I think you all make good points, and there's really no need for me to quote everything I want to reply to... so I'll just ramble on, and feel free to care.
The plot of the RP insists that trouble is stirring up in Johto. Ayeleth, and his team are gearing up to do something crazy to either take down the region, or rebuild their evil regime in the name of his long, lost father.
Our characters are supposed to be commissioned by Elm to help take down Teams Neo & Rocket. I would assume Professor Elm would only give out Pokemon to trainers he thought were suitable, and/or saw potential in.
How crazy would it be if Professor Elm told a handful of teenagers they could take a Pokemon, journey out into the wild, and along the way possibly get slaughtered by a group of deranged evil-doers? If I was a grown man with a lab, a hot lab assistant, and responsibility I would probably do the same thing.
Like ORegan said above, in his SU he had a conversation with Elm prior to obtaining his starter. In my mind it's the same situation for Graham, but I don't know if the sole purpose of Graham's second adventure was to be defeating Team Neo & pals, and defending Johto from impending doom.
At some point, I see a plot twist happening, and Graham getting a call from either Daisy or Elm, asking him to take care of problems arising in a certain area. I'm sure for other trainers if they skipped that part in the plot, or need a way to incorporate their characters in the madness they can follow a similar suit.
My only concern with the plot is when the major events start to happen will our trainers be ready to fight the forces of evil, with stage one Pokemon?
Now I don't expect some major uprising to happen in Cherrygrove city, but it seems to me like Neo & Rocket are pretty established, and are a force to be reckoned with. I've got handfuls of posts before my Chikorita turns into a Bayleef, and even more until she turns into a Meganium.
I don't want a plot reveal, or any spoilers. The questions above are merely curiosity brewing in my head. I'll figure out an answer come that point in the role play
Also if anyone noticed, I started working with CSS a little bit, and I updated my older posts to work with a simple style I made up combining some codes & colors together. Thanks for that website link Bleacher!