Crystal Clear Reflection

It was peaceful, and the time, about midday. Russell, though living in Grassveil for all of his early life, had neglected to visit the small pond on the outskirts of the town. Despite this, many spoke often of it's -usually- relaxing atmosphere, praising it as a lovely place to take youngsters to go and play.

Naturally, Russ was curious since he had never been there before, and so decided to investigate the well known area so that he could add it to the ever growing maps that he would draw based on his notes. With him, he had brought his trusty journal and pen, stored safely inside the satchel-like bag he carried with him.

Russell had shed his leafy cloak for the time being, instead opting to go without so that he could more easily write in his journal. It wasn't as if he couldn't just make another cloak out of whatever was at the pond anyways, so he hadn't worried too much about getting rid of it.

Seating himself down at the edge of the pond, Russ peered into the water, marvelling at just how clear it was, despite the many pokemon that used it based on the gossip he'd heard in the town centre. He could see his reflection in the water, gently smiling back at him in a crystal clear reflection.

Lance, now having nowhere to live, walked the path through the town, out of the town, and to the small pond. He had just quit the guild, putting Varda the Swablu in charge of the team. He shall live where he can find shelter from now on. He didn't want to be in the guild anymore. They never went exploring in groups; they actually never were focused on exploring at all. The dungeons that were found were probably found by others who were like him: Who wanted to explore. "Well, now I am an explorer, and no matter how hard it is for me, I will always be devoted to exploring." He had thought to himself. He will miss the guild, his team-mates, and the Guildmaster. He couldn't remember what her name is, but he knew she was a plant, and also had a fascination in plants. But now, he was on his own, a lone explorer.

He finally got to the small pond, the third visit here...right? He couldn't remember for sure how many times he's been here. He was going to continue thinking about how many times he's been here, but that thought was cut off when he saw something blackish at the pond. It didn't seem like any pokemon he saw, but it seemed harmless. The thing was staring at it's own reflection. He remembered doing that. The pond was the only good spot to look at yourself at, since the water doesn't ripple much. He didn't want to disturb the thing, so he stood at a distance, watching it.

With a last glance at his reflection and a tiny flick of his coiled antenna, Russell sat back from the water's edge, putting a little distance between himself and the water so that he could get out his journal without the fear of getting it wet.

The journal itself had a cream cover, patterned with different coloured autumn leaves and though it looked like a professional job, it was actually hand made. Russ laid it gently on the grass near the pond, flicking through it's pages with one of his stubby little legs before he reached one that was empty. Digging through his bag once more, Russ soon produced a small quill pen, the colours of the feather that made up a large part of the pen matching those of the journal. If you analysed the feather enough, it looked to almost be from one of the Fletchling line.

Using his psychic hidden power to more carefully control the movements of his quill, Russell began to note down average sizes of the area. He'd likely have to come back with some form of proper measuring equipment at some point but for now averages would be a good start for him to sketch his map of the area.

Lance watched as the creature pulled out a pen and started writing in a journal with psychic energy. This creature was a strange one. Was it a psychic type? But psychic Pokemon don't look like bugs, do they? He watched as the thing wrote. What could it be writing about? Its reflection? Something else? So many questions! Lance decided to slowly approach it, not wanting to startle it. "Umm, hello there." He said. He just wanted to ask so many questions right now, but decided to hold back. He didn't want to make a bad first impression to someone he didn't know. So there he stood, observing the thing, thinking to himself, "I just now left the Guild and found something new! I must be better at exploring than I thought."

Russell looked up when he heard the movement of someone approaching him. The movement wasn't sudden enough to startle him from his work, though he was distracted momentarily as the approaching individual finally decided to speak.

"Oh, Hello," Russ smiled, halting his writing for a moment to politely reply to the pokemon he identified as a Riolu. With the pen still being held with psychic energy, the Burmy made a quick glance around the pond to double check the averages he'd worked out and, figuring they were roughly accurate enough, he made another small note in his journal.

Lance saw the thing write in the journal again. Was he writing about him? Or maybe he was writing about the pond? He didn't know, so he decided to ask just one question. "If it's ok to ask, what are you writing down in that journal?" He scanned over the Pokemon once more, than decided to ask one other question. He didn't want to storm the thing with questions, so he was trying to keep the questions to a minimum. "Also, what are you? I don't remember seeing a Pokemon like you before..." The face of this Pokemon seemed familiar to the Riolu, but that was the only thing.

Finishing off the small note in his journal, Russell placed the quill pen down neatly in between the two open pages, before using his small legs to gently turn the book around so that it was facing the Riolu. From this angle, Lance could more clearly see what was written in it's pages.

"I'm writing down my rough estimations for the size of this pond area so I can plot it relative to Grassveil Town accurately on a map," he replied with a small smile, excited that he could talk about his craft, even if the Riolu didn't care so much for it, "I'm a cartographer you see. Which is the fancy name for someone who draws maps."

He paused in his explanation of what he was doing as he remembered the Riolu's other question, buried under his own enthusiasm. With a brief look of thoughtfulness, Russ began to gather the leaf litter around the pond to re-make his plant cloak.
"Recognise what I am now?" he asked with a bright laugh, "I'm a burmy."

Lance watched as the thing put together a leaf cloak, and revealed itself to be a Burmy. "Oh, I reconize you now." He said. "I've actually never seen a Burmy without its cloak." He continued talking, somewhat intrested in the Burmy's work. "So you make maps? That sounds cool. Do you give your maps to the Guild? Is that how they have maps of nearly every place?" Surely this Burmy didn't hoard his maps. What good would it be if he just made maps and did nothing with them. Surely he works with the Guild somehow...right?

"Most people haven't to be honest," the Burmy laughed, adjusting the leaves that surrounded his segmented body so that they sat better in their makeshift cocoon.

When the Riolu turned the topic of conversation back to Russell's map making skills, the Burmy was elated. Normally most people would find that sort of discussion boring, so it was pretty awesome to find someone who was curious enough about it to ask more questions.
"I've never actually given my maps to the Guild. I'm sure they have their own cartographers and I'm more of an amateur than anything. But most of all I'm not usually in the area to be able to give any Guild my maps. Plus, my dream is to create a complete map of the world, and I can't give away the rest of my maps until I finish that one," he replied with a small wistful smile at the thought of eventually completing his dream.
"If anyone ever asked for a map of a specific area I wouldn't mind making one though. It's my passion after all," he clarified with a small grin.

"A map of the world you say?" Lance said. "The world is huge. who knows how long that may take you. But I hope you complete it." He thought for a second, then said "I don't create maps, but I'm hoping to explore as much of the world as possible. The world is filled with mysteries, and I want to see each one of them. I've heard there are islands in the sky that float, and a tower in the ocean that has hidden treasures. But I don't want to hear, I want to experience." He paused. "Which is why I have quit the guild. I want to be somewhere where exploring mysteries and places is the main priority." He looked at the Burmy, waiting for a responce.

Russell couldn't help but smile a little as he listened to the Riolu outlining his passions of exploring. The Burmy couldn't help but feel the same in a way. He especially couldn't wait for the day he evolved so that he could see those sky islands for himself, that was for sure. Perhaps his organisation could help this Riolu with his ow ambitions of exploration.

"So... if you could explore every day and wherever you wanted to explore, but the catch is you have to keep detailed records of everywhere you explore, would that sort of thing interest you?" Russell asked, being cautious for now just in case it wasn't the Riolu's thing.

"If I could explore everyday and wherever I wanted to explore..." Lance repeated what the Burmy said. 'That would be wonderful.' He thought. The only catch is that he had to keeps records of the places he explored. That didn't bother him one bit. But he wanted to be sure about what records he would be keeping of each place. "That sounds interesting, but what exactly would I be keeping detailed records of where I explored? If I had to draw something, like a map like you like doing, I wouldn't do well. But if I was keeping details of something, say...the condition of a place or something more mysterious, I would be great!" The Riolu wondered if the Burmy was going to tell him about a Guild or something that specialized in that sort of work. He would sign up right away. He wondered what the leader of such a thing would be like. Fearless? Wise? Awesome? He didn't know that such a person was right there in front of him!

(OOC: Sorry it took me so long. I had school, and Terraria was messing up, and today the internet was slow. But here's my post. :3)

The leaf cloaked Burmy chuckled good-naturedly, "Nah. Cartography is just kinda my thing. I mean, it's my reason for starting all of this, but at the same time I don't expect everyone else who wants to explore to be a cartographer. As long as you can read and write, or are willing to learn so that you can record details about the environments you discover and the inhabitants and mysteries that lie there, you're pretty much perfectly equipped.

Russell paused for a moment before continuing, "Most that I know take a notebook with them to make notes in the field, and then just write out a formal report for our records when they return from wherever they've been," he clarified, further suggesting how the recording would be handled.

(ooc// sorry for no speech colour. I don't have it handy /shot)

Lance continued listening to the Burmy, and after he finished with what he was saying, the Riolu spoke. "So most of them carry notebooks to make field notes?" He asked. "Are these notebooks small? I don't want my bag to be full because the notebook is taking up too much space." He paused for a second. "Also, I'm good at reading, but I've only written things once or twice, and it didn't look very good. However, I am willing to learn." while he waited for the Burmy's responce, A leaf flew by him, and he watched it for a second, then returned his attention back to the bug type,

Russell nodded at the Riolu's first question, "Yep. Well, the notebooks the Windrose Scouts use are all pretty portable. They wouldn't be useful otherwise. Sure, you've gotta make notes but at the same time you've gotta be able to carry any items you might need to protect yourself or others. I can't speak for everyone else though." he replied, trying to communicate the functionality of the journals.

"A lot of what we do in the Windrose Scouts relies on you writing and submitting reports on what you've seen and discovered, but if you're willing to learn how to do that to our standards, then i'd say you're a good candidate for joining WS," he commented following Lance's words, "In fact, the entry challenge we give to anyone who wants to join us actually requires you to write a report so that we can gauge whether a pokemon's writing abilities need work or not."