[Lithra Trease]

After departing the breeding class and walking a little further down the hallway, Lithra found herself trying to juggle a purse with her Cottonee egg in it, her actual, living, Cottonee, and the new egg she had just received from class. And to top it all off the girl was failing, miserably. “Bell, I’m going to have to put you down, okay? I can’t carry all of this and you too,” she warned him, pulling off to the side of the hallway as she lowered Bell to the floor and rearranged the new egg in her arms. A frown found its way on the Nature student’s young face as she tried to figure out her plan.

“They both won’t fit into the bag, but if Bell walked and I carried the eggs that could do it,” Lithra muttered to herself, concentrating on her eggs rather than her Cottonee. “Or I could get Mira to carry one of the eggs in her vines, but what if she drops it? No, she wouldn’t drop her own egg would she? Maybe someone from class could help me? But why would they want to help me?"

Sighing, Lithra finally looked up, ready to tell Bell to start walking back to their home. And that’s when she noticed it. Or rather the lack of it. The lack of Bell. Fear bloomed in Lithra’s chest as she twisted her gaze back and forth along the hallway. “Bell!” she called, panic tinting a name normally said with love. Snatching up her purse and hugging the new egg closer to her, Lithra started down the hallway.

In between the bodies of other students she saw the back of her fluffy Cottonee as he hopped, making a directly line to something or someone. “Bell?” She questioned as the Nature student watched him jump up and hop onto the unsuspecting shoulder of the girl they had met earlier.

Now it was time for Lithra to look horrified. “Bell! No, bad!” she yelled, rushing over to them. “I’m so sorry!” A guilty pause. “Again. He must really like you. This is…”

Embarrassing.

1/5 posts for Inkay egg.

[Serena Miller]

For once, Serena was actually able to leave class with a small smile on her face.  This was the class she was most nervous about because it was the one most outside of her areas of expertise, and she still found the subject matter a bit embarrassing.  She at least had some familiarity with battling, so Battle Tactics served to solidify some of the things she heard from her parents and discovered for herself while out in the wild.  Island Navigation was likely going to be incredibly easy for her given how much time she spent outdoors already and how frequently she'd just go camping with nothing but a few supplies she could fit in a backpack.  It was the one class she wasn't sure if she even needed to go to.  She didn't quite know what to expect from gym, but she figured it would just be exercising with whatever partner they decided to bring along, so that would likely be straight-forward as well.  Breeding though?  It wasn't something she had any experience with.  She saw other peoples' eggs hatch frequently just because there was almost no sense of privacy in her hometown, but that was the extent of her experience with it.  She knew it was important, it was just not something she really thought about or had any personal interest in.  The teacher was really nice though, so the class would probably be fine as long as she wasn't called on or the teacher didn't get too mad at her for being quiet.  All in all, it left her in a pretty good mood.

Serena didn't have any plans for today, but those were the best kinds of days.  She could catch up on any work that needed to be done, and if there wasn't any she was free to do pretty much whatever she wanted.  The only thing she really had to do was take this egg from class and find a nice safe and warm spot for it to be until it hatched.  It was a bit too unwieldy for her to carry it around with her all the time unfortunately, but it should be safe in her room.  She just hoped the poor thing wouldn't be too lost and confused when it finally did hatch and no one was there.  Maybe she should leave one of her other pokemon behind to take care of it too?

Serena's thoughts were interrupted by something getting caught up in her feet.  She was paying attention to where all the humans were, but she wasn't watching her feet for tiny little pokemon.  She let out a little yelp as she stumbled forward.  She was able to catch her balance pretty quickly, but doing so caused one arm to move in such a way that she nearly dropped her egg.  Fortunately, she managed to catch it just moments before it would have hit the floor.  Wouldn't that have been terrible?  The teacher goes through all this trouble to get her students nice rewards for attending class and then she drops it and possibly breaks it?  Serena let out a sigh of relief when that didn't happen.

Before she could even see what got caught up in her feet, a voice answered it for her.  It was the girl that sat next to her in class.  Her pokemon really was very friendly.  Serena let out a soft chuckle as she straightened back up.

"O-Oh no, it's no problem at all.  He's still very friendly," she turned towards the other person.  "Oh, are you um, having trouble carrying everything?  Do you um, want any help?" Serena paused for a moment.  "Um, not that it looks like you need it, just um...if you want I can.  I don't have anything else going on today."

---

+1 on Teddiursa egg

[Lithra Trease]

Her egg! Lithra hadn’t even thought about the other girl’s egg when Bell jumped at the Lava student. Internally chastising herself for her pokemon’s reckless behavior, Lithra frowned at her Cottonee. “What if you had knocked her egg out of her hands and she wasn’t able to catch it. Or what if you hurt her, Bell? You can’t just do that to people even if you like them. Some people or pokemon won’t want to be touched.” The Cottonee’s ears dropped low as he hid behind the Lava student’s feet. Blinking up at the stranger, Bell gave a few apologetic sounding noises before he hopped back over to Lithra. Great, now Lithra felt bad for him nearly tripping the other girl and bad for scolding him. It seems she wasn’t going to win no matter what she did at this point.

The girl’s laughter, however, made Lithra smile in return. Tentatively Lithra pulled her gaze up to the girl’s face, not quite meeting her eye. “Are you sure it’s okay? Friendly is nice and all, but too friendly can be an issue. He almost,” green eyes skittered over to the egg, “knocked it out of your hands.” Lithra couldn’t help dwelling in the past rather than focusing on the fact the egg hadn't fallen and broken. The Lava girl was especially kind for not getting angry at either Bell or Lithra.

Lithra’s face grew red as the stranger continued to show how nice she was by offering to help Lithra with all her stuff. “You want to help me?” The Nature student parroted, surprised by the offer. Here Bell had almost destroyed the best reward from a class so far and the girl was offering her help. A smile bloomed across Lithra’s face as she laughed, relieved and happy and touched all at the same time. “I thought you would yell at us,” she admitted, “but you’re offering help. You’ve got a good heart.”

Realizing what she said may come across as too silly and therefore insincere, Lithra tried again. “I mean that would be really nice. You don’t have to of course, but I wouldn’t turn down the offer. Though with your own egg I’m not sure how we can balance all of this even together.” Lithra lifted up her purse. “I have another egg in here. His egg actually,” Lithra threw an exaggerated look at Bell. “You would think he'd know to be more careful around eggs having just fathered one but no.”

Bell pouted, thinking the whole conversation was unfair to him.

“So, do you still want to help me? I’m not sure how we can do this given all the stuff between us, but at the very least I don’t mind walking with you. Oh! And I’m Lithra by the way. I’d shake your hand, but I think we’d need a few more arms for that…” she trailed off, giggling a bit at their predicament.

[Serena Miller]

Admittedly, Serena was in the group of people that didn't like to be touched, but this girl really didn't need to know that.  It didn't really bother her that much most of the time, especially not when it was just from a friendly little pokemon that wanted to be friends.  It took all her self control to not frown along with the little guy when he was scolded.  It probably wouldn't make the pokemon feel any better, and it definitely would make the other human feel worse, so she just opted to keep a small smile on her face.  This was why she was never able to scold any of her own pokemon.  It just made her too sad.

"But my egg's fine!"

Serena tilted her head as though she didn't quite understand what the other girl was talking about, and lifted her egg closer to her face to show that there was indeed absolutely nothing wrong with it.  Of course, she completely understood why the other girl was worried, as it was a completely reasonable response to have to what just happened.  There was no reason to dwell on it though, so it was better to just act completely clueless rather than talk about it.

Her response to Serena's offer for help worried her though.  Her expression remained the same, but her body stiffened a bit.  She knew that she offered help in the wrong way.  When Serena tried to help her mother, her response was always a gamble.  If Serena did nothing, she would often berate her for making her do all the work when she CLEARLY needed help, but if she offered help her mother would frequently take it as an insult as though Serena was saying she was incapable of completing the task on her own.  Serena was worried that this girl would take her offer the wrong way as well.  She was sure that she could complete the task on her own, but it would be so much easier with an extra set of hands.  When it turned out she was actually happy, just surprised, Serena's expression still stayed the same, but her body relaxed again.

"I-It's no problem at all.  I've um, got big arms, and I'm used to carrying things bigger than I am, so um, carrying two eggs shouldn't be a problem at all!" once again, she was content to completely ignore the fact that she almost dropped her egg.  "Oh, that's really great!  I'm sure he's really excited to see the egg hatch."

She shifted her egg, so that it fit snugly between her elbow and her chest, extending her other arm so she could grab another egg if the other girl wanted her to.  When the girl introduced herself, Serena blinked and looked down at her feet.  She knew she was forgetting something.  It's like she was forgetting the most basic parts of etiquette with every conversation she's had here so far!  As always, she continued to mess up every conversation she had.  She was amazed anyone could even stand talking to her with as many mistakes as she made.

"O-Oh yes, I am um, Serena.  It's nice to meet you!"  She still couldn't bring herself to make eye contact.  "I-I don't mind at all!  Um...looking at your uniform, your dorm isn't that far from mine anyway, so um, stopping by there wouldn't even be out of my way."

It would be a little, but that didn't really matter.  Serena had certainly walked longer distances.

---

+1 to Teddiursa egg hatching

[Lithra Trease]

“I know, I know,” Lithra repeated, looking at the un-cracked egg in the Lava girl’s arms. It hadn’t been broken and perhaps Lithra was now making mountains out of molehills at this point, but she couldn’t help it. She saw the bad ‘what if’ and it wouldn’t leave her mind and like most flaws of a person it was hard for Lithra to control. “Still, I feel bad,” she admitted, realizing now she might have been making the other girl feel even worse because of this. As a way to fix everything, Lithra quickly moved on, smiling at the Lava student as they chatted.

It barely registered to Lithra that the other girl had stiffened and relaxed during this conversation. Lithra had noticed something, she was good at reading other people, but she couldn’t quite place what that something was exactly. A flicker of confusion washed over Lithra as her eyebrows knitted together. Had she said something wrong? It didn’t feel like it, not with the Lava student still offering her help. Then why had the conversation seemed so awkward? Guilt worried Lithra’s mind as she hoped it was nothing she had said about Bell nearly knocking the egg over.

“Okay then!” Lithra smiled, agreeing to the idea without any doubts of the stranger’s ability. “If you say you can then I trust you. It would really help me out. And, yeah, he’s excited. Aren’t you, Bell?” The brunette questioned, looking down at her Cottonee as the pokemon gained his confidence once more. A few joyful bleats left Bell’s mouth as his nose wiggled at the pair. Lithra giggled at her pokemon’s antics, relieved his pride hadn’t been injured in the earlier scolding. Raising pokemon was a lot like parenting—sometimes you corrected bad behavior and the pokemon learnt and understood and other times it held a grudge like a mardy child.

Handing over the strange egg she’d received from class, Lithra placed it gently in the girl’s arm. “Serena? That’s a pretty name!” Lithra said, earnest in her compliment as she adjusted the purse and reached down to pick up Bell. With the bag over her shoulder and both arms carrying Bell, she felt more balanced now. Lithra only hoped she hadn’t burdened Serena too much by offering to accept her help. “That sounds great, thanks.”

As Lithra started to walk out of the building she looked over at Serena, curious about the person who Bell had found so enchanting. “So do you know what kind of egg you received?” Lithra questioned, excited to chitchat with someone during the trek back to her dorms. “I haven’t a clue what that one is,” she continued, nodding her head over at the egg Serena now carried.

[Serena Miller]

Serena was happy when the negative part of the conversation passed.  She understood why Lithra was so worried about it, but it wouldn't even had been that big a deal if the egg did fall and break.  The other girl's pokemon's response made her smile even more widely.  It really was quite cute, and she was happy to see it was feeling better already after its prior scolding.  It looked like everything was going to go back to normal after that small mishap.

Though, what followed next made her blink.  She was being complimented...for her name now?  Did that actually qualify as a compliment towards her or was it one towards her mother?  Or whoever named her mother's mother, since she was named after her?  Regardless, it seemed like such an odd thing to compliment someone for.  All she really did was exist.  It was weird enough to receive compliments for doing something unimpressive, but to receive one for doing nothing at all?  Did most people act this way?  Was she committing some terrible social taboo among city people that she didn't know about by not complimenting people all the time?  It just seemed so strange because at home she needed to be just about perfect to even get a simple 'good job' from her mother.  Everything else was just expected, and anything less would be outright bad because it would make her mother look bad.  Even though Serena still wasn't quite sure what was going on with these people and their compliments for the most mundane of things, she still didn't want to offend anyone.  Her mother always got mad when Serena didn't thank her for even the most backhanded of compliments, and everyone so far seemed to think that was a normal response, so maybe it really was what she was supposed to do?  She still wasn't so sure.

"U-Um...thank you?"

Her voice was just as unsure as she was, but hopefully that was the correct way to act.  She took the egg that was handed to her and put her arms back together.  She put her arms around the eggs so that each egg was tucked snugly between her elbow and armpit, with her hands between each egg so they wouldn't bump up against each other.  When Lithra asked a question about hers, she glanced towards it and shrugged.

"Um...I'm not sure about mine either.  I kind of wish they told us what it was but, um, I guess part of the fun of receiving an egg gift is seeing what comes out of it?"  She paused for a moment and looked down the hallway.  "Um...I kind of know where the Nature Dorm is, but you're probably more familiar with it, so maybe you should lead the way?"

Serena was more content following people than leading the way anyway.

((Feel free to assume she'll just follow Lithra))

---

+1 to Teddiursa egg

[Lithra Trease]

“Of course!” Lithra cheered, nodding her head as Serena hesitantly thanked her. Normally it was Lithra who was the painfully shy one, easily embarrassed and a little unsure, but that wasn’t the case now. Serena didn’t intimidate Lithra, though the other girl was certainly beautiful, more so than Lithra, but there was something skittish in the Lava student’s demeanor that made Lithra want to help her. Like a flower not yet ready to stand on its own and needed a twig of support to foster its growth. She could only hope that Serena didn’t find her happiness insincere as Lithra meant every moment of it. At her very core Lithra was a people person. She believed in the best.

Still, if Serena was uncomfortable with compliments then Lithra would hold back for now. “That’s a good way of seeing it,” Lithra agreed, adjusting her Cottonee as he wiggled to be free. Bell’s eyes never left Serena or the girl’s curly red hair. Every so often the pokemon would try to lean forward from Lithra’s chest and towards Serena, as if he could physically close the distance between them. Of course, Lithra was far enough away from Serena as they walked, giving them both respectable personal space, that Bell was nowhere near the other girl even when he stretched. It was a moot point, but the Cottonee still tried. “I can’t wait to see what mine is! The colors don’t look grass-y so that’s promising it will be something I don’t have already. Though the purple may mean it’s poison?”

Lithra shrugged. “I’m not good with identifying pokemon,” she said, a nervous laugh following the confession. Lithra wasn’t good at most of the classes at the Academy besides Island Navigation given her time in the pokemon safari as her parents worked there. Serena didn’t need to know all the things Lithra was bad at. Who knew how the Lava girl would judge Lithra then.

“Okay, follow me. At least it’s a nice day out,” Lithra commented, leading the pair down the hall and out of the building. As Lithra walked her worn out shoes squeaked lightly against the pavement, the noise accompanying the two girls. “So have you decided what you want to do at the Academy yet?” Lithra glanced over at Serena as she asked the question, her gaze landing everywhere but the Lava student’s eyes.

[Serena Miller]

"I'm not really sure," Serena glanced at their eggs once more.  "I've seen a fair number of pokemon hatch, but I never really got a chance to get a good look at what the eggs themselves looked like.  It...just um, never seemed important at the time I guess?  Everyone always wanted to see the babies."

In the end, breeding really just wasn't something she was very familiar with.  Her mother always wanted her to stay away from such things out of some fear that it'd make Serena think impure thoughts, which made even going to the breeding class to learn a little about it awkward.  She never understood her mothers odd compulsions in the regard, but the effects of it were still there in the end.  This attitude gave her some skills in other areas though, so it didn't bother her too much.  She opted not to comment on the other girl's supposed weaknesses.  Serena was impressed with how many pokemon other people seemed to recognize sometimes.  In the end, the only ones she could identify were the ones that lived close to her hometown, the ones her family and neighbors kept and the ones that she heard stories about.  She really had no way of knowing that any others existed, and generally assumed that everyone else was the same way.  The ones that could actually name every pokemon were just amazing people in the end.

They were almost out of the building, and Serena just nodded to her comment to follow Lithra.  It really was a nice day out.  The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  These were the kinds of days that Natalia liked best.  It was a shame her hands were so full or she would have let her out of her pokeball.  

"Oh, um, I'm going to try to get all the badges here.  Everyone in my family's done something similar, oh um...except for my little sister, but she's only five.  It's kind of a tradition.  What about you?" she glanced at all of Lithra's eggs again.  "Are you planning on um...doing more breeding?  You already have so many eggs..."

---

+1 on teddiursa egg

[Lithra Trease]

Lithra giggled at the comment about everyone’s attention being drawn towards the babies rather than the eggs said babies were living in. “True. I can’t really argue that and I’ll admit I’m guilty of finding baby pokemon a lot more interesting than the eggs. But I guess we’ll find out if we can handle those babies as well as we do adult pokemon.” That’s what scared Lithra the most about becoming a breeder. Sure, eggs were easy enough to take care, but what happens when those eggs crack and untrained, impressionable pokemon crawl out of them? She was only sixteen—not exactly old enough to be a mother in Lithra’s eyes. Not that she had much choice in the matter now. She had two eggs whether she was ready or not.

“Oh, wow. Really? That’s so cool,” Lithra replied, nodding her head. It sounded like battling was in Serena’s blood which as far as family traditions went that was a pretty nifty one to have. Lithra’s family didn’t have any. Though, part of Lithra, a very small and nosy part, wondered if Serena found battling as interesting as her family or was only doing it because it was a familiar path. But that wasn’t for Lithra to ask! Plus, why would she doubt Serena when battling is what she said her goal was. “It must feel nice to have a goal in mind that you want to work for. Gives you some kind of purpose, right?”

When Serena returned the question, Lithra faltered. “I, well, maybe? I don’t know. I actually,” she fumbled with the right words. It wasn’t easy telling someone else, especially another classmate, that you had no idea what you were doing with pokemon and hadn’t even picked out a goal. “Well, it’s, honestly?” Lithra sighed, laughing nervously as she squeezed Bell. “I haven’t decided what I want to do. A lot of people have it in their blood,” she glanced shyly at Serena, “or they’re naturally good at something. I’m, ah, that’s not me.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she added with a mumble. Then, as if Lithra noticed her debby-downer attitude, she perked up again, forcing a smile. “But that’s part of school, right? Figuring it all out?”

[Serena Miller]

"I can't imagine it'll be that different from wild pokemon.  Um...it seems like newborn pokemon wouldn't really understand a lot, but wild pokemon would have more negative interactions with humans?"

It seemed reasonable to her at least.  Serena always had mixed feelings when talking about her hometown.  She truly did love the place, but she'd be lying if she said all her memories were good ones.  She never thought she had the same affinity for pokemon that many of the people, adult and child alike, that she lived near had.  In the end, if it wasn't something everyone did would she have even decided to become a trainer in the end?  It was something she thought about fairly often.  She figured she'd at least have some pokemon because they were nice to have around, but that was something entirely different.  

"U-Um...well it's something everyone around me did.  Um...the town I grew up in probably has um, less people in it than this school.  So um...when someone's old enough they leave, go to a region of their choosing and um, challenge the gyms.  If they succeed then they come back with lots of pokemon that don't live in the area, and if they fail...um...they just...don't come back.  I-I suppose it's kind of necessary.  Um...we always lived closer with our pokemon than the people in the cities do because don't really use any kind of modern technology.  I-I mean, sometimes it shows up, especially if the owner has a pokemon that uses it or likes it, but um...that's about it.  We do everything that most people would use machines for with our pokemon instead."

Serena was a little surprised that Lithra didn't know what she wanted to do.  The idea that someone could not know was a little foreign to her, only because the idea of having a choice was foreign to her.  She thought about it for a moment, and was able to make sense of it pretty quickly.  Maybe it was a blessing that she never had a say in the matter.  What would she even do if she did?  She had no idea, even if she did think about it sometimes it wasn't real; it wasn't something she actually had to worry about, it wasn't something she actually had to figure out.  It seemed like it would be really difficult.  Serena chewed on her lower lip for a moment, if only because she couldn't pick at it with her fingers since her hands were full.  It sounded like Lithra might have had similar feelings to her own.

"Does...um, does it have to be pokemon?  I-I mean, there's a lot of things in the world right?  Pokemon are just a small part of it, so um...is there something else that you're just more interested in?"

Serena wasn't sure if she was helping or just giving her more things to fret over, but this was always where her mind drifted when she thought about what she would be doing instead if she didn't need to learn how to train pokemon.  She admittedly had more interest in micro organisms and biology in general, but pursuing it would just take too much time away from what she needed to be doing in the end.

[Lithra Trease]

A hum left Lithra’s lips as she thought about what Serena said. “I guess you have a point. There are ups and downs to hatching newborn pokemon against catching them as wild adults. You’re right about babies being more impressionable so maybe that will make them easier to raise…” The Nature student trailed off, blushing slightly as she adjusted the flower in hair. “Sorry, I was rambling wasn’t I? I don’t like to think I’m a chatty person as in an annoying one, but I do talk a lot.” Lithra gave a little smile. “Just let me know if I’m talking too much! I don’t want to be obnoxious company!”

Unless she already was for even bringing up her flaw in the first place.

Yet, Lithra seemed to be in agreeable company as Serena spoke of her home and village. As the Lava student talked Lithra envisioned old-timey pictures of farmers with their Tauros in the field, helping plow the land or little Pichus acting as electricity generators when a great storm had rolled into this fantasy town. These thoughts were fantastical and most likely nothing like what Serena actually grew up with, though that didn’t stop Lithra from imagining them.

“So I guess you didn’t have much choice then?” Lithra replied, the question softening otherwise harsh words. There was no judgment in the girl’s tone; rather she sounded a little deflated, a bit sad. “I guess that can be a good thing if you don’t know what you’re doing.” Like herself, Lithra thought bitterly before continuing. “It at least gives you something to work for in the meantime while you figure out if you like that path or not.” Had she been a mind reader, Lithra would have found that Serena’s thoughts were matching up to her own voiced ones.

Bell wiggled impatiently in her arms as they continued. He wanted fuss, specifically fuss from Serena, and he was going to do all he could to try and catch the red head’s attention.

Lithra glanced up at Serena’s next comments, something like recognition flashing in her eyes. “No, I don’t think life has to be something all about pokemon. Like specifically a breeder or trainer. I just…” she sighed. “It took my family a lot to get here and now I feel like I’m wasting it because I haven’t decided on anything. I don’t want them to think this was a waste of money since I asked to go here and having nothing to show so far.”

There was a beat of silence as Lithra processed Serena’s question. “I like to sew and make clothing,” Lithra answered with a half shrug. Most of her dressmaking and needlework was born from necessity of wearing hand-me-downs and extending the life of the clothing she had. In the past years Lithra had even designed a few pieces here and there, but nothing she thought was good enough to do anything with. It wasn’t as if she could say fashion was her calling or her hobby. “I’m a little boring when it comes to life.” Bland, some might say. "What about you? If you didn't have to be a trainer what would you want to be? Is there any place you want to visit?"

[Serena Miller]

Serena just nodded along with what Lithra said.  It was agreeable, and she didn't really have anything to add.  Strictly speaking, she had raised Natalia since she was a baby, though she knew she didn't do it alone.  She caught her father regularly training her while he thought Serena wasn't around, and she was pretty sure that was the reason Natalia ever listened to her in the first place.  So, she expected raising this new pokemon to be harder than raising Natalia was, but she was still cautiously optimistic about it.

There was a slight pause in the other girl's words, and what came after caused Serena to blink in surprise.  Had she somehow given the impression that the other girl was being annoying?  She certainly didn't intend to, but she knew that wasn't always very good with words to begin with and she had become even more careless with them from life at the academy, since no one was berating her for everything she said like her mother always did back home.  Her face flushed a bit.  She would have to be more careful.

"H-Huh?  N-N-No, not at all!  Um...I mean we were just um...just talking about eggs."

The next topic still made her heart sink a bit, but she did everything in her power to at least keep the same awkward smile on her face despite that.  Serena had never been particularly competitive, nor had she ever been a great trainer.  Her greatest training achievement so far was just teaching Natalia to go pick up any ducks she managed to shoot down, and that wasn't exactly useful for battle.  Most of her pokemon still didn't listen to her, and even the ones that did seemed to do it reluctantly sometimes.  She was always afraid to leave home because she was certain that once she did she would never be able to go back.

"Um...Yeah..."  She paused for a moment.  "I've been um, trying really hard to um, figure all this out, so I haven't had a lot of time to pursue anything else.  It's surprisingly complicated," Serena laughed awkwardly.  "I haven't thought too hard about what else I might do, because um...well I guess it just never felt real.  Um...because I knew it'd be impossible anyway, so...Um...but I always thought it might be interesting to learn more about life in general um...if that makes sense...um...I mean how living things work, um...not necessarily how living life works.  But honestly, after leaving home for the first time, I've um...realized how narrow my own um...knowledge of the world is, so I suppose I don't really know either."

Serena decided to keep her specific interests to herself.  She always knew that her interest in parasites and how they can infect other creatures was really weird, and often creeped people out.

"Um...well...it seems like even in cities people still use pokemon for a lot of things, so um...it seems like just learning how to train them in general would be useful?  So no matter what you choose, even if um, you end up not doing that much with pokemon, you'd still be getting something useful out of coming here?  I don't think that's a waste...S-Sewing is interesting though.  I could never do much without poking my fingers," she laughed awkwardly as she looked at Lithra's outfit.  "Did you make what you're wearing?  It looks nice."

[Lithra Trease]

Oh. Well now Lithra had done it. By imposing her own worries on Serena she’d made the other girl uncomfortable. Internally groaning, Lithra realized how annoying that must have been, never mind her incessant chattering. Still, Serena was a gracious companion and didn’t comment more about the matter. Lithra ought to learn a thing or two from Serena on how to be pleasant company.

“I guess that’s all we can do. Try to figure things out as we take one day at a time,” Lithra added, nodding her head sympathetically at Serena’s words. When the Lava student said it was complicated, Lithra wondered if she meant being a trainer, a student, her family, or just life in general. They may have been young teenagers, but living in a world where ten year olds often left home with only one pokemon, nothing would ever be simple for them.

Lithra’s eyebrows knitted together as she listened to Serena’s speech. Between the pauses and the ‘um’s, Lithra wondered if she had made the other girl uneasy. Once the Nature student digested what Serena said, she hummed along in agreement. It seemed that Serena voiced the insecurities that Lithra felt sometimes, though rarely expressed. She always looked on the bright side of things and with that kind of worldview nothing was impossible. Maybe she could help make Serena’s impossibilities possibilities!

Yet it sounded like the Lava girl’s real interests rested outside of training and battling pokemon. “How living things work?” Lithra repeated, trying to understand what Serena meant. “So you like…life? Biology? Ecosystems? Things like that?” The girl’s smile grew as she talked, nodding her head with each suggestion. Lithra liked life and nature, but more in the ‘appreciate it’ kind of way and not in an academic interest. If it looked pretty and felt right then that was enough for Lithra, she didn’t need to know the little details.

“Mmm, that’s true.” Lithra titled her head to the side as she thought, pursing her lips. That was a good way of seeing the Academy and a better way of treating her experience here. “I feel like I'm learning lots of life lessons that I didn’t have back home,” she added, laughing nervously. “New people, new situations, lots of doing things for yourself. As much as we’re surrounded by people you really have to be independent, though that’s not really any different than being home. No siblings means lots of alone time, ya know?” Well, given that Serena talked about her siblings, she probably didn’t know.

Lithra perked up at the mention of her sewing abilities. “Don’t worry! I do too! I’d show you my fingers but they’re kind of full now. As for the dress, I didn’t make this one from ‘scratch’ but I have made a few alterations here and there. When I got it, it wasn’t my size. Too much,” the girl went red, looking away from Serena. “fabric.”

Shrugging it off, Lithra continued. “Thanks though! It worries me sometimes because I don’t have the nicest clothes,” she admitted, feeling comfortable around Serena. “So do you have a favorite place on the island yet? It’s prettier than the school brochures say it is.”

[Serena Miller]

Her biological and medical interests have always been a bit of an awkward subject for her.  Not because she ever found them awkward, she was still quite interested, but because everyone else seemed to find them weird.  She always wished that she had more normal interests.  She would trade all of her knowledge and ability to learn those things just for the ability to train pokemon better in a heartbeat.  Her mother strongly disapproved of it, even going as far as to throw out any books Serena managed to get her hands on, claiming that it was distracting her from more important things.  Given how terrible she was with pokemon she couldn't really blame her in the end.  It wasn't just her mother though, any attempts to talk about it with anyone would get her weird looks.  Even the doctor in the area seemed disappointed that her interests weren't very practical in that regard.  Even though she was interested in biology in medicine, she was less interested in directly helping people like that and more interested in research and learning for learning's sake.  The fact that Lithra had a positive, and possibly somewhat interested, reaction surprised her.  She still didn't quite have the courage to talk about some of the more interesting parasitic worms she knew about though.  Baby steps.

"Y-Yeah.  How living things interact with each other is um, really interesting.  Um...in the end, even our own bodies are made up of a lot of different ones.

"Yeah," Serena nodded in agreement.  "I had never been more than a couple of miles away from home before this, so um...it's been really...different.  It's um, one of those things that's made me realize how little I know...um...if that makes sense.

"Oh!  I couldn't tell at all.  It looks like it was always like that."

For a moment, she didn't know how to respond to her insecurity about not having the nicest clothes.  Serena never particularly cared about her clothes herself, mostly because she was never allowed to choose them in the first place.  She never thought her mom's choices suited her that well, and she never thought she looked good in yellow, but she just always assumed her mother knew more in that regard.  For the time being, she figured the best way to address it was to ignore it.  She could say that it was fine, or that fancy clothes weren't important it was how they fit or whatever else she might be able to come up with, but she wouldn't know what she was talking about and it would be obvious.  Such opinions probably wouldn't make Lithra feel any better, but acting like it was such a non-issue that it didn't even need to be addressed?  Maybe that would instead.

"It's a really tough choice.  The um, the entire island is really nice.  But um...I guess if I had to pick one it'd be the Garden of the Sun.  It's just really sunny and the flowers are nice and the lake is nice...It really has almost every nice thing I can think of."

[Lithra Trease]

Part of what Serena said went over Lithra’s head. She had never found too much interest in biology herself, even as a lover of life, and she couldn’t say that science was a forte of hers. But if Serena loved it enough to talk this much about the subject (she didn’t seem like a girl comfortable with sharing a lot of her passions) then Lithra was excited for Serena. The Nature student loved passions, loved seeing people share their passions, and, in the end, it was as if the girl was absorbing all that energy and drive for herself. She was hungry for it.

“Oh, yeah,” Lithra nodded along, still unsure of what Serena meant but too embarrassed to ask for clarification. Maybe she meant cells or something. “That makes total sense,” the brunette continued, smiling empathetically now. That Lithra could understand. “I haven’t been outside of Pastoria before and it’s like culture shock coming to a city like Marvo. It shows me how much I don’t know about pokemon,” as if Lithra didn’t already know that, “and about different people. Honestly? I’ve been too nervous to downtown yet. Have you been?”

Marvo city, including its bustling downtown, was nothing like Lithra had ever seen coming from a small marshland home. Sure, Pastoria had its gym and the region’s safari zone, but it was still a quiet place given the climate and bogs. It didn’t have the same energy and culture that Marvo has. For Lithra to go downtown, she wanted to have someone alongside with her and not just her pokemon. It felt intimidating going alone.

“You really couldn’t tell?” the girl glanced up at Serena, meeting her eyes for the first time during their walk. It was brief, only for a second or two before the Nature student looked away, but you could see the gratitude and relief in Lithra’s eyes. “I guess I worry too much about it, but the kid back home…they always noticed.” Lithra’s nose scrunched up as she recalled the comments made by fellow classmates, sometimes in an off-hand way and other times directly towards her. “No one has said anything here, but I feel like a fancy school will have fancy people.” And fancy often translated as rude.

Lithra beamed at Serena’s choice of favorite location. “The Garden is lovely! Those flowers grow so large it’s incredible! I couldn’t think of a nicer place on Marvo, honestly, besides the Forest, but I’m a little biased,” she laughed as Bell gave a happy bleat in her arms. “I’m surprised that you didn’t say something closer to Lava dorms or more fire-y, being in Lava dorm and all. Is it nice there?”