[PKMN FULL] TRAINERS (IC)

[moon]

Ralph

Route 9, Wednesday May 22nd, evening

It had just gotten dark, when Ralph finally stumbled into another sign of human life on Route 9 again. A campfire could be seen up ahead, and Ralph hurried the rest of the way over the rocky terrain to find a small open area. A man was sitting by the fire, his back towards her. What she saw next, when she turned her head to the right, startled her to no ends though.

Right next to her as she had stepped out into the clearing, another human stood. A girl, same height as she. Same eye color. Same hair color. Same eyes, same hair. Same clothes.

"What?!" she gasped and literally jumped backwards in shock. "What the muk!"

That made the man by the fire stand up and turn around. With his face away from the fire, Ralph hadn't been able to see what he looked like, even if she had been looking. He looked from one girl to another for a moment, one of them smiling silently, the other with rising panic in her face. Then he laughed.

"Oh, Zorua, that's quite unnecessary," he said simply.

Other Ralph then giggled, before her image seemed to flicker and glimmer. And suddenly, where she had been standing was only a small fox-like, dark pokémon with a wicked grin displayed.

"Zorua... Oh," Real Ralph said and tried to breathe normally. "Man. That's some scare tactics."

The man shrugged, as the little Zorua ran back up to him. "Sorry for that. He's a trickster and can't refuse opportunities to play pranks."

"Sure, I understand," Ralph said, feeling slightly better and straightening herself up. "Um."

She wasn't sure how to ask for permission to sit by his fire, but she didn't have to, because he gestured towards it before she could say anything more. "Are you alright?" he also asked.

"Not really," Ralph found herself admitting as she moved forward and took a seat on a rock near the fire. It crackled at her and gave off a pleasant warmth in the chilly night.

The man sat down on the opposite side, Zorua crawling close to the fire and watching stray embers with glee. She could see him now, and was a bit surprised to notice that he looked much like herself. Dark skin, dreadlocks in hair, but his eyes were a hazel color and he most definitely had not colored his dreads purple, nor did he seem to have any piercings. She also now noticed a gigantic backpack leaning against a nearby log, complete with extra equipment dangling off of it.

"What happened?" he asked with a concerned look.

She glanced up at him. He was asking her to tell him about her recent events, and let her come sit by his fire out of the blue just like that, without even introducing herself. She didn't get any immediately bad vibes from watching him, but she was still going to be suspicious. Trying to do it subtly, she reached to her belt and clutched Edgy's pokéball in her hand.

Not subtly enough though, as he noticed.

"Ah, okay. I wasn't gonna attack you. Clearly. You can sit by my fire or you can leave, whatever suits you," he said and threw his hands into the air. Zorua also remained calm and cheerful, it seemed. None of them looked ready for battle really.

She released her grip on the pokéball slightly. "My friend got attacked by a stranger," she said. "In Cerulean. How do I know you're not with them?"

"Are you this suspicious of every person you meet on the road?" the man asked with a raised eyebrow. "It's gonna be a really hard pokémon journey for you if you do it like that."

"Don't act like you know me," Ralph quipped.

"Jeez." He rolled his eyes. "How about this," he started while reaching for a ball of his own. She almost let her Beedrill out at that, but he merely returned Zorua to his ball, and didn't bring out any other pokémon. "I'll tell you what I'm doing here first, and then you can talk to me about why you're 'not really alright' if you want. Or I can shut up, I don't mind," he added with tired eyes.

A small sting of guilt crept up from Ralph's gut now. Had she just disappointed a second kind person that day?

"Sorry," she muttered. "Go on."

"Alright. I'm Joseph. I'm a pokémon trainer. The farm near Cerulean where I work has had trouble with wild pokémon stealing their food lately. Since I'm their licensed trainer, I said I'd get out to Route 9 and track the thieves down and see if I can get them to stop. So here we are."

Ralph nodded. "Okay. Sounds believable."

"Thank you," Joseph grunted. "So, silence now then?"

Ralph sighed. "Nah. I'm Ralph. I'm on a journey to become a licensed trainer. But you figured that out already."

"Are you from Safari Academy or Cape College? Or some other smaller thing?"

"Cape."

"Nice. I didn't realize that my mission would time exactly with Cape trainers going through this route. Brings back nice memories!" Joseph leaned back towards the log behind him and smiled towards the sky. A few stars had started to peek out, and the horizon had turned a mellow purple color with the dark blue advancing from above.

"You were a Cape trainer?" Ralph asked, curiosity piqued.

"Yeah. I was part of Palm Junior's first batch."

"Junior?"

"You've learned some of the school's history, right?"

"Uh. Yeah, Palm started the school."

"Palm did, but not your Palm. His grandmother was the one who first ran a small training resort up there. But when Palm Junior took over, he made it a big grand thing, and started trying to find young potential trainers from all over the region. I'm not from Cerulean or anywhere near here originally. Yet, I chose to go up here. And I haven't regretted it."

Ralph nodded slowly. She hadn't really paid attention when the College history was taught. Didn't seem important. But interesting, now that she did learn about it.

"So, silence or?"

"Oh. No," Ralph said and cleared her throat. "On my way through this route I..." She didn't really want to tell this stranger the story of her and Ari's dragon adventure. Better skip it. "I ran into some wild pokémon. One was a Rattata, and the other one a Lycanroc."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "You met a wild Lycanroc? They usually stay away from humans."

"Yeah, not this one. He was hella hungry and kept attacking us until this little Rattata with green eyes gave him her Oran berry-"

"Hold up!" Joseph said and sat up straight. "You know Greeneyes?"

"Uh?" Ralph produced.

"The Rattata! It's pretty unique. Comes around to our farm sometimes to play with the farm animals. I don't think the other Rattata like this one much. And it seems to be a pretty odd pokémon, a bit too unafraid for its own good, I'd say. I bet it tried to take on the Lycanroc on its own."

"Sure did," Ralph replied, surprised by what she heard.

"Well. I hope it didn't get hurt."

"Um. She did, actually," Ralph began and fumbled while she took out the newly caught Rattata's pokéball. "And I wanted to find a safe place to stop at so I could give her some medicine-"

"Hold up," Joseph said again and now leaned in. "You caught Greeneyes?"

"Yeah?" Ralph said with a shrug. "She wanted me to. I had to battle her first though. So I guess I was the one who hurt her, not really the Lycanroc."

Joseph shook his head, but laughed, and Ralph actually felt like his laugh was genuine and kind. "Well to be honest, I think she'll do better with you than she was with the other Rattata."

"Maybe," Ralph said, and brought the rat out. She appeared near the fire in front of them, and was standing up but looking quite dazed. "Hey," Ralph said and reached out to pet her on the head. "Sorry about Edgy's last move there. He is a bit rash at times.

Rattata didn't look upset about it though. She smiled up towards her new trainer. Joseph watched quietly while Ralph took out a Potion and tended to her small partner until the pokémon seemed to be feeling much better. Meanwhile, Ralph was thinking about what she had heard and seen.

"Lycanroc was so hungry that it was willing to attack us just for a berry," she said slowly, staring into the fire while petting Rattata in her lap absent-mindedly. "You think Lycanroc is your farm thief?"

Joseph furrowed his brow, considering it. "That actually might be very likely."

"So will you go search for it? What will you do if you find it?"

"I'll make sure they stop."

Ralph frowned now. "How, politely asking them to?"

Joseph smiled. "I'm a trainer, girl. I'll capture the thief, of course."

 

[QueenNothing]

After getting the curry pot set up, Gwen grabbed her pokeballs and sent out all her friends. "Alright everyone, dinner is gonna be ready soon! So for now go ahead and play to your heart's content!" Tusk let out a hearty cheer, whereas Pix and Custard just nodded. Jess simply slithered away, but still within reasonable distance of the pot. With the curry sauce in the pot, this seemed like a good time to start cutting up the sausages and berries before fanning the flames.

Reaching into her large bag she set on the ground, she pulled out a small foldable table that after folding out, she placed the cutting board on along with the packaged sausages and a large amount of berries she had collected along the way. Looking at how many berries she was going to need to cut up she let out a sigh of the exhaustion that was to come. "Sure could use some help right now..."

"Fear not! When there is a cry for help, I am here!" shouted a voice. On a nearby tree, there was someone who stood on a high branch, observing the on goings. But this hyperactive, charismatic shout could only belong to one person. Noel. Noel, using her small rope she uses for different acrobatic tricks, used it to lower herself safely to the ground. "Fear not, my dear trainers, for there is but one servant of the moon who transcends the boundaries of humanity to even save a young skitty up a tree; the ever loving virtuous soul: Noel, here to serve."

"Where the fuck did you come fro- Hey wait didn't you used to do all kinds of crazy shit at Cape College? Well, I guess that's not important right now, if you're here to help then that'd be great."

"Is that all? Child's play!" Noel boasted. "Ah, but before I do, it's time… for a change!" Noel got out what it seemed like a conspicuous rubber ball from her carry-on bag. She then threw it down, releasing a colourful, thick smoke that enveloped her. Fortunately it wasn't too much that it could have enveloped the entire area. Soon the smoke was clearing up, and one could now see, Noel had a different attire on. She was wearing a white apron with small pink hearts, as well as a somewhat large white chef hat. It seemed like she kept the apron and hat away somewhere in her possessions.

"Alors mon amis! It is time for the debut, of lady Chef Noel, non?!" Noel boasted. "Ah, but of course, Chef Noel is nothing without, la partenaire! Woo hoo… Luna!" Her chef hat wiggled around, until it was raised up by her partner Pokémon, Luna the Clefairy. It seemed like she was hiding inside the hat during the cover of the strange smoke. Luna dropped down, and made a bow, with a kiss she threw out.

"Nice of you to join us!" Noel said in glee, with her Clefairy crying out in joy. "Now then, we must chop up some of the food, yes? Excellente! Ah but please remember, kids! Always have a grown up to help you with this task."

"Wow that's… kind of impressive and adorable and lots of other things but it's not really helping me out here," Gwen pointed out, still cutting up berries. "I have some sausages that need cutting and if you have anything else on you that could work with this curry then cut it up and throw it in as well."

"Bon, bon! No problem for us!" Noel replied with Luna following suit. She picked up a spare knife that was laying upon the table. "Just like mother used to show us, hold the knife firmly, chop them slowly to coins, add some sweet berries in the mix…"

As Gwen turned back to the folding table, a small, masked face greeted her. A Cubone, who was just tall enough to have his head rest on the edge of the table, was staring at her.

"AAA! A CUBONE!" Gwen clamored. "Hey there little guy, what are you doing here?"

His stomach growled audibly, but he stepped around the table to reveal that he was holding half an ear of corn, with a bite taken out of it. He held it up towards the girl, offering it to her. Gwen grabbed the corn from his hand and smiled at the Cubone. "Aw, thank you! This could work with the curry but we have other things we need to cut up first."

Delighted to have contributed, and excited by the prospect of a warm meal, the Cubone hopped up on a log obediently and awaited further instructions from Gwen. He sat humming to himself, and curiously watched the other girl dancing around with her Clefairy.

Suddenly there was a very noticeable rustling in some bushes really close by that had caught the attention of the campers and their Pokemon, particularly Pix who ran up to investigate. The Vulpix began sniffing at them, which caught Gwen's attention; Did she find some kind of rare Pokemon? The trainer had creeped up to the source of the rustling and got on her knees since that seemed to be the only appropriate way to approach a rare Pokemon. She would find out the hard way that her guess was wrong when she felt the weight of what she could only assume was another human fall on her which had happened so quickly that Gwen was unable to take in what popped out. Pix managed to evade the crushing weight almost as if she had avoided a One Hit KO move.

"Arceus sake, fuckin' watch where ye goin'!" Gwen opened her eyes and saw a girl about her age get up to dust her white dress off. Based on how her long blonde hair was a mess with twigs sticking out of it, it wasn't hard to figure out she got stuck in the woods. She was also carrying a large purse that looked as if it had seen better days.

"Watch where I'm going? You bumped into me!"

"If ye heard 'at rustlin' from th' bloody bushes ya could've at least stayed away from the-" Right as she was done with dusting herself off the girl looked Gwen dead in the eyes. "'Ey I know ye! Ye 'at chav who borrowed mah book on Pokemon e'olution back at Cape College and ne'er gae it back!" All Gwen could do was look back at her in confusion. Sure did seem like today was the perfect day for people from Cape College who she didn't remember to recognize her for whatever reason. Right as this new girl was about to continue to go off on Gwen, her stomach growled very loudly.

"Oh perfect, looks like you're hungry. You're coming with me." The rude girl was about to speak but Gwen grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her over to the curry pot against her will. She struggled but Gwen's grip was really determined. "Alright uh- What's your name?"

The white dress girl was flabbergasted by this question. "How do ye nae remembah mah name? Ahm a body of th' top students' at th' College! Bethaneh Millah from th' Galah regi-"

"Didn't ask," Gwen interrupted. "Got anything edible on ya?"

"How rude!" Bethany snarled. "And all ah have at th' moment are some meager Oran berries."

"Perfect," Gwen handed Bethany the corn ear that the Cubone gave her "Give them to me and I'll take care of them and while I'm doing that take the corn pieces off of the cob."

"That's called shuckin' ye dobber."

"Shut the fuck up and get shuckin' then."

"Wonderful…" muttered Vera from her own cooking spot. "More people showing up…"

 

[Juno]

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[tab=jpcjvb]Reunited[/tab] ● [tab=dex6]Pokémon[/tab]

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Reunited // May 22nd; Evening
ft. Bruno Dillinger, Casey Holt & Vera Hill

Their path back to the campsite was still sunlit, but just barely. Jordan could make out the faint glow of Pepper's tail, and Vera's silhouette… or was it Vera? He squinted. There were definitely more silhouettes than he remembered. Farther off in the distance was a light that Jordan assumed was Keith and Richard's portable stove.

"Almost there!" Jordan called out. Artemis opened one eye and glared at him, growling. "Oops, sorry," he whispered, patting her on the head. He glanced behind him at the other two. "You guys still doing okay?"

Casey managed to pop a thumbs-up at him without shifting Bruno too much and mouthed something Jordan struggled to make out, but may have been "is he asleep?" Jordan gave a thumbs up back and turned around, pretending not to see. "Alright, everyone looks good back there. We're in the final stretch!"

Jordan could see a lot of new faces around as they approached, and there were some new smells, too, as the other students started preparing their own meals. He noted that Gwen, whom they bumped into earlier, did end up joining them, with quite the entourage around her. They were, by far, the most distracting group, with the nutty Noel Yukino gesturing wildly, like she was about to cast a spell on their food, and the loud, Galarian girl Bethany Miller bickering with Gwen in her thick accent. Oh boy, we have an interesting night ahead of us… Jordan thought to himself.

He led the way back to the spot where he and Casey had set up camp. Vera was sitting in front of their tents with Pepper in her arms, who was looking… a little different. Bigger? Jordan couldn't quite place his finger on it at this distance, but they kept walking. "Honey, we're home…" Jordan said jokingly, when he thought Vera was still out of earshot.

Luckily for Jordan, he was correct: Vera didn't hear that. She was busy playing with Pepper, and occasionally checking on the rice, which had finished cooking. She noticed the boys as they came back, slightly taken aback by the whole situation. "Who… where's… what…" She struggled to find the words, setting Pepper down by the pot. "I… take it you guys found some things?"

Casey ignored her, which Jordan thought was unusually rude for him until he realized why, and did a double take. "Pepper! You evolved!"

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Pepper cheered and scrambled over to Casey, who put Bruno down unceremoniously in favor of picking his Pokémon up and swinging him around, cooing at him nonsensically and leaving Jordan to answer Vera's question. Vera, for her part, averted her eyes from Casey and his lack of shirt.

"Wh- yeah, but nevermind that! How did this…?" Jordan tried to get a closer look at Pepper.

"Hey!" Vera stood, grabbing Jordan's arm to get his attention. "Did you guys find anything or not?"

"Oh, right, sorry. And yeah, lots! First of all, these are for you-" Jordan handed a slightly crumpled handful of flowers to Vera. "They're an interesting color. Reminded me of your eyes. And uh, we found Bruno," He gestured towards the boy behind him.

Vera took the flowers, looking them over dubiously. "Oh. Flowers, and a tired student. How thoughtful. Did you happen to find any actual food?" She dropped the flowers onto the ground, not amused.

"Wh- it could be garnish…" he said meekly, but before he could finish his sentence, his Tangela, who had been loitering nearby, skipped over and picked them up. She gave Jordan a quick wave before disappearing into the tent.

"Yeah, all kinds of stuff!" Casey pitched in, now carrying Pepper on his hip. "There's mushrooms and root vegetables and some kind of spicy leaf and uh… more stuff."

"Let's see… our haul isn't bad," Jordan knelt down and unfolded the shirt-bag they had been carrying everything in. "Well- these you probably don't want to eat, so I'm gonna put them over here, and that 'spicy leaf' is going to give you diarrhea, so it's joining the wrinkly mushrooms over here…" he rooted through their forages a little more, before handing them to Vera for approval. "Yeah, I think these are good."

Casey did a double-take. "You told me I should eat that!"

Jordan shrugged. "I said it would give you diarrhea, it wouldn't kill you."

"Don't give me diarrhea," Casey whined.

Jordan put an arm around his shoulder. "I'm just kidding, wouldn't let you do that. Besides, nothing a little fresh water and rice porridge wouldn't have fixed." He turned to Vera. "Anyway, what's next, chief?"

"Uh… guys?" Bruno said in a low voice, raising his hand. "I have a bit of food here too… and a pan."

Vera almost jumped at the sound of his voice, but forced herself to stay calm. "Oh, you're awake. A pan would be good. We'll just need to prepare the rest of these. What did you bring to the table?" She pulled out a Pokeball, calling out Bonnie to help her. "Bonnie, can you cut these vegetables with your Leaf Blade?"

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The little Cubone nodded, the bright green blade erupting from her bone club. With an effort of will, the blade shrank to the size of a knife, and she dutifully started cutting vegetables on a flat rock Vera had prepared. Artemis wiggled out of Jordan's grasp to join her. Cutting things was a specialty of hers, after all.

Jordan's face lit up upon seeing Bonnie. "Hey, I have a Cubone, too! He is... um..." he poked his head into the tent, then craned his neck and scanned the campsite again, finally spotting Spirit among Gwen's group. "He is... helping other trainers with their meal instead, I guess," he sighed. "Well, you can meet him later, I'm sure they'll get along. Right, Bruno, what do you have?"

"Let's see…" he said looking inside his bag. "Some canned food, bread, sweets, water and… no, not this." he quickly put a pack of lemonade inside his bag, as if he was expecting him no one saw them.

Casey noticed. "Bruno."

The black-haired boy looked at Casey. "Yes?"

"Did you drink lemonade the whole way here?"

"Yes. I mean no, I only drank two, no, three... and some water too."

Casey let Pepper drop to the ground and join Bonnie. "Lemonade is sweet and it dehydrates you; you can't be drinkin' that when you exercise! No wonder you were strugglin', man." He shook his head and blew out a frustrated breath. "At least get the kind with electrolytes next time! There might not be someone to help next time. You gotta take care of yourself."

Bruno shrugged. "Can't help it." he muttered, making sure Casey didn't hear. Casey continued on his train of thought.

"Shouldn't be eatin' that kind of candy, either, get some nice trail mix with chocolate in it if you have to have something sweet. And way more water. Get a water bottle with a filter in it! You should be drinking constantly, this is way more strenuous than any of us have-"

"Alright, put a cork in it before you start foaming at the mouth. Let the man drink what he wants," Jordan picked up Casey's oversized bottle and lightly jammed it into his open mouth, before turning his attention to Bruno's bag. A muffled and echo-y "it's important" went ignored. He peered in. "Nice, we can replace some of the cans we ruin- I mean, tried to cook earlier."

"No, 'ruined' was the word you were looking for." Vera helpfully chimed in, setting aside the pot of rice. She glanced over towards the small pile of cans that she'd "disposed of" earlier. (She just kicked them until they were away from her cooking space.) "Now, about that pan? And one of those canned fruits, we'll need the oil for the pan."

"Canned… oil…yes ma'am, got it," But he didn't really 'got it', and the idea of greasing a pan before cooking hadn't even occurred to him. Still, Jordan quickly complied anyway, whisking supplies out of Bruno's bag and handing them to the girl. "Thanks for your contributions, Bruno, you just…" he turned around and assessed the boy in his current state. "Sit tight, and dinner will be ready soon."

"So, Vera," Casey started, sitting down next to her and the two Pokémon. Pepper watched Bonnie cut the vegetables, flexing his claws curiously. "How did this-" he gestured to his new Charmeleon. "-happen? Was there a battle?"

"Oh, that?" Vera glanced over at Casey, then quickly looked back toward Pepper. "No, no fighting. We were just cooking, and I tried to get Pepper to control his fire. I trained him just a little, like working out, you know? I bet you do…" Her face started turning red, which Jordan noticed. He whirled around and dropped the shirt from earlier on Casey's head, clearing his throat, before continuing to gather supplies. Casey tugged it off of his head quizzically. "And then, woosh, he just started glowing and growing and evolved! Like magic!"

Casey laughed delightedly as he shook out his shirt. Several leaves fluttered from it. "Wish I could have seen it! But that's interesting; I didn't think of it as working out, but you're right. Might be able to use that somehow..."

A few seconds later, Jordan returned with a comically small frying pan. "Put. The shirt. On," he hissed in Casey's ear, before turning to Vera with a smile. "I found the frying pan!"

"What? No, it's burnt," Casey argued.

"So get another shirt from your tent and stop being such a little weirdo!"

Casey looked mildly affronted. "Then I'd have another dirty shirt. Anyway, it's perfectly normal to be shirtless." Then the rest of the insult hit. "...little, huh? You're gonna call me little?"

It was Jordan's turn to go red. "Oh, don't start with the height thing again, you hit your growth spurt and got one inch on me-"

"Yeah, an entire inch," Casey said, leaning back on his hands and radiating smugness up at Jordan. "An entire inch and I'm definitely still growing, so-"

"So it's still an inch." Vera looked at the pan, and her eye twitched slightly. "A guy gets slightly taller and suddenly he thinks he's so cool. And what am I supposed to do with this? It's tiny!"

"But I am so cool!" Casey laughed. "I'm gonna hit six foot first, watch me go from way down there!" He punched the air, lost his balance, and flopped back onto the ground. In an effort to be somewhat helpful, he added: "I have a roasting fork somewhere, if you wanna use that."

"Oh, a roasting fork! How useful! We can put it over our one fire." She rolled her eyes at Casey, laying the sarcasm on thick. "I can work with this, but it'll take forever." She set the pan down, and Bonnie helpfully brought over the vegetables she and Artemis had chopped.

"Good, then we can spend more quality time chatting while the food cooks," Jordan flopped down next to Casey, and it was evident that the two of them were done 'helping'. Vera could only sputter out vague protests, but the boys weren't listening. "Anyway, if history indicates anything, you're not gonna stay taller than me."

"You growing a bunch at once means nothing! Just means you got stretch marks now."

"Your momma has stretch marks."

Casey, quick as anything, reached over and twisted his nipple in retaliation. Jordan cursed loudly, and leapt up to chase a giggling Casey around their tents and back toward Vera, barely avoiding Bruno in both directions.

Vera scowled at their antics. "Of all the immature-"

"GAH-HAH-HAS" a sudden eerie laugh interrupted Vera's sentence and a Gastly appeared before the kids showing its big smile. Vera went pale at the sight and stepped back from the ball of gas, stepping into Casey's path. Casey's eyes went wide and he froze mid-step, toppling into Vera to send them both crashing to the ground.

"Pepper!" he gasped, scrambling away as the Charmeleon put himself between the two trainers and the laughing Ghost.

Jordan snickered as he watched Casey struggle, but as he walked over to Vera and saw that she, too, had turned white as a sheet, he stopped. "Aww, not you too, Vee!" he extended his arm to help her up. "Ghost Pokemon are just like any other Pokemon-"

"They are not," Casey managed through gritted teeth, not taking his eyes off the Gastly. Vera shook her head, disagreeing vehemently as she fought back tears of fear. "It's made of pure, venomous terror!" Pepper puffed out some flames in warning, but the Ghost-type only answered with more laughing and a friendly Lick on the Pokémon's cheek. Pepper shuddered. Casey whimpered. Vera hid her head.

"I think he just wants to play," Jordan smirked, thoroughly entertained by the situation. "Isn't that right?" He mimicked the Gastly's expressions as they made faces at each other, but expertly dodged his tongue whenever he tried to lick him.

The Gastly turned its gaze to the kids on the ground and attempted to lick Vera. She yelped in terror, scrambling to get behind a suddenly very pale Casey. "Nonono, keep it away from me!"

"Okay, Gospel that's enough." Bruno said, apparently waking up just now. 'Gospel' flew to Bruno's side and swirled around him for a bit before licking him too. The boy smiled at his Pokémon and muttered a "Thank you" before returning it to its Pokéball. He apologized to Casey and Vera and went back to his resting spot.

"Pepper," Casey called again, far more subdued. Pepper scampered into Casey's waiting arms, letting his trainer rest his head on his shoulder and breathe a muffled sigh into the hug.

Vera watched Gospel's Pokeball with distrust, but Bruno looked like he wasn't going to let that monster out again. She took a calming breath, then remembered where she was hiding. She quickly stepped away from Casey, grimacing at the sweat on her palms. Was it her sweat, or his? The thought made her stomach turn. She cleared her throat pointedly, nudging Casey lightly. "We, uh… we need Pepper's fire to cook dinner. So… break it up."

"...Yeah, okay." Casey mumbled, dropping his arms. Pepper rejoined Bonnie and Artemis with some hesitation. Casey didn't move.

"GAAAAAS..." Jordan pounced on Casey, imitating Gospel. Casey put his full strength behind an elbow to Jordan's gut, then grimaced as his friend doubled over, laughing and wheezing for air at the same time. "Sorry."

Pokémon

Pokemon on hand:

Tangela // "Tangles"

Ingrain
Constrict
Absorb
Vine Whip
Sleep Powder

Pidgey // Hop

Tackle
Sand Attack
Gust

Cubone // Spirit

Leer
Growl
Bone Club

Skiddo // Sage

Tackle
Growth
Vine Whip
Play Nice​

Return to Top​

 

[Eleanor]

Ari is spotted!
🍀🍀🍀
Arianne, Ralph, Casey, Jordan, Vera, Bruno
Route 9 - Day 3 - May 22^nd

Joint post with Aquacorde, Juno, Cubism, Godzil, Astronaut
​

---

♫ - The Black Keys - Lonely Boy

The bustling coming from the side of the main path, at first, didn't even faze Arianne. She was too focused on getting to a Pokémon Center: and given the situation, that would have been the most responsible thing to do, no matter when she would have arrived. Eventually, though, the girl slowed down enough to see what was happening there, only to find out a small diverging trail that lead to an open area.

"Ralph," Arianne called out, "there's something here!" while pointing towards the side path. Judging by the lights and noises coming from there, some people had already set up a camp in that place. And were definitely trying to cook something too, given the smell coming from behind the few trees.

Ralph considered the options here. She still had a strong wish to get away and clear her thoughts. But she didn't want to leave Ari all alone what with whatever injuries she already had and might cause to herself soon again… Some unknown campers couldn't quite match the services of a Pokémon Center, but they were definitely better than nothing.

"They might have healing items. And a nice place to sleep. You should head over to them," she urged Ari.

"Y-yes." Arianne took some steps on the smaller descending path, approaching the campsite, looking out for fellow trainers who could at least help her Pokémon out. But whereas she planned to stay hidden for a while and scan the area, things went slightly differently. One of the flame-lit figures hopped to their feet to wave her down.

"Arianne!" Heads turned to see who the boy was calling to. "Hey! Wanna- ow." Another silhouette smacked him. "Sit down, you're going to scare the poor girl," she scolded, at a more normal volume.

Ralph, still standing back behind some trees, recognized at least one of those voices. It had to be Casey. As much as she loved the dude, she really wasn't in the mood for… Anybody right now. But at least she could feel sure that Ari would be relatively fine, if he was there.

As another trainer approached Ari, Ralph quietly slipped away back into the wilderness. She'd find a way to make Ari forgive her some day. But first, she had to convince herself that she wanted to be forgiven.

A lanky figure hopped up and jogged over to where Arianne was standing. As he got closer, she could recognize that it was Jordan, another student from Cape. They got along fairly well in the classes they had, but never spent too much time outside of school together. Nevertheless, he looked happy to see her, and pulled her in for a quick hug. "Ari! Looks like it's still gonna be a bit of a trek to Lavender Town, so a couple of us decided to spend the night out here. Wanna join?"

"Jordan!" Arianne greeted the boy with a smile, without noticing Ralph leaving the area. "And Casey and Vera… hi all!"

Casey had already turned up the volume of their conversation, so there was no use in being sneaky anymore. Plus, the people setting up camp turned out to be trainers that the girl already knew from school, and a quiet, black-haired boy she didn't seem to know, but he looked like a trainer as well. "Seems like a good idea… after all, I'm late anyways. And," she sighed, "I and my team really need some rest."

"Oh yeah, we have plenty of food and space here! And sorry about his screaming earlier, hope he didn't scare you." Jordan said as he walked Ari back over to their spot. Casey mumbled something about "an appropriate volume for the situation" and flicked a finger at him. He gave Casey a quick jab in the ribs with his elbow. "Does your friend want to come with…" he glanced behind them and frowned, scratching his head. "Huh. Am I going crazy, or were you with someone else…?"

"Yes I-" Arianne turned around, but Ralph wasn't there anymore. Given how things were going between them though, it was probably the best outcome. "N-no, I'm by myself at the moment. Don't worry about a thing!" she corrected herself, with a rather forced smile.

Vera shook her head, offering Ari a slight smile. "Hello, Arianne, nice to see you. Why don't you come sit down, there's plenty for everyone. Apparently it's an open invitation, here."

"Yes, sure thing. Thank you, truly!" the girl replied, still kind of embarrassed. At this point, it was better not to tell what happened with the other girl and just calm down - and what better way to do that other than spending time with someone else?

Casey gestured lazily to the open patch of ground on Vera's other side. "Claim a patch of dirt, then."

"Hm, alright." Arianne took her time, and looked towards the center of the camping area, her eyes scanning the area all around her. She glanced at the other trainers, whose faces were at least familiar, but who she didn't really talk to often (one was named… Gwen, right?), and stared in awe at their cooking and camping setups… and at the numerous and cheerful Pokémon hanging out there too, of course! She also couldn't help but remark that one of the boys was shirtless: "Casey, right? How are you not freezing?"

He laughed and dismissed her concern with a wave. "It's summer, I'm fine." Vera didn't comment, just pulled her own light coat a little closer.

Arianne looked at Casey again, puzzled, before looking down at herself - she was, in fact, wearing a shirt and a jacket on top of that. "Whatever…" was all that she could mutter, as she laid down her backpack close to where the other trainers' items were. "I… don't have a tent, though."

Jordan appraised her gear, quizzically staring at her bag. It was much smaller than everyone else's backpacks. "Did you… not expect to have to camp out some nights?" He paused for a moment, but continued again before Arianne could answer. "Hey, my tent fits two people, and Casey's already got one, so… if you need somewhere to sleep you're welcome to share with me," he shrugged casually, but sounded almost hopeful. Casey gave him a surreptitious thumbs-up.

That was the moment where Arianne started to feel guilty for not being as well equipped as all of her camping friends. Being a victim of her own carelessness was somewhat alright for Arianne, but having to always rely on other people or, worse, endanger them - Arianne's mind went back to her zipline adventures before Cerulean - was not quite the same thing.

"I expected to reach the next Pokemon Center today, but other things got in the way. So…" the girl replied, a hand in her bangs again. "So I'm alright with sharing the tent! Thank you, Jordan, you're too kind."

Jordan grinned from ear to ear. "Yeah! No worries, of course!" his voice cracked a little, and he seemed a little surprised she took him up on the offer.

The way the boy looked at Arianne didn't really put her off that much. Ok, maybe just a bit. But the two trainers were already friends, and Arianne knew from College that he didn't have bad intentions - if anything, that was just him being himself.

Vera felt indirectly targeted by Jordan's comment. After all, she hadn't brought any camping supplies either. "I'm sure the Center isn't too far off. Sorry to hear that things didn't go according to plan, but luckily these guys were here, right?" The same could be said for her. Jordan's cheeks flushed slightly at the almost-praise from Vera, and Casey seemed pleased. Or possibly smug. It was difficult to tell.

"True!" replied Arianne with a nod - she didn't want to explain what happened to her just yet, though. "Also, before I forget…" she paused for a moment, and looked at Vera's cooking spot once again. "I do have some more food we can use, though! Is that alright?" she asked, trying to at least make up for the missing tent.

As self-proclaimed leader of the campsite (and the boys not "helping"), Vera invited Ari over. "Of course it's alright. Bringing food is probably smarter than foraging all the time. More reliable, at least." Casey made sounds of mild offense at her subtle insult, which she pointedly ignored, though Jordan's quiet muttering about the cans earned a bemused glance and raised eyebrow. Turning her attention back to Ari, she asked "What do you have?"

"Here!" the black haired girl replied, handing her Berry pouch to Vera. "Mostly berries and vegetables I bought today in Cerulean." she continued, with one eye scanning said pouch to see if the Berries weren't damaged. Luckily, despite what happened on her way to the camp, Arianne's food was still in good condition and could be handed off to the two sous-chefs huddled around the Charmeleon.

---

Arianne's team:

•

•

•

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Richard, Keith, Gwen, Noel, and Bethany​

Camping Site, Route 9
May 22^nd, Evening

​

Flames of Jealousy
​

"Dang, that accent of hers reminded me of my Aunt Ellie in Galar. I guess if you live in a certain neighborhood you take the attitude and the mannerisms there. Well, I'm glad Aunt El just has the accent even if she lives in Spikemuth… Anyhow, are you going to socialize or what? You here ain't gonna help this good ol' spaghetti get cooked. Just take your Pokemon out there and socialize!" Keith was trying his best to help Richard with his friend issue; he wouldn't make any new friends just by standing there. Besides, the fact that he could potentially get rid of the walking disaster to another cooking spot sounded great than risking his wonderful, tasty, and invigorating spaghetti to turn into Mysterious Food X.

"But, you know how crap I am in the kitchen!"

"Shut up and leave, you can mingle around without using your reverse Midas Touch. Just help them cutting stuff or something. I'm going to work my magic here!" Keith pulled out his secret weapon, an array of seasonings and spices ready at his disposal.

Richard sighed but he was forced with no choice but to heed Keith's advice, after some deliberation he decided to approach those who were cooking curry.

"Hi guys, need help?"

Gwen turned her attention from chopping up berries to Richard. She didn't recognize him, but that wasn't important at the moment. "Do you have any food on you right now?"

"Food? Right now, I only have some biscuits." Richard pointed in the direction of his bag, which was near Keith. The Cubone who had been sitting nearby perked up, and climbed off the log he was sitting on. It looked familiar, but Richard didn't say anything. Eileen started to hug Arthur's leg like a pillow, due to it feeling drowsy and exhausted after the battle against Rhydon.

"Biscuits don't seem like they'd fit very well with this… But it'd be a nice side, assuming we have enough for everyone… We can figure that out later though. I think we've cut up all our ingredients." Gwen held the Emboar fan in Richard's face. "Here use this, we need to fan the flames so we can get cookin'."

"Sure thing, I'll be glad to help." Richard sat down at the ground after moving Eileen to his lap, afterward he fanned the flames as much as he could to ensure the flame was big enough to cook. Uri who was watching over his trainer fanning the flames eventually came closer when he was sure the flame won't be extinguished.

"What is it, Ur?" Uri opened both of his arms. "Ah… You're hungry right? Well, our food is over there so please wait for a little more patiently, okay?" Uri responded with a facepalm and mumbled with a soft voice, Richard was quite confused with why did Uri do that. Is it because he was very hungry? Or perhaps he was angry about something? The boy couldn't do anything as he didn't understand Pokemon language.

Just then, the Cubone returned with a very familiar-looking box of biscuits. He sat next to Uri and offered him one. Uri was glad that someone at least offered him some sympathies and ate the biscuit happily.

"Uri, isn't that's my biscuit that you're eating?" Richard decided to take a glance over once more to ensure Uri was okay, only to find out that he had stolen his emergency food.

Uri panicked realized what he did, and was frantically trying to explain what happened to his trainer. But before that happened Richard already opened his mouth once more. "Well, I see that you're also sharing it with other Pokemon… Well, it's fine then, just make sure you tell me next time when you're feeling hungry, okay? I need to concentrate on fanning this."

Richard continued to pour his entire focus towards fanning the flames all while Eileen was soundly asleep on his lap. Uri eventually resigned himself to his fate with a deep sigh. The Cubone looked at him and shrugged, munching on his own biscuit. He patted Uri on the back, then turned his attention back to the trainers' collaborative efforts in cooking the curry with a quiet curiosity.

Gwen had begun to hand out the other fans, giving Noel Snorunt and Bethany Lickitung; she deliberately kept the Gengar one to herself. "Alright everyone else, start fanning! But do it slowly since we have four of us."

"Okay! It's time to—" Noel then felt a tug on her shirt; Luna seemingly wanted her attention. Noel squatted down to her level. "What is it, Luna?" Luna pointed to her fan. It looked like she wanted to do more than watch. Noel nodded.

"Ah, you want the spotlight then? That's my girl!" She gave the fan to Luna, whom had accepted with a cheerful glee. "Clap, clap, clap! Bonzai, bonzai, bonzais for Luna!"

Richard giggled seeing this. "Wow, you have a great Pokemon." Uri who heard this couldn't help but to glare in anger towards his trainer's reaction. Why couldn't he also get the same reaction from his trainer? Uri kept muttering under his breath as he thought of it.

Bethany looked at the fan she was handed with disdain "What dae ye think ah am, some kin' ay bairn?" She still listened to Gwen's instructions since she wanted the food to turn out good, but did so begrudgingly "Ay coorse ye got th' fans with bloody cartoons oan it."

Gwen rolled her eyes in response and started fanning. "They're cute though…" she muttered under her breath.

Richard, who heard Bethany's complaints, decided to give a piece of his mind. "There's nothing wrong with a fan with cartoonish design though, it has a certain charm to it, you know?"

"If yer five, maybe its appealin' but ah dornt like bein' treated like ahm 'at old."

"If you hate the fans so much just risk being burnt and use your hands instead." Bethany turned her head toward Gwen and was met by Gwen sticking out her tongue.

"Hmmph!" Bethany turned her head back towards what she was previously doing. "Ahd expect nae less from ye."

Uri, who was still standing near his trainer, decided to try a last-ditch effort by using his hands he tried to give signals to Richard that he can leave the fanning duty to his trusted partner.

"Oh sure Uri, you can do the fanning job if you want to." Richard handed the fan to Uri who happily accepted the job. In the Psi Pokemon's mind, he managed to walk one step forward in order to achieve acknowledgment and praise that he deserves from his trainer. Now it was just a matter of finishing this job well.

Not long after, Eileen finally awakened from her deep slumber. She immediately nuzzled her cheeks against her trainer's chest in joy. "Haha, you're in a great mood, eh? You did great Eileen..." Arthur patted the head of Eileen with a joyful expression.

Unknown to him at the time, Uri was furious seeing this. The fact the Mouse Pokemon can just act cute and get all the acknowledgment and praise he craved so badly was an act that almost tipped him over the edge. He glared fiercely towards Eileen with eyes full of disdain and resentment.

Eileen who realized this was immediately cowering in fear, afraid of the menacing gaze the Kadabra gave her. Richard was surprised seeing the action of Eileen. "What's wrong, Eileen?" Eileen pointed out to Uri, causing Richard to lash out against Uri for scaring Eileen without a reason. "What the hell are you doing!? You're scaring poor Eileen… You…"

"Richard, the Spaghetti is already done!"

"Coming!" Richard's scolding of Uri was interrupted by Keith, and with it, Richard was not in the mood for scolding Uri even further. "Look… Let's just talk about this later, finish the fanning as soon as possible and after that, you can eat all the food you want. Let's go, Eileen." Richard walked off towards Keith.

Uri was barely able to hold himself from trembling with rage, but then he started to realize that if he wanted Richard's attention to be solely his once more, he just have to eliminate the biggest obstacle to claim it.

​

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​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Richard, Keith, and The Others​

Camping Site, Route 9
May 22^nd, Evening

​

A Temporary Farewell
​

"Well, I guess it's the right time to go, isn't it? Otherwise, we'll be arriving there tomorrow." Richard kept egging on Keith telling him to leave.

"Yeah, yeah… Please wait, I'm almost done packing all of my stuff… And, done!" Keith zipped his bag after making sure all of his belongings were there. "So, shall we say our goodbyes now?"

"Uh, can we just say goodbye just to the people we know only? I'm pretty sure most of them don't even know me."

Richard's suggestion instead caused Keith to grin widely. "Well… Then let's make sure that they'll know you next time." Keith decided to walk towards the middle of the campsite.

"Whatever the hell you're thinking of Keith, don't you dare…" Richard pulled the left sleeve of Keith's jacket, his tone of voice was begging for Keith to not do something rash. However, in the usual Keith fashion, he just ignored his pleading friend.

"Excuse me, may we have your attention, please?" Keith shouted with a happy expression. Heads turned their way.

"Keith, you little… Rrraaghhh…" Richard was screaming internally while barely able to keep his smiling facade towards the others. He tried his hardest to suppress the urge to choke out his annoying friend.

"Well, since everyone is still busy we're just going to keep it short. So, um first off since not everyone knew our name yet, especially this guy." Keith pointed towards Richard much to his chagrin. "My name is Keith and this is Richard, we're here to say our farewells. We would love to eat together with you folks, but we're in a hurry, both of us made a stupid mistake of not renting a tent, so yeah… Unfortunately, we have to go first." Keith nudged Richard with his elbow to say something.

"E-eh? Umm… Uh… Well, um… If you meet any of us, you can just say hi, and uh… If you need help you can ask us, no worries." Richard tried his best to calm his nerves, but the fact that he stuttered at the start already made him lose his confidence in speaking towards the people there. He saw Casey give him a thumbs up from where he was sitting.

"Say that to yourself." Keith nonchalantly responded, which earned him a kick at his right calf by the flustered Richard. "Geez, I'm just saying the truth… Oh well, I guess it's our time to leave. Richard?" Keith started to point his large flashlight towards the way forward while messing around with the dials to control the brightness.

"Sure thing. Uri, could you help me, please?" Richard tried to ask as politely as possible as Uri's expression at the time was fairly terrifying even for his own trainer. Uri sighed before he finally relented and his body started to shine with purple-ish aura. As they were about to leave, something brushed against Richard's leg. He looked down, to see the Cubone from earlier hold up half a box of biscuits. Richard smiled before he patted the cubone in the head for the kind gestures. The Cubone gave Uri a quick wave, and ran back to his trainer.

"Let's talk again someday, folks. We'll be seeing you later." Keith waved enthusiastically while Richard beside him nodded a bit while smiling. As some of the campers waved back, Keith, Richard, and Uri disappeared into thin air leaving nothing behind.
​

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​

 

[QueenNothing]

"Alright! I think that's enough stirring!" Gwen stepped away from the pot and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Good job, everyone!"

"Pix! Tusk! Custard! Jess! Dinner is ready!" Tusk and Custard jetted up to the curry pot, while Pix just walked. Jess was slightly faster to dinner than Pix.

One by one, Gwen served her Pokémon. She had to make sure to give different types of Pokémon different dishes to eat as well as different proportions depending on their eating habits. For example, she made sure to give Tusk a large serving and tried to get as much meat in his portion as possible while still leaving plenty for everyone else. He was a big eater and loved meat, which was something she was positive would become more of a hassle when he eventually evolved. Custard was served a smaller plate of food and without any meat, accommodating for her diet. Both Pix and Jess would eat from bowls given their lack of ability to stand on two legs. Pix's eating habits were similar to her behavior- very modest- so she would get an average portion for a creature of her size. Since this was Jess' first meal with her, Gwen wasn't entirely sure what to make her portions. Given she was a snake, it seemed likely she would prefer lots of meat. After she was done serving her Pokémon was when Gwen would get some curry for herself; she always made sure they ate first.

The Cubone from earlier discreetly sidled into the mix, as if he were one of Gwen's own Pokémon waiting to be fed. He glanced hungrily at the curry pot.

"Oh, you want some?" Gwen paused for a bit to think about how she should serve the Cubone "Hmm, well I guess I'll just try to balance the meat and berries and see how you like that." She used her cook's spoon to pour the Pokémon's curry onto a plate since he was a bipedal creature and then kneeled down to give him the curry "Here ya go little guy! Eat up!"

The Cubone's eyes lit up. He gave her right leg a clumsy, one-armed hug while holding the plate. Before disappearing back to… wherever he came from. Probably back to join his trainer.

Noel, with Luna in her arms, approached next to the pot of curry. "This is all thanks to our marvellous culinary skills," Noel said to Luna who cried in agreement. Noel reached with a spoon to pour the curry in her plate. "Come now Luna, let us take a trip to the spicy land of zing!"

 

[Eleanor]

The nicknaming
🍀🍀🍀
Arianne, Casey, Jordan, Vera, Bruno
Route 9 - Day 3 - May 22^nd

Joint post with Aquacorde, Juno, Cubism, Godzil
​

---

♫ - Oasis - Acquiesce

While the humans talked, the Pokémon continued to cook, paying little attention to events. Pepper dutifully served as a heat source, Artemis cut up anything put in front of her, and Bonnie had somehow turned her Leaf Blade into a spatula, of all things, and was stirring the vegetables in the pan. When each tiny portion was done, they tossed it in with the rice and got started on the next batch. Bonnie smiled at her new friends as they worked.

Vera smiled as well, watching them all. "I don't think I've ever seen a more coordinated group. And I haven't even taught Bonnie to cook. What about Pepper? Or Artemis? When did they learn?"

"Uh, today. Right before you got here. Actually, you prob'ly taught Pepper most of that."

"Artemis just likes cutting things."

"Wonderful." sighed Arianne. "Anyways… those are all great nicknames! Hopefully I won't forget them…"

"Pepper's real name is Pepper Bomb, so just think of the hot sauce and you won't forget."

"A-alright!" Arianne couldn't help but laugh at that remark.

"That explains so much…" Vera shook her head, trying to hide her amused smile. Casey stuck his tongue out at her.

Only Casey could come up with such nicknames and be proud of them, Arianne thought. And speaking of which… why couldn't she? Her Pokémon had no nicknames, after all. "Well, since you're all so good at names, mind helping me out?" she asked after calming her laughter, hand in her hair once again.

Casey shrugged. "I didn't name any of mine 'til today. Jordan named my Skiddo and Buneary still doesn't have a name, so I'm prob'ly not the best person to ask." He poked Jordan in the ribs. "You help. Or Bruno can, he's named all his. Vera… I only know Bonnie, but that's a cute name too."

Vera nodded, proud to be complimented. "Of course. Bonnie because she carries a bone. A bit obvious, in hindsight. I have a Rockruff named Iggy, because igneous rocks, Sapphire came with a nickname already, and my Venonat is named Leo, because he'll be a male moth, and I named him after a monster movie I saw once." She thought it over. "Names are hard, actually, and most of them were improvised on the spot."

"Gospel was one of the names my mom thought for her Gengar… I didn't count on it having Hyper Voice when I named him." Bruno added to the conversation. "Eterna's eyebrows look like clock hands, so I related her name to time. Bumblebee was given by a girl I met before getting here, but it's named that way because of its colors… and Artemis… it sounds like a strong name and it rhymes I guess?"

Jordan furrowed his brows. "Hmm, I kinda just name them based on physical traits or features, nothing fancy." He considered his roster. "Aside from Spirit, I guess - thought it was fitting 'cause he's a 'spirited' little guy, aaand he'll be part Ghost-type someday, so- spirit… ghost… get it?" he leaned back and smiled at his own creativity. Casey shuddered. "Oh! Speak of the devil," he turned towards the space between himself and Casey where a Cubone now appeared, walking up to Jordan with a small plate. The boy opened his arms to hug the Cubone, who ignored his gesture and simply climbed up on his lap, spilling a bit of curry on his pants. Jordan sighed. "This is Spirit, everyone. But anyway, what's your team like, Ari?"

"Might as well show them off, right? But please keep in mind they're worn out from what happened today." Arianne, one by one, grabbed her Pokéball from her backpack and called out all of her Pokémon. Squirtle and Pineco, her strongest companions, stood still in front of the other trainers, trying not to disappoint the girl. The Pichu from the adoption center did the same, though she was visibly more suspicious of other people. Bagon, though...

The restless Dragon type, not yet accustomed to being with Ari, started to run around the campsite as soon as he was set free, trying to escape such "low ground" and get back to his life of… trying to fly. All that the girl could do was, again, chase him down and catch him with a quick jump before he could ruin the cooking setups or hurt other Pokémon. Arianne held her Pokémon in her arms as tightly as she could, then smiled at the other trainers as to tell them she was fine. "You got lucky to find me. We'll fly all around the world, I'm sure of it!" she then whispered to Bagon with that same smile, before "bringing" him back towards her group.

Jordan scooped up Spirit, careful not to disturb his plate too much, and stood up to get a closer look. He marveled at the new array of Pokemon now standing among them, but his eyes lingered on the small dragon. "Oh, wow! That's a Bagon, right? Thought they were really rare!"

"Yes! I was lucky to meet one. But they're also Pokémon with an… attitude." Ari replied between breaths, still holding Bagon tightly as she returned to her spot in between the other trainers. "I couldn't give up on him though." she added, chuckling at the sight of the furrows in the ground that Bagon left behind himself.

Jordan laughed along with her, holding his free hand out to pet him. The Dragon let out a fierce cry while lunging towards the boy, but Arianne stopped him before he could reach Jordan. "Oh, oops. Yeah, I can tell," he said with a sheepish grin, as he quickly took a few steps back.

"He'll get better with time… I'm sure of it!" the girl reassured her friend. Implying, she would turn him into a proper companion no matter what. "And you calm down, can't you feel you got hurt? I'll get you some great food in a moment!" she whispered to the Dragon type.

"Maybe giving him a name will help you guys grow closer after all, and he'll warm up to you soon, y'know?" Jordan suggested. "That's how I feel with my Pokémon, at least."

"That's a nice idea!" Ari replied. "Just… I don't know what to name them, sadly. And…" she lowered the tone of her voice to make sure only Jordan could hear her. "And I don't see myself calling out Pepper Bomb every time I battle, even though it's a fun nickname after all."

Jordan snickered, and purposely exaggerated her sentiment loud enough for Casey to hear. "You're right, it is weird to name your Pokémon after a sauce."

Casey threw some pebbles at Jordan's ankles, who kicked them back. "And you named Tangles after what, again?"

"Well, technically I didn't, since my brother named her. I try not to call her that anyway. But. You can't deny she does look like a wig." Jordan sighed. He turned back to Arianne. "Anyway, I guess you'd want to name your Pokémon after things you like."

"Right, makes sense! That could be…" the girl stopped briefly to think. "Well… places to see, names of boats in Cinnabar, stars in the sky, all those stories I used to read… that's a lot of things. I never thought this through!"

Vera shrugged at the conversation, not having much to add. "Give it time, it's no hurry. But it does help you form strong bonds with your Pokémon. Think about what you like, and what they would like. Don't call Bagon 'Fussy Britches' if you don't think he'll like it."

"Well… I think I got something! They're all names from books and other stories I've enjoyed." Arianne declared, as a smile lined up her face again. "So, you can be Mizar, like that Dragon tamer from that manga!" she told Bagon, loud enough that the other trainers beside her could hear. "Pineco… what do you say about Mulan?"

The girl remained quiet after that, trying to come up with names for the other two Pokémon. She didn't want to disappoint them by not giving them names. "Let's see… do you have some cool names from books or movies you've seen?"

Vera thought it over, looking at the Squirtle who was now clinging to Ari. "Well, this guy is no Prince Charming, but he could still be your prince. Let's see… a water themed prince… what was the name of the prince in that mermaid movie? Aaron? No, Eric. How about that?"

At first, Arianne was about to interrupt Vera and explain how her Squirtle was much more than a Prince Charming and was such a sweet Pokémon, but she stopped and let her suggest a nickname for the Water type. And what a good name it turned out to be! That movie came out around the time Ari was a child, and she loved it, too. "Eric it is! Thanks!" she declared, unable to meet Squirtle's eyes but feeling his presence over her shoulders.

"And Pichu?" she called her Electric type Pokémon, who was cheerfully walking around the other Pokémon. "I got this… I'll name you Alice!" Probably too simple of a nickname, but it was better than nothing. At least all of her team had nicknames now.

"Huh. That's cool; you just named them all right away." Casey said. "I'm still tryna find a good one for Buneary."

"Y-yes!" yelled Arianne, probably not fully understanding the consequence of what she'd just done. "Who knows, maybe I can help you back if you let Buneary out?" she then asked Casey, eyes sparkling with excitement. Jordan sucked the cool night air through his teeth, at the mention of Buneary.

"She's in there," Casey casually gestured to his tent. "Prob'ly don't wanna, uh, disturb her, actually. But…" he looked to Artemis, who was waving and jumping in the middle of the group trying to get the 'Name Rater's' attention "Maybe Artemis wants a new name? Is that what's up?"

"Alright, I won't bother her…" commented Ari, Jordan's reaction telling her it was a bigger deal than she expected. "But for… Artemis, right?" she paused again, trying to come up with something. "Hmm, what about Shirley?" the black haired girl then asked, looking at the other trainers around her in search of approval.

"Shirley...?" Bruno seemed to be unsure about the name. He didn't like the idea of naming his Pokémon people names, but... "She likes cutting things, she's like some kind of small saber… a shamshir... Shir! Do you like it?"

The Pokémon looked confused as if thinking about her new name, but then her eyes went bright. Shir nodded and started moving her arms wildly while jumping and running with a very abrupt change in her humour. Bruno took her on his arms before she accidentally cut someone. "I guess she does…" the boy smiled "Thanks, Arianne."

Vera was distracted from the conversation by something tugging at her leg. She glanced down to see Bonnie point over toward the cooking station. Pepper sat by the rocks, looking smug but tired, his tail no longer underneath the rocks. Bonnie pointed to the big pot with a "ta-da!" motion.

"Oh, you guys are done?" Vera went to check, and sure enough, they had a pot full of rice,vegetables, berries and mushrooms, all cooked and mixed. "Well, 'soup's on, everybody!' As they say."

"Who says that?" asked Casey, sounding genuinely curious.

"I think it's a Johto thing?" Vera shrugged, suddenly self-conscious. "It's not commonly used, but it's a real thing. Shut up, don't question it…"

"Huh. Hey, I know someone from Johto! I can ask them sometime." That settled, Casey set about claiming a portion for himself and Pepper before pestering Bruno to "eat something with actual nutritional value". Bruno just let Casey talk, looking at him without changing his monotone expression. He didn't seem to care at all, and after Casey was done he shrugged and took a lemonade from his bag. Casey shoved a bowl of rice his way and claimed he would refuse to talk to him while the lemonade was out. Bruno accepted the food, but also decided to savor his drink.

Jordan nudged Casey aside to serve himself. Spirit tailed his trainer closely, jumping up and down in excitement. "What, you can still eat?" the boy asked, incredulous. The Cubone held up his polished-off plate in response. Jordan sighed and muttered something to himself like "can't possibly still be hungry", but he scooped some vegetables and berries onto the little plate anyway. As he sat back down to eat, he beckoned for Spirit to follow, but the Cubone seemed to have taken a liking to Bonnie, and opted to sit with her instead.

Bonnie didn't seem to mind, even asking the other Cubone if he liked the food. Spirit answered in an enthusiastic affirmative, complementing her skills. Bonnie laughed a little, lowering her helmet to hide her blush. Jordan watched this unfold from where he was sitting, with equal parts curiosity and fascination. "Huh. Unbelievable." he remarked, stabbing a mushroom. Casey snickered. Jordan very deliberately stuck the mushroom in his mouth before sticking Casey with the empty fork. He got an exaggerated whine for his troubles.

---

Arianne's team:

Eric •

Mulan •

Alice •

Mizar

 

[Groc]

Vera Hill, Arianne Chandler
Chapter 3 - Ari and Vera Time
Route 9, May 22nd

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During all of this time, Arianne had still kept Mizar in her arms, never allowing him to escape or attack anyone. After all, he was really too tired and too fed up to hurt Ari and try to get away. Only when the food was ready, the girl reassured her Pokémon and loosened her grip. "Are you hungry? I hope so, because food is ready!" she whispered to the Bagon.

Vera made up two plates, offering one to Arianne and the other for Mizar. "Nothing like a warm meal after a long day, am I right?" She sat down with her own food next to her friend, letting the boys have their space on the other side of the pot. She let out her own Pokemon to eat. Bonnie sat with Spirit, Sapphire curled up in Vera's lap, and Iggy and Leo sat near Pepper.

Mizar examined the food with a suspicious look - after all, it was his first time eating man-made food - but soon gave in to hunger. Prompted by Arianne, he joined the rest of her team members (without causing trouble), and finally received some official apologies from Eric, a huge smile from Alice, and a somewhat more annoyed look from none other than Mulan. In her mind, Mizar should have been more careful about how he treated Arianne. But, at least she was there, ready to help with a well executed Protect and Self Destruct… right?

After being given some brand new nicknames, and with plenty of food at their disposal, all of Arianne's Pokémon appeared to be enjoying their time together at the camp overall. As did Arianne! Not only she was able to get her Pokémon some rest… she was able to find one of her closest friends from College as well. Plus, that food was just great!

"Thank you, Vera" she said, pulling back her hair before leaning on her shoulder for a moment. "It really is fantastic!"

Vera stiffened slightly at the contact, but relaxed and gave Arianne a gentle pat on the shoulder. "I can't say I expected it, but this is a nice little campsite. Good, locally sourced food, a nice view, some good company, for the most part… this is more what I was hoping my journey would be like."

In her periphery, she saw the other Cubone scamper off towards Jordan's tent. A few moments later, it returned to where Bonnie was sitting, holding one of the flowers Vera had tossed aside earlier. It was super effective, causing Bonnie to gasp in delight. She accepted the flower from Spirit, blushing slightly as she sniffed at it.

Vera rolled her eyes at the display, but smiled despite herself. She idly scratched at Sapphire's ears, drawing a contented purr from the cat, while watching Mizar hungrily eat his plate. "They're kind of adorable little monsters, aren't they?" She thought back to that morning's encounter with Druddigon, shuddering slightly.

"Yes, cute indeed!" replied Arianne with a smile. "But they can be so powerful, too!" Her eyes focused on Eric, who had provided the girl with some mild but effective pain killer in the form of Heal Pulse.

"Yes… Very powerful." Vera stopped petting Sapphire to move her hand to her ribs. They were still sore after getting hit by Druddigon's tail, but she had put the pain out of her mind during the arduous trek across Route 9. She tried to ignore it again with some humor. "Cute but stronger than they look. Remind you of anyone?"

"Who would that be?" asked Arianne, slightly baffled. She noticed Vera's movements but, at first, didn't give them much attention. Eric turned around in that moment, feeling the eyes of his trainer on him, and smiled at the girls.

"Well, I was going to say me, but really it's both of us." Vera felt slightly awkward now, and not just because her joke didn't land. "Think of everything we've done today: hiking across this route, catching and training Pokemon, fighting dragons? Who would've thought we'd be doing this? And we still look good."

"Aw, Vera, I thought you were still talking about Pokémon! Though you're right…" laughed Arianne. "Thanks!"

The girl did eventually catch the word "dragons", though. "Wait, you said Dragons? Do you mean Mizar?" Arianne asked. One could easily see though, she wasn't quite thinking about Mizar. In fact, her face turned more serious too. No, her mind was already going back to that morning and to that fateful encounter with that Kommo-o.

"I guess he counts…" Vera noticed the look on Arianne's face. "But somehow I don't think that's what you are thinking of." She took a second to figure out how to say this, chewing thoughtfully on her food.

"This morning, when the Dragons at the Gym all got loose, I ran into one on the path to Mt. Moon. Technically, I went looking for it, and it… didn't go so well. Turns out the Gym Leader was right for denying us a battle. The Druddigon I met…" She took a breath to steady herself. "Well, my team got hurt. I mean, absolutely destroyed. Even I took a few hits, and you know I don't ever get involved in physical things. It was quite the experience…"

"Eric, please could you come closer?" Arianne asked her Squirtle, her face now showing more curiosity. "I… knew you'd understand. And, I'm sorry to hear that..." she then replied to Vera. "This morning, I got in a similar situation as well. But the Dragon I found was stolen! And the thief was way too strong for me."

"Could you please use Heal Pulse on the girl?" she then whispered to Eric, as he came towards his trainer. The Squirtle nodded, his eyes glowing pink.

Vera looked at Arianne, but didn't hear the whispered question. "What-" She stopped, feeling a moment of serene quiet. For the first time since that morning, Vera didn't feel… anything. No discomfort, no pain, just… quiet. "Oh. That's… kind of nice. Warm. What just happened?"

"It's working!" Arianne declared, cheerfully. "Squirtle is using Heal Pulse. I don't know how he learnt it or how effective it can be, but it seems it's good enough!"

Vera didn't say anything in response. Sapphire kind of dug her claws into Vera's leg, and Vera looked at Squirtle. "Thank you, Squir... Eric." It was a new experience for Vera, but a good one. It was like magic. She slowly brought her arm up, resting it on Arianne's shoulder, then leaned in for a side hug. She gave Eric a friendly head pat as well.

Squirtle nodded, and smiled back at the girl he was trying to heal. After his experience with Arianne, he knew that Heal Pulse couldn't really fix human wounds. But, it made pain easier to cope with and calmed down his trainer, and that was still better than nothing!

As the Water type finally returned to his spot near the other Pokémon, Arianne accepted the hug. "Glad I could help!" she said, smiling like Eric did, before… some ruckus from a different area of the camp ended up catching her attention. At that point, Vera broke off the hug, her face a little red.

A joint post between Cyaloom and Godzil

 

[QueenNothing]

While everyone else was chowing down on their curry, Bethany was not so pleased. "Ye call this food? This is barmy, its fuckin' rubbish!" she shouted before tossing her plate directly on the ground. "We're in Kanto, aren't we? Ah want some Kantonian Farfetch'd! Or some Kantonian Slowpoke tail! Are ye Kantonian chavs used to eatin' this shite?! I know th' chavs runnin' the College aren't as adequate as th' Safari Academy but I'd hope that gettin' out of th' College would mean better food!"

Casey glanced up from his own dinner with a rare frown. "We don't even eat that. Pretty sure that's still illegal. College food was good, anyway."

Vera raised her glass to that, smiling proudly at her plate. "Of course it was. The point of school is to teach you life skills. You're just lucky I picked up a few more than you did."

Casey pouted at her. "I can cook things! Like, eggs. When I have a real stove." Vera just smiled and patted his shoulder. "Of course you can, sweetie. I'm sure they're great." Just a hint of sarcasm laced her words. Casey pointedly turned his attention back to the unfolding drama. Vera's smile faltered for just a second, and she looked to the argument as well.

In the meantime, realizing that her Pokémon were done eating, Arianne returned them to their PokéBalls before fully focusing on the ongoing fight.

Gwen shot Bethany a dirty look. "Just shut up and eat your curry." After eating another bite of her food she said, "And I'm not even Kantonian. I'm from Unova."

Bethany shifted her glance towards Gwen. "Ooohh, I'd expect this from a Unovian! All ye do is get fat off ye Casteliacones and other junk foods! And not ONLY are Unovians nae good at cookin', they're bloody awful at Pokemon battlin' too!"

Gwen was a little more visibly angry than before. "What, are you saying my sister is a bad trainer?"

"Ye sister?" The Galarian trainer was confused by the whiplash in topic, with Gwen obviously trying to change the subject to something she felt she could more comfortably talk about. "I dornt know shite about y- No wait! I remembah, you wouldn' shut up about 'er back at th' College! It was always 'Jenny this, Jenny that' and ah was fukin' sick of hearin' abit it mate! Ah've seen 'er battles out of curiosity and honestly they arenae good. It's such obvious moves 'Oh use Rock Slide on th' Flyin' type', no shite ye use Rock Slide on th' Flyin' type! There's nae style or grace to any of 'er moves!"

Hearing this, Gwen was furious. "Well, if you think Unovians are so bad at battling why don't you try battling one right in front of you!" Gwen quickly scarfed down her remaining food and jolted straight up.

Bethany scoffed. "Mah pleasure! Seems like ye need tae learn ye place! But how abit a one-on-one, Ah dornt want tae be around ye chavs much longer."



Gwen nodded. Bethany smirked and grabbed a pokeball from her purse, and gently tossed it up into the air. "Vulpix, eyes are on ye!" Instead of just any Vulpix coming out from the ball like one might expect, this one was very different looking, being white instead of red.

Vera remembered the last time she'd seen a white Vulpix, hiding a grimace behind her cup. "White hair and white fur? How gaudy. The Kantonian one is clearly cuter…" She took a sip, pretending she hadn't said anything.

"I wonder if it's-" Casey began, but choked on his mouthful of food. Bruno turned to look at him and Vera shot him a disgusted look, moving slightly further away. Jordan absentmindedly picked up his water bottle and shoved it in Casey's face, without taking his eyes off the conflict in front of them. Casey tried again after a few gulps of water. "Hey Bethany! Is that from the Rescue Center?"

Bethany gave a condescending laugh. "Ye have eyes? Ay course; she's bloody Alolan!"

"Prick." whispered Arianne, to no one in particular. In her mind that reply was just uncalled for.

"An Alolan Vulpix? Piece of cake! Pix, show her how it's done!" Hearing her name, Pix took a break from eating to run up to battle. There was no way she could lose a battle with a type advantage like this, Gwen thought to herself. And not only did she have the type advantage, but with Pix's ability, a simple Ember was sure to be a one hit KO.

"Pix, give 'em an Ember!" Pix shot out a small fire from her mouth, headed directly towards the opposing Vulpix. However, right before it was about to hit her, Bethany, almost as if she was expecting this, shouted out "Endure!" After impact, Bethany's Vulpix was damaged, but still standing as if he wasn't just hit by a sun boosted fire type attack.

"Well you got me there but that won't stop me again! Pix use another ember!"

Vera shook her head, muttering, "Bad idea. Shouldn't have done that..." under her breath as she moved away from the others. Bruno noticed, but only saw her walking away and then went back into watching the battle.

"Vulpix, disable!" The Alolan Vulpix stared right into Pix's eyes and then gave off a blinding glow. After this, Pix couldn't muster up the ability to use Ember again. Casey wondered aloud if Buneary could learn to do something similar.

Gwen was stumped. "Shit, disable and endure? This really is tough..." She had gotten so frustrated that she was calculating what to do in her head which again got her distracted from the battle at hand.

Arianne couldn't stop herself from muttering "What did I just say?", this time criticizing Bethany's battle strategy. As much as she didn't like stalling moves, though, she had to admit it was a viable strategy, and one she still wasn't sure how to counter. Because of that, she kept her eyes fixed on the ongoing battle.

While everyone's focus was on the fight, Vera was gathering up her things, trying and failing to keep her breathing normal. Her head was pounding and her vision getting blurry on the edges, her social anxiety acting up in all the excitement. "I've had quite enough for one day," she said to no one in particular. "Good night, I'm going for a walk." And she walked away into the sunset.

"Bye, Vera!" Casey called, just loud enough for her to hear, before returning his attention to the show. His farewell just made her in more of a hurry to leave, as now she could feel eyes on her, and she stumbled a bit trying to leave unnoticed.

Arianne clearly heard the boy's words. "Vera what?" she gasped suddenly, turning to see the white haired girl running away from the camp. Unsure of what to do, the girl followed her heart and decided to chase after Vera. After all, it was getting dark and unsafe out there - and Arianne felt almost obligated to help out a friend.

"Bye for now" Ari said in between breaths, "I'd better help Vera!". She then grabbed her backpack and quickly left, not before reassuring the boys. "Maybe I could get her to come back."

"Right, good luck- don't just stand there, Gwen, do something. You don't have time to waste, she-"

"Vulpix, hypnosis!" Bethany ordered, cutting off Casey's advice.

"Ooh, yep, see? Gave her an opportunity," he finished. The battling pair didn't pay him much mind. The Alolan Vulpix again stared into Pix's eyes, but this time was putting her into a trance and then putting her to sleep. Pix collapsing to the ground and snoring was enough to bring Gwen back to her senses.

"She likes playing safe." Bruno muttered to himself before taking a sip of his lemonade, as if he was taking mental notes.

"Now, Ice Shard!" Bethany's Vulpix opened its mouth, and shot a shard of ice straight into Pix. The speed of the shard was so quick that Gwen just barely saw it.

"Is she using that to prove a point?" Casey wondered. "It's gotta know a move that isn't at a disadvantage, right?"

"Need an attack 'at has same type attack bonus- And Ice Shard aye goes first"

"PIX! PIX! COME ON, WAKE UP!" There was nothing else Gwen could do at this point besides yell for Pix to awaken, but this proved useless, especially since during this time the Alolan Vulpix kept using Ice Shard on Pix. After a few more attacks, Pix's snoring had stopped and instead whimpers where let out by the fox Pokémon. It was clear who had won.

"What did ah tell ye!" Bethany bragged while returning her Pokémon back to its pokéball. "Unovians cannae battle! Now ahm leavin'; Ahm gonna need ta find a bloody Pokémon Center" Her elegant sashay away from the camp was slightly marred by a rather obnoxious "ohohoho!"

"...Isn't she-?" Casey began, but Gwen cut him off. "Shh! Don't tell her, It's funnier that way."

Gwen was still pretty pissed, of course, but letting go was easier considering Bethany was walking in the opposite direction from the Pokémon Center. Casey shrugged. "Well, she doesn't wanna listen to me anyway."

Gwen walked over to Pix and kneeled over to pick her up. "Don't listen to what that snob was saying, you did a great job- Even if we lost. How about some more food?"

Comforting her fainted Pokémon had helped her head clear from how angry she was, but that only led to her realizing something that would only make her angry again

"Wait a minute- what does she mean 'Unovians cannae cook', she fucking helped make it!"

 

[moon]

Chapter 4: Rock Tunnel
Starting date May 23rd, Thursday
Weather: Cloudy, occasional rain, some wind.

​

Spoiler:

Connecting Cerulean and Lavender the long way around, Rock Tunnel is a wondrous place according to some. A nightmare, according to others. At its entrance is the tiniest village with a pokémon center and some shops and really nothing else. It's practically impossible to go by motor driven vehicle between Rock Village and Cerulean, so deliveries (and most travel to and from) happen via flying pokémon as that's deemed to be safest. Of course Palm neglected to tell you that such a service existed. He sure likes to keep you walking!

It is a long trek through a mountainous terrain, with no tall peaks, and plenty of tunnels. Despite its name, Rock Tunnel is not one single long tunnel through the ground. There are plenty of openings in the "ceiling" where daylight can shine through, and even some parts of the path where there is no roof above your head at all for a while (but too steep to climb up on the sides and nothing but dry rocks to discover outside anyways, should you somehow succeed to).

Perhaps partly as a result of this, there are plenty of exotic plans growing inside the caves, although the main path is mostly clear from vegetation - except for a little bit where daylight shines down. The locals living around Cerulean City and Lavender Town like to talk about another reason too...


Ruins of an ancient civilization have been found deep within Rock Tunnel. It is thousands of years old, and little is known yet about them. It has now been several years since a proper archaeological mission was performed here though, because the risks didn't make it worth the cost for the funding parties. Risks include heavy, strange underground vegetation which seems to grow very fast (which the locals claim to be due to the magic left by the ancient civilization), dangerous narrow caves and cliff formations underground (which the locals claim to be traps laid out by the ancient civilization), as well as hostile wild pokémon.

It will take you all day to get through Rock Tunnel, so you will exit near Lavender Town in the evening some time, depending on whether or not you searched for ruins and wild pokémon or loitered in other ways.


WHAT TO FIND HERE
- At the "Rock Village" you'll find a very small pokémon center, but it has all necessities and places to sleep. Even sells a little bit of food if you need to re-stock.

- A dusty "Rock Tunnel Ruins Gift Shop" selling various pokémon statues or toys. They also happen to sell camping/hiking gear.

- A peculiar little hut/shop selling strange plants in pots, herbs made from them and other odd medicines for pokémon and humans. They're made from the exotic plants found in Rock Tunnel.

- Some homes for the workers.

- Inside the tunnel, you might find some hikers and travelers, but quite few. Feel free to be creative though.

- A main path through many subsequent caves and cliffs that is lit up by electric lanterns (and sturdy cords that will seldom fail).

- Very many offshoots and caves where you'll have to enter in order to find pokémon.

- Ruins. Just kidding, you actually won't find them. For now...


EVENTS
All are possible to team up with other players in.

FAIRYTALES: May 23th, Thursday / OPTIONAL
- A few determined archaeologists have recently returned to Rock Tunnel to try to find out more about the ancient ruins that the locals talk about, but that the big funding companies these days try to play off as "fairytales". You meet one of these brave souls and accompany them deeper inside of the mountain in search of history.

- Reward? You return to the main path without finding any big ruins in the end, but you did find vague remnants of the civilization, and an evolution stone of your choice there too.

- Alternative? Something goes wrong and you and the archaeologist become separated deep inside the caves. You don't find them again... Will they survive and find something spectacular on their own? And will they reward you if they do?

ODD ROCKS: May 23st, Thursday / OPTIONAL
- You stumble upon some really odd rocks. Unfortunately, someone else found them before you, and they refuse to let you have any of them unless you beat them in a battle.

- Reward? You win the battle and get a fossil of your choice, which you will be able to revive eventually. Aerodactyl is not available.

- Alternative? You lose the battle or refuse to battle and either don't get a fossil at all - or you try to steal one instead. There might be repercussions later on if you steal it, though...

POKÉMON FOR CAPTURE
Hover for movesets. All are approximately Lv 8-10.




Pokémon below live deeper inside the caves and only available after you have at least 1 pokémon at Lv 16 or at least 2 pokémon at Lv 12. All are Lv 10 or 11.

 

[QueenNothing]

It had been a long day for Gwen. Now that she was done cleaning up everything she used to cook dinner with, she felt it was an appropriate time to give in to how exhausted she was and fell on her knees. But while her body was tired her mind was definitely wide awake. Custard took notice and jumped in her trainer's lap.

"Second battle I lost today…" She said to herself, not entirely aware she was speaking aloud. "I lost with a type advantage but I didn't expect some rando to have fuckin' endure on their Vulpix..."

"Endure's been saving me a lot lately," Casey mused, dropping down next to Gwen and her small campfire. A Charmeleon slunk over to sprawl across his thighs. "How'd you lose the first battle?"

Gwen glanced over at the boy only to see him shirtless. The sight of this was enough to make her blush but she managed to turn her head away quick enough to where she hid how red her face was. "W-W-Well I d-didn't really lose the first battle I got in..." Gwen thought it was fine that she didn't look at Casey since she almost never looked at people when talking to them. "...But I didn't exactly win either.."

"Double knockout?" Casey's casual tone was quite at odds with Gwen's inner turmoil.

"Well no, this one guy had a damn Morgrem and took out both Pix and Tusk. At least my battle with...Bethany was her name?" Casey nodded in her periphery, and Gwen continued. "Anyways at least it was a fair fight but this fuckin' guy had a Morgrem so I was destined to get swept. I managed to get a thunder wave on em but he ran away. Oh! But speaking of the guy he was really weird, he had a black cape and a mask and trying to steal a Hydreigon."

Bruno turned his glance to the kids, quite interested in the conversation and joined the group.

"Hmm," said a curious Noel, as she arrived for the conversation. "A black cape and mask, you say? Certainly not a performer, I think. At least not one part of my group. Though the mysterious vibe does give me some ideas...."

Gwen paused as something occurred to her and jumped up, jolting Custard from her lap. "Hey wait a minute, that asshole tried to steal that Hydreigon!" After her minor outburst she looked around to make sure she wasn't alienating her peers. "Err I mean...sorry, I sometimes just kinda… go off like that." Gwen sat back down. "But man, thinking about people like that just pisses me off." Custard approached Gwen again, but more carefully than before.

The commotion drew Jordan out of his tent, now wearing curry-free pants and followed by two Skiddo wearing flower crowns. "Okay, just put Spirit to bed, he's sleeping like a log now. Thanks for taking care of him earlier, by the way." Jordan beamed at Gwen.

"Ah, at least one of your women appreciated your gift," Casey teased before cooing at the Skiddo trotting to him. "What a handsome accessory, Parsley, you look so good!" Parsley stuck a tongue in his armpit. "Ew, no, don't do that."

Jordan rolled his eyes. "Yes, ha-ha. Let's take a picture later and send it to Vera to show her what she missed out on," He appraised the crown on his own Skiddo's head. "Gotta admire the craftsmanship, though, who knew Tangles was so handy with her vines." Casey made a disgusted noise, possibly because of the bad joke but more likely because of the tongue in his face. Jordan cleared his throat, and tried to change the subject. "Anyway, what's this about the masked dudes?"

"More people ran into them, apparently." Bruno answered.

Casey nodded, gently pushing Parsley's face away from his own. "That's five of us now. There must've been a lot of 'em."



"Wait…" Gwen looked around at everyone. "You mean you guys ran into masked guys too?"

"Yeah," Casey spoke, as Bruno and the others nodded. "Us three and Richard, too. None of us saw the same exact people, but they were all wearin' weird masks."

"The guy I ran into had long black hair but it was shaved on one side. Oh, and when Custard used Thunder Wave on his Morgrem he lost his shit; he started stomping his foot on the ground and screaming. It was really weird."

"Yeah, that's way different than my guy. He didn't say much; just set his Hitmonlee on me while he captured a Garchomp." Casey went quiet for a moment, curling a hand into Parsley's fur. "Richard's guy sent him to the hospital. I'm pretty sure mine woulda killed me if Sorley's Pokémon hadn't shown up."

"Spirit and I got away relatively scot-free, but only because we happened to be right in the courtyard of the Cerulean Gym," Jordan chimed in with his experience. He shuddered. "Spirit might be an actual spirit already if the Gym trainers hadn't started coming into the courtyard when they did, dude had a freakin' Glalie on him and they were definitely there to steal Pokemon. I saw the guy run off with one of the Gym's Dragonair."

"Mine was… very angry for some reason." Bruno said in a low voice. He looked away as if trying to remember everything and suddenly raised his eyebrows as an idea came to him. "Now that I think about it… mine used a Shiftry with Throat Chop against a Noivern. I-I don't know, but… I think this was premeditated and each one of them could've been assigned their Pokémon," he theorized, still looking away.

"Hydreigon, Garchomp, Dragonair, Noivern… all dragon types, it seems," Gwen added.

Casey shook his head, still focused on petting Parsley. "They're definitely organized, huh? Glad we got outta town."

"Yeah… barely," Bruno seemed to be doubtful, by the tone of his voice it was clear that something troubled him. After a few seconds of trying to rephrase his thoughts, he finally added: "I-I don't know about you, but Leader Hoshi asked for my number after this. I… think this could mean that whatever happened in Cerulean could happen in the rest of the region."

"Kel just said they'd call me if they needed to clarify somethin', or that I could call them if I remembered something else." Casey looked at Bruno quizzically. "You think they're gonna go get Dragons in other places too?"

"Man, you got to meet Hoshi?" Jordan asked Bruno in awe, as Sage brought him a bag of toiletries. He frowned. "Does this belong to anyone? Anyway, I didn't even get to see him, some of the trainers just took me inside after and let me use their phone to call the cops." Casey made grabby hands at his things, and Jordan suddenly realized he glossed over what he'd said. "What's Kel?"

"My cousin, I guess. They're police."

Jordan looked at him quizzically. "You guess?" Casey shrugged and looked like he might have elaborated, but-

"AAAARGHH!" Gwen erupted. "Damnit, I can't get over what happened with that guy! That's so cruel what he tried to do; I just wanna find him and...argh!" After a brief pause she managed to cool down and sighed. "But someone from the Cerulean gym told me I should leave it to someone trained for the situation. That didn't stop me from catching Jess though, since she has a type advantage against fairies if I ever run into him again," she said while looking over at her Ekans slithering around in the grass.

"That gym person is right," Casey said firmly. "We're not capable of dealing with people like that at all."

"That wouldn't keep us away from any future trouble with them though." Bruno answered.

"You still can't fight them!" Casey argued, suddenly very serious. Parsley startled. "Oh- no, no, shhh, I'm sorry baby boy..." He nuzzled against Parsley's neck even as he continued in a far more subdued tone. "If we see 'em again, which I still don't think is likely- we can't fight 'em. They're perfectly willing to hurt us as well as our Pokémon. All we can do is stall long enough to get away."

"That's why I'm gonna get stronger." Gwen stated. "And when me and my Pokemon do, we'll kick their asses."

Casey sighed into Parsley's fur and shook his head, but didn't say anything more.

"That reminds me actually" Gwen said in a much more casual tone than her last sentence. "Since I caught Jess to beat that Morgrem I wonder if I could do something similar with uh...shit what was that Galarian trainers name again?"

"Bethany," Casey supplied, slightly muffled.

"Right, right. So as I was saying I wonder if I could adjust my team to try to counter any similar tactics if I ever run into her again." Gwen wondered. "I think if one of my mons knew Taunt that'd help me out but… I don't think any of them learn it. Not anytime soon at least…"

"Uhm... Taunt is the safest option." Bruno said and paused for a while looking at Gwen's Pokémon "Axew learns it… I think. But I don't think you want to put it against her Vulpix."

"OH!" Gwen exclaimed "Pix knows Quick Attack so if she ever uses Endure again I can get a hit in and take out her Vulpix… Why didn't I think of this earlier?"

"Thinkin' too much," Casey mumbled. Parsley flopped down at his side and Casey took the opportunity to use him as a pillow, shifting Pepper to lay mostly on his chest. The conversation lulled, the five trainers taking a moment to reflect on the day.

Until Casey yelped and instinctively curled up as forty pounds of Dragon slammed into his side.

 

[budube]

Bruno Dillinger
May 22, Wednesday

Route 9, After Dinner: Part 2: The Vigilante
JP with Queen Nothing, Aquacorde and juno​

---

Fomantis art cred​

Evening, Somewhere near the camp at Route 9

She liked the new name that girl and Bruno gave her. 'Named after a saber'... it suited her. That and the recent battle left her with the urge of having a battle of her own, but that couldn't happen staying with the group so she limited herself to running around the camp and climbing the nearby trees. Weirdly enough, there weren't any wild Pokémon nearby she could pick a fight with either, and as much as she wanted to pick a fight with the other Pokémon that would only mean more trouble… or not?

Shir was as entertained as possible, running around the flat ground of the camp and jumping from tree to tree at times. She thought of herself as some kind of superhero… or a vigilante since she liked attacking everyone on the wrong without her human's approval, like a gang of Spearow, a pearl-robbing Zigzagoon or that bouncing food thief that she couldn't catch because he was faster than her. She was hiding in the tall grass, waiting for a new villain for her to stop, one that only someone as strong as her could beat, after all her name was 'Shir: Guardian of Kanto and Defender of Just--' CRACK.

The Grass-Type jumped in surprise the moment she heard something under her small legs, the sound ruined her fantasy and her good humor, because superheroes shouldn't be startled by those things. What caused that sound was only a small, broken stick. It looked as if it came out of a small tree or a bush and it had two smaller branches at each side. But for Shir this was not just a stick: It was a sword.

With a lot of might and a bit of effort, she took the stick with her two arms, having a lot of trouble trying not to cut it. It was perfect, big enough for her and easy to wield. No one stood a chance against her now.

As she was staring in awe at her "sword", an Axew had begun to approach her, and he looked like he was ready to pick a fight with just about anybody. The Axew walked up to Shir with his chest puffed out and his head up, while looking down at anyone who was in his path. When getting close enough, the dragon Pokemon let out an arrogant "Kew kew!" in an attempt to strike fear in his opponent's heart, regardless of how successful he was.

To him, Shir looked like a worthy opponent. In an attempt to rile her up, he swiftly yanked the "sword" from her arms and threw it behind him; His way of saying "fight me."

Shir hissed angrily at the Axew. 'A villain' she thought. He was trying to destroy the little world she created and getting rid of her weapon was the first step for his goal and he had to be stopped. With another sharp hiss, Shir jumped against her enemy. The first one to attack had a better chance of winning after all.

The cocky Axew waited for Shir waited for the right moment and when she got just close enough, the Axew chomped on her arms, leaving Shir to dangle in the air.

It was an unexpected move from the Dragon-type, but Shir wouldn't give up just yet. She had to counter him and Shir had the perfect weapon for that. She swung her free arm and threw a Razor Leaf on the Pokémon's jaw, forcing him to let her other arm free. The Axew smirked, ran up to Shir to, and scratched the Grass Type. Shir answered with a Fury Cutter that threw the Axew to the ground.

Shir took advantage of the situation and ran to her sword that was still on the ground. When the Axew got up again, she hit him with it, causing her sword to break and making her trip. In response the Axew heartily laughed at what was just on display, letting his guard down.

As soon as she got up, Shir started running against the Dragon and pushed him across the way. They were getting closer to the campsite, but she didn't realize it.

The Axew decided it was time to go all in. He puffed out his chest again letting out a louder "KEW KEW!" than before and ran up to Shir, scratching her multiple times. But Shir wouldn't let that Dragon beat her. Using her arms, she started blocking the scratches as she could and tried to hit him whenever she saw an entrance. With each blocked scratch, the Axew was putting in more force into his scratches, hoping to break Shir's guard.

Unable to block any more scratches, Shir rolled away from the Dragon and retreated back to the camp, hoping that she left the Axew behind her. This was not the case, as the Axew was persistent tried to pounce Shir but missed his target, instead hitting one of the trainers. Casey yelped and instinctively curled up as forty pounds of Dragon slammed into his side. Parsley startled and made a break for Casey's tent, leaving his trainer to hit the ground with an "oof!" Pepper, slow to move after his exhausting day, chomped flaming teeth down only on air as the Axew bounced off and charged back into battle. Jordan, who was sitting next to Casey, ushered his own startled Skiddo to join Parsley, before checking on his friend.

"Tusk!?" Gwen shouted "What the fuck are you doing!? You know if you wanna battle somebody you gotta ask me first!"

Bruno looked back at where Gwen was looking after she called her Pokémon and quickly got up to pick up Shir the moment he saw her running against Tusk. "Stop it." she was furious and struggling to break free from her trainer's hands. "What's wrong with you? You're going back to your Pokéball unless you cut it." Shir didn't answer, she just looked away with her arms crossed as always still with the urge of cutting things. Bruno put her on the ground hoping that she wouldn't lose control again. Casey sat up warily at Jordan's prompting, running fingers over the back of his head.

"Oh, uh… sorry for that. Are you okay?" Gwen went up to Casey while hip-carrying a struggling Axew. "Sorry, Tusk here is just...really rough."

"No blood," Casey inspected his fingers again in the low light. "Don't think. It's probably fine."

"I don't know what happened. She gets carried away when she's angry." Bruno sighed. He looked back at his Pokémon, she was still standing there with her arms crossed. "She didn't cut you, thankfully."

"They woke me up though," Casey grumbled, pulling Pepper back into his lap. "She wants t' cut something, she could do me a favor and cut the sleeves off this."

Bruno tilted his head "What?"

Casey waved his scorched t-shirt vaguely. "This. Gotta cut the burnt sleeve off. But if I cut one sleeve off then I gotta cut both off. So I gotta cut both off." He yawned. "And 'm tired."

"A-are you sure about this? I-I mean…" he looked back at Shir, she wasn't angry anymore, instead she had her eyes very open and firmly looking at Bruno. The boy sighed, of course she liked the idea. "S-sure. Only the sleeves. But if something goes wrong…" he shrugged "Not my fault."

Casey fluffed the shirt and laid it flat on the ground. Shir stood by his side, hopping a little rushed and moving her arms up and down. "Cut here," he said, tracing the seams joining the sleeves to the body of the shirt. "Right on that line." The Pokémon nodded and got into her work. Bruno could feel this wasn't going to end well.

---

Bruno's Party:

​

 

[Eleanor]

The Painkiller
🍀🍀🍀
Arianne and Vera
Route 9 - Day 3 - May 22^nd

Joint post with Godzil
​

---

♫ - Alter Bridge - Addicted to Pain
Vera wasn't watching where she was going, instead watching her shadow growing as the sun set behind her. She had hastily grabbed her oversized backpack and tucked her Pokeballs into her pockets when she left, so at least she wasn't forgetting anything back at the campsite, because there was no way she was going back there. She had left in such a rush, it would be too awkward to go back now.

The cool air and the calm environment helped clear her head, and she finally stopped to take several deep, calming breaths once the glow of the fires were all out of sight. It was embarrassing, running away like that, and she hated how weak it made her feel. She hadn't had a panic attack like that since her first week at Cape College, but without taking the time to explain to anyone, they must have all thought she left because she didn't want to be around them anymore.

She looked back toward the campsite, no longer visible in the dying light. She thought about cooking with Pepper and helping him evolve. She thought of Casey and Jordan's goofy antics. Of Bonnie and Spirit bonding, of her friendly chat with Arianne, of maybe making some real friends for a change… and she turned her back on it, certain that she'd just ruined any chance of that. She'd pushed them all away again, leaving herself alone.

Except… one of them didn't want to be pushed away, and tried to hold on to the girl for as much time as possible. Vera could not know that though… not until she stopped running. "Vera…!"

Arianne also left the camp, hoping to catch up with her friend, but no matter how fast she'd walk the distance between them didn't seem to shorten at all. She kept her eyes fixed on the girl, so she could react in time if she decided to change path, and was relieved to see Vera finally slowing down. Still unsure of what to do, Arianne walked closer to the other girl and waited for a bit, before finally showing herself and calling her name.

Vera turned when she heard her name, shocked to see her friend walking up to her. "A-Arianne! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back at camp? With the others?" She looked behind Ari, but didn't see anyone else.

"And what are you doing here, Vera?" the other girl replied instinctively, before calming down herself and taking some breaths. "I mean, I had the feeling something was up. And the way you were running away from the camp… well, I'm sure of it now!" After more panting, Arianne continued. "Just, are you sure you don't wanna go back to the camp once you calmed down? It's… it's not safe out here."

Vera let out her breath, thinking it over. She shook her head, but couldn't look Arianne in the eyes. "No. I don't want to go back. There's a Pokemon Center right down the road. It'll be easier to just push forward." She didn't actually explain why she left. She pulled Bonnie's Pokeball out, sending her out. She took note of the flower Bonnie had tied to her club, but dismissed it from her mind.

"Bonnie, use Leaf Blade. Just… make it appear, I have an idea." Bonnie did as instructed, summoning the green blade. It glowed slightly, shedding dim light roughly equal to a candle. Vera frowned at it, but forced a smile for Ari. "See? I have Bonnie to protect me, and she can even light the way so I don't trip or fall off anything. I'll be fine."

"That's…" Arianne muttered in surprise. "That's cool!" She realized only now she doubted on Vera unnecessarily, and feared once again, she'd only act as dead weight.

This feeling only got stronger as she tried to remember the way back to the camp. And couldn't. She also made some kind of promise with Jordan, and would have had to break it! But…

"I- I still would like to come with you, though. Just so you know, I'm not worried about you… well, tripping." she replied with a slight chuckle, hands in her hair as usual.
"Let's make it to the center now, alright?"

In truth, Vera had been very concerned about tripping in the dark, so Bonnie's ability to create even a little light was a great relief to her. But once again, Arianne surprised her. "You… want to come with me?" Vera hadn't expected that, thinking that she would be better off alone. But, maybe if it was Arianne it would be okay…

Vera nodded, briefly putting her hand on Ari's shoulder. "Some company would be nice. Let's go. Lead the way, Bonnie."

"Thanks, Vera!" Arianne cheered as she started walking after the Cubone. The fact that her friend didn't mind having her around was relieving.

Arianne still wanted to feel more useful, though, as if she owed it to the other girl. And the only way she knew was, obviously, to call out Eric once again. So, not much after that, the Squirtle was perched on Ari's backpack as she walked, ready to use Heal Pulse… on Vera, of course.

This time though, Arianne had at least the courtesy to ask. "Wanna receive Heal Pulse? It'll help us to get to the center in better shape!"

"That sounds lovely, but only if it's not too much trouble for Eric. He doesn't have a daily limit, does he? I'd hate to use it all up if he does." She walked closer to Arianne, not entirely sure of the range of his "magic". "If not, then yes, thank you!"

"You heard Vera didn't you? Feel free to use Heal Pulse the way you prefer… on her, of course!" Arianne whispered to her pokemon. Eric nodded, even though Ari couldn't see him, and targeted Vera with his move, slightly soothing her pain and tiredness. "What should I say then? I'm always carrying him like this!" Arianne then joked, trying to lighten the otherwise serious mood. "Let's keep going while Heal Pulse is in effect!"

Vera patted Eric on the head, thankful for the Pulse. "That still feels so strange, you know? Not bad, just strange. Does he do this for you often?" They kept walking, the sun starting to dip below the horizon making Bonnie's light more helpful.

"Maybe even too often…" replied Ari with a smile. "And the first time he did, I didn't even know! Look here-" the girl continued, moving some of her purple hair aside to show a few cuts on the right side of her head. "This happened when Mulan basically fell on my head, on Monday. Eric noticed this and kept using Heal Pulse, but I only discovered it when it was evening… because he was staying on my backpack like now."

"And while it's not some kind of panacea, it acts as a painkiller and tranquilizer of sort. Maybe that's why it feels strange?"

"Maybe…" Vera thought about it, glancing at a rock on the side of the road, but thinking better of whatever she was about to do. "I've… taken a lot of medicines in my life, and some have had really weird side effects. I haven't noticed any with Heal Pulse, which is… nice." She looked away again, not sure where she was going with that thought.

"Side effects? All I've noticed is, I'm getting careless and hurt all the time! But that aside, there are no side effects that I'm aware of." Arianne replied, again with a reassuring smile on her face.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that…"

"It's okay." Vera replied quickly. Maybe too quickly. "No need to worry on my account. People get sick, they get hurt. What's important is that they get back up. No matter how many times they fall, they always get back up. I'm a Trainer. I'm a good Trainer." She was looking forward, but Ari could see something in her eyes she hadn't seen before, not like this. Something hard, and determined. "And where is that Pokemon Center? I could have sworn it was nearby!"

Her own memories of Cinnabar resurfaced suddenly, thanks to Vera's words. They seemed to have come out of nowhere… no, wait. It was Arianne's last sentence, coupled with the effect of Heal Pulse. "Right!" the black haired girl cheered, thinking about all the things she had already gone through on her path to become a trainer (including, leaving her hometown).

Her friend's determination (which she'd never felt as strong as now) made her understand two things: one, she was justified to use Heal Pulse to heal herself anytime, and, two, she was justified to leave Cinnabar and choose her own path in life, because eventually everything would have fallen into place the way she wanted.

"About that center… yeah, probably further ahead than we thought." Arianne's thoughts were interrupted by her friend's other words, and a more fed up expression took the place of her smile. "You don't have a tent either, do you?"

"...no. No I don't. I thought there was a Center on this road, and that the campsite was just going to be a little rest stop. And now I don't remember where I heard that information. So I don't even know who to be mad at for lying to me!"

"There's gotta be one, I'm sure… right before Rock Tunnel." Arianne patted her friend on the shoulder. "Let's… let's keep going!" she said in between breaths, as she tried to stay motivated by thinking about how much better an actual bed would have been, compared to a sleeping bag inside Jordan's tent.

Vera couldn't help but grin at Arianne. Always the optimist, she had more than once shaken Vera from whatever rut she found herself in. "Good idea. Maybe we just need someone familiar with the area to help us." She tossed another Pokeball, calling out Iggy. The little Rockruff wagged his tail when he spotted Vera, putting his paw on her leg.

"Yes, hi Iggy." Vera scratched behind his ear. "We're trying to get to the Pokemon Center. Do you know the way? Probably a lot of humans go there, use your... keen smelling or whatever dogs do to find it."

Iggy barked, then started sniffing at the ground. He walked around in a circle, ending up at Ari's feet. He barked twice, then sat down, panting happily. Vera covered her face with her hand. "Other humans, not Arianne."

The girl couldn't help but laugh. She would have wanted to pet Iggy, but remained collected so that Eric wouldn't fall down. "He followed his senses perfectly after all, plus he's still so cute!"

Arianne had no way to help, though. No flying types or developed senses. All she knew was that, at the end of that route and before the wretched Rock Tunnel, there had to be something. "All we can really do is follow the most beaten path… we'll get somewhere eventually." she declared, Eric still trying his best to keep the Heal Pulse in effect.

"Eventually, right…" Vera recalled Iggy back into his ball. "And in the meantime, it's getting darker, we're probably going in circles, and let's not forget my favorite part, there are snakes out here. Poison type snakes, along with Poison type rabbits, wild dogs, and apparently tiny dragons." She sighed, that rant taking a lot out of her. "I'm sorry, I just… feel like I made a mistake, and dragged you into it."

---

Arianne's team:

Eric •

Mulan •

Alice •

Mizar

 

[Groc]

Vera Hill, Arianne Chandler
Chapter 3 - Pokemon Center of Attention
Route 9, May 22nd

---

"I'm sorry, I just… feel like I made a mistake, and dragged you into it.

Arianne felt this way many more times before… like with Ralph on the river, for example. Or back at Cinnabar, while swimming with her friends further away from the coast. All things considered, she had an idea of how Vera was feeling. Except…

"Be honest, Vera. You didn't expect me to follow you this far, or have Eric help you. And maybe, you didn't even think about the wild Pokémon, or where to sleep!" Arianne finally said, thinking about the best words to use. "But I was the one who decided to come after you. And I'll do my best to fend off these Pokémon! After all, whatever mistake we've made, it doesn't matter anymore."

Given how Vera was acting, though, the Heal Pulse was probably fading away - and Arianne's encouragement couldn't match up with the effects of a Pokémon move. "Are you alright, Eric? Sorry, it seems you can never catch a break with me…" she whispered to Squirtle, who replied with what sounded like a reassuring cry. "Vera, can you get closer to me, please?"

Vera looked away while Arianne talked, but the grumpy puffing of her cheeks indicated that she was spot on. She did look over when Arianne promised to protect her, earning a genuine laugh. "All this time, I always thought you were the princess in those fairy tales, but now you're my knight in shining armor?" She walked a little closer, close enough she could have put an arm around Ari's shoulders, but didn't. Thought about it, but didn't.

Bonnie was inspecting the ground, determining where the proper path was. She pointed to the east, walking slowly until the humans followed her so she didn't leave them behind in the dark. "Hey, she found the path!" Vera was in a better mood now.

"I know, I may have looked like a spoiled princess back at the College, but a princess can fight too." Arianne smiled. Squirtle did the same, as his target getting closer meant it was easier for him to use Heal Pulse. "We walked so much after leaving the camp… the Center's gotta be close!"

Vera laughed. "I don't even know how I looked in College. If you were the Princess, I was probably the wicked Witch or something." As they crested the next hill, they could see a few lights in the distance. Most prominently, the large Pokeball logo of the Pokemon Center. They had made it!

"A witch? Maybe, but a good looking one. Like… Froslass? Gardevoir? That seems like it!"

"Ha! That's not a bad image, actually. I'm okay with that." Bonnie suddenly stopped, sniffing at the air. "What's up, Bonnie? You smell something?" Vera looked around, but it was too dark to see much beyond their little circle of light. "Come on, it's right there. We'll be there soo-"

Bonnie leaped toward Vera, barely dodging an incoming attack. In the dim light, a massive Arbok reared up, hissing at the girls. It must have smelled them while out hunting. Bonnie held her club at the ready, waiting for instructions, but when Vera saw the snake she panicked, hiding behind Arianne.

"W-what… Eric?" Arianne yelped in fear, feeling Vera's breath on her own neck and the Arbok's eyes set on her own. But as the Snake Pokémon lunged towards the group, Eric jumped from her trainer's shoulder and quickly used Protect. While still in shock, and barely standing up after Squirtle's jump, Arianne had at least some time to think about her next move. "Better to keep up Protect, rather than attacking! Got it Eric?" she hastily commanded, while rummaging through her pockets and backpack to find as many other Pokèballs as she could.

"It's fast…" Vera whimpered from behind Arianne. "Maybe we can slow it down?" She pulled out Sapphire's ball, sending the dark Meowth out. "Sapphire, use Icy Wind, but stay behind Squirtle. I mean, Eric. He'll keep it at bay. I hope…"

Sapphire exhaled a blast of frigid breath, leaving a thin layer of frost on Arbok. It instantly turned to face her, hissing angrily and glaring at her.

Arbok attacked again, and Eric once again used Protect to keep himself and Sapphire safe. But this time, the Snake Pokémon was able to break it, as if it was a glass pane.

Eric endured the hit, but was knocked back behind Sapphire and Bonnie, and looked towards his trainer with weary eyes.

Vera stepped in front of Eric, taking off her backpack. "Sapphire, Icy Wind! Bonnie, Headbutt! Try to distract it." She fished around in her pack, pulling out a Potion for Eric. "You've been healing me for a while, how about I return the favor? Just please keep that monster away from me! Uh, us!'

Vera's Pokemon obeyed, and Arbok couldn't counter both at once. Sapphire was annoying, but she was keeping her distance, so it instead went after Bonnie, wrapping her in its coils. Vera quickly called Bonnie back into her ball, which unfortunately doused their only light.

Vera sent Bonnie back out just as quickly, igniting her Leaf Blade and creating more light. Arbok had managed to approach, now practically on top of the girls. Vera had the appropriate response: sheer terror.

Another attack came their way, but the girls were still unscathed. Another Protect was up, and knocked the Arbok back before it could hurt anyone.

Except… Arianne was knocked back too and nearly fell on Vera. The user of Protect was Mulan this time, and she was staying right in her trainer's arms - just like an actual shield!

Luckily, Vera's attacks had bought Arianne some time to call her out.

Vera steadied Arianne, getting an idea from Mulan in her arms. "Sapphire, one more Icy Wind!" Sapphire was behind the Arbok now, and her ice breath got its attention again. Vera called Sapphire back into her ball, then picked up Eric. "Run. These two will protect us, and Arbok's too cold to keep up now. If we can get to the Center, it should leave us alone!"

"Y-yes!" Arianne started to run, following Vera towards the Center, with Eric and Mulan ready to stop Arbok in case it tried to lunge at the girls. "We've gone around it! We did it!"

Needless to say, she was never going to be as fast as she wanted. She still was holding Mulan in her arms, and was definitely tired from the long walk. Arianne did her best to keep the pace of her friend, but (maybe because of the lack of Heal Pulse?) couldn't quite match it.

Vera wasn't about to let her friend fall behind. She held onto Arianne, casting a glance back over her shoulder. The Snake Pokemon had given up the chase, apparently knowing it was outmatched. Or maybe it was just trying to sneak up on them. Vera wasn't sure, and wouldn't feel safe until she was inside a well lit building again. "Come on, Arianne! We're so close to the finish line, you can't quit now!" She was tired, sore, and out of breath herself, but fear and determination are powerful motivators.

She pushed Eric closer to his Trainer. "Do your thing, little guy!"

Arianne recognized that feeling and knew what was happening. She looked at Eric for confirmation, and saw him smile at her, his eyes still glowing.

"I'm here, I'm here…" said Arianne with a cracking voice. "Thanks."

Can't believe he is still going, after all that happened today... she thought, trying to let out a chuckle but failing.

The girls made it to Rock Village, each carrying a Pokemon with a third at their heels, all of them running as fast as they could. It was definitely a rare sight for the quiet community, but most people were inside at this late hour, so no one actually saw them. They reached the Pokemon Center, and Vera threw her shoulder into the door to get inside as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, it was a pull door, and she instead bounced off the door and fell to the ground, wincing in pain. "Stupid… door! Why does it open out, that's a terrible plan! What if this were an emergency?" She got back up again, pulling open the door and ushering Arianne inside.

"Vera…?" The girl called out. Apparently even the most trivial things had the potential to go wrong in that route. "Are you ok?" She whispered as she entered the Center herself.

"I'm fine." Vera replied, though her face was beet red. "Just very embarrassed. Don't mention this. To anyone. Ever."

"But it's… ok, I promise." Arianne replied. In her mind, what happened was totally understandable, given it was an emergency, but the worried look in Vera's eyes suggested otherwise.

Vera nodded, not sure what else to say. "...thank you." She recalled Bonnie back into her ball, setting Eric down as well before heading to the reception desk. "Hello, we're Trainers, and need rooms for the night?"

"And we also need to heal our Pokémon, don't we…" Arianne's voice echoed through the otherwise empty room as, after recalling Eric and Mulan into their Pokéballs, she made her way to the desk - finally standing beside Vera.

"Yes. We also need to heal our Pokemon." The receptionist smiled politely and asked for their Pokemon, handing each girl a key in exchange.

"Would you like to be called when your Pokemon are ready, or have them delivered to your rooms? We can also hold onto them until morning, if you'd prefer."

"Delivered to my room… please!" replied Arianne, thanking the receptionist. She then turned towards Vera. "We're here, we did it!" the girl said, relieved, trying to hug Vera once again.

Vera didn't resist the hug, letting Arianne embrace her. "Same, deliver them when they're ready!" She quickly told the receptionist before actually returning the hug properly. It was… nice, a hug. Not as bad as Vera thought. She kept her arm around her friend as they made their way to their rooms, conveniently located across the hall from each other.

"What a day…" Vera sighed, leaning against her door. "I just want a hot bath, then to crawl into an actual bed."

"Same…!" cried out Arianne, maybe a bit too childishly. "Well, we can't say we didn't deserve this. Oh, by the way…" she then added, "what about exchanging PokéGear numbers? Just in case." The black haired girl grabbed the device, hoping that the battery would still hold some energy.

"Numbers?" Vera retrieved her own device, awkwardly clicking through it. "Oh, I do have a number! Sorry, I've never used this as a phone before." She found her information, and was able to exchange numbers with Arianne. "I've never actually given anyone my number before. I promise not to call all the time, but I will call." She tried to smile, not sure if she was joking or just being weird.

After noticing that her PokéGear was still alive, Arianne laughed. "Alright, I'll do my best not to be annoying! This is the second time I exchange numbers with someone on my journey, but I have many friends and relatives registered already! Oh, what would I do without this thing…"
The girl sighed, her eyes fixed on her PokéGear, before regaining her smile. "Thanks again, Vera!"

Vera looked between Arianne and her PokeGear, remembering that she would often make calls on it during college. She hadn't thought about it then, but the mention of friends and relatives made sense. She snapped out of her thoughts when Arianne thanked her, returning the smile. "Any time. Except for the Arbok. Let's never do that again!"

She opened her door, pausing before entering. "Good night, Arianne. I'll… see you in the morning?"

"You'll have to wake me up, I reckon!" the other girl laughed. "Good night, Vera!"

She then finally entered her room, laid her backpack down and sat on the bed. My Pokémon should be here soon…

Vera looked at the closed door. "Good night…" she entered her own room and sat on the bed. "...my friend." A small but genuine smile crept onto her face as she laid down, suddenly very tired.


A joint post between Cyaloom and Godzil.

 

[Dragon]

-------Noel ⏩ Camping​

Intermission: Super Super Magic!!​

"Ladieeeeees and Gentlemen!" shouted a voice. There were no other trainers as energetic sounding as Noel, so it must have belonged to her. Noel seemed to be wearing a different type of outfit; this one was more mono-coloured than the normal colourful attire she usually had on. She addressed the group with a smile and a bow. "I have a motto,that has been passed down through my parents to myself, you see… the best kinds of trainers are those who have the biggest smiles. So! Noel Yukino of the stars will now aim to dazzle you all, with what I call, magic!"

"Chahahaha! Aren't you forgetting something, Noel?!" then seemingly called out a voice from nearby. Noel hastily looked behind her as the one to greet her was seemingly Luna, with somewhat of a large purple box. Perhaps Noel had it stashed somewhere and decided to assembly it prior to arriving at camp?

And another thing. Was Luna… talking?

Actually, no. It was just Noel, doing ventriloquism as Luna moved her mouth to match noel's speech patterns. It was amazing how in sync they both are, but they were both two peas in a pod to start with.

"As long as I, the beautiful Luna is here, none shall escape my powers of infatuation! You're charms and dazzlement are no match for me!" Luna then blew a kiss. A kiss that was styled by her Charm attack. She then smuggly sat on top of the box, holding a seemingly small parasol.

"That's enough!" Noel heroically announced, pointing straight at Luna. It looks like they're both also doing a small play as well. "Give up your dastardly ways!"

"Woah, a talking Clefairy!" Gwen said in awe, not realizing it was ventriloquism. "HEY, WHERE'D YOU FIND A TALKING CLEFAIRY!?" she shouted at Noel without realizing how rude she was being. Casey looked baffled.

"It's ventriloquism," he whispered to Gwen.

"Oh. Uh...I knew that."

Luna giggled cutely as she flashed her parasol in front of her, only for her to magically vanish right before Noel's eyes. Noel looked flustered as she surveyed the area right and left for her.

"Over heeeeere!" then cried a voice. It was Noel playing as Luna again. Luna seemed to have reappeared right behind and above Noel, floating above thanks to the parasol she was carrying. Luna was using her minimize, a move that shrunk her down till she was out of sight. Then after a while, she decided to grow herself again. Luna quickly kicked Noel with both her feet, making Noel tumble inside the mysterious box. Luna then grabbed the front lid of the box, closing it tightly.

She then winked to the crowd, then blew a stream of hearts to the box, caressing it with hearts and the colourfulness of pink, exploding it into a large pink cloud. "Now, behold the power of my influation! You are now under my spell, Noel!"

"Think again!" called out another voice. Luna was shocked to see that Noel had made her way out of the supposedly closed box, standing right beside it. "You're not bewitching me today!" she then hit the box with her fight fist, as it flew open. Right from inside, a slew of Spearow flew from out of the box, who were all seemingly inside.

Noel and Luna exchanged looks. After a while the both smiled as the turned back to the crowd as Spearow continued flying out of the box. After a while, they've all flew away, as Noel and Luna both took a bow. "Thank you!"

Casey applauded. Pepper copied him, slightly less effectively. Gwen joined in on the applause fasciated at what she saw. Jordan stood up and whooped, disturbing the Skiddo who was laying on his lap. She made a snorting noise of discontentment, and he sat back down. Bruno wasn't paying attention but did as if he was applauding as well, exchanging looks between Shir and the Spearow in case she loses control again, Bumblebee at his side was applauding in excitement, dropping a Snorunt paddle fan he stole a while back and nervously picking it up.

Gwen glanced over at Bumblebee noticing the Snorunt fan. "WOAH! A shiny Spoink! And he has the same Snorunt fan that I do! But that probably means he belongs to somebody." She kneeled down to talk to Bumblebee and engaged in a bit of baby-talk "Hey little guy! You have the same Snorunt fan that I do! Wanna see it?" Gwen rushed over to her bag and searched through it but couldn't find her Snorunt fan. "Wait a minute...Did that Spoink steal my fan?"

The Psychic-type shivered and shook his head really nervous, negating at the same time while moving his arms. He pointed repeatedly at the ground as he grunted, and with a trembling hand he handed over the fan to Gwen. "You little *****!" Bumblebee looked at Gwen with confusion. What does that even mean?

 

[QueenNothing]

It was around the time everyone else started to sleep for the night, and Gwen thought it was natural to do the same given how tired she's been all day. She began to unpack her bag to search for her sleeping bag and pillow, but while doing so found a book she didn't quite recognize.

"The Reasons for Pokemon Evolution?" Gwen read the title of the book aloud "Where did I...Oh yeah, I remember! I borrowed it from somebody from Cape College!" Gwen paused for a second to realize something "Oh yeah, I borrowed it from somebody from Cape College...and I never gave it back…" Gwen shrugged "Oh well. Maybe I'll run into them on my journey, not that I'd remember them." She said to herself before putting the book back in her bag.



After she unrolled her sleeping bag, she called for her Pokemon.

"Pix! Tusk! Custard! Jess! Time for bed!" Gwen got into her sleeping bag, and Custard quickly did the same. Pix curled up on the end of Gwen's sleeping bag whereas Tusk just fell asleep belly first on the ground. Jess curled up on the ground, but nobody thought she would be asleep since her eyes were open. Not her fault though, she didn't have eyelids.

"Man, we all had a long day today and I'm beat. But tomorrow is gonna be a new day and we're gonna plow through Rock Tunnel like its nothing. Goodnight guys!"

Custard let out a tired "Pika!" but Jess and Vulpix gave no response. Tusk was already fast asleep by this point, snoring loudly while he was at it. This didn't prove to be a problem for Gwen as she drifted to sleep after her long day.

 

[Juno]

[a id]menu9[/a id]

[tab=3-6]3: Respite[/tab] ● [tab=dex5]Pokédex[/tab]

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3: Respite // May 22nd; Night

One by one, everyone started to turn in for the night, until it was just Jordan up. The magic show had everyone in good spirits again, after the somewhat mood-dampening conversation about their Cerulean encounters, and the fight that broke out between Bruno and Gwen's Pokemon. Noel Yukino... gotta hand it to her, the girl definitely knows how to lighten the mood. Jordan smiled and shook his head.

He had a tough time getting all his Pokemon to sleep. Spirit was out like a light before all the excitement went down, which was a bit of a shame since Jordan knew he would have loved the magic show. But the rest of his Pokemon refused to return to their Poke Balls too, and he thought it wouldn't be fair to return some while letting the others stay out. So they all opted to continue their 'authentic camping experience', cramming into the tight, two-person tent together.

A shuffling sound woke him up shortly after he fell asleep. Jordan opened his eyes. Two large brown eyes stared back, no more than three inches from his face.

"Aah—!" He let out a small yelp of surprise, but stopped when he remembered how long it took to get everyone in his tent to fall asleep. He looked behind him and surveyed the tent, hoping he hadn't woken anyone. Sage still lay sprawled out in Ari's spot, taking up most of the right side. Ari's... spot... Jordan thought to himself sadly, sighing. Wedged between the Skiddo and him was a large ball of blue vines, cradling Spirit. Last he remembered she had been holding both Spirit and Hop, but he must have been feeling restricted and slipped out from her grasp. He stood over his trainer now, staring intently at him.

"Hey buddy, what's up?"

The Pidgey made a stretching motion with his good wing, flapping it gently.

"Yeah it's a bit cramped in here," Jordan sat up and cracked his back. "Wanna go outside for a bit?"

Hop bobbed his head up and down.

"After you, then."

- - - - -​

A gust of cool air greeted them as they crawled out. Once outside, the Pidgey's playful nature came out again, as he sprinted over to a fallen pine cone and picked it up with his beak. He set it down a few feet away from where Jordan was sitting, before kicking it over to him with all his strength.

Jordan laughed. "You still remember the game we played when we first met?" Hop twittered excitedly, motioning for Jordan to flick it back. They spent the next few minutes sending the pine cone back and forth, until Hop started to tire out again.

Jordan stood up and stretched his legs a bit, before sitting back down in front of the tent. Hop did the same, stretching his injured wing as far as it would go, before awkwardly clambering up on his lap, as his trainer pet him on the head.

"How are the bandages, still okay?" Jordan lifted the wing gently, inspecting it. The Pidgey cooed softly, indicating he was not in pain.

Jordan leaned back and sighed. "Kinda beautiful out here, huh."

As they both gazed at the clear night sky, a Noctowl flew by, illuminated only by the moonlight. Hop stared longingly at it. He looked up at Jordan with an uncertain expression on his face, before looking down at his own wing. He had always seemed so unfazed by it that Jordan sometimes forgot he used to be able to fly, too, and must have missed the feeling...

"Of course I think you'll fly again. I believe in you." he said softly.

The Pokemon's expression softened, content with his answer.

"Do you believe in me, too?"

He chirped once, before nudging Jordan's hand with his head, asking to be pet again. Jordan took this as an affirmative.

"Alright! Tomorrow, bright and early, we'll be training the whole way to Lavender Town."

Pokédex

Pokemon on hand:

Tangela // "Tangles"

Ingrain
Constrict
Absorb
Vine Whip
Sleep Powder

Pidgey // Hop

Tackle
Sand Attack
Gust

Cubone // Spirit

Leer
Growl
Bone Club

Skiddo // Sage

Tackle
Growth
Vine Whip
Play Nice​

Return to Top​

 

[QueenNothing]

"Welcome back all to the Pokemon World Championship Series!" Gwen found herself in a large Pokemon Stadium, surrounded by fans relentlessly cheering her on. "Right now we're in the final round! The winner will become the Ultimate World Champion, a position more esteemed than any other champion role!"

"On one side, we have Gwen Alanis hailing from the Unova region! She's the younger sister of Jennifer Alanis and has definitely lived up to her, plowing through the brackets not losing a single Pokemon! We don't think anybody could take her down, not even her opponent here Guy McMann!"

Gwen saw the other side of the stadium she was opposed by a man covering himself with a large black cape with long black hair, one side being shaved. Something about him looked familiar, but she couldn't quite recognize it.

"Now with our introductions out of the way, lets our challengers BEGIN!"

"Tusk, you're up!" Gwen sent out Tusk, but instead of being an Axew he was a fully-evolved Haxorus who stood at 8 feet tall instead of the usual 6 feet. The crowd cheered.

"Alanis sends out Tusk, her infamous Haxorus! How will McMann respond to such a threat!?"

Gwen's opponent very casually tossed a Master Ball and sent out a Rayquaza of all things, this one being black instead of its usual green.

The audience collectively gasped at this. "McMANN MEETS ALANIS' TUSK WIT RAYQUAZA, THE SKY HIGH POKEMON! SURELY THIS WILL PROVE TO BE A CHALLENGE FOR ALANIS!"

Gwen wasn't fazed by this in the slightest. "Tusk, Outrage em!" Hearing this, Tusk immediately went into a frenzy and jumped high enough in the air to greet Rayquaza. While in midair, Tusk kicked Raquaza's head, sending the legendary Pokemon crashing into the ground. Tusk managed to land safely on his feet despite having been so high up in the air, and the crowd went wild over this.

"AMAZING! TUSK TOOK OUT RAYQUAZA WITHOUT GETTING A SCRATCH! HOW WILL McMANN RESPOND!"

Just as casually as he did the first one, Gwen's opponent tossed another Master Ball this time sending out Xerneas. Like the Rayquaza this one had unusual colors with its head being baby blue and its body being white.

"AND HE SENDS OUT XERNEAS, THE POKEMON OF LIFE! THIS IS GONNA BE HARD FOR ALANIS, HER TUSK IS STUCK IN OUTRAGE AND XERNEAS IS A FAIRY TYPE!"

Gwen smirked. "Piece of cake." Tusk rushed up to Xerneas regardless while still in Outrage, and grabbed it by the neck, following up with a suplex. The audience lost their minds, cheering even louder than last time.

"REMARKABLE! SOMEHOW TUSK MANAGED TO ATTACK THE XERNEAS DESPITE IT BEING IMMUNE TO DRAGON ATTACKS! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT WAS POSSIBLE! ALANIS IS UNSTOPPABLE!! McMAN ONLY HAS ONE POKEMON LEFT AND I DON'T THINK IT HAS A CHANCE OF TURNING THE TIDES!!"

Gwen's opponent held up an Ultra Ball this time. He tossed it out, but this time what sent out was unlike any Pokemon Gwen had ever seen or even heard about before. It looked really humanoid, almost uncannily so, and on the very feminine side. It had long blonde human hair, and- Wait, was it wearing clothes? It looked like it was hearing a white sundress. This Pokemon looked very familiar, but Gwen couldn't put her finger on it. The crowd started roaring at the sight of it.

"AND McMANN SENDS OUT...uhh, sorry folks, what was the name of it again? Is it called Betty Maller? Well regardless, McMANN MIGHT JUST TURN THE TIDES WITH THIS ONE HERE!"

The opposing Pokemon looked Gwen directly in her eyes.

"Whats th' matter, ne'er been in a Pokemon barnie?"

Gwen was shocked by this. Apparently the Pokemon she was fighting looked like a human and even talked like a human, so chances are, it was a human.

Not that she had time to think about this, because before she could process all this, the "Pokemon" disappeared and just as quickly reappeared, but she was next visible to the naked eye her fist was in Tusk's gut. The impact of this caused Tusk to fly into the stadium walls. "Fock aff ye dobber!"

"FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES, ALANIS HAS A POKEMON DOWN! THINGS AREN'T LOOKING SO GREAT FOR HER!"

Gwen returned Tusk to her pokeball. After putting him back, she tossed a Premier Ball and sent out Mismagius. She had no memory of ever catching one, but she wasn't complaining since it was her favorite Pokemon. "Awa' an bile yer heid!"

"Mismagius, use Shadow Ball!" Mismagius began to build up the energy to fire a Shadow Ball but before she had an opportunity to even fire it, the opposing "Pokemon" dashed up to the Mismagius and kicked it, which sent the ghost-type flying into the air. There was a long silence that lasted for about ten seconds after that.

"Well I don't think Mismagius is coming back from that! And Alanis only has one more Pokemon left!"

"Wait, I should still have four more!" Gwen said.

"Nae in the Championship Series ye dornt, ye chav!" Gwen turned her head to meet the "Pokemon" saying that but saw that it was rushing towards her, forming a fist that was right about to meet Gwen's face.

Gwen woke up to the sound of a girl stumbling near her, she had a Pokémon with her who was cheerfully crying "Cue! Cue!"

"Shh! Rosie, we don't want to wake up anyone here… even if it'll be fun. Also that kid over there looks like Bru- wait don't fall! Don't- Ow!"

A small girl with brown hair and sailor clothes laid in the middle of the camp with her face on the ground. Around her, six pink creatures stood and one of them still cried and jumped cheerfully "Cue! Cue!". Gwen, in a daze from being woken up could just barely muster up any words. "Yo- Who the f- I was just having the best dream!"

The girl got up rubbing her forehead. "What? Who said that?" One of the Exeggcute heads suddenly started growling. Gwen didn't realize that the other head shut up when that happened.

"An Exeggcute? Ok, Mismagius, use-" Gwen had to pause for a bit. "FUCK, that's right I don't have one! You piece of shit, you woke me up!"

"Uh-oh, a talking Pokémon! And it's angry! Wanda!" The angry Exeggcute screamed at when and the rest of the group turned at Gwen, all of them angry even the one that was crying before. Each pounced at Gwen, who meekly tried swatting them away. All the commotion was enough to wake Custard up and out of fear she used Thundershock on the Exeggcute. Of course this also hit Gwen, causing both of them to scream in pain, drowning out the sound of a zipper aggressively opening.

"Do either[/] of you know what time it is." It wasn't phrased as a question, but Casey still glared at the girls expectantly from where he sprawled half out of his tent.

"Buoy kid!" the girl said. "Be careful, there's this talking Pokémon here and is angry! Stay away, I got this!"

"Debbie. It's just Gwen."

"Who's that?"

"One of our classmates."

Gwen was laying down feeling both tired and in pain after feeling Custard's shock. "Wh- Debbie who? Never knew er."

"Don't matter," Casey groaned, pressing his palms into his eyes. "I know you both so shut up and figure it out later."

"Wait. If you are here and that talking Pokémon is a classmate… then that guy over there is…"

"Sleeping. Leave him be."

"No need to be that boring! I was going to wake him up…"

"But I'm not a Pokemon." Gwen muttered.

"If you wake him up he's gonna let that damn Gastly out. And that's gonna be a shitshow."

Debbie started laughing at him. "Oh you're- you're right!" Rosie on her hand laughed with her too.

Casey could see Debbie's train of thought coming from a mile away and chucked a PokéBall at her to interrupt it. It smacked her square in the forehead and released the Pokémon inside. "Pepper, make her lay down," he whined.

"W- Ow! Rude!" she looked at Pepper with attention knowing that something was different about him. "Hey, Ghost kid, what happened to this thing?"

"Evolved," Casey sulked, communicating to Pepper through some vague hand gestures. Pepper picked up his own PokéBall and tossed it back to Casey before politely smacking Debbie's arm a few times. He gestured for Debbie to follow him into the space between the two tents.

"Oh, cool! Good boy." she said patting the Pokémon's head. Pepper preened.

"Wait, how long has there been a Charmeleon here?" Gwen weakly asked.

"Oh my god," Casey whined. "Can we please sleep."

"Sounds good." Gwen let out a loud yawn. "But why did that chick think I looked like a Pokemon…" Gwen passed out after asking. Casey let out a sigh of relief. One down.

"Say," Debbie continued in a lower voice as she approached the tents, walking at Pepper's side. "Did you catch that one, or was it Bruno?"

Casey gave up. "Bruno'll tell you in the morning."

She giggled. "Guess I'll have to wait here then. He's impossible to wake up, anyways."

Casey clicked the PokéBall and called Pepper back. "Good night, Debbie," he said firmly, zipping his tent closed once more.

 

[Aquacorde]

Casey Holt & Jordan Springs

Thursday, 23 May 2019
Early Morning • Day 4
Route 9

3-23.
hey, kid, wake up

The tent is allegedly designed for two people, but only if they lay shoulder-to-shoulder and don't move in any way.

Skiddo don't understand that.

It's not Parsley's fault. He's not human, and therefore not proportioned to use a human tent. Casey's not exactly a small human anyway, and he tends to splay out and move around in his sleep.

Casey rolls over and breathes in deeply.

Casey is now awake.

He coughs out some leaves and sits up. Parsley, still in his flower crown, is snoring lightly. Interesting. He didn't know Skiddo snored. Buneary gives him a long look from Parsley's other side.

"I didn't choose to wake up choking."

She dismisses this and crawls over to paw at the door.

"Yeah, may as well."

Buneary strolls out on her own. Parsley refuses to wake up, so Casey shoves him out of the tent before joining them to start some stretches. Journeying is a lot of walking, he thinks. Obviously. But that means he probably doesn't need to do much in the way of cardio or lower body work for a long time. Upper body it is. Can't casually carry Pepper anymore, though. He's still not that heavy, but he's way too big...

Jordan is already packed up and ready to go. He doesn't even look up as he snaps shut a latch on his backpack. "Get back in there and put clothes on."

Casey tsks and lets his arms fall back down to his sides. "Prude." He grabs his backpack from the clothesline before diving back into the tent. He returns shortly, appropriately clothed for the slight chill of the morning and mostly packed. He shoves some trail mix into his mouth and wonders when he's going to be able to cook a real breakfast again. It's unfortunate that eggs are just not a travel-viable foodstuff.

Rock Tunnel is waiting, though! He has the tent packed up in under ten minutes, even with having to dance around a still-sleeping Debbie. It's definitely her fault that Jordan was completely ready to go before he even got up. Usually Casey's the one already doing things, even though they wake up about the same time. What was Debbie even doing out so late? He's not gonna wait around for her to wake up, so he supposes he'll find out next time he sees her.

The clothesline comes down and gets stowed away along with everything on it. His jacket's fully dry, which is a pleasant surprise. So is everything else, but that's the thing he was most worried about. The leather conditioner seems to have worked nicely too, he notes, as he pulls on the jacket and his boots. Buneary is quick to reclaim her spot on his shoulder. He'll have to thank Sorley at some point, he thinks. Actually... Casey digs out his PokéGear and sends a quick text. Sorley's response is immediate, though it consists only of a complicated emoticon that seems to convey some form of excitement. Both things seem very… them. He grins and sticks the device back in its designated pocket.

"Okay, let's go!"

Jordan eyes him and his phone suspiciously as he steps up next to him. "Who's that, are you texting a girl?"

"Why? Ya jealous?"

Jordan scoffs. "Yeah, right. But speaking of texting girls—" he pulls out his own phone as he pushes the Skiddo together, making them stand side by side. "Alright, look cute," he instructs. "Time to show Vera my flowers are not useless…" He manages to snap a quick picture and hastily sends it off to the girl, before Sage shakes off her flower crown and starts eating it.

"Send that to me, too! I wanna have a picture of my baby boy looking so pretty, yes-" Casey continues speaking, but it quickly devolves into unintelligible cooing as he coddles his Skiddo. Buneary looks disgusted, which is fine. She can miss out on cuddles and kisses if that's what pleases her.

"Alright, alright," Jordan returns his phone to his pocket after a few more beeps. "There, now let's go for real."

"To Rock Tunnel!" Casey cheers, picking up his walking stick and starting to head straight east once again. Hiking into the sun won't be great, but they'll make do. For the sake of a warm lunch. Vera had done well last night, but the flavor was still… camp-quality. Maybe he'll go for something with some kick to it when they get out to Rock Village. Wait-

Casey stops suddenly and pulls Buneary off his shoulder despite her protests. "Hey!" he says brightly, holding her at eye level. "I know your name!" She looks at him apprehensively. Last night's suggestions had been poor at best.

"It's Ginger!"

… She doesn't hate it.

Casey's Party

Pepper Bomb lv17 • Ginger lv9 • Parsley lv9

Other Things

Anna's Additional Characters

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