Risky Opening Gambit

[Knight]

With the sky partially covered with white clouds but still letting the sun shine and the sea relatively calm, the voyage on the ferry was going perfectly well. As it was such a nice day Aristotle decided to go out on the deck for his reading rather than stay inside. Before he had left for the trip he had bought an instruction book for beginning trainers so that he wouldn’t be completely clueless on what he was getting himself into. He wanted to go somewhere new and not well documented, but he didn’t want to fall on his face while doing so. For about an hour he had been lying on a deck chair reading the chapter about how a trainer goes to a lab and receives a starter Pokémon. Now the guide was written for beginning trainers in Kanto and continued to refer to Professor Oak and how he operated. As far as he was concerned all labs must do the same procedures and offer the same Pokémon. Aristotle found the process interesting; especially how a professor would just gives people a Pokémon for no charge. He really wanted to keep reading and find out about the different kinds of starters. Too bad he had fallen asleep.

Aristotle had been reading for little less than an hour; he had been sleeping with the book on his face for about two hours. He didn’t seem that out of place on the deck as a lot of people were lounging about in similar fashions. It hadn’t been his intent to fall asleep when he did, just putting the book down so he could rest a few minutes without the sun glaring in his eyes. His habit of falling asleep kicked in as soon as he found himself in darkness from the book and with the warmth of the sun beaming down on his body. It was all very relaxing. In his head Aristotle was having a disconnected dream with images of Oak and Charmander and text floating past him. No one paid any attention to the guy napping and he would have probably missed getting off had the ships horn not been placed above his head. It was loud enough as it is and just worse when it went off seven feet about you head. Aristotle bolted straight up, his book falling into his lap with a thump. “Squirtle to E5!” he mumbled out from being startled by the loud horn. The ferry had already docked and been tied off, the horn just signally people to get off. People were bustling past him with luggage and bags making their way to the exits. Another person might have dashed to get his stuff and get off the ship in time, but Aristotle knew that would be a waste of energy. The ferry would stay docked for a good two hours before departing, leaving his to leisurely get up and head back to his cabin.

One of the last people to step off of the ferry Aristotle took his first step on Kairuu. He was traveling fairly light with all of his stuff fitting inside of a backpack, filled with clothes, toothbrush, and a few other items. Under his arm he had the beginners’ guide he had been snoozing under before and which he intended to continue reading as soon as possible. All he knew was the laboratory was nearby but he didn’t have a clue on its exact whereabouts. He had found out about the region in the footnotes of a book but had had trouble finding a book dedicated to the region. As such all he could do was get a few pieces and awkwardly put them together to get an idea of where he was. The best thing for him to do was to find someplace that might sell maps or a road sign of some sort. Walking through the crowd he encountered no problems, but Aristotle did notice the double takes he got at home. A few people here and there were glancing back a second time to make sure they had seen him as he did stick above the ground. No one kept looking after they saw it was only a taller than usually youth. Pausing briefly to look out over the crown, he managed to find his way off the dock area.

Aristotle had bounced around trying to find a place he could acquire the needed information on where the lab was. After a bit he finally found someone who gave him straight directions on how to get there that didn’t involve landmarks he didn’t know of. Once he found himself on route and away from the crowds of the docks and surrounding areas, Aristotle pulled the book out from under his arm. For a couple minutes he read the guide while he was walking; only paying enough attention to stay on the path and not trip on anything. After a while he started to take note of his surroundings and realized what a pleasant place it was and how it reminded him of the park back home. He closed the book with his thumb in it to keep his place and put is down by his side. Taking in a deep breath through his nose Aristotle felt invigorated from all the sweet smells and good weather. Even if he did stay indoors a lot it didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate getting out. His head was on a swivel as he looked down at his feet at the flowers and up in the trees at sun reflecting through the leaves. A grin came across his face being out here in a new place, a new adventure, new everything to make him feel alive. Aristotle looked to his side to tell his sister only to see she wasn’t there. He had grown so used to his walks with her in places like this that he had expected her to be there again. "Oh...right... "There was a pang in his chest as his blood chilled from realizing she wasn’t there and brought him down. Opening the book back up, he drowned out his surroundings and went back to reading.

Aristotle was just beginning to read the in dept information of the starters offered by Professor Oak when he found himself in front of the lab. He snapped the book shut in his hand and tucked it away in his backpack. There would be time to read it after he was done here. Hopefully he had read enough to be able to go through the process efficiently and without embarrassing himself. Brushing himself off he looked around to take in the place until he was brushing off his shoulder over and over. Stepping up to the door he could feel a tingling feeling in his feet at the anticipation. In his mind he knew he was ready, prepared with all the necessary knowledge; it was in his heart that he was having doubts. He’d never had to apply what he’d learned like this. It was always filling out a test or playing a chess game, nothing like this where he had to apply it to real life. Finally he just rapped on the door with his fist throwing all contemplation and planning out the window. “You came here to learn by doing,” he said to himself, “Need to stop over thinking and act.” Staring at the door he just hoped everything was like he had read in the book, that everything was the same protocol. That was his worst fear that they did things differently here, that he would be forced to think on his feet. When he thought on his feet Aristotle usually fell, and that’s a long ways to fall for him.

[[Shoe ♥]!]

"Arrgh!!!

[/color]"
"Hahaha! Yes! Finally! Got cha!"
"Oh, that simply wasn't fair, my dear Toni. I demand a rematch, you slippery rat.[/color]"
"Oooh, Jigsaw~ You promised, 'member?[/color]"
"Yeah, well... I didn't expect to lose! You cheated somehow - and I can prove it!"
"You lie, plant scum. You know just as well as I that I'm the winner this round. Let's ask good ol' Feud though, since you're unconvinced. Feud darling - did I cheat?[/color]"

Both Cradily and Raichu averted their gazes from the make-shift card table and over to their Garchomp companion (who seldom spoke). This had been a heated battle of wits, luck, and okay, maybe a card or two hidden behind Toni's paw. However the sole female had been cunning, slipping the aces so craftily behind the lightning-bolt tail, so it was doubtful that even the all observing Feud would notice such a move. She was confident, of course, but who wouldn't be? For the first time in months the peppy electric mouse had overcome her fear of getting caught and intentionally played to win. Ever since she had put a halt to her lying ways there hadn't been a game Toni could win, but now, back to her old habits, it seemed they faded hard.

Jigsaw, on the other hand, was much less than ecstatic. When the ditzy little creature had approached him with a pack of cards and a smile on her chubby cheeks, he knew he should have expected something. But nope - those easy wins of the last few months had rendered his usually sharp mind to nothing. The Cradily's mind wasn't sharp in the traditional sense - oh no. He just knew how to be at the right place at the right time. Like how he always managed to skip work, dropping the load on Toni (who had normally taken this with glee). Or how Jigsaw always got the most food, and whenever he did work, there was lavish praise. For people notice what doesn't happen often, the plant-like Pok?mon often thought back on, noticing how true the words were. Toni would never be appreciated - she did her job diligently and all the time. How could you reward something like that?

Though this was not good - not swell at all. That rascal had made him bet on the next trainer coming in. Meaning if Toni had won, Jigsaw had to take the next upstart. Though... if the Cradily had his usual outstanding victory, that Raichu owed him rare candies. It would have been a fair deal....

If only that damned rat hadn't pulled the wool over his eyes. Why hadn't he expected her to go back to her slippery nature? Feud would never speak against her (like he ever spoke at all, but still), but Jigsaw was an easy target. A 'no-good.' An 'attention-whore.' Or something like that. Sometimes Sniper would randomly rant them off, but it wasn't like the ancient wonder ever thought about it.

The moment they had been waiting for. Feud seemed ready for his verdict. You could have cut the tension with a butter knife....

A shake of the head.

Sch-wing![/color]
Fuck....[/color]

And now for the inevitable gloating...

"Aww, told you Jiggy! Now, how about our deal? Next trainer, right? Ooh... it's not a busy time of day, is it? Bummer. I'd love to see you handle one... first time in how long? Three months? Tut-tut. That should never be. Oh well - at least practice is practice, overall~[/color]"

Arceus... did his blood boil.

And of course, it got worse. In the midst of all her whoring, Toni stopped suddenly, twitching and ear towards the door. She was just kidding - right? There was no way the Cradily could ever handle anyone anymore. She said it herself - the Pok?mon was way out of practice. Anyway, she was just playing it up. Mocking him. Pretending there was a knock on the door, of all...
Oh shit.
That was it.

A rap on the door.

"Oooh! Speak of the devil - there's one now! Up and at 'em, Jiggy ol' boy! It's time to test you out again! Get a smile on~[/color]"

He could have spat.

Though it would have done no good, for the Raichu would have just rubbed it in his face again, of course. So it would probably just benefit him best to get this done quickly, and then maybe a nap. Then a rematch, of course. This time with the stake in his own favor, of course. So, with these thoughts in mind, the Cradily shuffled over the to door, and with a stubby leg, pulled the door open. He sighed, not even taking a glance at the trainer, and ranted off an old speech dully.

"Hello and welcome to the Pok?mon Laboratory. I'm Jigsaw and I'll be your host.... Do you want to be a trainer, breeder, or coordinator? I will get you your supplies momentarily.[/color]"

...He could just hear Toni laughing at him.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Knight]

When the door swung open Aristotle looked inside at his eye level, obviously not seeing anyone. It was quite rare he ever met someone he could look at eye-to-eye. As was normal for him he tilted his head down a few degrees so that he might see who was greeting him at the door. To his surprise there was no one there, unless the person was standing in a hole. All he could do was keep looking down until, hopefully, he would find a person’s face. Eventually he did focus on something and it was no wonder he hadn’t caught a glance of it at first. What had opened the door and was standing before him couldn’t have been more than five feet tall if even that.

As soon as he saw the Cradily his mind’s cogs started to whir about processing the information being presented to him. First off he had to realize that is was a Pokémon that was standing in front of him. It didn’t exactly fit inside his limited encyclopedia of Pokémon like Pidgey and Bulbasaur and looked like something not from this world. Tentacle like feet and a bizarre looking head, it was just bizarre. Of course if had to be a Pokémon, what else could it be. That was the easy part his mind went through; hearing it talk was what hit him. Before coming to Kairuu Aristotle had read small articles and papers about the region, many of which brought up a phenomenon regarding the Pokémon there. It had put forth before him simply enough that they were capable of human speech, but no one had explained how. This just hadn’t made sense to him how researchers could pronounce such a feat but not give an explanation to it. For this reason he thought there must have been some device or technology that originated in the region that allowed humans to communicate with Pokémon. It had never occurred to him that they could just…talk. One last thing confused him. “How is this thing talking?” he thought to himself, “I don’t see a mouth. I think…maybe? Whoever put this Pokémon together was on something... ” Aristotle couldn't exactly get a good look at the Pokémon from his angle and was left to ponder that. Scientific observation were not his forte, he needed someone to point to the mouth.

Besides the fact that a Pokémon with no mouth was talking to him, there was the fact that a Pokémon had greeted him at all. According to his guide a Professor of some kind was supposed to be running the lab and helping trainers choose their beginner. There was nothing wrong with this Aristotle supposed, it was just very peculiar. Here he was all set on how to get on with a professor and go through the motions of becoming a trainer. Now a Pokémon was going to be his host and was asking him what he wanted to be that. No problem their either, but he was intrigued what a breeder or coordinator did differently than a trainer. Just something he could read up on later.

All of these thoughts sort of happened at once just in a compressed form, like snapshots. All that really happened were a few simple thoughts. Pokémon. Host. Speech. No mouth. Bizarre. Luckily for him the Cradily had asked him the simple of question of whether he was to become a trainer or one of the other two options. Even if it was thinking on his feet, at least for Aristotle, his could handle it. “I’m here to become a Trainer.” After answering he wondered what the differences were with what you chose, or if they were really all the same at their core. As Aristotle stood there at the door he looked down at the Pokémon mulling something over. There wasn’t much of an expression on his face. Aristotle didn’t smile very often but he didn’t frown on anything either, his mouth set neutrally and not a mood. The only way you could tell that something was going on with him was with his eyes, which were slightly furrowed as he was thinking. You could tell that he was observing the Pokémon trying to figure something out. It would have been nice if he could talk to it at an even level, but he would have to kneel down; something that may be awkward for the both of them.

Wanting to get it out of the way he decided to ask the question. It was probably going to be taken as stupid by the Cradily but he just wanted verbal confirmation so he could know for sure. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are all Pokémon here capable of speech?” Why only a few of them could speak wouldn’t make sense but it was still a possibility he wanted to eliminate. If all Pokémon were in fact capable of communication it would make his journey a very unique and enjoyable experience. “Like being able to strategize with your own chess pieces,” he mused.

[[Shoe ♥]!]

The newbie was awfully direct with his answer, not taking any sort of 'oh, I dunno,' standpoint, and for that Jigsaw was grateful. The last thing the Pok?mon wanted to do was to be stuck listening to some jabber-mouth. The last kid the Cradily had attended to had been some kind of broken record. Going on and on and on with subjects that the ancient Pok?mon really couldn't care less about. He wasn't that boy's mother - why should he even bother to be respectful for that kind of silence on his own part. Dutifully letting some idiot's life story pass through his ears (of which Jigsaw ironically did not possess), wishing for something to bleed so he may have an excuse to pardon himself. No - if this kid was as blunt as he was making himself out to be, they'd get along swell for the few minutes they'd be together. Then Toni would be satisfied for once in her long life, and the Cradily could take a nap, or start that rematch of his.

Though that question did throw him off. So this kid was the kind of moron that didn't look into the place he was going to live before he landed? Ugh. How ignorant. The question was so basic, it was impossible not to mind. It didn't take a genius to find one of the professor's many works on how humans could understand pokespeech - that much was obvious. Though this man felt the need to come unprepared and disrupt poor impatient Jiggy's happy space. How inconsiderate. Though, he figured that he'd be better off telling him, lest he inflict Toni's tattling nature. That's just what the Pok?mon needed - his trainer unleashing a storm of bitch-fest over him.

"Yes," Jigsaw started, edging his way in, towards the door of the supplies closet, "All you humans can understand every kind of speech a Pok?mon will throw out at you. That is... unless the creature itself is a mute, and if you come across such a one, frankly - that's your problem.

[/color]" With that the Cradily shuffled off once more, dragging his stubby legs over the slippery tile floor. It was so cold. Normally he wouldn't have noticed, really, but he was pissy anyway - might as well think of more excuses for it.

Within minutes the Pok?mon was back in front of his temporary guest, the starter pack placed firmly in his vase. Without waiting for confirmation, he threw it on the floor using a toss of his head, and regained his apathetic position. Jigsaw didn't even wait to see if the trainer had picked up his things when he started up once again,

"There's your stuff. Now you probably want a Pok?mon, whoopee. We have several different types, four species of grass, water, fire, poison, ground, and fighting. In both genders, of course. We also have randomized selections, and then personalized randomized selections. Take your pick.[/color]"[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Knight]

{{Gah! Late posting and it sucks. Rafargle!}}

Aristotle couldn’t help but think he was picking up a bit of a condescending or miffed tone in the response to his question. It seemed like a perfectly valid question to him, someone who was new to the region and didn’t know much about it. The reason he chose Kairuu was because it was a relatively unknown region where he was from and he wanted to learn along the way. Reading everything beforehand sucked all the fun out an adventure. Not that he had come here without any knowledge to speak of, which would have been careless. God forbid if he had come here and it turned out they spoke in Latin or it was populated by an Amazonian race of women. The problem really was with where Aristotle had gotten his papers on the region. He got all the mainstream info he could care for from school and television. For this reason he preferred to frequent a small bookstore that carried the lesser known authors and publications. This was good since in the sense you could find that other view on topics that tend to be told in only one way. It was a double edge sword though as the info he got on Kairuu was a little lacking he had to admit. All he could find in the store were a handful of research reports and a single, very thin book. The mention of Pokémon being able to talk was relegated to a side note in half of them. Examining the authors later Aristotle would find out this was because half of them had never been to Kairuu. If he had the opportunity to redo it, he would surely buy a more professional and extensive writing on the region. For this reason he thought there had to be other people who came here in a similar situation. Not everyone read volumes about where they were going.

“Still,” Aristotle thought to himself, “the way he answered didn’t sound very pleasant.”

While he mentally pondered over the reading material in so as to not ask another stupid question, the Cradily had scurried out of the room. Aristotle tended to lose awareness of his surroundings if he were thinking about something unrelated to what was around him. So while he had been musing over his question and the tone of the answer, his host had quietly gone off. It was about thirty seconds afterwards that he glanced around and realized he was alone. Thinking it must be going off to get something he stood there waiting. At least he hoped it had gone off to get something. There was a twinge in his heart when he wondered if he was supposed to follow and hadn’t been paying enough attention to hear the command. When his host did come back Aristotle was relieved that he hadn’t made a blunder by staying put. As it waddled closer he could see it was holding something in its…mouth? Maybe that was its mouth after all. Initially he was glad that he understood how its face now, but then it tossed the object at his feet. That meant that it was giving him something it had carried in its mouth. Lovely. Aristotle took a step back as it slid across the floor out of reflex and looked down at the pack, hoping it wasn’t covered in saliva. It wasn’t. Figuring that it was intended for him, unless the Pokémon just liked throwing stuff at people, he leaned over and picked it up. Opening it up he saw a few items that looked useful; Pokéballs, a few potions, a notebook, even a fishing rod. It didn’t appear his host was going to bother to tell him what all of it was. Oh well, he would take a closer look later and find out what all of it was.

If he thought he had heard a hint of a patronizing tone before, Aristotle definitely heard one now. The Cradily was coming off as not really caring the way it had said ‘whoopee’ in a sarcastic tone. Then it just drummed off the list of Pokémon without pause.


“I should just get this over with before it gets worse.” He thought to himself, “Was hoping for a bit more of a warm reception, but doesn’t seem like I’ll be getting one.”

It didn’t seem like that was going to be able to get it over with quickly once the subject of starters did come up. As soon as the Cradily mentioned that there were multiple Pokémon and multiple types, Aristotle’s heart fell into his gut and his blood ran cold. He had planned it out and thought it out and taken so long to decide which of just three starters he would choose. Now he found out there were twenty four starters to choose from. If he left to decide which one to pick with that many choices on him own time, a decision would probably never be made. Coming here he thought that there would be the same choices at Professor Oak’s lab back in Kanto. In one of the essays he had read the writer had said, and he quoted, “The professor of the Kairuu region offers the same starters as in Kanto…” Based on that and what his host was saying now, he assumed that the lab offered the same starters as Kanto plus some other ones. Now all of his careful thinking was for not and he was going to be forced to rethink his choice, which was a slow process. He really didn’t want to stand there with his mouth hanging open so he tried to act on the situation. He had hoped to learn how to think on his feet once he got to some battling, but looked like he was getting an early start. For some reason one type stuck out and he ran with it.

“Could I see what Poison type Pokémon you have? ” Aristotle said with a bit of awkwardness in his voice.

He was sure that they probably did have the starter he had decided upon earlier, but he couldn't pass over an opportunity to see starters not offered back home. That was part of being a trainer and going on this journey, right? To see all the Pokémon you could and find the ones that connected with you. Hopefully asking to see one of the type groups was normal lest he just further frustrate his host. It’s not like his host had bothered to tell him to what the specific Pokémon were of the types. Then again, maybe that was something else he was supposed to know, like the speech topic. He just had to hope that things went smoother until he could get out of here.

“Just need to keep from doing anything else stupid.”