@Xaltwind

...Some battles are not meant to be fought.

And the expanse of eastern Evig stretched as far as the eye could see. To her right she could see the cityscape of Grand Glory and past it green pastures, another forest, and a small town, past that were mountains that made up the Rheinvale Valley. Straight ahead she could see the great blue that was Lake Charity stretching for miles upon miles with many boats sailing along though there was a large amount clustered near the middle of the body of water, circling it. Directly across from her and the body of water was the walled castle town, Vastille. To her left she could see Route 9, a route littered by abandoned apartments from developments that never worked out for one reason to another and if she really squinted, she could see it, Evertide, home.

And then there was the gym, The gym was something to behold; a massive stadium that looked like it could house thousands of people sat on a branch protruding from the Elder Tree. It had a had a screen on it and then then played a video of an electric blonde girl dancing waving from the screen and then danced around with lightning trailing behind her steps. There also seemed to be some listed times for events. The Evig's League's symbol hovered by the entrance; a Pokeball surrounded by roots and a tree protruding from the top.

The contest hall, however, was built into one of the trees. One would get the vibe that it was a bit more sophisticated than the gym, a place that was meant to show off impeccably bred, groomed, and trained Pokemon. It looked more like a theater, something that was meant to hold an orchestra or other cultural events similar in nature. It looked more like a building made of glass with wood framing, pillars of wood holding up arches and the roof. There were people gathered around there as if they were getting ready for a new event.

After all of that, she decided to catch and train.

So, with the electric tick locked and loaded, it would shoot an Electroweb at the bird-type Pokemon. Both times they were caught off guard and received super-effective damage, dazed from receiving enough damage that left them on the cusp of passing out. With a Pokeball thrown at them, they were absorbed into a beam of red light and then Pokeballs fell upon the wooden platforms with a gentle thud.





And further training for the tick and furball was scheduled though not for the fire dog, but that was probably for the best. Although electricity can also cause fires...

Anyway, the Joltik was able to shock plenty of birds out of the air with ease, but Sentret had a bit of trouble by comparison. These living acorns were a bit sturdy as if their exteriors were actually designed to take hits and they all knew Absorb so they were able to heal off tiny bits of damage. Luckily, there was at least some level difference between them, so Sentret was able to train a bit.



What does Evelyn wish to do now?

Connected Areas
Starbor Forest. A forest filled with ungodly huge trees and many secrets.
Lake Charity. A massive body of water. Used to travel between Starbor Village, Valstille City, and Florasong Town.
Blue Lichen Cave. South of Starbor Village.

---

@Lunarlord34

Well, a Pokemon was a Pokemon after all.



...And for some reason, three more of these things.







If she were quick to notice, she would have realized that she did not make any money off of these new catches. Maybe she could pawn them off to some unsuspecting person or even trade them, but who in the world would trade for a Magikarp when they could fish one?

Anyway, Steph beat the rest of them up with Glory and even though these defenseless pathetic fish did not offer much EXP, they beat up a lot of them.



Then Steph asked Freya to teach her how to take a photo with the phone. It was an especially excruciating amount of time trying to teach Steph how to do that since it involved teaching Steph how to actually navigate the phone. It wasn't fun for Freya, it wasn't fun for Steph, and it certainly was not fun for the Rotom that lived in her phone that could have done it for her anyway.

With that ordeal complete Steph would come to realize that there were not any unusual or anymore unique encounters in the harbor, at least for now. She would return to the main body of the city and walk around with a very exhausted looking Freya when she spotted one of those Machop that she saw earlier when she wandered around the city. It was carrying around a small steel beam on its shoulder when Steph with all of her gremlin energy approached it and started to flex her body.

The Machop looked up at her in with a silent understanding, placing the steel beam down and them began to flex its muscles, posing like a body builder with an intense gaze. One could feel the sparks fly from their intense gaze, as if they were about to throw down and fight at the drop of a hat. However, the Machop relaxed and with a smile and a single tear in its eye stretched its arm our for a handshake. It looked at her as if someone finally understood it. Machop wishes to follow Steph!



"...What the hell did I just watch?" Was all Freya could say.

Anyway, Steph's Bogan entourage then began to terrorize the wild denizens of Grand Glory. Dusk was essentially free of consequence to set fire to many normal types that could not fight back and Steve and... Are you taking the piss? Anyway, Steve and Remy while not able to enjoy the same type immunity privileges that Dusk had, they still were able to make some quick work done. Barra though was getting his shit pushed in and needed to be swapped in and out in order to get any form of training.



Now after all of that, they would arrive at the park, or really the park. While there were tiny parks in other areas of the city, when people talked about parks when visiting the city there was only one that mattered. Once they walked past fences made of pale bricks of stone and wrought iron, she was greeted by an expanse of nature curated by people.

---

@baraquiel

Yeah, Neil was certainly confused as to what was going on with Archie though the man had kids. He knew how they could be though Archie was very much getting into his role as a detective. One could almost hear the noir jazz playing softly in the background with the warm low fidelity of an old timey detective movie. The kind of movies where they still spoke in that Mid-Atlantic accent in order to actually be understood by audiences due to poor audio quality.

Of course, Neil was a bit exasperated with the boy's antics given the seriousness of the situation. However, he looked perplexed when presented with the bit of pink goo that was found on one of the handles of the incubator doors. "I'm in the dark as much as you in that regard. I guess it means that whoever or whatever came in left a trail. The police must've missed it."

However, that answer was not good enough and Archie, at least rightly so, called out Neil for hiding something. The large man heaved a sigh that sounded more like the rumbling breathing of a bear and said, "Some people deserve their privacy, Archie. Not me, but the people I employ. For a lack of a better phrase, many of them have less than scrupulous pasts. I hired them to let them have a second chance, to earn their place back in society though I am afraid to say that I suspect that it could be anyone of them."

Neil looked quite bothered by with this information, that one of the or many of the people he extended a helping hand towards could bite it. "I run a tight ship, so if anyone knew how to get past the security it would be them though I don't know how they figured out the password for the keypad. Only my wife and I would know it."

How does Archie react?

---

@Sanguine Rose

Neither Sage nor Faye would be deterred by the Espurr's Fake Out. The Eevee let out a Growl, causing the Espurr to tense in fear even though hearing an Eevee growl is not exactly the most intimidating thing in the world. It's like a little plushy that gained sentience and teeth and decided to choose violence and then following through with that decision, tackled the psychic cat down to the ground and pinned it to the sidewalk.

With a Pokeball in hand, Faye threw at the Espurr and it was absorbed into the little red and white ball in a beam of translucent red light before it fell to the ground.

It shook once...

It shook twice...

It shook thrice...!



The woman sighed with relief with her hand on her chest. "Thank you very much for your help. It's not like Snubby would've be that helpful; he would've just bellied up." She looked down at the Snubbull who looked at her with a dopey, happy gaze unaware of the trouble that it brought upon its owner. "You're luck you're so cute." She picked up the little fairy-type dog and looked at Faye with a grateful, yet apologetic smile.

[color=#34afe3]"I typically have, well, some people around for that, but they don't really know that I'm here... or anyone for that matter. It was supposed to be a surprise visit. My brother was supposed to start his journey as a trainer today and I wanted to surprise him. Kinda thought he would have received his starter and head straight to the gym."[color=#34afe3] She explained although Faye would get the feeling that she was holding something back.

The woman looked at her and Sage and then with an inquisitive look asked, "You look kinda new at this too. Have you met him by chance? Blonde, a bit too extra, and very pink?"

How does Faye respond?

---

@Shazamrock@Joshua Tamashii@Crusader Lord@Azure Bubbles

Okay, some stuff to sort out before pushing everyone out of the city.

The Nurse Joy looked at Clarissa with a smile and said, "You know how Pokemon can learn moves when they level up? Well, sometimes you can teach them moves that they can't learn on their own though the tutors do charge a fee. There are some circumstances when Pokemon can develop new moves through various circumstances, such as using a move or combining moves together, so don't be afraid to experiment." She then looked apologetic. "Ah, actually, all of the other cities were able to set theirs up. We faced some unexpected delays, but we should get them sorted out soon."

It also seemed like Kapoc hasn't sent her a reply yet. Perhaps he was busy?

If there is any last-minute shopping to be had, just let me know and I'll let you know how much it'll total in the next post.

So, if no one had anything else left to do then it was time to leave the starting city with their freshly acquired teams. Onward to Route 4!

Our entourage would see the city life of people and Pokemon going about their day, loud and ever bustling, but the closer they were to the city limits the activity lessened. The buildings also started to become smaller, more suburban until even these mundane homes disappeared too. The air became cleaner over time, free from the fumes and exhaust of vehicles. It was not long until she reached the official end of the city limits and stepped on a dirt path.

@Zarkun@Typical

And Jason and Claris sat down waiting in anticipation for these two gym leaders to start duking it out. They would watch as Astrid, the woman that spoke stepped behind a control panel and fiddled with could be assumed to be a keyboard. The stage then began to emit light, but said light began to twist into shape and have a grid like pattern like look like wired meshes they flashed brightly. The plain stage that was stood before was now a pool of water with various platforms floating on the surface. It looked real. That looked like real water and those platforms looked like they were made of something white and sturdy, but they looked like they could be touched and yet, this environment with no doubt was entirely simulated in real time.

Thora, the blonde girl that crackled with energy, bounced the balls of her heels with a grin as she rolled two Pokeballs in their small, inactive state between her fingers. "Ohhhhh? A watery battlefield huh? Now this looks like fun!" She chirped happily.

"A not entirely ideal battlefield, but I suppose that is the point." Sigrid, the black-haired woman, said with a small grin. She detached two Pokeballs from her belt and tossed them into the air. What came out in a flash of white light was a beautiful fox with nine tails that looked like a soft pile of snow. Its fur was an icy blue with tips as pure as white snow and drifted in the air like an aurora. The other was another icy companion though it had a much sharper edge to it. It was a bipedal shrew with icicles on its back as spines or a shell. Its claws looked like they could tear through glacial walls with ease.

Pokedex Entry #038-Ninetails the Fox Pokemon. It creates drops of ice in its coat and showers them over its enemies. Anyone who angers it will be frozen stiff in an instant.

Pokedex Entry #028-Ninetails the Mouse Pokemon. This Pokémon's steel spikes are sheathed in ice. Stabs from these spikes cause deep wounds and severe frostbite as well. A long, long time ago, it lived in the desert. With its sharp claws fully extended, it can run right up an iceberg without slipping.

The Ninetails threw its head into the air and howled and somehow, clouds began to form on the ceiling and flakes of snow began to fall down.

"You're really not going to make it easy on me, are you? Good!" She threw her Pokeballs out in the air and what came out was a, for a lack of a better word, a floating microwave with a mischievous grin and orange electricity surrounding its form, mimicking limbs. The other one was a towering, yellow gorilla of a creature with black markings surrounding its fur and two strange black tails with red tips.

Pokedex Entry #479-Rotom the Plasma Pokemon. This Rotom has possessed a convection microwave oven. It will sear the surrounding area with its burning heat, then smile in delight.
.

Pokedex Entry #466-Electivire the Thunderbolt Pokemon. When it gets excited, it thumps its chest. With every thud, thunder roars and electric sparks shower all around.

"You're not bringing out your ace?" Sigrid called out from the other side of the battlefield.

Thora called back. "And let you freeze his round butt? I don't think so."

They stood there silently, waiting for the battle to begin. Suddenly, Astrid shouted to begin, and they had a look in their eyes, the kind where sharks sniffed blood.

And it looked like Thora was first on the offensive!

"Rotom, use Discharge!" Thora ordered. The ghost haunting the microwave let out a battle cry and bolts of electricity flew from its body in every direction, not caring if it struck friend or foe.

Sigrid was quick to react.

"Sandslash, Protect! Ninetails, Aurora Veil!" The Sandslash braced itself and a sphere of green energy encapsulated it and the Ninetails howled again. An aurora flared up around both ice-types, various shades and hues danced around them like protective sigils. The Sandslash's protective barrier blocked the bolts of electricity perfectly, but the Ninetails was still struck though it shook off the blow quite easily. It did not look bothered much by the attack.

However, that same attack hit Thora's own Electivire, except it did not seem to be bothered by it. In fact, it was the opposite. The black markings on its body glowed with blue light as electricity travelled through its body and then crackled together at the tips of its tails like a Jacob's ladder. If anything, it seemed empowered.

Thora punched the air with a straight punch and flashed a grin. "Don't let up! Electivire, use Fire Punch on the Sandslash!" It was amazing how fast something as big and burly as that Electivire could move, but it moved like a flash. Its fist was cloaked in flame as it leaped towards the Sandlash though the icy shrew was faster. The Sandslash jumped out of the way with ease onto another platform while the burly electric type crashed onto the floating platform, causing it to wobble unsteadily upon impact and spraying water into the air.

Upon seeing an opening, Sigrid called out to her Ninetails. "Ninetails, use Moonblast!" The mouth of the Ninetail's opened and a sphere of pale blue moonlight charged, ready to hit the Electivire for some heavy damage.

Without wasting a moment, Thora commanded her Rotom. "Rotom, use Ally Switch!" It was a literally blink or you missed it moment. Somehow, a psychic force switched the Rotom and Electivire's places in the blink of an eye.

The Ninetails shot a sphere of pure moonlight at the Rotom, knocking it back from the force though it received not very effective damage. It shot a defiant look at the elegant fox.

"Ninetails, use Blizzard on the water!" Sigrid commanded with a point of her finger. Her Ninetails let out a deafening howl and a blizzard began to rage from the snowy winds it had summoned previously. The biting gales washed over the surface of the water, creating small swells before they froze over until the battlefield was covered in pristine ice in a matter of seconds.

Sigrid grinned confidently as she took control of the battlefield. "You've got stable footing now Sandslash! Ice Spinner on the Electivire!" The Sandslash curled up into a ball and very much like a certain hedgehog began to spin rapidly and flew like a blue blur straight towards the yellow yeti, gorilla thing. Thora had ordered Electivire to dodge and counterattack, but ice was not this Pokemon's natural terrain; it slipped on the smooth surface, losing its footing and suffered the first hard hit of the battle.

The Sandslash landed and then curled up into a ball again and spun towards the Thunderbolt Pokemon again. However, Thora was not going to take it standing up.

"Electivire, use Super Cell Slam on the icy surface as hard as you can!" Electricity crackled around Electivire as it rose its arms up into the air, clasping its hands together before bringing them down against the ground with a resounding boom! Shards and chunks of ice flew everywhere as the frozen surface broke, revealing the water beneath it as parts of the sheet of ice drifted away. The sudden force that travelled through the now broken frozen field caused the Sandslash to lose balance and skidded along one of the broken drifts of ice.

Thora's Rotom hovered with a malicious grin on its face as fire began to gather inside of its convection microwave door before it released in an overwhelming beam of fire. Before it could reduce the ice-type into atoms, the Ninetails had jumped in front of it and used Protect, using its own green barrier to protect its partner from being completely annihilated.

As soon as the Ninetails barrier was down, the next thing it saw was the flaming fist of the Electivire as Thora ordered it to do so. That fist connected with its body and sent the Ninetails skidding across the water like it weighed nothing, crashing through the floating ice until it landed on one of the floating platforms. By some grace of God, it stood back up though worse for wear. The shimmering colors of the aurora seemed to somehow have taken some of the brunt of the attack.

In retaliation, Sigrid ordered to keep going on the offensive. "Sandslash, use Drill Run on the Electivire!" The Sandslash began to spin like a drill and lunged itself towards it though Thora ordered Electivire to use Protect. It crossed its arms to summon a barrier to withstand the attack while the Rotom looked prepared to attack. However, a ghostly howl brought its attention back to the Ninetails that summoned another brutal Blizzard.

The Rotom breathed another devastating stream of fire, and the two attacks collided, meshing and swirling together into a sphere before exploding into a cloud of mist that covered the battlefield. There was a moment of silence and then the Pokemon all broke through it to lunge at each other before that same tone that started the battle rung through the battlefield.

"Okay, I think we should call it here. You're here to give a demonstration, not kill each other. Astrid called out before reverting the battlefield to how it was with a few clacking of keys. She walked in the middle and looked up at the audience. "As you can see, while they fought in conditions that were unideal, they were still able to adapt to the situation. Now, can some of you point out what strategies they employed? What were your take aways?"

Well, Jason, class is in session. Does he have any comments?

Detective Archie shook his head. "This is a problem. A problem indeed..." From out his pocket he procured a stack of hay and pretended it was a cigarette. He was puckering his bottom lip out too and started speaking in an accent reminiscent of how actors spoke during his grandfather's age.

"You always claim your security is supposed to be top of the line but here you are, betrayed by the very people you trusted. This is some tom-foolering, buck-whipping Mankey business, I tell ya that much!" Archie said.

While its Trainer was distracted by being too much into character, Bravos used its vines to grab his Rotom phone. It thought that there must be something in this that could help them. Maybe someone smart like the professor could tell them what to do next.

While fidgeting with the phone, Bravos managed to unknowingly scan the pink goo. It seemed that it was taking some time to analyse it as well. Archie didn't know about what Bravos was doing as he was busy thinking about what to do next.

"Well naturally, we need to talk to those people. Privacy means nothing in the name of justice, Sir Neil. We need to get to the bottom of this, or you might as well just give your entire farm to the culprit! If not now then when? When all your eggs are gone along with your Pokémon? Heh, no can do, sir! I'll do whatever it takes for justice or my name isn't Detective Archie! Will you do the same, Sir Neil? Hmmmmmmmmmmm?"

He stood on his tippy toes and glared up at Neil. Despite the stark height and build difference, the farmer could tell this young lad will not go down that easily once he set his sight on something.

---

---

After a bit of sightseeing, and taking some snazzy photos, it was off to get swole. Her not-so-distant run-in with that psychotic murder-mantis had left Evelyn with a bit of a bruise on her otherwise spotless ego. Naturally it wasn't just the fact that she hadn't been able to catch or beat it, or even just drive it off - no, Eve wasn't the type of girl who was too concerned with winning a fight to begin with. The real sting had come from being forced to litteraly throw herself onto the muddy ground, watch her precious poke-partners get banged up, and then finally having to run away after putting in so much hard work and effort. It... It was just a really bitter pill for the blonde to keep trying to swallow.

So! Off to train she went.

As expected of her beloved starter, Joltik had no issues with his selected program of getting stronger. The electro-spooder had no trouble downing bird after bird with its wide-covering Electroweb attack, coupled with its natural speed. Itwas almost a complete repeat of the situation on Route 4 with those duck-pokemon... Not quite as thorough of a thrashing, but still very one-sided. After the little guy had been at it for a while, Evelyn called for a break and the spider-mon returned to his mistress side, happily skittering around her legs.

"Good work, Joltik. You were great as usual. Who's a good boy?" She bent down, plucked him up and cradled the little fellow in her arms, giving him a healthy portion of head-scritches - which, we might add - the little bug seemed to be quite pleased with as he closed his eyes and chittered happily. When she put him down though, her Rotom Phone decided to take center-stage and promptly park itself in Eve's face.

"h-Hey, wha-"

Apparently, Joltik had gotten so much stronger during this session that he was ready to learn something new. Even let out a surprised 'ooh~' and quickly inspected the result. A move called [String Shot]... It... It let's the pokemon fire a string of sticky string that can ensnare, entangle and - most importantly - slow down an opponent. That... Would've been really useful against that Scyther earlier... But was it the right move to give up something Joltik already knew for? A hard choi-

"Oh, wait! The App! That's right. I don't have to really worry about it, right? We can just let you learn it later if we need it."

That's right, Eve! The power of Technology is AMAZING like that. And with that revelation, for now, Joltik was not taught String-Shot, and the move was safelty stored away in his Move Bank for later, should the electric bug ever need it, or Evelyn ever want him to learn it.

Aftera bit more praise and snuggles, it was Sentret's turn.

His training didn't go quite as well... Apparently these acorn-things were harder than you'd think. So after a bit of beating on, and being beaten on, the fuzzy bunny-rat was called back. Unlike Joltik, Sentret didn't learn any new moves or score an impressive track-record of not even getting hit, but the little fellow still had put in a lot of work. And, he had been instrumental in allowing them to last as long as they did against that damned sickle-armed forest-freak. So, Even squatted down a bit and gave him a goodbit of headpats too, along with praise. the fuzzball wasn't quite as overly excited as his spider-comrade, but it was clear he still enjoyed the attention.

Alright! Now on to the important stuff.

Which was of course, the catcherification of new pokemon! That's right, Eve had totally snubbed catching herself a bird of her own back in Grand Glory City, and that had been a mistake it seemed. There was just so much a critter that could fly could do for you. Not to mention, it would've been real beneficial against that scyh-- Yes, she wa still upset about it, okay!? Anyways... Time to correct that little mistake and get herself prepared for the future! And to that, little Spooder-buddy was called out again.

It didn't take long to find a new set of the flying types. The issue was, there were two different kinds. What's more, they were both kinda really cute. And while Evelyn, being a Elesa fangirl, had a decent amount of knowledge when it came to electric types, she was sadly very lacking when it came to knowing anything about flying types. Other then, y'know, the obvious fact that they got wrecked by her idol's prefer type. So... Yeah... There was a bit of debating internally. But, in the end, the choice proved to be rather simple.

If both of them were cute and she couldn't make a clear pick, then just catch them both and decide later!

"Joltik, go!"

And go it did. With a sparkling, sizzling, crackling web of high-voltaic doom, the gathered birds in the present location attempted to scatter and flee in a fit of panic as they saw the death-wall of zappy zappy pain come soaring towards them. Alas, not all were seated far enough to avoid getting caught and blasted, and there was a brief moment of a chorus of pain. But let's ignore that disturbing mental image and instead focus on how Eve chucked two balls at once, and tow different bitds! Now that's some artistic brilliancee! Training to throw those things really paid off, right? Nope, it was a complete fluke. 100% Pure, unadulterated luck. Of course, Eve didn't realize that herself, so ... Future embarrassment was likely going to be a thing...

But back to the newly captured 'mons.

after their respective balls calmed down and clicked, the girl power-walked on over and picked them both up, immediately sending the two fresh-caught birds into the world again. They fluttered in the air, looking around, perhaps feeling a bit dazed or confused. It only lasted for a few moments though, as they soon spotted their trainer and flew straight over to her. The Starly was brazen and brave, landing straight on Eve's shoulder and chirping happily - straing intently at its new master. The other one, the pikipek, instead opted to hover for a bit infront of the blonde teen, before landing on the ground an dseemed to be more interested in pecking at the dirt and sizing up Joltik, who was curious about the two new additions as well.

"Hmhm, welcome you two. Happy to have you." She spoke gently, and gave Starly a gentle tickle on her chin. She knelt down a bit to try and greet Pikipek too, but he seemed a bit ornery, letting out a 'Pik!' and flaring his wings when she tried to pat his cutesy little head. Well, not every pkemon you meet has to be a cuddly, soft and sweet marshmallow after all, some were just like this. They all had their own preferences and feelings and personalities.

Rising again, feeling only a bit rejected for not getting to pat her other new bird, Even recalled the two back to their balls. They were still really banged up after Joltik's attack, so it was best to let them rest. Joltik was thanked, again, and given more head-scritches, before being returned to his ball too. And with that, her goal had been met and she was again all set! Now... Time to head to the gorund again and... And... Oh... Oh no.... OH NO~!!!

"I... A... Right... I have to get on those hanging gondola things to get down again..." There was a very clear, very comedically loud gulp coming from Evelyn as she realized the immediate path ahead. But there was nothing for it! That was the path forward, so there was nothing else to do but suck it up and march on! You got this girl! You're a strong, beautiful, smart, independent woman who don't need no stairs!

A few minutes later...

Yeah, so, she was pale as a ghost in the face, sweating bullets and clenching her hands so tightly around the railing of the lift that you might've actually thought she was cramping. If the ride up had been unpleasant, the ride down was so, so much worse to deal with. Of course the twanging noise from the wires and occasional rocking wasn't exactly helping the situation, but there was just somehting - mentally - about riding in this exposed, open and poor-excuse-for-an-actual elevator that just sent shivers down Evelyn's spine. She was not doing this again!

Thankfully, terra firma was reached safely after what felt like an unwholeseome eternity. Once there, it was sraight on back over to the Pokemon Center, where Sentret and the new two new bird-friends, got themselves checked and patched up. While there, Even also made a decision about the aformentioned birds. While she'd wanted to get to know and grow closer to them, having two birds on hand just wasn't very tactically or strategically sound. Not that she had any intention of doing full-team battles or anything, but having a varied team would allow her to deal with more situations more easily.

Plus, Professor Coffee-Cup probably wanted something to research other than just capture-data, right? He had specficially given them the special task of going out and catching pokemon for him to research. So, it was probably a good time to come through on that end. Once she'd gotten her healed 'mons back, the teen girl stepped on over to the public PC in the center. There, she fiddled around for a bit, until she found what she was looking for.

Pokemon Storage.

Yep, it was there. Just like it was supposed to be. Picking up her Pikipek's ball, she placed it onto the little side-device for transfering and pressed the 'Store' button. A bit of crackling energy later, and Pikipek was now somewhere completely different. No longer in StarBURR Village, but aaaaall the way back in Grand Glory City, where Captain Capuccinoo could get to know the little guy as much as he wanted. Success!

Oh, wait... Speaking of new data and science and her job...

"Rotom, can I see my latest messages, please?"

The handy-dandy phone floated on up and displayed the newest stuff. And yup, there it was. Two notifications of her being slapped with some fresh new pokedollars for her efforts. That brought her total balance up to a whopping 9,000p now! Not too shabby.

Still, her time in the foresty forest of wooded woods was coming to an end. It had been a.. ... Experience... But looking at her map, well... The road ahead was starting to look a little... Uhm.. A little less appealing, if she were to keep going the way she was. So, naturally, time for a pivot! If going south was out of the question, what with swamps and marshes and caves and gah! Then, why not just circle on back a bit? Besides, who didn't love a nice, relaxing cruise across some clear, clean water while taking in the sights?

Alright! To get your sea-legs, Eve!

Thus, Even made her way on over to where she'd seen those ships from way up above. The time had come to sail across Lake Charity and head for... Oh, right... Uh... Well, Florasong sounded fragrant and colorful, so let's head there next!

Clarissa would be able to easily pick up on the palpable fear that came off the child who needed a couple of seconds to calm down, her grip on Mimikyu tightening until the Ghost let out a cry of discomfort. Once she was calm enough, Amelia turned towards the older trainers, her gaze on the as she spoke in a quiet voice.
"Um... I... I don't care where we go but um... would it be... would it be okay if we avoid Florasong? Please? I... I can't... I can't go there yet."

It didn't take psychic powers to see Amelia somewhat mildly freak out a bit at the mere mention of the town of Florasong...but why? Was it her hometown? Had something bad happened to her there? In any case she seemed to be trying to calm down, if nothing else, and feeling a pang of empathy that nearly made her wince Clarissa would turn to the younger girl and get on one knee down to her level. She would attempt to put some kind of reassuring hand on the smaller girl's shoulder as well, even if a bit awkwardly from the looks of it on her own end of things at least, before glancing over to the two boys for a moment (trying to to catch their eyes) and then looking back at Amelia again. At the same time, the new trainer was trying to keep herself in her usual more stoic state of appearance...not the best synergy, she figued, but her tone was at least calm as she'd move on to speak to the other girl.

"We can avoid Florasong for the time being. That won't be a problem."

She hoped. She really hoped. Because reflexively she was saying this to try to comfort Amelia. But Nils didn't seem to be the brash sort to throw such anxieties of another aside, at least, and Valerian-...er, she had no idea for the time being. Better to not let him handle sensitive situations from the sounds of it, though, given what she'd heard of him so far. Would need to see how he was on the road moving forward otherwise to get a better idea of him.



Well, the visit to the Pokemart had been an...interesting one at the very least. Maybe. Or it had the potential to be her worst possible decision making time period as of yet in her entire life. Because before her trip she'd been prepared, ready, set to start, gone over ideas of budgets, and her father had exhorted her to 'not worry too much about it' wile her mother had been a bit more supportive (albeit encouraging her to relax a bit too for that matter). Yet at the Pokemart she had gone and...w-well...after some thinking....had s-splurged a little on something out of the blue?

...

...

...

The psychic walked along with the others onto Route 4, somewhat a little gloomier in the way she carried herself, her suitcase of supplies and such sitting on her back like a backpack now as they moved along. A hand was holding each shoulder-slung strap of the suitcase she carried as she walked along, yet on the outside of her suitcase now sat something new that had been strapped to the right side of it. Sticking up a bit like a mundane flagpole, all shiny and new and such like, was a brand new Good Rod she had purchased at the Pokemart. A fishing rod. A fishing rod...for someone who had only been fishing aboout as many times as she had fingers on one hand in the past with her father at Gateon Port a few times.

But the better the rod, she'd read up prior to becoming a trainer, the more and better the Pokemon it could catch...right? Right?! So it'd be good to, say, do a bit of fishing in the rivers and lakes and such along the way to find even more Pokemen then, yeah?

So technically yes, it had been an utter and total impulse buy, sure, leaving her with only 2000P left to her name and nearly causing her to panic in the shop over the matter. Almost. She'd frozen up a little bit on the fly, really, as the reality had hit her at the very least. Yet 1500P of that had then been at least enough for her to buy three Potions (900P), two Antidotes (200P), and two more Pokeballs (400P) before she'd almost run out of money altogether. She at least was replenishing her Potions, and in case of poisonous types on the way she'd bought Antidotes as a precaution, and she was only three Pokeballs down from where she'd started her journey thus far as well at least. But still...ugh! It was so...so stupidly frustrating! B-But the price was outrageous anyways, right? It was 5000P for a blasted fishing rod of all things?! At least the last 500P she'd managdd to keep ahold of for now...

"Bun. Bun bun."

Sir Lopsalot would somewhat consolingly pat her head with a gentle touch from where he sat on her right shoulder now, at least, as they all walked along. The rest of her Pokemon, then, sat in their Pokeballs neatly and properly in usual fashion. Though she had promised Amelia to let her see her new Pokemon, so perhaps once they made it somewhere else or settled in somewhere eventually for the night that'd be a good time to show her the others.

Arriving at the start of Route 4, though, the psychic let out a small sigh and brought her eyes up to look about the place. Get a lay of the land. The road was one thing, even if they couldn't use it, and the footpath seemed a fair bit more rough yet adventerous in comparison. It was a simple enough a path forward, then, it seemed, despite how much greenery and such was around them. To her it was almost alien to some extent, to see so much green and lively wildlife around. It felt almost familiar to Agate Village in a sense due to the amount of green here, though that place had its own...oh, what was the word? Mood? Scene? Energy to it?

There would certainly be a lot to see along the way, though, depending on what direction they took mooving forward along Route 4. Good. That was good. Clarissa would then take out her Pokedex to see if any info was availible about the Route and its Pokemon thus far, hopingto get an idea of things as it rattled off some nearby Pokemon to her as well, before the glint of something old and stone in the daylight caught her eye after a minute or two. Said eye-catching glint then caught her full attention sooner than later in turn, before she would in kind put up her Rotom dex in an inner coat pocket once more.

"Hmm. Could we perhaps explore those ruins over there first?" she said, her tone picking up again to its normal calm as she looked around at the others, pointing in the direction of the ruins, "If that is amenable enough for you-...all......eh?"

"...Bun?"

Also, for some reason there was a black-haired girl (@Goggy) face first on the ground with a Wooper also face first on the ground. A boy was crouched down poking her with a stick.

Why was someone face down in the dirt and being poked with a stick? Actually, scratch that, why was the boy poking her with a stick in the first place? And why was a Wooper there in the same ground-placed-face position to boot?

Walking over without another word, then, she hoped the rest of the group would maybe catch up as she approached the downed girl and Pokemon. The psychic would first try to help up the peculiar little Wooper on the ground, Sir Lopsalot hopping off her shoulder to assist her in doing so with care, before turning her attention to the boy with the stick and breifly looking at him for a moment. She'd then silently turn her attention to the downed black-haired girl (@Goggy) and trying to help her up now as well. Er, at least as best as she could if nothing else...and unless the girl panicked while she did so or something to push her away while trying to help her at least.

"Ah, hello there by the way. I'm Clarissa," she'd say, somewhat awkwardly trying to introduce herself to the boy as she moved to help the girl and would turn her attention to her in turn, "And are you ok, miss?"

(([UPDATED 12/5/25] Note For GM: Clarissa began withh 7000P, spent 5000P on a Good Rod, 900P on three Potions, 200P on two Antidotes, and then her last 400P on two Pokeballs. Thus her remaining cash is 500P.))

@Remram@Shazamrock@Joshua Tamashii@Azure Bubbles@Goggy

Freya had just witnessed only the most peak of catching methods clearly. Steph's team was now an abomination of catching methods. Fishing, 'gifted', mutual respect of muscles and attempted food theft. Truly a a highlights reel for the ages already, and Steph was only on her first day. Though now with her new Machop, Bea, in tow, she unleashed Dusk upon the poor early game mons of the city. They never stood a chance. Though admittedly, the scales were evened a bit considering she was trying to use poor Barra, but she had grown almost concernedly appreciative of her little scaled splashing fish. There was just...something about him, she just thought he was neat you know? He had quickly become her favorite after Dusk.

With her level grinding done, for now, Steph now found herself in the park and whistled loudly at the sight before her. She wasn't much for visiting the city, let alone a park if she was there as she saw plenty of nature back on the farm, but even she had to appreciate the appeal of a place like this. Especially for city siders who wouldn't be particularly drawn to the more open and green fields of the countryside. Though she didn't really take much time to take in the sight, as she had things to do. She had a pokemon to fish out on the lake and a trainer school to check out after all!

"Whahtcha theenk weah lookin faw heah anywhys?" She figured Freya to be somewhat of a local to the area, at least a native of the region, so maybe she had heard of something while travelling the city. And it never hurt to strike up some small talk to give poor Freyja something else to think about considering the nonsense she had just witnessed in such a brief amount of time. If nothing else, sticking with Steph would be amusing. "If its a luyke, cahnt be nawthin too cruyzy. ineh' nao why theahs gawnna be a biieg boy thrahshin abeow' loike a Tauros in a china shawp just sweemmin round theah ya knaow? loike Oy would love ih' t' be a Horsea aw somethin, would love t' geh' a Kingdra, buh' doubt somethin loike thahts in a luyke."


It was the seahorse pokemon after all. But a girl could dream, and honestly from a logical standpoint, it could only be a handful of pokemon. But when did logic ever come into such equations anyway? At any rate, unless Steph noticed a grass type, and even then it would depend on the actual pokemon because no she isn't interested in a Petilli, or perhaps a wandering growlithe but she could wait on getting her hands on one but she would at least note they were in the area, she would make a beeline with presumably Freya in tow first towards the fishing stall where she would hopefully be able to purchase a good rod. If she cannot afford a good rod, then treat this as incoherent rambling and ignore this portion. She just wished to try and avoid fishing up Ruberts twin at this stage thank you.

Assuming 3500 was enough to get a good rod, then she would look to strike a conversation with whoever was running the pedal boat stand. She figured she would need one to get out into the middle of the lake after all. And thats where her designation was. Unless she didn't have the money to get both a good rod and to rent a boat, then she would simply go and pick a fight with one of the fishermen instead to earn some money.

Oh and she would try and overhear any nearby fishermen to see if she could hear anything or get any hints about what she might be looking for. Any information she could gather, the better. Once all these objectives were met, she would set out pretty much immediately and look to cast her line once she was out in the middle.

[TDLR; go and buy a good rod and rent a boat to get out into the middle of the lake where she would begin fishing for whatever it was she was looking for. In the event she cannot afford a good rod, ignore that portion. In the event she cannot afford a good rod and a rental boat, then she would just go pick a fight with a random fisherman. Also try and overhear any rumours about what she might be looking for out in the middle of the lake]

@Remram @Joshua Tamashii @Shazamrock@Crusader Lord @Goggy

Valerian had just finished shaking Nils’ hand, which was very unlike the dainty diplomatic handshakes he was used to, when he heard Amelia’s voice from his left.

“I thought I told you, if you don’t want to be treated like a prince, you shouldn’t introduce yourself as one.”

Valerian froze. He pressed a hand to his chest, aghast. “I… I was only being honest! One should never lie about one’s identity… But I did say I did not want to be treated differently.”

He wilted. Visibly. Aurelia Rose landed on his head and patted his hair reassuringly.

Val shook it off. “Nils,” Val repeated, smiling again. “Charming name. And Clarissa, yes? A pleasure.” He dipped his head politely to Tors as well.

Then Amelia turned pale, and Valerian tensed. He didn’t know the story, but he could feel the weight of something behind it. She asked quietly, if they could avoid Florasong. His voice softened in a way it rarely did. “You don’t need a reason, darling. If you don’t want to go there, we won’t.”

Nils suggested Stararbor instead, and relief washed over Amelia. Valerian placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Stararbor it is,” he said firmly. “It sounds infinitely preferable to… whatever Florasong represents for you.”

Aurelia Rose hovered down to nuzzle Amelia’s hair.

Then Val straightened and winked at the group. “Lead on fellow trainers!”

—

Valerian had never been outside a city this long before.

He loved it.

He hated it.

He was absolutely not used to dirt paths and unpaved hills, but the scenic majesty of it all? Stunning. The very real possibility of stepping on a living rock and being body-checked by a furious Geodude? Less stunning.

“Marvelous!” he declares. “Rustic! Untamed! Very… brown.”

Then, he spots them. A young woman lying face first on the ground with a Wooper. A boy was crouched down poking her with a stick. Valerian approached the boy. “I beg your pardon. Are you sure it’s appropriate to be poking her like that?”

Amelia braced herself, expecting to be asked why she wanted to avoid Florasong of all places. She expected to be grilled and to have to tell a story she wasn't ready to reveal just yet. The thought made her stomach tie up in knots to the point she almost felt sick. So, she braced herself for all the questions... and they never came? She looked up as one by one, her to be travel companions voiced that avoiding Florasong was fine and quickly settling on a different destination, that being Stararbor town. They didn't press her for information, instead simply taking her request and adapting to it. It was enough to leave her shocked for a few seconds before a smile returned to her face.
"That sounds like a good plan. And... thank you everyone." She said as Aurelia Rose nuzzled her hair, the words feeling inadequate to voice how thankful she really was. Maybe the day she could tell her story wasn't as far off as she initially thought it would be. But, for now it was something she would keep close and try to put off as much as possible, so that they might not worry about her health so much.

======================================

Sometime later, they would arrive on Route 4. On the way there, Clarissa had stopped to buy some things, among them being a fishing rod of some kind. It seemed like her friend was sort of regretting this decision on some level but Amelia wasn't sure what she could do to make things better so she remained silent on it. After all, if she asked, that might embarrass Clarissa and she didn't want to do that. Valerian seemed to be conflicted on the Route but she supposed, given his princely background, that he wasn't used to such places.
"I don't know if brown is what you should be focusing on. The grass is very green. And look at the river. With the sunlight, it's sparkling, kind of like Aurelia Rose's Fairy Wind." She said, trying to help him see more than just the worst possible things.

Phantump, meanwhile, had found himself a fresh victim in the form of a girl who was facedown in some nearby mud. The sparkly little stump phantump quietly floated over to her, getting as close to the girl's ear as possible before letting out a shout.
"

Amelia, remembering what had happened to Valerian, quickly moved over to the scene. As she did so, she began sensing some ghost-type pokemon and briefly considered going towards them but right now, the possible victim of her partner's little prank was a bigger priority.

The Wooper does not struggle as it is lifted off the ground and onto its feet, staring up at Clarissa with a small "Oop!" and trademark Wooper-look before waddling towards the face down girl and lightly bashing their head on their shoulder, seemingly unphased by the entire situation.

The girl in question emits a small groan from the dirt, "Ouugh... My head hurts... Why do I always trip..." she mutters as she was slowly helped off the ground, her eyes blurry as she recovered from the tumble she had took, looking at the gathered group of people before glancing at Clarissa, "Uh... Sorry, where- Oh, right! Thanks, yeah, I'm f-"

"

TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

"-iIII

IIIIIIINE!!"

Vivian screams, caught off guard as a Phantump suddenly appeared directly in front of her, causing her to tear herself from Clarissa's hands, scrambling back and tripping over the Wooper from before who had perfectly positioned itself behind her leg, causing her to slam down hard on her back. At the same time, both of Vivian's Pokeballs erupted, revealing a pair of warriors: A Galarian Farfetched who immediately took a defensive stance over Vivian's once again downed body, and a Golett that was using the eruption from its containment to launch a Fire Punch directly into Phantump's face.

Hit or miss, Atlas' offense would be cut short as Vivian, despite her pain, managed to quickly grab his Pokeball and return them, "Sorry! Sorry! He likes fighting!" she quickly shouts out before her arms flop back down to the ground, another groan of pain coming from her as Gawain continued to stand above her, staring at the group before him with a look that was more akin to a warrior sizing up a challenge.

Meanwhile, the Wooper, undeterred, simply wanders to Vivian's side again and mimics her pose once more, flopping back first onto the ground.

@baraquiel@GremlinAgain

Somehow, Archie's mother knew that the next time she'd see him that she would have to give him a spank for some reason.

Thankfully, Bravos was less inclined to follow too deeply in his trainer's antics and with some help from the Rotom that lived in the phone, it began to scan the pink goop. It then pinged and with its all too familiar robotic timbre read out an entry.



However, this seemed to have not gone under the notice of either Archie or Neil though the latter was dealing with this precocious little boy though it was obvious that the kid was not going to let up. On one hand, he knew that he should have just told the kid to go home or do something else, but for some reason he got the feeling that it would somehow be even more troublesome if Archie was left to his own devices.

"Okay, look, there is no feasible way that you can question that many people, but I can tell you that most of them are seasonal workers. They aren't here long, but we have core staff members that are here all year round. If there's anyone here that would likely be the thief, it would most likely be them. They know the inner workings of this place better than anyone else." He said as he lifted his hand and began to lift a finger while he listed each one of them off.

"There's Hurly, Robbie, Danny, Billy, and Bobby, and yes, those are actually their names. One of them should be manning the cameras right now and the rest of them are probably shearing some wool from the Mareep and Wooloo and milking some of the Miltanks. Who do you want to talk to first?"

What does Archie wish to do?

---

@Xaltwind

Well, it was less sea legs and more like lake legs though it certainly had less of a ring to it. Once she was back of terra firma she made her way to the docks and found a clearing...



Upon approaching the ticket stand, an elderly man would ask her for 50P, a rather meager sum for the rare privilege to travel from location to location comfortably. When she received a ticket, she would have to wait around with other people who were chatting with each other, or they were looking at the timetables impatiently though Evelyn would not need to wait long. A ferry arrived and people from their daily commute stepped off it one by one before she could enter.

Eventually, Evelyn could have her options of sitting outside and admire the mid-afternoon sky as the sun was just beginning to show signs that it was beginning its descent, or she could sit inside because lakes were prone to being windy around this time of day.

After a not so short period of time, she could see a town not too far off on the horizon. If she were to wait long, as if she had any choice at this point anyway, she would be rewarded. The ship would soon dock and...

---

@Lunarlord34

Yeah, 3500P was not going to be enough to buy a Good Rod. The Bogan was, to put it delicately, broke, but at the very least she was not as broke as Clarissa.

When asked about what kind of Pokemon she'd be looking for in the park, Freya rubbed her chin in thought as she pondered. "Could be a Poliwag, but that doesn't really match the rumors. The lake is connected by a river to Lake Charity and Lake Charity is connected to a river of melt off from Route 8 and Mt. Ymir. It could really be anything."

As for asking whatever fisherman that were around, they were not much help except they all had a common thing to say: whatever it was, it was a timid Pokemon. That was probably why they were having trouble even finding it in the first place.

Anyway, once all of that was done Freya and Steph would go to one to the stand and rent one of those Swanna pedal boats for 250P because I am not a monster though it was probably still too much money for the privilege to ride in an oversized rubber duck, but these were meant for ripping off tourists anyway. They would pedal their way into the middle of the lake in the Swanna Boat and cast their rods.

Thankfully, luck was on Steph's side this time and Rupert was not going to get a new friend today. Steph felt the line on her rod tug and with all of her strength she reeled it in. What broke through the surface was a very green fish with a large black mark along its back highlighted by a white stripe.



Freya looked at it with disbelief. "The heck is that thing doing here? It should be in one of the rivers and lakes by Route 8!"

What does Steph do?

---

@Joshua Tamashii @Shazamrock@Crusader Lord @Goggy@Azure Bubbles

The boy looked up at entourage that approached him and the girl kissing the earth. Clarissa introduced herself to him awkwardly. "Sup, call me Frankie." He responded calmly, understanding that this was certainly a weird looking situation. Frankie then glanced over to Valerian who questioned the appropriateness of poking passed out girls with sticks. "When you put it like that you make it sound like I'm the asshole here. I'm just checking to see if she's alive or not and I'm sure not going to touch a potential corpse."

This was then followed by Vivian groaning and slowly lifting herself off the ground. "See, alive although her pride is probably a foot in the grave." He commented to himself though his eyes were less focused on the crowd and more on a specific naughty ghost getting up to no good.

It then all happened so quickly; the Phantump shouted, Vivian's Pokemon came out in her defense, and Atlas went in guns, er, fist blazing. However, a flash of light came from a Pokeball and a little yellow lizard with sagging skin that resembled baggy pants threw a fist radiating cold energy and collided with Atlas' Fire Punch. The strange thing was that Atlas' felt like it could not throw all of its entire weight in that punch, as if it had been intimidated. A stream of steam flowed from between their fists.

The group's Rotom Phones read out the following entry.



However, at the same time Frankie's Rotom Phone hovered in front of him and read the entries of Atlas and Gawain though Frankie was more focused on the current situation at hand.

"Hey, hey, let's take it down a few notches, okay? We did some things that we aren't proud of, but I am sure that this can be resolved peacefully." He said in hopes to de-escalate the situation.

What does everyone do?

Connected Areas:

Grand Glory City
Starbor Forest

---

---

The 'dock' at StarBURR was... Quaint... To put it politely. Rustic would be another word that may have been apt to use. Still, it had everything you needed for a ferry-dock. A fishing hut for those people who wanted to enjoy the thrilling excersise of tricking a poor pokemon to bite a metal hook and then pull them out of their natural habitat, a bunch of benches where one could sit and pass the time by doing absolutely nothing, and... Well... That was pretty much it. The ticket booth, maybe, was another fixture? Kind of impressive that they could keep this whole shin-dig operational when they charged such a miniscule fee for travel. Then again, if at least a hundred people used the ferry each day, that sum would add up eventually.

Regardless, Evelyn spent very little time actually waiting at the docks. In what felt like a fast-forwarded time-lapse sequence, the boat soon arrived and ropped off its current load of passengers, before allowing the new flock from StarBURR to enter aboard - including our heroine!

The young blonde trainer opted for a comfortable seat by a window, rather than enjoying the breezy fresh air of the outdoor parts of the ship. Mostly becauwse it was just soooooo much comfier sitting on a padded chair, inside, shielded from the elements, rather than standing out in the splishy-splashy waves that were sending unfiltered lake water splashing about and gusts of wind making your hair an absolute mess! No thanks. Indoors suits this lil' lady just fine~



As the boat began to close in on the destination, Eve's eyes looked out the window - happy to see something other than the the placid lake's surface and the distant grandeur of untamed wilderness. The sight of a town, and one that was so preciously decorated, was a welcome and appreciated sight to behold. It was even more appreciated when the girl stepped out of the ferry and onto dry land again, and was greeted by the pleasantly fragrant and floral scents that wafted through the air.

Now, this was more like it! No giant-ass trees blocking the sky and making it seem like nighttime, no creepy crawly bug-types running around everywhere, no soda bottle-glasses wearing bug-nerds roaming the enire area.... Yeah, this was definitely more Eve's kind of place.

... Well, at least more so than that StarBURR place.

She could have done without the marathoning musicians and their back-and-forth game of musical tag... Sure, it added a lot of personality to the place and was enjoyable for a bit, but when you go from one genre to a completely different one, and different levels of musical talent and skill, the outcome isn't exactly a coherently enjoyable experience - at least not for those of us with a bit of class and good taste. Not that we're pointing fingers or anything here. Ahem~

Wandering quietly down the streets, admiring the scenery and smells, Eve waas momentarily lost in her own little world, forgetting about such unpleasant things like having to dive into mud or just barely avoiding decapitation by some green-scythed menace. Just a young lass, enjoying the surroundings and atmosphere, strolling leisurely down a street with no particular goal or destination in mind.

But, as she stepped past a potted plant on the ground, the girl paused. Looking down, there was a cute little pup-like pokemon sleeping snuggly next to it. The sight elicited a stereotypical 'Aaaaaaaaaawwwww~' from the girl. Alas, she restrained herself from disturbing the creature. Looking around though, she noted the other common critters roaming the township. Another kind of bug - though this one was at least musically inclined - along with some kind of rat-thing that looked like it'd had WAY too much coffeee. These latter two variants did not spur any interest in the teen though, and she proceeded on her aimless walk.

"Huh, I never looked around Stararbor for any rarer kinds of pokemon, did I?" She mused to herself ponderously lost in her own daydreaming reality. "I should check around here, just in case."

With that said, Eve decided to have a more in-depth investigation of this Florasong Town, to see if she could find anything that caught her eye in terms of pokemon. There was also the intriguing place knwon as Aria's Park, which was a must see location for someone like Evelyn.

Thus...!

Evelyn is searching around Florasong Town for rarer kinds of pokemon. She also intends to visit Aria's Park.

Bravos' ears flicked and its eyes widened in surprise once the Rotom phone finished scanning the specimen. It then tilted its head to the side, having a confused expression on its face as it never seen saw this Pokemon before. Then again, Bravos never really saw a lot of Pokemon especially when its past was taken into account.

The Spiny Nut Pokemon wanted to show its discovery to its Trainer but unfortunately, it seemed that Archie was too focused on the possible suspects for the investigation.

"What a bunch of silly-sounding names... My dad's scriptwriting friend could come up with names better than those!" Archie said. "Besides, the time and effort we put into this case is nothing compared to the anguish and fate that befell those innocent eggs! I'll interview every single one of them even if takes a month!"

"Ch-Chespin...!" Bravos tugged on Archie's sleeve and held the Rotom phone to him, while Archie nodded in response without looking at his partner Pokemon. "No, no, you're right Bravos. We shouldn't waste too much time. The more dillydally, the more the culprit can get away with this heinous crime! I can already picture them, sneering, laughing, mocking us... You won't get away with this, I tell ya!" He said with conviction while lifting a shaking fist up in the air.

"C'mon then, Sir Neil! Bring me to each and everyone of those men with silly-sounding names. Let's start with the one manning the cameras and make our way down the list. Bravos... Uh... Help keep a look-out for the thief. I trust ya, buddy!" Archie went and hugged Bravos before patting its helmet head and walking away with Neil.

Sighing dejectedly, Bravos looked at the Ditto's information displayed on the screen and decided to do its own investigation to help out too. While Archie and Neil interview the suspects, Bravos got out of the coop and snooped around to see any more clues they could've missed around the farm.

Regan Calhoun

@Remram

Nothing in the brochures. Yeah, maybe that wasn’t a typical thing tourists would be interested in. Maybe if it were some kind of unique power plant? Even then, you’d probably come here because you’d already heard about it and knew how to find it. Well, maybe she’d find something if she wandered around enough. She’d seen it on TV once, what was it called? A power something. They’d gotten a lawyer involved during the course of the episode, and they’d made it understandable enough to get the jokes, but it still went over her head a bit. He’d been a funny old man who liked to scoot around in his office chair.

Anyway. She managed to ask someone who actually knew about a recent occurrence of garbage raids. Le.. Meh? Le Meh?! She had a morbid curiosity to try the food, but had a looming suspicion her wallet wouldn’t stand for it. “Sounds..” she paused, and sat on her silence for a beat longer than necessary, “meh. Er, where is it?”

The man gave her some brief directions and, as she ran off, shouted after her for her to use her phone.

Ooh. That’s right. It did resemble one of those things, didn’t it? She’d just thought of it as a fancy pokedex, but now that he mentioned it. She dug her phone from her pocket, checked the path in front of her, and slowed to a walk for a moment while she figured out how to use the thing. At least, well enough to get to the map function and use it. Her peripheral vision was pretty good, she could dodge pedestrians.

“Le.. Meh.” She looked between the map and the line that got drawn on it, and the way she’d already been going, quickly, twice or thrice, before finally, “yeah.” She nodded and then continued her run after stowing the thing again.

She checked the RotomPhone as she approached the site, and slowing first to a jog and then to a calm walk. If it was recent enough, and the report she’d gotten from that guy was true, the critter might still be here. Even if not, it could have returned since then. She knew to take the time to walk and calm her breathing as she approached, if she wanted any chance of catching it.

---

Given that the group wasn't on a time constraint, they stopped by the Pokemart on their way out of the city. Nils had perused the wares at a leisurely pace as he thought about what he might need for the road ahead. He still had pokeballs, but since catching pokemon to record data and sending them back to Professor Kapoc was technically the task of his assistants, it would probably be a good idea to make sure he had plenty on hand. He definitely wanted potions in case they ran into trouble and didn't have easy access to a pokemon center, and as for anything else... well, after seeing Sir Lopsalot suffering from being poisoned earlier, Nils didn't want any of his pokemon to go through the same thing if he could help it - so at least one antidote. And... why not another status cleanser for good measure?

[ Purchase: Pokeball x3, Potion x2, Antidote x1, Paralyze Heal x1 ]
[ -1500p ]

That was probably good for now, at least until Nils could get a real sense of how the adventure was going to go. It was his first time being this far from home after all; long distance traveling was going to be a new experience. One that he was excited for, yes, but hard to know what to buy or bring since he'd never done it before.

But he was feeling pretty good about it, and still had a decent amount of money left over too. It was more than could be said about Clarissa on both accounts, and more than once Nils had given her a sympathetic smile when it looked like she was worrying too much over her purchase of a fishing rod. Fishing was fun! He was planning to do some himself before settling in for the night, if they ended up close to water. Of course he was also planning just to make a rod himself, but it wasn't like a professionally made one was a bad buy.

For now though, Route 4. It was nice; the rolling hills, the river streaked fields, the warm sun. The weather made for a pleasant trek so far as the group continued moving through the area. He did find himself laughing lightly at Valerian's description of the route. Nils cast his gaze over everything, from the terrain to the wild pokemon... and eventually slowed his pace from the others.

"I'm gonna do some battling I think, see what the pokemon around here are all about," Nils told the rest of the group. "Don't wait up for me, I'll catch back up soon."

[ Train Pokemon ]

And so while the others continued on the main path, Nils made a detour down a shallow embankment, drawing a pokeball from his pocket. It shouldn't take long, right? A couple of battles each for his team, and then he'd meet back up with Amelia, Clarissa, and Valerian again.

As the training got underway, a problem quickly became apparent to Nils: out of the four pokemon he currently had, three of them were weak to water. That meant that most of the team had to avoid the brook and its water-type pokemon. Those pokemon were left to Rau to deal with, while the rest took on the rock and normal-types.

They weren't at it for too long since Nils didn't want to be left behind by the rest of the group, but just long enough that he could start getting a feel for battling with the Aron and Igglybuff while also continuing to toughen up the Mudbray and Rattata. During the battling Nils considered what to do shore up his current roster's weakness. He wasn't the type that wanted to fill up all six slots as soon as possible, but... a grass or electric type would be good to add, and sooner than later. Maybe both at once, if there was a pokemon like that out there? Otherwise he didn't think it would be too difficult to at least find a grass-type either out there in the field or in the forest ahead once they got there.

As much as Nils may have wanted to let all of his pokemon walk around on the route with him following their little training session, he knew it would be too chaotic. For now, Tors was the lucky member of the team to remain outside of his ball as pokemon and trainer climbed up the little hill and returned to the road. He held his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun, but found no trace of his new friends.

"Can't have gotten that far though, right Tors?" Nils said, to which the mudbray replied, "Muu."

They started off after the group, though the first thing that caught Nils' eye was the tips of the nearby ruins as it gradually came into view. He hadn't really been a history nerd growing up, but in recent years his interest had grown. He was sure checking them out would at least be a little neat even if they weren't related to what he was looking for. Maybe he had time for another detour...

Which is when he heard people ahead of him. They must have been just a little past the ruins, or maybe next to them, but either way the very loud cry of a Phantump followed by a girl's shriek was impossible to mistake. Even if Nils hadn't think it was Amelia's partner that had shouted, he still would have investigated - and so he took off towards the source of the noise with Tors on his heels. When he arrived, skidding to a halt beside the trainers, he came upon a scene of an unfamiliar girl on the ground and an unfamiliar boy standing nearby, both with pokemon out in battle stances. Clarissa, Valerian, and Amelia were there too, along with the latter's Phantump.

...was a battle going on, or just about to start? Nils glanced at Amelia and asked her, "what's going on?"

@Xaltwind

Well, hopefully she had no allergies because there certainly was no escape from the pollen, or the music for that matter. Compared to the vastness and bustling industrious nature of Grand Glory or the glitz and glamour of Evertide, there was a comfort to be found in this small, colorful town. The music and flowers were important factors, but above all else it was the people. They simply lived their lives in peace and appreciation, enjoying the moment though not with complacency.

As she walked through the town, she found it slowly getting quieter. The music that had once made up the background noise of the town slowly faded. Evelyn would find herself standing in front of an arched wrought iron fencing with an arch that acted as the doorway. Walking through it, Evelyn would be greeted by a quite sight.

---

@baraquiel

At least the both of them decided to go and continue their investigation though communication has seemed to have fallen apart in some capacity. Archie followed Neil outside while Bravos sneaked away to conduct his own investigation away from his overly eager trainer.

Neil led Archie to one of the fenced off pastures, the ones with the Mareep and Wooloo that chewed away at the grass. Looking over them was a farmer that fit the more stereotypical image that Archie held before; tall, lanky man with a long graying beard wearing overalls, plaid, boots. He heard the trudge of Neil's boots and turned to look at him though he arched a wrinkled brow when he saw the little boy by his side.

"Hey boss, who's the kid?" The man gestured towards Archie.

"This Archie, he's, uh, here to help with the problem," said Neil.

The man looked at the boy with an amusedly and said wryly, "Playing detective huh kiddo? Well, if you need a name for your notebook or whatever you have, call me Robbie."

"Alright, where's everyone else right now?" Asked Neil.

Robbie shrugged and said, "Well, it's Hurly's turn to watch security, Billy and Bobbie are working the Tauros and Miltank, and Danny is resting off that leg injury. Nasty business, an angry Taurso got his leg though I suppose it's better than getting squished. What a way to start a morning. Want me to call them over?"

Neil nodded. "That would be great, Robbie."

They would watch as the older man fumbled around with a phone, his thumbs not exactly expertly navigating they digital keypad. "It'll take them a second. Well, Detective Archie, what would you like to ask me?"

Meanwhile, Bravos would walk around the farm unimpeded. As the little Chespin did, he would wander around the enclosed pens. As he walked around its perimeter, he would find something out of the ordinary, a little blue patch with flecks of dark red.

Now what do Archie and Bravos do?

---

@CitrusArms

Yes, Regan, technology is a wonderful thing. It could get anyone anywhere with basic know how though for someone like her that may something that she would have to grow accustom too, such as not sprinting through crowded city streets. People were reflexively dodging out of her way, some shouting at her to knock her antics off before she ran someone down. At the very least it was all hands free because Rotom Phones just hovered in front of their users with a Rotom fulfilling every request.

Eventually, she would arrive outside of a building and... yeah, it looked like a place that would be called 'Le Meh.' It was so plain, so uninspired that words failed to describe what the building even looked like as if it was some eldritch entity of blandness that would drive anyone to feeling 'Meh' instead of crazy. It was as if it was there just for this moment and as soon as she would leave it would be forgotten as if it was never there to begin with

Breaking the spell of mediocrity, Regan heard a loud BANG from an alleyway. Poking her head in, she could see a dumpster with its lid open with trash being flung everywhere. Really, she could have smelled it before she saw it and frankly the smell was as pretty as the restaurant was memorable. The oversized receptacle shook slightly as she also heard the sound of loud slurping and munching.

What does she do?

After a few moments, Vivian tilted her head up from her laying position, seeing that Atlas was still out of his Pokeball, their fists held up and ready to brawl despite the sheer intimidation of the Scraggy before them. For a brief moment, she looked at her hand… Then she let out a small sigh, hopping back to her feet in less than a second, “Sorry, Atlas likes fighting, and I’ve known him for less than a day but he’s very gung ho about it” she says, jogging up to the two mons, patting Atlas’s head, “Hey, it’s all good! Let’s just take a moment to relax. We aren’t fighting everyone we come across!” she says cheerfully, her words seemingly falling upon deaf ears.

But thankfully, Atlas eventually stepped back, shaking off the fist that had been intercepted by Scraggy and, without looking at its trainer, simply tapped their Pokeball with its finger, the telltale white light enveloping them and subsequently vanishing.

With Atlas now back, and Gawain now standing over the Wooper that had been mimicking Vivian’s movements, the archeologist turns to the rest, clearing her throat, “Apologies for the scene. My name is Vivian Sorex, one of Professor Kapoc’s new assistants and a girl on the hunt for ruins” she states, her hands on her hips and a proud expression on her face, “I take it you guys are also some of Kapoc’s assistants! And… One of you is the friend of the folks I found up by the ruins. Didja see them while coming over here? They’re really cool, there’s a ton of smooth black pillars that seem completely indestructible and when I touched them it gave me a strange static sound like a tv but one of the other guys who dressed like a cowboy for some reason didn’t get the static which makes it odd because-” Vivian continued, now about to go on a full rant unless she was stopped.

---

---

Well, this was impressive, to say the least. Evelyn couldn't help but just stare at the sight before her. Sure, there were gardens and flowerbeds back home, but nothing like this. The blonde trainer stared at the splendid marvel of botanic labor before her. And then she did what any teenage girl does when they see something they like - she pulled out her rotom phone and started snapping pics.

... Most of which included Evelyn, in some kind of pose... Because of course they did.

After spending a not insignificant time enjoying the sights and scents of Aria's POark, not to mention the serene and pleasant calm that came with not having street musicians on every single corner trying to play a constant marathon of music, it was time to get back to it! Adn what was it? That was a good question, seeing as Evelyn had yet to actually decide what she wanted to do or achieve with her pokemon journey - other than to become the brightest star of Evig, of course. But the 'how to' part of that plan was still very much in the planning-stages. Oh well.

After having poked around and looked at the pretty flowers, and taken a nice shot of the big white center-piece building, Eve concluded that she wasn't particularly keen on any of the immediately available pokemon who were wandering about the big, elegant garden. So, it was time to dig deeper! And so she did!

Well, not litteraly. It'd be incredibly disresepctful - and potentially a crime(?) - to start digging up the park without permission. No, Eve set out to try and scour the area for some potential new pokemon that hadn't been easily spotted by just casually walking around.

She did make sure not to walk in the way of other people while they were photographing though, or disturb the folks who were resting on benches or having their own little picnic. Best to leave others alone so they could enjoy the glorious flower-fiesta in whatever way they prefered. She was a sweetheart like that, after all.

Evelyn is now searching for Uncommon pokemon in Aria's Park.

Clarissa introduced herself to him awkwardly. "Sup, call me Frankie." He responded calmly, understanding that this was certainly a weird looking situation.

Well, he seemed calm enough about the situation. Not that it was anything but an odd one to say the least. But why had he been poking her with a stick though? Really? Then again perhaps-

The girl in question emits a small groan from the dirt, "Ouugh... My head hurts... Why do I always trip..." she mutters as she was slowly helped off the ground, her eyes blurry as she recovered from the tumble she had took, looking at the gathered group of people before glancing at Clarissa, "Uh... Sorry, where- Oh, right! Thanks, yeah, I'm f-"

Ah! The psychic let out a small sigh of relief. Clarissa was glad the girl seemed to have enough of her senses about her, for the time being, but at the same time the psychic felt something from her powers...as if it was moving closer to them? A presence that is. Well that seemed odd enough. A similar feeling came from the old ruins she could see afar, but right here with them? Maybe-

TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It took her but glancing up at the right moment (as old instincts admittedly kicked in)for the mischevious Phantump to appear, Amelia's it would seem, out of nowhere before shouting at the top of its little ethereal lungs in the once dirt-bound girl's ear. Consequently the shout would ring in the unfortunate psychic's ears as well, even as her grip on Vivian suddenly grew much tighter at the sudden attempt by the poor startled girl to rip herself free of her hands. It was, however, enough to yank the psychic forward with Vivian for a moment, at least before the grip she had on the other girl was ultimately broken (as it would be), and once detached from Vivian cause the former Orre girl to trip in turn over one of Vivian's feet as the other girl herself fell back over the once again comically-placed Wooper.

And then suddenly a number of things seemed to happen all at once to boot.

As two of Vivian's Pokemon erupted out of their Pokeballs to defend their trainer, one more proactively than the other, Clarissa hurtled into the ground with all the weight of her things on her back to help carry her. As the sudden new Scraggy entering the fray moved to block Atlas' punch, before the re-downed girl recalled him back again in kind, Sir Lopsalot would attempt to move into place to catch his falling trainer without a second thought...but it was too late. As her body somewhat twisted sideways due to the weight of her things on her back, the same weight that made stopping herself after Vivian broke free a bit less feasible than she'd have liked, the psychic would promptly hit the ground with a decently loud enough 'thud' as her little Buneary barely avoided getting turned into a small but adorable pancake.

In turn, two of Clarissa's Pokeballs would open on their own as two Pokemon shimmered into existence about her while Sir Lopsalot finished running over to where her head now lied after she'd ultimately fallen down on her left side. The first was something that looked like a literal sentient walking trashbag, but overall was just a little guy, a smaller fella' of a Pokemon who seemed to panic just a touch at the situation while also eyeing the Phantump back while his two little fists were held up as if he was...willing to fight despite himself? Huh. Meanwhile, the second Pokemon that emerged looked like a peculiar orange Igglybuff with feathers tinted with ember-like colors on its head instead of the trademark 'puff' of their Kantonian cousins. He would appear standing on the side of the downed Clarissa's backpack suitcase in kind, looking down to the side at her, at the downed Vivian, and then let out a tiny giggle before looking back up at the Phantump as if it could barely contain its amusement and laughter.

"Bffff...Bu...BUFF! Buff....iggly iggly iggly. Buff."

It eventually let out a notable laugh of its own at the scene, before seeming to make a critique to it in whatever language Pokemon species had been made to speak in for Arceus' sake. It was enough, however, to get Sir Lopsalot to look at him and put his tiny hands on his hips. Then as the two of them began to chat, the little walking trash bag with arms would also chirp in.

"Bun! Bun bun!"

"Buff buff. Iggly!"

"Bish? Trub trub trub trub trub. Bish bish."

"Buff? Buff buff, iggly."

"Bun."

"Trub!"

"Buuuuuufffff....buff."

Whatever conversation had just gone down, the odd Igglybuff would glance back at the psychic's face for a few silent moments before he let out his own little sigh of exasperation and Sir Lopsalot crossed his arms. The Igglybuff would then get down from Clarissa, albeit not before sticking his tongue out at Sir Lopsalot for what it was worth, and try to help the other two try to sit Clarissa back up at the very least. Or...well, they were trying to do so as best as they could, bless their little hearts, at the very least.

"Hmmpidhsthmm...."

A small murmuring of incomprehensible grumbling barely came from Clarissa's lips as she let her Pokemon try to help her sit up again, albeit she was slow to frankly join them as she eventually would try to sit up again (albeit slowly enough after the impact). Wasn't her first fall, and it surely wasn't going to be her last either, in the span of her lifetime. But in her mind, at least, she'd managed to hold back an outburst from her powers or voice alike at the last second, albeit that had come at the cost of not paying enough attention to catching herself in the fall.

Er, not that the sudden sideways turn of her fall had made it very viable either to catch herself, but it is what it was in any case. Yet the soreness emanating from the side of her head, left hip, and left arm for the moment being anyways as far as she could tell were benign enough. This, however, came second...even as her eyes looked at her right ankle and a small sigh of actual relief escaped as it didn't seemed to feel or be twisted as she rolled her right foot a little to check it out.

'Good'

@Remram@Shazamrock@Joshua Tamashii@Azure Bubbles@Goggy

@Remram @Joshua Tamashii @Shazamrock@Crusader Lord@Goggy

Valerian’s looked at Frankie then the girl lying on the ground, one brow slightly raised. The boy’s defense of his stick method earned a light scoff. “So your instinct when seeing someone unconscious is ‘grab the nearest branch?’”

As the girl groaned and stirred, Valerian clasped his hands behind his back and tilted his head.

“Well. She lives,” he observed. “Points for that, I suppose.”

And then… chaos unfolded.

Phantump screamed. Clarissa lurched forward. Vivian flailed. The Wooper fell. Clarissa fell. Pokémon burst from Poké Balls like party poppers, and suddenly the scene was a blur of limbs, dust, and confused shouting.

Valerian didn’t rush forward, but his gaze lingered on Clarissa as her Pokémon scrambled to help. She had an Igglybuff! Yay! And a Trubbish… A lot less yay… “Clarissa, are you alright?” He asked quietly.

And then Vivian launched into a full archaeological monologue with all the energy of a caffeine-fueled professor.

Valerian exhaled slowly. “I enjoy your enthusiasm… But perhaps you should take a breath? Anyway… I am Prince Valerian Hardrada.” He announced, with a flourish of his hand. “Valerian will suffice. No, I don’t expect you to bow or faint or curtsey or gasp or whisper or take selfies. I only mention it because I prefer honesty to pretense, and I’d rather you hear it from me than your Rotom Phone five minutes later. I’ve been told that’s not how I’m supposed to introduce myself…” He said glancing at Amelia. “But I should not have to hide a major aspect of myself just to make others comfortable. I am a prince. And I want to be treated normally anyway.” With a quiet breath, Valerian dusted his pink blazer, and stood a little straighter. “Let’s continue before something else in this wild, beautiful disaster of a route decides to make itself known.”

The resulting chaos caused by on little mischievous ghost who saw an easy scare victim was both very impressive and overwhelming. So much happened so fast, Amelia had a hard time keeping up with everything but by the time it all ended, Vivian and Clarissa were on the ground, several pokemon looked ready to face off and Phantump... the little prankster was floating above it all, laughing at the scene. It was all all so much thst she barely registered Nils returning from his training. On one hand, Amelia knew this was simply the nature of most early stage Ghost-types... on the other though...
"Mimikyu, can you grab Phantump for me?" She said, looking down at the costumed mon in her arms.

"Mimi." Cane the reply before two shadowy arms shot forth, grabbing the now surprised Phantump and dragging it down to Amelia.

"Come Phantump." She said before moving over to Vivian, Clarissa, Frankie, and Valerian, Phantump bring pulled along in Mimikyu's claws. Once she had their attention, she would lower her head in an apologeticmanner. "I'm sorry about Phantump. I know he meant no harm but I think scaring you like that while you were recovering from your earlier fall. I hope you can forgive him."

Said Phantump, still trapped, looked between everyone, clearly confused on what it had done wrong. No one got hurt so all should be fine, right?

As an aside, Amelia did note Valerian's comments on her earlier advice and while she could respect his decision, the underlying tone did sting a bit. She had only meant to help, not cause offense.