Haven sat in one of Lavaridge's parks, stretching out under the sun. Goddamn, it was hot. Of course, the sweater she refused to take off didn't help. Her arm was still wrapped to hide the scars that she wasn't quite used to.

She'd been in Lavaridge for nearly a week. She'd spent a good three quarters of that time regretting it. Haven [i]hated[/i] crowds, and Lavaridged was about as packed as an overpriced music concert -- except instead of buzzed 20-somethings clamouring to get some low-quality video with the sound blown out, it was a bunch of traumatized, bored, irritated refugees. Haven needed to get out of this damn town. 

Of course, there'd been one upside: the [i]hotsprings[/i]. They were normally too full to enjoy, but the two times that Haven'd actually managed to get in had been pure bliss. And of course, the time in the warm sand had helped to officially add a new member to their little family.

She'd hatched yesterday: a tiny yellow and white ball of fluff that buzzed around her head in happy little circles. She was something called a Cutiefly, apparently. One of the old men who'd witnessed the hatching had spent some years in Alola, where they were usually found. She'd spent her first few seconds of life trying to hold herself up in the shifting sand, fluttering her fresh wings and kicking up dusty particles. The moment she'd figured out how to fly, she'd taken off, zipping around Haven's head, between her other pokemon, to different flowers until she was absolutely covered in pollen, to different laughing strangers, then back to Haven again.

Her name was Dust. 

Everyone was in love with her, naturally. Blink doted on her, delighting in producing harmless powder for her to zip through. Lace was excited to have another playmate, the two chasing each other this way and that. Cloak enjoyed teasing her with flowers, pulling them out for her only to hide them as soon as she got close. But it was Dagger who seemed to take the strongest to their newest family member -- Haven chalked it up to the fact that they were both fairy types.

Haven... wasn't quite sure how she felt about the little pokemon yet. Her emotions were a swirl of responsibility and trauma and protectiveness that --

A figure stepped out of the shadows and approached her. She tensed. But she didn't jump out of her skin and shrink behind her pokemon like she would've a week ago. Her pokemon all stilled in their game, just [i]happening[/i] to place themselves loosely around their trainer. Haven looked up to see who it was. 

Standing before her was a teenage girl, tall, with straight brown hair and green eyes. An Espeon was close by, its tail wrapping up around her leg. She fidgeted, sadness in her eyes as she spoke. Movement in the air caught Haven's eyes and she glanced up to see Dust, predictably, zipping over to inspect the girl. Dust did one quick revolution around the girl's head as she spoke, and then...

Came back to Haven.

That was unexpected.

In the short time she'd been alive, Dust had proven herself to be an empathetic little thing, sensitive to the emotions of everyone around her. If someone was angry, she did her best to avoid them. If they were happy, she flew around them incessantly, reveling in their joy, even landing on them and trying to poke at them with her tiny little mouth as if she'd mistaken them for flowers. And if they were scared or sad, she stuck close by them and nuzzled at them, buzzing in concerned circles. 

So that this girl stood before them, nervous and on the verge of tears... that her Espeon looked so distraught, and Dust didn't react at all...

Haven filed it away in her mind. It was odd, to say the least. She held up a finger and Dust landed on it, tapping at her skin every now and then with her mouth. Haven looked back up to the girl.

[color=coral]"Uh, sorry,"[/color] she responded. [color=coral]"You're gonna have to be more specific. I've met a lot of people lately."[/color]