The voice that broke the silence didn’t sound particularly enthused to be here, and Taylor bit back a grin. She could certainly see how the tutorials might feel like an inconvenient chore if you already knew what you were doing, but she couldn’t help being oddly charmed by it all. Probably because it was all still so new to her, and she had such precious little to be excited over in the real world. That thought threatened to drag her down into anxiety, so she forcibly pushed it aside and refocused on the other player, just in time to catch their question.

She nodded, offering a more sedate smile and rising to her feet. “I am,” she confirmed with a nod. “Name’s Taylor – wanna team up?” Gentle rustling caught her attention before the other player had a chance to speak, and she found her attention drawn back to the grass. “Looks like we’re just in time!”

Taylor hadn’t had any specific expectations as to what would happen when the stranger moved to release his pokemon, but the practised ease of the motion and a fully-evolved Ninetales certainly wasn’t it! Her gaze was slightly alarmed as she turned to the newly introduced Muin - he really had been putting this off for a while. Mumble looked rather puny next to the fire fox, but he toddled forward eagerly enough, already half-way hypnotised by the sway of the fire-type’s many tails.

Before she could respond to the introduction with further pleasantries, all metaphorical hell broke loose. In the aftermath of the burst of flame, the Patrat lay unconscious, still smoking ever-so-slightly. A few beats of silence passed, before Mumble let out a small stream of water, hitting the wild pokemon in little more than an unnecessary light shower. His wings flapped and he beamed in an expression that clearly screamed yay, I’m helping!

“Yeah, nor is Mumble, honestly,” came the reply, slightly distorted by smothered laughter. “You’re certainly efficient, Fern!” A little louder now.

Great! You knocked out the Patrat! Now all you need to do-

“Huh?” The cheerful chirping made Taylor jump, and she peered at the UI popup as it nattered away. Apparently the knockout had happened before it even had a chance to tutorialise them.

Taylor couldn’t help but be charmed by the Ninetales’ response to Mumble’s entirely unnecessary move – she appreciated that he made the Piplup feel included. There was little the water-type loved more than helping, and precious little that broke his heart more than it being clear he wasn’t needed. Thankfully, they’d yet to encounter many situations in which the others involved weren’t willing to at least humor the little guy. To say that Taylor was relieved by this would be slightly underselling things.

“You sure?” The Swimmer queried, turning to more fully face Muin. It felt weird to go ahead and take the catch when the Gardener was the one who’d knocked it out. After a moment though she remembered that two trainers could catch a fainted spawn and nodded – he’d still be able to throw a ball after, if he wished. “Okay, can do!”

She turns back to where Mumble is now gently nudging the fainted normal-type with his beak, clucking her tongue at him as she would a cat. “Out of the way please, buddy,” she called, waiting for the penguin to step back before gently tossing a ball towards the Patrat.

For a moment, he considers it: throwing a Pokéball of his own and catching the Patrat for the hell of it. It would be worth it even if he only makes use of the little rat to torment ibis (easy enough, based on how Ibis reacted the last time they ran into one), but what's the point in that? To him, catching a Pokémon means befriending it, naming it, and all of that, and does he really want to do that with this Patrat?

TUTORIAL COMPLETE!

X1 GOLDEN POKÉBALL OBTAINED!

The pop up answers the question for him, and his attention is then drawn to Taylor's own catch.

"Hmm... Looks like we're done here." He's as calm as he had been from the start, nothing seeming capable of breaking his apparent stoicism. Still, he's polite even to the last moment. "Thank you for your help. I-... suppose I will see you around."

Much better than how Muin parts with most people he meets in this game, to be honest. Baby steps.