Welcome to Gaia! ::

Like most everyone else a the ranch, a girl with purple hair came in dripping wet. She looked rather annoyed as she wrung out her dripping ponytail.

Brianna sighed heavily and tossed the long purple hair behind her again as she looked around. This was where she was told rental Pokemon could be found. Seeing as she was a beginning trainer, she had none of her own.

Her nose wrinkled in distaste at the distinct smell the building had, but at least it was dry. She spotted a man who looked to fit the description of the ranch owner.

"Hey.. I need to rent a Pokemon." She told him as the man turned to her.

"Sure thing! Here ya are little lady!" And he handed her a Pokeball. "Just make sure ya follow the rules and bring him back in one piece! Why don't ya go ahead and get to know him."

Deciding to do just that, Brianna released the Pokemon which materialized into a massive bull.

"A... Tauros?" She asked in disbelief, slumping over in a disappointed sigh. Not exactly the glamorous Pokemon she had hoped for, but then it WAS a rental.

Lisa turned to the trainer that had greeted her. "Oh, I'm in the red group, too! My name's Lisa, and the little guy on my shoulder is Bandit. Better watch your stuff around him, he's got sticky paws." Lisa scratched the pichu behind the ears. "So, what kind of rental did you pick? I picked ponyta myself. They seem to be the popular choice. I would have chosen onix, but they're so hard to ride on."

"Heheh, yeah. I grew up more at my mom's clinic than a ranch, but her office was directly connected to a ranch and we knew the family there pretty well. She only liked working with the grass types there, which is why I don't think she wanted to travel around." Lumina gave a shrug, "But not really for me. I love all this traveling."

Listening to the other girl's advice, she made sure to keep her knees loose. The ponyta took a few steps forward, with Lumina tugging lightly on the reigns to try and make her hold still. Of course, it probably wasn't the smartest idea to only tug with one hand. The ponyta instead turned in that direction and began a slow trot forward, "Aahh, wait a sec, just a sec." The pokemon seemed to understand the shifting of her body and grumpily settled back down, "Well, better to work the kinks out now I guess."

(@ Nana)

Zen had stayed in the Poke'mon center during the heavy rain, and dound out that everyone was gathering at Rancher Bill's to rent their Pokemon. Zen decided he would go as well, to meet everyone. He had been on four of these excursions so far, and each time new faces kept popping up. He was always willing to meet new people and schmooze them in to using his Daycare business. With Axel and Armageddon tailing behind him, Zen made his way to the Poke'mon Express ranch. There were trainers there renting Poke'mon, taking them out for test runs, or getting to know their rental better. One trainer stood out to him, who wasn't doing any of those three things. She was returning a majority of her Poke'mon to their Poke'balls due to misbehavior. Feeling sociable, Zen approached the young woman and her remaining two Pokemon.

"Hi, I'm Zen. What's your name?"

Meeka smiled. New face! New faces were just lovely. New faces were new people . . . and new people were great when a breeder was just standing around trying not to look like a lamppost.

Following that smile with a nod, Meeka patted the Pidgeot to which it cocked its head at Rhia. "Yeppers! I am taking Avella here! What about you, do you have a buddy to ride on or are you taking that loser's . . . I mean, one of Bill's ranch Pokemon?"

Turning to the other way, there was another face. Another mew face to add at that - she was really good at this game. Terri also seemed to like this girl . . . her ears flicked up come her appearance and the yellow mouse Pokemon smiled brightly. "Chaauuuu!" it squeaked, ever happy. Me, oh, my. "I'm Meeka!" she introduced to the both of them. "Nice to meet you both!"

"Good to meet you, Lisa. My name's Kary." She said brightly, then inspected the Pichu on Lisa's shoulder.

"Hey there, little guy, I take good inventory of my stuff, so if something's missing I'll know~!" Kary laughed. Hopefully if the little Pichu-pick-pocket did take something, she'd notice before it was gone for good. The chubby trainer then turned her attention back to Lisa.

"I got a Tauros. To be perfectly honest, all the choices made me a bit nervous, so I picked one at random." She admitted with a bit of embarrassment. Being skittish and on an adventure was probably not the best combo, but Kary knew she could suck it up if need be. "Ponyta have flames, and I don't know if I trust a Ponyta that isn't mine not to catch me on fire, and Onix are so big it's intimidating. Then Tauros are known to be quite wild, but I found one that's rather sedate; I think he's older." She left out the part about being a little freaked out by Boss's enthusiastic test run.

((@ Nana and Rhia))

A few drops hit Opal's nose and she blinked. Maybe it was time for her and Ursalyn to rest until the rain stopped. She saw a glow in the distance and headed in that direction until she saw a small ranch with a bunch of people and Pokemon by it. That was probably where the trains were taking off from.

As they neared closer to the ranch, Opal caught sight of a flash of bright orange hair and ... a Tentacruel in a tree. Opal recognized the woman in a flash. She stood up on Ursalyn's back and waved. "Hey! Meeka! Is that you?" Ursalyn's eyes widened and she grunted. Meeka? She's there? Maybe the family is there, too! The Ursaring sped up in her excitement.