Just Your Average Perfect Summer's Day [Open]

Today didn't really feel like a "stay at home moping" kind of day, so Arthur was outside. His companion, Woobat, was very happy with the decision since she had been indirectly bugging him the past couple of days now. He supposed that it becomes a huge drag if he was holed up in his room all of the time, even if the pool sounded like a good idea right now. It was so hot. For this reason he stayed nearby the ocean since the breeze at least cooled him down somewhat. He sighed as he let his body rest against the rails, the sky seemingly endless along with the ocean. Yeah, maybe a good ten minutes of this and he would go buy a drink somewhere. He was sure that Woobat would like a strawberry smoothie.

The little bat, in contrast to her trainer, was cheerily making noises as she flew around the place. She would greet the Wingulls a good day and would soak herself briefly in the nearby fountain, making her fur sag for a while. In this atmosphere though, it dried up pretty quickly, so it didn't take long for her to be flying around again, free of troubles.

That was until she forgot to be careful and slammed into an unsuspecting Eglyem. The ripple of pain alerted Arthur to turning around and pinpointing where she went. "Woobat?" he called, scouring his surroundings until he found her apologizing profusely to another Psychic-type Pokemon. Huh, he had yet to train an Eglyem, but it was on his list of possible candidates for his gym Pokemon. This one belonged to someone else though since it seemed very clingy to a man in a suit that just showed up.

What did you do? he asked her in a scolding tone, picking her up from the ground. Out of habit, he momentarily forgot not to speak telepathically while he was outside.

I-I was just playing! I didn't see the other Pokemon, so...

Arthur sighed. This wasn't the first time she bumped into something...or someone. He made sure to switch back to normal speaking mode so that the other trainer might not get suspicious. "I told you to be careful, remember? I'm not bringing you out anymore if you keep causing trouble like this."

"(Waah! No, anything but that!)" she cried, starting to use fake tears out of habit. Arthur knew full well that she was using a move, though other people might really think she was crying. Letting her stay in his arms, he approached the other trainer and did a short bow. "I apologize for my Pokemon's carelessness. Is your Eglyem alright?" hopefully this was a situation he could get out of sooner than later. He wasn't above paying the guy either for his injuries. Some prissy women with their Skitties or Frufrous had demanded that before.

Arthur showed a small smile in response, "That's good. Woobat's fine too." thankfully the little Pokemon calmed down and was mostly sniffling, still trying to sell the act. You could at least try to coddle me... she said through telepathy, pouting as she did so. You're being surprisingly needy today. he responded sarcastically.

He did notice something odd though--while Woobat had been whining earlier, Arthur paid some attention to the other trainer. He was quiet as he was holding up his Eglyem, though the Pokemon seemed to have reacted to something. He wouldn't put it past the small oblong creature to use telepathy, but the stranger, on the other hand...was it too risky to ask? Perhaps a normal person would not have noticed it. The inkling of the possibility sort of excited Arthur though, as he had never met someone who had the same abilities as he did.

But he was probably getting ahead of himself. What happened to just limiting the conversation to just checking if the Pokemon were alright? Still, he might as well attempt some small conversation since his mother had been egging him about that for the past months...years? Yeah. "You usually don't see Eglyems around here. Are you from Unova, by any chance?" he asked. Recently Eridani was trying a more tourist-y approach, marketing itself to other regions so that more people would visit. In the past few months, there had been a huge explosion of trainers and visitors, making the city even more crowded than it was before. It was partially why Arthur had less desire to go out, but he supposed it brought a lot of interesting-looking folk.

"Huh, that's interesting." but unfortunately quite common in the region of Stellara. As far as he knew, many Pokemon would often get separated from their trainers, or just wound up wandering in the city without a trainer at all. Some were definitely strays, but others were just unlucky. He supposed what was more surprising was how much this Eglyem trusted this trainer.

"Strays are pretty common here. Eglyem might've not liked its previous trainer, or it could've been involved in more unsavoury things." abuse was a real possibility. Not all trainers were kind, after all. Hmm, perhaps this was an opportune time to steer the conversation to communication. "Eglyems are Psychic types though. I'm sure the little one knows telepathy, so if he wanted to, he could tell you." he concluded. Woobat at this point had stopped sniffling and hopped down from Arthur's arms, trying to approach the shivering Pokemon clinging onto Roland's leg. "(I'm really sorry for crashing into you a while ago! You don't have to be scared...)" she said, trying to coax him from hiding. She then flapped her wings a little so that she was hovering nearby him. "(Hey, let's play! I promise I'll watch where I'm going! There's a lot of places here to explore, you know?)"

"If you're going to try running off again make sure it's still inside the park, Woobat." he reminded, having a good idea what she was planning even without the telepathy. He was a bit caught off guard by the compliment though, which seems rather misplaced but maybe he wasn't sure what else to say. Being on the same boat here wasn't particularly helpful. "Oh, thanks. I, uh, like your suit." this was going south fast. Maybe it was time for them to part ways and go to the smoothie shop that Woobat wanted. Alternatively, he could invite them if he was feeling generous...was he? Hmm. It would depend on his responses, and if he showed traces of being a Psychic, he definitely wanted to learn more without being too direct about it.

Oh, it sounded like there was more to the story that Arthur had expected. Was he going to talk about hearing things, by any chance? Woobat, on the other hand, didn't really care too much on what the other trainer had to say. She made sure that she was flying not too far from the Eglyem as she led him closer to the rails that separated them from the ocean. Along the way she circled around him, taking a better look at the strange-looking Pokemon. Once they got the black bars, she landed beside Roswell as their vision was partially obscured by the poles. ("I really like this spot. The ocean looks like it just keeps going on forever.)" she commented; her fur ruffled a little from the sea breeze. ("So what do you want to play? How about tag? Or hide and seek? Or we could go for some smoothes. I looooove smoothies. Master promised me that he would take me there later! I bet your trainer wouldn't mind a smoothie. Everyone loves smoothies.)" she babbled.

Meanwhile, back with the trainers, Arthur quietly listened to Roland's recounting of meeting with the Eglyem. "You don't hear that everyday." he muttered, crossing his arms, "As a Psychic-type, though, he should be able to regain his memories eventually if he wanted to. Memories can't really be erased, they're just buried deep down." at least, that was his take on it, anyway. He had never been able to just read someone's mind, only communicate with them. It was both a blessing and an unfortunate drawback, he felt. "I don't really know much about Eglyem other than the region they're from though, so he could be an alien for all we know."

He then glanced at the two Pokemon, where Woobat seemed to be chatting lots about something. "I have a sneaking suspicion that she's trying to get him to buy smoothies." he said with a small frown. "Well, it would be a shame to part ways now. Woobat doesn't get to play with many Pokemon besides the ones back home. Do you want a bit of a tour around the city?" usually he didn't talk this much either, but because he had been holed up in his room the past few days, his mouth suddenly felt happy to be talking. Weird. Anyway, he could still fish for something that was relevant to him if he tried to prod it enough. Or maybe he was just interested to see another Psychic Pokemon.

"(Whaaaaat? You don't know what a smoothie is? You're missing out!)" she flapped her wings to show her bewilderment since her eyes were covered by her fur. ("It's like, really good! Really yummy!)" Woobat actually didn't really know how to describe it, but it just tasted really good and sweet. Well, might as well show him later rather than describe it to him! She couldn't like, project the image to his head or anything. That was something she didn't really know what to do yet, and she wasn't sure if Roswell was cool with that. But hey, wait a minute, he was a Psychic type, so he should know how to communicate with telepathy, right?

Back with Arthur, with his arms still crossed as if in deep thought, replied carefully. "It doesn't seem like anyone can, except for more experienced Psychic type Pokemon, that is." Humans couldn't as far as he knew. Or well, as far as his psychic abilities could allow him. It seemed that they were only limited to establishing mind connections to others for communication, but a one-way street was a no-no. The other person had to hear him, but it didn't necessarily mean that he had to know who he was and the like. That only worked for a few moments though, since the connection was very weak and whatnot. If he were to agree to communicate with someone, on the other hand, well that was a different story. He hadn't really explored the limitations of that yet, but it seemed that so long as he could see Woobat for example, he could talk to her. "I guess it would be cool if he were, but people might want to steal him because of that." he said offhandedly.

Woobat was surprised that Roswell suddenly ran back to his trainer with no warning whatever. Huh, she guessed that they did speak telepathically after all. She followed suit, flying back to Arthur's shoulder as she said to him telepathically, They talk like we do! I thought you were the only one, Master? The young man froze, hearing this information, but decided to explore it a little later. "We're going to tour them around, Woobat." he said slowly, almost using telepathy in response at first, but then realising that would be suspicious. "We're going to get smoothies."

(Yay, smoothies!!)"

Arthur raised his brows at the other man's request before he showed a smile. "Of course. We can pass there before we go to the milk shake cafe Woobat really likes."

"Hmm, I guess you could call them lucky." he concurred. Again, pros and cons to the whole thing. He furrowed his brows when the stranger said that he was thinking of stealing the Eglyem. "No, I have plenty of Psychic types at home, and I don't know if your Pokemon matches my standard." he answered, not caring if it sounded insensitive or something, "I simply made the comment because robbery is a common crime in Stellara. For example, there's a business here that looks for "lost" Pokemon, then trades them for a profit."

"Anyway, let's stop by the gym first. It's not too far from here." he motioned the two to follow him while Woobat cheered, "(Gym, gym!)" before looking down at Arthur and asked, "(When are you going to tell them that you're the gym leader?)"

I don't plan to. If they'll challenge me, then that's when they'll find out. he replied with telepathy so that the other man wouldn't notice anything. It would be Woobat that would look back every now and then and tell Arthur to slow down if they were moving too far ahead. He had forgotten that this was probably the first time this other trainer was looking around Eridani. To Arthur, it was the same old crowds and same old shops, even if they had different names or different faces. Mostly everything was a blur to him, but his presence commanded some sense of dominance so most people moved out of his path. After a couple minutes of walking, they reached the esteemed Wright tower, where today it seemed like business as usual. A number of people who requested services and whatnot were moving in and out of the building, but it didn't look like any of them were trainers looking for a challenge, thankfully. "The Gym is located inside this building." he said simply, "The cafe is a few more blocks down the road, unless you want to go inside?"

"(Master's house is awesome!)" Woobat chirped.

"No, I'm not desperate." Arthur answered, having no clue that the stranger was trying to joke or anything of the sort. "But I suppose you're right that it's not an uncommon phenomenon. And people still have the tendency to let their Pokemon out despite the danger." such as the case of Woobat, for example. The young man always carried one gym Pokemon just in case he got in trouble, but he wouldn't count it as part of his personal team or anything. He didn't let them out of their ball either for practicality's sake. He didn't want to be a beacon for strong Pokemon; he didn't really want to call attention at all, though for other people, his fashion would say otherwise.

"Yes, the Wright Corporation owns all of the telecommunications in Eridani City and also some other spots around Stellara. They made a few touch bases outside of the region, so perhaps you may have heard of them before, but otherwise, I wouldn't be surprised if tourists would not be familiar with them." Arthur answered comprehensively. He didn't have the vibe of a challenger--not yet, anyway, so the young man was not surprised to hear that he didn't want to go inside. He showed a small smile as Woobat chirped some more about smoothies. "They're famous for experimenting, so besides the conventional flavors, they also have some strange ones." he gestured for them to follow, and they probably walked another five minutes or so before reaching a district full of restaurants and cafes. The one that Arthur frequented wasn't as popular as it used to be when it first opened, but nevertheless, it attracted a steady stream of customers. This at least meant that it did not take a while to order nor find a place to sit.

The place was cozy and bright, with some tables, chairs, and couches. The menu was displayed on the top but the counter also had a smaller physical copy sitting on top of the shiny surface. "I'll go ahead and order first." he told the stranger as he approached the clerk and ordered a strawberry shortcake smoothie and a simple vanilla bean one.