Private/Closed Dimensional Crossroads (A Hoenn RP)

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

OOC: Welp, about time we started this, isn't it? Pardon for taking so long, I've been struggling with writing lately. Obviously, this is a Closed RP, so unless you're @Psycho Monkey , @Shocari , @cloveria1215 , @Dwayna DragonFire , @Aura (if she's still interested) or myself, do not post here. Discussion thread can be found over here and will be updated with descriptions/details/whatever of the assorted fae-beasts we'll run into over time as the thing unfolds. Let's get this show on the road, shall we? ^^

Riley Andrea Archer was not, as a whole, a girl given to wanderlust. For as long as she remembered herself she was content to live her life in peace and quiet, with a cup of tea and a good book at hand as the sounds of nature - almost ever-present in the lives of Fortree folk - provided a serene soundtrack.

But there was no way around it - long journeys tended to leave their mark on a person, and the 18-year-old's particular adventure across in the Hoenn Region was no exception. Riley's keen interest in myth, history and the points in which they intersected led her to take lesser-traveled roads and spend time amidst isolated clans and dusty, time-forgotten ruins - a far cry from the average trainer's brief adventures along well-trodden paths in pursuit of badges, ribbons and other trinkets of competition. When she finally returned home to Fortree after two years on the road, she thought that she would appreciate the downtime.

And at first, she did. Now, however - several months after that day - the girl found herself growing increasingly restless. She still spent much of her time reading, but the nature of her books of choice has changed, and so has the purpose of the activity. In fact, that is what she was doing at that particular moment - she was sat in her favorite chair - a blue-cushioned carved mahogany one set by one of the large windows of her house - poring over a pair of thick guidebooks placed on a nearby reading table, occasionally leafing through them or taking a sip from a cup of gently-steaming mint tea. The window was opened, a gentle breeze ringing a delicate string of emerald-colored wind-chimes and softly rustling the branches of the trees outside.

“What do you think, Audax? Sinnoh or Unova?" she finally said.

A long, golden-haired arachnid leg tipped with blue claws came to rest on the table, followed quickly by another as the large figure of a female Galvantula pulled herself upwards from her previously prone position on the floor, pedipalps vibrating lightly as they too came to rest on the table while the creature's blue eyes - all six of them - gazed at the guidebooks. A slight tilt of the cephalothorax followed as the electric spider shifted her focus to her trainer with an immensely catlike look of confusion - except with more eyes, of course.

"For our next journey," Riley explained, lightly petting the Galvantula as she stood up and stretched. "Both regions look like they have a lot to see and a lot to learn... And we've been lurking here for long enough, haven't we?"

At the sound of the word "next journey", the arachnid's eyes flashed with excitement. Audax - for that was her name - was very much fond of the outdoors and the idea of going on another journey caused her to drop her feet off the table and do a little spider-dance of excitement, which Riley couldn't help but giggle at.

"Oh, what am I even asking you for? You'd get excited about going ANYWHERE just as long as we're going somewhere." She said, mid-giggle. The spider appeared indignant for a moment, regarding Riley with a dark glare. The trainer glared playfully in return and the Galvantula relented, an expression of 'guilty as charged' settling across her face as she settled down a little closer to the ground, defeated. If spiders could sigh dramatically, Audax probably would have.

"There there. That's not a bad thing at all." the girl smiled, crouching down by the spider's side and gently brushing her fingers against her cephalothorax again "Tell you what. We're going to have to head to Lilycove to catch a boat no matter where we go - what say you that we just get on whichever one we can get tickets for first and Let Destiny Lead the Way?" The last words of the sentence were said with a theatrical inflection that some would have certainly rolled their eyes at. Audax did not - partially because she was excited about the notion, but mostly because as a spider she was physically unable to do so. She settled for quivering her pedipalps and emitting a few sparks of electricity in confirmation instead - and the trainer nodded.

"Excellent. Glad you agree!" Riley grinned "Now do me a favor and return. I need to get ready and make sure we have everything we need before we set off."

~*~

Preparations did not take long – Riley’s two-year adventure taught her much about what was absolutely crucial to bring along and what could be easily replaced or stocked up on whenever she reaches her new destination, wherever that may be. The fact that she has been contemplating this new journey for a while now - and what she did not already have packed up she had already organized at a convenient locate-and-store distance – made the process even shorter.

Slinging her backpack over her shoulders, she surveyed herself in the mirror one last time. The willowy, lightly-freckled redhead was fond of light, airy clothing and her chosen ensemble today was no exception – a greenish-turquoise pair of fisherman pants with lighter swirls running along their legs, white walking shoes and a white, lace-trimmed tank top. A double-terminated chrysocolla pendant hung around her neck and a midnight blue bracelet – the color of her eyes – adorned her wrist. As far as she was concerned, it was a perfect outfit for a warm early-autumn day – especially if she’s going to spend most of it on a boat.

Finally, she fastened her trainer’s belt over the waist of her pants, a full complement of six Pokéballs attached to its hooks. Lightly brushing her fingertips against all six, she smiled a little to herself as memories of her experiences with their occupants rushed briefly through her head – and with a hint of excitement at the notion of adding new memories of new experiences to her mind, she stepped outside to the treetop platform her house was mounted on and locked the door behind her.

Fortree City has always been a curiosity of the Hoenn region - an odd meshwork of ‘grown’ and ‘built’. With a few rare exceptions, such as the gym and the Pokémon center, most of the town’s buildings were wooden houses built on wooden platforms anchored to the tree-branches of an otherwise-undisturbed old forest and connected to each other by a series of bridges supported by interweaving branches, their growth augmented by grass-type Pokémon. Turning to one such bridge, Riley began walking eastward, taking in the familiar – yet still lovely – sights. Her journey towards Lilycove would take her south through Route 120 and then east again Route 121. It should have been a fairly straightforward trip.

It is said that there is an infinite multitude of parallel worlds, some similar to our own, some so disparate they could hardly be recognized as having the same origins.

It is said that autumn is a season of transition and change, where disparate planes move closer until, for a while, they overlap.

Riley did not know this at the time - but worlds were about to collide in more ways than one, and she - and several others - were about to end up right in the middle of it all.

It is, after all, also said that life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.

 

[Shocari]

Lavinia was sitting atop the summit of Mt Pyre, leaning against a tombstone with her arms wrapped around her legs, soaking in the absolute calm and quiet. Not a soul was up there with her...well at least, not a living soul. The entire area was covered in a fine, almost spectral mist, setting a melancholic mood that seemed almost too picturesque to want to disturb.

However, she was not given a choice in that matter, as her ever-present ghostly companion decided to pop up very unexpectedly in front of her. With a loud gasp, she fell backwards a little, causing the Banette to roll around in the air and laugh. She really did love practical jokes.

"Very funny, Xamarri," Lavinia pouted, dusting herself off as she stood up. Some would call Lavinia's fashion sense strange: a white vest over a navy blue t-shirt, off-white shorts, and thigh-high navy socks underneath black lace-up boots. Kinda scene-ish, but it's what she found comfortable and..."stylish".

"Come on, let's go." Lavinia began to take off towards the steps down the summit, her Marionette Pokemon following suit, whose gray body nearly perfectly blended in with the mist, if not for the glowing lightish-red eyes.

As she entered into Mt Pyre proper, she recalled the Banette into her ball, vanishing with a crimson light. After descending a couple flights of stairs and coming out onto the ground floor, Lavinia ducked behind a counter near the entrance to grab her messenger bag, which she slung on hastily, before leaving the large mountain cemetery. Outside was a small boat that traveled from Mt Pyre to either Routes 121 or 123, depending on where you wanted to go, as the mountain was situated on an island between the two. She hopped in and told the ferryman to take her to 121, to which he obliged.

During the short voyage, she pulled a black beanie and threw it on to hide the mess that was the top of her head, her white-blonde hair falling out all around. The bangs on the left of her head were pale blue, which was rather the result of her emulating a singer she liked. Lavinia then rotated the beanie around so the logo would read properly, saying "Undead Friend" in gold stitching. Saying she really wished she was the singer of that band was a bit of an understatement.

Lavinia exited the boat and strode off towards Route 121, her destination of Lilycove City rather nearby. Just a simple shopping trip to pick up more hair dye.

As if.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

The whole month long trip thus far had been mostly filled with the strange smell of clean air, which the man was definitely not used to, having lived in ash-filled Fallarbor Town all his life. Sebastian ruffled a hand through his black hair, his amber eyes squinting around in a scrutinizing manner. The air of Rustboro City was filled with the slight stench of oil and grease, probably because of all the industry nearby. Cool breezes around the place had him wearing his long black coat around, again not so used to cooler weather. He looked back at the note in his hands and read it over once more.

Sebastian, I heard you were doing quite well for yourself as of late. I know I haven't been in contact recently, but the broadcast of your match against Roxanne reached our office. I would congratulate you on your win, but I think you should know that the organization is interested in you and your PokeMon. I thought you should hear it from me first before someone else tried to recruit you. I think it's urgent that we meet straight away... I'm currently in Lilycove City, which is quite a ways east of Rustboro. I'll be there for quite a while, so I hope to see you soon. - Erin.

He looked down at the Stone Badge neatly pinned to his chest. He was hardly surprised that even Erin had known of such things, because gym battles or other such things tended to be broadcasted on television for all to see. So Team Magma is interested in me... he thought to himself. Well, I would rather not keep her waiting if that's the case. He would finally be getting all the explanations he needed from such a visit, after all.

“Sulfur, I'm going to need you to help me,” he said, opening up a PokeBall. The purple egg-shaped body and tattered, green wings of a moth-like PokeMon appeared, the Dustox looking ready to listen. “We're going to need to fly quite a ways... We'll be making a few stops in between, of course, but I'd like to head out towards Lilycove City. Would you be willing to do that for me?”

The Poison Moth nodded in affirmation, which earned a smile from Sebastian. “Great. Let's start our journey there then, shall we?” He quickly searched through his pockets and put a medical mask over his face, which had had obtained some time ago after learning that his Wurmple had evolved into a Cascoon and doing a bit of research on what that meant. This way, he was at least somewhat protected from the poisonous dust particles that sometimes came from the PokeMon just by flapping his wings. Sebastian climbed on and held on tight, at which they started making their way over in that direction immediately.

It was only a few days journey. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Dewey rolled over in bed and flung his arm into the empty spot next to him. He lifted his head slightly and opened his eyes. That spot shouldn’t have been empty. Dewey brushed his brown hair out of his face and looked around until he noticed a note on the nightstand.

Got called back to Lilycove early and didn’t want to wake you. Thanks for last night. Let’s do that again some time. the note read.

Dewey just shrugged before getting out of bed. He stretched his arms back but then fell back into his usual slouch as soon as he relaxed. He got dressed in a pair of brown pants, a white shirt, black leather boots and a dark brown vest. Since Chelsea had gone off, he wore his civilian clothes rather than his Team Aqua uniform. No one trifled with Aquas in groups except for maybe an equal or greater sized group of Magmas. A lone Aqua was just asking for trouble either from cops, Magmas, or do-gooder Trainers trying to battle pirates.

After watching the weather and eating a quick breakfast, Dewey headed down to Slateport Harbor. For the past week he and Chelsea had been traveling to the currents on Route 134 to study how their Water Pokémon fared battling in the west-flowing rapids. Chelsea wasn’t much of a scientist but Dewey had his uses for her. Between helping carry his equipment, providing sparring partners for his Pokémon outside of the wild ones, being a second set of eyes, helping out on the boat and just plain being good company were more than enough reasons to keep her around. Their extracurricular activities weren’t so bad either.

“Hurry up Jacques! We need to finish collecting data before the weather turns.” Dewey called to a dark blue turtle standing about a meter tall with white ears and a white fluffy tail. Being the only Pokémon the Aqua owned that had hands made the Wartortle the next best candidate to carry Dewey’s tools. Jacques replied with a grumpy sigh but trudged along anyway. Tied to one of the piers was the Team Aqua owned vessel, a simple white motorboat about six and a half meters long called The Wet Dream. Dewey had no idea who in their right mind gave that name to the boat but it did what he needed it to and he didn’t really care if other sailors attributed the name as his doing.

When the Aqua got out to Route 134, he took all of the necessary measurements: air temperature, water temperature, salinity, wind speed, and weather conditions. Right now it was bright and sunny, but the winds were supposed to pick up later in the day with a 30% chance of rain. With all of the environmental conditions accounted for, Dewey sent out his two remaining Pokémon. The first was Coriolis, a piranha that had a mouth full of large serrated teeth, blue dermal denticles on his back, red on belly with a yellow ‘x’, and yellow pectoral, caudal, pelvic, and dorsal fins. The second was Dewey’s first Pokémon, Tsunami, a tall blue seahorse with rough cream colored scales on her belly, pectoral fins tipped with cream colored venomous spines, a spiraled tail, a long snout, and fin-like ridges framing her head.

“Alright, rather than combat tests today, I’ll be testing your endurance in the currents. Stay in as long as you can but don’t exhaust yourselves. The data will be useless if you can’t even move afterward.” he told his Pokémon matter-of-factly. He then equipped all three with meters that would measure total distance traveled, heartrate, and oxygen consumption. If Team Aqua was going to raise sea levels it would be a good idea to know how to handle stronger currents should they show up.

As the three Water-types swam against the currents, Dewey watched from the boat making sure of their safety. Good test subjects were hard to find although there might have been some level of affection for them involved. The west flowing currents between Slateport City and Pacifidlog Town were notoriously strong. Any headway the Pokémon made going east was quickly undone a second later. Finally Jacques pulled back and started swimming back to the boat.

“Jacques, you’re not even trying.” Dewey chided looking at the data on his laptop. Jacques gave an exasperated sigh but continued back to the boat anyway. “Get back out there.” The Wartortle stopped swimming and grunted defiantly. “Jacques.” Dewey said in a warning tone. The Pokémon gave an even louder defiant growl. “Fine! Get back on the boat you grumpy old man. I don’t feel like arguing.” he relented. Jacques got back onboard apparently pleased with his victory.

The next Pokémon to drop was Coriolis. One of the stronger currents got the better of him and pushed him back. The Savage Pokémon thrashed angrily about being bested but reluctantly swam back to the boat at his Trainer’s beckoning. With the other two Pokémon back, Dewey kept a close eye on Tsunami’s monitor. While Jacques was lazy and Coriolis proud, Tsunami was an overachiever bent on pleasing her Trainer even at her own detriment. He blamed his damn pompous relatives for forcing the two of them to be perfect. While Dewey ignored and rebelled against arrogance of the Fenwicks, Tsunami was much more impressionable unfortunately.

“Alright Tsunami, you’re done. Come back.” Dewey ordered noticing spikes in her vitals indicating she was getting stressed. The Seadra slowly swam back to the boat exhausted. When she got close enough, he returned her to her Pokéball to rest.

“That should be enough data. Time to take it all back to Base.” he said to himself. The Wet Dream was far too small to make the voyage to Team Aqua’s Hideout in Lilycove City so that meant he had to turn around and go back to Slateport to catch the next ferry.

Yup. Just another research expedition for just another pay check. Nothing too exciting.

 

[cloveria1215]

P.A. system : Thank you for visiting the Hoenn Safari zone. We hope you have a wonderful day.

Anise walked out of the safari zone gate, stretching while letting a huge yawn. "Ugh," she thought " I must have been in there for hours" then she walks up to the front desk clerk

"Umm, Excuse me " Anise rubbed her arm "Where is the nearest town?"

"Hello Miss" the clerk replied " The nearest town is Lilycove City, just go east from here"

"Great, I can some supplies" Anise bowed "Thank you so much. Have a good day"

"You too, Miss"

Anise pulled out a Pokeball as she exited the Safari Zone building. When she walked out of the building, she opened the Pokeball. A chubby, light blue, Pokemon with white spots on its back materialized.

"Giles," Anise asked "Wanna walk with me for a while"

Giles happily barked and clapped his fins and him and Anise started making their way to Lilycove. Just grabbing some supplies, What can possibly go wrong?

(OOC: This took too long >__<)

(Admin edit: Some grammar fixes were applied as per our RP rules. Past tense, please!)

 

[Aura]

Blair let out a audible sigh of contempt as she punched yet another set of data into the computer. She paused, eyeing Rosaline's petite figure as she sat at a nearby desk, flicking through pages upon pages of information on Route 121's Shuppet population over the past five years. Seeing that she hadn't gained the reaction she'd wanted out of Rosaline, Blair flicked her obnoxiously bright pink hair out of her face, and glanced down at the small purple creature dozing on her lap. The Sableye had given up staring at the computer screen a while ago, and she wished she could join him in doing anything but this. She loved the idea of this experiment, and she was just as pumped to see what the results would be, but data entry was sapping any enthusiasm she had. The experiment basically wanted to test the validity of Banette's Pokedex entry, which claimed that its origin was dolls abandoned by children. Rosaline had been deliberately increasing the number of abandoned dolls to see how this effected the species population. Research on ghost types was fairly limited, due to many aspects about them being difficult to empirically observe, so any information was always appreciated.

After another half an hour of painstakingly boring typing, she finally stretched, and instructed the computer to calculate the correlation. Blair stared at the resulting graph, feeling a flicker of shock run through her. Currently, most theories on ghost types suggested that they were indeed the souls of the departed whom had fulfilled certain unknown conditions to be reborn. This of course meant that the myth regarding Banette couldn't be correct, as dolls were not alive. However, this suggested that the population had increased as a result of Rosaline's changing variables. Of course, it was just a correlation - that didn't mean that one variable caused the other to change, but still, there was a suggestion of a relationship. Blair bounded to her feet, causing Loki to jump off her lap with a yelp. She grabbed Rosaline's hand and dragged her over to the computer, causing paper to go flying everywhere.

"Hey!" The older scientist yelped. "What the hell are you playing at..." Her anger faded as she stared with shock at the screen, before her eyes lit up with the energy of someone twenty years her junior. She pushed the younger girl towards the door, despite Blair's loud protests. "Look this is important, and I can't put up with your shenanigans when I look at this. Take the rest of the day off or something, just leave me be."

Blair found herself locked out in the corridor, and spun around, her yelling disturbing the quiet peace that filled the laboratory. "Hey! Come on, let me in on this!"

After a few minutes of hearing nothing but silence, she sank down and sat on the floor in front of the door. Her mind was itching to know what was going on. What other tests was Rosaline preforming? What other explanations for this result were there? Was there a way for this to make sense in terms of current ideas? The frustration of not knowing dug at her, like something burying itself in her stomach. She was tempted to try and barge her way in, but Loki appeared to have other ideas, wrapping one clawed hand around her wrist and trying to pull her down the hallway. With a sigh, she picked herself up off the floor and walked out of the building, into the sunshine of the Lilycove City. With Loki clinging to her shoulders, she set off around the city to find something to do to distract her from her irritation.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Route 120 held quite a bit of significance for Riley. A little over two years ago, the tiny Joltik she has befriended bravely stood up to defend her from an enraged wild Absol, displaced by a rock slide that shook the area - and with some tactical guidance from her, stood victorious. It was her first Pokémon battle, and the point where she began her journey across the Hoenn region with the Joltik - which she named Audax - as her official first partner. When she returned to Route 120 a while later, she returned as an explorer - setting foot in ancient tombs that remained undisturbed for years and sun-scorched caverns at the heart of lakes said in legends to have been the refuge of an ancient burning beast. To her, It was a reminder that in this world of Pokémon, a mystery could be hiding right under your nose.

Today, however, she was only passing through. After a brief walk east, the familiar hilly path wound southwards - steadily drawing ever-nearer to the sea - through patches of grass and flowers, occasionally interrupted by rope-bridges stretched over lake basins filled with clear blue waters and vernal pools formed by autumn rains, Surskits skimming their surfaces as a Masquerain fluttered past. Linoones darted from one patch of grass to another in pursuit of prey or whatever curious objects drew their interest - and at one point, a lumbering herd of Tropius peacefully browsing on berry trees regarded her with a look of wary curiosity as she passed by. By the time the path met the end of its southward descent, turning east where it spilled into Route 121, the ocean inlet the route crossed by became a dominant feature of the view - the horizon was dyed a deep blue, with only the vague silhouette of the mirroring Route 123 far in the distance, and the fog-covered peaks of Mount Pyre somewhere in the misty heart of the bay.

To Riley, Route 121's most interesting feature was the lone stone pier jutting southwards and into the ocean inlet. The pier and its mirror-image on Route 123 were ancient structures - perhaps as old as the catacombs on Mount Pyre themselves - and a ferry service run by small boats that still followed the ancient traditions connected the piers and the misty isle, allowing the continuous stream of grievers, scholars, tourists and thrill-seekers safe passage to the other side.

Opposite the pier, amidst an array of tall, stylized metal fences, stood the entrance gate to the Hoenn Safari Zone. From what she heard, the Safari Zone was once a monetized attraction, where imported species found 'no where else in Hoenn' could be caught by means of a time-limited "safari game" - until the owner got too greedy, ran themselves out of business and fled the region in shame. The operation has since been taken over by volunteers who now ran it as a sort of a nature preserve - maintaining the zone and caring for the imported species, allowing visitors to battle and capture the resident Pokémon as in any other route whilst keeping them from escaping and altering the native ecosystems too much. Considering how incredibly adaptive Pokémon were, Riley thought, that was most likely a responsible choice.

The rest of Route 121 was on the whole fairly unremarkable. Sea to the right, trees and fences to the left, the ubiquitous sounds of waves and Wingull - and perhaps a wandering pod of Wailmer. Nothing too exciting, though Riley couldn't help but feel that something she couldn't quite put her finger on felt different from the last times she's been out on this route - but she chalked it off to just her imagination. To the east, she could already see the first few buildings that marked the Lilycove city limits. Having been on the road for a good number of hours now, she felt a good rest and a nice meal would probably be a good idea before she went to get her ticket. She wondered if that little restaurant in the harbor was still open...

 

[Psycho Monkey]

It was impressive how much time could be saved when crossing the sea with the proper vessel. On foot by land it would take the average fit person days if not weeks to reach Lilycove from Slateport. By using the ferry to cross the sea it took a matter of hours. Weather conditions were also completely opposite between the two cities. When Dewey left Slateport, the winds were starting to pick up and clouds were beginning to move in for rain. In Lilycove the sky was clear, the sun shone bright, and the only wind was a light sea breeze wafting in from the ocean.

Dewey stepped off the boat and gave a frustrated sigh. No matter how many times he tried to escape this city, he always found himself coming back again and again. That’s what he got for working with an organization whose main headquarters were located off the coast of Lilycove. At least he was frequently sent to other parts of Hoenn for field research even if some research opportunities were still in the Lilycove area. He supposed that it was simply fate that he’d be tied to the place of his birth forever.

“Welcome home.” Dewey mumbled to himself cynically. Well no use moping about it. After reporting back to base and uploading his data to Team Aqua’s servers Dewey hoped he’d get reassigned to another location sooner rather than later. Of course it was pretty late in the afternoon now and the last meal Dewey ate was breakfast. No harm in grabbing an early dinner before heading back.

The nearest restaurant was Sea Breeze, a small diner in the harbor. That was as good a place as any to go. Dewey walked two blocks away from the wharf to a building that looked to be made of wood painted a light blue, but those were just decoration to give it an old timey appearance. The top of the restaurant bore its name in a white, wispy font like a cloud. The windows were square with four sections giving Sea Breeze the look of a family friendly tavern. Dewey opened the windowed wooden door to find the interior of Sea Breeze continued the upbeat trend with light colors and good lighting.

“Welcome to Sea Breeze! Party of one?” greeted the hostess who wore the standard uniform of a white dress-shirt and black slacks.

“Four.” Dewey corrected holding up the appropriate number of fingers. The hostess gave him a quizzical look before noticing the Pokéballs at his belt.

“Of course sir. What species of Pokémon do you have?” she inquired.

“Seadra, Wartortle, and Carvanha. And no, we do not need a tank. My Pokémon can float with their swim bladders.” answered Dewey preemptively. He got asked the same questions every time he went out to eat. It got quiet monotonous after a while.

“Um… ok… Right this way sir.” she stammered taken aback by Dewey’s abrasiveness. She led him to a table by one of the windows with four chairs for him and his Pokémon and left menus for them to look through. Dewey sent out his Pokémon to take their seats. Jacques sat in a chair closest to the window while Coriolis and Tsunami floated above theirs, Coriolis also having the window seat, leaving Dewey the pleasure of sitting next to his grumpy turtle.

“Your server will be out shortly.” said the hostess after they were seated. Dewey picked up his menu and started to look through it. Now what did he want for dinner?

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

(OOC: Here's a post finally, in hopes that we can kick things back into gear. ^^)

Flying over Verdanturf to rest for a day in Mauville, Sebastian headed north-east next to get to Lilycove around evening. It was quite a bit larger than Fallarbor, but luckily there were a few signs to direct him to the PokéMon Center. Touching down, he brushed himself off a bit so as to get some of the dust off of his clothing. With that, he turned to Sulfur the Dustox and gently pet the being on its head. The fine fuzz bristled gently against his skin, and the moth made a noise of contentment.

"Thank you," said Sebastian, before recalling the moth into its PokéBall. Finally removing the medical mask, he breathed in, smelling the fresh air and looking around the large town for a moment before heading inside the building. He nodded to the nurse and handed over the PokéBall containing the moth, as only Sulfur really needed the rest. Sitting down at a nearby booth, he brought out his other two friends, Tyson the Combusken and Lily the Ralts. Smiling to them, he quickly went over to purchase food for all of them to eat, and opened up his phone.

Flipping through his contacts, he hovered over the name 'Erin' for a few moments. She had given him her new number in the letter as well, but he hadn't called her yet. Part of him was hesitant to - what if she expected him to just blindly agree to her proposal? Surely she doesn't expect me to say yes straight away, he rationalized, suddenly feeling strangely calm about it. He glanced to the small Ralts, who seemed to have her head looking towards him intently before shyly looking away. Sebastian supposed he couldn't begrudge the PokéMon; Psychic types were always sensitive to their trainers thoughts, or so he had been told. Back to the problem at hand, he reminded himself, staring back at his phone. Not wanting to awkwardly stumble through a call, he decided a text message would be good enough, immediately beginning to type it.

Erin, it read. It's Sebastian. I'm in Lilycove right now. Meet me in the PokéMon Center. Satisfied with that basic message, he hit send. He trusted Erin more than anyone else; she was his best friend out of the entire group. Surely nothing sinister would happen...

 

[Aura]

The pink haired woman sat dead still on the bench near the lighthouse, staring intently at her mobile. Like pretty much everything she owned, the phone was colourful enough that the phone looked like it would taste like skittles if you took a bite. Blair was rather fond of it though, as she and Loki had spent hours trying to pick out a pattern they liked and then covering the whole thing with tiny plastic gemstones she'd bought. Being a Sableye, Loki had been fascinated with the cheap faux gems. Apparently they didn't taste very nice though. After a moment more of waiting, she dropped her phone onto the bench with disgust. Why wasn't Rosaline answering her texts? Blair had only sent six messages so far, it wasn't that unreasonable. She'd gotten kicked out of the lab half an hour ago - that was only a text every five minutes, perfectly normal. After a moments pouting, the leap upon the phone again, furiously texting. Maybe she just hadn't heard the other texts or something. Yeah, that had to be the reason. One more should do it, and then she'd get all of the information her curious mind so desperately craved.

A few minutes later, and the phone buzzed in her hand, causing Blair to jump up and whoop with delight, accidentally sending Loki tumbling off her lap in the process. Blair opened the message, and felt her grin slowly fade as she read her superiors response: we need 2 discuss ur behaviour this is unacceptable do not txt me again about this. She stood there in silence for a moment, before feeling Loki tug at her skirt gently. As always, he seemed to entirely grasp the situation without her having to verbalize it. Mutual understanding passed between the two of them - they knew each other well enough that they didn't need words. The young woman sighed, before stuffing her phone away, and spun to face her companion.

"Alright, you're in command then. Where are we headed?" She queried, knowing that he'd come up with something to keep her mind engaged, and off the trouble she'd just gotten herself into. The Darkness Pokemon flashed a cheshire cat grin in her direction, before jumping over the nearby railing. Blair felt a moment of panic and bolted to the edge of the cliff that separated the lighthouse's perch from the rest of the beach. As Loki fell, the gemstones that served as his eyes gave off a brilliant purple hue, and the power of gravity over his body lessened until he was simply floating half a metre above the sand he would have crashed into if he didn't know Telekinesis. Once he had the sand between his toes, Blair felt a tingling sensation as Loki turned his power onto her, and gently picked her into the air, dropping her onto the beach beside him. Before she even had a moment to thank him for saving her going and finding the stairs, the Sableye swiped her bag from her arm and bolted. Yelling insults, the young woman chased after him, abit awkwardly as she slipped in the sand. Luckily, Loki seemed to be having a fair bit of trouble as well, and started heading for the wetter sand in order to have a more stable terrain. Slowly, she gained on him, until Blair let out a triumphant yell and dove to catch him. Making sound proved to be her downfall, as a second before she would have grabbed him, the Sableye's body shifted into nothing but a shadow on the ground, causing Blair to face-plant in the sand. To future add salt to the wound, Loki then jumped on her back and waved Blair's bag in her face, before making his escape. Face burning, the pink haired woman growled to herself as she pulled herself up. There was no way in hell that damn gremlin was going to get the better of her! He was so going down!

Much later, and bag grasped tightly in her hand, Blair walked back into her tiny apartment room, covered in sand and soaked from winding up in the surf a few times. Loki strolled in next to her, seeming delighted with himself even though he was in a similar messy state. She had only gotten the bag back off him by promising to buy him gemstones to eat. Glancing around her room, she tried to find a spare space to dump her bag, but considering the place was covered in brightly covered fabric and stapled pages upon pages of scientific literature, she ended up just throwing it onto the scrunched up mass of blankets. In response, the blankets snarled and something moved underneath it until a head poked out at the bottom of the bed. Hecate the Braxien glared at her trainer for a second, before turning to face the opposite way. From the looks of things, she was still sore about the other day. Blair returned the glare before heading the bathroom to clean herself up. Okay, maybe she shouldn't have tried to force Hecate to dress up when she didn't want to, but she didn't have to burn the costumes and photos afterwards. They'd taken her a while to make after all. Taking a moment to cringe at her disheveled appearance in the mirror, she sighed to herself. Even if Hecate's reaction had probably been too over the top, she would probably need to do something to make it up to her. After all, the Braixen was an absolute pain to live with if she was cranky.

Halfway through her stupidly lengthy shower routine, there was a screech, a crash, and a series of loud thumps from outside. Normally, Blair would be fine to just leave it be - her Pokemon were always trying to mess with each other in some way shape or form - but given Hecate's mood... After throwing some clothes on, she pulled the door open to find the two creatures snarling at each other, with the room being in an even larger state of disarray than usual. The most concerning thing that she observed however, were the small flames dancing around the end of Hecate's staff. An ember maybe? Regardless of how small the attack, they really didn't need anything else catching on fire. However, upon flicking her golden brown eyes to Loki, all concern about the material objects she owned disappeared. Judging by his raspy breathing and the glowing red marks on his arm, that was no ember. She bounded over to her bag and threw the contents on the bed, searching for a burn heal.

"Come on come on I know I had one just the other day..." She muttered to herself as she tore through the bag contents. Upon realizing that there was nothing there that could heal a burn, she darted to the medicine cabinet, only to have similar luck. Arceus dammit! She must have used her last one the other day during Hecate's attempt to burn the costume Blair had made for her. The pink haired woman pulled out Loki's Pokeball, and apologized to him as she recalled him into the ball. As much as he hated it in there, it would dull the effects of the burn until she could find something to heal him with. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Hecate trying to slink away and hide in the masses of fabric.

"Oh no you don't, you're coming with me." Blair grabbed Hecate's paw and lead the reluctant Fox Pokemon out onto the street. For a moment she hesitated, wondering if she should head to the Department Store, or just go to the Pokemon Centre. Deciding that the Pokemon Centre was probably closer, she sprinted down the street. Even though the Pokeball would help soothe the burn for a while, she couldn't really stand the idea of Loki being in pain. Soon enough, she had burst through the doors, startling a nearby trainer, and Loki was in the hands of the nurses as quickly as physically possible. Blair stood in the corner impatiently, shifting her weight and rubbing her hands with impatience. To get her mind off Loki's pain, she decided to focus upon Hecate, as the Braixen was literally steaming out of anger. From the small amount of information Blair knew about her, she probably hadn't provoked the fight, and was probably this angry at being blamed for it. Maybe. She was at a bit of loss about how to deal with the Braixen. Human's that couldn't tolerate Blair would usually just leave, but Hecate didn't have such an option, they had to get along. Sighing to herself, she glanced around the centre, her eyes spotting a small Ralts, with what was presumably its trainer and a Combusken. If that species of Pokemon was so sensitive to emotions, then she felt quite bad for it right now. She certainly wouldn't want to be able to sense what Hecate was feeling right now any more than she already could. Common sense told her that she should put Hecate in her Pokeball to spare the Ralts, but a little part of her was rather curious. Depending on the version of the Pokedex, Ralt's entry would either claim it was sensitive to emotions in general, or just those of its trainer. They weren't a common Pokemon around here, so it wasn't something she'd been able to see first hand. Blair suspected that it would just be in general, but just in case... she might just leave Hecate to fume for a little bit longer, just to see how it reacted.