Dual Pokemon Quest

[Blacksheep]

The day of the contest arrived. Jasper and Kai had eagerly taken a seat among the relatively small audience mostly made up of friends and family of the competitors along with people happy to see a free contest even at the amateur level. The announcer welcomed everyone, and explained that this was a contest focused on the beauty and wonder of pokemon and their abilities, not their battles. The performances would be topped out at two minutes, and the general rules were laid out: no items that had effects on pokemon, but clothing accessories were acceptable, one must stick to the theme, and only a single pokemon from each trainer.

Kate had drawn the straw to start the contest, and stepped out onto stage with Aqua. Her dratini was happy to shimmer around and coo cutely at the audience. Kate directed Aqua through a simple snake charm dance that ended with Aqua blowing a small spout of water into the air. She earned a polite round of applause, and a guy a bit younger than Lee stepped on stage next with his cinccino. The cinccino was beautiful, extraordinarily well groomed, and clearly fluffed up specially for the performance. He gave a short performance of athletic bounces and rolls around the stage before settling once more on his trainer's shoulders earning another round of applause.

Lee stepped forward next with Nova. She performed fluidly with her flames, and drew eager gasps. Nova's enjoyment of posing between moments seemed to earn extra points with the audience drawing out soft aw's. A young lady stepped out on stage next with a slugma wearing shimmering ribbons on her flame tufts. The slugma shimmered and wriggled, and gave cute little burbles. Her trainer put on music, and the slugma gave a cute little performance of "accidentally" stumbling about and splashing in the liquid flames she spread about. The audience was highly charmed by the performance.

The flabebe with her trainer was a more mild performance, with the flabebe doing her best to serenade the audience with a short little song and twirling about. The hoothoot that used wind and double team to fly with copies of herself was a charming performance. And then the last trainer stepped out with a corphish. The playfulness of the corphish, and the way she played with the bubbles and bounced them around, completely won the audience over.

The trainer with their corphish took first place in the contest. Lee found himself called out next with Nova, awarded second, and the slugma took a comfortable third. Everyone else earned participation ribbons. Kate cheered along with everyone else, and the contest came to an end.

Kate bubbled up all about how incredible Aqua had been, and how fun it had been to be on the stage. Kai exclaimed about the accuracy in the moves the pokemon who performed used, and asked what Lee thought of how that might impact Nova in battling. Would that translate over, or would Nova only think to use such a thing in these performances? Nova was clever, but she tended to not focus on accuracy as much as on blanketing the area with flames. Jasper was focused on cuddling with his girlfriend and telling her how amazing she was.

[ ]Visit the Contest Hall
[ ]Visit the beach
[ ]Visit the museum
[ ]Shop the department store
[ ]Check the ships in the harbor
[ ]visit the Pokemon Fan Club
[ ]Visit the Pokemon Psychic Fortuneteller
[ ]Train pokemon
[ ]Play with pokemon
[ ]Spend time with Kate
[ ]Spend time with Jasper
[ ]Spend time with Kai
[ ]Write-in

Either of you interested in running into each other in Lilycove?

 

[Blacksheep]

Nova soaked in the praise and affection from her trainer in utter delight. Her ego almost visibly grew with her success and the praise that was lavished onto her. She was so very beautiful after all. Her tails flicked behind her in delight. Lee looked over to the winner and smiled. "Your corphish was incredible!"

"Thanks," she answered. "It's really a matter of getting the right pokemon into the right contest. Who can resist such a cute pokemon?" She cooed at her corphish and cuddled her. "You did really well too! Is this really your first contest?"

[ ]Write-in

Lee made sure to take the time to praise Kate for her own showing in the contest. Kate laughed and said it was fun. Perhaps next time she'd enter her spinarak. Snowflake might enjoy it, as long as it was a smaller contest. Lee somehow found a moment when Jasper wasn't glued to Kate to gently tease him, drawing another smile from the stoic man. "It's hard to not be happy around her," Jasper admitted. "Even if she's always getting into trouble."

Lee's trip down to the pokemon fan club brought Kate and Jasper along, Jasper as always willing to follow Kate anywhere. Kai had decided to stay back, he thought he had a breakthrough with his slowpoke and was eager to keep going. The pokemon fan club was warm and comfortable, and Kate and Lee soon found themselves swarmed. Everyone wanted to coo over Aqua and Nova. Archer also got plenty of attention for his rarity.

"Are you planning to breed your dartrix?" one of the club members asked. "Local rowlet eggs would be amazing, but I bet it would be really tricky to find someone else to breed him with, not to mention caring for the eggs!"

"It doesn't matter if he breeds his dartrix, the bird is handsome enough on his own. What do you train your pokemon for? Is he perhaps a show pokemon? He is so very handsome," another cooed. Archer puffed up proudly clearly delighted to have earned so much praise and delight.

"Are you breeding magikarp? Is there something special about this one?" a guy asked about Fathom. He studied the fish critically, earning a shot of water to the face that made him sputter in surprise. "How did you teach him that?"

[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

"Lily Valehare, and this is Nika," she said about her corphish. "Maybe I'll see you again at another contest! I was thinking maybe I'd travel out over the islands this summer, but we'll see how that goes."

>>>>

Kate smiled, and softly spoke of her love of spiders. She held no fear for them, and really did see Sunshine as absolutely adorable and wonderful. She knew a lot of people feared them, but she really hoped that she could show them they shouldn't with Sunshine.

Of course, the occasional deaths from Ariados didn't particularly help there, but it wasn't any more common than any other death by pokemon.

"You think I need the trouble to stay grounded?" Jasper laughed. "I didn't think I lived with my head in the clouds."

>>>>

Crunchbite was more than happy resting on Lee's back, occasionally buzzing his wings softly. He was more than happy to just watch the attention the others got.

"Your magikarp is definitely one to keep an eye on then. Perhaps it's an egg move from a different parent pokemon?" a guy mused.

[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

Jasper was more than happy to drive off anyone who got too much into Kate's space. He looked almost forbidding the way he loomed over his friendly smiling girlfriend. Lee was more left to fend for himself, which wasn't too difficult. One by one his pokemon retired back to his side with requests to rest. The admiration was great, but it was a large group fanning over them. Kate eventually came over herself with just her haunter and Jasper to prepare to head back. She smiled brightly at Lee. "The Pokemon Fan Club is so welcoming, isn't it?"

[ ]Visit the Contest Hall
[ ]Visit the beach
[ ]Visit the museum
[ ]Shop the department store
[ ]Check the ships in the harbor
[ ]Visit the Pokemon Psychic Fortuneteller
[ ]Train pokemon
[ ]Play with pokemon
[ ]Spend time with Kate
[ ]Spend time with Jasper
[ ]Spend time with Kai
[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

Kate laughed softly at Lee's words. "Yes, that would be the hope."

All of Lee's pokemon took to the training session with vigor over the week. Crunchbite thrived under the attention the training sessions gave him, and was clearly becoming comfortable with his ability to dive between earth and sky. He was getting swift and difficult to track with his ease of moving around without limits in direction.

Archer had more difficulty in his training. While his flight was naturally silent, he was not a naturally stealthy pokemon. He was a touch too straight forward for that. Archer had to work to hide his presence and come up on someone else. Directing him into dives and quick flits around a space helped, but it would take more practice.

Fathom even seemed to be benefiting from training this week, with a rare level of focus from the magikarp. He seemed thrilled to get the chance to practice moving around and bask under Lee's attention. He also turned the areas he was placed into mud every single time. Kate was more than happy to tease Lee about the difficulty of dealing with the magikarp's joy of soaking everything.

Working with Nova was easier and harder at the same time. Nova enjoyed combat, and she had learned plenty from her brief training for the amateur contest. Combining the two however seemed to somewhat confuse Nova. She was willing and able to follow the direction given, but struggled to keep the aggression she usually displayed in her attacks when she shifted to the more controlled flames she had learned for her contests. It was clearly frustrating the vulpix, wanting to master what Lee was telling her to do but not quite bridging the gap.

Taking a moment to sit with Archer and meditate was a good break after all that. Lee knew he had to keep practicing with his aura. Archer was stronger in his evolved form now. It should make it even easier for him to use aura with Archer's aid. As soon as he reached out Archer reached out in return. It was far smoother than before, with a calmness that belied the excited dartrix's nature.

The current through the city was a lively one. Lee could feel the pulse of the plants growing, and the division of different sections that kept them apart. The sense of domestic pokemon that were proud to work alongside their humans brushed along the more skittish wary senses of wild pokemon that made their homes along the city.

Above it all, the ocean beckoned and called, with a depth and richness to it that Lee had never before encountered while touching the current.

[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

The ocean was welcoming as Lee peaked into it. Archer's presence lit the way back, and the ocean shifted and moved under Lee's attention. It saw him, and stared back. He was a speck in it, and not something naturally bound to the ocean. The seas recognized him however, and an overwhelming primal presence pressed up against Lee. The deep hum of the bottom of the sea rumbled through him in welcome. Currently it was asleep, dreaming of everything within and what was. It could be more, but right now it slept. And it dreamed of someone small who looked at it as it looked up, the ocean open to welcome him.

 

[Blacksheep]

The ocean didn't want to let Lee go. Archer was a strong bright point through the current however, allowing Lee to surface back. It was clear that the ocean would continue to reach and beckon to Lee, even with the distance once more placed between them.

[ ]Visit the Contest Hall
[ ]Visit the beach
[ ]Visit the museum
[ ]Shop the department store
[ ]Check the ships in the harbor
[ ]Visit the Pokemon Psychic Fortuneteller
[ ]Train pokemon
[ ]Play with pokemon
[ ]Spend time with Kate
[ ]Spend time with Jasper
[ ]Spend time with Kai
[ ]Write-in