"Ugh, why did we come here again, Ness?" A Vulpix moaned slightly. She rubbed through her head vigorously with a towel, sitting parked in her wheelchair. 

At Seismic Punch, a local combination gym and juice bar, there were two friends: a Vulpix, and a Dragonair. It was clear who brought who, and they hadn't anticipated the weather turning from a vague drizzle to loud, pouring rain. The location did, however, provide some shelter. The two moved past the bar area and into the gym, which had incidentally been fairly empty due to the weather. 

"Fer one, ah'm in needa some training." Ness said, in her Scottish tinge. She rested an elbow on the exercise equipment nearby, which wasn't present at their school. "Twa, there's nary wrong wi' yer arms YOU canna train..." She looked to the girl accusingly. "An' three, it's dry in here." She ended with a smile. 

Faith shrugged - she had a point, after all. "Suppose it doesn't hurt that my casts won't disintegrate--" 

She paused. For just a moment, she thought she felt a coolness pass by her - when she looked around and did not immediately see anything, she passed it off as a chill from the rain. 

"Here." Simone opened the door, leading Melody in. She closed up her umbrella. 

"Ahh!" Melody held a hand to the side of her head. 

"What is it?" Simone questioned. 

"I dunno, I just got a major head rush." 

"Probably due to the weather." Simone said. "I'll continue looking, you take a seat." 

Melody carefully moved her way towards one of the nearby empty tables and sat alone. As Ness looked past Faith, a wicked grin came into view when she saw the cute, timid thing looking around, oh-so confused. "Well, whit dae we hae here." 

Faith looked to the Abra, then looked back to Ness. "Don't you--" 

She ignored the command, slithering up to Melody's table. "Hello there~!" 

Melody jolted back at the sudden source of the loud greeting - she hadn't heard anyone walking her way. "H-Hi." 

"Ye here lookin' fer a bit o' fun?" Ness asked, trying to hide that grin of hers without knowing it wasn't quite so necessary. 

"Oh, no, I was looking for my pet, actually..." Melody said in a small voice. She couldn't quite place it, but something about Ness seemed a little too forward for her comfort zone. She closed her hands, which were resting above her knees under the table. 

"The owner says he saw something passing by a moment ago." Simone said excitedly as she moved over to them. "It must be your pet!" 

"Okay, uhm..." Faith piped up, rolling her chair their way and looking to Simone. "Ness, why don't you help her friend find this pet?" She pointed off to the side, giving Ness a look. 

"Alrighty." Ness grumbled. She gave Melody one last glance before strolling off. 

Behind those shades, Melody would have a look of confusion as to what she got herself into by coming here. Faith looked around awkwardly, then decided she should pull herself up to the table opposite of Melody. 

"Uhm, sorry about that." Faith said. "She's just a bit 'eager'..." She extended a towel for the weather outside. "What kind of pet is it you're looking for?" 

"Gastly. I'd just received her and she wandered off." Melody was wringing out her hair while the two talked. 

Faith presented the towel once more, but it seemed to go ignored. "Uhm, towel? You look a bit waterlogged there." 

"Oh! Sorry..." Melody finally took the offer and dried her hair properly. 

In hopes of starting more conversation, Faith shared a thought. "It's odd, you don't see many pets around here. Except for helpers like mi--" She stopped mid-sentence, taking notice to Melody's inattentiveness and shades. "Ah..." 

"You have a guide pet too...?" 

As if on cue, a small chiming came from Faith's backpack, and a tiny feral Chimecho popped out, hovering between the two. "Chime chime~" Melody giggled at the cute sound it made. 

"This is my good friend Jingles!" Faith presented. "He keeps an eye on me if I ever need medical attention. What's your pets name?" 

"Circi. She doesn't seem to respond to the name very well yet." 

"Well, I'm sure those two will find her, Miss..." 

"Oh, right. I'm Melody - Melody Summers." 

"And I'm Faith Sumisu of the Sumisu shrine. It's nice to meet you!" She smiled. "Are you new here?" 

"First week." Melody said. 

"Oh? I haven't seen you at the high school." Faith said thoughtfully. "Then again I'm not staying in the dorms." 

"Oh, not high school..." Melody realized. She hadn't guessed that this Faith person was... probably around her age, and was probably not in this particular position. "I'm from the VCC." 

"College??" Faith asked in surprise. She cleared her throat when she saw nearby people look her way. "Sorry, it's just... you seem young for it." 

"Yeahhh." Melody gave a sheepish shrug. "My dad seemed pretty confident that I could handle it instead of taking two more years of high school." 

"You must be pretty smart." Faith thought. "Tell me about yourself, hm?" 

"Well... I like to read, I guess." Melody tried to describe herself as best she could. "Fantasy stuff, mostly." 

"Ooh, I'm a fantasy freak myself!" Faith said excitedly. "Do you have a favorite series, or... do tabletop stuff?" She asked expectantly. 

"Oh, I loved Harry Potter as a kid, and recently got into The Black Prism... but I've never met anyone who could teach me how to play those games. They sound interesting." 

Faith's tails were all a flutter. "Maybe I could invite you with a friend some time!" 

"I'd love to." Melody smiled at that, genuinely. 

"Great!" Faith said. "Just to give you a warning, I could go on about all kinds of geeky things - Magic The Gathering, giant robots, any cartoons that have been a bit in the last few years - feel free to stop me if I ramble." She paused, thinking for a sec. "Have you got a phone I could call, or a dorm number at least?" 

"I still haven't memorized our phone number, but the VCC dorm is GB15 - you might be able to find it on their website. I should ask Simone, sorry." 

"It's okay." Faith giggled, "Is Simone that friend of yours?" 

Melody nodded, "She's a bit perky, and nice." 

"Perky? Ness said that too." Simone walked over, having Circi in her hands. She seemed to be a bit wet, but had a closed umbrella wrapped around her wrist. 

"Did you find her?" Melody asked. 

Circi left Simone's hands, swirling over to Melody and rubbing against her face affectionately. 

"Where's Ness?" Faith looked to Simone. 

"She just kind of came back here on her own." 

Faith looked over towards the gym, where she could see Ness looking over as she slithered by. Ness lifted her head in a smug manner when Faith saw her and continued on - it seemed, based on Simone's comment, she probably wasn't happy about being paired up. Faith rolled her eyes and brought her attention to Melody again, seeing her happy with her pet. Jingles even came over, and Circi licked him, to his surprise. 

Hearing Faith's pet again, Melody realized. "By the way, why do you need a guide pet? You said medical attention?" 

Simone looked over to Faith, seeing she was in a wheelchair. She started to raise a finger to Melody, but kept quiet, looking back to Faith with a bit of concern over whatever may have happened to her. 

"My bones are kinda brittle and, well, I don't have the best of luck keeping safe." Faith admitted. "But I always bounce back." She ended positively. 

"I feel like I missed a lot." Simone looked between the two. "Do you think I should leave you two alone? I should leave you two alone. Oh! I just HAVE to try one of the fruit drinks here." Simone stepped back until she eventually darted for the bar, an excited smile on her face. 

Faith started to insist that it was okay, but... before she could lift a finger, she was gone. "I can see what you mean about her." 

Curiously, Melody tried once again to use her aura vision. At this point, she thought Faith seemed nice, and even if she hardly saw anything... she wanted to know what this new face looked like. Of course, as she did so, her shades dropped to the floor as she hunched over suddenly, holding her head. Circi floated above her, looking down in curiosity. 

"Melody, what's wrong--" Faith wanted to jolt forward, but she was stopped by her own current physical status. 

"Sorry, I was just..." Melody tried feeling around for her glasses. "I may be blind, but I've learned to use my psychic powers to see peoples' aura." 

"Aura...?" 

"Yeah, and..." Melody bumped her head lightly on the table. She got her shades off the floor and held them nervously now that she had come back up. "Ever since I walked in here, it feels like... I dunno what." She stopped herself. She couldn't put into words, what a person with eyesight would say, to describe looking at the sun. "It just kinda hurts my eyes right now when I use it." 

A guilty wince came across Faith's face at that description. "Uhm, just, give me a sec." 

Melody paused fiddling with her shades as she heard Faith breathing for a moment. Almost like concentration. 

"Try it now?" Faith asked. 

Melody looked forward. Without her shades, a vague hint of something glowing in her closed Abra eyes could be seen. She had felt that shining feeling wash over her once again, but the dangerously bright aura began to fade back until she finally saw a somewhat defined silhouette of Faith sitting across from her, seeming sheepish about it all. 

"I... huh." Melody seemed confused, putting her shades back on. "I can see you really well now, actually. Better than usual." 

"Heheh, yeah..." Faith scratched the back of her head. "I'm usually good about controlling my aura." 

"You can control it?" Melody asked. 

"My family has studied it for years at the Sumisu Shrine." She explained. "If you ever want to learn to develop your aura sight, I've helped teach a few students already." 

Melody paused. She felt incredibly humbled by that offer, especially with the way it was presented back to her. The chance to overcome the thing that made her who she was - and to be perfectly frank, she wasn't very fond of who she was. The chance to change that... 

"I'd be honored if you could. I-If that's okay with you." Melody stopped herself. "We just met... so it feels a little weird to accept so soon." 

"Just give me some time to heal up and I'll be good to go!" 

Now that she could see Faith, she realized that she wasn't just in a regular chair. "Oh, can I ask what happened?" 

"Not important," Faith shrugged, "These things happen a lot... at least both my arms are free, right?" She laughed to lighten the mood. 

"Mmhmm." Melody nodded with a quick smile, nervously. She wanted to play along, because she felt there was something to admire about this girl - her ability to bounce back, as she called it, impressed Melody. She wished she had that kind of confidence. 

"Usually at times like this I'd ask you to sign the cast, buuut... would you like to try something?" 

"Like what?" Melody wondered. 

Circi eyed Faith curiously - she giggled as she saw the pet watching her pull the brush from the bag hanging on the side of her wheelchair, then moving over to Melody as close as she could. "Okay, hold out your hand - it might tickle a bit." 

Melody trusted her. With a hand held out, the ink was applied. After taking Faith's cue, she pressed it against one of her leg casts, leaving a purple handprint among the names signed. As the two smiled in silence for a moment, Simone walked back over - arms crossed, pouting a bit. 

"No pomegranate on the menu, hmm." Simone remarked. "Melody, now that the rain's cleared up, why don't we go somewhere else for a drink?" She then leaned in between the two. "Between us, I don't think the menu has a lot of variety here." 

Faith chuckled, "I'm going to be here for a while, but you two have fun. It was nice to meet you, Melody." 

"You two." Melody nodded. "Tell Ness I said thanks for finding Circi." 

"I'mmm sure she'll be glad to hear it..." 

With that, Simone gave Faith their number and the two would carry on. Melody's life here at the VCC would have its ups and downs - but overall, she couldn't complain.