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Anabel had about half an hour to kill before her next class - not long enough to go home, but long enough to get some gaming done. She was late to the Alpha Sapphire party, but doing her best to make up for lost time even though it was a slow process - she didn't like to move on from any area without catching every single Pokemon available.

She trailed a hand down to scratch her dog behind the ears and glanced around the courtyard. Anabel had been getting the same spotpass over and over lately... and she wanted to battle. Or trade. Or something. Randomly matching with people over the network was fun, but it lacked for communication... and being able to rub victory in other people's faces.

"Where are you, mystery Pokemon player?" she asked, fishing the stylus out of her DS.

At the sudden commotion, Anabel looked up from her pokemon battle and saw another girl standing on a table, portable nintendo console in hand.

Slowly, she raised her hand and waved to her. "Over here," said Anabel, quirking a smile at the other girl's antics. She might not have thought of going that far, but hey, this was happening.

She set her DS aside and got to her feet, right hand extended in greeting. "Name's Anabel. This is Mendel."

Mendel looked very fetching in his service dog vest; it leant an air of dignity to his otherwise patched-together look. Here was a bit of pit-bull, here was a bit of Australian shepherd, here were two eyes that couldn't even be bothered to be the same color...

Of course, he went and ruined the effect by yawning widely and leaning against Anabel's leg. It was to be expected - not every dog was cut out to be a Purina model.

Anabel laughed. "Well, that's a fun coincidence." She was willing to bet this girl spelled it differently, though... there were so many ways to spell it. (Hers being the correct way, of course!) "I was going to go get lunch once I caught a marill, but it's not spawning." She'd been surfing back and forth on the same patch of ocean for ten minutes, but, no dice. Anabel folded her DS and tucked it into her messenger bag. "I have class in about half an hour."

She shouldered her bag. "Walk with me to the dining hall?" she suggested. "I was just going to grab a sandwich and some tea."

"I'm working on a second bachelor's in computer engineering - first career didn't quite work out," she added, trying to keep the discussion going. "What are you studying?"

Anabel wavered. "Not really fancy," she said. She thought she'd be on to a master's or starting her doctorate by now, but life had had other ideas. "I just had a change of plans, so now I'm back here. Getting a fresh start, as it were. C'mon, Mendel. Heel." She tapped the side of her leg, and her dog bolted to her side.

Pursing her lips at the other girl, she asked, "You're a... freshman? Sophomore? I'm sorry, I'm not great at ages. Anyway, you have time to figure it out. But to be honest, I don't think psychology's really for anyone. I don't know what the point of doing it in undergrad is. You've got to go to med school to practice it professionally, anyway."

They headed into the dining hall, where her dog attracted a bit of attention. Anabel seemed used to it, and Mendel stuck to her side, his body language strictly business. Anabel snatched up a sandwich from the prepared food case, then considered her drink options. "So, I take it you're not getting anything?" she asked. "I mean, I see you've got coffee already."

Anabel narrowed her eyes at her near-doppelgänger. It was rude, she thought, but Annabelle was clearly not very experienced with these matters. "I was in an accident," she said, reaching into the refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of tea. Satisfied with her choices, she inclined her head towards the cash registers. "I was doing field work with a survey team. A mountain fell on me."

She smiled pleasantly and studied the other girl's face for some kind of reaction to that little tidbit.

"So, one life flight and several very grueling surgeries later, I am qualified to have a dog that's trained to know whether I'm about to faint," she concluded, stepping into the checkout line. "Lucky me, right?"

Anabel shrugged off the other girl's awkwardness - she was used to people getting weird about her situation, and if she stopped to lecture all of them, she'd have no friends and never get anything done. Better to just get past it - it wasn't like she needed anyone's pity. She had her dog, and she was capable of taking care of herself.

"Yeah, let's," she agreed, shoving her lunch into her bag and pulling her DS back out. "We could have a battle. I've gotta warn you, though - I go full ham."

She held up her DS so that Annabelle could see the numbers on her screen. "You get that?"

Anabel nodded. It wasn't fair to wail on someone who'd only finished half the game. "Definitely then." she agreed, copying down Annabelle's friend code. "And we can trade whenever."

At the mention of running out of time, she frowned and glanced at her watch. The break had gone rather fast, hadn't it? "If you have another class to get to, please, don't let me hold you up."

She should really get going as well, she thought, putting the cap back on her drink. "I'm sure we'll see each other around."