Tranquility (Open/Mod)

[KARP KARP!]

The morning air was rather peaceful in the meadow. Mikey was sitting on the grass, pencil and sketchbook in hand as he finished his newest sketch. Whenever the man made it to a new destination, the first thing he did was let out his Pokemon and draw them in the environment.

Picasso was nearby, lying on his stomach as he looked at all of the flowers. Dega wasn't too far from the Smeargle, lying on her back, just staring up at the clouds. Leo was farther off, wandering around the meadow, looking for something interesting to do--or a female to chat up.

Casey Michaelangelo O'Neal smiled at the three of them as he drew the last cloud, initialed his work, and put the sketchbook back into his shoulder-bag. Then, the artist lay back onto the grass, staring up at the clouds as his eyes slowly drifted shut.

[SongofWindchimes]

Rosie Ser Bane Belle Omen August Tempest Kismet

[/b][/td][/tr][/table]

A calm field of flowers. Rosalyn needed to visit more calm fields of flowers.

The young woman sat with her legs crossed, eyes shut in relaxation, leaning back against her lounging Absol with her Houndour curled up at her side. No performing, no traversing cave tunnels, nothing that could make her nervous or push her even further physically. She and her pokemon had even eaten recently, which stopped discomfort all around.

That didn't stop some of them trying to snack of the picturesque landscape, however. One of Rosie's eyes slid open and she watched as her young Buneary plucked a wildflower and began to nibble at the petals. "Stick close, Kismet," she said softly, too softly for most to hear her, but the rabbit pokemon flicked an ear to show he had. She didn't really have to say it; Kismet rarely wandered far and, on the rare occasion he did, the crying that he started when he lost sight of Rosie made him easy to find.

"You, too, August," she commented faintly. The Mawile, on the other hand, probably did need the warning, though the look he shot her said he thought otherwise. He was heading for a flower, too, but not for eating. He found a particularly vibrantly-coloured one and carefully picked it, before trotting over to Belle, who was laying on the ground weaving one of her potential masterpeices, and holding it for her.

The massive spider eyed the offering a moment, then looked at August's hopeful face, sighed, and spared a moment in her important silk-weaving to extend one of her legs and gingerly take the wildflower. A look of pure joy overtook the lovestruck Mawile's face as he raced off to find more flowers.

Rosie looked at the Spearow doing aerial tricks above her and waved a hand to grab her attention. Tempest paused, and Rosie gestured at the Mawile gleefully putting more and more distance between himself and the group. She nodded and chirped before swooping after him; August could be oblivious to nearly everything in his quest to impress Belle.

This time, as August little short of skipped from prospective gift to prospective gift, looking for the most bright, beautiful, awe-inspriring flower in the entire meadow, he was oblivious to the fact that he was headed straight for a Wartortle. Tempest, of course, caught sight of the pokemon from the air, but swooping down to twitter a warning to August did nothing but make him wave his arm as if swatting at a bug.

Tempest sighed a bit and took to the air again. Oh well; if the turtle was hostile, she'd just help August fight him off. And if not, Rosie liked turtles, right? She liked pretty much anything that was nice to her, in Tempest's experience.

[KARP KARP!]

The artist, the Smeargle, and the Munchlax stayed where they were, each one drifting off into a rather peaceful not-quite-sleep. Sometimes, it was just good to relax, and not worry about anything at all. Though, in Mikey's book, it was always a good time to relax and not worry about anything.

Good thing Leo was paying attention! Sidestepping the Mawile rather easily, he looked back at it. Damn, it was a male. Sighing to himself, the Wartortle continued on his way through the meadow, softly singing an upbeat little tune. Even though to anyone else, it'd sound like a mixture of "War tor tle's."

[SongofWindchimes]

Tempest looked from August, who had paused to look at a particularly nice patch of flowers, to the Wartortle, who was singing to himself. The Spearow was never much of a songbird, but she rather liked the little melody. She flew left and right a little in the air, like a person shifting their weight in indecision, before she decided that August would be fine for a second or two and that she'd be able to easily find him again.

She swooped down, flying a small circle above the Wartortle's head as she twittered softly along to his tune, before doing a few aerial tricks in time to the song. It was kind of odd way of saying hello, but Tempest kept odd company, and she never gave up an opportunity to dance.

August, meanwhile, found that best, brightest flower, absolutely perfect for his darling Belle. Unfortunately, it was right by the head of a human...that he had only just now noticed. He carefully crept over, and scowled when he got there. The human's long hair was all around the blossom; there was no way he was going to get it without pulling a few hairs.

August rubbed his little hands together in preparation for the delicate procedure. He'd have to try. For Belle.

[KARP KARP!]

The Wartortle stopped singing when the Spearow came close; he was a tad self-conscious, unlike Mikey and the other two Pokemon.

Meanwhile, Mikey's eyes slowly opened to see a Mawile right on top of him. Out of impulse, the man let out a yelp, scrambling away. Then, regaining his composure, pulled out a sketchbook and began to frantically draw the steel type Pokemon.

Dega and Picasso, meanwhile, were sound asleep.

[SongofWindchimes]

Tempest was a little confused when Wartortle stopped singing. She landed in a soft flutter of wings in front of him, head cocked to one side. "You stopped," she bird chirped. Then, only then realizing that perhaps her trainer was rubbing off on her a little too much, and Spearow put a wing behind her head sheepishly. "Uh, I'm Tempest. Sorry if I seemed a little...You just have a nice voice, is all."

August, meanwhile, blinked as the human suddenly yelped and moved away. Well, that was certainly one way to solve his problem. He plucked the wildflower he'd had his eye on, and was partway through brushing it off and straightening out the petals when the Mawile suddenly stopped and stared at the human man. What was he doing?

Vaguely creeped out by...whatever the human was so frantically doing while looking at him, August started to walk away. Or rather, he started to half-walk, half-jog away while staring straight ahead in that way people did when they passed crazy people rambling on street corners. Just keep moving. Just keep moving and don't make eye contact.

[KARP KARP!]

The Wartortle practically turned red when the Spearow complimented him. <Uh...thanks. I don't really....do that in front of others. Not even my trainer and fellow team members know I do that...> Pausing, he smiled. <I'm Leonardo, but you can call me Leo for short.>

Mikey looked up from his drawing, an almost-realistic black-and-white picture of the Mawile holding the flower. "Huh? Where'd he go? Huh...Guess he didn't wanna see...." With that, he initialed it, and stood up, looking around.

[SongofWindchimes]

Tempest smiled as warmly as a hooked beak allowed. "Well, don't worry, I won't tell anybody. It's nice to meet you Leo. I--"

That was when the Mawile she was supposed to be watching hurried past, holding a flower and looking freaked out. "August? Hey August!" the Spearow chirped, flapping her wings a little as she tried to get his attention. He kept going right past her.

"Wonder what got to him?" she thought aloud, watching him, silently debating whether or not she should follow him to just be absolutely sure he got back to the group okay. "At least he found a flower."

[KARP KARP!]

<Oh. Thanks...> Smiling sheepishly, about to lay his charm on Tempest, the Mawile rushed by. Blinking, he looked back.

<Heh...he woke up Mikey...> Then, he looked back at the Spearow.<Mikey's a little jumpy when woken up. Maybe he scared Mikey, and Mikey's being scared scared him?>

Meanwhile, Mikey walked by Leo, looking down. "Oh, Looks like Leo found a friend." Then, sitting down, he scoped out the surroundings before sketching out everything he saw, from the Wartortle and the Spearow, to the girl and her Pokemon not very far off. Wait....girl...? Hmmm....

[SongofWindchimes]

Tempest blinked after August at Leo's suggestion. "Maybe..." She was about to point out that August really wasn't the type to be startled like that when the human (whose name was 'Mikey' apparently) walked over. She hopped over curiously and peered at what he was doing.

Tempest, at least, was human-savvy enough to recognize sketching when she saw it. "Hey, that's pretty good." She knew the human probably couldn't understand a word of that, but she hoped the appreciative tone of her chirps got the point across.

Belle glanced up when August came racing back, and he eagerly held out of the flower he'd confronted a crazy human for. The Ariados, again, carefully took it, though this time...Well, it actually was a very nice flower, she realized as she studied it. "Thanks," she said softly, and placed it on top of her head. August nearly passed out in joy. Bane snickered slightly.

Rosie 'hmm'ed softly, opening her eyes again, and she blinked when she noticed something important. No Tempest. Rosalyn scanned the area, until her eyes landed on...

Oh. Oh my. It figured there would be someone else out here. Rosie closed her eyes again, half-hoping the person she'd just seen would be gone when she opened them. It wasn't that she didn't like people, but she'd been having such a nice afternoon and trying to communicate with her fellow humans was an exercise in frustration. Maybe he'd stay over there and they'd just sort of awkwardly glance at eachother until one of them left.

The there was soft snort, and Omen yawned loudly as he woke from his nap. He was half-way through a stretch when he realized that same thing Rosie just had. Cue one Houndour tearing across the meadow, tongue lolling from his jaws in pure joy, straight toward the oh-so-wonderful person who Omen just knew must be nice and would pet him.

"Omen, no!" she squeaked, but the pup was already too far off to hear her. Rosie half-stumbled to her feet, but she knew she'd never be able to intercept the canine. She cringed; you never knew exactly how someone was going to react to a dark type.

[KARP KARP!]

<He is good,> Leo responded, smiling.

Mikey paused, only done with Leo and Tempest. Looking up, he saw a Houndour running at him, but...happily. Setting down his sketchbook, he held his arms out to the Houndour, petting him on the head.

"Well hey there! Friendly guy, aren't ya?" Mikey gave him a goofy grin; the man loved all Pokemon, after all. Then, his eyes went back to the girl, and he had to assume the Houndour was hers. Smiling, he gave a slight wave.

[SongofWindchimes]

Omen was a ball of pure happiness. He bounded around the man a little, then stayed still enough to be petted. He licked the friendly hands and then rolled over onto his back, paws wiggling in the air and begging with his eyes for a belly rub.

Tempest just sort of sighed at him, almost embarassed but not quite. The dark dog certainly had his own brand of charm.

Rosie blinked a little, then raised a hand and waved back. She probably looked a bit bizarre, clothed head-to-toe in worn clothing in dark colours on a spring day, not to mention the white silk scarf around her neck that she nearly never took off. Rosie bit lightly at the tip of the finger of her glove; she'd have to go over there to fetch Omen eventually anyway so...

"Come on, Kismet." The Buneary perked up and hopped over to his trainer. He grabbed her pant leg like a young child and followed her as she carefully made her way over to the man. The other pokemon decided to stay where they were, but Ser Bane tilted his head a little and watched, as he always did.

"I, uh...S-sorry about my..." Rosie stammered slightly, subconsciously burying her face in her scarf a little. "His name's Omen. He's just really friendly. Couldn't stop him if I tried." Her stone-colored eyes were looking unfocusedly to one side, and she doubted she'd managed to make that last sentence sound remotely like a joke like she wanted to, but she was trying, right? Kistmet peered curiously out from behind her leg, and waved at this new human and turtle-thing.

[KARP KARP!]

The Wartortle could only smile.

Mikey, meanwhile, did all the talking. "He is," the artist said brightly when she got closer. At that moment, he was finally joined by the Munchlax and the Smeargle. "The Wartortle over there is Leonardo, or Leo for short. Real charming with the ladies. The Smeargle is Picasso, and the Munchlax is Dega."

<He's right,> Leo finally told the Spearow, getting his 'rhythm' back. <I am charming.>

[SongofWindchimes]

Rosie would have smiled, if the products of such attempts didn't usually leave her looking even creepier than a girl with a hooked nose and sunken eyes already did. As it was, her eyes flicked to each pokemon in turn as they were introduced, then she made brief, fleeting eye-contact with man speaking before glancing off to one side again. Prolonged eye contact was just...uncomfortable. She never understood why other people liked it.

Tempest looked at Leo a moment. "Mmmhmm?" She wasn't going to mention the singing eariler, just as she'd promised, but that didn't mean she intended to forget it anytime soon.

Then something occurred to Rosie and she glanced over at the bird. "That's Tempest," she said, and then looked down at the Buneary at her heels, who was now staring in wonder at Picasso's brush-tail. "And this is Kismet." Rosalyn then paused a moment, and a bit of realization flashed in her eyes. "I'm Rosie," she added quickly. I always forget to introduce myself. Why do I always forget to introduce myself?

[KARP KARP!]

The Wartortle gave a grin, followed by a slight bow. <So, did you come all the way out here just to grace me with the honor of meeting you, or was that just part of it?> From anyone else, that may have come off as rude and snobby, but Leo said it with a light attitude; a sort of joking yet sweet sounding tone.

Mikey gave a nod, taking note of the names, and he smiled. At that moment, his sketchbook fell out from under his arm, opening to the page where he'd drawn August and the flower.

[SongofWindchimes]

Tempest gave a slightly squawky-sounding laugh at Leo. "Honestly? I was out making sure August didn't get eaten or something." She put a wing behind her head again. "Meeting you was, uh, kind of a bonus, I guess." Tempest really wasn't all that interested, since she was a bird and he was a turtle, but Leo was nice and she liked talking to him.

Rosie's eyes moved to the sketchbook, and without thinking she bent over quickly to pick it up for him, only to pause and stare at the page it was open to. Was that who she thought it was? And holding that flower so cutely, too. Rosie's thin lips quirked in that almost-a-smile she had, then she realized what she was doing and quickly held the sketchbook for...Rosie realized that the man hadn't told her his own name at that moment. "That's...Did you just draw that?" Only two different sentences trying to come out of her mouth at once; that was an improvement over her usual stammer-fest.

Kismet, meanwhile, had bounded over to Picasso, looking at his paintbrush-shaped tail in pure fascination, little nose wiggling. "That's so awesome! Do you paint with that? Did you dip it in something or does it just do that? Can you make it different colours?" Kismet bounced on the balls of his feet as the rapidfire questions spilled out.

[KARP KARP!]

Leo gave another smile, though he could sort of tell the Spearow wasn't really all that interested. Not that he actually expected her to be, but hey. <Understood. Heh...I think I'm the only one that really wanders in my group. Everyone else usually just lazes around,> he said with a chuckle, looking over at Dega, who'd fallen asleep again, standing up no less.

Mikey gave a nod. "Yeah, I did. Shortly before walking this way, actually. Most complain about good drawings taking hours, but...I did that in no time at all." The artist face-palmed. "Oh! How stupid of me. My name's Michaelangelo. But you can call me Mikey. Or any nickname from that, I don't really care. You can uh...flip through the sketchbook if you want."

[SongofWindchimes]

Tempest laughed softly. We tend to split up a lot. August's so single-minded, and Omen..." The aforementioned Houndour was bounding around Mikey, yapping and trying to get his attention again. ...Is Omen. Kismet's a bit bad about following butterfles and stuff, too." Right now, though, the Buneary was bouncing excited circles around Picasso; paintbrush tails were the coolest thing ever. Now that Tempest thought about it, Belle and Bane were the only ones who generally adhered themselves to Rosie, and they were the ones who hadn't followed her over here.

Rosie sort-of smile came back as she looked at the sketchbook again. That had to be August, then. Maybe he'd like to see it, since he seemed to appreciate art. At least, that was her prevailing theory surrounding why he liked Belle so much, since the spider was something of an artist in her own right. At the invitation, Rosie started to carefully flip through the sketchbook; having an object instead of a person to look at, her gaze was fairly intense.

Rosie chewed idly at her bottom lip as she got to the page Mikey had been working on when she arrived. She immediately recognized Tempest, and then she blinked at the page and glanced behind her at Belle and Bane. Had he been...drawing them? All of them? Even her? Thinking about that made Rosie feel strange, but it wasn't exactly a bad strange.

"I...This is really..." Rosie made a momentary noise of frustration, then picked a middle ground between 'I interrupted you' and 'this is really amazing' by handing the sketchbook back and saying, "Uh, thanks...I wish I could do that...but I don't really have...I-I mean it's not my talent." Not that she was really sure she could call pokemon coordinating a 'talent' exactly, since the talent all belonged to the pokemon. It was something she was good at, though.

[KARP KARP!]

The Smeargle had spaced out a little, and finally registered all of the Buneary's questions. <Sorry, I was ah, looking at the clouds again. Yes, I do paint with it, it just does that, and it doesn't change colors.>

Leo, meanwhile nodded. <Most of all the others do is lie around, looking at clouds and stuff. I find that boring, honestly.>

"Thanks. It's a passion I had ever since I was a little kid." Mikey took the sketchbook back, looking at the page; he had barely started on anything besides Leo and Tempest, and it was starting to bug him. So, pencil began to etch wildly against the paper. Soon, the Houndour was added to the mix, followed by the Buneary, Munchlax, Smeargle, and the others. Looking up in between drawings, his gaze focused on Rosie.

Mikey would look down and sketch a bit, then back at Rosie. Finally, Mikey had the whole scene sketched out, from his perspective, of course. Signing it, he tore the page out and handed it to her.

[SongofWindchimes]

Kismet nodded at the answers to his questions. "That's so awesome," he repeated, before glancing back at his own fluffy tail, his ears drooping. "Mine doesn't do anything cool like that. And it's too short for me to dip in stuff." He brightened up again, waving his forepaws "I can fingerpaint, though! Sometimes. When we have paint around for me to use. It's fun."

Tempest shrugged a little. "It can be nice, sometimes. Usually after doing something more exciting." She glanced at her trainer. "Honestly, Rosie's a bit of a danger magnet." She chuckled. "Some of her older pokemon can tell interesting stories."

Rosie stared a little at the extended sketch, and gingerly took it from him. "Thank you," she said in quiet surprise. It was all she could think to say as she looked at the image of herself and the pokemon.

Rosie knew her perception of things could be a little strange, but to her eye it almost seemed like she didn't belong, standing out sharply against the pokemon, who looked as natural as could be in the drawing. Then again, Rosie rarely felt like she belonged much of anywhere in reality, let along in this form. The oddest part was that this wasn't a sad thought, really; 'belonging' wasn't something she really needed.