shy Pokemon peeking at him. "Yeah, we can stay." There's something very calming about being surrounded by cute grass-type Pokemon like this, and Gold finds himself wanting to stay here even if he was busy.

He crouches down and holds out a hand, palm up, towards the Pokemon to lure them in. But then some kind of a cringe passes his face, and his hand twitches back, as if reminded of something painful.

Carn makes a questioning sound, and Gold exhales, relaxing, before slowly setting his hand down on the ground, palm down, forcing a smile for the grass-types.

Internally, he's berating himself. Good going, now you're gonna scare them off! Why did you think you could be trusted around small wild Pokemon?

But on the outside, he's just smiling, though more stiffly than before.

Banyan has met many Pokemon and people who all carried different experiences and pasts, so he couldn't help but be observant of another person's behavior such as Gold's. His eyes narrowed out of habit (thank goodness for his shades hiding how sharp his eyes were). Walking closer to where Carn and Gold were, Banyan knelt down.

A smile touched his lips while he held his Sprinklotad out to Gold.

"You want to make friends with them, yeah?" He questioned. "I get getting nervous meeting new Pokemon, or people. You never know how they'd react."

The Hoppip who still hid behind Banyan curiously peeked over Banyan's shoulder. It seemed to be watching Gold still.

"It's okay to be nervous, y'know? They're just as nervous, but ya shouldn't let that cloud yer thoughts. ...might be easier said than done, though." Banyan gave a glance to the bushes while lightly gesturing to them with his head. Gold just might notice a Kantonian Exeggutor doing a really poor job of hiding within them. "I promise no one here want to hurt anybody, let alone this lil' guy."

He grinned, not making it clear whether he was talking about Gold, or the Exeggutor who was now slowly but surely leaning out from the bushes.

"Chikori!" Chikorita also spoke up as he gave a happy hop, and made his way to wave his little leaf to Gold. The Floette that was floating near Banyan's head let out a giggle in response.

When Banyan walks closer, Gold tenses slightly, worried that the Professor might've noticed what he was thinking. But when he just smiles and holds out the Sprinklotad, Gold blinks, not making any move to accept it yet, and listens.

"It's not like I'm nervous," Gold says falteringly, averting his eyes. Meeting new people is easy, as long as he masks his feelings behind a smile and exaggerated emotions, and never shows his true self. As soon as the mask slips, it becomes the most difficult thing in the world.

Gold watches Chikorita come closer and wave his leaf, and manages a small smile in response. He slowly reaches up to take the Sprinklotad from Banyan's hand, but then just sits there with it in his hands, glancing at all the grass-types around him. Carn watches him with a bit of worry, not sure what his trainer's thinking now, but decides to just stay back and see what happens.

Banyan's words hit onto something in Gold's emotions. 'Nobody here wants to hurt anybody.' What a nice thought. He wishes he could be that certain of himself. (The idea that any of the Pokemon might hurt him never even crosses his mind.)

"...Can you really promise that?" Gold asks. "You don't know me."

But, despite his words, if any of the grass-types comes up to him, he sprinkles some water on them.

"Is that so? My mistake then." Came Banyan's casual comment. He knew when, and when not to push a topic given his years of experience. Yet it wasn't hard to notice the way Gold had reacted. That was something to keep in mind, he mentally noted.

He turned his attention to the Floette as he reached his hand out allowing her to slowly float onto his palm. He gave a grin to the fairy Pokemon, before glancing back to Gold. Once more he looks over the young trainer who now had the Sprinklotad in hand.

A part of him noted how small the other looked, while the other made him was reminded of someone he knew.

"Yer right, I don't know ya." He agreed followed by a nod. His Chikorita was by his side, imitating his head nod. "...but I know enough. Yer nice enough to consider yer Pokemon, and even look for 'em. On top of that, ya didn't have to take the Sprinklotad, but ya did."

As if on cue, Hoppip while shy was slowly making its way past Banyan. It's fidgeting while giving hopeful, but timid stare up to Gold.

"It just takes a little time, and effort to make new friends. Ya just gotta take that step forward too."

Gold sits still, listening to everything Banyan says, but only keeps his eyes on the timid Hoppip. He doesn't want to scare it away.

"...It's not like that says anything about how nice I am," Gold argues half-heartedly, while slowly, cautiously, raising the Sprinklotad and watering the Hoppip. "Carn's my Pokemon, so of course I'd look for him. And taking something you're offered is just normal."

Carn smiles as he watches Gold, then looks around at the other grass-types while making little proud noises, as if bragging. 'See? Isn't my trainer sweet?' he seems to say.

"And if I make that step forward, what then?" Gold asks, a bit frustrated. "Even if I do make a friend, who's nice, and kind, and a good person, they're just gonna hate me in the end if they find out what I-"

Gold grits his teeth shut. He keeps watering the Pokemon who come up to him. He said too much. If he pretends he didn't say it, maybe it didn't happen.

"Not everyone takes what's offered, or have a Pokemon that's proud of their trainer like yers." Banyan glanced over to give a smile to Carn. Yeah, as far as he was concerned Gold was a good kid.

At Gold's outburst he shifted his gaze back looking thoughtfully.

"Even a nice and kind person aren't that way because that's all they experienced in their lives." He commented while gently brushing the tip of his finger against Floette's head. She's giggling happily. "Both people and Pokemon, they all got their own lives and experience and through that they can connect to others who might be the same, or completely different from them."

"Hoppip! Hoppip!" The shy Hoppip chimed with a smile. It seemed he was enjoying the water being sprinkled on. That was getting the Exeggutor to take a hesitant step from the bushes, giving a curious look. Chikorita's turning to happily greet Exeggutor, while trying to coax it out from the bushes.

Gold glances at Carn. He's proud of Gold? Gold doesn't know what to think of that, so he just sets it aside for later.

Unfortunately, Gold's not in the right mental space to absorb Banyan's words. In his current, frustrated state, he desperately just wants somebody who understands exactly how he's really feeling, but he doesn't have the ability to communicate what he even feels. And so, Banyan's words, wise as they are, just ring to him as false, empty platitudes.

Angry with himself for hoping for too much, Gold responds the only way he can: slamming a wide smile onto his face.

"Wow, you're right!" Gold says with cheerfulness. "That helps a lot, Professor! I'm gonna keep that in mind and try my best to make friends!" He smiles at the Hoppip, then turns to the Exeggutor. "Hi! You wanna get watered too? What kinda Pokemon are you?"

While Gold starts digging out his Pokedex, Carn frowns a little at his sudden change in attitude, before deciding to just roll with it and help coax Exeggutor out.

"Exe...Exeggutor..." Unfortunately for Gold, despite being a bigger Pokemon than Hoppip having a stranger approach so suddenly, and with a smile like that caused him to panic. The Floette that had been relaxed in Banyan's hand too taking note of Gold's behavior immediately moved to hide within Banyan's straw hat once more. The Hoppip too shrunk back.

The sudden change in Gold's behavior, and his approach had the wild Pokemon on edge. Banyan was quick to step between Gold and Exeggutor. It was to prevent the Exeggutor from lashing out from any sudden perceived threat, even if there were none present.

"Is that how ya consider making friends?" His tone was calm, and gentle as he questioned Gold. He didn't want to anger Gold anymore than he was, but he also could tell the other was holding some type of pain within himself. He didn't want to keep things going the way they were, and let the trainer off knowing he might get hurt or worse. He didn't want to see anyone hurt.

"Ya know Gold, I was just tryin' ta tell ya that the Pokemon here, most of them ain't from Ultern." His gaze softened while turning to the Exeggutor and back to Gold. "I'm sure a trainer like you know Pokemon don't mean any harm when they jump out at ya, but..."

Slowly he's pulling his gardening gloves to reveal how his hands were riddled with scars.

"There's no way they can even know whether a human means well or not. Despite that, we managed to become friends. I really think, that somewhere there's someone who'd accept ya, both the good and bad. 'Course! No need to go and rush to make all the friends, y'know?"

There's a confident grin on Banyan's face as he slipped his gloves right back on. The Hoppip that's been shivering rubbed against Banyan while peering up with a worried look in his eyes. His Chikorita meanwhile puffed up his chest while approaching Gold to put on his best happy face, clearly eager to be friends still.

Gold freezes when the Pokemon become frightened of him, staring at them wide-eyed. The Sprinklotad drops to the ground, and he doesn't notice. More than scared, he's ashamed of himself. A part of him berates himself. Of course this is what would happen, they're right to be afraid. This is what happens when you show what you're really like.

Carn steps between Gold and the Exeggutor as well, making soothing noises, and tries to communicate to everyone around him that everything's fine, this is normal, Gold just switches moods quickly sometimes and Carn's used to it. He keeps a non-threatening posture, and releases a bit of soothing aroma to try and help everyone be at ease.

Banyan's words are gentle, but they feel like an accusation to Gold, and he looks down, biting on his lip. "I don't know," he says quietly. "I don't know how to make friends."

He listens to Banyan, and looks up when the Professor shows his scars, eyes widening when he sees them. Suddenly some of what Banyan is saying sinks in, and Gold realizes these Pokemon are a lot like himself.

"I... Yeah," Gold responds, a slight, genuine smile slowly rising to his lips. "I mean, even I found one guy who's my friend, and people who say they accept everything about me..." Gold still can't quite believe it'd be true, but he wants to. "But they're all back home, and now I'm here, and I don't... I don't know if I'll ever see them again." It's like something he's been avoiding thinking about is suddenly pouring out, and Gold blinks rapidly, voice hitching. "Everybody says there's no way out of here, and if you try to leave you just come back, and I don't have anybody here but my Pokemon and..."

He stops talking, hiding his face behind a sleeve as he hiccups, clearly crying. Carn immediately turns back to his trainer and gently sets his head on Gold's shoulder, and Gold leans slightly against Carn.

"Sorry," Gold says with a sharp, wet intake of breath, face still hidden. "I'm sorry. I'll, try and stop."

Banyan frowned when Gold admitted to what weighed on his mind. He couldn't help but sympathize having experience in this. Plenty of Pokemon and people in the region had similar tales to tell. He wish there was something he could do to make it better, but what could a Pokemon professor like himself do?

He doesn't respond right away as he finally reached down to pick the Sprinklotad up from the ground.

"Ya don't gotta apologize for a thing." He spoke quietly, while lifted his gaze back to Gold with a grin. "If ya want, it ain't much but you can call this your home away from home. ... ...and, y'know, I wanna see these Pokemon get back home too. So I ain't giving up hope for that day, so don't give up either Gold."

He grinned.

"But it's alright to be upset 'bout what's going on. I know I'd be the same too."

"Chikori!" Chikorita moving away from Banyan's side walked over to gently rub his head against Gold's leg. Like his trainer, he didn't like seeing the younger trainer upset.

Gold doesn't dare say anything, knowing his voice would crack if he did, so he just keeps nodding in response to Banyan. But when he registers what he said about 'home away from home' it gives him a bit of pause, his tears starting to wane.

What did that mean? It couldn't mean what it first sounds like. Why would the Professor want Gold staying in his house? Did he mean the Ultern region as a whole? No, that didn't make sense.

As he thinks, Gold feels Chikorita rub against his leg, and looks down. With a bit of a weak smile, Gold wipes away his tears, pats Carn, and crouches down to look at Chikorita. His hand hovers over him, not quite daring to try and pet.

He decides to gather his courage and ask.

"...Sounds like you're inviting me to stay at your house?" he asks, not looking at Banyan. Surely he's misunderstood things. Or maybe Banyan will take the offer back once he realizes what he's offering.

"Yeah, I sure did." Banyan's grinning wide in response. "Unless, 'course you don't wanna. I can't force ya to stay, but this house of mine's pretty big even with the lab, and my Pokemon bunking with me."

He'll gesture to his home with the bright red roof that contrasted from the white sands of the beach close by.

"I've got an open room you could use as a base of sorts, even."

"Oh, no, I do wanna!" Gold rushes to say, standing up. It feels too good to be true, so he accepts the offer as fast as he can, as if Banyan would take it away if he waits a second too long. He looks at the house, kind of awed. It reminds him of his dad's house a bit. (And maybe the professor kind of reminds him of his dad too, subconsciously.)

"I don't really get why you'd want me here, but, if you've got a room you don't need I'll take it," he says, looking around. "There's a lot of space, so my Pokemon would probably like it too..." He glances at the Pokeballs on his waist, and at Carn, who makes a happy sound and a little hop. He's pleased with the idea.

"Oh yeah, can I bring my other Pokemon out? I wanna ask them what they think," Gold asks Banyan, taking a few steps to get some distance from the other grass-types gathered around, not wanting to scare them any further.

"Yeah, go right ahead! It's fair for yer Pokemon to know where y'all gonna be sleeping." The Professor nodded. He wasn't about to argue about a trainer and his Pokemon making a decision together.

Thankfully for Gold the other grass types seemed to be calmer now, with the timid Exeggutor now standing next to Banyan who gave a gentle pat to his side. He gave the Pokemon a reassuring smile before watching Gold, curious to see what the rest of his Pokemon were.

Gold nods and takes his Pokeballs out, tossing them into the air.

"Come on out, Elena, Nerica, Mateo and Umbar!" he calls out, and the Pokemon all materialize. Elena the Furret waves a shy greeting, and Mateo the Umbreon glares at the grass-type Pokemon around them, before going to half-hide behind Elena. Nerica the Togetic does a spin in the air and preens as if this were a Contest stage, and Umbar the Lugia just smiles and gives Banyan a casual wave with one of his wings. Carn trots over to join the group.

"I dunno if you guys heard it from your Pokeballs or not, but this is Professor Banyan," Gold gestures at him, "and he's offering us a place to stay here. Whatcha think?"

The Pokemon glance at each other, and begin to talk among themselves. Nerica and Mateo both sound a bit more uncertain about it, while the others sound positive. Gold stands by as they chat, waiting for a decision, and glancing at Banyan occasionally to see what he might think about his Pokemon.

Banyan watched as Gold sent out his team. The smile on his face doesn't change even as he sees Umbar, the Lugia out in the open. That was sure one big Pokemon, but his home was out in the open and close to the sea he mused before giving a wave back to Umbar. That and it wasn't like he hasn't seen a huge Pokemon before...ah, right. He was getting off track as he turned his attention to Gold who was double checking with his team.

As the young trainer seem to be doing so, Banyan glanced over to check on the grass types. Exeggutor seemed curious about the sudden appearance of new Pokemon, and even the Floette that went back into hiding peered from under Banyan's hat. What was this? More Pokemon?

"Heh heh," Banyan chuckled. "It seems they're all curious about your team." He commented while holding his hand out for Floette once more. She slowly floated over to the palm of his hand.

"That's right, it might not change things but I should introduce all of you to my team." Banyan spoke up while cupping his chin with his free hand. "It's not just Chikorita that lives here with me after all."

"Chiko!" Chikorita hopped up in excitement. He even happily waved his leaf up to the rest of Gold's team.

Umbar's smile widens as Banyan waves back at him, and he nods approvingly, as if Banyan passed some kind of a test, before turning to talk to his teammates again.

Gold looks at Floette curiously. She's cute, but... "What Pokemon is that?" he asks, never having seen one before. He wants to take out his Pokedex and check, but when he tried to take it out before he scared all the Pokemon, so he's a bit wary to repeat anything he did that time. That, and he's seen so many Pokemon in Ultern that his 'dex didn't recognize that he's starting to think it's no use to try.

When Banyan mentions his team, Gold nods in understanding. "Yeah, I guess you should." The Pokemon lived here before, so it makes sense to get to know them too. Gold's learning a lot about moving to a new house these days. "But, uh... if they don't like me, or they don't get along with my Pokemon... What then?" He looks away, a bit anxious.

While Gold's team are all talking among themselves, Elena notices Chikorita waving and goes over to kindly and politely say hello, as a potential future housemate should.

"This here is a Floette. She may look like a Grass type Pokemon, but she's actually a Fairy type." He gave a nod down to Floette. "Floette are known to evolve from another Pokemon known as a Flabébé."

At Gold's question about not getting along, Banyan chuckled. In the professor's mind, he really was a good kid.

"Icharibachoude, Gold!" He's beaming and as if recognizing what Banyan had said the Floette smiled while giving a giggle. "It's a saying here in Ultern. Once you meet, you're family. My Pokemon and I have no reason to turn any of you away. ...and even if we bump heads, it doesn't mean we can't work things out."

"Chiko!" That's right! Chikorita seemed to be saying as he happily hopped in response.

Meanwhile, once more with his free hand Banyan will place his pointer finger and thumb into his mouth to let out an impressive whistle. The sound of it carried across the wind, and in an instant a Pikachu with a noticeably light belly, and brown paws jumped out, and landed onto Banyan's shoulders.

"Pikaaachu!"

In comparison to Pikachu's grand entrance, Staryu simply rose up from the sandy beach not too far off before rolling into the yard. It'll give a shake to get the sand off of its body.

"Fairy type?" Gold asks. "Never heard of Fairy types before." Being from Gen 2, Gold's Togetic is still a Normal/Flying type too. "But I guess there's a lot of Pokemon I never heard of before here. Even my Pokedex is useless half the time."

"Icharibachoude?" Gold repeats, raising an eyebrow. "Icharibachoude..." He rolls the word in his mouth, considers the meaning of it, and smiles softly. "Sounds nice." Once you meet, you're family... 'Family' is a word Gold has only recently begun to feel the meaning of, so he's not sure he can live by those words, but he'll try to understand them.

Elena, who's standing by Gold now, looks around the yard, at all the Pokemon nearby, and says something along the lines of "(Oh my. It sounds like our family's gotten a lot bigger all of a sudden.)" Gold, who doesn't understand what she said, nods in response to her anyway.

When Banyan summons his Pokemon, Gold and his team both pause to look their way.

"Oh!" Gold says, pointing at Pikachu. "I know that one! It's Pikachu! And... I think I've seen that one before? It's... It's, uh... Stardew!" he finishes confidently. He's battled a few Swimmers with that Pokemon before, he's sure that's what they called it.

Elena sighs with fond exasperation, then totters over to greet Pikachu and Staryu.

"Haha, they're not too commonly heard of in many regions from what I've gathered. I suppose they were newly discovered somewhere far from where ya lived?" He's mused while looking at Floette who seemed to be in a better mood than before. "...hm? Pokedex? Ah, you have one?"

His eyes lit up at the sound of a Pokedex.

"If ya want, I can upgrade it for ya later! That way ya can learn a lot about the Pokemon ya run into or catch here in Ultern!"

"Pika pikaaa!" Yeah, yeah! His Pikachu cheered on top of Banyan's shoulders. The Professor smiled back at Pikachu before looking back to Gold.

"Sha!" Staryu meanwhile wiggled in response when Elena came to greet them. Even if Gold didn't know their name, Staryu was more than happy to meet their new guests. Banyan glanced down to his Pokemon, and back to Gold.

"You already know Chikorita here. He's the youngest of my team, and Pikachu's the middle child and this one here, you were real close in getting the name." He smiled and gave a playful wink. Gold was still learning, and Banyan remembered being in the same shoes as him around his age. "They're my long time friend, and partner Staryu. Staryu usually likes to lay in the sand right over there."

"You can update it?" Gold asks, immediately interested. He takes out his old-fashioned Pokedex and shows it to Banyan. "Can you make it quieter too if you update it? It's got a really annoying loud voice, and the mute button doesn't work right, it always goes back to unmuted after a while."

Gold gives Pikachu a little wave, while Elena tries to strike a conversation with Staryu about the beach.

"Staryu, that's it. I got it pretty close!" Gold grins.

Meanwhile, Gold's other Pokemon seem to have come to a conclusion of some sort, and Umbar takes a step closer, getting Gold's attention.

"This seems to be a lovely place to live," the Lugia says in a smooth voice, in perfect human language, "And we're all fine with it. It's a nice beachfront property after all. Very home-y. Why, I can almost see my house from here." He gestures at the ocean with a bit of a chuckle, before turning to Banyan. "So, Professor, I believe you've got yourself a few new housemates."

"That's awesome!" Gold cheers. He can hardly believe this is really happening. A room to live in! After he'd given such a bad first impression too! Professor Banyan really was a good person, huh. Gold wants to make sure to never disappoint him.

There's a small whistle from Banyan as he looks over Gold's Pokedex.

"Mmm yeah! I think I can fix yer dex up. It looks far better than what the Champion showed me of her Pokedex." He chuckled thinking back to how beaten up how the young Champion's Pokedex looked before she shoved it into his face.

Pikachu happily gives Gold a little wave with his paw while Staryu turned to Elena. It's core gave a bright glow while wiggling in the process. The beach really was nice and warm, their favorite spot!

When Umbar spoke up, Banyan glanced up to the Legendary Pokemon blinked, before a huge toothy grin showed up on his face. Who knew he'd get to meet a Pokemon who'd speak in a language he could understand in his life time? That was enough to get the Pokemon Professor excited.

"I'm glad all of ya are liking the place." He nodded while glancing back to his home, and then to the beach. "It's a real nice view, ain't it? And hey, I ain't so bad of a cook too so none of ya gotta worry about that front when it comes to meal time."

Oddly enough, while Gold's dex looks old in design, it's barely worn and appears fairly new. And, once Professor Banyan gets more aquainted with the Pokedex's workings, he'll find that whoever created this Pokedex had an odd set of priorities with very little regard to user friendliness. A great part of the Pokedex's memory is allocated to a 'personality system' that adds speech patterns to the Pokedex's voice, and the mute button turning itself off is the Pokedex working as intended, as the creator was apparently very proud of this system. The programming is also messy enough that it'd likely be easier to just replace the Pokedex with a new one than update it. ~~in other words the player would like Gold to keep the old Pokedex in the state it is while getting a new one just for Ultern use, for reasons~~

Gold knows none of this and smiles. "Great! I'll leave it to you!" he says and hands the Pokedex over. The word 'Champion' sounds vaguely familiar to him, though. Some title of a strong trainer? So Ultern had that title too.

Elena wonders if she could burrow into the sand without getting her fur too messy. The rest of her teammates, besides Umbar, come over in time to hear part of this conversation, and Carn declares he wants to dig a huge hole in the sand and get buried up to his neck. Nerica and Mateo think that's dumb, but start helping him dig.

"Oh, I can cook!" Gold says. He means he can combine ingredients and heat them up into an edible, sometimes even tasty form if he gets lucky. "I can do my share of cooking too! But I'll eat if you wanna give me food."

"I think you should leave the cooking to the grown-ups," Umbar tells him. "But I can cook a little too, for the record." He proceeds to not elaborate on how, just smiling a Mona Lisa smile. Banyan was already excited enough finding out he could talk, so Umbar can't help but want to tease him with his other mundane abilities, too.

From first glance to Banyan the Pokedex looked fine, and easy enough to fix on it's own--but he'll find out quick about needing to hand a new one altogether to Gold. The same he had to do for Ultern's Champion who was out there, somewhere. Wherever she headed off to, really.

Staryu meanwhile turns to watch the three dig up the sand. It's rather tempted to lay back on the sand and bask in the sunlight like it usually does. Chikorita curious trots over to see what the group is up to.

"Hehe, how about this? Maybe we can try cooking together from time to time. It'll be fun." Banyan grinned before shifting his attention to Umbar. He sees intrigued by the fact the Legendary Pokemon before him knew how to cook. "Hmm? What is it that ya cook? Color me curious!"

Enter: Ultern's Pokemon Professor!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)