“Hey! Hey!” Mia ran after Lynda - to be honest, she was more than happy to leave the little podunk town of Aquacorde City. Why they couldn’t meet in Lumiose City, Mia would never know. But whatever, the pokemon were handed out, and all Mia now needed was to correct this very obvious mistake made with her partner. The heels of her boots clicked on the cobblestone pathway as she dashed after Lynda. “Hey, you never exactly answered me, you know. How about it? Poliwag for Totodile. Still a water-type either way, right?”
The Poliwag, unable to run after Mia to catch up, rolled down the stairs and across the ground instead, pushing off with his tail to give himself momentum. He left a thin slimy trail in his wake.
Lynda heard the heavy clicks from Mia’s footsteps before she heard or noticed the younger girl just about shouting at her. Turning, she gave her a curious look as she approached; which became something a little harder to place when she heard what Mia was asking.
“I’m not really that fussed about water-types, honestly?” The initial answer came, and seemed a little less than to-the-point. “Nothing against them, just usually prefer a good Fire-type, y’know?”
“...well, not like there are really any here anyways, right? So why not?” Mia seemed a tad startled at the answer, and she needed a moment to regain her composure. Surely, if Lynda didn’t care about water-types, then maybe-
“That said, don’t you think this is a little unfair on your starter?” Lynda couldn’t see the Poliwag with Mia, but from their position on the bridge, she could see the little tadpole doing his best to catch up. “Just dumping the little guy off on someone else first chance you get?”
Lynda’s usual smile didn’t budge from her face as she spoke, but in spite of that, it was hard not to notice something change in her tone.
“Well-” Mia faltered. There was something accusatory in that voice. “Hey, not like I’m giving it a chance to get attached. So what if I don’t like it? Happens all the time!” Not exactly her reason for trying to trade immediately. It was true it’d be easier on everyone now, before they got attached, but how she was the one getting criticized when it wasn’t like the Poliwag was much better? Its silliness aside, it hadn’t exactly cared about the Gastly. Reason enough, really, even if it had been something cooler. Pokemon owed their trainers respect, and everything else fear.
“Not giving it a chance to get attached?” The hint of accusation hadn’t vanished from Lynda’s voice; but a moment passed and her smile twisted up a little as her voice was cracked with a small snort of repressed laughter. “I’d say, you’re not even giving the poor little guy more than a few minutes to prove himself! Hell, for all we know, that Poliwag could turn out a real monster. Wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.”
“Really now?” Mia’s voice reasserted the edge of condescension from earlier - it was not a new trainer, asking for details with starry eyes. She spoke as a bitter girl, suspecting a lie to deny her, she felt, rather reasonable request.
“Oh, trust me.” If Lynda was bothered by the bitter, condescending edge that had crept back into Mia’s voice, she wasn’t bothered by it at all; the most there was in the way of an acknowledgement was that her own voice and smile reverted to the cooler tone of before. “Sure, there’s any way the final evolution can go at this point- but they don’t call them Poliwrath for no good reason, y’know?”
“Uh-huh.” Mia glanced back at the Totodile. “Really not gonna say yes, are you?” May as well get to the point. They were called ‘Poliwrath’, yes - but hardly a Poliwrath if they were so perpetually silly. Jeez, what was so hard about saying ‘yes’? She’d just met this Totodile. Why were these people already cooing over their pokemon they knew for all of five seconds? Well, except Charlie. He was a dweeb and his Gastly sucked, but hey, at least any bond there was justified. Possibly as sunk-cost, but justified.
“I figured I implied that enough.” Lynda felt said Totodile suddenly start tugging at her pant leg; either not as patient as a few moments before, or wanting to move along before the conversation with Mia went to darker places. In response, Lynda just crouched down and gave the little Water-type a reassuring pat on the head before turning on her heels to look back up at Mia. “Feel free to keep asking around- just don’t be surprised at the answers you get.”
Mia huffed. This was dumb. This shouldn’t be that hard. These people seemed like a bunch of soft-hearted wannabes. Sure, Lynda knew how to dress, but if she really thought Poliwag could make a good Poliwrath- yeah. What were they going to do when their pokemon turned out to be monsters and they weren’t so cute anymore? At least Mia knew how to deal with those. They probably didn’t. Unfortunately, this only left her with one other option, since neither Ralts nor Spheal should appeal to a proper trainer. Poliwag had just caught up as she turned on her heel and walked back to the terrace, approaching the gathered group of boys as Apple and B cleaned up their possessions and headed inside the small cafe.
“Hey! Are we going now or what?” Seriously, Lynda would already be on Avance Trail by the time they got moving. In a better mood, she might’ve teased them over their all-boys club, but Poliwag was still waiting down those stairs for her. “And you-” She pointed to Sully, ignoring the cell phone he held in his hands - what he had it out for, she didn’t really care. Couldn’t be that important anyways. “Poliwag for Axew. You didn’t answer me earlier.” She held up Poliwag’s pokeball and stared at Sully. No beating around the bush this time or trying to sell Poliwag. She wanted to move, and she wanted a new starter. That was all at this point, and certainly no point in trying to drag it out anymore. If they couldn’t understand either of those points, this research trip was going to be a long one.
