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Umlaut looks incredibly content and satisfied with himself after the successful jumpscare, which only causes Cass to groan. She glares at her pokémon, deciding to deal with him later - doing the pointer-middle finger eyes on you gesture several times with an intense stare - and walks over to her friend first. "Sorry, Umlaut's- you know. I thought it's better to have him out of the ball, so I can keep an eye on him, but he just manages to always disappear."

She reaches a hand out, should Thea need some physical reassurance. "How are you?" she whispers, motioning for Thea to also take a seat while also cleaning up something of the mess that Pic has made. Jon's also workin on it, and, in fact, the Smeargle as well, having realised for once that maybe, he should behave. At least Pic was trying.

"Everthing alright?" she couldn't help but ask another time, worried.

In the meanwhile, Umlaut doesn't really have any regrets, and instead trots over to the Wigglytuff, eyeing its laughter curiously. He would also try to poke it with his various tentacle-like arms ... or legs? limbs.

Thea Naito

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"I'll give him a talking later," Cass reassures Thea, even if ... "I'm not sure how effective it'll be this time, but maybe he'll learn sometime." There's still a sigh of exasperated fondness as she glances at her pokémon interacting with Gominha. They're all idiots, but they're her idiots. "If you got any tips, I'm all ears."

Pokémon are the topic she might be the most open-minded about, while she's extremely reluctant to receive help in other areas. She has a prideful nature, and combined with a strong facade, that's always a fun situation.

Umlaut's willingly giving Gominha one of his tentacles to hold, and then another. Then, he'd try to launch the Wigglytuff into the air- but catches Cass' warning look, so he relaxes his tensed up limbs again.

"Mh-hm ... is it just me or did they give us more homework than before?" Cass grumbles, sighning as she reorders her setup to also accomodate Thea joining her. She likes building walls of books around herself, but that isn't working too hot if you're studying with someone else. It's also a moment for her to carefully hide away that she's revising the notes from two weeks before again. "What should we start with first?" she asks.

Pic and Jon are also helping with the reorder effort, but Jon is mostly doing so by keeping out of the way - he doesn't want the books to have any accidental stains on them. Pic, on the other hand, is not really concerned, and casually adds "improvements" to the covers of Cass' notebooks. (He's tried the school books before, too, but he doesn't want to experience that scolding ever again.) "Martin should be back with some history books soon." And he hopefully hurries before Jon's smell picks up again.

Thea Naito

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Cass smiles fondly at Thea's tips, and makes some mental notes, too. "I'll see ... I've only gotten Umlaut recently, so it's probably gonna be more of a rocky journey, but hey-" she says, then just manages to discourage the Toedscruel from launching the balloon pokémon. "We'll do it one step at a time."

Umlaut seems to make some cackling noises at Gominha's indignation, and continues to trot alongside her while she was inflated, and also decides to stick around the Wigglytuff generally for now. "Hope Gominha won't be too annoyed by Umlaut ... but hey, at least he doesn't seem to want to jump anybody soon." Which, in Cass' book, is a win. She also does chuckle as she sees the inflated Wigglytuff momentarily - it's a really cute pokémon. (A bit too spoiled, but hey, she's not one to judge.)

Thea's words cause Cass to childishly clasp her hand over her ears, shaking her head before sighing. "Yeah ... The joy of school. I really can't wait until we graduate," she says, frowning as she looks at the books. She doesn't hate it necessarily, but the amount of time she's recently had to invest, and ... she shakes that thought. "Let's start with that then! We gotta write an essay again, don't we?" she says, taking out her planner where she's marked down the homework list.

Thea Naito

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Cassandra basks a bit in Thea's confidence in her, then chuckles as well. "True, maybe Gominha needs to get down from her high horse sometimes. And Umlaut's honestly the most likely candidate for that that I know." He's exceptionally well at being a prankster, which might be due to his quiet nature - everything he does is somewhat unexpected and out of the blue, even if he's done it fifteen times before.

Cass nods, stretching for a moment. "It's all we've ever known so far, after all ... but I really wanna get that graduation certificate, and work on something else." There's moments where she's hesitant, but then again - she really wants to become a hairdresser.

She nods alongside Thea's description of the homework, and agrees, "I think that sounds like a good idea. Shouldn't put more work in than needed ... ah, there's Martin also - maybe he's got a few books we can use, too?" This would save them the trip to the bookshelves at least, which is something Cass tends to try and avoid. The risk of being distracted is just too bad - especially if she finds literature on Wormholes that she hasn't devoured yet, then it's over.

Thea Naito

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Cass agrees with somewhat of a grunt, but ultimately nods in agreement. "Yeah, just one more year and then ... let's see. It's also kinda terrifying, but ... I think I still like it more over last year, with two years to go."

Cass waves at her friend leaving for the bookshelves - and looks at those with a bit of yearning - before turning to Zeus and Belle. Pic's already approached those two with a flourish, eagerly taking one of Cass' notebooks and wanting to start painting these new pokémon. However, Cass quickly grabs it, and gives him his designated drawing pad. "We talked about this, Pic. This is your drawing pad, remember?" The Smeargle doesn't seem to listen too well, but instead follow a vision. He also picks up Jon, placing him next to Zeus with a thoughtful image. But ahh, there is something missing ... "Belle, if he's too much, c'mhere," Cass beckons the Minccino, offering her a protective hand.

Martin greets Thea happily as they've crossed paths, and seems to visibly redden, hiding shyly behind the flower that he carries over the books (he's strong for his size). He cooes slightly, and also spreads an extra wave of pleasant floral scents, especially those that he associates with Thea specifically.

This scent continues as they return to Cass and the rest, where lowkey chaos might have ensued. Upon seeing Gominha's fidgeting toes, Umlaut sees a chance and tries to grab them with some tentacles, lifting the Wigglytuff upside down, balancing himself on just half of his usual spread.

"Oh, no, Umlaut!" Cass shouts, but is too late to prevent him from trying completely. She lowkey gives up - at least no one's being thrown right now - and turns to the books, petting Martin affectionately as she takes the books. "Hehe, he's indeed a clever one. He and Jon sometimes are reading together, too. Or well, at least sitting over books together."

She nods, taking out one of her fancy fountain pens with black-violet ink, "Then let's get started, shall we?"

Thea Naito

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Pic raises his tail-paintbrush a bit lamentingly at Cass as she steals away one of his subjects to draw, but Cass could, actually, not care less in this moment. She would lie if she said she didn't feel accomplished when Belle wanted to sit in her lap, and she gently puts her there, content. Jon in the meanwhile relaxes a bit after the greeting from the Primeape. Gladly, the Smeargle doesn't ask for a specific pose, though he would definitely encourage it, so Jon would lowkey also glance at Zeus to see if he's striking a pose or not - otherwise, he'd just be ... his garbage bag self in all his glory.

Umlaut's shenanigans came to an end as Gominha was called to Thea's side, and Cass visibly relaxes. Until she tenses up again, because now Umlaut's takes his second favourite spot - looming over Cass' shoulder. "You're an idiot, you know that," she murmurs, but sighs. She doesn't mind that much, and it's probably better than scaring others off.

So the study session begins in earnest!

And actually goes without many incidents, if you ignore Cass stumbling over a few questions, and sneakily looking up a variety of definitions that she couldn't remember at the moment. Eventually, they would finish up, however, just as Pic's finished his drawing of Zeus and Jon, just as Martin's coming back from returning some of the books, just as Umlaut's suddenly disappeared again.

Broken from the study focus, Cass suddenly looks up alarmed as she notices the missing presence of her Toedscruel.

She manages to locate him quickly, and stares him straight into his mischievous eyes across the room near the entrance. His tentacles flex.

"Don't you effin dare," she whispers, and then leaps over the table with a jump she didn't know she had, crossing the distance extremely fast so physically tackle her pokémon out of the library.

It's only when the automatic glass doors open just in time that she notices she could've just recalled him.

She just hopes that Thea will take her stuff, too, while wrestling with her Toedscruel on, luckily, the meadow in front of the library.

Thea Naito