Lee had enough money to purchase a rowlet as his starter. Using his aura had helped him save up enough money to get the pokemon he wanted. The only thing left was the choice. He looked at the pair of rowlets that had been brought over for him to choose from. One of them blinked up at him calmly, while the other chirped happily under his gaze and puffed up for his attention.
[ ]Pick the cheerful energetic rowlet
-[ ]What's his name?
[ ]Pick the calm rowlet
-[ ]What's his name?
Lee had his pokemon now. Now to get out of Fallarbor and leave it behind as fast as possible.
[ ]Head south to Meteor Falls
[ ]Head east towards the desert
Not everyone went on a 'traditional' Pokemon journey. True, more did than didn't as a kind of right of passage. Most of those who did came back home before long, having experienced the world beyond, but happy to come back home and return to the comfort of the known, returning to a life not unlike that which they would have had if they'd never left at all, but still wiser, with a greater appreciation for the world, and with some real-world experience to make them a more well-rounded human being.
Lee Hinsu had known from an early age that following in his parent's footsteps was not for him. He understood how the farm worked, to be sure. If he really wanted, he could probably cut it as a farmer himself with what he already knew. Or even something in a field not far removed, if he wasn't inclined to leave the business entirely but still wanted something different for himself. He'd certainly shown an aptitude for machinery, at any rate.
To his parents credit, they'd recognized that. Even aside that they didn't have fears that they'd be left without someone to carry on the farm for them, or that they thought that maybe Lee would come back to the farm sooner rather than later same as his siblings - his brother had been gone a year before returning home, his sisters' journeys had each lasted six months before returning him. But they'd understood that while Lee could make the farm life work, it just didn't click naturally for him, it was unlikely that he every would have been truly happy with it.
Then had come his disappearance, and everything had changed.
His parents had never truly gotten over that nightmare, the fear that Lee had been lost for good, those sleepless nights that they might never see him again. Even years later, those fears hung over them like a dark cloud. The fear that if Lee left again like that, they might never hear from him again.
It was that as much as anything that drove Lee now. It wasn't just because he'd missed out on the same opportunity as his brother or his sisters, that he'd been denied the opportunity that he should have gotten years ago. It was to prove them wrong, that setting out from home didn't mean Lee faced certain doom. To put an end to those nightmares that had followed him and his entire family since.
To prove not just his parents wrong, that their fears had been for nothing, but to prove wrong the small voices in his head that questioned if maybe his parents were right.
To prove to everyone that those fears could finally be put to rest.
[X] Pick the cheerful energetic rowlet
-[X] Archer
Confronted with a pick between two possible Pokemon, Lee Hinsu saw a mirror in the kind of journey he meant to set out on. One was ready to go, ready to prove something. The other seemed, well, less so. If he was going to do this right, he didn't need a Pokemon that was going to speak to the voices telling him that he was wrong, to take it slow, to be cautious. He needed a Pokemon that was going to push him forward and encourage him to prove the world wrong.
"You look ready to take on the world." Lee said as he picked up the energetic bird.
While he was no Pokemon expert, he did know a thing or two. Enough to get by, enough to do his research. Considering his new Pokemon's name, he looked to the future and what the Rowlet would one day become. So he settled on something simple but descriptive. One day, the Rowlet would become a bird that centered around a theme of the bow and arrow. An archery bird.
And so 'Archer' it was.
[X] Head east towards the desert
Lee also was fairly familiar with the general layout of Hoenn. He'd certainly studied maps of the island enough. It didn't even take much studying to know that there was far more land to the east than there was to the south. If he was trying to put distance between himself and the place that had kept him confined for far too long, going in the direction where there was more ground to cover seemed the obvious option.
So with Archer riding on his shoulder, Lee Hinsu went east.
