Adventure Thread - Group A

Sage nods in understanding. "There are some species of fern that have spines, and also some species that are poisonous to Pokemon, but I can't say as I've ever heard of one that was truly poisonous to humans. There are some plants, like Poison Ivy and Oak, that have oils that cause skin irritation in living creatures, but those don't produce effects like what Miss Tiki described. I can't say for sure right now, but I suspect this plant may be artificially created. Some combination of a spiny plant and a poisonous one. Likely two different ferns, but I couldn't say for sure just yet." She hmms at the thought. "If true, this would mean that Lady D'Mara is a skilled botanist (or knew one) and quite possibly knows more about plants that just about anyone else who hasn't dedicated their lives to the study of such." She shakes her head. "No use speculating right now though. It's only a hypothesis, a theory, that cannot be proven just yet. As for your question, I'm afraid I did not know her very well at all. Between tending to the greenhouse, the grass-type Pokemon that live within it, and teaching my students/Branch Members, I did not have a lot of free time. Lady D'Mara also seemed to desire her privacy, so I never thought to try and socialize with her. My apologies, Clay, Tiki."

Sage offers a small smile to Clay. "Sorry, I'm afraid I can't give you any names for fellow botanists outside the Guild. None of the skill level required to do what we seem to have here." She makes no comment about Ashandra or how nice/not nice she may be.

"I dunno, Rei won't tell me anything. She's gone all... weird." Clay scratches the back of his neck. "Did you still want to go out on the plains? Red Child's gotta see the healers, so it might take longer to get out there, but I'm still up for going if you want to." "Longer" in the sense that Clay would be walking instead of riding Red Child.

"Okay, fair enough. Sorry, I guess I kinda screwed that one up, huh?" Clay sighs quietly. He really isn't sure where to go from here. Maybe he should just find somebody to battle and work some things out... only not Ashley, since he's already down one teammate and probably doesn't actually want to wind up in the infirmary.

He turns back toward Sage. "Oh, uh, Miss Sage? Lady Sage? If you find out anything about the plants, could you let us know?" He gives her the name of the inn he's staying at in Celadon. "And, um... do you know who I'd talk to about old members of the Guild? This isn't about the thing with D'Mara, it's just a personal thing. Is there somebody who keeps records of stuff like that for the Guild?"

After an hour or so in the tender care of the Guild Healers, Red Child is back on his feet, ready and raring to go. If asked by Clay, he says he was so disoriented after getting dumped through that weird teleport-thingy (the portal) that all he saw was a flash of white and red before he was knocked unconscious.

Regardless, with Red Child all healed up, and nothing else keeping them, Tiki and Clay head on back to the Rich Bros' manor in Celadon, getting there just before the gate closes at sunset.

Holly wakes up shortly after Rei starts moving, having been once again attached to her in the night after some 'fun times'. She silently shadows her lover like she always does in the mornings, just going through the morning rituals and all that. Most of Holly's first hour each morning is, of course, dealing with her hair. Brushing out the tangles each morning is a pain and a half, but she can't bear the thought of cutting it short. Once all is said and done, she hangs out with Rei while waiting for Zoey to get up.

Zoey, as it turns out, is even less of a morning person than Holly, and staggers out of her rented room sometime around mid-morning (10 am). Due to this, she misses breakfast time at the inn, which was served just over an hour beforehand. A strange Eevee follows at her heel, with surprisingly heavy footsteps. This turns out to be her Zoroark in disguise again, though not for the sake of shenanigans at this time. Mostly because it seems to believe that Rei doesn't want to draw undue attention, and its normal appearance would do just that. Eevee are still kinda rare, all things considered, but much less so than a human-sized Pokemon with a mane of red hair.

The half-asleep noble girl, still dressed in her clothing from the previous night, slumps into the nearest chair/bench/stool next to Rei with a mumbled greeting.

Red Child's report starts Clay's thought process going in another direction - red and white makes him think of Zangoose, not the disaster Pokémon he saw before. Though Zangoose's claws are even bigger than that, so he doesn't know what to think.

In any case, though, the trip back is uneventful, and Clay sees Tiki back to the mansion before heading back to the inn. He gets up early the next morning, not having gotten in as much training as he'd wanted to around their investigations yesterday, then heads back to the inn to see if Tiki's arrived and the others are up yet.

"The others" turns out to include more people than he expected. Clay looks at the sleepy girl with the two-tone hair curiously, and maybe a little suspiciously. "Morning, Rei, Holly. Did you guys, uh, meet a new friend yesterday?"

Zoey seems to immediately perk up, suddenly reverting to her bubbly personality from the day before. "Hi hi! It is nice to meet you, Rei's friends!" She shakes Clay and Tiki's hands vigorously. "OH! And this is ZsaZsa!" She motions at the 'Eevee' that is standing behind her. 'ZsaZsa' blinks and smiles cutely at the new pair, seeing the potential for mischief since these humans don't know this isn't her real form.