Tohoko Region: 1-1

[Charisma Thief]

Ahh! Hello, there! Glad to meet you!
Welcome to the world of Pokémon!
My name is Elizabeth Siar! People affectionately refer to me as the Pokémon Professor.
This world is inhabited far and wide by creatures called Pokémon! For some people, Pokémon are pets. Other use them for battling. As for myself… I study Pokémon as a profession.
Allow me to be the first to congratulate you all on completing your last two years in the academy! I'm proud of all of you as my students, and I eagerly await to see you all grow and change the world around you.
As your final gift from me as your teacher, I am pleased to present you with your very own official Pokemon League License! With this license, you are now legally able to begin raising and training your own Pokemon!
Also, as a special gift from me, allow me to introduce you to your first partner in this world, your very own starter Pokemon!
Ladies and gentlemen, your very own Pokémon legend is about to unfold! A world of dreams and adventures with Pokémon awaits and I am honored to wish you ass good luck as you take your first steps down your new journey!
Let's go!

You have finally made it. After two years of hard work, late nights, and determination, you have passed your final exam from the Pokemon Academy, granting you the title of Pokemon Trainer and opening your future up in countless possibilities.

As you all start to wander into the academy for the last time, many of you still clenching the congratulations letters in your hands, you make your way into the training hall, seeing Professor Siar and her soft smile once again.

It almost seems as an entirely new room from then classroom you spent two years in. All the desks have been stored away, including the teacher's, and the room is spotless after a much needed cleaning. Lining the wall by the door as you walk in is a few long folding tables, lined with foods and drinks for all of Professor Siar's "guests of honor", and as your eyes scan the rest of the room, another set of tables line the opposite side of the room. Sitting atop the opposite tables however, lies 18 shiny red PokeBalls, a colourful gift bag, and a small card with one of every student's name on it.

As Professor Siar giggles to herself softly, seeing many of your eyes light up for the first time this morning, she politely nods. "Go ahead. They are yours to raise now. Welcome to the ranks of Pokemon Trainers, all of you."

http://i.imgur.com/UqDfzEY.png
As you open up your Pokeball, the starter you're supposed to have pops out. Your Pokemon will be roleplayed by you, along with your character.
In the bag, you will find your PokeDex, your badge case, and the extra 5 PokeBalls
As a slight warning, I will need to ask for your patience for the first few posts as I work out the kinks in the new program I'm using for the maps. I have used it before, but it has been a long time. The white background around Prof Siar for example will be one such kink. Nothing more major than that should happen though. *fingers crossed*

[ArcturusV]

Tyler seemed a bit somber. Not sad, or depressed. But there was a weight about his expression that was counter to the Professor's easy smile. He was dressed as he usually was, thick, rugged clothing, meant for a hard life of traveling, tramping through tall grass, burrs, and brambles without too much difficulty, his usual heavy boots. He seemed a bit more at ease than normal in the classroom today. Maybe it was the lack of clutter. All the desks, chairs, and people crammed into the space made it feel very crowded at times. Completely unlike the wide open spaces he was used to.

Rather than go directly to his pokemon ball and bags, he instead heading towards the Refreshments. He orderly went down the line, folding small tidbits and treats into napkins, most of which went into his jacket pocket, but a few he kept in his left hand, and in the crook of his arm as he held it against his chest. Down the line he went, everything from a glass of water to small little sweets and simple natural fares such as small vegetables, fruit slices, and similar things.

Once he was done, he walked over across the room with his load towards his bag and ball. Lowering it down he set out the treats he had gathered in his arm, arrayed carefully. Once that was done he took up his bag and ball, popping it open and releasing Shauna.

He gave the Squirtle a short, polite bow, as he had over the weeks here to various people and pokemon as he met them, "Seems we are going to travel together lady. I figured after all that time cooped up, you might want a chance to stretch out and eat. I'm not a big believer in keeping you cooped up, so we might as well get used to one another, right?"

Shauna just leveled him a stare. Blinking slowly she nudged forward, plopped down, and started drinking the water.

"Well I suppose that is a first step. Go ahead, eat up, relax. Might be your last chance for a while, the road is not kind."

[lilpuppy91]

Clementine stood amongst her peers, people which she had spent the last two years seeing. Some of their classmates hadn't made it, hadn't been able to pass the test, and were sitting at home with their heads held low. Still, that was quite a minority, as the 18 smiling faces in the room were surely a testament to. She felt proud to stand in the group, as there were several people who were much smarter than her, or who paid closer attention in class, or who knew the answers to questions she could only dream of getting right. Yet, today everyone was on equal footing. Today, there were no class clowns, or most likely to fails, or space cadets. Today, they were all graduates, they were all new trainers, and they were all barely standing still while Professor Siar gave her ceremonial speech. She had no idea what to expect, Professor Siar picked each of their starters out secretly herself. Anything could be in that ball behind that nameplate with her name on it. She had probably stuffed so many letters in Professor Siar's mailbox the past two weeks to cause the woman to contemplate a restraining order. Still, if it had been able to influence her at all, and achieve the desired pokemon type, then it would all be worth it. She just wanted something adorable, that was all she'd asked, a simple enough request. Sure, most pokemon are adorable in their own right, but starting with an exceptionally cute pokemon would make having to catch other adorable pokemon simply a desire, not a need.

It would mean she wouldn't have to put her dreams on hold until she got what she was looking for. "Oh please, oh please, oh please..." she whispered all through the speech, her eyes wide and intense. When at last the professor ended her speech and stood aside, Clementine's feet carried her as fast as the wind towards the tables, her eyes frantically scanning each and every nameplate until she spotted hers. She skidded to a stop then and ignored the gift bag completely in lieu of snatching up her pokeball and releasing the pokemon to see what it was. As the red light resolved itself into a form, a massive whoop came from Clementine's corner of the room as she took in the little vulpine creature, staring up at her with large and curious eyes. The pokemon didn't look particularly disturbed by the loud shout, nor when she was snatched up and snuggled fiercely by the bespectacled girl, simply setting up purring and nuzzling her as she hugged her close. "This is the best day of my life!" declared Clementine to the room. Then she set the yet unnamed fennekin down on the floor gently and bum rushed Professor Siar, wrapping her arms around her in an ecstatic hug. "Professor, you read my letters! I knew you wouldn't let me down! She's so goregeous and adorable, oh I love her, you're the best!" she gushed in a muffled fashion into Professor Siar's lab coat.

The unnamed fennekin peeked up curiously at Professor Siar from behind Clementine's legs, wondering what all of the fuss was about.

[ArcturusV]

Tyler couldn't help but shudder when he heard the cry of Clementine Carpenter. She seemed... odd, but not bad. But the loudness and the random hugging and such made him feel sorry for the Professor. He was too used to the quiet life with his own clan, the loud, boisterous nature of the people of Springcliff really did unnerve him.

He shared an exasperated look with Shauna, (However am I going to survive this...), he thought to himself as he pulled up one of the snacks he had lowered for Shauna and spread out. Sitting cross legged, he munched on some tart berries, enjoying that pucker that came with still a few weeks too early for sweetness flavoring. A flavor that Shauna herself seemed to appreciate, as he noticed the squirtle starting to eat some herself after sniffing them cautiously, and watching Tyler eat it.

He smiled at her, "Not so different, you and I."

[HopeHubris]

William listens to the speech, getting increasingly bored as he waits for the chance to get his first pokemon and begin his quest.

"Finally"
He sighs as the talking is over and he walks up to the row of tables, he grabs the pokeball with his name on it, never one for ceremony.
"I really hope this is one of the defensive ones, wouldn't want to get rid of my starter"

"Uhhh, go pokemon?"
Will says, releasing his new pokemon.

A small turtwig is released, it yawns and sits down, clearly nonplussed by the situation.
"Oh, cool, a turtle pokemon, probably has decent defence"
He reaches into his bag for his pokedex
(Tiny leaf, blah blah blah, becomes Torterra the continent pokemon which is a big-ass turtle with a tree, looks pretty sturdy, and heh, continental)
I'm gonna call you soup
Will chuckles, picking up his turtwig
"You are going to be a crazy tough little bugger one day, aren't you?"
He then devolves into making baby noises and rubbing his face on the poor little pokemon.

[Gintash]

Josuke was so excited last night that he had only gotten a few hours of sleep which caused him to wake up later than he wanted. He had planned to get here a few hours before the other students but ended up arriving at around the same time. He walked in the door half asleep only just awake enough to give a yawn as a greeting to all those who had gathered. He had his usual attire with his messy, all-day-long, bed hair his blue jeans, light blue shirt and white jacket on. He looked around the room a little before he noticed the Pokeballs on the table. Josuke jolted awake at the sight of the Pokeballs before him and jumped a little with a huge grin on his face. He had been waiting for this day for years and now it was finally here. He was finally to get his starter Pokemon whom would become one of his lifelong friends. He could not wait to open up the Pokeball and find which Pokemon he would have but at the same time stopped quickly. However... he had not had breakfast yet and the tables on the other side of the room begged his attention as well as the Pokeballs.

(I should go and open my Pokeball to find whom my partner will be. But at the same time I would not want to be rude and have my stomach growling when we first meet. Plus with this empty stomach, it would look like I just wanted to intro's over and done with so I could go and eat. But I want our first meeting to be a good and memorable one so that we can have a good relationship and become good friends. But if I leave him in the Pokeball for too long he might think that I don't want him or the something. Wait? Can Pokemon even think inside of their Pokeballs? Does time continue to pass while they are in there like normal time does for the rest of us outside or are they like, asleep while they are inside them?) Suddenly, a loud stomach rumble erupted from Josuke's stomach causing his train of thought to entirely derail straight into the wall as he clutched it. (AH! I know, he must be hungry in there so of course I can grab us both some food from the table so we can both eat together and get to know each other as we eat!) Josuke thought to himself as he walked over to the food tables grabbing two plates of food and filling his with the food he enjoyed and the other with a variety that he thought his Pokemon, his new friend, would enjoy.

He went over to the other tables grabbing his items before heading over to a side of the room and setting everything down. He then grabbed his Pokeball cautiously in his hands, holding it gently as if it would break at the slightest movement. He went to press the button, shaking a little as he did. The Pokeball opened, exploding with light which then took the form of a Mudkip. The light dissipated showing the little Mudkips colours as it squealed softly.

Josuke looked at the little guy as the Mudkip looked back at him. Josuke pulled the little guy into a big hug smiling widely as he cuddled with him. Oh your so cute. You know what? I think I'll name you Cheekm because you have such cute orange cheeks. I bet you are going to be best of friends. Cheekm replied with a small yelp which sounded happy to Josuke. Well I shall take that as a yes then little guy. Here is some food so feel free to dig in and enjoy it. Josuke says as he pushes the plate over to Cheekm. The little guy takes a sniff of the food before starting to eat little bits at a time. Josuke begins to nibble at his plate of food enjoying the meal even if it was a bit late for his taste. But still it was much better than nothing.

The screech from Clementine made both Josuke and Cheekm jump a bit as they looked over before looking back at each other and giggling a little. While Josuke was very happy about having his first Pokemon and he was going to thank the Prof about it, right now he wanted to have a little bit of bonding time with Cheekm. Even if it was just the two of them eating together, it seemed like a good idea to start with and then the two of them could work from there.

[Dannir]

Among the group, one of them was, quite honestly, surprised to be there. When she had first taken the professor's classes, her knowledge of pokemon was below that of the layman, and paying attention had never been her strength. In fact, a combination of worry that she would not have made the cut, making it quite unlikely for her to ever get a pokemon license, and excitement at learning of her success had left her with bags under her eyes even then after a few good nights' sleep.
This in no way reduced her excitement that day, however... Quite the contrary, in fact! Even while she was still somewhat sleepy, she had trouble staying in place. The prospect of finally being able to start her journey made sure of that. Still, she decided to stay patient, as hard as it was, and once she entered the classroom, even took the time to sample the refreshments before making her way to the pokeballs and bags.

She couldn't help but smile towards Clementine after seeing her reaction. One of the youngest among the graduates in the room. Clearly, she was a bright young girl, to have graduated so soon. But then, everyone there had to be at least capable enough to be able to care for a pokemon, at least in theory... And that wasn't a given for everyone. Even among those that do manage to get a license as trainers, cases of woeful carelessness that got the trainer's companion seriously hurt, or in the worst cases, even killed fighting *their* battles abounded... But she was confident that no one in this room would fall that far. Professor Siar would have made sure of that. And for the young girl currently thanking her, that went doubly so as from what Selene had gathered, she had little intent to have her pokemon fight. All the better that someone like her graduated.

Finally, she went up to her pokeball and gift bag, frowning as she saw the pokeballs in it. The reminder that trainers were expected to fight pokemon and capture them, and use them to fight more pokemon was unwelcome. Not that she was ungrateful to the professor, but the idea still didn't sit well with her. Any pokemon she caught on her travels would be companions. Not weapons. Not tools. That was one thing she wouldn't budge from. She wouldn't send them into a fight they don't want to take part in. She then turned her attention to the separate ball.

"Now, what are you going to be?" She muttered towards the pokeball, before smiling widely. Well, that would be the first surprise of her travels... The real start of her journey!
"Let's find out, go!" She released the pokemon, grinning as she saw the little snakelike grass-type, who for its part peered at her, appearing to be taking stock of the human in front of it. She whipped out the pokedex from the gift bag to identify it.
"A Snivy, uh? Well, hey there, little one," she said as she crouched down, leaning on her knee. "I guess I can't really refer to you as 'Snivy', especially if we're going to be travelling together... I mean, that would be like referring to everyone who's not a pokemon here by the name 'human', that would be kinda silly!" She chuckled at the thought, the pokemon seeming a little amused as well as its smug-looking smile widened a little.
"No, I think, I'll call you... Vinny. That okay with you?" The plantlike snake nodded.
"Alright. And do you wanna come with me? You'll probably have to help me fight through some trouble, but I promise, if I have my way, it'll be fun, for both of us!" The pokemon appeared to consider it for a moment, then nodded again, with a short, affirmative hiss.
Selene got up and pumped her fist towards the ceiling excitedly. "Aaal-right! Glad to have ya on board, Vinny!" The newly-named pokemon made several small hissing sounds, in what Selene could only assume to be laughter.
The new trainer picked up her new companion, and, for the time being, the two observed the others. After all, they might travel with some of them, too, so it couldn't hurt to see what everyone would get, and how they got along with their pokemon

[Durmatagno]

Thomas stood a little off to the side as the professor spoke, hands tucked into his blue overshirt, waiting. He still didn't know if being a trainer was absolutely what he wanted to do, but he did know that it was the first step in finding out what he wanted to do. Once the time came he moved to his name and gathered his stuff, before retreating to a corner of the room with some food. Settling down with his back against the wall, he released the little pokemon inside the ball to see who his new companion would be. As the pokemon materialized, he nibbled on a little food, then smiled as he saw who popped up out of the ball. A little Treecko, bit wiry and curious.

Hey there girl, how you doing? Mmm, can't just call you "Girl" or "Treecko" how aboooout......Lyn?

Thomas said as he offered the little grass type some celery. Taking it, Lyn sniffs it a little before happily taking a bite, nodding at her name. Thomas scanned her and then patted the little Treecko on the head. Smiling, he nibbled his own food and watched as she finished the celery, before she began sorting through the other food to get at some fruit, which she bit into happily.

Cute little thing, hungry too. Whatcha think, can we be friends?

He asked, holding out his hand, clenched loosely into a fist. The little Treecko makes a happy noise and puts her hand on top of Thomas'. Thomas smiles, and laughs.

You are adorable, did you know that?

The little Treecko swished her tail, not making any noise, but obviously accepting the compliment.

[gmoyes]

As Shane strode into the classroom, the usual casual smirk on his face had been turned into an incredibly rarely seen grin. This was it, this was the day he would become an official Pokemon trainer. He had been waiting two years for this day. Sure, it may have taken less time if he tried to get his license elsewhere, but to have the backing of the regional professor and one of her starter Pokemon, it was worth the wait. Well, at least he hoped so. He wasn't quite sure which one he would end up with, so in preparation, he studied the characteristics of each of them. He was sure he could work with whichever one he got.

Looking around the room, the young researcher saw the familiar faces of his classmates. They had all made it here together. While some of them were potential rivals, he wasn't quite sure who would make good traveling companions. He guessed that it just depended on which way everyone was going. While the Tohoko region was huge, there must have been places where people wanted to go as soon as possible. He had his own plans already and now was the time to enact them.

Shane looked down to the northern wall of the classroom. There stood Prof. Siar with tables laid out with gifts for each of them. He quickly looked down the row trying to find his own muttering to himself. "Shane McKenzie, Shane McKenzie, Shane Mc- Ah here we go." Spotting his trainer ID, he quickly scooped it up along with the pokeball and gift bag lying next to it. With his gifts in hand, he made a beeline over to his teacher. "Professor! Thank you so much. It has been an honor to be part of your class. I'll make sure to keep you updated on my travels." He shook the professor's hand and looked for a quiet corner of the room. Some of his classmates seemed quite... enthusiastic about receiving their first Pokemon. He figured that some of these new Pokemon wouldn't like the loud overwhelming noise so he took care of sending out his own.

"Ok then, let's see what I have. Let's go!" He triggered the release mechanism and in a burst of light a small blue and tan mouse-like Pokemon materialized in front of him. Crouching down, Shane examined his new partner. "A Cyndaquil," he muttered to himself. "Fire type, mixed attacker, evolves into Quilava then Typhlosion, the only fire starter that learn Eruption..." The grin on Shane's face widened. "You'll do just fine. Welcome to the team..." he paused for a second to think of a name for the young fire type. Names were not his forte. How about something that starts a fire? It would be appropriate. "...Spark. What do you think? Will you work with me?"

The newly named Spark looked up at his new trainer. The small fire type seemed to think for a moment and with a small squeak, he shot a small plume of smoke into Shane's face. Coughing, the new trainer staggered back and shot a glare back. "For your sake, I'm hoping that's a yes. Come on, let's get something to eat." Gently picking up the Cyndaquil in his arms, Shane walked over to the buffet table.

[Prometheus II]

As soon as Professor Ciar's speech ended, James bounced up, picking up the Poke Ball sitting above his nametag. "Now, let's see what you are." he muttered to himself, tapping the button on the ball. It popped open, releasing a flash of red light that rapidly materialized into a blue frog sitting on the table next to him. James blinked. "So, what're you?" He picked up the gift bag sitting behind the Poke Ball, reaching in to pull out a Pokedex and tapping the "Scan" function. The frog blinked in the bright light from the scanner, and an image built on the Pokedex's screen. "Froakie, huh?" He scrolled down, looking at the Froakie's stats. "Male, Water-type, evolves at level 14...nice, you know Bubble already..." He flipped the Pokedex shut, smiling at his new Pokemon. "Right then! I'll call you Jirai. That okay with you?" The Froakie-Jirai, James corrected mentally-blinked listlessly. James patted the little frog, concerned. "You okay, there?" Jirai's skin felt dry and rubbery, and not-James was fairly sure-what an amphibian's skin should look like. (Wait, the Froakie line is amphibious, aren't they? And there was no water in that ball...) "C'mon, hop up here." James patted his shoulder, and Jirai-seemingly with great effort-made the foot-long jump from the table to James' sitting shoulder. James stood up, causing Jirai to rock precariously, and walked over to the salad bar, snagged a bowl, and moved over to the water pitcher. He filled the bowl with water-getting more than a few strange looks-before carefully making his way back to his table and setting the bowl down. "Froakie drink through their skin, don't they? Here you go." He plonked Jirai into the bowl, earning a little croak of surprised delight. "Poor thing, you were probably near-dying of thirst, weren't you?" Jirai took no notice, rolling over in the water as he tried to get it all over. The bubbles on his neck-which had looked a little thin before-began foaming up in earnest. James laughed a little at Jirai's antics.

[Bluydee]

Ryota walked into the room, his eyes looking around him. Today was his day. It was strange to think he was here, when just 2 years ago he was a lowlife and a thief. Yet now he was here, ready to start his journey and new life. . Even he couldn't admit that he was excited, with the slightest of a smile on his face He wondered what his old gang was doing, but then, he didn't really care. He listened to the professor, then walked forward, his hands firmly inside his pants pocket. That always bothered him, how everybody else never wore anything formal to formal occasions such as this one. Even when they pointed out he wore his suit everyday, he still insisted they wore it, but alas, they refused to listen.

He stepped forward to the pokeballs. He already knew which Pokemon he was going to be receiving, ever since he saw him years ago. There was his name. He picked the pokeball up, releasing the Pokemon inside. His guess for what it would be started with Chim and ended with Char. And he was right. The flaming monkey hopped out, a wide expression on its face.

"Called it."

He smiled despite himself, the Chimchar hopping around and acquainting itself with it's surroundings. He gently extended a hand to it.

"It's been a while, hasn't it Chimchar?"

The monkey pokemon looked up at him, a knowing look on its face. When he tried stealing it before, he grabbed the pokeball at random. but something inside him must've called it to him, because when he activated it he saw Chimchar, who gave him a look, at an instinctive look that only true friends have.

"Come on, let's go. Please don't jump on my head this time."

Chimchar hopped onto his cranium. Well, as the saying goes, you lose some, you win some.

[tonberryking]

Loft felt like the villain in a cartoon. Trying to keep a dark secret to himself, while still having the impetus to enact a sneaky plan.

He knew this day was coming, and knew it was his one chance to break from the Loftus family before anyone but Crystina figured out what he was up to. As a result, he was wearing what amounted to the family 'civilian' uniform: a black and red-trimmed shirt with the crossed swords under a fist symbol, and jogging pants that matched. He hadn't even pulled out his safari vest yet, he was so scared someone would report back to his dad... At least none of his brothers picked today to upend his backpack on the way out (But Dorter DID try to trip him as he walked past the breakfast table) and be so confused why survival and traveling gear would have dumped out. He was rather surprised he'd managed to sneak both a net and a sleeping bag out under their ruffian noses.

He fidgets, and stays silent through Siar's speech, going first not to get his pokemon but to scoop as much not-really-perishable food into ziploc bags he'd had the foresight to bring, a man on a mission... Even snatches up a few water bottles until he feels he's reaching a weight limit... but eventually, the 'man' realizes his mission won't mean a thing without a partner.

It's been a long time coming, and Loft shuffles slowly--oh so slowly-- up to the or next to his nameplate. He just stares at it for what feels like a long time, until the poor kid starts to think he might be attracting attention and then reaches for the pokeball. At the first touch of his finger brushing it, it opens with a snap and a flash.

"Osh-hhaaaaaa!!!"

With that cry, an Oshawott charges out of her ball, literally body checking him, and also quite effectively tackling him as well, as Loft was *not* expecting this.

At least the sleeping bag in his pack broke his fall...

And there on the ground, Loft's backpack open with spilled food baggies about his head, the brave little Oshawott meets her not-so-brave trainer, triumphantly posed on his sternum... at least until she seems to realize her mistake.

"....Hullo, Tina," Loft manages with a grunt, on the spot naming her after his brave sister. Tina looks only worried for as long as it takes for him to pat her on the head, and they both as a courtesy to each other ignore Loft's subsequent groan.

[Yodas_Free_Boat]

There was a glint in Tobias' eyes as he saw all of the other new trainers open their pokeballs and let loose the pokemon. Each one of them was unique in some way, and Toby was already fantasies about all the different pokemon he might meet in his journey.
(Well, the journey of a thousand miles.. ) He thought to himself as he looked at the pokeball that had his name on it.

As he felt the pokeball, he could almost feel the ball joustle and twitch in his hand; like the pokemon inside was as filled with nervous energy as he was.

Once Toby had hit the button on the tiny ball and freed his new pokemon, A small green ball burst out and began to run around the room with near boundless energy. It was clear that the little guy was not a fan of being cooped up.

Once the tiny pokemon had finally stopped running in circles around Tobias, he sat down in front of his new trainer with wide smile on his face.

"Hey There buddy" Toby said with a look of glee plastered on his own face.

"Hmm, I should probably give you a name, huh?"

"What about Leaf?" He asked, trying to come up with something. The small green pokemon just shook his head in disapproval. "Yeah, that is a bit too on the nose, isn't it?"

"Okay, how about Occa?" He asked, thinking of the berries that he'd seen his father occasionally feed to some wild pokemon. The bulbasaur seemed more pleased with that name, even going so far as to let a joyous cry. Atleast Toby assumed it was a joyous cry since it sounded like the noise he himself would make whenever his mom told him they'd be getting ice cream.

"Alright, Occa it is! Now C'mon, let's go get some food!" He leaned down and picked up Occa in his arms, then walked over to the buffet table.

[Vexing]

One of the few with a reserved expression throughout the ceremony (in line with Tyler and Ryota), Matthias' grin was still notably absent when the graduating class entered the training hall. For almost all of his classmates, many of them Springcliff locals, this was the realization of their goals; for himself, it was only the first step. All the graduation meant was that the easy part was over, he reflected.

Without hesitation he closed the distance between himself and the table bearing his full name in Professor Siar's flowing, professional script. Smoothly picking up the bag, Matthias carefully laid out its contents next to the lone Pokéball, examining each in its turn. Five Pokéballs, empty, quickly shrunk and subsequently stored in the backpack's side pouch for easy access. One Pokédex with its various additions and applications, delicately turned over and over for inspection before being tucked into the vest's inside pocket. When it came to the Badge Case, however, Matthias businesslike appraisal ceased. Slowly taking the slim black case in hand, he ran his fingertips along the sides and corners, familiarizing himself with the feel of it. The electric thrill he felt when opening the case couldn't be described and certainly wasn't concealed, the lad's smile slowly breaking free as he surveyed the little pin-slots for the badges. (Finally. This is what I've been waiting for!) Proudly snapping the case shut, he stored it into his backpack with near-reverence. The case would serve as an indicator for how close to his goal was: the League.

Coming back to himself, he realized that the vast majority of his fellow students were already much further along than he. Collecting food, eating with their new companions, trading thanks and goodbyes with Professor Siar--he couldn't afford to dawdle. Reaching for his own starter's ball, Matthias choked back his initial nervousness. After all, the Professor would surely have given each student a pokémon suited to them. Thumbing the catch, his eyes widened as the red beam spat out a bright white light, revealing...

A pig. Matthias blinked, double-taking at the offending pokéball and his new starter who stared up noiselessly at the boy. (A pig?), he thought, reaching for his Pokédex hastily, leaning down to scan the little creature. The Tepig, in turn, sat back on its hind legs in imitation and cocked its head to the side inquisitively.

"Tepig, the Fire Pig Pokémon. Tepig is a nimble Pokémon capable of blowing fire from its snout. It will cloak itself in these flames in order to use its signature move, deemed 'Heat Crash'. However, it will spout thick, black smoke when ill. Tepig will roast berries before eating them, but occasionally gets overexcited and burns them." The 'Dex explained the little porcine thing away in its characteristically mechanical way, leaving Matthias no more enthused than before. Smile fading, he sighed and extended his palm to the thing. "I'm going to call you Calydonis. It's close enough to a mythical boar, so, maybe it'll rub off on you?" The Tepig, grunting solemnly in what the Blackburn heir hoped was approval, commemorated the moment by falling over onto it's back and lazily moving its hind legs in air.

"...We have so much work to do."

Resigned to the peculiar pig, he stood and began making his way around the room, leisurely scanning everyone's Pokémon as Calydonis trotted happily behind. He didn't bother to make conversation, simply getting close enough to get a clean look at the various starters with a scan, logging it, and moving along. It was clear he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself. The Tepig was certainly quirky enough to make up for this shortcoming however, occasionally turning around to walk backwards, rolling itself gently into the back of Matthias' ankles as the boy walked, or squealing with glee at every new wonder it saw.

I figure this is as good a way to get to know you fellow Pokégoobers! We may as well start making IC chit-chat, if we're going to find similar goals and party splits. I'm looking forward to it.

[Boolprop]

Excited and barely able to sleep a wink last night, Djaq would have overslept if it wasn't for his mother waking him up. It took him a second to realize what today meant. Shaking away any lingering sleep, Djaq jumped off his bed and rushes to the bathroom; not before thanking his mom for waking him. Both his parents and younger brother had just arrived a few days ago, in time for Djaq's graduation.

Djaq manage to arrive on time as other students and guests are mingling, before Professor Siar manage to quite down the room to give her speech. Though not exactly dressed for the occasion, Djaq is wearing a sleeveless shirt in light grey hue with blue trims that eventually crosses one another, embroidered with a pair of open white wings; with brown cargo pants and civilian variant of ranger boots his uncle have gifted him.

Djaq sat through Professor Siar's speech, though he was barely able to contain his excitement. Like some of the students, Djaq went straight to the table filled with bags and Pokéballs, though he did so with a spring in each step. Quickly examining each card until he found one with his name, Djaq smiles from cheek to cheek as he handles the Pokéball with care. With his heart beating with excitement, Djaq took a moment to clam himself down as he breathe in and out.

In a swift motion, Djaq activates the buttom to release the Pokémon inside. From the red beam materializes a Torchic, though much smaller than the norm. Kneeling down, Djaq smiles brightly to the chick as he introduces himself. "Well hello there! The name's Locksley. Djaq Locksley. I'm pleased to meet you." The Torchic quizzically looks at Djaq, before chirping when Djaq pats her head before moving in to stroke her cheeks. "Well Torchic, starting today we'll be traveling together." The young chick chirps again, this time she looks at her surroundings, then back at the trainer. Looking up and watching the other trainers, Djaq quickly realizes the Torchic's nature and gender. "Since we'll be traveling together, how about a name? How do Koko sound?" Djaq inquires the young chick, whom chirps and shakes her head, signifying a no. Pausing for a moment, Djaq thinks to himself as he scoops up the 8" tall Torchic. "How about Ruki?" This time the Torchic chirps happily, then in a mighty leap, hops on top of Djaq's head. Ruki then spins around as she sits on the trainer's head, facing in the same direction as Djaq.

"Well then Ruki, there are a couple of others I want you to meet." Djaqs shifts ever so slightly as keep his balance and not to dismount the Torchic on his head. Ruki again chirps as she scans the room, this time registering the presence of other trainers, Pokémon and others. First moving slowly towards the gift bag, Djaq quickly gets the hang of it and moves normally as Ruki sits comfortably. Djaq turns around and head towards his family, smiling as his notices the other trainers are also bonding with their Pokémon, some he recognizes as his classmates.

[Prehysterical]

As Professor Siar gives her speech, Angus stands at attention. Today is the day. After two years of learning about Pokemon and the rest of the world, not to mention many late nights of studying and nail-biting tests, he was finally here. Angus had even put on his family tabard this morning. The Rapidash with the lance-tipped horn on the front stood proudly against the white cloth. The shield that he had crafted himself shone to a mirror shine as a result of the thorough waxing he had given it earlier. Though he tried to maintain the proper stoic exterior, it was hard not to indulge himself with a proud grin. (I can't wait for you to see, Father. Another obstacle overcome.)

When she beckons them forward, Angus halts midstride some of the other students rush to claim their new Pokemon. The slight tinge of annoyance of he feels at such chaotic behavior fades into a soft smile as he sees the new trainers bonding with their new Pokemon. Once enough space at the table has been cleared, Angus moves forward and looks for his name among the others. Finally, he picks up the ball containing his chosen Pokemon and takes a moment to reflect on it. (I know that this is just technology, but fitting anything into a ball like this must be some sort of witchcraft. What kind of a metal prison is this? Do Pokemon just slumber within it, or are they awake in some form of limbo?) Shaking his head, Angus realizes that his mind is wandering. (Whatever the case, here we are. I shall use it as little as possible.)

Pressing the button in the middle of the device, a flow of energetic light coalesces on the floor into a definitive shape. A second later and a fully formed brown Pokemon stands before him. Gazing up at Angus, it seems content to wait for a response. Now that he is confronted by his new starter, Angus rubs the back of his head awkwardly.

"Um... do you have a name?" The small figure before him shakes its head. "Well then... I suppose we will have to fix that. Hmmm..." Angus rubs his chin thoughtfully as he examines the new Pokemon. Its easy-going manner, the circular armor piece protecting its head... An old tale of a knight long dead springs to his mind. "What about Seigmeyer," he proposes.

The newly dubbed Seigmeyer nods his head in pleasant agreement. Struggling to find a way to greet the little fellow, Angus notices that Seigmeyer stands on two feet and has a pair of paws that serve as hands. Stooping to put himself further down, Angus extends his hand. "I'm Angus. Welcome to the knighthood, partner." Seigmeyer seizes Angus's hand with both of his paws and shakes warmly. In that moment, Angus knew that he could not have received a better companion.

Standing himself upright, Angus to regard Professor Siar and says, "Thank you for your guidance, Professor. I will do you proud." He bows slightly in respect.

Slinging the bag of valuables over his shoulder, Angus makes his way over to the buffet table. He begins piling a plate with various meats, breads, cheeses, and pastries. A tug at his pant leg brings his attention to Seigmeyer, who gazes upward at the plate with longing in his eyes. Ashamed by his inconsideration, Angus lifts the Pokemon up under his arm. Though he is surprised and a little frightened at first, Seigmeyer sees the array of goodies before him and joyfully starts putting his own selection of treats on Angus's plate. A soft smile plays on Angus's face, a sight rarely seen by the other students. (It's not just about me anymore. A team we will be, always.)

[ArcturusV]

Tyler was intently aware of the sense of being watched. It was something he often felt in the crowded city of Springcliff. People stared. He wasn't certain why. But this was different. Matthias's poking around and scanning making the hairs on the back of his head tingle. He took in a deep, sharp breath, closing his eyes as he tried to calm himself.

This was covered in the first year of his correspondence course. Trainer Etiquette. He looked over his shoulder, to see Mathias with a strange widget staring at him and Shauna like a piece of meat. He cleared his throat loudly and leveled his gaze over at the Tepig's owner.

"I believe one of the early lessons mentioned that if a trainer stares at you, there is to be a battle. I am currently in the middle of a light meal. However we can meet outside, in a few minutes, it would be a shame for any enthusiasm to damage the class room."

He took up the cup of water, taking a small sip from it. His eyes gazed back to Shauna, "Think you're up to it?"

The squirtle responded, wagging its tail back and forth and giving the Tepig a hard stare as it leaned towards the duo of trainer and bacon.

[Vexing]

"Squirtle, the Tiny Turtle Pokémon. Squirtle's shell is a useful tool. It can withdraw into the shell for protection or for sleeping, and its grooved, rounded shape helps to reduce water resistance when it swims. Squirtle can spray foamy water from its mouth with great accuracy. Squirtle is scarce in the wild, although it can be found around small ponds and lakes.", the Pokédex concluded. Matthias frowned at both the device and Tyler's responses.

"You have a clear type advantage, if your friend can use water-based attacks--Calydonis here is fire-typed, and I'd prefer not to have him injured before I've even left town." Calydonis, utterly oblivious, begins to tug on the lace of Matthias' shiny new running shoes. "Furthermore, I was only looking at your Squirtle...besides, it's a barbaric rule anyway. You wouldn't be able to take more than five steps inside a town of any great size if you held to it!"

[Prometheus II]

James' ears pricked at the sound of the word "battle." "Oh, that's right! Jirai, I've got something for you. Into the ball for a sec, alright?" Jirai nodded, a little confused. James picked up Jirai's ball and tapped the button, and the frog vanished in a stream of red light. Slotting the ball into the Pokedex-he was already registered as Jirai's owner, James was pleased to see-he pulled a small disc case from his backpack. The words TM10-HIDDEN POWER gleamed, stenciled on the small TM disc. He popped the case open and slotted the TM into the Pokedex, and tapped his way through the dialogue boxes to teach Jirai the new move. (What'll you get, I wonder...) The Pokedex popped up a "Working" symbol of a spinning, cartoony Pikachu face-he really had to change the visual settings on that thing-before making a little "ping" noise and sliding out the now-wiped TM. One of these days, he'd figure out why in the world Silph sold them with a wipe built in. The Unova and Kalos-based branches had reusable TMs, he'd heard, even though they cost ten times as much. Shaking his head, he removed Jirai's ball from the Pokedex slot and pressed the button. Jirai rematerialized, shaking his head woozily. "Still thirsty, Jirai?" He'd heard it was important to keep referring to a Pokemon by their name in the early stages, or they never learned it. Jirai blinked a little at him. "I'll take that as a 'why do I taste purple' and move along, then." Jirai blinked hard, shaking himself all over and sending a few bubbles flying, before making a leap up to James' shoulder. "Guess you aren't thirsty, then. Your trainer, on the other hand, hasn't had anything since a bagel three hours ago, so c'mon." Jirai gave a little chirping croak, and the two moved off to fill a real plate.

[ArcturusV]

Tyler arched an eyebrow at Matthias, "Traditions are important. The Land of Lost Souls is filled with those who thought they knew better than tradition." Was it a quote? He said it like it was a quote of some sort. He shrugged it off though, chalking it up to the crazy, decadent ways of the Outsiders. All focused on progress, not realizing how much they lost to achieve it.

He turned away from Matthias, popping a grape into his mouth and chewing slowly. Eyes back on Shauna, nodding a bit glumly, "Don't fret, I'll help show you the way, okay?" he said to the young squirtle.

"Besides," he said loudly to Matthias, not turning to face him yet, "Would it not be better to get your first battle out of the way here? There's what... 4 healers in this room? Plenty of medical supplies, pokemon center nearby. The first fight is always the hardest. Would you rather it happen here? Or when you're alone, miles away from help?"

[Vexing]

"Actually, I'd rather not put my Pokémon at risk at all with such a glaring Type disadvantage. Your victory is entirely assured before the first move is made, given our, ah, lack of experience. Would you be so eager to indulge in your silly tradition if I had an Electric type to match up, for example? It's easy to be bold when you have all the edges." Matthias shook his head in irritation. (Land of Lost Souls? Who does this guy think he is, anyway?)

Calydonis snorted loudly, pawing at the wooden boards. He slowly stared up at Matthias with a mournful expression, and heaving yet another sigh, the boy relented. "If you'll agree to a fair contest, then I may well reconsider. It looks like my new 'companion' is at least passingly interested--perhaps basic moves only?"

[Pallid]

"(North would probably be better to clear out before the winters settle in. We'll pick up clothes there, they'll be of better quality with people actually knowing what's important in that region.)" Micheal was firmly in his head during the preamble to the speech from the professor, though he did semi-snap out of when she began talking. He thought back to the letter tucked away in his pocket congratulating him on being successful. Two long years he had labored away cramming his head full of information about the various outs and ins with pokemon training and rearing.

He had often questioned if he was putting enough effort into it, while he was juggling at the very least four other lessons at any given time. But the letter and his being here to listen to the speech and soon accept his own pokemon was proof positive the he had. It was still a little unnerving to think that in a few scant hours he would leaving his home town to go off on his own to bring the name of Kree to whatever forefront he could sink his claws into. Now only his Auntie had told him which region she had found the most inspiration in he would have been golden. But she kept avoiding the question like a Sudowoodo avoided water.

When the speech was done he gave a clap but didn't immediately rush forward for his pokemon. Instead he took a moment and watched his classmates, and felt a smile work it's way onto his face. It was a little surreal to think that he could very well be standing in the room with people that would one day be come gym leaders or elite four members. Leaders of towns and icons of a generation, and he could harken back to the time they fell asleep in class and drooled on their desk. Or when they let out a scream that probably sent some Zubat in the rafters fleeing for the hills, like Clementine had just done.

Well, at the very least she was excited and he wouldn't need to prod her too much to get her started. Still, he took the screech as a sign he should probably get on the ball himself instead of letting others pass him by even for a moment. So with a confidante stride he moved over to the pokemon with his name on it and scooped it up, and collected his gear. And since they were there, just showing them off he let his new shiny pokedex hover each pokemon that had been released and let it do it's magic. Better safe then sorry, he hadn't planned on getting into any battles while he was still in town, but that didn't mean others weren't going to challenge him if he gave them a chance.

He'd let out and get to know his pokemon once they had covered some ground, no since in resting up while day light was burning after all. Clementine had mentioned she wanted to check up on someone first, so he couldn't get too far without her so he just opted to head to the meeting spot and wait for her. Said meeting spot being the exit to the northern route. Though before clearing the building he did drop off his thank you letter he had written for the professor. He had wrote it when he first entered the academy and had it sealed and dated, he at the time thought it was a sweet notion of putting his trust in his teacher that she would see him graduate on time with her expert teaching. But now that he was a little older he wondered if the message would still be seen as the same. Regardless it was done and he rarely went back on decisions he made, so he placed it on her desk with an apple just like he had planned out two years ago.

Then at the door he stopped and gave a bow to his classmates that were still milling about. He doubted many of them would see it, but much like the letter he felt it was something he had to go through with. They would be competition in a few hours, but for now they were still his classmates and he wished them the best. “See you guys.” And with that, the youngest Kree was out the door and heading north.

[Goliathus]

Final-freaking-ly, the day has come for him to graduate. Tobar was not as young as many of his classmates and so he was a bit impatient about this. He wanted to start an adventure at around 13-14 but life issue had delayed him to this day. Not anymore, he wanted to burst out of his cocoon like a Bug Pokemon evolving into its final form and to truly explore the world. Tobar was already in his adventure wear early in the morning as he went into the classroom. He really would like to wear a more formal apparel for this little graduation ceremony but he was expecting to travel soon after the ceremony. Apparently, everyone seemed to think that way as well as they were all there with outdoor-appropriate clothing and accessories. The ceremony itself was pretty brief and Tobar remembered his primary school graduation to be more spectacular than this one. It was no matter, it was merely a form of convention and the important thing, in his mind, was his starting package. He was far away from the fastest to get to the bag. By the time he was at the table, there's only a few packages left and it didn't take him too long to see his package.

Upon taking it, he took it to a corner of the room and checked the content. He started with the bag of loot. A Pokedex, awesome enough that Tobar spent a few minutes getting to know how to use it. Badge case, he aimed to fill it up one day. Five PokeBalls, fantastic for someone like him. He really needed them to catch more Pokemon for breeding purposes. Only after he went through his bag, that he tried to find out what's his starter would be. As he has had a lot of personal experience with Pokemon already, he was milder in excitement as compared to his many classmates. One of the girls, Clementine, even went crazy after seeing her Fennekin. Heh, that really reminded him of his time working in his father's barn, one great joy of the job was to see children going crazily exciting on seeing many Pokemon for the first time or when their parent bought them their first Pokemon for them. The others were calmer and many of them were already sharing their first meal with the Pokemon. He wondered if the professor didn't feed these Pokemon in the morning because most of them seemed to be very hungry.

With an easy swing, Tobar threw his Pokemon out...and it was a Piplup. The Penguin Pokemon seemed energetic as he greeted his trainer with a wide smile after showing up for the first time. "Oh a Piplup, nice to meet you." Tobar extended knelt and extended his head to the Piplup, trying to gauge his personality. He has done some studies on the list of possible Pokemon yesterday. The professor was quite secretive about what Pokemon were she giving to the trainers and the only tips he gave Tobar after the inquiry session was "starters in other regions". Luckily for Tobar, his father has traveled all around the world in his younger time and was able to give him a list of the standard starters in the various other regions of the world. Hence, Tobar was well-prepared. He knew the Piplup species was usually proud of themselves and not necessarily friendly. Not this one though as the Piplup happily shook the hand of his trainer with the same smile.

"My name is Tobar Beritt, you can just call me Tobar. As for you, I think I will call you...Magnus. How about that? I assume you are a male, right?" The Piplup gave his trainer a light nod. He wasn't too picky on name himself and Magnus seemed to fit his species anyway. "Cool, I promise you will become a magnificent Pokemon one day, not that you are not already magnificent." Magnus merely shook his head, he didn't think he was that magnificent, or even good, he would like a chance to earn that title through adventuring with his trainer.

Now that Tobar knew the Magnus was one very friendly Piplup, he rise it up with both hands and started to do his affectionate - or creepy - routine by kissing it on the cheek. Magnus wasn't sure what to react but he was okay with it...and then Tobar started to lick his cheek. That was a little too much for the little Piplup and he was trying to push Tobar away. Tobar was too into it though...and the only thing the little Penguin Pokemon could do was to pull his head backward quickly while swinging his right fin at his trainer's face. BAM! That was a hard hit coming from such a tiny hand, dropping Tobar's glasses to the ground as his head was tilted to the side in high speed. Piplup landed gracefully on the ground, pointed his fin at his trainer with a "Don't do that again" look. "Ouch, okay, I get the boundaries now. And good job by the way, you hit very hard and I think we are going to be fine as a team." Tobar replied while holding his cheek. His vision was blurry without his glasses but it's not hard to see, or sense, what his Piplup was telling him.

As he lowered himself once again to pick up his glasses, someone and a Tepig was besides him. He put his glasses backed on and stood up to see that it's his classmate, Matthias. "Oh hey there, Matthias, I see you have a Te-" Before he could finished his words though, Tyler was there to issue a challenge to Matthias. Tobar actually expected Angus to be one to issue the first Pokemon challenge to the others since he was like a knight in the modern world and a duel was part of knighthood. "If you two decided to lock horn later, I wouldn't mind preparing some special treat for your Pokemon to give them some extra fighting strength."

[Charisma Thief]

Professor Siar just sits back and smiles as she sees you all encounter your first Pokemon. A sudden gasp breaks from her smile as she looks behind her and sees Clementine came up behind her for a surprise hug. She simply returns to her sweet smile once again and pats Clementine on the head. "You're quite welcome m'dear. All I ask is that you raise her well."

As her eyes scan around the room again, she over hears to conversation between Tyler and Matthias, quickly walking over with grace before speaking loudly enough to the two boys that the rest of the room can hear. "Actually boys, if you would like, you are all more than welcome to have your first battles here. The room has been cleared away for a reason after all. I only ask that you stay away from the food, in-case it makes too large of a mess. As for any injuries, I would be more than happy to heal your partners up afterwards, as well as judge the match as your first official PokeLeague match."

Prof. Siar then spins on her heal and makes her way over to the center of the room, leaning against one of the now empty tables, looking over the trainers to see if anyone will take the offer to have their first Pokemon Battle.

Prof. Siar
Move: E-12 to E-9

For people interested in battling, The starting positions for trainers is G-3 and G-14, while the Pokemon start at G-5 and G-12

[Vexing]

Matthias nods approvingly, glad to have some sort of official oversight. "It'll be nice to get used to League rules...well? Do you agree to my condition, or not?" He awaited the answer calmly; more than likely the Lumiosian had totally missed Tobar's comment in the midst of his negotiation.

[lilpuppy91]

Finally having hugged the professor enough, she leaned back far enough to give Professor Siar a kiss on the cheek and an exuberant smile, which held just a tinge of sadness, and then the turned away to return to collect the rest of her things. She had no idea when she would see her parents again, when she would see Professor Siar again. There was absolutely nothing that she hated more than saying goodbye. Perhaps Michael had been right, in that a fast getaway was the best approach. For him, it was all about tactics, and strategy, but for her... the longer she stayed, the more likely she was to start crying. She didn't just have to say goodbye to her parents (which she did this morning, and had cried anyway) and Professor Siar (thank god there were no tears!), but she also had to say goodbye to her classmates... Wait, classmates- that was right, where was Michael! She turned around to see him scanning all of the pokemon that were out and wandering about. She raised her hand to wave happily at him, wanting him to come see her new pokemon, but he didn't see her. He just bowed and left silently.

Her smile faltered slightly, but was soon replaced by one of surprise. "Oh right! Great idea Mikey!" she exclaimed, before pulling the pokedex out of her gift bag, stuffing the rest into her backpack, and taking a moment to stand around and scan all of the pokemon too, waiting to scan hers last. She paused then and smiled up at the Fennekin, who had sat down patiently and stared up at her with a slowly flopping tail. "We don't call him Mikey to his face by the way, that's only for behind his back or when he can't hear us. Got it?" she asked, to which the pokemon returned a soft mew of affirmation. She snapped her fingers and knelt down in front of the pokemon to pet her golden head. "Speaking of names, you don't yet have yours! I've been thinking long and hard about the perfect name for a super cute pokemon, and I had a whole top ten list. We'll try my favorite first, and if you don't like it, we'll cycle through to the others. How does Rosemary sound?" the fennekin managed to look please, and gave an enthusiastic mew.

"RIGHT? It's totally cute! I thought so too! It's a pleasure to meet you Rosemary, we're going to be great friends! My name is Clementine, but friends call me Clem, and my little cousins call me Tyty... don't ask." The fennekin giggled in amusement, and Clementine joined in. Tyty really was a silly name, and it was going pretty out of your way to make it work, too. She stood up then and stretched. Michael had already gotten up and left, so he'd be at the meeting spot soon. That meant she had about 20 minutes to meet him there before she got the wasting daylight speech that she'd already gotten 3 times this week, and didn't really want to hear again. She and Michael'd had a sleepover/study session just last week, where they'd gone over their plan for when they left town. There they'd hacked out their time of departure, meeting place, and then discussed the matter of teammates. Clem was of the opinion that there was safety in numbers, and that more friends always meant more fun, but Michael was ever practical. More people meant more noise, scaring away good pokemon, and attracting bad ones. There were also personality compatibility to consider, and goals. Contest oriented folks shouldn't travel with archaeologists for instance, that's just silly.

Of course she and Michael were a given, because they'd been friends for four years now, and in a lot of ways, they trusted each other more than anyone else. Also, even if he had tried to go out alone, she would have stalked him carefully to make sure he was ok anyway. But anyone else was up in the air. She hadn't been able to sell him on more than one person, but a group of three was better than nothing. The hard part was selling the group to the prospective team member in the 20 minutes she had before Michael got his grumpy face on. That was the challenge that Michael had set out before her, and there was no way she was going to back down! Slowly she turned to inspect the gathered trainers, until her eyes zeroed in on her target. "Selene!" she called out excitedly, waving a hand high, and rushing over to the pretty woman, who was currently holding her pokemon. "Hi Selene! Oh my gosh, who is this little cutie?! Hello there!" she gushed at the little green pokemon, which her pokedex had already told her was Snivy, but she'd been rapid fire clicking, and had been planning to actually read everything later.

She then looked back up at Selene, and smiled, pointing down at the Fennekin, who peered up at Selene from behind Clementine's leg with large, curious eyes. "This is Rosemary." she attempted to step out from in front of Rosemary to show her to Selene, but the little furball just bounced forwards behind Clementine again, before peeking out, her large ears twitching. Clem snorted and shook her head. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something. See- Mikey and I were going over who would be super fun to travel with, and when we talked about you, he said that you probably wouldn't slow us down! That's better than what he said about me when I first brought up traveling with him before we even joined the academy. He totally likes you, and I like you too, I think you're really cool!" she said with a smile, her expression open and honest. She wasn't trying to be overly friendly just to butter her up, she was always this energetic. If Selene came with them, that would be one less friend she would have to say goodbye to.

"I know you like contests, and I like contests, and Michael likes contests, so we'd be heading to all the contest towns anyway, so I thought we'd make a great team! Thing is though, that Michael wants to leave now, so we can get started on our journey ASAP. The sun waits for no one! So, I know this is kind of sudden, but if you join our team, we'd probably be leaving right now. Anyway, what do you say? Are you pumped to join our team, or are you pumped to join our team?" she reached up to straighten her glasses a little, and Rosemary scooted out a little further to mew up at the Snivy curiously.

[Bluydee]

Ryota looked up, as the professor talked about how the battles were allowed. He could fight right now, but he had better things to do than risk having Chimchar hurt already. He almost forgot, however.

"Wait a moment, Chimchar." Getting Chimchar was a given. As such, he made sure to buy certain TMs commonly used in the league especially. Flame Charge and Swords Dance were the best options he had at the moment, so he saved up to buy them just in preparation. He withdrew Chimchar, placed him in both of the TM cases, and felt satisfied when both of them were used, before releasing Chimchar out.

People already wanted to fight? He wanted to actually see what Chimchar could do before throwing him at the other trainers. Did they never hear about training? He walked over to his two classmates beginning the spectacle.

"Tch. Trying to fight already? Do you even know how your partner fights? It has been barely a few minutes and you haven't even been fully coordinated and bonded with your starter."

[Vexing]

"I'm told that early training consisted solely of battling, albeit with lower stakes and intentional punch-pulling, but..." The boy stared at Calydonis, who had taken this moment to flip onto its back again and waggle its little feet in the air. (Damnably weird. Is there anything wrong with him??) "I can see the merits to waiting and training for awhile. Would you like to take a half hour to prepare, then, Tyler? We can get a better feel for our given strengths, then."

Reaching out to shake Ryota's hand, Matthias nodded cordially. "Thank you for your suggestion...Ryoda? You'll have to forgive me. I haven't really made a point to be familiar with anyone's name." After another moment of thought, he snapped his fingers sharply. "Numbers. We should exchange them, as a class. It may be helpful in the future." With that, Matthias began to wave over his scattered classmates, eager to share his idea. He could always accept Tyler's challenge later on in the night.

[Gintash]

Josuke and Cheekm finish their food just in time to hear the Professor talk about battling which perks both of their interests. How's about we get in on this buddy Josuke says as he throws their used plates out.

(Hmmm, guess I should scan Cheekm and some of the others Pokemon just so I have some data on them to look at later.) Josuke says as he pulls out his Pokedex and scans Cheekm to be greeted by a mechanical voice. Mudkip. The Mud fish Pokemon. Mudkip are an amphibian species of Pokemon that can just as easily live on land as they can in water. However in most cases they will pick an environment where both are easily accessible. The fin on MUDKIP’s head acts as highly sensitive radar. Using this fin to sense movements of water and air, this POKéMON can determine what is taking place around it without using its eyes. In water, MUDKIP breathes using the gills on its cheeks. Its large tail fin propels it through water with powerful acceleration. It is strong in spite of its size. Mudkip often rest my burying themselves either with mud at the bottom of lakes or rivers or burying itself with soil at the water edge.

Hmmmm, interesting. Josuke says to himself as he quickly scans a couple of the others Pokemon before putting his Pokedex away so he could go through the info later on. Right now the idea of Pokemon battles had gotten his attention.

If people would like I am up for a small battle or two before we leave. Seems like a fun way to finish off school in my opinion. Josuke says, smiling as he carries Cheekm softly.

[Durmatagno]

Thomas smiles at Lyn as she finishes off her food and then listens the professor. After a few moments, and weighing his options, Thoma's nods and looks down at the little Treecko. He swallows the last of his food before talking to the little pokemon.

Whadda say to your first battle being in here, just over there?

Lyn looks around and seems to think about the question for a moment before making a confident, but happy sound. Standing, Thomas moves to the nearest clear area, Lyn stepping out in front of him, ready, and able to participate in their first battle.

Thomas moves to G-14, and Lyn G-12

[tonberryking]

"Oh. Howdy Djaq? How's th' new pokemon y'got up there?" from nearby on the floor, Loft waves to his buddy as he and Tina are now collecting the purloined food. His oshawott is eagerly scooping up the plastic bags and trying to reach the rim of Loft's backpack (he has to tilt it for her), while Loft tries to get his friend's attention before he gets to far. His own gift bag is swooped into his satchel; Loft tries stumbling after the other kid, even if it means inviting himself along.

"S'great how we both got in, eh? Ain't usually this lucky, but..you got a plan for what your first step is?" Loft trails along, and with Tina in a crook of his arm after he nearly forgets her. He tries to talk louder or faster, as if purposely trying to ignore any rumblings of "fight this, match that," that may try to rope him into a fight before he's ready...

[Bluydee]

Ryota sighed. Numerous times has people messed his name up. He wondered exactly why this countrymen had such weird names, especially in comparison to Blackleaf City. He faintly recalled Tohoko being split between Unova and Kanto rule some centuries ago, but he wasn't the best at knowledge related topics.

"Two years yet you didn't try to know anyone's name? Even I know them all, and I haven't wasted my time socializing with any of you."

[Hefty Lefty]

Vivian loiters near the food and drinks with some of the others graduates. She's waited for two whole years, she figures. She can handle waiting five more minutes for the rush to die down. The dark-haired girl stands near the back of the room with a napkin in one hand catching the falling crumbs from a small piece of cake in the other. It's an exciting day for all, certainly, but Vivian doesn't wear it on her skin as much as the trainers at the front of the room cooing to their new pokemon, the very vocal Clementine chief among them. A smile stretches across her face. (What a character.) A few more students meet their pokemon, name, and feed them. (Good for them.) Vivian talks to herself in her head. (For us. We all earned it.)

In short time, conversation has already turned to an inaugural battle. This'll be good... Escapes her lips as she takes another bite and meanders closer to the two boys Tyler and Matthias. The two eager combatants with two eager pokemon eye each other down, discussing the terms for battle. Vivian surveys the room. Some trainers ignore the boys, some divert their attention. Others grip their pokeballs tight, looking to get involved. (How big is this brawl gonna be? Traditionally it's head-to-head, but there's really no limit to a pokemon battle...) It's at this moment that the girl realizes pokemon trainers always need a sense of urgency.

The card and pokeball entitled to Vivian Caruso sits between two empty counters; not many unopened pokeballs remain. "What do you have for me, Siar?" the girl mumbles. She clicks the front release button of the ball and watches eagerly as a red light develops in front of her and starts to take shape. After anxious seconds, a small blue crocodile pokemon appears. "Totodile!" It yaps feverishly. "Tota Tota!" Sharp red scales line its back and tail and big red eyes investigate Vivian and the food in her hand. But his body is dominated by his giant mouth exhibiting rows of sharp teeth.

"Hey friend, I'm Viv- hey watch it!" In a flash of blue, the young pokemon makes a wide-mouthed bite at Vivian's left hand. In the instance, the petrified girl imagines the rabid, carniverous pokemon ripping her arm off in a bloody mess. She pulls her hand back in reflex, but is too slow. It's already gone.

Not her hand, the piece of cake! The little totodile licks his face, but only clears a fraction of the chocolate and frosting. "Tota!" Vivian breathes a sigh of relief. "Ooohhh hey pal, you watch it with those chompers." She kneels to communicate directly to the pokemon; the noise level in the room has risen considerably - and now it appears the professor is saying something important. "C'mon Sweet Tooth, we can't miss this. Oh dang that's lame... C'mon Cavity. Yeah, that's better."

The professor was apparently detailing battle protocol, which is perfect considering the boys of the group are getting a tad feisty. The owner of the young totodile saunters into the circle of boys prospecting to start a fight. "I'm impressed, boys." She folds her arms coolly. "You managed to wait a whole ten minutes before mixin' up."

[HopeHubris]

"So, Soup, how do you feel about half an hour of training then a bit of a battle?"
Soup yawns in response
"I'll take that as a yes, the training will probably wake you up, aye? Any of you want to take on a defensive master in about a half hour?!"

Will has a quick scan around the room with his pokedex and taking not to avoid the bloke with the TMs, (Unfair advantage, that)

"Some of those pokemon are pretty cool, another turtle like you, though you are clearly better, since you're mine, and I'll make you the best"



William is perfectly willing to respond to anyone during his training, I assume conversations don't disrupt it, anyway

Spend half an hour training, 4 exp and Focused, Agility and Ace Trainer activate (+1 def stage)
Assuming I've read the rules correctly

[INoKnowNames]

As the quiet ambiance was broken by the hustle and bustle of the meet and great, Abigail found herself unmoving. Tension, nervousness, fear; ice shot through her very veins, as if the invisible hands of fate had reached into her very soul. Her chest pounding away, the youngest of the 18 graduates stayed in her position on the side of the room out of the way, content with watching the others as they took the first steps upon their journeys. The beginning of the rest of their lives; thrust from whatever normalcy may have been safeguarding them in the past, to confront the wonders and mysteries of the world head on.

Abigail breathed faintly and rhythmically, trying to sustain herself and slow her rapid heartbeat. As she quietly waited, she noticed some of the trainers scanning Pokemon with their Pokedexes. Abigail began to mumble, mostly to herself, providing a quiet yet instantaneous echo to each description provided, having memorized absolutely everything she can about Pokemon, both from her mother and her schooling.

As the number of remaining bags dwindles to one, the short lass lets out one final sigh. (This is what I've wanted my entire life. A golden opportunity that may open any path in the world that I choose. I stand among some of the people who will change the very foundation of the world, and with this the chance to be able to find who I really am, and explore what the world has to offer. No reason to be nervous.. no reason to be nervous...) She thinks to herself as she approaches the bag with her name on it. Before accessing her equipment, she turns to face Professor Siar. "Thank you... for everything." she speaks, before returning to her station.

After putting away the extraneous balls and badge case, Abigail activates the Pokeball containing her starter, lightly tossing it to the ground in front of her. The blue bolt appears, and from the energy a green shape forms; a quadrupedal body with a distinctive large leaf. Abigail scans the Pokemon with the Pokedex, but curiously closes her eyes and reduces the volume of the device to a minimum as she does. "Chikorita, the Leaf Pokemon. It uses the leaf on its head to determine the temperature and humidity. It loves to sunbathe." Abigail quotes word for word before shutting the device. "Greetings, Chikorita. If you don't mind, it looks like you and I will be partners. I hope that we can be friends. Is that okay with you?" She asks the bright green Pokemon.

Chikorita blinks twice, before looking past Abigail. Abigail turns to notice the buffet. "Most everyone is eating, and you're probably hungry too, aren't you girl?" She asks before digging into her bag, a small smile forming. "I actually made some food for whomever my partner might be before coming here, today. I was hoping I could get you to try some, if that's okay with you." She turns back toward her station with a container of food in hand. It is only now that Abigail notices that Chikorita was no longer in front of her.

"Chikorita! Oh, Chikorita? Where did you go?" she gasps, before turning around and looking for the little pokemon. Chikorita, meanwhile has made her way to the center of the room, where the other trainers have gathered. Looking back and forth for a moment, what can unmistakably be recognized as a smug sneer appears on her face, as the Leaf Pokemon spreads her legs into an offensive posture, flourishing the leaf on her head as she assumes a battle stance. "Chikorita?" Abigail worriedly asks, catching up to the Grass Type.

Annie moved to G-10. Abigail moved to F-10. Chikorita vs Treecko seems balanced for lean.

[Prometheus II]

His mouth full of the better part of three strawberries, James wandered over to the seeming "battle ring" that was forming, soon enough to overhear Vivian's comment. "Hey, just because you didn't pay attention during battling class doesn't mean the rest of us didn't. I'm at least a little eager to see how Jirai battles-you okay with that?" Jirai made a little chirping noise, his big yellow eyes narrowing, before he leaped from James's shoulder, hitting the ground in a fighting posture that imitated his evolved form's. "Y'know, I'll take that as a 'yes.'" Looking up, he saw a boy with a Treecko standing across from him and smiled. "Hey, not the best matchup, but I'll take it. Care for a quick battle, m'friend?" Jirai croaked noisily, spitting a few bubbles in the Treecko's direction. At which point a Chikorita nearly bowled him over. Jirai narrowly managed to leap to James's shoulder, croaking indignantly. James himself took a few hasty steps back. "Or, you could fight her, if her trainer comes with."
ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION!

[Boolprop]

Having placed the gift bag into his rucksack as he walks towards his family, Djaq hears a familiar voice calling out to him; stopping and turning to face the direction where the greeting came from. Almost tumbling over from the sudden jerking movement, if Torchics ever had eyebrows, Ruki would be looking at her trainer with furrowed brows right now; instead, she lets out a weak chirp. Djaq reaches upwards to cup and brings down Ruki with both hands. Looking into Ruki's eyes, Djaq apologizes "I'm sorry girl. Tis not often I have someone sitting on my head." Understanding her trainer's feelings, Ruki lets out a more cheerful chirp, as to let her trainer know it's alright. Quickly, she leaps onto Djaq's head and perches there. Shrugging his shoulders, Djaq shyly grins at Ruki's apparent preference to sit top of his head.

Looking towards the source of the voice, Djaq sees Loft not too far away. Smiling, Djaq walks over to the trainer, meeting him halfway. "Loft, buddy it's good to see you! Good idea, I should store some of the food as well." The last part was mention as Djaq sees a collection of bagged foods, then remembering how he himself somehow botches the food he cooks. Sure Djaq can cook, but somehow, things ends up being botched. "Yes! It's great that we both graduated. As for my plans, I guess I'll go wherever my feet leads me." He beams a confident smile at Loft, despite the fact Djaq don't really have a clear idea where he'll head towards.

Ruki tilts her head as she tries to see into the bagged goods, unfortunately, she nearly tumble over if not for Djaq's hands reaching upwards to catch her. "This is Ruki, she's my partner." Djaq holds out the 8" tall Torchic as he introduces her, who chirps as she greets Loft. "Ruki, meet Loft. A good friend of mine. Shifting his body a bit as he spots Loft's Pokémon, he beams a smile at the Oshawott. "Who's your little friend?" Djaq inquires. Though he seen an Oshawott before, Djaq is asking the Pokémon herself.

[Gintash]

Josuke see's Abigail running after her new Pokemon which happened to be a Chikorita. He smiles remembering how shy the girls was before quickly scanning her Pokemon with his Pokedex and walking over to her as she chased after her Pokemon.

"Well, seems like you have an interesting partner. Basically the exact opposite of you." Josuke says to Abilgail, as Cheekm jumps down and sniffs her inquisitively before yelping "Mud! Mudkip!" at her happily.

[Vexing]

"I'm impressed, boys." She folds her arms coolly. "You managed to wait a whole ten minutes before mixin' up."

"You say that almost as if it were my idea", Matthias shoots back with just the right amount (or lack) of politeness. "Tyler? Tyler, here, is the one who's insisting we battle. For no good reason, I'll add."

[ArcturusV]

"For lots of good reasons, actually," Tyler pointed out as he stood up and sauntered over towards the little start position cleared out to him. He gave Professor Siar a short little bow, very formal and antiquated, but he had always done so in the short time they've known each other before addressing her.

"I do formally agree to the terms of battle laid out by him, to be enacted immediately."

He smiled, and gave Shauna a little pat on the head, before kneeling down next to her. "I have been studying years longer than him. 2 years for him, 7 for me. I grew up in hardship and fights for survival. Trust my guidance, and we will do well. I choose to fight now, when it will serve us best, so you will grow strong. I trust in your victory."

With that, he patted Shauna on the back of her shell, prodding her forward to the start position. "A contest of pure talents. No need to delay, have at us." He gave Matthias a curt bow as he felt his stomach start to churn and his adrenaline flowing. In anyone else it might have been bad nerves. In him, it was just fuel. He was long used to fighting, and used that nervous energy to help him focus.

Well, it's an "Official League Match". So my Initiative is 6 for my Speed Stat. Means I have to declare move use first. Going to go and use Tail Whip to start things off.

[Vexing]

"I still maintain that it's a barbaric practice. But as you wish." Matthias takes his place after nodding dismissively to Vivian, folding one arm across his chest as he uses the other to adjust his glasses. Given the lack of elementally based moves, there were only a few basic techniques open to each Pokémon. It was his job to exploit that and turn it to his advantage; fortunately, he was fairly certain that he could anticipate Tyler's moves and respond appropriately. The lack of variety would hinder as well as help in a traditional match--but Calydonis didn't have any moves other than basic skills, to his knowledge.

This could only end well, assuming a fair bit of luck. "Calydonis, take your place!" Amazingly, the Tepig followed Matthias' gesture, rolling happily into the designated location. Taken aback, the newly minted Trainer managed to keep the surprise off of his face. Perhaps he was more suited to commanding Pokémon than he'd anticipated?

"Keep back, and prepare a counter-attack!" Grunting in the most cheerful of ways, Calydonis acquiesced; it hopped swiftly back a place in its excitement. "Keep your wits about you! Stay focused!"

I'm having Calydonis move back one square (to G-13) and end his turn, while Matthias breaks out his 'Inspired Training' as an Order. Unless I'm mistaken, that should put the quirky little pig about two spaces out of range of the Squirtle, and of the move (unless it's a cone, in which case I'm screwed Edit: It's Tail Whip! I have nothing to be afraid of!). The next turn, the enemy should be close enough to launch the first strike and actually hit!

[ArcturusV]

Opening moves told you a lot. His opening move was a cowardly one, uncertain and giving away decisive edges. Tyler smiled, "Hold fast Shauna," he said, not shouting, but speaking confidently as the Squirtle remained where it was, wagging it's tail cutely, pumped up for battle, but restraining the natural urge to rush in at the simple command of her trainer.

"Interesting strategy..." he told Matthias, having a 'you just activated my trap card' grin on his face.

Well, my action is non-void as I can't have used it, so it wags ineffectually with Tail Whip.

Next turn, Struggle.

[Vexing]

Matthias frowns dubiously, recognizing the uncoordinated movement of his enemy to be indicative of...just that. Uncoordinated, flailing motion. Harmless, or at least less harmless than a typical attack. (But with its typing...this is what we talked about! Cad!)

"I'm gravely disappointed! I specifically mentioned the the type match-up to you before we began this", he called out across the room. "Not at all sporting. What was that about 'pure talents'?"

Glancing at Calydonis, Matthias considered his options. His Tepig was too slow to close without sustaining some form of hit or being distracted by the Squirtle's tail, and he was loathe to give an advantage that early. But the alternative was to sit in place and do nothing, which wasn't a battle at all. He briefly considered defaulting, but kept his orders the same, waiting for Tyler's response. "Steady, Calydonis!"

Having Calydonis maintain his current spacing, and reapplying the 'Inspired Training'. If it's alright, I'd like it to be assumed that Matthias will keep the Training Order active the whole combat, unless something breaks his focus. He has nothing else to spend his actions on!

[Hefty Lefty]

Vivian giggles as Matthias reacts tensely, just as she expected from him. "Haha Matthias, you know I'm just messing." She peels back from the two tandems about to engage in their first ever pokemon battle. (Pokemon are capable of intense and unpredictable things. It's best to keep a safe distance.) She takes a few deliberate steps back to be in line with the other onlookers. "Good luck you two!"

"You going in next, Abigail?" Vivian smiles at the nervous girl. She knows the answer will be no, but figures it'd be nice to ask anyway. "Looks like your little guy can't wait to scrap."

[ArcturusV]

"One large step forward... time to force an end," Tyler commanded Shauna. Hearing the turtle give a little growl as it tromped forward to the center of the makeshift "arena". Standing tall and defiant in its hard shell, it's tail still wagging, though not as energetically, staring down the rotund little fire starter.

"You might want to reconsider," he told Matthias, "No one ever survived a fight by cowering."

And it takes a step forward to G-6, leveling a "come at me brah" stare at the Bacon Bits.

Still on Struggle for next turn. Hopefully more action.

[Vexing]

Sighing, Matthias pushes his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. "Nor by failing to pick their battles according to the situation." Raising his hand, he lowered it sharply and called out to Calydonis: "Return to me!" Deeply confused, the fire pig snorted and waddled back the few meters uncertainly even as his Trainer turned towards Professor Siar. "I intend to cede this 'fight'. I was under the impression that we had agreed on gentlemanly rules of conduct, and I was sorely mistaken. He may count it a victory...if his overweening ego allows him to."

Matthias leaves his hands by his sides and Calydonis at his feet, waiting on Siar to officially end the match. Less than twenty seconds had passed, start to finish; deeply unsatisfying to all onlookers as a result, no doubt, and no thanks at all to the standoffish Trainer from Kalos.

Um. Moving Calydonis to occupy square G-14, and then just what it says above, barring some kind of change in the situation. Not an auspicious beginning for Matthias; hopefully, he'll grow to be more of a risk taker as the game goes on, and as he has better methods of managing those risks.

[Charisma Thief]

Professor Siar nods as Matthias backs out of the battle. "Very well. Part of being a good trainer is knowing your and your Pokemon's limits as well. Avoiding conflict is just as viable strategy throughout your adventure as fighting your way through every wall."

[ArcturusV]

"You might want to think about what you really desire, and if you're on the correct path," Tyler said, as he walked up and patted Shauna on the head in congratulations of her first victory, such as it was. He didn't know Matthias that much. But he knew most of the kids in the academy had big plans. Taking on gyms, setting up their own, winning contests, training their pokemans and sending them out to stud. Most of those goals incompatible with his behavior.

"You did well Shauna, kept your cool and followed directions. A bright future lies ahead," he told his Squirtle, leading her away and back to his food. He gave a short wave to Vivian, one of the few students he had minorly gotten to know, and share a few conversations with.

[Vexing]

"Thank you, Professor." And that was that.

Acutely aware of how bad the whole encounter looked, Matthias resigned himself to its hideous consequences and solemnly stepped back into the crowd. (Pokémaster, eh? Some Trainer you're turning out to be. I suppose having expectations for a battle is foolish.) Folding his arms across his chest, he watched the empty battle-space and cursed his naiveté. The odds of him picking up any traveling companions at all, let alone any that would respect him terrible much, had plummeted sharply--he could just feel it prickling underneath his skin. Calydonis seemed disappointed, gnawing contemplatively on Matthias' laces yet again to assuage its own indecipherable feelings.

While hungry, he would be damned if he walked over to procure some food at the same time Tyler did, so he chose to wait and observe the other battles. Perhaps he'd be lucky and have the opportunity to redeem himself.

[Durmatagno]

Thomas takes a step forward and nudges Lyn to the starting position, ready, and willing to be the next to fight someone.

Come on Lyn, lets have little fun. Get ready.

He nodded and removed his hands from his overshirt, ready for whoever stepped forward to challenge him, and Lyn.

[Dannir]

Well, everything was certainly quite animated! A first fight preparing, most of the beginning trainers had decided to bond with their pokemon by feeding them, and... Was one of her classmate kissing- (Oookay, moving on.) Apparently, one of them had gotten impatient and went off immediately after taking his starter, without even checking what kind of pokemon it was, too... Now that she thought about it, didn't she see that guy hang around with Clementine before? She guessed he just wanted to get started right then.

She was about to try to talk to her less occupied classmates, when Clementine... Well, Clementine happened. If there was one person even Selene had trouble keeping up with, sometimes, it was her. Honestly, sometimes, she saw a younger, more focused version of herself in the contest-lover. "Oh, hey Clem! This is Vinny! He's a Snivy!" She responded, before smiling down at Clementine's own pokemon "Oh, hello there then lil' Rosemary! Don't worry, I'm sure Clementine'll take good care of you.", the snake pokemon staring at the younger of the two trainer. Then, he saw the Fennekin and hopped down from Selene's arms, observing the other pokemon, then tilting his head with a soft, questionning hiss.

Selene, for her part, was considering the proposition... While she would feel quite lonely travelling alone, there was something about Clementine's plans that seemed... Impractical for her own purposes. Maybe her admitted focus on contests. And the fact her companion had already left. It seemed to her that he might be quite driven towards his goals...

"I'm afraid I might have to pass on that, Clementine. If Michael's behavior so far is to be believed, I'm getting the feeling he might want to just go straight to his goals. I'm not one for shortcuts. 'Far as I'm concerned, it's about the journey, not the destination, so if I'm right about him, we wouldn't stay a team for very long."

[Bluydee]

Ryota snorted at the two fighters, before leaving the building to see what his partner can do, testing the TMs he used.

He grew acquainted with Chimchar's capabilities and patterns before going back inside.


Took the time to train Chimchar, using Focused Training and raising speed 1 stage.

[INoKnowNames]

Abigail is monentarally distracted by the other hapoenings, and it is in that orecious second thay Chikorita sees fit to comnence her own battle eith the Treecko, chirping confidently before rushing at her!

To be edited later. I'll check the mechanics myself when i grt back if D-Dawg does not.

[gmoyes]

As his class mates mingled and chatted, Shane loitered by the food tables helping himself to the available snacks. He had looked up the dietary habits of Cyndaquil and after muting and skipping through the trivia, he found that his new partner was an herbivore. So as the researcher ate some sandwiches, he gave Spark some fruits and veggies from the snack trays. As he stood and ate, he heard Mattias and Tyler discuss having a battle, to which the Professor announced that they had enough room to do so and pointed out starting positions. "Heh, what do you know? Dinner and a show," Shane said to no one in particular. Unfortunately, it seemed that Mathias really wasn't up for a fight. It made sense, Tyler had the obvious advantage. And judging by the fact that everyone had a Pokemon that was weak or strong or the same type as everyone else, all the matches were probably going to be curb stomps or slug matches or both. The battles here wouldn't be that interesting. Having filled his stomach and picked up his gifts from Prof. Siar, there wasn't much of a reason to stick around. Too bad he hasn't made travel arrangements with anyone yet. While it would probably be better journeying with a group, if need be he could do it alone.

However, before he could move far, he overheard the distinct voice of Clementine talking to Selene. Though he would rarely butt into other people's conversations, he heard that Clementine was going to leave soon and travel north with Michael. He had seen the photographer leave the party earlier. Shane himself was planning on heading north as well. Though it may be difficult working with young girl and the closed off boy. And judging by the fact that he didn't have any particular interest in contests and the fact that with his Cyndaquil and Clementine's Fennekin, and though he didn't show it at the party with everyone else has shown their's it wasn't hard to guess, Michael's Charmander, it wouldn't be a good idea to stick together long. Still, it wouldn't hurt to ask. As soon as they got to the next city over, he was sure with some experience and new Pokemon under his belt, he would probably do fine on his own.

"Excuse me Clementine? I couldn't help but overhear you talking with Selene. I myself wouldn't mind heading out early to travel northward. My folks live in the next city over so if you wouldn't mind having me tag along? That is, unless you have plans on heading to Woodbank Port then I guess we'll split on the road. What do you think?" Shane paused for a moment and then realized that everyone was introducing each other to their new Pokemon. He figured that he might as follow suit. "Oh, and this is Spark," he finished nodding down to the fire type cradled in his arms.

[HopeHubris]

"No one wants to take me on? Not surprised, my new pokemon is pretty much invincible, I'd be scared too if I had to fight him."

William brags, and no one pays attention, they're probably used to it by now, he had been espousing the virtues of defence pokemon, and his proficiency with them, since he arrived at the Academy.
He started in order to hide his insecurity, as his father had failed to do what he planned, maybe because he was wrong. But over time, it just became a personality trait, and while he does feel insecure at times, those times are hardly the only ones he blabbers on.

[tonberryking]

"Oh, yeah. Djaq, this here's Tina. Tina, this here's Djaq, a good frienda mine..." for her part, Tina bobs her head with a 'sha' noise, giving the other boy and his fire chicken a nice, if even looking glance. However, her attention turns towards the fighting, with a bit of a rapt glance that Loft doesn't miss. He pales a little in front of Djaq, shaking his head.

"Listen buddy, Ah don't wanna keep you from yer family fer too long an' all, but Ah don't wanna stick around here and get roped into fightin' neither... What say we blow this place, Tina gives a shocked look up at her master, "An' get right to adeventurin and seeing th' world and stuff?" Tina brightens up immensely, waddling in her seat in Loft's arm, flapping her paws about. Though for different reasons, both Loft and Tina can agree on something...

Of course, Loft's never told anybody much about his family, so nobody would know why he's so eager to get the heck out of Dodge at a moment's notice.

"Ah mean, if you want somma our other buddies to come, th' more th' merrier--heck, Ah'll ask around m'self-- but why ruin the moment with fightin' each other. Seems like too much bad blood, if you ask me..."

[Boolprop]

"Pleased to meet you Tina. This one here is Ruki." Djaq bobs his head in return, then introduces his partner to the sea otter. "I don't know if any others would like to join us, but if there is someone, feel free to ask." Djaq turns his attention to the Pokémon battle in the room, and then back to the conversation, before continuing. "Yea! I'll like set out as well, travelling together will be fun. Just allow me to introduce Ruki to my family and say our goodbyes." Djaq quickly responses back, excitement of the journey is practically oozing from the boy.

"If you like, I'll introduce you to my family. Uncle Robert is also here." Before strolling off, Djaq asks Loft that as he looks across the room. He sees his mother chatting with some of the other adults with his younger brother by her side. His father is on the phone which seems to be an important conversation as Djaq's gut feelings tells him. Uncle Robert seems to be telling a story from his past as he is seen with another group of people.

[Yodas_Free_Boat]

After getting alittle bit of food, and saving a bit for later, Tobais turned to look at the battle that was about to go down and sighed. It wasn't that he hated batteling, but couldn't they wait a few minutes and actually get to know their pokemon?
"What do you say we hit the road and start looking for some new friends?" At that, Bulbasaur just seemed to grin and run circles around Toby's feet, as if to say 'Cmon, lets go do that! Why are we not doing that right now?!'

"I guess we could travel by ourselves. But that seems like it could get kinda lonely." Toby whispered to his new companion, who seemed to agree with a firm nod of his head.

"So, who do you want to travel with Occa?"

The pair looked around the room, scanning and looking for anyone fun.



"I'm afraid I might have to pass on that, Clementine. If Michael's behavior so far is to be believed, I'm getting the feeling he might want to just go straight to his goals. I'm not one for shortcuts. 'Far as I'm concerned, it's about the journey, not the destination, so if I'm right about him, we wouldn't stay a team for very long."

Without a word, Tobias and Occa just looked at each other and nodded in unison. "Hey Selene, I was wondering if you wanted to join up with me and Occa here."

As Toby spoke to Slene, Occa seemed perfectly happy to try and convince Vinny that the two should play. He ran aroudn the leafey snake, smiling and nudging him to try an initiate a playful wrestling match.

"I don't really have any plans beyond exploring places and looking for new pokemon. And, if I'm honest, it feels like most of the rest of our class is pretty focused on beating the gyms or doing well in the contests. You're the only one who doesn't seem to have some master plan in your mind."

[Gintash]

Josuke, who had been watching things for a while, puts on an evil grin when William boasts about his Pokemon being invincible. Oh really now? Well then how's about we test your confidence? Ready Cheekm? Cheekm yelps into position in front of Josuke raring to go as Josuke grins evilly at William. He hadn't planned to have his first battle like this but he decided this would be much more interesting and fun than doing it another way.

Josuke moves to G11 with Cheekm at G10 in front of him.

[tonberryking]

Tina seems to silently ask why this is important, but Loft just shrugs. "Th' Pokemon Ranger Uncle? Welll... I guess we can stay an' listen to a tale a' his before we try to get a posse goin', Ah suppose. Been wantin' to ask him about how he got started as a ranger, since Ah'm heading that route m'self..."

This mollifies Tina who sits patiently in Loft's grasp as he follows Djaq.

[Goliathus]

After getting ignored by the two trainers eagered for a battle, Tobar moved himself out of the battle range and onto the corner of a room. He didn't really like getting ignored one bit, it just felt like he was not taken seriously by others and that thought hurt him and only reminded him of the day he was bullied in primary school. Tobar let out a sigh as he stood there on his own for a while...until Magnus came back with a sandwich for his new trainer. It's true that he has just slapped the bejesus out of his trainer just a minute ago but he wasn't going to hold grudge on that.

"Thanks." Tobar said, taking the sandwich from his Pokemon for a bite. "You can go get more food if you are hungry, don't feel bad for roaming the room without me. Just...be careful and make sure you stay out of the battle zone." Tobar has no problem with his Piplup not around him at whole time. He firmly believed that any Pokemon should do whatever they wanted in their free time as long as the action wouldn't cause any kind of trouble. If Magnus wanted to explore the room on his own, so be it. Magnus wasn't sure what to do at first but decided that he could used some food and a little exploring around rather than just standing still like his trainer. With that thought, he left his trainer's side again.

Tobar stood there for a while to fnish off his sandwich. The first battle was on pretty quick...and ended even quicker than that. Then, two more trainers seemed to be ready for another match. It was a tthis point that TObar started to question himself, whether his lack of enthusiasm over battle now was good or bad. Should he be as passionate as the others in this aspect? After all, he planned to battle A LOT in the future but at this time, he just seemed too scared to actually do something with his Piplup. With yet another sigh, Tobar walked to the professor.

"So, professor, sorry to interrupt when you are battle judging by I have a question. Do my Piplup have any quirk or something special that I should know about?" Tobar actually felt funny after the question. He really understood why his bully would call him a "nerd". Everyone was being social or having a test run with their Pokemon while he was spending his last day talking to the professor like an "A+ student", as his bully put it.

Feel free to interact with the roaming Piplup.

And Charisma Thief, you can give some quirks or special traits to my Piplup if you want. They are just RP fluffs and I have no problem with you deciding a fraction of my starter's personality.

[Prehysterical]

Angus is surprised to find that most of what Seigmeyer grabs consists of vegetables and fruits. A narrow line splits the plate between the feasting meats of Angus and the green portions of his partner. Finding a spot to sit down near the wall, Angus sets the plate down and the two of them begin to dig into their food. Despite all the activity in the room, Seigmeyer seems perfectly content with the situation and relaxes as he plops food nonchalantly into his mouth.

His trainer, however, does not seem so at ease. Not even five minutes past securing their Pokemon, and several of his classmates are already rattling swords at each other. As he listens to the talk between Tyler and Matthias, Angus found himself surprised by how he felt. Normally, he would advocate accepting a challenge instead of backing down and making himself look weak to an opponent. In this case, however, he found an analogy between these Pokemon and his classmates being handed dueling swords. He resolved himself to training Seigmeyer personally before his first battle. It would also give him an opportunity to learn more about Seigmeyer's abilities, since the only obvious thing about him was that he was a Grass type. Not only that, but he himself needed experience in coordinating with Seigmeyer. A quote came back to him from one of the Professor's lessons: "The best Pokemon can still lose a battle due to the incompetence of its trainer."

(It would be best to leave soon. The mood is turning sour and I want to gain some distance before nightfall.) But the question remained: should he go alone, or would it be better to share some companionship?

[lilpuppy91]

When Selene supplied the name for the snakey looking green pokemon, Clementine's smile grew even wider. "Vinny, what an adorable name!" she giggled merrily, reaching out to pat the pokemon's head, before Selene put him down. As soon as the snivy's feet touched the ground, Rosemary ducked behind Clementine's legs again, then peeked out at Vinny, who had zeroed in on her and was hissing. After a bit, she seemed to decide he was ok, and bounded out suddenly from behind Clementine to mew cheerfully at Vinny and wave her tail from side to side. Meanwhile, up in tall people land, Clementine's smile faded and was replaced by a sad and disappointed one as Selene turned down her offer, citing Michael's precise and determined personality clashing with her more laid back and up in the air personality. This really disappointed Clementine, because she hadn't had much time, and she'd picked the one that she thought she could persuade quickly to come. She wasn't sure if she had enough time to try to find someone else and get them to come along. So, it would just be her and Michael again.

Not that there was anything wrong with it just being them two, it had been that way for years now, she'd just wished that she wouldn't have to say goodbye to all of her friends in one day besides Michael. She'd hoped at least one person would come with her. Her shoulders slumped, as she realized that Selene wouldn't come, and that trying to beg her to come would be useless, especially if her intuition was right, and they wound up clashing and not having much fun together. She didn't want anyone to be miserable and grumpy on the journey just because she didn't want to say goodbye to anyone. Without any warning, Clem closed with Selene and pulled her into a tight hug. "Please be safe, run away if things get too dangerous." she said in a low voice, probably barely audible to Selene in the chaos as everyone battled each other. Then she let go, and she looked as if she might cry for a moment, before a small smile broke on her face instead. "Good luck, Selene. Be ready to bring your A game if we meet in the contest hall." then she looked down at Vinny.

"Bye Vinny, come on Rosemary." the little fennekin looked a little disappointed they were leaving, but as Clementine turned away, she bounded forward and licked Vinny's cheek, before scurrying to catch up. Clem didn't get more than a few steps, however, before she was intercepted by another classmate. Startled, she quickly removed her glasses to wipe at her eyes quickly to hide the tears, then replaced them to focus in on Shane, who seemed to want to take her up on the partnership offer she'd extended to Selene. At this news, Clem's face brightened up into a massive smile. "Really?! You want to come?!" she gushed happily, then smiled down at the little cyndaquil in Shane's arms. "Oh, and you have a fire type too! What a cutie, I love fire types, don't you think they're just the cutest?!" she giggled, reaching out to pet Spark adoringly. "Nice to meet you Spark, this is Rosemary." she supplied, as the fennekin approached Shane and sniffed curiously at his shoes. She seemed to be getting used to this whole meeting strangers thing. "We would love to have you come with us, the more friends the merrier! Also, it's safer to travel in a group instead of alone, those wild pokemon can get pretty worked up, it's easy to get hurt in the beginning." she reached out and pat Shane shoulder with a hand beaming at him.

"There's just one thing though if you're going to come with us, you have to call me Clem! Come on, let's grab some food, and then get out of here, Michael's probably starting to think his watch is broken!" she giggled, waving Shane to follow her as she rushed to the table, grabbed two plates, and piled everything that looked delicious onto both of them, pausing every once in a while to drop something on the floor, which Rosemary pounced on and gulped down with the blinding speed only a pokemon could. With food in hand, and a third member successfully acquired, she waited for Shane to be ready, then she moved to the exit, and raised a plate in farewell. "Bye bye everyone! Good luck, I love you all!" then, she turned and speedwalked with Shane out of the room to join with Michael.


Exiting thread with Gmoyes and Pallid, you can make a separate thread for us whenever you're ready, GM.

[Vexing]

Matthias idly watched Clementine leave, eyes lingering on the full plate of food with more than a touch of longing. (Too noisy to travel with for long...but I'll bet she had savings for food, in addition to what she brought. Damn.) Quickly losing interest in the current battle, or perhaps concerned with staying too near where he'd backed down, Matthias chose to slowly work his way around the group towards Professor Siar. He had his Pokédex out and held loosely when he arrived, but took a moment to speak to...whoever his name was, the boy who'd offered food. Maybe he could get away without mentioning the name?

"I'm sorry about a moment ago. I wasn't able to give you my full attention, but it looks like I simply wasted my time regardless. Apologies."

Now, turning to Professor Siar with a small smile, Matthias cracked open his map function and held a questing fingertip just above the gently glowing screen. He'd wait until Tobar was answered, of course, but immediately after: "I know that you've been hounded all night for advice, to judge, and for last goodbyes, but I thought I would offer mine as well. I've greatly appreciated your tutelage, and I will apply as much of your lessons as I'm able."

"However, I did have one last question to ask you, as your student. You know my goal and I trust in your guidance. Where would be the best place to begin, to travel to first for training or further study?" He eagerly waited, ready to mark down a potential route or two on his electronic map.

[HopeHubris]

"Bring it"
William says, moving to position with his pokemon.

"Okay, Soup, you can do this"





Will: G3
Soup: G4

Haven't done a battle since PTA, so not 100% on the rules.

I probably have the lower initiative, so I order first?

Though our pokemon are the same initiative, I believe, so we roll a d20 to break the tie
[roll0]

Soup is gonna charge at the mudkip and tackle

[Gintash]

Well then, lets see who can do better at this. Let's go Cheekm!

As far as I can tell there's no initiative rolls for this it is based off your speed stat unless we have the same and Cheekm had a speed stat of 5 so I'm pretty sure I go first. So I roll accuracy and then damage roll.

Accuracy = [roll0]
Damage = 24 (Check OOC thread for the roll cause it screwed up here)

[HopeHubris]

"Your turn, Soup. Tackle.

Soup takes the hit, then throws himself at the mudkip


Damage dealt = 8
Current HP: 36
Ouch, max damage, painful

Accuracy Roll: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Gintash]

Your good Cheekm. We can get through this. Now use Tackle again!

Cheekm takes that hit before returning the Tackle.

Damage = 13
HP left = 26
Damn that hurt, but I'm not giving up.

Accuracy = [roll0]
Damage = [roll1]

[HopeHubris]

"Come on Soup, you got this"

Soup is barely damaged by the second hit, and since his trainer hadn't given him any new commands, he just continued to repeat his prior one.



Damn, you hit on a 6, so close to dodging :smalltongue:

Damage: 3
Current HP: 33

Tackle!
Accuracy [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Gintash]

Don't let him get to you Cheekm!

Cheekm, pretty scratched up, moves forward with another Tackle attack.

Damage = 12
HP left = 14
Dammit, this can't end well.

Accuracy = [roll0]
Damage = [roll1]

[HopeHubris]

"He looks injured, shouldn't be long now"

Soup continues tackling, glad that he is close to being done


2 damage
Current HP: 31

Accuracy: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Gintash]

Come on Cheekm. Even if we know we are going to lose we can't just give up. Give him as much hurt as you can!

Cheekm, who looks pretty injured now, perks up and attacks again.

Damage = 11
HP Left = 3

Accuracy = [roll0]
Damage = [roll1]

[HopeHubris]

"Baring some freak coincidence, your pokemon can't win this fight, it's cruel to make him try.
But that is your choice, Soup, finish it."


8 damage
HP: 23

Accuracy: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[ArcturusV]

Tyler watched the ensuing battle, a bit more interesting than his. Kneeling down next to Shauna he was pointing things out with impact to impact, taking the example of the others to help teach his own pokemon a few lessons.

"See how they go into the impacts? The turtle looking one is almost guaranteed to win. He's taking hits, yes, but he's using his bulk to absorb it, planted on all four feet for added stability. It is not an optimal defense, but it works well against his opponent. With more skilled attackers you will need to add in finesse to the defense to slip the impacts and choose where the shots land."

"Neither are taking advantage of the space, while this is a barren bit of arena by most standards, most fights will be in far more interesting terrain. They're very focused on one another. If Cheekm there is going to win, it is going to have to get out of the head to head confrontation like this. Weaken Soup and get some distance, as the Tackle pushes him back it gives him space to run and get a breather. Possibly look for a field advantage like..." he gestured towards where he had been feeding Shuana on the floor earlier near the battlefield before it ever was one, as they had eaten on the open floor. "Lure the Soup over that mess while it charges in for a tackle, take a bad slip and fall. Then Cheekm can tackle to knock it away, and move away, getting a free shot. Things like that is what it'd need to win."

"Now if it was you in that situation, against the Soup, your main task would be to jab and fade. Use your tail whip to sting him and lower his defense, use your superior speed to keep him from tagging you ever turn, then go for the knock out when its weak and exhausted. Defense and speed, wear them down, and take them out."

[Gintash]

Cheekm falls to the ground having fainted from the last attack. Josuke walks over to him picking him up and cradling him softly in his arms. You did a great job for your first battle boy. Have a good rest and we will get you all healed up soon. Josuke says as he pull out his Pokeball and returns Cheekm. It's not cruel to make a Pokemon try its best in battle. While we did lose. We have still learnt something from this battle. Which is much better than nothing. Trying and failing is better than not trying at all. Josuke then turned his gaze to Tobar. That being said, some of us just need to believe in ourselves, that we can do anything we put our mind too. Stop doubting ourselves and take that chance. Make those stupid choices. So next time. Take that chance. Even if the odds are against you. And just battle for the fun of it. Josuke then turns back to William, walking up to him and raises his hand for a handshake. That was a great battle, thank you.

[ArcturusV]

Tyler arched an eyebrow that during Josuke's speech Matthias "I tap out before even throwing out one attack" Red didn't get the eye from Josuke during his speech. But so be it. He was petting Shauna's head slowly as he wondered just what else was left during this ceremony and how many more people were going to throw down.

[HopeHubris]

"You can accept that you've failed before your pokemon collapses from its wounds, how much more do you learn from being knocked out?"

William shakes his hand

"But hey, that is just my opinion, and yeah, good battle, I think it proved that Soup here is well invincible, ey?"
He laughs

"Well, Soup, looks like you showed everyone what you can do, you can have a rest now"
William returns Soup to his pokeball

[Charisma Thief]

Prof. Siar nods and smiles brightly as she watches the new trainers take part in their very first battle. Her eyes constantly scan back and forth, and while this battle may seem primitive to to a more seasoned trainer, her joy in watching this is the bond growing between the trainer and their Pokemon, along with how hard all four are trying, especially Josuke and Cheekm. Even though they're on the losing end, they're still giving it their all and not giving up.

Her head turns suddenly as the two students bring her attention back to them. "Hmm? No Tobar, not if you mean by something wrong with him. You need to remember though, that Pokemon are a lot like humans. Their personalities differ just as much so as people, even among their own breed. Aside from that, your Piplup is perfectly healthy and normal."

She gives Tobar a quick, reassuring smile, saying "You just need to remember that a bond can take time to grow. Nobody is friends over night after all. I assure you, your Piplup and you will grow quite strong together." before turning around to her other shoulder to see Matthias as he asks his question.

She thinks for a moment and nods as she looks over his shoulder to his map, pointing to the route heading north. "Well, if you're still interested in the League Challenge, I would suggest heading north. There are a small handful of gyms around the area, and then you can pass through Victory Tunnel into the main land of Tohoko, where you can find the rest of the gyms. Just please, be careful. I won't tell you what's inside, but that cave system is called Victory Tunnel because it is a challenge."

She suddenly looks back and claps loudly as Mudkip collapses to the ground. "Well done, both of you!" She excitedly walks over to Josuke, holding out her hand towards her. "If I may dear, I can have Mudkip up and jumping around again in no time. The same offer is to you as well William. I think they both deserve a special rest after that."

Victor: William and Soup!
Exp Gained: William:

1 Trainer Exp for your first battle
1 Trainer Exp for your first win
21 Exp for Soup

5 Exp gained from Cheekm's level
1 exp from Josuke's level, doubled
x3 Exp multiplier for you first Rival Battle


Exp Gained: Josuke

1 Trainer Exp for your first battle

[Gintash]

You never know William. I could have gotten lucky. But hey. Its cool. And we will see. I'll get myself a fire or psychic type and then we shall see. Josuke says, grinning wildly before he turns to the Professor. Ah, yes, thank you Prof. That would be a great help.

[ArcturusV]

"Nothing is so strong it can't be torn down, nor so weak it can't be built up," Tyler answered William's claims of Invincibility and the pointlessness of the battle beyond proving Soup Invincibility.

"With a little extra work, he might really turn into something." Was he referring to Cheekm or Soup? Hard to say. Still he stood up, hands in his pockets, and leveled his gaze at both of them. Shauna looking up at Tyler curiously, pondering what was going on here.

[HopeHubris]

"Thanks, that'd be great, but I don't think Soup's going to be jumping around any time soon, or ever"
William laughs as he hands over his pokeball

"Luck isn't usually the best strategy, but it can work and I'll makes sure to get some water and dark pokemon before I fight you again"
Grinning back at him

He then turns to Tyler
"Oh, sure Soup couldn't take on the League yet, or even a proper gym, but he's still pretty damn tough"

[Charisma Thief]

Prof. Siar nods once again as she takes your PokeBalls and walks past you, heading out of the room. After a few short minutes, she returns once again, and passes you both your PokeBalls back. "Here you are. They're all fit and ready for the road ahead."

Soup: Fully healed, no injuries.
Cheekm: Fully healed, no injuries.

[ArcturusV]

"Speaking of Road Ahead... what are your plans?" Tyler asked William after Prof. Siar came back with the pokeballs. "I could use a traveling companion that knows the value of endurance. I'm not planning on sticking to the well traveled and carefully maintained safety all the time. And I could help teach your Soup something about how a defensive fighter battles."

[HopeHubris]

"Turtle bros for life?"
William laughs again, he finds his own jokes hilarious, apparently

"Sounds good, though I think Soup'll be teaching you a thing or two about defence :smalltongue:"

[Gintash]

Well than William, I look forward to battling you again some day. And thank you too Prof. I may need your services once or twice more before I leave today, but I'll do my best not to get Cheekm as badly injured next time. Josuke says with a smile as he lets Cheekm out and apologizes to him for going at it a bit harder than he should have and then encourages him for doing a good job.

[ArcturusV]

"Well, if you want to back it up we can take it outside anytime," Tyler offered, seemingly very confident having just seen the Soup Fight. He gave a little shrug, "But later. You might want the chance to apply your experiences a bit first, and start to properly train Soup."

He reached down and patted Shauna's head comfortably, "So what do you say? Do you find this arrangement equitable?"

[HopeHubris]

William is unsure about whether he is asking him, or the squirtle, so he waves to Josuke, and ignores the question.

"Travelling companions shouldn't be fighting, need to save all that energy for wild pokemon and criminals and stuff"
Letting Soup out of his pokeball, so he can sleep on the floor instead of as a ball of energy, or however pokeballs work, William ain't a science man.

"I didn't think to buy an wilderness survival-y gear, but I am fine to leave when you are"


Squirtle overland OP, too bad I can't apply Agility Training twice... Or can I? Dunn dunn duuunnnnnnnn

[ArcturusV]

Tyler blinked slowly at William, "Gear?" the question came out as if the mere idea of gear was totally out of nowhere. He shrugged a little, "We'll get along in the wilds." He was at least confident of it. It was his lifestyle after all. It came down to his worn clothing, boots that had tread thousands of miles, clothing fit for a rugged life.

"Anyone else in this gaggle that catches your eye? Gotta snap them up before the others do. There's strength in numbers."

[HopeHubris]

"You have a sleeping bag, more than I can say. That probably counts as gear, but hey, if you reckon we can get on in the wild, all good."
William sits down, patting Soup
"As for other people, a medic would be nice, Soup can take a lot, but he'll have to heal up eventually, and who knows what other pokemon I'll get, they may need it even more"




Hmm, Soup could probably actually take your squirtly, you'd have to close the gap to do much of anything, and he is a bit better with that

[ArcturusV]

Tyler scoffed and waived off the Medic thing. "I'm not planning on anything getting that injured. 'sides, I got some medical supplies, and time is a great balm for any wound." He leaned in an inch closer to William, his eyes darting left and right as he looked over the crowd. "It's not about skills... it's about people, yeah? Long as we travel together, might as well be people we can be close to, right? I rather have a nice person with no skills, compared to a medic that I will want to feed hemlock to..."

[HopeHubris]

"Really? That's how you're gonna phrase it? I suppose that means you want Hemlock to join us?" She's a medic too, so that works out well. Bit quite though, isn't she?

William watches as Abigail chases after her pokemon

"Doesn't seem to have much control over Chikorita either, but I guess training can fix that, and she's nice enough"

[ArcturusV]

While the trainers talked, and Soup napped, Shauna sniffed a bit, and decided that the Turtwig should live up to his name. Padding over bold as you dare, she leaned over, and bit down on one of the head leaves, starting to chew on it. Soup indeed.

"Well then... go get her," Tyler said. He glanced over to Abigail and the Chikorita. He didn't see a trainer lacking control, or a willful diva pokemon. All he saw was someone he had absolutely zero in common with. The oldest student and the youngest. Someone who was wibbly in general but confident with people, versus himself as someone who was confident with most things but totally incompetent with people.

William at least was brash, and his valuing of defense and endurance was something of common ground for them to hang onto. He didn't want to travel alone though. That would be against the entire purpose of him being here. Nor just two or three people, the pressure was too high. He glanced over towards Vivian, one of the few others who had talked to him earlier and there wasn't an abrasive moment. "I'll go see if she wants to come. Meet at the entrance and then we head out, yeah?"

[HopeHubris]

"What, me go get her? I don't know her... HEY Soup is not a snack, well, I mean, soup is, but Soup isn't"
William says, trying to stress the capital letter
Soup on the other hand, doesn't seem to notice.
"You're saying it was a coincidence that you mentioned hemlock, when there is a medic named Hemlock?"

Will sighs and walks over to Abigail, leaving Soup to sleep, since he didn't seem to care about Shauna's nibbling

"Uh, hey, Tyler reckons we should recruit some people to go adventuring, you wanna come?"



http://www.continental.com.au/Images/1030/1030-253640-4-3D.png

[Goliathus]

Tobar wasn't too pleased with Professor Siar's answer. For one, he has strong confidence on his ability to take care of a Pokemon. Others could insult his lack of athleticism, his look, his clothing style and so on but in terms of Pokemon caretaking, he was the man. No way he would work in a barn for few years and not know how to take care of Pokemon. He could identify the like and dislike of every Pokemon in the barn easily. Ponyta A has a fear of water, Ponyta B always ran with a leading feet and so on. It's because he wanted to take good care of Pokemon that he asked. It meant he cared."No Professor, I mean quirks like fear of fire, or hating a certain specific nuts or vegetable or...you get the gist. Well, I guess I will find out more about them in my adventure." Tobar wasn't worried about growing strong together, he planned to do that. He KNEW he could do that with Magnus. He named him Magnus for that reason.

"No worry." Tobar turned to answer Matthias after Professor Siar was done with him. "And there's no need to feel bad about the battle. Doing an instant battle like that, without knowing your partner and having a game plan, is the same as flipping a card against your opponent and see who has the bigger number. It doesn't really mean much in the end aside from who has the better luck at the moment." The teen might felt like Tobar was trying to make him feel better...in a long-winded way but Tobar genuinely believed in whatever he said. He was a methodical man and in his mind, battle was not just a simple do-and-go and winning against an unprepared opponent was not something to be proud of.

"So...what's your plan?" Tobar asked the boy. It was more or less rhetorical. Through the boy's conversation with the professor, it didn't take a genius to figure out the boy was aiming for gym badges.

[Gintash]

Josuke put Cheekm down before turning to Tobar to answer him. "I don't really have one. I mean, unless you call going out there to enjoy life a plan. I'll probably go ahead and collect some gym badges. Maybe collect all 18 just for the sake of saying I did. After that? Idk, just adventure for a while. Go around seeing what I can find. Who I meet in my adventure. Try and help people all over Tohoko. Hell, might even enter into a contest or two to see what they are like. I am just starting my adventure so I have lots of time to really decide if I want to do something big like verse to Pokemon league or something. I see no reason to decide these things now." Josuke answers, trying not to ramble too much.

"Oh, also, I wanted to make sure I didn't offend you with what I said earlier. I didn't mean it in a mean way or anything. I was just trying to encourage you a little cause you looked like you needed a little encouragement"

[Dannir]

Selene frowned at Clementine's disappointment. She'd have *liked* to travel with her... But her path wasn't a straight one. Anyone impatient to get their goals over and done with would probably clash with her.
She nodded when Clementine told her to stay safe. "Of course. And you too... Especially you. I know you're not a fighter, so if something happens, don't be afraid to call for help, okay?" She then smiles and waves at her, much like Vinny does for Rosemary. "I'll try to get a place as a spectator for one of your contests! We'll meet again for sure!"

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't sad to see her go... But then, one way or another, they would have had to go their separate way at some point, right?

Then, someone else asked for her attention. She looked at the trainer... Who was he again? Tob-... There were two whose name started in Tob... "Ah! Tobias! Hi there!" She considered for a moment, while Vinny was blinking at Occa as he started running around him. After a moment of the Bulbasaur's antic, the Snivy narrows his eyes, and flashes a grin, before diving at the former, trying to push him to the ground.

Well... If they both basically had about the same goal of just exploring... Selene smiles at Tobias. "Sure! I don't see why not! The more the merrier, right? Would be kinda sad to travel alone. That and... Well, safety in numbers, speaking of which... Hold on a moment!" She says, looking towards a certain trainer who'd just finished his fight... He'd been overconfident, but it looked like he'd learned his lesson. She waved at Josuke "Hey, Jo! Over here! I've got something to ask you!"
Having shouted for his attention, her eyes scanned the trainers in presence once more... Most were already starting to form teams, but she noticed one more or less in his corner... Well, it's as she said, the more the merrier, right? She could give it a shot! "You too Angus, over here!"

Hopefully, they'd at least consider coming with her.

[Prometheus II]

James wandered over, smiling at William. "There's actually a lot of logic there. Unless one of you guys remembered, Abigail here is the only one who remembered to bring food. And she aced her Pokemon Biology final-I saw. Personally, I think the four of us-you, Tyler, me, and Abigail-would make a pretty good team. Good trainer, strong guy, bookworm, and healer makes a nice balance. Whaddya say?"

[ArcturusV]

While William goes off to ambush Abigail, and get ambushed by James, Tyler looks around the room to spot Vivian and her shiny new Totodile. (Fierce looking, tough, water types are built for endurance and survival, good all rounders. Bodes well.) he thought to himself as he made a blunt, direct approach, homing in on Vivian like a missile through the classroom, coming to an abrupt halt 3 feet away from her, freezing in place.

His eyes were glued on a spot about 2 inches above her head, and he swallowed loudly to clear his throat. He felt a sort of tension in him that only appeared in life and death struggles against wild pokemon, with his stomach churning and his body tensing up hard.

"Umm... Vivian... right? I was thinking... since we met before... remember I helped you with the notes? I'm sure you remember. No big deal if you don't. Umm... anyway... if you don't have any plans, I'd like for you to travel with me, and William and Abigail of course. Not just me. Anyway... I don't know what you have planned... but my plans are open enough, I'm sure I can accommodate you..."

[tonberryking]

Loft passes by the professor with Tina in tow and pauses for a moment, giving Djaq the courtesy of speaking with his family first before he butts in in any way.

"Hey, 'scuse me Professor, but is it safe to travel up northwards this timma year? Ah Was thinkin' a heading that way rather than by boat, unless it's safer ta head for Newford. Both northern directions. Both very far the hell away from his family; Loft at least consulted a map when nobody was looking in the weeks leading up to this...

Tina seems to look a little bored, but stays where she is as if protecting Loft.

[Vexing]

"I don't feel bad about the 'battle', thank you very much. As for my plans, it's to find company for the route north, preferably people who would be heading to Victory Cave. Of course, plans often change." Turning his attention back to the Pokédex, the Lumiosian Trainer toyed about with his map function.

Matthias quickly marked the route north with a long black line. He could examine it later on the trail, and see if there might be any beneficial detours, but for the time being? He had to get a traveling companion. While he would doubtless be well protected by Calydonis, the Tepig was far too odd to trust in completely, at least not yet. Moreover, having grown up with two siblings had made him used to the hustle and bustle of other people around him, even if he didn't interact with them in any deep or exceptionally meaningful way. When Professor Siar excused herself to tend to the tired Pokémon, he turned his gaze to his own starter and nodded slowly. "Into the ball for now, I think. Might as well let you wander around when there's actually room to roam." Snapping Calydonis' Pokéball open and sharply reabsorbing the creature in a flash of red and white light, he began to pad around to the only other Trainer lurking on his lonesome. The girl named Selene(?) had called out to the fellow, so at least he would know the boy's name right off without having to ask. As he drew closer, he tucked his Pokédex away and extended a hand in greeting.

"You seem to be fairly popular. Before you go to see what Selene wants of you, I have a proposition: if you're taking the North Road, it would be better to travel in a small group. Two's company, three's a crowd--I don't mind bringing along additional people other than yourself and myself, but the more we gather, the less likely it is to find wild Pokémon or a group consensus."

"Well? What do you say?" Tossing Calydonis' little red-and-white home up decisively, he caught and shrunk it in the same move before stowing it into his vest. "You seem thoughtful and quiet. I can appreciate that."

[Hefty Lefty]

In the midst of the vibrant conversation, roaring trainers, and scrapping pokemon, Vivian hears the simple click of the door above all. Three of her classmates had left. (Gone. Where? Who knows. Maybe they don't even know.)

(Now what?) Echoed across the canyon of Vivian's mind. In the past two years, the girl from Newford Island had grown more and more comfortable in the academy with her peers and, incidentally, distanced herself further from the streets she grew up on. She had lost focus on the plan at hand. With that clicking door, it all came rushing back. (Where do I go now? This was all phase one. The prologue.) She looks down at the alligator at her feet, sniffing her fingers for more food. (This guy - I - am still to weak to... to do anything. But what do I do now? I still need to train and develop, only now I don't have Siar holding my hand...)

Her internal rambling is interrupted by Tyler approaching her. The boy is clearly nervous even to speak to her. (It's funny how such a strong man - the winner of the group's first battle - forcing him to submission, no less - can be brought to his knees by long hair and makeup. But I guess that's boys for ya.)

Vivian stops Tyler's helpless plea by swiftly but softly grabbing his arm. "Of course I remember that, Ty! You bailed me out on my first day here; I dunno where I'd be if not for you." She smiles earnestly into his eyes, trying to make eye contact if he'll let her. "I'd love to set out with you."

[Durmatagno]

Thomas scoops Lyn back up in his arms and goes back to his corner to sit and watch quietly. He had never really talked to the people here, keeping to himself. Now, he was keeping to himself so he could get to know Lyn better. Setting her back down, he smiled and sat down to watch her as she climbed onto the wall next to him, surveying the room curiously from her higher vantage point. Thomas followed her gaze, and watch the other pokemon running around, though her eyes seemed to focus on the little Chikorita that seemed ready, and rearing to fight.

[ArcturusV]

Tyler had a clear moment of blushing, and flinched a bit at the shock of Vivian suddenly grabbing onto his arm. His eyes slowly drifted down towards hers, with a sheepish grin on his face. "Well... umm..." he stammered a bit, not really knowing or expecting this level of instant acceptance of the idea, and caught fully off guard. He had presumed he'd have to convince her a little, after all. "I'm glad... that you're coming that is."

He glanced over, wondering how William was doing with Abigail, before glancing back at Vivian, "I don't know where you were planning to go. I was thinking south. The ocean. I've never been there. Have you been?" he was starting to ramble, and he knew it, forcing himself to suddenly shut up and clench his jaw tight.

Shauna, for her part, was still busy snacking on Soup, chewing up that leaf, and watching her trainer out of the corner of her eye.

[Gintash]

Hearing Selene call his name Josuke turned and walked over to her with Cheekm walking next to him slowly. He tried not to move too fast as to let the little guy keep up with him as he approached Selene. He wasn't too sure of what she was going to ask but had an idea of what it was as he looked around the room at everyone else forming groups. He saw Abigail and William talking and while he was pretty sure William could protect her, he made a mental note of sharing phone numbers with her before they left. He had met her for the first time when they got to the academy and talked a bit and, knowing how shy she was, mixed with her overly energetic starter, he thought it would be a good idea to give her his number so if she needed she could call him for help.

He reached Selene, pulling one of his hands out and waving. "Yo! Whats up Selene?"

[Hefty Lefty]

"I haven't been since before the academy. But I'm from Newford, so I used to spend a lot of time on the water. It'll be nice to see it again." A stiff tail brushes past Vivian's leg. The little totodile Cavity runs over to play with the squirtle Shauna. (Do they already know we're travelling together?) "I bet these guys want to get their feet wet, too!"

[ArcturusV]

Shauna goes and waves the Totodile to go chew on Soup's other leaf, and never stops chewing herself. It's very comforting for her apparently. And for Soup since he's still napping through it.

"Newford? Never been there. What's it like?" Tyler asked, his own curiosity getting to him, "And the ocean? I mean... I've heard of it. Just... hard to imagine you know? A vast desolate stretch of inhospitable water. Just saying it sounds crazy, doesn't it?" he gave a nervous little chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck as he started babbling again.

"Well are you ready to go? Is there anything you need before we set out?"

[Prehysterical]

At Matthias's approach, Angus stands to meet him. Although the other boy is a few inches taller, Angus still manages to look him in the eye. Unsure of the situation, Seigmeyer continues to sit and watch the goings-on around him.

"'Popular'? You jest. I have no intention of seeking Victory Cave just yet. The two of us," he indicates Seigmeyer and himself, "have some training to do before that. And let me give you some advice, Matthias." Angus uses the more archaic pronunciation of "Ma-thy-us".

"Being averse to the company of others is not a trait to be celebrated. Something to think about for the future."

As Angus begins making his way over to Selene, Seigmeyer notices this trainer's departure and tags alongside him, still holding the plate of treats and himself himself to the food. When he approaches Selene, he asks, "What is it that you wanted to speak with me about?"

[Dannir]

She smiles as the trainers she called come over. Well, she would be able to ask them, then...
"Well, I was thinking that we should all travel together... Well, provided you're fine with just exploring the region, rather than going straight anywhere in particular! Safety in number and all that, besides, I'm sure we'd get along fine!" She tells then. Hopefully, at least one of them would accept. From where she stood, two was just not enough. Four or five would be ideal, if they're going to stick together as a group long-term. At the very least, a larger group wouldn't suffer as much from one of its members wanting to go their own way.

"So, what do you two think about that?" She asks.

[Hefty Lefty]

"It's uh, it's fine." It takes her longer than she expected to remember the place, and when Vivian does, she finds she didn't really want to describe it. At least not how she knows it. "It's a lot more exciting then here, that's for sure."

She wrinkles her brow to his second comment. "You- you've never been to the ocean? Like, at all? You know, it's really not far from here." Vivian sees the poor boy already embarrassed with his situation, and decides to back off a tad. "Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool when ya put it like that."

The girl claps her hands together eagerly. "Nope! I'm good to go!" She gives a short little fist pump. "Where's the others, Will, Abigail, you said, right?"

[Gintash]

Josuke considers his options for a moment before answering Selene. Um, well if you guys don't mind travelling with me I'd be fine with coming along with you all. I don't have a real goal at this point or anywhere that I need to go. But in the mean time I think that travelling with a group until I get more Pokemon and become more powerful would be a great idea so I am in. Josuke genuinely thought that travelling in a group was a good idea to start with. This way they could all become more powerful before deciding if they wanted to continue with the group or if they wanted to go on their own journeys.

[Prometheus II]

"Plus me, hopefully. I think I could be pretty helpful, hm?" James wandered up, Jirai hanging precariously off his shoulder, and munching on a scone. James was munching the scone, not Jirai. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, earning a disgruntled squeak from Jirai. "William seemed to be okay with it, and I kinda interpreted Abigail's muttering as 'Yes, James, that'd be fine.' Just thought I'd check in."

[Hefty Lefty]

"Yeah of course! Safety in numbers, right?" Vivian nods to the newcomer. "So, are you boys interested in picking up badges or what?"

[Prometheus II]

James shrugged. "Well, kinda. I'm actually trying to answer a question. Did you know that nobody knows why wild Pokemon battle? I mean, there's a lot of species with adaptions like Serperior's vines that could only be used for battling. And wild Pokemon actually have been known to get sick if they don't compete at least somehow! Isn't that weird?" He leaned forward, animated in his favorite topic. Jirai croaked reproachfully as he was nearly displaced by the sudden incline.

[Vexing]

Matthias visibly bristles at the affront and the advice; clearly, he hadn't taken it in a very objective light. However, as he watched Angus wander away and another small group begin happily forming...he deflated a little. It was a very cold, abrupt reminder of just how much he had overlooked during his time in Kalos as well as here in Springcliff. Without any strong connections here, it would that much harder to get a good start on his journey.

(And it looks like I'm taking the first leg alone. Maybe Woodbank? An abandoned town has to be good for some amount of exploration. And maybe the old ferryman can be an adventure in and of himself, if he knows the area.) Doing his best to shrug off his discontent, the boy made his way to the door and left without a backward glance. It wouldn't be very long before he realized he hadn't taken any food with him, and would have to nurse his bruised pride on a thin stomach with only his lone Pokémon for company. It promised to be a long evening ahead.

For the time being, since everyone else has grabbed a group, I'll send Matthias on the northern route! I know that you (Charisma Thief) said that your suggested group sizes were meant to be around 3-4, so I certainly don't intend to make more work for you and stay solo. Hopefully, he'll catch up with one of the other north-bound groups before long and be able to integrate himself by hook or by crook, or breaking down to beg for traveling companions!

I'll leave it up to your discretion about whether or not Matthias spends awhile alone before seeing his other classmates, but it'd be a shame to miss out on the group dynamic!

[Goliathus]

"No worry, I will try my best out there. And enjoying life seems like a good way to go." Tobar tried to be as firm as he could be when answering the boy but he was far from a confident man aside from his belief in his own caretaking ability. The whole conversation just made him more like a big baby than anything. Some of the younger classmates of him seemed to have a much better grasp at...almost anything than him.

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

Before Tobar could give the boy a reply, Matthias has left to find his preferred traveling companions. At this point, it would be a lie to say Tobar wasn't a little bit worried about finding traveling partners. Some of the people had already left and they all seemed to have a group already. Yet, he was stuck with himself inside the four walls, looking at others conversing with each other. Tobar has no problem with traveling alone but he understood himself enough to know that it's unlikely that he could handle the wild alone. Darn it, he really felt like a big baby.

Tobar stayed inside the classroom. It was pretty quiet now as the ceremony was done for and people were slowly leaving the room for their adventure. Most of the food plates were empty so Tobar pushed some of them aside and sat on the table, keeping a constant scan on the room. He figured maybe he could try and ask some of the remaining people to see if he could tag along any of them after the more popular gangs have left the venue.

Magnus jumped up the table and looked at his new trainer with hints of curiosity. "Hey there buddy, you are not in a rush, right? I figured we could take our time and start our adventure a little later if you are okay with it." His Piplup was fine with anything so he just merely nodded while sitting together with his trainer. There's really not much else to do inside the classroom. The little Pokemon has eaten enough food and has pretty much explored every inch of the space. While the outside was tempting for him, he figured his trainer wouldn't like it if he just wandered off.

Sorry Gintash, I didn't even realized Josuke talked to Tobar in the previous page so I didn't reply until now. I assume my character will answer you before you join your group so I make a special segment there to indicate I replied to you like a minute ago before my interation with the professor.

[Boolprop]

Djaq leads Loft in the direction towards his family, pass Professor Siar. Noticing Loft's gesture, Djaq nods his head as he meets up with his mother and brother. The adults that was gossiping with Lila kindly backs away as Djaq came, allowing both mother and son to be together one more time before Djaq leaves on a journey like all the other trainers before him; though not before a short introduction was made and a brief round of 'congratulations' was said.

Though not much was said, Djaq introduces Ruki, his Pokémon and partner to Lilia and Eric, Djaq's younger brother. The small Torchic received warm welcomes as Djaq's father ends his phone call and walks over to praise his son. Djaq and his family shares a brief moment, each said their own piece to the trainer, before a traveler's backpack was given to Djaq. Anyone close and listening in would hear "Be safe," "Congratulations," "Ruki, take care of Djaq for me" and other farewell notions a parent/guardian would say to their child as they prepare to send the trainer off; that and "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it."

Checking out the gifts Professor Siar have left for each trainer, Djaq founds a PokéDex, a badge case and 5 PokéBalls, all new and ready for the young trainer to use. Making sure to place each one away into the backpack, Djaq hoist the bag over his shoulder as he walks over to his uncle, Robert the Ranger (formally). After a brief conversation and Djaq gesturing to Loft's current position...


Anyone can interject at this point, though it's up to them. But at this point and time, it'll take place before William & Josuke, since it'll occur sometime later (for William is training Soup).

To Charisma Thief: If there is a Ranger school/gym/association or something of the kind somewhere in the Tohoko Region within at least the past 20 years, maybe Djaq's uncle would mention about it? This way Djaq could give Loft some details where they can head off to, though the information may or may not be up to date. Feel free to control/rp his uncle if you wish so. Anyone else close by or listening in could also interject if they wish to...

[ArcturusV]

Tyler shot a look over to James as he strolled in. Just taking to chatting up like a Goldeen to water. There was a small little twitch on his features, hard to read as it was only there for a moment. But his body language made it clearer, as he crossed his arms over his chest, his fingers gripping his arms a little tighter than they should be, shifting his weight further away from James, and trying hard not to look at him anymore.

"Well... maybe. It's not a driving goal, but I wouldn't be opposed to it, or a lot of things really. My major goal is to broaden my studies with some experience out in the world. Catch a lot of useful pokemon, get a chance to practice some of the tricks I've learned... see what's out there and try it all."

"Seems Abigail is still as wibbly as a newborn cleffa... so we probably got a few minutes. What are you looking for out there Vivian?" His voice had been fairly tense, but there was a measure pacing to his words, as if he had practiced them over and over in his mind before ever saying them.

[Goliathus]

Tobar waited for a while...but decided perhaps it was time for him to learn to be independent. After all, he couldn't rely on someone else all the time if he were to mature and that was a big goal of him. Truth be told, he just couldn't bring himself to ask any person again to take him in. At this point, it just seemed a bit too desperate. "I guess we have waited enough. Don't worry, Magnus, I will find you some partners pretty soon, I promise." Tobar touched his Piplup's head gently with a big smile on his face as he said those words. The boy proceeded to return Magnus into his Pokeball and headed out of the classroom.

Going solo and heading south. Tobar will take half an hour to train Magnus, earning him 3 EXP(5/4 = 1.25, 1+2=3) before heading off the town.

[Hefty Lefty]

Vivian nods enthusiastically to both James' and Tylers' comments. "Yeah, that is weird," she responds to Tyler, never having even thought of the question before. "I always just thought they fight because we fight them first," she shrugs.

(What am I looking for out there? That's a really good question.) Vivian shrugs again and starts playing with her hair with two fingers. "I dunno, I'm really like you I guess. Gyms could be fun. But I think just seeing the sights, finding pokemon, 'specially the rare ones, that would be cool." She nods to him for approval.

"And Viv is fine, by the way."

[ArcturusV]

Tyler looked over and gave James a hard look, he didn't trust the Golden Child know it all. Something about him always rubbed him the wrong way, least in the two weeks he's been here. Instead he saddled up next to Vivian, whispering to her away from James's prying ears.

"My father was a trainer... he told me some secrets, about creating rare pokemon from rocks and natural ingredients. I'll need some time to practice... but I might be able to create some for you, if you wanted."

It wasn't going to be a possibility right away, he needed time, but he backed away from Vivian a bit and gave her a friendly smile.

[INoKnowNames]

The hurricane of activity buzzing around taxes Abigail's concentration. People talking, trainers leaving, battles continuing, bonds forming, and lives continuing; all of her other graduates are making the best of their time and continuing to advance.

One vital task remains in front of Abigail, however: gaining some sense of control over the rambunctious Chikorita presented to her by the professor. The little leaf Pokemon has been running around, approaching the face of each of its companions in the graduating class, looking for rivals to challenge herself, and Abigail has been following it, trying hard to keep it from attacking anyone. Yet whenever her new trainer approaches, Chikorita immediately moves to the next location. It seems she is fully intent on testing everything around her, including Abigail herself.

After a while of apologizing to others trying to get a meaningful word in, Abigail manages to find herself in a stand off with her own Pokemon, her ball at the ready to recall the rogue grass type. Meanwhile, Chikorita is eying her trainer with a confident grin, standing on top of some of the catering on the buffet table, her reflexes sharp.

After a moment, Abigail's concerned expression fades a bit, and she looks toward the door. "Who are you?" she asks, tilting her head as far as possible, letting her white hair nearly touch the floor. Confused, Chikorita follows her gaze to the entrance of the room, only to find it still shut. When she turns back to face her trainer, a red beam of light strikes her square between the eyes; the return function of the Pokeball finally reclaiming her Pokemon, the ball actually aimed through her hair.
"Finally..." Abigail sighs, and falls to her knees. "I hope you can forgive me for my little deception, Chikorita. But I think we need to work out a few things before we can start fighting. Maybe soon we can work out your pent up energy." she whispers into the Pokeball, holding it into her chest.

Abigail stands back up, and turns back to face the other trainers. "Please pardon me for the mess I made." She begins, bowing to her remaining classmates. "I can provide extra food, if anyone is willing to try some of my cooking. I just wanted to avoid needing to use my first aid kit before even leaving the graduation hall. I know that the restoration machines here could easily take care of such mundane injuries, but still..." Lifting her head back up, she manages a faint giggle. "What a start to a journey, yes?"

Looking back at Chikorita's ball, she continues, mostly to herself. "This should be an interesting opportunity. I've helped heal Gyrados, Aggron and Rhampardos less wild than you, little girl. Yet you and I are to be partners from this day on. Hopefully you can learn to listen to me, and I will learn to understand you."

A look of shock turns her face pale, and Abigail looks back at a few of the other students, bowing profusely. "I'm so sorry! I was so preoccupied with Chikorita, I may have ignored a few of your questions toward me! I'm sorry, please forgive me!" she quickly speaks.

[Durmatagno]

Stretching, Thomas stands up, and as soon as he does, Lyn jumps onto his shoulder and uses him to slide to the ground. Rubbing the back of his neck a little to work on a sore spot, he approaches Abigail.

Don't sweat it, everyone has some trouble eventually, a energetic starter isn't anything new, plenty of people have them, it'll work out in the end.

Thomas says as Lyn pads along beside him, crossing her arms to look up at Abigail, before turning to scan the rest of the room, watching everyone, thinking about something.

My names Thomas, and this little Treecko here is named Lyn. I honestly don't know what she's looking for, been doing that for awhile now.

[HopeHubris]

"All good Abigail, can I call you Abby?, I was just asking if you wanted to join me an Tyler on our journey, I think James and Vivian might be coming as well"
William decides this is as good a time as any, and stops the water pokemon nibbling on his still oblivious Turtwig, picking him up and walking back to Abigail

"We could really use a good medic, as tough as Soup is Tyler seems to think his squirtle is pretty great too, he can still get injured and hey, the more the merrier, right?"

[INoKnowNames]

Abigail once again bows before Thomas specifically. "I apologise for the trouble I caused in not properly directing Chikorita. It's odd, but it seemed she was especially excited by Lyn's pressence, though she certainly seems to be an exubarrant Pokemon. Hopefully she and I will be able to get along in our journeys together. And hopefully you and Lyn will have as fortuitous luck, if not more so." she replies with a warm smile.

As she is approached by an additional student, Abigail actually begins to blush slightly. In school, baring group projects or assisting someone in tutoring, her shyness mostly saw her keep to herself, and the only thing that kept her mind focus and nerves calm today was reigning in Chikorita. "Um... I suppose you can call me whatever you might like." she answers William. "And honestly, I had yet to make any concrete plans beyond putting one foot in front of the other. I suppose I wouldn't mind a group; if no one else can, I've been learning how to cook since I was ten, and I've been studying Pokemon and Nursing since I was five years old... so I suppose I might be useful, maybe..." If she said anything else, her nervous stammering was impossible to hear but by the most sharpened senses.

[Prehysterical]

Angus rubs his chin as he considers Selene's offer. Eventually, he says, "I don't see why not. I am in no hurry to be anywhere. Seigmeyer and I could do with some training before engaging in battle with anyone. What say you, Seigmeyer?" The Chespin nods his head happily in accordance with the decision. The little Pokemon walks forward and extends its hand to Vinny for a handshake.

[Yodas_Free_Boat]

Josuke considers his options for a moment before answering Selene. Um, well if you guys don't mind travelling with me I'd be fine with coming along with you all. I don't have a real goal at this point or anywhere that I need to go. But in the mean time I think that travelling with a group until I get more Pokemon and become more powerful would be a great idea so I am in. Josuke genuinely thought that travelling in a group was a good idea to start with. This way they could all become more powerful before deciding if they wanted to continue with the group or if they wanted to go on their own journeys.


Angus rubs his chin as he considers Selene's offer. Eventually, he says, "I don't see why not. I am in no hurry to be anywhere. Seigmeyer and I could do with some training before engaging in battle with anyone. What say you, Seigmeyer?" The Chespin nods his head happily in accordance with the decision. The little Pokemon walks forward and extends its hand to Vinny for a handshake.

Tobias can't help but feel a streak of shock and . Selene, Josuke, Angus, they're all two years older than he is, and he always felt like they were so much cooler and mature than he was. And now was getting a chance to travel with them?
Okay, Keep cool Toby. They're older than you are, but they're still just people.

"So, where do you guys think we start heading? North, south, east, west? I'll be happy so long are there are new Pokemon for me to catch." Toby laughs slightly as he sees Occa running around and play-tackling the other trainers' pokemon. "And I think Occa here will be happy so long as he can run around and play with other pokemon"

[Gintash]

Josuke considers Tobias's question for a moment as he hadn't thought about it too much as of yet. "Well, in all honesty I would mind which way we go as long as I can catch some cool Pokemon along the way. I would like to head to places where I can train as well as too level up Cheekm and any other guys that I catch along the way. Probably East as there are more cities and towns that way which would mean more trainers and possibly gyms if anyone is looking to gain badges."

[Hefty Lefty]

(What is he talking about... make pokemon? Nevermind... he's trying to be nice.) Vivian nods her head enthusiastically. "Wow, that sounds really great. You should make something for me." The girl scoops up the little totodile who had wandered back to her feet. "But for now, I kinda got my hands full!" She sticks her tongue out at the joke.

"Hey Abby, she greets the newest person to the circle. The shy girl had this incredible knack for alluring all the boys with a less-than-effortless flair. At first the girl quite bothered Vivian, when she thought Abigail was toying with them all, but her attitude changed after getting to know her - that the act is truly honest naïveté. (She's no threat. She wouldn't know what to do with a fish if she caught one.) "Well, if you wanna come with us, I guess we're headed south if you're interested."

[INoKnowNames]

As she is approached by Vivian, and by William, the red washing over her face intensifies. She naturally begins playing with her long blue scarf, to attempt to find some type of comfort to cling to, in order to work past her bashful nature. "Um, I guess that works for me, if you're willing to have me." she replies, after a moment of muttering, trying to get the words out of her mouth. She'd always been a bit of a wall flower, so to be engaged by multiple people, particularly those much older than herself, was a bit of a challenge for her.

With a pop and crackle of light, her renegade Pokemon suddenly bursts back out of her Pokeball in front of Abigail. She glares at her trainer for a moment, annoyed by her trickery, before remembering to look around. "Chikorita?!" Abigail exclaims, examining the ball on her belt and the creature before her. Catching the target of her interest in her eye again, the Leaf Pokémon ignores Abigail entirely and moves to Thomas' legs, chirping at Treecko in a demanding way, as if challenging it. Abigail is brought entirely speechless by her Pokemon's tenacity, though right now any verbal attempt to restrain Chikorita would probably fall on deaf ears.

"I think she really wants to battle you." Abigail remarks to Thomas. "I can try to stop her again, if that's a problem..." Chikorita actually turns to shoot an angry look back at her trainer, before continuing to stare down Lyn.

[Durmatagno]

Lyn smiles and steps forward, growling in return to the challenge, though not angrily.

I think Lyn wants to fight to. Why not let this be their first battle, might help expend some of your Chikorita's extra energy.

Thomas says before backing away to give the little pokemon room to fight.

As soon as Thomas backs away, Lyn brings down her hand to smack the other grass type.

Right, Lyn's Initiative is 21, so I do believe she gets the first attack
HP: 33
Pound AC: [roll0] Damage: [roll1]

[INoKnowNames]

"Okay, just, don't hurt each other too much..." Abigail faintly replies, the red in her face quickly being replaced with blue.

In the battle field, Chikorita takes Lyn's attack head on and smiles through it, before attempting to ram the little lizard.

Pound requires you to hit at least a 2 + my Physical Evasion of 2, so 4 total. Which means you'd just barely miss, right?

HP: 40/40

[roll0] This roll needs to beat a 6, right? Wow. Complete. Miss. :smalltongue:

[roll1]

[Durmatagno]

Lyn makes a frustrated noise after missing before stepping back just enough for the Chikorita to miss her, and brings her other hand in from the side to hit the grass type.

They shouldn't hurt each other to much, they're young, and we have the professor to fix them up once their done.

HP: 33

Yeah, dat speed is nasty/

[roll0]
[roll1]

[INoKnowNames]

Abigail holds both her hands to her mouth to cover a gasp as she watches the battle unfold.

Chikorita rolls on the ground after the hard blow, only to stand right back up. Her grin ever wider, she scratches the ground with one foot before charging forward again.

THE HYPEST POKEMON BATTLING ON YOUTUBE!

HP:21/40

[roll0] Is a 12 enough for a hit?

[roll1]

[Durmatagno]

Lyn squeaks as she gets pushed back, before jumping up and slamming both hands down onto the pesky grass type.

Oh, ouch Lyn, it looks like that hurt.

21/33 (You have 31 left, your sheet says your defense is a 10)
[roll0]
[roll1]

[HopeHubris]

"Come on Abby, you got this, chikorita is way better defensively than that treecko"
William says, watching the battle

[INoKnowNames]

As the battle continues, Abigail almost appears to be on the verge of tears. Though both hands are cupped over the bottom of her face, they actually magnify her stressed breathing, rather than quieting her.

Chikorita's face nearly hits the floor, only for the rambunctious grass type to swing her head back into the Tree Gecko.

So, she'd have 26 left now, right? Jesus this is intense!

[roll0]

[roll1]

[Durmatagno]

Lyn gets knocked to the ground and struggles to get up for a second, but does so with some effort. Panting, she slams her hand forward, trying to finish off the slower, but tougher pokemon.

Come on Lyn, you can back out anytime you want you know.

Ouch, HP: 3
[roll0]
[roll1]

[INoKnowNames]

Tears actually do begin to line Abigail's eyes as the battle rages on. Her attempts at covering her breathing are now entirely futile, as her heaving chest fully betrays her anxiety.

After being knocked into the floor, the Leaf Pokémon staggers back to her feet, using her legs to throw herself at her opponent.

18/40

[roll0] A Natural 20?! O.O (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD_imYhNoQ4) (Foul Language and Volume Warning)

[roll1]

[Durmatagno]

Tears actually do begin to line Abigail's eyes as the battle rages on. Her attempts at covering her breathing are now entirely futile, as her heaving chest fully betrays her anxiety.

After being knocked into the floor, the Leaf Pokémon staggers back to her feet, using her legs to throw herself at her opponent.

18/40

[roll0]

[roll1]

With the final blow from the Chikorita, Lyn collapses to the ground unconscious. Thomas moves in and carefully picks up the unconscious pokemon.

Looks like your Chikorita wins. She's an energetic thing, I'll give you that. Come on, lets get the professor to fix up our pokemon. Afterwards mind if I tag along with you? I don't really have any plans.

Thomas is carefully cradling the tiny Treecko, but doesn't seem to worried about her. He knows most pokemon are tougher than they look, and with the professor so close by, Lyn would be back up and happily energetic in no time.

[INoKnowNames]

Abigail, upon seeing the final exchange of the battle, falls to her knees, then on her rear, her left arm being the only thing keeping her propped up. To treat Pokémon injuries is one thing. To allow them, if not cause them, both on her own Pokémon and on another's, is a different story all together, and one that has Abigail slightly rattled.

Chikorita, upon seeing her victory, shakes her head back and forth, a simple smile crossing her face. Still somewhat hurt and tired, she slowly moves to Thomas' feet, and attempts to stroke Lyn's hand. From an outsider's perspective, it would almost appear that the little Leaf Pokémon wanted to shake hands with the Gecko. Though she might not have yet noticed that it passed out.

Still panting, Abigail looks at her Pokémon. "She certainly is a marvelous Pokémon... a good friend indeed..." she replies, as she scoots over to Chikorita, and pets her on the back, acknowledging her success.

Looking up at her opponent, she continues and tries to answer him as best as she can. "I... I don't have any plans myself in mind. But Vivian, James, Tyler, and William were going to set out together to the south, and invited me to come along with them... if they would allow someone like myself to be part of their group, then surely they might have room for someone as skilled as you?"

[HopeHubris]

"Win number two for the team"
William laughs before adding
"Assuming you're joining us anyway, I mean"

He then turns to Thomas and says "I'd have no problems with you coming along as well, but you really need to work on your treecko's defence, really vital stuff that"


The only two fights he has seen since becoming a pokemon trainer were won by the most defensive pokemon, William is going to be insufferable

[Durmatagno]

I know, I know, but she came a speedy little thing, and will probably always be a speedy thing. Attack and Defense need improvement, but I think I'll keep her fast, suits her already.

Thomas says with a slight nod, a little uncomfortable with talking so much in such a short period. He preferred a good book, and some music over talking with other people, though he did keep a small circle of friends.

[INoKnowNames]

"I think Lyn did the best she could." Abigail attempts to chirp between labored breaths. "She's a marvelous Pokémon, and will only grow even more marvelous under Thomas' tutelage. May the same happen to all our Pokémon. Though.... Annie, here, seems to have a decent start even without my help. It was her raw abilities that let her have a chance at winning." she smiles at the Chikorita, blessing it with a name. Annie, for her part, only tilts her head at her trainer.

Abigail attempts to rise back to her feet, only to stumble and fall back to the ground, nearly fainting herself. Her first battle seems to have taken more of a toll on her than on her own Pokémon. "I may need a moment or two before I decide what to do next." she sheepishly remarks, still trying to calm herself. "And I may need help getting back up... Sorry..."

[Charisma Thief]

Prof. Siar hums for a moment as she thinks, making sure she hasn't missed anything crucial that could be dangerous before shaking her head. "No, you should be quite alright Loft. I mean, there would be no more dangers than there are to be expected in the wilderness. If you're heading up towards the mountains, just keep in mind that the area is covered in snow year round, so pack warmly and watch your step."

Prof. Siar then turns from Loft and is the first to walk over to Abigail once she finishes talking to a few of the parents standing around, offering her a hand to help her up. "Well done Abigail. It certainly was a close battle, and a well deserved victory." She gently helps her up, then holds both her palms out towards Abigail and Thomas. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, I can take Treeko and Chicorita and get them fighting fit in no time before your group decides to head out."

With a soft, calming smile, she takes the tow Pokemon in their PokeBalls and wanders off to her office once again, quickly returning after a few short minutes, passing you back the two PokeBalls. "There you are, all fixed, and no serious damage to either. It was quite a strong last hit though, wasn't it?"

Abigail:

1 Trainer Experience for your first battle
1 Trainer Experience for your first win
21 Pokemon experienced gained

5 = Level 5 Treeko
2 = Level 1 Trainer
x3 Significance Multiplyer (First Rival Battle)



Thomas:

1 Trainer Experience for first battle



While the Rangers don't play as large of a part now than they did in the past, there are still a few ranger stations around Tohoko. Over the past few years since your uncle retired, a lot of the stations have been closed down, so exactly which are still active and which are not is a fair guess at best.

[ArcturusV]

"You mean 3 all, in favor of our team," Tyler reminded William. It didn't sound like bragging coming from him, said with the same intonation as a simple fact, as while his battle wasn't action packed, it was still a victory as far as him and the books would be concerned.

He then leveled his gaze on Abigail as she got her Pokemon back from the Professor, "Welcome to the team. I'm sure you'll get as much out of traveling with us, as we'll get from you traveling with us." Awkwardly delivered, sounded over rehearsed, but there was an honest sentiment behind it. Definitely not even asking, just shanghaied as he presumed William had already secured her presence on the team with his fiery passion and greater social graces.

[HopeHubris]

"Okay, fine, technically 3, but the other guy chickened out before you even did anything, so it hardly counts"
William says, goading

[ArcturusV]

"He provoked, I withstood. A victory of the spirit and will. And without them, there can be no other victory," Tyler said as he squared up on William, looking down at the other trainer. He had a certain amount of steel in his gaze as he sized up William, "Offer still stands, if you wish to test my meddle. We head out back and have it out, a far more apt test of our spirits."

[HopeHubris]

"Ha, Soup could take Shauna any day, he's hella tough. But if you meant like, 'head out back' head out back, then you could definitely beat me in a fist fight"
William doesn't seem phased, still treating it as a joke despite the look in Tyler's eyes

[ArcturusV]

"I mean that the world is the world. A wide empty, open wooden floor is not the arena you're likely to ever face again. You fight where you have to, and deal with the conditions... a place like this? This is nothing. Not a real test for a trainer. But you end up hip deep in a blizzard, balancing on a mountain side, fighting off a pack of feral Swinubs? That's a real test."

He smiled, it was a bit of a dark smile. He had been there times before, having to trust in nothing but his fists, toughness, and spirit. He may not be confident with socializing, or the rules of the civilized world... but he was certain of himself when those moments came up.

His hand reached out and clasped William on the shoulder, "Course you can always stay to the safe havens and well trimmed roads. Just remember the best rewards are the furthest from the beaten path." His smile was warmer now, and he gave William's shoulder a little shake.

[Dannir]

"Actually, I'd prefer to go west... The towns to the east are separated by pretty long routes, from what I can recall, and I'd prefer not to end up in trouble too far from a pokecenter just yet. Even if we circle back east afterwards, I want to train more before going that way."
Besides, she'd be crossing the mountains eventually, no questions about that. "Still, that's up to you guys. South, then east to the other side of the continent, or do we go west, or even north and stay on this half for the time being?"

[HopeHubris]

"Soup can just tackle all those swinubs off the cliff, of course, though I would want to catch one first. As for the rest of it, that's why we have you"
William laughs again, clearly still giddy from his first victory

[Gintash]

"Hmmmm, you make a good point Selene." Josuke said as he considered their options. "In that case why don't we hang around on the east for a while till we are more confident about our 'mons levels before heading over to the west? That way we are being cautious by powering ourselves up and making sure we can handle the wilds before we head on over to the east where we will know how to survive in them and make better solutions." Josuke said, fairly confident now that he had teamed up with a good group.

If he had been alone, Josuke would have gone straight over to the east without even thinking about knowing how to survive or his 'mons levels. But with Selene at the least, it gave him a bit more perspective about certain thing.

[Bluydee]

Finishing up all preparations, Ryota took his bag and took Chimchar, who immediately jumped on him. He turned to face the Academy and remembered the 2 years spent here. He smiled, then walked away as he began his journey.

[Prometheus II]

"Hey, nice battle there." James had, once again, wandered into the midst of a conversation without even being aware of it. "Hey, I had a question to ask you. You've worked at healing Pokemon before, right? Jirai here seemed more than a little dehydrated when I got him, so I let him take a little splash bath in a bowl of water. Could you take a look at him, make sure he isn't just...hopped up?" He glanced around, a big smile on his face, before realizing nobody else was laughing and shrugging his shoulders. "Ah, everyone's a critic. But seriously, though, could you take a look at him, make sure he's all right?" He plucked Jirai off his shoulder, setting him neatly next to Abigail.

[INoKnowNames]

When the Professor came to restore Annie to full health, her presence also helped restore Abigail's nerves. Professor Siar was quite sociable, and a good friend of Abigail's mother; the lass held her teacher and mentor in high esteem. After being helped to her feet and having her starter returned to her, she bows once again to her role model.

Abigail's peace and calm is abruptly shattered when she hears another voice speak out right behind her, and she visibly jumps for a moment before turning to see him again. But when he, like the rest of her new friends, welcomes her, she calms much easier, though the crimson in her face is still very deep. "Thank you, Tyler. I hope to be of much assistance through out what should be a fun journey." she replies with a cute smile- a smile that fades for a moment before returning when the dispute between William and Tyler seems to fade.

Abigail jumps yet again when James seems to randomly appear, though at the mere mention of healing Pokemon, her attention appears focused and her anxieties diminished. She looks at the little Froakie, closes her eyes, takes out her Pokedex, and once again recites part of its entry by memory, before scrutinizing it closely. "I honestly would expect that the Professor and her assistants would have made sure to take fine care of Jirai. Starting an adventure should be enough to keep him healthy, so long as you make sure to give him enough water. If you are worried you should take more precautionary steps..." she pauses, to fetch her first aid kit from her bag. "...then there is a treatment you could give him for about a week to make sure he's getting the nutrients he needs. Just a twenty minute bath every night should be fine." Grabbing a clear bottle with labels hand written and scrawled on, she shows it to James. "The bath should be enough that he can nearly fully rest within it. For every once of this you add to it, you need ten ounces of water. That should be just the right mix."

Bending back down, she stares at Jirai at eye level. "Again, I feel like I wouldn't be too worried. Adventuring should be just enough to stretch his legs, and so long as we remember to let him play in the water and make sure he eats well, he should be just fine. I'll be happy to cook carefully for everyone, this little cutie especially." she smiles, first at Jirai, then at James as she straightens back out. Her sheepishness kicks in as she finishes, causing her skin to turn scarlet again. "I mean, if that's okay with everyone... I don't mean to impose or anything... I'm sorry if I was being rude, James..." she stammers, eyes glued to the floor. Annie, staring at her trainer all this time, rolls her eyes and leaf, before looking around, bored.

[Durmatagno]

As soon as the professor returns with Lyn, Thomas sets her back on the floor and pats her gently on the head.

You did good Lyn, keep it up and you'll be untouchable.

Turning to Abigail, Thomas speaks back up.

If you want to cook, go ahead and cook, no ones going to complain you know.

Lyn steps out from beside Thomas to study the Chikorita she had just been beaten by, after few moments she smiles and extends her hand, making a happy noise.

[Hefty Lefty]

(Of course. The chick barely makes a peep and has the boys falling over each other to talk to her.) Vivian reflexively rolls her eyes, and raises her pokemon in front of her face to attempt to hide her smirk. (Give her some room to breathe, fellas.)

Vivian takes the opportunity to leave the group for the moment, while all eyes are on the beautiful battle champion, to clean off the rest of the snack bar. By now, about half of the graduating class is out of the room. Crumbs, dip, and juice is left in a mess across the paper table cloth. Vivian finds some of the last pastries, wraps them in a napkin, and hides them in the pocket of her backpack. Cavity at her feet sniffs the air incredulously. "Not 'til later, my friend. You gotta earn it!" Hungry eyes plead her to take one more handful and feed the gator now. (Ah, what the hell.) She can't help but laugh a bit at the ferocious way Cavity eats like he hasn't had a meal in weeks. (The quickest way to a boy's heart is through his stomach... who's to say it won't work for pokemon, too?)

After brownie is destroyed in to millions of tiny pieces, Vivian stands up and returns to the group. She seems to be closing the room behind her as everyone is crowded near the door. "So it's the six of us, now? Cool. Let's get goin'!"

[Durmatagno]

I agree, unless you guys have anything else you want to do here, I think we should head out.

Thomas comments with a nod towards Vivian, returning Lyn to her pokeball as he does so, slipping it into one of his pockets.

I don't really care where we end up going, as long as we get moving.

[Prehysterical]

As the others continue their discussion, Angus says, "Wherever we are going, can we get on with it? I'd like to make some progress before nightfall, and the air in here is growing rather stale." It is clear from his tone that the last part is not referring to just the air.

Seigmeyer, upon seeing that Vinny does not want a handshake, moves over to Cheekm and offers a hand to shake.

[Gintash]

"You have a point Angus, and we don't want to be left too far behind the others." Josuke answers as he looks around the room at who is left there. Most of the rest of the graduating class seems to have already left or be in the process of leaving.

Cheekm, seeing Seigmeyer trying to shake his hand, balances on 3 legs shaking with one of his paws smiling.

[Prometheus II]

"Huh. I knew they drank through their skin, but I guess it makes sense they might need a few special things." James smiled and stood up, and Jirai made a surprisingly huge leap from the ground to James's shoulder. "Though acting like that, you don't even need that, do you?" Jirai burbled happily. James looked over at Vivian's comment. "Right you are. Just one second..." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small flash drive and plugged it into his Pokedex. He tapped a few buttons on the Dex, navigating to the drive's files, selected one particular .mp3, and spun the volume wheel upwards. He smiled and hooked the Dex to his belt as music began to blast. There were no words to it, just instrumentals. It wasn't a quiet soundtrack-it was the sound of a brave adventure, the sound of the sun rising on a new day, the sound of a band of adventurers marching onwards. "Auspicious music for a good start, if I do say so myself. Let's get moving, shall we?" He swung the doors open, tossing Professor Ciar something halfway between a salute and a wave. "Thanks for everything, Professor! Wish us luck!" And with that, he stepped out into the light of day.

Unless anyone else of Marsh Team has any issues, James-and hopefully everyone else behind him-will make like a tree and leaf. *SHOT*

[ArcturusV]

"As you wish, Vivian," Tyler said, giving a short bow at his waist towards her. She did seem to have a way of corralling everyone. It was a skill he could appreciate. He adjusted his pack, gave Shauna a little pat on the head. "Up for a hike?" he asked her. She puffed her cheeks a bit and gave a stern look.

"Well long as you're up to it, I see no reason to stuff you into the PokeBall." That was that as far as he was concerned. The Squirtle looked like it had the legs to keep up with the slowest of the humans, so she was going to be slowing down the group any. Long as she didn't collapse, he'd let her march.

[INoKnowNames]

"Oh... okay..." Abigail replies to Thomas, absently poking one foot with the other with her arms behind her back. Annie happily greets Lyn, though not without a confident grin and chirp before shaking Lyn's hand with her Leaf. One would think Annie was declaring Lyn her rival from her mannerisms.

Abigail immediately straightens up when she hears Vivian's voice. One of the few other girls within the class to receive a Pokemon, several years more experienced than herself, and much more compotent than she, Abigail held Vivian in high regards among the graduates. "Yes ma'am." she quickly acknowledges her comment, though she waits to wave good bye to the Professor, as well as the remaining graduates who had not yet left before she does anything else.

Seeing some of the group with their Pokemon, Abigail bends down to address Annie. "Would you like to walk with us, or would you like to rest in your ball?" she politely asks her starter. Annie grants Abigail a dumbfounded look, before smacking her in the face with her leaf and walking forward. Abigail sighs and takes it in stride, following the rest of the group. Annie, meanwhile, examines some of the remaining Pokemon still out, and appears to be grinning, sizing up each of them and imagining battle against them.

[Boolprop]

Djaq thanks his uncle for the information and for looking after him for the past two years. With everything said and done, Djaq looks for Professor Siar and walks up to her.

"Professor Siar, thank you for the lessons the for the past two years. Your lessons are informative and thanks for gift bag." Ruki tweets a happy tweet, who now is sitting on top of her trainer's head. "I believe Ruki here is thanking you for introducing us." Djaq smiles as the Torchic chirps in agreement. "I agree with her as well, thank you Professor Siar."

Once done, Djaq turns and looks for Loft, after finding the trainer, Djaq walks up to him. "I'm done with everything here. Unless there is something you want to do, we can leave now." Djaq takes one last look around the room. "(Seems just about everyone have already form groups, well good for them.)" He then informs Loft of what ranger details his uncle have told him. "So my uncle told me that he heard the number of operating ranger stations have dwindle down, so finding one may take some time. But that should be fun, tracking down other rangers learning from them." Djaq beams Loft a smile as he thought of the journey ahead.

[HopeHubris]

"Onward then! Uh, did we ever decide where we were going exactly, south towards the ocean is a start, but anywhere in particular?"
William picks up Soup, opens his backpack a little, and set him down to rest inside and prepares to leave with everyone else
"Well, I guess there isn't that much south, we can decide on the way"

[Yodas_Free_Boat]

"Well, If you're really worried about getting a move on, I think the closest settlement would be Howe Lake to the west. And there's an old mansion there, where we could probably get some sleep without being disturbed." Toby speaks to his new teammates.

He pauses for a moment, before offering up another suggestion.
"Though, if you're alright with taking a slightly longer route, we should definitely try and head down to the Redlake. There's alot of rumors of rare pokemon around there."

It's clear where he wants to go, but he seems nervous to actually say which he prefers so as to not upset his new team.

[Prehysterical]

Angus looks over at Toby and says, "You have to learn to crawl before you can run, young man. What good would it do to find one of the rare ones if you are not yet strong enough to catch it? Howe Lake sounds like the best option."

Happy to have had somemon shake his hand, Seigmeyer returns to Angus's side and waits patiently.

[Dannir]

"Gotta agree with Angus, here. Short routes with common pokemon first, so we can train and catch some pokemon. We can visit some of the towns to the west, too. Then we circle back through the towns to the north we didn't visit, and finally go to Redlake with hopefully enough preparation to have a chance of catching those pokemon. They won't disappear overnight, if they really exist."

Vinny dusts himself off from his play fight, before noticing the other two trainers' pokemon, waving to them.

Selene stretches her arm, then picks up her pokemon again. "Well, I'd say if nobody has objections to that, we should go. No point in wasting too much time, right?"

[Gintash]

Cheekm waves back to Vinny before looking up at Josuke and smiling which Josuke takes as a "I'm ready to leave too." "Alright then, lets get our group moving and get our adventure moving." Josuke says as he and Cheekm head for the door.

[tonberryking]

Loft seems to have lost himself in deep thoughts after hearing about the mountains and his eavesdropping on the information about the rangers. Well.. presumably a snowy area would have cause to keep their Ranger outpost... Or at least there's bound to be one northwards....

In the end, he spends too much time thinking about it, ad too much time palling around with Djaq's family, as if mesmerized by the concept of caring, supportive relatives baffles him. It's onyl when Tina starts to get antsy (she noticed everyone else leaving) and playing around with his pokedex pointed out the time to Loft that he realizes his mistake.

In a little while, it'll be dinner time back at the Loftus estate. In two more hours, they'll begin to suspect he missed the bus, and an hour after that...Well, someone who isn't his sister may start to wonder where he is. Scooping up a delighted Tina and tugging on Djaq's shoulder, Loft seems to have forgotten pretty quickly all the cheer and hopefulness of the graduation party.

"Djaq, fella, we really oughta bail, ya know? It's starting to get a little late an, well, we should make camp while we can still see. Also Tina wants ta charge out, I can tell...

[Boolprop]

Djaq nods in agreement to Loft's idea. "Good idea." Djaq brought down Ruki who seemed to be bored up on mount Djaq "I believe a change of scenery would be great for both our Pokémon." Picking back up his backpack, Djaq bids goodbye to his family and to Professor Siar. Walking out of the academy, Djaq turns on the map function of the PokéDex and turns to Loft, asking "So there are a couple of routes we can take. Which one would you like to take our first step towards in the journey?"

[tonberryking]

Loft rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Ah wanna head out west; well, we'll evenchally be headin' northwest but I wanna go by that there lake on the map instead of just heading due northwards. Gives us more to see and more to train with before we think about crossin' th' mountains... You cool with that?"

[Boolprop]

Looking over the map, Djaq nods in agreement. "Sure, that sounds like a good plan. Besides it looks like there is a forest close to the lake. We can search for Pokémon in there or make camp there if it's getting late. The woods could also provide us sticks." Djaq pats Ruki's head as he holds her in his arms.


Am thinking that Djaq'll discover Ruki's extra moves (Ember & Focus Energy) as they battle / train together, instead of using the PokéDex to found out. That way it'll seem more like Djaq's nurturing have help bring out Ruki's latent potential quicker than a normal Torchic would have learn; rather then "Oh, she already know these moves."

[Charisma Thief]

[Route 24]
{3pm Monday}

As you two both begin heading out on your journey west from Springcliff, the fresh sent of the road and grass hits you, just as the sight of one of your felow classmates start up into combat against a few wild Pokemon.

http://i.imgur.com/qpef89Z.png

[Boolprop]

Glad to be out and about, Djaq stretches his limbs as he and Loft exits the academy. Though she likes the view while up high on Djaq's head, Ruki isn't a couch potato as she shares her trainer's sentiment as she cranes her neck, before deciding to walk along side her trainer.

Once at the edge of town and on Route 24, Djaq sees his other classmates there, apparently they are battling wild Pokémon. "(There's a couple of familiar faces. I thought most would be further out by now.)" Djaq waves to other trainers as some seem to have taken notice to both Loft and himself. Ruki stands by Djaq's side, taking in the fresh scent of air and of the grass nearby; before eyeing the others as she looks around.

Ruki's Perception check: [roll0]

[Charisma Thief]

As the battle around you continues, Ruki starts jumping and chirping, pointing over to the patch of grass as a small little brown beaver stumbles slowly out of the grass.

http://i.imgur.com/9oFieRJ.png

[tonberryking]

Tina had been sitting on Loft's backpack due to her inability to waddle faster than he could walk. However, the moment the ferocious bidoof emerges from the underbrush she springs in front of her master, bringing to bear her own intimidating foot and a half height, with a "Wha!" growl. Clearly she intends to protect Loft from this horrendous scourge.

Loft, for his part doesn't seem to mind the beaver pokemon's appearance and without thinking waves the little guy over.

"D'aww, hey Tina, lookit! 'Sa little bidoof. Hey, fella, c'mere and say Hi to m' pokemon, wontcha? Dun worry, it's all safe~"


Forget all this combat nonsense, let's see how Loft can coax a pokemon with words, instead:

[roll0]

[Boolprop]

Djaq cranes his body to try and look into the grass from which the Bidoof have came from. "(Did that Bidoof just stumbled out from something or is that it's walk?)" Djaq wonders as he takes out his PokéDex to scan the Bidoof, before placing it back into a pocket. Sure he knows what the little brown beaver is, though never seen a wild one before, thus unsure what differences are there between the wild beavers and tamed ones.

Seeing how Loft is trying to coax the Pokémon despite how protective Tina is of her trainer, Djaq can't help but chuckle. Ruki seems a bit perplex as she has notices everyone else have their Pokémon out and from the look of things, they have battled with someone. Deciding to join in with Loft's idea, Djaq takes a knee and with a hand, gestures the Bidoof over, all the while with a warm smile. With his other hand, he ensures Ruki that everything will be alright.

In order of Djaq's checks.
Perception to check for what may or may not have caused the Bidoof's stumbling walk: [roll0]
Pokémon Education on the Bidoof, primarily to discern it's gender and the nature of it's walk, if either or both are applicable: [roll1]

Djaq will assist in Loft's coaxing. So, adding a +1 bonus to Loft's charm roll.

[Charisma Thief]

The Bidoof slowly starts waddling towards you curiously, not seeming too worried about the new Pokemon and trainers around it. As it get's closer, it doesn't appear to be in pain, so the stumbling waddle just seems to be how it moves.

Incoming

[tonberryking]

Loft takes this time to try to impart a valuable lesson to Tina, not blind to her desire to trounce her master's enemies and bavely face everything that dares endanger them.

"You're braver'n ten a me, Tina, but Ah want to show ya that you don't have to fight or rear up at all the other pokemon in th' world. he demonstrates, byt trying to pet the bidoof. "A'course, it won;t always be like this-- I bet you'll have to help me out alot, but learn that not all wild pokemon are bad. Ain't that right, there, bidoof?"

If it were that easy to just talk the pokemon into catching themselves, Loft wouldn't need all that schooling, but he feels he may as well try to see if the bidoof is willing to tag along. "Wanna come along with us? We're headin' to a lake..."


Another charm attempt. I am not positive what you need to roll to befirend pokemon, but this isn't a Legendary or a raging Rhyhorn or anything:

[roll0]

[Boolprop]

Glad the Bidoof's stumble is just part of it's walk, Djaq silently nods. He agrees with Loft's idea as he continues to watch over the trainer's interaction with the beaver and imparting some wisdom to Tina the otter.

Taking a cue from Loft's invitation, Djaq gently brings his bag unto the ground as he searches for something in one of it's compartments. Having found what he was looking for, Djaq puts his backpack back on and slowly walks over. Showing Loft what is in his hand as he moves bit closer to the beaver. Djaq then opens his hand as he places the held item down. What Djaq lays before the Bidoof are croutons on top of a napkin.

"I'm not sure if the other trainers may have startled you, but rest assure my buddy here is right. We don't want to fight you. You look like you're hungry, while don't you have some of these before answering my friend?" Djaq takes one of the croutons and eats it before handling another to the Torchic by his side, to show the Bidoof that both trainers have good intentions (and the food isn't drugged :smallbiggrin:). Ruki chirps happily as she walks over to Djaq and nibbles at the seasoned dry bread out of his hand.


Just letting you know that there is a chart to raise Wild Pokémon’s Disposition on page 193 of the core book.
It's a DC of 12 to get from Neutral to Friendly, and a DC of 15 to get from Friendly to Very Friendly. You can always offer food to help the cause or attempt again.

Based on how the map is before the impending update, Djaq will move from F-46 to G-45. Ruki also moves and shares the same squares as Djaq.
This time Djaq will also help coax the Bidoof: [roll0]