let's spend a day like a face in a crowd [open]

[breloom]

Celadon City was not one of Thorton Nejiki's all time favorite human settlements.

Sure, it had its upsides, but even outsmarting the slots got boring after a while. Having been given the boot for surpassing the 'maximum payout limit', he found that there wasn't much left to do in Celadon. Baggy, mint-green pockets heavy, he left Celadon in favor of the much more interesting Saffron City to find something to spend it on.

Okay, so he hadn't found anything worth his time yet.

But what's wrong with window-shopping for stuff he'd never need?

There were, of course, a variety of Trainer-themed uberstores. But most of these places carried supplies for the standard Pokemon Trainer - the one who caught his own Pokemon with his own Pokeballs funded by his own lucky mon-pwning streak. Thorton, on the other hand, had checked out some of the Pokemon from his Factory before he left, so all he could do was get some Revives and Max Potions and leave before he got too many surprised looks.

This was Kanto. Nobody would possibly identify him as the Factory Head - most people hadn't even seen his picture. They would probably assume he was some adult god-Trainer who flew around on a green Charizard. His clothing wasn't all that strange either, compared to some of the things Kanto trainers wore.

His hair. His bird-hair was the problem.

No way was he about to change his bird-hair; but a hairstyle like this floppy multicolored monstrosity was not your standard-issue shaggy brown or Xtreme Anime Palmerspikes. No, it was black and army green at the same time. No easy feat for a hairstylist, yet Thorton had assembly of it down pat.

Thorton grinned at the thought.

Deciding to stop the window-shopping, he sat down on a strange metal bench to observe passerby and imagine strange personality quirks they might or might not have.

When there's nothing to tinker with nearby, it's actually not too bad.

[The Jester]

Dear Mew, this was torture. Why this young woman chose to wear high heels despite their being notorious for causing the wearer extreme pain was a mystery, but it was too late now. She had already been walking around in them for hours, she had no other pairs with her at the moment, and she was unfortunately not within walking distance of the Kanto hotel she had chosen to stay in.

"Nngh..." She groaned quietly, lavender hair swishing behind her as she walked, trying to find a way to walk while avoiding the pain these shoes were causing the backs of her ankles. She probably had loads of blisters by now. The two odd spikes of hair in the front that were very like horns drew several curious glances towards her. She couldn't help that they wouldn't stay down, though.
The woman had forsaken her usual Gym Leader clothing for more casual clothes today. To be specific, a somewhat tight blue t-shirt and a navy skirt that reached her knees. And, of course, excruciatingly painful blue heels.

Winona bit her lip to avoid moaning loudly as she walked painfully along through the mall. She had flown out to Saffron on Altaria to see what sort of things were sold in Kanto stores. Probably not much different from Hoenn, but one could hope to find something interesting like a store specializing in plushies.

Hell, she might run into someone she knew. She might not be the only Hoenn resident vacationing in Kanto. She might run into Wallace.

Winona couldn't help but smile at the thought. Even if they weren't together anymore, Winona had made many pleasant memories with Wallace and it would have been nice to see him again.

Winona started walking a little faster, almost skipping a bit. Thinking of Wallace had distracted her from the pain... momentarily.
"Ow ow ow ow." She muttered, stopping and reaching a hand down to touch the spot where it hurt the most. Yep, she had blisters. She sighed and stood up straight again, looking around. A young boy was sitting on a bench to her right and watching passersby. He had... oddly colored hair, to say the least. It was black, which was normal, and... green. Which was not so normal. Whatever, she noticed a lot of people had odd hairstyles or haircolors or clothes here in Kanto.

She tried to take another step and winced as the pain came again.
I miss my boots. She thought, referring to the small boots she wore as part of her Gym Leader outfit, which weren't nearly as painful as these Mewdamned heels.
Sighing, she decided to simply take a break and walked over to the nearest bench. Which was the one the boy was also sitting on. She sat at the opposite end and sighed again, wondering how she had ever persuaded herself into wearing high heels.


(Jespie declares this post fail.)

[breloom]

She was staring at him.

Was Thorton at all surprised by this? No, not really. The girl in blue seemed to be staring at his hair, for which he was quite used to by now. Though it seemed she could get the same feeling of really strange hairstyles by simply looking in the mirror at her gravity-defying wing-locks, his was multicolored and therefore more interesting than purple and straight.

The woman seemed to be wincing in pain every other step and Thorton couldn’t help but set to work analyzing what could have hurt. He needn’t have bothered, however; a few seconds after he had noticed her, one hand was being reached downward to her foot. After a deepening of the grimace on her face and the fact that she was wearing heels, it was pretty obvious that her feet were the origin of the problem.

His eyes flicked to someone else who happened to have very tanned skin and red hair just as she began looking around – and fixed her own gaze on him. He continued focusing on the redhead as she glanced around more, then walked over to the opposite side of his bench and flopped on it.

Thorton was brought back into the waking world by the woman’s loud sigh, which all of a sudden seemed much closer. He whipped his head around to see her sagging on the opposite side of the bench he was currently occupying. Unfolding his legs and re-crossing them with his foot pointed away from the newcomer (it was more second nature than courtesy), Thorton raised an already-high-arched eyebrow.

“Hello,” he said flatly.

OutOfCtrl;
Breloom would like to acknowledge Jespie's declaration and sigh that this post is even shorter and more fail than hers.

[moddy!]

[/i] of the way![/color]"

The voice was loud and quick and obnoxious and it was coming from a rather tall man, who happened to be rushing at this very moment. Shoving people out of the way. Yelling at them. And then rushing some more.

Rushing. Shoving. Yelling. More rushing.

That should've been an annoying combination alone, but it had to be worse, of course. Not only was he doing all that, but he was also chasing after something; that something being a very naughty pokemon of his. If he was younger and in a meadow, this scene might've been a bit touching. A playful child chasing a lovely butterfly-type pokemon across a meadow full of beautiful flowers is cute, no? But, an older man chasing after a rather annoying bug-type pokemon in the middle of a mall full of people was not-so-cute. More like annoying.

Rushing. Shoving. Yelling. More rushing.

This time, as he went through that cycle again, there were a few complaints thrown back at him. There was no doubt that he would be kicked out soon enough by a few Officer Jennys. He was sure of that because, in Kanto, no one had a clue who he was. No one had a clue that he needed to rush to live or else he would die. To him, rushing was like breathing; absolutely necessary and without it, one might die. They didn't know any of that.

"Move, move, move! Didn't I say that already?! Get outta my way!"

Rushing. Shoving. Yelling. More rushing.

It began again, of course, as he shoved yet another person away. This one, being a rather oddly big woman, actually tried to get back at him by swinging her also overly-large purse at him. Not quick enough, he thought as a smirk found it's way across his face. There was no way that anyone would be able to catch him at this rate.

That was, until he decided to stop. He didn't stop often, so whatever he had stopped for had to either be rather idiotic or rather puzzling. It was the latter choice, though, since he couldn't seem to find what he was chasing any longer. Where at that pokemon go? He had no clue, which was a problem. It was a problem because, well, if he didn't know where the thing went, he didn't know where to go and if he didn't know where to go, he didn't have any where to rush and shove and yell and rush some more.

That damn Butterfree, he thought, the smirk he had had on his face already becoming a frown, where could it have gone this time?

He glanced around, trying to find where the creature had flown off to. Instead, he saw a girl with wing-like hair and a male, with rather awkward hair, as well, greeting her. He recognized the male, unfortunately, but the female didn't seem to be so familiar-looking. Probably from another region.... He shrugged at the thought and began walking towards the bench that the two sat on.

When he reached them, he looked away quickly, hoping that the black-and-green-haired one wouldn't be able to recognize him. For, if he could, he might end up wasting some of his valuable time. And, that, my good sir, was inexcusable.

"So...." he mumbled, his feet shuffling; they were always automatically ready to go again. It was just instinct or something. "You two wouldn't have happened to have seen a Butterfree go by, have you?" He asked in an uncomfortable matter, as if speaking to the two of them was something he really didn't want to do.

And, as a matter of fact, Palmer didn't want to speak to any of them, especially his own sort-of-kind-of boss.
[/ul]

[breloom]

A shadow fell over Thorton.

It was a tall, spike-topped shadow; hardly a rare occurrence here in Kanto, Thorton had noticed in his frequent ‘shopper-watching’ outings. Yet there was something distinctly familiar about this shadow – some sort of looming, panting presence that never seemed to-

Wait.

Panting?

Thorton diverted his attention from the woman with purple wing-hair to the now-familiar presence that had just made itself known. Looking up, Thorton noticed that he was using what was perhaps the worst disguise ever. Clearly, the Tower Tycoon was trying to hide his face in a fruitless attempt to remain undetected, but the not-quite-normal green jacket and black gloves gave it away.

That brought rise to a new question: What was Palmer doing here, anyway?

Not intending to ask, Thorton figured that if he kept calm (and therefore boring) with Palmer, the hair-trigger man would eventually become bored of him and rush off to clearly more important things… like getting himself arrested in a different Region, which he was very close to doing right now.

“Palmer, why are you trying to hide your face?” he asked calmly. “Do you honestly believe that something like that is supposed to disguise you from me, of all people?”

…Alright, so he wasn’t playing it perfectly cool. But it was just so funny to tease Palmer when he’s forced to remain still!

"You two wouldn't have happened to have seen a Butterfree go by, have you?"

“What, did you lose Butterfree again?” Thorton sighed shakily, struggling to keep himself from doubling over in a giggle fit. “Why would you release it in a mall in the first place? Just looking for something to chase?”

Thorton suddenly became aware that the woman was still there, and glanced at her. “This is Palmer,” he explained hastily. “He’s… an acquaintance of mine.”

My Thortymuse is gone today. D:

[The Jester]

Winona turned to look at the boy when he greeted her.
"Hello," She said back, nodding. She looked up as a tall, spiky-haired blond man walked up to the two and asked about a Butterfree. The boy next to her promptly asked why he was trying to hide his face, calling him Palmer, then asked if he had lost Butterfree "again."
The boy turned to Winona and introduced the man as an "acquaintance." Winona chuckled at this.
"I don't see why you bothered introducing him when you haven't even introduced yourself." She said, smirking.

(Hggffhflashl. Shooort. xC;; )

[breloom]

"You never asked," he said flatly. Idiot! Idiot, idiot, idiot!

"My name is Thorton. Palmer here and myself come from Sinnoh; I, personally, came just for the fun of it, but I'm quite sure that he's only here to run around even more crowded places." He glanced back at Palmer for a second before continuing.

"You may or may not know me as the Factory Head of the Sinnoh Battle Frontier. Yes, there is more than one; no, I have no relation to the Sinnoh Factory Head who's name slips my mind." He turned away from the woman and back to Palmer. "And why are you here, exactly?"

OutOfCtrl;
Ditto.

[moddy!]

[/i]. Besides, why would I need to hide my face from you? It's not like you don't like seeing me or something, right...?[/color]" Instead of waiting for Thorton to reply, he answered himself, "Right."

"No! I don't chase things on purpose. I'm not a child, like you. I'm an adult and adults don't go around doing things like that. Nuh-uh." He nodded, a smug look on his face. Since he couldn't beat him in wits, at least he could beat Thorton in some ways, like age... and speed, of course.

"And, oh, yeah! I didn't release Butterfree; he got out on his own this time. Weird, huh? I think so. But, anyways, he's gone now. Probably going to steal candy or something from little kids like he usually does," he nodded, clearly not noticing the fact that someone could take that statement in the wrong way. Not like he cared if they did or not, though. It wasn't his problem.

"Hey, hey! I could've introduced myself, Mister Smartie-pants," he mocked. For some odd reason, he was proud of himself for coming up with a name for Thorton such as that. But, then again, he was always proud of himself for some reason.

"I come from the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh, too. But, you know, I come from the better part of it. The cooler, quicker, funner part. If you ever go to Sinnoh, be sure to visit there and I'm sure that you won't be bored!" He nodded at the lady. "Although, you might become bored pretty easily if you visit certain parts of the Battle Frontier area," he glanced over at Thorton and smirked.

His attention was brought back to the woman pretty quickly, though. "By the way, lady! We told you our names--- wait, no, actually, Thorton told you our names, but you haven't told us yours! Now hurry up and answer! Quickly, quickly! I don't have all day for names, y'know?"

Thorton's next question caught him by surprise, though. "Gee.. I really don't know why I came here... Wait, wait! You're just trying to distract me, aren't you? You're trying to make me slow by making me have to think about questions! Well, you know what, it isn't working!" He glared over at the other fellow, obviously displeased by this opinion of his.
[/ul]

[breloom]

"I'm... I'm not hiding my face!" spluttered Palmer.

Thorton frowned slightly, crossing his legs to stare at Palmer. It certainly looked like you did, he thought. He glowered at Palmer for the next paragraph's worth of jabbering, and decided to reply at his next remark. ("No! I don't chase things on purpose. I'm not a child, like you. I'm an adult and adults don't go around doing things like that. Nuh-uh.")

"Well, Palmer, I hate to break it to you, but here's the run-down: you're an adult, I'm not. You go around doing 'things like that', I don't. Where do your claims fit in to the facts?" Thorton leaned backwards, interested to hear how Palmer would respond to this.

Instead, Palmer rambled about how evil his Butterfree was, which Thorton ignored for the most part, and then about how the woman should sooooo visit the Battle Frontier if she were ever to visit Sinnoh. Then he made a comment about how she might get bored in 'some' parts of the factory...

and Thorton nodded in agreement. "Mhm," he said. "The Battle Hall does get rather repetitive with only one Pokemon, doesn't it?"

And then, after a demand to learn the woman's name (Palmer was a busy man, after all, what with all of the running and bad snarks and looking like a moron), the easily-excited Tower Tycoon finally shut up. Thorton had to keep down a sigh of relief; if someone was the victim of Palmer's rambling for too long, they were known to do... strange things.

Such as actually beat him.

Waaaaait... no, there's more.

"Gee.. I really don't know why I came here... Wait, wait! You're just trying to distract me, aren't you? You're trying to make me slow by making me have to think about questions! Well, you know what, it isn't working!"

Thorton failed to swallow his emotion this time. He let out a small giggle, and then smiled at Palmer. "Really, now, use some common sense. Why would I possibly want you to slow down?" he snickered, but delivered the next line much more seriously. "I know exactly what you do when you're slowed down."

[moddy!]

[/i]![/color]" He frowned at Thorton. This conversation wasn't really going anywhere, in his opinion. ...although, most conversations were too slow for him, therefore they didn't go anywhere, either.

"...." He didn't really know what to say to that. That wasn't true, was it? ...no, it couldn't be. Certainly not. He shook his head and glared at the younger person.

"You're wrong! I don't do 'things like that'! Where's your proof, anyways? I don't recall doing anything like that in a long time..." He trailed off, trying to remember. Then he shook his head again. "By the way! This time doesn't count! Nope! Because I was just trying to get my pokemon, y'know?"

"No, no, no! I didn't mean the Battle Hall! You know what I meant!" He protested. "I know you know what I meant! But, you just like messing with my words, don't you? I bet that you know that I didn't mean the Battle Hall.... but, whatever!"

He sighed. This was taking up way too much time. Time he didn't have to spare. He looked in another direction before glancing back at Thorton.. Come on... where could that Butterfree be? He frowned at the thought. This conversation was pointless. If it hadn't have---[/i]

He had giggled. Thorton had giggled at him. This wasn't a funny matter! He glared at Thorton, a scowl on his face. "I was using common sense! And my common sense said that you would slow me down, despite what you say! ....or something," he mumbled. If he was capable of noticing how stupid his words sounded, he might be embarrassed at this moment. But, he wasn't.

"Dammit, Thorton! No, you don't! Prove that you do. 'Cuz I don't believe you!"
[/ul]

pffft fail. D:

[breloom]

'Blah, blah, blah, proof, blah,' said the immature Tycoon. 'Blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah...'

...

Alright, so Thorton wasn't paying much attention while Palmer spluttered and tried to turn the situation his favor while the woman was watching. Knowing him, Thorton thought with a wry smile, Palmer probably thought she was kind of cute.[/color] Yes, that seemed like something Palmer would be thinking of... but he wouldn't dwell on it too long, because thinking too much makes you stop moving.

And, like a Sharpedo, when Palmer stops he-

"Dammit, Thorton! No, you don't! Prove that you do. 'Cuz I don't believe you!"

"I do," he said in response. "Would you like me to list the symptoms, the reaction, and the illness in front of our strangely silent female acquaintance here?"

Two birds, one stone - irritate Palmer, confuse Palmer, humiliate Palmer... okay, so that was three stones. But did it matter anywa-

Thorton stopped himself before the thought could fully register.

Statistics... not mattering? What was wrong with him? The smug look wiped off his face, to be replaced with one of mild terror. I've been around Palmer too long, he kept concluding no matter how he thought about it. As stupid as it sounds, Palmer's stupidity and short attention span was rubbing off on me!

The mild terror on his face grew to plain old terror.

"I-i have to go," he spluttered. "Farewell, Palmer..."

With that, he got off the bench and started to walk away, hands in his pockets and head ducked down. Suddenly realizing something, he stopped and remained perfectly still for a few minutes. Yes! Nothing ridiculous is happening to me... yet...

OutOfCtrl;
My ingenuity scares even me.

[moddy!]

[/color]" He glanced over at her, but then his attention was brought back to Thorton.

"You don't," he shook his head, "and I know you don't! And I don't got no illness or whatever! But, fine, go ahead and list 'em if that's what your smart ass self wants to d---"

Now he was leaving. First he had laughed and now he was leaving....

Nonononono. NO.

Palmer would absolutely not take that. Thorton was not leaving. He wasn't allowing him to. Normally, he would just shrug it off and leave, too. Then again, though, he couldn't just leave bird-lady-wing-hair girl, could he? Yeah... that's why Thorton was staying.

No, he wasn't staying because Palmer's ever-so-large ego would be damaged if he left. He was staying because Palmer said so and Palmer needed to get what he wanted. It was just necessary that he did. Most of the time, he did get what he wanted, too. But that was just most of the time.

"Thorton!" He called after the younger fellow in a tone that was almost angry. "You can't go anywhere! And before you say 'oh, yeah, why can't I?' or something, it's because I said so and I'm the adult and you're not and kids have to listen to adults and that's how it goes or something and I know it goes like that!" He nodded, proud of his overly-long run-on sentence.

He grinned. Why hadn't he been able to do something like this before? Oh, right, because he was never around his own son. Well, whatever. That didn't matter, though. He was sure that his son was very good and behaved and everything. ...right?

Whatever. Again, that didn't matter right now. All that mattered was that he was acting like the boss of Thorton and not the other way around. Yeah, life is good.
[/ul]

[breloom]

"You don't, and I know you don't! And I don't got no illness or whatever! But, fine, go ahead and list 'em if that's what your smart ass self wants to d-"

Thorton was still standing there, and evidently it took Palmer a while to realize that he apparently did not care about the older man's ramblings on how he was perfectly fine and how Thorton was a smartass (another problem with Palmer: he curses more than need be) and was walking in the other direction.

Palmer, Palmer, Palmer... when will you EVER learn to stop paying attention like that?

Mt. Palmer, of course, blew its top.

"Thorton! You can't go anywhere!" screeched Palmer after the teenager. "And before you say 'oh, yeah, why can't I?' or something, it's because I said so and I'm the adult and you're not and kids have to listen to adults and that's how it goes or something and I know it goes like that!"

Thorton, once again, tried to stop himself from doubling over in laughter. "Palmer," he said, turning around, "you have no clue what it goes like. And even though you might be somewhere around twice my age, we're both on the same rung of the social ladder... not to mention I have a decent education, and you don't. Time bows to knowledge, and knowledge bows to society."

And then, laughing, he continued walking.

This was the most fun he'd had in a very long time.

Something else suddenly occurred to him, and he stopped. Still smiling, he slowly approached Palmer again. "Don't want you missing your target and barreling over innocent civilians, do we?"

snarky!Thorton is ever so fun... and snarky!Thorton with the Pokemon Colosseum Admin theme is even better.

[moddy!]

[/i] know! Like you said, I'm probably more than twice your age-- wait, no! That makes me sound really old and I know I'm notnotnot! But, whatever! The point is that I've been around longer than you and even though you know more, it doesn't mean you're necessarily smarter. Sure, you might've had a good education and all, but that doesn't mean that you can just say anything you want to someone.[/color]" He nodded.

"You know, Thorton, you might have a lot of smarts or whatever, but your social and communication skills could use some work. It looks to me that most of the things you say rely on your intelligence to make sense. If that makes sense at all," he shrugged. "Even so, one day, you're gonna meet someone smarter than you and since everything you say to them doesn't seem smart to them, you might end up with nothing left to say."

As soon as he said those last words, all seriousness was gone. He hadn't even intended to be serious at all, but he had to say something. Besides, even if those words didn't make sense, they did to him and that's all that mattered in his opinion.

He frowned as Thorton laughed and then shook his head. "I don't see what's funny!" He said matter-of-factly. "Just because I don't use stupid sayings and stuff doesn't mean that I didn't have a decent education. Even if it's hard for you to believe, I went to school and stuff! I did, I did, I did! And you can't say I didn't because you wouldn't know!"

He snorted as Thorton stopped and came near him again. "Thorton, you're not my target despite what you think. I mean, seriously! I've been told that I have a big ego by people, but they obviously haven't met you! After all, why would I come after you or whatever it is that you think I would do! As a matter of fact," he smirked, "I have to wonder if you forgot about our 'guest'." He gestured towards Winona.

"Because, if you did, that isn't so smart. It also isn't smart to just leave someone in such an rude way like that! Soo... yeah," he nodded.
[/ul]

xDDD hahaha. haven't heard that theme in a while.

[breloom]

"Whine!" said Palmer. "Stuff stuff demand uncharacteristic serious stuff you have bad social skills roar!"

...Okay, so that's what Thorton was hearing. Even so, he wasn't paying much attention anyway. In reality, it was something more like: "I do know! Like you said, I'm probably more than twice your age-- wait, no! That makes me sound really old and I know I'm notnotnot! But, whatever! The point is that I've been around longer than you and even though you know more, it doesn't mean you're necessarily smarter. Sure, you might've had a good education and all, but that doesn't mean that you can just say anything you want to someone. You know, Thorton, you might have a lot of smarts or whatever, but your social and communication skills could use some work. It looks to me that most of the things you say rely on your intelligence to make sense. If that makes sense at all. Even so, one day, you're gonna meet someone smarter than you and since everything you say to them doesn't seem smart to them, you might end up with nothing left to say."

Or something.

"Palmer," he said. "How long have you been wanting to say that to me? Five minutes? Ah, no, ten - it probably wouldn't have held you attention if it were any less than that, wouldn't it..." He glanced in a different direction, frowning slightly. "About a ninety-percent chance, in fact. And, Palmer Kurotsugu, do not start using such weak ammunition as my lack of social skills in a battle like this. Besides, when's the last time that girl moved since she sat down?" Thorton gestured to the woman, who indeed hadn't moved at all.

And then Palmer insisted that he did go to school - but, of course, he failed to insist that A, he had actually completed it and B, he was actually paying attention. With this, a look of genuine surprise swept across Thorton's face. "Oh, you did, did you? While you're right, I have know way of telling whether you're lying or not, you evidently didn't retain much from it, did you?"

Thorton's evil grin returned as Palmer made more heroic statements of rambling. "Even if we did have similarly-sized egos, Palmer, at least I don't show it ninety-nine percent of the time, hm?" And, following his gaze to the girl, he couldn't help but let out a short giggle. "Palmer," he said, "you've left 'rudely' that more times than I can count, and... if I was ignoring her, so were you."