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[some_weirdGuy]

Claire had sat in the room for a little bit, leafing through the Kanto Regional Pokedex she had been presented. It was much like the Hoenn Pokedex she use to read through when she was younger, and to her relief she found that she seemed to know more than she had feared. While she didn't know all by name, she found that she had at least heard of a most of them, and all the basic understanding she had still held firm for the pokemon of this area.

She found the entry on Raichu, and recognised the pokemon by its image.
"Oh, that one" she said to herself. It was the fully grown form of Pikachu, Claire remembered that one cause of its similarities to the Hoenn pokemon Plusle and Minun. She flipped through a few more pages.
"ugh, whats that thing?" she said, turning the book on its side and holding it at arms length, giving a slightly repulsed look at entry number 47, it looks almost like a Shroomish... she though, glancing sideways at Shroomish
"A really sick Shroomish." She continued out loud, attracting the pokemon's attention. She stood up and headed out of the room, intending on finding Jorah and thanking him again for the help. When she walked out she found a kid sleeping in one of the chairs near the entrance. Claire was sure he hadn't been there before... nor the slightly too large Nindoran scrunched onto his lap. The hostess of the hostel had walked in, and was giving them a disapproving look, no doubt none too happy about a freeloader in her lobby, but for the moment she did nothing. Claire noticed the Nidoran's spiney ear had turned towards her, and as she moved forward it opened one eye and looked at her, then closed it again, apparently satisfied.

Claire felt satisfied too, she knew exactly what pokemon it was, without having to look it up in the Pokedex.
She looked around the room but the others weren't in sight. She heard a call from outside but it was muffled by the walls. As she walked past the young man stirred. He looked to be slightly younger than herself, but not by much. She looked out the nearest window, but couldn't see where the others were.

"Oh, hello there" said a sleepy voice.
The young man was sitting up now, rubbing one eye and stretching. The Nidoran begrudgingly got up off his lap, and sat down at his side when the man stood.
"oh, hello" answered Claire, "don't suppose you know where the 3 people who were here before went?"
The man shook his head and shrugged,
"I didn't see anyone in here at all when I came in... my names Keiran, and this is Nero" he said, indicating his Nidoran. Claire noticed that her Shroomish had gone right over to the spiney looking mammal, smooching up against it and fussing over it's spines curiously. The nidoran was pulling its head back slightly, not sure what to make of the invasive mushroom, but tolerant for the moment. It put one paw up on the mushroom's head, as if to hold it back slightly, but wasn't putting up to much of a struggle.
"oh careful!" said Keiran, reaching towards the pokemon "his spines have poison-"
"uh, that explains it" replied Claire with a chuckle,
"Its ok, no need to worry about it." The young man was looked at the shroomish with a slight frown, a little confused no doubt,
"My name's Claire" she said with a friendly smile, "and that is my Shroomish. Its a grass pokemon, but they actually thrive on some poisons. He can probably smell them on your nidoran and that's why he's being so friendly"
Keiran had one eyebrow raised as he continued watching the pair of them,
"I've never seen that type of pokemon before" he said, more to himself than anyone else. "Its kinda like a Parasect, but without the..." he made crawly motions with his fingers, imitating the insectoid legs of the pokemon in question. Unfortunately Claire wasn't paying attention.
"Oh, they're... not from Kanto" she relied to his first comment distractedly. She could hear more sounds from outside. It sounding to her like a pokemon battle.
"Well, I'm going outside to see if I can find the others" she declared, the hostess had disappeared once more so she'd just have to find where they went herself,
"I'll go with you" said the boy brightly. Nero was giving an almost pleading look to his master now, as if seeking guidance on what to do with this bothersome admirer. When the two trainers started moving off the little Nidoran needed no invitations, it skipped off after them quick smart, leaving the Shroomish behind (looking on after him). It lasted but a moment before it too ran along to join them.

[Copaman]

Patrick and Prome had been on the road for weeks now. Their adventure to Cerulean had been relatively uneventful so far, and Patrick was growing bored of life on the road by himself. I'll at least see what Saffron is like, he told himself before he headed out.

Thankfully, the weather had cooperated after he left Cerulean. On this particularly clear day, Patrick had no problem seeing well along the road. As he crested a hill, he spied a house out in front of him - with a diving bird pokemon? He pressed on a bit faster, and upon the next hill, could see that there was a battle going on.

As he got to the house, it seemed the first battle had ended and the second was about done - a Cubone had dropped its club after an attack from a Vulpix.

"How's that for interesting," the female trainer called to her opponent. Not one to sneak up on people, Patrick took the opportunity to make his presence know. "Very," he called to the two. "Is this a true battle, or just some friendly practice?"

[Vortigern]

"No, just a bit of amiable sparring," Caitlin informed the newcomer. "I'm glad you appreciate what she can do," she said, indicating Isolde, sitting still and alert, head raised proudly. "If you don't mind my asking, how did a cyndaquil end up this far into Kanto?" She remembered having seen the stranger's pokémon in her copy of the Johto Pokédex, which had insisted that they were never found outside that country's bounds. Apparently encyclopedias did not know everything.

[Copaman]

"I'm not entirely sure. I found him by my house in a torrential storm; there were no others to be seen anywhere, so I took him in. On rare occasion I've seen some Johto natives wander past, but never out here. I'm from just outside Victory Road, so I guess it's certainly possible they could migrate that far. Your Vulpix is beautiful, you must have raised it well so far - what's your story?"

At this point, Prome had climbed down from Pat's shoulder and was making it's way towards the girl's Vulpix. Despite his size, the fire mouse was curious of many things.

[Vortigern]

"Off to see the world," said Caitlin shortly. She didn't really feel like telling her life story yet again. "How about you show us what your little foreigner can do? If you're game, that is," she added with more than a hint of challenge to her tone. She could see Isolde was feeling confident and happily alert, and it was in this mood that she always pulled off her most impressive and creative moves. And, she noted with hints of both pride and a little cheerful embarrassment, she wasn't about to let another little pyro steal Issy's show.

[Copaman]

Pat was somewhat shocked by the proposition. "I...um...he... he's young still. I'm not sure how much he would be able to take; what kind of battle are you proposing?" If she's terribly serious about this, I might not be able to back out...

The trainer looked to his companion. Prome had made his way back to Patrick's side and flared his back flames somewhat, as if he sensed that the air had changed. The Cyndaquil was still young and somewhat timid, yes, but Pat knew his companion was quickly coming up on adolescence. If provoked the small creature could pack a bit of a punch - especially if hit by fire first.

[some_weirdGuy]

"Why not have a double battle?" piped up Claire, having just heard the tail end of the exchange. Caitlin looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
Claire and Keiran made their way to the others.
"I know double battles aren't officially recognised in the Indigo League," continued Claire, "but back in Hoenn trainers have them all the time. In fact, one of our gyms is centred around a double battle." She looked at the four trainers, noticing the newcomer and his pokémon. Caitlin still seemed unconvinced.

"I assume it's as straight forward as it sounds?" said Jorah, his cubone still looking keen to continue the fight.

"Yeah. 2 on 2," replied Claire. "Pick a partner and hope your pokémon are coordinated enough not to make a fool of themself. Though I guess you could always make it a free for all... Those aren't supported by the Hoenn league though cause they're hard to keep fair, you know?"

"Sounds interesting" replied Keiran, "though there's more than 4 of us here".
Claire saw the others looking at the new guy next to her, "This is Keiran, I just met him inside the hostel."

Everyone introduced themselves, and their pokémon, in what was becoming a well rehearsed performance. The cubone and vulpix were eyeing each other suspiciously, still in place from before the interruption. Claire wasn't sure how much longer they were going to wait, cause the two seemed to be itching to get their battle back under way.

"Anyway, if you're doing a double battle two will have to sit it out." continued Claire. "I would get Skirmish to participate but... well he's a bit of a dirty fighter, all spores and poisons..." He actually held back pretty admirably against the raticate that attacked me, she thought to herself, remembering back to the start of the encounter**.

"Besides which, all your fire types leave me none too keen to get my grass type involved. So I suppose I'm okay to sit on the side lines. Question is, who will join me? Might be worth hurrying up, though, this lot all look ready to fight." Isolde and Yorick had stopped circling around each other by now and, being now familiar with one another, were both looking with suspicion at the newcomers, the nidoran and the cyndaquil. The cubone picked up his metal pipe, now cooled down from Isolde's attack, and hefted it threateningly, glaring at nobody in particular.

--- **((memory of the encounter, since i never mentioned what happened before ))

The raticate had leaped out from the bushes to the left, aiming to bite through the bag on Claire's back it what appeared to be a highly practiced motion. Startled she had spun, and narrowly avoided the oversized rodent. She guessed that it had learned that trainers backpacks carried food, and the half-crazed look in its eyes told her that it was positively starving. Denied its meal, the Raticate became furious.

It had gone for Claire's shin, but she jumped away. It turned and attacked again, and already off balance form the first attack she didn't quite get her thigh out of reach. Shroomish however had already taken action, tackling the raticate mid air and knocking it off course. While it's teeth made contact with flesh it hadn't gotten its chance to bite on properly. A puff of powder had spread over the left side of the raticate's face and upper body, from its contact with the Shroomish. The rat was shaking its head, pawing at its face and whimpering slightly as it tried to rub away the source of irritation. Shroomish however seemed prepped up to strike again, this time with something much more nasty.

"No!" Claire had cried, snatching the shroomish up quickly and interrupting its build up of poison powder. She had seen how potent the poisons could be if left untreated, and nasty as it may be she didn't want this wild raticate to die. It was now looking up through tearey eyes, the spores on its face had been rubbed away, but its arm on the left appeared to be experiencing the effects of paralysis. It went to step forward on all fours, but fell sideways when its arm didn't move as expected. It got up quickly with a snarl, standing only on its hind legs now. Claire threw her bag down, hoping that it would satisfy the vicious little bugger, but it paid no heed, its furious eyes instead locked on the shroomish in her arm. That had been when she stepped back to the tree.
"you idiot i'm trying to help you!" she had yelled, but it went again on the attack.

"You nasty little anklebiter Get AWAAYYYY!" ...

[Vortigern]

"Alright," Caitlin decided. "We'll go for that." Isolde had prowled curiously back to Caitlin's side now that no battle seemed to be immediately forthcoming, so she reached down and scratched the vulpix behind the ears. Issy purred happily, keeping one eye open and roaming around the other pokémon present as if to say look how much my trainer loves me. She thought for a moment. "Jorah, how would you and Yorick like to partner up with us?"

[mike_]

Jorah looked down at Yorick, his expression oblique. The little cubone had been frustrated by the heat of his club, not allowing it to be picked up. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Yorick had started piling loose dirt on top of the heated pipe, rapidly cooling it down. Now he was again brandishing the weapon and looked no worse for the wear after two sparring matches.

"Yeah, sure," Jorah said, "practice makes perfect. Let's get started, yeah?"

[Vortigern]

"Me and Jorah versus you two," Caitlin declared, indicating Claire and the newcomer with the cyndaquil. "Kanto versus the rest of the world." Jorah chuckled. Yorick and Isolde seemed to have grasped that they were on the same side here, both having watched their respective owners speaking and standing together. Claire and Skirmish, the former looking a little anxious, the latter apparently unaware (but then what did Caitlin know of a shroomish's moods?) made their way over to where the stranger, who was yet to introduce himself, stood with his foreign pokémon.

"So how do we start this?" Jorah asked, but in answer to his question Yorick hefted a rock in one paw, tossed it high into the air and then swatted it as it came down, sending it flying across the clearing to bounce off the cyndaquil's back as it tried to leap aside. Isolde too leapt into motion, darting forward, zigzagging side to side across the open ground and throwing herself bodily at the cyndaquil, bundling it over. The spines on its back flickered into flame as it became agitated, but Isolde barely even hesitated, hissing and spitting at the fire with her flammable saliva. The cyndaquil ducked out of harm's way, and the few embers there were drifted harmlessly down onto the grass and began to smoulder gently. Caitlin whistled sharply and Isolde's ears pricked up for a moment before she scurried around the recovering cyndaquil, past the hesitant shroomish and back to where Caitlin and their partners waited.

[The Best Guest]

(just a short one so i can finally merge with the main storyline)

Days of travelling had gone by. Jak, exhausted, wanted to take a rest...but suddenly he heard the cries of pokemon and trainers combined. Strickz gave him an uneasy look, so Jak snuck up in the bushes. As he watched he noticed two pokemon from his own kanto region, and then two very odd looking pokemon. They appeared to be about to start a 2v2 battle. The faces on the trainers however were relatively friendly. Based on that he approached the two that were not taking part, saying with a smile on his face "Are you accepting bets on the outcome of this?"

[some_weirdGuy]

"So much for sitting out..." mumbled Claire, before calling out "...Don't say I didn't warn you!"
She looked down at Shroomish, who was looking back towards her questioningly, no doubt remembering Claires reaction to his attempted attack on the Raticate and feeling hesitant to make a move here.
"Just like with mum, ok?" she said, nodding and pointing towards the Cyndaquil, before clapping her hands twice.

This was how shroomish had been trained, and even if it may not understand her words, it understood the signals.
Back in Hoenn Claire's mother had been a tough pokemon trainer when she was younger. It was thanks to her that Shroomish was a suitable fighter, even if she insisted that the path of a pokemon trainer was a poor life choice. Claire guessed that even if she did not think much of the life being a trainer entailed, there were some things things just stuck with you. Training up new pokemon was apparently one of them.

Shroomish jumped forward to stand by the Cyndaquil, who ducked and brace itself as if expecting another attack. Shroomish shot Claire a quick look, but other than that showed no break in discipline.
Similarly Claire had moved now to stand beside Pat.
"You think your Cyndaquil's going to do all right in a double battle? I don't want him attacking Shroomish by accident or something"
"I think he should be ok" replied Patrick, watching Cyndaquil as it seemed to calm down, accepting the Shroomish as an ally(or at the very least not another foe), and turning it's attention back to it's rival fire type.
"Good, you get him to keep the Vulpix busy and Shroomish can get to work on Jorah's Cubone. If Cyndaquil can keep Vulpix away then Shroomish's type advantage should push things in our favour." Claire seemed all business now, confident.

Claire smiled, taking note of the other trainers. Seeing Claire and Pat side by side talking to each other, they had looked towards each other as well, as if wondering weather to do the same. Their pokemon still stood apart too, perhaps slightly unsure(after all, less than a minute ago they had been fighting each other). It was easy to tell between double battlers and trainers who only did single battles. Claire and Patrick were by no means a practiced team, but Claire and Skirmish's prior experience seemed to be showing through.

Yorick started to circle left, while Isolide stayed put obediently, perhaps waiting for a signal.
Cyndaquil made his move, going for the Vulpix grudgingly. It was clear that it still felt fired up over that first attack.
"Now!" cried Claire at the same moment, and like the starting gun on the racing block Shroomish leaped into action in the opposite direction, to the left.

The small mushroom-like creature leaped forward, nearly copping a blow to the face as Yorick swung his club defensively.
"Careful!" called Claire, flinching at the close hit. Skirmish however needed no prompting. It dived back and let out an indignant puff. Spores sprouted into the air, settling around Shroomish. Yorick's backward step kept him out of the cloud, but Shroomish was already going at it again, this time with a headbutt, which Yorick returned (and then some) with his own armoured headbutt.

As this was happening Claire had looked over to Caitlin, who had whistled again. She was trying to direct Vulpix to go after Shroomish, but Cyndaquil was blocking the way expertly with small bursts of flame, keeping the little fox far too preoccupied.
"Nice work there" Claire said to Pat, who was calling encouragingly words to Prome. Claire noticed another guy had come up and was now watching from the side lines, chatting to the other spectators. She put her focus back into the battle, ignoring irrelevant details.

She looked back just in time to see the return headbutt Jorick had landing on Skirmish. It was a glancing blow, but it sent the Shroomish sprawling backwards all the same, with another puff of spores. However, unlike last time, his attack had brought the Cubone too close, and the dust landed all over him.

He shook himself slightly, dislodging some of the purple powder with a gruff little cough.
"You're in trouble now" called Claire. Jorah looked over to see not the triumphant expression he had expected, but a concern one.
"times ticking down, Yorick may look fine for the moment but those were poison spores! He'll need an antidote or he's in real trouble"
"ha!" replied Jorah with a smirk,
"Yorick is resistent against the effect's of poison, he still has plenty of fight in him!" As he said this however Skirmish jumped back on his feet, and with an angry little noise released a number of small vine-like appendages from his head, which sailed over to clutch the Cubone. They reached surprisingly far, indeed catching Yorick by surprise as they gripped to him oppressively. For a second nothing happened, but then with a yelp of pain Yorick began tearing himself free.
"Absorb?" called Jorah with a concerned expression, identifying the ability correctly. Claire nodded,
"And it's super effective!" ((someone had to do it at some point ))

Yorick was yanking himself free, but it was clear this had been a good hit. The vine-like appendages retracted. Shroomish looked pepped up, more so than even at the very start of the battle, while Yorick on the other hand was looking worse for wear. Still he bravely held his ground, showing little sign of letting up.
It probably doesn't help that this is his third battle in a row, thought Claire, pursing her lips.

[Vortigern]

"Enough of that," muttered Caitlin to herself, and whistled at Isolde again, jerking a thumb in the direction of Yorick and the shroomish. Isolde darted forward, but the cyndaquil was in the way again. This time, though, Isolde dealt with her opponent brilliantly. She turned away from the other fire-type and began kicking dirt at the cyndaquil with all her speed and strength. Little clods of earth spattered against the cyndaquil's face, getting in its eyes and clumping around its spines, putting out the flames. It retreated a little way and Isolde seized the chance to nip past it and bite down savagely on the shroomish's tendrils. The mushroom let out a strange noise, not quite a squeal, not quite a howl, not quite a murmur, not quite anything, but something in between, and its vines retracted. Isolde let go and turned to face the little foreign mushroom, hissing and spitting. Yorick, now freed, turned to face the cyndaquil, which had now managed to get most of the mud out of its eyes.

"Type advantage to us, it seems," Caitlin called to Claire, a little more openly smug than she had intended, but she was fine with that. I should really teach this girl a lesson, she thought. 'I want to be a pokémon ranger'. Slim hope of that, little girl.

Caitlin had always known that Isolde was a very smart and cunning pokémon, but what the little fire-fox did next surprised even her. Isolde tapped Yorick on the shoulder with her back leg, eyeing the shroomish, daring it to attack, while Yorick hissed at the cyndaquil and hefted his club menacingly. Vulpix and cubone caught each other's eye for a moment, and Yorick started to make a strange coughing sound. Belatedly Caitlin realised he was impersonating the hawking sound Isolde made when she gathered up her spitballs, but Isolde herself was quicker on the uptake. She made the sound herself a couple of times, then abruptly turned away from the circling shroomish and spat full force at Yorick's club, half a moment before Yorick released the pipe, hurling it directly at the shroomish. It connected head on with the mushroom, or at least to what Caitlin assumed was its head. Jorah looked at Caitlin, almost incredulous, and gestured with his thumb at their pokémon as if to say Pretty impressive, eh? Caitlin agreed entirely.

[Copaman]

I wish Prome was just a bit older... he'll be so much more impressive. For now we'll have to make do...

Patrick looked to the strange mushroom pokemon, to make sure it was going to make it through this supposed exhibition. Had it been his choice, the four of them would not have taken it so seriously. His companion's flames had flared up even higher than before, angered by the defeat being handed to the pair. Prome nodded to the mushroom thing, made a few chirps, nodded some more, and then turned to face their opponents. How the two of them managed to communicate was beyond most trainers; indeed, it was one of the things that various labs around the globe were researching.

The Shroomish steadied itself, before Prome bundled himself up and flared his back even higher. He took off running towards Yorick, the shroomish following close behind. The tactic drew a reaction from Isolde, who made to intercept them. Promed strafed away from his fellow fire breather and let Skirmish take his place. As Isolde lept towards them, Skirmish let loose a puff of blue powder. It had to take the brunt of Isolde's tackle and went skidding, but the end effect was quickly evident. The Vulpix sneezed twice, shook it's head to try and rid itself of the powder, and then collapsed into a deep slumber.

Prome made his way over to Skirmish to help his partner up. Two against one, they looked promising against Yorick. Patrick encouraged his partner with kind words, hoping that Prome would come up with another moment of genius.

The shroomish stood with it's owner while it caught it's breath. In an apparent attempt to buy Skirmish some time, Prome charged once more at Yorick. He turned his back as he came close, flaring the flames as intensely as he could, and then beginning to run a circle around the stoic cubone. Yorick's club chased the cyndaquil, quickly closing in on it's back. As it grew closer to the flames, it heated up, until Yorick was once again unable to hold it. The remaining momentum was enough to cause it to hit Prome's rear, and the creature let out a slight yelp.

Visibly angered, Yorick stalked over to Prome as he struggled to get up, readying a vicious headbutt. Patrick turned to his fellow trainer, anxious for the shroomish's owner to urge it back into action. "It's just the two of them now, send you companion back in there! We can win this now, if you hurry!"

[Vortigern]

But Patrick was almost instantly proven wrong as the shroomish keeled over. Already struggling and half-stunned from the joint attack of the super-heated lead pipe, Isolde's charge had been the last straw for the little walking mushroom. Isolde stirred and attempted to rise, but was unable to do so, and so rolled slowly over to her side to be more comfortable. Caitlin watched with bated breath as Yorick and the cyndaquil squared up to one another, and just barely held herself back from rushing to Isolde's side to wake her up. Rules are rules, she reminded herself in irritation as she waited for the bout to end completely.

"It's all on you two now," she murmured to Jorah.

[some_weirdGuy]

((I thought these pokemon were meant to be 'realistic', as in animal-level intelligence and no 'magical pokemon language so they can all talk to each other', not human level intelligence and so on :X
VORT: Miming an action recently performed hardly requires a supercomputer.))

Claire looked at her Shroomish. Small scorch marks were on it's head where the pipe had hit, but luckily the burns were not too serious. It seemed more that the hefty pipe had stunned the small creature. It sat there, its head apparently spinning.
Claire clapped twice again. The shroomish looked over groggily, completely fine with this instruction to stop.
"This is a friendly match after all," she said, mostly too herself.
"So, Isolde and Skirmish are withdrawn," she declared, that leaves it one on one.

She was surprised at the others co-ordination to be honest. Still, Cyndaquil held a distinct advantage, as Cubone was both injured and disarmed (the pipe was out of reach and too hot to touch again - while it was a clever move they had pulled, in the long run it was probably not the wisest decision), and despite Jorah's insistence that Yorick wasn't in trouble from the poisons, Claire could see that in combination with shroomish's earlier attack his strength was all but gone. Even the pipe throw had lacked the conviction that Claire knew the cubone was normally capable of. If Isolde had taken even a couple of seconds longer before interfering, then Yorick would have been down for the count.

To his credit though Yorick, who stood with a hand clutching his heart (the sign which clued Claire into the poisons taking effect) and breathing heavily, stared with fire in his eyes at his opponent. That cubone had the stuff to be a deathbout pokemon, thought Claire, though she was horrified to think of Jorah exposing his cubone to such horrid mistreatment.

"Your Cyndaquil has hardly even a scratch, and that cubone has only got his hard skull to rely on now and looks weakened," whispered Claire to Patrick. Jorah seemed to notice this too.

"Should we just end it here?" called Claire, "Everyone put up a good fight but if we don't treat those poisons soon then Yorick might need some serious recovery. The longer you leave them the worse they get, in the wild most pokemon his size don't last longer than a couple of days." Looking across at them she felt guilty for letting them convince her to join in. Shroomish was not the type to use in friendly matches, Claire was actually quite relieved that it had been sleep powder that Isolde had gotten a face full of and not something worse. She looked back to Yorick and continued;
"I have an antidote in my bag, if you don't have your own..."

((How about we wrap this up. I'm interested in getting a move on story wise, and although everyone is keen to be the winner this doesn't leave much room for input from elven, athos, neth and bestguest. Also, ending it now seems fitting for a friendly match like it's suppose to be.))

[Vortigern]

"Alright," Caitlin agreed. "I'm happy to call it a draw." Jorah made a little clucking sound with his tongue and Yorick, eyes still firmly fixed on the cyndaquil, backed away until he was back at Jorah's side. Caitlin went to Isolde's side, cradled the little vulpix's head as it looked up at her through unnaturally drowsy eyes. "Probably best to let you sleep this one off," she murmured to her pokémon, scooping Isolde into her arms and lifting her more easily than their relative sizes would suggest. "Unless anyone else has a pressing need to do battle, how about we all head back inside and enjoy what's left of the evening?" General assent was given and words became deeds as they trooped back to the hostel, Claire carrying her mushroom as well. Jorah leaned down and Yorick scrambled up his arm to perch on his shoulder, looking around defiantly.

"He's not as heavy as he looks," Jorah confided, seeing Caitlin's amused look. Once they were all comfortably ensconced in the warm and well-provided common room proper introductions were made. The two who had arrived during the bout introduced themselves as Jak (with Stryckz the doduo) and Patrick (with Prome the hard-fighting cyndaquil).

"Where are you headed?" Patrick asked Caitlin.

"On down to Saffron first," she told him, idly scratching Isolde's ears once more, fast asleep in her lap. "Then I don't really know where. Issy and I are out to see the world and what our place in it might be."

"How poetic," Patrick replied with a crooked little grin. Caitlin half-smiled, half-laughed. "Ultimately I think I'd like to try for the League, but I know we're not ready for that yet."

"Not with just the two of you."

"Which is part of why we're wandering the country. I thought we might head down to Fuchsia sooner or later and have a little jaunt around the safari, try our luck there." She found herself genuinely warming to this young man, which was unusual for her. She had never been what you might call a social butterfree. "What about you two? Got anything exciting lined up?"


((Converse, plan, take this time to say things you would like to do. This is your opportunity to throw out suggestions in-character for where we should go sooner or later, so please take it. Also, sorry about the 'social butterfree' thing. I couldn't resist. ))

[Neth]

"Wow" Keiran thought, impressed with the battling, secretly wishing he had volunteered to battle and at the same time glad he haden't. Nero had never been in a serious battle before, although he was getting the hang of it while Keiran had been trying to teach him. "Your Cubone is a lot...smarter than I thought Pokemon were, are all of them like that?" He asked Jorah.

[mike_]

"Some of them are, some aren't. It really depends on the species," Jorah answered. Yorick had busied himself by picking through the shock of unkempt, brown hair Jorah wore on his head, searching for bugs to snack on. Fortunately for Jorah, he was able to maintain his personal hygiene to a point where bodily parasites were not a concern.

"Yorick here is one of the brighter ones that I've met," his tone turned joking, "sometimes I think that he's really trying to talk to me. I got him back at Oak Labs, in Pallet Town where I grew up. I worked there as an intern to the big man himself, and now I've been sent as a liaison to the scientists up in Pewter. Yorick was my going-away present."

"Cool story, bro," Kieran replied, "I wouldn't have guessed you for the academic. Not after that battle, anyway."

Jorah smirked and said, "Yeah, well. There's a lot that we can learn from pokemon, and the same goes for them.

"What about the rest of you," he turned to face the group, "where are you all headed?"

[Copaman]

"Well, to be honest, Prome and I are headed to Saffron as well. We're trying to figure stuff out as we go, just looking for some adventure. I'm starting to get fairly bored on the road though, so hopefully Saffron is a bit of fun."

"And after that?"

Patrick let out a half-chuckle, and looked up to Caitlin with a devilish half grin.

"Wherever the fun might be. It's just a matter of finding it and going after it with the right people. Maybe that will be in Fuscia. We'll just have to see."