First was Sully - Apple noticed him first, crossing into town before apparently a message on his phone distracted him. It took him a moment longer - another girl passed him by on the way into town - but soon he reached their little cafe table. [color=a187be][i]"Hello...I...I'm Sully..."[/i][/color] He mumbled the words, almost caving in on himself. Apple offered a comforting smile. “Well, Sully, we’ve been waiting for you. You can have a seat.” Lynda watched Sully as he joined them, though didn’t seem to acknowledge him too much beyond a friendly smile of her own; it was when the next boy arrived a few moments later that the smile faded in favour of something more. The first boy had been quiet, but this one didn’t even offer a verbal greeting; instead proceeding into a series of strange hand gestures as he neared them. She stared for a moment, her mind debating possibilities- But before she could come to a conclusion, it was B who spoke up. “Oh, he’s introducing himself. He’s Reeman-” B gestured toward the second boy. “I’ll hazard a guess you can’t speak? Not that it’s a loss, trust me.” He beamed. “What my assistant means is, it’s good to listen,” Professor Apple clarified, eyeing over the man. He nodded. “Right - this isn’t my native tongue, words escape me sometimes.” His smile hadn’t faltered at all. “Come on, sit down with us.” “Yeah, don’t worry, he’s not so bad.” Lynda nodded to Reeman, the friendly smile returning to her face. So he was mute? She’d have to make a note of that. “It’s just that his vocabulary’s lacking some [i]depth[/i].” B chuckled. “An endless source of humor, isn’t she?” “Please stop - at least in front of the trainers?” Professor Apple shook her head. “Alright, sorry,” Lynda replied, looking away with a sheepish chuckle as the Professor scolded her again; only to find herself distracted by the next of the arrivals, a young woman. "You must be Professor Apple. I, Mia Kita, answered your letter." Professor Apple recognized her from the bridge earlier. Well, she had no reservations on introducing herself - or passing judgments, based on that sneer at the Y-shaped Unown. The Unown simply glowered back at Mia, to the surprise of neither the professor nor her assistants. [i]‘Well, she’s certainly more talkative than the other two,’[/i] Lynda mused to herself, continuing to watch Mia as she caught sight of the girl’s unimpressed glance towards the Unown. She couldn’t say she was particularly fond of the weird Psychic-type, but she refrained from adding anything this time; after all, she was more interested in seeing whether the girl could back up the attitude behind that contempt. It was another few minutes before another voice spoke up: “S-sorry I’m a little late!” Apple looked up at the boy, then at his Gastly, and stared in some mild confusion at the boy approaching. He looked to be in the right age range, but... “Thank you for having me, Professor.” ....well. “Ah, you’re welcome.... And you are?” She blinked. Not quite up to her requests, but- “Oh, Professor! This is the one I recruited! His name’s Charlie! I thought he’d make an excellent replacement - he was off doing his own research when I found him, you know. I suppose I forgot to mention him?” B shrugged. “My mistake.” Apple nodded. “Well... I suppose luckily you have your own.” She smiled gently at Charlie and looked at the Gastly. “I’ve always been fond of Ghost-types, you know.” “Especially the ones that apparently used to be human,” B added. “They’ve got the best data - human-like chromosome structure.” “B, they don’t need to know specifics yet. Not unless they decide to stay once the journey has ended?” “Right, right.” It was barely a moment after that morbid turn in the conversation fell by the wayside that someone else appeared from over the bridge and began to approach; only to trip and fall onto her knees as she came within a few meters of joining them. ”H-hey. I’m Rosaline, you can call me Rosa. You’re Professor Apple, right?” And with Rosa’s arrival, the entire group had fallen into place. Apple nodded and looked over the group. With everyone in place, she cleared her throat and stood up. The small Aron on the table watched her rise to her feet. “I’m glad you could all make it. Now, I intend to say this only once, so everyone please listen. My name is Professor Apple - you may have seen some of my work back home in Unova?” While perhaps not as renowned as the likes of Oak, for developing the pokedex, and Sycamore, for discovering Mega Evolution, she had still published papers on the potential connections between humans and Pokemon, with particular focus on one of the native pokemon - Yamask. “I came to Kalos in order to further my work, by studying Mega Evolution, as you may recall in my letter. While Sycamore is away in Hoenn to understand the influx of developing Mega Stones in the region, I am currently running his lab. His remaining staff, of course, are focusing on his research. While I have my assistants, I still find I’m being stretched too thin. B, Lynda, would you like to introduce yourselves?” She gestured to the two beside her. “Hey, everyone, I’m Lynda!” The young woman was the first of the two to take the initiative in introducing herself, waving to the five younger children. Compared to how she’d seemed to size Reeman and Mia up, the air about her now was far less tense and focused. “I’ll be tagging along with all of you, at least for a while. My journey starts today, too!” “And, well, I’m B - it’s, well, it’s a nickname. It can be tough to pronounce my full name and- oh!” As B was rising to his feet, using his chair for balance, the chair slipped backwards away from the table, and B nearly went with it. Only his Unown intervening caught him from falling. “Ah, sorry. Anyways, well, I’m B - I assure you, I’m not so klutzy in my element. Due to the nature of my work, it’s likely I’ll be meeting up with you and Lynda to pick up work and tell you what else Apple needs you to focus on.” Professor Apple nodded to the two before continuing to address the other five trainers. “These two will help you with the projects I’ll be assigning you. Unfortunately, since I am running Sycamore’s lab for him, it often means I am called away to tend to tasks he’d normally deal with. For example, after we part ways today, I will be with the Pokemon League, dealing with the influx of Zweilous nests in Victory Road. Drasna’s told me it’s been making it difficult for trainers to reach them.” She shook her head. “I’ll get into the details of your first mission shortly. For now, please-” She gestured to the pokeballs sitting on the table. “-pick your starter.”