Glorified Toddlers

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A center of trade and tourism, abundant with attractions and widely known for its warm and inviting atmosphere: Grassveil. Even in the gloom of recent world events, with the overhanging sheet of grey hiding away the sky, this town still seemed to bustle with a refreshing energy. If the residents were bothered, it certainly didn't stop most of them from living their lives, or at least, it didn't seem so to Geo. Not that she was complaining, of course; she loved the area and all it had to offer. She spent a lot of time here, enjoying the scenery of such a happy little town, indulging in all it had to offer. Sometimes she'd go around to shops and see if there was anything to new, or perhaps just revisit places she'd already been to. Other times, she'd go around the guild, considering joining yet again; something always ended up stopping her, but perhaps that was her own lack of confidence. She'd tried quite a few times to find partners to join with, but it never seemed to stick, and she was nervous about joining on her own. However, since evolving, she had grown a great deal more content with herself, and she was starting to want to give it another go.

But, not today.

Today, she was looking to relax and have some fun, whatever that entailed. There were plenty of ways to entertain oneself in Grassveil; perhaps she'd go find someone to chat with, or maybe she'd just head off to the pond to kick back and relax. One thing was for certain: she didn't feel like doing any training on this day, as she'd done more than enough of that lately. Today was a day for herself, one which she hoped to find company for. She had always been sociable, and it was no accident that she was in such a great place for meeting friendly new faces. She was here to enjoy herself, sure, but she was hoping to find some new friends if she could. For some reason, those didn't seem to last too often, which was perhaps due to her doing a lot of meeting other 'mon out in the wilderness and never managing to ask where they lived or set up another meeting. She had trouble finding them again, simply put, and it was kind of hard to find more when she was out training in the forest all the time.

Thus, here she was, wandering the streets of Grassveil Town, searching for anyone or anything that caught her eye. As of yet, she had found nothing in particular, but she was keeping her eyes peeled for any interesting-looking individuals or situations. Maybe she could try, like, an ice cream shop or something. Anyone hanging out at a place selling ice cream had to be nice, right? Or like, maybe she could find a training buddy over at the dojo! Ooh, ooh, or maybe she could find some guild members to hang out with; maybe it'd help get her nerve up! The possibilities were just endless!

Osiris' ear fins flapped in excitement when Geo seemed to catch on to what he was doing. It was kind of...super freaking cool; Not to sound lame, but the only girl Osiris had eaten with alone with before was his mom. And if he suddenly started crushing ice cream in front of her, it was doubtless she'd whack him upside the head hard enough to knock his headband off. She'd taught him better manners than that. But Geo seemed to take it as a challenge!

Not only that, but she was doing a way better job of it than he was. Osiris' order was probably as big as his entire head. Geo had the size advantage, plus her feelers gave her better handling. He grinned so hard it split his face. Quickly, he endeavored to follow her lead, but it was for naught. She went through entire scoops faster than he could make a dent in his more modest order, and if it weren't for how much fun he was having, Iris might have felt embarrassed by his poor performance.

Still, it worked out for him. The inevitable signs of brain freeze made themselves apparent in his opponent. He slowed his roll down like a good sport, eager to keep up the conversation, even as he felt the budding, telltale pressure of his own headache. "It's pretty much the best. I'm gonna join, one day. Hopefully soon," he replied. It felt good to say that, to let it out. It had been a while since he had stated his intentions for the future out loud like that. "But I'm stuck kind of taking my time with it."

Which was a much cooler way of saying "I'm too weak to join by myself," he thought. It still felt a bit embarrassing, especially when Geo had just said she was waiting for someone to join with her. But they'd just met, and the last thing he'd want to do is put her on the spot with a question like that. They had an adventure planned - he could think on it, depending on how that went. He braved one more bite of his bowl, feeling self-conscious in the wake of Geo's progress. Who'd ever heard of a girl who could crush ice-cream like this?

Two scoops left... plus the cone, but that part would be easy. Geo just had to get through two more scoops to win. She was more than capable of scarfing down that amount of food quickly, but the headache was really killing her. In fact, she was so preoccupied with the freezing pain that she almost missed when Osiris started talking again. Fortunately, she snapped back to reality fast enough to catch most of it, gathering that he was interested in joining the guild and... actually seemed to feel very similar to her about it. She, too, found herself stuck taking her time with the prospect of joining up. She had no one to join with; sure, she had friends, but whenever she tried to get someone to join the guild with her, it just... didn't work out. She didn't want to start up a team alone, and she didn't want to be known as the sylveon who got invited to someone else's team because she couldn't manage her own. The guild members here were probably nice, but she still didn't want to risk looking bad around them if she could avoid it.

She also didn't want to look bad around Osiris, which meant she had to give a confident response and be totally fine despite the vicious backlash of her frosty snack. No problem. Briefly taking herself away from her ice cream so as to allow herself to recuperate, she responded, "I know the feeling. I've actually been in there, talking to the guildmaster about joining with my friends... buuut they didn't come through in the end. I've been looking for a partner since then, and everyone I find seems to have something else going on or just... isn't interested." Hearing herself explain her situation, it actually sounded kind of sad, but she really wasn't too upset about it. She was more disappointed than anything else, and she still felt all the anticipation and excitement in the world because she knew she would sign up eventually no matter what. Maybe she could join with this random dratini! He seemed nice, and he sounded like he had the same ideas as her, so...

...Well, she wouldn't get her hopes up. By now, Geo had learned her lesson about that, having been let down over and over again by potential partners. Plus, dragging some schoolkid out to join the guild with her would probably get her in some kind of trouble or something. Besides, all they were talking about doing was hanging out for the day and exploring one of the safest "mystery dungeons" around, so there was no need to get carried away with things. "It's no biggie though," she added on, realizing she had left off on kind of a depressing note. With that out of the way, she gulped down another scoop-sized bite of ice cream and almost immediately felt the tingle of the dreadful headache returning. She knew it would get worse before it got better, but she was almost done now and she couldn't give up when she was so close! Geo had always had a bit of a competitive streak and something to prove, so she had to try her hardest to win, even if the game was... eating ice cream.

Okay, so it wasn't as cool as winning a fight or something, but that didn't mean she was gonna let herself lose!

Ooh~... So she was close. She'd met the guild master! On paper, he knew that probably wasn't that impressive since every rescue team probably met the guild master...but still. If the only thing holding this girl back from getting into the guild was the lack of a reliable partner, then that was hugely impressive. She was definitely at least one step ahead of him in any case. Osiris didn't consider himself to be super weak, but he wouldn't call himself capable, either. He wasn't ready to do his own thing in the guild just yet. And she was.

It didn't seem to bother Geo much, either. After her explanation, she'd gone right back to destroying her second-to-last scoop of ice-cream. It seemed like not a lot brought her down, in general. Her evolution, her appearance, her struggles getting into the guild, none of them were stopping her. His smile turned shy he processed this latest fact about her. Maybe, just maybe, her abundance of strength could make up for what he lacked - if everything worked out the right way. He could hope.

"The guild is definitely the biggest part of the town. Like I said, you'll find someone soon." Osiris hoped it could be him, but even if it wasn't, Geo would find someone in the end. Probably someone who could actually keep up with her; someone who was real guild-member material. He had no doubt he'd get there eventually, but maybe not soon enough to join up with this awesome girl. It was worth a shot, though.

He felt resolved. If this little trip of theirs went off without a hitch - if they made a good team - then he'd ask Geo if he could join the guild with her.

The dratini swallowed down the remnants of his first scoop, only now halfway finished with his bowl. In contrast, Geo was nearly finished with all of her scoops, but she still had her cone left to go. And he could feel the growing weight in his head, cold and biting, but he wasn't gonna give up without a fight. Eyes squinting and head pounding, he set in on the last of his order, making a dent in his last scoop. The sooner they finished, the sooner they could adventure together.

Through sheer willpower, Geo took a bite out of her last scoop, unable to get through the whole thing in one go like she had previously done. At this point, her mouth was far too sensitive to continue taking such big gulps of ice cream, but she was determined not to stop, even if she had to slow down a bit. Her eyes shut on reflex as she winced from another painful jab in her head, but she opened them right back up and put up a smile like nothing had even happened. It wasn't as if she had never been hurt before, and she'd even gotten into some fights, but the infamous ice cream headache definitely topped the list in terms of sheer unpleasantness. "Wewl-" she began, but fell silent as she heard herself. Her mouth was going a little numb... and it was making her sound all goofy! She had to take a moment to let her tongue warm up before she could confidently speak, and in the meantime, she tried to internalize her embarrassment. She cleared her throat because it seemed like a better excuse than "my mouth got too cold and now I can't talk right," then sighed and tried again.

"Literally. It's a lot bigger on the inside than it looks. You know that place has levels? You walk in and like, go underground!" she chirped, recalling her experience in the guild and how she and her friends had gone down into a surprisingly large area almost immediately upon entering. "I'm not sure if there's anything bigger in this town. Most of the shops are pretty small compared to the guild, and I don't think there are many buildings that come anywhere near its size," she continued. There was no effort made to hide her excitement as she talked about the mass of the guild, praising it despite knowing so little about it. In truth, she romanticized the place a bit, partly because she really didn't know all that much about what it was like being a member. All she knew was that the place was very roomy and the guildmaster seemed surprisingly nice.

As for the members... well, she figured at least some of them would be cool. She had met some before and had a pretty good track record of getting along with them, at any rate. She wondered how much Osiris knew about it, and as she awaited a response so she could try to gauge that, she set her sights back on her foe: the last of her ice cream. Her headache had all but completely faded after she'd gotten caught up talking about the guild, renewing her vigor. Her maw snapped shut around the morsel in an instant, biting off a piece of the cone along with the rest of the ice cream; it was relieving to finally taste something other than cold and sweet. She took the time to actually chew at this point since she didn't want to get a piece of cone stuck in her throat or something, but she still tried her best to keep up the pace. Then, when she finally got the mouthful of cream and cone down, she got to work munching down what was left of the latter.

She would have liked to check and see how Osiris was doing, but she was far too busy eating her way through the last of her cone. She was "in the zone," one could say. The cone zone.

Cold. Freezing, frigid, raw, coldness. Osiris had to wonder if his snack was actually an ice-type, because it was really, really starting to hurt. He soldiered on best as he was able, but in comparison to Geo who was just tanking the headache and moving forward, Iris had to stop for several long moments. He told himself that he was just pausing so he could listen to Geo talk, but in all honesty, he knew that was bull. Weakly swallowing another jaw full of vanilla and oran, he shivered minutely. The worst part about this all was that he was gonna have to reply because just going silent was rude as heck.

"I've been in the area a few times. Never went inside, but I can imagine," For a second, he imagined his dad walking through the halls of the guild Geo was describing. A tall, powerful dragonite ducking through doors and sweeping down corridors, apparently too "busy with his work" as a guild member to ever come home. It felt bitter, though, contrasting awfully with the overdose of sweetness in his everything.

He was distracted by the loud crunch of a cone, though, and that's when he knew the little impromptu race was over. Geo had reached her cone, and as he lifted his head from his bowl, he could see that he wasn't even half-way done with his second and last scoop of ice cream. On the contrary, she was pretty much finished. He could see a smudge of ice-cream stuck on the edge of his snout, though, going cross-eyed as he tried to focus on it. Geo'd caught on to his game and beat him before he could really compete. But at least they'd be going to the forest that much quicker.

The dratini drew back and shook his head as if he was trying to banish the brain-freeze from his skull. Suffice it to say, it didn't do much good. He slowed down considerably in his consumption, silently - but obviously - conceding defeat. "Uff. So... are you feeling Pecha, or Shadowhue?"

After breezing through the easiest part of her snack, Geo could finally relax. She leaned back to allow what headache still remained to slowly leave her, and took a look at Osiris to see he was still working on his own ice cream. It seemed she had emerged victorious from this great battle, felling her mighty opponent in a duel of honor. Her sacrifice? The state of her poor fragile mind, and the proper enjoyment of perfectly good ice cream. In the end, she was the winner, but at what cost?

...Not much, really. Falling out of trees was significantly more dangerous and stupid than eating ice cream until it hurt, so she was pretty used to things technically worse than this. Still, she preferred the scrapes and bruises over this... icky feeling. Actually, now that her attention wasn't so fixated on an immediate goal, she was beginning to notice her stomach felt pretty icky as well as her head. It should have been no surprise that scarfing down sweets like that would probably give her a stomachache. "Mmm..." she whined quietly to herself, though it may have looked like her simply mulling over Osiris' question, which she was also doing. Right, there was the lighter Pecha forest and then the figuratively and literally darker Shadowhue. She figured Pecha seemed like the safer bet, but at the same time, she really didn't feel like going to a place named after the disgustingly sweet berries found within. Not right now. Plus... she kind of wanted to see what this little worm was made of, especially if he was supposed to be a "dragon."

"How 'bout Shadowhue?" she responded in the midst of licking the sticky remnants of her ice cream from around her mouth. Her tongue was a dark, purplish shade from the mixture of colors it had just absorbed, unbeknownst to her. She made sure to pause her endeavors long enough to speak, at least, but she didn't have much to say on the matter. If Osiris was too scared to go to Shadowhue then she would be willing to take a trip to the kid-friendly version, though she was admittedly eager for a real adventure by this point. Sure, the dark forest wasn't anything too special, but at least it was cooler than the alternative... Plus, she couldn't think of anywhere else nearby that would be safe enough to take her new friend. Except the pond. No way she was going out to that kiddy pool.

Osiris had all but stopped eating in favor of waiting for Geo to answer. Instead, he watched the sylveon as she basked in her victory, finishing off the remnants of her conquest still stuck around her mouth. It was a sight equally intimidating and awesome; fairy-types shouldn't have teeth like that, but on the other hand, she was a super cool chick who ate just as messy as he did. He wanted to spend even more time with her, after the forest. He wanted to know more about her. What kind of place churned out a person like her?

"Sure!" he replied, his tone chipper. That was the answer he'd been hoping for. Pecha was nice and all, but it definitely had a reputation for being a kids' playground. Shadowhue was spooky. He'd been longing for an opportunity to explore it in detail, and now he'd found someone strong enough to help him through. "I've been meaning to take a crack at that one, actually."

The dratini slithered down from his seat at the table and shuddered, feeling one last chill run through him. Maybe his mom was on to something after all when she wouldn't let him have ice-cream for dinner so often, when he was younger. He felt kind of sluggish, but undoubtedly he'd work out any kinks when they got to exploring. Just to be safe, he set about stretching a bit, getting nice and limber for the trial to come.

Osiris slithered to the side a bit, reaching down to make sure his satchel strap was fastened securely. Reassured and visibly eager, he perked up with a bright smile. He couldn't wait to see what she could do out there. "After you?"