Open The Grand Kalos Festival: De La Vie Et La Mort

[Storybook]

With a final sigh, as if realizing the futility of their hope, the crowd deflated. Like the cotton candy threading her fingers, she reflected, the crowd had stretched thin to the point of no return, still milling in larger groups around the edges of the festival, but deflating fatally within until it dispersed completely. No longer was the crowd a crowd, but a secluded milling of tireless souls, unable to close their eyes to the festivities. The group, too, had deflated, and left by their own routes, some to the grand and some to the mediocre. Phi was left on the bench to think.

"Over silver oceans of bowing grass
beaded by sources obscure.
Over splendor of silence, so sweet and so pure
Dare we tremble?

Over tranquil susurration of river and stream
running forever beneath star's sheen,
guided by moon's frosty breath
Dare we breathe?

Beside the partner's of our dreams
Hearts drumming the same tune
From the beginning of time to our last afternoon..."
The words were silken, recited from memory, brought smoothly forth from mind to vocal cords to saunter in a ballet with the wind. True to form, they were slowly spoken, clearly articulated. Each punctuation warranted a pause. They rang in the air with charming allure, before she swept them away with a deep, internal sigh.

Spoken so many times, with so little answers, they sounded undoubtedly filthy.

With a sorrowful flare, the sun fell again to death, its rays deepening the horizon to dark ruby. How tragic, that its sentiment be interrupted by imposing buildings, breaching the display and spreading long shadows in their wake, so that she only dared to imagine the magnificence of the complete picture. Oh well.

"Come on, lazy-lug," Phi muttered good-heartedly as the horizon faded into ink, rousing her partner out of a deep sleep, his limbs strewn across the bench, mouth opened slightly to a drizzle of drool. He muttered a sound that sounded like a grumble of sorts, and began to drag his way halfheartedly behind the girl as she drifted away from the bench, towards the hotel room they had acquired before the festival began. Her hands were clasped behind her back in a contemplative gesture, and it was only to another, louder remark that broke the air between them that she gazed back towards the Skuntank. As if in response, her voice, sliding into the air with a grunt of admission, replied, "Yes, yes. You may completely blame your interrupted nap and lack of focus in battle tomorrow on me staying at the festival too late."

The Skuntank growled pleasantly in reply, and ambled a little faster, akin to a child who was complaining only until he received his wish. The comparison stirred something within Phi, but only subtly, and the two set off briskly towards their beds without another thought uttered aloud. All that was left to be heard was the sandy slip of a hotel key, a homely creak of the door, and the rustle of fabric as her bag was removed and thrown lightly to the ground, her smaller bag set delicately on a hook, the overcoat placed protectively atop it, and the blankets enclosed over her body as she slipped into the musty-smelling hotel bed. The Skuntank took one last, heaving leap that caused the bed to bow slightly beneath his weight, laid himself out above the blanket at her side, and snuffled back into his beloved slumber, the mound of a tail curling away from his back as he slipped farther away from consciousness.

Phi's last thoughts, after a reassurance of the plan for battle, were of how glad she was that her Skuntank's poison was secreted by will, and not inherently in his skin or fur like some other poison type Pokemon.
It allowed her to have moments like this.

(OOC: Anyone is fine for Phi to battle.)

 

[Trucro]

Jacob rolled over in his bed. He had woken up some time ago, he didn't know how long. But it had been a while. He couldn't get back to sleep no matter how hard he tried. He reached over onto the nightstand and grabbed his phone. His eyes burned as he checked the time. 5:34. It was earlier than he thought. He sat up in his bed. It was still dark outside. His Heliolisk and Togekiss, Dexter and Shakespeare, were spread out across his bed, taking up more space than pokemon their size should. Nero, his Blaziken, sat hunched over against the wall to his right. Atlas, his Tangrowth, was in a similar position to his left. Nero and Atlas were very different pokemon, type wise and emotionally, and Jacob found it comical that they seemed to be in similar positions.

Jacob slid out of his bed, trying not to wake Dexter and Shakespeare. He was successful, and after putting some socks and shoes on, he walked over to the door. He picked up his belt, with his two remaining pokemon attached, in their pokeballs. He slowly closed the door behind him, and headed out, away from his hotel. Jacob seemed to be spending quite a lot of time in hotels lately.

It didn't take him long to reach the beach. Geosenge Town had a nice beach, that was for sure. He took his shoes and socks off and felt the cool sand shift beneath his feet. He thought about calling out one of his other pokemon, but neither would enjoy this sort of quiet walk.

After walking for a time, he took a seat and looked out over the water. The sun was just beginning to rise from behind him, but it wasn't very bright yet. He leaned back, lying flat along the ground. It was surprisingly comfortable. He closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

 

[Curtkid]

(OOC: Alright. I choose who would fight who at complete random, I just hope everyone's satisfied with their match up! By the way, seeing as we have about 7 people in this thread already, I'm changing it from Open to Ask to Join. I think Seven is a pretty good number to cap off our RP after all)

Though the town of Genosage had quieted down a tad since the night time festivities, there was still plenty of hustle and bustle in the morning life. All around their were people looking for breakfast, vendor's still tried to push their wears, multiple member's of a cleaning crew taking care of the waste left by the night time activities, and, as always, their were people and Pokemon doing the occasional battle in the streets. No town in Kalos rested during the festival of De-La-Vie-E-La-Mort!

Curt let out a yawn as he headed toward the tournament board, though the actual battles wouldn't start for a bit, he wanted to get some sort of an idea as to who he and his team were going to be fighting. Embertail waddled by his side, unlike his trainer, the Fire Pokemon seemed full of energy like always, which was good in case Curt decided to choose him for their fight. Curt still hadn't made his choice yet on which Pokemon to open up with, but hopefully seeing who he was up against would make the decision a bit more clearer.

Thankfully, it wasn't hard to find the tournament board, their was already a small crowed of people and Pokemon gathered around it making it easy to spot. After a little moving about and fighting through the crowds (and an incident where Embertail almost set someones pants leg on fire) they made it close enough to the board to see the line up. Gerald appeared to be fighting Luna, which should make for a interesting turn out, it looked like Baily was battling someone named Phi, as for Curt, it looked like he was battling....

"Huh, looks like we're battling Zeph old buddy, thhhaaat....doesn't make my decision much easier", Curt said with a sigh. Looks like he'd be making a last minute decision after all. Though from the two Pokemon he saw, if he had to choose at the moment, he'd probably go with Raviel, the Lightning Pokemon as fast and had a very diverse move pool. From what Curt had seen, Zeph seemed to favor fast Pokemon, so an electric type would also be good for slowing them down, eh he'd think about it over breakfast.

"Well, Embertail, guy's, any place anyone want's to go", Curt asked to the balls on his belt. Almost immediately, one snapped open, and out popped Jasper, and by the look on her face (or what they could see through that mask) their was clearly a place she wanted to try out, and wasted no time in pointing it out. It took a moment for them to find where she wanted to eat, but they quickly ended up at a burrito stand, and by the smell of eggs, peppers, and sausage, it was clear this stand also did breakfast burritos. A tan-skinned man with a thin black mustache in a green apron with a Pawniard with unique, blue eye's appeared to be running the stand together, taking order's from Pokemon and people alike and shouting instructions to each other while they cooked away. Though the man did most of the work with the cash register and taking money, it was clear that the human and Pokemon were equal partner's in this business, Curt found that commendable.

"Alright, I have to admit, that smells really good", Curt said, trying to keep himself from salivating. Even the vegetarian Embertail looked about three seconds away from drooling at the sight of a bacon, egg, pepper, cheese and sausage burrito wrap. The shaking from the balls on Curts belt told him that the rest of his team would be more then satisfied Jasper's choice in breakfast. Curt debated on letting out his entire team so each on could place their order, but the area was already pretty crowded, and he didn't want to clutter it up with his team, not just yet anyway...

"Alright it settled then", Curt said as Jasper let out a small cheer, "first things first though, do you guy's know what the rest of the team would want?" Curt asked Embertail more then Jasper as he pulled out a pencil and a pocket notebook. Though Curt could "somewhat" understand most of what his Pokemon were saying most of the time, Embertail was the only one he could understand flawlessly (not counting Flares telepathy). After taking a minute to figure out what everyone wanted, they headed over to the burrito stand to place their order.

 

[BurbleBurble]

A poking at Gerald's side woke him up. Good thing too: it was 7:09. Battles would start in a hour or two. The source of the poking was June: the fox was hungry. Gerald also had a feeling that Million and Stockbroker were as well. As for Empty and Switchblades...he wasn't sure how they would even eat (as they both lacked mouthes) but he would let them out to stretch or something. Slipping on his coat and hat, along with grabbing his backpack, he opened the door to the room, and sunlight filtered in.

Once outside, the day was looking great. The sun was still rising, yet everything was engulfed in it's beautiful rays. Laying out three dishes, he filled each one to the brim with the kibble esque food. After all, can't battle on a empty stomach. Pulling two pokeballs off his belt, he released the pokemon inside them: one giant millipede, the other a humanoid rabbit.

It didn't take long for them to see why they were summoned: a few seconds later, they were already with June eating, eagerly chatting about the tournament. While June was never one to talk to strangers, these were her friends, and they always lightened her up. They talked about the possible opponents, who Gerald would do the first rounds with... This went on fir minutes. Gerald laughed at them: never understood a lick of what they said, but it humored him how talkative they were.

He let out two more pokemon: Switchblades and Empty. "Go stretch out you two, err, three. But no mischief, okay?" While they were nice pokemon at heart, sometimes Empty would get a kick out of scaring a little kid. While Shedninja didn't steal souls, that's no more than an urban legend, it still scared many a child into crying, getting frightened at the reanimated cicada shell. As for Switchblades, he enjoyed fencing himself: one of the two reasons Gerald hadn't evolved him into an Aegislash yet. The other was a lack of a dusk stone: they were hard to find, expensive to buy. He was sure he'd stumble upon one sooner rather than later, and hey, there might've been a stone merchant at the festival somewhere.

A half-hour of chatting, fencing, spooking, and eating two granola bars later, eventually leading to him putting away most of his supplies back inside (Except a granola bar he shoved in his pocket, in case he got hungry while a battle was occuring), and most of his pokemon. June was his companion for the foreseeable future: has been for 5 years. She rarely went in her pokeball, unless the terrain was too rough for her or a building's rule said no pokemon outside pokeballs, among other things.

Walking down the route to Geosenge, nothing special happened. A single Hawlucha attacked them, but June quickly dispatched it. He could've caught it, but Hawlucha wasn't really amazing. Plus he lacked a empty pokeball.

As he walked into town, the curiousity of who he'd be fighting got the best of him. He fought through the crowds to see the brackets...he was up against Luna. Luna only specialized in dark types, right? Million would be the best for overrall coverage against her, but the Houndoom of hers could produce a problem.

Oh well, there wasn't much he could do about it at the moment other than hope she didn't use her Houndoom. He decided to use this spare hour of his to browse around, maybe find a dusk stone, get June a magazine... Maybe even find a treat or something to eat.

 

[Semper Iuvenis]

Zephious woke up, he checked his alarm clock to see that battles would start in an hour or two. He got out of bed and put on the clothes that his personal tailor had selected. When it was all on, he checked himself in the mirror. He wore basically the same outfit as yesterday, but now his coat was white and his fedora was grey. Pleased with his appearance, he gathered his Pokémon and headed down stairs for breakfast.

-After Breakfast-
"So I heard that Sue Cohan's daughter is competing in the tournament Zephious, her name is Luna. You should get to know her!" Said Zephious's mother, Julia Everard. Zephious sighed as he realized who they were talking about and why she was bringing her up. " I'm leaving", said Zephious as he turned to the main butler," Prepare my open air carriage". The butler nodded and exited the the hall. Zephious waved goodbye to his mother- his father, Zepharious Everard, had yet to wake up- and continued out of the manor.

Riding in the Rapidash-pulled carriage, Zephious quickly arrived to where the tournament postings were. Aided by his man-at-arms he got off of the carriage and took a look at the bracket. He saw that he was going up against Curt. This should be interesting he thought to himself.

Zephious got back on his carriage and ordered his driver to drive around town for a while, but not too far. After a few minutes he saw Curt by a Burrito stand. "Hey Curt, good luck handling my Pokémon today!" Zephious shouted out of the carriage as it moved further down the road.

 

[EspeonTheBest]

Bailey felt oddly... Heavy. Her chest was weighed down like her eyelids- however Bailey guessed that whatever was on her chest was much more tangible than the sleep in her eyes. With a soft sigh she blinked her eyes open to notice that Sunny, the Heliosk, had curled up on top of her. However, it was the massive Serperior coiled around the Helioisk that caused the weight. "Omph. Guys! I need my lungs as much as you do. Get off me you two!" She demanded in a humorous way. Bailey was serious though, she needed to get ready. It was 5:42 in the morning- just about fifteen more minutes than she usually sleeps to. Bailey, though she doesn't particularly like alarms, is quite the morning person. In Unova she would wake at 5:00 am sharp to begin her travels, much to Cosmo's annoyance. The Serperior would much rather sprawl out in the sun and sleep for days than battle some pesky trainers in some gym. Since she moved to Kalos to travel, Bailey's been much more agreeable with the sleeping schedule and gave thirty minutes for everyone to get going before she headed out for her day.

"3...2...1...alrighty, you two asked for it." Bailey counted down the time before she pushed the duo off of her bed. Cosmo and Sunny, if they noticed at all, did a really good job of pretending not to notice. Amaryllis, the Froslass, floated up from her pillow bed just in time. The sleepy ghost type was rubbing the weariness from her eyes as Bailey pushed the Serperior and Helioisk off her bed and watched as they both landed on the pillow bed. Amaryllis gave an unapproving stare to her trainer, but all the traveler could do was laugh as Sunny bolted out of his slumber even before he hit the ground and Cosmo started to lazily stretch out her long, powerful tail. Bailey slid out of her bed, grabbed her clothes for the day (which happened to be exactly what she wore the previous day, but she honestly didn't care if she wore the same thing twice. There was something called a washing machine and she used it.), and walked towards the bathroom. She was about to brush her teeth before she remembered that Aster, her Porygon-Z, had nested in there the previous night. With a twinge of curiosity Bailey began to search the small room for her Pokemon. The only warning she had was the soft sound of a tiny spark being produced.

"Ahh! No! Aster I can't believe you did that!" Cried Bailey in disbelief. "Zo!" Yarrow dashed to the door of the bathroom and checked on his trainer, soon followed by a nervous Cosmo, Sunny, Amaryllis, and Lavender. Being biggest of them all, Cosmo managed to wrestle her way to the front a slithered halfway into the bathroom to console her trainer. Bailey was holding her dress now covered in a blue foamy substance- her toothpaste. The trainer had been brushing her teeth as Aster came up behind her and shocked her with an extremely weak Zap Cannon. The Porygon-Z was floating above Bailey, uncertain as to what he did wrong. "Haha, I'm ok guys. It'll be fine- all I need is a washing machine and this dress will be ok. I'll just need to wear something else today because the washing machines aren't able to be used until later tonight and I'll be in the tournament by then." Bailey explained with an apologetic look on her face for startling all her Pokemon. Once Yarrow figured out that it was a simple dress, his rare look of worry instantly dropped and he snorted before he bounded back to the larger room. Slowly all the Pokemon trickled back into the larger room preparing themselves for the day.

"Hey! Guys I have leftovers in my bag from yesterday. Feel free to munch on something. There should be enough apples and maybe a few Pecha berries in there that'll be good for all of us to have one. Go ahead- I'll eat whatever's left. If I can't find anything all I'll need to do is buy something real fast so don't hold back. If you're hungry eat." Bailey called from the bathroom, her hands gently combing through her recently straightened hair. She walked out and reached for her clothes in the bag before her Pokemon began to find things to eat. After a quick moment of deciding Bailey decided to wear something she had bought in Lumious that she had never worn. She pulled herself back into the bathroom and changed making sure that she didn't touch the shower curtain which was full of static electricity from the Zap Cannon incident. Finally Bailey finished up and walked back out to the larger room where all her Pokemon were cleaning up from their stay- as they were expected to do. Pillows were stacked and returned to the bins in the corner and lampshades were balanced out once more. The long mirror reflected the 6:10 am sun and in a short moment of vanity Bailey went to judge her appearance.

She had on a white camisole with jean shorts. Over the camisole was a dark blue cartigan that Bailey thought would too heavy for warmer weather, but surprisingly it was quite cool. Even with the sleeves all the way rolled down the cotton material allowed a nice breeze to flow through, and at this rate she anticipated getting too cold while fighting. Bailey's Carmel colored hair was completely loose, hanging a little below her shoulder blades. "Lass! Fros..." Amaryllis chirped as she floated up next to her trainer. Evidently the Froslass liked the new look which was new to the trainer. Amaryllis had always been sort of like a substitution for her mother as Bailey traveled around. Even though she had only been training Amaryllis, Bailey had noticed that the ice type would glare at her for childish behavior or compliment her clothing style. Most of the Kalos clothes she had purchased didn't fit Amaryllis' standards, so having the ice type agree with her clothing choice made Bailey's day.

"We're against a person named Phi, huh?" Bailey said as she gently kicked a rock with her blue tennis shoes. Cosmo hummed in acknowledgment, but she obviously looked worried. "Cosmo? Are you ok? It isn't like you to be... Uhh... Nervous." Bailey commented as she turned her back to the tournament brackets. Her watch read 7:15 am and the people who were visiting the festival began to crowd the streets once again. It had taken Bailey an unnecessarily long time to find her way around the festival- she had gotten distracted by a few things going on. A Hawlucha was scurrying around, and a couple other Pokemon seemed to be waking. Despite her confidence in her Pokemon's strength, Bailey had decided that picking a fight with one of those Hariyamas was not going to be an ideal situation. While her Meinshao might have fun sparring with it, Bailey honestly had no set way to handle fighting types other than sending in Lavender or Cosmo. All her other Pokemon were either weak or partly weak to fighting types.

Cosmo hummed once again, but didn't say much. Yet, Bailey sort of understood what Cosmo was hinting at. "You kind of wished to battle someone who's Pokemon we've already met, huh? Or do you want to get back at Raviel for barking at you?" Bailey teased as she placed a gentle hand on her Pokemon's side. "Don't be too nervous. I'm sure Phi is a great trainer and a perfect opponent to have a good match with. I'm not sure if I'll send you in, but if I decide not to use you I'll go ahead and ask, oh I dunno, maybe Zephious, Curt, Gerald or Luna to battle us later. Though I really want to see Angel fight!" She suddenly jumped in excitement as she thought of something. "Oh, but I would love to see all of the other's Pokemon fight as well! I'm so envious of how strong they seem." Bailey glanced at her troubled Serperior. "I'm not helping am I? Sorry for that. Why don't we go and check out our battlefeild while we still have a bit of time?" That seemed to perk up Cosmo. For every big battle Bailey has fought she had requested to walk around he battle field in order to get a couple good judgements of the size and how much room she and Cosmo had to do combos. With a quick smile and a glance at her map, Bailey and Cosmo began to navigate the crowds- heading towards the battle grounds.

 

[Blue moon]

Luna woke up at the sound of someone knocking her door. Her long blond haire making a mess between the blankets as her eyelets made their biggest efford to keep themself open. The warmth of the bed made it even hardest to stand up and walk to the door. "Who is it?" she asked forgetting any manners.

The man she found herself in front of was the perfect stereotype of a majordomo. No hair was covering his nude head and a extremely well manteined moustache dancing above his lips. "Good morning miss Luna Cohan, I'm here because of the room service you've ordered everyday at five and fourty."

She had ordered room service? She couldn't remember ever asking for it, moreover, she hadn't even talk with the hotel staff, the only one that had done that was... Oh, of course; her mother did it.

"It's a special breakfast for the lady and six pokemon, besides a small delivery the miss Sue Cohan had asked to send to you." the dark type trainer sighed "Okay, okay... just... leave it on the table. Thanks."
Sometimes Luna could thought her mother was more excited about the tournament than her, even though she would've liked her daughter to be an actress, musician or a coordinator. Even though, Luna couldn't complain: her mother had supported her in everything since forever.

Luna fastly took her pokemon out of the pokeball. They needed to eat before the hursh competition they were going to have (and win, of course). "Come on guys, the sleeptime it's over. The day has already started and it's going to be a very active one, so we better start it with great energies." Said so, Luna tent to her pokemon it's breakfast. When she was about having hers, she remembered the box her mother had sent to her within the food. The trainer opened it carefully, discovering a piece of black cloth which became a dress as soon as she had gotten it out of it's package. Under it, there was a little note Luna soon read.

'Dear Luna:

Did you like the surprise I prepared for you? I knew you weren't going to wake up easily, so I asked someone to wake you up for me. I also decided to give you this gorgeous dress. I pick it myself, do you like it? I know you will, it's totally your dark-cute style. Anyways. I know you don't need it because of the family awesomeness, but I wish you the best of lucks in this tournament. Have good time, make some friends, meet boys and (most important of all) win!'

Luna shook her head with a smile on her lips. How wouldn't she suspect her mother would have done something like that, it was totally her kind of thing.

The teenager took the new dress in her hands and walk to the mirror next to the bathroom. She couldn't believe how much she loved it. It was simple, yet beautiful. Just a black dress opened at the back and a couple silvery chains decorating it just before it's skirts beggining.

"Thanks mom, I love it" murmured Luna as she hugged her new clothe.

-------

"We're fighting Gerald." told Luna to her Umbreon, by the moment the only pokemon acompaining her "We don't know much about him... he has a Braixen... and that's all."

Luna sighed. She better picked an accurate pokemon, a resistent one, one that would be able to fight the most type of pokemon as possible...

A smiled crossed her lips. Of course she had that pokemon.

"Come on Sombra, let's head the battle grounds."

 

[Storybook]

Like a dark mist dispersed, the world came into view, as slowly as a raindrop running down a windowpane, gathering speed with every pinprick of water that widened its mass. First it came as a crawl, unsure of the world, still turned around by its tumultuous fall from the sagging sky. One comrade widened the raindrop's ranks, and before the pale sunlight could cause it to shimmer, the raindrop picked up pace, gathering friends, and plummeting down to who knows were for no reason other than that it was intensely curious as to what that emerald, soggy-brown blob actually was. At the edge of the pane, the pace came to a screeching halt, sweat beading the drop's brow at the sheer plummet, for it hadn't realized just how far that blob of mingled green and brown actually was. Vainly, the raindrop flailed its arms, trying to catch hold of some friction, some tension, to keep it away from that dreadful fall that, now in clear view, seemed hundreds of times worse than the plummet from the sky. But like the cotton candy and the nightly crowd, the raindrop had dispersed past the point of return, broke from its hold, and fell, splat against the earth as Phi woke up, and the darkness dispersed into light.

Gazing hazily across the room, chestnut hair tussled in a heap, almond eyes bleary and dull, Phi had the strange sensation that she had just had the most amazing dream, and completely forgotten what it was. Like a word hanging just on the tip of her tongue, she seemed to know, specifically, that it was, and knew somewhere in her what it was but, when asked for an image, came up frustratingly blank. Tossing the outcome to chance, Phi blearily searched her mind for some sort of clue, but could only recall the sweetest sound, like the chiming of church bells, shrill yet strangely pleasing to the ear. If she had to pronounce it as something, she would pronounce it, with a sort of guilty shrug, as laughter, for even that word, the closest to its manner, did not seem to encompass its magnificence.

The absence of sound was as startling to her brain as the addition of a new one, and an equally, if more, bleary Skuntank met her gaze with a snort of grumpy, morning despise. It clicked within her that he had just awoken, for she had been startled by the abrupt cutting of his snoring, a sort of snuffly, cheerful sound, as an image, almost akin to a rodent cleaning its muzzle with its paws. Her voice slid into the silence with gruff friction. "Up and at 'em, boy!" she encouraged with a stifled yawn.

In response, the Skuntank curled into himself enough to flick his heaving tail over his eyes, emitted a few fake snores, and then peered through the thick, gristly fur to see if she bought it, in the sense that a child tells an outright lie, then peers through the corner of his eyes to see if their was a remote chance that it worked. Phi glanced down at him in mock disdain, then spoke with the slow pace of a poetic recitation, imagining a vivid image of the page within her book as the words glided down towards her 'pupil.' It was creamy, she recalled, mussed with elegant, curving letters like dancers adorned with dresses of ink, embellished with rigid nicks and tears worn smooth by the sandpaper of time. On this particular page, a doodle rested upon the corner, the ink just slightly smeared so that it looked as if every line cast a shadow.

The doodle looked strikingly like the position in which her Skuntank was resting now, right down to the peering, desperate eye that screamed, "14 minutes more?"

"Rebirth of sun awoke the bird
with breast of flame and song of cinders
swelling within our hearts the kindling of life.
And where was my partner, ears deaf to the splendor?
Asleep in his bed, a downy pillow coddling his head."

Sure, it was more cynical than beautiful, but with the constant times in which Phi had come to recite it to her bed-hogging Pokemon, the poem had become a means of tradition, and carried more understanding than just the simple words could hold, in the way that memory is deeply ingrained in artifacts that hold little other meaning. And sure enough, a grunt of admission, and the day finally began.

"There. Aren't you glad we got out of bed? We've found breakfast for all of our team, discovered who was fighting who, and surveyed the battlefield with plenty of time to spare."
The two were sitting, well, Phi was sitting, on a bench in one of the areas in which people watched the battle, while the Skuntank was stretched, splayed upon the bench in his normal manner. No one else had arrived quite yet.
"Plus, just listen! Isn't the air absolutely throbbing with Fletchling song at this hour?"
A grunt of admission. Phi swore she could see him roll his eyes.
"Fine, fine. Perhaps throbbing isn't the right word, and I guess they are muddled with the sounds of the town and festival beginning to kick into the morning." She paused, feet swaying in the air like a child who's legs don't quite reach the floor. The bench, in fact, was quite tall, perched upon a stretch of concrete raised above the battlefield, in order to protect its bearers from the intensity of the battle. After a moment more in which her eyes, glazed, stared at nothing, and her mind strayed to some obscure branch of thought, she turned back. Her tone became slightly harsher, but with an air of forgiveness that comes to old friends who've learned to live with the other's flaws. "Plus, it wasn't like you were going to listen anyways."

The heaping mound of coarse cream and purple fur raised his head, and cast a long, 'seriously' glance up at her. She giggled, a light, bubbly sound, akin to that of a sluggish, peaceful stream. In afterthought, even her laughter sounded like she lived in the platinum mist of a dream.

He grunted. If asked, she would have sworn he had meant, "to-she, Phi. To-she."



A movement at the edge of the battlefield caught the girl's eye. It appeared someone had entered, likely another trainer aspiring to know what they had to deal with. Phi felt as if a train had derailed and hit her full force at the recollection of the upcoming battle.

"So... any clue as to who this 'Bailey' person is? And, um.... do you wanna battle her, or should someone else?"

 

[Curtkid]

(OOC: I figured we do the battles in order of how I mixed them up, so Gerald and Luna are up first! Also, another person has asked to join the RP, seeing as the second round of the tournament will be an uneven three people, I decided to let them in to even out the second round, and bring the total person count to an even eight, which is what I'm going to cap the RP out as, and I mean it this time, hehe...)

"Hmmph", Curt said with a mouth full of Burrito as Zeph road by, "uhmp, gudd luk too you two". Curt hastily swallowed his burrito in an attempt to say something more comprehensible to Zeph, but the man had already ridden by. Curt let out a sigh, he knew he should have waited till they got to the park before he started eating, but Curt was always a tad impatient when it came to food. As they began heading the more spacious park to let out the rest of the team, Curt couldn't help be find himself thinking about the Rapidash drawn carriage Zeph was riding in, regular horses were expensive enough, but to be able to afford a Rapidash drawn one, it looked like Zeph's family was either better of financially then he let on, or the family was friends a Ponyta ranch hand.

"You know, that carriage was kinda impressive", Curt said aloud, "I wounder, it we were able to get out hands on a carriage, do you think I could get Flare too-

"(NO, THAT IS NOT, AND WILL NEVER HAPPEN!)", Flare yelled from within her Pokeball. He heard Embertaill and Jasper chuckle over the sounds of their burrito munching. Embertail got an egg, cheese, pepper's, and onion burrito with salsa, though he was a vegetarian, he had no issue with eating eggs ("So long as it wasn't technically alive before, I'll eat it!", he'd often say). Jasper got a egg, cheese, sausage, onion, and extra spicy pepper burrito that, if the water in Jasper's eye's were any indication, was as spicy as it smelled.

"A-ah relax Flare, I was just kidding", Curt stammered to the Fire Foxes Pokeball. They shortly made it to the park where Curt let out the rest of his team to eat really quickly before heading to the tournament. Whips got a burrito very similar to Jasper, extra spicy peppers with not cheese or oils, Lockjaw got a very straight forward bacon, egg, cheese, and sausage, Raviel got a meat lover's burrito with extra cheese and pepper's (no onions), and Flare just got a egg's, pepper's, onion, with extra cheese.

"Alright guy's, I know our battle isn't going to be for a bit, but I still think....", Curt caught the look from the rest of his team and immediately closed him mouth with a smile. They all knew what he was about to say, and they agreed with him, they wanted to watch the tournament just a much as he did. The moment they finished eating, the group headed towards the tournament arena to watch the imminent battles.

 

[BurbleBurble]

( Okay, figured that, and I wonder who this last person is? Guess we'll findout sooner rather than later.)
Gerald checked his watch: fifteen minutes until the battles began. He was up against Luna: it would be a tough fight with a tough trainer, and a good note to start the day with. While winning was nice, the experience was just as good, if not better. Plus, these fights could give him a grasp of who he should slip into that sixth pokeball slot.

On his little excursion around the festival, he found nothing much of interest in the stands: however, June did. She had finally found the best magazine for her, a smug smile was displayed on her face as she read page after page of famous people drama. The Braixen was disappointed as Gerald pulled her away. She'd pull it out during an uninteresting battle: there always was at least one plain boring one.

Making his way though the crowds, he had reached the battle field, with a few minutes to spare. He knew who he was using already, so that was good. Now only a tense couple more minutes sat between him and the first round of the tournament. June used this to her advantage, cracking open the magazine to a dog eared page.

 

[Quake]

(OOC: @BurbleBurble That would be me. I'm reading through all the posts as thoroughly but quickly as possible, but the RP is progressing so fast that I'm finding it increasingly difficult to develop my post, especially since the beginning of the tournament is closing in. It will be a long post, for sure. My plan is that since my character's opponent is not an actual player, after my character's introductory post and once the tournament has begun, I'll briefly describe the fight before proceeding to have my character observe the other first-round fights from time to time. Just know that there is another first round fight in the registry between Deo(my character) and some guy named Chase. My post will not come up until tomorrow...er...later today, so I'd appreciate it if the RP would slow down JUST enough so that my character can go through SOME development and/or interaction before the battles. Either that, or Deo can be this mysterious stranger that people no nothing about since he never talked to anybody the night before. I'm fine with either honestly lol )

 

[Blue moon]

(OOC: lol Gerald and Luna are the first to battle and I'm like super lost. I have lots of questions to do about the battle:
a) How many pokemon are we supposed to use? In the games were the usual six, but I don't quite remember how it was in the anime (I lost the connection with the show after the third generation).
b) I think this is pretty obvious, but I think that it should be asked: Are these single or double battles?
Ok, I'm sorry, it's just I really had to figure that out before the battles would begin. Sorry.)

Umbreon had found a great way of spending her time as they waited for the tournament to start: waiting until a flock of Pidoves landed somewhere near her and running towards them so they would fly away. Meanwhile, Luna checked a little stan that had installed next to the arena. It had candies, newspapers and magazines. She just wanted to buy herself a bottle of soda, but one of the magazine's cover had fastly gotten her eye.

"Unova artist Sue Cohan has a secret lover!"

Luna's fists began tightening in rage as she read her mother's name on the cover. Who had created such a fake rumour? Her mother was happily married!
Luna hated it, but she will have to buy the magazine to tell her mom about that lie. Or that was what she thought until she saw the magazine on some yellow pokemon hands.

She didn't thought twice before tearing the magazine out of it's hands and searching for the rumour's page. Once she had finally found it a little growl scaped from her lips as she unconsciously scrunched the paper. She took her eyes out of the magazine for a second, finding out who the pokemon holding it was: a Braixen, and not any Braixen; Gerald's, her battle rival.

Luna's cheeks turned slightly red as she realized what she had just done.

 

[Curtkid]

(OOC: I stated in my first post that the first round will be one on one, single battles. I guess I should have restated the rules though. The second round will be a double battle with just two Pokemon, and the finally round will be three on three, single battle. If we did full six on six battles, this RP would take forever, hehe. Anyway's, feel free to start battling whenever you guy's are ready, BTW, I'm thinking Baily and Phi should battle next, and we'll conclude the first round with Zeph and Curt, if that works for everyone.)

 

[Blue moon]

(OOC: Ok! Thanks Curt! I'm sorry, I think I missed that part or something. In which post did you leave it? I remember reading everything but, it doesn't matter, I distract super easily.)

 

[BurbleBurble]

It took a minute for June to realize what had happened. The magazine was gone! And the captor of the said magazine was Luna, the girl they were up against! What nerve! And she proceeded to scrunch the page she was about to read! Furious, she whipped out her stick and let out an unfriendly growl. This girl seemed to be trouble. First her posse of dark types, now this?

Gerald was oblivious to the situation until he heard the Braixen's growl: a sure fire tell she was pissed. He wasn't sure why'd she be upset, then he saw why: Luna snatched the fox's magazine out of her hands. He ran over and grabbed June's shoulder. "Whoa whoa whoa. What happened here? First thing first, though: June, put away your stick." She reluctantly obeyed, but her gaze never shifted from Luna. "Now, what happened here? Why do you have her magazine, Luna?"

 

[Blue moon]

The blond girl got paralized due the awkward situation. Sombra, her Umbreon, had arrived as soon as she saw the Braixen rising her stick, threatening to burn her trainer.

"I-I..." what was she supposed to do? Oh god, the things her crazy actress mother would forse her to do.

Luna close her eyer in an attempt to let go of her nervousness and be able to talk again. Once she gotten her, she got ready to get her pride back (or at least pretend). "You shouldn't buy your pokemon these stupid magazines," said Luna as she teared the page with her mother's rumour in it "get some better ones." Luna said as she violently returned the magazine to Gerald, hitting him with it on his chest.

Then he turned around and left. There were to much stuff going on her head to stay there and give explanations to that guy and his Braixen, by the moment she had to focus in contacting her mother before the battle began.

----

Luna fastly approached the nearest phon and fastly dialed her mother. When she answer, she was able to see through the phone's screen, the blond actress smiling face. "Luna?" she asked a little bit surprised "I thought you'd be at the arena at this time!" Luna frowned as she showed by the small device's camera the article about the rumour. Her mother stood in silence from the other side of the line "Oh..." she murmured "I-I didn't know that rumour had reached Kalos."

"It did mom. Why didn't you tell me? Maybe I could have done something about it!" exclaimed a furious looking Luna.

"Do something about it?" asked ironically her mother "Of course you would have done something about it! You would've came back here to burn every kiosk that selled the magazine with your Houndoom. Am I wrong?" Luna didn't put an objection to her mother's words. "Look dear. Right now you're participating in a really big tournament, it's your chance! You can't miss it because of some nasty rumour."

"But you're my mom," argument sadly Luna "I don't want this things to happen to you..."

"And you're my daughter, and I want you to chase your dreams." a warm smile crossed the blond actress lips "Now go ahead and kick some trainers asses," she cheered up "and please, don't put up any show because of this..." Luna's cheeks began burning as she remembered the Braixen incident "if you haven't yet."

"They'll realize it's a lie, mom" hoped Luna.

"Yeah, I wish so."

(OOC: Poor baby XD I love her proud actitude. She won't apologize so I'll do it for her: I'm really sorry June.)

 

[Trucro]

"Pfff-Ughgluhgluhguhg-chahuhghawah..." Jacob opened his eyes as he lay there, soaked, on the beach, water dripping down off his face onto the cool wet sand. He was confused; he had woken up far too quickly, and he didn't have any idea where he was. He took a moment to catch his breath, and take in his surroundings. Now he remembered: he had decided to take a walk on the beach and had fallen asleep. But why was he wet?

"per-..."

"Cl ... che ... key ..."

Jacob looked over to where the sounds were coming from. A Clauncher, the blue, Kalos indigenous pokemon, was facing another small pokemon... Jacob's mind was blanking. A Panpour! That was it... the monkey pokemon from one of the other regions. Anyhow, Jacob was less confused now about how he had gotten soaked. But the real question was why.

"Hey!" He shouted over at the two pokemon. "What did you guys think you were doing?!?! I was asleep!" He glared at the two pokemon, but the Panpour stepped forward.

"Pan! Panpan!" The pokemon shouted, pointing towards the shore. Jacob squinted. The sun was now high in the sky; he must have been asleep for some time. He covered the top of his eyes with his hand, protecting them from the sun's rays. Off in the distance, about 50 yards away, he could see a Gyarados, thrashing about. He was surprised he hadn't noticed it before then. Jacob had had a few bad experiences with Gyarados before; they tended to attack ships that he was on. But now he was intrigued. He stood, and began walking closer to the beast. As he did, he could make out other shapes; there was some sort of battle going on. He scanned the surrounding area for trainers, to find none.

"Alright, then," Jacob said under his breath, making his way over to the scene, Clauncher and Panpour on his heels. As he reached about 10 yards out, the Gyarados stopped thrashing, and turned towards Jacob. Panpour and Clauncher hid behind Jacob. The Gyarados leaned back, straightening its body before roaring. Jacob could feel the Panpour holding onto his leg, shaking. Jacob was still staring the pokemon down when a ball of energy began to form in its mouth.

"Oh SH-" Jacob began, reaching for his belt as a Hyper Beam attack was sent barreling towards him. He dropped the pokeball as quickly as possible, and... CRASH!!!

Smoke was kicked up everywhere. Jacob leaned up against his Golurk, Stargazer, who had taken the hit for him. Jacob took a deep breath. "That was too close," he said, looking down at the Clauncher and Panpour, who were still ducking in cover. "Alright, now," Jacob continued. "Stargazer, use Night Shade!" The Golurk slowly raised its right arm, and its hand retracted into its body, revealing an empty hole. A beam of black ghost energy rushed forth, crashing into the Gyarados. The water pokemon, collapsed into the water before resurfacing. It roared and angry roar, before promptly turning around and diving into deeper water.

"Well done," Jacob said to his pokemon, patting it on the leg. "Thanks for the assist." The pokemon only nodded in response, and Jacob recalled the giant to its pokeball.

With that, Jacob decided it was time to return to town. The Tournament would be starting soon, and while he wasn't about to compete, he knew that Martha wanted to watch it. It didn't take him long to reach Martha's apartment, but she wasn't feeling well, so he decided to let her be. He returned to his own room, where the rest of his pokemon, save Dexter(Heliolisk) were already awake. He returned the group to their pokeballs, except for Dexter who he woke up with a vigorous shake or two. The pokemon jolted awake, opening its frills and looking around frantically. Jacob laughed.

"No worries, it's just me. Let's go see what's going on in town!" Jacob said. He didn't really want to go watch the tournament, at least, not if Martha wouldn't be joining him. He decided to check out the park, which he had heard was nice, and it wasn't too far from his room.

After a short time on his way to the park, he realized he was starving. He hadn't had breakfast yet, much less anything else to eat. Neither had his pokemon now that he thought about it. Jacob turned to Dexter.

"You hungry, buddy?" The pokemon nodded happily. "Well, something smells good! I wonder... Is that Curt?" Jacob pointed at what appeared to be his long-time friend, walking with his pokemon off in some direction. "HEY CURT!" Jacob shouted as he began to run to catch the man, Dexter close behind.

 

[BurbleBurble]

((OOC: June appreciates the sympathy, also are we supposed to start the tourney on our own or do we wait for curt to start it?))
"What type of answer is that?" Shouted Gerald as Luna walked away. He looked at the torn out page. He sighed and let out a little laugh, "Do you know any better magazines, June?" As she answered with the expected no, Gerald asked another question, "Better question, any idea why she'd rip this page?" June once again answered with a shrug. Gerald sighed as he handed June back her magazine.

As Luna made her call, Gerald continued to wait for the tournament to start, which necessated her. He still couldn't understand why'd she forcibly take the magazine. Did she think it was bad for her? Surely June didn't believe all the bald faced lies in it. He skimmed through the magazine several times: nothing in it was terribly offensive. Oh well, that was past. While June might hold a grudge for a bit, he was sure that no matter the result of this battle, she'd feel a bit better afterwards.

 

[EspeonTheBest]

"Cosmo...this is... Huge." Bailey gawked in awe as she stood at the entrance to the battle feild. She was 98.7 percent sure that she wasn't allowed to be there, but nonetheless she managed to get her way. "Ser!" Cosmo nodded in agreement as she also gazed around the feild. The duo had never fought in a tournament stadium before- especially not one this large. Aside from the sparrs Bailey and her friend Damien competed in at the Driftveil City World Tournament center, Bailey had never even set foot on such a fine battleground. The traveler bent down for a moment to scoop a handful of the dirt into her hands and let the material slide through her fingers. It shocked her as to how finely ground in the material was. It was so much like dust or dirt, but for some reason Bailey couldn't help but feel as if it was more of a combination of materials rather than just finely grained...dirt.

This stadium was most likely the size of her hometown- if you compressed all the houses and most of the roads and feilds into a nice, geometric oval shape. The bleachers lined the feild- now empty but soon to be filled with cheering fans expressing their excitement and anticipation for an action packed battle. Bailey sighed after getting over the sheer size of the grounds. "Well. Why don't we head back? I've got to prepare for our match because I believe we're going second. Luna and Gerald are battling first. I'm honestly really excited to see their Pokemon battle! Cosmo, I hope we put on as good of a performance as everyone else does." She said with a small smirk on her face- a silent message to her Pokemon of a devious plan she had devised. That smirk fell as Cosmo began to laugh uncontrollably and ended up with tears in her eyes. "Are you ok?" Bailey asked as she rushed to her Pokemon's side and placed a hand on the Serperior's neck. In reply the large grass snake looked at Bailey and broke out into more laughter. "Wait...is this because of what I said? Do you not think that my plan is devious? It's totally devious. Come on Cosmo!" She cried as she too began to laugh. Both Pokemon and trainer were in a tunnel laughing uncontrollably. What a great way to start of a serious day.

After the laughing fit over the plan Bailey had 'deviously' conjured, the traveler and her Pokemon began to wander around the streets. They pretended to know where and what they were going to do, but in reality, neither Bailey nor Cosmo had any ideas as to where they were heading off to. And considering Bailey's skills at finding places- this wasn't ideal. Cosmo had a vine wrapped around her trainer's arm as usual as the duo traversed the growing crowds. Suddenly some though caught Bailey's eye. "Hey, is that Zephious in that Carriage? I knew that he was wealthy, but that's really cool." She mentioned as she watched the Rapidash pull the carriage along. She debated greeting Zephious, but with the noise surrounding the morning air her words would fall on deaf ears.

 

[Curtkid]

(OOC: Blue, Burble, you both can start as soon as you both enter the field)

Curt and his team stood at the outskirts of the large crowd that had suddenly gathered, part of him wishing he could afford buying a seat in one of the podiums to watch the battle. Still, there was something unique about watching a battle surrounded by a crowed of fellow Pokemon fans and even other Pokemon that enjoyed watching battles. Being part of the screaming, the cheering, the booing, the mass applause, it was a unique experience that couldn't be replicated by anything else in the world. Already a few people started to join Curt among est the outskirts of the crowd, it wouldn't be long before his team and him would be just a few more member's of the crowd, well, sort of.

Only Flare and Whips could look over the crowd to see the arena, everyone else would have a bit of trouble seeing anything over the mass of people and taller Pokemon. Thus, Embertail and Jasper had ended up hopping on Curt's back to get a better view of the fight, while Lockjaw and Raviel hopped on Whips for the same reason, thankfully, smaller Pokemon resting on peoples shoulder's was a very common sight and wasn't going to turn any heads. Granted, the sight of Curt's Pokemon caused a few stares (particularly Whips, Flare, and Raviel) but they were used to that, heck, Curt couldn't count the number of times he turned his head to get a second glance at another trainer's Pokemon, it was all part of being a trainer. Just as Curt and his team was getting ready to join the crowd and watch the battles with the rest of Genosage town, a familiar voice caught his attention.

"Hey Curt", shouted a familiar man with a familiar Heliolisk. Embertail let out a gasp as he hopped off of Curt's shoulder and ran to meet the man, the Charmander had forged a bond with the trainer in a similar fashion that Curt had, and the Charmander wasted no time in extending his claw to shake job's hand. Another shuffle was heard as Raviel hopped off of Whips and walked over coolly to Jacob and Dexter, the Jolteon was quick to forge a...friendship with the Heliolisk, though he would never say that out loud.

"JACOB, DEXTER, HEY", Curt yelled to his friend as he followed Embertail to meet the trainer and the Heliolisk," heh, I should have figured you'd be here, are you fighting in the tourna-?"

"ATTENTION FESTIVAL GO'ER'S, THE GRAND DE LA VIE ET LA MORT TOURNAMENT IS ABOUT TO BEGIN, OUR FIRST CONTESTANT''S ARE MS. LUNA COHAN OF UNOVA AND MR.GERALD OF....of....uh...SMUDGE ON THE LAST NAME AND HOME REGION, BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE GERALD IN THIS TOURNAMENT, SO MS. LUNA AND GERALD, PLEASE HEAD TO THE ARENA, YOUR MATCH WILL BEGIN SHORTLY!", the announcer roared over the intercom. Already the size of the crowd was growing noticeably in size.

"Huh, looks like the tournament's starting, we better hop in the crowd while we still have a shot at getting a decent view of the battle", Curt said as he turned and pointed his thumb back to the crowd. Though Whips and the other's were saving their spot, they could only do so for so long without force.

"Eh-weher's Nero?", Embertail growled, giving a quizzical look at Jacob (though never losing his typical smile).

"Yeah, where is Nero, didn't feel like watching the tournament today", Curt asked Jacob as they headed back into the crowd," so anyway's, how you've been, no doubt entering the tournament, am I right? I mean, there's no way Nero is going to lose now that he can Mega Evolve!"

 

[Quake]

After the sun had set, the sky began to lose its grasp of the last traces of daylight, a shade of violet being pulled under the horizen slowly but surely. In the distance of this newfound darkness, a sillouette streaking through the air at blinding speeds was approaching a different light: hopefully belonging to Geosenge.

The sillouette turned out to consist of two individuals, a rider and a mound. "That's Geosenge, right?!" A young man of 17 by the name of Deo asked loudly and frantically, struggling to hear even himself over the roaring wind that whipped his fluffy orange hair into a frenzy. The entire back of his dark green coat fluttered widely as if it was a cape, not held down since the front was always open(Like Edward Elric's from Fullmetal Alchemist). Going at the speeds they were, Deo wore a pair of thick red goggles so he could see, as well as a pair of black leather gloves in order to grip a pair of large green antenna tightly.

Deo's ride, a Flygon by the name of Rei, didn't respond to his trainer's question, realizing it was rhetorical and that he was moreso just reassuring himself. Fourtunately, Deo's doubts were erased at the sight of various stones scattered across the town that characterized Geosenge so well. "Yes! Down!" Deo ordered anxiously to his Pokémon before diving towards the ground, fearing that he may have arrived too late.

The Flygon's sudden deceleration before landing created a powerful gust of wind, and Deo jumped off. Now that he was on his feet, one could observe his actual height. At 17, he stood at just 5'4", short and stout. His coat was obviously too large, reaching down below his knees and swaying loosely even in the now gentle breeze. The heavy panting of his Pokémon caught the teenager's attention, and he placed a hand on its head. "I'm so sorry, Rei" he apologized, struggling to keep his attention toward his pokemon despite the painful time constraint of the matter at hand. "I was so panicky that I overworked you throughout the whole flight. It's a good thing I didn't plan on using you in the first round anyways..." Deo felt uneasy at this potentially rude statement, so to prevent him from saying any other stupid remarks, he concluded with "Rest up" before returning the Dragon-Type into his Pokeball, placing it back into a silver case that he had been carrying at his side. Deo pulled off his goggles and let them hang around his neck, still needing to to move his relatively long hair to make his yellow-green eyes visible. They were stern, not nessecarily narrow but not wide either. Nevertheless, they along with thick eyebrows made Deo appear older than his true age. As he scanned his surroundings he was suprised slightly. He had assumed that Geosenge was dimly lit simply because it was a small, isolated town where even a celebration of Team Flare's defeat wouldn't bring it to life. By the sight of leftover food scattered across the ground, the confetti, the statues, and even a performing stage, Deo was wrong...and his fear had come true. There was definitely an exciting festival that took place...he was just LATE.

"No...nononoNONONONO!" Deo yelled instinctively, frantically running towards a woman who just HAD to be the registration clerk. She was packed up to leave, but at the same time she seemed to be frustrated at some papers she was looking at, talking on her phone as well as if to sort out some issue. She eventually noticed Deo when he made it to the front desk. "Are there is any spots left for the tournament?!" Aran asked her as calmy as possible. She lit up.
"...Nevermind, boss, I found someone." She hung up and turned her attention to Deo. "Actually, sir, there is one more! I was beginning to think that this would be the first time not all the slots would be taken up. Thus, we've been trying to sort out how the matchups would would with an odd number of people. Thank you for saving us the trouble!" She handed him a registration form, which he began filling out quickly, sighing as if a large weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
"You missed a good party," she told Deo, acknowledging his late arrival, and also possibly trying to strike up a conversation since there wasn't really anyone else around.
"I can tell," He responded as his pen streaked away across the form, alluding to the remnants of food, games, and other various human and Pokemon activities. "I'm not disappointed, though. I don't really do...social...interactions..." He lifted the pen and waved his hand strangely as if to make some sort of gesture to emphasize his point. The young woman lifted finger to her chin.
"Speaking of...a lot of people showed up to the festival, many of them trainers, yet only a few applied for the tournament. My theory is that many of them were planning to apply, but they chickened out due to the appearance of several strong-looking trainers. One of them even had a Hydreigon!"

The pen in Deo's hand halted abrubtly. His tone had changed. "...Is that so?" Without looking up to the clerk, he handed her the finished registration form. "Thank you for the information", he said finally before walking away, followed by a "Huh?" from the clerk.

Her statement had got Deo all riled up. He smiled from ear to ear in an almost creepy matter, and he lifted an arm, fist clenched with excitement. "Strong-looking trainers, huh? It seems that I've come to the right place. Oooohohoh...I'm going to enjoy this." On the way to the hotel, he spotted someone out of the corner of his eye, a woman several meters away sitting on a bench, the back of her head facing him, accompanied by a mass of purple fur he couldn't make out behind the wood. At first Deo didn't make much of her (other than the fact that she was sitting alone in the dark with nobody else around) and continued walking, but she inevitably caught his attention when she began to speak, whether or not it was towards him. He had never heard a voice so clearly from so far away before, even as an unforseen gust of wind invaded...

"Over silver oceans of bowing grass
beaded by sources obscure.
Over splendor of silence, so sweet and so pure
Dare we tremble?

Over tranquil susurration of river and stream
running forever beneath star's sheen,
guided by moon's frosty breath
Dare we breathe?

Beside the partner's of our dreams
Hearts drumming the same tune
From the beginning of time to our last afternoon..."

As he listened to the poem, Deo stood completely still. The words uttered began to alter his surroundings, or at least his perspective of them. The waves of grass reflecting off of the moonlight were more visible and alluring than he had ever seen, and other than her voice and the wind the silence was more prominent to him than it had ever been. As she had finished there was a pause, and strangely, Deo's body was trembling, and he was breathing heavily. After a few seconds, he gulped and took a step towards the chesnut-haired young woman, yearning to ask her a few questions and let her know that she had an audience. He stopped, however, a fear swelling up inside of him that he would lose something or learn something that he didn't want to know. At this odd moment, Deo wasn't even sure whether or not the girl was real; he wanted to keep it that way. Her words and voice had created an atmosphere of a supernatural dream, and thus they seemed delicate and precious...and yet at the same time, intimidating. Deo turned back slowly and headed to the hotel, his state of mind greatly altered by the simple encounter.

After Deo had set down his things in his hotel room, he changed into a simple T-shirt and shorts before bringing his public wardrobe to the laundry room. He went through what was to him a tedious task: throwing in his green hooded coat, leather gloves and grey cargo pants into the washing machine, waiting, and then pulling them out and shoving them into the dryer before heading back. Gazing around his room once more, He noticed that while nice, it was small. He hasn't seen most of his Pokémon in several hours, and unfourtunately he might need to wait until morning to catch up with them and prepare them for the tournament.

Deo hopped in the bed and yanked over covers over him. Besides, he was tired and disoriented. He wouldn't have anything useful to tell them. "The best thing I can do right now is sleep..."
~~~~~~~~

And yet he couldn't sleep for several hours. He sat upright and rubbed his face, his body sweating from the heat. To his left he noticed an area of floor that extended past the window behind the curtains. He hadn't realized before that the room had a balcony. He got out of bed and opened the slide door, breathing in deeply the refreshing midnight breeze as he stepped outside. Then one of the pokeballs in his case popped open, shooting out a red beam that took the shape of a Reuniclus.

"Oh, hey Cyta," Deo told the Psychic Type dully as she approached, turning his head slightly.
"Something's troubling you" A light, feminine voice said with a soft smile. "I don't need to read your mind to know. The others can tell as well."
Deo sighed. "I'm fine. You know I don't sleep well in hotel beds."
"This is different. You've never participated in a tournament this big before. You're nervous." There was a brief silence. "How do you think the audience will react to the way we...do things?"
The Reuniclus smiled a childish, toothless smile. "They might be suprised, or they might think nothing of it. Either way, we all think it's wonderful the way you've trained us, Even Echthra! Leave the battling to us!" Cyta was referring to Deo's Breloom, who with the exception of a few individuals develops a fiery hatred for everyone she meets. She was also his Pokémon for the first round of the tournament.
Deo smiled back. He always felt better after a glance of that adorable face. He walked back inside. "Thank you, Cyta. Now, let's give them a good show, if they can keep up, that is!" The Reuniclus was relieved that Deo had seemed to gain back his confidence as she was returned to her Pokeball. Deo climbed back in bed, calm and determined. Right before he entered a state of unconciousness, however, the image of the girl on the bench invaded his mind. Although he could not define some of her words he remembered, they seemed to extrude intelligence, wisdom, and power. If she was in-fact real, for a strange reason currently unknown to him, Deo hoped she would be entering the tournament...
"...I want to battle her..."
~~~~~~~~

Deo's morning was quite uneventful. He took a shower, got dressed, and took of for the tournament. Despite such an early morning, the sunlight was harsh, so Deo pulled his red goggles over his eyes and his hood over his head to compensate, cloaking most of his face in the process. He sent out all of his Pokémon just to give them the know-how before returning them. That is, except for two: Echthra needed to be out of her Pokeball so she would be warmed up for her battle later on, and Sorex, his Shiny Sandslash, was there to keep her in check, as he was pretty much the only Pokemon even from Deo's entire team that she would listen to. As the trio headed off towards the tournament and the surrounding crowd began to grow, Deo realized something and stopped, gazing around dumbly. "Uhhh...so...who are we facing, exactly? Better yet, where do the contestants even enter?! It can't be the same way that everyone else goes in. That would suck. The lines are so long..." He began walking again, but this time slow and hesitant, desparate looking for some kind of hint. Sorex shook his head; despite travelling so extensively, his trainer was sometimes quite oblivious and slow to retain knowledge as if he had little social smarts. Sure, he wasn't quite sure how this predicament came to be either, but hey, he's been in his Pokeball for quite some time. Since they're locked in a case as well, it's quite hard to observe the outside world.

Deo searched around for the least-busy looking people he could find, and sure enough, he spotted two guys that seemed to have just met themselves, as one of them yelled "Curt!" before approaching the other. The former was followed by a Heliolisk, while the one presumably named Curt seemed to be accompanied by...quite a large Charmander, a Ninetails, a Jolteon, and others. Deo ran up to them. "Is there a board with a list of the matchups for the tournament?!" He asked hurriedly but as politely as possible. While one of them seemed buffer than the other, they both easily stood six feet from Deo's perspective, so he had to look up at an angle in order to meet their faces. Meanwhile, Sorex gazed at the Ninetails' tails curiously. Or rather, the lack of one. Echthra simply delivered a cold, sour glare to any 'mon who glanced at her without moving her head.

 

[Curtkid]

"Huh, oh uh, hello there", Curt said, slightly startled by the orange haired mans sudden appearance, "yeah, their is a board over their but..uh, you might have trouble getting through the crowd..." Indeed, a large mass of people had already formed around them, making travel to just about anywhere extremely difficult, if not almost impossible. Plus (and Curt didn't dare say this out loud) he had a feeling the mans short stature would make it a tad difficult to make it through the crowd.

"Erout, rehy rheen reeh rah shreen", Embertail growled, pointing at the massive monitor hanging about the stadium's fighting arena.

"Oh yeah, that's right Embertail, the tournament's listings are displayed after every battle, if you just keep an eye on that after the first match you should be able to fi-....is that a shiny Sandslash?", Curt asked, completely loosing his train of thought at the sight of the rare Pokemon. Embertail, Lockjaw, and Jasper also, found their attention locked onto the rarely colored Pokemon, it wasn't everyday you saw a shiny Pokemon after all! Whips and Raviel's focus, however, seemed to be on the Breloom, which had a particularly nasty look on her face, like she was going to beat the snoot out of the next person that looked at her funny. Indeed, Lockjaw quickly caught Breloom's eye and hastily moved back over to where Whips and Raviel were standing. Raviel and Whips still kept their distance, but Raviel did softly bark something at Whips and Lockjaw (though one could almost swear he said it just loud enough so the Breloom could just barely make it out), Curt didn't know exactly what he said, but it caused the Dragonite to crack a small smile, however, it made Lockjaw's eye's grow wide in what appeared to be shock.

"Oh cool, I've only seen two other shiny Pokemon before, man, you are super lucky to ha-whu, what's he?", Curt said before he was cut off by a familiar voice in his head.

"(Curt, why don't you introduce us before you spend the next twenty minutes gawking at this mans Pokemon"),Flare told Curt through her telepathy. It was only now that he realized that the Sandslash was staring at Flare earlier, and that Flare was seemingly unnerved by such an act. Curt quickly berated himself mentally for getting distracted so easily.

"Oh, right, so, anyway's, I suppose I should introduce my team, this smiley Charmander is Embertail ("Errro"), the Cubone with the glowing-light blue club is Jasper, the large Dragonite behind me is Whips, the cowering Croconaw is named Lockjaw, the Jolteon with half an ear is Raviel, and last but not least, the Ninetales your Sandslash is staring at is Flare", Curt said with a smile. Embertail waved at the newly arrived group, Jasper merely raised her hand in gretting, Lockjaw nervously peeked out behind Whip's tail and gave a small wave, Whips and Raviel gave them a short, quick nod, while Flare gave them a bit more of a gracious bow off her head.

"And over their is Jacob and Dexter, I'll let them introduce themselves, so anyway's, if you want to see when you're up, just keep your eye on the screen after the first match, which should be starting as soon as Gerald and Luna get on the arena...you and your team are free to watch the fight with us if you want."

 

[Semper Iuvenis]

Zephious loved carriage rides. Then again, he loved most things that reminded him of pre-modern times. They just had a certain elegance, a beauty that went far beyond their uses.
But that isn't the only reason he was out riding on a carriage for he knew that carriages were just the right tool for a hopeless romantic like himself. Well, it would be the perfect tool if he could manage to find Bailey. If he didn't, then the necklace and tickets to seats in the podiums in the tournament - a.k.a. the best seats ever- were for waste.

He had been around town for a while now, his attempts still unrewarding. He checked the local hotel; no dice. He checked multiple restaurants, no luck either.

He continued until the announcement regarding the tournament starting had been made. Depressed that he had not found Bailey in time, Zephious directed the driver to turn around and go towards the stadium. He continued to sulk, why did his suprise have to be ruined by something so trivial as finding the one girl that could stand out in a crowd.

He then froze. As the carriage turned, the person he had been looking for had been put into his eye sight. He immediately ordered the driver to stop the carriage as he leaped off without any assistance.

"Hello once again m'lady, it's a pleasure to be graced by your presence once more. I couldn't help but notice that you looked a little lost, would you like me to take you somewhere in my carriage?" Zephious said with a tender tone.

 

[BurbleBurble]

Here it was. Time for the fight. One thing caught his attention though. Cohan. What was it with that name? Surely he had heard it before. Oh well, that was a mystery for another time. June also felt this name was familiar. When she looked at the crumpled magazine cover, there was that name again. Sue Cohan, movie star. No wonder she took offence to the magazine: they were related. A small giggle escape from her mouth, as she put two and two together.

Gerald was now on the battle field, patiently waiting for Luna to arrive. The crowds anticipation and excitement as they awaited the dark type trainer could be felt. June had taken her place as well: on the stairs leading to the battlefield, still browsing the back pages of the magazine. He wondered what would happen if Luna never showed up: would he win by default? Well, he was sure she would turn up. Eventually.

 

[Blue moon]

Luna was about to enter the arena when some round thing hit against her leg, and it definately wasn't Sombra.

"Jiggly..." said nervously the pink ball looking up at the trainer's eyes "puff?"

Luna's eyes open wide as she saw the pokemon. It's bright eyes, rebel fringe and extraodinary high voice... There was no doubt she knew that Jigglypuf. "Buffie?" she asked "What are you doing there you're suposed to be inside your..." that was the moment when she noticed the open pokeball inside her bag "What?"

The pokemon curved her lips on a little smile. "Oh, come on Buffie! This is not the time and I'm not in the mood, please. I'm about to enter a battle!" The pokemon's eyes began crying as she heard her trainer's words "Jiggly... Jiggly" she sobbed. "Oh, come on Buffy, just..." she sighed, there was nothing she could do about it. "Okay, you may watch the battle from the grandstands." Jigglypufs tears faded as she fastly hugged her trainer and ran away to the grandstands.

Luna slowly breath in as she approached the arena, now without the embarrasing sixth pokemon following her steps. Sombra was right behind her, with her bright red eyes focusing on their oponent and his Braixen (who was still holding the cursed magazine).

"Jiggly!" screamed the fairy pokemon a few metters behind them. How was she able to get cuh a fine place to watch the battle in so little time?! Maybe that was the adventages of being cute little pokemon.

Luna sighed, as she took one pokeball from her bag, ready to throw it when the battle started.

EDIT

"And the two competitors arrived the arena! The public is yelling from the grandstands, ready to support their favourite trainer as they wait anxously for the first pokemon to arrive.

"And the battle starts... NOW!"

"Go! Dilema!" exclaimed the blond trainer as she throwed the pokeball, letting go of her ghost type pokemon. The Mismagius purple dress swinging in the air as a malicious look crossed her eyes. A big smile took ti's place on her lips: she was ready to destroy whoever her oponent was going to be.

 

[BurbleBurble]

Even though the target was not dark type, it did not affect his choice. He snatched a pokeball off his belt and threw it, revealing the Pokemon he chose: His Scolipede, Million. The large Millipede towered over his trainer and, ready to battle. "Alright Million, you ready?" The Scolipede nodded in reply, prepared for his command.

"Alright, let start off strong with a toxic attack, Million!" The monstrous bug crawled towards his target, his claws filled with the noxious poison. As he reached his target, he stood up straight and lunged at Dilema. Gerald's plan was simple: if this missed, Venoshock. If it connected, a quick Venom Drench would weaken the Mismagius even more, leaving it susceptible to his more powerful physical attacks.

 

[Blue moon]

A rush of pain crossed it's way through Dilema's body. Luna, worried about her pokemon, decided to do something about it. "Fastly Dilema!" she exclaimed "Use your psychic!" The pokemon obeyed as her eyes began shining. Anyways, it had already been poisoned and she didn't have anything to do about it more than to hope her deffensive strategy would be strong enough as to make her last.

 

[BurbleBurble]

((OOC: Don't forget our posts need to be two paragraphs long, just thought I'd remind you))
Million was slammed back by the psychic, it was strong enough to keep him down for a few moments. This took Gerald by surprise, but he sighed of relief as he rose back up. "You okay, Million?" The millipede took a moment to responded, before nodding and letting out a reassuring "Scoli!"

"Alright then, it's time for Venom drench! Hit em' good, Million!" The Scolipede did as he was told, and while Venom drench was not a great move of his, it could still weaken Dilema to a point where his hard hitting physical moves would definitely do enough damage to take out the witch-like specter. His mouth frothed with strange green venom, before spitting it out in a jet at Dilema.

 

[Trucro]

Jacob was about to respond to Curt when another young man interrupted them.

"Is there a board with a list of the matchups for the tournament?!" The man was a bit shorter than Curt and Jacob, and he had orange hair as well. While Jacob never liked other people, there was something about another redhead that calmed him a bit. Curt began ranting, as he always did whenever they met new people. He talked about the tournament assignment board, and then Jacob stopped listening. He was more focused on the discolored Sandlash that stood at the new boy's feet. It had red frills coming out the back! What an interesting look! Jacob thought that they must be colored, until he looked closer. They appeared to be real.

While Jacob was lost in a trance looking at the Sandslash, Dexter (Heliolisk) began to investigate. The pokemon was always cautious, but he was also curious. He walked up to the Sandlash, tilted his head, and let out a few mumbled syllables. Dexter didn't usually take to other types of pokemon; he seemed to have an affinity for electric types, but few others. Still, the shiny Sandslash intrigued him. Jacob and Dexter really were very much alike.

Jacob snapped out of his trance when he heard Curt mention his name.

"Yea, uh, hi," he said. There was very little left to say, so he just leaned forward, providing an outstretched hand. "Nice to meet you." He tried not to look at the Sandslash, but he unconsciously caught a glimpse, and he had to say something. "That Sandslash really is something special, huh? How'd you find something like him?"

 

[Curtkid]

Curt watched the battle between Million and Dilema with wide eye's, Embertail and Jasper where already back on Curt's shoulder while Lockjaw and Raviel hoped on Whips. Flare was on her hind legs to elevate herself to see the battle, Curt made a remark on how she looked Curt on her hind leg's, which caused the Ninetales to blush and tell him to be quiet.
Over the commotion, Raviel and Dexter exchanged comments about the going on's of the battle

"So, Jacob, do you know who you're facing, you did say you entered the tournament right?", Curt asked the man. Curt remembered that, seeing as Nero could Mega Evolve into a Mega Blaziken, he would almost be a sure win for the tournament. If Jacob was entering the tournament, then Curt would definitely need to save Whips for Mega Nero, which would please the Dragonite to no end.

"Nero?", Embertail asked Jacob, no doubt curious as to where the Blaziken was. Whips also turned his head to look at Jacob, equally curious as to where one of his favorite rivals was off to. Curt, Jacob, and their teams had a lot of interaction over the past year and had quiet a few adventures, thus, they had formed quite a bond with each other.

 

[Trucro]

"Well," Jacob began, turning back to his friend Curt. "You know how Nero get's in a crowd. It's better for him... better for all of us if he stays in his pokeball for now." Jacob pulled on his belt as he thought about his pokemon. "Besides; I'm not signed up for this tournament! Watching the battles would only make him want to fight more." Jacob knew that if Nero was released, he'd be picking fights with every strong opponent around, and Jacob just didn't have the urge to battle at the moment.

Dexter had made his way over to Raviel. The two had met each other a while back, and Dexter really enjoyed the Jolteon. As electric types, they had a lot in common, Jacob supposed. The pokemon tilted his head back and forth before smiling and attempting to embrace the Eeveelution.

"But..." Jacob continued, looking directly at Embertail. "I'm sure I'll have Nero out at some point; don't worry buddy. Once some of this crowd clears out, I'll let him out to breath." Jacob turned to Curt. "What about you? You're in this tournament, right? After Slateport, I'd guess you have a reputation to uphold!"

 

[EspeonTheBest]

Bailey nearly jumped out of her skin as she watched Zephious make eye contact with her and then jump off the carriage. What if he had injured himself? Besides that Bailey felt very happy and somewhat relieved that she was able to talk to Zephious again- even if it were to be just for a few moments.

"Hello once again m'lady, it's a pleasure to be graced by your presence once more. I couldn't help but notice that you looked a little lost, would you like me to take you somewhere in my carriage?" The nobleman said- and Bailey could pick out the gentleness in his tone. She flushed a bit when he mentioned her looking last- though looking lost had become a normal look for Bailey. "I think that would be wonderful! If you don't mind if course." She smiled softly and felt Cosmo's vine leave her wrist. The large grass snakelike Pokemon slithered from behind Bailey to nod to Zephious before making her way to the carriage to greet the Rapidash.

Cosmo, though she was very aware of how dangerous fire types were to her, loved to talk to them. At first Bailey guessed that her Pokemon was trying to find out a way to defeat the blazing type, but eventually she found that Cosmo simply enjoyed talking to them. Ironically she doesn't enjoy conversations with grass types, but will be outgoing towards any other type. Unless they happen to wake her, in which case she'd be in no mood to make any friendly conversation.

A thought dawned on Bailey as she watched Cosmo go to greet the fire horses. "Oh, Zephious, I just realized I hadn't bought tickets yet. You're going in the direction of the stadium, so I assume that's where you're headed? I should have pre purchased those...oh I'm sorry. This is honestly pretty upsetting. I wonder if they'll let competitors in for free without a ticket?..." The traveler turned bright red as she realized that she didn't even have admission to the competition. If Cosmo were at her side there probably would have been some facepalming.

 

[Semper Iuvenis]

"Good thing I came prepared! I have two tickets to the best seats in the stadium. I was planning on inviting you there anyway, so it's a good thing that you didn't buy a ticket!" Zephious said as he checked his watch.

" Heavens we are late, the first battle started already! We better go, shall we?" he said offering his arm to help her into the carriage. Zephious was pleased, all was going according to plan, well, except for the being late part.

 

[EspeonTheBest]

Bailey smiled and accepted Zephious' help. With an apologetic smile to Cosmo she pulled out the Serperior's Pokeball and in a flash of red light, the snake disappeared. "I'm so sorry for the trouble, but it's very nice of you to offer me a ticket. I'm very excited to see everyone battle today! Who do you plan on using for your match against Curt?" Bailey's tone gradually grew from polite and gracious to enthusiastic as she tried to create small talk. Cosmo, within her Pokeball shook around a bit in protest, as she realized that asking Zephious about his plans would prompt him to ask about hers. Bailey knew that her plan was to be surprising, but she wasn't battling Zephious, instead she was against someone named Phi. She could explain her plan right?

"Oh, and if it's a secret that's fine too. I have a trick up my sleeve that I'm planning to use in my battle, though I'm not sure how long I could keep it up." She added after somewhat agreeing with her absent Pokemon. Cosmo never appriciated being stuck in her Pokeball, but she didn't object to it most times. The snake didn't appriciate planes due to the fact that many attendents note her weight as being 'too heavy' and she should count as two normal passengers. Being the regal Pokemon and all, Cosmo doesn't take such comments kindly and some innocent lady ends up with many leaves in her hair- twigs even if the Serperior is in a particularly sour mood. Bailey always ends up apologizing for the rude actions of her Pokemon, but she never gets mad at Cosmo or punishes her for any reason. It's an unspoken promise to just get along as friends, not as trainer and Pokemon. Friends don't punish other friends in Bailey's book.

Bailey looked around to see that Angel and Devil were missing, probably due to the fact that they were in their pokeballs. Her thought process could easily be as wrong as her sense of direction though, and the two well trained Pokemon could be simply wandering around the festival- which had now quieted due to the excitement all being in the stadium.

 

[Semper Iuvenis]

Zephious laughed. She was asking about his strategy? That was like the number one rule of what not to do as a trainer. Besides, what if Bailey won her round? Yes he liked her a lot, but he wouldn't let her beat him easily, it just wouldn't be respectful to her.

"I'm sorry, a magician never reveals his secrets, even to beautiful young women. You will just have to find out by watching like everyone else." Zephious said as he found himself staring into her eyes again, oh her beautiful eyes were captivating. Angel, who was in his pokéball, gave Zephious a telepathic slap on the head making him snap out of the trance.

A few more minutes of small talk occurred before they arrived at the V.I.P. entrance to the stadium. He hopped out of the carriage and offered his hand in assistance with yet another blush. Gosh, Zephious thought, she must think I am a complete loser by blushing all the time.

 

[Quake]

Deo pulled back his hood so he could follow Curt's finger point towards a wooden board in the distance, ever so far away over the sea of people and Pokemon scrambling to find seats. He tilted back forward only to fidget his head once again to the massive monitor above the stadium the charmander pointed at. There were two individuals currently projected on the screen: a confident looking, blonde haired young lady and a messy but seemingly jolly fellow with unusual red hair, far darker than Deo's brighter tint of orange.

After hearing an announcment calling the assumed individuals on the monitor to the battlefield, Deo made his decision. 'Oh, I suppose I don't need to see the board then. I'll just wait until I'm called, I suppose.' Despite the dense crowd, Deo could fourtunately use his short stature to sqeeze through the mass of flesh without too much difficulty when his time came. He turned around just about to thank Curt when the somewhat muscular man suddenly seemed to become distracted by Sorex, and after a few compliments began introducing his own Pokémon as if indirectly apologizing to them for showing so much interest in another trainer's Pokemon. Only when it had been called had Deo noticed the Dragonite standing right there! It was huge, easily towering above any human. This Whips rivaled Rei in height, and most likely weighed more. Is this man entering the tournament as well? If so, Deo's team would have a second dragon to look forward to facing!

As Deo agreed to Curt's offer to allow him to watch the tournament with them, it took a few moments for him to realize that Whips as well as his other Pokemon were bearing uneasy glances in a single direction- towards his Breloom. Her eyes barely visible under the mushroom-like rim of her head, Echthra expressed quite a devilish grin towards Lockjaw as the Croconaw hid behind the largest figures of his group, Whips and his trainer. Even under his thick goggles, Deo's reaction could be identified as far more cold than a few moments ago. "Echthra, I think you should get back inside for now..." He told her without so much as a glance in her direction, clicking open his case and returning her into her pokeball. She didn't seem suprised as she was enveloped in a glowing red light and sucked into the sphere. Deo never enjoyed returning his Pokemon against their will, but he couldn't have Echthra terrorizing the other Pokemon as she often did, especially when he was going to be hanging out with these guys for a bit.

Meanwhile, Sorex turned away from Flare with a blunt and somewhat quiet "Sorry...." in common Pokemon language(I think that's how it works, anyway? Either way, Flare has psychic powers so it doesn't matter) before refocusing on the Heliolisk that approached him, apparently named Dexter. Sorex waved a large pair of claws slowly in greeting. The taller but thinner man then introduced himself to Deo as Jacob and extended his hand, which Deo shook somewhat awkwardly. He noticed that his hair was orange as well, although somewhat shorter. 'Huh, neat.' Jacob then seemed to be intrigued with Sorex as well, asking where he had found him. Curt then cut in and the two likely friends engaged in a separate conversation Deo only caught parts of...namely the part about the Mega Blaziken. 'He has a Blaziken that can mega evolve?! Sucks that he's not in the tournament...'

Afrer he believed they had finished, Deo answered Jacob's question as briefly as possible. "Well, to put it simply, we've been together since I was quite young, back in my hometown of Rustboro in Hoenn. My mother is an archeologist working for the Steven Corporation. During a mining expedition, she found Sorex here curled up under the rubble of one of the explosions, just a little green Sandshrew. My father, a nurse of the local Pokemon Center, easily fixed up the suprisingly light injuries he had. Since his old territory became unlivable, we took him under our care ever since." Deo and Sorex looked towards each other cheerfully. "And now he travels with me!" The crowd around them began cheering with excitement. It seemed the tournament had finally begun. Deo turned around to face the stadium and sat down near where Jacob and Curt were, eager to watch the battle as well as continue the conversation, if possible over the often ear-piercing audience.

 

[Blue moon]

The poison type pokemon was putting up some hard battle, but Luna wouldn't just surrender her victory. She could already fell the tournament trophee between her fingers and she wasn't going to let go of that sensation because of some pison type worm.

The Scolipede was already recovering of the psychic attack and getting ready for the next one. "Alright then, it's time for Venom drench! Hit em' good, Million!" ordered Gerald to his pokemon. But Luna had already created a new plan that might get her some little time. "Come on Dilema!" she exclaimed "He's heading to you again, use your phantom force!" the pokemon obeyed, disappearing fleetingly from the arena, ready to appear right behind it's opponent. Great. She had just gotten a way to avoid Milion's attack and do some damage in the way. What she would have to worry about was it's pokemon resistance. Even if she'd manage to avoid some attacks, the poisoning was going to give her Mismagius a pretty hard battle. Afortunadely, she had some trick that would help her winning some extra time.

 

[EspeonTheBest]

Bailey accepted Zehious' help once again as she stepped down from the carriage. She smiled graciously, but inside her brain was screaming with different thoughts racing. 'At the stadium. Yay! Finally get to see battles! Wait- I have to battle too! Oh no, I don't even know my opponent!' She began to look a little dizzy, but that wasn't going to help her much either. 'Good lord Arceus! Now Zephious will think I don't like carriage rides because I'm dizzy... Ugh this is depressing.' Bailey finally grabbed hold of herself. She had only looked dizzy for a moment before regaining her control over her thoughts.

With hopes to cover up her moment Bailey tried to pick up a conversation. "Well that's fine. I wasn't really wanting to tell you my strategy either. I guess I will have to wait- won't I? Oh well. I'm looking forward to it." She commented continuing the earlier conversation about what plans and battle tactics would be used in their upcoming battles. Bailey hardly noticed Zephious' blushing through her newly found excitement for the battles. "I wonder how Luna is doing against Gerald." She said out loud accidently- she hadn't meant to sound like she was in a rush to catch the fight. Quickly her hands flew to her mouth and she looked down in apology. "Oh sorry, that wasn't very nice. It's my fault that you're late anyway. Here, I'll just follow you. Lead the way." Bailey nodded towards the V.I.P entrance to signal that Zephious can lead.

((@Zephious, Bailey will follow Zephious to the seats so you can add that to your next post if you want to. I won't mind and since I gave you permission it shouldn't count as character controlling.))

 

[Storybook]

If Phi had to commit one color to the battle everyone was currently watching, she would have to assign a dark, ghastly purple. Not only would it complement the typing of the battlers, but the color had that dark, swirling, boiling essence of trickery and venom. Phi's view of the battle was under that sickly, cascading, purple color, molting its hues to swirl beneath the eye, shifting shades as if flaking away, but always staying beneath the same range of venomous, midnight purple, and every clash of moves in this battle of trickery caused the color to squelch, ripple darker in her vision straight from the point of connection. And yet, the devious battle had the light air of competitive intensity, not for hate and terror, but for glory, and so pricks of platinum gleaned through the venomous shade, as if reflecting upon the spirit of Pokemon and trainer alike.

Phi and her Skuntank had perched, and plopped, in the coarse-haired Pokemon's case, upon the seats in the stage, having left the stadium for awhile before the battle began. She had been intensely yearning to reach the lake, but had, instead, resigned to her partner's insistence on prepping their teammate for battle, the heavy Skuntank looking perkier than he had all morning and, to an extent, all of last afternoon, as he guided the last minute strategizing. Even now, sprawled on the bench, his head was propped on her lap, and eyes watching narrowly the devious battle before them. She laid a hand upon his fluffy mass of a tail, shifted just slightly towards her belly from its seat upon his spine, and watched with him.

After the ghost Pokemon had momentarily vanished, Phi broke her gaze upon the battle to watch, instead, the Skuntank. His eyes were wider, intent, powerfully... curious? They gleamed in persistence, eager and strong, a far stretch from the dully amused look he beheld away from the field. The dream-like world she lived in always morphed the imagas she saw into works of art, so great she could only attempt to translate their allure, their articulate detail that washed away the mist of her mind, and so, too, did it muddle with her friend, so that the way she would describe his eyes, through the gristly strands of the mass of tail, were of crystals- delicate, transparent, glassy with intensity of desire. It struck her that he wished not to be in battle, but simply to bask in the intensity of four souls bent on having a good time, through strife, through struggle, through strategy, through power, and through friendship.

Again, she detected a stir within her, some shiver of... something, like a tremor, a tremble of some realization that she hadn't actually realized, so subtle, its detection could only be described as an act of imagination, only viable as truth upon a great change, a great abyss in the heroes journey. But it had not been enough to hold questioning, and she passed it over as a Pidgeot glides over the greatest tree in the forest without a second thought, instead turning back to her Skuntank, a sudden curiosity emerging in her head as a surge of affection breached it into consciousness. Here, it is important to note that the colors in her mind had turned a soothing mixture of creamy beige, and homely lilac.

Why was it that she, after years of coexistence, felt him more as a brother than a partner? Could human emotion be so powerful as to create maternal bonds where no blood ties breached?

 

[Semper Iuvenis]

Zephious escorted Bailey to the V.I.P. seating near ground level, enabling the people there to have a great view of the battle. They sat down in the front row of cushioned chairs as only the finest would do for Bailey. Some of the other people in the room who know him nodded respectfully while one man began to stare at Bailey. Seeing this he gave the man a cold stare in return, as he felt very possessive at the moment.

After the man stopped staring, Zephious turned his attention to the intense battle between the Skolipede and the Mismagius. Skolipede was going in for an attack when Mismagius just disappeared into thin-air, which he found to be impressive. He turned to Bailey, saying,"It seems like a good battle huh, who do you thinks gonna pull it off?"