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Dinner, sightseeing, and a dance?

It sounded like a date. And in any other context, she wouldn't hesitate to believe it. But as it was, she struggled to do so. She hadn't even considered the idea of trying to actually go on a date in years. Not to mention, any of the guys or girls she used to be interested in back in school, all but pretended she stopped existing once the accident happened.

To see him suddenly become so casual about the whole thing, to actually seem interested in what certainly sounded like a date, Abby couldn't deny how her heart seemed to beat a little faster. It was a nice boost to her self-confidence to be sure. It was a lot to take in all at once and it left her just staring blankly, cheeks burning for a short time before finally speaking again.

"I- Uhh, not really!" She spoke a little loudly, trying to calm herself down with a few deep breaths, clearly flustered. Her natural accent seemed to be slowly seeping back in as she spoke. "I mean, I just moved here recently, like two months before the con. But, I'm sure we can find something! I, umm, don't usually eat out much. I'm usually just ordering in, too busy with UNOVR, hah."

Although San Francisco was certainly leagues better about accessibility for her and her wheelchair than her hometown, it still felt awkward just going out. The looks from others was still hard getting used to.

"... When uh, were you thinking? Now? Or, umm, perhaps meet later? Like, if you're going to be in town for a while, then maybe we can, figure out something?" Quite honestly, she surely hoped to have a moment to collect herself.

Perhaps she might even put on that cute dress she owned.

Delivering a package for Bunya, as compared to Ash is a very different experience.

For one, the box was slimy and gross. It was like the cardboard container had been stained by some food spilled all over it. And it smelled... fishy. Definitely not great.

And secondly, the box seemed like it would move whenever you weren't looking. Like if she sat it down to rest, it would bounce a bit slowly away. Definitely not normal.

She had no idea what was within the package and if she was being honest with herself, she didn't really want to know. Still, when asked, she couldn't exactly say no. It would be like denying a quest. Everything was interesting in its own way.

Before she could truly walk through the streets of Briarbane a strange pop-up would appear on her screen. One that she's rather familiar at this point.

Tutorial 002 - Delivery, Sign Here! Quest Started!

Forming Tutorial Party...

Wait, didn't she do this one already? Could you repeat the tutorials? She swore if she was forced to listen to the Catching Tutorial again, she'd go mad. But sure enough, someone else was suddenly added to her party, whom she presumed also had a package to be delivered. Slipping around the corner out and into the street, her feet skated across the ground as she looked around for this supposed party member.

Speaking of said friend, he showed up pretty quickly. She turned around with a laugh, twirling the key around her finger for a few seconds, already unlocked the padlock as the chain fell. She felt cool for a second, until the chain and padlock itself got dragged down, falling into the water never to be found again.

Oops?

Bertha the Cetoddle, however, seemed welcome to have a friend with them! "Oh, hey! Hello little friend!" They waved a flipper up to the Quaxly up above, only to suddenly pause and listen to their whispered words. "... Huh. Interesting. But I thought, water inside boats was bad?" More whispering, and Bertha just had an impossibly confused look as they looked up at their trainer. "Uh- I'm not really good at going under the water..."

Laguna meanwhile, just laughed and shook her head, trying not to feel too silly about the whole thing. What in the world was that Quaxly saying? Regardless, she just turned her attention back to her friend and boss. "Well, I admit, I wasn't intending to head out in this boat here on a quest. But when fate smiles upon the lucky, how am I supposed to say no?"

Leaping into the rusty boat, the vessel shifted back and forth, trying to adjust to her weight on the wild waves. She looked around, noticing no oars immediately in sight. It certainly had those little half ring things where you would rest the oars on to paddle, but they were nowhere to be found.

"Hmm, do you see any oars anywhere, Big Bee ? Or at least, something that we could use as oars? I guess we can always have a Pokemon push the boat, but I'd feel a lot safer on these waves with some."

For all the time she's played this game, Laguna still struggled to find people willing to trade with her.

Unless she had something that couldn't be found in the routes yet, or something unique, most people seemed rather to brave their luck and go out into the routes and try and find certain Pokémon themselves.

But she had noticed that people were often collecting Pokémon to trade for to one of the two Bethanys, and neither of them really seemed to care about which Pokémon, just how many. Her strategy was pretty simple.

She'd wait right outside Bethany's Boudoir, just sitting back and relaxing, having a small little picnic while a small chalkboard sat next to her.

"Trading Venipede. Looking for anything!" Was written right on the board. Admittedly, Venipede was pretty cool. But right now, all she could think about was the inevitable Whirlipede it would turn into.

And she wasn't exactly excited about a wheel Pokémon. She had enough with wheels in her day to day life. So she sat back, just humming and watching the clouds, waiting for someone willing to take her up on her offer came by.

"Well there you are!" Laguna shouted as she finally saw Orion in the distance, admittedly unable to help but smile as she saw him. However, before she could ask what took him so long, so many things happened at once.

A loud bang had her scrambling to the ground just in case, kneeling down. A bright light practically exploded into the sand, and the sky itself became like the surface of swirling paint, colors twisting back and forth in an ethereal, unnatural glow. Shooting stars continued to rain across the sky, trailing like streaks of a painter's brush, sometimes landing upon its creation with an explosion of color, a magic she had yet to see in this forsaken, dead landscape.

Laguna didn't need to be an artist herself to be in genuine awe of the sight.

"Yeah... I just, got this quest marker leading me here, and- goodness, this is beautiful." She genuinely would have been content to just stand there with Orion, to watch the sky explode in every color of the rainbow, when she noticed something else. There were figures moving in the distance.

Far more than she could count. Coming out from behind another dune, Invasive Species of all kinds came marching out one by one. It was hard to make them out from this distance, but it was pretty hard to not recognize what a Celesteela looked like. Pillars actually walking across the landscape. What could have them all so organized like this?

With a grin slowly spreading across her face, she instinctively reached out to grab hold of Orion's hand. "Come on bandana boy, let's go check it out. This has got to be quite the adventure."

She'd laugh, shamelessly giving his arm a tug before letting go as she tipped over the dune. Her own feet frictionless against the ground, leaving snowflakes behind her as she slid straight down like she was riding a wave.

Laguna knew this game well enough that when she found a key, there would be something to unlock with it. No game ever handed out keys, that opened no doors, no locks.

That was just bad game design. Although granted, with this being a fairly realistic apocalyptic city, maybe she shouldn't have put too much faith in it. And yet, she couldn't help but trying the rusted key on every door she came across, at least the ones still standing.

She's had it for a while now, and it was starting to really annoy her. Today she had been planning to actually play with Big Bee , get to know the boss a little bit better, maybe try and catch a few of the invasive species. She was just relaxing at the Drowned Harbor as she waited for him, watching the waves crash against the shore when she noticed something odd.

A small metal rowboat came into view from quite a distance as a particularly high wave lifted it up. Her curiosity was immediately piqued and she swiftly leaped from her perch to check out the small pier it was next to.

It was fairly rusty and old, but the boat was surprisingly in decent condition compared to everything else around here. Still a rusty mess, but better than nothing. It was honestly amazing it was still here, even though it was chained and locked up to the pier...

Her eyes immediately locked onto the very obvious padlock and her lips split into a wide grin.

"Jackpot. I knew they wouldn't give me a key without a lock, hah! Oh, wait till Big Bee sees this." She mumbled to herself. "I wonder where this quest might lead." Out of caution, she suddenly summoned her Cetoddle, the Ice Whale forming in the water with a loud splash.

"Oh, hey!" The Cetoddle flapped its flippers around, looking at everything with big, wide eyes. "Are we uh, going swimming? In these dangerous waters? You know my people moved onto land forever ago!"

"Well, sure, but you can swim, right?"

"I mean, yeah! I can try!" The eager to please Cetoddle grinning widely, splashing some more as it spun in place, being lifted by the waves. "I mostly just float, but I suppose that's good enough! Where are we going, anyways?"

"You know, I'd like to know the same thing. I'm waiting for a friend to show up before we get going."

"Oh?" Laguna turned around, noticing the other trainer nearby with an Empoleon. It looked like she wasn't the only one interesting in exploring these sunken ships and dark depths!

"Well hey there! Numbers always makes things safer for sure! I mean, I still have no idea what's found in the depths of these waters." She'd reach up, affectionately patting the small fish, swimming nervously in an orbit around her head.

"Something is here," The Wishiwashi spoke, seemingly repeating the other trainer's sentiment. "We're not alone. Oh god, oh god, we're gonna get pounced on, we're gonna die! I'm too young to die!" And the fish downright broke out into tears, crying loudly. His falling tears shimmering brightly with light, super reflective.

She sighed, but steeled herself ready for combat. "Look alive, friend. We got ourselves another unexpected guest." She twirled in place, twirling a magical wand in her hands.