[PKMN FULL] Hoenn: Square One [IC]

[budube]

Jordie "Jo" Hughes

Wednesday, September 30

Chapter 4: Part 5 - Wishiwashi

09:25 - Cottage Grove's Fishing Spot

"Can I take my Pokémon outside?"

Kyle puts a box on the ground and looks back at me with a serious expression, it takes some time for him to come up with an answer, and limits himself to just say "Sure."

Neon's DuskBall opens and he lands in front of Kyle. Kyle stares at him for a second, then looks back at me once again, pointing at Neon.

"Don't Stunfisk eat fish?"

"I guess?" I answer, looking away from him, but he keeps his eyes set on me.

"Wishiwashi are fish."

"So?" I fail to see Kyle's point at first, but I realize what he means later. "Ah, I've fished with him before, he's okay. He just likes being near the water, y'know?"

I didn't fish for fish, though. However, that answer seems to calm Kyle down.

"So, how does this bait thing work?" I ask, sitting on the wooden dock, besides Kyle's box with the fishing rod on my shoulder. "The two times I fished I didn't have any of that."

Kyle opens the box and takes out a small berry, which he hands over to me. "It goes on the hook".

"That's all?"

"Well, bait is just food to lure the Pokémon in."

"Ah! That's…" pretty boring. "I don't know what I expected."

I put the berry on the hook, just like Kyle said, and try to clean the berry juice that came out on the wood. I end up cleaning it with some tissue Kyle brought, though, the dock is full of sand and ends up dirtying my fingers even more.

"Am I free to just toss this thing on the water now?" Kyle nods, and I swing the fishing rod forward. "How long does this take normally? Last time I fished it took like ten minutes to get something, y'know? I got bored really fast."

"Well, fishing does take a lot of patience," Kyle says. "The amount of fish in 103 is huge, though, so you won't have to wait that long, especially now that you have bait. Make it no more than three minutes."

No more than two minutes pass when I see the bobber move and the fishing line starts being pulled away. Turns out Kyle was right, it doesn't take that long here. I pull the fishing rod closer to my chest, as my left hand reels in. This one is just like Quinn back in Petalburg, it's either really heavy, or knows how to put on a fight.

"It's a Basculin."

"You can identify it already?!"

"Well, it's either Basculin or Wishiwashi, and Wishiwashi usually don't put up a fight like that," Kyle says.

"Well, I don't need a Basculin, y'know? I need a Wishiwashi!"

"Well, you should stop reeling in, then, you know?"

"I-" He has a point. However I can't get myself to stop. It's that feeling when you are so filled with adrenaline you gotta keep doing whatever you are doing and get it done right. That Basculin is right there and I won't lose this battle against it.

I get to hear Kyle sighing after seeing how I totally ignore his words, then I get up, fishing rod in hand, as I keep reeling in walking backwards. The Basculin swims at full speed, pulling the fishing line as it zigzags across the water and also trying to drag me with it to the water.

"The fishing rod doesn't go on your chest, it goes on your waist," Kyle points out in a serious tone. I feel Kyle's foot bumping my left one, then I manage to take a quick glance of him pushing his fishing box backwards. "Also, separate your legs at shoulder width and flex them a little bit, that way you won't fall backwards once the fish comes out."

Following Kyle's advice makes things way more comfortable for me, but the fish keeps going strong, trying to free itself from the hook. However…

"I can see the Basculin's fin from here," he says, then walks back to my right side, putting a hand on my shoulder, and points forward. "See that second fin back there? It has a single end. You got yourself a blue striped Basculin."

"Almost. Not yet…"

"No, you already got it," Kyle nods. "Don't stop reeling in and hold the handle as hard as possible. When I tell you, you swing the fishing rod up with all your strength, okay?"

"Uh huh…" I do as Kyle says, giving a few steps backwards as well. I see how the Basculin starts approaching the water's edge at a high speed, but at the same time, my shades fall from my head and completely block my sight.

"Now!"

Without being able to see anything, I swing the fishing rod upwards. It's not until I see a silhouette hanging from the hook aggressively flailing in front of me that I take the time to put on my shades correctly.

There it is. A blue striped Basculin, Kyle was right. I've heard about them, they are known for being rather aggressive; in fact, they are known as the Hostile Pokémon. Never had one up close, though.

"I won." Did I ever think I'd be so excited for fishing? No, but here we are. This moment feels really fulfilling, unlike my two previous experiences. However, this is sadly no Wishiwashi, which means it has to go back to the water now.

I'm about to grab it to set it free from the hook, but just as I'm about to, the Pokémon opens its mouth and falls. It startles me, and I back off, accidentally dragging the handle through the dock, which seems to startle the fish as well.

"Watch out!"

I am thankfully quick enough to dodge when the fish lunges at me to bite my leg, and it just passes by, knocking its head with a wooden pillar from the dock a few feet away from me, but the Basculin doesn't seem to be hurt by it.

After flopping on the ground a few times, the Basculin turns around and takes a more convenient position for it to attack. It glares at me, with its jaw open, showing its sharp teeth as it emulates a swimming motion and bubbles come from under its body.

"Neon…" I put my hand in Gabby's DuskBall out of pure instinct, and don't look away from the Basculin until Neon drags himself in front of me and adopts a defensive position by raising the front half of his body, also adopting a darker color more akin to that of the dock. "Bide."

The blue Basculin closes its jaw upon seeing Neon and lunges forward at great speed. Neon is capable of taking the hit with no problem, and sending the Basculin back to the water is an easy task once it finds itself unable to maneuver away from Neon's counterattack after being afflicted by paralysis.

Meanwhile, I put the hand I had on Gabby's DuskBall on my waist, sighing in relief, after seeing the results.

"Are you okay?" Kyle approaches me with a concerned look in his eyes, and I nod at him after running my hand through my face and putting my shades on top of my head again.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" With nothing else to say, I quietly turn around to grab the fishing rod again.

"It's not every day you get attacked by a Pokémon like that. I can take care of the fish if you want to."

"I want to do it again," I reply, showing Maroon's DuskBall at him. "I'm ready to take on whatever comes at me next time."

Kyle doesn't answer, but he seems to agree, he just limits himself to bringing the box back to where we were and hand me another piece of bait.

"Thanks." I put the bait in the hook once again and swing the fishing rod at the water a second time. While I wait for something to bite, I finish organizing my thoughts and talk to Kyle again. "After we are done with the Wishiwashi, can you tell Hilda I'll stay here for one extra hour at most? Also leave the fishing rod and bait here."

"Want to fish for more Basculin?"

I nod with a smile.

"I'd have to ask Flint if someone else can take my spot," Kyle says after giving it some thought. "He'd like to have someone to supervise you in case you catch something."

"Not my plan, but sure."

---

12:10 am - Hilda's Cottage

The door opens, and Harry walks outside the house, making his way to his plate outside.

"You're late. Kyle told me you were only taking one more hour," Hilda says, walking away from the door and approaching the kitchen. "When I told you to bring me two Wishiwashi, it was because I thought you were writing about Wishiwashi. If you ended up wanting to write about Basculin, you could've brought one of those instead."

"Really? Are those edible?" I say with confusion. "Call that karma."

"So what did you think?," she says. "I thought you wanted something big."

"I did? Wishiwashi are not the definition of big."

Hilda snickers, pointing her knife at me from a distance. "You are underestimating those little guys," she claims before going back to what she was doing. "Schooling! Ever heard of it? It's the natural ability of Wishiwashi. A single one of those is capable of calling hundreds of its own species to combine their power into what looks like a Wishiwashi of 41 times its normal size. I wrote something about them when I still worked with Daniel."

"Is that so?"

"Correct. It's an amazing sight to behold… very dangerous, though. Probably for the better you didn't go for them, now that I think about it; Kyle would've hated me," the old woman jokes. "Now Basculin on the other side… not the smartest Pokémon out there, they are constantly battling between their own species, red stripes against blue stripes. People usually don't care about those, so I bet little Brendan will appreciate your report."

"I hope so." I look around Hilda's cottage, still standing behind the door. I should get to write that report while she's preparing lunch. "Do you have a computer?"

Hilda chuckles. "You will have a hard time finding someone with a computer here," she says. "Don't you trainers have those fancy devices? PokéNavs, PokéGears?"

"My fancy device is a watch that was made only for calls in the beginning. I can send mail from there, but I'm not a fan of typing too much there, let alone whole reports."

"You could write a draft first."

"I still need a computer or something to write on."

"Not necessarily a computer. Sit." Hilda leaves her stuff behind and walks to a cabinet in the small room to the right, taking a notepad and a pen from it. "Pen and paper."

"Really? And count the 300 words manually?"

Hilda rolls her eyes. "I doubt Brendan won't accept your report just because it's not exactly 300 words long," she says. "Right now, this notepad is proving to be more useful than the thing you have around your wrist just for existing. You write your draft, make as many modifications as you need, count the words, and transcribe it to the watch thing while I prepare lunch. I don't know, it's just an idea. I'll leave this here whatever you decide to do."

The old woman walks back to the kitchen, leaving me with the pen and paper at the table. I look to the left to see if she's looking at me, but she's too concentrated in preparing lunch, so I just open the notepad and write "wishiwashi basculin report". The draft in itself doesn't take too long to write, however the same can't be said about the transcription, which I had to do after lunch:

Spoiler:

Basculin are water type Pokémon also known by the name of Hostile Pokémon due to their incredibly aggressive nature, both in and outside the water. They are also well known because of the stripes on the upper part of their bodies that tend to be either red or blue, and if you fish in Cottage Grove you can find Basculin of either pattern.

Basculin are one of those rare instances in which fish Pokémon lack the ability Swift Swim, trading the ability to reach great speeds underwater for brute force. It's not as if Basculin really need Swift Swim, though, they are already pretty fast Pokémon themselves. In fact, that combination of physical strength and speed, together with its naturally aggressive behavior, is what makes them challenging to fish up.

Talking to some locals, I found out that they aren't as common to find in Cottage Grove as Wishiwashi, the other species that can be fished up in these waters. In the span of about two hours, I managed to fish up five Basculin, which is not a small number considering how difficult it is to fish one, however it's still short compared to the amount of Wishiwashi I found. Three of those Basculin were Red Striped, while the other two were Blue Striped, and talking again to some locals, I found out that it's esteemed that the population of blue and red Basculin are the same.

The PokéDex says Red Basculin can have the ability Reckless, while Blue Basculin can have the ability Rock Head, and I wanted to test the power differences of both Basculin considering that with the help of my Dhelmise's anchor, but sadly, the only Basculin with Rock Head I found was the first one, which bumped its head against a wooden pillar before the testing started; the others either had Adaptability or Mold Breaker as abilities, so in that regard I couldn't test much.

-Jordie Hughes

---

Jordie's Party:

Battle Subway:

---

Inventory:

Spoiler:

- 23 Dusk Balls
- X-transceiver
- ₽6700
- Eviolite (Bane)
- Aggronite
- Keystone
- Coaching TM
- Protect TM
- Grass Knot TM

Jo's portrait made with: https://picrew.me/image_maker/1140610/​

 

[Aquacorde]

Marie Rachelle Mocinno

Knuckle, Dell
₽23,000
Thurs Oct 8, Morning
Mauville

Chapter 6 #4 - Breakfast

Why Marie thought eight in the morning was an appropriate time for breakfast after such a late night, she doesn't know.

What she does know is that she slept hard and dreamlessly, foggily rolled out of bed at the gentle chimes of her alarm, and shuffled through her morning routine at a respectable pace for autopilot- all to be able to drop herself into a cafeteria booth armed with coffee, well before her quarry rears his messy blond head.

Instead of Edison, though, a slightly less messy red head drops into the seat in front of her. Sunny Dey, holding a cup of coffee herself, lets out a sigh. "Oh, good. I've been looking for you. I need a favor."

"Huh? I was sleeping, as you should have been." As she would prefer to still be. "Weren't you awake later than I was?"

"I'm awake still. Went back to the Gym, didn't pan out." Sunny quickly downs the rest of her coffee. "So I was trying to figure out what I can do about the Badge thing, and then I remembered, that beach bum bro Brawly owes me a Badge still. You have his number, right? I need it."

Yes, the idea of slowing down is just fully gone, isn't it? Marie shakes her head with a tsk of disapproval. "Didn't you reject his badge?"

"I mean… yeah, but he still offered it. Look, are you gonna help me or not?"

"Yes, fine." It's not her issue to deal with, after all- Brawly can decide himself what Sunny's consequences may be for this foolishness. "Sent. You should sleep- though perhaps you won't be able to, with all that coffee. Choices, Sunny Dey."

"Yeah, choices, sure…" Sunny looks at her phone, and flashes Marie a relieved smile. "Thanks. You're a good friend. I'll get some sleep after I've sorted this out, don't you worry!"

"Mm. You go on and do that." Marie shoos Sunny away with a vague wave.

When had she taken on some kind of role of responsibility? Deliberately holding Sunny back had been a game, some entertainment for the road, some meddling in a relationship. But keeping people on a reasonable, responsible life path? Ew. Where's all that nonsense coming from?

"Good morning, Marie. I hope you slept well?" Edison interrupts her pondering by approaching her table, looking much more like his usual self. Calm, collected, fashionably out of date but presentable…save of course for his trademark messy hair. No sense or sign of the insane creature that had overturned the Game Corner on Tuesday night.

"Well enough, thank you." The achy fatigue of travel is more tolerable this time around, though still she's missing a few hours. "You as well, I take it?"

"Better than the night before, certainly." Edison winces. "Mauville is a city of opportunities, but it seems I've mostly used the opportunity to make a fool of myself."

Marie huffs a laugh into her coffee. "May be best to lay low for a while."

"That's one possibility. I could also make a public display of myself when I'm in full control of my faculties, show people what I'm really like. Maybe in front of a large crowd. Say… an arena, for example." Edison tries to play coy, but he has a terrible poker face.

"Oh, are you participating in contests now? I'm sure they will appreciate a showcase that is naught but an apologetic monologue. Definitely ribbon-worthy." Baiting people into being clear is more entertaining than filling in the blanks herself. And honestly, so is the idea of Edison performing a rambling, formal apology to a sea of blank-faced contest-goers. Or doing the same in the Winstrate arena that he's actually speaking of. God, she hopes that isn't the plan.

"What? No, that would be silly. I am in no way prepared for Contests, and such a speech would most likely fall outside the often ridiculous parameters of a Contest. I'd have to match the theme, then perform a battle worthy of placement, and then somehow work it into my final performance." Edison shakes his head at the very idea. "I meant I would simply make an appearance at the Up-and-Coming Tournament, which is rapidly coming up, to make a joke at grammar's expense. I hadn't planned on making a speech, as doing so would invalidate my stated goal of overriding my disastrous first impression with a more favorable one. Besides, people hate apology videos."

Marie sips her coffee, and it crosses her mind that Edison hasn't even had any. He's just like this, and it's entertaining. "Interesting. I wonder if we'll face off?"

He takes a breath, about to speak, then pauses. His hand moves to his chin as he thinks it over. "...that hadn't occurred to me. Given the number of participants… no, I simply hadn't considered you'd be among them. But… you are entering? Then, we might have to."

Hadn't considered-?! Marie's eyes narrow. Does he not think her capable enough? "I do hold enough badges to qualify, after all." In fact, as far as she is aware, they are equal in merits. Though Sunny had said once… does Edison hold himself back, in gym matches? Does he consider a win unimportant, satisfied in simply knowing his own skills, in knowing he is more capable than his peers?

She can't help but bristle at the idea of all her work being dismissed.

"Of course, yes. Apologies, I've been rather in my own head lately. Or out of it entirely, at some points." He isn't joking, and actually frowns at the thought, as though it were distasteful. Marie relaxes a fraction. "At some point I even picked up a third badge, and an additional Pokémon, and I somehow blocked those from my memory."

That's not concerning at all, no.

He pulls a bandanna- formerly her bandanna, actually, it's cute that he still has that- from his pocket, unfolding it to show the Glitter Dynamo Badge within. And a pool of loose glitter. "A bit ostentatious, not sure how I forgot, but apparently I won this before I was kicked out for staying after closing hours. So you needn't worry about me going back there again. And now that I have this," He holds up his hand, showing off the sleek new Holotch on his wrist, "We'll be able to keep in touch."

"That we will. You still have my number, yes?" Marie has a suspicion that staying after hours is not quite enough to get someone's face posted outside the gym, but Edison remembers little enough that there is no point in pursuing the truth. Besides, it's more pressing that he has three badges now- the most out of their little group.

Oh, Sunny's really going to have a fit.

"I do. Now that all the updates are done, I can put these numbers in." From another pocket comes a slightly crumpled piece of paper, containing three phone numbers. Curious. He rapidly types them into his device while talking. "Now I can be part of group chats, and send emails, and all the other things technology allows. I'll just send you a quick message…"

Her phone chimes, not just a message but an invitation. "And I'll share my location with you. This way you can always find me on your map if you want. I'm thinking of doing the same with Sunny in case she ever storms off again. Friends look out for each other, yes?"

Marie's surprise flashes across her face and though she wrangles it into a gracious smile, the warmth in her cheeks isn't so easily dismissed. "They do. I suppose I will extend the same offer to you. You must come find me if I get lost in the wilderness, then."

Edison bows his head, almost hiding his own smile, but not soon enough. "Neither rain nor snow nor dark of night could keep me from helping you, my lady."

Cute.

His phone chimes, surprising him. He pulls up a message, lifting an eyebrow as he reads. "That's unexpected. It seems a girl I met yesterday wants to spend some time with me today. Should I tell her I have other plans?"

"Another girl? My, you are a popular man. Whoever finally catches you will have won a hard-earned prize." Marie washes down a bubbly cocktail of emotions with the remains of her coffee. "No, go ahead and explore your options, my dear. You'll come back to me in the end."

Those last words surprise her, though said in the same light-hearted, flirtatious manner as any other comment. Will he really? Perhaps. Does it matter to her?

Perhaps.

Hm.

Edison shrugs, taking her tone at face value. "Well, this one probably has a net, it'll be easier to catch me that way. She probably just wants to talk about Pokémon, she claimed to be a scientist, like myself. It should be an entertaining morning." He takes a moment to respond to the text, then looks up at Marie. "Now, shall we get breakfast, or did you already eat?"

"Breakfast would be lovely."

featuring Groc as Edison Kintobor & Sunny Dey ⟡

Spoiler: Team

Pokémon On Hand

Tuie ⟡ Xatu ⟡ Female ⟡ Magic Bounce ⟡
Air Slash // Teleport // Stored Power // Cosmic Power // Ominous Wind // Confuse Ray

Stunnie ⟡ Stunfisk ⟡ Male ⟡ Static ⟡
Sucker Punch // Mud Shot // Thundershock // Discharge // Water Gun // Mud Sport // Charge

Cutie ⟡ Alolan Exeggutor ⟡ Male ⟡ Frisk ⟡
Bullet Seed // Hypnosis // Reflect // Leech Seed // Dragon Hammer // Barrage

Pokie ⟡ Slowpoke ⟡ Male ⟡ Own Tempo ⟡
Disable // Confusion // Yawn // Water Pulse // Growl // Curse

Spoiler: Inventory

Trainers' License [Johto and Hoenn] ⟡

TM Magical Leaf ⟡
Empty PokéBalls x 3 ⟡
5x Chesto Berries ⟡
2x Fluffy Tail ⟡

Sunscreen ⟡
Berry-Print Bikini ⟡
Beach Towel ⟡
Oversized Sunglasses ⟡
Large But Lightweight Backpack ⟡
Rechargeable Battery + Charging Port Housing ⟡
Lidded Pot, Dishes, Chopsticks, Spoon ⟡
Camp Stove ⟡
Soap, Washcloth, Towel ⟡

Spoiler: Contacts

FAMILY
Dad ⟡ Mom ⟡ Brothers #1, #2, and #3

PEERS
Edison ⟡ Natsuko (via insta) ⟡ Sunny ⟡ Van

OTHER
Brawly ⟡ Brendan ⟡ Wally

 

[Eleanor]

Avril Reese

16 - ♀ - Laverre City


​

Pokémon / Inventory:

AVRIL'S MONEY: $37 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Flabébé) ♀
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Moonblast, Grassy Terrain, Aromatherapy, Wish, Petal Blizzard

🌼 Hydrangea (Shellos) ♀
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)

🌼 Wisteria (Inkay) ♂
Infiltrator
Night Slash, Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

🌼 Thistle (Wooloo) ♀
Bulletproof
Tackle, Growl, Defense Curl, Copycat, Guard Split, Double Kick

Away:
🌼 Venus (Mawile) ♀ - at Littleroot Research Lab

AVRIL'S INVENTORY:
🌼 1 Empty Pokéball
🌼 2 Potions
🌼 Eviolite
🌼 Silk Scarf
🌼 TM for Ally Switch (from Wally)
🌼 5 Rare berries
🌼 Sea Incense
🌼 Pink Scarf
🌼 TM for ??? (from the Trick House)
🌼 Light Clay

🌼 Holotch (phone version)
🌼 Fanclub Membership card - valid until October 17^th
🌼 Ophelia's stamp
🌼 Various clothes and commodities
🌼 Pink Woolen Hat
🌼 Binoculars

🌼 Rental skates again

AVRIL'S CONTACTS:
Jordie, Shuna, Natsuko, June, Marcella, Hikaru

AVRIL'S BADGES AND RIBBONS:
🥊 ➕

🎀• 1

🌼 Avril's birth date is April 25^th, 2010
🌼 Character art made with [SPAN="color:rgb(40,180,40);"]https://picrew.me/image_maker/338886[/SPAN]

Stubbornness

Tuesday, October 6^th - afternoon - Mauville

In the heat of Mauville's early afternoon, indoor contest practice is the most enticing option Avril can choose from. Angie does seem on board with this, too, so nothing can stop them now.

In the end, the blonde girl actually settles for the open floor in the tower, which is still in the shade but is larger and less crowded. Here Angie can build up a large puddle of her Mud sport and slide in it to her heart's content, as her trainer watches her carefully. The power of her Water Pulses and Mud Bombs is put to the test, and so is their aim, once Poppy joins the fray.

The fairy type's latest move, Petal Blizzard, turns out to make for quite a show when it breaks the bubble that is Shellos' Water Pulse into many small droplets. Avril takes note of this too, wondering what other combinations she may have missed before. But…

It doesn't take too long to run out of ideas, at least given her initial excitement. Angie is soon begging for food again, which she promptly gets once Avril pauses.

Other trainers in the hall are quick to help but most of their advice involves studying her Pokémon more and looking for new moves to teach them. Well…

Avril only has two Technical Machines to her name and hasn't looked into what those moves could do or interact with other moves. When it comes to moves that Pokémon can learn naturally, like Petal Blizzard for Poppy, she has never really tried to intervene, giving her Pokémon all the time they wanted instead. That might be another thing that she needs to change, especially for Contests.

In the end, despite having had some fruitful conversations with other coordinators, Avril does leave the contest hall early, getting back to the Pokémon center only to go back in her room and look up more information.

"Ally Switch…" she sifts through her bag eventually. The move she got from Wally, only because June picked it too.

"How could I use this, uh?" She ponders, while Poppy is seemingly practicing her Fairy Wind on her own, bouncing off the walls of the room. "Maybe I should look for more of these things? What else could I try…"

🌙🌙🌙

This time Poppy makes things clear about what she wants to do and what she wants Avril to help her with. Doesn't matter how Avril looks at her, asking "Again!?" with a tinge of annoyance in her voice: in the end, she complies. Poppy wants her to stop worrying about those moves for a bit and go skating once more, and that's what they end up doing.

Somewhat unsure about going all the way to Hill Station, the area of Mauville that she wanted to explore, Avril decides to stick to Mauville for this. There are some nice spots quite close to the Pokémon Center, as Paulie showed her when they came back from the Parkway, and as scary as it can be to roll on a suspended bridge between skyscrapers, it definitely makes for a special experience. Avril still sticks to the center at first, but soon gets closer to the railings to take in the views, all while Poppy chirps excitedly and… tells her to keep going.

Eventually, Poppy directs Avril towards… a wall. At this point, Avril doesn't question it, and faces the skyscraper from up close. And then it feels like a deja-vu: Poppy blows out her Fairy Wind, but instead of making her trainer move, she is the one who risks floating away from her head. The girl, still doubtful, shrugs that off. "Still at it? It didn't work so well this morning, remember Poppy?"

Her Pokémon isn't having it. Not even when Avril pushes herself away from the wall with her hands, trying to trick her Pokémon into believing the movement was all due to her moves. The trainer can see, however, how the sparkles from Fairy Wind are getting more bright, more condensed… something like that. Everytime she questions Poppy, the Pokémon puffs her chest and nods, as if to say "I got this".

Eventually Fairy Wind starts to look more and more like… a focused blast. Poppy charges it up and lets go of many particles all at once, and it looks just like Angie readying up Water Pulse. She might have taken notes from the previous training at the Contest Hall, at least that's what Avril thinks.

She indulges in her Pokémon's stubbornness, she lets her try again while staying in her arms instead, and many more sparkles are launched towards the concrete wall, usually to no avail. Avril this time tries to stay still, but she never rolls backwards that much and Poppy is clearly trying to achieve more than that. Then it somehow works.

To be fair, Poppy is once again glowing. Her whole body, in fact. That looks like her failed evolution at the Mauport Contest, and so Avril prepares for the worst as soon as she connects the dots. Time stops as Poppy stands still, hissing as she tries to control all of that energy, but this time, she's able to have it leave her body. The light breaks up against the wall after traveling just one or two inches, and Avril is pushed back noticeably this time, instinctively braking with her skates before falling down for real.

She looks around, noticing with relief that she didn't inconvenience anybody, before immediately turning to Poppy again. She's got her tiny arms pressed against her head, and looks quite shaken up, but she hasn't fainted this time, and in fact, she starts laughing after a bit. She points towards her trainer's bag, then her Pokédex… her eyes sparkling with anticipation. For what? Avril asks herself as she checks Poppy's info.

Only after some time, the device updates, and that's when Avril sees it. "Something has changed…"

"Moonblast, right?"

 

[Caesar]

​

Tuesday, October 6th @ 1500 - Mauville

"Only two shots? C'mon now I think you can show me more than that!"

Grovyle was testing out her new move, Bullet Seed that had been taught to her via TM. The technique was for a the Pokemon to shoot a succession of heavy seeds at their target, this time a tree in the corner of the park. The move was supposed Clint and his team found themselves in a small park on the outskirts of Mauville, doing some preparation for this weekend's big tourney. But so far the results were less than desirable, much more two and three shot attacks, a couple of fours and no fives. What determines the amount of bullets per attack was a mystery to Clint, but he had the time to figure it out. Grovyle on the other hand, seemed to be getting tired of the repetitive attacks against the motionless target, but continued to do so under the direction of her trainer.

So Clint had her execute the move once again, and a three round burst was shot, whacking the tree in front of them, shaking off a few leaves and making a loud cracking noise as they did so. Clint and Grovyle both sighed after the move, but for different reasons. Still wanting to see a five shot attack, Clint had Grovyle run the attack once again. This time, Grovyle took a couple seconds to breathe before performing the move again. One, two, three, four and five cracks off the trunk of the target tree. Grovyle looked back at her trainer with a slight smirk, and walked back towards him.

"Now that's what I like to see, I think we'll call it a completed session for now," Clint said, crouching down to pet his Pokemon.

Clint returned Grovyle to her ball, before deciding on his next move. He had skipped lunch to go training, so perhaps some food would be a good idea. That and perhaps Clint would have to take a look at the Gym situation in Mauville, surely this city had to have at least one.

Later that day...

The sun was setting over the city of Mauville, the array of red and orange light bouncing off the glass windows of the city's skyscrapers, making a display than even Clint had to admit looked quite nice. He had tracked down the Mauville Gym, which was a small non-descript top floor building in the city. Not even the highest building in the block, Clint had figured the big city gym would have been a grand and fancy display, not a bare-bones operation being ran next to vague marketing and consulting offices.

Nevertheless, Clint entered the 'gym', only to find a small office, with one person sitting at the desk, seemingly playing a game at the work computer, even had a controller and headset ready to go.

"Excuse me, am I in the right place," Clint asked, waving his hand at the attendant, who either didn't hear or purposefully ignored Clint.

The attendant put his hand up, holding his pointer finger up as if to instruct Clint to wait. This got Clint a little heated, as the attendant who should be helping him was blowing him off to not do his job. But considering he had no other option, Clint waited for the attendant to finish his much more important business. After a couple more minutes of buttons mashing, the attendant took off his headset and put down the controller.

"You lost or something?"

"You tell me, am I at the Mauville Gym or not," Clint asked.

"Ugh, another one. Yes, you're 'technically' at the 'Gym', but you'll never see the Gym Leader here," the attendant began to explain.

"Not much of a Gym then," Clint interjected.

"I haven't seen Eiddon here in like six months now, he just rents this space and calls it the Gym to appease the league, who don't want to be anymore associated with gambling then they already are, they're not too fond of Eiddon running his operation out of the Game Corner. But that's where you'll find him cowpoke, not here," the attendant continued.

"So you just get paid to sit here and do nothing," Clint asked.

"Pretty much, other than redirected country bumpkins like yourself that have avoided learning the worst kept secret in the city," the attendant added,

"Check out the Game Corner anyways dude, its sick. I'm heading there after work anyways."

'Work' he calls it, this guy wouldn't last a single day on the ranch.

"Well thanks for the info, I won't bug you any further," Clint said, as he walked back out of the office.

The attendant shrugged, and put his headset back on. Clint walked down the hallway, peering out the window and looking at the city. Why was nothing straight forward around here? Everything in this place had to be as convoluted as possible. Guess he was off to the game corner.

...

After more traversing of the tram system, Clint had made his way over to the Game Corner, down on the lower levels in the south end of town. It was dark out now, but it was still busy in Mauville, especially around the Game Corner. There were people waiting outside, and a no entry sign placed in front of the entrance. Clint made his way through the crowd, feeling very uncomfortable as he was surrounded by unknown city people in the night time. Clint got to the entrance, where he was stopped by a Game Corner worker.

"Sir, you'll have to wait a bit for us to re-open. We're just doing some extra cleaning, we had a bit of an incident here today," the worker said, blocking Clint from entry.

"An incident?"

"Yes, we had a particularly unruly customer, made quite a mess of things, so we'll be a bit to clean up. Either wait out here like people are doing, or come back at a later time."

"Is Eiddon in today," Clint asked.

"Yes he is, although there's quite a few trainers ahead of you in line to battle the leader, so once we're up and operational we'll start getting challengers processed," the worker answered.

Great, sounds like a whole lot of waiting if Clint wanted to challenge the gym leader. Not sure how long this would take, Clint decided to walk outside to a walkway, away from the herd of city dwellers waiting like cattle for the gates to open. Clint then rested on the railing, overlooking nighttime Mauville. Being in the dark and in the lower levels of the city gave off a darker, more hopeless energy then it presented up in the higher levels during the day.

He took out a cigarette from the pack Sergei gave him in Littledale, and lit it up. He wondered for a second how Sergei's business was treating him, he was supposedly going to be in Mauville soon enough. Clint had his thinking to himself ruined by a young woman with long black hair, shaved on one side. She was short, wearing a black leather jacket, ripped blue jeans and old beat up canvas shoes. Looked a lot like a local. She also lit up a cigarette of her own, and started talking to Clint.

"Total s***show going on in there hey, some people just can't handle the flashing lights can they?"

"Guess not," Clint said, barely acknowledging his conversation partner, as he continued to look outwards.

"Any idea what went on in there," Clint asked, hoping he could get a rough idea on how long the corner would be shut down.

"Not exactly, all I know is there was some kid going all around the corner, causing s*** and ticking everybody off, apparently he puked in a machine too, dude must have been all psyducked up on something," the girl explained.

Oh great, sounds like clean up was going to be a bit, probably have to call special cleaners in, no way a bunch of arcade attendants were going to clean up that kind of a mess.

"Sounds like we'll be waiting out here a while then," Clint replied.

"Yea I'd be surprised if they re-opened tonight," the girl said,

"You must be here from out of town for the Gym, you'd be better off waiting for tomorrow."

"But hey, to scratch your battling itch a bunch of us down here in the lower levels have our own Pokemon battles. Outside of the 'league' and their fancy rules, you should come on down, think we're having some tonight now that the game corner is shut down."

Some late-night Pokemon battles in the depths of the city sure sounded sketchy, but Clint was up for it. What was there to lose by doing it anyways, other than his wallet.

"Count me in, uh what was your name," Clint said, fumbling his words as he did so.

"Zoe, and I didn't catch your name there cowboy," Zoe asked.

"Clint."

Zoe checked her phone, responding to a text she had received during the conversation.

"Well Clint, sounds like we're going to have a few battles down in the ring, want me to show you where we're going?"

"Lead the way miss."

Zoe gave him a strange look.

"Nobody's called me miss before, not sure I like it, save that for Virtua when you meet her."

Clint started to follow Zoe down to "The Ring" not entirely sure if he should trust his new acquaintance.
​

Team & Inventory:

Spoiler:

Blaze|Brave| Moves: Ember|Dragon Breath|Bite|Smokescreen|Fire Fang|Slash

Overgrow|Sassy| Moves: Leaf-age|Detect|Quick Attack|Double Kick|Assurance|Bullet Seed

Water Absorb|Quiet| Moves: Hypnosis|Water Gun|Pound|Mud Shot

Synchronize|Gentle| Moves: Confusion|Double Team|Teleport|Growl|Draining Kiss
Inventory:

$28,500
2x Potions
1x Pokeballs
5x Iapapa Berries
10x Oran Berries
4x Normal Gem
Sceptilite
Gengarite
Thunder Stone
Water Stone
TM Protect
TM Bullet Seed
TM Rock Smash
TM Low Kick
TM Grass Knot
TR Sludge Bomb

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

 

[QueenNothing]

Junko "June" Enomoto

Thursday, October 8th
Morning
Verdanturf Parkway

Save for her late grandmother, June never really had anyone in her life who shared her passion for bug Pokemon. There was Avril and Robynn, who didn't mind if she rambled on about bugs, and her parents definitely listened to her tangents, but none of them ever had anything to add. There was a better outlet in the form of online communities dedicated to discussions relating to bugs, but June always found it difficult to connect with people exclusively through the web.

That's why she was so glad to have met Edison last night. He might not dedicate himself to bug-types the same way June does, but there's enough of an overlapping interest that she has someone to talk with as opposed to having someone to talk to.

Originally June's plan was to meet Edison at the Sky Park, but since Edison isn't a fanclub member, they instead agreed to meet at Verdanturf Parkway. Not where she wanted, but it's a perfectly fine substitute. She decided a ruffled orange top, shorts, and her straw hat was right for the occasion. She almost wishes she had more long-sleeve shirts to hide her bandages, but given Hoenn's weather, she'd take exposed bandages over heatstroke.

Thanks to Mauville's superb public transit, June was able to make it to her destination right on-schedule… which was still 30 minutes before when she and Edison agreed to meet. "Better three hours too soon than a minute too late" was another one of her grandma's sayings. So to pass the time, she checks the latest articles from "Bug Fanatic's Digest".

Edison himself shows up right on time, dressed identically to how he looked yesterday, though his left sleeve is rolled up to display a new model Holotch on his arm. A Porygon hovers behind him, head on a swivel as it looks at everything in the area.

It takes Edison a moment to spot June, and another second to recognize her before he makes his way over to her. "Good morning, Miss June! Apologies for being late, I hope you weren't waiting long."

"Oh! Why, good morning to you too!" She giggles, opening up her Pokedex app to scan the Virtual Pokemon. "That's quite the interesting Pokemon you have there."

"Yes, it is. A gift from Miss Virtua. Or Leader Eiddon, I should say. I think I'm supposed to raise it, and let Eiddon know how it's doing?" He pats the Porygon on the head, and it leans into his hand affectionately. "I don't really remember, but I think it's very young. I'm still learning about it, but I call it Switch."

"Oh, I see. So then the gym leader just… gave it to you?" Is it Miss Virtua or Eiddon? She'll have to look more into it her next shift.

"Yes, after I won the Badge. I think she liked my style, so she gave me one to raise. It's kind of like taking care of a baby Pokémon, which I have a little experience with."

"Well, I've raised first stage Pokemon, although I'm not sure if that counts as a 'baby' Pokemon. But well, speaking of which," Eager to change the subject, June struggles to grab all six of her Pokeballs, enthusiasm shining through her smile. "Would you like to see the Pokemon I've raised?"

"More than anything!" Edison smiles with a glee to match her own. "Show me the Pokémon a self-proclaimed Bug scientist raises!"

One-by-one, June sends her Pokemon out, in the order she caught them. Most of them are glad to be out, all except Chip, who skitters his way behind June's feet. At least it wasn't his Pokeball.

"These are all the Pokemon I carry with me." Diya leaps onto her hat and squeaks excitedly. "I have more, but I don't use them for battling. Those Pokemon I caught in Johto, whereas everyone here- save for Einstein, my Orbeetle- I caught while journeying through Hoenn."

Edison scans each Pokémon with his Holotch as well as his eyes, offering a friendly greeting to each of them, even a somewhat formal bow to Joe. He has to consciously hold himself back from touching Sting's wings or Kit's legs, nods respectfully to Chip hiding behind June's legs, then moves right up to her to reach out a finger to Diya on her head.

But he seems most interested in Einstein. "Hello there, what are you? I'm not familiar with this species, how are you staying aloft without using your wings? Levitation, but is it magnetism? No… psychic power, fascinating! I'm going to need my instruments!" He taps a button on his belt, calling out a Magnemite to hover beside him. "You don't mind if N.D. and I run a few tests, do you?" The question is directed at Einstein as much as June.

June glances over to Einstein, who simply nods. "Neither of us mind, it looks like. But he's an Orbeetle, the final evolution of Blipbug! Like I mentioned earlier, I caught him in Johto, but up until recently they haven't been too common around Ransei in general, they're most common by Galar. I assume there must have been a mass outbreak of them in Johto. But they're super fascinating, aren't they? I find it very interesting how, despite being closely related to the Ledian line, they share little similarities, save for appearance."

"Indeed? Hmm… a more developed shell, but limbs appear less powerful, and the aforementioned psychic ability… Perhaps a case of divergent evolution from a common ancestor? I doubt it's pure coincidence. N.D., start with a scan, please. Low frequency, like we practiced." He plugs a wire into his Holotch, wrapping the other end around one of Magnemite's screws, and the Pokémon releases a low-powered Supersonic. Not enough to affect Einstein, but Edison seems pleased with the results.

June can't believe her ears- for once, someone cares about what she's saying! "I think what's most interesting about them is the internal radar they possess. Um, well, you know, it's not a literal radar, but it's similar enough. But they can release psychic energy to scan the surrounding area, a bit over six miles is thought to be its limit, and because of this, Orbeetle is often touted as one of the most intelligent Pokemon known to man! Isn't that just enthralling!" She squeaks, not noticing how fast her excitement has her fidgeting.

"Radar, you say? Well, I have noticed some Pokémon with that ability have a high intellect." He glances at N.D., who buzzes happily at the comment. "I'd very much like to see that, perhaps compare it to N.D.'s own radar. Could you demonstrate, Einstein?"

"Why certainly!... um, actually, how exactly is he supposed to do that?" June nervously giggles. "It's not exactly visible. Besides, he only really uses it to detect nearby objects or Pokemon. It's a useful tool in-battle though-"

While June rambles on, Einstein seems to understand Edison's request. Another weak Supersonic releases from Einstein's mouth and straight at Edison.

"Einstein!" June gasps in horror. After the New Mauville incident, she should have known to be more wary of having Einstein out of his ball. "Oh my goodness Edison, I'm so sorry! Are you alright!?"

Edison stumbles back a step, lowering himself to one knee under the attack. He starts muttering, not to June but to himself. "Similar feelings of vertigo from the waves, although notably lacking the tinnitus characteristic of sound-based attacks. Still dizzy, but more of a migraine headache this time, side effect of the psychic origins? I'll need to further study the mystical nature of psychics before I can properly apply- *ugh*..."

He covers his mouth, momentarily nauseous, then takes a shaky breath as it passes, rising to his feet once more. "Perfectly fine, thank you, Miss June. I believe I have a better understanding of Einstein's capabilities now, though more questions than answers. But, such is field work. His powers seem gentler than N.D.'s, though given my lack of experience with psychics, I'm not sure I can apply them in the same way. Still, an enlightening experience."

"If you say so…" June replies, not entirely sold. But as long as it's for science, it's probably fine…? "But you mentioned the psychic origins of the attack? Very curious." She turns to her PokeGear for more information.

"So according to the Pokedex, the Orbeetle line can't naturally learn Supersonic. Instead it looks like the only way it can know how to use Supersonic is as a Blipbug if its mother bred with a male Pokemon of a different, yet compatible, species already knowing the move."

"An interesting facet of Pokémon biology, to be sure. Perhaps all Orbeetle can sense psychic energy, but only those who inherited the technique from their father can utilize it offensively."

"I see." June furiously types out Edison's words into her phone. "What a discovery! Perhaps we could submit this to the HRD?"

"Oh?" Edison perks up at the idea. "Perhaps we could! I'd love to research this and submit my findings! Uh… our findings, rather."

"I'd say you did more of the work here, but I wouldn't mind being credited." June giggles. She hasn't had this much fun talking to someone in ages. "You know, I didn't submit anything to the database until very recently, and it still hasn't been reviewed yet. Hopefully it'll be received positively." She holds up her phone to Edison, showing off her writings about the differences between a Joltik's Electroweb and a Beautifly's Electroweb. "Though it looks like we'll be writing something along those lines."

Edison skims the article, nodding appreciatively. "I'd be very interested to read that later, could you send me a copy? It might help with training my own Joltik. I suppose we can help each other in many ways."

"Why I'd love to!" This has to be the first time anyone her own age has shown any sort of enthusiasm at all for her writings. If she wasn't exclusively attracted to women, she'd probably be head over heels right now. But she's definitely feeling something for Edison right now, and while it's far from any sort of romantic allure, she's still left feeling fulfilled just being around him.

"And there, it should be sent over to you in no time!" She says as she taps the "Send" button. "Like I mentioned earlier, the writing itself isn't at all dissimilar to what we just discussed, with how Sting, my Beautifly, knows Electroweb due to it being inherited from a Pokemon of a different species, just like Einstein with Supersonic. But when you compare these moves to the exact same move used by a Pokemon who learned it naturally, they function differently."

"Fascinating! Exploring these differences and similarities could be useful in using these techniques outside of combat, or for teaching others. Having two Pokémon capable of using Electric techniques, for example, could be useful in training the two as a pair, or teaching a third from the experience."

"That's true. In-fact, that's how I made this discovery in the first place, having Sting help Diya learn Electroweb. But currently I think I'm more interested in these differences in combat, especially with the Winstrate Cup encroaching. Umm, n-not to say I'm not interested in learning about these moves outside of combat, of course!"

"Oh, haha, of course!" Edison laughs, stepping away from Einstein. "How could I forget about the upcoming Up-and-Coming! Let's get serious, hm? Where shall we start?"

"Good question." June takes a look at her Pokemon. "To be completely honest, I think I'm in need of guidance for them all."

"Guidance, you say…" Edison dramatically sweeps both hands along his belt, triggering the mechanisms on his Poké Balls and summoning his full team at once. In addition to the Porygon and Magnemite, he has a Munchlax, Sableye, Golett, and his own Joltik, who immediately steals June's attention. "Then I say we get started. My team can handle any situation, so whatever you want to prepare for, we can train you!"

"Well," She kneels down to get a closer look at his Joltik. "I have yet to battle with Diya since she was a recent catch. Perhaps it's a good starting point?"

The Golett immediately moves to step between June and Joltik, but Edison steps forward to stop him, kneeling beside June and holding out a hand for Joltik to hop into. She rolls her tiny eyes before doing so, and Edison holds her for June to see. "A wonderful idea. Lady Bug is from the same area, perhaps they know some similar techniques? Or we could train against a tougher opponent, someone who can withstand more of her attacks?" Here he gestures to his Golett and Magnemite.

June is fine with the idea, but Diya is way ahead of her and leaps forward into the Golett's chest before June has a chance to speak, ramming into them hard with Lunge while jovial squeaks are heard. Even if Edison proposed she do exactly that, June can't help but be embarrassed.

"My apologies!" June nervously jolts to her feet so she can give a deep bow. "Diya is just so energetic sometimes and I haven't quite gotten her under control yet!"

Lady Bug squeaks in fury as Golett is attacked, although Golett himself seems unbothered save for initially being caught off guard. Edison has to lunge forward himself and clap his hands around Bug as June's bow brings her face into leaping distance of the angry Joltik. He grimaces slightly and hisses something under his breath to her. "If you bite me, I'll squish you, so behave… Understandable, Miss June. I'm learning that Joltik can be quite the handful, no pun intended."

June giggles. "They need some sort of outlet for all the electricity they've absorbed into their miniature bodies, and training like this helps get that out." She rests back on her knees and Einstein uses Confusion to plop Diya into June's palm. "But yes, Lunge is a favorite attack of hers, though I'm not sure how much she's aware of its power."

"Yes, and it's not a technique this one can use, though it's surprisingly effective. Automaton resists Bug attacks and even he was put off by the attack. Don't apologize for Diya's usage of it, that's why we're here. Lady Bug often uses her silk to restrain enemies as well as quickly move around the field, but she's not much for physical combat. Might I suggest Diya employ similar strategies?" He opens his hands and the Joltik in his grip immediately fires a strand of String at Golett, slinging herself onto the robot's shoulder and glaring at Diya.

"I think that's a good idea- what do you think?" Diya responds to her trainer's questions by joyfully hopping up and down. Following Bug's example, she aims for Automaton's other shoulder and successfully lands, celebrating with more happy squeaks.

Lady Bug is outraged, while Tom remains neutral, and Edison has to quickly retrieve his angry bug before she becomes violent. "Sorry about her, she's rather protective of Automaton, and he's protective of her. Perhaps you could respect their boundaries, Diya? If you need a target, I'm happy to let you aim for me instead."

There's very little time between Edison giving the go-ahead and Diya firing a strand of silk on his forehead so she can swing her way into his hair. Apparently it's a popular nesting spot for Joltik.

Even though he gave permission, Edison is caught off guard by Diya's speed and enthusiasm, accidentally dropping Lady Bug. Automaton quickly catches her, which she's grateful for, but she still gives Diya a dirty look. Edison himself merely shrugs. "Well, yes. Like that, I suppose. Either you're a quick learner or this is a common tactic among Joltik."

"More likely the latter." June says. "Web-making is an essential part of a Galvantula's day-to-day, so it only makes sense this is something they learn naturally."

"Then I can only imagine this is simply their burrowing nature asserting itself." He points to his hair, Diya happily clinging to it. "Or maybe they just like to be up high, she was on your hat when you introduced her. Maybe I should get a hat…" Lady Bug squeaks out a soft "meh" from within the scarf around Automoton's neck, expressing her opinion of the matter.

"By the way, I recommend purchasing rechargeable batteries for your Joltik. They make a good food source on the road, and can be recharged with Electric attacks during training. Helpful if your partner tends to shock you in the process, cuts down on the sting." Edison retrieves one from his pocket, offering it to June.

"Oh, why thank you!" June reaches over to accept it, but Diya leaps right onto it before she can grab it, sucking energy from the metal cap. June blushes with embarrassment, and quickly takes the battery from Edison's hand. "S-sorry! Like I said, she's still adjusting."

Edison merely shakes his head, grinning. "She's interesting. And fast. But she'll need to watch how much she eats, when you're on the road. It won't do to run out of batteries far from civilization. Trust me, you don't want to be stuck outdoors without food."

"Hopefully I won't get to that point." Using Confusion, Einstein forcefully removes the battery out from under Diya.

"Let's hope so. In the meantime, where were we? Ah, right. Tactics and the use of webs in combat…" Edison steers the conversation back towards training, now that Diya is out of his hair. Were it not for that, June could have easily gotten lost in another tangent.

"Right, right. I think as we've seen, Joltik can use their webs for mobility, but I wonder how that can be adapted to the battlefield?" June taps her lip. Diya shoots a thread at the battery to try and pull it towards her, but Einstein's mental strength wins out, and it's quickly placed into June's purse.

Edison touches his hand to his chin, muttering to himself. "Admittedly, such mobility works best defensively, to stay away from enemy attacks, but Diya seems more physically inclined… A useful tactic in a team, perhaps, to dash away while the others hold a foe's attention, then dashing back in for a sneak attack…"

He shakes his head, looking back to June and her team. "Well, since no one else is around right now, why don't we practice some maneuvers? The best way to train something is to try, right?"

June smiles. "That sounds splendid. I wonder where we should start?" Diya, growing frustrated, Lunges at Einstein, which he dodges by floating high enough that he can't be reached. But while below Einstein, Diya's String Shot grabs ahold of Einstein's spindly body and swings forward to build up momentum and loop around over him. She releases the string and crashes into Einstein with Lunge, sending him straight to the ground.

"Um, well I guess that's somewhere to start."

With Edison's guidance, June coaches Diya and her usage of String Shot. June takes notes of every detail she notices, such as the strength or reach of Diya's string and how it interacts with other moves and Pokemon- like how the string couldn't stick to Chip when using Aqua Jet. While June found it stressful to keep her Pokemon under control, Diya was having a good time throughout her training session, always chirping cheerfully every step of the way.

Edison is more focused on helping the Pokémon, and has a few words of encouragement for June, but mostly advice rather than attempting to mitigate her stress. He himself is energetic and excited in his own way, noticeable even as he tries to maintain a professional demeanor. His own Pokémon mostly serve as targets for June's, but even that is training of a sort, and spending time with June's Bugs seems to inspire Switch to learn a Bug technique of its own.

Eventually, Edison calls a stop to their training. "Wonderful work everyone, I think we made some real progress today! I have no doubt you'll do well in the tournament, Miss June, and look forward to potentially facing off against you. But I think we should get some rest, it won't do to burn yourself or your team out before the matches begin."

June nods. "Thank you so much for your time! I'm sure this training will definitely be useful tomorrow!" June bows, and then checks her phone for the time. "Oh, it looks like I still have time before work… Um, what happens now?"

"Now? Anything you want could happen, I suppose. Mauville is a city of opportunity, after all." He returns his Pokémon to their Poké Balls, bidding a last goodbye to June's team afterwards. "I'm not much for small talk, but I wouldn't mind spending some more time with you if you want. All this teaching has made me thirsty, though. Would you like to get a drink with me?"

"Um. Sure!" She beams. Edison's proposal is a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. "I haven't had the time to really see what's in town, and this seems like a good opportunity for that."

🐞 June's Party 🐞

0
Debt remaining:

885,508

Spoiler:

• 
  
  
• Einstein (Orbeetle) M|Telepathy
  Struggle Bug|Super Sonic|Confusion|Light Screen|Reflect|Ally Switch
  
  
• Chip (Wimpod) M|Wimp Out
  Struggle Bug|Sand Attack|Defense Curl|Aqua Jet|Waterfall
  
  
• Sting (Beautifly) M|Swarm
  Attract|Silver Wind|Poison Sting|Bug Bite|Electroweb|Air Cutter
  
  
• Kit (Surskit) F|Swift Swim
  Bubble|Quick Attack|Sweet Scent|Water Sport|Bubble Beam|Agility
  
  
• Joe (Heracross) M|Moxie
  Arm Thrust|Counter|Endure|Horn Attack|Aerial Ace|Bulldoze
  
  
• Diya (Joltik)|F|Swarm
  Spider Web|Thunder Wave|Screech|String Shot|Bug Bite|Lunge

Spoiler:

• 
  Merits
• Knuckle Badge
• Balance Badge
• Dell Badge
• Cloak Badge
• D-Rank Ribbon x1
  Bag
• Contest Pass
• TM Ally Switch
• TM Bulldoze
• TM Dual Wingbeat
• TM Cut
• Green Scarf
• Absorb Bulb x3
• Bug Gem x3
• Cell Batteries x3
• Leaf Stone x2
• Thunder Stone
• Eviolite
• Dragon Fang
• Net Ball x10
• Premier Ball x1
• Friend Ball x5
• Ultra Ball x4
• Combee Egg x3

 

[Aquacorde]

Marie Rachelle Mocinno

Knuckle, Dell
₽23,000
Thurs Oct 8, Evening
Mauville

Chapter 6 #5 - Close Encounters

Money is the ever-present damper on her experience, a restriction Marie had never before dealt with and one she had expected to overcome without trouble. Managing her finances is much more effort than she had thought it would be, back when she'd decided (with her parents' encouragement) to take a journey of financial independence. And that's only for basics! Food and supplies, lodging and transit, just moving herself through the world- hardly a coin left for leisure!

Marie prefers to be able to do what she wants on whatever whim she has.

Luckily, she's found a workaround. The Game Corner- the enticing, humming, strobing, neverending party- always has a use for travelling teens. Specifically those that will do a variety of menial tasks at the drop of a hat. Collect coins, mop up spills, direct traffic, whatever- it doesn't matter. Walk around the place, mostly, keeping a keen eye out for problems. Which she will definitely find! By going methodically down the rows of cabinets, thoroughly testing each and every game enough times for her to get a few levels in, doing her duty to mark off which cabinets are experiencing a need for maintenance.

Leisure and financial gain in one. She'll pat herself on the back for such a splendid solution! The only damper is the required uniform- a thick, purple, branded polo and black pants. The polo, at least, was provided. But Marie doesn't even own black pants- not her style at all! She'd been advised to scavenge the lost and found for a pair, to which she'd both turned up her nose and given in. Wearing someone else's old clothes? Shocking, honestly. How sanitary even is that? And how does someone lose their pants at such a venue? No, how do enough people lose their pants that prospective employees are near guaranteed to find something that fits? Insanity. But by shoving a few pairs of baggy jeans into a corner, she was able to at least get away with something not fully atrocious to wear- even if distressed black hotpants aren't at all her preference (and raise some questions about "workplace appropriate), they are much better than any available alternative.

Honestly, how in the world did someone lose these?

Marie slips into the bucket seat of a racing simulator, sliding the seat back to accommodate her legs after the short guy who had just vacated the game. Hands on the wheel, feet on the pedals- same as most others in this style, differences lying mainly in the tracks and handling.

Easy, kinda fun, definitely better than mopping.

This game has quite a few levels and options to sift through, and in doing so Marie loses her grasp on how much time she has spent at this particular machine. No clocks in the arcade, after all. Eventually, though, someone forcibly reminds her that more things exist.

"Um, excuse me," A familiar voice timidly peeps up from behind her. "I'm very sorry to interrupt your leisure time, but um, well, I had heard from a customer who's been wanting to use this machine that you've been here an awfully long time, um, is how they phrased it anyways, and they were, um, wondering how much longer you planned on using it…"

Marie responds with an irritated huff and veers her virtual truck into the wall of the track, crashing and burning without much concern as she swivels around to face the intrusion.

Oh, ugh. It's June. Wearing a uniform matching her own, though with much less grace.

"Well, if they insist on this exact machine I suppose I must vacate. Despite there being similar cabinets all over this complex. Someone so particular must obviously be accommodated, hm?" The arcade-goer hovering behind June's lanky frame speeds to claim the machine as soon as Marie stands. "Excuse me so very much for taking the time to ensure your favorite game is working properly."

The person ignores her, eyes already glued to the race. Whatever.

June trails Marie as she goes to shove a coin into the next game in the row- a little platformer of some sort. "Do you need something?"

"W-well, funny you ask…" June says, uneasiness in her voice increasing with each word. "I mean, it's kind of humorous really, I thought I might see you here, so I, um, well a few things have happened since we last met, and- Oh, I'm sorry!" She bursts out, throwing her face deep into her palms, nearly crying while catching brief glimpses from arcade-goers. "I couldn't help it! I should have listened to you!"

"Yes, agreed." Marie hesitates, mentally shuffling through their prior interactions for something that would justify such a reaction. "In what capacity are we speaking of?"

"You know, it's about-" She pauses and sniffles. "It's about Avril. You were right, and I should have listened but I was foolish and didn't listen!"

Ah, right That whole drama. Marie drops her character down a hole and beckons June to follow her to this area's concessions counter. "Do elaborate, my dear. I suppose I'll forgive you for not taking advice, though you really must take any more I give to heart."

June wipes away any remaining tears. "I'm sure you recall when we were at Ebb and Flow a while back, and how you encouraged me to stand up for myself in-front of Avril. I was initially going to do exactly that, I met her at the Pokemon Center after her shift to let her know it wouldn't work out, I really did, but I…" Her face slinks back into her hands. "I didn't have it in me. She was just so cute and how could I say no?"

"Like this: no." Honestly! Avril's not even that cute. About on par with Sunny, really. "So, what, you asked her to officially be your girlfriend? You weren't even at that level in the first place- how did you come out of that conversation more involved?"

"Um, I mean we're not quite at that level!" June replies with her face bright red. "We just decided it'd be a good idea to 'take it slow' so to speak. And it went well at first! But after traveling through Route 103 with her… I see what you meant. I felt like I was carrying a lot on my shoulders."

"Yes, she is quite the burden." Marie liberates an icee from behind the counter, meeting the eye roll she's given by the boy attending it with an arched brow. "So where do you stand now?"

"She's not a burden!" June gasps, sounding almost offended. Marie shrugs. "She's just… a lot to handle. Too much for me, if I'm to be honest with myself." She sighs. "But as much as I don't like admitting it… it might be best to call it off and tell her what I should have in Petalburg."

Marie hums into her straw. "I won't disagree. How are you going to accomplish such a thing?"

"I can't say I have an answer…" June says. "I was honestly hoping you might be able to impart more advice on me, but that might be asking for too much given what I did last time. But I don't have anyone else to turn to!"

Yes, she would be the type to not have any friends. But seeking advice from her? Like she actually has any! "I'll be giving the same advice I gave last time, won't I? The difference will be on the follow-through."

"R-right, of course. That was a silly question wasn't it… Sorry. It really is just a matter of having the backbone to stand my ground, isn't it?"

"That it is." Marie swirls her icee contemplatively. "What makes you back down?"

"Despite how stressful I've mentioned it can be, there are times when we're together where it feels as though everything is going right, and I-" Cheeks flashing pink, June looks off into the distance as her mind drowns in frivolous romantic fantasies that only a fourteen year old girl could entertain. "Oh, I couldn't be happier than I am in those moments, she's just so sweet and adorable, and I long for a future together and-"

Ew.

"Get it together." Marie interrupts. "How many times shall I tell you that there are plenty of other girls? Girls who you will feel the same for, and they for you. Avril is distinctly incompatible with you in a very important way. Choose someone who isn't."

"Um, sorry." June faces the ground in embarrassment. "I should know that by now, right. I mean, not too long ago there was another girl and- um, well I mean it didn't really end up going anywhere… b-but that aside, I understand your point!"

A bag of popcorn replaces the icee in Marie's hand, quick enough to avoid the smack coming from the counter attendant. "Right. Shall we go find someone, then?" At least a few of the nerds who hang around this place should be on the same wavelength at the one she's going to be towing around. "Girls only, yes?"

June's eyes nearly bug out of her head as she chokes from shock. "Wait, really!? You'd help me with that!? I mean, not that I'm complaining, of course not, no I just-" She clears her throat, cheeks pink again. "Um, girls only, yes."

"Sure. Let's walk."

Marie takes the lead, stride bold and glances critical. But, as she dismisses several in a row, it occurs to her that she is using her own criteria to judge. Which, considering their clear differences, are likely not the same as June's. "What do you like? To look at, I suppose."

June follows, hands clasped in-front of her, making sure to stay behind Marie. At her question, she taps her lip. "Well, I suppose I'm not particularly picky. But if I had to go off of traits of people I've previously liked, there was this one girl I met about two or so weeks ago who dressed rather androgynously, and she was so confident, collected, cool, and-"

"Yes, yes, fine. So absolutely no preference other than interest in you, really?" How desperate. "Other necessary qualities… acceptance of your career path, yes… monogamy?"

"Come again?"

Has she never heard the word? Certainly, she seems sheltered, but with her clear interest in romance, Marie would have expected some knowledge. "Monogamy, as in one partner exclusively for both of you. Is that the desire? Or are you open to one or each of you having multiple partners?"

"Oh. I didn't know there was a word for that." June's index finger begins to lightly scratch at her lip. "There are people who date more than one person at a time? I had never heard of that. But it reminds me of Vespiquen colonies and how drones- ."

God, how quickly she can bring the topic around to bugs! "Human relationships are the focus here, please. Though a relative interest in Bug-types will obviously be a requirement as well, for any potential girlfriend."

"R-right, of course. Sorry again. But… I do like the sound of that. I've only ever met one person who shared my interest in bugs to some extent, and that was just yesterday!"

"A girl, I hope? That would be a convenient person to aim your affections towards." Especially since none of these arcade patrons are looking particularly promising so far. A tiny brunette looking as timid as Avril is struck from the possibility list, and she's not the first to suffer for her resemblance.

"Well… no, actually, he's not."

"Ah, unfortunate. Might he have women-friends that share such interests?"

"I haven't asked, but it might be helpful if I did. Until then though, well it seems as though we're limited to arcade patrons, aren't we?"

"Hm." Marie shoves her now-empty popcorn bag into a handy compost bin. "You're going to have to be of some help, then."

She catches June by the elbow and tugs her over to a two-player machine just out of earshot of a gaggle of six girls clustered around a dance game. "Pretend to play and don't be obvious, hm?"

"Pretend to play?" Intimidated, June stares at the machine's large colorful directional buttons. "But… how does this even work?"

Marie rolls her eyes. "It doesn't matter, just hit buttons. We're looking at those girls over there." She tilts her head toward the laughing, cheering group. "Any of them catch your eye?"

"It's hard to say…" She says, watching the group in a nervous sweat. "I mean they're all just… extremely pretty…"

Which is a useless descriptor. "And…?"

"And I'm overwhelmed!" June squeaks, legs wobbling. "One alone would be a challenge, but six is something else entirely!"

"I'm not telling you to go flirt with them, goodness. I'm asking you to critique your taste. Yes, they're pretty. Obviously. What else makes them interesting?"

"Um… well, the girl with the red streaks in her hair is cute, I absolutely love how she styled her uniform. But I also find the girl next to her wearing lots of jewelry very attractive too, it really suits her. And the girl next to her too, I adore her haircut, her bangs are absolutely flawless! And the girl next to her-"

"Mm-hm." Marie tunes June's rambling out for a moment of respite, but eventually tunes back in to ask: "And what don't you like?"

"Gosh, I- I'm not sure I could dislike anything about them! Like I said, I'm not particularly picky… this is going to be harder than I thought, isn't it?"

Marie halfheartedly kicks some buttons, despite the girls not remotely paying attention to them. "You have to have taste, June. You have to make some sort of discerning judgement. You can't just fall in love with any pretty girl on the street."

"Seeing as how that put me in my current situation, I see your point…" June hesitantly copies Marie's actions, tapping her work boots against the buttons in a calculated manner. "So if I have to be specific… the girl with blue hair in a ponytail is wearing a Dustox necklace, which could be a shared interest!"

"There we go, that's what you should be looking for. Bugs, PokéBalls, badges… any indication of approving of your interests. Discernment." Marie claps her hands. "Now, next step: talking to them."

"T-talk to them!? About what? How!?"

Marie presses her fingers to her temples with a deep sigh. "How, exactly, do you think you get into- no, not even a relationship- a friendship- without speaking like a normal human being?"

"I-" June presses her lips. "That's true, yes. Just yesterday speaking with someone led to a new friendship, and it must be the same for romantic relationships… So that means I simply just… walk up and speak to her?"

"Yes. Preferably about something interesting and without stuttering." Is that too much to ask? Probably, but it must be stipulated. "Ideally we also do not lead with a Bug lecture."

June takes a nervous gulp. "Right, right. You know best with these sorts of things, afterall…"

Marie trails behind June at a distance, paying vague attention to everything but the cluster of girls at the dance machine.

"Um, excuse me," June lifts up a finger, though she's drowned out by the girls' chatting. She stands still for what feels like five minutes before any of the girls even acknowledge her presence, as the aforementioned girl with red streaks in her blonde hair faces her, taking a casual sip from a cup of soda.

"Ah, perfect! What is it, uh…" She exclaims before squinting at June's nametag. "Junko? Yeah, anyways, could you like, fix the Detective Greedent GP machine? Me and my friends were totally looking forward to playing it, but it's busted!"

June lowers her hand, and she gives a deep bow to the girls. "I-I'm very sorry our service wasn't to your expectations! I'll bring that to management's attention as soon as I can! We'll be sure to improve your experience from here on out!"

Marie adds the named machine to her list and a note to her mental filing cabinet, all while rolling her eyes to the top of TVH Tower. Is it really so much to ask, to make the smallest of conversation with another human? The uniform should hardly be a hindrance- in fact, it can easily be used to command attention. And yet…

"Oh, I'm sorry Marie, I don't know what else I was supposed to do!" Junko weeps. Eugh. Behind them, two of the girls from the group play against each other in the dance game while the rest very avidly cheer them on- all except for the aforementioned blue-haired girl, who endlessly swipes her thumb on her PokeGear. "How was I supposed to say anything when they needed my service!?"

"You take control of the interaction, as you very much did not." Marie's patience and interest are both waning, evidenced by the fact that she is suddenly finding a nearby drum-based rhythm game more entertaining. "Lurking on the edge of a group, waiting for them to reach out to you on their own terms- of course that doesn't further your goals! Of course they would see you as a robotic employee rather than a person with desires. You gave them nothing."

"I just- I just felt obligated to help them first and foremost since its my job and all." She looks over her shoulder, watching the girls enviously. "I'll give it another try!"

While the rest of the group is engaged in a heated match, the blue-haired girl still looks largely uninterested. In theory, this should be an easy opening - but leave it to Junko to mess up such a thing.

"Um, excuse me…" She says again, this time directly at the blue-haired girl. It's fortunate for Junko it only takes that attempt to get a glance, but the girl's piercing dramatic eyeliner gives her the appearance of being annoyed at best. "I, um, I just, um, well I couldn't help but notice your Dustox necklace and I wanted to compliment it because I'm someone who's very fond of bug Pokemon as well as say I think it looks especially good on you and its just nice in general to meet other people out in public like this interested in bugs!"

The girl stares blankly at Junko, but it doesn't take long for her to burst into laughter. "Oh goodness, I'm sorry I -"

"It's fine." The girl dismisses, holding up the pendant. "It is a pretty neat necklace."

Garbage as this conversation is, Junko might actually be getting somewhere. Marie idly weighs the pros and cons of staying to watch it all play out.

"So… you like bug Pokemon too?"

The girl shrugs, and a coy half smile forms on her face. "Yeah, they're alright I guess. I've always been more of a poison-type gal myself, but I mean there's a lot of overlap, right?"

"That's true, a lot of bug Pokemon are easy prey, so a lot of them have developed a deadly venom for defense-"

"Interesting." The girl interrupts, clearly feigning interest. "You know, I'd love to hear more, but I think my friends here will wanna check out a different game in a bit. Maybe if we see each other when you're off your shift we can talk about it some more at my place. Preferably when my parents aren't home."

"Oh. Is it not normal for people to introduce their family as soon as possible?"

"No I mean, y'know. When we're alone." The girl raises her eyebrows, eager to cut to the chase.

Junko taps her lips. "Well, I suppose it is easier to learn from discussions when fewer people are around."

And as much as Marie doesn't care about Junko, or what she does, or what she wants- she suddenly sees another tall fourteen-year-old in her place, chatting up a pretty girl to the best of his limited ability and managing to score an invite to bed.

No nope no absolutely not!

"She'll have to take a rain check, unfortunately." Marie breezes over, forcing herself between the girls in such a way that it encourages the trigger-happy Mauvillite to back a few paces away. "Besides, it's a bit forward to invite people to your home on the first date, isn't it? One might even say crass."

The blue-haired girl scoffs. "Aw c'mon, I had a seat reserved for her and everything!"

Junko's finger finds its way to her lip as she looks to the floor. "I'm sorry, I don't think I understand?"

"I'm sure you had some half-baked plans." Marie ignores Junko's utter lack of competence for the moment. "But clearly your target is unaware of your intentions and not explicitly agreeing to what you are proposing. That is certainly not the appropriate way to go about this, is it?"

"Well no shit. I was trying to get her to catch my drift by dropping enough hints and then have her over. But if you're that protective of her, I guess I'll lay my hands off her- which is a shame, because I've heard good things about them."

"Chi!" One of the girls from the group calls out. "C'mon, we're gonna go grab a bite to eat!"

"Seems I'm needed elsewhere anyways." The blue-haired girl, apparently going by Chi, adjusts her purse and prepares to walk off. "Unfortunately my approach didn't work out, but if you ever change your mind, my offer always stands."

Marie's narrowed eyes see her off, at least until Chi rejoins her group.

"Um...what was she trying to get at that I didn't understand, again?"

"She was trying to have sex with you." Marie doesn't bother beating around the bush, not with this girl. "But even if that were something you wanted, we do not simply go to strangers' homes out of the blue."

"...Oh…" Junko's entire body freezes up and her complexion is completely red. "Well I um… suppose we try elsewhere now?"

"If you like." Marie, though, strides back toward where Junko had originally caught up to her. "We do, however, have jobs to be doing."

"Oh, it looks as though we did get a little distracted there. But, I would just like to thank you for your guidance today!" Junko bows.

Eugh. "Yes, I do hope it gave you some things to consider. Perhaps your future attempts at relationships will be less fraught. Do let me know how it goes- ah, that's a floor manager, yes? They seem to be looking for you."

And Marie saunters off, disappearing behind some machines before Junko realizes the manager was not particularly seeking her out and before they can target the both of them. Abandoning her methodical examination of machines on this floor will be irritating, but not as irritating as another conversation with Junko. Even more unfortunately, her plan to combine work and leisure seems to be destined for failure- there's no way she'll be back for another shift if that girl will be around as well.

She'll see what else Mauville has to offer tomorrow.

Spoiler: Team

Pokémon On Hand

Tuie ⟡ Xatu ⟡ Female ⟡ Magic Bounce ⟡
Air Slash // Teleport // Stored Power // Cosmic Power // Ominous Wind // Confuse Ray

Stunnie ⟡ Stunfisk ⟡ Male ⟡ Static ⟡
Sucker Punch // Mud Shot // Thundershock // Discharge // Water Gun // Mud Sport // Charge

Cutie ⟡ Alolan Exeggutor ⟡ Male ⟡ Frisk ⟡
Bullet Seed // Hypnosis // Reflect // Leech Seed // Dragon Hammer // Barrage

Pokie ⟡ Slowpoke ⟡ Male ⟡ Own Tempo ⟡
Disable // Confusion // Yawn // Water Pulse // Growl // Curse

Spoiler: Inventory

Trainers' License [Johto and Hoenn] ⟡

TM Magical Leaf ⟡
Empty PokéBalls x 3 ⟡
5x Chesto Berries ⟡
2x Fluffy Tail ⟡

Sunscreen ⟡
Berry-Print Bikini ⟡
Beach Towel ⟡
Oversized Sunglasses ⟡
Large But Lightweight Backpack ⟡
Rechargeable Battery + Charging Port Housing ⟡
Lidded Pot, Dishes, Chopsticks, Spoon ⟡
Camp Stove ⟡
Soap, Washcloth, Towel ⟡

Spoiler: Contacts

FAMILY
Dad ⟡ Mom ⟡ Alty ⟡ Benny ⟡ Bitty

PEERS
Edison ⟡ Natsuko (via insta) ⟡ Sunny ⟡ Van

OTHER
Brawly ⟡ Brendan ⟡ Wally

 

[Groc]

Natsuko Soyokaze
Wednesday, October 7th, midday
Mauville City

---

"So... run it by me again, are these cookies or cakes?" Tsu peers at the small, round confections on display, while the woman behind the counter struggles to stay upbeat.

"They're called Cookie Cakes. They're cakes in the shape of cookies."

"But they're actually cake?"

"Yes. They're small cakes that come in packs of twelve, like cookies, and instead of frosting have a sweet fondant around them so they aren't messy. They're designed for cake lovers on the go."

"I'm a cake lover!" Tsu gasps in delight. "And I'm frequently on the go! Is it possible I can try one, like a sample?"

Tsu has been to every bakery, grocery store, and outdoor market she could find today, and while some of them were actually giving out free samples, she's found the Clueless Tourist act persuades people to give her free stuff more often than not. So far she's collected enough free snacks to provide dessert for a whole week.

Or two days, for her.

"Of course! Here, try the orange cake, there's real orange in it!" The baker hands Tsu an entire cookie (which is actually cake), and Tsu takes a tiny bite of it.

"Oh. Oh, that is wonderful! This is my favorite store in town! Can I get twelve of these?"

She's also bought enough desserts to last herself a week, because Sky Battles were very lucrative for her.

Of course, that's the main reason she's out here. She misses Stacy, and wanted sweets to help with that, but buying expensive pastries only served to remind her that she wouldn't have all this money without the Gyarados. It's a vicious cycle, but falling back on old habits and cons Geo taught her has helped a bit, and been great fun for her. She's glad to see her parents' attempts to make her an upstanding citizen haven't dulled her skills.

"Here you go, ma'am. Anything else I can do for you today?" The woman holds out a fancy box, which Tsu eagerly snatches from her.

"Nope! Thank you, have a nice day!"

Once outside, Tsu transfers her pastries into a zip lock bag, ditching the fancy cardboard. It wouldn't fit in her bag, anyway. She supposes the next thing to do would be to get some actual food, so she stops at a quirky little cafe she noticed earlier. She places her order at the counter, and waits at a table for a Lombre to bring it out, carrying her food in the lillypad on its head rather than a tray.

"That's really creative. Thank you!" She takes her food from the Pokémon, a cup of tomato soup and three small sandwiches with faces on them, arranged in the shape of a Dugtrio. It was so whimsical and cute she just had to try it.

Too bad they're bland, being nothing more than two slices of lettuce and tomato on bread and some tasteless soup.

"Seriously? I paid ₽1800 for this?" Her cheeks puff in annoyance as she pouts at her empty plate. Sure, she's not hungry anymore, but isn't food supposed to taste good?

She notices movement in her peripherals, followed by the click of a camera phone. She looks over to spot a girl taking photos of some kind of ice cream dish that resembles a Vulpix, pausing to take a selfie of herself. Tsu can't help but get a closer look.

"Wow, that looks yummy! I didn't see that on the menu, what is it? ...and how much did it cost?" Despite the food being bland, the price has left a metaphorical bad taste in her mouth.

The girl looks at her in surprise, and perhaps annoyance, then simply rolls her eyes as she starts typing at her phone. "What, the Burnt Caramel Vulpix Sundae? Doesn't matter what it cost, only that it looks good. None of the food here is very good, but it's all the rage on Instagram right now."

"Whoa, really?" Tsu regrets not taking a picture of her sandwich now. "I've been trying to get back into photography, actually. Not exactly knocking it out of the park with my training or Contests lately, but post a cute pic here and there and bam! Instant validation. I've been getting likes from people I don't even know! Isn't that crazy? Here, look at this!"

The girl had tried to ignore Tsu while she rambled, but rolls her eyes again as Tsu pulls out her phone to show her Instagram page. The girl, without asking, touches the screen to look at one of the pictures.

"54 likes, huh? That's all?"

Tsu freezes, her excited smile fading somewhat. "Huh?"

The girl smirks at Tsu's expression. "You have a lot to learn. This looks like my grandma's phone. These pics are a mess, who even is this guy?"

Tsu looks at the photo the girl pulled up, one of Ed with his hand in a Slowpoke's mouth. "He's my friend. We went fishing and he pulled up this Slowpoke."

"You want my advice? Switch up the angle, don't just go for the wide shot. Cut your friend out of the photo and focus on your intended target, which should have been the Slowpoke. People love cute Pokémon pics. Learn to utilize the natural lighting better, blur the background to make your subject pop, and toss in something artsy to finish it off. Shoot things that way and your likes will double! Like this, see?"

She shows her own phone, specifically a picture of the Dugtrio Sandwich Trio like Tsu had just ordered, with a whopping 4268 likes. Tsu is baffled, especially because "something artsy" can apparently just be a few leaves in front of the plate.

"Oh, and we have to fix your selfie game ASAP, what are you doing? I've seen sexier mugshots!" The girl pulls her phone away, back to quickly typing on it.

Tsu slowly lowers her hat, hiding her eyes behind the brim. This girl apparently knows what she's talking about, but there's no reason to be rude about it. She almost doesn't notice when the girl stops typing.

"Um... look..." Apparently she realized how harsh she was, and she's trying to sound nicer. "This isn't really a 'here and there' kinda deal, you know? If you want to get big on Insta, you have to commit. Your personal life won't belong to you anymore, it'll belong to everyone. People will look to you and your posts for some spark and joy, to make their lives better. Your photos are okay, you actually have a good eye for composition! But that's not what people want to see. They want to see selfies, and latte art, and the occasional thigh pic.

"You could be a professional photographer, taking pictures of weddings, or stock photos, or whatever boring, practical things people need pictures of. Maybe that's more your speed?"

Tsu thinks about it as she grabs her bag, adjusting her hat again. She looks back at the girl, who honestly looks a little younger than Tsu herself, and decides to take her advice with a grain of salt. "That's good advice, I'll try to remember that. Thank you. And thanks for the ice cream."

"Don't mention it. ...wait, the what?"

Tsu grabs a spoon from the table, scooping up a big bite of the sundae and popping it in her mouth. She drops the spoon and runs off, the girl's protests following her down the street.

It's not even a good sundae. They really overdid the "burnt" part of the burnt caramel, and it's really bitter. She makes a note to never go back to that cafe, and instead decides to go look for a new camera, something better suited to the kinds of pictures she likes to take.

 

[Eleanor]

Avril Reese

16 - ♀ - Laverre City


​

Pokémon / Inventory:

AVRIL'S MONEY: $37 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (???) ♀
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Moonblast, Grassy Terrain, Aromatherapy, Wish, Petal Blizzard

🌼 Hydrangea (???) ♀
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)

🌼 Wisteria (Inkay) ♂
Infiltrator
Night Slash, Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

🌼 Thistle (Wooloo) ♀
Bulletproof
Tackle, Growl, Defense Curl, Copycat, Guard Split, Double Kick

Away:
🌼 Venus (Mawile) ♀ - at Littleroot Research Lab

AVRIL'S INVENTORY:
🌼 1 Empty Pokéball
🌼 2 Potions
🌼 Eviolite
🌼 Silk Scarf
🌼 TM for Ally Switch (from Wally)
🌼 5 Rare berries
🌼 Sea Incense
🌼 Pink Scarf
🌼 TM for ??? (from the Trick House)
🌼 Light Clay
🌼 Yellow Nectar (4 doses)
🌼 9 Quick Balls
🌼 TR for Hyper Voice (Mauville Beach)

🌼 Holotch (phone version)
🌼 Fanclub Membership card - valid until October 17^th
🌼 Ophelia's stamp
🌼 Various clothes and commodities
🌼 Pink Woolen Hat
🌼 Binoculars

🌼 Rental skates again

AVRIL'S CONTACTS:
Jordie, Shuna, Natsuko, June, Marcella, Hikaru

AVRIL'S BADGES AND RIBBONS:
🥊 ➕

🎀• 1

🌼 Avril's birth date is April 25^th, 2010
🌼 Character art made with [SPAN="color:rgb(40,180,40);"]https://picrew.me/image_maker/338886[/SPAN]

Like a wave

Wednesday, October 7^th - morning - Mauville Beach

Avril is feeling quite groggy when she wakes up on Wednesday morning. And so is Poppy actually, with the headache from Tuesday's training still bothering her. She shakes her head when she hears the girl say that word, but Avril definitely blames that condition on another attempt at evolving… an attempt that this time was avoided without her fainting.

Now, could a single Moonblast from a tiny Flabébé have enough force to push Avril along the way it did? The girl still believes otherwise, but that leaves one explanation only: it was all the energy that Poppy could've used for the evolution, that flowed out of her body and into the wall in front of her.

Or is it even possible? Is she just fantasizing?

After a slow breakfast, Avril ends up spending her morning at the Mauville beach, which… is already filled up with all sorts of people and Pokémon. It makes sense to her - she's not feeling in top shape for another day of skating anyways - and it looks like another place where Poppy and Angie (at least) could have some fun. However, the Fairy-type doesn't seem to agree, not entirely at least.

It doesn't take long before Avril has to give up her plan of… relaxing at the beach. She opts to help out instead, and similarly to what happened in Slateport, she gets the task to scan the beach and remove something from it once again - in this case, not Stunfisk, but trash. When she tells Poppy that she'll earn money she can spend on renting skates for longer, the tiny Fairy has to stop complaining.

And just like that, it all works out. Poppy, who was still eager to show off her new move despite her headache, gets yet another chance to prove herself useful to Avril… who in turn, still gets to do something less intense and more economically rewarding than skating all day. Even Angie is getting by nicely, with her sense of smell pointing her and her trainer straight to a lot of food… but also empty food packages scattered across the sand. Which qualify as trash, of course.

Flabébé contributes by following a weird smell for a while, with Avril now having to carefully move around various groups of people to catch up from down below. It comes from a small jar, laying sideways with half its bright yellow content already spilled on the sand. Avril picks it up, not knowing what to expect, and under Poppy's advice, puts it in her own bag and not in the "trash" one she received for the job. Maybe she likes it?

Angie helps by pulling out of the sand a plastic bag. It clearly has a Pokéball drawn on it, but Shellos doesn't seem to care about that as she rips the bag open and tries to swallow what's inside. Alas, it's not a new kind of berry. Avril picks up the Pokéballs, noticing their drastically different color compared to the ones she's used to, and… that's another thing that goes in her personal bag.

It's only after one or two hours that things change, when Poppy and Angie seem to have spotted the same item and try to beckon Avril towards it.

They misunderstand each other though. They guide their trainer in different directions, on the left or on the right of other people. Perhaps they both want credit for their find.

Soon, they're bickering. The Flabébé spouts off a weak Moonblast, Shellos fires Hidden Power against it, Avril begs them to stop but of course, they keep at it. One Mud Bomb here, one Petal Blizzard there, and soon enough the two Pokémon find themselves fighting in the water, away from most people and with all the space they so desire. Avril can only return the awkward looks of the beach-goers with even more awkwardness, but at least her own Pokémon didn't just decide to brawl it out in the middle of the crowd.

She gets to pick up the item that they were seemingly pointing her to: it's clearly some kind of Technical Machine, even if she doesn't know of which move just yet. It's beyond her mind why a trainer would get rid of that willingly, so she already makes up her mind to bring it back to a Pokémon center or something. Maybe they'll know how to handle lost items. Plus, it looks like she'll need to go there quickly anyway.

Angie swims easily now that she's in her natural environment, but Poppy drifts along the waves, using her flower as a tiny boat that Avril can barely even see. They both keep themselves healthy with Recover and Synthesis and their damage is not enough to offset that. But they do seem to take things seriously - case in point, Angie is often trying to jump on top of Poppy to drag her down with her weight, while she hits back by surrounding herself in sharp leaves.

When ultimately Angie seems to be losing, and Avril's pleas to stop the battle don't seem to work, she takes the next step and starts swimming in the sea towards her Pokémon, all the stuff she collected still sitting on the shore and her glasses in the hands of a confused girl who was just trying to sunbathe nearby.

It's when she's close enough and can feel the splashes of water her friends are making, that Angie once again jumps out of the water, Poppy charging up a Moonblast from underneath her. Maybe they are still having some careless fun, maybe the heat of the battle makes it happen…

Both Pokémon start to glow slightly, and then stronger, and then blindingly so. They look at each other as they connect, and Avril without glasses only sees a shapeless white mess before having to turn away from all the splashing.

She won't be going back to the shore with her own forces.

 

[Caesar]

​

Tuesday, October 6th @ 2230 - Mauville

Clint found himself walking deep in the pits of the city, a place he never thought he'd end up. He was persuaded to do so by the girl he was walking next to Zoe, who just happened to strike up a conversation with him outside of the Game Corner. Slightly suspicious, sure it was but as long as Clint had his team of Pokemon with him, he should be able to find his way out of whatever situation he ends up in following this stranger.

The story he was led to believe was that a group of street kids host their own off the grid Pokemon battles in the depths of the city, far away from the luster of the tourney he was entering on the weekend. Best case scenario, Clint and his team get some real practice in, real combat was much more effective than practicing moves against air or against trees. Worst case scenario, well lets hope it doesn't come to that.

But until then, lets follow this attractive girl into a shady part of town that Clint is completely unfamiliar with to a backyard fight club filled with people this girl presumably knows. There is zero chance that this goes wrong. Clint had to keep his head on a swivel around here.

Speaking of where they were, the two of them walked on the ground level of Mauville, where it was a lot less pristine than the upper levels Clint had spent his time on so far. Dimly lit with street lights, it was dirtier down here, he even saw a Zigzagoon rummaging around in a garbage can.

"A little bit different down here than you see on TV, this is the real Mauville," Zoe said, putting on her best tour guide impression.

"When the city designers built upwards, they left what you see around you behind, so we make do on our own, it isn't always easy, but we get by."

"Don't be surprised if you aren't given a warm welcome down here Clint, I like meeting outsiders but not everyone shares my interests."

"Noted," Clint replied.

Zoe led Clint to a building with a grey garage door. Zoe knocked on the garage door, in a specific pattern. Three knocks then a pause, then two more knocks. The door opened, and Zoe was greeted by two boys, looked to be around Clint's age, who gave Zoe fist bumps. One of them looked behind Zoe, and pointed at Clint.

"Who's the cowboy."

"He's with me, he's up for a battle or two," Zoe said.

The bouncer takes another look at Clint.

"So Zoe brought another traveller down here to lose all their money, well good luck in there partner."

"Worry about yourself Evan, your wallet must be a little lighter now after your performance last week," Zoe snapped back, waving Evan out of the way.

Zoe entered the warehouse, and Clint followed her into the building. Clint was a little uneasy entering into such a packed facility, that coupled with Evan suggesting he had been brought here as a setup.

"Don't listen to Evan, if I was picking a target to rob I would have picked a prep school kid not a farmer, use your head Clint you're going to need it," Zoe assured Clint.

Sure the logic checked out, but that didn't do much to put Clint at ease. Sure, Zoe might not have set Clint up directly, but any of these thirty or so people stuffed in this warehouse might love the chance to take advantage of this outsider. Zoe went into the group to talk with her friends in the warehouse, Clint decided to hang in the back, not getting too close to everyone else. He wanted to do some scouting before he got too involved.

There looked to be match starting between a Geodude and Poochyena, so Clint shifted his attention over to the ring, nothing defining the size of the ring other than the circle of people formed around the two Pokemon. The fight itself was relatively uninspiring, the Pokemon were undisciplined and the trainers lacked the tact to capitalize on each other's mistakes. However, the Geodude was able to hold on to win the battle, its trainer receiving some cash for the victory. After that, a couple more battlers entered the ring, and their Pokemon did battle. Clint watched a couple of these fights before Zoe walked over with another trainer, who was a couple inches shorter than Clint, sporting long hair dyed pink, and dressed in a oversized black hoodie and jeans. Walking alongside them was a Mawile, who looked ready for battle.

"Howdy partner," Zoe teased,

"Want you to meet Jordan, one of our best. They've just come back from Slateport, with a badge, not a big deal is it Jordan?"

"I don't know, looks pretty shiny, what do you think Zoe," Jordan replied.

"Going blind just looking at it, well anyways Jordan this is Clint, he's from out of town looking for a fight, figured you two should battle, come on into the ring," Zoe explained.

"Let's talk stakes Clint, how's $5000 sound?" Jordan wagered.

"It's your loss," Clint said, while nodding.

Clint and Jordan walked over into the ring, and each took their sides of the ring. Zoe took place in the center, and began to speak.

"Welcome back Jordan! Fresh off their win in Slateport, they will be battling that stranger sitting in the back tonight, Clint!"

Jordan got a bevy of hoo-rays, while Clint got a few jeers. Pretty easy to tell who was the hometown favorite and who was the out-of-towner. Clint recognized that the Pokemon his opponent was using was a Mawile, but for the life of him couldn't remember what type Mawile was. In what was almost a random decision, Clint decided to send out Grovyle.

"F*** him up Jordan, F*** him up," he heard being shouted out from the crowd around the ring.

Seemed like no one here was going to do Clint any favors, it was all on him and Grovyle from here on out. The two Pokemon waited patiently for their trainers to make their moves. The Mawile snapped its jaws at Groyvle, who was staring intensely at the Mawile. At the very least, the crowd was going to get a better show than the previous battles.
​

Team & Inventory:

Spoiler:

Blaze|Brave| Moves: Ember|Dragon Breath|Bite|Smokescreen|Fire Fang|Slash

Overgrow|Sassy| Moves: Leaf-age|Detect|Quick Attack|Double Kick|Assurance|Bullet Seed

Water Absorb|Quiet| Moves: Hypnosis|Water Gun|Pound|Mud Shot

Synchronize|Gentle| Moves: Confusion|Double Team|Teleport|Growl|Draining Kiss
Inventory:

$28,500
2x Potions
1x Pokeballs
5x Iapapa Berries
10x Oran Berries
4x Normal Gem
Sceptilite
Gengarite
Thunder Stone
Water Stone
TM Protect
TM Bullet Seed
TM Rock Smash
TM Low Kick
TM Grass Knot
TR Sludge Bomb

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

 

[budube]

Jordie "Jo" Hughes

Wednesday, September 30

Littledale - Cottage Grove Area

[tab=one]Chapter[/tab] ‧ [tab=two]Pokémon[/tab] ‧ [tab=three]Inventory[/tab]

​

Chapter 4: Final - Shooting Star

16:00 pm - Hilda's Cottage

As soon as I see it's 4 pm, I go back to my room and take my bag and stuff to head to Route 103, leaving Hilda in her small living room reading one of the decoration magazines she had on her table.

Harry is on her lap at first, but he follows me as soon as he sees I'm getting up, circling around me to put his paws on my legs while shaking his tail as he makes those dog noises that mean they either want to play or get headpats.

"Harry, don't annoy our guest, you know better than that," calls Hilda from her chair, tapping one of its front legs to get Harry's attention.

Leaving Harry behind and into the room, I start packing the stuff I had used yesterday, and put the magnetic belt around my waist for the second time this day. Meanwhile, I'm able to hear Harry barking and running happily from outside the room.

"Leaving already?" Hilda asks all of a sudden from the door frame with a walking cane in hand and a coat resting on her shoulder.

"Mhm."

"Hmph. So you really are a rushed one huh?"

I roll my eyes after hearing that without looking back at her. That snark of hers gets really tiring. "Not my kind of place."

"Really? Kyle said you looked very happy fishing."

"I guess?" I shrug. I was happy fishing for Basculin especifically, I still don't care about the sport in itself. "They were good exercise. The Basculin."

"Oh, so you like exercising!" she repeats, this time with what seems to be genuine amusement. "Do you like trekking? Want to go for a short walk?"

I look back at her, a little bit confused at her sudden offer and the attitude shift. Honestly, now that I think about it… what is that cane for? She has never used it inside the cabin. Did she have it back in Littleroot? I don't remember.

"It's time for Harry's walk, it won't take more than an hour or two," she insists.

I take a look at the XT, just to see it's not past 16:10 yet, which makes a one hour walk not sound too bad. My legs are still a bit sore, but I think a bit of warm up will make it easier for me to get going later today. "Well, if it's just one hour… where are we going?"

---

The rocky trails near Hilda's house are a nice but sorta weird change of scenery from the eastern part of Cottage Grove, going from sand and water with a fair share of trees to mostly forest and big rocks. It's not a mountain as Hilda likes to call it, the trails are not as steep as they would be in an actual one, but it comes close.

I walk between the old woman and Gabby, with my shades on, looking at the Rufflet standing on the trees' branches. Meanwhile Gabby floats looking at the ground, in case one of the Geodude Hilda mentioned we gotta be careful with jumps at us after accidentally stepping on it while it was sleeping half buried.

Harry is perhaps the most energized one here, constantly running past us with excitement, just to come back once he realizes he's been leaving us behind, while Hilda and I are having some trouble keeping up, on the one hand, my legs haven't warmed up enough to be able to take these slopes better, on the other hand there's Hilda's age; that said, now that I take a quick look behind me, we've come a really long way in no more than fifteen minutes.

Before taking a seat on one of the bigger rocks, Hilda pokes it a few times with her cane, a few seconds after that, she takes some time to rest.

"Let's rest here for a bit," she says, taking a deep breath and exhaling with her eyes closed as she extends her legs. "I like to tell myself these walks with Harry are good for my health, but when you're my age, your legs can't take this kind of work out anymore."

"Fifteen minutes up a slope like this isn't a small task, honestly," I say, trying to sound reassuring.

"Hm… yes, I guess you're right," Hilda agrees. "What about you? Is this too much for you?"

"Not really, I've had worse."

"Right? Come on, tell me more."

I stop to think for a moment, that was just a throwaway line, because when I think of all the times I've gone hiking, there's usually not many interesting things to say about it. Of course, there's one instance in which something happened. If I skip some details, then I guess there's no problem talking about it.

"Four hours inside Granite Cave."

"Four hours!," the woman repeats with a laugh. "What were you doing for four hours in a cave?"

I feel something bumping on my arm slightly and to my left I see Gabby looking at me with concern.

"Relax. Everything is fine," I think, lowering my hand at her. Hilda notices Gabby's movements but she doesn't seem to mind, instead, keeps looking at me with more curiosity.

"It was while I was in Dewford. It has these shipwreck tours, y'see? I went one night with a friend and he told me I could find a…, hold on," I put a hand inside my pocket to take out the keystone, thinking it's better if I have it as close to me as possible in case something happens to my bag. "This."

"A keystone," she says, and I'm apparently more surprised at her knowing what this is than she is surprised at seeing this.

"Yeah."

"Did something else happen there?" she asks, but I just shake my head at her. "Don't tell me those four hours were spent just walking around."

"... Y-yeah. I mean, that's what we were talking about, right?"

Hilda raises her eyebrows, then takes a glance at Gabby, who ends up hiding behind me. It seems to throw her off, since she just sighs with certain disgust and just looks away from me. "How boring."

"What?"

"Your story is boring," she specifies. "You mean to tell me you are a trainer, and the only thing you do outside battling is walk around looking for magic rocks?"

Hilda keeps staring at me, seemingly waiting for an answer, which I don't have. I don't know how wise it would be to disclose the whole details of that trip, or at least part of them.

"Whatever…," Hilda adds after a long silence, as she starts to get up. "Time keeps running, and Harry likes going to the very top of this hill, so I'll just keep walking. He's going to drive me nuts with all of that running, I swear! He's a Herdier, but has the energy of a Stoutland. Have you ever seen a Stoutland?"

"I- Yeah… a few times. There's a few in the Battle Subway in Nimbasa."

"Nimbasa? Where's that?"

"It's in Unova. I'm from there."

Hilda nods. "So you are from an–I'm guessing– city in a highly competitive region. Doesn't that tournament with trainers from all over the world take place there?"

"The Pokémon World Tournament, yes."

"Hmph. Why are you here, then?," she asks.

I give this one a quick thought, and in the end I go with a similar answer to the one I give all the time for this question. "I just thought I… needed something else."

"Like what?"

"A change of scenery. And…"

She turns her head at me, both of her eyebrows raising and showing her curiosity. However, I refuse to give an answer and shake my head instead.

"And that."

"Is that so?" she asks. This time not in the tone of and that's it? from earlier, though. "But of all the regions why did you pick Hoenn over other more tourism focused?"

"I mean the competitive aspect played a part in that too," I answer. "Hoenn is the second or third most competitive region, y'know? A lot of well known trainers come from here, Steven Stone, Wally Greene, Wallace, Flannery… wasn't one of her relatives a Gym Leader in Galar too?"

"You seem to know a lot about other trainers."

"Just names for the most part."

"It's still more than most people, I didn't know Norman's kid changed her name until just recently and it was thanks to you," Hilda says. "You like that, don't you? The whole trainer thing? How far do you want to go?"

"I will get my name to the top. Next year, if you get another trainer in front of your door, you'll hear them say my name."

Hilda chuckles. "So you are the prideful type."

"I'm not prideful! I just know I'll get far because I know I'm good. Like, I beat Wally Greene, y'know? I have his badge inside my bag."

"Prideful is not a bad thing," she adds. "As you said, you know you are good and you want to exploit your abilities to their limits, you have pride in your talent. It's not a problem until it becomes arrogance, that's when it becomes a hard pill to swallow."

Arrogance. Back when I had that fight with my parents, I only thought it was some kind of insult to dissuade me from leaving Unova and didn't think much about the meaning of that word. Was I being arrogant then? If so, what is the problem with that if it brings me closer to my goal?

"What happens if I don't?" I ask her.

"What do you mean?"

"You said when pride becomes arrogance it becomes a hard pill to swallow, but what if I don't feel it becomes a problem?"

"Interesting question," Hilda says, raising both eyebrows. "You mean to tell me you've been there already?"

I don't answer.

"Has everything really gone so well for you? No consequences at all?" she asks. Thinking about it, and as I stand with a still unread message on my XT, the answer is an obvious no, but again, I don't answer. "Even if things have gone smoothly so far, that attitude drags people away. At some point you're gonna have to drop that pride of yours and pick it up again little by little, but next time you'll know you don't have to hold too hard onto it. Understand what I say?"

Barely, but I nod.

"Anyways, this is the end of the road," Hilda says, as soon as Harry starts barking. She sits on a boulder laying some feet away from the border of the small cliff, while I get closer to the edge with Harry. "Was this the change of scenery you came to Hoenn for?"

"N-no, not really," I say. When people say 'Hoenn', I instantly think about Slateport or Mt Chimney. Thinking about mountains and forests is hard when most you know about the region is the crazy weather issue from years ago and the competitive scene. I was okay with Littledale, but seeing the enormous amount of forest and rocky areas here is surprising. It's a beautiful view, but there's something that contrasts a lot with it, and it is that huge bridge that emerges from the trees and cuts through the landscape to then disappear. "What's that?"

"The bridge? It's your ticket to the big city," Hilda answers. "They call it Mauport Bridge."

"It's… huge."

"It really is," she says. "Personally I'm more open-minded about its existence than the average person from Cottage Grove, but I agree with everyone when they say it's a damn shame how it butchers the whole scenery." She gets up and walks to where I am, her wooden cane in hand and with it, she points at the other mountains. "I prefer watching at the taller mountains, though. More so at the cliffs. Do you remember when I said some Graveler came crashing against other's cabins? Well, it's because they like rolling down the mountains. Interesting species for sure."

"I've never seen a Graveler, I think."

"Well, of course! You are from the city, aren't you? You won't find a Geodude there no matter how hard you try, let alone a Graveler," she replies back with some sass. "But that's besides the point. I just think they are fun to watch. They like fighting and racing down the mountains by rolling for fun, at times they get angry and roll down a cliff instead and fall like they are some kind of shooting star, but it doesn't matter, they are sturdy rock heads. Proud fighters too, what they don't have in brains, they have in willpower, I guess that makes them difficult to try though."

"How fast are they?"

Hilda chuckles. "What kind of question is that? Are you going to catch one?"

"Maybe, I don't know," I shrug.

She sighs. "Well, I don't know, really…," she answers in a low voice, tilting her head sideways and looking at the sky. "I wouldn't say they are fast, I don't think so. They are just heavy rocks with clunky movements, after all, but I've never seen a Geodude or a Graveler up close to really know."

---

18:00

Since Hilda and I started walking back to her cottage, I've been thinking a lot about the whole conversation about me and the entire Graveler thing. By the looks of it, Graveler is indeed a really slow Pokémon, also –physically– resistant and a hard puncher, just like I like them.

But there's a problem… well two problems.

The first one is that I can't catch a Graveler –not here at least–, I have to get a Geodude. Not much of a problem, honestly.

The second problem, though, is that if I catch something else again, I would be going back to having seven Pokémon, y'know? Which means I would have to send one member of my team to Unova again.

Now I don't care if Andrea tries to contact me again, but if it's my brother who's taking care of every Pokémon I have, then that's a problem when I have one pending message from him.

I guess I could still catch it and not answer. I mean, I definitely could. They would have to receive them nonetheless but it feels wrong now that I know? I still think I was right during the whole conflict but now that I'm here, still avoiding any kind of contact with Unova feels like an asshole move. Things are fine with my brother… I hope, but will this attitude drag him away too like Hilda said?

I don't want that to happen, my brother is fine. The issue had nothing to do with him.

I don't know what to do, but I know I can't become a World Champion without catching more Pokémon.

Weirdly enough, there's two different types of Geodude. The basic, ground and rock type and the 'Alolan variant', electric and rock type. Weird. Aren't these supposed to be exclusively in Alola? Is it some environmental adaptation thing? I don't think Hilda mentioned anything like that.

From a competitive standpoint, both of them have vulnerability against water and ground attacks, except I could remove one of those weaknesses if I get to teach Magnet Rise to the Alolan one somehow, while also hitting super effectively to water types. I'll have to look into the move tutor thing, though.

Scanning for the Alolan Geodude, my XT brings me to the same trail I followed Hilda across, a bit before reaching the top, in a spot in which there were barely any trees at all. The scan says it's right here, so it's probably buried somewhere.

Bane is the only Pokémon I have right now. If what Hilda says is true, and Geodude enjoy battling for fun, then the plan is to have a one-on-one battle between them both. Entertain the Geodude and if he likes Bane, catch it right away.

All of a sudden, Bane starts feeling strange, for he stops on his tracks to look directly at a bush. Not really sure what it is, since I can't hear anything, but Bane seems to feel something I can't, which attracts him towards that bush, so I follow him.

As soon as we get behind that bush, Bane starts sniffing the ground, yelping with certain uneasiness until he finds a rock that he starts pushing with his head, until the silver Geodude is forced to wake up and get out by itself.

"You did it! Great job, Bane boy!" I cheer, putting a hand on his head, but I get the strange sensation of some light electric current running through it.

The Geodude isn't happy, to say the least, and as soon as it realizes it was us who woke it up, bashes at Bane with a Tackle.

Bane is more astonished by how weirdly quick that hit was than hurt by it –I mean, it's Tackle–, but as soon as he realizes the battle has already started he shakes his head and adopts a more defensive position, waiting for orders. However, instead of giving an order, I let the Geodude strike with another Tackle. This one seems to be more cathartic for the Geodude since it manages to push Bane back a little bit.

"Use Take Down."

Bane tilts his head at me a little bit confused, but it's because he doesn't understand that we aren't going all-out this time, so my order remains the same. The Aron lowers his head, walking backwards a bit to charge with possibly his strongest tackle so far without Curse, pushing the Geodude back.

The Alolan Geodude looks angrily at Bane, but its frown quickly becomes a grin, so it opens its arms, welcoming another Take Down from Bane.

Bane strikes again, but the Geodude receives the attack curling into a ball by crossing its arms and rolling backwards and attempting a direct attack against Bane with Rollout.

"Iron Head."

The Geodude is forced to stop after losing its momentum once Bane blocked its attack, but that's just perfect for it, apparently since its smile is still there. It bumps its fists together, liberating an electric current that surrounds its whole body before bashing Bane with a charged Spark, perhaps its strongest attack so far, which actually seems to damage him

Bane tries an Iron Head again, and Geodude answers back with another Rollout. This exchange goes on a few times more until the Geodude falls back, tired and shaking its head, however still completely conscious with a smile on its face.

"So, what do you say?" I ask, kneeling in front of it, placing the Dusk Ball in front of it. "Want to become stronger?"

The Geodude's expression changes for a bit, raising one of its eyebrows as it looks at the Dusk Ball with curiosity, leaning on one of its arms to be able to see properly. It doesn't understand quite well at first until it turns its eyes towards Bane who's panting by my side and makes the connection, smiling once again and extending an arm at me.

Pokémon

Jordie's Party:

[tab=poke1]

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[/tab] ‧ [tab=poke3]

[/tab] ‧ [tab=poke4]

[/tab] ‧ [tab=poke5]

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Gabby the Solosis

Female ‧ Magic Guard
Hidden Power (Bug) ‧ Psyshock ‧ Recover ‧ Trick Room ‧ Endeavor ‧ Ally Switch

Neon the Stunfisk

Male ‧ Static
Fissure ‧ Bide ‧ Discharge ‧ Mud Bomb ‧ Mudsport ‧ Camouflage

Maroon the Dhelmise

Genderless ‧ Steelworker
Gyro Ball ‧ Whirlpool ‧ Grass Knot ‧ Astonish ‧ Giga Drain ‧ Iron Defense

Bane the Aron

Male ‧ Rock Head
Iron Head ‧ Take Down ‧ Curse ‧ Mud Slap ‧ Rock Slide ‧ Protect

Dewey the Dewpider

Female ‧ Water Bubble
Spider Web ‧ Aqua Ring ‧ Infestation ‧ Bug Bite ‧ Water Gun ‧ Bite

Quinn the Slowpoke

Female ‧ Oblivious
Curse ‧ Confusion ‧ Growl ‧ Water Gun ‧ Yawn ‧ Disable

Star the Geodude (Alola)*

Male ‧ Magnet Pull
Defense Curl ‧ Tackle ‧ Rollout ‧ Spark ‧ Charge ‧ Rock Polish

​

​

---

Battle Subway:

*: to be sent to the Battle Subway

Inventory

Money: ₽6700

PokéBalls:

23 Dusk Balls

Held Items:

Eviolite (

)

Aggronite

TMs/TRs:

Coaching TM

Protect TM

Grass Knot TM


Other:

X-Transceiver

Key Stone

CSS Template by Juno
Header CSS Template by Aquacorde
Jo's Faceclaim made with this picrew​

 

[Eleanor]

Avril Reese

16 - ♀ - Laverre City


​

Pokémon / Inventory:

AVRIL'S MONEY: $39 000 ↑

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Floette) ♀
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Moonblast, Grassy Terrain, Aromatherapy, Wish, Petal Blizzard

🌼 Hydrangea (Gastrodon) ♀
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)

🌼 Wisteria (Inkay) ♂
Infiltrator
Night Slash, Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

🌼 Thistle (Wooloo) ♀
Bulletproof
Tackle, Growl, Defense Curl, Copycat, Guard Split, Double Kick

Away:
🌼 Venus (Mawile) ♀ - at Littleroot Research Lab

AVRIL'S INVENTORY:
🌼 1 Empty Pokéball
🌼 2 Potions
🌼 Eviolite
🌼 Silk Scarf
🌼 TM for Ally Switch (from Wally)
🌼 5 Rare berries
🌼 Sea Incense
🌼 Pink Scarf
🌼 TM for ??? (from the Trick House)
🌼 Light Clay
🌼 Yellow Nectar (4 doses)
🌼 9 Quick Balls
🌼 TR for Hyper Voice (Mauville Beach)

🌼 Holotch (phone version)
🌼 Fanclub Membership card - valid until October 17^th
🌼 Ophelia's stamp
🌼 Various clothes and commodities
🌼 Pink Woolen Hat
🌼 Binoculars

🌼 Rental skates again

AVRIL'S CONTACTS:
Jordie, Shuna, Natsuko, June, Marcella, Hikaru

AVRIL'S BADGES AND RIBBONS:
🥊 ➕

🎀• 1

🌼 Avril's birth date is April 25^th, 2010
🌼 Character art made with [SPAN="color:rgb(40,180,40);"]https://picrew.me/image_maker/338886[/SPAN]

Two First Times

Wednesday, October 7^th - morning - Mauville Beach

Much ado for nothing, they say. I could only resist it for so long.

I got what I wished for, more or less, but that only gets you so far - this never goes quite the way you'd imagine. It's not that I feel clumsy or weird, I'm only slightly bigger than before and I'm carrying my flower instead of sitting on top of it. But I feel like a lot has changed in my head. I feel like I could take on the world and yet, very relaxed, like there's no need to anymore.

If Angie was really going through the same struggles as me, I don't blame her at all for picking a fight. That energy is not easy to control, it makes you feel uneasy, it takes work to quell it without fainting like I did the first time. I can only wonder if she even tried though.

I did because I knew Avril has always seen me, played with me, taken care of me as a Flabébé. And my life as a Flabébé was perfectly fine too! I had my revenge against that energy, my moment of glory, when I heard my trainer whisper "Moonblast, right?" and I knew, I had learned that move without even evolving. Well… only to realize that I almost did just that right after! I could say I didn't expect that, but in hindsight, I should've known. That said, though… I can recall that surprised yelp, the wheels rolling backwards. Avril, feeling dreary and in awe simultaneously. A little, but sweet taste of what was to come.

Hey, perhaps… I wasn't at my best when I tried to suppress my evolution anyways. Avril would've worried. She would've noticed my headache and told me to rest, and then rest some more. Haha.

I still hoped that I could see a different Pokémon evolve before it was my turn - and that was the only thing that was holding me off. But then it happened, it actually happened! And it took me just one instant, one slight eye contact, to let myself go. I can't believe it was Angie by the way… I really can't wait to see how Avril will react.

---

Haha, some things never change. I never truly stopped with the fighting, did I?

It was no longer just a food thing, actually. Food was not something to worry about, at least lately: Avril was more than happy to buy it or prepare it for me when the time was right, and I got to see what doing that meant to her. Beach food was always… existing, over there. I never asked myself where it came from.

But what I soon started worrying about was the girl's approval. Not only because receiving approval meant more food if I asked for it, but also because… it felt nice. Rewarding. We had something between us at that point, we knew we could help each other out. Avril made my life that tad more interesting, I think.

Of course there was Poppy in the middle of things. Since the first day we were together in fact. She was there first, and Avril just made sure I knew. Like I said, I didn't care much at first, but now… oh, now we are rivals. The fight we had in Dewford was clearly Poppy's doing so… I can't help but shrug figuratively, but this one felt perfectly normal, perfectly fitting for us. The evolution came suddenly for me, but it just made so much sense.

And now here I am, much larger than before, much stronger than before, but maybe a bit less airheaded. I'm happy about it, of where I am. Avril, if you can hear me… I hope you're happy too. I'm thankful we still got to do things that were new for me, I'm just… positively surprised of what I've been able to learn.

 

[Eleanor]

Avril Reese

16 - ♀ - Laverre City


​

Pokémon / Inventory:

AVRIL'S MONEY: $39 000

AVRIL'S TEAM:
🌼 Poppy (Floette) ♀
Flower Veil
Synthesis, Moonblast, Grassy Terrain, Aromatherapy, Wish, Petal Blizzard

🌼 Hydrangea (Gastrodon) ♀
Storm Drain
Water Pulse, Mud Bomb, Recover, Rain Dance, Mud Sport, Hidden Power (?)

🌼 Wisteria (Inkay) ♂
Infiltrator
Night Slash, Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Pluck, Reflect, Psybeam

🌼 Thistle (Wooloo) ♀
Bulletproof
Tackle, Growl, Defense Curl, Copycat, Guard Split, Double Kick

Away:
🌼 Venus (Mawile) ♀ - at Littleroot Research Lab

AVRIL'S INVENTORY:
🌼 1 Empty Pokéball
🌼 2 Potions
🌼 Eviolite
🌼 Silk Scarf
🌼 TM for Ally Switch (from Wally)
🌼 5 Rare berries
🌼 Sea Incense
🌼 Pink Scarf
🌼 TM for ??? (from the Trick House)
🌼 Light Clay
🌼 Yellow Nectar (4 doses)
🌼 9 Quick Balls
🌼 TR for Hyper Voice (Mauville Beach)

🌼 Holotch (phone version)
🌼 Fanclub Membership card - valid until October 17^th
🌼 Ophelia's stamp
🌼 Various clothes and commodities
🌼 Pink Woolen Hat
🌼 Binoculars

🌼 Rental skates again

AVRIL'S CONTACTS:
Jordie, Shuna, Natsuko, June, Marcella, Hikaru

AVRIL'S BADGES AND RIBBONS:
🥊 ➕

🎀• 1

🌼 Avril's birth date is April 25^th, 2010
🌼 Character art made with [SPAN="color:rgb(40,180,40);"]https://picrew.me/image_maker/338886[/SPAN]

The stars are aligned!

Wednesday, October 7^th - early afternoon - Mauville Skypark

Ophelia goes straight to Kalosian once she spots Avril in the Skypark lobby. The girl is talking to her Floette, hesitating to reach for the reception counter, but her eyes sparkle when she sees Ophelia approaching her.

"Hey, is everything alright-"

"Ophelia? Hello! I, uhm…"

It doesn't take long for the conversation to go straight to the main point. "Ohoho, what do I see here?" The cook smiles towards Poppy, and Avril gives up her collected attitude very easily there.

"That happened, yes! And look…" she breathes in. "I'm just flabbergasted it happened to me, I don't know what comes next, I'm weirded out by the fact that my parents appear to be right again…"

And then, looking up at Ophelia's caring eyes, she ends up explaining everything. She touches on her parents' ambition, on her bond with Poppy, and on how this double evolution completely turned the table on her. She gives the cook the opportunity to see Angie as well, now a Gastrodon - the Water-type is now seemingly stiff, trying to look serious in the eyes of Ophelia.

"I see, I see…" the woman reassures Avril. "But try to forget all of that and think about this… if your Pokémon evolved under your care, then it can only mean one thing… they care about you! They want to become stronger for you! Whatever you've been doing with them, they've enjoyed it and want more of it."

Poppy chirps affirmatively. While slightly bigger than before the evolution, she's still been sitting on Avril's head as she's gone back to the Pokémon Center, her stem intertwining with the girl's hair. But now, she's floating right in front of her, twirling happily. The girl already knows that though– Poppy has always been caring about her, even allowing herself to get caught by the girl and indulging her for all of those years. Angie is the real surprise for the blonde trainer.

"What I have been…" Avril mutters, skimming through all of her Hoenn memories. She and Ophelia move into the Skypark proper at around this time, looking for a nicer place to talk and think things through.

"It must've been something recent but that's been…" the girl recalls. "That's been the time when I've been just hanging out in Mauville."

"Just hanging out, uh?"

"Well… I didn't work that hard on being a trainer, like I was meant to do, but…"

Ophelia wants to see it through. She's not the woman to let things slide, not when she's this deep into the conversation. Eventually, Avril tells her what she's been up to. The skating, the contest practice, the beach adventure she's just come back from. The woman almost seems to shed a tear. "Aw," she chuckles. "You've got many things going for you. The stars are aligned!"

She keeps explaining what she means, and Avril takes in all of those words until she starts believing them more and more. It's not training Pokémon and winning battles that she's good at, like her parents might want, but that's fine. She knows that. However, it's only now that Ophelia lays out the pieces of the puzzle in front of her, that Avril sees it. What she's good at.

"I've never managed to spend enough time with my Pokémon. I've never had that many anyways. But I've always enjoyed Pokémon Musicals, and so, whenever I could, I would help my coordinator friends with taking care and feeding their Pokémon. It's how I got into cooking in the first place. Well, you remind me of those friends. I think you'll do great as a coordinator."

The blonde girl gets all stiff, afraid she might disappoint Ophelia's expectations, but the woman catches that. "Well, the important thing is to have fun and not look like that all the time, you know?" She raises Avril's head, a finger pushing her chin up. "Tell me something, do you miss Kalos?"

Avril gasps. "Well.. can't say I don't… think about it."

"Haha, you've got a lot of Kalos with you already." Ophelia smiles. "Just let it shine through while you're here! You could always do a skating performance in a contest, or show off Floette, or share some Kalosian cuisine… oh, I'm getting carried away."

The girl's eyes are sparkling slightly. "I just wonder… what for?"

"What for!? Didn't you tell me you care a lot about your Pokémon? And what about making people happy? Or most importantly, yourself?"

"I, uhm…"

"Yeah, you take care of yourself. That's what she'd want too." Ophelia laughs, pointing towards Poppy (who obviously can't help but nod at that).

"Ok, ok, but…" Avril quickly replies as the woman, now standing up again, is about to walk away from her. "Contests have a battling part and my Pokémon get hurt and…"

"Oh, right." Ophelia stops in her tracks, but then starts to walk once again. "Sorry but I have a cooking thing scheduled right about now… and if you recall, it was all about learning by doing things together and imitating what I did, right?"

"Y-yes!"

"I'd say it worked well, didn't it?" Ophelia looks towards Avril, who's just following her at this point. The girl just nods a few times, eyes still hopeful for one more hint.

"I can't help you much, but you've got to have some friends who can. I'm sure of it."

Avril blocks herself, a sad smile appearing on her face. "R-right…" is all she can say before turning back, but the heavy blush on her cheeks tells Ophelia way more about her than her words do. The woman waves, and smiles back wholeheartedly.

The nurse's words echo one last time in the blonde girl's head as she walks back into the skypark and enjoys some more time with Poppy and Angie. "They've grown a lot stronger now," she'd told Avril at lunch time, when she got her two Pokémon back from the healing machines. "They'll be able to take a lot of attacks."

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Sophie
Location: Dewford Town
Friday, September 25th
Afternoon

​

[tab=stor3-10][/tab] [tab=pok3-10][/tab][tab=inven3-10][/tab]

​

Chapter 3 - 10
A Costly Mistake​

"Ahaha, that's so Brawly!"

"Please, I'm so embarrassed right now."

I leaned my face on the counter to hide my embarrassed expression while Callie giggled gleefully as she prepared her cafe for opening hours.

I tried my best to forget what happened back at the gym, but I couldn't… I just couldn't… It was a stupid mistake that would've easily been avoided if I had just searched about what Brawly looked like.

"Don't be, you're not the first one to experience that… Definitely not gonna be the last one either." Callie chuckled while she tinkered with her coffee roaster. "He's a nice guy, but I think he's a bit too nice sometimes, giving gym badges like cookies for the young ones. It can sometimes backfire spectacularly when they grew overconfident, trust me I've experienced that kind of thing myself… But then again, he's the gym leader and I'm not, so I guess he knows more than me about that, haha."

I stayed silent despite Callie's reassurances, not because I didn't want to talk to her, but because I don't know what was a good topic to bring up, although that in itself didn't last long as Callie started humming a song that I could barely recognize, the melody was almost similar to a hit pop song that was often listened to by the popular girls clique back at my school.

How do I know? Well, I never hang out around those heartless, back-stabbing loonies once I knew what kind of person they really were, but the fact that they often blast that kind of music everywhere without a single care in the world surely didn't help with my negative perception of them.

Despite my displeasure of having bad memories of them plaguing my head once more, I couldn't tell that to Callie's face. Not when she was swaying happily as she sang alongside the music while preparing the cafe for the opening hours.

So I did the best option that popped up in my head, which was to distract her from singing the trashy pop music by making her chat with me instead.

"So you've experienced that too, with Brawly?" I asked, lifting my head to meet her eyes.

"Hmm? What do you mean? Getting his identity wrong? If that's your question, my dear, I'm a local, so I often saw his face if there were events and whatnot. And if you're trying to ask if I get a badge in the same way as you… Oh no, I beat him. Then again I've finished my journey in Sinnoh by that point, so… I mean Brawly was a strong trainer and still is, but amongst the people I fought against on my journey were well… Monsters, to say the least... Including Vincent," said Callie while cleaning the counter.

The statement piqued my interest. It was my first chance to hear from an experienced trainer, or at the very least someone who used to be one. So I asked her something that I was curious about.

"Was it fun? Your journey?"

"My journey in Sinnoh? Yep, very much so… Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows but now even I looked back at the struggles as something that is memorable for me." Callie smiled at my innocent question.

"I see, I did expect you to be an experienced former trainer with how much you know about contests," I quipped, expecting Callie to agree and perhaps tell her past experience when she was a trainer. But her answer was not something I expected.

"Former? Are you kidding me? But I guess not even the most passionate of a fan would be able to recognize me in this getup..." Callie laughed once more as she nonchalantly revealed the fact that she was still an active trainer, leaving me befuddled.

Eh? Wait, is this another Brawly situation? I thought to myself.

"A-are you famous or something?" I tried to keep my composure the best I could as I asked her to confirm the situation I was in.

If I had to think about it again carefully, she might look like an ordinary girl with her hair tied in a bun, round glasses, and oversized clothes. But dressing ordinarily could also be her way to blend in without alerting other people about who she really was. At least I would do so if I was in her shoes.

"Mmm… It's a bit hard to say for me, but in my humble opinion if you do follow the Contest circuit closely you would have a clue of who I really am. Then again most of the customers that came here came and went without much fuss, so guess I'm not as popular as I thought. My sister on the other hand… Oh, she's in a completely different league than me," Callie tilted her head while stroking the back of her head, seemingly embarrassed at her own confession.

My jaw dropped as I hear her confession. Did I just inconvenience an important person in the contest circuit? Oh no, is my contest career doomed before it truly starts? If there was something that stuck back at my Academy it was that connections were the most important thing to be successful. The fact that I might've angered someone influential in the contest circle would jeopardize my chances even before I even win my first ribbon.

In my panic, I tried to use my Holotch to search for who she really was so I can properly apologize to her. But before I managed to sneakily take her picture to put in the search engine, her hand manage to block the screen preventing me from doing so.

"Um, you do realize you're not going to get any results if you put my current look in the search engine, do you? " Callie said with a puzzled look, as she peeked over the screen of my Holotch to understand what was happening.

"O-oh… I-I…"

Unable to properly process what was happening I accidentally squealed before burrowing my face once more on the wooden table in embarrassment while Callie giggled at my reaction.

I couldn't help but sigh continuously as I thought about the horrible mistakes I did, clearly, I was ill-equipped with dealing with all of this trainer stuff. How wrong I was thinking that all of this going to be smooth sailing.

After some time had passed, I was interrupted from my musings by a cold sensation on my neck.

I raised my head only to realize that Callie had put her face so close to mine.

"Your mesmerizing beauty would wilt quickly if you keep frowning, my dear," said Callie in a flirtatious tone.

I knew it was a joke almost immediately, but it was still too much for me to process properly.

"Stop teasing me…" I sulked and went back to burrow my reddened face into the table.

"Haha, I'm glad that Vincent's bag of tricks still works as well as it used to," Callie gleefully laughed.

I was preparing myself to leave the Cafe to prevent myself from causing more embarrassment. But soon as Callie finished her laugh, a huge sigh from her end was audible stopping me from attempting my getaway.

Hearing that, I slowly peeked once more to see her letting her hair down before sitting in the chair across the table from me. She put out her right hand on my head before caressing my head gently.

"You know, I made a lot of mistakes too back in the day. I've had my fair share of blaming myself too if that's of any help. It's good to know that you're making mistakes, but don't be too hard on yourself. After all, nobody's perfect," Callie spoke with a wistful smile painted on her pale face.

Despite the teasing that she gave me from time to time, her expression when she said her concern showed me that she really care. And I was so sure of it, after all, I knew all too much about the expression someone gave when they lied and try to take advantage of me, and hers' was definitely not that.

At that point, I could only nod without raising my head to reassure Callie's mind, after all, I don't think I could be composed right now and if that would make Callie sad I'd rather not show it at all. But I couldn't feel happy at all How could I smile widely when I kept making mistakes like that, it's embarrassing and I SHOULD feel embarrassed.

If that woman who called herself my mother was here I couldn't imagine how harsh she would reprimand me for being a bumbling idiot. Maybe she would say I'm an embarrassment to the family name as she used to do regularly, and as much as I loathe her, not even I could refute it with how many mistakes I made.

I wanted myself to be free from the torment of failure, yet no matter how hard I tried it just ended up never mattering.

I didn't know anymore why should I bother to try once more, I'm so tired of trying to do my best without any result.

Life is cruel... So cruel...
​

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

​

Party


Aurora (Alolan Vulpix) (Female) | Ability: Snow Warning | Freeze-Dry, Confuse Ray, Disable, Hex, Aurora Beam, Mist




Garnet (Staryu) (-) | Ability: Illuminate | Magic Coat, Rapid Spin, Camouflage, Recover, Psywave, Bubblebeam




Stolz (Aron) (Male) | Ability: Rock Head | Rock Tomb, Metal Claw, Protect, Roar, Harden, Headbutt

Inventory

Money: ₽8.200 + ₽580.000 in emergency funds

Badges
Knuckle Badge

Mega/Z Items
Key Stone x 1
Aggronite x 1

Evo Items
None

Held Item

Eviolite x 1

King's Rock x 1

Silk Scarf x 1

TM/TR

Detect

Consumables
None

Other Items
None
​

​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Pokemon Center, Petalburg City
Friday, September 25th
Late Night​

[tab=story3-14][/tab] [tab=poke3-14][/tab][tab=invent3-14][/tab]

​

Chapter 3 - 14
A Moment of Respite​

Long after I had a late lunch with Vincent, I was finally able to raise my body from the comforting presence of the fluffy mattress in my room that had lulled me into a long slumber.

"What time is it, now?" I mumbled weakly while trying my best to hold back the bloated feeling I had in my stomach. I ate too much, but what could I say… Free meals wouldn't come every day, you know? Especially when it's a delicacy like fresh Qwilfish sushi that would wreck the wallet of any young trainers that weren't fortunate enough to be born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

I head towards the nearby window. I was hoping that I didn't fall asleep for too long, but of course, the reality is often disappointing. I was left sighing as the only light visible from where I stood was coming from the beautiful moon hanging above the sky, shining its beautiful pale brilliance which enveloped the earth's surface.

No chance in hell that it was still early evening with how high the moon was up in the sky.

While rubbing my eyes in a half-asleep state, I sluggishly walked toward the drawer next to my bed. And as I glanced toward my Holotch's lock screen, I couldn't help but to raise my voice when seeing it.

"23.52!? Yikes…" I shook my head while grimacing. I didn't expect myself to be knocked out cold for a long time. Guess you could only pull so many all-nighters before your body completely shuts down for a prolonged time.

I sat down with my eyes wide open contemplating what to do this late. It was hard for me to fall into slumber once more and sadly, it made me realize that I don't have a proper hobby outside Pokemon training, well except tinkering with stuff, but there was nothing interesting to tinker with here, well nothing without getting my ass hauled off to jail for vandalism. And by that, I meant the air conditioning unit.

Yeah, It's hard to believe but excluding the things I forcibly get myself into in a desperate attempt to attract friends, I didn't have a hobby. I was as bland as a vanilla ice cream, but then again it would be an insult to vanilla ice cream to be compared with my blandness.

Left with nothing much to do, I decided to twiddle with my Holotch to search for whatever was interesting enough to kill time.

Let's see if I missed something…

I scrolled through the notification of my Holotch, there were quite a few apparently… Some coming from the Jubilife Express news app I've installed on my Holotch.

Jubilife Express was one of the news outlets I deemed quality despite not having paid for a single cent. Hoenn Daily was 1000 Pokedollars a month on subscription fees, so obviously I took the free way out. Well obviously I had to deal with an ads-filled website, but eh, it's a fair trade-off.

As I leaned on my bedframe, I scrolled through different sections of the news website that I had bookmarked.

Tournament news, while it was usually my source of entertainment… I felt that thinking about Pokemon training would probably be the last thing I should do at the moment.

And then there was football news. I was a casual fan if I might be honest, dad always loved to talk a lot with anyone he could hold a conversation with about football matches. My sister and I often sat down in the living room just to make him happy with conversations about the game despite our limited knowledge of the sport.

Although to be honest, I would've loved it if dad would pump the brakes a bit on how much time he put into supporting our hometown team, the fabled Mossdeep Astronauts.

Especially considering the thing Mossdeep Astronauts was fabled for is for losing… And cheating.

When they had a winning season four years ago en route to winning the Ultra Bowl, the championship was soon stripped from them because of the greatest cheating scandal in sports history. Yikes, just yikes. I didn't understand how could someone fanatically supports that team after the emotional grinder it put on their supporters.

With my interest mostly vested in tournament news which I didn't have the appetite to look at with my current mental state, it didn't even take me two minutes to finish scrolling the news site.

Feeling there was not much to do, I was prepared to tuck myself into sleep by force despite how hard it would be after the deep slumber I just had. Well, I was, if only I didn't realize at the very last moment before I put my Holotch away that I had a missed call notification that I was unaware of. As I opened the list, I was thinking about who could've called me earlier in the night, but I had optimism that there would be no big issues stemming from my not answering the missed call. An optimism that shattered fast as I finally read the callers' list.

Let's see… Alice… Alice… Alice… Alice… Oh no…

My face grew paler and paler the more I saw Alice's name showing up on the callers' list.

From 7 unanswered calls, all of them had come through Alice's Holotch.

What the hell was happening!? Did I miss something important!? I grasped my hair tightly while scrambling to fire my brain at all cylinders to find out what was actually happening.

The number of calls was too much for me to not be alarmed about her well-being, especially not after her outburst of emotion the last time we talked.

Negative thoughts swirled through my head like a raging storm.

What if something bad happened to her?

What if I was not there when she urgently need help from me?

What if…

What if she had the same thought as I did back then? The same excruciating urge to disappear from the world entirely.

The last thought was so morbid that I almost threw up. I knew I had to call her as soon as possible, and so I did despite knowing it was past midnight already.

Five long beeps had passed, yet there was no one speaking on the other side.

"OH, COME THE FUCK ON!!!" I instinctively yelled in panic.

I rang her Holotch for the second time, only for five long beeps to end in the same way.

"No… No! No! No! Please…" I desperately begged her to answer my third call, yet the result didn't change at all.

Then the fourth call, and the fifth, even the sixth call happened without any results. None of my calls were answered, not even my eventual thirteenth call yielded any response other than the voicemail, and not even a single message came my way to explain what was happening with her at the moment.

I fell into a spiraling panic as I walked back and forth inside my room. I was so panicked that I bit off my fingernails, an old habit that didn't even surface when I was at my deepest end last time.

The only desire I had at that very moment was to bash my head continuously into a wall until it turns to a pulp. I was just barely able to stop myself from wanting to slam my head into the drawer beside my bed, all thanks to the thought of the people who were worried about me last time, including Alice.

She would cry if I were to be injured because of that, and not even I was dastardly enough to make the poor girl cry once more about the absolute buffoon that I was. And so I tried my best to gather my composure despite my deepest fears as I was not willing to risk another major incident like last time.

After I got some semblance of calmness, I sent out a message to her telling her that I had just woken up and asked if there was anything she wanted to ask me about.

With that out of the way, I needed something to waste my time until I feel sleepy once more. But there was only one thing that popped over my head to distract my worries which were studying.

And yet…

For the first time in a while, I didn't want to open my notes. And it was not because I was scared of the futility of doing so, it's just… I just wanted some time to rest.

If I from two weeks ago was here in front of me, he probably would slap me relentlessly for being weak and soft. And for not being harsh enough at the fact that I was only able to win gym fights with one trick only. Yet now, I was able to convince myself that resting wasn't so bad to do once in a while, especially when I still had volatile emotions swirling inside my heart.

So I laid myself on the bed once more as I took several deep breaths to convince myself that everything was alright, while still clad in the dress shirt I couldn't be bothered to change out of.

In the middle of my conundrum, a familiar melody rang through the room, making me jolt forward in shock at the sudden tune. The arrangement of notes was played by a piano, the same one my mother used to play for my family before she passed away.

There was no doubt that I made that melody my ringtone, but who the hell was sane enough to call me this late? I did remember that I already paid for my Pokemon League Premium streaming subscription a year in advance two months ago, so it shouldn't be them.

"Oh, wait!" I screamed as I finally realized that it might be Alice calling me back.

I rolled my body towards the edge of my bed where I desperately stretched my body to reach the Holotch that I regretfully had just put back in the bedside drawer. It was a bit of a struggle, well more so because I ate too much earlier, but I was able to grasp the ringing Holotch before the call went unanswered.

Despite my initial assumption, the caller wasn't someone I had expected.

It wasn't Alice who was calling me back.

The name displayed on my Holotch's screen only washed away my anxiousness about Alice with more worry and anxiousness about the caller. After a deep breath, I pushed the receive button to answer it.

"H-hi, Sophie, what's up?"
​

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​

Party


Braveheart (Metang) (-) | Ability: Clear Body | Zen Headbutt, Miracle Eye, Confusion, Metal Claw, Bullet Punch, Pursuit




Hunter (Hoothoot) (Male) | Ability: Insomnia | Hypnosis, Defog, Reflect, Confusion, Psycho Shift, Peck




Muchorin (Darumaka) (Male) | Ability: Hustle | Rollout, Incinerate, Fire Fang, Work Up, Facade, Fire Punch




Kaplan (Wingull) (Male) | Ability: Hydration | Quick Attack, Air Cutter, Icy Wind, Supersonic, Mist, Water Pulse




Nero (Inkay) (Male) | Ability: Contrary | Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Psybeam, Swagger, Night Slash, Destiny Bond

Inventory

Money: ₽16700

Badges
Knuckle Badge
Balance Badge

Evo Items

Water Stone x 1

Held Item

Eviolite x 1

Safety Goggles x 1

Silk Scarf x 1

Twisted Spoon x 1

TM/TR

Taunt

Bulk Up

Consumables

Ability Capsule

Other Items

Dome Fossil
​

​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Pokemon Center, Petalburg City
Saturday, September 26th
Past Midnight​

[tab=story3-15][/tab] [tab=poke3-15][/tab][tab=invent3-15][/tab]

​

Chapter 3 - 15
Heart to Heart​

The call from Sophie was very surprising for me to receive. To be honest, I would've been really happy most of the time, but I couldn't help but think something was going wrong with her chosen time to call.

"Sorry, I didn't think straight. I am interrupting your sleep, am I? I'll hang up then. I'm really, really, sorry..." Sophie immediately talked without letting me say anything firsthand.

"Oh no, no, no… It's fine, I just woke up anyway. Is there anything I can help you with?" I tried my best to sound chipper despite the discomfort I was feeling in my stomach.

"...No, it's, it's not that important of a thing anyway… You can go back to sleep now."

"If it wasn't important in the first place, you wouldn't even call me in the first place, would you?" I swiftly refuted her claims.

While I would like to try and sleep again as soon as possible, my heart just couldn't feel calm hearing Sophie's disturbed voice. Something was nagging on her, I'm sure of it.

"As I said, I've just woken up anyway. It wouldn't be a while until I'll fall asleep again," I said, encouraging Sophie to talk.

"Ah… Is that so… Then would you hear me just for a bit? It wouldn't be long, I promise."

Ah, here we go..

I took another deep breath. As she continued to unravel the problem that was gnawing at her heart, it also helped me a lot in piecing together the puzzle about who she was.

She didn't go into the finest detail about her family, not the name, not what kind of job her mother do, etc. But she told me how her father had passed away early in her life and how her mother was... Uncaring of her, to put it gently, considering it even put my father's harshness as he tried to dissuade my attempt of becoming a trainer pale in comparison. That alone was the reason why I could understand the heavy resentment in Sophie's voice when she talked about her mother.

Other than that, I could infer that her family was not an ordinary one, there's even a chance that her family is some sort of royal family, which would explain how she didn't understand how to manage her finance properly back in Slateport.

A lot of people would be jealous of such a life, of living such a lavish lifestyle and kicking back doing whatever you want with the power and wealth that came with the status, but as Sophie said herself, such feelings couldn't be further from the truth as for her such status was not a blessing but a curse.

With her status came sky-high expectations and despite her best effort, it was never enough. All she got was scorn from everyone as she failed to meet the expectations given to her, which would explain how she was so afraid to be a burden back then. Not only that, but she also told me how people usually approached her because of her social status, which was the reason she had a lot of distrust about someone getting close to her.

"At first, I thought that everyone was crazy. But now that I had some time to think about it, maybe I was the one losing my mind. But no matter how much I tried to convince myself that everything is going to be alright, I just can't… I-I'm scared, Arthur." Sophie's voice audibly cracked as she tried her best to keep herself together.

My heart shrank even lower as I heard her sniffling. Imagining the tears flowing down her dainty face, I rested my forehead on the hands I tightly clasped as I tried my best to keep myself from panicking.

I knew she was in the same boat as me regarding being pressured by expectations since childhood, but I wasn't sure that the same solution that worked for me will also work for her. There were too many variables beyond my knowledge combined with the fear of only hurting her even further with the wrong advice halted my mouth from saying anything.

I might've cheered her up back then by plainly telling her she wasn't a burden but I wasn't so sure the same trick would work twice with how bad things were going afterward.

"Sorry…I shouldn't have…Sorry… I-" Sophie's voice cracked even further amidst my silence.

That heightened my panic even further as I was scared that Sophie would turn off the call in that state. It was my breaking point. I couldn't stay silent.

"Sophie!" I raised both my voice and my body in response to her sobbing voice.

As the adrenaline started to seep away from my body, my body went limp and my breath grew heavier as well. Taking a deep breath I tried my best to compose myself while Sophie went radio silent in shock from hearing what just transpired.

At that moment, I made up my mind. While it's true that there was no guarantee that I would be able to help her, being silent and not doing anything was a sure way to make things worse.

I took yet another deep breath to steel myself and as gently as I could I started speaking once more. "Sophie, would you lend me your ear for a moment? It wouldn't be for long."

Sophie weakly answered yes, and so I decided to tell her about what had transpired yesterday, all in the hope that she would feel better knowing that she was not struggling alone. I didn't pull any punches in describing what I felt was a humiliating incident considering what I'd gone through just the day before.

"Arthur… That's…" I couldn't see her face, but it was clear as day from her voice that she was stunned at the revelation.

"Bad, isn't it? Despite what I told you back when we say our goodbyes, here I am tripped once more by the same hurdle. I'm pretty pathetic, don't you think?"

"That's not true."

"If so, then so do you." I sternly answered her statement.

Sophie turned silent, unable to retort.

"Everyone makes mistakes, no matter small or big. I made a lot of huge mistakes, and despite my best attempt not to make one again, here I am stumbling once more through life. We all make mistakes, Sophie. No one's perfect, all we could do is try and improve ourselves every single day."

"I know that, but still… It's hard."

I wryly smiled at her answer. Of course, it was hard. Even I forgot about it from time to time.

"Yeah, I can understand your feelings. You can just do it slowly. I know it would be hard to immediately change your view after all you've experienced, so take all the time you need. But please remember this, while it's true that you'll have to push yourself to achieve a goal, it's also important to take some time off to step back from the chase because otherwise, you would lose sight of yourself… Just like I did, and I really don't want that to happen to you." I poured out my heart.

Sophie went silent once more, and without any other cues for me to understand what was happening, I crossed my fingers that she would at least be able to cheer herself up. Thankfully, it didn't take long for me to get an answer from her.

"...I'll try my best, thanks for the advice." Sophie weakly gave her gratitude.

"Anytime."

I wasn't so sure my advice would help Sophie when I had to deal with the same problem. Who the hell was I to give such advice? I wasn't even sure that my advice would amount to anything, but I had to try my best for her who had no one else to talk to.

"Sorry if I sounded preachy even though I'm struggling myself. I know it's dumb to hear advice from someone who hasn't experienced much in life. But I really, really hope, it can help you," I frankly spoke to lower her expectations that my advice would work.

"It's not dumb! I'm happy that you listened to my selfish request. Really, I'm happy!" Sophie interjected strongly.

"Is that so? I'm happy to hear that."

I had no way to know for sure whether she was honest about her feelings, but hearing her tell me that she felt happy because of me was heartwarming for me.

After that, it was a noticeable silence for quite a bit. On my end it was mostly because I didn't want to disturb her for much longer, she already had a long day, and the fact that she haven't taken a rest yet gave me more reason to not start another topic.

On her end, I had no idea what was happening. At least until she finally opened her mouth once more.

"Hey Arthur, I know I'm not as reliable as you are but… I… I'll be there if you need me, so don't hesitate to give me a call."

I was quite surprised but at the same time, I couldn't stop myself from smiling. Despite her struggles, she was still trying her best to repay her debts to me. What a strong person she was.

"Yeah, I promise. Now go to sleep, it's really late right now," I urged her to tuck herself into bed after the tiring day she had.

"Okay, you too. Good night, Arthur."

"Night, Sophie. Sweet dreams."

And so the call ended with our exchange of goodbyes. My heart was filled to the brim with warmth knowing that I'd helped Sophie that day, helping me to stay positive and reassuring myself that I could do the same for Alice. And so I closed my eyes once more hoping that the morning would bring a better day.

​

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​

Party


Braveheart (Metang) (-) | Ability: Clear Body | Zen Headbutt, Miracle Eye, Confusion, Metal Claw, Bullet Punch, Pursuit




Hunter (Hoothoot) (Male) | Ability: Insomnia | Hypnosis, Defog, Reflect, Confusion, Psycho Shift, Peck




Muchorin (Darumaka) (Male) | Ability: Hustle | Rollout, Incinerate, Fire Fang, Work Up, Facade, Fire Punch




Kaplan (Wingull) (Male) | Ability: Hydration | Quick Attack, Air Cutter, Icy Wind, Supersonic, Mist, Water Pulse




Nero (Inkay) (Male) | Ability: Contrary | Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Psybeam, Swagger, Night Slash, Destiny Bond

Inventory

Money: ₽16700

Badges
Knuckle Badge
Balance Badge

Evo Items

Water Stone x 1

Held Item

Eviolite x 1

Safety Goggles x 1

Silk Scarf x 1

Twisted Spoon x 1

TM/TR

Taunt

Bulk Up

Consumables

Ability Capsule

Other Items

Dome Fossil
​

​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Arthur Weissmann
Location: Route 102
Saturday, September 26th
Morning​

[tab=story4-1][/tab] [tab=poke4-1][/tab][tab=invent4-1][/tab]

​

Chapter 4 - 1
Another Sunny Day​

It was another beautiful day in Hoenn. The sun shone so brightly… A bit too bright for my taste, but at least it wasn't raining since muddy trails and long-distance walks rarely mix well. Amidst the rarely heard cry of Pokemon roaming around, there was one voice that consistently accompanied me as I traversed the dirt road toward Littleroot.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand… But I'm fine, there's no need to worry… Ugh… Well, when you put it that way… But come on, it's been several years already, I'm completely fine, you don't have to worry about me… Yeah, yeah, yeah… Okay, young lass, you don't have to lay it thick on me. Take care of yourself, alright? Me? Eh, why should you worry about me? I'm the last person that—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, the girl that was on the call with Vincent could be heard screaming loudly before unleashing a torrent of obscenities at the man who quickly cowered at the torture he subjected his earbuds to, it was so loud that I could hear the obscenities that were spouted from the other side of the call despite the low volume. About the words itself, let's just say the words she used were… Colorful to say the least.

Also, if there was something I could infer from the call, Vincent… Was not the best person at taking care of his own well-being.

Five minutes later, the call was finally over and Vincent sighed a breath of relief while wiping away the dripping sweat with the handkerchief he tucked inside the pocket of his teal-colored Alolan shirt.

I was also wearing a shirt that day, and despite the scorching rays, I wasn't really affected by the heat because I was getting used to being outdoors despite Hoenn's mostly sunny weather. I couldn't say the same about the calls Vincent was getting, I couldn't hide the fact that I was definitely affected by them.

I would've been calm if it was the only call he received during the long walk I had with him, but alas that wasn't the case.

The call he just finished was the fifth one he took in front of me. And who knows how many more calls he had before we met at the lobby this morning. It was so bad that Cody was starting to chirp so loudly after the third call that Vincent had to put him inside his Pokeball.

"Wow, someone's really popular," I intentionally quipped in an attempt to pry more information about the calls.

"Why, you jelly? If only you were as cool as me you would've made a lot of ladies swoon." Vincent flashed a cocky grin before raising his white trilby so he could sweep back his jet-black hair in a mocking manner.

"Nah, why should I be jealous of a guy getting a lot of calls from insurance salespersons? Or are they debt collectors?"

"Oh please, quit trying to beat around the bush and just say 'teach me your ways, great teacher~' and I shall grant you the boundless knowledge." He winked while tipping his head, causing me to fake a gag reaction before dismissing his claims.

"Tch, please. I have no interest in useless knowledge like that."

"Reeeaallyyy~? Well, don't regret that you didn't want me to share my winning ways. You've just missed a one-way ticket to the ladies' heart." Said Vincent as he strutted pompously in front of me, before turning his back towards the road.

It was obvious to me that Vincent was just messing around with me, but I couldn't help but think that the reason he did so was that he was trying to lead the conversation away from my initial question.

As I gave up on prying on what the hell was going on, Vincent suddenly spoke.

"Thanks."

"What for?" I instantly looked towards Vincent with widened pupils after his remark.

"For worrying about me. Your expression told me everything I need to know." He flickered my forehead while gently smiling. His tone told me that he wasn't joking this time.

"Ah…" I tried to hide my embarrassment by looking the opposite way.

"Do I look that unreliable? Surely you've seen by your own eyes how capable I was at so many things." Vincent asked nonchalantly/

"I mean okay, from my experience I can't criticize anything about you except your clothing choice, but I'm also pretty sure I've just heard with my own ears how I should perhaps withhold my judgment."

"Hahaha!" Vincent laughed loudly. "Well, I can't exactly dismiss your statement."

"It's okay, right?" I asked once more just to be safe. I really didn't want Vincent to force himself and ended up sacrificing his time for me despite having urgent matters to attend to.

"Of course, you don't have to worry about me that much. Let's just say, that I wasn't a very reliable person back when I was young, so now I have to deal with a lot of worried parties should I do something that's remotely alerting them." Vincent scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed as he had to admit his past.

I grew very curious at Vincent's confession, but my gut feeling told me that he wouldn't tell me the details and upheld the promise he made in front of my sister that he would only reveal it when the time was right, much to my chagrin.

Besides, the fact that my sister decided to entrust me to him told me everything I need to know about his character. She wasn't the type to easily trust anyone that easily, especially when it comes to me and my father. And so I decided against forcing Vincent to reveal who he really was as the last thing I wanted was to make my mentor uncomfortable."

"...You know, I couldn't help much but… You don't have to hide anything from me… Of course, if you don't mind doing so that is…"

"That's rich coming from you, you know?" Vincent spoke sarcastically, which made me struggle to hold the smile on my face from turning to a grimace as his comment hit way too close to home.

"Fair point, but it doesn't take away anything from mine," I said, refusing to lose the argument.

"Dear lord, who taught you to be that snarky, young man?" Said the shameless man undeterred by my rebuttal.

"I learn it from the best. And by that, you know who." I glanced at the Alolan-shirted man as I delivered my final argument which cracked him up.

"Hahaha… Well, I'll keep your concern in mind."

Despite my intruding questions, Vincent didn't seem to think about it a lot. Either that, or he hid his displeasure behind a smiling facade. Anyhow, I never saw his cheerful smile ever fade during our travel through the verdant route after the calls subsided.

Meanwhile, I couldn't say the same for myself. Despite trying to keep my chin up, in the middle of our stroll I accidentally remember the conversation I had with Alice this morning.

I know I should've been happier knowing we finally had a conversation, but I couldn't see the fact that she refused to do so face-to-face with me as anything but a huge red flag.

She told me that she just needed some time to be able to talk to me again normally and that I could relax because everything was alright.

But, how could everything be alright if she needed some time alone? That's nonsense. Yet I knew that I wasn't the most reliable person in understanding other people's feelings either, so I decided to honor her wish and let her by herself for a while.

However, I promised myself that the next time we meet, I'd do anything to make amends with her. That's the least I could do after what I've put her through.

Despite neither of us seemingly free from our own burdens, both Vincent and I barely took any break during our walk towards the destination, but as the sky started to dim, both of us knew that it was time to prepare our camp for the night.

Despite carrying a large cooler box alongside the heavy backpack he already carried since the start of our journey at Dewford, Vincent seemed to be unfazed by the long journey, which when you add the day's temperature to the equation seemed like an impressive feat in my eyes.

After we both finished setting up our tent for the night, Vincent seemed so engrossed with dinner prep. It reached a point where I saw him grinning widely while rubbing his hands together like an old-timey villain as he peeked at what was contained inside the cooler box.

"Someone's looking a bit happy… Mind if I ask what's on the menu for tonight?" I exclaimed while trying to steal a glance at what was inside the box.

"Nuh-uh, no can do, young man. You'll have to see it for yourself later." Vincent closed the cooler box almost immediately preventing me from even making an educated guess of what was for dinner that night.

Despite me being unable to hold my curiosity back, I wasn't able to discern what was inside the box from the short time it was visible to me. Also, it's not like I got an X-Ray vision to see the content inside.

While I was more than happy to banter with Vincent, I already had something else planned.

"Hey, do you mind if I go out for a bit? I think I'm going to catch another Pokemon."

Despite my thoughts about it being an ordinary thing, I was quite surprised to see Vincent raising his eyebrow.

"Hmm.. You sure about that?" Vincent answered with a puzzled tone.

"Uh… Is there something wrong?" I asked.

"Actually yeah, are you sure you're going to catch another Pokemon this early? I mean don't get me wrong, the saying 'variety is the spice of life' is absolutely true in my opinion but are you really going to stuff your spice rack full without even reaching the halfway point of the spice isle?"

"W-what? Could you repeat that again?"

Vincent sighed, perhaps realizing that his metaphor was too weird for me to understand.

"You do realize that raising more Pokemon meant more money and time that you would need to spend to raise them properly, yes? So the fact that you already catch quite a lot at this stage worries me a bit. Especially considering that our journey is still far from over."

I was stunned for a bit due to the metaphor that seemed ridiculous at first for me. But Vincent's clarification made everything easier for me to understand.

I couldn't help but rest my chin between my thumb and forefinger, What Vincent had said really gave me a new perspective. At that point, I really considered postponing the attempt to catch another Pokemon and rethink how should I approach this issue.

"You know what? I'd say go for it," Said Vincent, as he contradicted his own statement almost immediately.

I raised my eyebrows in confusion. "Huh? But you said—

"I didn't change my mind, I'm only warning you to be careful. Pokemon ain't kitchen knives you can store indefinitely and then sharpen to use whenever you need to use them, they're living beings with emotions. So if you think you can be responsible for all of them, then go catch 'em, Champ!" Spoke Vincent, ironically while checking the sharpness of his knife.

I nodded at Vincent, and as he started his dinner prep, I pondered for a bit whether I should just stay put and cancel my plan. However, considering Vincent didn't reject my idea flat-out gave me hope that this would be a good idea, and so I went for it.

Without skipping a beat, I pulled my Holotch to use the Scan function. And just less than a minute later I received feedback from the device.

I was quite lucky, I found the Pokemon I was searching for without much fuss.

The location the Holotch pinpointed was near our campsite. Not wanting to waste my time I then proceeded to walk briskly towards the location, all in hopes of catching the Pokemon I wanted before dinner time.

​

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​

Party


Braveheart (Metang) (-) | Ability: Clear Body | Zen Headbutt, Miracle Eye, Confusion, Metal Claw, Bullet Punch, Pursuit




Hunter (Hoothoot) (Male) | Ability: Insomnia | Hypnosis, Defog, Reflect, Confusion, Psycho Shift, Peck




Muchorin (Darumaka) (Male) | Ability: Hustle | Rollout, Incinerate, Fire Fang, Work Up, Facade, Fire Punch




Kaplan (Wingull) (Male) | Ability: Hydration | Quick Attack, Air Cutter, Icy Wind, Supersonic, Mist, Water Pulse




Nero (Inkay) (Male) | Ability: Contrary | Hypnosis, Topsy-Turvy, Psybeam, Swagger, Night Slash, Destiny Bond

Inventory

Money: ₽15.400

Badges
Knuckle Badge
Balance Badge

Evo Items

Water Stone x 1

Held Item

Eviolite x 1

Safety Goggles x 1

Silk Scarf x 1

Twisted Spoon x 1

TM/TR

Taunt

Bulk Up

Consumables

Ability Capsule

Other Items

Dome Fossil
​

​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Sophie
Location: Briney Port
Saturday, September 26th
Morning

​

[tab=stor3-11][/tab] [tab=pok3-11][/tab][tab=inven3-11][/tab]

​

Chapter 3 - 11
The Way Forward
Part 1​

After the talk I had with Arthur yesterday, I never felt a stronger urge to make some progress in my journey. While it was true that I was still unsure whether the path of a Pokemon trainer was something that I wanted to do for the foreseeable future, I had a lot of fun doing so in a short time, and so I felt that it was only right to give it my all. So one day, I could repay the people that had been kind to me instead of me receiving help again and again without being able to give anything in return.

Following that spirit, I decided that maybe I could add another Pokemon to my team as I learned from Arthur's journal how type matchup was important in a battle between Pokemon.

I planned a trip to Route 102 to find a Pokemon there despite knowing I wouldn't be able to go through it the entire way. It was a long winding route that would almost take three days to reach the end by walking. And I was stuck in a wheelchair, so there was no chance of me finishing the trail unless I spent at least a week going through it… If it wasn't a dirt trail.

While wouldn't be a problem for the newer motorized wheelchair, mine was a standard one borrowed from the Pokemon Center under my trainer's license. There was no chance it could traverse through the rough terrain, especially if there was rain. The trail would turn into a muddy mess that way, and that would be enough to stop me entirely in my tracks. So, traveling through the route was fully off the table for me.

Despite that knowledge, I still wanted to see what the route and Petalburg were like before going back to Slateport and eventually toward Mauville. I might not be able to go there for a while after this, so I decided to take a one-day delay and see what the place had to offer. However, as I researched how the day would go if I did plan to go there, I found out that I would actually need a two-day delay if I went to Route 102 and went back towards Slateport.

Unfortunately, as I thought, the ferry service didn't have a morning boat available for me. The earliest ship sailing towards Briney Port was slated to depart at noon which meant that I would arrive at two in the afternoon. Not even counting lunch, by the time I reached Route 102, it was almost a certainty that the final boat for the day would've been long gone already. And the worse part was, even if I did stay the night and rode the first boat available I would arrive back at Slateport at around ten in the night, which was dreadful to even think about.

That would've been the case if Callie didn't overhear my musings in the morning, listening to the conundrum I had she took me to one of her acquaintances and somehow got us a boat which was pleasantly surprising.

A few hours later, before noon, Briney Port was already within our sight.

"You sure I don't have to pay him anything?" I whispered to Callie to avoid getting our captain who was sitting in front of us from realizing what I was saying.

"Nah, you heard him earlier, didn't you? He said that he was more than happy to help you." Callie whispered dismissing my concern.

It didn't take him long to dock his boat at the Port and we quickly disembarked.

"And here we are, Briney Port!" Our captain smiled widely while opening his hand wide as he welcomed us to the bustling port.

"Hey uncle Jim, thanks a lot for the ride," Callie smiled at the captain while showing her gratitude to him for fulfilling the sudden request.

"Anytime, Carrie!"

Callie and Captain Jim shared a hug. From the story they told me back abroad the boat, the former fishing vessel captain had a daughter who was Callie's friend since childhood. The captain had retired last year, but he had kept his boat because of its sentimental value.

"...Thank you, I'm sorry to bother you." I bowed from my wheelchair with Aurora following suit on my lap.

"Nah, don't worry, kiddo. Caroline had helped my family a lot already, so this much is a given."

"Oh come on, uncle! Don't exaggerate stuff, It's not a big deal. Anyway, say hi to Mimi for me, alright?"

"Sure will! Take care, you two!"

As both of us waved toward Captain Jim, he sailed away while waving back toward us, leaving the both of us at the Port with the port workers around us who seemed to be busy with their own business.

"So Carrie or Callie?" I swiftly asked Callie as Captain Jim disappeared beyond the horizon.

"Well my first name is Caroline, so both are valid. Well, most people I knew call me Callie instead because we already had another Carrie in the local circuit around my age, so… I got stuck with whatever's left, haha." Callie responded with a huge smile plastered on her face.

It wasn't noon yet, but considering Captain Jim wouldn't come back for us, there was a deadline for us to come back to the port that we had to adhere to less we wanted to be stranded in the area without having a change of clothes for the night.

"Let's go, shall we? We'll get sunburn if we stick around too long," said Callie before I could speak about the same thing.

We went at a brisk pace toward Route 102. I honestly didn't mind if Callie were to go slowly since she was the one pushing my wheelchair, yet she was energetic all the way towards our destination as if she was the one that was going to catch a Pokemon.

To be quite honest, there was something about the air of the lush green area that I quite enjoy, it's almost like it had some sort of fragrance about it that I appreciated a lot. It was much better than the urban air that my neighborhood had.

While we only passed Petalburg City for a moment, I really wanted to sightsee it even for a little bit if time permitted. Alas, it wasn't the time yet for me to enjoy it as there was still the Pokemon issue I had to sort out.

As soon as we arrived, I quickly pulled my Holotch out to use the scan function and crossed my fingers hoping that I would find the Pokemon I was searching for. And there was a hit! I was so elated that I asked Callie almost in a pushy tone to help push me from behind so I could move toward the spot.

It pointed towards a small pond not far from the trail entrance, but as soon as I saw it, I couldn't hide my disappointment as there was no living creature visible around the pond other than the random lily pads floating around there.

"Hmm, what's wrong? You sure that the Holotch pointed this way?" Said Callie while taking a peek at my device.

"My Holotch, I think it's broken," I sighed heavily looking at the false signal that was shown on the screen of the Holotch.

Not only I didn't find any Pokemon, but now I had to deal with the possibility that I might have broken my one and only communication device available to me. While I already resolved to not to use the money I took from the estate no matter what, thing like this was making it harder and harder for me to survive without having to touch that money.

Ah, why it's so hard to be a proper trainer.

​

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​

​

Party


Aurora (Alolan Vulpix) (Female) | Ability: Snow Warning | Freeze-Dry, Confuse Ray, Disable, Hex, Aurora Beam, Mist




Garnet (Staryu) (-) | Ability: Illuminate | Magic Coat, Rapid Spin, Camouflage, Recover, Psywave, Bubblebeam




Stolz (Aron) (Male) | Ability: Rock Head | Rock Tomb, Metal Claw, Protect, Roar, Harden, Headbutt

Inventory

Money: ₽8.200

Badges
Knuckle Badge

Mega/Z Items
Key Stone x 1
Aggronite x 1

Evo Items
None

Held Item

Eviolite x 1

King's Rock x 1

Silk Scarf x 1

TM/TR

Detect

Consumables
None

Other Items
None
​

​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Sophie
Location: Route 102
Saturday, September 26th
Late Morning

​

[tab=stor3-12][/tab] [tab=pok3-12][/tab][tab=inven3-12][/tab]

​

Chapter 3 - 12
The Way Forward
Part 2​

Seeing the sorrow on my face, Callie suggested that both of us should take a lunch break since it was not long before noon. I initially refused because I didn't plan to have lunch outside and so I had nothing other than a light snack that I wasn't sure could even be called lunch due to how light it was. But Callie surprised me by saying that she had secretly prepared lunch for the both of us.

And so, I suddenly found myself partaking in a sudden picnic that Callie apparently had prepared without me knowing anything about it. With a huge smile on her face, Callie pulled out her container filled with sandwiches on the star-patterned picnic mat. As she opened it, the fragrant smell of the sandwiches wafted through the air. Despite people passing through us who were seating ourselves only slightly away from the trail, they didn't do so without looking back towards us, as the tantalizing smell wafted around farther than I expected.

"Haha, sorry beforehand. My cooking is nowhere as tasty as what Vincent would make for me back in the day, if only I had paid more attention when he taught me, this would've been tastier," Callie spoke with a soft tone before she took a bite of her own cooking.

I shook my head relentlessly. I wasn't just being polite, the food was extremely good, and it wasn't something that was made by just putting ingredients in without much thinking. The green herb sauce, complimented the meat inside the sandwich so well that I couldn't stop myself from eating. The fact that she made it on such very short notice only added more to the absurdity of Callie's attempt at humbleness, despite that I was so focused on the food that I forgot to point it out to the girl standing in front of me.

"I'm happy that you like the sandwiches, but you shouldn't be eating that messily, either." Callie pulled out a handkerchief from inside her pocket and wiped the stain near the edge of my lips with a huge smile on her face.

I was embarrassed by the fact that in such a short time I forgot about table manners, but seeing Callie's elated expression made me really happy. It was almost like she was a mother, a proper mother.

"Funny enough when I was on my journey, it was the boys who were the best at cooking. The girls were not that good at it, especially me," Callie quipped.

"What do you mean by boys and girls? I thought you only went with Vincent," I asked her, Arthur did tell me in a passing fashion that Callie and Vincent were travel buddies at one point, but this was the first time I'd heard of there being more than both of them in that journey.

"Oh… There were four of us back then, Vincent, Alan, Carol, and me. Initially, it was just Vincent and me, then Alan tagged along while we were at Jubilife, then Carol who was Alan's friend from his academy joined us not long after at Oreburgh. We had all sorts of adventures, a lot of crying, shouting, and laughing were shared among us, well more like the three whiny brats and then Vincent who had to babysit us."

The enthusiastic way Callie talked about her,

"May I ask something?"

"Sure, fire away!" Callie answered enthusiastically before taking another bite of her well-prepared food.

"Why did you travel with Vincent in the first place?"

Callie started coughing after hearing my question, perhaps she wasn't expecting me to ask such a basic question.

But my guess would change almost immediately, as even after Callie took a sip of her drink and stop coughing, she started to stutter as she tried her best to give me her answer, which gave me the impression that she had something to hide about the reason why Vincent went with her in her journey.

"Ah, that… I… I can't go into too many details about that since Arthur is currently traveling with Vincent, and you're his friend so... But Vincent was there as a favor to my sister. I already planned to travel out of the region, but my sister, the worrywart she asked or more like begged Vincent to accompany me, and somehow, he accepted almost immediately. Probably because he was jobless at that point," answered Callie as she tried her best to answer my question despite the limitations she had regarding telling about the matter.

Sadly, the answer Callie gave only brought me more questions.

"And… you accepted that?"

"Nah, I ran away from home. I wasn't very mature for my age, so by the time I was about to go out, I expected that I would be absolutely free to do whatever I wanted as soon as I got my license. And then came this random guy who I never knew before other than from my sister's story during her journey trying to destroy my dream of freedom. So of course, I ran." Callie nonchalantly answered.

"And, what happened?"

"I got caught almost immediately, haha! The only model of transport available for me was the ferry, so he found out where I was going through the Breezy Seas employee who leaked my whereabouts to my parents about asked about my destination. Easy to say that as soon as I arrived at the port by the evening, there was Vincent sitting cross-legged on his Skarmory while drinking a cup of hot tea already waiting there for me. Fun times."

I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that despite the content of the story, she looked toward the horizon with an upward arc on her lips. While the story would sound negative on its own, not to mention the fact that I was missing a lot of context on why it eventually become a positive experience in Callie's mind, the longing smile she had on her pale face told me everything I needed to know.

The memory of her travels with Vincent and her friends was something that was very important to her. No matter if it was good or bad, the memory she had of them was a precious treasure dear to her heart.

And it didn't take long for my assumption to be proven correct as the answer to my question compelled her to continue sharing the stories of her past.

It was quite interesting to hear Callie recount the stories she had of her journey. I heard quite a lot of stories from her, how she almost drowned at Lake Verity, how her friend Alan had to learn to ride the bicycle on the fly as they used the Cycling Road, how Carol accidentally lost the entire content of her backpack because of a mysterious gaping hole on the bottom of the said backpack, or how she almost bawled her eyes out as she thought that Vincent was done for as he fell through the floorboards of the Old Chateau. There were a lot of stories about the dumb stuff they did and how they and Vincent had to clean up afterward.

Callie painted herself back then as a naive and stupid girl who had to learn the hard way how to be a mature person with the help of Vincent and her friends. And I would wholeheartedly agree with her assessment as it was hard for me to accept some of those stories as some of them were wild to hear firsthand. Yet despite that... I was envious, so envious of her. Despite how harsh some of the experiences and hardships she had gone through, the enthusiasm she exuded as she retold me those stories never faded even once. I knew Callie didn't mean to do so, but I was barely able to hide the pain of jealousy as she continued to pour her heart out about the amazing journey she went through.

"VUU! VUUU!" I suddenly turned my head as Aurora's cry snapped me out of my daze. I could only guess from the urgency in her tone that it wasn't something good.

But somehow, what I saw was a Lily pad somehow moving around weirdly as it got bitten by Stolz. And even weirder was the fact that there was a sandwich hanging around it, and then I got to a realization.

"That's… A Pokemon!?"
​

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Party


Aurora (Alolan Vulpix) (Female) | Ability: Snow Warning | Freeze-Dry, Confuse Ray, Disable, Hex, Aurora Beam, Mist




Garnet (Staryu) (-) | Ability: Illuminate | Magic Coat, Rapid Spin, Camouflage, Recover, Psywave, Bubblebeam




Stolz (Aron) (Male) | Ability: Rock Head | Rock Tomb, Metal Claw, Protect, Roar, Harden, Headbutt

Inventory

Money: ₽8.200

Badges
Knuckle Badge

Mega/Z Items
Key Stone x 1
Aggronite x 1

Evo Items
None

Held Item

Eviolite x 1

King's Rock x 1

Silk Scarf x 1

TM/TR

Detect

Consumables
None

Other Items
None
​

​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Sophie
Location: Route 102
Saturday, September 26th
Afternoon

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[tab=stor3-13][/tab] [tab=pok3-13][/tab][tab=inven3-13][/tab]

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Chapter 3 - 13
The Way Forward
Part 3​

Apparently, the Holotch was right, there was a Pokemon in the pond. It just blended in very well with the lily pads surrounding it that I didn't realize its existence. I wouldn't even recognize that it was a Pokemon if I didn't come closer to look at what it was. I sighed a relief that I didn't accidentally break my Holotch, but I was still dealing with a small problem on my hands.

Callie quickly realized that the Pokemon was struggling from hunger which would explain why the Pokemon called Lotad was trying to steal a piece of the sandwich. So I approached my Pokemon to stop them from antagonizing the Lotad even further and letting the Lotad eat the sandwich which it quickly munched on.

Despite my expectation that the Lotad would immediately flee after getting its hunger satiated, it didn't go anywhere. For the last five minutes, it stayed put next to me and occasionally nuzzled itself on my thigh, as if it was looking for attention. I found it quite cute, so I started to caress the lily pad-like head of the Lotad, which led it to jump around happily much to my delight.

Well, it also made my other Pokemon jealous. So I had to deal with caressing each and every single one of them with both of my hands until they were happy enough which wasn't anytime soon, much to my chagrin.

"Hahaha, how cute." Callie giggled from the sidelines while using her Holotch. The snapping sounds coming from the device told me everything I had to know about what Callie was doing with her device.

"Callie, don't just sit there and take some pictures, help me!" I asked Callie with both of my hands

"Help you with what? They're your Pokemon, not mine. Or do you want a head pat of your own?"

"No Callie, aaa!" I squealed as Callie approached me and gave me my share of headpats, which amused my Pokemon who saw the embarrassing moment firsthand.

"How is it, my dear?"

"Don't treat me like a child." I puffed my cheeks at Callie's treatment of me.

"Well you're pouting like a child, so…" Callie smiled mischievously.

To be honest, I didn't hate the headpats that Callie gave me. And so, I sat there being headpatted while giving headpats of my own to my Pokemon who loved being spoiled rotten. It lasted awhile until they were fully satiated from their need for attention from me, and they eventually went and play with each other in the grasslands, while I and Callie were watching from the side underneath an old tree that gave us shade from the scorching sun.

"So do you want to keep the little guy?" Callie asked the important question once more while I leaned my back to a nearby tree while recovering from the unexpected exercise routine.

"I don't know, I'm still not sure," I said as I watched the cute little Lotad play around the area with my Pokemon. "I do want to take Lotad with me, but I'm not so sure if I want a Pokemon with an overlapping type with Staryu."

"Typing isn't everything, you know. Try scanning the Lotad again, you'll see that it excels in many different things than your Staryu, their secondary type is different, and more so their movepool. Besides, if I have to be honest, the most important thing when you're catching a Pokemon is two important things, do you want to take care of them? And do you have the means to take care of it? And by that, I mean money, time, and attention to take care of the said Pokemon."

I stared at the Lotad bouncing around happily as it played with the rest of my Pokemon while thinking about what should I do seriously. Lotad didn't look like a strong Pokemon, but at the same time, I would love to keep the cute lily pad-like Pokemon around.

"Also you shouldn't think about Pokemon based on whether they're strong or not, even a weak Pokemon can be very strong with proper care and nurture from a great trainer. So I'd say just follow your heart, Sophie," Callie finished her advice as she also looked towards the group of Pokemon that was playing with each other with a huge smile plastered on her face.

Follow my heart, huh?

To be quite honest, I didn't understand a lot about Pokemon. I had no idea whether this Pokemon was strong or not, but even at that moment when I already knew that stronger Pokemon meant that It'd be easier to reach my goal with me trying my best, I didn't want to let the Lotad go. If I did let it go despite my fondness for it, just because of how weak the Pokemon looked, then wouldn't it make me the same kind of person as my mother?

I'd come to Hoenn with the mind of profits and benefits were the most important thing that motivates a person, and I didn't think I was wrong at all in my approach considering my experiences back until that point. In the Academy, I learned the hard way that if you're weak enough, people who you thought were someone close and dear to you would discard you in a heartbeat once they realized that you no longer had any value for them.

And yet, I found someone who didn't care about who I was, a friend, a real friend who would even risk his life only because I was his friend. Then I met another one, a girl who couldn't care less about her time being wasted helping a random girl she met without asking anything in return.

Now I realize that the world is already cold and unforgiving as it is, people should care about each other and give each other warmth during hard times instead of caring about themselves.

I'd rather die than become a disgusting creature like the witch who referred to herself as my mother.

A creature who'd chase profits and benefits anywhere and everywhere, even when her two daughters are the ones involved, she never thought very far about our feelings and based everything on whether it was profitable or not in her eyes. Perhaps if she had at least tried to listen to the two of us, Mira would still be here. And yet, she was not, all because of our mother's ego. If only she didn't, Mira would've…

I really missed Mira, she was the one always on my side no matter what happened, and no matter how hard times were for her she always tried her best to protect me from the harshness of the world, yet 5 years ago she was suddenly gone from my life.

I was bitter and for a whole four years, I hated the memories I shared with Mira. Yet when I hit the lowest point of my life, there was no one to protect me from the abuse and harassment I suffered, not even my own mother who I thought at least got the decency to at least lift a finger at the sight of my struggles, but of course, as a good mother she was, all she care was how to preserve the value of her company's stock.

Oh the old me, what a fool I was. I only cared to find out what really happened to Mira when I desperately needed someone I could lean on, and by that point, it was far too late to track my sister's whereabouts. Not even the private investigator I secretly hired was able to find anything indication of my sister living her own life somewhere else, as the existence of Pokemon gave too much freedom of movement anonymously for her to be tracked.

But if, if, I were to be famous, perhaps one day she would see the broadcast and contact me as soon as she saw it. I just wanted to ask her for forgiveness as I never really appreciated what she did for me until she was long gone.

"Sophie, are you okay? Why are you crying?" Callie cautiously asked me.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" I tried to wipe the tears that were flowing down my face, yet my eyes wouldn't dry up no matter how many times I tried to wipe them with my handkerchief.

"It's okay, sweetie. You can cry if you want to, no one's going to be mad at you." Callie tightly hugged me.

Realizing that I was in emotional distress, my Pokemon huddled around me as if they were hugging me, including the Lotad that I had just decided to bring along which brought me to even more tears.

As I bawled my eyes on Callie's shoulder surrounded by my loved Pokemon, their warmth reminded me of the simpler times, the simpler times when I still had Mira by my side, hugging me tightly as she protected me from the harshness of the world.
​

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Party


Aurora (Alolan Vulpix) (Female) | Ability: Snow Warning | Freeze-Dry, Confuse Ray, Disable, Hex, Aurora Beam, Mist




Garnet (Staryu) (-) | Ability: Illuminate | Magic Coat, Rapid Spin, Camouflage, Recover, Psywave, Bubblebeam



Stolz (Aron) (Male) | Ability: Rock Head | Rock Tomb, Metal Claw, Protect, Roar, Harden, Headbutt



(Lotad) (Male) | Ability: Swift Swim | Astonish, Mega Drain, Water Gun, Synthesis, Mist, Flail

Inventory

Money: ₽8.200

Badges
Knuckle Badge

Evo Items
None

Held Item

Eviolite x 1

King's Rock x 1

Silk Scarf x 1

TM/TR

Detect

Consumables
None

Other Items
None
​

​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Sophie
Location: Dewford Town
Saturday, September 26th
Evening

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[tab=stor3-14][/tab] [tab=pok3-14][/tab][tab=inven3-14][/tab]

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Chapter 3 - 14
The Way Forward
Part 4​

The darkness had enveloped the sky, and the sound of the crashing waves filled my head without the interruption of the Wingull cries that were already mostly gone as the dusk came. As the departure time inched closer and closer, I waited in anticipation for the final ferry heading toward Slateport to finish refueling.

Both me and Callie managed to ride the ferry back to Dewford, and without much time left until the connecting ferry from Dewford to Slateport departs I carried my personal luggage that I had sorted out long before we took the trip at Route 102 which I had left at Callie's place, so after arriving at the place of departure, there wasn't a lot left for me to do other than to wait for the boarding announcement.

"Don't you feel cold?" Callie asked while heating herself up by rubbing her hands.

"I mean I do, but there's not much I can do," I giggled while trying to dispel Callie's concern.

I'd already worn the thickest clothes I had on my disposal, but I couldn't lie that it wasn't a pleasant time waiting for the departure with how cold it was still.

"I know this is not much, but I have something for you."

I smiled at Callie as I thought she was going to give me a scarf or a hand warmer of some sort to warm my chilled body, but apparently, it was nothing of sort.

With a warm smile on her face, both of Callie's hands reached towards the back of her neck as she unhooked the golden heart-shaped pendant that was hanging on her thin neck.

"I personally am not a believer in things such as Amulet Coin, but all things considered, this little trinket is the one thing that helped to push me over the finish line," said Callie with a huge smile on her face.

Watching her face as she held the pendant in front of me. I couldn't possibly accept such a precious item from my benefactor, Callie had given me a lot already, and it would be wrong for me to accept such a precious memento of hers.

"I can't accept this, Callie."

"Don't worry, it wasn't originally mine to belong with, my sister passed this to me the moment I started my journey as a trainer, and now I believe that it's only right for me to pass it down to you."

"That's even worse, I can't accept something so important to you!" I vehemently refused Callie's generous offer.

"Exactly because it's an important item is why I give this to you."

And yet Callie was resolute in passing down the pendant towards me. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I took a bit of time to think about how should I approach this. But Callie decided to cut through the silence with two words.

"Caroline Leblanc."

"Excuse me?" I was surprised when Callie suddenly opened her mouth.

"My stage name. While my sister's stage name is Cassandra Leblanc. You've heard my story, haven't you? I myself am still in disbelief that the dumb, impulsive, brazen, and selfish little girl turned out the way she is right now. You're much more mature and smarter than I was when I started my journey five years ago, so please believe me when I say you'll make it farther than I do right now. Also, I want you to consider this necklace as something to remind you so you can love yourself more, because, despite all the imperfections you have, you have so much lovable aspect inside, so promise me you won't be too hard on yourself, okay?" Callie gently smiled as she patted my head.

"I-I…" I stuttered as I tried my best to keep my composure in check. Yet eventually tears found their way flowing down my cheek despite my best effort to not embarrass myself for the second time on the same day.

"Come here." Callie lowered herself to hug me, which I reciprocated by hugging her tightly.

"Trust me, everything's gonna be alright. You can look at this pendant once in a while and remember that even someone like me struggled mightily in my journey. But should things get too hard beyond your control, or even if you miss me, I'm one call away," Callie's tender words touched me.

I nodded without saying a single word as I tightly hug her. I'm happy, I'm so happy to hear someone say that when she didn't have to. I was really glad that I met someone as kind as Callie so much so that I couldn't imagine what would've happened in Dewford if I didn't.

As the boarding announcement ended my stay in Dewford, it also ended my time with Callie. It was short, but the things she gave me during my time with her were unforgettable.

As the ship started to set sail, I made sure that the heart-shaped pendant she gave me was securely hanging on my neck and then shouted towards the shore.

"Bye! Thanks for everything, Callie!"

As the coastal town of Dewford grew smaller and smaller until it vanished completely from the horizon, I held tightly to the pendant she gave me, as I promised her that I would try my best one step at a time.

With that in mind, I decided that I should do my first step as fast as I could. I pulled out my wallet filled with the money I kept from the estate. It was quite a hefty sum, there were around ₽580.000 inside my wallet that I didn't earn myself.

On paper, it's a shame to part ways with the money. But when I remembered what my mother was willing to sacrifice to earn those bills, I couldn't be happier to part ways with it.

And so I threw everything inside the nearest bin on the boat instead of throwing it all to the sea because of how dumb it was. Then I promised myself, that from that point forward, I'd try my best to provide for myself without having to do the disgusting stuff that my mother did.
​

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​

Party


Aurora (Alolan Vulpix) (Female) | Ability: Snow Warning | Freeze-Dry, Confuse Ray, Disable, Hex, Aurora Beam, Mist




Garnet (Staryu) (-) | Ability: Illuminate | Magic Coat, Rapid Spin, Camouflage, Recover, Psywave, Bubblebeam




Stolz (Aron) (Male) | Ability: Rock Head | Rock Tomb, Metal Claw, Protect, Roar, Harden, Headbutt



(Lotad) (Male) | Ability: Swift Swim | Astonish, Mega Drain, Water Gun, Synthesis, Mist, Flail

Inventory

Money: ₽8.200 + ₽580.000 in emergency funds

Badges
Knuckle Badge

Mega/Z Items
Key Stone x 1
Aggronite x 1

Evo Items
None

Held Item

Eviolite x 1

King's Rock x 1

Silk Scarf x 1

TM/TR

Detect

Consumables
None

Other Items
None
​

​