2- A Peculiar Boy From Weyard

Nook's Cranny (Animal Crossing: City Folk)

Back in the foyer, Pelly the Pelican was busy with her daytime job at the reception desk. Although she was enjoying her work, she was also thinking about how much worse her sister Phyllis's rude, snarky attitude had become: yesterday she had managed to frighten away a few mushroom retainers because according to her words, "they were dawdling in the line for too long."

"It was just 2 minutes! Yet Phyllis had to lose it and request the guards to kick the poor Toads out..." she sighed, "They just had forgotten their member cards in their car and went to get them... though I guess, it would've turned out the same nonetheless. But unlike anything we've done before, this is a serious job we're taking on! The way this keeps up, she's going to drive me crazy worrying..."

The pelican looked across the foyer, glancing at what appeared to be a row of doors varnished with gold color. These were actually portals to other worlds, probably powered by the strange discuses at the top-right corner of the doors.Divided into six sections , each discus had emblems based on the worlds its door was connected to: from there guests from other dimensions came to visit the club, exchanging greetings and news. It was a very curious sight.

Pelly stared at the doors for a while. Suddenly her eyes widened in a moment of epiphany.
"These remind me of a romantic book I once lost… Because if I remember correctly... It also had those peculiar doors," she thought, "Now if this was just a moving castle..."

From the doorway a young boy came out. He wore an emerald-green hooded cloak with golden hems, and what appeared to be a golden breastplate on his chest. He also carried a peculiar wooden rod around, signifying that he was a mage of some sort.
The boy looked curiously yet carefully around the hall and soon heard Pelly greeting him. He closed the teledoor and walked to the reception desk.

"How can I help you mister?"

"Just passing in. Here."

The boy showed his member card: Pelly looked through it quickly, and soon nodded with a smile. He was permitted to go in. 
The mage kept on with his reserved pace, observing his surroundings until he stepped into the main hall. He soon saw the place he wanted to go, and started to approach it slowly.
"Here we are again, Gust."
"Let's grab some grub then."

Meanwhile Iris and Pit (and Axew) were enjoying their fruit parfaits, Iris speaking about her current life back in Unova. She looked constantly smug while telling her story.
"And that's how I caught the art thieves and got Burgh's painting back... But I'm curious, his paintings have become a constant target for art theft lately. I personally don't think they're that valuable enough to be stolen…" she remarked.
"I'm not an art expert myself, but maybe there's something the thieves see in them that ordinary people don't." Pit thought out loud . 
"Ah, people themselves are like paintings." Iris sighed, "Like how art maniacs have crazy painted all over them and they're the only people who don't know it."
"So what about the dragon obsessed trainers who are afraid of anything cold? Are they anywhere in the same category?" Pit sneered.
"Pfft, I would only say that about gullible angels who are obsessed with hot springs." Iris grunted back.

Before either could continue, a boy in the green robe sat near them. Peach seemed to recognize him instantly.
"Hey Ivan! How are you today?"
"I'm fine, thanks. Got any grapes today?"
"Of course, I'll bring them. Leave your change on the table in the meantime."

With that, Peach headed to the kitchen. Pit and Iris, however, just stared at the boy curiously. He looked pretty medieval from his attire, had short blonde hair, and gave off a cute and innocent charm.
"Uh... hey there," Pit blurted after a moment, "and you are...?"
Unexpectedly, the mage extended his palm towards Pit's forehead: the angel boy could feel his brain receiving some kind of mystical stimulus from it.

"So you're name's Pit? You're the servant of goddess Palutena, the ruler of Angel Land, am I correct?" said the boy after a moment.

Pit's eyes widened with surprise.
"How did you know!?" he gasped. It was clear to him that this boy wasn't someone ordinary, but other than that he had no idea what was going on.
Meanwhile the dragon trainer had become curious as well. She neared Ivan very slowly, keeping her guard.
"Your name?" she asked carefully. The boy responded with exactly the same act he did for Pit. Unlike her friend, though, Iris didn't feel anything unusual inside her mind.

"And you're... Iris. You're the current Champion of Unova." Ivan said.

Now Iris started to tremble slightly: she took two steps away from him. Axew hopped back into her giant hairdo.

In the dire moment where confusion would have led to hostility, Peach had come back. Noticing how Pit and Iris seemed to react to Ivan, she sighed hopelessly: the princess was clearly familiar with these incidents. But she was glad nothing troublesome had happened… this time.
"Ivan, please. Don't do that again." she demanded in a worried tone. The boy turned at her rather slowly (maybe even regretfully) and after chuckling nervously, just took his plate of grapes and went to sit farther away from the crew.

For a while he just scarfed down the grapes, irritated: it was rather awkward sight. But Pit continued to look at him. He was actually getting interested on this fellow: that boy could read people's minds! If that wasn't cool, then what would be? And who knew what other kinds of powers might he have up his sleeve?
Meanwhile Iris was still trembling in anxiety and even fear. She hadn't let her guard down yet, seeing Ivan as threatening and so far, unpredictable, even though she had met mediums like him who trained Psychic-type Pokémon.

"Pit, just leave him alone already. I don't want that... medium to mess with us again," she hissed, "he almost blurted out my secret to everyone out there..."

Suddenly the angel boy turned at her.

"What secret?" he asked, dumbfounded. Now Iris assured him nervously that she had nothing say (or hide.)

"But you know that guy there is rather interesting, don't you think?" Pit smirked, now resting his head on his arm on the table.
"Ah, Ivan? He's a friend of Isaac." Peach suddenly stated.
"A friend of Isaac? You mean that gold-haired boy who is part of the Assist Program?"
"Yep. And what he told me is that he's from a race called Adepts. They can use elemental, sorcerous mental energy to control nature around them: Psynergy for short."
"Ah, come again?" Pit said, clearly without a clue about what Peach just had explained. Iris just glanced disappointedly at him. ("What a kid.")
"Oh, sorry: to put it simply, think it as magic power which is based on 4 basic elements of matter: nature, fire, water and wind. These are classified as Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter, respectively. It's powered by their minds, mind you."

Meanwhile Pit let that boil down (while Axew had strolled off towards Ivan again), and he took another spoonful of the dessert from his ice cream bowl.
"So what does this have to do with the boy over there?" Pit asked in a quiet voice.
"Well, he claims he's a Jupiter Adept... and he told me that such people are gifted with more psychic strength than ordinary humans- and even among Adepts. They can read people's minds and even foresee their actions in combat, which always puts them one step ahead of their opponents."

Hearing Peach's explanation, Pit had a brief flashback about Ness and his friends' psychic abilities: they also had the ability to read minds. Could Ivan's abilities be the same? He hadn't heard any voice in his mind, however.
He glanced at the adept again: suddenly their gazes met. Ivan soon turned away from the angel, though. Pit groaned in a sad tone.
"So that explains why he can read our minds... though it bugs me, does every one of those Jupiter Adepts even do that when greeting new people?" he asked. Peach shook her head.
"He has a friend who kind of resembles him but is a girl... unlike him though, she gets along with strangers just fine. She doesn't use her powers like Ivan does."
" I guess that means this kid's rather shy, huh?" Iris guessed after retrieving Axew, who almost managed to wander off, "so has he done this before? You didn't seem very comfortable letting us get creeped out by him. "
"Ah, yes. He had rather unfortunate incidents with Sheena and Sabrina... Sheena smacked him instinctively but apologized right after," said Peach, "though after that she didn't feel comfortable being near him. Sabrina's another story though."
"What did she do?" Pit asked.
"She shocked his brain with her strong telekinetic powers. Gladly, Ivan didn't pass out... but he had to suffer from nausea and painful headaches for rest of the day. Poor boy…" Peach recalled. Both Iris and Pit shivered.

"Poor boy indeed... I can kind of imagine how difficult it could be for him to greet folks around here. We're pretty a diverse crowd, you know? It's a wonder we're even able to talk to each other, really." Pit said.
"Yeah... it reminds me of the first time I met Cilan." Peach replied, "He was so meek and had a very hard time getting used to all the different kinds of strange people around here. And what's more, I didn't expect him to be the flamboyant and enthusiastic young culinary connoisseur I know him as today."
"To be honest, he still acts shy time to time," Iris added, "at least when he's feeling awkward or uncomfortable. What to do for his poor self-confidence nowadays… even if he keeps saying he has his own plans, I suppose."
"But I thought his flamboyant side was just an act he uses in the Pokemon: Best Wishes- animation!" Pit exclaimed. " Still, no matter whether he acts shy or flamboyant, though, he's seemingly loved by his audience anyway. Just think, with that kind of act, he'd be able to trick his friends into thinking he's a good guy when he's really a baddie! Imagine that kind of a  plot twist waiting for you, Iris!"

Suddenly there was a loud crack from the glass bowl with Pit's parfait, which shattered to pieces in his hands, causing him to let out a yelp of pain and fall from his seat.
Glass shards were flung across the table, and Peach and Iris were barely able to duck in time to avoid them. Many of the nearby dining guests looked in Pit's direction, startled.
He got up holding a bleeding, cut up hand, and couldn't help but stare at his creamy dessert as it spread sluggishly around the table. He was still whimpering in pain.
"So that's the curse of yours..." Iris commented after ensuring the incident was over, "I can really see why Palutena wants to restrict your joking around now, though."
"Ow-ow-ow-ow-" Pit stammered before pulling a bottle out from behind him, which had a small portion of "Drink of the Gods" in it. He poured it on his left hand, which sizzled for a few moments while releasing vapour, and was soon back to normal condition.

Pit volunteered to clean up the mess, even though Peach assured him that Roll* would take care of it much better than he could. Nevertheless she handed him a wet cleaning cloth to clean up the mess on the table and gave a hand vacuum to Iris to clean up the shards around that were scattered around.
"Cilan really prefers to hide his fabulous persona from most strangers nowadays... maybe Ivan's like that too." Pit mumbled.
"You can't exactly say Ivan's like "a painting" though... "Iris stated.
"I know... but I want to know more about him. He just seems so interesting. "

After a few moments of silence, a phone rang in the kitchen.

"Excuse me for a moment," Peach said as she went to answer it. Pit took this as a good opportunity to speak with the boy. He winked quickly at Iris to signal his plan.
"Oh no you don't." Iris spoke silently with her lips. But the angel boy was already on his way, leaving the wet cloth on the table and nearing the mage, who had seemingly been conversing with someone else nearby. The dragon trainer face-palmed in frustration while the baby dragon sighed "Ax-ewww..." with a groan.

By now, Ivan had felt someone approaching his seat. He was still feeling anxious about speaking with the others, though, and it didn't help that some kind of accident had happened back at their table.
Nevertheless, a voice suddenly greeted him.
"Hey there... doing fine?" it asked. Ivan turned behind him to see it was the angel boy from before.
"Um, hello… " he replied. Behind him jumped a small, sleek-looking creature with wings protruding from its ears. To Pit's surprise, it spoke like a mature, grown-up man:

"Yo."

"Hahahah… You look kinda cute..." Pit remarked awkwardly. The creature just grunted and turned back to a plate with a few remaining grapes on it. Using telekinetic powers, he moved one of them up to his face, where it disappeared into his invisible mouth. Suddenly he saw a baby dragon's head appear out of nowhere to observe him.

"Woah- Hold up there little monster. In case you knew, these are mine…" he stated. Axew looked curiously at his eyes and repeated his name a few times as if saying something. The other creature had to take a few steps back from the awkward situation, but tried to listen anyway.
"It looks like Axew has taken a liking to this thing... but is he dangerous?" Iris wondered aloud, now seemingly able to approach Ivan with more confidence. Ivan looked assuredly at the girl.
"Oh, Gust? Don't worry about him, he's tame as a morning gale." he said. Suddenly Ivan realized he had spoken with the two even more: feeling a bit hot and tingly due to embarrassment, he shifted his gaze to the open windows in the main hall.
But even if he turned away from them, he didn't stay that way: soon he looked briefly back at them, smiling shyly.
Pit grinned back cheerily: meanwhile Iris found Ivan's expression strangely adorable, blushing faintly and clenching her hands together.

"Oh my... it seems you three managed to open up to each other."

Peach had come back from the telephone call, seemingly ready to announce something to Pit and Iris.

"Yoshi called me and said he's waiting for someone willing to help him at the local city festival in Neomina. He wants to give something to them. Does anyone care to volunteer?"
"Sure, count us in! I don't really feel like getting another dessert after getting my hand all sliced up like that…" said Pit. From that, Peach thought of a genuine idea.
"Say, what do you say about taking Ivan with you, then? I bet you'd have a fun time showing him around the place together." Peach suggested, smiling toward the said boy. Ivan responded with a faint chuckle.
"Why not! We'll be more than glad to take him!" Pit agreed excitedly, grinning brightly at the adept with assurance. Iris traded glances with Axew as Pit said "we"- though she wasn't against taking Ivan along.
The dragon trainer got up from her seat and walked to Ivan, and Pit followed suit. Ivan was about to get up too, when he felt a hand press on his shoulder.
"Hey Ivan, let's forget what happened back there when you first saw us. I'm Pit, from Kid Icarus." the angel boy introduced himself, extending his hand to the adept.
"And I'm Iris, from Pokemon: Black and White. Nice to meet you." said the dragon trainer. Axew exclaimed his name to the boy as well.

Ivan was taken aback. It felt nice to meet new people after such a long time, and this time it ended well despite his questionable behavior at the start. He stuttered a bit before introducing himself.

"I'm Ivan... from Golden Sun..."