(Open) Poke for your thoughts?

A lone Abra gazed upon the settlement of Grassveil Town from atop the branch of a nearby tree, carefully hidden from the view of any grounded passers-by. The journey here had been long; longer than it would have been for most Pokemon, in part due to her species' tendency to sleep through most of the day, her lack of affinity for the physical stress that accompanies traveling, and not least of all her appreciation of nature itself.

She had taken her time getting there, but now that she had arrived, even she couldn't deny her eagerness to explore the town. With each new populated area came new possibilities, new stories, perhaps even a new chance at building a life for herself. But she was conflicted; she had no desire to simply walk into town, lest her mind involuntarily open up, overwhelming her with the thoughts of a bustling crowd.

Her typical resolution was to remain near the outskirts of town for a while and survive in the open as she was so accustomed to doing, with the added safety of proximity to a large settlement. In the meantime, perhaps she would encounter a friendly-looking Pokemon who could show her around, help her avoid the large crowds, and maybe even help her get settled in here... if the area turned out to have what she was looking for.

Seraphina sighed. This cycle had to break eventually, or she would never get anywhere. The next Pokemon to walk beneath her tree and into or out of town, she decided, would become her guide and ticket out of the slump she had stumbled into. All she could hope was that she would be spared of the individual's judgmental thoughts as she pleaded for companionship.

The air was cool and crisp around Grassveil Town, befitting of a fine winter's day. In and around town, countless Pokémon moved to and from different paths as they went about their daily business, on that day just as with any other.

For Clovis, a Piplup and local of the area, business at the moment consisted of heading into town and grabbing his lunch. With some spring and pomp in his step, he made his way along a path from his family home and towards town, sporting his usual string-tie joy ribbon and jingly coin bag.

"A sandwich, a pretzel, or some fine pastry~" He hummed. "To have all of those would be fine by me!"

As of late, the Piplup had settled quite deeply into a standard, boring routine, which he hoped to remedy with a fancy meal. It did not take Clovis very long to pass by one particular tree on the way into town, even as his beak watered in anticipation of whatever lovely food he would wind up buying. It's a good day for pasta, I'd say. Something warm and savory. A big bowl of goody-goodness, yum...! His thoughts did not seem to vary much from this anticipation at the moment, but it wasn't as if anyone else could know that.

...right?

The Abra didn't have to wait for long. Her ears perked up as she heard a sing-songy hum from the path below. Twisting her head around, she caught a glimpse of a small lightly-dressed penguin Pokemon. Right on cue, a voice echoed throughout her head. Something about pasta...

Reflexively, her stomach began to growl, as though the thoughts she just heard were her own. The last time she had eaten escaped her, let alone the last time she had a meal prepared by another Pokemon, rather than scavenged from the wild.

"Pasta does sound quite nice..." she found herself replying. Unbeknownst to her, the thought was not constrained to her own head. "I wonder if there is a place around here that is not too crowded... or expensive."

Seraphina shook her head. She had to focus on the matter at hand, or her mark would soon pass underneath her. She could worry about food later. Concentrating briefly, she tapped into the one portion of her psychic mind that she had grown comfortable with, and promptly disappeared from the tree. In a minor display of bending light, she reappeared a fraction of a moment later directly in the Piplup's path, giving a rudimentary wave. "Greetings," she spoke, regardless of what reaction the other Pokemon might have. "Might you be familiar with this locale?"

Pasta does sound quite nice...

From no direction in particular, the Piplup heard a sentence that sounded like a reply to his thoughts. He halted his walk and put one flipper to his beak, suddenly unsure if his previous thoughts on pasta had truly been constrained to his own head, or if he had said something aloud by mistake. To his right, to his left, and otherwise all around him, Clovis could see no one close enough to have possibly heard him mumbling, nor close enough to have spoken to him so clearly.

That is, till an Abra materialized right in front of him, causing Clovis to straighten his posture right up, with his flippers at his sides and his back held tall.

"Greetings," spoke the Abra, in the sort of bland tone that psychic-types were often associated with. "Might you be familiar with this locale?"

Indeed, Clovis was, but he hesitated to give an answer. That certain Pokémon could teleport was hardly news to him, but seeing this one appear right in front of him was still shocking enough that it took him a second to compose himself for an answer. He wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to give an answer, considering how the Abra's sudden appearance in his path was probably a bit rude, but the Piplup knew full well that psychics had a way of figuring these things out regardless of what he did, and so answered their question, though clearly sounding a bit perturbed when he spoke. "I am." There was probably more to say there, like his name, or a question or two for the Abra, but Clovis figured that it would be best to get through these questions as quickly as possible.

Calmly and subtly, Seraphina looked the Piplup up and down. She could sense by the terseness of his response that the other Pokemon had been a bit bothered by her sudden appearance. She hoped that she didn't come across as desperate or disrespectful, not that she had a good grasp on how to control that sort of thing yet. Her tail twitched slightly, an unconscious tic that betrayed her nervousness.

"I am Seraphina," she introduced, trying her best to keep a cordial tone. "I have traveled from a far-off land in search of purpose." Summing up her objective in an honest manner helped her confidence slightly, and she continued. "What can you tell me about this settlement? How might one procure an affordable shelter, or find employment that is not too physically demanding for a being of my stature?"

She preferred to be straightforward with her questions, though it hadn't occurred to her until after the words left her mouth that it might have been a little much to ask straight away. Her tail twitched again in anticipation of the mental (or verbal, not that the difference meant much to her) derision that was sure to come from the Piplup.

Though Clovis had constrained his response to two words, the Abra did not seem to value brevity as he did, instead giving her name, Seraphina, describing her supposed "search for purpose", and barraging Clovis with several questions that he wasn't really sure he knew the answers to. What with the fact that the Abra had asked three questions, all of which were broad in scope, Clovis spent several seconds darting his eyes around in confusion before he was able to give anything like an answer.

Affordable shelter, and employment that wasn't physically demanding, well, both of those sounded like lovely things to have. But Clovis lived with his parents and relied on them for most of his cash. Ha, ha... He hoped that the psychic-type hadn't probed this little secret out of his mind so quickly, but upon realizing the possibility, he set his imagination wild in producing inane and pointless thoughts, figuring that if this Abra scanned his mind for anything, it'd be better if she didn't detect anything important. Memories of a snowy day in Grassveil from years past, of eating dumplings, and of tussling with wild Pokémon all entered the forefront of his mind, as the Piplup attempted to counter any potential mind-reading efforts.

Wait, er... Clovis still hadn't replied to anything the Abra had said. He shook his head, abandoning his paranoia for a bit as he spoke back. "Those are some tricky questions." Clovis said, making eye contact for the first time in a good ten seconds. "But, you know, those things work the same way around here that they do anywhere else." Work that wasn't physically demanding. There were some options for that, like working with papers, Poké, or Pokémon, but surely she didn't need him to tell her that.

Seraphina tilted her head in confusion as she waited for a concrete response. She had been straight to the point with her questions, and all of a sudden her head was filled with all kinds of unrelated imagery, foreign memories and fantasies which she knew could not have been her own as she had not experienced anything like them first-hand. Was this a tactic meant to distract her? A self-defense mechanism against a perceived invader of headspace? She found herself wishing that others wouldn't get so paranoid around her. What was she going to do with their thoughts?

It almost came as a shock when the Piplup finally addressed her verbally. As he made eye contact, the Abra found herself looking away. The Water-type's words came across to her as aggressive, judgmental. "If that were the case," she replied, still unwilling to return the other's gaze, "perhaps I could have found a comfortable lifestyle long ago at my original home... but I presume there is at least some distinction between the wilderness and civilization." She left it at that, hoping that the Piplup would understand her insinuation. She was starting to feel as though the more words she spoke, the deeper the hole she would dig for herself.

While Clovis kept his gaze locked on Seraphina, Seraphina seemed to be looking away, perhaps in reaction to some offense Clovis was not entirely sure he had committed. He might have been a bit coarse in his response, perhaps, but that was no reason for her to be showing only half of her face. Clovis did not relent in his looking directly at the Abra, even as she spoke up.

Strange as the Abra's mannerisms may be, stranger still were her words, as Seraphina spoke of how she had expected this civilized town to be quite different from her home in the wilderness. No doubt, Grassveil was very different from the wilderness, but so far as towns went, finding work and housing was essentially the same process in Grassveil as it was in Rainfront or any other town. The wilderness, well...

Going by her way of speaking, Seraphina hardly seemed to be the wild type. Living in the wilderness could mean anything from a cave to a cottage or cabin, but either way, Clovis was not sure as to just how much and what kind of information the Abra was asking for. Did she want him to list specific homes or rooms to buy? Specific jobs that wouldn't be a physical burden? He gave his head a slight tilt. "I suppose that there's work to be found with some of the local merchants, if that's what you're looking for. The Exploration Guild is popular nowadays, but that's a bit of a physical job. They do offer free rooms, though. I think."

Seraphina's gaze drifted downwards as she contemplated the Piplup's response. She had not seen herself as being a merchant, particularly from all the interaction with other Pokemon that that entailed. But as long as it didn't necessitate too much physical labor... Her train of thought was cut short by the Piplup's other suggestion, and she couldn't help but glance at him with visible intrigue. An exploration guild? A guild of explorers? Her life, ever since leaving home, had more or less been one massive expedition. Although she didn't consider herself terribly well suited to it, if she could make a living finding new places, that would serve a wonderful double purpose. And the promise of a free room did sound enticing.

After some hesitation, Seraphina spoke up once more. "I must admit, you have piqued my curiosity. Tell me more about this Exploration Guild."

Ah, the Exploration Guild. That thing that Clovis wasn't in. It was a favorite among adventurous types, and something that the Piplup had looked into in the past, but he was never sure if he wanted the stress or commitment that would come from joining the organization. It was a bit too mainstream anyway.

He knew a few guildsmons, from whom he acquired most of his knowledge about the guild. There was Yooka, and... Alki and Darcy and somebody else? Were they in the guild? He couldn't remember. "The guild lays out north of town, if my memory serves me." Well, he knew where it was, at least. "They... explore. And uh, perform jobs across the continent. Getting things, going places, helping pokémon; I've heard it described as 'mercenary work', before."

He tried to remember the explanations that Yooka had given him, there was something about greys and silvers and golds and whatever else? "They've got ranks, and teams, and... ranks for teams? You might have to fight something or another, though." He assumed that was a requirement.

Seraphina folded her hands in front of her. A guild devoted to helping Pokemon... if that were true, then their intentions could not be seen as anything but pure, and being a part of that guild meant serving a greater purpose. But the description of potentially having to fight anything complicated matters. Seraphina had spent her entire life avoiding conflict with other living beings. It was what her species was known for; it was all she was good at. She knew that if she had to fight, it could not possibly end well for her...

The Abra shook her head. "If the objective of the guild is to help Pokemon," she replied, "why would they necessitate violence? Surely there is always a non-violent solution to any problem they could be tasked with solving..." She took a small step back with one foot, a subtle sign of increased alertness.

What was this...? Seraphina had presented Clovis with her personal philosophy on violence, claiming that, surely, any issue the guild might ever face could be solved peacefully. It was certainly bold of her. Bold enough to keep Clovis in thought for a few seconds before he would answer. Several possible responses drifted through his head, ranging from counterarguments to defusing statements which would distance him from the issue.

Certainly, Clovis did not agree with the Abra. It was foolish simply to think that the continent could be explored without ever fighting, and doubly foolish to think that any sort of guildwork could be accomplished with the same commitment to pacifism. He recalled the fierce ferals of Cattail Marsh, Fallen Leaf Copse, and even the forests outside Grassveil, and of how might in combination with mind had allowed him and various companions to triumph over the wild pokémon native to the areas. And many of them had given him a run for his money, so much as he hated to admit it.

At the same time, Clovis really didn't want to start debating philosophy with this Abra out on the road. He'd just dismiss the issue and leave her to figure out her own opinion. Or something. "If you believe that, then perhaps the guild isn't for you. Doesn't seem like that attitude will get you very far." He broke eye contact and idly kicked a pebble on the ground. "I'm not with the guild, anyway. Maybe they'll let you keep the books."

Seraphina shrunk away slightly at the Piplup's response. The images flooding through her head of fighting feral Pokemon certainly did not help her feel more comfortable. She shook her head. "It has gotten me this far," she replied, unconsciously becoming somewhat more stern and defensive. "I would argue that the ability to avoid conflict is a greater boon than the ability to physically dispatch it. One does not put oneself at risk in that manner. I have lived my life up until now with this approach using the skills available to members of my species, and I have emerged without harm in every instance. Surely this would grant me an advantage with the guild?"

She stopped there, realizing she was rapidly becoming short of breath. Her tone was not hostile; at least, not intended to be, but it had occurred to her that it may have come across as aggressive. In realization, she loosened up, assuming a more submissive posture and rubbing her arm uncomfortably. "I merely happen to find violence foolish when there are other options at one's disposal," she added, unsure if that would help her case but unwilling to leave it at her prior statement.

Oh dear, now she was arguing. That couldn't be good. Clovis listened to the Abra with one eye shut throughout her speech, stepping backwards with one foot about midway through. It was probably erroneous of her to equate non-violent success in travel with success in the guild, but she'd figure that out if she did wind up deciding to join. Though Clovis felt Seraphina's ideology was naive, it was sure to be tempered with sufficient experience. Heck, the guildmaster would probably do a better job getting the point across than he could.

"Think what you will. I'm sure an actual member can tell you more." He adjusted his joy ribbon a bit and stood straight up, a sort of demonstration of his composure. "I'd never advocate for senseless violence, myself." It was true that there was excitement to be found in battle, but it wasn't as if he ever started fights or anything. Usually. "I've just come out for lunch, you know."