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It wasn't every day that Connie was instructed to help with the transport of warehouse goods at his current stable job, but with the weather as bitter cold and standing as it was, it left a bit more hardship than usual in its wake. There was no snowfall on the streets of the city, but it had been frosty enough to threaten in kind. While the tauros was not about to judge someone based on hearsay or assumption, the number of employees at the warehouse that had suddenly come down with the flu was still subject to skepticism. Then again, there was probably something going around, and it was very possible one of the other employees was the carrier of the illness, unknowingly transferring it to the others over the past week. Regardless, Connie couldn't help but feel grateful that he didn't usually come down with that sort of thing... especially considering he really needed the money.

So Connie accompanied one of the other employees on an inventory run instead of merely loading the truck up and organizing materials at the warehouse itself. They may have been short-handed, but there was more work to be done on the deliveries and stocking portion of the business than making sure everything was in its rightful place. Unfortunately, that happened to lead to other problems, such as equipment not being carefully monitored.

The trucker kicked at one of the truck tires in frustration, pulling a ball cap off and rubbing a palm to his forehead, "I can't believe this; they didn't check to see if this thing was up to running this distance at all, did they?" He tossed his spent cigarette into the dirt road and scuffed a foot over it, thinking over what their next course of action should be. Connie, meanwhile, took a peek under the hood, as though he could be of any help in that area, but he was no mechanic. They had just been heading back along a path through the forest, but the truck seemed to only be equipped to handle a one-and-a-half way trip. After a moment of deliberation, the tired trucker piped up, "Okay, so I guess I will head to the nearest town and get someone out here. You stay here and keep an eye on the merch, got it? It shouldn't be more than... two hours, tops."

Connie cringed a bit, but gave a quickly decisive nod, "Sure thing. You'd know what to say to them more than I would." Connie grew up on a farm as a pokémon, after all, he wasn't the actual trucker; heck, he didn't even have a driver's license for a regular car. Besides, he knew the trucker wasn't all too hesitant about getting some time away from the teen as it was, so there was no real downside to this arrangement.

He waited until the man was out of sight before Connie took a moment to rest. He fiddled and prodded at the inside workings of the diesel engine for a bit more before he decided to close the top. There was no use getting anything caught in the engine if it was just going to sit here for a few hours, considering it would have been highly likely one of the trees would have dropped something inside; he didn't need more of that hassle. So instead, he meandered over to a nearby tree where he could keep vigil on the entirety of the truck and sat himself down. Pulling out a deck of cards he usually kept on-hand, the teen started flipping the top card idly in his hands as he waited.

Normally Connie would have been paying closer attention to the truck just a few yards away, and it would have been easy to see the small celebi scoping the large vehicle out. In fact, it probably would have been downright amusing, with the curiosity exhibited, but the teenaged tauros was too preoccupied attempting to locate a card that had the misfortune of catching a small updraft when he had been spinning it between two fingers. It had not gone far, snarled in a bush to the side of the tree that Connie had been using as the back to a seat, but he had to reach in a bit to retrieve it.

His arm had just grabbed hold of the hiding card when the blaring of the horn cut across the silence of the air. Connie jolted violently, the card slipping between his fingers and falling further into the stomach of the bush. Jumping to his feet, the teen had to temporarily forget about regaining the missing piece to his deck of cards in favor of actually doing what he was ordered to do for his job. Was someone actually trying to hijack the truck? Way out in the middle of nowhere, and so soon after the driver had left? Not that the truck could really get very far, if that was the case, but...

Inching closer to the open window, the tauros-teen hissed quietly, noting that it was probably the driver that had carelessly left the thing open. Connie didn't really care for the cigarettes the man smoked, what with the awful smell they created, but this was just another tally to that dislike. Taking a closer look at what had bumped the steering wheel, he saw the frightened little celebi. Surprise probably wasn't close to what he was feeling at the moment, waving the small legendary over, "Oh hey, you alright little guy?" He wasn't going to take his chances at reaching in for it, considering he wasn't sure how abrasively the pokémon was going to react to all the stimulation.

Connie's hand fidgeted slightly at the sudden attack to the teen's horns, but nothing further was done on the matter. He tried to glance up at the celebi on his head, but the angle made such a feat nigh impossible without a mirror. Regardless, he could feel the shuddering of the celebi's body through his hair, eyes turning back towards the steering wheel as the obvious culprit. He couldn't help but snicker at the questions, and swatted the truck's door to give a poignant response, "You could call it a beast, I suppose. It's just temperamental when you hit it wrong. Um... kind of like stepping on a rattata's tail, or any long-tailed pokémon, for that matter." He moved himself away from the vehicle so that the small pokémon on his head didn't have to worry about the proximity of the posed threat, "It's called a truck. It helps carry things that are too big or too much for someone to carry on their own. Don't worry, it's all bark and no bite."

He blinked, noting the sorrow laced through the shivering celebi's words; he hadn't even needed to say that he was lonely for Connie to be able to pick up on it. He thought it over, spotting the glove compartment on the passenger side of the truck, "I might be able to help with that. You're not a carnivore, are you?" He doubted it, but Connie didn't exactly carry around meat products, so it was better to be on the safer side and just ask...

Watching with a start as the celebi snatched up the clipboard pencil, he followed the movements of the little pokémon before it hopped back out of sight and returned to his perch on Connie's head. "It... died?" he asked, amusement following as soon as the words left his mouth. The celebi really wasn't familiar with anything man-made, was it? Honestly, it was just a pencil, so he didn't really see the problem in letting the little guy have it; offices tended to be littered with those things, so they were sure to find a replacement with relative ease. "Hey, you have a name, little guy?" he asked, not wanting to potentially offend the young pokémon by referring to his size in a nickname.

Connie nodded in response to the small celebi's queries, keeping mindful not to shake it enough for the pokémon to potentially slip and fall off his head. He moved over to the body of the truck, tapping lightly on the steel-colored ribbed walls, "Yup, it's hollow back here so you can put things in it like a backpack." Realizing this would probably sound really strange, the teenager snickered and decided to clarify, "The truck, it isn't real. It's not alive like you or me, it was made by the Gaians. That sound it made, that's something you can make it do to get other people out of the way when it's actually moving." While he wasn't sure if any of that would make sense to the celebi, Connie figured it was worth the shot. At the mention of a tail, one of Connie's even flicked at the word, "Like a tail. Did you know, to most pokémon, tails are actually quite sensitive?" Luckily, the tauros had a bit less sensitivity where that was concerned.

Mulling it over, he thought about what sort of snacks he had brought with him. He was never really used to eating poffins as a pokémon himself, having grown up on a ranch, and berries were surprisingly difficult to find in town. "I think I've got some trail mix left... that could help. We can go looking for some berries if you don't like that," he offered, walking to the opposite side of the truck in order to retrieve the bag from the glove compartment on the passenger side. Truthfully, though, he doubted the chilly weather to allow for berries to grow, but maybe the celebi wouldn't mind settling for dried cranberries? "A carnivore is someone who eats meat," he explained, "It doesn't sound like that's what you are, which is good; I'm no carnivore, either!" When the celebi complained of the cold once more, Connie held his hands up, as though to catch the pokémon on his head, "Here, I can keep you warmer if you hop down here; I'm sure the altitude isn't helping, and I don't have enough hair for proper insulation." He blinked, one hand shooting back down to pull his scarf off and back up again to offer it as well, "Here, this should help, too. I think there's a blanket in the back of the truck... we'll grab that once we've gotten you something to eat."

It was a bit trying for Connie to hold off a snicker at the fairy-like pokémon's recollection of the last days of his old pencil, but luckily his grin was below the pokémon's current line of sight. "Well at least it went out doing what it loved to do. That was very sweet of you to give it a proper burial," he commented as he opened the door to the passenger side of the truck. "Brennen? That's a very nice name! My name's Conrad, but go ahead and call me Connie; I prefer it," he introduced, popping the glove compartment open and pulling out a plastic bag of trail mix. Opening the top, he offered it to Brennen, "Think you might like this?" He was willing to keep looking for something, but this was the first item of food that he could come up with, considering it was his lunch. Eh, Brennen seemed to need it much more than the teen did.

"That's right!" Connie chirped, glad that the little celebi was able to catch on so quickly to the idea of an inanimate object. After all, he had been tempted to liken the truck to one of the trees or bushes in the surrounding area, but those were also living things, just in a different way. Oh, though he did have something that he could compare it to! Pulling at the collar of his shirt, he elaborated, "Yeah, like these clothes, for instance; they're not living. The truck is made out of different material, though, so it's a lot tougher than these." Waving his uppermost tail in response to Brennen's exclamation, Connie snickered, "They're more useful when you're a full-fledged pokémon, but at least I got to keep them when I grew." It was nice, being able to keep that familiarity, if nothing else.

Seemed that Brennen had already attempted to look for berries within the forest on his own, already knowing what the futile search for such sustenance would result in. He was afraid of that... At least there was something that Connie could do about that for now, but how did the celebi usually stake out the wintertime weather? "Well then it's good that you aren't, because I don't have anything a carnivore might want to eat," he grinned. Perhaps he would have answered Brennen's trail mix question, but he thought it best if the celebi tried it out for himself to determine whether or not he'd like the snack. Attempting to peer up at the pokémon on his head again, he insisted, "But it's colder up there!"

As Brennen bandaged up his small body in the offered scarf, Connie could imagine that the article of clothing was probably... quite large on the celebi. A blanket would probably still be best to locate, considering it was much more adept at holding the warmth in, but at least the scarf would work for the time being. "Yes, that was made by humans," Connie clarified, "Though I suppose some pokémon would be able to make something like that, too!" He wiggled his fingers at Brennen as thought to make his case, though he wasn't one for knitting. Connie snickered at the celebi's determination, but he didn't doubt the words, "I'm sure you'll be able to take much better care this time, then. You've got experience under your belt!"

Making sure the small pokémon was situated and wouldn't fall off once Connie moved himself, he smiled and accepted the mutual introduction, "Alright, Brenny it is! I can call you that." Closing the passenger-side door, the tauros-teen moved to the back side of the truck, shuffling around inside his pocket for the key to the padlock. "I think there's a blanket back here that you can use," he explained as he grabbed hold of the lock and turned the key to unlatch it. He flinched when Brennen offered a peanut, but the action was quickly overturned with a smile, pocketing the lock and key to free up a hand and take it, "Alright, I will. Thank you; I'm glad you're enjoying it!" Ahh, poffins... that wasn't something he had had in quite some time! Flicking the peanut into his mouth, he hopped inside the back of the truck, attempting to find the blanket under the cover of shadows.

Connie blinked at Brennen's reaction to his shirt, a little confused. "I just said that it wasn't alive, it can't eat me if--" he attempted to respond through the small celebi's worry before a dried cranberry was slipped down the collar. It made the teen jump, grabbing the fabric of the shirt and fanning it out in order to get the cranberry out of there -- those things could stain something fierce when squished! Instead of scolding, Connie felt it better to just go with it; it wasn't Brenny's fault that he couldn't comprehend the idea fully, being a wild pokémon with so little outside contact. "That was a close one," he snickered teasingly, patting the little celebi on the head as thanks, careful not to tweak his little antennae. "It's not eating me, I wear it to keep myself warm," Connie explained, "That way I can still work on things that I need to and not get too cold. I've read about how the humans make these sorts of things, it's really quite fascinating! But no, neither one of them is alive, so there's no need to worry." It would have been amusing to find out the contrary to that statement, however, and find that the truck broke down because it just wanted to rest!

"Eh?" Connie coughed at Brenny's observation as the celebi laid claim to the tauros. At first, he wondered if it was that obvious that he kept to himself in his apartment at home, without a trainer -- was something mismatched? -- until he realized the small legendary was probably referring only to the here and now. That was right, Brenny hadn't seen the truck driver, had he? Connie almost didn't want to say it, but he knew it had to be put out in the open before the pokémon got too attached, "Brenny, I can't stay out here... This truck belongs to someone that went into town. He'll be back soon to get this thing moving again, then we have to head back into the city. The city, that's where I live." Not that the tiny celebi knew what a city was, of course, but it could work as a name for the time being.

The back of the truck was mostly cleared of all the cargo it had been holding earlier in the day, the two workers already having dropped the shipment off at its destination. As such, there was very little clutter to work through in order to pinpoint the blanket, neatly folded in the far corner of the trailer; it was more a challenge to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness than anything else. Meandering over to the blanket, he took the closest edge and flipped it out, pulling it to full length, as he affirmed Brenny's questions, "That's right, it is! Blankets are warmer than scarves, though, since they're made to--" His ears flicked to the sudden clatter along the floor of the truck, eyes immediately catching sight of a soft silver flicker that seemed to tumble from the confines of the blanket, "Hello, what was that..?" Of course, it didn't register right away to the teen what exactly it was that he had spotted, nor that he had encountered this sort of occurrence but once before.

Connie's ears seemed to flick backwards at the thought, wondering if it was more immoral to leave the young pokémon to his own devices in the forest on his own... or thrusting him into such a strict alien world as the city. Either way, would the celebi really be happy? In the end, though, it really wasn't Connie's decision to make, considering Brennen seemed to be so frightened of being out on his own like he was. It was apparent that leaving him out here was much more cruel than taking him to the city, if that was his greatest fear at the moment. Besides, the teen had an adequate-sized space, especially when he compared it to such a small pokémon as the celebi was, so there wasn't an issue there. Besides, he could probably help Brenny adjust, if he planned on sticking around...

Before he could voice these observations to the little guy, Brenny was already reaching for the star that had fallen to the floor. It took him a second to recognize the characteristic look of the object, eyes growing wide in surprise. Not only that, but Brennen just touched it! "Ah! No, drop that thing!" he yelped, but the effects already seemed to be taking hold of the fairy-like pokémon. He wasn't quick enough to catch the tiny legendary before he had hit the floor again, but luckily, he hadn't had very far to fall, just having plucked jirachi's star from the bottom. Carefully, the teen scooped up the celebi and wrapped him comfortably in the blanket. "Ehh, how am I going to explain this one..?" he sighed, worried about his new little friend and the transformation sequence that was sure to throw him for a loop.