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Ruby was admittedly incredibly surprised. Perhaps it was common media and expectations about this sort of event that confused her, but being paired with a girl first was not what she had expected. Almost immediately a soft blush had formed across her face as the reality began to slowly set in. With a bit of a nervous laugh, she reached over and gently shook Elise's hand. "Ruby! My er, name is Ruby." Her flustered state only seemed to grow further as she looked at the girl across from her. It took her a few seconds to realize the mewing sound was coming from a Skitty that was trying to get her attention. Unable to help but grin, expecting this to be Elise's pokemon, she reached down and gave them a gentle pet before fully returning her attention to her date.

"So, uh, hello!" Whisper just seemed to reach down, their hand resting on Ruby's shoulder as she let out a soft breath. Trying to calm herself down, despite the serious blush on her face, Ruby just continued to speak. "So, um, I've never done anything like this before, if I'm honest. Dating is still, well kind of silly to me. But I figured this would be fun, you know? Maybe meet some cute people? N-not saying you aren't cute! I mean, you are! That wasn't..." She groaned softly, moving to hide her face in her hands for a few seconds.

With a mumbled apology, Ruby tried to get hold of herself once more. Focus! People wouldn't be interested in getting to know her if she just sat there and blushed up a storm and made a fool of herself! Forcing herself to speak, Ruby continued on. "May I ask, are you from Hoenn? I come from the Galar region, and everything here is... Well, it takes a bit getting used to, that's for sure."

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Oh no. That blush of hers was also incredibly cute. In turn, it seemed to only fuel Ruby's flustered state even more, looking away with a nervous grin on her face. Of course, the compliment in return was only adding fuel to the fire already raging. However, the realization that Elise was from Wedgehurst immediately brought her back to focus on the conversation. "I had a few friends that lived there! I lived closer to Ballonlea than any other city, though. Just a walk out of that massive forest and into a smaller forest, heh." She couldn't help but smile a little bit. Immediately being able to talk about something they both knew about made this so much easier.

When asked about her own hobbies, Ruby's eyes widened a little bit. Exploring? Cookies in the woods? That sounded amazing! She quickly spoke with an excited tone to her voice. "Oh, I used to go exploring in the woods beyond my family's cabin all the time! It's actually where I met Whisper, actually." As she says her name, Ruby glances back at her Hatterene. Surprisingly, despite Whisper being known for being aggressive and overly protective, she seemed rather comfortable and quiet for the moment. Grinning up at her, she turned back to Elise. "I used to sneak her snacks all the time! I was super little when we first met, and well that's that."

She was still certainly blushing quite badly, but now that she was talking it was hard to get her to stop. Pushing past her nerves as much as she could. "I love to explore too, honestly! I love going around and seeing the sights! Hoenn is just, so different and tropical, It's incredibly charming. But asides from that, I love to read, play games, and battle! I've been traveling around the gym circuit- Or... Rather, whatever they call it here. It's so weird to just challenge a gym leader whenever, but it's still really fun! I mean, I even made friends with one of them!"

Ruby slowly began to quiet down, realizing how excited and loud she had gotten for a few seconds. Forcing herself to laugh through her nerves, Ruby spoke once more. "So, umm, are you doing any battling? I know it's not for everyone, after all."

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Ruby immediately smiled at the offer to go exploring together. There were so many places in Hoenn she had yet to see, so many things to do, the thought alone excited her. She quickly nodded her head, agreeing wholeheartedly. Briefly glancing at Whisper to check with her, it seemed she had no qualms about this girl. It was always nice making a friend, especially one that Whisper actually seemed to like.

"The gym circuit feels... Very personal, I agree. I've already got my first badge, even! And it was a very quiet affair. I just kind of walked in, challenged them and won. But it's still very interesting. Like, there's no time limit, there's no rush. You can train for as long as you want and in the end become victorious." She nodded her head as she spoke. "The only thing pushing you forward is your own desire to, and I think that's sort of the most important difference."

At the talk of battling, Ruby simply nodded her head once more. Sometimes people did get hurt... But sometimes it was because of your battling that people didn't get hurt. It was a bit of a fine line, and Ruby seemed to appear a bit more melancholy for a few seconds. "I've always thought... the important thing is bonding with your Pokemon. You could have the best strategy in the world, be the strongest battler ever, but if your Pokemon doesn't care about you then you'll never win."

When asked about her goal, Ruby didn't quite know how to respond. "I think I would like to become the champion, but so do so many other people. I think U just mostly want to prove how strong I am, I want to better myself and become the best I can be. I was thinking abou-"

Suddenly, the bell rang and it was time to switch up the dates. Ruby's eyes went wide, and with a sudden flustered expression on her face, she hurriedly reached into her purse to grab a pen, scrawling her number down onto a napkin and handing it across the table as she had to stand up. "Uh, c-call me sometime! Maybe we can go and explore Mt. Chimney or something! I don't know, just- Uh, I'll talk to you later!"

And with that, Ruby walked away, furiously blushing. And yet, despite it all, she couldn't help but smile ever so softly.

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