[X] My Assistant

[Nogster]

Daigake, Part 2. The Quest For Enlightenment.


<O}---------------------------------~~:| = |:~~---------------------------------{O>

It was morning.
The ocean waves crashed upon the cliffs of the small town of Daigake.
This morning was not as other mornings, however. The winds were much stronger and the sky was clouded and gray.
It was one of those days where you could smell the rain, even though there was none.
It was also one of those days when your hat was prone to fly off.

On top of that, there was some sort of commotion around the lighthouse.
Officer Jenny was standing by the door to the large tower and wouldn't let anyone enter.
There was a small crowd forming around her, wondering what the commotion was about.

<O}---------------------------------~~:| = |:~~---------------------------------{O>

Eric woke up as a gust of wind hit the tent.
He opened his eyes, only to realize that he was on his belly, facing the mattress.
He turned around and sat up, showing a strained face as his back and hips hurt.
The adrenaline from the day before had died down and he now felt like if a Snorlax had sat on him.
He fell back down on the mattress, turning to the young man next to him.
"Mack? You awake?" he said, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
"I think it might be a bit windy outside."
As he said this, another gust of wind hit the tent, causing Eric to look up at the tent sheet, flapping in the wind.

Shinx, who had been awake for a few hours but had been reluctant to get up, stood to all fours and stretched before laying back down by Eric's feet.

Starly had been having a load of fun ever since the sun came up, flying about in the violent winds. He was now back in the tree where he had slept, resting for a bit.

[Spearow]

He dug his fingers into where he thought the meat of his shoulder might be, but he could feel nothing. The wind flowed over him, heedless of his presence, like a stampeding herd of ghosts, or maybe more like the exhalation of a giant somewhere in the distance. I wish you wouldn't do that. I wish you wouldn't do that, he said, or thought, or wrote on the lined paper of his mind. I wish you wouldn't. I'm cold, and I wish you wouldn't -

Mack opened his eyes with a quiet shudder, a rush of crawling feeling across his skin and a trembling in the loose muscles of his lips and shoulders. He experienced that familiar post-waking moment in which he forgot where and when he was, before Eric's voice refreshed his memory. Blearily, he pushed himself up with his hands from where he had been sleeping on his stomach, tightly tangled in his twisted sleeping bag.

"Uh, yeah," he mumbled, apparently in response to both Eric's question and statement. He sat completely up and rubbed the last dredges of sleep out of his eyes with the heels of his palms, as the walls of the tent trembled and shuddered against the wind. He was cold in his t-shirt, but his lower body was still snugly fitted inside his sleeping bag. Briefly, he considered laying back and taking a few minutes to "gather himself", or perhaps take just a bit of a doze, when a noise outside, rather like the fluttering of large wings, compelled him to take the plunge. Wriggling out of his bag, he pushed himself out of the tent on all fours, stumbling to his feet and looking up to greet one of the stranger sights he'd yet witnessed on his journey.

A large bird Pokémon was standing, head slightly cocked, on the grass just a foot before him. It looked at him shrewdly, and Mack felt a certainty that it knew (or thought) that it had business with him specifically. It looked like a Swellow, but there was something strange about its coloration that Mack couldn't quite pin down this early in the morning. There was a short pause as the boy and the bird stood regarding each other.

Mack started, reaching up to pass his hand over his eyes to clear them further. "Um, are you - "

"Swell!" The bird's abrupt squawk nearly bowled him over. He blinked it at it, unsure how to react. With a quick twist of its head, it produced a slightly oblong package wrapped in brown paper, and shoved it forward at Mack. Bewildered, the boy accepted it without thinking.

He held it clutched in both hands and stared at the Swellow-thing, which stared back gamely. After a few seconds of this, it turned and flapped off, giving him a look over its shoulder that seemed almost disappointed, as if it had been waiting for him to say something.

Mack blinked slowly after it had gone, trying to recover from the shock of the strange and sudden incident. He was snapped out of this stupor by a merry chirp from Queenie, who fluttered down (buffeted slightly by gusts even in this simple movement) and landed on his shoulder. She, at least, was a morning bird where her owner was not.

Mack turned over the package in his hands and looked around for Eric, unsure whether to open it. He'd heard it wasn't safe to handle packages whose origins were unknown, but who did he know who would possibly wish him harm? Perhaps his parents had sent him something - but then, he'd never seen that Pokémon before in his life.

[Sarono]

Nicole woke up in a flash as soon as she felt the fierce morning winds blowing across her face. She had vague memories of her arrival in Daigake, it was dark, windy and she didn't see anything apart from the silhouettes of houses.
She was stunned to see white in front of her when she got to her feet and to her great surprise, she was fully dressed.
“Why am I dressed? Oh, I must have fallen asleep as soon as I sat down last night, it was a long and tiresome walk, after all.”
She checked to see if her backpack was around, panicking when she couldn’t see it anywhere.
“Where is my pack? It’s gone!”

She was just about to start crying when she felt something nudging her neck, feeling with her hands, she finds Riolu, who had climbed out of his pokéball during the night and had climbed up onto Nicole’s back during her loss of pack crisis, and that her back pack was safe on her back.
“Great”, she sighs with relief, “Now, where am I?”
She turns back to the white wall, this time noticing the red roof of the building.
“Oh, a poké center.”

She walked around the building, circling it once before she found the entrance.
“Better go inside and ask for some location info.” *“Cause let’s face it, I don’t know where here is.”
She was just about to go in when she heard voices coming from the towns’ lighthouse.
“So there are people here. I’ll check there later.”
She entered the poké center to find it completely and unusually empty.
”Where is everyone, or the nurse at least?”
“Hello.”
She went on in but no one was around.
“Hello!! Anyone around!?”

[Ariadan]

Frank woke up to the sound of the window shuddering as if there was someone shaking it to annoy whoever was in the room.
When he sat up he looked out that window and saw that the tree outside was slightly bent from the wind.
"Whoa, considering the thickness of that tree I'd say it's a bit windy outside. Good thing I'm not sleeping outsi.. wait, Eric and Mack are in a tent outside. I wonder if the winds are strong enough to blow their tent away."
"Unless they put their tent up poorly, I don't think so."
"Unless they put their tent up poorly, I don't think so."
He heard two voices at once, one in his mind, that was obviously Sophie, his Baltoy and the other voice was one he couldn't place immediatley before he looked around and saw nurse Joy a few feet away from the bed he was in. He couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that they had said the same thing at the same time and waved it away when Joy looked at him questioningly.

"How are we feeling today?" Joy asked him as she walked over to him.
He twisted his back slightly, preparing for a jolt of pain but was relieved when there was none.
"A lot better, I'd say." He said with a smile and sat up.
Joy smiled slightly when he sat up and handed him a glass of water. "Thirsty?"
He looked at the glass and blinked before he took it with a smile and a nod as a thank you and took a few sips of the water. He could feel the cold sensation of the water travelling down to his stomach and shuddered slightly.
"Thank you for letting me rest up here and for taking care of me." He said to Joy.
"Oh, don't mention it. I couldn't just leave you there on the floor, could I?" She giggled lightly before she turned around as she heard a voice from outside the room. "Oh, looks like someone else needs me. Take your time getting up, there's no real hurry." She said before disappearing out the of the room.

Frank looked at Sophie and cocked his head slightly. "So, should we go outside and see how the guys are doing?"
Sophie didn't say anything, she merely dropped down to the floor and waited for Frank to get fully dressed before hovering out of the room with him.
"I still wonder if we should go back home and leave these there." He said and knocked the shield which in turn hit the sword to cause a clanging sound. He put his mask over his mouth and nose and aimed for the exit.

This post has been edited by Ariadan: Nov 9 2010, 02:36 PM

[Nogster]

Eric was still laying on the mattress, inspecting his toes, when Mack received the package from the bird.
He hadn't devoted enough attention to what happened outside the tent to understand that Mack had gotten a delivery.
When Mack turned back around towards him, Eric noticed the package in his hands.

"What was that all about?" he asked, shifting his eyes between the package, Mack, Queenie and the bird, disappearing off into the distance.

"And where did you get that present?" he added, as another gust of wind hit the tent.
Eric slowly and reluctantly forced himself into a sitting position before he looked at Mack for a reply.

Starly removed his head from under the wing as he heard a chirp from Queenie and saw her flutter down onto Mack's shoulder.
He took off from his branch and circled down, loving every second of it as he dodged the gusts trying to buffet him around.
After a few laps around Mack and Queenie, he landed on top of the tent, chirping merrily at the little Taillow and her master, letting them know what a wonderful morning it was.

[Spearow]

"I... don't really know," Mack admitted, crinkling the paper of the package between his fingers thoughtfully. He found he was not really at all apprehensive of what the mysterious gift might be, nor of who it might be from. It just didn't feel dangerous - the messenger may have been decidedly eccentric, but he did not seem to mean Mack any harm. Hardly thinking, the boy pulled at a crease in the stiff wrapping and it slipped off with hardly a tear, revealing a smooth, deeply blue stone, imbued with the unfathomable depth and hue of the ocean.

Mack couldn't help but draw in a breath as the dazzling stone was revealed, and even Queenie, who had been chirping merrily in Starly's general direction, paused to tilt her head curiously at the object.

Mack hefted the stone slightly in both hands, tilting it so that Eric could see what it was. "A water stone," he said numbly. "But who could've - must have been some sort of postage mistake - "

But even as he spoke he felt that this could not be at all right. Today felt like it was meant to happen. It was just something lucky, that came to him in particular. He would be foolish not to accept this stroke of... whatever you'd call it. Fortune, providence, fate...

He shrugged and slipped the stone into his pack, again an almost thoughtless, automatic motion undertaken with an instinctual sort of carefulness, instilled by the beauty of the object. "Oh, well," he murmured. "Maybe it'll come in handy later."

He seemed to come to himself once again now that the stone was out of sight, realizing abruptly that he was standing outside on the morning-dew grass in socks. He went to pull on his shoes, looking up at Eric even as he did so. "Should we go see if Frank is up yet?"

Mack received a Water Stone!

This post has been edited by Spearow: Jan 7 2010, 08:15 PM

[Sarono]

Nicole continued onward to the front desk, arriving there at the same time as Nurse Joy came out from a room out back.
"Thank goodness, you're here", Nicole sighed as Joy walked towards the front desk, "I was starting to wonder where you were."
"Well I'm always here", Joy said with a smile, "Can I help you with anything?"
Nicole reached into her coat and took out four pokéballs, one which Riolu climbed in to as soon as he saw it.
"Yes, could you fresh up my pokémon for me, that would be great."
Nicole put the balls off the counter and Joy put them on a tray and gave them to a Chansey who had snuck into the room without being detected until Joy turned to pass the tray to it.
"Of course, we'll fix them up, that is our job after all", she said with a giggle.

A little while later Nicole laid eyes on a guy wearing a mask and, oddly enough, carrying a sword and shield, coming out from the room where Joy had walked out from.
There sure are weird people around here..
“Oh yeah, what is this town called?” Nicole asked Joy as she received the tray of pokéballs from Chansey.
“Oh, you’re new to town, I thought you had that look about you”, Joy said as she put the tray of pokéballs on the desk, “This is the town at the edge, Daigake.”
“Daigake, huh?” Nicole said as she checked her pokétch map, “Is it always that windy outside or is it just my luck?”
“Oh no, it’s not always windy out here”, Joy said giggling again, “sure we’re close to the ocean, but it usually is quite nice outside.”
“That’s nice I’m sure”, Nicole said giggling a bit herself, “I’m from Fidona, so I guess I’m quite use to the ocean.”
“I’m sure you are”, Joy commented with a soft, amused tone.
Nicole put her pokéballs back inside her coat and buttoned it.
"I'll see you around soon hopefully", She turned around ready to make her way to her next destination, the lighthouse.
"Yes, come back anytime", Joy answered merrily.

[Ariadan]

I do hope that the guys are alright, even if the tent's been able to withstand the winds it should be quite cold outside, and a tent doesen't really keep anyone warm.

Frank was walking deep in thought and when he had reached the front desk of the pokécenter he'd already forgot the way he must look being dressed the way he is. If the mask didn't make him look suspicious, at least the sword and shield would, he did have a reason for the mask considering the winds he was about to walk out into, but there wasn't really any good reason for his carrying weaponry.
He layed eyes on a girl who was talking to nurse Joy and when she looked at him he nodded as a greeting and smiled, not thinking about the fact that she couldn't possibly see the smile. He nearly walked into Joy's Chansey and stopped dead in his tracks. This snapped him out of his thoughts and turned to look at Joy.

"Thanks again, nurse. By the way, have you seen Eric and Mack this morning, by any chance?"
Joy looked at him with her usual smile. "No problem at all, and no, I haven't seen them today, they might be packing up the tent, I doubt they'd be asleep during this weather."
Frank bowed slightly before going towards the exit.
As he was just about to go through the door he heard Joy say, "Hope to see you again." and Chansey's, "Chansey-chansey."
He looked back at them, again with the wondering look in his eyes. Seriously, what's up with that phrase? I know they don't mean what it sounds like, but it does sound kinda mean. He looked at Sophie who had stopped by the door, shrugged and walked out.

As soon as he opened the door he was hit by a really strong gust of wind.
"WAH! Are you serious? And they're camping outside? They're nuts." He looked back at the girl standing by the front desk, she'd caught his eye, but he wasn't sure why. True, she was a bit cute, or so he thought, but then again, it might've been her coat, he always did favour the color red. He shrugged and started walking around the center to see if the guys were still asleep or not. He was back in thought again and didn't notice the people gathering by the lighthouse, in fact, he wasn't even sure there was a lighthouse near here, it wouldn't have been the first time he'd imagined something like that.

This post has been edited by Ariadan: Jan 9 2010, 07:23 PM

[Nogster]

Eric had been very interested in the contents of the package and made an effort to lean out of the tent as Mack pulled it open.
On Christmas eve, he always stayed up to find and shake his presents after his parents had gone to sleep.
At one occasion, he had even opened one and once his father found out, he punished Eric by giving it to his younger brother.
That was the last time Eric opened a present before Christmas.

As Eric leaned out, he was close to putting a knee on Shinx's tail.
She noticed this and came to the conclusion that her bed was no longer safe to rest in.
No more than five seconds passed before she was out the tent and over by Eric's now widely scattered clothes, most of them lying along the pokécenter wall.

The water stone was beautiful, looking like a large blue diamond.
Starly leaned forward and gave off a curious chirp, showing that the shiny blue thing was worthy of his attention.
Eric had never seen anything like it before.

...

Or had he?

As he saw the stone, he got an image in his head of something he had picked up in the forest a few weeks back.
He didn't even notice Mack getting unsure of who sent the package. He was just as mesmerized about this revelation.
With as much haste as he could muster, he made his way over to his backpack and now dry trench coat.
He reached into the inner breast pocket of the coat and took out a brown stone with a green symbol of a leaf on it.
Walking back towards Mack, he held it up.
"I- I have-" he started when Mack turned his head towards him.
He was putting on his shoes, asking about going to check on Frank.
"-uh. Well, sure." Eric said, still clutching the stone in his right hand.

[Spearow]

Mack leaned forward to see the object Eric held in his hand. He raised his eyebrows once he saw what it was, and looked up at the older boy even as he finished pulling his laces tight. Queenie chirped and hopped up slightly upon noticing what Eric held, though she was careful not to lose her grip on her owner's shoulder. "Whoa, hey. That's a leaf stone, right? Where'd you get it?"

As he spoke, he remembered that he'd forgotten to release Chuckie and leaned over to grab the Mankey's pokeball out of his pack, pressing the release button absently with his eyes still trained on Eric's stone. Chuckie tumbled out in a flash, shaking his head almost sleepily. Once he'd oriented himself, his ears and piglike nose twitched, as if he sensed what had happened outside while he had been closed off in his own small world. He poked over by Mack's pack and lifted the water stone out of it, sniffing it curiously.

The Mankey held the blue object up near Eric's, as if comparing them. Mack watched curiously. "They're kinda the same shape, I guess..."

[Sarono]

Nicole took a deep breath as she walked towards the entrance of the Poké Center. When she got she saw Mr. Sword ’n’ Shield Carrier turn a corner and disappear around the building.
She turned to face the lighthouse while unbuttoning her coat and taking out a poké ball, letting Riolu out, then buttoning it again.
“Shall we go to the lighthouse, Riolu?” She said as Riolu climbed up onto her shoulders.
“Wao wao”, Riolu answered happily and nodded.
Nicole giggled as Riolu answered then she started walking.

After a few seconds Riolu, started to look around as if hearing something unseen.
“Wao wao” Riolu said and pointed at the Poké Center.
Nicole looked at Riolu then to the Poké Center and back at Riolu.
“What, do you hear something?”
“Wao-ao” Riolu answered and nodded.
Nicole listened hard but couldn’t hear anything, other that the ocean, an occasional wingull and the howling gusts of wind.
“It’s probably the wind”, Nicole said and patted Riolu on the head, “Don’t worry about it.”
Riolu slapped Nicole’s head, jumped down from her shoulder and ran to check the other side of the poké center.
“Riolu”, Nicole called and started to run after it, “Come on, come back.”
“Wao-ao” Riolu answered happily and continued onward.
“Is he in the mood to play?”
“Come on Riolu”, Nicole called back, “I don’t want to play tag now!”
Riolu ran then turned at the corner, Nicole following close by.
"Oh, My, God!" She exclaimed when she was greeted by clothes.

[Ariadan]

Sorry for the slow response. Couldn't think of what I should write and then I half-way forgot about about this since my tab had changed names. >.>

Frank turned the corner to the back of the pokécenter and froze on the spot as he saw clothes everywhere.
When he saw Eric and Mack he saw them looking at something, as if comparing them.
He walked up to them and looked at the two stones. "What're those?" He didn't realize the fact that he hadn't greeted them, the two stones looked sort of intriguing to him, he had seen evolution stones before, but he didn't think of that since he hadn't seen any in real life, and considering his absent-mindedness it wasn't surprising that he wouldn't recognize them.
He looked away from the stones when he thought he'd seen something blue run past him and tried to see what it was, after a few seconds of looking around he noticed a person in a red coat standing not far from them and cocked his head, he recognized the person, but why?

"Oh yeah." He said after about 3 seconds, it was the girl he saw in the center.
He raised his hand, which made his sword and shield clank together, to greet her.
"Hi." He smiled slightly, again not noticing that his mask covered the smile, and straightened his head.

He lowered his hand as a gust of wind hit him in the face, caught his shield and made him loose his balance slightly. This reminded him of the sight he was greeted by when he'd gotten around the center.
"How'd all the clothes end up all over the place like this?" He asked the guys as he was looking around.
He felt something brush against his head, when he was turning hs gaze around, and grabbed for it. Somehow a sock had ended up on his shield, he guessed the wind had blown it there.
"Who's the owner of this?" He held the sock with his thumb and index finger.

Short reply, but I really couldn't think of much to say here.

This post has been edited by Ariadan: Jan 17 2010, 08:56 PM

[Nogster]

Eric was just about to reply to mack's question about where he found the leaf stone when he heard a voice behind him.
He spun around to look at where it came from.
As he did, he spotted a Riolu and behind it, a girl, standing by a corner of the pokécenter,
Her eyes were fixed upon the ground and Eric wondered what could be so special about it.
That's when he realized. His clothes were scattered all over the place.

Eric was at a loss of words. He dropped the leaf stone and ran off to gather up the pieces of clothing.
He didn't even notice Frank, as he asked about the clothes.

"Do I have to nail it down for it to stay in place?" he mumbled as he ran to catch a pair if underwear.

Shinx noticed as her master dropped the leaf stone and picked it up in her mouth, following him around while he searched for his escaping garments.

Starly had no clue of what was going on and decided to continue the conversation with Queenie rather than trying to understand the situation.

This post has been edited by Nogster: Jan 21 2010, 11:26 AM

[Spearow]

Mack jumped slightly when he heard the girl's exclamation, although it was not particularly loud or vehement by most standards. He just hadn't expected anyone to come around the corner and find their camp - he'd thought they were being fairly discreet, and now he began to wonder if what they were doing was legal. Had to be - trainers could stay inside the center, after all, so why not in its backyard? He turned to see the girl, and also the source of her surprise, which Eric was making a desperate attempt to remedy. She was rather short, standing at around his height, perhaps even a little smaller, but she seemed older than him, maybe around Eric and Frank's ages. Mack was beginning to wonder why he seemed to encounter so few trainers his age. Maybe he hadn't left home as late as he thought he had.

Just then he caught sight of a familiar masked face, looking somewhat bemused by the commotion of clothing. Mack approached the older boy, grinning. "Hey, Frank! That's Eric's, I think, all my clothes are in my pack. How're you feeling?" Chuckie followed behind, still cradling the water stone and stroking it curiously with his tail from time to time.

Queenie chattered merrily with Starly, hardly noticing as a pair of Eric's underwear fluttered and caught briefly on her beak before skittering to a stop a few feet away on the ground.

[Sarono]

Nicole looked at from of the guys to the other, not sure about whether or not she should try to talk to these people who apparently knew the masked man, whom she just heard, was called "Frank". She didn't take any note of him saying anything as she was too busy amusing herself by watching the eldest of the two "unmasked" people hustling to gather the clothes which all had been spread out all over the ground during the night.

"Who in the world, lays their clothes around so that they can be blown away in this manner?"

Riolu climbed back up onto Nicole's shoulder.
"Wao wao-o" Riolu exclaimed questioningly in a worried yet amused fashion.
"I was wondering the same thing", Nicole answered not nearly as amused, "can people really be that stupid?”

”I guess they can…”

Finally, Nicole smiled slightly, the thought of someone being stupid enough to let ones clothes get spread out like this was really amusing. Then she noticed a Shinx following Mr. I-gotta-pick-my-clothes-up around, with a green stone in it’s mouth.
“How CUTE”, Nicole’s face shone when she saw Shinx.

[Ariadan]

Frank was just about to walk up to the girl to say hi when Sophies eyes started shining light blue and he heard her voice in his head.

"Frank, why is there a Pidgeot heading right for us?"
"What?" He looked up at the sky and immediatley saw a Pidgeot heading straight for them in a dive.
"WHOA! EVERYONE LOOK OU... wait" he caught sight of something on the large bird that made him freeze to the spot, a blue scarf wrapped around its leg. "Is that, dad's Pidgeot? It has to be." He then noticed that it had something in its beak.
When the Pidgeot was a couple of feet above his head it pulled up from the dive, slowed down and then landed softly in front of Frank.

"It IS dad's Pidgeot. But, what's it doing here, and how did it find me?"
The Pidgeot stretched its neck out and now had its beak mere centimeters from Franks face, it was holding an envelope, most likely containing a letter, which Frank grabbed, the Pidgeot then clapped its beak twice before looking around at the people and pokémon around it, it also seemed t be somewhat interested in the clothes that were spread out over the ground.

Frank looked up from the envelope. "Sorry, Jules, I don't have any berries for you. But I promise, I'll bring LOTS of berries when I come back home." He smiled as Jules looked at him and cocked its head before clapping its beak again. It looked down at the envelope and back at Frank.
"Hm? Oh, are you waiting for a reply? Ok, hang on." He opened the envelope and pulled out the letter, he looked down as he noticed something falling to the ground and bent down to pick it up.
"What the..? Why was this in here?" He unfolded the letter and read it. As he read it his smile grew wider and wider.
After having read it he placed the object that had been in the envelope in his pocket, folded the letter looked at Jules and gently tapped its beak three times.
Jules, as if having received a message, spread its wings to take off when it immediatley folded them again, it had caught sight of something on the ground and took a few steps towards whatever it was. It bent down and picked up an Aspear berry, held it in its beak and looked at Frank.

"Eric, is that your Aspear berry? I know you had berries and since your clothes have been blown around, it might be yours."
He looked at Eric.

What Frank received was the size of a credit card, so you'll know what to write if you were to act on seeing it fall.

This post has been edited by Ariadan: Jan 29 2010, 10:30 PM

[Nogster]

Eric continued to gather the scattered pieces of clothing, rushing after the pair of underwear which earlier had snagged onto Queenie's beak and was fluttering in the direction of the pokécenter.
"That idiot would be me." he replied to the female's comment as he snagged the underpants out of the air.
As she noticed Shinx, he walked towards her.
"Oh, this is Shinx. Shinx, say hello to the nice lady that thinks aloud." he said, petting his Pokémon before looking up at the girl.
Eric hadn't gotten a good look at her face until now and he'd be lying, saying he wasn't slightly stunned by the beauty of it.
"I, uh.." He paused for a second.
"It was dark when I made the decision."
He stood there, awkwardly staring for a few seconds when from just a few feet behind him, Frank suddenly yelled.
Eric screamed in surprise and spun around on the spot.
He was about to yell at Frank but was interrupted by a Pidgeot landing in front of him.
He quietly walked around the Pidgeot and over to Frank as he talked to the bird, taking care of the sock Frank had been holding as he opened the envelope.
"Thank you" he said quietly, putting the sock in his slightly damp trench coat pocket.

Shinx was inspecting Riolu but didn't see it as a danger, sniffing in it's general direction.
This was a very interesting new creature.

As Frank asked about the berry, Eric nodded.
"Probably mine." he said, switching his attention to the bird. "You can have it if you'd like, Jules."
Eric let a smirk fall upon his lips, but it disappeared quickly as he remembered the remaining clothes.
He took a step away from frank and put two fingers to his mouth.
A sharp whistle was heard, followed by Eric's raised voice.

"Starly. Quit chit-chatting. Survey the surroundings and pick up any wayward clothes." He nodded.
"And report back to me when you're done."

Starly froze and went quiet as he heard the whistle.
As Eric spoke, he let off a short chirp to let Queenie know that he had work to do before flying off into the cloudy morning sky.

[Spearow]

Mack blinked as the large Pidgeot descended, the small gusts from its wingbeats ruffling his hair slightly. Today was a day of surprise mail deliveries, it appeared. Chuckie lashed his tail, his ears flicking back in measured displeasure at this new arrival. He had never been very good at meeting new people and Pokémon, especially this early in the morning. Mack watched out of the corner of his eye as the Mankey scampered back into the tent, probably to replace the stone in its safe position in Mack's pack and to perhaps have some solitude until the hubbub outside died down.

Queenie, meanwhile, had no trouble with new faces. She chirped a note in genial greeting to the Pidgeot, as well as to the Riolu and its trainer, before fluttering off after Starly, undeterred by his determination to complete his task. Clearly she meant to help him in the surveying of the nearby area for stray clothes, or at least provide some company during his search.

Mack watched them go, half-smiling at her newfound enthusiasm for the friendship. He'd never thought for a moment before that she might have been lonely in a sense, hungry for the company of her own kind. Birds of a feather... Funny and a little frightening, to realize again and again that he hardly knew these creatures he had charge of, and who had charge of him. He supposed he could only learn as he went on.

Speaking of which, the newcomer. Mack eyed her (a bit warily, he had to admit to himself) but did not approach or greet her yet. For some reason, he felt more comfortable letting one of the older boys take the first step. He couldn't quite put his finger on the feeling of reservation he was experiencing - it wasn't quite pure shyness, nor grouchiness - but in any case he wasn't raring to meet her.

[Sarono]

Nicole looked from Shinx to the guy who was gathering clothes when she heard him saying something about an “idiot”.

“Did I call someone an idiot?

He walked up to her holding a pair of underpants in his hand, he introduced Shinx and told Shinx to “say hello to the nice lady that thinks aloud” while petting Shinx on its head, then looked up.

He… He’s… He looks kinda… cool”

Her face turned bright red as she forced herself to withhold her giggling.

"He called me a lady…"

Without realizing what she was doing, she crouched to reach Shinx who was standing on the ground.
“H-h-He-Hello Shinx”, She stuttered.
Suddenly she heard Frank yelling something about “taking cover” and the guy in front of her screamed in surprise which caused Nicole to scream and fall backwards. She then noticed the shadow that swooped in above her head and landed not far away, close to Frank.

Now she noticed two thing:
1. the shadow was a majestic looking Pidgeot and
2. Frank seemed to have taken a few steps closer to where she was sitting

Riolu inspected and greeted Shinx who was inspecting Riolu. This seemed like a new play-friend.

The guy in front of Nicole stood up and walked away, she heard something about a berry. That made her tummy growl.
“Oh yeah, I haven’t eaten anything yet”, She said and took of her backpack and started to dig through it, “Where is it, I know I have food somewhere in here.”
She took out one thing after the other until she finally found a few cans of food, her fork and four bowls. She opened one can and poured out the contents into three of the bowls when it became empty, then she opened one more and poured an equal portion into the last bowl. She put the can down and made herself a little more comfortable before unbuttoning her coat and taking out three pokéballs and letting her three other pokémon out to eat. In a flash of white light, Spheal, Turtwig and Taillow appeared.
“Riolu” She called out, “Food! Eat up everyone”
The four pokémon started eating, each from their respective bowls while Nicole ate the food right out of the can.

[Ariadan]

The second Eric told Jules she could eat the berry it was gone and the Pidgeot looked quite pleased.
Frank shook his head in amusement until he heard a stomach rumbling, which in turn, made his stomach rumble, which made him think of his pokémon, they hadn't eaten anything yet. "They must be starving by now." He said out loud without thinking.
"Jules, wait here, there's something I need you to do, I'll be back in a little while."
Jules looked at him with a face that semed to say: 'So what am I supposed to do while you're gone?', and by the looks of it, Frank seemed to understand exactly what was on her mind. "I don't know, uhm, ooh, I know, play with Scorch. You two always got along quite well." Frank reached for Scorch's pokéball, pushed the little button to make it grow and released Scorch. When the ball opened a stream of white light shot straight for the ground, gathered into a ball which then took the shape of a pokémon. The white light disappeared in a small shower of light which surrounded the little monkey-like pokémon which looked up at Jules with a smile.
"Play nice now, y'hear, Scorch. I don't wanna find any burn marks when I get back."
Scorch who already had climbed up onto the head of the huge bird looked at Frank and cocked his head.
"Oh, you know what I'm talking about. I'll be right back." He took a couple of steps in jog, past the girl in red, around the corner and disappeared out of view.

As soon as Frank was gone, Scorch and Jules started having a conversation about something, or so it seemed at least.
Scorch leapt onto the wall and started climbing up to the roof of the pokécenter but was halted by Jules who nabbed him at the back of his nack with her beak. With a quick move by Jules, Scorch was in the air and after a second or to, back on Jules' head.
The 'conversation' seemed to heat up as Scorch's flames grew more intense, but it calmed down again after a short while.

Suddenly Scorch leapt off of Jules' head onto the ground, made an ugly face at her and started scurrying around.
Jules chased after, clearly annoyed, but careful not to step on anything, such as the tent. Scorch, on the other hand, wasn't as careful, if there was something on the ground he ran over it, and the tent, seeing as it was in his way once or twice, he jumped over it, his flame almost touching the tent the second time he jumped over it.
But with that jump he was caught in Jules' beak again, he didn't like this, not at all, and started firing off embers, luckily no at the tent, nor at any person.

When Frank came back around the corner with five bowls of pokémon food, just as Scorch had been caught and started firing off embers. Frank was almost hit by an ember and had to dodge it.
He almost dropped one of the bowls he was balancing on his arm but managed to keep it from falling.
Sophie, perched on his shoulder, was holding one bowl and Frank had one in each hand and two balancing on his forearms.
He put the bowls down alongside the wall of the center, took a deep breath, looked at Scorch and opened his mouth.

"WILL YOU KNOCK IT OFF!?" He shouted louder than he intended on doing, but at least it got the job done. Both Scorch and Jules looked at him with faces that made them look like little children trying to look innocent.
"I told you to play nice, didn't I?" As he was talking he reached for two of his remaining pokéballs and released his Electrike and his newly caught Bronzor. "Now, I brought some food for you so calm don and eat, yes, you too, Jules."
As soon as he was released, Electrike started running around in a circle and then jumped up onto Franks chest, licked his face and jumoed back down again. Looking around he caught site of the girls Riolu and was just about to say hello to it when he stopped dead in his tracks, raised his nose and sniffed. With his tounge out the side of his mouth it was clear he had noticed the scent of food, turned around and buried his nose in the bowl.
This made Frank laugh, what made him fall to the ground with laughter was Bronzor, tilted against the wall, trying desperatley to reach the bowl of food. Frank calmed down, pushed the bowl out from the wall and looked at Bronzor with a smile.
Bronzor quickly covered the bowl like a lid and started eating as Frank started laughing again.

This post has been edited by Ariadan: Feb 17 2010, 06:53 PM