@Joshua Tamashii@Valkan Now, I could have just continued that post all the way to where you actually receive your Pokémon, but I halted it in the moment where the two of you see each other, just in case. If you just want to go ahead and go forth to there, tell me about it. Though, yeah, Kalmia's likely going to have another guest in moments, so I probably don't want to write all the explanations twice. Haha.
@Pirouette There we go. Quick-catch accomplished, it was a fairly easy target but yes. Then I went ahead and moved you forth.
@Rune_Alchemist And your fight continues. And now that happened. Heh.
@Pyromaniacwolf@Pikmin Eye@Eklispe And you're all free to communicate to one another about your next intentions and declare what would be preferable of the others if you want, and... Haha. I'm still amused by this situation. I really hope I'm not alone in that.
There was suddenly some knocking on the door, making Kalmia’s eyes light up.
‘Ooo, that might be…!’ She said, standing up and smiling at Amelia. ‘Come along. This might be a new trainer, just like you were a day ago.’ And so she headed off into the main lab to answer the door.
Now, you don’t actually regularly sleep in Pokémon Centers, there are actual inns in the world, but a soft couch in the Pokémon Center was actually free assuming the stares and judgment of several nurses does not constitute payment. Regardless, he was free to stay there without having to use more of his now suddenly limited funds.
Wandering through Pureplain City…
Pureplain City is placed on the south-west brink of Isson, with the town facing the water and spreading quite far. The further in-town you go, the higher the buildings become, but the suburbs spread quite far. In terms of sheer landmass, it might even compete with Worldedge City, although maybe not in height. Life passes normally within this city. Children grow up alongside their parents in houses in the long, friendly streets. Jobs come from the depths of the town in the taller buildings. Schools grow from the reasonably high amount of children in need of tuition. And of course, there are lots of Pokémon.
In Pureplain City, human and Pokémon work together. Be it for manual labour or just for company, Pureplain houses often contain at least one house-hold Pokémon and there are many Trainer's Schools around the city have always been plentifully attended, not counting the recent drop of embarking trainers due to the Team Wars. In addition, Pureplain Harbor is known as the “Gateway of Isson”, as that’s where all the ferries from outside the region dock, giving life to quite the marketplace. A common attraction of the city is the Super Contest stage, but other than that, Pureplain remains what it has always been. Pure and plain.
… Should be fairly pleasant to walk around. There were families and Pokémon randomly walking the streets, walking Growlithes or Machops moving wares, and mostly it was a calm atmosphere in this plainest of cities.
So, Erza had reached Kalmia’s lab. It was a single-floor building with a sign that said “Pokémon Lab” on it that didn’t really look like a lab, and then an off-shoot on the right side which looked like a regular home that somehow leaned into the lab. Knowing he had probably found the right place, he knocked. It took a number of seconds, the seconds it took for Kalmia to come over to open the door, but soon enough, the door (which hadn’t been locked) opened.
+ lab-coat as described, because professor
‘There we have him! Erza Thompson!’ Kalmia said happily, obviously knowing him at a glance despite likely never having seen him before. She looked like everything was in order with her, excited to have someone more visiting, though her hair had signs of being recently wet.
‘I’m Professor Kalmia! Welcome to Isso- oh, my.’ She halted her welcome as her gaze drifted down to varying damages to his clothes, her expression shifting to one of worry. ‘You look more like you’ve come back from an adventure than starting one.’ She remarked, looking him over.
‘Come in, let’s see if we can do some damage analysis.’ She waved him in while she went back in. Now, she didn’t actually have any clothes for young men, but he could borrow a lab-coat.
The rectangular room had book-shelves placed in a circle around an area in the middle, not properly taking advantage of the space in the corners. The shelves contained varying books and papers of research, as well as the occasional Pokéballs. In the back and right, a large amount of what appeared to be computer servers filled about 40% of the available space, and they were coupled to Kalmia’s laptop which stood on a desk to the left of it. Other than the laptop, there was also a large amount of papers and binders on it, making it impossible to place anything else on there.
To the left was another table on which a Slowpoke was standing. It was… looking supremely happy for no clear reason, staring at nothing.
To the right of the table was a healing station from a Pokémon Center, with places to place six Pokéballs, along with a large cylinder thing with a glass middle and a hatch that one likely were to place something moderately large within. There was nothing that said what it actually was. While it was tight in here, it was still decently maneuverable and Kalmia knew where everything she wanted was.
There was a side-door to the right, with all probability leading to the off-shoot house on the side of the lab.
And Amelia may have followed along. If so, she was there, too. And if so, she’d see Erza.
Upon attacking the Poliwag, it definitely flinched and tried to spout water in reply. So it did… but the water it shot at them kind of didn’t harm. Sure, it showered them everywhere, making the air more humid. However, it didn’t even break any of the Double Teams. Sno could fairly easily Powder Snow the creature, although the ice wasn’t very effective she could keep at it without opposition. Though, at some point the Poliwag charged at her due to lack of other options. This however wasn’t a move Poliwag knew, so it counted as Struggle. However, it was unable to hit the real Sno and just crashed a couple of Double Teams. Erika was then able to throw her Pokéball and hope for the best. Upon impact, the Poliwag bounced away, but then went back into the ball with a flash. The ball fell down onto the ground.
It rolled once…
… twice, thrice.
Click.
Erika caught Poliwag!
Gender: ♀ Type: Water Personality: (Up to player.) Quirks/Talents/Aspirations/Other: (Up to player.) Level: 3 Moves: Water Sport Ability: Damp, prevents explosions while present. … To apply that in roleplaying terms, can cause status-condition “WET” to things on contact, which usually has zero effect but it does make things not explode. Feel free to come up with other clever uses. Held Item: None.
New Pokémon caught! Erika earned 1500 P!
Would you like to give a nickname to Poliwag?
Afterwards, she’d have that call.
Then, to make things easier, she managed to get all the way to the Wet Caverns. She made her way across the wet route and over the bridges, who thankfully had their guardians already engaged in battle with other travellers. Eventually, the path became more steep, going upwards towards a small mountain that stood in the way of those who sought to travel to Lakewatch Town from here. And eventually… here it was. The special little hole in the mountain.
Entrance of Wet Caverns
It’s just a hole, anyone can go in and attempt getting to the other side. It remains wild, just like the Pokémon that await within. But, outside the entrance were two boys. One was an excited boy in headphones pointing at the hole in the mountain, and the other, blonde boy was on his knees going through the contents of his backpack. Erika had seen them before, right at the beginning of her adventure.
‘And here we are! The Wet Caverns! The cave blocking the way of any newcomer wishing to progress to Lakewatch Town! Who knows what dangers lurks inside!? Regardless, it’s nothing that Joshua and Ewan can’t overcome!’ … Aaaand just in case Erika had forgotten their names, Joshua just told them.
Joshua put his hands on his hips, satisfied with his exclamation. After that, he got bored, and looked down to see what Ewan was doing. With that, he lost his smile and looked just a bit amazed instead.
‘And… huh, you stocked up a lot.’ Joshua stated.
‘I did.’ Ewan answered, placing an Escape Rope at its proper place. ‘Defeating those trainers on the way have earned both experience and money, allowing us to stock up items so we’re properly prepared for handling the Wet Caverns.’
‘Oh, so that’s what you were doing. Good thinking, my frie-’ Joshua lifted up a thumbs-up motion and commended his friend, before suddenly Ewan took out a wide piece of paper out of the bag which made Joshua jerk to, spinning 270 degrees before facing Ewan and pointing down with an alarmed look and pointy-finger. ‘WHAT IS THAT!?’ He shouted.
‘Uh. That’s a map of the Wet Caverns.’ Ewan answered, looking to his friend with a somewhat surprised expression.
‘I KNOW, I CAN TELL BY LOOKING AT IT! HOW DARE YOU RUIN THE AUTHENTICITY OF OUR JOURNEY BY-’ Joshua shouted waving his finger around.
‘There’s exactly ONE way through Wet Caverns, the rest are dead ends or paths to much more dangerous places. It’s reasonable to enter while prepared to-’ That’s as far as Ewan got before Joshua basically jumped him, grasping for the map probably intending to tear it apart with Ewan desperately trying to hold it out of his reach.
‘CHEATER! CHEATER! DROP THE MAP, DROP THE MAP NOW!’ Joshua shouted, reaching for the map.
‘I’ve already memorized-’ Ewan tried.
‘IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII DECIDE WHERE WE’LL BE GOING! You won’t be dragging your cheating through MY journey! HMPF!’ Joshua then stormed up on his feet and started marching at the cave with angry steps.
Ewan scratched the top of his head a bit, his expression passive but hair now in a mess after that, but otherwise gathered up the backpack including the map and started following after.
Erika could have eavesdropped on that, drawn attention to herself or just walked on by. The latter two, if done before the conclusion of that scene, could have changed the outcome if she found some reason for doing that. Otherwise, that’s about it, she’s free to enter behind them if she so with, or anything else. Her choice.
Mienfoo chased after Ritz, jumping from side to side a bit to avoid any potential distance-attacks though there were none and looked more to do it out of sheer habit to confuse an enemy. Meanwhile Meditite stood and aimed both hands in direction of Del, the Weedle looking like he would have considerable trouble getting away in time if the Meditite could get off the attack.
‘Mediiiiiiiiiiii…!’ The Meditite charged up, and didn’t seem to be particularly bothered by confusion any longer, and would most certainly hit…
‘TITE!?’ Then a slight purple flash happened, the Meditite’s eyes widened as it took the exact same mind-blow it was trying to deliver, from an angle of behind, and after that it was done. Meditite stumbled forward and crashed its head down into the ground. Meditite fainted.
So, Ralia had managed to get off her attack on Meditite…
‘FROAKIE!’ And then Froakie smacked her over her face with a straight Pound, sending Ralia at the very least stumbling away and taking a noteworthy amount of damage that was getting really dangerous. Froakie had relaxed, and managed to shake of the Confusion which had previously been inflicted on him. And now, he most certainly did not intend on letting down on his attack, and was going to pursue Ralia until he was done with her.
Ritz went for Mienfoo, just as the Mienfoo went for him. Mienfoo didn’t even try to dodge, it jumped straight through the Supersonic intent to overcome Confusion to land a solid Pound on Ritz. The sound-waves hit the weasel-like martial artist, it quivered a little as its head started spinning, but regardless jumped… and managed to overcome its Confusion to land a direct Pound on Ritz. This was while Meditite was being taken out by Ralia and Del was still dodging. This caused considerable damage, though Ritz wasn’t out yet, but that was a serious blow that took around half his remaining health. Mienfoo landed, still under the effects of Confusion, but turned to Ritz again intent to try to take him out.
So, it was now a 3v2, but all Claire’s Pokémon were decently damaged (bar Lure), while Mienfoo and Froakie were both relatively unharmed (bar a confusion on Froakie and Mienfoo’s current confusion). The two remaining Pokémon were ignoring Del and going for Ralia and Ritz respectively. And…
‘HEY! THAT’S MINE!’ The red-headed trainer suddenly went wide-eyed and pointed at Lure’s nugget. This excluding all the matter of baiting trainers here using it. She suddenly dashed forward, straight across Del’s line to the other two Pokémon directly towards Lure, intent on jumping and attempting to either snatch the nugget from her or entirely catching her in the air with her arms. She was rather physically fit, but there was a distance to Lure (who was also right next to Claire) so both trainer and Pokémon was given a considerable moment to react.
‘Not ours!? It wasn’t hers to begin with!’ Karl shouted with a frown. ‘She’s Team Amethyst! She stole it! I’m not returning it!’
‘DUCKLETT…!’ The blue duck he was wrestling with complained loudly. To any present Pokémon, what Ducklett just shouted was “SHE DID NOT STEAL ME…!”, which of course was lost on all trainers.
‘Karl, this might be dangerous…’ Anabelle stepped a little backwards seeing all Pokémon that were gathering, opposing them. Every once in a while she glanced at Dawkin with unsurety.
‘Shieldon, Tackle the Venipede, block it! Poliwag, shoot down the Houndour, Water Gun!’ Karl shouted out, completely reverting the defensive tactics.
‘Ngh. Klink, beware of embers, but Vice Grip Houndour. Snover… hide behind me for now.’ Anabelle said reluctantly, moving in front of Snover, looking at the situation. Snover didn’t look particularly bothered with that arrangement.
So, Lucian would find that his Pokémon were currently the only two actually running into the situation. Martin’s Nincada pulled back enough that Klink didn’t Vice Grip him and got to use Harden to counter Snover’s Leer, but that was the only Leer it got off. Meanwhile, Goldeen’s Tail Whip successfully decreased Klink’s defense.
Houndour would find that his target had been hidden behind its trainer, Anabelle using herself as a shield for her Snover. Instead, Poliwag and Klink moved to counter him, Poliwag preparing to Water Gun him and Klink was going to try to hit him between the cogs for a Vice Grip. He could get an Ember off, but with Poliwag there it was an highly exposed situation. For Venipede, Shieldon moved and blocked his way, glaring and charging. Now, Venipede was faster than Shieldon and could likely outmaneuver the shield-bearing quadruped to reach Poliwag, but that’d put him in the middle of a group of enemies as Poliwag was in the back. Would they proceed?
‘They used Ducklett as bait to escape us, so we assumed…’ Anabelle started explaining, but she hardly had much time to explain when a battle was already breaking out in front of her. She may continue this explanation next post if nothing prevents her from it.
Heh. At the time I created Mariette in the earlier game, most people were balanced, with perhaps the exception of Penny. Sure, they had invested differently, but they all could handle themselves. That, plus my rolls, inspired me to make Mariette as she is. Besides, she has two liquid harpy bodyguards that make up for that, slightly. I like her like that, I can tell stories using her. Haha.
@Valkan@TheIrishJJ So, speaking of nothing, the others got a beginning battle with a rival at the start of the game. I'm going to give you two an option. Would you like one of those or just jump out into the world without "delay"?
@Pyromaniacwolf Alright, nicely posted. Teh-heh, going right ahead.
@Eklispe And nicely posted. Don't worry about delay, I've been delayed myself. Quite a situation you've found yourself in, eh? Haha. Anyways.
Alright, time to post, when I can find the time. The majority is already written, but today's a busy day.
@TheIrishJJ And you're free to write a post about heading to Kalmia's lab. That's where you start your journey, after all. If you post before me, there'll be someone else at the door. If you post after me, that person will have been let in. And if you want something else, talk to me about it and we'll see what we'll do. Heh.
Heh, do you have a plan on how to find her? Have you briefed the rest of the team on her power/situation? I may have missed/forgotten if you did, but this made me start wondering.
Edit: Then again, you've said her name now. So, the rest/someone else might know. She's not an unknown, after all. She's directed the Protectorate at villains at some occasions while invisible displaying messages to them and some random blasts of light around town has been attributed to her.
My post assumes that what happened in Eklispe's post doesn't change in any way as the result of Wisp's actions, and that she was able to roll out of the whirlwind beneath it.
Things started spinning around her again. That was fine, she had assumed it would, hence why she was this close to him. This did not mean she did not feel absolutely terrified that something would suddenly come crashing into her. She knelt after him on the side of the raised knee, taking care to be as silent as possible with one hand over her mouth, keeping herself slightly behind him with her head low in case he swiped with his arm. But, despite her 360 degree vision, she definitely wouldn’t be able to avoid an object on a collision-course with her, only see it. Small particles of dust were already hitting her due to sheer unavoidable spread, she really hoped that didn’t tip him off to her presence. She needed to make this a little less dangerous, if she could.
Okay, she had a plan for this. Short-term plan, but a plan nonetheless. She would make it a bit easier for him to see by connecting the pieces into spinning puzzle-pieces flying around his head in random directions, and in one of them she’d subtly insert the illusion of a goon behind him lifting a hand as if effecting him with a power. This would hopefully make him shoot out his arsenal in hope of destroying the cape, and then-
-Then suddenly a huge piece of metal railing came flying. Wisp was forewarned by her omnisight gained by taking light from all around her to direct to her eyes, but that didn’t mean it didn’t take a second before she could make her body react. She placed her hands on the floor and threw herself sideways, hopefully under the spinning whirlwind of things and let herself roll away covered in dust and small parts of items from the whirlwind, which all became invisible as it touched her from an outside perspective. Someone very attentive could have noticed some dust vanishing as she rolled off, perhaps heard the sound of her rolling on the floor, if it could be heard above the sound of metal railing clanging around or all Swarm’s debris hitting things.
The moment she threw herself Swarm’s vision would return as she left the range. Meaning maybe half a second or a third of a second before the railing came impacting.
She was quick to get up on her feet and move away from where she had been standing, inspecting the results of the thrown metal object. Seeing the result… wow. She may have underestimated Shatterpoint. She stepped back into a corner, somewhat scared and still invisible. She couldn’t reply to his comment. What she just had experienced left her scared and unsure, the violence of the close impact shaking her.
D-don’t falter now!, she thought to herself, getting a little smile. You’ve helped him… this is progress! Necessary experience! You’re one step into the game now! Don’t stop so soon! You can’t be jaded by a single encounter! This is you, now! You’re CREEP!
‘… Teh-heh…’ Wisp swiftly gripped a hand over her mouth when she realized she had inadvertently let out a giggle. She then also swiftly relocated, just in case someone had heard her, her eyes wide with panic while she made her way across while still invisible. She was still a bit drunk from way too much excitement, the giggle had been in result of realizing she had survived, succeeded and been helpful. That was a potentially catastrophic mistake, don’t do that again, she mentally told herself.
She was still asking herself how far she’d go. She’d stop herself if it went too far, of course. But, for now… she followed after Shatterpoint. At some point, she might have sneaked closer to him to display a message, for his eyes only.
so, you were saying something about where we’d meet next?
Savo
Xaltwind
Lunamaria Hawke
Kon Kon
Floofenstein
RPM
Renose
Rune_Alchemist
