Truth be told? It hadn't taken long at all for Euphie's patience to fray. Fresh start, fresh land, no need yet to grow resigned to apathy or disgust. At least, that was what she kept telling herself. But few things survive first contact with the enemy: least of all, the pure-hearted intentions she could muster. And so far, the sum total of Euphie's interactions with the others had been to weasel through the doors of the lab - find herself caught behind what seemed as a peasants' revolt of yowling children begging for scraps of attention - and that'd been enough for her to promptly march out again. She wasn't ready to deal with such crowds... not yet. The first days were always the worst, the days where she felt the most in doubt, and her doubts brought with them a shielding pall of disgust and hate. At first from emanating from her, and soon enough, inevitably, coming to be reciprocated.
So she retired instead to lean against a crumbling wall in the Pokepark awhile, a ways off from the queues of hopefuls registering their conquering intentions. It was the kind of place she liked the best, far enough that she would scarce be paid mind, but close to keep a trained eye and ear on those she chose to observe. She tweaked the arm of her glasses a little, fumbled in her coat pockets for her cigarettes. The lighter barely had a few drops of fluid clinging grimly to the bottom of the container. Damnit. She'd had to leave so much behind, and it felt as if everything she had managed to sneak with her to Chromis was irrelevant, or broken, or both.
And as cruel as it was to cross her mind, that same observation applied well-enough to Sarin, the Salandit who now quietly scuttled around Euphie's heavy boots, moving in quick circles sniffing at the cobblestone beneath, as if trying to pick up a scent that would never come - even the blindingly pungent odours that Euphie's Skuntank had so often elicited, well, they weren't going to waft across an ocean, now were they?
Hoping to distract her Pokemon from the increasingly-pitiable search, Euphie slowly stooped to pick Sarin up with her gloved hands, holding her in front for a moment. Euphie's hard-fronted eyes making contact with the face of the placid, sorta-vacant looking little lizard. Euphie paused to consider what might become of Sarin then; she did not expect much of anything, but would try to encourage her as best as she could manage, still. "Sarin.", said Euphie with a practised edge of sweetness, "Would you go and scout out the Laboratory, to see if the crowds have dispersed, for me, please?" And setting down the Salandit once more, Sarin scampered off after just a moment, pleased to be entrusted something to do by her usually so-faraway mistress.
The cigarette hung out of the side her mouth, as usual it quelled her nerves a little, one thing but not enough. There was still something missing. Some... itch, always where she couldn't quite touch. Euphie took a closer look at the crowds, and... soon rather wished she hadn't. First there was a girl - yes, a girl, for it seemed as if some errant mother-figure had momentarily failed to keep the creature chained to a post - clad in such gaudy, glittery garb as to induce a churning migraine in all unfortunate enough to witness. And that was before the young beast even opened her mouth! Oh, Gods. Imploring for everyone's attention; before screeching at the top of her diminutive lungs, her prideful declaring that she would rise to triumph. Euphie sucked hard on her cigarette to hear that; it being about the only way she could stop herself from leaping up and pressing this girl, this Ruby into the dust right this instant. But that would be foolish... to challenge now would lead to a pathetic demonstration from both sides, and anyways, the Ruby was a mere child. Children didn't deserve to be struck too harshly for hubris... yet. But give it time, give it time... and Euphoria couldn't help but have an inclination that she'd have the misfortune to stumble across this loud-mouthed girl several times to come... yeah. Then, it would be on.
"Those with the greatest vanity, the most confidence. They're always the most fun ones to see in pieces." murmured Euphie to herself without emotion, as she dredged the spent fag from her lips, carefully flicked the ash-stack from the end... and ground the butt to dust under the heel of her boot. A swift stomp on top of it, just for good measure. Yeah, that all made her feel better. She could see some skirmishing going on as she brushed herself down - the coat was discoloured with dirt and ash-marks for good since long before, but it was still her delusion to keep herself fresh - but Euphie could scarce be bothered to watch it. Her immediate instinct was to dismiss the fighting trainers and Pokemon, brand them weaklings, but she wasn't so delusional as to think that her and Sarin were on a level they could not attain. In fact, she'd probably be poorer than at least one of them, which didn't even bear thinking about!
It's not as if she was significantly older than all of them, but to be unceremoniously sent back to square one after years on the trail... it would take time to accept, fully. It would be no simple matter to reclaim what she had lost - how she had lost it she could still hardly believe - indeed, she'd by now almost forgotten how she'd trained Strychnine and Cyanide to be so effective in the first place.
She shook her head on that subject, cursed incoherently under her breath. "Damn that, and damn this. And where is that lizard. She was supposed to be in, and out again..." She paused a beat to grunt. "Likely absent-mindedly playing with some other Pokemon she came across. I can't blame her for that, but I'd best go after." So it was back into the Laboratory with Euphie once again, and to no small amount of relief, the reception had gone from choked to nigh-deserted in the space of time, save for the Professor herself (who actually looked rather bored with all this as Euphie saw it - understandable), a mangy-looking cardboard box; of the Pokedexes one could guess, and an extraordinarily-uninteresting blue-haired lad currently in conversation with Grevilia. Well, conversation was perhaps honouring it. Rather, he was busy wasting time with physical
and verbal fidgeting all at once, stumbling over his words, bemoaning and apologising for nothings... it was rather cringeworthy to bear witness to, but Euphie wasn't so blind as to overlook the fact that she was hardly a social butterfly herself.
Ah, and there was Sarin. Presently nudging the back of the lithe, blue-haired trainer's trouser legs with her long snout. Euphie figured she'd best stride forwards and rescue the situation before the lad became aware of her Salandit's presence, and presumably dissolved into a puddle of his own salty fear-sweat further still. A small mercy, if you will.
Euphoria closed the distance in a few loping steps and chopped straight across the boy's attempts at conversing with the baffled Professor. "Hello, Professor." spoke Euphie almost-haughtily, talking quickly, directly. "You don't know me. I won't waste our time on introductions. A Pokedex, if you'd kindly. I'll be needing it to get my bearings, it'll be put to good use. And one for the boy next to me, as well. Both so he won't come to be lost on the roads, and also so he won't come to suffer a heart failure standing there mumbling, breathing through his mouth. That would be a shame, no?"
Euphoria hadn't really figured it worth her time to bother directly addressing the young man who shared the space across from Grevilia with her, but she noticed out of the corner of her eye that actually, he was far older than she'd presumed going purely off his apparent naiveté. In that case, it couldn't hurt. Besides, the shy ones were always easiest to talk at... talk to, rather. Inclining her head to him, she spoke brusquely. "Hello. Pleasure to meet another trainer. And please don't mind my Salandit, who is... currently trying to lick your ankles, by the looks of things. Sarin's a curious one. She doesn't mean anything by it." And from down by the floor, Salandit let out what seemed to be a few concurring hisses, as she continued to peruse the blue-haired trainer.
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