Susan grinned broadly at the idea of visiting a bath, though she wondered if such water might be too hot for Fishy. It would have to do but she would have to be watchful in case Fishy didn't enjoy it. She made her way quickly to the onsen. As she shut the door behind her she could hear chatter. It was a little surprising to Susan, who had been largely ignorant of this towns going ons since she arrived the other day, to hear young women speaking. Daughters of the villagers perhaps? Or trainers like her? She felt a little more self conscious about stripping down this time, surrounded by four walls, then she had when she had been alone on the beach. That she was peeling off an extra layer and leaving herself naked had nothing to do with it. Stumpy floated on by, ignoring Susan for the time, but Sparky could feel the heat of the springs and nearly rushed by to jump into it.<br/><br/>The bronze skinned, petite young woman reached out and grabbed the runt with one arm while the other undid the tie holding her long hair back. As it fell to the small of her back, the Houndour in her arms squirmed and whined like a puppy, and Susan let herself be distracted by the pokemon.<span style="color: orange">"Oh hush you. Just give me a bloody second to pack and get a potion."</span><br/><br/>Intelligent as many pokemon were, the Houndour seemed to understand. Susan smiled and set it down, its stump of a tail wagging so fast it's rump was moving with it, and then finished packing what she needed into her bag and pulled out the potion and the newly inhabited pokeball. The pack got set aside, far enough away from the other peoples stuff just in case, and the now naked woman strolled toward the sounds of the voices. She tried to revel in the steam and heat she could feel as her feet stepped from wood to stone, but the knowledge that her petite, if wired and muscular, form was there for others to see did bother her. Her pride wouldn't let her waiver though so with a slightly-too-confident stride she stepped out, walked to the end not inhabited by the others, and opened her pokeball.<br/><br/>Having much less trouble with being naked, as it was his natural state, Sparky the Houndour leapt headlong into the middle of the spring and started doing a doggy paddle almost immediately, happily letting out a small, high pitched bark every few moments.<br/><br/>Fishy went straight into into the water, and for a few moments it did seem like the hot spring was just making things worse, as it started to thrash about. Just before she could recall him though Susan saw the Magikarp come to realize it was a.) not under attack anymore and b.) not in the ocean. Rather then let b make it worry, it relaxed with because of a, and started swimming in slow circles as the hot water soothed its injuries. Susan knelt by the edge for a moment, then slipped in slowly, setting Fishy's pokeball down on the edge. She strolled over to the Magikarp as slowly as she could, but the pokemon didn't seem to notice her until she was right there. It jumped in the water upon noticing her presence, but Susan had stopped moving by now. She stood there, wishing she had thought to crawl rather then stand as her upper body was still exposed, and waited. A minute, then two, and slowly the Magikarp grew accustomed to her presence. When it started to bump into her leg curiously, she reached down to stroke one of its uninjured fins. Then she sighed a little with relief.<span style="color: orange">"Alright Fishy."</span>She said quietly, calmly, and as soothingly as possible,<span style="color: orange">"You're still hurt. This will make you all better. I need you to trust me, okay?"</span><br/><br/>The Magikarp stared at her blankly, swam in a circle, bumped into her leg again, and then stared some more. Susan felt her irritation rising, but she forced it down. This was a wild pokemon still, in some sense of the word. It was caught, and would probably listen to her if she ordered him about, but there was a difference between controlling and befriending.<span style="color: orange">"Stumpy?"</span>The Phantump that had floated behind her turned at the sound of its name.<span style="color: orange">"Please go fetch some of my lunch from my pack. And nothing -else-. Got that?"</span>The pokemon seemed to understand, as it bobbed it's head and made a sound that was caught between that of a pokemon and that of a ghost. A sort of sigh along with a call that was akin to the sound tree branches made when the wind passed through them. It went into the small Onsen and returned a few moments later with a couple berries. Fishy, apparently not smart enough to recognize either the pokemon holding the berries or the berries themselves, immediately went to the edge of the spring for some food. Susan followed, sighing just a little, and this time made less of a fuss about how fast she moved.<span style="color: orange">"Feed Fishy some of the berries. Slowly. I need to tend to it." </span><br/><br/>In a few moments she was, thankfully, submerged and covered by the hot water sitting beside Fishy. The potion, a spray bottle, in one hand and the other steadying the fish as Stumpy slowly fed it one berry at a time. It didn't take long. The Magikarp was not a large example of it's kind. When she was done, she finally relaxed against the back and started petting the Magikarp, who had apparently eaten all of her lunch and was content now to just float alongside her. The others had been largely forgotten while she was tending to Fishy, but now that she was done with that important task she suddenly recalled that there were three other women with her in this spring. She shifted a little in the bath until Magikarp was comfortably keeping her upper body hidden, crossed her legs, and silently thanked the world that her cheeks were already flush from the heat.<span style="color: orange">"Sorry... about that..."</span>Her normally confident nature seemed to wilt in the presence of these new people.<span style="color: orange">"I just caught him today and I didn't want him to have to carry those injuries long. Didn't mean to ignore you. I'm Susan. It's uh... a pleasure to meet you."</span><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>