A Luxury Cruise...

[Gary]

Ah, Vermillion City! Yes, it was a wonderful place to live, and a wonderful place indeed, as it was home to the Pokemon Fan Club. What better reason to get outside and travel to Vermillion than to visit such an ordeal guild, where the whole day was filled with cute pokemon? Petting them, admiring them, talking about them--anything! Pokemon come first and foremost, and especially the adorable ones!

Soon, the Pokemon Fan Club would be hosting a celebration in honor of its newest success, it would. Of course, the success hadn't happened yet, but it would. The Chairman of the Pokemon Fan Club was a stout man, dressed in a black suit and hat while a beard flourished from his face; the only part of his face left unconcealed by hair was hidden behind a pair of thick-framed sunglasses. He gazed out of the window of his lovely club, where he had a direct view of the sign that had been placed for all of Vermillion to see. It was stationed in front of the bridge that led to the S.S. Anne--on which the Chairman would be boarding soon, along with a plethora of trainers, he hoped!

"Hmmm, I can't wait for this, my dear Abra!" The Chairman cooed, stroking the small pokemon that sat in his lap. It appeared to be snoozing, making no movement whatsoever and sporting tightly shut eyes. "Wait'll they see what we have in store for them!" the man squealed happily. Indeed, who wouldn't be happy with what would be revealed on the luxury cruise? After petting his abra and soaking up how much cuter it had gotten in the last ten minutes, the Chairman looked up once again to read the sign he and his club members had fashioned. It was large, glittery, colorful, and covered in cute pictures of cute pokemon.

~****LUXURY CRUISE****~
to Faraway Island!
*********************
*~*TRAINERS OF ALL KINDS WELCOME!*~*
Buy a ticket at the Pokemon Center!
~*~DON'T FORGET TO BRING A CUTE POKEMON COSTUME FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A MASTER BALL!!!!!!!!~*~

[/color][/b]

[Chuck]

The smell of the ocean drifted through the Vermillion coastline. That aroma soon drifted into the nostrils of a seventeen year old Pokemon Watcher. When the smell actually hit him he almost fell off the little concrete ledge by the water that he'd been sitting on. He wasn't very fond of the ocean, but sometimes sketching requires sacrifice. In order to get a single sketch of Mew he would have to survive the smell of the ocean that he despised. Pencil in hand, he traced the what seemed to be a ship. The boy was usually one to sketch Pokemon, but over all the excitement he just had to get a sketch of the S.S. Anne in his sketchbook.

The male took a glance at the salty water below. In the water, he saw a pair of eyes were staring back at him. He jumped at first, but quickly realized it was merely his own reflection. He studied his reflection closely. He saw a green t-shirt, khaki shorts, black hair held up with a red headband, and a teenager who's voice hadn't seemed to have really cracked yet. The artist directed his attention back to the large boat he had been sketching and smirked. His eyes shifted back down to his sketchbook and he began to continue his drawing, but he was rudely interrupted. Water came showering over him. It soaked him, his sketchbook, and his sketch. The sketch off the S.S. Anne looked "unprofessional" as the male called it.
"Ugh. Marill!"

[/b] the male's voice echoed through the air and reached a small balloon-looking creature. The blue bubble jumped up and down as its name was called. It seemed to full of joy even though it was being yelled at.

"You better pray the tickets didn't get wet," cried the male. His hand reached deep down into his pockets and pulled out a single ticket.
"Tracey Will Sketchit," he read aloud. He was satisfied that the ticket wasn't wet at all, but he couldn't help repeating his name again. He began to ponder exactly how his parents came up with this ridiculous name. Were they drunk?
"Tracey Will Sketchit. Tracey will sketch it," Tracey looked down at his sketchbook and then back at his name that was printed on the ticket. Maybe his parents were secretly fortune-teller. Maybe even aliens from a distant galaxy. Wait, that would be insane. That would imply that Tracey was alien as well. Did they somehow know he was going to be an artist that spent his free time sketching little creatures that can only say their own name?
"Coincidence?" he asked himself softly. [/left]

[havoc]

Ohboyohboyohboyohboy~

She had finally arrived, after days on the road. Well, no, that was a slight over exaggeration. It hadn’t taken that long. She wouldn’t have made it if it had taken that long, after all.

Y’see, she had gone through the Diglet Tunnel.

Which Dawn was trying to frantically block out of her memory as quickly as possible. It was awful! It was a dark enclosed space, with the stagnant air of a place that isn’t ventilated properly, with horrible little wormlike pokémon popping out at you every two meters or so. It had been hell. Dawn wasn’t claustrophobic unlike Damion, but she was STILL afraid of the dark. Ridiculous, right? But there was nothing she could really do about that. She’d always been afraid of the dark. Not night-time dark, as there was nothing to be afraid of there, but the dark that was induced by the lack of light penetrating through into the surrounding area you were in. The unnatural dark that shouldn’t be present during the daytime. The dark that lingered with you even when you had managed to escape it. The dark that never was quite still, but seemed to shudder and curl itself around you with every further step you took, almost as if it was trying to engulf you. The darkness that took away the warmth and the comfort and the LIGHT. She really didn’t like the dark. Goddamnit, places like that should be banned!

She couldn’t totally complain-it hadn’t been completely dark, as obviously the people that often came through this tunnel had put up torches and suchlike inside, but you couldn’t compare a row of torches to the warm glowing feeling from the sunlight above, like the comforting touch of a parent when you were young. Sunlight was simply irreplaceable by anything. It took away your fears. Made you feel happy within your soul, like everything would be alright. But perhaps there was no point on dwelling on that, seeing as they were no longer within that awfully dreary place.

And it had come quite useful to her pokémon too. They had had to fight off a couple of those pesky worm pokémon that kept on popping up everywhere, and through that had managed to toughen themselves up a little. And her piplup had got itself a nickname. Seeing as it could be such a little finicky thing, she’d nicknamed it Sostanto. Hark to the foreignness! But she thought it suited him, so it stuck. It was rather kinda formal, so she called him Soto for short. This had no meaning at all, but whatevs.

She had come here on her own. Damion had got involved in some kind of macho faceoff, and had stayed behind in Viridian. Dawn stood in front of the giant sign and contemplated the variety of different costumes she could wear. After all, it had to be something cute yet original. Hmm, what on earth was she gonna wear? That would have to be sorted out quickly. After all, they left in two days or so.

Hopefully not too pink.

[breloom]

Two people walked onto the docks.

They were certainly an odd pair of men; one of them was a rather pale teenager - nineteen or something like that - wearing a very bland, dark outfit. The second was a guy in a rubbersuit, boots, and had a cape and a duo of Dragonair trailing behind him.

"Alright! This is gonna be fun!" Rubbersuit Man cheered.

"Calm down, Lance," the other man sighed. "Are you just excited about seeing that Legendary Pokemon? It's probably a hoax anyway."

"It's not a hoax!" Lance objected. "Grant, don't you know it's sponsored by the Pokemon Fan Club? That president guy couldn't tell a lie if he tried. I've gotten stuff from him before, and it's always been what he advertised."

Grant, the man in black, simply grunted and began inspecting the metal pipe in his hand.

Ah, yes, the metal pipe. It was a long, thick, broad strip of hollow iron that he seemed to carry around as if it were a Pokeball glove. Despite the various dents and scratches that littered its surface and the obvious wear that showed from the point where he held it, the man - Grant - clearly held this scrap metal in high regard.

"Hmph," he grumbled.

Ignoring Lance for the moment, he instead directed his gaze upwards at the sky above them. "Sure, whatever."

Lance nodded, and they were silent for a few beats. But Lance soon followed Grant's gaze, and gasped childishly. While Grant raised an eyebrow, Lance pointed at the huge sign above them. "Hey, what's this about winning a Master Ball...?"

"Master- What?" Grant croaked, whipping his head toward the sign. A Master Ball... that's all Rocket technology! Did he steal it, or make an imitation, or... Grant shook his head of the last thought on the list.

"You're sure you trust this guy?" he asked.

"Yes! And all we have to do is dress up in a cute costume and win."

"Are you planning to do it?"

"Yeah!"

"Can I have the Master Ball?"

Lance blinked slowly. "Why would you want a Master Ball?"

Because I have to retrieve the stolen Rocket stuff, moron, he thought. "W-well... you know that legendary Pokemon they talked about? What use would a Champion have for it? I mean, you've said yourself the fangirls are everywhere, and, uh... if you had a Legendary too, you would never be able to sleep! And I'm just a normal... Trainer. No one would suspect it."

Lance cringed visibly at the thought. "Point taken," he said. "You can have the Master Ball."

Grant smiled. "Thanks, Lance."

"Do you think they would let in non-cute Pokemon too?" Lance pondered. "A Red Gyarados costume would be SO COOL!"

"I guess as long as it looks cute," Grant shrugged. "He would probably make a special exception for you anyway, seeing as you're Champion and everything."

[Cassie]

[/i] late![/b][/color]

Domino snapped, glaring irritably around the dock a second time in case she had missed them. As if it was even possible to miss Flint's afro. The thing was a giant beacon of... Afro. It was terrifying to see in the morning. Flint's bedhead was the stuff of nightmares. In fact, Domino was so terrified of this, she slept with a can of hair spray at her bedside lest the afro'd beast wake her up. Then she could tame it, well as much as it was humanly possible to tame such a thing. Once she'd considered shaving it off while he slept and selling it in the name of science but she hadn't yet. The fallout of a bald Flint... She shuddered at the thought.

"Chill out, sugarplum." [/color]

Domino raised her eyes and glared at the spanish woman stood beside her. Dahlia wasn't looking at her though, the womans blue eyes were scanning the crowd and now she was studying a salior with some interest. Domino rolled her eyes, and didn't challenge the nickname. Dahlia was the only person in the world who would get away with calling her sugarplum, and that was only because well... Dahlia was a good alibi to have and she could cook. Besides, the fronteir brain was helping her get onto the ship unrecognised, and unarrested as a normal citizen, just as the Boss wanted.

Domino took a deep, calming breath but it didn't really help all that much. She didn't feel calm, she felt very crowded and very exposed. And her brothers were late, which made her want to Parsley-shred them. Where was Wes when she needed him? Probabbly saving some Pokemon or something. For an ex-gang member, he was obsessivley do-gooder about Pokemon. Well, she still didn't like them and she still wouldn't let them on her sofa. EVER. She sighed in annoyance and Dahlia glanced down at her with some amusment.

"Chica, if you don't calm down you're going to start attracting attention. You look fine, this is going to be fine and as for the boys... Well, Flint's probabbly just deciding on how much of his Cynthia collection he's bringing and Volkner's supervising." [/color]

She was probabbly right. Flint was probabbly lamenting about luggage restrictions and mantaining his shrine. It was creepy, but she was used to it now. More used to it than she should be. Voice's carried over, and she glanced absently towards the source of the sound and was slightly suprised by the site. That was a Grunt. Wasn't it? Yes, she recognised that pipe, there was no doubt about it! One of her grunts, and he was standing with.... The Kanto Champion?! Domino's eyes narrowed as she took in the image. The grunt had better mug that dude pretty soon, or have a damn good explaintion about his fratenization with such a person. If he didn't.... Well, that meant that Domino would be drowning a dirty traitor soon enough. Fun stuffs.

Dahlia followed the blonde's gaze and arched a slim brow. She didn't see a connection between Domino and the two men, (unless she'd laid one of them?), but something had angered the little blonde. Dahlia considered letting her get angry, because it was fun watching angry Domino but then she remembered that she was meant to be keeping Sugarlum calm so decided now was the time to intervene. Becuase if looks could kill.... Vivid blue eyes glanced upon a garishly pink sign and she found the perfect distraction.

"Hey, sugarplum," [/color] here she paused and nudged the blonde teenager and Domino turned with a questioning look. "what you dressing up as?" [/color].

Domino looked at the sign and shuddered, while Dahlia giggled to herself.

"I'm already in costume." [/color]

She muttered, loud enough for Dahlia alone and guestured down to the white halter neck, faded denim mini-shorts and pink sandles she was wearing. It certainly didn't have any giant 'R's on the surface, so counted as a costume of sorts.

"What about you? Got a Psyduck costume or something? I know you love yellow..." [/color]

Dahlia rolled her eyes, but laughed rather than taking offense which was good.

"Please, I'm far too sexy for a costume." [/color]

Dahlia said smoothly, and the guy next to them nodded his head in agreeement, eyeing her form in a not so subtle movement. Domino shot him a nasty look and he turned away from their conversation hurridly.

"Pervert. Jeesh, I swear they all come out at the mention of a costume..."[/color]

She paled suddenly, and Dahlia frowned at her in concern. She looked terrified, and indeed she was. For Domino had just linked the thought of a certain afro'd pervert with a costume competition...

"Sugarplum? Dom, are you okay?" [/color]
"Dahlia... What if.... What if he brings it? What if he brings the growlithe costume?!"[/color]

Dahlia's eyes widened in horror, her own face loosing some colour. That was indeed a horrible thought, and she mentally flinched.

"Oh, Arcues, no.[/color]

She whispered the plea to the air in fevrent hope, and Domino closed her eyes and silenlty prayed along the same lines.

ooc: the failwhale turned up for the cruise too? -shot-
[/ul]

[Chuck]

The man jumped as he was frightened by a cold, damp, and odd feeling. He opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times before staring down at his clothing. He saw his clothes were drenched from the ocean water. Tracey had, obviously, fallen asleep at the wrong time and in the wrong spot. Tracey had only one concern on his mind; "Is my sketchbook wet?" The man looked around for for it. He needed it and had to make sure that it was alright. He feared that the book had gotten drenched like he had, but he wasn't going to just give up without even looking for it. After a couple of minutes of searching for pad, he spotted it in the hands of a small child. The child has a large black marker in his hand and Tracey was tempted to just shut his eyes and never open them. He had fallen asleep. This meant that he had no idea what had happened while he was in his deep slumber. When he saw the little kid with a giant marker and his sketchbook in hand, Tracey could only assume the worst.

Bringing himself to his feet, he slowly made his way over to youngster. When looked down to view his beloved sketchbook his eyes widened. Tracey was absolutely horrified with what he saw. On his precious sketches were large black markings. He was in complete shock and nearly fainted. He help a hand to his chest with his jaws still wide open. He tried to yell, scream, but nothing came out of his mouth. He was completely speechless. He wondered if he should start crying, but then he saw women; gorgeous women. Men don't cry and he wouldn't dare cry in front of such beauties. He straightened up and stared down at the little boy with such anger that he thought he might just explode right then and there.

"That is not a coloring book!"

[/color] his cries could be heard throughout the area. He leaned down and snatched the sketchbook right out of the young boy's hands.

"I have nothing else to say to you," [/color] he stated before walking away from him, sketchbook in hand, and started toward the docks.

The next thing he saw was a man with the most insane hair dew he had seen in a while. It was a brightly colored afro and it was a bit annoying to him. He simply ignored it and walked along the docks. He had forgotten about Marill, but he knew that the creature knew how to find him. Marill could hear very well. In a sense, the creature was good at listening to music. [/left]

[Banette]

"For the love of Mew, who in the right mind spawned this eyesore?.."

Hands shoved into the pockets of his coat, fiddling about and grasping at the assorted objects he had previously shoved in them, the man in the fedora sighed, finding himself faced from a distance with the gigantic, eye-bleeding monster. Such an unfortunate event that he couldn't find it in him to look away from it, rather, continued to stare in a somewhat dimwitted manner.

You're much too easily distracted, you know?..

Using all the willpower he could muster, fedora-man forced himself to jerk his head back to view the owner of the voice speaking in his mind. The Lucario didn't appear annoyed, rather, gazed at him with one eye half-lidded, the other open fully, arms folded calmly. This happened all too frequently for surprise.

Nevertheless, the man was proud of his newly gained ability to look away from the sparkly pink evil, and gave a small chuckle, smiling with slight relief. "I know, I know."

After the... slightly awkward... situation in Saffron, once he learned exactly he was, it came to Riley's attention that the city was in the center of four others, separated only by guard posts. Naturally, knowing Vermillion was a port town, somewhere he was quite comfortable being, he took the opportunity to take the brief hike south.

Lulu hadn't been too adamant about the idea, having wanted to see Rota first, which was in directly the opposite direction. Her trainer protested that it was a bit far, and that Rota wasn't going to run away on them any time soon. They would definitely see it later.
However, when she tried to protest that they had all the time in the world, and why exactly did he think Vermilion wasn't going to remain there long, she learned that he had frivolously bought tickets to a cruise behind her back. There he went again, looking at the poster, something about a contest on his mind.

Honestly, that man was impossible sometimes.

Removing a pokeball from his pocket, he balanced it between his fingertips briefly, appearing a bit distracted by the small round orb instead. He then clicked the button in the center and enlarged the capsule device before opening it in a flash of white light.

This quickly took the form of a feline-esque Pokemon with long white fur. The creature licked it's lips, entire body tensed and ready for battle. This lasted a moment before the realization that there was no enemy came into the Absol's head, and he sat, looking up at his trainer. Blade like tail twitching slightly, the dark type relaxed his muscles before giving a lazy smile.

"Sooooooool~"

Scratching the Absol lightly behind the blade-shaped bit sticking out of his head, the man grinned. "Good to see you're prepared whenever such occasions arise, Astero. Care to join me for some therapy? That poster raped my mind with its evils, and I sort of need some now."

At the mention of therapy, two things happened. The Absol, dubbed "Astero" immediately perked up to the point that you didn't need special abilities to sense the excitement and anticipation radiating off the Pokemon. "Ab! SOOOOOL!~" He cheered, orbiting Riley as he ran circles, barely able to control his own energy. Therapy always meant new stuff! It was great!
Lulu on the other hand flinched, knowing EXACTLY what 'therapy' was implied to be- an unstoppable hour of terror and pointless purchases staring her in the face. She remained frozen to the spot, frowning. Her trainer just laughed at their opposite reactions.

"Well, come on then, let's grab the nonbelievers and go."

All the Lucario could do was stare blankly to the heavens, mentally asking Arceus why as she was hoisted up by the man and his overzealous Pokemon and carried off towards the assorted shops and stands opened for the occasion of the S.S. Anne's coming voyage. Escape was futile- she had tried and failed several times before in the past.

((SILVER SHALL COME SOON.
And Riley fails to notice anyone because he is laaaaame. So very laaaame.))

[moddy!]

[/s] gracefully as he could. Alas, though, that would be much too rude! ...even though that never stopped him before, so why would it stop him now? That's right, it wouldn't! He'd push through that crowd and back if he had to, as long as he got to have his daily amount of rushing.

That amount being, that is, about all day.

Of course, he slept and stuff. He wasn't exactly crazy or anything, duh! He just didn't like to sleep. When you're sleeping you're slow and you can't run an-and... and... if he doesn't run, he could die! Even he was slow when he slept, although he would never admit that once in his pathetically incredibly fast life. It was weird, though. Why couldn't people run in their sleep? It'd be, like, sleep-walking... but only faster.

Aw, man, he could totally invent that! Now, what would he call it? Sleep-rushing..? Sleep-fasting..? Sleep-quicking..? He didn't know. All of those names sounded stupid. If there was one creative cell in his ever-so-fast body, he would be able to come up with a great name for it! Why couldn't he?! The thought almost made him sulk, but the fact that he had just noticed the large crowd around the area immediately stopped him from doing so.

He didn't want to act like an immature, whiny kid aka like damion around all these people, did he?! Certainly not! That would definitely ruin his reputation as 'manly-man-of-all-time-who-is-also-fast-at-the-same-time'! ...okay, maybe that reputation didn't exist yet. But it would one day, he swore it! One day, everyone would know him by that name! Along with his other name that's already known by. But the other name just wasn't as cool, obviously!

As he came nearer, he could begin to identify the other people's faces better. From what he could see, these people were, like, weirdos or something! Not that he really knew any of them, anyways.. Which was good, seeing as, that way, no one could slow him down, haha! ...well, of course, they could always ask him for directions or something... No! He wouldn't allow that to happen.

"Excuse me, Mister, but I--"

The girl was silenced as soon as he shot the glare over at her. "NO!!" He said this as fast as he had thought it, which might've been why he said such stupid things; he didn't take time to 'think before he talked'. P'shaw, who wanted to do that?! That was what slow people did!

Without hesitating, he continued on his way, ignoring the other person's complain. Seeing this, the girl shuffled away, sighing, so she could look for another person to speak to. He shrugged and continued rushing, not stopping when another person yelled at him, too, saying, "Hey!! Slow down, there are children here!"

Pfft, children. They were slow, too! He didn't really like them because of that, neither. Only one kid isn't slow, but it wasn't like he was going to admit who that was. No, that would be embarrassing, even if he only thought it. He would never admit that he was proud of that kid, even if it only was for a moment. it's ttly a certain blond boy that we all know and love~ ;D

His attention was drawn to a brunette and a rather attractive pretty cute suspicious blonde soon enough, though. At first, he couldn't quite recognize them. The only thing he knew was that they were IN HIS WAY!! ...and that they certainly needed to move, because he wasn't. He would never move for someone else. No, he was much too stubborn.

Still not realizing who the person was, he decided to tell them to move. "Hey ladies who's names I don't know whatsoever, scoot it!!" He shouted rather loudly. A lot more loudly than needed, in fact. But he was who he was, after all, and that person yelled particularly loudly and had a big voice.

Instead of stopping, though, he kept going. He wasn't going to move and them being in the way wasn't ever going to stop them. Now that he was even closer, only the brunette was in his way. She needed to move real quick or some lady was going to get ran over.

Wait.. what if she wasn't a lady? Hadn't the sign he had read before said 'dress up blahblahblah cuteee blahblahblah win blahblahblah balls?' He was sure that wasn't the whole thing, since he had only skimmed over it while reading. He didn't have time for reading. It was such a stupid thing!

But, anyways, this guy could be dressed up as a Milktank or something! They had, like, tons of boobs breasts chests, so the guy could've just as easily stuffed his shirt! He certainly wouldn't be surprised if he had; pfft, people these days!

But... Milktanks weren't brunette nor did they were yellow clothing. So, he pushed that thought away, and returned to his other thoughts. He didn't get to remember those thoughts long, though, because he was closing in on the two girls now. What was he supposed to do if they didn't move?!

...crash into them, of course. There was always that. He didn't mind if he did; he had crashed into plenty of people before and these girls were no exception. So that was plan B and he probably would just have to go with plan B.

Yep, plan B it is. He shrugged and went back to his other thoughts from earlier again. This would be over soon, anyways, so why bother thinking about? Sure, he might receive a few smacks to the face, but he was used to that. What, with Dahlia, Cynthia, Mrs. Palmer, and all those people... He could be immune to it by now.

Apparently, the two girls weren't going to move fast enough. How unfortunate. Just before he made contact with the brunette girl, though, an answer came to him. "Hey!! I got it! Sleep-running!" He thought aloud. It was the answer he had been wanting earlier, for the whole sleep-walking question.

There wasn't time to think about that, though. All he knew was that he was on top of someone now. Who had he landed on? Why, the brunette, of course. He hoped he didn't kill her; then he'd have to bury her body or something in the middle of nowhere. But, before that, he would have to go all kick-ass and knock out her other friend so she wouldn't be able to tell anyone it had happened.

He smirked at the thought, but then looked a bit confused as he glanced down to examine who he had landed on. Well, now she looked quite familiar. And, instead of getting mad like he usually would, his confused expression didn't seem to change. He was too busy with his sleep-running/kick-ass!self thoughts to become angry. Then he finally said something.

"Oh, hey, Dahlia! What were you doing in my way..?!"
[/ul]