❝[✧] The Volokia Region!! Main Thread!! [Pokémon] ❞

[SmilePup]

Ozzy was sitting in a small cafe, surprisingly. He was disguised and was waiting for a trainer, or anyone, really, to come in. He would follow them when they leave, and ambush them. His Pokemon were strong, and he just needed a chance to shine.

[Quetzaloe]

Shinobu
Trainer | Audino (f), Pyroar (m), Feebas (m) | 18 | he/him | Location: Forest | Mention(s): Elizabeth, Dio, Svein, Youta

Satisified that Audino looked as lovely as she could with what little they had available (Shinobu's fingers itched to reach into his bag and pull out her various ribbons and baubles, but there was no need for that right now), he gently took her little hand in his and began to lead her to the group.

There seemed to be some tension between the two pretty boys. Brothers? Seemed like there was just enough tension for it to be family tension. The other male(?), who seemed closer to the elder brother's age, seemed to be amused, while the girl was frowning and seemed to be in the middle of scolding them.

He listened in for a moment, nodding when she made her point. For sure, for sure, girls and boys could totally be friends without romance-ness getting in the way! He'd been surrounded by the pageant ladies back home enough to know not to presume anything about a person's status at this point. Mostly because he'd gotten his ears yanked for careless wonderings more than enough for one lifetime, thanks.

"Di! Audi~ino!" An insistent little chirrup brought him out of his musings. Right! Directions!

"Ah! Sorry to interject, you're totally right by the way, none of you would happen to be from Saltrush City, would you? We've ah--we've been adventuring around and totally not getting lost, pft.... And ah... I don't suppose you'd know if we were close? Or where the local gym or pokemon center would be? Shinobu tried not to fidget while he spoke, but realized after he finished that it meant he'd forgotten not to ramble. Whoops! Oh well, hopefully they wouldn't mind pointing him the right way.

Audino hummed happily, one feeler wrapping around his wrist as the other poked forwards towards the group, clearly trying to feel out all the emotions running around. He patted her head gently, thankful for his familiar companion.

words

Tsubasa
Dragon Gym Leader | Hydreigon (m), Mega Ampharos (f), Dragonite (f), Alolan Exeggutor (m) | 23 | he/him | Location: Prometous Mountains, Dragon Gym | Mention(s): Reshiram, Open

Tsubasa leaned into his friend's side as he looked over the edge of the mountain. He'd spent the last few days making sure his gym was up to par with the others. It was that time of year again, when trainers would come from all over to battle and earn badges... Such an awful time.

Inevitably, most of the trainers would use some sort of teeny tiny pokemon on his team, leaving him reeling and exhausted after only a few battles. And more still would wait out on the big patio he had set out behind the gym, waiting to try to spot his legendary friend. Most of them were harmless enough, just wanting a picture or bragging rights. But there were always some who would be waiting with pokeballs, and he'd be forced to escort them out and away from his gym.

Reshiram looked down at him questioningly before giving him a gentle nudge. Their own way of telling Tsubasa that they both would be fine, or so he assumed.

The gym wasn't anything fancy, just a big, plain pitch, and a few rooms that served as a med bay for both humans and pokemon exhausted in battle or who'd run into trouble in the wild. So he'd done as much for it as he could. More impressive were the mountains around it, home to many rare pokemon. It was a good place to run and hide and stay safe. Technically not a preserve though, which was.... something. It was about time to make his daily rounds, checking on those he knew, making sure no one needed medical attention.

words

Stephanie
Team Nocturnia | Glaceon (m), Shiny Sneazel (f), Gigantimax Lapras (f), Spheal (m), Frosslass (f), Amaura (m) | 20 | she/her/they/them | Location: Nocturnia Base | Mention(s): Damian

Stephanie giggled as her normally stoic Glaceon let out a happy coo and hopped down from her arms to go join Sylveon. He always seemed to enjoy the other Eevee-lution's company, moreso than most of the others.

"What'cha doing, Dae?" She asked with a smile as she nudged her way into the room. Stooping down to pat Rapidash as she peered at all the items on Damian's desk. Steph kept her voice light, knowing that it annoyed the older boy. She liked him well enough, despite his prickly exterior, but it was too easy to get him wound up and annoyed, which amused her endlessly.

"That the new whoozie-whatsit you've been working so hard on?" She tapped the glass encasing the strange gass lightly. Admittedly, all the sciency jabber had gone over her head in regards to it, although she'd been happy to go take provide subjects for the project. "Don't suppose you'll be getting done with it any time soon?"

The potentials for the project were interesting. It was almost time for the rank rising whatever (ugh, trainers and their labels, why did it matter?) and she was curious to see if they'd get to play with the new substance when prey strangers were in such heavy abundance.

[Mezzo]

Svein | Politoed, Kabutops, Gyarados, Lanturn, Toxapex, Ludicolo | Location: Forest | Tags: Youta, Dio, Elizabeth, Shinobu | Mentions: x

Perhaps Svein should have been taking his younger brother’s retorts and rebuttals more seriously, but nope — he was far too busy revelling in Dio’s riled up, almost puerile reaction! Now that was exactly what he was going for. It was just like back when they were kids. A few years may have passed, but Dio was doing a wonderful job proving to him that not all people change with the passing of time. As far as he was concerned, Dio and Elizabeth were still the same kids he knew and didn’t have time to deal with back in the day. Then again, big brothers tended to be biased in that regard. No matter how much time passed, Svein was fairly confident he would always see Dio as just that: his baby brother. ”Careful, if you keep making that pouty expression, your face might get stuck like that forever!” he jokingly chided, using the same tone an adult would use when talking down to a baby while resisting the urge to pinch Dio’s cheeks which were swelling up (in righteous anger, granted) almost like a cute little Skwovet.

However, the rare moment of jest between the brothers (okay, admittedly one-sided on Svein’s part, but the point stood; it was rare otherwise to see the gym leader in such a cheerful mood!) was interrupted when Svein heard Elizabeth chiming in. If she’d been a stranger, he would undoubtedly have turned to shoot her a piercing glare for intruding on his and his brother’s reunion (she ought to learn to read the room! … or the forest; and granted, he recognized there was some hypocrisy in this notion considering he had interrupted Dio and Elizabeth first), but he didn’t deign to do so in this case. Both her and Dio’s defensive reactions suggested there was more behind the scenes than they claimed… or just that they were both still immature when it came to affairs of the heart. The latter was probably more likely. While Svein didn’t actually care what was going on in his brother’s love life, it did pique his curiosity. Still, he knew better than to keep pushing lest he actually upset Dio. He wasn’t here to fight, anyway.

Another voice spoke up and Svein’s attention drifted away from his baby brother. Hm, now there was a voice he suddenly didn’t recognize. As if a spell had been broken, Svein took a step back and stood up straight, posture at once stiff and frigid. His evergreen gaze morphed from familiar and friendly, with a warmth rare to one such as himself, to cold and distant in a heartbeat, as he turned to size up the newcomer - an uncertain-looking young man with pink hair accompanied by a friendly-looking Audino. Which was frankly more than he could say presently for Dio’s Scizor and Elizabeth’s Lucario, who both looked as if they were chomping at the bit to have a go at him. Hmm, perhaps their trainers didn’t realize their belligerent attitudes were actually rubbing off negatively on their Pokémon, or they did and simply didn’t care. What a shame, perhaps Dio really hadn’t grown up at all over the years. What was he going to do in a battle? Would he let his pride get the better of him? If his ego was just a tad bruised - as it clearly was now - would he abandon all notions of strategy just in an attempt to get even? An opponent who was easily riled up was an opponent that was easy to take advantage of, as Svein knew from his experience as a gym leader; once they lost their cool, it became that much harder for them to think on their feet and focus on the battle at hand.

Now this wasn’t how Svein had expected his simple promenade through the canopy to go. He’d welcomed the chance to speak with Youta and reunite with Dio after years lost (and tolerated Elizabeth’s presence; he still hardly knew the girl on a more personable level), but now five was just too much of a crowd (not to mention the free-roaming Pokémon to boot!). Besides, this stranger was asking about the gym. That meant back to business for Svein. “Of course. My friend-” At the word, Svein made an offhand gesture in Youta’s direction before continuing, “-and I were just heading in that direction, actually. I don’t suppose you’d like to come along? I am the Saltrush City gym leader, after all, and my companion here is Youta, the Hardstone Market gym leader, so I don’t imagine you’ll find better tour guides.” Before the stranger could reply, he turned to spare Dio and Elizabeth one last glance, his tone no longer welcoming and affable but now terse and businesslike. “And if you two are quite done and want to rein it in a little, perhaps you can come along. I’m sure you want to have a go at the Riptide Badge too, don’t you? Or have you already given up on the Rank Rising Competition before you even started?” A sharp 180 from his earlier joking, indeed - he rarely spoke to his brother like this - but this was how Svein had always been; his teasing (even doting) big brother performance was a rarity, not the norm. With the way things were, it was probably no surprise that the brothers had never been close… Svein did really love his brother despite all pretenses that suggested otherwise, but he hardly made the effort to show it. One could hardly fault Dio for being a tad resentful.

[Queen of flames]

Lillian Stark
Female - Fire gym leader - Dagwoodville - open for relationships
Typlosion, Ninetales, Houndoom, Arcanine, Rapidash
talking with:
🔥
She wakes up at her home which was upstairs of Dagwoodville's gym. She made some coffee as she wondered what she could be doing today when was her vacant- day for leading the gym and so on the gym were shut today. There were playing and relaxing place at the gym too where she released all her pokemon to do whatever they wanted, she didn't want to keep them at their Pokeball all day long.

Mint White
female - trainer - Saltrush city - open for relationships
Alolan Ninetales, Bayleef, Seel, Tropius
talking with:
🤍
She stayed an hour in the Library, after finding some books about legendary and mythical pokemon, she could not lend them as she was moving forward to the next city after challenging the Santrush city's water gym, which could be her next target after visiting the Pokemon center to heal her pokemon and maybe in Pokemart to get some potions for the upcoming match. She walked around the streets, wondering if the rumors were right and the gym leader was using only three pokemon, as another way she could not even have a chance to challenge him, as she only had four pokemon at the moment. She takes a look up to the sky seeing a boy flying with Braviary there, but she didn't really care about it, just entered the pokemon center which was only a few houses before Pokemart.

Gion Black
male - team Nocturnia - Nocturnia's base - open for relationships
Shiny Umbreon, Mimikyo, Milotic, Mienshao, Braviary, Lycanroc (dusk)
talking with:
🖤
He flyed with his Braviary, over some large forest, which led to Saltrush city, he could see some trainers walking here and there into the forest, some alone some with groups. There were even some battles going on and he could see some larger wild pokemon running wild there, which made him wonder when the Team Nocturnia start to make their plans into action, so far they stayed silent. He flew toward the city, but landed into the borders where the forest ended and the city started, calling his Braviary back to its ball and walked to the Pokemart there, he felt like buying some lemonade there. He got to the counter to pay for his lemonade, which was kind of annoying to him as he could easily steal it, but he was told not to bring too much attention to himself from now on. He got out of the Pokemart, drinking his lemonade, noticing the advertisement on the bulletin board near the door 'The Rank Rising Competition? huh? If I only could join that?' he thought taking another gulp, calling his Braviary out of its ball again "Let's go back then" he told the bird pokemon and flew into the sky, toward the Nocturnia's base.

[SmilePup]

Ozzy was bored. He looked around for something to do, and saw someone sitting alone. He sighed. At least talking to someone is better than waiting for trainers to show up- He got up, and sat down at Niklaus' table. "Hello. I see you're alone?"

[Mezzo]

Niklaus | Noivern, Aegislash, Tentacruel, Eelektross, Mamoswine, Ninjask | Location: Saltrush City | Tags: Ozzy | Mentions: x

Engrossed in trying to formulate battle strategies for his inevitable upcoming gym challenge, Niklaus was caught by surprise when someone else joined him at the otherwise empty table. He didn’t mind being interrupted or anything — nor did he think it was rude, though there were other available tables and seats for the stranger. Seeing as there was no reason not to be polite, though, he nodded in lieu of a verbal response. “Just thinking about gym battles,” he remarked, forthright yet vague enough for his liking, his unchanging blank expression giving nothing away.

His blue gaze appraising the stranger, a brunet with forest green eyes, Niklaus noted that the man did not particularly seem like a trainer, though he knew better than to make assumptions based on looks alone. So instead, he decided to simply be upfront and pose the question on his mind: “Are you a trainer, too? Here for a go at the gym?” Naturally, he had no idea whatsoever that he was seated with a man from Team Nocturnia. Hell, he didn’t even know what Team Nocturnia was — he was entirely new to Volokia! As far as Niklaus knew, this guy was just a harmless bloke looking for some company, and Niklaus was all too keen to see if he had any insight on the Rank Rising Challenge and the gym leaders of this region. Maybe they could share strategies or the like; Niklaus wasn’t that invested in the competitive or professional scene - honestly, he was mostly undergoing the Rank Rising Challenge because it seemed like the appropriate thing to do upon visiting a new region - but he sure thought it was interesting to witness and learn from the battling style of other trainers. Rather than treating other trainers as rivals, he thought of them as peers that he could always learn from.

The duo was briefly interrupted by the arrival of the waitress who’d taken Niklaus’s order, walking up to their table and dropping off his Lumiose Galettes. Knowing that the pastries were suitable for both human and Pokémon consumption, he figured he would try it first before ordering any for his team members. Most attempts at galettes were not nearly as good as the ones from home - or perhaps he was just picky? - but hey, props to the chef for trying! Picking up the flat round cake, he observed that the texture and look of it was just right before taking a tentative bite. Hm. Nope. It was good, but it lacked the sort of… je ne sais quoi that the freshly-baked ones from Lumiose City had. Oh well, seeing as he hadn’t eaten in awhile, he wasn’t complaining. Realizing that it may come off as rude to be eating while his companion didn’t have any food, Niklaus gestured a galette to the stranger. “Sorry, did you want one?” It had not occurred to him that he hadn’t even introduced himself just yet, nor did the stranger, and yet he was offering his food to the guy anyway… whoops.

[fortissimo]

𝐃𝐈𝐎
trainer | scizor, porygon-z, gengar, kingdra, talonflame, alolan raichu | location: a forest | tags: lizzie, svein, youta, shinobu | mentions: x

//////Dio’s irritation was only exacerbated when Lizzie butted in. There were times when he appreciated someone coming to his defense and other times where he wanted to fight his battles… this case had, regrettably, been the latter, not that Lizzie would have known that short of reading his mind. However, the interruption of a stranger caught him off guard and he momentarily calmed down, having enough sense to want to avoid making a bad impression in front of the new guy (granted, depending on how long the stranger had been nearby, he’d probably already seen Dio at his worst… damn it). Tearing his gaze away from Svein, Dio appraised the new arrival — not rudely, of course, but simply out of curiosity.

//////The first thing he noticed about this guy was that he was tall, easily reaching 6 feet and more. Dio couldn’t help but feel a tad envious; it seemed like he’d never hit his growth spurt and was fairly short for a guy, though he was still just barely taller than most girls his age. He really wished he had drank more Moomoo Milk as a kid! Besides the stranger’s enviable height, Dio also noticed a sweet-looking Audino - then again, what Audino didn’t look absolutely adorable? - was trailing behind him. This, and the fact he asked about the gym in Saltrush City, all but confirmed the newbie was undoubtedly a trainer that was also attempting the Rank Rising Challenge. That made sense, granted, since Dio had heard that he’d arrived with a group of other trainers. His nose wrinkled at his brother’s attempt at an answer which, at least in his very biased opinion, sounded condescending at worst and cold at best. Still, though, he couldn’t argue that Svein would be perfectly capable of taking the stranger to the gym; if there was one thing undeniable about his brother, it was that Svein always carried out his duties to a T, and Dio supposed that helping visiting trainers fell somewhere into a gym leader’s job description.

//////When Svein turned back to Dio and Lizzie, he also turned his condescending attitude on them. Great. Dio’s pout almost instantly returned now that he was under his brother’s scrutiny again, and he resisted the urge to tackle his brother to the ground for a good old fistfight. That was how children settled disagreements — he had to be more mature than that! “We’re not done, we’re just getting started,” he responded heatedly, which was at least half-true; their journey in Volokia had only just begun. “And don’t even think that I’m giving up! You and I are gonna settle this at the Saltrush City gym, you got that?!” While he’d just spouted whatever came to mind, Dio had to metaphorically pat himself on the back for that one. For once in this entire conversation, he hadn’t come off as childish or silly! Self-righteous and indignant, sure, but at least not juvenile!

//////With a final huff, Dio turned his back on his brother, clearly indicating their conversation was over, at least on his side. Some siblings who hadn’t seen each other in a few years perhaps would embrace and start catching up immediately, but the relationship between him and Svein was far too contemptuous for that. A small part of Dio, deep deep down (and if you asked, he would absolutely deny it), hoped that someday things would change and they could laugh together like brothers should, but he knew they weren’t ready for that just yet. Instead, his attention back on Lizzie, he said, his tone kinder than when he’d addressed his brother (not a particularly spectacular feat all things considering, he had been very aggressive to Svein), “I guess we should stop dawdling and head to the gym, huh? Maybe we can catch up after.” Granted he’d been annoyed with her earlier for sticking her nose in something that was, in his opinion, not her business - Svein may have called her his girlfriend, but it was still a matter between siblings and not for outsiders - but he didn’t want to chase her away since they had just reunited.

[bunnifical]

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★ Ｙｏｕｔａ Ｋｉ ⋆ he/him ⋆ 18 ⋆ straight ⋆ Electric-Type Gym Leader ⋆ Ｍanectric, Ｇalvantula,
Ｌuxray, Ｄracozolt, Ｔoxtricity and Ｌanturn ⋆ tags: Svein, Dio, Elizabeth, Shinobu ⋆ location: a forest ⋆
mood: nervous ⋆ form location ★
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Watching this reunion was... awkward, to say the least. By the way Svein was talking, Youta's mind
began to spin. Youta? Svein? Not friendly? Not a good congregation? But... he seemed so happy and...
and... excited? This was supposed to have a happy ending! Not all of this... this... negativity! No way!
Not happening! Not on Youta's watch! Watching the trio argue back and forth made his fists shake and
teeth grit, but he tried his best to hold himself back. Even the Lucario was looking at him like he was
a threat. Drat! That's not what he wanted. On the inside, he was a tiny star just ready to explode into
smiles and fun, however, on the inside, he looked as tense as ever. He was hoping the Lucario could
get a feel of his thoughts and emotions and understand the way he appeared on first glance.

"Right! Well the-" he began, before being cut off by a newcomer who was
passing by and Svein offering him to join them in their journey towards Saltrush City. He tried his
best to play it off like he never said anything, looking away and scratching his head. He didn't
want to make eye contact with the apparent 'couple', as he didn't want to be a part of this
negative energy.

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★ Ｃｈｉｈａｒｕ Ｍｏｍｏｔａ ⋆ she/her ⋆ 18 ⋆ straight? ⋆ trainer ⋆ Ａppletun, Ｄubwool, Ｄedenne,
Ｍega Ｇarchomp, Ｇ-Ｓlowpoke, Ａrcheops ⋆ tags: - ⋆
location: a forest ⋆ mood: flustered ⋆ Form Location ★
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Open!

[SmilePup]

"Yes,,although I am not taking part in the gym. My, name's Ozzy, by the way." He fiddled with his fingers- it was a habit- he did it when he was bored. "Oh-!" When Niklaus offered a galette, he smiled. "Are you sure-? It's your food, after all." He chuckled. Nervous man- why did he talk to people again?