After watching with interest as the other trainers received their very first Pokémon, Charlie’s attention was straight back to Apple as she continued her address; he couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable as Apple brought up the possibility of battles along the way, though that faded quickly enough when she mentioned her assistant’s experience and Lynda enthusiastically vouched for her own skills. It seemed she wasn’t exactly a beginner after all, though he was still curious as to why she was only receiving her first Pokémon now. But once again, he didn’t get long to dwell on those thoughts; it was only a moment after one assistant was mentioned that the Professor called the other one to attention, and Charlie turned to see B offering him a bag of supplies. “... Thanks.” He did his best not to stutter; he couldn’t help but remain feeling uncomfortable around the one-eyed man, but besides being genuinely grateful for the contents of the bag, he wasn’t going to give him the chance to get another dig in at him. After that, the topic moved to their first actual assignment; and that was when his interest was piqued. Besides housing a certain dumb rock, Route 20 was an area known for high levels of spectral activity, enough that wandering off the beaten path could lead to someone being lost for hours as the forest seemed to warp them randomly about itself; if someone as experienced as [i]Wulfric[/i]-one of the longest-serving Gym Leaders in Kalos Region history- was reporting something out of the ordinary in the vicinity, it had to be something worth checking out, as the Professor herself was happy to point out. “So, um- did he mention anything at all about what was out past Route 20?” Whilst Sully took the chance to thank Apple- which Charlie made a mental note to do again in a moment- Charlie instead decided to ask about the assignment itself. Maybe there were one or two details that Apple hadn’t thought prudent to mention, but the main thought that entered Charlie’s head was- “Isn’t there a Pokémon sanctuary there?” --- Lynda looked up as Apple began to speak once more; and Totodile looked away from her to check out the rest of the Pokémon assembled with the group, looking around with quiet interest as they met their new trainers. “Yup!” Totodile flinched as his trainer reacted enthusiastically to Apple’s reference to her battling skills; she sure was a lot louder than the little crocodile had hoped. “Feel free to ask me for tips and pointers whenever you want!” The conversation continued on, and Totodile lost interest despite his best efforts to keep up. There was only so much the Pokémon could do to keep up with human matters, and it wasn’t as if he was entirely disinterested in the other Pokémon. Axew, Ralts and Spheal all seemed to be cut from the same cloth; Totodile had only seen the other starters from a short distance back at the lab, so this was his first time encountering them too. The first impression they gave was a uniformly pleasant one; they all seemed happy with the trainers that had chosen them, and they also seemed to be tame and well-mannered. The only visible standout was the Poliwag. The smile on the tadpole’s face didn’t suggest anything in the direction of not being tame; but Totodile hadn’t failed to notice him blowing raspberries at his trainer when her back was turned. Then again, with a trainer like that, the Poliwag was the lesser concern. Totodile wasn’t sure what to make of his own trainer yet- she was certainly enthusiastic, if nothing else- but he felt a reasonable deal of relief that the other girl hadn’t picked him. Besides Apple’s Aron and B’s Unown, that just left one more Pokémon... … Who was seemingly nowhere near his trainer. --- Phil’s assessment of the other Pokémon was similar to Totodile’s, in a sense. Ralts, Axew and Spheal were tame well-mannered; so none of them were of much interest to the little Ghost-type at that very moment. It wasn’t that Phil wasn’t interested in them, but they were too caught up in greeting their new trainers to pay much mind to him or otherwise show off; so he’d moved on quickly from each of them, his presence barely perceivable. The cheeky little Poliwag, however, was another case entirely. Curious about the little tadpole, the Gastly drifted slowly along the ground towards him, letting off an inquisitive hiss as he watched the other Pokémon roll about idly. It wasn’t quite a kindred spirit he was sensing in the Water-type, but there was definitely something more familiar about him; after all, that had been a rather impressive raspberry he’d let rip at the girl when her back was turned.