What were vacations for except for exploring new, undiscovered places? Sure, maybe when people made those brochures, they didn't immediately think about archeologist digs as Hoenn's main tourist destinations. However, that was hardly Artie's fault. As far as he was concerned, that was their fault for not advertising properly.

[break][break] And so what if his travel destination had also put up a few, very bold signs that he ought to watch his step and that trespassers would be persecuted? Those were obviously not meant for him. Those were for civilians. You know, commonfolk, who had to follow the rules and regulations of society.

[break][break] Arthur Finnian Vanderbilt was not one of them.

[break][break] "Kinda reminds you of Motostoke, doesn't it, Roo?" he said, half-paying attention to his phone and half to the small bird perched on his shoulder. Rocks crumbled beneath his shoes as he went down a particularly sharp incline. He threw his hands out to balance himself, and then went back to his phone, tap tap tapping away at it. Probably sending a funny text to one of his sisters. Or he was about to when, his foot broke against a foothold, sending him toppling forward. He would have faceplanted, had not for his Rookidee's quick thinking, grabbing on the collar of his jacket and flapping its wings fiercely.

[break][break] The action, while not broking flight exactly, made him hover a bit in the air. His arms and legs dangling, until it hit solid ground. What a relief! Taking a breath, he patted himself dry of the dust, making sure that his loyal sword was still latched at his side, and then looked up, cerise-colored gaze locking with that of @derrick .

[break][break] His face brightened and he waved. "Hey! You must be my tour guide. What gives, I thought you were gonna meet me at the entrance?"

[break][break] The boy's glossy ID-badge was hung in a lanyard around his neck, falling in the center of his chest, in plain sight. It read, quite clearly, Miguel Smirnov, archeologist.

[break][break] Yeah, definitely, he was allowed to be here.

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To be honest, @derrick looked more like a Hot Topic reject with that blazing blue hair than tour guide. Or maybe he was the lead singer in a garage band in his mother's basement? But hey, Artie wasn't here to judge. Yeah, he was definitely the opposite of judgemental.

[break][break] The boy's face broke into a wide smile as the other responded to his greeting, nodding empathetically. Good to see that someone understood his terrible plight. Though, honestly, Artie wasn't sure whether they had left him, or he just hadn't been invited. The website had been too difficult to navigate (maybe because he wasn't supposed to navigate it..?) so he had just absolved to forgo it all together. Things usually worked out in his favor one way or the other, anyway, as was evident from the easy way that it had been to swipe the ID on the table at the entrance of the site.

[break][break] "Yeah, maybe," he said with a careless shrug. "I've never been great with time, you know how it is, right?" He said with a wink, before pausing at the other's words. He blinked with confusion, and then looked down at the ID badge around his neck. Oh yeah, right. "Oh, this?" he said, tugging at the glossy badge. "This isn't mine."

[break][break] Ignoring the other's question about fossils - since it didn't pertain to him - Artie decided to walk around the other man, and instead oogle at some of the ground types that were still making their way through the site. There were a few Timburr and Conkledurr mingling about, as well as Geodude and Machamp. It didn't seem like they were any short of muscle. But where were all the archeologists and fossils the dude was talking about? Honestly, it was all a bit boring.

[break][break] There was, however, something of interest.

[break][break] "Hey, dude," Artie said, pointing at two suspicious looking characters that were huddled over what appeared to be a collection of bright gems and pocketing them. "Those your friends?"

[break][break] Probably not. Though, Artie figured he'd ask Mr. Mulletman anyway.

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Oh, an archeologist had lost it? Artie looked down at the badge, rubbing his thumb against the glossy sheen. The face that stared back at him was a blond, blue-eyed guy, not unlike him, but unlike him, he looked like a total dweeb. He had this shy, almost awkward grin and definitely looked like the kind of guy that would misplace things. Or at least, that was Artie's opinion of him. It was unfortunate for him - this Miguel - but the whole situation was fortunate for Artie.

[break][break] He looked back at @derrick as he explained the situation, and found himself nodding in sympathy. "Yeah, that's unfortunate, " he said, though his voice sounded more distracted than it did sympathetic. Though, it did make sense - was why the ID had been so easy to swipe, since the guy was the type of person to lose things.

[break][break] Perhaps the normal thing to do would have been to relinquish the tag once realizing the situation at large. However, of course, Artie was many things but normal was probably not one of them. Distracted, he stepped around the blue-haired man and instead found his attention on the two other individuals in the nearby area, two individuals who somehow looked even more suspicious than a blaze blue punk rock kid, and a thief.

[break][break]Also, to be clear, Artie wasn't the whole steal-things-cause-it-was-fun thief. He was a in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time thief.

[break][break] At least, today he was.

[break][break] The blond watched as @derrick ran past him to yell at the two actual thieves, glowering at them and demanding that they empty their pockets.

[break][break] 'Oh shit, bro,' one of them said.

[break][break] 'Bro, let's fucking git!'

[break][break] Before Derrick and his rather imposing pokemon could so much as speak another word, the two intruders scrambled to their feet and sprinted. However, they weren't sprinting exactly. The gravel beneath their feet rose as two Dugtrio aided them in their flight, leading them further down the excavation site and down an incline. "Huh," Artie found himself saying, shocked into stunned silence. What the heck? He'd never seen anything like that before. A laugh bubbled to his lips immediately, and his fingers clutched at his chest, grabbing at his shirt fabric. "Hahaha! That's hilarious!"

[break][break] He appeared suddenly behind Derrick and his pokemon, slapping the other on the shoulder. "Your friends are hilarious, man." With his other hand, he grabbed the pokeball at his waist and released Badar. The Sealeo appeared loud greeting, slapping his fins against the ground. Artie pointed in the direction the two thugs had disappeared to. "Badar, help us catch up with them!"

[break][break] Surely enough, the ice-type opened his maw and released a Blizzard aimed at the ground, just parallel to where the two thugs were riding down the incline on their ground types. It created a perfect icy slope, and as a prince of Circhester, Artie was perfect apt at skiing. He turned to his companion, @derrick , and grinned cheekily at him. "We gotta beat 'em to the bottom, right?"

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Maybe the garageband singer was smarter than he looked. He seemed to immediately understand Artie's intentions, and even praised him for his quick thinking, even pumping his arm in the air to show off his fire-like spirit.

[break][break] Or maybe not.

[break][break] In a split second, the taller man disappeared from Artie's line of sight - he slipped on the newly created icy road, immediately sliding down the slope belly-first. The blond was stunned -- but only momentarily. "C'mon Badar, let's go!" Grinning, he hopped on the Sealeo and slid down the icy road right after @derrick , but no doubt, more graceful than the other.

[break][break] After all, he was a prince. It was only to be expected.

[break][break] Derrick's screams mingled with Artie's laughter in beautiful cacophony, and it was only a second before the two reached the bottom of the slope. The blond hopped off his Sealeo agiley, just in time to see the other catch up from his rather ceremonious crash into a rock. What was the phrase - idiots couldn't get hurt? Or was it that they couldn't get sick? Either way, it seemed that Derrick didn't seem to be injured, which was a good sign. It would have been inconvenient if he was. Not to mention pretty gross.

[break][break] Once again, Artie was praised, and he smiled brightly at it, but the words also had him tapping his chin in thought as he looked around. It was true - where had those thieving rats gone? There was a sudden thunk and Artie looked up, just in time to see the two thieves crash into the very same rock, the jewels spilling from their pockets.

[break][break] They on the other hand didn't appear to have escaped unscathed.

[break][break] "I think," Artie said, with a bit of a laugh. "I found them."

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He wasn't laughing at him. At least, not mostly. Though even if he said it, it wasn't like @derrick would have understood — then again, maybe he would. So Artie decided to tell him.

[break][break] "I wasn't laughing at you," he quipped. "I was laughing with you." The fact that the blue-haired man had not - actually - been laughing was negligible. Or at least, it was to Artie.

[break][break] Either way, there was a distraction in the form of the two thugs that drew both of their attention, and of course, @derrick was quick to jump to the scene of the crime. He headed over to the two thugs, who were groaning from the effort of their crash. As it turned out, they were not as durable as Mr. Hot Topic over here, which was a good thing. Artie watched with a bit of appreciation as he cuffed the thieves and picked up the stolen jewels.

[break][break] Curiously, the blond looked over to see the shiny gems that Derrick had in his grip and with permission, of course, reached over to roll one into his palm. The gleam reflected in his ice-blue eyes, before he turned them back over to the other. While nice, they weren't of particular interest to him — the family safe had more than their fair share of similar ones.

[break][break] Instead, he commented, "You know your way around those handcuffs." There was a bit of a twinkle in his eye, as he stepped to @derrick . One of his shoes crunched against one of the thugs' palms that were laid against the floor, an unpleasant crunch following. Again, unfortunate, but had nothing to do with Artie. He smiled blithely. "Could you teach me?"

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Had Artie meant his words? Had he meant the suggestive tone that unwittingly had gotten attached to them? Probably not. More likely, they were an impulse, like nearly everything that Artie tended to do, and he hadn't thought too quickly about it.

[break][break] It was a good thing, then, that his blue-haired companion didn't seem to understand the innuendo either, the words flying straight over his head. "Oh okay," he said, though his words didn't sound quite disappointed. In all actuality, Artie had absolutely no interest in entertaining the thoughts of someone who might be practiced with handcuffs. As far as he was concerned, that seemed to be the act of subordinates. "You just seemed like you knew. Maybe you're just good with your hands?" A laugh escaped him.

[break][break] One of the grunts gave a small groan as Artie stepped off his hand and around him, rocks crumbling beneath his Louis Vuitton shoes. His hands twisted behind his own back. "Oh? Skiing? Yeah," he said, reaching around his pocket to return Badar to his pokeball in a flash of light. Better to return the seal back to his pokeball, just in case he got into more trouble. Just before, the Sealeo had been bothering some Geodude who'd wandered a bit too close. "You get to do a lot of that in Circhester." His eyes twinkled as he turned back to look at @derrick. "You ever been?"

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Apparently, Artie's joke had not been entirely off base. His eyes were drawn to the other's hands, as the blue-haired man began to talk about how he worked with machines.

[break][break] The blond's nose scrunched up slightly. He could never do such rough work, personally. Not that, of course, he was against it. It was just something that didn't really interest him. It seemed all too messy, and just extremely, not fun. Though, he was glad for subjects like @derrick here that he did work with them. Someone had to, and it certainly wasn't going to be him.

[break][break] "Funny," he quipped. "I would've never guessed."

[break][break] Still, he thought the guy would've been better suited to be the lead singer in a garage band.

[break][break] The conversation carried on, and Artie - as usually - was completely oblivious to the way that he stood out at the work site. As the other ground pokemon and workers milled about, it was only the blond who seemed to be wearing a clean dress-shirt and expensive shoes. Of course, this was not a fact that Artie paid attention to, since it was just normal to him.

[break][break] "You're from Galar?" The prince blinked, and if there was at all a moment of fear or hesitation in his eyes that the other might actually know him, it was brief. It was quickly stamped out as the other introduced himself and Artie grinned. "It's Artie. Or Finn, that's my middle name. Nice to meet you, Derrick."

[break][break] A pause, and he added. "You know, you're cute when you blush."

[break][break] Then a wink.

[break][break] Then, Artie's gaze traveled back towards the incline they had fallen down and then he heaved a big, dramatic sigh. "It's one thing going down, but another thing coming up. Wish there was a lift that could take you right up."

[break][break] He paused, and then his head turned back to @derrick. There was something thoughtful in his gaze. "Unless you want to carry me up?"

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