I heard muscle girls. Also, looks like we've got the trap for Hero's reverse harem!
Also, @Sarcelle Renard, yep, though I would say he's a little more fleshed out this time around, though I did have to cut down his backstory, still might need to do some trimming to be fair.
Here's what I got for right now; I haven't put down an Arcana and completed his persona's abilities since I'm unsure about where he would fit throughout this all and would like to get some input as to where he might belong before making it definitive.
Edit: Arcana added, as well as a more condensed backstory, as well as his persona's capabilities at the moment.
Profile
Name::
Alexander Satou
Age::
17 / Second Year
Arcana::
Emperor
Personality Traits::
As far as they come, Alexander doesn't come off as the sociable type - and no, he isn't shy in the slightest. If anything, this Japanese-German boy is innately calm and stoic, coming off as somewhat standoffish to a fault. What further exemplifies these personality traits is how much of a stick in the mud he comes off as, usually condemning those he deems as lazy, indolent slackers as a bunch of incompetent people with no drive, sometimes even attempting to push them to act.
This overly serious, often pissed off temperament has resulted in him not being a popular guy to hang around, and further more, being referred to as a workaholic, a stunning mirror image of his mother in that aspect. There is a certain irony to being referred to her in this way, as he seeks to define himself through hard work, not because he was pushed or born with some form of talent, but because it was his own choice. Because of this, he also considers his favorite types of people to interact with to be "defiant" or at least those he sees as willing to push back against either his own provocations or others.
Alexander is also extremely frustrated when people interact with him in a particular way, namely when they try to flatter and suck up to the boy. He doesn't find it to be gratifying in the slightest; basically, it would be akin to lighting a stick of dynamite with an extremely short fuse. Aside from that, he is also unusually blunt when it comes to his talks, mostly unafraid to speak his own mind on the topic at hand. This, coupled with his prior traits, isn't exactly giving him any points when it comes to making friends.
Outside this callous behavior, there is a good side in him. Somewhere. The way he tries to come off as friendly can either come off as forced due to trying to imitate other people and how they act friendly or can be a backhanded complement due to the delivery of the comment. Looking past that, however, he does have an affinity for attempting to encourage other people, namely when they pursue a subject out of their own volition. He'll try to properly put such a comment into words, but it can be difficult to pull off for him without coming off as rude or flat out condescending.
Background
Biography::
Alex has always desired the freedom of choice, but that desire has remained ephemeral, away from his finger tips for as long as he can remember. Despite his lax, famous fashionista of a father being open to his son choosing his own path, his mother, a stern German prosecutor, has always chosen for him. The control she held ranged from just about the most mundane of things, such as the clothes he wears to extremes such as pushing him to pursue the same career path as her. What's worse is, due to his father's fame, he has an abundance of fans, some of which who try to either take advantage of Alex or even go as far as to suggest that he gets into fashion like his dad.
And yet, he never displayed an affinity for the law nor keeping up with fashion trends. This was his life, a life he despised, yet went along with it, feeling it wouldn't amount to anything due to his true interests in the medical field. He only started pushing for it himself around middle school, but has remained largely silent about it towards his own family and others. However, this control exerted over him is something he has grown to hate as his interest in medicine grew; it even resulted in him getting a part-time job at the Kenkōichi Research Hospital.
Beyond that, Alexander doesn't have too many friends and isn't exactly the most popular guy to be around, as growing up he was infamous for his lack of tact and coming off as being insufferable to interact with, with this continuing into his attendance at Kenkōichi International Academy. It doesn't help on Alexander's side of the spectrum either due to his growing agitation of misplaced accreditation; it was always either a result of his father's fame or how much his mother must be pushing him to work hard, it was never his own success.
Beyond these issues, he has continued to remain vigilant in deferring to his own path, even with the onset of the mysterious Yellow Plague and the numerous other issues plaguing his social life.
Alexander takes the form of a majestic golden machine with a crown, if you couldn't tell by the picture alone. Still, both are neither stranger's to conflict and are more than willing to Bash some skulls, shadows or otherwise. Furthermore, their intimidating presence can lend well to lowering the defenses of enemies... that or Alexander just cast Rakunda, take your pick. Strangely enough, he can also heal with Dia; maybe he does care for his comrades more than most think. While he'll most likely learn some magic down the line, Alexander will focus primarily on physical damage.
Gear::
While Alexander is an Academic Athlete, he's also Athletic in general, participating activities such as Basketball and Kendo. Despite this, if he did have to fight with something, he would probably prefer it to be a Baton, but if he had to, he would utilize a Shinai. Yes, he does possess a Baton, used to be his mothers; heck, that was probably the thing that got him into Kendo in the first place.
Other items on his person include a wallet, cellphone, a water bottle or two, and sometimes his notebook. There's also the usual school supplies whenever he has a backpack on him.
"Live one," Jonas inquired for a moment as he glanced over to the person Clover pointed out. The doctor squinted his eyes at them and sighed, before trudging on, ignoring the sap in the snow. Or, well, he would of, if Clover hadn't deemed it necessary to assist them.
His shoulders drooped very briefly as he stared at the sky, rolling his eyes with a forlorn look that just said "ugh." Pivoting to analyze the person, he decided to just give the bunny a chance to inspect them, if only for him to scrutinize and discern if this soldier would be of any use to them. Then again, most of these troops were generic, faceless goons to him and nine times out of ten, he bet that this one was as well.
Jonas did raise an eyebrow upon seeing the visage of the lady and upon closer inspection, he recognized who this person was. Well, he didn't know their name, but he did see her plenty of times during their wild goose chase for Oh-One around the globe. The one constant MAVERICK soldier.
Upon completing his examination of the lass, Jonas just shrugged and continued walking towards the tower, "Forget about her for now, she's just another dime a dozen MAVERICK soldier. She isn't like Otsy in the Nomad sense," he couldn't help but stress these two details for Clover, as well as the entire group.
The girl's Ki was moderately higher than the average persons amount of Ki, at least from what he could gauge when he sensed their level. "Lets keep moving for now, if she lives, she lives and can make it to the fight. For now we can't waste any more t-"
Before he could finish his assertion, five CD's suddenly shot out from nowhere. Jonas would mistake it for an ambush if he didn't notice the designs on the front of them, as well as the hooting and hollering imbecile that decided to scream ninja and appear in front of him. The doctor could only give a hefty sigh as he rolled his he back, with his shoulders drooping.
"I can't believe I have to deal with this right now," realigning his head, he just pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head dismissively as the boy continued treating this as if it was some sort of game.
After being as subtle as an elephant stampede, he finally stopped after running up the side of a decently sized, mildly frosty stone and stood at the top. Jonas listened to whatever drivel he began spouting, feigning a stifled yawn as he continued to insult him and the group. These words meant as little as his crappy songs, speaking of which.
*Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap.*
Jonas pivoted and pressed his foot against the CD's that were embedded in the snow and broke them all in half with his boot in quick succession. It was the most entertaining thing he could get out of this one-sided conversation with Jaden.
"Right, because that metal tin can would carry the Power Stone on him at all times," Jonas reminisced to himself, recalling all those encounters with Oh-One. He didn't know about the others, but he did manage to discern that Oh-One was just sending them all on a wild goose chase, pretending the stone was on him.
He really should get around to telling them all that, but regardless, that was one issue he would handle later. In the now, there was this ronin rapper.
"If I'm embarrassing myself more than usual, then I wonder what that makes some of our encounters then," Jonas replied in an affable tone of voice, pretending to play polite as he gave a quaint smile to Jaden. "Need I remind you about the outcome of all our encounters, or have you already twisted them around to make you look like the victor in some of your latest songs," Jonas' smile shifted in viciousness as the tone of his voice gained a semblance of underlying mockery.
Jonas chuckled before brushing his short, blonde hair to the side, "Regardless, there are more pressing things to deal with at the moment besides your lack of creative talent in your latest flop." Looking over his shoulder he gestured towards his teammates to follow after him.
"Lets get going everyone, the clock is ticking and we need to beat Oh-One's shiny metal ass before he enacts his plan; Clover, again, leave the soldier alone, if they make it, they make it," Jonas glanced over his shoulder at his companions, waiting for them to move before he would start to walk towards the tower.
"And since ninja boy seems so keen on talking shit, if he tries anything, sabotage or all that jazz, put him down and return to the fight, though I doubt that'll take much effort to put him down," Jonas commented off-highhandedly as he sensed something transpiring in the distance. Two radiant energies that he had felt before.
Justin and Jill, both moving around in aggressive patterns. He furrowed his brows and squinted his eyes at the place. There was no time to waste.
Hah, so these bitches were supposed to be bona fide MAVERICK soldiers, yet their formation got taken out by a fucking faker! The One even if these fuckboys and girls were the real deal, he wasn't surprised that they couldn't handle the legendary One that was jettisoning towards the glacial beach after nabbing an intact life boat they had stashed with a bunch of other crap on board.
Did he damn a buncha' morons to an icy fate? Maybe. Did it look like he care? Fuck no, he was gonna wreck this sorry ass prototype's ass as he maneuvered the boat through the icy chunks, avoiding slamming into them like the bad ass he was.
The One could only stroke his goatee, thinking back to that one movie that was playing on that TV as a toothy smirk crossed his face. "Hell yeah, that's how I'm gonna make my fucking entrance," with that thought on the forefront of his mind, he swerved the boat to avoid capsizing it before taking hold of his hat and casting it forward.
And, presto. Snapping his fingers (even though no one is watching), he fired off a barrage of rockets at a specific angle into the ice sheet, ensuring the resulting blast would create a ramp in the process. The One would take advantage of this as he caught the returning hat, increasing the speed of the boat exponentially, until...
Ksshooosh!
The splashing of the chilling waves followed by the scraping of the hull against the ice sheet ensued as the boat soared through the air. Alright then, next was sticking the landing as he turned the high-powered propeller off as the vehicle began it descent, crashing onto the hardened beach with a strange, squishing sound as a part of the hull cracked as it made a rough landing.
It was probably nothing as the boat skid alongside the beach before The One front-flipped out, just as it crashed into some supplies. As he did this, he tossed his hat around, letting it spin around him to knockout any MAVERICK soldiers nearby him.
Yeah, that would show these cucknug...
... gets?
As soon as he caught the hat, he instantly realized there was no gunfire as he placed it back on his shiny, bald head, wiping his fingers across the edge as he analyzed the vicinity. Most, if not a majority of these soldiers were actually dead or bleeding out on this cold, cold landing. Blinking, he turned to look around, finding that there was a thin but fresh layer of blood that coated the ice behind him, with bits of metal and fleshy bits around the area...
... as well as an arm, yikes. The One strolled on over as he pulled a walking cane from his coat and extended the 'lethal' weapon. Pushing up the side of the boat, he squinted his eyes while making a smile o-face upon witnessing the scene.
"Oooh, that's gotta fuckin' sting. Eh at least he made for a badass entrance, even though there's no one FUCKING HERE," The One suddenly rose up and shouted, letting the boat come back down onto the corpse's face, smashing and crushing the mushy face even more as he sighed, pinching the bridge of his rose.
Seriously, who did this?! He was supposed to be the one to kick the asses of Abel's men, not some two-timing, random nobody who had severed these chucklefucks in twain! He swore on Gerard, that if he ever found that sonova bitch, he was gonna blow their fucking world up!
Shaking a fist at the planes as they plunged into the glacial unknowns, he cursed at that nobody who stole the limelight from him before twirling his cane and scanning the area for any survivors.
Well, from what he could tell, some of the men and women were holding onto dear life, and as much as he wanted to stick his cane up Oh-Ones shiny metal ass, he could at least interrogate some of these survivors. At least that was one caveat; after all, survivors were a dying breed.
Skedaddling over to the nearest MAVERICK soldier, The One crouched down and lifted up the man or woman's head, fuck if he knew what some of these people looked like under their power armor. "Hey, hey, who the hell killed your guys asses," he shouted into the persons face, disorienting them even further, "Wh... who... you?"
Great, this guy was useless; he kept heavily breathing and struggling to speak, as if he was on the verge of an asthma attack. Not like it had to do anything with the gaping wound in the side of their gut as The One violently slammed their head back down into the ice as a sickening crunch of their helmet was soon to followed.
There was some other noises they gurgled out, followed by some twitching before they stopped move all together. Well, onto the next person!
"Who the fucking fuck fucked you up?"
"Don't want... leave-"Crunch.
"What thing fucked your asses up."
"Geugh, blagh, p-pink b-b-bun-"Crunch.
This same rinse and repeat event occurred for the next two minutes as The One slammed another helmet into the ice, causing blood to spurt out as the body sporadically flailed before the rest of their life dissipated. Ugh, did none of these fuckheads know who murdered them?! Jeez, can't believe he wasted his time with these fuck-cabinets.
Scanning the area, there was nary a person left he could really interact with, especially since 90% of them had their heads smashed into the ice when they couldn't answer. Placing two fingers to the sides of his temple as sighing, he turned to glance over at the tower from earlier that had shot MAVERICK (and by proxy and most importantly, him).
Eh, he didn't come here to beat the ass of whoever did this, he was here to beat the ever loving shit out of ProtOh-One for making him look bad! Who did this fake fucker think he was, stealing his name and using it to commit atrocities? Twirling his stick and grasping his hat, he rocketed towards the tower, leaving behind explosions in his wake.
Interacting With Aster, Cation, Mimi, Velvet, Chloe(@PlatinumSkink)
Current Team Aster - Budew - Lvl 8 - Happy Little Fwees Mimi - Happiny - Lvl 7 - In My Restless Pi's Velvet - Buneary - Lvl 7 - Sassy lil' Princess Cation - Shinx - Lvl 6 - Ignorance is Bliss
Inventory 900 P
x1 Everstone x2 Potion x6 Pokéballs x1 Pokédex x2 Escape Rope x20 Regular Stones x1 Repel x1 Antidote x1 Paralyze Heal x1 Extra Large Bento Box (Empty) x1 Extra Large Bento Box (Filled)(Two flavor items for Cyril and the Team; doesn't really impact much)
"Excellent work everyone," Cyril exclaimed, positively beaming as he crouched down and held a hand out, winking at his team. While it was plenty easy to bash most of the Pokémon on this route due to their relatively low level, he did have to coordinate with them all to minimize the damage, as well as speed up the battles.
Regardless, the team trilled and vibrated with excitement, even Velvet was in on this despite trying to maintain a relatively cool appearance. Instinctively, they all gave him a high-five in their own unique way (well, as unique as you could get). Aster hopped up and clasped his buds around Cyril's hand for a bit, with Mimi followed up by jumping and giving a quick high five before giggling with a blush. Velvet responded by giving his hand a light tap with one of her ears, and Cation mewled while pressing both his paws against it with a humongous smile on his face.
"So, how about a quick break before we check out the rest of the area, and maaaaaaaaybe head into those woods over there?" Velvet didn't dignify that with a response like the rest of the gang, at least yet as she bounced onto his shoulder "Bun," before hopping again, "bun," and doing a twirl in mid-air and landing on his shoulder.
She nearly toppled over after attempting that, though Cyril was able to stabilize her landing as she began to recline into his hand before giving her a little pat to push her back onto her perch. "Hmph, bun, bun," Cyril merely rolled his eyes at her claim before giving her a little boop on the nose, "Sure, sure, I believe you, hee~."
Velvet blushed a little, though she did have to clamp an ear over Cyril's neck as he deftly lunged to grab the little Shinx, who was about ready to make a mad dash over to the forest in the distance. "Easy there Cation! Gotta move as quickly as the slowest person in the group, especially since we are takin' a short break right now, a'ight," the professor-to-be reigned the little cat in, who quickly brought their shaking legs to a stop before looking up at Cyril and beaming with a small mewl.
Setting the energized kitty down, Cyril did a couple of stretches before a familiar, yet oh so lovely voice called out to him. The man cleared his throat, put on his best award winning smile, before pivoting around... only to have a Growlithe shoved directly into his face. While he was adorable, this did make him flinch just a tad bit back from having the Pokémon directly in his face; pretty sure they touched noses in the process.
"He's not just adorable," Cyril murmured with and impish smirk, chuckling as he backed off from the Growlithe's face, who didn't seem too comfortable being shoved in some random guys face. Velvet was somewhat in the same boat, despite not being the receiver, and promptly hopped down from her perch and joined the trio, waiting for this to end.
"He's absolutely, positively, preciously adorable," he asserted, puffing his own chest out before leaning in, not too close and slowly raising a hand to briefly giving a brisk wave to the Growlithe.
"I'm Cyril by the by, and there's no need to be worried lil' buddy, you're in good hands," there was a sudden whiplash in how he was acting, going from bombastic once more to acting much more collected and level-headed as he reassured the Growlithe before moving his hands back to his hip, before he noticed something very obviously off about her.
Before he got the chance to commentate on it, she was already at his newest partners, gushing at the sight and being absolutely awestruck. While she was busy interacting with them, Cyril moved by Chloe's shoulder, eyeing the Pidgey, "Enjoying your perch lil' guy~? I'm Cyril." All three Pokémon had brazenly different reactions to the sudden appearance of this lady, let alone her Pokémon. "Hapi?!" Mimi's reaction was to quiver a bit before scurrying behind Cyril and peaking out, taking shallow breaths as she peered from behind his leg. "It's OK, she won't bite," Cyril murmured as he spun around and quickly scooped up Mimi and turned back to face them, now cradling the Happiny in his arms.
"Sorry, she's a bit nervous 'round unfamiliar people; she'll warm up to you, give it some time." Well, she seemed a bit calmer now, though a little bit nervous as she stared up at the Pidgey and began fidgeting around in Cyril's arms before gulping and giving a bashful, tiny wave to the bird, "H-h-hapi..."
"Buneee..." Velvet reacted with feigned indifference as she 'ignored' the blonde girl and began to strut towards the Sentret. What followed probably surprised Chloe as Velvet reacted by pivoting around and swiftly walking right up to her and deftly shaking Chloe's hands with her ears before turning back and walking towards her first Pokémon and began sizing her up, "Buneary."
"Shiiiiiiiiiinx!" Cation was relatively more straight forward as he curiously stared at the girl, almost acting as awestruck as her as he inched towards her hand, giving it a sniff before rearing his whole body up and slapping his paws onto her hand, "Shiiiiii!" Despite this being the first time they met, Cation acted like they were old friends, before his attention was caught by these multiple Pokémon.
"Shinx?" His eyes lit up as he swiftly swapped targets, going from prancing towards and around the Growlithe and waggling his tail, to looking over and sniffing the Sentret Velvet was interacting with, before finally finding himself by the Rattata. "Shiiiiiinx!" Looks like someone wants to play.
"Fwee?" Despite being familiar with Chloe and her Sentret, the new faces caused Aster to shift around and shyly look away. He was going to go comfort Mimi, until Cyril did that himself, but he did take his partner's attitude into account. Open, courteous, yet still filled with mirth. Aster decided he would give a shot, gulping as he whipped his head around, his bud jiggling around as he trudged towards the Growlithe. "B-budee? Fwee, budee." Guess introductions were to be in order. Beyond introductions it seemed as though everyone was getting along, at least from Cyril's perspective. Most of his partners were pretty cordial, if not overly playful or just a little wary of Chloe's own partners. Nevertheless, the new duds did catch his attention and he had been meaning to bring it up a couple of minutes ago. Hmm...
Raising his eyebrow, he tilted his head as he leaned to the side, peering to see if all her articles of clothing were like that. Looking at her back, the jacket was still orange, with a small design on the back, evocative of some stripes; bringing it back up front, he took note of the pure black t-shirt she had donned. There were a bunch of other obvious things as well, but he did snoop around, scrutinizing and analyzing the lass.
"Hmm, something seems a bit different 'bout you Chloe," he murmured to himself as he continued appraising her, reveling in his own false ignorance as the Happiny looked up, confounded by the young mans insistence on looking at Chloe so much. "Happiny?" She raised her head up to glance at her, before taking a sidelong glance at Cation; she ended up having a stare that just said "of course."
"Aha, I got it," Cyril snapped his fingers, exclaiming as he glanced up at her pretty face, "you got your hair done, didn't you!" Of course!... not. He could only giggle, waiting to see her reaction before continuing, "Juuuuus' kidding~; you're rockin' those new clothes! Looking pretty good, sort of like your new friend down there."
She probably stored her main clothes somewhere away, like in her purse. Man, bags sure have changed over the years; couldn't carry too many items on him in the past, now suddenly he could whip out an exact copy of what he was wearing, as well as ten different types of clothes! Well, that was an over exaggeration; it was more like nine, but still.
His gut couldn't help but feel she had a pair of rocking new clothes for specific Pokémon she wanted to catch and couldn't help but feel curious about what this fashionista might bring out next.
Speaking of Chloe.
"Hey Chloe, while I was actually planning on heading to Highhill, I thought I might do a little more exploring and training in that forest over there before that," Cyril snapped his fingers and pointed to the lightly dense forest in the distance.
"Y'wanna join me on this excursion? It probably won't take too long, pluuuuus you might be able to find more adorable Pokémon to join you~," as Cyril invited her to join him, he glanced over to see how the other four were holding up before holding his own hand up, gesturing to the forest.
"Then come on, the day isn't gonna last forever, and we still got clothes to checkout at Highhill~! What are we waiting for, lets go!"
"Tsk, that's a shame, but I understand~... saaaaay, if you're still checking out Highhills fashion when I make it over there, how 'bout I join you?"
Regardless of her response, Cyril would either say his temporary good byes or begin dashing over to the forest while keeping a steady pace as to not let Chloe be left behind. Once they or he arrived, Cyril would probably start training while Chloe did her own thing, with the former keeping close to her should she accompany him.
Interacting With Aster, Cation, Mimi, Velvet, The Environment/Timeskip Training Gods(@PlatinumSkink)
Current Team Aster - Budew - Lvl 7 - Happy Little Fwees Mimi - Happiny - Lvl 6 - In My Restless Pi's Velvet - Buneary - Lvl 5 - Sassy lil' Princess Cation - Shinx - Lvl 2 - Ignorance is Bliss
Inventory 900 P
x1 Everstone x2 Potion x6 Pokéballs x1 Pokédex x2 Escape Rope x20 Regular Stones x1 Repel x1 Antidote x1 Paralyze Heal x1 Extra Large Bento Box (Empty) x1 Extra Large Bento Box (Filled)(Two flavor items for Cyril and the Team; doesn't really impact much and they don't heal)
TL;DR, Cyril makes a new friend, some bonding time, they buy items and some food, and then head to Route 1 to train.
For all the little Pokémon was doing, he seemed like a pretty happy individual as he pawed and played with the flower. However, the moment Velvet strut into the scene, the Shinx instantly perked up with a huge smile, thinking that this was another Pokémon he could have fun with, but she had other plans.
What followed was a fairly one-sided encounter against the poor, little Shinx who was none the wiser to it all. For all he thought, this was some playful roughhousing, with a very large emphasis on rough as he continued to smile, despite taking a hard hit from Velvet. Despite his mewls of pain, he powered through it, only to lunge and catch Velvet off-guard, pinning her.
The little Pokémon's tail began to sway a little as inched towards the Buneary's face with a large, wide open smile, "Shiiiii!" What wasn't expected was the Pokéball as it whisked through the air and bumped off the relatively injured Shinx before engulfing the young cat in a flash of red light. One, two, three, click. The four, now five didn't linger about the school much longer, though Velvet didn't know how to broach the subject of Cyril catching the Pokémon as she reclaimed her throne (shoulder) as they made their way towards the Pokémon center. She wouldn't deny that it was a bit weird that he let the three of them stay out of those contraptions, yet Shinx was forced to stay?
Regardless, the trip down to the Pokémon center was relatively uneventful for the most parts, passing by similar parts of town and encountering different types of people. As much as she wanted to protest the Shinx being stuck, she was placated by taking in all the sights at witnessing new areas before her very eyes.
Cyril, on the other hand was twirling a pencil around with a clipboard and a decent amount of papers, documenting how his Pokémon were reacting, noting a couple of things about them. For starters, Mimi was busy hiding behind Cyril whilst Aster comforted her by patting her back with his buds. Seems Velvet wasn't the only one taking in the sights as well, but unlike her, wasn't as curious despite being equally entranced.
Every time they passed by a large group of individuals, Velvet would glance over with an uncaring gaze, despite the way she went about it betraying her true intentions. Mimi on the other-hand always began to breathe a bit faster, though was always kept calm by Aster, with the former always looking back with a reassured gaze. Best to avoid large crowds for now until Mimi grew used to them.
Regardless, besides noting down their reactions to different places, he also noted the interactions with one another. Despite Velvet being the least talkative of the bunch, she was always seen peering down and smiling at the duo, while Aster and Mimi interacted with one another constantly, pointing out the sights despite the latter shying away from the obvious.
Well, that was enough of recording for now; he couldn't just leave them to interact by themselves, after all, he was a part of the experiment too! Also, he didn't want to miss out on these events, so he gently pocketed the clipboard in his satchel before twirling his pencil around and giving Velvet a light jab with the eraser, causing her to jump a little from her seat.
"BUNEE! Bun? Bun, buneary!" She did the cutest little pout at him, it was so adorable, he couldn't help but tease her more by winking and sticking his tongue out with an impish grin, "Ooooops, did I startle you there?"
That got a few light punches from her own paws as he pocketed the pencil as well before pivoting and scooping up Aster and Mimi.
"BUDEE?!"
"H-HAPI?!"
T'was a pleasant surprise to say the least as they giggle like little children, trilling and continuing to talk as he nestled the duo in his arms. Mimi breathing slowly began to abate and the patting from Aster became a lot less frequent, though that could be because he was rubbing against Cyril's chest, causing him and Velvet to sneeze in the process. The walk the the Pokémon Center was fairly uneventful as cheerful four continued talking about different things, more so questions on Cyril's end towards them as they talked about places they saw along the way, as well as hyping about maybe stopping by there some time. Cyril could only give some of them a weak smile, stating that some places like a fashion outlet or training dojo wouldn't be visited right now (though he would stop to grab them all some grub later on, something that got the trio to perk up).
Also, that dojo was a gym Aster and him saw earlier, so, uh, yeah.
Upon entering into the Pokémon center, Cyril was met with those three delinquent looking guys standing at the receptionist desk, receiving their Pokémon back after a quick heal. Looks like Mr. Pompadour and his buddies got beat, which caused the researcher to smirk a bit. Of course, Cyril had to resist nearly breaking down laughing at their silly, yet earnest actions as the man with the Hitmonlee had him pop out and began hyping the somewhat distraught Pokémon back up out of his slump.
Despite all his incessant giggling, it was charming that these greenhorns constantly would keep getting up, even after being knocked down and hyped themselves up once more to get that badge after some major gains. They did a little chant, thrusting their arms into the air before stampeding out of the Pokémon Center, nearly trampling over Cyril who had to pivot out of the way.
It was eye rolling fun to say the least and his smile never faded, even after reaching the receptionist. As he explained to each of his partners about what needed to be done for them to heal up, he always kept eyeing Nurse Joy at the counter. It was always weird seeing her at every Pokémon Center and even unsettling at times.
Cyril could only ponder on if there was some secret government conspiracy where they cloned multiple Nurse Joys for every single Pokémon Center across the entire globe as he returned the trio to their balls and placed all four of them into the containers. It didn't take long for them to get slotted into the healing compartment, with a soft glow that followed.
Hopefully now Velvet would understand his reasoning behind not letting the Shinx out as he freed all four of them at once, letting them all get reoriented with the area before meeting their new pal. Velvet seemed less than thrilled as she rolled her eyes and crossed her little arms while Aster studied the Shinx, as well as Mimi who was just hiding behind the Budew.
The Shinx on the other hand was fairly curious about this new area and these new friendly faces, especially the Buneary he saw earlier. His first instinct was to trot up to Velvet, paw gently at her and mewl loudly, "Shiiiiiiiinx!" Daawww, that goofy little smile of his would never get old, even though Velvet ignored him a bit.
Regardless, that didn't bother him as Aster lightly trilling caught his attention, his ears wiggling as he hopped around to face the two. Aster and Mimi were both frozen on the spot due to how much energy this Pokémon was radiating, and that wasn't just because he was an electric type.
Dashing on over, the little Shinx gave a friendly, yet loud purr at the duo, pawing at Aster before looking behind him to see the nervous Happiny. An impish smile crossed his face as he crouched down, slowly treading around the little Bud Pokémon. Happiny, who was still moderately disconcerted despite the disarming personality totted around Aster.
Of course, this little game of cat and mouse continued to transpire with the duo slowly speeding up, eliciting a little giggle from Cyril, who was watching this all play out, at least for now. Eventually, the time to strike was nigh as the Shinx bounced up into the air, ready to pounce on Mimi. This, of course caused her to shiver and put her hands over her eyes.
Of course, as anxiety inducing as that was, nothing ever came of it. Moving a hand to the side, Mimi could only witness what was going on.
The Shinx was wiggling his paws in front of her face while Cyril was holding onto him, apparently lunging to catch him in midair, "Phew..."
That was close; didn't want to make Mimi too panicky right now, especially due to this Shinx somehow having a more outgoing personality than him, which was half n' half for him on the good to bad scale. "Easy now lil' buddy, Mimi isn't one for much roughhousing y'know," he chuckled, carrying the Shinx to his chest and rolling him over like a little baby.
"Shiii?" The Shinx was understandably confused and nodded; funnily enough, he was easily distracted when Cyril used another free hand to play around with him, going between rubbing his belly to having his hand act like a claw that was "attacking" him. The Shinx would respond in earnest, rubbing against Cyril if he did the former while attempting to catch the hand during the latter parts.
Good, he seemed relatively placid for now.
With that said and done, he rolled the mewling electric cat onto is tummy, causing his fixation to swap over to the trio, who had all gathered together to look at their new friend, some in nervous curiosity, with one being relatively unfazed.
"Well now that we've all calmed down a bit, I would like to introduce you all to our newest partner, Cation," he exclaimed cheerfully, looking down at the Shinx who stared up with a befuddled "Shinx," as he tilted his head and pointed a paw to himself. Cyril simpered at the Shinx, "If you don't like it, I'm more than willing to think of another~!"
"Shiiii!" Cation exclaimed in excitement, bobbing his head and beaming brightly at the man. Seriously, way too precious. Leaning over and placing him down beside the others, Cyril placed a hand on his hip as he beckoned the four to follow after him, "I'll help you get acquainted with the others, as well as you three with Cation, but right now, we've got a couple of things to do before we hit the road~." It felt like a minute had passed for the squad, but it seemed like Cation was settling in relatively easily with the others, though not quite as close. Honestly speaking though, it was quite the adventure when they entered the Pokémart, especially after he gave them a list of what he was purchasing.
While he was curious to see how they would act, they acted mostly civil and kept the rowdiness to a minimum, well, somewhat. Cation was very curious to a fault, staring at things and pawing at them from time to time, nearly knocking them down at times, which either he or Aster stopped. Velvet, on the other hand was trying her hardest to help, but was relatively klutzy despite how serious she was acting earlier; thankfully Mimi was able to catch some of the items that slipped out of her hands when he couldn't.
That was honestly fun to witness, though following that, he did a stop by a restaurant that looked Sinnohian in nature. While he did love Sinnoh for its lore and mysteries, the food was great as well! Thankfully that was something shared across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, though Kalosian meals were good too.
After ordering two Extra Large Bento Boxes there, what followed was the strangest balancing act of all time, which did earn a ton of sidelong glances from the people he passed on by. He walked whilst eating and feeding himself and his Pokémon (he didn't buy the food just for himself after all). Of course, considering the chopsticks in one hand and box in another, he had to get creative.
"Alright, say aaahhh Mimi!"
So he used both of his shoulders for his four partners, seating two at a time, with Velvet on one shoulder and Mimi on the other. Aster and Cation were relatively full and were interacting with each other in-between the small bursts of excitement as the latter dashed around the group, "Piiiiiiiii..."
And there went a small portion of eggs into the baby Pokémon's mouth, which caused her to rock on his right shoulder with absolute glee "Pi! Pi, Hapi!"
"Buuuuun," Cyril glanced over at the seemingly unhappy Velvet, who caught his attention with a deadpan statement, though he could see the underlying playfulness in her eyes. "Heh, alright, alright, give me a sec, I'll get some for you next." The Buneary's ears rolled up as she opened her mouth and closed her eyes, waiting on the delivery.
It wouldn't be long before they made it to the outskirts of Pureplain, and the entrance into Route 1, he bore witness to the rolling, luscious green plains beyond the bounds of this diverse, tightly knit city. Following their entrance, Cyril began to study the area as the duo finished their share of the box.
(Note: Since Cyril is just going to train his team, I thought I might default on the scene for Basil and get to the chase so we don't waste too much time; if you want it removed, I can post this portion in a separate post)
Placing the empty box back into his bag, he helped the little Happiny down from her perch as she gleefully patted the stone in her pouch, as well as her full belly while Velvet continued resting on Cyril's shoulder. Clicking the roof of his mouth, he rubbed his chin as he studied the huge swathe of flat greenery before him, with some stretches of tall grass.
There were a decent amount of Trainers scattered about, either seeking a challenge or sparring with each other with an equal amount of others scouring the tall grass and chasing after whatever Pokémon they set their sights on, with one said Pokémon being a Growlithe.
"Wonder if she was successful." Cyril had recalled Chloe exclaiming about heading out and looking to catch a Growlithe, so he pondered on if the lass was successful as he scoured the plains, and found her doing something within the grass. Honestly, he didn't feel like disrupting her search and let sleeping Growlithe's lie, at least for right now.
Heck, she could of succeeded in her mission and was either searching for another partner to gain for all he knew. Despite the scenery, he already had a plan that was on his mind as stared at the gorgeous scenery as a crisp breeze rolled over.
"Aster, Mimi, Velvet, Cation," Cyril looked down with a bright smile as he caught the four's attention, "how about we do a bit of training? We're gonna need to be as strong as possible since we will run into many potentially strong Pokémon and trainers and we need to be ready for anything! How 'bout it?"
The four looked over between each other before looking all up and responded in unison, "Budhapibuneeeshiiii!" Alright, looks like they were all in accordance with one another as Cyril grinned at them all and beckoned to follow after him as the three went off to train on Route 1.
The icy winds raged forth as the Doctor sat in the moderately comfy cockpit as he assisted with the flying through the suffocating, polar skies, tearing through cloud into cloud like unending lace. Jonas couldn't help but feel grateful that he hadn't had to bullshit another one of the pilots, aside from the beginning after the six of them took a whole platoons worth of MAVERICK soldiers.
Regardless, that had happened hours ago as they jettisoned forth, flying as close to whatever formation MAVERICK had decided to set up as he kept an eye on the skies. It was better than paying attention to these aircraft instruments; he didn't know what half of these things meant or did. Still, at least he wasn't winging it as he glanced over to Otsana, who was just cruising through the skies.
Briefly looking over his shoulders, he pondered on how the four in the back were keeping themselves preoccupied in that empty cabin before turning back to scour the seemingly endless skies. Suddenly the hairs on his back stood up.
As much as Jonas wanted to keep themselves concealed among the crowd of other MAVERICK planes, there was a bad feeling churning up in his stomach as he reclined back, Otsana taking the reigns in full as he squinted into frigid horizon.
Planting an arm on his knee, he leaned down to rest his head on his fist, kneading at it as one particular thought came to mind. "Otsy, we should probably get't landing," he suggested, languidly frowning as he grasped the control wheel, constricting it as he tensed up. Whether or not she would take his advice, that belated warning was soon to be vindicated by Oh-One.
Jonas, for all intents and purposes was perturbed when he saw a sharp red light pierce the thick, nearly impenetrable ice sheets they called clouds.
"Oh crap... Otsana, nine o'clock, incoming," he bellowed as the light not only pierced the skies, but sliced through it. As much as Jonas was praying for a cushy flight, he honestly expected some sort of crisis to arise.
The beam swiftly carved through the sky, annihilating one plane after the next. By some miracle, they managed to avert being one of those unlucky bastards that made contact with the laser.
On the other hand, there was still some impact as the power of the beam rippled through the sky, dealing damage to any planes in the vicinity, including their own.
It was like an earthquake as the duo violently slammed and crashed around the cockpit, disorienting and jumbling the two. Thankfully, neither of them were knocked out cold.
The main issue, however, was the fact that the plane was taking a huge dip and rapidly descending into the glacial below. Well, it was obvious what would follow, especially since he saw a part of the plane had been torn to shreds. Unstrapping himself from his seat, Jonas quickly stood up and bolted behind Otsana to the more open space in the cockpit, struggling to maintain some semblance of balance as the cargo plane shakily made its descent.
Taking in a deep breath, a thin layer of Ki began to swiftly peel off Jonas as he shed a copy of himself from behind him, expanding little amounts of Ki in the process. Looking over to his companion, he lurched a couple of steps forward before one arm grabbed onto her seat whilst the other shook at her arm.
"This is why I asked you about learning how't fly a plane, now come on, les' evacuate everyone," and with that little warning, he glanced over to the clone who was already strapping in and taking the wheel as mentally instructed.
What followed as he trudged towards the door was a sight to behold. Jonas could barely keep his footing as he bore witness to the fact that there was a massive, gaping hole in the plane as bits of metal, pieces of the plane, and debris were violently whisked away into the frigid skies. "Or not!"
Well, shit. There was only so much he could do before joining the rest of these things as he took in a deep breath and intensely focused. Squinting, his eyes swept through the skies as an aura enveloped the area, shaping from a simple orb into the outline and physique of a human-being.
Jonas' eyes darted through the white as he sensed the energies out there, but picked up on a couple of specific ones as his grip began to slowly loosen. He could discern that Isko and Aline were alive based on how their Ki flared and the rate at which they were falling, as well as Askin, who had decided to take refuge in his lamp, despite falling like a brick.
It was expected that he couldn't determine where Brown was, but to him, he found it highly unlikely that she would survive this based on her bullheaded nature. Gulping, he looked over to Otsana, tilting his head with a lazy smile, "Oy', after we kick Oh-Ones ass, drinks on me, a'ight?"
Nothing more was to be said as he did a weak peace out sign to the wolf girl before being sucked out of the plane as well.
It was a good thing he was wearing a parachute this entire flight as he whirled through the air after being forcibly ejected from the flaming cargo plane. The main issue that was on his mind was how in the two Hells were they going get back? Maybe they could hitch a ride with one of the Justice Riders?
Putting a pause on that thought, Jonas whipped his head around as the howling wind ripped through his ears, watching as a sharp metal sheet was bolting towards him. In the midst of his free fall, Jonas rolled to the side, avoiding making contact with the scrap.
Well, almost.
As it passed him by, it managed to completely rip off his parachute mid-flight, taking it down alongside the other flames that permeated the cloudy wastes. Jonas' face was a mixture of shock and disbelief as his jaw dropped and eyes widened at the scene as he began patting himself down, "You've gotta be kidding me."
Alright, stay calm Jonas, maybe you can figure out another way t- THERE WAS ANOTHER CARGO PLANE FALLING BEHIND HIM.
The man felt his day couldn't get any worse as another, flaming cargo plane tore through the clouds like some sort of leviathan bursting through the oceans waves. However, another idea had popped into his head at the moment as it began its nosedive towards him.
Tch, as much as he would prefer not to, he lacked any other significant options at this rate.
With a nonchalant shrug and disgruntled groan, he readied a knife as he rolled through the skies, working to get the perfect angle to break into the plane.
Focusing on the windows to the cockpit, Jonas tightly gripped the knife so it wouldn't slip from his grasp. In a few seconds the plane was right on him. It was now or never.
One quick, clean, and easy slice through the glass was enough to cut part of it open and weaken it significantly as Jonas crashed through it, arms first, splaying glass everywhere. What followed was him taking note of the containers to the side holding a couple of parachutes, though the covering for them was cleanly torn off.
He only had a couple of seconds to react as his arm shot out and grabbed one of the remaining parachutes that was flapping around due to being caught on something. Jonas couldn't determine if that was the easy or hard part of it all as he soared through the cockpits door, finding himself in the large space where most MAVERICK soldiers and personnel would sit.
There were a couple of holes, but there was so much cargo, boxes, chairs, and bisected bodies flapping around that made trying to navigate through an exit as difficult as possible. The best option would be to go to the opening in the back, but again, cargo, boxes, and other crap.
And he thought riding a motorcycle when he was younger made him hot shit.
Rolling his eyes, he rolled to the side, retracting his knife as he flipped through the air, rolling and struggling to get the parachute on snug and tight as he narrowly avoided slamming into a weapons cache. Of course, he ended up crashing into a seat before being displaced and flung about the place, so that was fun.
Readjusting himself once more as he continued to dodge piles of debris, he finally shot out of that flaming death trap as he bore witness to more planes taking a nosedive into the icy waves, or straight up breaking parts of the ice.
Well then, that was certainly a rough flight, but it seemed like most of the planes had finally dipped out of the skies, either missing the place the laser came from and disappearing into the wastes, or slamming into the ice banks.
This seemed more than a good time as he swiftly pulled at the cord before being yanked back upwards into the skies. Taking a deep breath, he enjoyed the relatively peaceful descent as he watched the multitudes of planes blast into the sea or ice-ridden landscape, left alone with nothing but his thoughts. Minus the relatively rough, but short quest to find another parachute, the descent was much less hectic as he made a relatively gentle landing as he swung forward a bit, stumbling forward a bit in the process.
Taking a deep breath, he was more than happy that he packed himself an insulating coat as the frigid air nipped at his face and sliced at the nape of his neck as he placed a hand on his hip and began surveying the area. From what he could dissect, the Wonder Twins had made it relatively safely.
Askin he wasn't surprised to see, let alone surprised to miss with his bright yellow overcoat making him stand out against the white. Oh, and Brown survived based on the figure that Askin was by. Huh, so she decided to swallow her stupidity and use the parachute, alright then. Then there was also Clover, who actually managed to make it here.
And she was making a jab at him, which resulted in a smug smirk as he crept up on her and jabbed her lightly with the side of his elbow, "Right and potentially end up in Washington again? You're lucky Otsys cousin lived nearby." Chuckling to himself, he looked skyward and tilted his head.
"Speak of the she-wolf and she shall appear," he murmured as as he ruffled through his hair as Otsana landed nearby. Alright, looks like that was all of them, including Brown. He looked up to the skies as two distinct planes soared through... and based on the distinct Ki, that had to be Jill, Isabella, and the latter's dad.
"Anyways, heya' Clover, Otsy, Isko, and Minisko, looks like we are all here for the most part. In any case, OY', ASKIN, BROWN, THE GROUPS ALL TOGETHER OVER HERE, Jonas shouted, waving an arm to beckon them over before trudging with the rest of the group towards the tower once they regrouped
And so marked the beginning of the end for Skynet Jr.
The bespectacled lad peered behind him as Ayu, who had remained quiet up until now, suddenly shouted out. As much as he wanted to comfort Chikako now, their time together was up. "Don't give him the satisfaction; come on Lilly, we need to go," those were Hibiki's final words towards the lass as he placed an arm on Lilly's shoulder and tugged at her, urging her that they needed to move as the bear hit brought down a mallet onto a large red button.
Click.
Hibiki waited for whatever last words the girl had before ushering her away as he watched that strange, pixelated animation of Monokuma dragging away what looked to be Chikako on the bottom of the buttons stand. Before he knew it his eyes ended up being drawn to one of the walls opening up, with a collar flying out and snapping around Chikako's neck. Hibiki's yelped as he witnessed it happen in front of him, flinching and falling flat onto his behind as the scene played out.
Seconds later, the girl he had spent so much time with had vanished down the corridor before the wall slammed shut. Hibiki had little time to react as he adjusted his glasses and scrambled up to his feet as multitudes of monitors lit up around the room, all displaying Monokuma dancing, failing, and plummeting into the abyss. Would be humorous if not for the context at this situation as Chikako was dropped onto the stage and now had to dance for her life.
Based on what he observed, despite what he knew about what Monokuma's rules stated, he held onto a glimmer of hope that, if Chikako succeeded, maybe she wouldn't have to perish. He gripped his hands rightly into a fist as he watched the event play out, seeing her succeed, he smiled for a moment.
However, that relief was fleeting as, like that glimmer of hope, was yanked away just as Chikako was, ripped and torn in six different directions. Hibiki's mouth dropped in shock, his heart sunk, eyes dilating as he covered his mouth upon witnessing that gruesome scene. Despite how much he could stand his ground, a part of him was extremely angry as tears welled up in his eyes as they slowly began to stream down his face.
It was a struggle not to just throw up as his stomach churned; Hibiki forced a gulp as he stumbled back, croaking one simple phrase.
"Chikako."
Aurel's Perspective
Death was not unfamiliar to Aurel. While seldom an 'accident' needed to occur to ensure the heist was successful, it was still something horrible that weighed on the thief's mind. But this? Aurels pupils dilated as he stumbled a couple of steps back, appearing particularly overwrought with anxiety as he snapped a trembling limb into his hair. This wasn't a punishment, this was a brutalization of a person. The pretense people might have about him looking aloof would probably vanish as quickly as his composure.
These emotions were nothing more than a melting pot that was being stirred as he thought to himself about this whole event. It was difficult to process, but yet, there was one thing he could determine for himself - "This bear... this fucking bear is a hypocrite." Aurel grit his teeth as he whipped his head around to glare angrily at the chattering Monokuma as he reveled in their pain.
Pointing a finger at the bear, Aurel wanted to just scream at it, but nothing game out. His throat was dry, his heart was ready to pound out of his chest. Yet, he couldn't tell that bastard off before he did his little jig, hopped off, and vanished. His arm fell weakly to the side, flopping a bit for a couple of seconds as he dug his other hand into his skull.
Then, he glanced over at Snow, who seemed to be just as shaken, if not more than him, or that's how it appeared to him. Those words that she tried pushing him away with pounded at the back of his skull, looking up to the blood splattered monitors before glancing over to the somewhat shaken Shirou and studied him briefly as he did his speech.
What followed was Aurel returning his own gaze back to Snow as soon as Shirou finished his speech. Aurel sniffled a bit before the hand on his head shot out and clasped onto her wrist. Squeezing it tightly, he forced a smile as he looked upon her, "I... I-I-I-I'm not g-going anywhere, Snow... and, and, neither is Ryuma. We... we won't leave you, or anyone else, I-I swear." Aurel's voice was shaking.
He didn't know what to truly do right now. He wanted to, but, god damnit, what was he supposed to do? Was he doing the right thing? Did this help? What does he need to do?
These thoughts of doubt crossed his mind before being cut down an interrupted by a cold, harsh statement from one of the other students, "Shut up Shirou."
Hiroki's Perspective
Hiroki was on his knees, trembling as he rose. Despite Ayu questioning if he was fine, Hiroki was anything but as he glanced to her briefly, murmuring "Yeah, I... I'm fine," despite his dour demeanor and obviously force smile. No, he wasn't angry at her, he couldn't be. The "Hero" on the other hand...
Well, he just glared daggers at the boy as he wiped some of the bile from the side of his cheek as he flicked it to the vomit on the side of him. Coughing, he retched for a bit as he covered his mouth with his fist, still focused on the "Hero" as he stamped a couple of feet forward, stabbing a finger in his direction.
"What do you fucking know? How, how can you just, just... what makes you think you can fix this all," Hiroki spat, shaking his head as he lurched forward, staring at the "Hero" as if he was some sort of zoo animal. Seriously, they just witnessed Rhythm Game Player bite it in the most horrible way possible, how could he be so quick to say things like that?!
"Sure, we, might cooperate because we don't want that happening to us," he huffed out as his breathing began to pick up the pace, inching ever so closer to the "Hero." "Or we could not, because lets be honest here, Shirou."
Hiroki bit his lip as he approached the "Hero," getting straight up in his face, his eyes meeting with equally bleary, bloodshot eyes as his breathing continued to pick up. How naive could he be? No one is going to die again? Please. If Monokuma did it once, he can certainly do it again.
"What makes you think we are all going to get along, all buddy buddy? Don't you even remember what happened in the Mess Hall or did you forget that already?" His stomach was churning again, though he couldn't tell if he was going to vomit or if this rage was making him sick.
"Moreso, read the room; you think som-"
"Hiroki, please, deep breaths." Hiroki twisted his neck to glare at the Tutor, who had seemingly composed himself as he wiped his clouded glasses with his shirt before putting them back on and readjusting them. "Getting angry isn't going to help right n-
"And what, you think a stupid 'heroic' speech is going to help? Right after what we witnessed?!"
Aurel's Perspective
Aurel was getting fidgety as he whipped his head around, analyzing the scene. He wanted to speak up, but couldn't as Hiroki rampaged on with his cynical remarks while Hibiki attempted to tranquilize the former, with little to no success.
The thief did open his mouth as he witnessed the scene, only to pull back and stare at the ground. What could he do, what could he do, what could he do? His breathing abated as he scrounged around for a person he could look to, anyone. The first person who glanced over to was Ryuma.
"Ryuma, please," he croaked out, pleading to the man as he struggled to speak, "please, do something."
"Oh, is that so," Cyril voice cracked near the end of his rather lively musing as the man, Johannes if he overheard correctly, gave his explanation as to why these four Shuppets hung around his house. Smirking, Cyril peered around the tall man to get a better look at the Shuppets, only for them to shift over to the side, away from his curious gaze. He merely chuckled at their seemingly timid nature as he looked back to the gentleman.
"Good thing they came back, otherwise you would of missed out on these lil' guys," Cyril stretched his arms up and placed them behind his head as he studied the man, blinking for a mere moment before continuing. "Maybe they came back because they were lonely or hungry," he mused, tilting his head to the side.
Cyril wasn't exactly blind to this all. These were wild Pokémon if he was inferring Johannes statement correctly, which lead to a couple of other thoughts based on quick observations. The man had bags under his eyes, these adorable yet wild Shuppet were following him during the day, and it felt like this guy wasn't even here; honestly speaking, it was comparable to talking to a ghost.
And considering who was thinking this, that was saying a lot.
"Regardless of what ever reason they came back, companions are companions, through happiness and hardship," Cyril chuckled as he began reviewing information about Shuppets and wondered if he was guilty. While Shuppets were notably attracted to and feed off negative emotions, they usually congregated around homes at night before retreating to their nest when the sun rises; however, these four were outliers.
"Though when I put it like that, it makes them sound like therapy Shuppet, which is actually a thing in Hoenn and a couple of other regions," he stated, let his arms drop as he awaited and listened to Johannes own comments on the subject matter, nodding along. Cyril wasn't planning on prying into this mans personal history, as that seemed a bit rude for a guy you just met.
As the talk winded on with the older man, he caught something out of the corner of his eye, namely six little Pokémon. From what he could discern, two of them were his and Basil's Pokémon while the other four were a mix of different wild Pokémon. Two Buneary's, a Sneasel, and apparently that rare pink baby-Pokémon that he heard so much commotion about. While Cecil was chattering with the Sneasel, he saw the other four under the shadow of the tree, with the two Buneary's talked for a moment before expressing a bittersweet departure by hugging one another.
Once that was over with, she swaggered on over to the other two, trying to look as serious as possible, but he saw how Aster shifted nervously right over onto her and gave her a light pat on the back with the Happiny following suit with her own trills. After a short conversation between the four of them, the trio were off, waving to the one Buneary they left behind; Cyril could swore he saw a couple of other Pokémon that joined the lonely Buneary standing under the shade to give the three a send off as well.
Cyril couldn't even hide his extremely wide grin as he crossed his arms and nodded to himself. "Say, y'mind giving me a sec'," he addressed Johannes before turning to face Aster and his merry band of misfits, placing a hand on his hip as the three approached.
"Fwee!" The Budew announced their arrival to his partner as Cyril crouched down and gave the guy and his friends a welcoming smile. "Heya' Aster, looks like you did make a couple of cute friends around the park~," he crooned tilting his head as he observed the reactions of the two Pokémon.
The Happiny, for all intents and purposes, stuck to cowering behind Aster, peering over his bud at Cyril. The Buneary on the other hand appeared much more relaxed and nonchalant, seemingly sizing up Cyril and appearing not impressed, though he could tell that she was a bit awkward and nervous. "In any case, hi you two, I'm Asters partner, Cyril! Though, I'm sure he's already told you two aaaalll about me~," he impishly teased as he reached out a hand and caressed the Asters side, which he returned with a happy fwee as rubbed Cyrils hand.
"... H-Haap-piny!"
Cyril glanced over his partner, looking at the Happiny's shaky response as she shrunk back and looked to the side, tapping her little hands. "Hm? He didn't tell you anything about me? Well, that's fine, I'm just happy to see he had a fun time with you two and the rest of the gang," he thumbed over to Basil who was busy interacting with his own partners at the moment. Before doing anything else, he quickly retrieved his Pokédex and scanned over both of them, much to the twos bewilderment.
"Hah, sorry, a bit of a habit I'm picking up again," he laughed as he moved one hand to rub his own cheek and slowly moved his other hand that was massaging his partner to the Happiny behind him. "Hah, pipi," she explained, caught off-guard by the sudden touching as the man massaged her side; as much as she wanted to shift away, she didn't. "There, there, if y'need some space, I can help find some for you later."
The way he consoled the little one was calming to her and soothed the little Happiny a bit enough to not jerk away from him, but instead stand there. This gentle expression allowed her to relax a bit, to the point where Aster shuffled out of the way and bounced onto Cyril's head. Moving the hand that was cupping his cheek towards the Buneary, he held his hand out, only for her to cross her arms away in a huff, only for her to follow up with a quick, light pound at his leg. Thankfully, it wasn't enough to hurt him, especially since he had worse.
"Oooof, hee hee, you're a feisty lil' lass, aren't ya," he mused as the Buneary looked up to him with a deadpan expression. Bun. Eh, she wanted to go up on his shoulder? "Sure, I don't mind!
Cyril watched as her eyes lit up as she bounced onto his hand, did a little balancing act before hopping with a twirl and landing square on his shoulder and taking a seat, Bun, bun, bun! Cyril could only smirk and chuckle at her little maneuver and newfound openness as he moved his hand back to scritch at her cheek. "Say Aster, what did y'all get up to while I was gone anyways?"
"Fwee, bud budee!"
...
...
...
Huh, so they apparently liberated a bunch of Pokémon from under the tyrannical rule of a Persian in the park and stole some treasure from him? As much as he should of been concerned, Cyril noted they looked to be relatively unscathed, though worry did still danced across his lips as he sighed. As much as he wanted to chalk it up to a fantasy, Aster and Cecil looked considerably stronger.
Cyril still mentally scolded himself for not being there to keep these three safe, however from what he could observe the three did seem comfortable around each other. This was something he would note for later; he could only ponder on the friendship factor for evolving these Pokémon before snapping back to reality.
"Ah, I almost forgot! Buneary, Happiny, you want to come along with Aster and myself, he looked over to both ladies as the Buneary crossed her legs as she patted his shoulder. "Bun, bun bun!" Well then, she made her decision relatively quickly, what about y-
"H-Happi!" Huh? Cyril didn't expect her to tear her focus away long enough from the pats; he could only guess they chatted about this earlier under the tree then. He tilted his head a little before shaking it, man, what a nice day.
"Alright then, how about your names then? Velvet for you and Mimi for you~! Sounds good," he addressed the Buneary first and Happiny second, both of which stared blankly at Cyril before dignifying it with their own responses. Mimi did a small, happy hop while Velvet tapped his cheek lightly while giving him a wry smile.
Looks like he had his answer. Withdrawing two Pokéballs, he lightly tapped the two of them, enveloping them both in a bright red light. Both balls rolled around once before clicking, allowing themselves to be caught without most of a hassle.
"Glad to have you both on board, Mimi, Velvet," he lightly tossed both of the Pokéballs, sending Mimi and Velvet out. The Buneary quickly reclaimed her place on one of Cyril's shoulders while he scooped up the Happiny into his arms, which was followed with Aster hopping down to join her in his arms.
And then they all sneezed.
"Ehe, guess that's my introduction to this posse of Pokémon," he grinned widely as he did a quick swipe of his nose with the side of his index finger. Of course, it wasn't long before Basil began muttering to himself about all these events as he got to know his new partner before taking off as well. Cyril merely bobbed his head and gave a thumbs up with his hand.
"A'ight, guess I'll see ya 'round then Basil, ciao for now!" And with those parting words he left for Basil, he turned his attention back to the blonde man. Hmm, maybe he should get going as well, it felt like he was stuck here for months already! Looking down at the duo, they seemed blissfully unaware of the world as they chirped to each other, with Velvet sometimes intervening to chat as well.
"Bun?" Velvet suddenly spoke up, poking at Cyril's cheek to garner his attention before pointing to where Basil had just went. For what she was like, she seemed raring to go and see more beyond this closed school. "You really sure about this?" Velvet paused, staring wide eyed at him as he nudged his shoulder to the side at the one tree the group was in. He saw her hesitate for a moment, before reaffirming her answer from earlier, "Bun bun bun!"
"Gotcha, anyways, sorry to just cut this whole talk short in general," Cyril turned his attention back to Johannes, giving him a weak smile as his shoulders sunk, "but I need to get goin' as well, especially with my own research, can't have too many more delays right now." He snapped his fingers before placing his and on his hip.
"Hopefully we can chat down the line again! After all, talking with others can do plenty of things, like potentially help someone," Cyril offhandedly commented as he moved over to swirling his hand around Mimi's little ponytail, causing her to shyly look away while giggling in tandem as well. "Aaaanyways, ciao for now!"
And with that said, with a pivot and a twirl he was off, giving one small wave to the much older man as he went to exit out the gate.
"Happiny?! Hap, hapi!"
Or so he thought. He was caught off-guard by the sudden interjection of Mimi as she tugged on his vest and called out to him, "Eh, what's the matter Mimi, got unfinished business?" Of course, that's when Aster began to jiggle his bud and chirp as well, unveiling a rock he was holding onto as he began to wriggle out of Cyril's grasp. Noticing this, Mimi followed suit, squirming to get out of Cyril's grip.
Aster popped out first as he beckoned Cyril to follow him, leaving the stone at his foot. As he bent over to pick it up, Mimi popped out as well, save she bolted straight for a bush, with Aster in hot pursuit. Interesting.
Scooping up the stone, he squinted as he examined it with Velvet doing it as well, "Buuuuneary?" Well, Cyril understood both their pleas, chuckling as he looked over to the bush they launched themselves into. "Didn't think she would be an avid stone collector," he murmured with a grin as he placed the rock into his satchel before following after them.
Nearing the bush was a sight to behold because they were hauling out these rocks like there was no tomorrow. One, two, three, seven, thirteen, it was ridiculous amount of speed they were going at, with the total adding up to about nineteen in the span of six to eight seconds, "Fweeeeee!" Aster and Mimi did a little dance as the last one was dropped at their partner's feet as he knelt down to inspect them once more.
They were just more regular rocks, all of them. Cyril couldn't help but laugh at the adorable eccentricities of the duo, but Velvet could only roll her eyes. "Aw come on, it's cute you know," he smirked and raised an eyebrow to Velvet as she turned away to look elsewhere and pretended not to care. Cyril merely stifled another giggle as he procured the rest of these rocks, making the total twenty.
Now they were ready to g-
"Buneary." Cyril pouted and puffed his cheeks out, a little flabbergasted and a little ready to laugh. It was one after the other with these three, but he didn't mind in the slighted as he looked to his shoulders, "You got somethin' you wanna do too?"
Velvet merely pointed in the opposite direction - the park. It seemed the trouble Aster got himself wrapped up into had subsided for the most part as most of the Paras went back to chittering, followed by a mixture of Shinx and Poochyena pouncing on one another. Cyril merely glanced back at her, noticing she was scanning the entire area before pointing to a lonely Shinx pawing at a flower and wiggling their tail, "Buneary."
She wanted to battle them from what he could discern. Rubbing his cheeks, he shrugged as he looked down to the duo, who had since finished their little jig, "Aster, Mimi, seems there's one more thing Velvet wants to do; y'up for watching?" The two looked over at each other before silently signifying to Cyril, with Aster bobbing his bulb and Mimi smiling while stretching her little arms out. The scene was enough to make him diabetic.
"Alright lets get going then!" And with that said, the group headed towards their target with both Aster and Mimi hiding behind Cyril whilst Velvet merely looked at the Pokémon and feigned a yawn before bouncing off his shoulder once they were close enough.
[center]Got nothing to say here, sooooo yeah.
I'm a bookworm, gamer, and obviously roleplayer since I'm on this site :P
Anyways, those are a few things that I'll say about myself... for now. Maybe I'll update this a little more in the future.
Ciao![/center]
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center">Got nothing to say here, sooooo yeah.<br><br>I'm a bookworm, gamer, and obviously roleplayer since I'm on this site :P<br><br>Anyways, those are a few things that I'll say about myself... for now. Maybe I'll update this a little more in the future.<br><br>Ciao!</div></div>
rush99999,
Guardian Angel Haruki,
Fading Memory,
XxFellsingxX,
Rune_Alchemist,
Shin Ghost Note,
Sho Minazuki,
Thayr,
Remram,
PlatinumSkink
