Rabbit
where is my mind?
- 484
- Posts
- 15
- Years
- BC, Canada
- Seen Feb 2, 2012
Chapter 1 - #1
The letter came on the 10th, encased in a larger envelope containing two handwritten pages from his mother. It had come to Verdanturf (she wrote) and she was forwarding it on. Everything was fine back home. His Pokemon missed him already. Samantha was being a handful, staying out late on school nights and getting all sorts of bad habits. She hoped he wasn't feeling sick, since the flu was going around...
The letter interrupted this everyday banality. Alexander stared at it for a while, reading and rereading the printed lines. "You have been chosen..." For what? A promotional event? The letter seemed too transparent to be a scam. "This is very important." Far too transparent.
The name Truan meant nothing to him. Four (Floe) Island, he knew, was one in the Sevii Archipelago down south, not suitable for a vacation spot but a popular destination for Pokemon trainers, who flocked to it like pilgrims to a saint's tomb. Yes, there could be some sort of research falicity there. He had never gone himself. But the journey could not take more than a day. At the most, he could be there and back within three days, which wouldn't put him back far in terms of coursework. The calender on the left side wall was crammed with pen lines trumpeting due dates and test days, but none were before the 25th.
The matter settled in his mind, he smiled with satisfaction and pinned the letter to his corkboard, where it hung in full view until the 17th.
Meanwhile Alexander busied himself on campus, sticking his face into every classroom, spreading around the name Truan. Nobody knew it. The students merely shrugged. The professors stared as though woken from a deep slumber: they were so deeply entrenched in their classes, history, that current events reached them as a distant cry and they only stirred briefly. Alexander concluded that the Professor was either new to the field, or else very modest and kept a low profile.
The last step, as the 18th approached, was to pack his things into a duffle bag on wheels and bid goodbye to the university. Passing through downtown Slateport, he stopped at the Pokemon Centre and imported three pokemon - Nix, Kelby, and Jackie. Then he hailed a cab.
"To the harbour," he said through the window.
His driver was talkative and wanted to know where Alexander was going. "Floe Island," he said. "I have some business there," and smiled brightly. He was watching the driver through the rearview mirror over a bowl of Chinese take out, beef and rice. The rain had suddenly begun bucketing down and it was all the windshield wipers could do to keep the view ahead from smearing into a watercolour mess. Through the cab windows Alexander could make out a gloomy morning sky and a parallel river of traffic, fragmented into a grey mosaic by the drops of rain on the glass. His poke balls were in the pockets of his long brown coat.
When Alexander stepped out onto the tarmac it was still pouring. The ferry was in sight, taking on a long line of passengers, families and couples waiting patiently with their umbrellas open. He opened his as well (it was white and grey) and joined them, the duffel bag in his other hand, and paced the pavement for a while before boarding. The smartly dressed attendant took his ticket and handed him a stub with his room number on it. The lounge was warm and stuffy...
Chapter 1 -#2
Alexander wasn't new to cruises; this was his third. Again, the problem presented to him was what to do with his time. Depending on the weather, the trip would take 18 hours. Blessedly, sleeping would take up 8 of those hours, and meals in the large white dining hall would take up 2 more, but what of the rest? He began with a brief overview of his room. It was a small, modestly furnished bedroom with a door on the right leading to the bathroom. A desk with a chair stood by the wide window that opened onto the balcony: he checked that the lock worked. In one corner was a potted plant. The menu of the day was lying on the royal blue coverlet, which was propped up by two large pillows. Beside the bed, an oval braided rug in white and blue covered the wooden floor. The bathroom was clean and contained dailiy necessities such as soap and a set of towels. The overall effect was neat and pleasing to the eye. Alexander was satisfied and unpacked at once, making himself master of the room. The second thing he did was let out his Pokemon at last. They crowded around, greeting him in their different voices. Nix sat on the bed, testing the quality of the pillows; Jackie went sniffing around the floor and followed the trail into the bathroom; Kelby ran in circles for a little while, then curled up on the coverlet like a large yellow cat.
After a late, second breakfast in the buffet with the other passengers Alexander extended his initial exploration to the hallways and corridors of the ship. Walking down the long blue carpet between the rooms, his shoulders straight and his hands folded behind his back, he took note of which doors were closed and which were open, which were silent and which were radiating sounds of life. He found the janitorial closet, and the emergency map (In Case Of Fire), which he studied facetiously, his face close to the glass, and memorized. In another hallway he found a troupe of children running to and fro, almost bouncing off the wall, and was glad that his room was in a different part of the ship. One of the boys, sighting the houndoom by Alexander's heels, timidly approached and asked for a battle.
Alexander laughed and accepted. The boy couldn't have been older than 11, and his actions seemed typical of the young trainer. He brought out his snubull, which growled and gnashed its teeth. Jackie tensed and prepared to leap.
"Ember!" The dog belched fire at his opponent; the snubbull yelped and jumped back from the smoke and pain.
"Tackle!" The snubbull charged, ramming the houndoom's side and almost knocking him over, but Jackie was a good five pounds heavier and kept his feet planted firmly on the ground.
"Bite!" Jackie leapt at his opponent's throat, who tried to counter with his own jaws. The houndoom jumped back out of range and circled, lunging and retreating, lunging and retreating. The snubbull turned left and right, trying to tackle the moving target, but Jackie's teeth found their mark first and the snubbull toppled, helpless though still growling.
The kid, recalling his pokemon, seemed more than a little stunned. Cringing mentally, Alexander continued down the hall with victorious Jackie in tow. He wished the younger trainers weren't so quick with following the Guide, which stated that trainers had to battle if their eyes so much as met - but he put the incident aside quickly and continued onto the balcony that stretched around the upper passenger levels.
In this manner he became familiar with the whole of the ship, both its machinery and the people who kept it running. By evening he had been on the lower levels and caught a glimpse of the engine room. Striding past the attendants in their blue coats, he smiled, and they, thinking him quite strange, raised their caps politely.
In the morning he woke early, impatient to arrive, and watched the grey dawn from his window. The clock read 7 am (daylight savings, you know). Breakfast would be served in two hours at the least, and his mind would not let him sit still, so he dressed and went up onto the deck where he stood at the railing, face into the cold wind that filled his ears and made his coat billow, and scratched Jackie's head, who sat habitually at his side (Nix and Kelby were still sleeping in their poke balls). For a time it seemed like the occupants of the ship were in slumber, and the calling of wingulls and the rush of the wind were the only sounds, but after a time he noticed voices behind him, and turned to look.
He could see three figures, two male and one female, and although it was hard to tell in the dim
light, the scene looked violent: one of the men had forced the woman up against the railing; then she kicked out, and one of the men was down on the deck instead. Drawing his loat coat around him, Alexander made his way closer to the trio, stepping carefully to disguise the sound of his footfalls. But they didn't seem to be listening; at least, they hadn't noticed the gallade approaching from behind.
From a distance, he could see how the gallade took each man in hand and unceremoniously dumped them overboard. The young woman - he could tell her age now - had straightened up, holding a vulpix in her arms, when he had come close enough to shout - "Hey!" He waved, smiling sheepishly and biting his tongue. An impulse made him step to the side of the railing and look overboard, scanning the choppy waves for the figures of the two men before looking up at Lauren again, perturbed. "What about those two...?"
{ooc: There, that gets me up to date with your character, DGexe. Unfortunately I'll be gone until Tuesday, so no replies from me till then.}
The letter came on the 10th, encased in a larger envelope containing two handwritten pages from his mother. It had come to Verdanturf (she wrote) and she was forwarding it on. Everything was fine back home. His Pokemon missed him already. Samantha was being a handful, staying out late on school nights and getting all sorts of bad habits. She hoped he wasn't feeling sick, since the flu was going around...
The letter interrupted this everyday banality. Alexander stared at it for a while, reading and rereading the printed lines. "You have been chosen..." For what? A promotional event? The letter seemed too transparent to be a scam. "This is very important." Far too transparent.
The name Truan meant nothing to him. Four (Floe) Island, he knew, was one in the Sevii Archipelago down south, not suitable for a vacation spot but a popular destination for Pokemon trainers, who flocked to it like pilgrims to a saint's tomb. Yes, there could be some sort of research falicity there. He had never gone himself. But the journey could not take more than a day. At the most, he could be there and back within three days, which wouldn't put him back far in terms of coursework. The calender on the left side wall was crammed with pen lines trumpeting due dates and test days, but none were before the 25th.
The matter settled in his mind, he smiled with satisfaction and pinned the letter to his corkboard, where it hung in full view until the 17th.
Meanwhile Alexander busied himself on campus, sticking his face into every classroom, spreading around the name Truan. Nobody knew it. The students merely shrugged. The professors stared as though woken from a deep slumber: they were so deeply entrenched in their classes, history, that current events reached them as a distant cry and they only stirred briefly. Alexander concluded that the Professor was either new to the field, or else very modest and kept a low profile.
The last step, as the 18th approached, was to pack his things into a duffle bag on wheels and bid goodbye to the university. Passing through downtown Slateport, he stopped at the Pokemon Centre and imported three pokemon - Nix, Kelby, and Jackie. Then he hailed a cab.
"To the harbour," he said through the window.
His driver was talkative and wanted to know where Alexander was going. "Floe Island," he said. "I have some business there," and smiled brightly. He was watching the driver through the rearview mirror over a bowl of Chinese take out, beef and rice. The rain had suddenly begun bucketing down and it was all the windshield wipers could do to keep the view ahead from smearing into a watercolour mess. Through the cab windows Alexander could make out a gloomy morning sky and a parallel river of traffic, fragmented into a grey mosaic by the drops of rain on the glass. His poke balls were in the pockets of his long brown coat.
When Alexander stepped out onto the tarmac it was still pouring. The ferry was in sight, taking on a long line of passengers, families and couples waiting patiently with their umbrellas open. He opened his as well (it was white and grey) and joined them, the duffel bag in his other hand, and paced the pavement for a while before boarding. The smartly dressed attendant took his ticket and handed him a stub with his room number on it. The lounge was warm and stuffy...
Chapter 1 -#2
Alexander wasn't new to cruises; this was his third. Again, the problem presented to him was what to do with his time. Depending on the weather, the trip would take 18 hours. Blessedly, sleeping would take up 8 of those hours, and meals in the large white dining hall would take up 2 more, but what of the rest? He began with a brief overview of his room. It was a small, modestly furnished bedroom with a door on the right leading to the bathroom. A desk with a chair stood by the wide window that opened onto the balcony: he checked that the lock worked. In one corner was a potted plant. The menu of the day was lying on the royal blue coverlet, which was propped up by two large pillows. Beside the bed, an oval braided rug in white and blue covered the wooden floor. The bathroom was clean and contained dailiy necessities such as soap and a set of towels. The overall effect was neat and pleasing to the eye. Alexander was satisfied and unpacked at once, making himself master of the room. The second thing he did was let out his Pokemon at last. They crowded around, greeting him in their different voices. Nix sat on the bed, testing the quality of the pillows; Jackie went sniffing around the floor and followed the trail into the bathroom; Kelby ran in circles for a little while, then curled up on the coverlet like a large yellow cat.
After a late, second breakfast in the buffet with the other passengers Alexander extended his initial exploration to the hallways and corridors of the ship. Walking down the long blue carpet between the rooms, his shoulders straight and his hands folded behind his back, he took note of which doors were closed and which were open, which were silent and which were radiating sounds of life. He found the janitorial closet, and the emergency map (In Case Of Fire), which he studied facetiously, his face close to the glass, and memorized. In another hallway he found a troupe of children running to and fro, almost bouncing off the wall, and was glad that his room was in a different part of the ship. One of the boys, sighting the houndoom by Alexander's heels, timidly approached and asked for a battle.
Alexander laughed and accepted. The boy couldn't have been older than 11, and his actions seemed typical of the young trainer. He brought out his snubull, which growled and gnashed its teeth. Jackie tensed and prepared to leap.
"Ember!" The dog belched fire at his opponent; the snubbull yelped and jumped back from the smoke and pain.
"Tackle!" The snubbull charged, ramming the houndoom's side and almost knocking him over, but Jackie was a good five pounds heavier and kept his feet planted firmly on the ground.
"Bite!" Jackie leapt at his opponent's throat, who tried to counter with his own jaws. The houndoom jumped back out of range and circled, lunging and retreating, lunging and retreating. The snubbull turned left and right, trying to tackle the moving target, but Jackie's teeth found their mark first and the snubbull toppled, helpless though still growling.
The kid, recalling his pokemon, seemed more than a little stunned. Cringing mentally, Alexander continued down the hall with victorious Jackie in tow. He wished the younger trainers weren't so quick with following the Guide, which stated that trainers had to battle if their eyes so much as met - but he put the incident aside quickly and continued onto the balcony that stretched around the upper passenger levels.
In this manner he became familiar with the whole of the ship, both its machinery and the people who kept it running. By evening he had been on the lower levels and caught a glimpse of the engine room. Striding past the attendants in their blue coats, he smiled, and they, thinking him quite strange, raised their caps politely.
In the morning he woke early, impatient to arrive, and watched the grey dawn from his window. The clock read 7 am (daylight savings, you know). Breakfast would be served in two hours at the least, and his mind would not let him sit still, so he dressed and went up onto the deck where he stood at the railing, face into the cold wind that filled his ears and made his coat billow, and scratched Jackie's head, who sat habitually at his side (Nix and Kelby were still sleeping in their poke balls). For a time it seemed like the occupants of the ship were in slumber, and the calling of wingulls and the rush of the wind were the only sounds, but after a time he noticed voices behind him, and turned to look.
He could see three figures, two male and one female, and although it was hard to tell in the dim
light, the scene looked violent: one of the men had forced the woman up against the railing; then she kicked out, and one of the men was down on the deck instead. Drawing his loat coat around him, Alexander made his way closer to the trio, stepping carefully to disguise the sound of his footfalls. But they didn't seem to be listening; at least, they hadn't noticed the gallade approaching from behind.
From a distance, he could see how the gallade took each man in hand and unceremoniously dumped them overboard. The young woman - he could tell her age now - had straightened up, holding a vulpix in her arms, when he had come close enough to shout - "Hey!" He waved, smiling sheepishly and biting his tongue. An impulse made him step to the side of the railing and look overboard, scanning the choppy waves for the figures of the two men before looking up at Lauren again, perturbed. "What about those two...?"
{ooc: There, that gets me up to date with your character, DGexe. Unfortunately I'll be gone until Tuesday, so no replies from me till then.}
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