... Nature calling, literally.

[Yuri]

Hitomi felt her knees give away, her whole body quivering amongst the pressure her mind was applying on her. She was away from Rosera now for the first time in her life. She was all alone, and about to embark in her own journey. Not to mention she was tired and wanted to use a bathroom so bad. She had taken a ferry, and it had taken approximately 15 hours, 24 minutes, and 40 seconds to get here. She didn't want to use the little girl's room in the ferry since it was smelly and crowded with older, bigger, mean-looking women. Well okay, so she did get in line to use it..

Actually, she was shoved aside by one impatient woman wanting to use the toilet. And then Hitomi went demonic kitten on her for cutting in the line that Hitomi stood for like an hour for. Soon after that everyone in the ferry started talking about the 'psychotic blue-haired girl that beat up the poor woman', and she had locked herself in her tiny cabin until it was time to go.

Hitomi really wanted to use the bathroom.

The blue-haired girl weakly made her way to the laboratory's entrance. "This is it, then.." the girl smiled to herself thankfully, scanning the white building upside-down. Her face looking really tired and beaten up, strands of her hair sticking out in all directions. She had made it this far. She didn't think it was possible, all alone too.

-- Oh god, she so wanted to use the bathroom. Like, now.

The fourteen year old slammed her fist against the door.

"Open, open.. Hurry!"

[MorriganFearn]

"Coming," someone called. A squeaky chair protested at wheeling back, and then the door was opened.

The door opener appeared to be an old man with wild white hair, and the lab behind him seemed to be as wildly disorganized as his hair. The floor looked like one giant book case with all the binders, books and magazines stacked upon it. The bookcases were taken up by pokeballs, underneath a large poster of pokemon on the wall. There were a lot of open spaces, fun paths between the books, although some were only thick enough for an arm, and twisted in weird ways. This made some sense once one took in the later terrarium in the corner, where two ekans drowsed under a heat lamp.

A table in the middle of the room held pokedexes, and along the back wall a long desk had a chair rolled slightly away from it. There was a computer where the chair must have been facing when it was pulled up to the desk. Past that were two doors, leading to deeper recesses of the lab.

"Hello, I'm Professor Cherry-- are you being chased by something?" the Professor asked affably.

[Yuri]

The girl tried to give the politest smile possible in her situation, it was the person who was suppose to give her first pokemon afterall. Her smile ended up looking like a scary, psychotic sneer -- like a serial killer that was out to murder someone.

"Ahh~ good morning, sir.. My name is Matsumoto Hitomi. I'm here for my first pokemon, all the way from Rosera," the blue-girl aburptly bowed respectfully. "I, um, if it wouldn't be too much trouble may I use your bathroom, please? Like, now?" Hitomi felt her cheeks burn, her forehead sweating.

[MorriganFearn]

"Oh, certainly," the professor replied. "Just through the door on your left, and up the stairs. I'll be right here when you get back."

[Yuri]

"Thank you!"

The fourteen year old jolted towards the stairs faster than you could utter "pikachu" out of your mouth.

<><><><>

Hitomi happily skipped down the stairs humming, feeling so relieved and comfortable now. Bless the professor, she thought. He seemed like a nice person. The girl had also taken the liberty to take a hair brush out of her backpack, that looked more like a tiny schoolbag, and combed her hair to a much better-looking condition.

Not only her hair but Hitomi fixed her overall appearance so she could atleast present herself well infront of the professor, and seem confident, and impressive. And some more nice things a trainer needs to be. Which of course, she wasn't. Atleast that's what her low self-esteem told her.

As she entered the laboratoy again, she could feel the nervousness sinking in her stomach again. She was much better back in the bathroom. Oh god, what if she messes up her only chance of a pokemon journey. What is the professor asks her some random pokemon-related questions and she wouldn't know them, and then he would disapprove of her and she would get kicked out of this region immediately!? What if he's actually a psycho-professor and decides to throw random experimented pokemon on her and she'd die right here, never able to meet her parents ever again!? What if, what if.. the professor! Hitomi inwardly gasped. What if he only acted nice, but was actually a pedophile when no one was looking!? Was he going to abuse her? Should she be scared!?


Hitomi shook her head furiously. No! she wasn't going to let her brain think weird thoughts. She had to snap out of it.

The newbie went over to the professor and bowed again, a soft crimson tint appearing on both her cheeks, her long blue pigtails almost touching the ground, "t-thank you for letting me use your bathroom, sir!"

[MorriganFearn]

((Well, after the pedophile remark, I just I'm not going to worry about if I made the Fantasy RPG "all-ages friendly" enough, or not ... And I do apologize how long it's taking to get me to put it up. After I started the main posts with all the varying characters, I decided to add in a time line of recent history, because it started to get confusing.))

"No problem," the professor was back in his chair, clicking through a news website. The headline read: "Shocking Theft and Pokenapping in Broad Daylight!" However, he minimized the browser and rose.

"Well, Miss Hitomi, we have a chart on the wall, describing all of our starters. Or do you already have a fairly good idea of what you want? When it comes to Group One starters, I do have a wide selection of personality. Gender, too, in case you're aspiring to become a breeder. But the league picks out the other two starters and sends them to me. They try to choose wisely, but sometimes there are only a certain number of pokemon available to them when a new trainer comes. Do you understand?"

[Yuri]

[Ohh, I was wondering what happened to it. It's okay, the more time spent on it the more amazing it'll turn out to be.]

"I think so, yeah," Hitomi mumbled shyly as the professor got up and briefly explained her about the starters. Her father had already printed her a copy of all the information she was going to need from Professor Cherry's website about his new trainers program and the starters and whatnot.

Throughout her time in the ferry, after she had locked herself in her cabin, she had got out the list of pokemon available in the Jenta lab and kept debating with herself about which pokemon she would ask for. She'd scratch off the ones she didn't want with a thick black marker. The mankey was the first to be scratched off the list. No fighting types for her.

The ones that made it to her semi-final list were caterpie, bulbasaur, pichu, pachirisu, and mudkip.

After much thinking, balancing pros and cons, and adding the cuteness factor in it all for two hours straight, she had finally decided on the starter Hitomi wanted.

"I would like a pachirisu please, if that would be okay," the blue-haired girl smiled confidently at the elderly man.

[MorriganFearn]

"Not a problem at all," Professor Cherry beamed. "No one has picked a pachirisu for ages. They all get a bit forlorn. Very friendly pokemon, but they get sad when no one is interested in them. Feel as though they've been rejected, you know. Do you have a particular personality or gender preference? I could always release a couple for you to get to know, if you like."

[Yuri]

[By the way, don't see Hana or Haru. ]

Hitomi cocked her head to the side as she heard about the pachirisu not being that popular of a starter choice, and feeling lonely because of it. That means she picked the right pokemon to begin with! Hopefully, by choosing one of the pachirisu it'll cheer the rest up since they'll know people out there still want them.

The blue-haired girl nodded her head at the professor's later suggestion. She wasn't really biased about what sex she wanted for her starter, and personalities is something no one can control. She'd often take herself as an example when it came to judging people and pokemon by their personalities. "Yeah, I think I'd like to meet some and then decide."

[MorriganFearn]

((They are asleep in the terrarium as you came in ^^. They don't always greet the trainers. Sometimes a reptile just has to digest food, instead.))

"All right," Professor Cherry went to a shelf, and took down three pokeballs. Tapping the capture buttons in turn, white beams of energy slowly coalesced into three pachirisu, who jumped up and down, looking around excitedly, little white noses sniffing the air.

<Hoo boy! Early lunch!> A large pachirisu looked about hopefully.

<Is it lunch time?> another, skinnier squirrel asked, looking around with a considering expression on his face.

The final elecsquirrel caught sight of Hitomi, and grinned. He suddenly raced up her body, twirling around it as if she was a tree, until he was on her shoulder, where he gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and looked up at her with large, soulful eyes. <Are you planning to be a trainer? Pleeeeeease take me with you.>

<Hey, no fair!> the skinniest electric type complained, coming over, shaking his fists.

<Nyeh-nyeh,> the ambitious little trouble maker stuck out his tongue at his smaller comerade.

<Oh please,> the female squirrel replied, <let's not fight. There isn't even food out to give us energy.>

[Yuri]

Hitomi felt herself turning red as she felt the electric squirrel give her a small kiss on the cheek, the blue haired girl giggled. Inwardly aw-ing at the skinny picharisu who was shaking his fist at the first one. And the third one, a famle seemed to like food quite a bit.

All three Picharisu were equally adorable, she thought. Maybe she should ask them a question to get to know them more. The young girl placed her finger on her lower lip in thought, "um,.. how about you tell me your names? Do you guys have names? What do you all like to do?"

[MorriganFearn]

<Well,> the female said, settling on the floor boards comfortably. The smallest pachirisu was still scolding the boy on Hitomi's shoulder, who had started pulling faces. His voice was chattering along so quickly, though, that it wasn't quite clear what he said. <We technically try not to use our names when trainers are about. They usually want to use them, you see, ever after. It's easier to connect with trainers when you know that they care enough to give you a new name. Lots of pokemon have their "wild" names, and then "trainer" names. Depending on the pokemon, it's usually considered quite an honor, and we prefer to use our trainer names.

<Anyway, I suppose I could tell you variants on our names, so you don't get them completely stuck in your head. I would be Summer Calm -- maybe Lazy's a bit better,> she laughed, completely unrepentant. <Anyway, that sort of nice hot feeling in high summer when you don't want to do anything. And that little guy,> she flicked her tail at the scolding pachirisu <was Forever Seeking -- or maybe you could say Searching for Nuts. He's wanted to be called something like Science! since coming here. He's very interested in everything -- everyone's worried that one day he'll try to figure out how noctowl hypnotize others without thinking that a noctowl would be happy to eat him. And that charmer on your shoulder we call Trouble. Science!, Science! darling, be quiet for a moment. The nice girl wants to know what you like to do.>

<Oh!> the white pokemon slowed down his speech, breathing hard. <I guess when we're not out back, playing with the other group ones, I like to talk to the ekans. Very nice fellows. And they know so much! Did you know that Hana's mother worked with Professor Cherry in the seventies! There has been a looong tradition of snakes helping scientists in Jenta.>

<Yeah, yeah,> Trouble rolled his bright eyes. <And one day you hope to walk in a persian's mouth to examine the teeth. Sorry, pretty lady, I get impatient with him. He's always zooming around looking for weird information. I mostly spend my time hoping someone will take me out of here.>

<Is this before or after you unscrew caps on the salt and pepper shakers?> Science questioned sharply, not believing the story of the lonely, depressed little pachrisu for an instant.

<Guys, please. Fighting isn't worth it,> the female told the other two calmly. She flicked her tail and resettled it around her. <I suppose you could say my hobby is keeping these two from trying to dunk each other in the nearest lake.>

[Yuri]

Hitomi laughed at everyone's introductions. She just couldn't get over with how cute all three white squirrels were. She wanted to take all three of them and turn her dad's fighting gym into a pachirisu gym, but she knew that was just her wild imagination going about -- she only had to choose one out of the three pachirisu presented to her.

The Japanese girl found it interesting that every pokemon had a wild name and a trainer name, she wondered what wild names her father's pokemon had briefly before turning back her attention to one of her possible starters.

Hitomi gently carried the pachirisu known as Trouble away from her shoulder and placed him on the surface. Now all three pachirisu were on the ground, blinking at her. The blue-haired girl gave a nervous smile, her fingers fidgeting as she thought about which pachirisu stood out the most to her. She paced back-and-forth until she had come to her conclusion.

The fourteen year old cleared her throat as she looked down at the electric pokemon, "now, I want you all to know that all of you are special in your own unique way. And the two of you who get left behind in this laboratory shouldn't feel bad since I'm not really a normal of a person.. I have a bad person inside of me that comes out when I'm angry or upset, so I can't guarantee that I'd make the one I choose happy at all -- but I can guarantee that I'd try my best to," she spoke with a small smile. She didn't know how to explain her split personality to the pokemon, but it wouldn't be fair to her starter if it didn't know about her.

She stepped closer to the pachirisu that were facing her. Hitomi laughed and picked the skinny one that was known as Science and brought him close to her face. "I choose you, if you want to come with me that is.."

[MorriganFearn]

"All right then," Professor Cherry looked up from the computer as he heard her make her choice. "I've run your choice through the computer, and the league has given you an Electric - Water - Ground triangle -- although you'll need a moon stone to make the ground part work. It won't be but a moment for me to get you your starter pack. You should choose a pokedex while you wait for me."

He waved at the front desk. It held eight different pokedexes in varying colors, although the scanning orbs in the center were all shiny black. White, red, blue, green, purple, yellow, pink, and flaming orange casings really helped to light up the table.

Professor Cherry bustled into the back, leaving Hitomi to get used to her first pokemon.

((Stats!

Pachirisu
Name: ? ? ?
Gender: Male
Level: 5
Moves: Growl, Bide, Quick Attack
Ability: Pick Up - Possible to find items on the ground while traveling
Personality: This pokemon is very curious, and he'll investigate anything that looks as if it might be interesting. He's one of those people who asks life's persistent questions. Unfortunately, the answers might lead to trouble. Still, he's very smart (he does have a very weird grab-bag of trivia stored away), and more importantly, he's fast enough to outrun most of what he gets into. Of course, all his running about does mean that he eats his weight in food when it's available, and he can get tired if he runs around too long on empty.

[Yuri]

Hitomi nodded at Professor Cherry and went over and picked the flaming orange pokedex from the desk, bright and colorful -- it just seemed like a happy pokedex. As she walked back to her newly acquired starter, she wondered at the back of her mind if the professor was teased as a child to have Cheery as his last name and all.

She smiled at her pachirisu and clicked her pokedex open, the small device's screen lit up and a pachirisu's picture came up. A soft monotonous female voice said, "Pacahirisu. It makes electricity with pouches in its cheeks and shoots charges from its tail. It lives atop trees."

Hitomi stared at the device in awe and turned her attention to her starter, "cool isn't, pachirisu? -- oh, I think I should give you a name now," the girl said placing her finger on top of her lower-lip in thought. "How does Wiki sound? Since you're really smart and informative about stuff?"

[MorriganFearn]

((Jo0 has the awesome powers of control over Wiki!))

Professor Cherry arrived back from the room on the right, cutting off the electric types answer. The other pachirisu were playing a game of tag around the table leg, and he nearly tripped over them. "Please! I'm holding delicate items, here. Could you play in an area that is less dangerous for me?" he asked, placing the bag down on the table.

"All right, you have your pokedex, and here are your starters," he told Hitomi, handing her first a pokeball with a water droplet and diamond etched in the red steel, each representing the water and ice type. The second pokeball was etched with a rounded circle and crossed bones underneath. If Hitomi was familiar with koffing, she would remember this symbol and understand that it meant she had a poison type.

"And here is your starter pack. 5000 pyen, 5 pokeballs, a berry bag -- don't forget to pick more when you run low -- and your pokedex, of course."

Starter Pack

5000 pyen
5 pokeballs
1 Berry Bag
1 Flaming Orange Pokedex
3 pokemon

Stats for pokemon:

Pachirisu
Name: ? ? ?
Gender: Male
Level: 5
Moves: Growl, Bide, Quick Attack
Ability: Pick Up - Possible to find items on the ground while traveling
Personality: This pokemon is very curious, and he'll investigate anything that looks as if it might be interesting. He's one of those people who asks life's persistent questions. Unfortunately, the answers might lead to trouble. Still, he's very smart (he does have a very weird grab-bag of trivia stored away), and more importantly, he's fast enough to outrun most of what he gets into. Of course, all his running about does mean that he eats his weight in food when it's available, and he can get tired if he runs around too long on empty.

Spheal
Name: ? ? ?
Gender: Male
Level: 25
Moves: Defense Curl, Body Slam, Ice Ball, Water Gun
Ability: Thick Fat - Protection from hot and cold attacks
Personality: He's gonna grow up into a walrein. Yup! Uh huh! Mightiest sea creature in the world! Oh yeah! And he'll know blizzard, which is cool! He can be a little immature, because he's so excited about everything. But he's a nice pokemon willing to roll with whatever comes at him.

Nidoran
Name: ? ? ?
Gender: Female
Level: 45
Moves: Double Kick, Crunch, Poison Fang, Captivate
Ability: Poison Point - if hit by a direct attack has a 30% chance of poisoning the target.
Personality: She's a bit miffed that she hasn't been allowed to evolve for 29 levels. She's ready to be a nidorina, and the league wouldn't let her. Meanie pants. On the upside this means that she's eager to train with Hitomi, on the downside, she won't trust the trainer for whose benefit her evolution was delayed.

[Yuri]

[Yuhz!]

<Hmm, Wiki is alright. It has a nice ring to it, I suppose.>

Hitomi accepted all the supplies that were given to, including the other two pokeballs, and she carefully placed them in her fun little backpack, "thank you so much for this opportunity! I don't know how to express my gratitude.. thank you very much, sir!" the blue-haired girl said once again bowing.

And with that, the girl headed off with her pachirisu to start her very own journey, waving at the professor as she left to thank him again for the trainier's program.

And for letting her use his toilet.