Hot Tips for a New Breeder

[Meulin Leijon]

Practically flying down Route 5 dashes a green-clad girl with a Shinx running close at her heels. Meulin finds this is the best way to get Atom to follow her: go fast, and then he gets excited and chases after her!

She comes to a full stop once she reaches the Day Care Center, to daintily ring the doorbell. If they have such. Hehe. She bets it makes a really delightful sound but she can't hear it so she'll just have to imagine it. She stoops down to pick Atom up in her arms, then lets herself in. It is kind of a storefront, and this is the Pokémon world, so walking into someone else's door isn't that weird.

"Hellooooooo!" Meulin calls out, probably louder than she needs to. Both she and the Shinx in her arms look about the interior. It's decorated with cheery colours, just as she expected!

[Ms. Paint]

Ms. Paint hummed happily as she took Sienna's little sprout into her arms. She nuzzled it lovingly, making sure to inspect her teeth and her body weight.

"Sienna, she's growing up so nice and strong! You should be proud of such a wonderful girl." She pet her Kangaskhan's head, to which the pokemon nuzzled right back.

Upon hearing the bell and an unfamiliar voice, she began to head inside, Viridian and Orchid following behind her.

"Ah, I'm sorry! I was out back with my pokemon. Welcome to the Day Care!" She greeted the girl with a smile, seeing the adorable little Shinx in her arms. "Is there anything I can help you with? Or are you here to leave your Shinx in our care?" She tilted her head to the side as she awaited a response.

[Meulin Leijon]

As soon as she lays eyes on the colourful little lady, Meulin's smile brightens. "Heehee! Pawwww, you have got to be the cutest Purrospitian I've efur seen!"

After looking down to her Shinx, Meulin declines. "Nope! Atom's my only 'mon so fur, so I don't want him leaving my side. I came here fur a diffurent reason!
See, my dream job is to be a Pokémon breeder, and I know Daycare ladies need to know a loooooooooot about breeding. I came to ask if you could teach me some things!!"



Meulin pawses - I mean pauses. "Actually, not teach directly, murr like... Well purrhaps I could job shadow you or something like that?? I wanna watch the kinda stuff you do here, and help out wherefur I can! I'm sure I'll learn better by seeing and doing, anyway!"

[Ms. Paint]

She smiled at the compliment and listened intently at the girls request. Thinking it over, she gave her a somewhat small smile.

"I wouldn't mind it at all, unfortunately we don't have very many pokemon with us here, so you may not get as much out of it as some other time. You're welcome to still join me!"

"Right now I was just going to set out some lunch for my pokemon." She tilted her head a little at the Shinx and motioned for the girl to follow her into the kitchen where trays had already been set up, and vats of pokemon food were sitting on the floor, lids open.

"Viridian, would you please take Umber to her mom? Lunch'll be ready in a little bit, so see if Andrew's going to join us." The Leavanny chirped and made a small satchel for the baby with her String shot. After settling it into the bag, she left out the side door.

Ms. Paint turned to the girl and smiled.

"I'm terribly sorry, where are my manners! I'm Ms. Paint. What's your name?" She asked as her Chansey moved about and pulled out one more tray.

[Meulin Leijon]

After Meulin follows into the kitchen, she can't help but notice Viridian's quick work. "Wow! Your Leavanny's a really fast knitter!" If String Shot can be called knitting? "So who's Umber?" She didn't really get a chance to meet the baby before it was whisked away.

"Oh, that's no purroblem!" the trollgirl assures with a smile. "I'm Meulin! This little fella is Atom!" She gives Ms. Paint a chance to give Atom a petting, before she sets him down on the floor.

Atom mewls at the Chansey in greeting, then curiously sniffs at the edge of the tray she's carrying.

Meulin's also interested in the Pokémon food, for different reasons. "So, do you make your own food fur the Pokémon, or do you buy it?" she asks, inspecting the containers' contents. "I just ask beclaws I know how impurrtant diet is in breeding!"

[Ms. Paint]

Paint pet the cute Shinx before his trainer set him down and began to spread out the trays.

"I used to buy the food, but after speaking with one of the people at the Pokemon Center, I discovered that its base nutritional value was sub-par. I spent a few weeks taste-testing my own recipes for Viridian, Orchid, and Sienna." She carefully measured out the pokemon food.

"Sienna and Umber both seemed to enjoy it, although I have to be careful when feeding Umber, seeing as she's so small still. Her teeth are beginning to grow in, so she should be on solids soon enough. I mix in half an Oran Berry and an equal fourth of a Tamato and a Mago berry. I want their HP to be a bit higher, and they both seem to enjoy a slight spiciness to their food.

"Viridian loves dry food, so I sprinkle some Wiki berries into it from time to time, but because of her low Defense, I slip in some Occa or Yache berries into the mix, along with a Ganlon berry from time to time.

"Orchid is pretty much open to anything, but seems partial to bitter food from time to time, so on those occasions I usually give her an Aguav berry treat." By the time she had finished serving the three main trays of food, she glanced over at Atom.

"Do you know your pokemon's Nature?" She asked, sealing the food and putting it back in its place in the cabinet, looking over the different jars of powder she had stocked up. Viridian chirped from the doorway leading outside and handed her the string shot bag with ink stains all over it.

"Alright, so we'll need to get Andrew some too." She pet her pokemon and motioned to the table. "Go take Sienna her lunch please, and then you can have yours.

"This is usually just for their health. If you're breeding pokemon for Contests, theres quite a lot more to teach." The carapace smiled at the troll.

[Meulin Leijon]

After watching Ms. Paint prepare the food and describe all these recipes, Meulin feels a little awestruck. "Wow," she breathes, for once being pretty quiet with her speech. "You really tailor efurry Pokémon's food to their individual tastes and stat requirements... That's really impurressive..." She perks up soon enough, becoming her usual loud self again. "I gotta try this out fur myself!"

Meulin looks down at Atom, who is still trying to sniff at trays of food while other Pokémon carry them to and fro. He wants a taste, they smell really good! And they all smell different.
"Atom's naive nature, heehee. Hey, can I make his batch of food? With your guidance of course~."

The kitty cat (the troll one, that is) considers Paint's last concern, tapping her lip. "Well, Contests are great, and I'm gonna enter some, but I don't think that's my main concentratnyan. I wanna explore Pokémon care, and grooming, and recreational activities, and actual breeding! Maybe once I know a lot murr, in the future, I'll set up a daycare of my own! Or something similar, like... Like a Pokémon hotel? Or kindergarden? Or playplace? Or dating agency?" Meulin is just full of potential ideas for her breeding future, the real problem will be settling on a concrete goal.

[Ms. Paint]

'Naive, naive... speed, special defense, sweet, dry...' She thought as she pulled out different jars, all varying colors and fineness. She would let the troll make it, sure, but she'd be helping her every step of the way.

"Special Defense boosting, speed boost, something sweet... HP boost would be good, also maybe an immunity boost to poison?" She muttered as she tapped her fingers on the jars. Shaking her head, she smiled and closed the cabinet before setting down all the jars at the table. There were five in total, along with various other berries that would help with stress and fatigue.

As she carefully unsealed the jars, she gave the girl a smile.

"All those are wonderful ideas. As for some of the other paths you want to take, there's a lot more to teach. How to raise a baby is also pretty important, whether its a pokemon, troll, human, or carapace." She moved around the room again, pulling out one more vat of pokemon food and two measuring cups from the cabinet above the sink.

"Alright, first things first. You have to develop your own base pokemon food." She set down the things at the table as Orchid moved about and offered a bit of her food to Atom, to sate his hunger for the time being. "Well, that's actually an option! You can have a base to work from, like I do because no two pokemon are alike and because pokemon tend to like different things, regardless of nature or level. What you could do, if you have a small enough group of pokemon that you can keep track of is make them all separately for that one pokemons individual taste.

"A pokemon's nature provides a decent backing on where to start. Your Atom, being a naive nature, would tend to prefer sweet things, am I right?" She asked. While generally true, it was possible that her pokemon would prefer something completely different! Its trainer would know best what it preferred.

[Meulin Leijon]

"Those all sound good! Especially the sweet! Both Atom and I love sweets. Though, we're both fond of meat too... Either of those would make a good base." Meulin checks over the vats Ms. Paint selected for her, as well as the berries. "The base mostly consists of flafuring, right? Or does it need something substantial to it?" She looks a bit apologetic for asking something so basic. "Hehe, pawrry, I usually use natural stuff like berries and meat! I'm not used to jarred stuff." she admits. She still wants to get started of course.

Atom happily accepts the morsel of food from the kind Chansey. It tides him over until he'd get his own meal, and the Shinx wanders elsewhere in the colourful room before he's even done chewing. The loin cub proceeds to poke about the daycare room, exploring harmlessly for the most part.



"Ooh, raising babies, yes!!! I'd love to!" Closing her eyes, Meulin clasps her hands together. "I can picture myself going through the whole cycle! Starting with pairing up the two purrfect mates, then breeding them, then taking care of the egg, and finally helping the purrents raise the baby!" Pausing, she opens her eyes again. "Or, do you think it's better to specialize in one depurrtment? Especially if I'm gonna grow up to run one of those organizatnyan ideas..."

[Ms. Paint]

"No actually. The base is what has the most nutrients needed for pokemon growth. The formula is usually the same, but you have to take into account vegetarian diets as opposed to meat-filled ones. Vegetarian food usually is reserved for Grass Types, so I can write down what you'd have to do for that later, because we won't be needing than information with Atom."

She continued. "Since you said he prefers meat, we can use that as a base. What do you usually feed him?" She asked, trying to think of what they could use in exchange for it because she couldn't remember the last time she bought meat, and it may have to be charbroiled with Sienna's Flamethrower for it to be ready in time.

[Meulin Leijon]

"Oh - so, you mean nutrients, but not the sorta nutrients that boost stats? Just fur health and wellness?" She thinks she gets it now. Pokémon food mix is tricky!

"Usually? Usually I feed him berries. But he himself, he hunts down small fish, or small birds."
As if on cue, Atom pounces and rolls with a plush toy he's found in the daycare. Pinning it down, he noms upon it, but not enough to rip anything.

After a giggle at Atom's playful antics, Meulin turns back to Ms. Paint and the counter. "So lemme guess, we can use a ground meat or something like that, as the base? ...And what's after that?"

[Ms. Paint]

She grinned up at the girl, tapping the jars.

"That's where the fun starts." She sorted the jars and berries into two separate sections, waiting until the last jar was in place before beginning to explain.

"Alright, so most of these jars have crushed berries and some vitamins not found in those specific berries. Pecha berries are really sweet and work well against poison, but lack in some essential vitamins that would give a boost to a pokemon's immune system, believe it or not." She tapped the jar with a Pecha berry labelled on the front.

"Oran and Sitrus berries are good for energy, but lack in the calcium department. Berries, although really useful, aren't perfect. So we do what we can." She then moved her hands to the berries

"These I use in treats. Sometimes I make Pokeblocks, but mostly Poffins. It all depends on what time I can usually spare."

"Alright, these others are for stats and should be a relatively small amount spread out liberally and throughout meals. This will give them a stats boost, albeit at a slower rate than flat out giving them one of the vitamins Crockercorp produces." She moved to the fridge and pulled out a tray of apple slices she had prepared earlier, wrapped up in plastic.

"How about we eat these while you practice adding the berries in?" She removed the plastic and placed the plate in the center of the table where they could both reach.

--

After both had made Atom's food, they took their own out to Ms. Paint's little patio to watch the pokemon chattering amongst themselves. Sienna walked over to her trainer and gently handed over her baby. Throwing her a confused look, she saw that Andrew was already adding a fresh coat of paint to his tail and that Viridian was in a battle-ready position. Smiling, she took little Umber.

"Don't destroy anything now." She warned them as the adults seemed to agree and began a three-way pokemon battle. Well, more like two on one; Andrew was trying to cover them both in paint while glaring at them.

"Remind me not to buy red paint for a while. He's getting a little TOO friendly with that color..." She mused to Orchid, who hung back with her trainer, and turned to Meulin.

"So, have you ever held a baby?" She asked as Umber began to play with her fingers.