[h2][center][color=92278f]Euphoria Caulfield[/color][/center][/h2] [center]From the Lab, through the Registration Queues, and to the very edge where Beryllium gives over to Route 9. (Interacting: [@Sho Minazuki], [@MechonRaptor])[/center] The easy smile stayed to clothe her lips, she could see and smell the indecision on him, but indecision was good. Always, always best to leave them guessing, even those you could perhaps claim as allies. Euphie didn't want the boy to be too comfortable, yet: in time, he'd see more. Him and all the rest of them, all of Chromis, even. She was hardly the foremost practitioner of physical contact, but a handshake she could endure. She reached out with her right to grip his left, kept her eyes and lips seemingly warm, so as not to make him bolt; began, [color=bc8dbf]"Ryan, then? Well, consider me pleased to meet y- [i]hey![/i]"[/color] Her smooth introduction was cleaved in two by her own surprised cry as she felt the Pokedex, resting in the grip of her offhand, wrenched from her with great speed. She knew the culprit, and furiously did she turn to face the Professor, all welcome gone from her face, mouth parted and ready to throw vitriol - but her planned, fiery criticism would not come: given that the Professor unceremoniously smacked her across the crown with the hard plastic device a fraction of moment later. [color=bc8dbf]"Arrgh!"[/color] was the unintelligent noise she instead produced, moreso in her shock and outrage than from the pain there was of the attack. The beginnings of the handshake; too, gone: her hand slipping the grip as she reflexively juddered downwards and backwards. But before she could escape or lash out, no! Now the Professor was clutching for purchase at her tangled hair, forcing her head bowed with unexpected strength - even as she squirmed, struggled, screeched (all of her prior control lost by this point) that she be released - she was drowned out as Grevilia ranted and raved, the harshly-spoken words floating past her ears like a rushing river as Euphoria's protests grew weaker and more pitiable by the moment. After what seemed like an age the Professor let Euphoria go, taking a moment to recover and regain her poise as Euphie herself stood stock-still, unresponsive. [color=fff200]"Now, here. This is yours now. And try to treat others with respect alright? Things do come around, after all."[/color] spoke the Professor measuredly as she once again offered the Pokedex as some surreal post-modern olive branch. Euphie slowly rose her head again, to look at the thing in Grevilia's hand. Her eyes, for a moment, were completely blank, like the screen of a long-obsolete machine. But she quickly regained... it wouldn't be accurate to say Euphie regained her prior balance, but she could at least find the snarl of a filthy mutt to stain her features, as she looked furiously to the Professor. [color=bc8dbf]"Give me that!"[/color] yelled Euphie, nearly sending the 'Dex flying from Grevilia's outstretched hand as she snapped her arm over the table to rip it from her grasp. Euphie then moved backwards very swiftly indeed, until she'd put a good 5 metres - as well as the table - between herself and the Professor. She stopped there, all her body tense, still trying to swallow what had happened. Euphie was not one to be used at all to feeling the abrasive touch and stung, self-righteous orders of others. And even when she had been exposed to that, on those few occasions? She had very swiftly and very proudly taken a disproportionate revenge. But now Euphie was faced with the fact she'd just been... she'd just been attacked, and insulted, and what could she even do about it...? She had no desire to run back and trade blows like a degenerate, especially considering she had a horrible feeling that the aged but shall we say [i]better-fed[/i] Professor would trounce her in that capacity, if she had to. And that was about all she had open to her. Her head hurt, and not just from the blow from the Pokedex. With a grandiose outrage, she stood at her nice safe distance and screeched insults. [color=bc8dbf]"You... y-you don't know just whom you're dealing with! Damn you!"[/color] She stomped the pristine floor petulantly, achieving nothing save to make herself momentarily seem 10 years' younger. [color=bc8dbf]"Don't think you've taught, that you can teach me anything... [i]hag![/i] Listen to me..."[/color] Calming down, just marginally, and trying to coax an intimidating staccato into her throat, [color=bc8dbf]"Listen to me... there is one thing you said, to be true. What goes around, [i]does[/i] come around. And someday, you [i]will[/i] regret this!"[/color] She felt more pathetic, more disgusting then as she stood there throwing tantrum than she scarce had before. But such loathing brought with it, clarity. A realisation she felt near-physically sick to think on, but one she could not deny. With this the second time in just a handful of days that she'd been insuled, publicly humiliated and forced to run... Euphie, she couldn't face it. She couldn't start from the start [i]again;[/i] alone, treading dark trails she didn't know, hungry and silent and... well, it turned her stomach, yet there wasn't much point in bemoaning it. It was sure to happen once again, courtesy of ill-judged pride. But involuntarily, and with a desperate squeak fraying and betraying at the edges of her attempts to speak with command: [color=bc8dbf]"Ryan. Ryan, I'm going to sign up, now. The League... the League, and the Contests too, I suppose. Come, come with me."[/color] Quietly, after that, but present... and to Euphie's own distress - [color=bc8dbf]"[i]...Please...[/i]"[/color] - Before she could debase herself any further, Euphie with a great effort forced herself to spin on her heel and march promptly out of the lab. She soon regained a face like thunder and her deep-seated, indignant anger, which was a lot more comfortable to her... than, whatever the Hell had been drawn out of her like a vile cumulative toxin, a few moments' prior. Back on better-trodden ground now. The PokePark. She fumbled in her pockets for her box of cigarettes; drew them out, glanced at them... thought better of it, and stowed them again. Instead, she stomped straight past the remnants of the queues. One tardy young lad who couldn't have been older than twelve was at the desk for the League, looking down at the page intently scribbling his name. Euphie leaned over him, tore away the pen - his signature now apparently read 'Benjamin Lans-wnnlnw' - shouted, [color=bc8dbf]"Out of my way!"[/color] and shoved him almost off his feet with a forceful left arm. She scribbled 'Euphoria Caulfield' quickly in her spidery handwriting and loped over to the Contest sign-up desk, where the young woman who'd just then come forward shrewdly stepped-back before the wild-eyed young woman with the scrappy violet-dyed ponytail could barge through her. Another momentary scribble, and Euphie speed-walked out of the PokePark before any of the young hopefuls could challenge her, almost before they realised what had even happened. It wasn't far from the lab to the city limits, and Euphie soon found herself standing in the shadow of a tall 'Come Back Soon!' sign adorned with the icon of a saccharine, smiling Emolga's face, which seemed solely to be there to poke fun at her state. She looked upon it bitterly, but then sighed, resigned. So this was Route 9, apparently. [color=bc8dbf]"No real better place to start... nor any place[i] worse.[/i] If I run now, I can be from this filthy city to another this side of nightfall. But... I'd best rest, first. That unnecessarily hasty escape's already taken it out of me. I should take a moment... calm down, forget, prepare. Can't let this new journey be started in bad faith."[/color] She shook her head, lips drawn, then sat down upon a little brick wall lining the road leading out of the city, tilted her neck to look up at the sky, the placid scrags of clouds overhead. [color=bc8dbf]"Because wherever you may begin: things will [i]always [/i]get worse."[/color]