Steady as She Goes [Wild]

@mod

719

Wooo on the road

Boots crunching softly through the dirt as Jay passed the last house of Newbark and entered the official 'route' path, he paused a moment, the trees and tall grass rustling and waving around him as he slung around the bag he had received from Professor Elm, moving to the side of the route between a couple trees and leaning against a sturdy wide trunk as he took stock. It was, of course, exactly what Elm had said was in it, but seeing and counting it out himself validated it and moved it from merely information to known fact. It wasn't much in the end, but it was the basics and more then enough to start on until at least he reached the next town and could see how quickly he was running through everything.

To say Jay hadn't been the most.... pleased with the answer to his last question to the Professor would have been to put it politely, though the lengthy explanation had been in well intentions and with firm reasoning. Still, the idea of not only being asked to catch every pokemon he came across but keep them locked in a pokeball and in a PC box for research purposes, while a very effective and convenient manner perhaps for getting data, it was distasteful to him, and brought about many questions of morals and nature. He wouldn't say he was particularly philosophical or high-minded, nor that right and wrong particularly bothered him, but the unnaturalness and unnecessary-ness of it ruffled his feathers. To fight, to capture, to order, these were all direct actions that were, to some extent, within the nature of most pokemon or established the bond between human and pokemon, however much the idea of said bond may by hypocrisy to begin with. To simply capture for the sake of capturing everything and hoard it all though... it was pointless and wasteful. And to think others were helping as well... was it any wonder wild pokemon and the wilderness were slowly dissapearing under the expansion of trainers and the development of human territory? He could only imagine how bad Kanto, one the oldest established training regions, was. It was no wonder they needed Rangers so badly.

Sighing as he closed his eyes a moment, Jay decided to sourly let it drop for the moment. Adjusting his supply kit back over his shoulder, he unclipped the pokeball from his waist, tapping it's seal to pop it open. A flash of red lightning arched out and onto the ground, materializing into a small four-legged pokemon that came up to just above his knee. It's pelt was short and blue alone it's face and limbs, but it's body sported a giant fluffy white coat. A striped tail ended in a small orb, and two similarly striped ears extended from the Mareep's head, tilting as it looked up at Jay with small dark eyes. Shifting his posture away from his lean, Jay crouched before the pokemon, a hand extended slightly towards the pokemon. Clopping forward a few steps, the Mareep sniffed at the hand a moment before nuzzling his glove, making only a small bleating noise before clopping back half a step, looking up at him again as though expectant, or perhaps just waiting for him to move first. Jay hummed low in his throat a moment, thoughtful as he looked at the Mareep. A name was supposed to be an important distinction between a wild and a trainer pokemon, it was part of what made commanding them, bonding with them, and identifying them easier.

"Yarrow" Jay spoke to it, both finding and deciding the name in one. It was a common simple plant that was eaten by wild pokemon and livestock. The farm in his hometown had often had a bit of wild yarrow growing there, though he was fairly sure it wasn't native to the Alolan region at all and had been planted there at some point. The Mareep in question only tilted it's head the other way, a small mumbled bleat leaving it. Well, Yarrow it was then. "Let's go" Jay murmured softly and gruffly, standing stiffly and beginning to lead the way down the path, forging through the tall grass. Quietly Yarrow followed after, hoover pattering through the dirt and gently crushing the grass underfoot.