[Chloe Fath]

Chloe was in her school uniform still, having just returned from class. Her feet turned automatically towards her dorm room, but she forced herself to stop. She looked longingly towards her door, but she had come here for a few reasons, and one of those was to make a new start. She was tired of being the weird kid. And that's exactly what she would end up being once again if she stayed in her room at any time she wasn't in class.

Cal let out a little coo of what seemed like approval as she walked over to a particularly comfy looking couch. She was glad no one else was out here at the moment. Baby steps. She put her backpack down on the ground, unzipping it further to let Cal hop out. The Cubone jumped up on the couch and immediately curled up to take a nap. Chloe laughed softly to herself, before reaching into the front pocket of her backpack and pulling out her second pokéball.

She really needed to get a necklace to put them on. Those were cool and accessible - something that the front pouch on her backpack was not. She maximized it, then let Tempest out. The Whismur stood stock-still for a moment, looking around, ears twitching. It seemed she realized then that no one else was around, and so she relaxed, hopping up next to Cal. Chloe let out a sigh of relief - when she had first met her Whismur, she had spent fifteen minutes trying to get her to stop crying. Part of why she had picked her, really. She understood what it was like to want to wail like that.

Sitting down next to her two Pokémon on the couch, she got out her notes and began reviewing them. Especially the ones from the first breeding lesson and battle tactics, since she had missed those classes.

[Gene Marshfield]

"This place is a maze, buddy! How are we ever going to find anything here?" Gene was talking to his Fletchling, who was perched on his shoulder. "Geez, I never knew a school could be this big..."

Gene trailed off, as he saw someone ahead. Fletchling tilted its head sideways a bit, confused at the sudden end of what his partner had been saying, but then quickly turned to check out what it was he had seen. A ways in front of the duo was a girl sitting on a big, fluffy couch, studying with a couple of Pokemon of her own. 

"They look so peaceful, don't they? Hey, I wonder if they'd let me take their picture," Gene said, taking one hand and placing it on his camera, which hung from his neck. Gene guessed from her body language that she was feeling relaxed, maybe from finding some peace and quiet in this behemoth of a school. But before he could spend any time thinking of how to ask her for a picture, Fletchling started acting up. At the mere mention of the word picture, he dove off of Gene's shoulder and started flying around excitedly. Swooping across the huge common area, Fletchling landed on the table right in front of the girl and began striking poses! 

"Fletchling, no! Cool your jets!" Gene shouted after his Pokemon, running over to hopefully apologize for the abrupt interruption...

[Chloe Fath]

She was really making progress on her notes. The introduction stuff didn't seem to be that hard. She knew a lot of this. Then again, she'd spent a lot of time with books. Particularly ones on Pokémon. Hopefully it'd get a little more challenging as they went on. Not that she wanted it to be super difficult, but at least something to tickle her brain.

The sound of wings flapping was the thing that made her look up. She smiled for a second, taking in the little Fletchling. She had always thought the little birds were cute, and this one had a very distinct star on his head. She was opening her mouth to say something to the little bird, when a boy came crashing over.

He shouldn't have been that scary to her. Honestly, he looked very nice. Still, Chloe was startled, jumping a little and turning pale before her cheeks flamed pink. Cal was instantly on his feet, staring the boy down as though daring him to touch his trainer.

"Oh, oh, h-he's quite al-alright," she managed to get out, even though she could hear her heart pounding way too hard for the situation at hand. A rush of shame and anger at herself flooded her. Why did she have to be such a freak about things like this?

[Gene Marshfield]

Gene felt terrible. He could tell that even though she had seemed relaxed before, she definitely wasn't anymore. The girl was pretty shy, it seemed, or she had just been really startled. Either way, Gene resolved to make it up to her.

"I am so sorry about that," he said. "I'm Gene, and this is Fletchling. Usually we aren't so rude." He stressed the last syllable, directed at Fletchling, and held out his arm. Fletchling flapped up and landed, hopping up to Gene's shoulder. He seemed a little sheepish at being scolded, but mostly very eager about the two new Pokemon the girl had with her.

"I'm not really sure how she'll react to this, but I can't make our first impression any worse..." Gene thought.

"I'm actually a photographer." He gestured to his camera. "You looked so peaceful earlier with your Pokemon, that I was wondering if you would let me take your picture." His tone was still apologetic, but he injected a bit more confidence, hoping to put the girl at ease.

[Chloe Fath]

She forced herself to take a slow, deep breath. That was one of those calming techniques, right? It seemed to work okay. At least, Chloe didn't feel like she was going to jump out of her skin anymore. Except she had totally forgotten to check on Tempest, who, as soon as Chloe felt more calm, began to scream.

"Shhh! Shh," She quickly tried to calm her, stroking her big ears, "They won't hurt you." What she really meant was us, but she didn't think that sounded like a confident person.

As soon as Tempest had calmed back down, which didn't take as long as she had feared, she turned her attention back to the boy.

"Oh, no, you're...quite alright," Chloe smiled, blushing brighter, her embarrassment growing, "I'm extraordinarily jumpy. I'm Chloe, and this is Tempest," another gentle stroke of her fingers over the Whismur's ears to indicate her and keep her placated, "And my little warrior there is Calhoun. He goes by Cal."

She was just about to pride herself on gathering herself and saying so many words, when he continued on. Her breath caught for a moment. He wanted to photograph her? She had never thought of herself as the type of person anyone would want to take pictures of...Still, the idea that she had looked peaceful pleased her.

"I-i'm not sure how...Uh, I wouldn't know the first thing about being the subject of your photography!" Chloe blurted, unsure how else to respond.

Calhoun must have thought Chloe was doing just fine, as he turned his gaze to the Fletchling, raising his bone club in what seemed to be a greeting. He nudged Tempest, who bobbed, her ears flopping in somewhat of a wave.

[Gene Marshfield]

Gene's eyes grew fearfully wide for a second at the unexpected, loud cry from Chloe's Whismur. However, his expression quickly changed to pleasant surprise as he saw how collected and affectionate she was in calming her Pokemon.

Acknowledging Calhoun and Tempest's greetings, Fletching again jumped off of Gene's shoulder, happily cooing and chirping as he flapped his way back and forth around the new Pokemon. Gene slowly sat down on the table in front of Chloe, sliding his bag off onto the floor. Smiling thoughtfully, he spoke.

"It wouldn't require much effort on your part, to be honest, I think the lighting in here would be doing most of the work," Gene gestured vaguely above their heads. With the Nature Dorm being built inside a tree, the internal structure naturally caught and reflected the light from outdoors, creating a soft kind of brightness about the room. A few stray sunbeams had even made their way inside from the main doorway, making the presence of the lazily drifting dust particles in the area known. "Although I understand if it isn't your cup of tea. Not everyone likes their picture taken, not even Pokemon."

Gene put his arms back to prop himself up and smiled, looking over at the three happy Pokemon.

[Chloe Fath]

She was glad to see how his expression changed as Tem calmed down. It was reassuring that she could at least do that right, even if she was hopeless when it came to socializing with her peers. She was also pleased to see the Pokémon begin to socialize. It looked like maybe Cal and Tem could make a new friend.

And maybe she could, too. The boy...Gene, she reminded herself, trying to get his name to stick in her head, sat down on the table in front of her and put his bag on the ground. Slow movements, she noticed with surprise. Most people didn't try that hard to keep her comfortable. She felt herself relax a very little bit...but even that was more than around the majority of people.

She smiled a little. It truly was beautiful in their dorm. She was glad she had ended up here. None of the other dorms had quite felt right, and Cal was accepted in this one. As soon as she had first walked in here, she had felt a certain serenity, even if she had been rushing off to class almost before she got to see anything.

"I...I guess that's true," she chewed her lip for a moment. She had always felt more comfortable behind a computer screen than face to face with people - perhaps getting her picture taken would be the same way? And Gene looked so hopeful. "Alright. I'll do it. But really, make sure the dorm is the focus. I'm just...kind of here. It's the real beauty."

She still couldn't comprehend why someone would want a picture of her, but she could understand wanting to capture the life and beauty of the living area, and that included students.

[Gene Marshfield]

At hearing Chloe agree to be in his picture, Gene's face burst out into a huge smile and he laughed a little. 

"That's so great! Here, give me a minute to find a good spot, you just go back to studying. Seriously just don't pay attention to me at all, and it'll be done before you know it," he gestured at Fletchling and held out his arm, which Fletchling flew over and landed on. Gene sort of crouched down and started moving back and forth in a sort of zigzag motion away from Chloe, as he tried to find a good angle where the light would complement Chloe and her Pokemon, as well as the common area itself. 

As he looked at the older girl through his camera's viewfinder he thought to himself, "Wow, Chloe is pretty cool. I love the way she treats her Pokemon. And after all those hyper new student guides, it's nice to get to talk to someone more relaxed."

As Gene finished his thought, he saw a great angle for the photo that really emphasized the natural beauty of the Nature Dorm's living area. Snapping the picture, he stood upright. "I got it! Do you want to see?" 

[Chloe Fath]

Gene seemed so happy, that Chloe couldn't even second-guess her decision. There was no way she could steal that happiness away from him. She wondered if she had ever in her life looked so overjoyed by anything?

She settled back on the couch at his words, nodding nervously. Still, she tried to pretend he wasn't there, and managed to at least untense her shoulders. She reviewed some more battle tactics. She figured she would be better at that class than coordination, but it made her a little nervous as she wasn't really the violent type. Still, she was soon pretty drawn into a type chart. She nibbled at her lip thoughtfully as she read.

Cal watched Fletchling, seemingly impressed by how he helped his trainer to find the best lighting. Chloe would have been impressed, too, if she wasn't studiously ignoring the whole camera thing. Still, he turned his head to look back up at Chloe before the picture snapped.

She jumped almost noticeably when he said he'd got it. Cal patted her leg with one little hand, before clamoring back up onto the couch by her.

"I-i would like to see, thank you," Chloe blushed. She hoped she didn't look too awful in it, but she was sure he was a great photographer and a part of her was very excited to see the picture.

[Gene Marshfield]

"Here, I'll show you the sneak peek version," Gene said, smiling eagerly, as he slowly moved back to where he had been sitting before. He held out the camera's review screen for Chloe to see, but keeping his grip on the device firm. As she looked at the picture, Gene took a moment to take it in as well, trying to see what he hoped she was seeing. It was a nice photo for sure, but his photographer's eye couldn't help but be drawn to the imperfections. It was frustrating, to be sure, but he hoped Chloe enjoyed it nevertheless. 

As they sat, Fletchling toyed with the stray hairs on Gene's head, and he felt a slight change in the air between the two. Gene thought about inviting her to explore the island with him, or really to do anything at all, but wasn't quite sure how she would react to that. He looked over at his partner resting on his shoulder, trying to convey his complex thought process through his gaze alone. Fletchling simply gazed back for a little while before going back to nibbling at Gene's spiky red locks. "Oh well," Gene thought, "Guess I should've gotten a Psychic-type if I wanted a mind reader." 

"So what do you think?"

[Chloe Fath]

Chloe nodded, suddenly feeling very shy again. What if it was actually horrible, and he decided to make fun of her? He didn't seem the sort, but then again, sometimes you couldn't tell. Chloe bit her lip, before peering at the preview screen. Her eyes lit up when she finally saw the picture.

She didn't look like a total loser. In fact, it was a fairly good image. Oh sure, it probably could've been improved in some technical manner, but...Oh, she liked it. The lighting was beautiful, and it captured how natural the dorm looked. Her hair was touched to almost flame-like life by the sun, and her mouth had a little almost smile to it. She didn't look like someone who's anxiety made daily life almost impossible.

She felt herself getting a little emotional, and she quickly cleared her throat softly and blinked.

"It's good. I like it. Do...Do you like it?" She asked. She didn't mean it as a fishing for compliments sort of thing, she just genuinely wondered if he realized that his work really was good.

[Gene Marshfield]

Gene watched Chloe's reaction, seeing different emotions flit across her features. When she again turned to him, asking his opinion, he smiled yet again, hoping that she would find it reassuring rather than strange.

"I think it's wonderful. You're a real natural, you know," Gene said. He paused for a moment, choosing his next words carefully. "Um, so... I don't know if you can tell, but I'm really new here, and I've been having a pretty hard time finding my way around. I was wondering if you would care to show me around the island?" He didn't mean it to, but the last sentence came out sounding like a question. 

Setting the camera back in his lap, Gene tried to act like he wasn't intently studying Chloe's reaction. He fiddled with his Pokedex inside his pocket nervously. Sure, he was confident, but asking something like that so bluntly would make anyone anxious! At least, that's what he told himself to try and feel better about his reaction.