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

[Mezzo]

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

Svein’s polite smile didn’t falter, even though he certainly didn’t miss the abrupt change in subject. Not wanting to call out the younger man or make him feel anxious, even as he could see Youta’s hands were shaking, Svein simply decided to let it be. No matter, he trusted Youta was not up to no good — the least he could expect in another gym leader, after all, was a keen sense of responsibility. At Youta’s next words, though, Svein bit back a retort. He truly appreciated that Youta liked Magikarp, that much was true; it was rare to find someone that looked beyond the shallow “Magikarp is useless” argument and saw them for what they truly were: diamonds in the rough.

That said, though, Svein also didn’t like it when others carelessly pointed out the weaknesses of water-type Pokémon. On its own, it was certainly no harm done; it was simply a fact that Water was ineffective against Grass and Electric. However, when the subject did come up, it all too often led to people underestimating just how powerful water Pokémon could truly be! His opponents in gym battles generally adopted the self-righteous mindset of ‘If I have my Grass or Electric Pokémon with me, I’ll be fine.’ and he relished in proving them wrong. Granted, he couldn’t always win - he was meant to be a surmountable challenge for young trainers to face, after all, not an undefeatable wall like his Toxapex - but he did like to take opposing trainers by surprise when their reliance on type effectiveness worked against them, as it meant his hard work in training his team to overcome their weaknesses had paid off! While he didn’t employ a Water/Ground type himself (though he was absolutely impartial to Swamperts, Quagsires, and Gastrodons... there was something adorably charming about the latter two after all!), he liked to think he had reasonable options to oppose both Electric and Grass types (only because so many challengers liked coming at him with them expecting a clean sweep!). After all, it was something he'd taken into consideration when building his full team.

Although Svein was ready to launch into a speech on how water-type Pokémon were more than just their weaknesses, he decided to let bygones be bygones. Youta clearly didn’t mean anything harmful by what he’d said, so it would really only reflect poorly on Svein himself if he decided to turn an offhand comment into an argument. Besides, he could imagine Youta felt the exact same when someone was too keen on pointing out how Ground types had the leg up on Electric types. Hearing the same argument about type matchups could really grate on a gym leader’s nerves. Taking a deep breath to calm down (He’d just about mentally prepped himself for a spontaneous lecture of the advantages on raising Water types, but he held himself back. He blamed it on the lecture he delivered earlier today — curse his didactic mood.) - a habit he shared with his younger brother, believe it or not - he turned back to the lake and watched as his colleague sent out his own Lanturn to join the foraging wild Pokémon. Watching the Light Pokémon interact with the Magikarp and Poliwag that were around, Svein couldn’t help but genuinely start to relax. There was something oddly therapeutic about just watching water-type Pokémon swim around enjoying themselves. “Now I wish I’d brought my Lanturn with me,” he remarked, only half-joking considering he’d… accidentally left his pokéballs behind. “She would’ve liked to meet yours, I’m sure. It'd be nice to see the two of them play together sometime.”

Now, while he would’ve been content simply staying here to watch, Svein had a feeling Youta might get bored of that eventually, and he didn’t want to hold him up for too long. Instead, he turned back to the younger gym leader and offered, “What say you to a walk around the forest? Not for long, of course, but maybe we’ll run into some of the trainers we’ll be facing.” Granted, Hardstone Market housed the 4th gym so it was a bit of a ways off for novice trainers, but the fact was that Youta would eventually have to face off against whoever passed Svein’s gym as well. There was no harm in sizing up their competition now!

[Mezzo]

Niklaus | Noivern, Aegislash, Tentacruel, Eelektross, Mamoswine, Ninjask | Location: Saltrush City | Tags: Open | Mentions: Svein

Whereas some trainers were gallivanting about in the nearby forest, Niklaus had made a beeline straight for Saltrush City, and it seemed he was the first trainer to arrive thus far. Given, this was a bit unsurprising — Niklaus didn’t like to dally, and obtaining the first gym badge in Volokia was high-priority to him. The sooner he won it, the sooner he could move on and keep exploring the region, right? He wasn’t particularly passionate about battling, really, he just liked to see new places. Regrettably, his timing couldn’t have been worse; he was currently engaged in an argument with an employee standing outside the water-type gym as to why, exactly, the gym leader was currently not present.

“I’m very sorry, sir, but for the hundredth time-” That was an exaggeration, surely. Niklaus had not been pressing this guy with the same question that much! “The gym leader is away at the moment. You will have to come back later if you want your chance at the Riptide Badge. As we’ve already said, we can contact leader Svein for you, but we can’t say for certain when he’ll be back.”

This time around, Niklaus held his tongue. It was ridiculous that the gym had just let the gym leader leave without warning, but he’d already said so and gotten nowhere. Besides, his argument was admittedly rather faulty — gym leaders had lives of their own, and he couldn’t expect them to put that aside for their challengers. It’s just… it was the middle of the day! Work hours, if you will! What kind of person leaves their workplace for no good reason? Heaving a sigh, he gave a flippant wave to the employee, who was probably happy to finally see him leave. “Nevermind. I’ll just check back later.” He hoped he said that with enough bite that it would leave an impression on the gym employees for being so worthless. If nothing else, having some downtime now would give Niklaus time to go over his team’s strengths and weaknesses, and decide who would be best suited for a water-type gym.

Leaving the gym behind him, Niklaus began to trek through the city some more. At the very least, he wasn’t opposed to sightseeing. In fact, that was one of his favorite pastimes of traveling around the world… but, well, he had just expected to get his gym badge first, and it was a bit frustrating that this was not the case when he’d been dead set on that upon arriving in the region. His sharp blue gaze rested on a nearby café that specialized in food from other regions, and he took the opportunity to sit at one of the outside tables. Though he rarely felt homesick, he was interested in trying this café’s attempt at a Lumiose Galette and seeing how true to the original it was. As he placed his order to a waiter, he busied himself with thinking about his strategy while he waited for his food. Naturally, he expected to use his Eelektross at least at some point during the match, but any gym leader worth their salt somehow compensated for their specialized type’s weaknesses, and needless to say Niklaus wasn’t someone to put all his eggs in one basket. He didn’t prioritize battling, of course, but in a battle anyone who always thought they had the upper hand was a fool, simple as that — and Niklaus liked to think he was no fool.

Besides that, Niklaus had studied up on his opponent and knew Svein was a trainer that employed the weather to his advantage… the easiest counter to that would be inducing some different type of weather like harsh sunlight or hail, but he didn’t have any moves like that at his disposal… maybe this wouldn’t be as easy as he thought. Then again, he’d read that this region offered trials instead of just gym battles. He could always opt for that instead… it’d just hurt his pride a little. Normally, he also would have had at least his Noivern out to accompany him, but this was the city and he was well-aware that some of his Pokémon were too big to comfortably wander behind him at all times.

[bunnifical]

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

Youta was very much focused on the marine Pokèmon splashing around in the lake, its bright blue hues
reflected in his eyes. Water Pokèmon gave him this... incredible feeling of elation. Whilst it was obvious
that going against these water-based creatures gave him an easy win, their sense of grace and peace
was something he admired heavily - much to his embarrassment. Electric types were always so flashy;
this was a nice change of pace. In the back of his head, he was also relieved that Lumi hadn’t
attempted to assault any of its new acquaintances, otherwise the lake wouldn’t have had anything
left in it but her.

There was one more thought growing in the back of Youtas head... were there more people here?
The trainers who have taken it upon themselves to climb had most likely come to this area to
challenge Svein’s gym. Maybe this confrontation was fate? Maybe he could slide in and spectate
some games to watch Svein’s way of fighting? So many questions and no answers! It was almost
exciting.

As if it was bound to happen, Youta took a mental note of Svein’s breathing, freezing up. ’Oh.
Oh no. I really did just say that didn’t I-‘ he thought to himself, knowing he didn’t
mean what he said in a bad way. Internally, he was desperate to comment on ground types but
he decided to let the situation go - the last thing he wanted to do was cause any drama
between the pair of them.

Being brought to his senses by Svein’s questions, Youta snapped back into gear and nodded his
head. “You know, I was thinking the same thing. I’m positive there are other trainers
around here, seeing as your gym is the first one after all.”

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
★ Ｃｈｉｈａｒｕ Ｍｏｍｏｔａ ⋆ she/her ⋆ 18 ⋆ straight? ⋆ trainer ⋆ Ａppletun, Ｄubwool, Ｄedenne,
Ｍega Ｇarchomp, Ｇ-Ｓlowpoke, Ａrcheops ⋆ tags: Pudding the Dubwool, Dio (mention) ⋆
location: a forest ⋆ mood: embarrassed ⋆ Form Location ★
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Open still!

[Mezzo]

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

Pleased to have come up with a suggestion that appeased both of them, Svein gave one last longing glance at the water, shimmering like sparkles under the sunlight, before his attention shifted to his pocket, which was emitting a notification sound. Pulling his phone out from his pants, he was surprised to see a text message from one of his employees, informing him that a trainer had arrived in his absence, but had departed and would apparently come back later. Hmm. This didn’t exactly change his plans, he was already planning on just a short walk, but it did give him a direction to go toward. “Apparently I’ve already missed one,” he said matter-of-factly to Youta as he put his phone away. “No need for us to rush, though. The trainer’s already left the gym. But I suppose we can just head in the direction of Saltrush City and see if we run into anyone on the way.”

With that out of the way, Svein took the lead and began walking in the direction he had come from, though he veered off path to take a more scenic route home — it stood to reason he wasn’t going to follow the exact route he’d followed to get here, after all; he hadn’t seen any trainers on his way to the lake! He hoped Youta wouldn’t think he was being presumptuous in leading the way; he’d just been through this forest so many times that it was quintessentially impossible for him to get lost in it no matter how far he went. In any case, he was content with letting a comfortable silence fall between himself and his colleague as they walked — he wasn’t trying to be rude, of course! He was simply the type to prefer peace and quiet over trying to force small talk… but a little into their jaunt, he realized that Youta might lean toward being an extrovert, so the silence may have been more awkward than anything else. Oops. Trying to remedy the situation, he remarked, “I wonder if we’ll have any tough challengers this time around.” He had intended to word it as a question, but it came off as more an observation than anything else. But hey, Svein was not the best conversationalist, and he never claimed to be.

As he paused to allow Youta a chance to catch up, Svein glanced around to take in his surroundings. He thought he spotted movement in a far-off tree and, taking a closer look, caught a glimpse of a dark-haired trainer with a Houndoom resting nearby. The guy looked like he wanted to be left alone for the time being - he was in a tree after all! - though, so Svein moved on. There was also a cute black-haired girl playing with her Dubwool in the distance; the sight almost brought a smile to his face. Almost. He wasn’t quite so easily moved. And then, a little ways off… Svein’s green eyes crinkled in concentration, then widened in surprise. A genuine smile overtook his features and, without even stopping to consider the situation, he rushed forward, only glancing back at Youta once to explain, “I think I know that guy!” As he hurried closer, his suspicions were indeed confirmed.

Svein hadn’t seen his little brother in about 5 years now, not since Dio left Volokia to embark on a journey, and he had hardly heard from his brother - barely any letters or phone calls, nothing - since then. He hadn’t even known Dio was back in Volokia. Now as soon as Svein was within earshot of the boy who was undoubtedly his little brother - he had the pale blue hair and all! - and the girl he was talking to, he called out amusedly, “Is that my baby brother?” Did Svein ever actually call Dio his baby brother unironically? Nope, not really. But he sure loved to tease Dio! Sparing a glance at the brunette next to his brother, Svein was surprised to recognize her as Elizabeth, a girl who had grown up near them and been his brother’s closest confidante. “Well now, this is turning out to be quite a reunion,” he remarked. Judging by their proximity to the city, the two were no doubt raring to challenge him for a chance at his badge, and he was curious to see how the two had improved over the years. Well, mostly Dio. He didn’t know Elizabeth as well, obviously. But! Never one to miss a chance to tease his brother, Svein said to Youta in lieu of an introduction, “That’s my little brother Dio, and that’s his girlfriend Elizabeth. We all lived in Saltrush City before they left for their journeys. You wouldn’t believe the trouble baby Dio got himself into back in the day.” Heh, girlfriend. Well, then again, he didn’t know anything about Dio’s love life… and really, that was Dio’s fault if you asked Svein — his little brother put in so little effort to keep up with family, it was only natural Svein would be out of the loop now! And the last part, about Dio being troublesome? Svein didn’t remember most of that at all, and quite frankly he was really just making things up; Dio could consider this apt punishment for not keeping in touch, thank you very much. That said, though, he did recall his parents often lecturing the two for causing trouble, but he was usually too busy studying to deal with their antics; his parents had been the previous Saltrush City gym leaders, and he was raring to be their successor even back then. Now admittedly, Svein rarely showed this more hearty, playful side of himself to anyone except his friends and family… it may have come off as strange to Youta that he was acting so casual. When the gym challenge actually started, though, it’d be back to business for all of them, and then there would be no such time for fun and games.

(Sorry for all the action in one post; I needed some Svein teasing Dio action lol)

[snailful]

Sable Berry
Female | Lesbian | 17

˚ ༘✶ ⋆｡˚ ⁀➷ ⠀⠀Sable stepped outside of her house, taking a deep breath of fresh air. A satchel slung over her shoulder and her friends by her side, she had anticipated this day for years. Now it had started; her Pokemon journey. She'd had Pokemon for a long time, ever since she could understand the concept of a Pokeball, but she'd never even left the town. As much as she loved it there, as lovely as it was, it was time for change. She thought this to herself, muttering nonsense beneath her breath, and didn't even notice that she had taken her first step into the real world. Route one.
˚ ༘✶ ⋆｡˚ ⁀➷ ⠀⠀The trek down the path is pretty simple once Sable acknowledges she is actually there. She has little to no problems, even bringing out her Mismagius, Whisper, out for a bit of fresh air. About ten steps after putting Whisper back in, though, she is faced with her first wild Pokemon; a small little Purrloin.


Bentley Gillis
⠀ Male | Bisexual | 21

˚ ༘✶ ⋆｡˚ ⁀➷ ⠀⠀Bentley slowly walked along the dirt sidewalk that connected Buckweed Town, careful to avoid the dandelion puffs that had sprouted across the path. He was returning from the flower shop down the road from his gym, carrying a bundle of flowers. The shop used to be run by his grandmother, as the gym had too, but it was now in the possession of some big floral company he cared too little to remember the name of. He could've picked flowers from his gym, yes, but he felt they were much too ugly, and most of them were dead anyways. His grandmother doesn't deserve dead flowers.
˚ ༘✶ ⋆｡˚ ⁀➷ ⠀⠀Bentley continued down the road, past his gym and past the Pokemon Centre. A bit down the road from the Pokemon Centre was the cemetery. A path down the middle divided the graveyard, the humans on the left on Pokemon on the right. The Pokemon side was much fuller and well-kept, and he despised the burial company that owned the yard exactly for that. He went to the left and stopped at the second grave in the middle row, also the most recent. The headstone was overrun with flowers, all ones Bentley had put there himself, but the text was left legible; Rosemary Gillis. The cemetery never changed much, but Bentley noticed there was a new hole dug next to hers, something that left him puzzled for a while. Nobody in the town had died recently, to his knowledge.


Dakota Reese
Agender | Gynosexual | 19

˚ ༘✶ ⋆｡˚ ⁀➷ ⠀⠀Dakota dumped itself onto a bean bag chair, its Vaporeon, Vaporwave, following after onto its lap. It snickered as the Pokemon collapsed into sleep, completely burnt out. The part it found funny was that all Vaporwave did all day was train for tricks and eat snacks, and she was now exhausted. It stroked the Pokemon's water-like skin as she starting to make a gurgling purr sound its lap, one that they both associated with love. Dakota and Vaporwave had been partners for years now; it didn't like to think about how long, but it was easily ten or more years. Vaporwave was just an Eevee in the forest when they met, and Dakota met it at the route's edge daily to feed it snacks. It paused. At home, it thought. Dakota had awful memories of home, and didn't want to think about it any more.
˚ ༘✶ ⋆｡˚ ⁀➷ ⠀⠀"Vaporwave," it started, looking at the creature in it's lap, who didn't respond. "We should do something. Go on a walk, maybe.. Oh, I know, the trail up the mountain! Wouldn't that be-" It trailed off. "Hey!! Are you ignoring me?" Vaporwave was, in fact, ignoring it, because she was actually sleeping. ".. Aww. Alright then, be like that."

[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 walked past the forest and arrived tot the next city on her way, Saltrush city. Her journal so far was being good as she meets many different pokemon, she even captured Seel into the lake near the forest, her Chikorita evolved as well. Though she didn't really find anything about legendary or mythical pokemon, she was so interested. She wanted to meet some of them, but not to catch them as it feel so wrong, when there had duties the legendary pokemon did, to keep the worlds balance safe or so she believed. When she got to the city she firstly looked at the large city map on the street, finding a library not so far away and there was even a gym only a few blocks away from it. She could stay in this city for a while to study something about her interests and challenge the gym leader before continuing her journal.

Gion Black
male - team Nocturnia - Nocturnia's base - open for relationships
Shiny Umbreon, Mimikyo, Milotic, Mienshao, Braviary, Lycanroc (dusk)
talking with:
🖤
He was being up for a while now, flying into the sky with his Braviary, he enjoyed being on hights and loved the views. He didn't have many close friends on the team so he didn't really hang with the others, he was more like a loner anyway.

[bunnifical]

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

Whilst Svein checked his phone, Youta headed toward the water and crouched down, smiling at Lumi
who had made some new friends. "C'mon, Lumi! We're heading out now. We'll find something for you
both on the way, okay?" With that, the dolphin turned to its acquaintances and wiggled her fins
to bid them farewell, returning to her dive ball that Youta held out in front of her by nuzzling her nose
against it. 'People at the gym? Seems like somebody's eager. D'ya think they really pushed to get in
before being turned away?' He thought to himself. Whilst he wanted his challengers to be eager
and ready to go, it was obvious that the last thing he wanted was to encounter a cocky, hot-headed
trainer. That REALLY grinds his gears.

Catching up to Svein, he noticed his eyes light up and a smile wipe across his face, looking past the trees to
a young man which he shared a resemblance to. It was obvious that they had a connection - siblings?
Friends? He wasn't sure until Svein told him that the was his younger brother, a slight smirk smearing across
his face listening to him cooing over his younger brother. "Isn't that cute?" He responded, giving him
a playful nudge. It was clear as day that Svein was elated to see his sibling - he never acted like this. He
motioned him to go have a reunion. "Go ahead, go see him. I'll wait back here. You should have a
private reunion before I meet him too."

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

Putting Pudding away in her Pokéball, Chiharu sighed in relief as she fixed her hair, turning around to
match eye contact with the first gym leader, Svein. Her cheeks glowed a bright pink and she turned
away roughly the same time as he did, covering her face up and heading deeper into the forest, hoping
to find another trainer to chat to.

[Quetzaloe]

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

"--I mean, it'll all be great, Audino!" Shinobu rattled on anxiously. They'd been making their way to Saltrush City for the better part of a week (they'd gotten terribly lost, but it wasn't like they were from around here! They were from the Unova region, for pete's sake!). Audino looked up at him as she waddled along, a stray feeler coming up to rest on his chest as she cooed at him.

"Ah? Ah-dino?" She blinked up, fluttering her eyes at him.

Unable to help himself, he screeched a bit and scooped her up in his arms to twirl her around awkwardly before setting her back down. "That's the spirit! We're gonna get some badges, we'll find you some Audinite, and you'll be the prettiest, most talented Mega Audino those catty pageant ladies will have ever seen! That'll show them!"

"Ah-dino!" She cheered back to him before toddling on.

They were almost to the city (finally!) when the happened across a group in the road. Two of them were clearly related (and unfairly beautiful, Shinobu had to admit, wouldn't the pageant ladies just fall to pieces!), but the others didn't seem to be. One girl seemed to be a bright cherry red before stomping off. Awkwardly, he came to a stop, staring at the clump of people first, and then down at Audino.

Quickly, he whipped out a brush (from where? it's a trade secret) and descended upon his champion pageant queen with it. They'd been travelling through dirt and leaves and much for ages! And now they were coming across strangers?! Oh, there was a snowball's chance in a volcano that he was going to let these strangers' first impressions of his girl be that she was anything less than stunning while they asked if they would know the directions to the gym and/or pokemon center once they reached the city.

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, Viviana, Gion

"Boooooorrreeedddd," Steph looked at Darling where he was settled in her arms. The smug little bean looked up at her as if to say 'so?'

"I've finished my work for now, Darling. I know the others have things to do, but they could ask for my help, or come take a break and play with me, couldn't they?" She pouted. True, Gion was probably out of the base. He didn't like to stay and play. But she knew she'd seen Damian come back today, and she was fairly certain Viviana had never left.

Over on the daybed settled messily into the corner of the room, Sneazel and Spheal looked up from where they'd made a nest of her blankets. Sneazel looked especially cute under the fairly lights she'd used to line the ceiling of her room with. She and Darling were plopped down onto a beanbag in front of her monitors, covered in yet more blankets. Nodding at them she stood up.

Well! If none of them wanted to come to her, she'd just have to go to them!

Leaving her room, she threw herself against the nearest occupied room's door, careful not to squish Darling. "Huuuaaaaaa~ Daeeee, DaeDae, Damiiii, Damiaaaann~ Let me innnnn~"

[Furrydogs12]

Viviana Silver/Espeon user of Team Nocturnia/location: Team Nocturnia base/ tags:open
Viviana then turned her attention to another screen. "Few people in a forest" She says spotting the red dots along with a few blue dots which corresponded with their pokemon. "A few in the city" She notes a few more dots. Espeon looked at the screens from her place on Viviana's neck. "Espeon!" Espeon called out and pointed her tail to a few more dots. "Good eye, Espeon" Viviana praised her. Viviana wrote down all the popular points where many people or in this case, dots, were. Now that she finished mapping, Viviana now needed Elgyem and found the cerebral pokemon's pokeball and released him. "Elgyem, time to test your headache abilities" Viviana said. Elgyem could make headaches happen to almost any trainer or pokemon, but he was still working on the strength of his headache making. Viviana hooked him up to a few wires and told him, "go!" and she looked back to her screen showing the waves of his headwaves, that made the headaches. "It has improved since last time!" She says and unhooks Elgyem from the wires and spun him around. "Espeon" Espeon said from her neck. "You are both amazing!" She says before putting Elgyem back on the ground. "Elgyem" Elgyem said before floating up to the desk and sitting there

[fortissimo]

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

//////Just as Dio was beginning to think this reunion was going rather smoothly, he heard the intonation of a familiar, aggravating voice. One of his lilac eyes twitched, dreading what was behind him, as he slowly turned in a 180 degree angle. It was almost comical how reluctantly he turned around; an observer could clearly tell he didn’t want to do it, but had resolved himself to do so anyway. He knew there was only one person in the entire world that was pretentious enough to refer to him as a “baby” when he was clearly no longer a child… hell, there was only one person that applied to in general! His older brother… Svein. What the hell was Svein doing outside of Saltrush City?! Granted this forest was just outside the city, but Dio had sincerely expected he would have a little more time to mentally prepare himself for this reunion!

//////‘Be strong, Dio. Don’t let on that he’s getting to you,’ he tried to tell himself as he, indeed, confirmed that it was Svein standing just a few feet away from himself and Lizzie. A blond stood near Svein and Dio recalled from the official commercials and pamphlets advertising the Rank Rising Competition that this must be the Electric-type gym leader, Youta Ki. Huh. He would not have pegged his older brother to be the type to fraternize with his colleagues, considering how anti-social Svein had been when they were children, but he supposed people could change in some ways? He certainly had in the past 5 years… or at least he liked to think so. Now, any of Dio’s friends (to which he didn’t have many, granted) knew that there was only one person that could grate his nerves with just a single word uttered: Svein. Lizzie certainly had been on the receiving end of some of his rants back when he was still just a boy, tirades about how perfect and hard-working his brother was, and how hard it was to live up to that. Deep down, though, he did care about his brother… it was simply the competitive environment they grew up in, whereupon their parents tended to favor Svein over Dio - seeing as Svein was to be the inheritor of the gym - that caused this largely one-sided rivalry to form in Dio’s mind. He knew Svein didn’t care one whit about outdoing his brother but that fact did not reassure him whatsoever — rather than feeling gratified by his older brother’s attitude, he took it to mean that Svein didn’t see Dio as even worthy of being his rival, and that was condescending. It wasn’t enough that others acknowledged they were equals, whether it be in strength or appearance — it was something Dio had to accept himself, and even after going on a journey of his own, he was still not there yet. Also, Svein just constantly liked to tease him when he did have the free time to interact. That was just annoying in and of itself. He wasn’t a child anymore!

//////Scizor moved forward from where he had previously stood, leaning against a tree, as if sensing his trainer’s irritation… they certainly didn’t share a mental link like Psychic-type trainers did, but it was fairly easy to catch: anyone looking at Dio could practically see annoyance rolling off him in waves! And sadly, all his mental prep threw itself out the window as soon as Svein spoke up again, clearly making light of the situation. Dio’s right eye twitched again. Baby Dio? Girlfriend? His brother was so full of himself, he really needed to be knocked down a peg or two! “Don’t talk like I’m not right here, you idiot!” he called out to the gym leader, his tone at once both defensive and hostile. “And don’t call me that! I’m not a kid anymore! And Lizzie’s not my girlfriend, so don’t go causing misunderstandings!” Even though he claimed he wasn’t a kid… well, it was sort of funny seeing how impudent he was acting, his hands balled into fists and his features morphing into a petulant expression not unlike that of a pouting child who hadn’t been allowed to have the candy he wanted. Damn it, this reunion was not going at all how he had wanted it to go when he decided to return to Volokia. He was supposed to come across as grown up, mature, no longer needing to rely on anyone for anything and especially not his older brother… but here he was, throwing the equivalent of a teenager’s temper tantrum. Svein always knew how to get on his nerves. And although Dio was doing a poor job defending himself (he didn’t need to, really; Svein was just having fun… but Dio didn’t see things that way. To him, this was all-out war.), he certainly hoped Lizzie wouldn’t take this cue to jump in; it would only encourage Svein’s horribly misled belief that they were romantically involved.