Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Yes, you should

1. People are moving on to Castelia and so should you
2. We don't do days of the week, sucker. But it's Sunday, I guess
3. Sunset time, so I guess like 8-9ish considering it's Spring
4. It probably would've been funnier if they'd named him "Broner"

Also, I'm not posting for a couple of reasons. Mainly because I've got an essay in for tomorrow and have to continue working on that b*****d, but also because I'm waiting on Sal's Eevee to lead to way to a fast food place. Alternatively a restaurant. That said, I don't think Wayne has enough money to buy clothes as it is, and a full on food bill would throw him off a cliff financially))

“Mmm!” Salieri wiped the spaghetti sauce off her mouth with a napkin. “This place is great!”

She took a deep breath of the fresh ocean air that surrounded her and Wayne. The two of them sat across from each other right outside of a small Italian restaurant located on the pier. The main draw to the venue, aside from the delicious aromas pouring out of the building, was that you could eat your food outside with the tables provided.

At the table right next to Salieri and Wayne’s sat most of Salieri’s pokemon (minus Salem). For a while Wukong and Chen Zhen were throwing meatballs at each other, until Liuye Dao made it very clear that he didn’t like being in the line of fire. And by made very clear, I mean he sliced all their food in half as a show of what could happen to them.

“I didn’t actually think Salem would know of any good places to eat.”
“Hmph!” The grunt came from an otherwise sedated Salem who sat curled up on the cashier’s counter. Her annoyed look was replaced with genuine bliss once more when the cashier began to pet the Eevee’s soft fur again.

“Miss, I cannot believe you’ve brought back one of our regular customers!” the cashier told Salieri excitedly, causing the Battle Girl to almost choke on spaghetti. “This little Eevee here has dragged more trainers to this spot than I can count! She’s great for business!”

The cashier stroked his curly moustache and bent down, tickling Salem’s chin. The Eevee cooed. “Where have you been, mademoiselle?” Salem purred, and the cashier put a small plate of garlic bread in front of the Normal Type.

Salieri leaned in closer to Wayne. “As cool as this is, I don’t get why Salem is the only one who gets to eat for free,” she whispered to the other trainer. “I mean, I brought her here, right?...well, I guess it’s the other way around this time.”

Then the Battle Girl snapped her fingers. “Oh, I just remembered!”

She reached into her beltbag and pulled out an item ball, releasing the contents out onto her lap in a blue flash. Sal held up a female Plasma grunt’s uniform by the shoulders for Wayne to see.

“I nabbed this off one of them in the forest. They thought I was part of their unit when I put it on.” She wrinkled her nose at the thought of putting the uniform on again. “Pretty stealthy, right? It might come in handy someday to have this around. Hmm, I wonder if there’s cleaning instructions on the tag…”

****

Jump rolled his eyes at Luka’s fretfullness. Why did everyone get that way when he was driving? “Psssh relax kid, saving lives is in my job description. No one dies so long as I’m on the clock!”

He grinned, then pointed out to Nacrene City in the horizon. “I just gotta take care of something real quick. Until then, you can stay with Agent Sourpuss.” The Interpol Agent swiveled around once more to face Jackie.

“This kid’s the one who called in the station, so if you wanna ask him anything go ahead. I’m just gonna start up the Artemis Job real quick.” Jump stepped back excitedly to face Luka and Jackie. “If this goes well, I’ll be back like-“

SNAP!

Accompanying the sound of his fingers snapping was Jump’s disappearance. All that he left behind was a dust cloud kicked up by his blinding speed. It took Hexum a moment to realize what had happened.

“H-hey! Wait for me!”

And likewise, the Lucario was gone as well.

Luka looked at 'Agent Sourpuss' curiously. For one thing, he wondered why Jump called her that. For another, he wondered how she thought 'You must be pretty traumatised' was a great introduction and a good idea for small talk. Still, Luka had calmed down since his panic attack earlier and just nodded with a brief, "Yup." Before he stood silently as if in an attempt to convey the awkwardness of what she had just asked him.

It probably wasn't the smartest idea he had ever had. After all, she did seem pretty serious about everything. But still, he couldn't help trying to figure out why she was such a 'sourpuss'.

"That depends," Wayne replied, popping a meatball into his mouth, "Are you getting the cheque?"

---

Jackie looked away. First she was babysitting a five year old, now a kid who takes trauma like it's nothing. She'd gone twenty-six years without having to do anything like that. Guess when you ruin a record, it all goes to hell.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked with her frowning face half-turned.

((I sometimes wonder if I should amend my spelling to fit my dialect when RPing, but meh.))

Luka thought for a moment, assessing how good an idea his next sentence would be. Well, he'd already been to Hell and back today, a little bit more wasn't going to kill him. "I was just wondering why Jump called you 'Agent Sourpuss'."

A battle challenge? Salieri nodded while furiously downing the last of her meal. The crimson haired waiter moved out of her way as Sal bolted up, pushing her chair out behind her. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

"A-a battle?" The crimson haired waiter rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, sir, I am, ah, how you say, a poor fighter? And ze policy for ze restaurant is-"

"C'mon, new kid!" yelled the cashier, reaching over the counter to give the waiter a hearty slap on the back. "They're friends of our mademoiselle here, so we can give them a chance for a freebie!" he told his waiter, pointing back to the cheerful Salem. "And who knows? We may attract more customers!"

Salieri grinned, cracking her knuckles as she stood beside Wayne. The Battle Girl stood on her tiptoes in a poor attempt to try and whisper into the much taller trainer's ear. "Good call cowboy, one meal not paid for is another meal earned."

The crimson haired waiter sighed and bowed his head shamefully to his boss. "Er, sir? I have no pokemon of my own. May I borrow-"

"Of course, of course!"

The cashier stood up and walked out from behind the counter, revealing himself to be large and rotund. He stroked his curly moustache, eyeing his two prospective opponents.

"I take it you want a two on two battle, then? You and your friend against Anthony and me?"
"Sounds good to me." Salieri looked over to Salem. "You're my choice."

Chen Zhen and Wukong both frowned at not being picked, then simultaneously cringed as they rubbed their full stomachs. Liuye Dao sighed. The choice was obvious from the beginning.

"Well?" Salieri looked back up to Wayne. "Who are you going with?"

Wayne's chair screeched as he stood up, hands on the table. He thought he'd seen enough battles to last a lifetime after today; maybe it was some kind of coping mechanism but the fights in Pinwheel Forest seemed like weeks ago.

"Let's do this," he said with a grin, taking out Solosis. The pokémon landed on the ground without landing; a thin layer of psychokinesis was keeping him aloft.

"Err," he looked around the restaurant, "I think we should find somewhere with a little more room."

((PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS POST))

Henrietta had given Frate a direction for now. For a moment she was fine, she thought. To lay down, curl up and relax, rest. She was still aching, tired. But as long as she didn't pass out it was fine right?

The sound of a car horn broke the near silence and Henrietta sat up. They were in the middle of the street. Henrietta's eyes looked up to see the car and she thought quickly and jumped to her feet. Kicking off of Frate, she twisted around as she snatched his pokeball from her belt and recalled him moments before the car wound have hit him.

Which made her landing not so graceful as she hit, stumbled, tripped and rolled across the opposite lane. Wincing, she stood up and checked first the road to make sure no cars were coming down this lame, and then she checked her arms. Elbow scraped? Yup. One of her knees felt similar.

Also, what was that? Henrietta looked down to see that her Xtranceiver screen was cracked. A gift, something probably really expensive, was broken. She tried a few buttons - nothing.

"Dammit," Henrietta said with a quivering voice when another horn caught her attention. This time, without looking up, she dove for the sidewalk. Rolling again, the car sped by as she laid on the sidewalk.

Despite everything she'd accomplished, today was a horrible day. She'd broken the gift from Eunmi, couldn't get her the badge now that she didn't know her location. And that's just in the last sixty seconds.

Why does it feel like there's way too much to deal with every day?

Henrietta rolled over and climbed to her feet, dusting off her jeans and she looked around. She'd have to find a shop to repair it, right? Simple enough. In this area of the city it was pretty busy, full of transformed into shop buildings. She just had to find the right one.

After letting out Socant - who rested in her hair like an oddly adorable hair ornament - Henrietta made her way down the sidewalk. There were two types of shopping locations. Ones located on the actual street and ones in 'shopping centers', something kind of like outdoor malls. Giant signs told the list of stores - kept somewhat up to date.

After walking what felt like ten miles on her tired legs, more like closer to one, Henrietta came across the shop. An electronic store called 'One Stop Elec Shop'.

Inside they had air conditioning complete with some recent pop song that'd likely already been played to death courtesy of the radio. Upbeat lyrics about love and romance song by some girl that should probably be focusing more on high school.

At the counter the man greeted her. Some guy who didn't look much younger than Henrietta herself, some kid with a job to go alongside his schooling.

"Good afternoon, miss. How can I help you?"

"Y-yeah, my Xtranceiver." She held up her wrist to show him.

The man, with his wavy blond hair reaching down to his jaw line, brushed haphazardly for work, stared at it. "Well, looks busted. I'll tell you what, I'm guessing your a trainer."

"Y-yeah," Henrietta replied.

"Alright, well, we can take that for you and ship it to the shop in Castelia but that'll take seven to ten business days before we get it back to you. Alternatively, if you're heading up there anyways I can give you the address and you can drop it off yourself. It's a lot cheaper that way."

"O-okay," Henrietta lowered her arm and stared at the counter rather than the employee, the glass counter holding some display for brand new miniature music players. Micro sized things. Technology, it seemed, was fascinated with getting smaller and smaller as progression allowed it to become more efficient while doing so.

"Alright, here you go," the employee said as he slid the card across the counter and Henrietta took it with a stuttered thank you.

As she left she heard something like;

"Hey! Don't give that kinda information out, we lose money that way," from a better dressed employee, likely a manager.

"What? She was cute."

((PLEASE DON'T REPLY TO THIS POST, IT'S A WORK IN PROGRESS))