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[Zla, Tatl, Haunter]

When Zla replied to her, Giselle hadn't any intention to speak again - she didn't, after all, feel like any response was at all necessary. Perhaps a 'thank you', but even then that wasn't necessary. She would have been perfectly content to just hover and watch over her Mistress for the rest of the night - would have - except for the sudden interruption by a visible ghost.

Suddenly a pair of bright pink eyes and a similarly colored mouth, set in a deep frown, appeared near Zla's, and they didn't look at all pleased to see the Gastly and its evolution. She let Zla speak first while she merely watched them with growing distaste. she said tartly, speaking slowly as if that might help the Gastly to understand better, A pause. Her voice sounded almost pitying - almost - but instead fell short of actual pity and dropped into the realm of subtle condescension. She continued to look at the pair with distaste. Giselle, it appeared, did not condescend to give her name to these strangers. She also didn't think them - or at the very least, the Gastly - very intelligent at all.

[Rosie, Fathom]

Seraphine pursed her lips. "No. Her costume was a pumpkin. She said she was actually a real cop, but ugh. Fat lot of good cops ever do," she finished in a huff.

The sudden heap of Vaporeon that tripped over and landed on her rather large footwear (as well as Rosie's feet) did not improve matters, and instead of showing concern like her friend, Sera aimed a very annoyed glare at it. Unlike Rosie, she didn't recognize this Vaporeon at all, and didn't care to have it anywhere in the proximity of her feet. Oh well... At least she wasn't wearing any of her own shoes - just these crappy costume boot ones. She didn't care if these got dirty or messed up.

[Giselle, Zla]

Tatl withdrew a little as Zla's angular eyes glowed at her and Giselle's features flashed in displeasure. Still, she refused to shrink away now. she retorted, albeit a little less strongly than before. She couldn't deny not having been around for long, after all. It was only recently she'd found herself captured and separated from her younger sibling. The thought of him left alone by himself mellowed her some more and when she spoke again, her tone was much meeker.

helpless without me! He doesn't even have anyone else to look after him, and now I need help to find him!!> She was interrupted in her passionate tirade by the black-and-red Haunter's inquiry concerning the other. <'Friend'?! If I had any friends around here, don't you think I would have - >

Tatl caught sight of Shawn's Haunter nearing them. He didn't seem to have any intention of becoming invisible as Zla and Giselle were. He hardly ever uses his techniques for anything; not even battles.>

Haunter said, no longer bothering to remain inconspicuous. He turned unsmiling toward Giselle and Zla, nodding his head briefly. He cast Tatl a meaningful scowl.

She snapped back. the Gastly cried, turning back to plead her case to Zla and the white-and-pink Mismagius. <Useless! He won't even help out a weaker pokemon in need!>

The Haunter sighed. he reminded Tatl. He attempted to snatch at the little sphere of luminescence, but she darted just out of his reach.

Tatl yelled. With that, she dashed off and almost collided with a wall, remembering just in time to phase through it instead and ending up in the dressing rooms.

Haunter called after her, but she was gone. He sighed heavily and glanced at the other ghosts. he apologized once more. That would be tricky to do while watching out for his human trainer as well, but he figured he could manage. Handling angry yellow female pokemon seemed to be his forte after having dealt with Lindsay and her protectiveness of Shawn.

he added as an afterthought, <...Niether of you might have happened to see any other Gastly around here, would you have...?> The kid was pretty darn desperate to find her sibling, it seemed. The least he could do was ask.

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[Rosie, Seraphine]

Fathom finally raised his head, shaking it. He thought he heard a familiar voice and looked up - only to see Seraphine glowering down at him. Quickly finding his strength, he got to his own feet and carefully backed off the ladies'. His light eyes blinked, flickering from the scary robot princess to the featureless pumpkin face. Why did humans have to act so strange on Halloween? And where had that familiar voice come from? He just couldn't place it right now...half his mind was still occupied with concerns about his charge.

Just as he was about to go looking around somewhere else, the pumpkin person pulled off their head and - AHH! what were they doing?! - oh. It was that blonde, pink-loving girl from before. The one with all the fire pokemon. At least she was a familiar face. he murmured to himself, Raising a paw, he gingerly reached up to touch Rosie's knee, wondering if she was too occupied speaking to the frightening mecha-woman. He would have to be extra wary of staying out of that one's way. She looked like she had a temper.

[Rosie, Fathom]

Sera merely huffed again at Rosie's suggestion. "Oh please, you should have heard the way she said it - as if we were stupid little kids or something. To me and to Dith," she emphasized the large man because how could anyone speak to him as if he were a stupid little kid? For one thing he wasn't at all little. And for another thing... No, the 'not little' was the most prominent thought in her head. She aimed her glare at the floor again. "And besides, she said they worked to prevent pokemon from being stolen - so where the hell were they all these times?" While her tone and her glare were venomous, tears were just beginning to sting the corners of her eyes. No. No, she would not cry. Not here. Not not not would not even consider it, not even a little.

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[Zla, Haunter, Tatl]

Giselle merely watched and listened to the obnoxious little brat of a ghost, her displeasure growing exponentially as time passed, though she didn't give it the pleasure of a response of any kind. Thankfully the annoyance left - finally - and Giselle turned her pink gaze to the Haunter. At least he wasn't as obnoxious. She still waited briefly before replying to him, though. she began slowly, the ghost finished more readily.

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[Aulus, Sasha, Distance]

Inigo saw a flash of cool colors in a small form dash towards him before it disappeared beneath his sheet. He merely stood there curiously, looking at the spot where it had last been before it ducked under his 'costume', and he didn't seem at all concerned that a potentially lethal creature had just taken refuge between his feet. He didn't even seem to consider the fact it could be something that could snap his legs in half, or set him on fire, or electrocute him, or anything like that. With all his usual casualness, he reached a hand up to push the sheet from his face enough to see what looked like an Eevee rubbing against his legs. He knelt down with a smile, and at once the sheet, which had reached just above his ankles while he was standing, now completely touched the ground while he was kneeling. "Hola," he said to it gently as he reached a brown hand to stroke the soft fur, offering it his usual lop-sided smile despite the fact the sheet - his costume - was currently between its teeth. "You can't eat that you know, might be a little too much fiber for your diet."

Xander/Frost

While Rory was busy, he didn't notice the twitching of the pokeball he had found a way to attach to his belt before coming in to the party. A red beam of light shot out, releasing the agitated pokemon from his ball. The tiny Pichu landed on the punch table and looked around him to see what was going on. He spotted the stacks of plastic cups and smiled. He had seen something with cup things while Rory had been looking at something on a computer! He knew what to do with these!

He scooped up as many as he could in his tiny arms and hopped off of the table, keeping his cups clutched tightly in his paws. He scuttled about the floor, being careful to avoid people's feet. He spotted someone that looked slightly familiar and made his way over, making sure not to drop one of the cups in his stack.

When he spotted the short, blond haired man's hand on the taller one's arm, he gave a happy cry. What had he seen on the thing? If you wanted more of something? Oh yeah! He remembered and threw one of the cups from his stack at the taller man's feet.

[Giselle, Zla]

Though he tried to be more courteous to the other ghosts than Tatl had, the Haunter didn't seem much more inclined to make friends with them than they did him. He made no extra efforts to win their approval as a fellow ghost; in fact, he seemed almost as anxious to get away as the little yellow Gastly before him.

he told the white Mismagius, nodding at her last remark. He wasn't about to argue Tatl's status as an annoyance and guessed he would need all the luck he could get. However, the Haunter flinched back, startled, when Zla decided to reveal himself. He couldn't help but stare at the black-and-red splotched pokemon, his expression slightly uneasy.

he murmured, his mind preoccupied with other thoughts before the rest of Zla's words sank in. It was a long shot - after all, this was a Halloween party and obviously there were bound to be more ghosts around - but the fact that Zla seemed to think Tatl and this other Gastly were similar was promising. Even their names sounded alike. And hadn't Tatl even mentioned that name once or twice? He had to investigate. By this time, the Haunter had all but forgotten he was supposed to be keeping a watch on Shawn.

he responded to the other Haunter's last statement, Besides, Tatl really did seem different from most other ghosts in her impatience and rudeness - not to mention her brilliant yellow light and non-frightening features. Perhaps that was why she didn't put Haunter on edge like most others of their kind.

he asked.

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[Inigo]

While a certain paranoid grunt might have chastised Inigo for being so easy-going about such a potentially dangerous monster, said monster was as unconcerned as the costumed human. She seemed oblivious to the trouble she could have caused by her actions had this young man have been less laid-back.

Distance gleefully pressed up against Inigo's hand as he reached out to pet her, a corner of the sheet still caught in her possession. When the young man remarked that she couldn't eat it, she dropped it immediately, simply happy to be allowed refuge in the tent-of-a-costume that now concealed them both. Her dad would never find her now!

Come to think of it, though, she was a little hungry. Maybe this human was, too. Luckily, there were a lot of food-smells around; she just needed to devise a plan to get to them. Now that she'd found the prefect hiding place, she wasn't about to leave, though. Putting her paws upon the knee that had been knelt, Distance attempted to lick the hand Inigo stroked her with, wondering if he would get them something to eat.

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[Rory, Tambrey, Thor]

Shawn was drawn to the flash of red light at the emergence of a familiar pichu before he actually caught sight of its trainer. Rory was already engaged in conversation with a young lady with dark hair who had a trace of familiarity herself. The skeleton boy squinted and tried to place her. Probably a Rocket, since he hadn't spent almost any time off-base lately. As he approached them, however, he recognized her voice immediately.

"Tambrey," he murmured to himself. That was strange...he never really considered she would get along with Rory. Wait, was she the reason Rory had been so distant with him lately? So it was a girl! But Shawn had been so sure that Ally had been crushing on him. Had she changed her mind or moved on, perhaps? Had Rory even known of her crush? Either way, it still didn't make Shawn feel any better about being kept out of the loop.

More than Rory's roommate, they were partners. Didn't he deserve to know what was going on? Sure, this was personal and Shadow probably could have done without knowing about Rory's love life, but there was something bothersome about being kept uninformed about these things that could so easily have an impact on their partnership.

"Evening Tambrey, Rory," he told the pair, going up to them with a civil demeanor, his hands clasped behind his back. Someone needed to break up the pair before the sweetness passing between them gave someone a toothache. There were enough cavities caused by Halloween festivities as it was. "Nice event, isn't it? At least as nice as last year. Heard some people got to choose what they wore this year, though. I wasn't so lucky. How about you two?" He cast his partner a meaningful leer. "Did you guys come here together...?"

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[Rosie, Sera]

Despite his concern for Distance, Fathom couldn't help but listen in on Rosie and the robot girl's conversation. Dith! He knew Dith. So this girl must have been part of that whole trainer 'group' who all knew each other. Peeking around Rosie, the vaporeon chanced another look at the brown-haired young lady. Fathom thought he might have seen her around before, come to think of it. Minus the metallic gear, of course.

She was glaring at the ground this time, which told the water-type a couple of things. One was that while she had aimed that glare at him minutes before, the feelings behind it weren't likely to have been caused merely because he had tripped over her boots. Another was that this was one of those girls who expressed their sadness through anger - at least around other people. He knew because his own trainer was the same way.

Overcome by a sudden wave of sympathy, Fathom remained where he was, but looked to Sera with an imploring, "Vapor...?" That was terrible. He didn't know what he'd do if Distance had been taken from him. It must have made her felt so helpless. If only he could do something to help, but...unlike his kid, it didn't seem like this girl's pokemon wasn't merely playing hide-and-seek.

[Inigo, Aulus]

"Oh, I see! Thanks for letting me know," a very relieved Sasha said back. She didn't have time to do much else before Florie began to bounce towards Inigo and the Eevee at his feet. "Florie, what are you doing?! I'm not having you get lost like you did at the fair!" Asceron simply shook his head as he watched the little blue Igglybuff bounce ahead. He was pretty used to the antics of that young one at this point.