”Not yet!” Gwendolyn said while lagging a bit behind Robin. She had been looking at some of the berries hanging in the trees overhead, wondering if they were edible or not. Could humans ever eat those kinds of berries? Would they turn into Pokemon? It was all new for somebody that had never really stepped out of their room all that often. It took a few longer steps to catch back up with her friend who had the ability to run a mile in under a second if nobody could keep an eye on her.

”What do you think lives in this forest?” Gwen asked Robin. ”I don’t know much about the ecosystem here, but I have to imagine there’s a lot of Pokemon here.”

Gwendolyn’s heart raced nonstop at the sudden jumpscare. Sterling didn’t know or have any way of knowing, but she was scared easily. If it wasn’t for that lovely bundle of chaos that was Robin taking her to haunted houses and dealing with psychic stuff, she would have died just seeing that screen. It wasn’t much but Gwen had some resistance to jumpscares. The display was not entirely without its share of mockery. Sterling was laughing, wheezing at her performance. Her cheeks turned a bright shade of red in embarrassment. Their characters had both perished at the boss from the two of them being preoccupied. ”It’s n-not funny!” Gwen protested. It was nice seeing the stoic person begin to show some emotion for a change.

She got up from the floor and looked at the screen just in time for the game over screen to end. A sea of blood washed away the boss screen and reset back to the high score table, along with the entrance. The humiliation was something else, but if it brought Sterling out of their shell, it was worth it. ”Do you want to move to another game?” she asked them. ”Or do you want to continue embarrassing me?”

”Nice to meet you, Sterling.” Gwen smiled, ”Thanks for playing with me. I doubt I could get to the end of this level by myself. It’s nice to have somebody you can depend on.” The Ranger trainee was still new to this socialization thing. Even more so when the spotlight was put on her to be the leading partner in conversation. She felt worried about how Sterling might think of them. Was she too demanding? Did they just want to play the game in peace?

She did seem to nail a subject Sterling was interested in though. They talked for a solid few seconds about the RPGs that they so enjoyed. Gwen couldn’t help but fawn over their accent too. It was Galarian, if her knowledge of the world was up to date. She was a shut in but at least she could assume where Sterling was from. She giggled to herself, her glasses halfway down her nose again. ”Sorry, I’m not laughing at you. You sound cute when you’re talking about something you obviously like.” It was nice seeing somebody slowly coming out of their shell. It reminded her that maybe she could do the same to others some day. The boss warning screen had come up before a sudden giant skeleton head would pop up in the screen.

BOO!

A terrified yelp came out of Gwen’s mouth. Enough that people had just suddenly looked over to see Sterling’s partner fumbling to hold the gun from that sudden scare.

STERLING WARDEN      

The Magneton’s heads all whirred in unison as the Leafon sniffed around their stuck bodies. They were content with meeting her for the first time, even if it was somewhat invasive. Gwendolyn, meanwhile, smiled at meeting Wren. She was reminded of a calm and collected man that had the confidence that she lacked and envied so. Just any kind of ability to feel like they belonged in the world had seemed so unachievable to them. It was why she came to Hoenn and joined the Rangers. Alongside other reasons…

”Wr-Wren. Right, hehe…” The younger of the two stood alongside the pair before, from above, a rock was dropped nearby. It was medium sized and barely missed Gwen by half an inch. It caused her to jump back and look around for the culprit before a smug looking Bombirdier above. The Magneton was quick to act on behalf of its trainer and sent out an Electroball at the flying type, knocking it out of the sky.

”Aaah! Guys!” Gwen said, rushing over to the paralyzed Bombirder. ”Sorry, Wren! They’re just very protective. I never really caught them or learned how to command them so they just act on their own sometimes…” She looked at her empty Pokeball and then went back to the Bombirder. She could take it with her and get it healed up and then release it. No need to just leave it here. She took it out and then quickly threw it at the wounded flying type. It was captured into the ball and then gave a soft glow once it had been successful.

”Heh…No problem!” Gwendolyn said to Robin. She laughed a little at how she babied her new Munchlax plushie. Her love for the baby Snorlax was second to none. She even put him in her bag with the head sticking out. It was totally worth having to pass up some of those larger plushies up top. One was a pretty large one of a Garchomp. It was almost as threatening as the real thing. She wondered if her Goomy would be afraid of it being a dragon type as well. As they talked, somebody else behind them would be trying their luck at the Tauros game.

But as Robin teased her friend about her rushing to the game, her cheeks began to grow red in embarrassment. ”Ah-I didn’t mean to almost run down anybody.” Gwen just quietly twiddled her fingers together and even freaked out once the comment about illegal software was made. ”Stop it, Robin! I would never do that kind of stuff!” She whined, crossing her arms together in a pout. She did know it was just messing around and hesitated to laugh until the motion slipped loose from her mouth with a sensible chuckle.

”You little…” Gwen wrapped her arms around Robin in a hug, spinning her around while laughing with her.

”Y-You don’t?” Gwen asked, guffawed at Robin’s response to her apology. She did want to try and be somebody that Robin could be happy calling a friend. The sparkler died but the finale above them lit up both of their faces as they’d talk with one another. Robin’s advice didn’t fall to deaf ears. Gwen did seem to resist those ideas at first, but she came around to them. ”I know, I’m sorry. I just…I sometimes feel like I’m holding you back. You’re going to be a Ranger Captain and save people, and I’ll still be a Rookie. Just not sure of what they want to do.”

The offer to meet her again at a computer cafe was enticing. Gwen spent a lot of her time in those shops, usually browsing sales for computers or playing games. ”That would be nice. I could even show you some things I’ve been working on…” The ginger said, but then her smile turned into a frown. ”B-But I need to spend less time cooped up in a room all day. If I want to find out my purpose, I need to get out there and find it. And the only way to do that is if I see everything. E-Even if I’m scared.”

They agreed to share the game with one another, much to Gwen’s relief. For how long the silence was going on, she was certain that there was going to be some kind of result where either one of them walked away in total silence. She was happy to have somebody to play with, even. As an only child, things like this were pretty rare for her. ”Great! Um, ready to go?” She was just as nervous as Sterling was but could at least look at them where she thought their eyes were. The single word response and shaky nature gave away a sense of awkwardness. One that Gwen herself was familiar with. She said nothing and pushed a coin into her own player’s slot.

The arcade machine came to life as the game began. It was a relatively simple game, with two characters on a minecart going through a haunted house. Skeletons, ghouls, ghosts, all the classic monsters. Gwen was by no means an ace at this game judging by being the first one to take damage two seconds into the level by missing her first target. Her accuracy did improve a little bit while keeping up with stuff on her side of the screen. Still, her partner appeared to be on the same skill level.

”You’re doing pretty good!” Gwen said as they came at the first checkpoint, offering them a breather. Her glasses had slid down to the bridge of her nose but were pushed back up. Her lips curled into an enthusiastic smile. Sterling was beating Gwen by a small margin. ”I’m kind of bad at these kinds of games. I like numbers more than reaction speed. What about you?”

Gwen had been cooped up inside of Ranger HQ for the past few days. It was a whirlwind of signing forms, going through training sessions and asking if she could take apart any old things they had lying around so she could dissect them when she had nothing to do. These requests were usually prohibited unless they were so antiquated that it wasn’t worth using anymore. It was fun for the first few days, but she did need to go outside eventually. It was a pretty nice day anyway. Maybe her Magneton wanted to go outside? She called it out as began to make her way to Route 104.

By the time she arrived, the young adult had found the captain who had agreed to wait for her there. She hadn’t met all of the Rangers so far but she did remember hearing his name is passing. So Gwendolyn summoned all the courage she had and presented herself to the man standing by a sunbathing Leafeon. ”Sorry to keep you waiting, Captain Rourke.” Her large glasses hung low on her nose and almost threatened to fall off completely. She pushed them back up every now and again, this time right before her Magneton zipped by her. They floated by the Leafeon, as if to inspect it. All three Magnetites’ arms whirling around.

”I-I’m Gwendolyn. Thank you for coming out with me today. I thought it might be nice to expand my roster, a-and the instructor said he’d put me on janitorial duties for a week if I didn’t get out of the lab…”

WHen faced with a little tease from Robin, Gwen did mentally freak a bit. Even in her nausea ridden state, there was enough energy gathered to try and defuse things. ”W-Well, you’re always bouncing around and I don’t think I’ve seen you lethargic. And I could be a Plusle. Just two partners, together!” Her glasses fumbled down her nose again. They were pushed back up quicker than she could murmur out an apology but stopped as one of the booths did have something in the way back. She could barely see it, an arm sticking out amidst an army of plushies.

”Wait, follow me!” Gwen quickly grabbed Robin's hand and quickly dragged her to the game in question. It was an odd moment where all that aloofness vanished, with a fiercely determined Gwen taking control of her fate. When they arrived at the booth, she returned to her usual self. It was one of those with a moving target and a Squirtle themed water gun. The goal was to hit a bullseye to make your Tauros move to the goal before the end. Gwen paid for an attempt and readied her aim. It took a bit of maneuvering around as the target was moving erratically and it was hard to really predict where it would go, but she found her spot and just barely won.

”That Munchlax on the wall!” She told the man at the booth, who took it off the wall, the last remaining one they had. It was a stuffed Munchlax plushie, complete with berries attached to its nubs. It was cute, and maybe smelled a little bit like food, but it was handed over to Robin. ”I didn’t want anybody else to take it before you is all, heh….”