[her favourite game to play] open

[Cassie]

[/i] machine was rigged, and ignored the management when they denied it), and pretty soon she was on a roll. Coins were tumbling down with loud clatters, just as she expected the too. She was quite calm about the whole thing, none of this whooping you got from novice's when they finally won. She was used to winning, and she enjoyed it but why jump out of her seat each time? She'd never get a chance to sit down.

Out of the corner of her eye, Dahlia could see the manager conferring with one of the employee's. There was a lot of gesturing, which Dahlia knew meant something was going down. She knew what was going down though; the amount of money left in this machine. However, she continued to play as if she didn't know that they were talking about her, and contented herself to cleaning out this silly little game corner. She didn't know how they deserved to try and label themselves a casino, because they weren't even close. She doubted in the employee's could even play Blackjack, let alone rig a game. It was utterly ridiculous, and one of the reasons Dahlia was working quickly to legitimately rob them of every coin they had.

Oh, look, another jackpot.

The clattering of coins was attracting the attention of the other patrons, as they tried to figure out how the women was winning so calmly. No doubt she'd won more in the last few hours, than they'd won in their entire lives. That was because she was Goddess and they were just mere mortals. She felt bad for them, maybe she'd remind them that if you kicked the machine on the left on the final spin it would hit gold... Then again, maybe not.

"Erm, excuse me miss?"
"Sí señor?"[/color]

Dahlia replied innocently, batting her lashes as she looked up at the man casting a shadow over her machine.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Dahlia decided to have a little fun.

Lo siento señor, pero yo no comprendo lo que usted dice. ¿Habla usted español? Yo no sé lo que usted habla de. Usted me debe perdonar.

The Spanish flowed easily from her lips as she plastered a confused expression on her face, shrugging and doing an excellent impression of somebody who had no clue what on earth was being said. The manager looked suddenly very distressed by the whole situation, and Dahlia wanted to laugh.

"oh dear me, she's foreign! okay... Um. DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? ENGLISH?

Dahlia didn't understood why people always spoke louder when they were confronted by somebody who didn't speak their language. It was very odd. But instead of pointing out that there was nothing wrong with her hearing, thank you very much, she simply shook her head and shrugged.

"YOU." a point at her chest, "NO" a shaking of his head "PLAY". He then proceeded to point at the machine and then towards Dahlia with a violent shaking on his head. Dahlia decided he really did need a mental health check.

"Yo no comprendo."

She protested her lack of understanding once more. Really she could have told him he looked like a wart covered toad and he wouldn't have known the difference, but Dahlia knew better than to do something like that. It was better to stick to the subject, in case anybody lingual came to their aid. The man sighed and ran a hand through his hair before gesturing to somebody at the desk. Suddenly a very bulky man was before her, and Dahlia realized how this was all going to go down. She grabbed her coins though, and shoved them into her purse before she felt a hand close around her arm. Now she began to call him a wart covered toad, just for the hell of it. It didn't make a difference though, despite all the Spanish obscenities she was simply escorted to the door and thrown outside.

"Well that was just rude!"[/color]

She said to the firmly closed door as she dusted down her clothes and checked the amount of coins in her purse. She considered trying to sneak back in, but then decided she'd do that tomorrow. They might have better looking security tomorrow. Instead she rummaged around in her bag until she found what she needed, and that thing was in fact a bottle of vodka. A grin lit up her face.

They may have ruined her winning streak, but she had stolen her vodka.

She raised the bottle towards the buildings in a sort of salute to their lame game-corner-pretending-to-be-a-casino, and then took a swig. Feeling the familiar burn in her throat, Dahlia clicked her way down the steps and stalked towards a statue of a Pokemon jutting out of the landscape. It was a of a Venusaur, which wasn't the most attractive Pokemon to make a statue out of really. Despite the fact it was an ugly Pokemon, Dahlia decided it made as good as seat as any. So with the nimbleness of a trained acrobat, the brunette scaled the statue of the monstrous Pokemon with surprising ease. The view was quite good from this height Dahlia mused, before finding a comfortable seat.

She ended up sitting cross legged on the creatures head, which gave her the best view over the surrounding area. Humming softly, Dahlia began to shuffle one of her ever present decks of cards and occasionally sipped her vodka. Hopefully something or someone interesting would come along soon...

ooc: it's all over the place but meh, had to post with her! xD[/ul]

[Mim]

"That. Is not a beautiful statue."

Ruby tilted his head, hat flopping onto his shoulder as he appraised the stone Venasaur from the new angle. The small bits and dabs of pedestrian traffic shifting around him he barely noticed, the boy focusing all of his attention on the bulky gray rock. His posture stiffened as he raced through the various materials in his backpack, along with the different garlands he could make and how to string it all up on a gigantic fake Venasaur. Crossed arms tightened, legs almost locked, mouth pressed into a straight line, his gaze shifted up and down the blob of "art" for ten minutes straight.

Finally he threw his hands up and reeled backward a few steps, his expression one of lost hope. "Hopeless! It just has to stay that way." He grimaced at the lump of rock and reached up with a gloved hand to adjust his glasses.

Oh, his glasses! If he took them off maybe the sight of this abomination wouldn't stab him in the heart so much!

So he took them off. Yay, it was just a particularly bumpy part of the land now. Ruby held firmly to that belief as he tucked the glasses (in their case, of course) into the backpack slung over his back. A lump of regular rock with something vaguely human shaped on top of it. Uerr, what was that?

Dang it, he had to put his glasses back on. With a mental whimper he slid them back over his red eyes, blinked reluctantly as the scene in front of him snapped into clarity, and began shuffling closer to the statue. If he had known that Celadon had such an awful attraction in its borders he would have taken his chances with another city, Lavender perhaps. It sounded like a nice town, if it weren't for the BLOODTHIRSTY GHOSTS FLOATING AROUND THE PLACE AND JUST ASKING TO SHOWER HIM IN DIRT. Though perhaps if he could find a large enough dust rag he could brave the depths of that city to find a particularly nice Ghost with good Contest skills. He had Ruru, after all. But Ruru would get dirty...

Ugh, it had been so nerve wracking getting to this city in the first place. What with the wild Pokemon and the fields and last week's rainstorm...Eee. The only fun part had been when he saw those Mightyena. Their fur actually shined naturally! And they ran so gracefully, and even roared beautifully...He'd been so happy that Nana would be evolving into that form in the future. His Poochyena had thought so as well, nodding thoughtfully as she watched the pair of wolves chase her Trainer out into the fields. But that had been it. The rest of it was mud, Rattatas, Pidgeys, dirt, falls off of random pits and the occasional weather tantrum. This whole journey so far had resulted in him spending half his time in Celadon so far just cleaning himself off. Now he was free to look around, and this was what he saw first.

He shook his head and brushed absentmindedly at his shirt. (He recalled a passing Nidoking throwing dust on him with its large tail. The large Pokemon had impressed him, but the way it moved and sounded like a possessed vacuum cleaner made him back away from setting his sights on one.) So there was a person on the Venasaur's head. Fiddling with something and drinking...whoa. Big glass bottle, usually a sign of alcohol. What was this woman doing?

"H...Heeeeeey?" He waved awkwardly before remembering he was on the statue's almost immediate right, meaning the person wouldn't see his movement unless she turned his way. And maybe stood up. He pushed his glasses up on his nose again and sighed. It could be worse. It could have been his dad up there.

|| Failboat, failboat, take me out to sea~ ||

[Cassie]

[/i] statues. Dahlia continued that insulting train of thought as she climbed (with rather impressive grace) to her feet to try and get a better view of... Well to be honest she wasn't sure what it was, but standing up would surely change that?

Apparently it did.

The 'bit of colour' was now recognisable as a person, a rather small person. Teenage she'd guess. Dammit! There were too many teenagers running around this region, where were all the MEN? Teenagers could be cute and all (like Dae-Dae) but they weren't quite the same for obvious reasons. She needed to harras Flint or something soon, or maybe Volkner. Somebody at least!

"Hey yourself there, buddy."[/color]

She called back, waggling her slender fingers in a form of greeting. Then she slid the deck into the back pocket of her jeans, before making a dnagerous lean down to grab the vodka bottle. Not dangerous because she might fall, because it gave a very obvious view of her chest which could call people to react in an... Interesting way? However, once she'd seized her bottle of vodka, Dahlia decided now was a good time to leave the statue, and she couldn't be asked to climb all the way back down. So she jumped; in a totally non-suicidal way of course!

She couldn't help but laugh as she glided (it was definatley a glide) through the air to land with a soft thud on the concrete. She was suddenly very grateful she hadn't worn high heels today, becuase that could have seriously messed up her ankles, and any fool knew you couldn't dance with messed up ankles! However, it was a graceful land that she thanked her professional training for, before she glanced warily at her bottle.

"Didn't spill a DROP!"

She cried with triumph, grinning at the boy she'd just landed infront of. [/ul]

ooc: Dx

[Mim]

Ruby hurriedly redirected his eyesight as the woman bent over.
Unfortunately his gaze landed smack dab on the statue's hideous profile, most of it just the monstrosity's back leg. Nothing like a lump of gray rock attached to a larger lump of slightly grayer rock to distract you, or in this case to safely occupy your attention. Nonetheless Ruby made a face at the thing and shifted his eyes again to the ground.

He then noticed the growing shadow in front of him and 'yeep'ed. The woman's laugh shook him away from staring at the darkening bit of black on the concrete, and Ruby looked up while backing away a step as the other person landed. He got the feeling that she belonged in the Game Corner or something, considering the no-drop-spilled bottle of whatever-that-was. Still, the clothing and the hair were a good match.

Ruby tugged at his backpack strap, the lone stripe of material jostled from its usual place on his chest by the repeated taking and returning of his glasses case.
OH YAY HE COULD TAKE HIS GLASSES OFF NOW BECAUSE THE WOMAN WAS IN FRONT OF HIM, RIGHT?!
You ask why that sentence is in all caps, and that would be because with his glasses off Ruby's nearsightedness came into play and rendered the Venasaur statue a harmless lump of rock. HAH.

So he took the black-framed things off and freed his red eyes from the abomination known as HORRIBLE STATUES DROPPED ONTO THE EARTH BY EVIL BEINGS.
O-or maybe it was a warning from his dad that the Pokemon world could not be totally beautiful! His father was more dastardly and cunning than Ruby had thought.
No matter, as soon as he stocked up on fabric or simply borrowed a wrecking ball he could replace this thing with a nice, beautiful sculpture of a Milotic. Ever since he'd saw a picture of the Water Pokemon he'd fallen in love with it. Even if it took him the rest of his life he'd find one, eventually.
So, yes, he would totally grind this offensive eye-killing piece of rock into dust, mix the leftover grit into new materials and make a Milotic statue. See, he wasn't that mean, he'd let the old thing be a part of the new, beautiful form.

Speaking of which, Nana would look so beautiful when she evolved into a Mightyena...
A-anyways.
He blinked, clearing his oddly colored eyes of the daydreams crowding them, and snapped his glasses case shut in one hand as he brought himself back to the present.

Shoving the glasses case back into his bag again, the boy looked back at the woman with a slight, questioning smile. Now that it was confirmed that the woman was properly matched up in appearance, he could get to the main question. Namely, why she had been sitting where she had been sitting. (Because if it were him he would have gone to a beautiful park or something, if Celadon had any.) "So why were you sitting on..." He jerked his head toward the statue simple lump of rock with a small grimace. "...that?"

[Cassie]

[/i] mentioned. Much like her sexual activites. Much like... As she thought about it, Dahlia realised that whenever she went to vist her parents a lot of those Donphan followed her into the room. Like her own personal Pokemon stalkers. How amazing. She would have to talk to Palmer about getting a group of those strange creatures trained so she could have an actual following rather than just a metaphorical one. But that was besides the point, and that point was that she was not drunk.

She was just buzzed, and not even from the vodka.

Anybody who knew Dahlia (She wasn't sure she knew the kid infront of her, but maybe he knew her anyway...?) knew that she loved to gamble, and she adored winning. And winning had been the one word to sum up her evening in the game corner. Which she found to be more more disgusting and insulting than the staute, though she had to admit the stony creation was pretty damn ugly. Ugly like her stepmother when she got up and hadn't put on the make-up, and hell only knew how ugly that was. Well, hell and the statue.

His question made her arch an eyebrow.

"Well...I was sitting on it?[/color]

She gave a soft, tinkling laugh and shrugged her shoulders before flicking a glance towards that, as the boy put it. It didn't look any better from this angle. She didn't think there was an angle that would make it looked good, except maybe a blind one? Who knew (except maybe blind people)...? She shrugged again, and then turned back to the boy fixing her unsual eyes on Ruby.

"You're hat is quite amazing. In fact, so is your outfit. Nice and clean, pretty awesome really. Definatley not a trainer's outfit, seriously the stuff they wear... Dae-Dae wears green and orange would you believe that? But I love him, and they say love is blind and I love my babyface so I guess that's why I haven't forced him to change. Also, it's not proper for a women to tell teenage boys to strip, is it? No. But your outfit is wonderful. And you do have a lovely aura of poise, and grace about you.... A Coordinator perhaps?

Dahlia spoke quickly, her accented words mixed with tinkling laughs and expansive hand guestures and then she suddenly paused, looking at Ruby quite seriously.

"I forget my manners, which I normally do. I'm Dahlia, and you are...?"

She extened a slim hand towards the boy, a slight smile on her lips. [/ul]

ooc: THE ICK OF IT. Dx

[Mim]

Ruby almost lit up like...like a hyper Jolteon or something when Dahlia referred to his clothing. One hand went to the brim of his hat, tugging lightly on it as his attention flew to it, then falling back down to clasp with the other hand. Holding them both close to himself, he bounced up a few times on his feet and replying eagerly to the woman's words.

"You really think so? I mean I made it all so I'd expect it to be awesome but it's always nice to have feedback~ And nooooo," he shook his head quickly while still speaking, hands separating to hang loosely at his sides in his usual stance, "I'm definitely no Trainer, ick. Nana and everyone else would get all dirty, battling like that." Then he shuddered, partly from the thought of Coco's fur dulled by dust and the like and partly from the woman's next statement. "G-green and orange?" He made a face and mentally reminded himself to remember this, since the next time he saw a kid in those garish colors he could properly outfit him with the valid excuse that an older woman who leaned toward drinking and vibrant clothes (that were considerably better in ensemble) had told Ruby about him. Though, since it was Ruby he would have done the same no matter what excuses he did or didn't have. His Pokemon would know; it had taken both Coco and Nana, leaning heavily against his legs, to restrain him from abducting helping a poor soul back in another city's market.

Then she got to the root of things, the Coordination. Ruby grinned, eyes brightening as he switched from the depressing subject of a tacky outfit to his favorite activity. "Of course I'm a Coordinator, there's nothing that can compare to it," he stated matter-of-factly, but after a second of thought he wilted a little. "A-actually, it'd be better if I could take those small interviews they hold for Contest winners. My dad would find me if he saw, though, so-" He shrugged and reached for Dahlia's hand with his own.

"I'm Ruby."

[Fidge]

[/s] nice people with bright smiling faces.
He pulled out what was a dollar fifty and fed it into the mouth of the machine before pushing two quarters into the coin slot.
His smile grew as he bit his lower lip in utter joy, striving hard to suppress his childish enthusiasm over something as small as a soda pop. It was the small things in life like this that appeared to be the most important thing to James.
He jabbed eagerly at the button that read, Fizzy Cherry Kecleoncola and folded his hands behind his slender back as he awaited the machine to process, and the sound of a plastic bottle crashing against the bottom of the vending machine.
........
....
...
James' eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. He leaned forward and cupped his hand over his ear, seeing if he could hear any humming, or buzzing from the machine, indicating it was processing his request.
Nothing. Nada. The machine was completely quiet besides a small bzzzzt it always made when it was on, caused by the uber-bright light.
He fidgeted about wildly, searching desperately for some more change, but alas, he found nothing more than a nickel and a little white string in his pocket.
His hands curled into a pair of angered fists as he pounded violently at the vending machine with an irritated grunt.
BANG! BAM BAM!
That was the sound of his hands pounding vigorously against the hard plastic that surrounded the machine.
The machine, however, stood still without emitting any sounds of working, seeming to cast a haunting vibe of mockery against James' very being.
His eyebrow twitched.
The blood in his veins rushed, pulsating his infuriating wrath through his entire body.
This was getting aggravating; he spent a whole dollar fifty for this soda and wasn't getting it. Not to mention, he was awfully thirsty!
As his fists clenched harder together, and he continued to punch the vending machine.
BAMBAM! BANG!
No luck.
James opened his hands gradually and embraced the vending machine as he attempted to shake it. Perhaps more than one drink would fall, but, knowing his luck, probably not.
As he shook, he could hear the faint noise of drinks rattling together, and hurriedly released the machine and stared at it with anxious anticipation.
....!?!?
hmmmmm -- bzzzzz -- hmmmm.
Nothing seemed to come out.
In an instant, James took the small predicament and formed it into a large, catastrophic it's-the-end-of-times situation. He gripped his hair and fell to his knees in a very animated motion, and stuffed his face into the depths of his palms.
Crying out in despair, he said, "What must a man do nowadays to get his hands on a soda!? All I want is a soda!"
The end result was him boohooing in his own self-pity, which was either real tears, or just an act for attention.
Either way, it was rather convincing. [/ul]

ooc;; '' interaction will come with the next post, I promise~

[Cassie]

[/color][/b]

She asked with mild curiosity. Dahlia had never been able to make clothes, her costumes had always been made for them. She could do a quick fix if needed but apart from that... Well, that was what the shops were for, were they net? Shops and credit cards. Both of which she was quite fond of. She did imagine it would be quite a useful skill to be able to create fabric masterpeices, especially for a co-oridinator. It would give them an edge, and it would limit the amount of last minute backstage freakouts. A tear? Psh, no problem, Ruby would fix it.

"It is very different from training."

Dahlia couldn't help but agree.

"I should know, I do both. But don't tell Palmer, becuase firstly he hates me and secondly he thinks it besmirches my reputation, and therefore his. But Palmer talks an incrediable amount of shit sometimes, he really does...

For a moment there Dahlia trailed off, her gaze becoming distant as she had a flashback moment of all the nonsense her boss had spouted at her over the years. Not to mention the constant fining, and the loosing at Poker and then whining about it... It was a wonder she hadn't tied him up and drowned him. But that wouldn't help Damion's father complex at all, having his father dead and all. Speaking of father complexes, Dahlia had an awful fear that she'd just stumbled across another teenage boy with one. Was that her destiny or something?

"What's the deal with your father then?"

Dahlia took the plunge and asked the fateful question. Mew only knew what choas could errupt now those words had been spoken. Maybe a man-mad would pop up and try to club her to death with a can of soda? On that train of thought, the female shot a quick glance over her shoulder to check there was no such mad-man. There wasn't, just some dude by a vending machine. Wearing a lot of black, which was.... Odd. But she wasn't that bothered by the obnoxious amount of black, and instead turned back to Ruby. She took a swig from the bottle (a little bit of russian courage? It wasn't just the dutch who were brave, dammint!) as she waited for the repsonse to the dreaded question.

"Ruby."

She repeated the name, with a characteristic rolling of the 'r's as she tested the name out. It seemed a little feminime but it also seemed to fit the male before her like a glove. Or a truly magnificent hat.

"I like it!"

She declared with a soft laugh. She might have gone onto say more, if there hadn't suddenly been a series of thumps catching her attention. Dahlia turned towards the source of the distraction, and watched the man she'd observed earlier, shake the machine? What on earth was he doing? Any fool knew that never worked. Her confusion was only deepened when he feel with incrediable theatrics to his knees and began to... Sob? Sob?! OVER A DRINK.

It was ridiculous.

Really. Sobbing like that... Dahlia glanced down at Ruby, and arched an eyebrow before sldiing her gaze back to the crying male. Had nobody taught him that men didn't cry? Even if some girls found it attractive, but that was besides the point. The spanish female felt obligated to say something, a scene like that earned some response at least. Besides, now she was curious...

"Are you okay?"

She called out across the space between the statue and the drink's machine. It wasn't that great a distance and her voice carried easily across the chilyl air. Dahlia toyed idly with a wayward curl as she waited for some kind of answer. Hopefully this dude wouldn't have a father complex; three was a bit much! [/ul]

[Fidge]

[/i] in his eyes) circumstance.
And ahh, he heard their voices from afar, chattering about something or another -- he couldn't put a finger on what exactly. He gathered, though, one was a younger male, and the other a grown female.
James hadn't looked over at them yet. His head merely lifted as he glared at the vending machine before him. He was too focused on his thoughts on what to do to really look over at them.
Unable to accept defeat from this evil, glowing monster (he had already titled it that in his vivid imagination which was beginning to run it's course), he began to plot and think hard to himself.
Yes, yessss. He could see it now -- his plan was slowly unraveling within his thoughts.
"Find some more money, and put it in the machine..." he chanted to himself quietly, a devious smirk stretching across his face.
Aha! It was so simple! How could he of been so blind and been so easily drawn into an emotional outburst like that? How could he show absolute submissive behavior to an inanimate object such as a machine that carried soda pop with in it?
But here came the problem that seemed to shatter his plan into a thousand pieces. In his mind, this problem appeared like fiery flames dissolving a house in a desolate place, or a hammer to a gorgeous stained glass window.
"...!!! But where to get the money..?" James asked himself, snapping out of his little daydream and looking about frantically. We already covered that he had no money on his person, and usually he would be begging on his hands and knees for a dollar fifty from his magenta haired, female counterpart.
But she wasn't there. Neither was the annoying feline that probably didn't have money on his hands anyway.
Suddenly, he heard a voice call out to him -- one with an alluring, Spanish accent that immediately caught his interest.
She said something like, "Are you alright?" or "Are you okay?"
James really couldn't remember what she asked exactly; her voice was clouded out in his childish imagination. However, he did respond, "Y-Y-es! I just.. have.. something in my eye!"
Oh geeze. Of all the times a random stranger heard that one.
But what was this? Could this possibly be a victim? Maybe she had some money on her, or better yet, maybe the little kid (who, to him, looked rather fabulous in that cute outfit he was wearing) had some pocket change on him.
James clenched his fists as a broad smile grew on his face. A stance of victory was displayed as an assortment of insane, fiendish, giggles escaped from his lips.
YES. STEAL FROM PEOPLE. HE WAS A ROCKET MEMBER, BYE-CRIKEY.
It was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel; he was to approach them viciously to intimidate, and threaten them with something having to do with his Pokemon on hand, or weaponry.
Something like that. Those details would work themselves out. He was already running towards them in enthusiasm.
However, as James got closer and closer to Dahlia and Ruby, he could very much feel his confidence shrinking from him. His cunning smile faded into a vacant line across his face, and his eyebrows knitted together in nervousness.
Before you knew it, James was standing before them both, sweat trickling down his hair.
... Why was he over here again?
Oh yes, money.
Money for what?
..........
....
.. A soda, of course.
How much did he need?
.......
....
...
..
It was a dollar -- NO -- a dollar fifty!
Sheepishly, James poked his index fingers together and looked down at his hands, "Uhm.. do.. you guys have.. a dollar fifty on you..?"
DAMN IT. Why did this happen EVERY SINGLE time he tried to rob somebody by himself?
The only answer would have to point to the fact his bold confidence was gone -- and it only seemed to be there when his partner was with him.. which as of now, she was not.

[/ul]

[Mim]

Ruby tilted his head a little when Dahlia went off about some...
...palm tree?

Wait, Palmer. Some Palmer guy. And reputations and Contests and the like. He crossed his arms loosely and huffed. "Coordinating does not ruin people's reputations! Unless the person's horrible at it, but they'll have at least something to be proud of, especially if they've faced me~" Near the end of his words Ruby's head turned to the right into a smug angle, eyes closed and left hand held palm facing up in a 'you knooooow' sort of pose. His mind sort of drifted off into that misty place that was his commonly frequented daydream world, the place mainly composed of Ribbons, accessories, and beauty. Winning too, of course.

"...your father, then?"
HIS FATHER?!
Ruby snapped out of his trance and into a sort of defensive stance, knees bent slightly and eyes flickering back and forth worriedly. "W-WHERE?!"
He had good reason to be looking for a hiding spot (actually he was fighting the urge to dive behind Dahlia); he still had a bruise on one shoulder from the last time he'd been found. Just his luck Dad trained with his Pokemon, all of them coincidentally very physically fit. A-at least he had his shoes.

When he realized that, no, his father was not here to smash the living daylight out of him (and his hat) he relaxed slightly and raised one hand to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. "H-he didn't want me to Coordinate, something about Training being the only important thing." Making a face, he let his hand drop and turned to face whoever it was that Dahlia was talking to. The man seemed to perk up at the woman's words and ran over.

Um, a dollar fifty. Ruby dug in a pocket hesitantly and came up with a...dollar. "Er. Here you go?" he held it out slowly with an apologetic look.

|| INSTANT FAIL AT THE END BECAUSE I GOTTA GO?! BUT YEAH FIDGEY/CASSIE TAKE IT AWAY~ ||

[Fidge]

[/i][/color]
James' attention drew to the younger fellow who spoke up and held before him a dollar bill, clutching inbetween his thumb and finger.
'He did it. He actually fell for it. My.. my plan worked! He gave into my innocent display and my polite request! The fool! He is like the fly, and I am the spider~'[/color] These thoughts ran through his head, another devilish smirk etching across his features as he stood there blankly, unaware of the small chuckles that escaped through his lips.
Well, for one thing, this wasn't a plan. James just went blank at the spur of the moment and just decided to ask for a money; it was just his Team Rocket instinct to think of this as an ingenious plan that had just succeeded. He really liked to think so, and so he thought these things to himself to give himself an esteem boost.
... He really needed one.
And secondly, he was unaware he was breaking character here. What with that devious grin and dark giggles. It was quite obvious Ruby and Dahlia were dealing with a mad man here.
Snatching the dollar bill greedily from the coordinator, James grabbed Ruby's hand and shook is heartily, a look of cheer arousing on his delicate face. It seems although his confidence was returning to him.
"Oh, thank you so much, kid! You're a real savior, you are! And I absolutely adore your outfit! It's hip; it's hot; it's new. Love it."
... What can I say? James just had to remark on Ruby's attire. He was quite the sucker when it came to fashion.
He stuffed the dollar in his pocket and sniffed. A bright glint sparkled in his eyes as his hands curled together, and a stance of victory was displayed. His ankles spread apart, and his fists pressed against his hips as his posture bent to perfection, "Because of your patronage to me, I am only FIFTY CENTS AWAY from completing my Fizzy Kecleoncola bottle cap collection! Fwaah! And it is all thanks to YOU, young man!" James said, pointing a finger at Ruby before continuing on, "And now, if only some kind, generous,"
A pause.
"attractive person would be willing to let me borrow fifty cents, my collection will be complete," James said, snapping a look at Dahlia that basically said: yeah, I'm talking about you, woman.
But hold the phone. What was he talking about here? What about bottle caps and his collection?
Well, it actually was no joke. He wasn't lying this time. Anybody who knew James well was quite aware of his gigantic bottle cap collection; and anybody who knew him well also knew he thought he could seriously rule the world, or, atleast a good portion of it with his bottle cap collection.
All these people deemed him crazy for this stupid idea. But he ignored them. He was James Kojiro and he pursued this childish dream like none other.
James was utterly convinced his collection would come in handy someday, and until then, he treated his bottlecaps like his own children.

[/ul]

[Cassie]

If Dahlia was the type of person who was startled by sudden and random shouts, she might have twitched at Ruby's reaction. But she wasn'tso she didn't. Okay she did, but it was an internal twitch so she was confident that nobody would have noticed. And if they did... Well she'd deny everything so that was that. Dahlia eyed Ruby's stance with some concern; there was definatley some father complex going on here and to be honest she wasn't sure she liked this new development. She had to wonder what happened to the time father's sued to be good, steadfast pillars of the community. Now they were having illegitmate children with acrobats, running around like they were being chased by a heat seeker and... Well, she was certain there were father's doing lots of things that couldn't be classed as 'father-ly'.

"Oh um... He's not here? It's okay, calm down... It's okay."

She was doing her best to soothe the boy and coax him out of the sudden freakout. Her tones were similar to the ones used when Damion had thrown water on her very cranky Persian Carmella and she was trying to stop the situation turning into homocide. However, before she could really get into her stride (Dahlia had a lot of experiance with the father complex types) her attention was stolen by a blur of blue and black. After a moment she realised it was the weeping man, but now he didn't seem... Quite as weepy. Quite the opposite, very cheerful excitable and... Oh dear me, he was reminding her a little of Damion. That was not good. If he started running in circles, ahe was getting the hell out of there!

A slight frown creased her expression as she watched his demenour change from Damion-esque to something a lot calmer and a lot more nervous. Should she try and soothe him too? Dahlia wasn't quite sure what to do, and decided she was going to have a nice soothing round of blackjack later on to deal with all of this. Yes, blackjack would be good. Dahlia's mind began to take her away from the night street, leading her back towards a place full of neon lights, black suits, drinks on tray's and cards that literally danced before your eyes. Her frowned was smoothed away to be replaced by a sort of dreamy conteness as Dahlia mimiced her Medicham and found her 'happy place'. In other words, one of her favourite casino's.

She would have stayed there, mentally playing roulette if she hadn't become aware of the attention focused on her frame. With some reluctance, Dahlia pulled herself back to the present and forced her thoughts on the matter at hand. Gambling would come later. Now, what's was the question again? Something about cola, bottlecaps and... Money?

"Oh!"

Dahlia exliamed, and shifted her bottle to her left hand, using her right hand to search the back pockets of her jeans. There was a definate jingle, which could only be good. The spanish female pulled out a fistful of coins, and extended the glimmering handful towards the blue haired man, inviting him to find the money he needed.

"There ya go hun."

She said warmly, with an encouraging smile. With a graceful movement, which said more about her sinful nature than any lecture her stepmother had ever made, Dahlia released her hold on the bottle, only to catch it at the neck bring it to her lips and take a deep swig. All in one fluid movement.

When she'd finished, she raised a questioning eyebrow at the elder of the two males in her company, a silent offer of a drink becuase it was only the polite thing to do. Also, Dahlia didn't like being the only one drinking, it was odd.

ooc: MADE OF DEATH. sorry!

[Fidge]

[/color][/i]
The words that rolled out from Dahlia's lips instantly grabbed his attention as James snatched the two quarters from Dahlia's grip. A look of absolute thrill flooded over him; one easily described as a five year old kid given a triple scoop ice cream of his favorite kind.
He shook Dahlia's hand enthusiastically as well and placed the money in his pocket, "Merci, mademoiselle!" He exclaimed before brushing his hair aside with a little flip.
When Dahlia offered the drink to him, he leaned forward to look at it, "Hmmm, vodka, huh? Rather strong stuff if you ask me. Thank you, but no thank you," He replied, placing his palm upon the clear bottle of the drink and pushing it aside, "I'm going to quench my thrist with that Fizzy Cherry Kecleoncola... THAT I CAN NOW BUY AND COMPLETE MY BOTTLE CAP COLLECTION WITH!" James cried out victoriously, striking another over exaggerated pose before turning on his heels and zipping off, all the while giggling in a sinister manner to himself.
"Yessss, I'm so sneaky, even the dame fell for it. I can do this.. I can handle being by myself.. I can do this on my own. Fwah! I am so cunning! And they don't suspect a thing!" James thought to himself as he skipped off back to the evil vending machine, who, he now deemed as defeated. Oh, it was going to get pwned, and it was going to get pwned.. hard..
James smushed the dollar bill into the mouth of the machine, all the while as a gleeful song of success rung wildly in his head and transferred to his lips, slight hums mixed with his evil chuckles escaping forth from his mouth.
Step 1 out of 3, complete.
He then slipped the two coins into the machine.
Step 2 out of 3, complete.
And lastly, he jabbed the button that read Fizzy Cherry Kecleoncola and awaited the vending machine to transact.
bzzzttt -- hmmmm -- bzzztt.
James bared his teeth. He would not lose to such a pitiful object of machinery (inwhich belonged to Team Rocket itself, which made the situation even more hilarious. He was getting the smack-down by something belonging to his own team!) again. No, he would win, and benefit greatly from it with a brand new bottle cap and quenching of his thrist.
bzzzzzt --- bam!
James gasped. It worked, it really worked!
He bent down and snatched up the soda in the bottle, unable to suppress an enormous, kid-like grin. However, upon examining the soda, his smile slowly faded.
Wh-what was this?
Fizzy Lime Kecleoncola!?!
What the hell!?
He was for certain he had pushed the correct button, but for whatever reason, it seems as though the vending machine malfunctioned and gave him the wrong drink.
And of all the wrong drinks, they had given him his least favorite, and he had already collected about five or six of these bottle caps already.
Foiled again!
In absolutely infuriating anger, James could feel his face fluster into a light pink tone as the hot rage surged through his being. He clenched the glass bottle, fighting off the temptation to lash it against the concrete and shatter it into thousands and thousands of pieces.
Instead, he thought he'd just go give it to that stylish kid. Hopefully he liked this sort of drink.
James turned and made his way hurriedly back to Ruby and Dahlia, his posture slouched and his eyebrows furrowed, leaving unattractive wrinkles in the middle of his forehead. Upon reaching to two, he shoved the bottle into Ruby's arms and reached over to take a swig of Dahlia's alcohol.
His face was firm and disgruntled. He said nothing, just merely took a sip from the vodka and coughed abit as it swirled down his throat.
His green eyes teared up. It had been so long since he had had such a strong drink.
But in this disastrous situation (so it was almost hell on earth to James) he found it necessary to take Dahlia up on the offer of drinking.
Oh, if only Jessie were here to smack him across the face and snap him into reality, and not this immature fantasy-land of his. She always did, but not today. Only Arceus knew what havoc would be unleashed now.

[/ul]

[breloom]

OutOfCtrl;
Oh dear mew.
OH DEAR MEW.

Breloom is posting... again? Everyone run for your lives!

BackInCtrl;

“And here I stand, in front of the great and almighty force known as the ‘Game Corner’.”

Thorton looked upwards at the ridiculously big, vividly colored building, complete with blinding lights and a side-building over to the… well… side. It was blatantly obvious that this ‘Game Corner’ was, in fact, a casino – but Celadon was evidently crawling with little kids and someone (probably the city governor) must have decided to be nice to them by avoiding the parent-directed question of ‘mommy, what’s a casino?’…

Wait.

No, that wasn’t right.

Just about nobody does that. Seriously, like 5 percent of city high-ups care about the little guys long enough to prevent people from blinking CASINO over their door.

“Budget cuts?” he wondered out loud.

Yes, Celadon Casino is longer than Game Corner by four entire letters. That was it.

Thorton smiled at his brilliance; he had just figured out one of the great mysteries of mankind! He was quite proud of himself, and in this state of ‘ingenuity’ he found himself wandering over to a big, obnoxious statue of a Venusaur – these Celadon people must love big, obnoxious things; there was an abundance of things that fit that description to a T – and sat down on the rim. He’d been trekking all morning, and felt that he deserved a rest to enjoy some scenery.

Strongly enjoying his (albeit uncomfortable) spot on the stone rim of the giant unbreathing Pokemon, he looked around at the random passerby. There was one man – man? Woman? Thorton couldn’t tell, he had girlish periwinkle hair – who was running back and forth between a vending machine and two other people. One of the people was a teenager in… interesting clothes to say the least, and the other was Dahlia.

From what Thorton could see from his position facing the kid’s back, he wore a lot of black clothing and a white hat that had a tendency to bobble all over the place. He also was apparently fond of abrupt and loud mood swings, because as Dahlia asked him a question he began to pan-

Wait.

Dahlia...?

Dahlia?

DAHLIA?!?

Thorton nearly fell off of his perch, his already-high eyebrows arching even higher on his pale face. The standard bored expression was gone and replaced with that of surprise, confusion, and slack-jawery.

Dahlia. Was here. In Kanto. While he was. In the same town, too.

THIS WAS VERY STRANGE AND THORTON DID NOT LIKE IT.
NO.
THORTON DID NOT LIKE IT AT ALL.

The teenaged boy in the black-and-green outfit found himself staring at the two people once again. Yes, there was no mistaking her loud voice and even louder choice of attire – this was most definitely the Arcade Star he was gawking at.

B- but why was she here?

He stared at them for a few minutes, took a deep breath, and slowly walked over.

“Hey, Dahlia,” he called, suddenly finding a lot more confidence, “I’m here.”

[Cassie]

[/b][/color]

She said in bright tones, trying to enforce some cheer into the lucklusture surroundings. It didn't seem to be going all thay well. With a sigh, Dahlia let her eyes dance across the surroundings seeking out something that would bring a smile to the males around her. All she saw was a big ugly statue, some kid in green and black who seemed oddly familiar, a drink machine and some buildings. Nothing amazing really. Dahlia was dimly aware of footsteps, which suggest the kiddie from before had decided to move.

Hey, Dahlia, I’m here.”

Dahlia froze, her eyes widening in suprise. She knew that voice, oh yes sir, she knew that voice. Her shocked expression turned into one of delight.

"Thorty, baby!"

She exlaimed in delight, and then bounded forward like a hyperactive child on sugar (a.k.a - a lot like damion!). It didn't take her long to cross the distance between them, which was bad for Thorton because it didn't really give him much chance to escape. With a broad grin she threw her arms around her fellow Brain and scooped him up into a Dahlia style hug.

"How's my favourite nerd?"

She laughed the question and mussed up his hair while keeping him firmly wrapped up in the hug. Quite and impressive feat, no?

ooc: MADE OF FAIL, SORRY. [/ul]