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Blank looked around as he entered the greenhouse in Professor Sycamore's lab, his strange, pupil-less eyes taking in the sights around him. He could still remember the first day he'd stumbled into the place three years ago, bruised and bleeding, with few memories beyond that of cold, pain, and a one-eyed man... the professor had patched him up and helped him get settled in, even giving him his name - "a Blank name for a blank slate", as the young man had commented. Fast forward, and now Blank was ready to start his Pokémon journey... all he needed was a starter Pokémon.
Of course, that led to his current dilemma: due to a fresh batch of trainers having taken the Starters the other day, Blank had been given a Pokéball and allowed to roam in the greenhouse to see if any of the Pokémon caught his eye. Of course, most of them were rather wary of him; as good as he was at keeping his abilities reined in, most of the Pokémon could still sense his power. Not that Blank could blame them - even now, he could feel the ice and snow within begging to be set free, held at bay only by sheer force of will. 'Focus, Blank... just focus on getting your Starter Pokémon...'

Blank blinked as he heard a soft scurrying sound, looking over at the source of the noise. "Huh... someone there?" he murmured, curious. Sure enough, he noticed a pair of blue eyes watching him, and he caught a glimpse of orange fur through the foliage - some sort of furry Fire-type? He mentally went over the list of Pokémon he knew lived here that fit that description, coming up empty; either it was a new addition, or it was so shy that he'd never had the chance to meet it.
Perhaps it was the curiosity in the mystery Pokémon's eyes, or maybe it was the fact that it was the only one he'd met so far that hadn't flinched away. Whatever the case, Blank found himself sitting down, watching and waiting patiently, body language managing to convey a silent invitation for the Pokémon in the bush to come to him.

Well, the little Flareon was definitely flinching, but Blank got the impression that it was less in fear of him and more in fear of, well... everything. 'What kind of trauma has this Flareon been through, that she's so terrified of others?'
Without thinking about it, Blank's gaze softened, and he reached down with on cool hand to softly stroke the Flareon's fur, careful not to spook the little Fire-type... well, spook her more than she already was, anyway. "It's all right... I'm not going to hurt you," he murmured soothingly, his own ice powers protecting him from the heat of her fur. "I'm Blank; it's nice to meet you."

While the average human couldn't understand Pokémon, Blank could occasionally snatch snippets of what a Pokémon was saying - not much, but a little. In this case, what he got from the Flareon's speech was "something something Blaze", though given the context it wasn't all that hard to fill in the blanks. "So your name's Blaze, huh? It fits you." He lightly scratched behind her ear, vaguely recalling that most canine and vulpine Pokémon liked that.

Of course, Blank didn't know that, though it probably wouldn't be hard to figure out; that aside, he was quickly coming to a decision concerning who he wanted to be his Starter Pokémon. Still, he didn't intend to force her into anything, so rather than pressing his Pokéball against the Flareon like any other Trainer might, he instead pulled it out and gently put it in front of her, a silent offer to become her Trainer. If she refused, he'd be disappointed, but he'd understand. In the meantime, he continued stroking the furry little Fire-type, that same gentle smile on his face.

Blank's smile only widened. "It's an honor to have you as my Starter, Blaze," he murmured, clearly happy to have his first Pokémon... or as he liked to think of it, the first of hopefully many new friends. He held Blaze a little longer, then stood, shifting the little Flareon so that she could stand on his shoulder. "We should probably go see the Professor, now, and let him know that I've picked you as my starter... or would it be more that you picked me as your Trainer?" he mused lightly. He had few illusions about how the Trainer-Pokémon dynamic worked - on one side you had a feeble human prone to all sorts of biological weaknesses, and on the other side you had a group of powerful, durable creatures which could bend the forces of nature and occasionally even reality itself to their will. It wasn't exactly a stretch to assume that the only reason Trainers could handle Pokémon was because the Pokémon let them.
Blank pulled out of his thoughts as he noticed Professor Sycamore waiting outside the greenhouse, walking over to him. "Professor," he greeted the man, motioning to Blaze and adding, "I've picked my Starter. Or rather, she picked me."

(Quick check, probably should've asked this earlier: how are we splitting control of the NPCs? Or is it more of a shared-custody sort of thing?)

Blank couldn't help but chuckle softly, smiling a little himself as Blaze's head fur tickled him. "Well, I should certainly hope I'm being a good friend to her," he observed lightly as he took his Pokédex from the professor, adding, "After all, I suspect being a bad friend would earn me little more than a Flamethrower to the face."
Professor Sycamore laughed a little, used to Blank's dry wit by now. "Well, that's certainly true. So, do you have any plans on which Gym to challenge first?"
Blank nodded. "I'm thinking we'll head to Santalune; Blaze still seems pretty young, so it would probably be good to start with a Gym where she'd have type advantage." That, and the journey there would give them more time to bond and give Blank a general idea of what the best in-combat strategy would be for Blaze.

Blank blinked in surprise as he looked over, having not expected her to not even know what a Gym was; granted, his ability to understand Pokéspeech wasn't well-developed enough for him to understand the question, but the body language and confused tone managed to clue him in on what the issue was, and so he decided to give her a quick, simplified explanation. "A Pokémon Gym is a place where traveling Trainers like me challenge the Gym Leader - the Trainer in charge of the Gym - to a Pokémon Battle; sort of a spar between Pokémon, with the Trainers giving their Pokémon orders in how to proceed. Most Gyms tend to specialize in a specific type. Win a Gym Battle, and you get the Badge for that gym to show you beat it. Get eight badges, and you get to take part in a special, tougher series of battles called the Pokémon League." Blank then frowned slightly in concern as a thought occurred to him: was Blaze even the type to be interested in battles? After all, she'd frankly struck him as being more of a cuddler than a fighter. "Er... do you want to battle? I certainly won't force you, and I wouldn't get rid of you or something just because you didn't like battling."
Honestly, Blaze was mostly interested in the "travel and make new friends, human and Pokémon alike" part of being a Trainer; sure, he had to admit that battling had a certain appeal, but that wasn't what he was in this for, and it wasn't like the League was the only option available - if Blaze turned out to not like Pokémon Battles, then he could adapt.