Not my cup'a tea

[Wintersoul]

The lab-a place where adventures, and friendships, have always started in the Jenta region. Generations have visitid this building to recieve their first pokemon, the first of many they'd befriend on their jeorney. What was there not to like about this wonderfull day, the day you first start off on an adventure of your own?

Plenty.

Pokemon- just a waste of effort. Sure, you could end up famous one day, but at what cost? Sleeping in a tent every night wasn't Kailee's idea of fun. Nor was battling. It was all so... unglamerous. You could never make a living off of the beasts. Of course, the girl would probably bet a million pyen she was the only one her age who thought as such- really, hod had people let themselves become so horribly caught up in this fad?- but, it wasn't as if she hadn't much of a choice.

Kailee stopped in front of what was supposedly the lab. It wasn't very special, was it? Since so many trainers came here to get a pokemon, the girl thought it would be a bit more... flashy. Apparently not.

Standing straight and tall, the fifteen-year old put on a confident expression, and knocked on the door.

[MorriganFearn]

"One moment! Haru, don't mess with the Bunsen burner!"

There was a crash just after, and a livid yell of: "MY PAPERS!"

<I'll just get the door then,> a hissing voice said, sounding slightly nervous.

A few moments later, the door opened to reveal a lab crowded with boxes, papers, and magazines. A few were heaped over a PC on onew desk in a corner, while a row of pokedexes was lined up on another table, situated about in the middle of the room, and on a cleaner patch of floor. On the walls a laminated starter chart was shown, along with a map of Jenta, a big red arrow pointing at the lab in the center, and the three main routes radiating out from it in brilliant green. Under these helpful visuals was a book case filled with pokeballs, each neatly labeled by species and type.

Over by the computer an old man was stamping out some smoldering bits of paper, a shut off Bunsen burner lying on its side near by. And ekans lay curled on a chair near him, and another was loser to the door, with a long wooden handle on a string in his mouth. The one with the handle waved the tip of his tail in greeting.

"Do come in," the old man told the young girl, looking a little red faced under the shock of white hair, and mustache. "I'm Professor Cherry."

[Wintersoul]

Kailee stepped back as the door swung open, her confident look gone since the cacophany of shouting and crashes. Now, her eyes scrutenized the cluttered lab, before wandering back to the professor as he introduced himself.

"Charmed... really."

Trying to remember her manner as best she could, she stepped carefully around the Ekans in front of her, as if pretending it wasn't there at all. But one couldn't help but notice how she tried her best to stay out of touching range. Snakes... disgusting... who can work with this thing wiggling around?

She did her best to ignore the smell of burnt paper as she entered the room. "I take it I'm in the right building... this is the lab? Where I get a... pokemon?" She hoped it wasn't. A place so messy, and with snakes as helpers, couldn't be a professional facility. But, by the look of the posters on the wall and the pokedexes on the table, this was undoubtebly the right place. Kailee's face fell.

[MorriganFearn]

"Oh yes," Professor Cherry told her, oblivious to disapproval. "I've been having some problems with extracting antidotes from Weepinbell poison spores, don't mind the little accident. That guilty guy on the door pull is Haru, and this young lady over here is Hana. Now that we've all met each other, you're here to become a trainer, is that right, young miss?"

<Well she forgot her girl scout uniform if she came to sell cookies,> Haru hissed sarcastically, letting go of the door.

"No cheek from you," the old professor told him seriously. "I haven't forgotten you nearly set the lab ablaze, poking your nose where it doesn't belong."

[Wintersoul]

"Yeah, yeah. Weepinbell poison," She repeated, her eyes now on Hana. Well, at least the professor seemed friendly... but he didn't mind the snake's preasence one bit. Kailee was beginning to get goosebumps. That's why she jumped slightly at Haru's sarcastic comment. Never having met an ekans before, the girl quickly decided they were the most disturbing of pokemon she met so far. She cleared her throat, and spoke again, ignoring the professor's scolding at his pokemon.

"Listen, I'd like to get through with this as quickly as possible. Places to be, you know..." She frowned, twiddling her thumbs behind her back. The girl glanced around the room nervously, when she caught sight of one of the large posters on the wall.

"Anyway, those are the starters, aren't they?" Kailee pointed directly to the poster, glancing over it. She was relieved to find that most of them were decent-looking, as pokemon went, apart from the monkey one labeled under 'fighting.' That, and a rather nasty-looking grey canine.

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[MorriganFearn]

"Oh yes,' Professor Cherry said. "At least for group one. You're not a native, are you? Because of the topography of Jenta, the levels of our wild pokemon vary quite drastically, and it's wouldn't be safe to go in certain directions without equally high leveled pokemon. So I give new trainers three starters, since our leagues have you carry 9 pokemon anyway.

"Each of the three starters is split by level, and you can choose the lowest level pokemon. The other two choices are selected for you based on type and whatever else our computer thinks is relevant. Each of the three levels are known as groups, and you have to have one pokemon per group at all times in your party. The other six pokemon, of course, are entirely up to your own choice," he told her.

<Just imagine,> Hana said wickedly, noticing the girl seemed uncomfortable <you could get a seviper, or an arbok to be your group two or three pokemon.>

"Hana, be nice," Professor Cherry said. "So, do you have any questions, or preferences about your starter?"

[Wintersoul]

Kailee listened attentavely, having only glanced over the booklet on Jenta she'd read on the trip over. She'd seen the word 'group' once or twice, not knowing what it meant. Eventually she grew bored, however, and perhaps took a nap.

Again, she couldn't help but jump when the snake next to her began to speak, and a small "Eep," escaped from her mouth. The idea of it... a seviper, even an arbok... she quickly pushed that thought out of her head and took a quick moment to regain her breath.

"Yes, I believe I can figure it out," she replied, her voice wavering and about an octive higher. She sauntered over to the poster.

One caught her eye- the picture of the ekans, right under poison, along with a zubat. The picture was an exact replica of Hana and Haru. She shuddered.

After scanning over the assorted pokemon- regecting the ugly and mean looking ones, or those that were just plain weird,- the girl found herself still with quite a few options. The only group that still stood with all for pokemon in consideration was the normal type. Of those, she decided it wouldn't really matter which she picked. So she took a random shot at it.

"I'll take this one," She exclaimed, her finger on the second of the list. The long-tailed sentret.

Kailee then turned back, her eyes on the professor. "As for the other two groups, I couldn't care less. Well, as long as they're not the poison type, anyway." She concluded. It was obvoius that she was talking about one small group in particular.

[/center]

[MorriganFearn]

"It's okay," Professor Cherry replied, "since you went with a normal type there isn't a high likelihood of you getting a poison type in your group two and three starters, because the computer is programed to consider type triangles if at all possible. While normal types aren't easy to triangle, poison isn't one of those types that has any weakness or resistance. You'll probably get a fighting or a ghost type, though, knowing the program."

He went over to the desk computer and typed in the starter choice and pressed enter. "In the meantime, could you pick out a pokedex and register yourself with the league? It will just ask you your name and age, and favorite pokemon -- basic things like that. We have red, blue, black, pink, yellow, green, and deep crimson as color choices... Oh, I say... Well, I suppose it can't be helped. The computer already has sent a request to the league and the pokeballs should be arriving any minute, now. How good are you with, ah, how do I put this? Difficult pokemon? You were given an eevee by the computer, but there hasn't been a stable eevee availiable in Jenta since, well, I began my research internship here. That's all in days long past, you understand," Professor Cherry said hurriedly, before heading to a back room which clearly contained a transporter, as well as a large assortment of items jumbled together.

((He'll come back with your pokemon. Eevee (group 2) and Zangoose (group 3) And just so you know, you're in the fat now, seeing as eevee are, ah, rather deranged in Jenta, for plot related reasons.))

[Wintersoul]

((Ah, that's okay. I think I understand why... I've seen so many sites with a huge eevee population... you wouldn't want that happening here. ^^))

As soon as Professor Cherry explained the program, the girl felt much more content. There was no chance of her getting a snake now... that was a relief. She fought the urge to smirk at either of the two ekans.

As he began typing things into the computer and talking about who-knew what, as the new trainer was barely listening anyway, she picked out a pokedex- the black one. It seemed to be the least colorfull, and she was fine with that. The shiny plastic casing reflected the lights from the ceiling, and she flipped it open. Once she did, she was greeted by a blank screen. Untill she pointed it at Hana, still in her chair. Immidiatly the screen flickered to life, the same picture of ekans as on the poster was now on the pokedex's upper screen. A low, feminine voice recited some information about the pokemon, before shutting off again.

With a curious, "Huh," Kailee turned back to the professor. It was about now he said to words that caught her attention once more. "Difficult pokemon."

She snapped to attention, but all she heard in the old man's rushed speech was about eevee's unstability in the Jenta region, before he ran off to the back room. Once again, Kailee found herself uneased. A snake pokemon was one thing... but a crazy one was another. Even a cute one. What did he mean by difficult? Oh, why was she ever sent to this stupid region in the first place? Stupid pokemon. Smelly, evil jeorney.

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[MorriganFearn]

((That, and a lot of the people who wanted eevee couldn't RP for beans, and promised they wouldn't if their only choice was a crazed eevee. So yeah, *cough* you'll find some odd things in Jenta's dragon population, too.))

The professor exited the back room after some muffled bangings, and handed Kaliee a simple brown bag with a shoulder strap which carried all the equipment of a starter pack. "There you go, dear. And now," he grabbed the sentret's minimized pokeball from the shelf, and held it out along with the other two in his palm. All three pokeballs bore the many pointed star of the normal type etched in their tops, "here are your starters. With your sentret you could travel along the Creekside Walk, that's the little route through the forest over here," he waved his hand at the map. "It leads to Sapphire City, and Arisa's ice gym. I should warn you, not a lot of trainers are familiar with battling ice types, and she has sent more than a few back to the route to train.

"With this eevee, if you're confident in your pokemon handling skills, mind, you could go along the Plainwood Cliffs in the other direction and head for Florak, and Botan's grass type gym. For some reason the police put up a road bloack just before the city those. Something about thieves with psychic pokemon. Still, you should be safe.

"Finally, you can take your zangoose, and head north, into our mountains, and the mining town of Nga. Bahti, the gym leader there uses steel types, but on the other hand, a lot of fire types can be found in Sunstone Tunnel. And a lot of other types as well. There have been several reports of mutations in the Group Three area, now that I think about it.

"As far as extra training, I should warn you to be on the look out for an old mansion that just appears in Trainer's paths. It doesn't seem to be quite in sync with time and space, for reasons passing understanding. Still, it makes a good training spot. You just might think that your in two places at once for a little while. The same goes for the Sankaku Grasslands. But that has to do with the abras who teleport you there. They like to time the return trip so you come back no sooner than you left. And the Underground Maze is just weird. But harmless, as far as we know. All do have plenty of wild pokemon. And don't go to Outer Island. It's been abandoned for decades, and isn't safe for people."

~ ~ ~ Starter Stuff ~ ~ ~

One Group 1 Sentret
Gender: Male
Level: 5
Attacks: Scratch, Defense Curl, Foresight
Special Ability: Keen Eye
Personality: This sentret is flirtatious with anyone in his egg group. And he plays at being flirtatious with those outside of his egg group. Mainly just for fun, since he's an easy-going guy. He wants to live to see middle age and settle down and have a nice family, someday, but for now he'll have fun, and relax. He's not too concerned about life, y'know?

One Group 2 Eevee
Gender: Male
Level: 25
Moves: Tackle, Sand Attack, Tail Whip, Quick Attack
Ability: Adaptability
Personality: He hears voices in his head. And he obeys. Some days he thinks he is an espeon, other days, the voices are so dark, he's an umbreon. Either way, he's not likely to obey even the simplest of commands, unless a majority of his eight little friends agree with you. Don't say anything bad about the eight little friends. They're watching you. He's watching you. Just in case something bad happens to you.

One Group 3 Zangoose
Gender: Female
Level: 45
Moves: Crush Claw, Slash, Fury Cutter, Swords Dance, Quick Attack
Ability: Immunity
Personality: She's probably the most training oriented member of the crew. She wants to be strong, because strength is honor. Battling preserves honor, and increases it in the right circumstances. She's disgusted by those who do not share her ideological beliefs, but she will fight, and fight well -- if she doesn't always listen to her trainer. She got quite a bit of stubbornness to overcome before becoming a good partner pokemon.

5000 Pyen
A bag of assorted berries (for the road, magically always has what you need in it -- but it would be nice if you occasionally posted that you found a berry here and there.)
Five empty Pokeballs
One Pokedex (black)

[Wintersoul]

Still not entirely paying attention to the old man, she accepted the bag, and reluctantly, the pokeballs. The symbols on the top didn't exactly help at all, they were all the same. Kailee wondered which one was the supposedly insane eevee? She tried not to think about that pokemon in particular.

Instead, she focused on making sure everything was safely tucked away in the bag. After staring at the thee spheres in her hand a moment longer, she pocketed them as well.

Finally, she turned bacck to the professor, and said- "Well, if that's it, I guess I'll be leaving. Thanks." Inwardly, she grimaced. She did her best not to sound sarcastic. But what she really wanted to say was something along the lines of, "Thanks for ruining my entire life. I really do appriciate it. Oh, and my parents do, too."

She spun on her feet, taking a wide birth round Hana's chair and watching to make sure she didn't step too close to Haru, wherever the thing had slithered off to.

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[MorriganFearn]

"Good bye," the professor waved.

((And I shall expect you on a route of your choice pretty soon ^^))