Episode #1: The Beginning

It was Lewis's turn for his eyes to well up. "What was he like, Mom?"

Melanie shuffles a couple of steps further away. It's starting to look less like Eevee is going to need backup against unjustified chewing-out, and starting to feel more like she's intruding on something private. It reminds her a little of the arguments she used to have with her father and the elders of her clan before she left.

Without an overt word, she starts to head over to whatever remains of the queue of injured Pokémon to see if there's any way she can help. She'll still be nearby if Eevee suddenly needs her, but it'll make her feel less like she's eavesdropping on family time.

Virgil & Kyria

"Unless you know how to cover a weeks' worth of travel in a few minutes, you leaving won't make a difference to what might be happening now." After this barked reply, Granbull seems to calm down a bit. "Get some rest, see to your wounds. If you really can't bear sitting still, have a wander around the town. Make sure there aren't any ferals we missed."

Lewis

Undine is quiet for a long while before she finally speaks. "He was...fearless. He did what had to be done, no matter what. You get that from him," she adds, looking down at her son. Though this last sentence seems more...reluctant than praising.

Melanie

Perhaps noticing Melanie wandering around somewhat aimlessly, the Scrafty at the head of the line calls out to her to get her attention, moving in a sort of scampering motion across to her. "Excellent." You've not met him before in the brief time you've been in Sandy Bay, and he's a bit of an odd-looking Pokemon to say the least. He wears a lab coat that is far too big for him and which trails behind him as he walks, with a half-dozen extra pockets stitched on in addition to the ones it already have, all of which have a wide assortment of miscellaneous items stuffed within. You can count at least five pairs of spectacles festooned in various places around him (three protruding from pockets, one on his mohawk and one precariously folded up around his tail), none of which he's actually using to look through, and in one hand he's holding something that looks a little bit like a miniature metal umbrella with lots of metal joints. "Hmm," he says after a moment. He looks rather as though he's forgotten what he was going to say. "Have you seen my spectacles?"

The Scrafty cuts a rather comical figure, but Melanie isn't exactly one to throw stones about unusual appearances. Especially to when the one with said appearance is obviously helping the injured Pokémon coming in. The way he trails off isn't exactly reassuring, though - Melanie's just about to prompt him when he finally recalls what he was going to say... or at least asks a question of some sort.

"They're, um, on your tail," she offers quietly. Frankly, she can't help sympathizing with needing them, even if she's never gotten around to getting a pair for herself. "Is there anything I can do to help? I'm afraid I don't know very much about medicine, but I'd like to do anything I can."

Kyria just looks at Virgil, she knows he's tired and despite how much she wants help more, she wouldn't have him push it. "Yeah, but you need your rest, and despite everything, I do too. We should at least find the others and try to meet up." She smiles at Virgil, her jaws mimicking her face. "Besides in famished." She giggles.

Lewis looked up to the Vaporeon, and his heart broke. He nuzzled her one more time. "I love you, Mom." and with those last words he scampered off to rejoin his crew, or at least the Mawile and Spoink.

Melanie glances down at the machine he's handed her dubiously. She'll admit that she's no mechanical genius, but she has her doubts about this thing. She opens her mouth to ask whether they can't just pick out the Pokémon they recognize... but of course, most of Sandy Bay probably wouldn't recognize her (her fashion sense aside). There are plenty of strangers just in town for the festival.

"You're sure this will work? I wouldn't want to wind up leaving someone out there..." Or get a false positive and wind up dragging a wild Pokémon into the clinic.

Eevee's sudden appearance as Virgil and Kyria had started to look for something to chow was...convenient. "Oh, Hi Eevee. Yea, Granbull gave us an earful for heading out without thinking." Virgil still seems a little down about it but he perks up remembering where they were headed, "We were going to look for something to eat. Did you and Cubone want to come? wait where is she?"

Lewis nodded "It went better than expected. Sure, Mom was mad at first, but we talked it out. Now I'm about to talk to Guildmaster Snorlax about becoming a full-fledged explorer. I get to follow my dream ". The eevee's voice cracked on the last sentence, and sounded less joyful than guilty. Lewis pulled himself together and went on to answer the second question.

"That is a tricky one. Normally I'd say Farfetch'd's inn, but that's probably closed for the night. I can throw together a pretty tasty meal, but my kitchen is pretty hard to reach given that it's, y'know, underwater. Plus Mom might need some space-" He let out a totally not fake cough (okay maybe it was), and got back to it "Actually, I think I know a spot, little bit of a hole in the wall, not even, it's a ramen cart that comes into town every year for the festival. They guy who runs it is pretty good at hiding, so he's probably still set to sell noodles. I'll help you guys flag them down as soon as I take care of some business"

The Eevee turned to his guildmaster and said "Guildlmaster Snorlax, in light of current events, I would like to request full membership to the Explorer's Guild. The totem exploding is a sign of something, and I don't know what that something is, but I'm sure that whatever it is, it means that you'll need as many explorers as you can get"