"Reading Comprehension" [Oleg]

[Noelle Albright]

"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike... no question, now, what had happened to the faces of the Emboars. The creatures outside looked from Emboar to man, and from man to Emboar... and from Emboar to man again, but already... it was impossible to say which was which." Noelle took a deep breath, and put down the book she was reading to her Cyndaquil, whom she had not noticed had fallen asleep. “Well… this is not at all what I expected a book called ‘Pokemon Farm’ to be about… it’s so thematic… why is this in the children’s section?”

Noelle turned to the sleeping Cyndaquil and poked her stomach. Lazily, the Pokemon opened her eyes slowly.

“Psst… Flare... Hey, Flare... Wake up. I’m not done reading to you.” Noelle held up another book in front of Flare’s face. “This one is called 1996, by the same author. The back cover says this one’s about an older brother, so maybe it’ll be less scary than Pokemon Farm.”

Flare simply snorted, a small smoke ring floating off into the air.

“Aw, c’mon, don’t be that way. We slept all day today. Instead of exploring the academy like we should’ve been doing on our free day, we took a one hour nap that became a whole six hour sleeping deal.” Noelle crossed her arms. “If we’re not doing anything physically demanding today, at the very least we’re feeding our brains. Or we can go outside and walk around campus.”

Flare let out a very long, loud yawn and then went back to sleep.

“Hmph.” Noelle pouted. letting herself drop onto her seat. “I get an amazing fire-breathing, arson-friendly creature, and all she wants to do is sleep. There’s always a catch, isn’t there…?”

[Oleg Kirrlov]

Oleg didn't like going to the library a lot. Not after what he had caused there some time ago. It made him shiver, thinking about all the trouble he could have gotten into. This time he would be wiser. He had all of his pokemon in their pokeballs, and he would not let Hoare out at all for the duration of this visit, just to make sure nothing bad would happen.

After quickly once more checking that he had not dropped his pokeballs, he proceeded to head trough the shelves. He had no real reason to be here, honestly. Just kinda walking. He then noticed someone, seemingly a girl, sitting on a chair nearby.

[Noelle Albright]

Noelle sighed. If her Pokemon wasn’t going to budge, then there was no point in staying here. As far as she was concerned, today was a bust in terms of anything productive getting done. She picked up Flare, expecting her to be lighter, but instead found herself with a 20 pound weight snoring in her arms. Flare didn’t seem to like this, thinking she was having a nightmare and flailing in terror.

“No, come on, come on. Chill out.” Noelle pleaded, struggling to keep her Pokemon stable once more. She rocked her a bit, trying to calm her down, but nothing seemed to work. Sighing, Noelle simply poked Flare in the stomach a few times, instantly waking her up. Flare, looked around, terrified, but quickly regained her composure when she realized she was back in reality. Noelle simply sighed once more.

“What am I going to do with you...?” Noelle smiled softly, her statement more endearing than angry. Still looking down at her Pokemon, she continued walking, not noticing that Oleg was right in front of her path, crashing right into him.

“Aah! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

[Oleg Kirrlov]

Oleg watched with a slight amused grin on his face as the girl fumbled around with her Cyndaquil. And then she proceeded to crash against his belly. He didn't bulge from his path, mostly thanks to his mass as he then chuckled, his mighty voice echoing as he then suddenly facepalmed.

"... Dammit. Shouldn't laugh loud. Sorry, sorry." He hissed at himself, grunting as he then stared down at the girl, this time taking better note of her features. Short, red hair, pretty nice looking eyes. All around a joy to the eye, it seems. A good contradiction to Oleg. He held his hand out. "Oleg Kirrlov. Nice to meet you."

[Noelle Albright]

“Um, well, I’m, um, Noelle. Albright. Noelle Albright. Yes. That. The one without the intermittent pause.” Noelle said awkwardly. “Um, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Oleg. This is Flare. She’s usually more of a sweetheart, but… um, yeah, not really.”

Flare snorted, a darker puff of smoke coming from her nose and wafting away.

“Don’t!” Noelle exclaimed, trying to wave the small cloud of smoke away. “You’re gonna set off the smoke detectors again. like in the dorms. Knock it off.”

Flare simply smiled smugly, that apparently being her plan all along. It would definitely get them out of the library quicker.

[Oleg Kirrlov]

Oleg quickly nodded, smirking at the cloud of smoke. "A troublemaker, eh? The smoke detectors are nothing compared to what I caused here a long time ago by accident." He snickered to himself before sitting down, grunting a bit as his back cracked. He then leaned against the table, wondering something for a while before speaking up again.

"Happened when I was reading here. My nosepass out, and scared this girl I know... Ended up with a whole part of the library being trashed and us ending up with fixing it. Good times." He laughed once more, this time more silently.

[Noelle Albright]

“Oooh…” Noelle imagined the wrecked library in her mind.

“Flare keeps doing petty troublemaking, but isn’t very big on actually destroying things.” Noelle said, setting down Flare. “I mean, it’s not that I want to commit arson on my first day...”

Noelle’s voice became almost inaudible, an eerily serious whisper. “But at the same time, I don’t not want to commit arson…”

She cleared her throat, and her voice returned to normal. “Um, anyway, so what triggered your Nosepass to… well, um, destroy the library?”

[Oleg Kirrlov]

Oleg raised his eyebrow for a moment as she whispered something. Oh well, it wasn't that important. Probably. He then laughed once more, recalling the events very vividly. "Oh, the girl that was spooked by my Nosepass happened to have her Espeon along. The bloody thing proceeded to throw whole shelves at my Nosepass... Who just kept going." He smiled to himself. "In the end, we cleaned up the library and put everything back into order."

He proceeded to lean back in his chair, still smiling to himself as he stroked his chin, feeling the coarseness of his morning shade. Should shave.

[Noelle Albright]

Flare, having been given freedom, decided to roam around the library for a bit, and then maybe return to Noelle. Maybe. If she felt like it. Maybe just another nap before she returned. Either way, it was time for her to look for a hiding spot. Finding the spot where Noelle had been reading to her, she stumbled across both the ‘Pokemon Farm’ and ‘1996’ books that Noelle left behind.

“<Stupid boring dystopian books.>” Flare stared at the books, then grinned devilishly. As the flames in her back rose, she began to load a small ember, aimed straight at the two books. Letting out a cute roar, the Pokemon shot out her ember and hit the books. “<Yes! Oh… we need a book about burning books.>”

Meanwhile. back with the humans, Noelle managed to catch a small whiff of smoke. Remembering that she had put Flare down, her heart sank.

“D-do you smell that…?”

[Oleg Kirrlov]

Oleg sniffed the air. Yes, there was a definite smell of smoke in the air. He furrowed his eyebrows before standing up, still sniffing. "I... I admit, my sense of smell is not good enough to try and find..." He sighed, reaching for one of his pokeballs. He then released Walter, his electrivire. "Sorry for the trouble, Walt... But I need some help. Books might be on fire somewhere nearby."

With those orders, Walt nodded before CAREFULLY beginning to run past the shelves, before finally reaching to the books as he instantly rushed to them, wagging his finger at Flare before attempting to put out the fire my slamming his ice caked fists against them constantly.

[Noelle Albright]

Noelle watched as Walter sped off to try and find the culprit of the fire. Noelle sighed and muttered under her breath. “Dammit, Flare…”

Flare watched as her precious fire got quite literally punched out. She stared deathly at the Electrivire then at the smoldering pile that used to be burning books.

“<HEY! What the HELL is your problem, big guy?>” Flare barked. “<Now I have to go and find two more books…>”

As she grumbled along, Flare found a nearby shelf and pulled out two more books, setting those on fire as well.

“<Go away. This is my fire...>” Flare stuck her tongue out at Walter.

[Oleg Kirrlov]

<"No! No fire. Bad. Veeery veery bad."> Walt once more wagged his finger, and once more quite literally punched out the fire, grunting at Flare. <"If you're caught burning things, you might be sent to... A bad place. Very bad."> Walt shivered a bit for emphasis, groaning.

Oleg looked to the girl, snickering a bit. "Don't worry, Walt should be able to handle the situation. Hopefully." He then took his glasses off for a moment, beginning to clean them with a rag as he then spoke once more. "So, guessing from the whole fire type pokemon thing, you're in Lava?"

[Noelle Albright]

Noelle nodded and smiled once again, reassured that Walter had everything under control.

"Yes. Lava Dorm." Noelle replied. “The application simply had a generic fire symbol, and I drew a happy face next to it, so that’s where they put me. I get to live at a dangerously close proximity to a volcano, which is freaking awesome.”

“<Quit punching my fire!>” Flare wagged her tiny arms around as Walter continued to shame firefighters across the world with his fists. “<Fire good. Fire very good.>”

Once Walter finished extinguishing the fire the mood completely changed as he told her about being sent somewhere far away. He seemed genuine about it, too. “<What? No, you’re bluffing. There’s… there’s no place like that… r-right? What do you know about that place?>”

[Oleg Kirrlov]

<"Not sure. But my trainer almost got expelled once, and... Considering we're just loaned from the academy, who knows what would..."> He shivered once more, clearly uncomfortable with the whole issue. He proceeded to sit down, wiping some sweat from his forehead.

Oleg nodded a bit, chuckling about the remark of living near a volcano. "I live at the Bolt dorm. Lotsa machinery and computers. Very good to live in." He finished cleaning his glasses as he then placed them on his head, grinning. "Although I do admit that the bloody volcano is pretty awesome. By the way, wanna go and find your 'mon now?"

[Noelle Albright]

"<I only believe you because you're ten times my size and could crush my skull with your index finger.>" Flare snorted, the flames in her back quickly extinguished. "<But you just wait until I'm evolved.>"

"Yes... let's go check on them." Noelle said blankly, staring off into the distance, the fact that Walter indeed diffused the situation peacefully, without Flare anything else burning down amazed her. "Well... he's a miracle worker, isn't he?"

As Noelle approached Flare, she turned towards her trainer, and ran at her side, pawing at her legs. "<Hey, you, human! You better not let them take me to wherever Walter warned me about!>"

Noelle simply grabbed a Pokeball with a small F written on the red side and pointed it towards Flare.

"<Hey! No! Don't you dar->"

As the red beam shoved Flare back into her Poke Ball, Noelle sighed and muttered to herself. "Yay... wonderful first day, guys."