[X] My Assistant

[Douken Sota]

To: James, Justin
At: Pan's tent

Douken laughed as he told the kid, James, "Ah, nothing to worry about. I'm Douken Sota. Nice to meet you. My pal behind he is Rusty." Thinking about where he said he was from, he added, "You know, my dad said he is from Sinnoh too. However, he was born in Sandgem town." Of course, never being there, he didn't know it was pretty much the opposite side of the continent.

That was when a familiar voice called out to him. Looknig over, he could hardly tell the blur, but knew the voice. "Justin!" After a quick shake of his hand, he could not help but say, "Either you got a fast travel Pokemon like Arcanine or Skarmory, or you know how to travel." This was the third time Pan and Douken met up with Justin, each time of their parting, he went in an opposite way. Third time, and they still yet to get to Petropolis city!

When he started talking about the Kangaskhan, he rubbd the bottom of her cheek and told him. "Justin, this is Tamia. She belongs to my dad, which means my parents are... here..." He saw another Absol, and a quick moment passed though his head. "Uh, care to meet them?" he had to make sure someone was not freaking out...

[SaphireShadows]

To: No one
Location: PokeCon

"Wow..." was all Twila could say as she looked out upon the scene before her. PokeCon was almost in full swing in front of her, and many, many people were already there milling about the place. Twila had caught a bus and had traveled through the night from Petropolis. It had been a long trip, and she hadn't gotten much sleep on the bus, but she was excited nonetheless to see the breeder stalls and all the trainers around that she could battle.

Right...people... she thought as she timidly made her way through the crowds, her thick, black, curly hair bouncing as she went. She held on to her messenger bag tightly as a particularly large group of people walked towards her. The feeling of running into random strangers made Twila want to get to an open area as soon as possible.

Twila breathed easier as she walked along the backside of the berry stalls. There were less people on this side, which was fine with her. What were there, however, were about three Absols. They were walking with purpose, as if they were trying to say something. One was brave enough to walk right up to Twila and sit right at her feet. Thinking this was actually someone's Pokemon, she looked about to see if she could locate the trainer. Oddly enough, there was no one that Twila could see that was looking frantically for a Pokemon, so she just stared confusedly at the Pokemon for a few moments. A few moments later and the Absol was gone, almost without her even noticing. She shook her head dazedly and walked on. The field that PokeCon had been set up on was strange to Twila. She had never seen so many meteorites in one place, and never would she have ever thought that she would be walking past a meteor as big as a mini van.

With so many trainers in one place, there were so many different kinds of Pokemon that it made Twila's head spin. In just one instance she saw a Charizard, a Flygon and a Salamence flying in perfect synchronization in the mid morning sky, leaving trails of smoke, sparkles and fire behind them. Seeing all of the Pokemon reminded Twila that she had yet to bring out her own, so she quickly rummaged through her bag and brought out three Poke balls.

"All right everyone, come on out!" she said as she dropped all three balls on the ground. All three opened at once and released their charges: a very tiny Ralts by the name of Mai, an overexcited Makuhita named Merle, and an aloof female Nidoran named Kimber. "Welcome to PokeCon guys!" Twila said as her three Pokemon looked around in wonder. There were so many sights and sounds that the three became over stimulated very quickly. Feeling uneasy, Mai shuffled over to Twila and held her arms out, a clear indication that she wanted to be picked up. A flash of nervous emotions flowed through Twila as she picked up the tiny Ralts, which made her start. Had Mai just tried to use telepathy? It was possible; Mai was almost to the point where she could pick up on even the tiniest change in Twila's mood. Her psychic powers were growing, and once she evolved, who knew what she would be able to do?

Twila once again walked through the crowds of people, feeling a little more confident now that her Pokemon were beside her. She browsed the stalls - picking up free samples of berries and granola bars for her Pokemon at the Berry stalls - and came upon the Sky Ranch breeder stall. The types of bird Pokemon displayed there was astonishing, and Twila was very tempted to adopt an adorable Pidgey fledgling, but restrained herself and looked toward the other side of the stall instead. A beautiful collection of feathered quills was being displayed at the front of the stall. A rather large, bald man was watching over the quills, glaring suspiciously at anyone who passed by. He was very sweaty (although the temperature was perfect) and smelled of rank cabbage. Twila wrinkled her nose and proceeded to browse the shelves of quills furthest from the foul man. She was mildly interested, and was about to leave when she paused over four quills placed neatly in a row on the front table. One was white with red and black stripes at the end. It had a very native-like feel to it. The second one was a full, very black feather that was no doubt from some Dark Pokemon. The third was a long pink feather that danced in the slightest breeze. And the last one was a teal, somewhat primitive-looking feather. Twila leaned over the four beautiful pens, wanting just to hold one to see what it would feel like, when the large bald man stood up from his chair looking quite angry. Mai tugged on Twila's shirt warningly, but she was too engrossed in the beautiful pens to notice.

"No touching of the quills unless you plan on buying one!" he shouted. Twila's eyes widened as she quickly took her hand away, but the man yelling wasn't what shocked her. It was the sound of his voice. It was so high and squeaky that it reminded Twila of a certain famous cartoon mouse on helium. It was so absurd that she had to almost run from the stall to keep the clerk from seeing her laugh.

------------

"There," Twila said as she admired her work. After running away from the Sky Ranch stall, she had picked up a tent and had gone to search for a place to set up camp. She had chosen a spot around the edge of the campground between three large meteorites. Twila reasoned that if the wind decided to pick up, the three boulders would at least slow the wind down, making it much harder to blow the tent over. She had just finished setting up her tent when another breeder stall caught her eye. Curious, she abandoned her campsite for the time being and went to investigate, her three Pokemon loyally following.

This post has been edited by SaphireShadows: May 31 2011, 11:37 PM

[Pokefan209]

((I hope its okay that I'm playing some NPCs. They can be played by anyone, I was hoping.))
Listening intently, Kenz's face dropped slightly to a sad smile when Liz left. Returning the strong hug, Kenz waved after her.

"Good luck with the competitions!" She called. Watching her Pokemon out of the corner of her eye (Tropius was fighting with some people over her fruit), she returned to the counter.

"Excuse me, sir!" she called to the man in the back of the counter. A man with no hair and blue eyes turned to face Kenz.

"Well, hello to you, good lady! How can I help ya?" he asked in a slightly hourse voice.

"Well, I was just wondering if I could do anything to-"

"My goodness! I can see the flying spirit in your eyes!" he shouted suddenly. He zoomed into Kenz's face, making her head jerk back in surprise.

"Grandpa! You better not be messing with a customer!" came a voice from the back. A much younger man, about 20 or so, with short black hair, came out and dragged his grandfather away.

"Sorry about that. You want to do something? Come on, I'll show you what you can help with. My name's Yume, by the way."

"Kenz," the scared girl replied before following the man into the back, still watching the grandfather nervously, who was now mumbling something about a Braviary running over his grandma. In the back of the stand, Kenz noticed a large nursery with many baby bird Pokemon running around in a playpen. Some were expirementing with flight, but most were falling in a very comical way. The ones who were able to sustain flight fell back to the ground shortly in exhaustion and took a nap.

"Now, these little guys need watching. Make sure none get out of the pen, and if they need food, feed them the bottles," Yume pointed to a table with bottles and blankets and such, whatever you needed for babies. "And if they get tired and can't sleep, let them play a bit, then rock them to sleep and put a blanket over them."

"Thank you! You won't regret this, sir," Kenz happily exclaimed, excited to work with Flying types at their littlest stage.

"I'll leave you to it, then," Yume sighed, walking back out. Kenz watched the little Pokemon play around, fed a crying Vullaby, and rocked a baby Zubat to sleep. Best. Job. EVER, she thought.

This post has been edited by Pokefan209: Jun 30 2011, 04:26 PM

[Rasu]

Tyson was cheerfully on his way to both of the famous stalls when something caught his eye. Lava Cookies. Freshly baked too. Something seemed oddly familiar about them, though... There was a small group of people standing in front of the stall in a way that obscured most of the interior from Tyson's point of view but once he got through them what he saw pretty much surprised him.

"Grandma?!" the elderly woman behind the counter was indeed Tyson's grandmother but what she was doing there was beyond his understanding.

"Oh, Tyson, dear! What are you doing here?"

"I should be the one asking you that, don't you think?" the crowd was now focused on both of them and Tyson decided to speed things up. "Anyways, good to see you! How have you and Grandpa been?"

"Oh, always the same, dear. We thought we'd just get out of Arasam for a while, you see? As for your Grandpa..." before Esmeralda Ealdwine could finish her speech Tyson was already sighing.

"Let me guess, he's around here somewhere with his own stall making paintings." his grandma nodded at his statement and Tyson sighed again. "Fine, I'll go and try to find him. Oniden, lets go." the Elekid saluted the elderly woman before following Tyson out of the scene. This time it was Esmeralda's turn to sigh.

"By Arceus, that boy will never change. Running off like that. Cookie, dear, follow him and make sure he doesn't get into trouble." the small electric furnace behind her started shaking and out of it came a Rotom. With a mischievous laugh it rapidly darted off through the crowd to follow Tyson.

[Angels Fall Firs...]

To: Twila Reanne
Location: Nearby a Breeder Stall

"Hey!" Finnley shouted at his joyful pig darted away from him. "I told you to stop!" The green haired trainer flailed his hands as he blurted out more nonsense until Rue finally stopped. The little piglet just glanced over it's shoulder with its' playful smile. It giggled and nodded, but began running around yet again.

Sighing deeply, Finn looked down at the ground as he sulked silently. "First Bailey, now Rue." As his head was down he didn't notice where he was walking, until he already had bumped into someone. It was a woman with long, black hair, who had her party of Pokemon around her.

"Whoa!" He muttered, taking a step back. He had only bumped into her slightly, but it was enough to knock him back a step. He shook his head and looked up. That's when he took his time and actually checked her out. A chuckle escaped his lips, which was unintentional.

Finn slapped his mouth gently as he didn't want her to have heard his little giggle. She was quite the looker from what he could tell. Tanned, something he wasn't at all, with freckles too. Finnley was somewhat speechless, until it struck him to be polite. "Are you okay?"

This post has been edited by Angels Fall First: May 29 2011, 08:42 PM

[SaphireShadows]

To: Finn Oakley
Location: Almost to the Breeder Stall

Twila was almost to the breeder's stall. She could just see the pens where the young Pokemon were kept when a small pig Pokemon ran past her. She watched curiously as the little pig looked back and giggled. That's when something bumped into her back.

A small "uh!" escaped her lips as she skipped to regain her balance. Kimber, who was right in front of her at the time, uttered a startled "Ni!" and scrambled out of her trainer's way. She growled a little, but returned to Twila's side, giving her a half-hearted glare. Twila turned to find out what had bumped into her and saw that it was a green haired boy. He had large green eyes that made him look younger than he was, and was dressed smartly in a green vest and white shirt. Twila blushed slightly when he looked at her.

"Woah!" he said as he took a step back. Twila blushed an even deeper red and looked down at the ground. Mai gazed over towards this new human curiously. Seeing as she was still on Twila's hip she didn't have to look up at him, which was a pain if truth be told. She was so small that everything seemed to tower over her, and she was beginning to dislike it. Mai's attention snapped back to this new stranger as his mood shifted slightly. Twila didn't notice.

What she did notice was that he was giggling at her, which made her want to turn invisible. She was beginning to wonder if this guy was now mocking her, but a quick hand over his mouth told her that the giggle was unintentional, so she relaxed a fraction of an inch.

"Are you okay?" he asked after a few moments of silence.

Twila looked to the ground again and said, "Y-yes, I'm f-fine." Twila straightened Mai's necklace to keep from having to look the man in the eye. She was so bashful around men and she had never understood why. Mai nuzzled against Twila's shoulder, trying to reassure her. She ventured to speak a few more syllables. "A-are you, umm, okay?"

[Amissa]

To: Delainey
Location: Tents, and then Sky Ranch Table

"There! It's finally done!" Victor Worthington crowed with a wide grin as he wiped some sweat from his brow. His son, Daniel stood beside him and marveled at the tent that they had spent all morning preparing. The Worthingtons were one of the biggest names in their hometown of Gigarte. Victor was the current CEO and head architect of Gigarte Construction. He was the mastermind behind most of Gigarte's greatest building endeavors, all of which were functional, environmentally friendly works of art. However, Daniel himself had recently attracted a lot of attention in Gigarte in his exploits as a pokemon trainer. Naturally, they had to have an awesome tent.

Victor wanted their outdoor abode to be beautiful and comfortable, but natural. The tent had one bedroom for the family, and another room for indoor lounging, but the rest of it wasn't outdoors at all. Instead, it was something like a covered patio. There was just enough cover to protect from the rain. The hard work hadn't actually been putting the tent up, it was planting the garden. The Worthingtons, like most people from Gigarte, didn't know how to get on in life without being surrounded by the scent of flowers and wildlife. Therefore, they had carefully dug up a few of their precious babies...er, flowers, and brought them on the camping trip with them. Victor and Daniel had just finished surrounding their entire campsite with beautiful flowers from home, which had including preparing the soil, adding mulch, fertilizer, and water. Of course, when it was time to go, the Worthingtons would be digging it all up again and taking great care to leave the space exactly the way that they found it.

Meanwhile, Marie Worthington added the finishing touches to their tent. She had all of her paints out and was adding a few final dashes to color to her masterwork on the tent. "What do you think, my dears?" Marie asked her family as she stood back for a better look. On each side of her tent, she'd painted a Gigarte landmark. On one side showed Tigiate Square, another showed the beautiful Pokeringer Stadium, and on one side colored in mysterious and ominous dark blues and violets was Gigarte Grotto.

"It's wonderful! We have the most beautiful tent in the field, I think!" Daniel answered quickly. That much was obvious to him. The loveliness of the flowers and the lawn combined with his mother's own artistic talent made their tent stand out. Others had flags and symbols, and while they had neither, no one could look at their tent and guess that they came from anywhere else in Furoh.

Victor looked uncertain, however. "Are you sure that it's best to include the Grotto? I mean, after all that's happened there..."

"It's a part of our city, though, and that's what I wanted to represent. Gigarte isn't just a city of beauty, but also a city of triumph." Marie explained, looking up at the tent with a proud glow in her eyes. Victor couldn't help but smile, as he gazed at his wife with a tender expression. "I'm so happy that you thought of bringing the whole family here, Victor! We really needed to get out. No reason to let Daniel have all the fun. Plus, this way we can keep an eye on him."

"Mom!" Daniel blushed and ducked his head in embarrassment, but his smile never faltered. He loved his mother, and he enjoyed being spoiled and fussed over more than he would ever publicly let on.

"And the babies needed a chance to travel, I think." Marie continued. "The babies" in this instance weren't flowers, but the family's pokemon. When Marie and Victor met, each of them had their own pokemon. Marie had her beautifly, Skylight, and Victor had his grotle, Gaia. For their wedding, Victor and Marie were giving a sunkern which they named Sprout and raised together. On their ten year anniversary, the couple evolved Sprout into a sunflora. Lastly, they had Trick, a male nidoran that they had been given to commemorate the birth of their first child, Daniel. Since neither Victor nor Marie were actual pokemon trainers, they pokemon weren't very strong and lived mostly as family pets. Now, the group of pokemon made themselves comfortable around the camp.

Sprout did a merry little dance in the sunlight amongst the freshly planted flowers as Skylight twirled around him, the ageing beautifly just as graceful as ever. Gaia and Trick shared a bowl of food in the shade of the tent. Then, of course, there were Daniel's own pokemon. As a trainer, his pokemon were much stronger than his parent's was, but he was still learning how to bond with them. His machop, Hercules was his closest companion, but he was shy of crowds and Daniel kept him in his pokeball at this sort of gathering as a result. His newest capture, Ami the stunky, also stayed in his pokeball, but this was because Daniel had learned that stunkies were not well-appreciated pokemon. Even his mother, Marie, who normally loved all living creatures, was less than thrilled when Daniel boasted about his first captured pokemon. Of his team, only Geb the ninjask was outside his pokeball at the moment, buzzing faithfully at Daniel's side. Seeing his parents and the close relationship that they had with their pokemon, made Daniel feel a great surge of affection for Geb just for staying with him.

"I'm going to go check out some of the shops, okay," Daniel said, taking a look around and deciding that he wanted some time to explore on his own.

"All right, honey, but let's meet up for dinner, okay?" Marie suggested.

"Try not to get into too much trouble, Daniel," Victor said, giving Daniel a skeptical look as though he worried that his son might spontaneously combust if he was so much as poked too hard. This was normal. Daniel's parents were unusually protective because their son was unusually prone to deadly disasters. They hoped that by coming with Daniel to the PokeCon that they could somehow prevent any kind of impending doom by merely being present.

"Okay! Bye guys!" Daniel shouted. He was already running off towards the numerous stalls and was soon lost in the sea of trainers and pokemon lovers. Geb buzzed above Daniel's head now, and the young trainer had to take care not to accidentally tread on anyone's toes or they tails of their pokemon. "There's so many people...I can hardly see anything." Daniel complained to himself. Geb began to fly slightly in front of him, and without realizing it, Daniel was soon following his pokemon. Geb had his own ideas of what he wanted to do and before long Daniel found his way out of the crowd in front of a stall of feathered pens.

"Finest feathers in Furoh!" The vendor boasted. "If you can name a bird pokemon, I can show you a pen with that feather."

Daniel looked all of the feathers over, but he couldn't see the one that he was looking for. He shared a look with his ninjask as he put a hand over his chest, covering the secret that he kept hidden under his black T-shirt. Daniel had taken to wearing the rainbow feather that marked his first adventure as a pokemon trainer as a necklace tucked under his clothes, the adventure that was nearly his last. He wasn't sure if it was for luck, but the feather had come to mean so much to him that he wanted it with him at all times.

Daniel frowned (a rare thing) as he gazed down at the feathers, confused by his feelings at the moment. He felt sad that he couldn't talk to anyone about exactly what happened that day, and lonely when he missed his friends from the adventure, but that adventure had been his true initiation into what it meant to be a trainer. He'd felt like it was some sort of test of his heart, and that he had passed.

"Is something not to your liking, sir?" The vendor asked. Daniel blinked at him, and then smiled politely as he remembered where he was.

"Not at all, sir, they're all beautiful, but not quite what I'm looking for today." Daniel explained and then whispered to his bug pokemon, "Why'd you bring me over here, anyway?"

Suddenly, a cry rose up from the crowd as a large man screamed the most girly scream that Daniel had ever heard. Following this was some rather ghostly laughter. Standing on his toes, Daniel was able to catch a glimpse of the misdreavus as it continued on its reign of terror. "Geez, looks like some people can't control their ghost type. Who would let their pokemon just wreak havoc like that at an event like this? Some folks can be so irresponsi--oops!"

Daniel had turned suddenly just in time to see Delainey, a girl that he explored Gigarte Grotto with and whom he thought was particularly pretty. At once, Daniel's face turned a bright red and words failed to come out of his mouth even as his lips continued to move. Eventually, Daniel simply stopped trying to talk and just stood there to embrace the "I suddenly ran into a pretty girl and am now to terrified to speak moment".

Man, I thought I was getting over this whole "Girls freak me out" thing! It wasn't this bad when we were in Gigarte, but maybe that was because we were both so busy with exploring and training. Behind his head, Geb swayed back and forth, buzzing cheerfully at Delainey. Geb, Daniel thought, this was his plan! Why would he bring me to her, I wonder?

"Hi," Daniel eventually managed to croak out. "How've you been?"

[switzerIand]

The PokeCon was quite the sight. Tents stretched as far as the eye could see and mobs of people were swarming various tents for rare goods and exchanges. Zach took a deep breath, surveying the whole place, taking notice of the oddly large number of Absols surrounding the festival. He just shrugged it off and made his way down to the path towards the center of the gathering.

After 5 minutes of walking, Zach was lucky enough to find a space to set up camp next to a tent selling Lava Cookies. He placed his bag down and looked around. He was going to need a tent. Quickly, he spotted a merchant selling tents, trying to lure customers in. "Top notch quality for the lowest prices! Get your tents and tent supplies here!" he cried out. Zach made his way over to the tent and asked the man how much it was for a tent.

"700 PokeDollars," the man responded. "We have lots of different designs and colors."

"I'll take one, preferably just a solid color though." Zach said. After getting the tent and handing over his money, Zach made his way back over to his area and got ready to set up his tent.

~~~~~

30 minutes of hard work later, Zach stepped back and observed the tent. He sighed out of relief and mopped the sweat off of his brow as a cool, satisfying breeze of cool air passed his face. All that hard work had made Zach hungry, and the amazing scent of lava cookies from the stall next door seemed like perfection at this time. He made his way over to the stall and was overwhelmed by the delicious scent of warm, oven baked lava cookies. Zach ordered a box and looked around, and he could've swore he saw the head of his friend, Tyson. He didn't have anything better to do, so he preformed some stealth recon and followed the person in question.

This post has been edited by Pinsir: May 30 2011, 02:16 AM

[Master Houndoom]

To: No One In Particular
Where: From the Entrance to the Sky Ranch Table

Two figures walked up the path leading to the con. Despite it being the night before, it seemed to be in full swing already, perhaps owing to the many trainers who had opted to come early and stay the night. It is typical of such informal occasions that merchants try to hawk their wares early, and customers oblige them.

The pair stepped through the entrance, if two poles with a banner strung across them counted as such, hand in hand, and, though they spoke to each other, they looked around, and though they seemed to bicker, they were grinning from ear to ear.

"We're so late..!"

"Yes, well," said the young man responding to his companions complaint, "somebody refused to fly, and then the bus broke down--"

"Look, I have flown twice now in those... unnatural contraptions," the girl's face scrunched up, even though the boy, a tall, blonde young man, looked at her in confusion, "and have no intention of doing so again unless it's life or death."

"Contraptions," the boy said, after a short pause. "Really?"

"If the clanking death machine fits..." The girl looked at the boy and stuck her tongue out cheekily.

"Anyway," the boy continued, laughing, "I meant you could have gotten Bloodwing from the PC."

The girl, barely coming to the boy's chest and sporting bright red hair, rolled her eyes. "Bloodwing can't fly both of us, and somebody doesn't have a flyer of his own."

"I think Bloodwing would argue the point with you."

The pair walked on, cutting through the center of the field and avoiding people as they jostled to and fro, still hand in hand. The girl bumped the boy with her hip, playfully, and he laughed again. "Besides, I liked being next to you on the bus," she said. "You're a very comfortable pillow."

"Yeah," he said, patting his stomach and looking at it with a hint of worry, "maybe [b]too[/i] comfortable."

"Oh, please, Jaima," laughed the girl. "The way Shadow runs you around every morning, you're probably in better shape than when you left!"

Jaima looked at her sidelong, then bit his lip. Though he didn't answer, he was glad that she'd had that much confidence, even if his fear was something stupid. Of course he hadn't been getting fat. He just felt lazy since, for the past few days, he hadn't had the chance to train with his lucario. "Thanks, Meiko," he said, pulling her close by the shoulder.

"Don't thank me for telling you you're being silly, Jai-chan." Meiko wrinkled her nose, and the two walked on in silence.

Something caught Jaima's eye, beyond the notice of Meiko. "Do you think we'll see Pan? Or Darryn?" she said, sounding eager.

"Mmm."

Meiko looked up at him and sighed. "Don't be a butt, Jaima. Darryn went his own way, and th--"

"Huh? Oh! No, no. I hope we do. I just... doesn't that look like something out of Johto?"

Meiko followed where he was pointing, and blinked. "Yes, yes it does. And it's a breeder's stall... you don't think..?"

Unlike the other displays, the breeders were in their bed, likely allowing for their pokemon babies to rest. Some of them had personnel out there, tending to the nocturnal breeds, but the one in question did not. Jaima looked thoughtful, biting his lip, then shrugged. "Guess we'll find out tomorrow, huh?"

At that point, they reached the place where, nbenownst to Jaima, Meiko was headed: The Sky Ranch display. As soon as they got there, Meiko started browsing over the pens on display, giggling or cooing at the particularly well-made ones. Jaima watched her, not saying anything, and then turned to look, a small smile growing on his face.

"Oi," he said, after a bit. "Want me to set up the tents?"

"Tent."

"Tent, th-- Wait, what?"

Meiko turned, blushing. "I was going to pull something like, 'Oh no, I forgot my tent', but I didn't want to be dishonest. So... I didn't bring my tent."

Jaima looked at her, then blushed and looked away. "O-... ok... Tent, then... um... just the one."

"Yes," Meiko said, turning to the table again to hide her own blush. After a while, she turned to him, pulling him close to speak more privately, not that anyone was listening. "It's not like we'll be able to get up to anything... not with all these people around..."

"Right," Jaima said, nodding. "Just, um..."

Meiko waited, and Jaima cleared his throat, pulling back and giving her a mock stern look. "Just be sure you keep your hands to yourself, young lady..!"

"I'll try to be good," she said with a smile. A very mischievous smile.

[Living Arrow]

Who: Darryn
To: Pan
Where: Buffet

"Mmmph-face!" Darryn groaned as a pink ball of a Pokemon tottered across it and towards the nearest buffet table which, luckily, he hadn't fallen into. If he had, then that would have been one messy... "NOT THE HAIR!" He squealed as a large bowl of spaghetti teetered at the endge of the table, threatening to fall and coat the Co-Ordinator and his latest travelling outfit in bolognese sauce. He raised his hands quickly to obstruct what he could of the inevitable staining but thankfully the sticky feeling of pasta on his face never came.

"Hey Dazz.”

"Wha-?" Darryn parted his arms and blinked upwards to find a welcome face smiling back at him. "Pan! I should have guessed you'd be here!" He exclaimed as she hastily got back to his feet and wrapped his old friend up in a tight hug. She squeezed him back just as hard but the sensation for Darryn was more than a simple embrace. Joy. Excitement. Shock. A pinch of relief. So much emotion was emitted by Pandora Gibbs that Darryn had to drink it fast so that he didn't miss anything.

"You're a long way from Petropolis so this is either a bizarre vacation or you're working. Am I right?" He grinned widely, then his eyes widened. "Oh! And since last time, look what I got!" He dipped into his jacket pocket to reveal his blue and silver ribbon case, clicking it open to reveal his newest glittering pin - the Mirrormist Ribbon. "Ribbon number two! What have you been up to since Mount Carello?"

*****

Who: Lyla
To: Jaima/Meiko
Where: Tents

"I couldn't be, like, happier to see a familiar face!" Lyla declared as Jaima and Meiko wandered by the patch where she had decided to set up the Team Kell-Moore tent with her brood of baby Pokemon for assistance. Sat on her butt, half covered by an enormous pink and blue tent with stakes and a mallet in her hands, Lyla couldn't have looked more out of place. Right out of a magazine (or Barbie convention) her white-pink dress was more at home at a garden party than a country field.

"Plus PLUH!" Kaki, her hyperactive Plusle, screamed as he ran in a ring around Lyla, chased by her Magby - Anzu - who had his sights set on the Moomoo Milk in the bunny's paws. Fresh from the team's Miltank, Momo, the milk was a big favourite with the young members of the team with the exception of Ichigo the Skitty who sat next to Lyla with an equal look of confusion on her face as she tried to make head or tail of the task ahead of them. Suika and Ume, the Azurill and Smoochum, sat quietly a little distance away, gulping down their own creamy drinks.

"KAKI!" Lyla moaned, raising his Pokeball threateningly. "Give that back to Anzu right now or you'll, like, go back in the ball!" Her Plusle stopped dead in his tracks, blinking worriedly at his mother trainer. Deciding freedom was better than silly milk, he tossed it at Anzu and raced back to Momo to get his own helping. Lyla sighed. He had been with her longest and was still the most immature. What a strange Pokemon, indeed!

"Kids, right?" Lyla giggled nervously to the two people she had met in Petropolis. They had been friends of Darryn's and a couple to boot. Pretty sweet but the redhead could do better than the long-braided trainer (he didn't try very hard with his looks and she was totally cute!). "How about you guys lend a girl a hand? Plenty of milk for everyone, right Momo?"

"Mirumiru!" The Miltank was happy to oblige as she gave her ripe udders a merry squeeze.

Kaki
Suika
Momo
Ichigo
Anzu
Ume

[Pokefan209]

Once she had rocked all the babies to sleep, Kenz sat down contently. All the snores began having an almost hypnotic affect on her. Her eyes slowly closed, and just as she was about to fall asleep...

"KAAAKAAAA!!" An ear-piercing caw came from another room. A Skarmory had just had a very unpleasent experience.

"No! Platinum! Please be quiet!" Yume called, appearing in the nursery before turning to Kenz with a look of distress on his face. "Kenz! Take care of the stand! Platinum's having her egg!" He then proceeded to run into a shaded room that Kenz hadn't noticed before. Leaping up, she almost ran to the front, but took notice of the babies. They had the natural ability of all children and teenagers to be able to sleep through anything. All were snoozing, snug as Joltics in rugs. After proceeding to sweatdrop, Kenz moved toward the front and took an apron and hairband from the closet and from her pocket, respectively. Tying her hair in a pony-tail to avoid grossing the customers out, she took the front.

"How can I help you?"

[Toogee]

To: Darryn
Location: Buffet Table

As Pan and Darryn embraced, Lima was brought a bit closer to the vast amounts of food awaiting her. While the pair was distracted with their talking, Lima would begin with her early dessert…

“Where do I even begin,” Pan started. So much had happened since they last talked via video phone in the Underground. Many of those adventures turned out to be quite dangerous, most notably her recent trip to Lenoilia. She really didn’t want to freak Darryn out over the gory details, especially after the events of Castle Vonmoto. He almost gave up his dream just to travel with her and make sure she didn’t get into too much trouble. What was the harm in fudging the story a bit? So long as he didn’t read too carefully into her blog, she should be fine.

“Well, we went to Arasam a while back. I even tried one of those contests with your beau. I really don’t know how you do that stuff on a regular basis; there’s way too much prep to go into one competition. I don’t have a shiny ribbon to show off, but it was a fun night.” As Pan examined Darryn’s newest ribbon, she thought about her story. She decided to leave out the part where Troy gave Pan and Douken a drunken joyride around town…and nearly off a cliff. It wasn’t too important to the story. “Douken won his first badge at the local gym there, so he didn’t leave empty-handed.”

“Then we made a stop at Loch Ranch and helped out there for a bit. The family there is real nice. We even settled a disagreement between some unruly travelers through an old-fashioned pokemon battle.” Nevermind that those “unruly travelers” were Darkrai worshippers bent on releasing their deity to bring about a better world. Again, not important.

“We had to make a stop in Lenoilia during a thunderstorm. It was a pretty rundown place, but many of the people there are quite swell. We helped them out with a pest problem, and life seems to be improving over there.” This time Pan had to fib on the details. The pest problem was actually a gang of unruly bikers that took over part of the city with a genetically-modified abomination. Since the incident, Pan was told to keep tight lipped on the matter. She even had to delete her most recent blog post on the subject!

“One phone call from the professor, and I’m flying on a plane to Daigake and racing over here to study the absols running around here. I should have known there would be a few familiar faces around here, what with the trainer and coordinator tournaments tomorrow.”

As Pan started talking about PokeCon, she noticed that something was missing in Darryn’s usual style. His outfit was immaculate as usual (aside from the tumble to the ground) and his hair was ready for another showcase on the big stage. No, his outfit had nothing to do with it.

“Where’s the rest of your posse?” Pan said, determining that Darryn was alone. “Are they all right-”

“Ar!”

Pan turned around to look at her arcanine. Fenrir nodded his head towards the cleffa, who had an arm covered in chocolate.

“Lima!” Pan shouted. The cleffa quickly hid the evidence by wiping her arm on Pan’s shorts. She gave a chocolate-covered grin to her human, feigning innocence in her raid of the dessert.

“This is Lima,” Pan said to Darryn as she wiped the cleffa’s mouth with a napkin. “I found her in the Underground. I’ve been trying to get her on a diet, but…she’s sneaky. Aren’t you, Lima?”

The cleffa simply started singing in “clef’s” and “fa’s”, as if practicing her Doe Re Mee’s.

[Angels Fall Firs...]

To: Twila Reanne
Location: Paces away from Breeder Stall

"I'm just fine," he replied. The girl seemed nervous which made Finn grin just a bit. The shy girls always made him feel a little more at ease than the ones who knew what they were doing. His eyes then shifted towards his little piglet who was standing nearby, just looking up at his trainer and the girl, still with a wide smile. "I told you to stop running around, Rue."

It nodded, answering its' owner. Finn chuckled and did the same, nodding his head. He brought his hand up and smiled, "I didn't mean to bump into you, accidents happen, right?"

That was when he took notice of the girl's Ralts, who was holding onto her shoulder. Finn slipped his hand passed her and gently rubbed the Ralts's head. "Cute," he said softly.

[SaphireShadows]

To: Finn Oakley
Location: " "

"I'm just fine," he said. Twila was uncomfortable. He kept staring at her, which made her fidget nervously. He then turned to look behind her and said, "I told you to stop running around, Rue." Twila turned to see the little piglet that had run past before grinning at the two of them. It nodded toward its trainer and continued to grin. Twila wondered if the little Pokemon hadn't done this on purpose just for its own amusement.

The man chuckled at his Pokemon, then extended his hand in Twila's direction. "I didn't mean to bump into you, accidents happen, right?" Then he stretched his hand out and patted Mai on the head. "Cute," he said as Mai closed her round pink eyes and smiled. Down by Twila's feet, an angry Merle stood fuming at this new human. Without warning, he stepped up to the green haired man and punched him hard in the kneecap. A clear way of saying "No touchie."

Kimber, sitting on the opposite side of Twila's feet, simply fell over laughing.

"Merle!" Twila exclaimed, realizing what he had just done. "That was not very nice at all. Return!" And she held out his Poke ball which engulfed him in its customary red light. Merle looked everything but apologetic as he was sucked into the device and placed back in Twila's bag. Twila looked back up at the man and blushed apologetically. "I-I'm sorry. Merle gets very...p-protective of m-me and M-mai. A-are you all right, Mr....?"

[Angels Fall Firs...]

To: Twila Reanne
Location: ""

In an instant he was down on the ground, holding his knee tightly. He mumbled a curse as he rubbed his knee gently. A second later he took a few quick breaths and calmed himself down. Finn was getting better at that, holding in his anger and letting is pass. He was still on the ground as he looked up, "I should have known better than to step on his territory. I'd be like that too."

The whole time Rue had been doing the same as Kimber, rolling on the ground laughing at what had just happened to his trainer. The piglet rolled on over towards his trainer, still giggling as he neared. Rue stopped once he was at Finnley's leg though, rubbing his head against it, trying to show affection. Finn patted his Pokemon and rose.

He slowly picked himself up, putting his weight on his uninjured leg instead. He held out his arm, this time towards Twila, "Finnley Oakley. No need for mister either, just Finn will do."

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin Smart

To: Douken Sota
Justin raised an eyebrow when Douken offered to introduce him to his parents. Maybe he was just trying to be polite? "Uhh," He began, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know, Douken, this is only our third date. Don't you think we're moving a bit fast?"

"I'm kidding!" he lightly punched Douken in the shoulder. Then, perhaps less subtly than he intended, "Hey, is Pan around?" As soon as he said it, it took everything he had not to roll his own eyes at himself. He wondered if Douken knew about his and Pan's one kiss and subsequent sexual tension. They seemed to be pretty close, but Pan didn't seem the type to just open up about stuff like that. Maybe he would seem less like a desperate teenager if their history was known? Maybe that would actually make him seem more desperate.

Either way, it was out there. Depending on how Douken interpreted his query, his intentions could very well be quite clear. He didn't come for the pokemon, but Douken probably knew that part already based on his limited experience with Justin.

He quickly decided he didn't like leaving it up to Douken's interpretations. "Just, you know, wondering why she's not with you. She usually is, you know? But anyway, yeah, let's uh," he coughed. "Let's go meet your parents. Must be pretty awesome trainers to have tamed this thing."

Bullet dodged.

This post has been edited by Yzarc Drowsnam: May 30 2011, 01:40 PM

[Living Arrow]

Who: Darryn
To: Pan
Where: Buffet table

"Woah... sounds like you've been one busy Gibbon." Darryn couldn't believe how much Pan had managed to accomplish in the small time since they had parted ways. He had always known that her work in Furoh would take her all across the region but never had he thought it would be so fast-paced. She must have seen so much and met so many people and Pokemon! *I bet she sees loads of new and unusual styles of fashion and training, too...*

“Where’s the rest of your posse? Are they all right- Lima!” Pan scolded the baby pink Pokemon in her arms even as she introduced her to the Co-Ordinator. Darryn had never seen a Pokemon like that before, but a quick consultation of his Pokedex later and he was fully informed. This cute little ball was the Star Shape Pokemon, Cleffa. And, true to Pan's claim, the little one was in desperate need of a diet.

"Fa fa faaa clefafafaaa!" The baby sang happily, clearly showing off for her newest company. Darryn smiled. She reminded him of Meiko and Precious Eggheart the Happiny.

"So cute." Darryn enjoyed the gleeful waves coming off of the Pokemon's Emotaglow. "And such a nice singing voice. Pleased to meet you, Lima."

"Fa!" She wiggled her arms at him.

"Oh, the others?" Darryn returned to Pan's question and immediately felt guilty. "I split up with Jaima, Meiko and Tuesday back in Petropolis. Not in a bad way or anything. It's just, after getting the Mirrormist Ribbon I was forced to consider my options as a Co-Ordinator. The Contests I've won have been complete flukes so far and my style isn't sharp enough to really capture the judges the way I've seen others do it."

*Shalim and Tyron... Where are they now? Probably getting Ribbon number three...*

"So," Darryn continued, "rather than slow the others down I thought it was right to take some time out in Petropolis and find my real self - settling on my own Kellor style of Co-Ordinating and maximising the potential of my Pokemon before moving out again for the next Contest Hall. It's not all bad, though - my cousin Lyla has joined up with me. You remember Lyla, right?" Darryn thought back to their days in Celadon High. Had the two girls met? Maybe at one of Darryn's birthday parties? It was difficult to pinpoint if they had.

"For all I know, Jaima and Meiko could be married and Tuesday could be Furoh's Next Top Model. What am I saying? I'd know about that... Anywho, I'm sure they're doing great whatever the case." Darryn rounded off. "But there's another reason why I've decided to go it alone for a little while." He lowered his voice and looked around carefully. No-one was eavesdropping and Pan could be completely trusted, he was sure of it. Keeping this particular secret from her before had been difficult since his Empath abilities had been new to him when they last saw each other but now he was completely in control and had accepted them as the gifts they were meant to be. Plus, he was excited to have someone around him who was emotionally linked to him - able share his abilities as Lady, Lyla, Jaima and the others all could. "You won't be able to reply, but you'll be able to hear it."

"Hear what?"

<This.> Darryn's mind flowed into hers. <It really is good to see you again, Pan.>

[Asterna]

To: Kaya
Location: Buffet

Rose watched curiously as Kaya ordered Manera to attack the Absol, frowning a little when she noticed the Abol's missing leg. In the meanwhile, she took out her own Pokedex and scanned another Absol nearby. "Rumored to sense disasters with its horn, it became a target. It fled deep into the mountains," the Pokedex rattled off in its robotic voice. Rose raised an eyebrow at that -- "rumored to sense disasters"? "Fled deep into the mountains"? If that was true, then what were all of these Absols doing here? Now that she thought of it, she had heard a few rumors on the way here. She'd heard some people on TV talking about the Absols being an omen of disaster to come or something, but... surely that was just superstition. Right?

Rose shook herself out of her reverie as Kaya returned from the Pokemon Center. "Huh? Oh, it's fine," she reassured Kaya, giggling a bit. "That was actually pretty cool to watch. Congratulations on capturing Beacon, by the way," she added with a friendly smile. "Although I wonder what happened to its leg..." Her smile faded a bit, but returned quickly at Kaya's question. "Oh, I've been doing pretty well. Nothing exciting's happened so far -- I just got here, so I haven't really had a chance to look around. How about you? Have any plans for PokeCon?" she asked.

[Douken Sota]

to: Justin, James
At: pan's tent

"Pan? Of course she is here. Are you saying you don't recognize her Pokemon," he said, pointing over his shoulder to the others. "She had to chase down hungry little Lima again. I am sure she is fine though." Walking over to the napping Venusaur, he called out, "Hey Turnip. I am going to say hi to my parents. Watch the fort here, will ya?"

With whatever response the walking pant gave, let it be a yawn or a nod, he smiled before letting out a whistle, calling his Pokemon to gather back around. with everyone gathered, he returned them all back into their balls. With a quick glance at James, he told him, "You are willing to follow." Whether he accepted or not, Douken didn't mind. "Alright Tamia. Show us the way to their stand."

-----

"I am telling you, this is a bad idea!" A female voice was at one of the stands, worry in her voice. "One Absol is bad enough! There are swarms of them outside! Swarms!"

What followed after was a deep chuckle. "Now, now. Don't worry. I am sure they are just curious on what is going on here." This was a deeper male voice, reply back to the female.

"You don't get it, do you?! They are a bad omen! Something is going to happen!"

This would be about the time when Douken, Justin, (James, if he followed), and Tamia walked in. It seemed pretty basic for a breeder's tent, except for the fact that there was a Scizor on the floor, sleeping away, and a Miltank, offering some free samples of Moo-moo ice cream.

"Why am I not surprised?" Douken asked, getting both of the tent attendants' attention, which soon placed him in a big hug from his mom.

"Oh, my boy! I am so glad you are safe. How have things been? And what happened to your glasses?!" Douken had no time to answer before she ran over to a small computer and began typing away. The screen popped up, revealing a Chansey, and a woman in the background, tending other Pokemon. "Seras, please grab an old pair of Douken's glasses, will you? he had a bit of an accident." With a cheer from the pink Pokemon, she ran off, leaving the screen up.

"I will tell you guys what happened later, alright? Now then. Mom, Dad, this is a friend I met along the way, Justin. He's helped me and Pan out before in a few instances."

With both parents giving their greetings, and introducing by name, his mom being Lyra and his father Sven, the old man with the scar over his eye said, "By the way, where is that girlfriend of yours, Pan?"

"She is not my girlfriend!" Douken's face was red just from that comment.

[SaphireShadows]

To: Finn Oakley
Location: " "

Twila nodded as Finn told her his name. She started to walk towards the breeder's stall when she remembered that she hadn't told him her name. Turning back around she clasped her hands behind her back and said, "I-it's nice to-to meet you. My name's T-Twila." Mai hugged her around the neck, and a blip of bravery washed over her like a light rain. "Would...would you like t-to go to the, uh, breeder's s-stall with m-me?" Granted, talking to men her age wasn't one of her strong points (it was as weak as a Magicarp splash), but still, walking around with someone was better than wandering around alone for the whole festival.

-------

"Aww, what a cutie!" Twila gushed as she held a baby Buneary in her arms. The little rabbit Pokemon was sleepy, and was dozing off. Mai had gotten down and was now curiously watching the young Pokemon in the pens. Some would look over at her and smile, others would just go about their playing and sleeping. "They're all so adorable. How can anyone resist wanting to take them all home?" she asked to no one in particular.

"Most people can't," a voice said to Twila's right. She looked over to see a woman with a coral-colored apron walking over. She was short - shorter than Twila - and was wearing round glasses. Her hair was back in a tight ponytail and she was holding a little Cleffa in her arms. "Welcome to our stall! My name's Wendy, would you like me to show you around?" Twila placed the sleeping bunny gently back in the pen, then straightened up and smiled at the shorter woman. It was much easier for Twila to talk to girls than guys.

"I would like that," Twila said, picking Mai back up. Wendy smiled, placed the Cleffa in the pen, and beckoned for her to follow.

The five pens that were in the stall had many different Pokemon in them. One was just for water types, and Twila could see a few Staryu on the bottom of the small pool while Mantyke raced each other in the water. Another pen had dozens of dog Pokemon in it. "We have many dog-type Pokemon," Wendy said, gesturing towards the large pen, "They're very popular. Why don't you check 'em out?" Twila grinned and stepped into the pen. In an instant, about twenty dog Pokemon - from Eevee to Lillipup to Growlithes - were swarmed around her, begging for attention. Twila laughed and snuggled them all, but none of them seemed to click with her. She regretfully left the pen of pups and continued following her guide.

"And here are the incubators." Wendy said with a hint of pride in her voice. They had walked through every pen outside, but none of the Pokemon seemed right for Twila. Wendy had then led her into the tent, saying that she knew just what to do. The incubator room was chocked full of different types of Pokemon eggs.

"Woah..." Twila breathed as she walked through the aisles and aisles of eggs. A few other trainers were back here as well, apparently having the same dilemma as herself. "Look at this one Mai," Twila said, holding the Ralts up so she could see. It was a light green egg with darker green spots on it.

"That," Wendy said, coming over to where Twila was, "is a Bulbasaur egg. Just laid a few days ago." Twila's eyes widened as she ogled at the egg. Bulbasaur were her favorite Pokemon, and she was about to buy it then and there when she heard a "Ralts! Ralts!" from across the room. She looked down to find that only Kimber was at her side.

"Mai? Where are you?" Twila asked, walking along the rows of eggs. Mai called out once more, and appeared in the corner of the tent. Curious, Twila approached her Ralts. She was standing in front of a particularly old incubator with a determined look on her face. "What's this Mai?" she asked looking at the egg under the incubator's light. It was green and beige, with little spots of yellow on it. Twila pressed her fingers against the warm shell, feeling the smoothness of it. It reminded her of porcelain. Her fingers trailed up and down the egg until she discovered something at the very top of it. It felt like a crack in the egg, but it was sealed over.

"Poor thing," Wendy said, eyes dark. "We found it outside one day in the fall. It was cold, and looked like it had been thrown around a bit. We mended the crack in the shell hoping that it would keep the baby Pokemon inside it safe. We've checked it constantly, and it is still alive, but no one will take it because they think it's flawed." Wendy folded her arms and furrowed her brow. "Humph! What do they know? I've heard that an Arcanine can lose one of its legs and go on like nothing's different. Flawed my left foot...Anyways, we've put it on for half the price of all the others to try to get it a new home, but we can't seem to-"

"I'll take it," Twila said. She was still stroking the egg when she suddenly gasped. "It moved!" she exclaimed, placing both hands on both sides of the egg. Stillness, and then a weak wobble. Twila smiled and dug through her bag to find her wallet. Wendy grinned from ear to ear as Twila got out the money and handed it to her.

"Thank you very much. I know that you'll take good care of it." Wendy said, handing her a small device. "This is a travelling incubator," she said, handing it to Twila, "It's for trainers who are travelling and can't carry a regular old clunky incubator." Twila thanked Wendy and exited the egg tent with a giant grin on her face.

"Look you two," Twila said to Mai and Kimber, "meet the newest member of the family!"

This post has been edited by SaphireShadows: May 31 2011, 11:49 PM