Admittedly, Mia’s day had not been going so well. Besides the starter pokemon she did not seem to get along with, as opposed to everyone else’s perfect match, there had been the incident in Santalune Forest. Though she seemed to have shaken it off superficially, the hiss at hip level and the sensation of [i]something[/i] brushing against her left forearm seemed enough to startle her once more before she could ask her own questions of Apple. She let out a yelp, stumbled back, and the heel of her boot hit the edge of a loose brick. Her arms pinwheeled as she bit her lower lip - how far was the edge of the terrace? She hadn’t exactly thought about it until now. “Oh, got it!” Apparently it was B who decided to respond first to Mia’s plight, darting forth so quickly, it almost seemed his clumsiness was forgotten. He stopped in front of Mia and, grabbing her right hand, pulled forward to re-steady the girl. And then forgot to let go or check his own balance. “Oh-” The two both fell - Mia forward, B backwards - into a heap on the ground. B groaned as Mia pulled her hand free of his and tried to get back on her feet. Over with the group, Lynda was the first to notice what had happened; she was quiet for a moment as she processed what she’d seen, and then her mouth curved upwards into a smile before she very visibly struggled to hold in a laugh. “... Wh- what happened?” Meanwhile, it had happened a bit too fast for Charlie to take in; he hadn’t even had the chance to get an answer from Apple about the assignment when he heard the commotion and turned around to see the Poliwag’s trainer climbing off of B. Most of his other concerns went out of the window for the moment as he made his way over. “Are you alright?” “Ugh. The heck was that?” Mia brushed her hair away from her face. “The heck brushed against me?” She glanced at B, who managed a shrug despite still being pinned to the group. Mia glanced to where she was standing, and got her answer. “Oh come on!” --- Poliwag had reacted, though probably not in the way Mia would have wanted. First he looked up at the hiss and saw the Gastly at her arm. The shriek couldn’t be ignored, but he was an armless and rather small pokemon - his tail just lowered as she began trying to avoid her fall. And then it was taken care of, and she was perfectly fine. And he had no reason to be worried anymore. He looked back to the Gastly and wagged his tail a little with a chirp. “[i]Poli?[/i]” What had brought the Gastly over anyhow? He seemed fine hanging out with his trainer, after all. “Gassss.” Another hiss came from Phil; like the one before it, it was devoid of any kind of malice, seeming to be the ghost’s equivalent of a friendly greeting than any attempt at intimidation. Though his smile was less innocent; he’d seen what he’d inadvertently caused the girl and the one-eyed man to do, and though it had been unintentional, he was [i]clearly[/i] rather pleased with himself. “Pol.” Poliwag chirped and then seemed to giggle at the ghost-type. After all, it wasn’t like either seemed hurt, so, really, it was quite funny. Why not laugh? He glanced at the other pokemon for their reactions and then resumed chattering towards the Gastly. Nice to talk to one of the other pokemon too. Did he spend a lot of time out of his pokeball? What was weather like? Mago didn’t mind the time to stretch his legs and now might not want to go back in his ball, after all. Phil let out another series of hisses in response, the rapid-fire sounds sounding like a snicker together. Last time he was in his Pokéball had been a few days ago; he only ever really went in there when he was tired because, questionable discipline aside, he was trusted enough to not cause trouble. Though he managed to push that, sometimes. Mago nodded and chirped back - he might not be quick, but if it wasn’t too warm out, he would probably be fine rolling about. Sounded like fun, even. Of course, not that he had much say in the matter, but he could try his best, right? --- “... Oh.” More than a little colour drained from Charlie’s face as he looked over towards the two Pokémon and, putting two and two together, realized that it had been Phil that had caused Mia to fall over. “... I am so, so sorry.” “Uh huh.” Mia did not sound amused - though, at least to Charlie’s credit, she seemed equally annoyed at her Poliwag’s indifference. This pokemon was going to be lucky if she didn’t nickname him ‘Slimer’. She finally managed to untangle herself from B and push off from the ground to get back on her feet. B, for his part, sat up and brushed the dirt from his shirt and then glanced up at Mia, then Charlie. “So, anyone giving me a hand back up? Charlie?” He beamed, clearly unharmed by the fall. Charlie blinked. Well, his feelings about B aside, that wasn’t too unreasonable a request- "Don’t worry, B, you can do it! You're missing an eye, not a hand!" And then Lynda chimed in. “Also a sense of balance, O Lady of the Gothic Age.” B shrugged as his Unown bobbed by Lynda, its buzzing and chirping apparently agreeing with its trainer. “... Right.” Shaking his head, Charlie extended his hand to help B up. B nodded and stumbled as he got back to his feet - and again seemed to forget to let go of someone’s hand, this time Charlie’s as he turned to go back to Professor Apple. Thankfully, his grip wasn’t exactly very tight and Charlie’s hand slipped away easily. Mia glared down at Phil and her Poliwag. “Right. Professor Apple, I have a question - can we trade starters? Like with you-” She pointed to Lynda. “Still a water type either way.” She then glanced at Sully. “Or you.” Either one worked for her, even if these pokemon so far seemed unusually sedate.