Eulalio was glad that the URA had opened up research about the native pokemon to the island. Sundrop, the name he'd chosen for the lefmew that had decided it was his, had attached itself to him when he was taking a nap shortly after he'd arrived in town. There wasn't anything to do after that that would dissuade it. Not that Eulalio tried very hard to do so. It was so cute, some combination of plant and cat and 100% adorable. So Eulalio caved and got a pokeball for it and caught it. Now came time to see what sort of foods it liked.
"Alright little guy, let's see what kind of things you eat." Eulalio had picked up a number of bowls to set out a variety of foods in. First up was various cut up berries. Lots of things liked berries and surely it wouldn't be able to turn these fresh fruits up. In another couple bowls there was small bits of cut up meat, one bowl with raw and one with cooked. There was a bowl of vegetables, one with a nice selection of rocks. Even some bread and various accoutrement from Eulalio's breakfast that they'd saved for this. Lastly, a bowl of water was set at the very end of the line. With everything set up, Eulalio plucked the lefmew from it's spot in the sun and set it before the array of food. "Here you go Sundrop, your pick of whatever food you'd like!"
Now they didn't expect an immediate response since they didn't know when the last time the pokemon had eaten was, so they settled themself up against a tree to wait. The lefmew gave him a curious look before bouncing over to inspect the various things lined up for it. Eulalio held his breath as it sniffed each of the bowls, releasing it when the pokemon ignored everything. Well, almost everything. Sundrop sipped from the water and then returned to its sunny spot on a nice rock to sunbathe.
"Ugh, alright. I'll leave everything out just in case you're just not hungry yet." Eulalio sighed and settled in for a long wait, relaxing against the tree. The sun was warm against his exposed skin and a soft breeze cooled his face. "You know. . .surely it wouldn't be a bad thing to. . .take just a small nap here, right?" Without waiting for a response that wasn't coming, Eulalio yawned and closed their eyes to take just that.
It was several hours later when they woke back up. Blearily rubbing their eyes as they looked around for their lefmew, they couldn't spot the pokemon anywhere. First they checked the bowls, and, crap. As they moved, a wild pokemon skittered away from one of them. Actually, several of them looked like they'd been eaten from, but without having witnessed it, Eulalio couldn't tell if lefmew had had any or not. The water bowl was completely drained though, so at least he knew they drank. Or maybe the wild pokemon had?
Sighing, Eulalio went to collect the rest of the bowls. Lefmew wasn't where they originally had been, but then they wouldn't stay in the same spot while he napped now would they? There was plenty of flora for them to have gotten into while he wasn't paying attention. Or maybe they'd started chasing one of the wild pokemon that had come to snack on the things they'd left out. He could tear his hair out trying to figure it out like this.
"Sundrop!!" Eulalio tried calling for the 'mon. Dumping out the remainder of the things from the bowls for whichever wild pokemon to enjoy, he stacked them and went to put them away. "Sundrop c'mon out!!" He didn't see the lefmew, which considering its' coloring, was a surprise, but they hoped it was in range to hear him. There wasn't an audible response and Eulalio figured he'd have to search harder to find the wayward lefmew.
Turning around to start to head back to the dorm, Eulalio startled when lefmew was directly behind him, and also heading straight for his head. With an "oof" of surprise, he managed to catch Sundrop before it fell and it scampered up him to nest in his hair, but he dropped all the bowls in the process. "Well hello there, where'd you come from?" he asked it with a grin. Picking back up the bowls and collecting the rest of the things he'd brought to tempt the lefmew with, he put everything away before heading back to his dorm, making conversation with the cute 'mon in his hair.
The next day Eulalio repeated his experiment. This time, though, he was determined to stay awake. He had to figure out what this thing ate so he could make sure that it got enough food. His ma would kill him if he didn't make sure to keep his pokemon properly fed. Especially since she'd sent him a letter saying that she was sending him a new friend. He hoped that the new friend wasn't a big troublemaker, but considering his ma was sending it, it probably would be.
It was several nerve wracking days, half of which Eulalio would lose Sundrop during, before Eulalio finally thought about all the time in the sun that Sundrop spent. There were two large leaves on their head, and they were part grass type. They drank just fine, so clearly they must be more plant than animal. It would follow that they're just photosynthesizing. Eulalio was pleased as punch with the new data they'd turned into URA. Clearly there was some information he could help contribute to the cause. Especially since there weren't many with lefmews around. Though Eulalio did wonder where Sundrop would end up when he couldn't find them.
During the heat of the day Eulalio would look away for awhile, take a breather, and look back and his pokemon would just be gone. If he'd call out for them, they'd come back most of the time, but he couldn't figure out where they were going. There had to be something he was missing. Sundrop was also almost always dirty, but Eulalio figured that was from them being outside all day nearly every day. Grass type, part plant pokemon after all.
