How to be (a) snake

Issue #1: Moving

("Dammit, i forgot to close the window again!")
A gust of cold wind had awoken him, much to his annoyance, and as he groggily opened his eyes, he was met with the sight of the sky and soon realized that this wasn't his room.

His back hurt and felt like he had been sleeping on the floor, he decided to get up, but when trying to move, he felt like he didn't have limbs, it was as if they weren't there anymore. Confused, he perked his head up and stared at his own body, only to be met with the terrifying realization that his limbs were in fact gone, his body didn't even look human, instead, he was a long, white and pink serpent.

His eyes widened in horror, he couldn't believe the sight, ("Oh, it's one of those nightmares again...") he thought, trying to calm himself while smiling nervously, but something told him that this wasn't just a normal bad dream...

Soon after, he managed to roll over his belly and confirmed that he was indeed laying on the ground, specifically on a path of sorts, leading somewhere he couldn't see. ("A limbless nightmare, my mind surprises me more every day, lets see how this goes,") He tried to move forwards, doing everything he could imagine that a snake does to slither but it was worthless, only his neck would move. ("Why only my head? Aren't snakes supposed to be a bunch of muscles in a long meat sack?")

The next minutes were spent staring at nothing while laying motionless on the floor, ("This feels too real to be a nightmare,") then, a random thought crossed his mind and he stared back at himself, ("Pink snake, weird orbs at the tail...") realization hit him rather quickly, ("Did i turn into a fucking Dragonair!?") his breath quickened at the thought and his suspicions about this being a nightmare quickly vanished, ("I became a Pokémon... Am i dead?") he looked around aimlessly, battling with his own mind, ("No, i must have turned into some isekai protagonist!") even he felt like that was delusional. ("Yeah... that must be it...")

What he didn't notice during his long thinking session were the footsteps quickly approaching from the path he was laying on, snapping out of his trance, his eyes were filled with fear yet again. ("Oh fuck, if i'm a pokemon that must mean there's trainers and those guys especialize on catching us!") He looked to the front and started crawling with the lower part of his muzzle, using it to pull his long body forward, which proved to be very ineffective, as he looked less like a graceful meandering snake and more like a big slug crawling along the path, then something stopped him dead in his tracks, ("Us?") but he quickly shook his head and continued his very slow escape, the panic growing bigger and bigger the closer the footsteps were heard. ("Oh no, i'm gonna be stuffed into a ball and be forced to be a battle slave, i'm gonna live in the pod!") Before he could get very far, the footsteps stopped right behind him and the snake turned his head while clenching his eyes tight, preparing himself for the worst, "N- no! Please! I don't want to eat the bugs!" but when he didn't feel himself being turned into a beam of energy and sucked into a ball, he slowly opened his eyes and was met with the sight of a Floragato and a Gible wearing a tie.

"Bugs?" Asked the cat, turning her head to look around, "I don't see any... and no one eats them anyway." she said with a shrug.

"What are you even meant to be?" Asked the Gible, tilting his small body to the side as if to get a better look at him, the snake's expression was one of pure surprise, not only because of the Pokémon standing in front of him, but also because they spoke.

"Y- you can talk?" asked the Dragonair, realizing that he could do the same, ("I don't remember Pokémon being able to speak... Why can't i just wake up already?") thought his troubled mind.

"Yeah, it's strange, right?" the small dragon interrupted his train of thought, "I didn't expect talking animals to be the first thing i'd see after waking up here," he continued, stepping closer to the snake and adjusting his tie, "You're a human, right?"

The snake squinted his eyes in confusion, "H- how do you know? i- i've barely said anything..." he muttered, a hint of panic lacing his tone.

"Well, lets just say this old dog knows a few tricks," said the Gible while patting himself on the chest with his small hands, "And locals don't usually react like that."

Then the Floragato stepped closer, balancing with her paw a flower bud with a long vine attached to it that made it look like a yo-yo, "So he's like you, John? Another human?" She mentioned while looking down at the Gible, then turned to look at the Dragonair, "What's your story? Did you just wake up? You looked like you were having a lot of trouble moving around!"

The Dragonair, in response, ignored all of her questions and focused on the yo-yo hanging from her paw, "Is that... a noodle?" the two Pokémon in front of him glanced at each other for a moment, then looked back at him.

"N- No... it's clearly a vine..." she said while twirling it around her paw.

"It looks like one."

"You've probably hit your h-" Gible tried to comment but was interrupted by Dragonair.

"My name's Hans, pleased to meet you, Mister John."

"A- Ah, finally dropping the name, the pleasure is mine, Hans!" said the Gible while stretching out his short arm as if to give him a handshake, "Name's John, John Doe."

Hans frowned, both at his hand gesture and the name he just mentioned, "No it's not, no one has name!" he snapped, staring into the eyes of the Gible, who quickly put a finger over his own mouth.

"Shhh, you're meant to play along, i can't say my real name," he whispered, looking over at the Floragato absently playing with the flower yo-yo. "Don't you understand? This isn't real! It's the feds trying to control us, this is the MK-Ultra!"

"That doesn't make any sense. If they're trying to control your mind, they probably already know your name," replied Hans as if it was the most normal thing in the world, "If you don't want to use it, just call yourself Gible."

Gible scoffed in response, looking away from Hans and closing his eyes, "You clearly know nothing about mind control... and that name is lame, add Mister at the start of it, i don't wear a tie for nothing."

Hans stared at the Gible and fixated his eyes on the tie adorning its body, it didn't look like a normal tie and it was poorly tied, "Mr. Gible it is," Dragonair then looked at the Floragato, who was now sitting on the ground, staring at both dragons while they chatted.

Gible noticed this and spoke again, "That dog over there doesn't have a name, just like me." the cat got up and walked up to them.

"Yeah, we Pokémon don't usually have names like you humans do." she commented, Hans stared up at her and tilted his head, unable to recognize what Pokémon she was.

"Uh... sorry, but what are you? Are you even a Pokémon?" the Floragato in response scratched the back of her head and looked down at him.

"Of course i am! I'm a Floragato!"

"Huh, must be one of the new gen mons."

Floragato tilted her head in confusion, "New... gen? What does that mean?"

Hans realized his mistake and quickly tried to fix it, even if very poorly, he wouldn't want to cause an existencial crisis on a Pokémon he just met by telling her that she's from a game, "O- Oh, it's nothing! J- Just a human term we use when we learn something!" he muttered, then smiled nervously. "A- Anyways, Floragato is too long of a name... how about we call you Noodle?"

"It's not a noodle," she snapped back, unrolling the yo-yo in front of his face, "It's. A. Vine!" she seemed more than annoyed by something so mundane.

Hans smirked, "Yeah, but Vine is not a good name."

Floragato reeled back the flower bud and sighed, "Those names are more fitting for someone like you," she then looked around, glancing down at Mr. Gible and then back at Hans "You didn't answer my questions, Hans."

"Oh yeah! I woke up minutes ago and i can't even move, i feel like every limb was stripped away from me," he quickly replied, looking up at them both with a nervous smile, "It's terrifying! If i'm stuck in this body then i don't know what i'll do, i can't walk anymore, i can't hold things with my hands and i'm confined inside a long pink bag, i don't even know how this body works! How am i supposed to move!? I've never been a snake before!"

Mr. Gible tilted his body again, surprised by the sudden rant of the other dragon, "Well yeah, no wonder you became pink if you're such a faggot," he commented, making a gesture as if he were to cross his arms, but their length made it impossible, "I used to be really tall and now i'm half as big as this dog, yet you don't see me crying like a pussy in the middle of the road." he added with closed eyes.

"What's a dog?" asked Noodle innocently, genuine curiosity in her tone.

"F- Faggot?" answered Hans, ignoring all of the obvious advice, then tried to be nonchalant, "So what do you two do anyway? i figured there's no humans in this world so this must be..." ("Mystery dungeon? Oh fuck, the only games of the franchise i've barely played, this nightmare only gets more ironi-") his thoughts were quickly interrupted by Noodle.

"You could say we're explorers, but we're not really affiliated to a guild and we simply go around dungeons for treasure... You probably don't know what a dungeon is, right?"

Hans nodded, ("This feels like NPC dialogue...") "I- I do... D- Don't ask why..."

An awkward silence then fell upon the three Pokémon and Hans took this oportunity to try and make friends, something he was not very good at, "So... Can i go with you guys? I- I'm not strong... or sneaky... or brave..." he stopped, the two Pokémon in front of him shared another glance, "But please let me go with you! I- I'm sure i can help!"

Mr. Gible was the first to reply, albeit conspirationally, "I see, they didn't sent their smartest agent after me..."

"Sure! The more the merrier, especially if we're going to dungeons." said Noodle, already walking away from the two dragons, Mr. Gible quickly followed, leaving Hans behind.

"Uh, wait for me!" Hans shouted, slowly crawling his way towards them, barely moving the few footsteps they had taken.

Noodle glanced back and sighed, "You aren't very good at moving either," she walked back to the Dragonair and tried to pick him up, barely being able to lift him, "But you are damn good at being heavy!" she set him down on the ground again, growing a vine from one of her arms and wrapping it around his body so she could drag him along.

Hans was very embarrassed, everything about this new body made him hate it more, but at least it was better than being a slug, to take his mind off things, he tried to make small talk. "So, where are we going to?"

Mr. Gible glanced back momentarily, chuckling at the awkward sight of his partners, "Uh, something like Gaping Town, it's supposed to have a guild with humans from what we heard... You know what that means, right?"

Hans looked down in response, "That i'm not the isekai protagonist?"

Mr. Gible glanced back once again, visibly confused this time, "What!? No! It means that the feds may be in there, so i HAVE to investigate them," he let out a short laugh, "You know Hans, i used to be one of them, i know their methods, i know the way their agents work and i know you're not one of them, that's why they want to get inside my mind! Last time, there was this lettuce looking thing that shot me a pink beam right between the eyes. I think it was trying to turn me into a faggot, like you Hans," he pointed back at the Dragonair "That way i would spill the beans, but my mind and ESPECIALLY MY WILL is strong, so i cried for help and Noodle took it off me and then..." his loud ramblings kept going until they reached Capim Town.

Hans was fascinated by the place, being surrounded by a bunch of Pokemon he recognized made him feel like he wasn't living in a nightmare, even if they were casting strange looks over them, after all, a Pokémon dragging another across the floor was nothing ordinary. When staring up, Hans was met with the sight of many bridges hanging between huge trees, his partners didn't seem so interested by the scenery and instead opted to look around for an inn to stay.

They settled at the Blue Claw Inn, renting a single room for the three of them indefinitely until Mr. Gible finished his 'investigation'. Noodle paid for the rent... and the food... which was nothing like Hans expected it to be, the food was just a bunch of common berries on a plate and he had to lean down to eat due to his lack of arms, then he had to climb up the stairs, yet another challenge for this new body. Hans slowly and clumsily dragged himself up the stairs to their room, once inside, Mr. Gible adjusted his tie and looked at his teammates.

"Alright, here's the plan, i sneak into the guild and figure out if they're feds and all that, meanwhile, you two stay here and don't interrupt me," he stretched his arms and smirked–if that was even possible as a Gible, "Easy enough, ain't it?"

To Gible's disgrace, simple orders were never enough for Hans, "Shouldn't we head to the guild and just... join in? They're humans like us after all!"

Mr. Gible sighed and slumped, "Did you even hear what i said? They could be feds, Hans!"
"What's a fed?" Asked Noodle, all of these human mannerisms were still too new for her.

"Doesn't matter, just let me do my job and don't interact with anyone, they could be feds too." with that, Mr. Gible pointed at his head and left the room, making his way towards the guild.

"He'll get lost." Noodle said nonchanantly, then laid on one of the hay beds, "Wake me up if he comes back."

Hans perked his head up and stared at his partner with a worried expression, "B- but what if he doesn't?"

Noodle let out a yawn and stretched, "Then don't wake me up, it's not like we have anything better to do." she then curled up into a ball and closed her eyes.

Hans didn't want to be left alone with his thoughts and lack of mobility, even if he was more than used to the former, "Can't we go do something? I- I'm sure that exploring a dungeon wouldn't hurt..."

Noodle quickly replied without even batting an eye. "It would, we have enough poke to stay here for a while and i'm tired of carrying you around all day, besides, you wouldn't want to make a friend like Mr. Gible upset, right?"

"B- but it's boring to be holed up in here all day and i want to see if..." Hans whined, this time he didn't get a reaction from the Floragato, ("Friend?") he thought about his partner's words, he'd only know them for a few hours, but they were willing to help him out since the beginning for nothing in return, he smiled and decided it was time to be alone with his mind once again.

Hans looked around the room, it was mostly empty, only a few hay beds and a small desk with a chair in front of it, he managed to crawl towards the pile of hay, his long body didn't even fit on it and laying down on dry grass was very uncomfortable, but after being dragged through dirt all day and moving only his neck, he was getting a little sore and even some hay was better than the bare floor.

("Who could ever sleep in something so uncomfortable? Are Pokémon really used to this? Noodle is sleeping soundly on this thin pile of pointy stuff...) he thought while rolling around in the 'bed', he could consistently roll from side to side but moving forwards was still a problem.

With Noodle seemingly asleep, Hans started thinking out loud, "I miss my PC already..." he sighed longingly, "There must be a way to go back, i can't live like this for the rest of my life," he rolled again, "This has to be a nightmare, this just can't be real," he rolled over once again, this time he ended up facing Noodle's bed, "But it feels too real, and i think i'm getting attached already," he stared up at the roof, "I wonder if anyone misses me... I'm sure that dissapearing didn't affect anyone," Hans hated his own mind, thinking too much often lead to his thoughts becoming more and more grim. "How fucking ironic, the only thing i did was sitting in front of a screen all day without even moving but NOW i miss my legs," he rolled again, facing the wall and away from Noodle, "I probably deserve being turned into a pink sack of meat and called a faggot, with the kind of things i'm thinking..."

Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted up by a vine and soon after wrapped in a hug, it was Noodle, she had heard Hans talking to himself and got up just for this, Hans was very flustered, the hug was too sudden and it felt really awkward, but also oddly comforting. She nuzzled into him for a moment before letting go and going back to her bed as if nothing had happened.

As soon as he landed on the hay, a very nervous Hans turned around to look at his partner. "W- What was that for!?"

Noodle didn't even bother to look at him to answer. "So you stop talking nonsense and shut up for once."

"Ah, s- sorry for that..." Hans shifted in his bed and decided it was better not to think out loud and instead take a nap, even if he wasn't so tired, it was better than having to think. He hoped he'd wake up back in the familiar human world, that this was just another nightmare, but part of him hoped he didn't, a part of him wanted to stay here, in this new body that he hated so much simply because of his new friends. Luckily, he fell asleep before his mind had enough time to think about it.

Shortly after falling asleep, Hans woke up because of the door loudly slamming open, perking up his head, he found Mr. Gible pressing against it as if to hold it closed, he was panting and visibly worried, also, his band was tied around his forehead instead of his chest.

"I fucked up!" he shouted, looking over at his partners and clutching his head. "They saw me! I'm sure as hell they did! They're coming for us now, that blue thing is gonna put a bullet through my head and then they'll take out my brain to torture me and then-"

"CALM THE FUCK DOWN!" Snapped Hans, only to get quickly embarrassed a moment after, "U- uh... S- sorry about that, what happened?"

Mr. Gible took a few deep breaths and went back to his usual calm demeanor, "What part of 'I fucked up' do you not understand, Hans?" he sighed, "I managed to get into the garden and tried to look through a window, but some blue thing with a smiley face came out of a pond and repeatedly said 'Chest Pain', i think it was calling out for someone... It must be a codename!

Hans gasped, "C- Codename!? B- But why would they use something like that?"

"I don't know, but if they have to, it means something fishy is going on in there..." Mr. Gible paused to dust off some dirt off his paws, "I made sure to cover my escape hole, but now that they saw me they'll definitely be on high alert," he coughed before continuing, "I don't know if they're feds. Maybe an infiltration will be a better way to investigate them."

"What do you mean?" Asked Hans while looking around the room, noticing that Noodle was nowhere to be found.

"I'm going to join the guild and figure out what they're up to, simple as."

"What? Why? What if they're feds? Why only you and not all three of us?"

"And have you potentially screw up an important espionage operation?" he grinned, "I can't have you two fooling around while i do all the work, it's better if you just stay here."

"What a way to treat your friends... It sounds like you're trying to get rid of us!" Hand frowned, not wanting to spend the rest of his days in a crappy inn room.

"No, no, no..." Mr. Gible waved his hands in front of his face, "Well, kind of, but not in the way you think!" he grinned, "It's to ensure that the guild is safe for my friends!"

"If you join, we all do, i'm tired of being alone in a room away from everyone." Hans mentioned, resembling his old life.

Mr. Gible couldn't do anything else but sigh dramatically, "You're very stubborn, kid," he then sat on the floor, patting his belly, "I'm starving, where'd Noodle go? She has all the money."

"I was wondering the same thing, she must have gone away while i was taking a nap," Hans felt his stomach rumbling, "I'm really hungry too..."

As if on cue, Noodle got inside the room through the window, setting down a pouch of poke on the desk and indifferently greeting the two dragons, Hans was the first to ask. "Hey Noodle, where have you been?"

"I... I was exploring a dungeon, i didn't expect Mr. Gible to be back so soon."

"And you didn't wake me up for it!?"

"We would have taken a lot of time to get there if i had to carry you, it wasn't worth it for just a few items."

Hans frowned again, he hated having other people decide what he did and didn't, another reason to despise this body. "Well, you could've just told me that instead of pretending to sleep!"

"Stop it you two! It's just a dungeon, you can go to one later, fag," Interrupted Mr. Gible, then he stood up, "Now, lets go eat something!"

They walked down the stairs and sat down in one of the many tables inside the inn, the food was the same as before, simply a bunch of common berries on a plate, Hans wondered if this was all the food the Pokémon world had to offer. Mr. Gible on the other hand was more focused on satisfying his hunger, he downed the whole plate of berries down his mouth and chewed like a feral, spilling berry juice everywhere, then wiped with his Power Band and looked at his two partners.

"The food in here is amazing! I'll never understand how they make fruits taste so good!" Mr. Gible paused for a moment to lick his fingers. "Anyways, i'll join the guild first thing tomorrow morning!"

"Hm? Join so quickly?" Asked Noodle, "I thought you were suspicious of them."

"I'll tell you the details later, now i just wanna go to sleep in one of those comfy hay beds.

Noodle shrugged and supposed that Mr. Gible had his motives, then got up and headed towards the owner Crabrawler to pay for their food.

"So, whadd'ya do before this?" Asked Mr. Gible while leaning back on his seat, almost falling over in the process.

("Oh great, you just HAD to ask this to the most boring guy around") Hans sighed and took another bite out of a berry, "Do you really want to know?"

"Why do you have to be such a fag all the time? I'm just trying to talk with the only other human i've known since getting here but you're a bitch every time!"

Hans heard murmurs from the other patrons at the mention of the word human, he leaned forwards and whispered. "You're too loud for a spy, don't go telling everyone we're humans!"
"What are you, my dad? Not even that fat fuck would scold me as much as you do!"
"K- Keep your voice down!"

Mr. Gible was about to snap back at his teammate, but was interrupted by someone knocking on the table–one of the Indeedee barmaids, visibly irritated, "Gentlemen, i must ask you to please leave the establishment, you're disturbing the other patrons."

"You can stick the other patrons up your ass, i'm having a friendly talk with my partner over here!" said the Gible while pointing at Hans.

If his abrupt outburst wasn't enough, a loud yell was heard from the bar where Noodle was, "YA' STEELIN BITCH!" it was the owner Crabrawler right after delivering a swift punch directly into the Floragato's face, sending her flying across the room and landing close to where Hans and Mr. Gible were sitting.

The Gible stared at the scene, mouth hanging agape before turning back to Hans, "We're done for, RUN!" he quickly hopped down his seat and skipped towards the door as fast as he could. Noodle rolled on the ground to get on all fours, then ran away after her partner, leaving Hans alone with the angry innkepers.

"Out. NOW!" Demanded the Crabrawler, Hans got on the floor and started sluggishly crawling towards the exit, the innkeeper's eye twitched and he picked up Dragonair with a single claw, then threw him out the door. Hans landed on his back and stared up at Crabrawler, "Don't ever show up'ere again, lad." he moved closer and accidentally stepped on the snake's tail.

Hans felt a large amount of energy coursing through his body, going up towards his head, he parted his lips instintively and shot a beam of bright light out of his mouth! It was the worst thing Hans had ever experienced, he felt as if his insides were coming out through his mouth, the beam didn't even hit the Crabrawler looming over him but the building behind him, destroying a portion of the inn's roof and causing some of the patreons inside to run out in fear. Hans stopped after a few seconds and laid back on the floor, feeling extrenely tired, meanwhile, Crabrawler turned around to see the small destruction caused by the Hyperbeam, "OI, THAT'S ME INN!" he turned back around to face Hans and prepared his claw, "YER' IN BIG TROUBLE NOW, LAD!" Hans clenched his eyes and teeth, preparing for the finishing blow.

Right before he could finish him, a vine wrapped around Crabrawler's claw and held him back, glaring over his shoulder, he saw Noodle barely holding back his strenght, with a forceful pull, he managed to overpower Noodle and use her vine to his advantage, flinging her over so that now she was right in front of him. "I'LL MAKE SURE YE PAY TOO, FILTHY ROBBER!

Noodle got off the ground with a grunt, scratching her head and staring back at Crabrawler, "I- I'd like to see you try..." she attempted to taunt him, but was clearly exhausted from the beating she'd taken.

"YOU'LL FEEL THE FURY OF ME MIGHTY CLAWS!" yelled Crabrawler, dashing towards the Floragato.

Noodle barely managed to leap out of the way of his attack, she grabbed the vine of her yo-yo and made spikes pop out of the rounded end of it, then flung it towards Crabrawler, who effortlessly blocked it with one of his claws. He charged forwards again, Noodle reeled back the yo-yo and tried make him trip with the vine, but Crabrawler swiftly jumped over it, slamming his claw into the Floragato's stomach, sending her tumbling backwards.

"I LOVE beating dirty criminals into a BLOODY pulp with my own claws!" said Crabrawler while closing the distance between them, stopping just a few meters in front of her instead of taking the finishing blow, "Come on, eat a berry or sumn', it's boring when they go down so easily. Show me a good time, thief!" Crabrawler took on a boxing stance, waiting for her to get up and fight.

Noodle slowly stood up, grunting and clutching her stomach in pain, she reached into her bag and digged for an item, but instead of pulling out a berry like Crabrawler expected, she took out an orb and threw it to his feet! Before he could react, the orb was shattered and Crabrawler was completely petrified in place!

Noodle let out a long sigh of relief, reeled back her yo-yo and limped out of the place, eating an Oran Berry wasn't enough to calm her pain, but it was enough for now.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gible snuck up on Hans and dragged him away while Noodle fought, the Dragonair opened his eyes and was surprised to see Mr. Gible carrying him so easily. ""H- How... How can you-?"

Mr. Gible smirked and set him down on the outskirts of Capim Town near some bushes, "I don't wear a tie with a muscle for nothing, kid!" the landshark gave Hans a few headpats which only made him more confused. "Noodle should be here soon, she stayed behind to kill the bartender."

Not only was he more and more disoriented by every word that came out of Mr. Gible's mouth, Hans was also extremely tired and could barely hold his eyes open, he didn't even notice when Noodle arrived and stuffed an Oran Berry in his mouth, revitalizing him a bit.

Mr. Gible opened his mouth to talk to Noodle but she simply held her paw up and shook her head. They silently made their way towards the guild, after what just happened, they were probably banned from the Blue Claw Inn for life and they needed a place to sleep as it was getting dark. Once at the guild, they took a moment to catch their breaths before stepping inside into a large room with a few boards full of different job requests.

While looking around the room, a Combusken wearing a patch walked out of a hallway and stared at them. After an awkward moment of sharing glances, he finally talked, "Humans? I've never seen you all around here before, new to the guild?"

Mr. Gible was visibly shook by the Combusken's words, especially the way he called them humans with just seeing them. "Y- Yeah, w- we want to join the guild!"

The Combusken nodded and started climbing the stairs, motioning back for the group to follow, after climbing up a few floors, he stopped in front of a door and turned to the three Pokémon behind him, "This is the guildmaster's office, he will tell you everything about the guild." with that, Combusken headed back down the stairs.

Noodle lazily knocked on the door a few times, sfter a moment, a voice was heard from the other side, "Come in~" once they stepped inside, they were met with a neatly decorated room, bookshelves adorning the walls and a big desk at the middle, behind it was a Meowstic with a black cloak leaning back against his seat, "So you've finally decided to join~!"

Mr. Gible wasn't even surprised anymore, he was straight up scared, fearing that mind-reading feds had discovered about his operation, "Y- Yeah! W- we're here to... U- Uh, join t- the... Erm..."

Seeing that Mr. Gible could barely form a sentence, Noodle interrupted him and decided to do the talking, "We want to join the guild."

The Meowstic smirked at the Floragato, "Well, that's pretty obvious to me, but why should i let you in after the commotion you've caused at the Blue Claw Inn~? he squinted his eyes, examining the three Pokémon in front of him

Noodle was at a loss for words, wondering how did he know about something so recent and thinking they're being rejected.

"Kyukyukyukyu~. No need for the long faces." Said the Meowstic while looking over at Hans, "Two of you are fellow humans who need help from the guild, and i can't let your partner behind. I'm sure there's a good reason for the fight, that innkeeper has always been... problematic~." he produced a paper out of a drawer. "May i know your names, if you have?"

"The little guy is Mr. Gible and he's Hans," she mentioned, pointing at them both respectively, "And i'm..." she paused and sighed, "I'm Noodle."

The Guildmaster wrote down their names and set the paper away, "I'm Lliam," he pulled out a few badges from another drawer, setting them down in front of the new members, "Welcome to the guild~!"

Noodle took all of the badges and stuffed them in her bag for now, "You'll probably want something to pin that on, we have scarves at the storage room, along with some very comfy cotton for your beds," Lliam rose from his seat, "Speaking of, let me show you where your bedroom is."

They followed behind the guildmaster through the mostly empty halls of the guild as it was very late already, only seeing a sleepwalking Smeargle wandering the place. They visited the storage room first, taking some bags with cotton and blankets in them, along with a few scarves, Lliam left once he lead them to their room.

Noodle set down the cotton and blankets on the three beds while a very shocked Mr. Gible dragged Hans inside, "I'm loving this guild already-" mentioned the Dragonair, interrupted by a yawn, "I don't ever have to sleep on hay again!"

Despite his paranoia, Mr. Gible crashed on his bed once Noodle was done setting it up and almost instantly fell asleep. Hans crawled onto his bed and looked up at the ceiling, his mind was racing with thoughts once again–mainly about Noodle. He wanted to ask her about what happened back at the inn, ("Why was she attacked? What happened to Crabrawler? Is she alright?") he wanted to ask her a million things, but in this very moment, only one question got past his lips after remembering that he still was a limbless sack of Dragonair, "Noodle, can you cover me up?" the Floragato nodded and complied, draping the blanket over his body. "Thanks! Have a good night, Noodle."

She looked down at Hans and a tired smirk formed in her muzzle, "Sweet dreams." after that, she limped over to her own bed for some much needed sleep.