First thread!

[OLDDIRK]

“Oh shit, that’s no Squirtle! That’s one of those fossil Pokémon they bring back to life, right? That’s pretty cool. I mean, loads of people start with Squirtles. And this thing’s pretty cute, in a way.”

"I... guess it's kind of interesting to own an ancient Pokemon, but to be honest this thing seems useful only for research. There are plenty of other turtle Pokemon."

Tirtouga narrowed its eyes and began growling lowly, scaring Casey into hiding. Perhaps it was agitated that it was kept inside a pokeball for so long without being fed or allowed to exercise. Or maybe it -she, actually, as Rose had red on her Pokedex screen - was just like that all the time. Rose made a mental note to feed her as soon as she had the time.

“I dunno Rose, maybe it really was just a mistake! Or maybe she was being super-nice and thought- 'oh I know Rose likes Squirtles so I’ll give her this Tirtouga, since that’s like a Squirtle but from one hundred million years ago and therefore one hundred million times COOLER!’ It’s possible, right?”

"Oh please, John, we know the latter isn't true. We've been over my mom's ironic indulgence. She probably got me this just to piss me off a little." Ironic indulgence. That seemed about right. Rose mentally settled on that. She knew she would let her mother win if she obsessed over the motives behind the gift.

Rose checked over her shoulder to see what Roxy was up to. Eridan seemed pretty uncomfortable, so perhaps this was a good time to go back and break up the flirting.

"Well, thank you for sharing this heartwarming moment of familial love straight out of a sixties sitcom with me, but I really should go check on Roxy." Rose attempted to pick up Tirtouga, but the damned thing bit her hand, causing her to yell, drop Tirtouga, and momentarily writhe in pain. She shook her hand a few times and noticed the bite had almost broken skin.

"Just... get back in your Pokeball. We'll sort out your anger issues later." Rose shot up her Pokemon back into her pokeball and looked around. Thankfully, only a few people were staring, but she was still embarrassed. She decided to forget about it and head towards Roxy and Eridan.

"Alright, I think I left you two off the hook long enough. Break it up."

[Gamzee Makara]

Gamzee: Regroup

Okay, in all honesty, Gamzee had completely and utterly zoned out. When he had entered this state was entirely unclear, due to the fact that it was hard to tell how glazed over his eyes were at any time to see a difference (not to mention the fact that no one was really watching in the first place), but it probably occured approximately halfway through Equius's answer to his inquisition.

By the time Gamzee had set to paying attention again, he had a whole new set of people in front of him. Rather. One person missing and another appearing. He examined the new girl, some blonde chica, with a hint of curiousity ('HoW Do hUmAnS HaVe sUcH LiGhT HaIr?'). He couldn't remember her name right off hand- it was really a wonder he'd remembered John's-, but nevertheless he wasn't about to go off being all unfriendly and shit. That just wouldn't be cool. Instead his logic compelled him to be slightly impolite by base standards and completely interrupt their conversation. He did this by removing his arm from Equius's shoulder and thrusting it out directly in the middle of the two humans, grinning like an idiot for a moment before opening his mouth to speak.

"Humanbros! It's motherfucking great to-" he cut off, having lost his train of thought. What was the word he was looking for? Neat? No, it started with an M. He stared stupidly off into space for another moment while the beginnings of his greeting remained dangling in mid air. Moat? Aw, shit, moats were cool. Crocodile-having motherfuckers all up and surrounding those badass stone hives the humans called Castles, keeping the princesses safe from all the motherfucking dangers of the world. His stupid look turned into a stupider grin as his think pan entertained that particular notion. Princesses were pretty. Long haired pretty princesses. You know who else is long haired and pretty? Aradia was. Wait. Aradia.

A lightbulb went off in Gamzee's head as he managed to remember that she was on his team, along with Tavros and Sollux, if he remembered correctly. Red and rust and yellow. Gamzee was a big purple stain in the middle of a flaming tablecloth. Not that he minded. He liked warm colours. Lowblood colours. Not that he actually thought of the hemospectrum at all. Focus, focus. Oh, right, weren't they supposed to be grouping up and leaving? On that mental note, Gamzee proceeded to completely forget that he was greeting the humans, withdrawing his hand and turning on a heel to lope off in a completely different direction for no explicable reason. Or at least, thats what it would look like to anyone outside of Gamzee's head. Instead he headed for another grouping, this one containing Aradia and whoever else (he wasn't paying attention). When he reached his ghostly teammate, he grinned again, reaching out to tap her on the shoulder. "We getting our leave on soon, spooky sister? Where's Tavbro and Sunshine-bro?" Because calling anyone by name was simply too much to ask.

((cleaned up by John, as requested.))

[Equius Zahhak]

Gamzee is far too distracted to respond to anything. Typical. After his shoulder was free from the highbloods uncomfortable posession, Equius turned to see his moirail (or, as she would say, 'meowrail') repremanding him for arriving lately. "Hm, I'll have you know that I am only late because I had to traverse a far distance. There was no need to wait on my behalf. However, I am pleased that you did anyway."
They really didn't have to wait for everyone. He was perfectly capable of handling this on his own. Wasn't everyone else? Still, not having to go it alone was much nicer.
"I suppose I will try to be more punctual next time."

[metaltree]

Roxy petted Jasper's head lightly as he mewed, wrapping his tail around her arm and settling more comfortably into the crook of her elbow. She watched him for a moment, then lifted her head and wiggled her eyebrows at Eridan, saying, "Are you inviting me to travel with you?"

She grinned, noticing the nervous hand sweep through his hair (he seemed to do this quite often, especially when she got closer to him - which is what she was doing now. She took a step or too, enjoying Eridan's attention on her, and opened her mouth to answer, "That sounds like f --"

-- And then she was interupted by Rose coming back over and telling the two to break it off. Roxy frowned and shifted her shoulders so that she was facing Rose, and purposely brushed her shoulder on Eridan's chest, (He was much taller then her) not finishing her answer to Eridan but instead saying, "Break what off? And what did you let us off the hook for?" Roxy gave a teasing grin to her cousin, scratched Jaspers behind his ears, setting him off on a series of loud purrs.

[orangealley]

"I - uh." Ever the charismatic highblood, Eridan took a deep breath while he considered the best course of action, looking more than a little uncomfortable. Well, at least she'd gotten the hint - although he'd been hoping she'd be a little more tactful about it.

Eridan felt himself tense up as Roxy's shoulder brushed him, and he had to wonder... What the hell was he getting himself into, here? Encouraging a lowblood - no, a human, they didn't have a blood hierarchy - in her ridiculous flirting, and probably making a damn idiot out of himself in the process. The sea-troll found himself to be more than a little thankful that Rose turned up when she did.

"Hook. Funny," he said, rolling his eyes. "You heard her - hands off the highblood." Eridan took a step back, making a point of brushing his shirt down with one hand as if Roxy had somehow dirtied his clothes. "Not invvited, as such," he replied, raising his voice a tad so Rose could hear. "But you're allowwed to, if you recognise the prestige a' travvellin' wwith someone as high on the scale as me."

His confidence() somewhat restored, Eridan stepped past Roxy and let Rose occupy his attention for the moment, folding his arms in an authoritative manner and gearing himself up to stare her down if she started making a fuss. "I assume you'll wwant to go wwith Rox here. You're related, right?" Wow. What a sleuth. And did that nickname even work? To be honest, he was still deciding.

[OLDDIRK]

"Break what off? And what did you let us off the hook for?"

Rose tilted her lips downward slightly and stared her cousin straight in the eye. Her face was stern, but her words had a very concerned tone. "Roxy, please. I highly advise you to quit teasing this boy immediately."

She placed her hand on Roxy's shoulder and pulled her close, whispering in her ear. "I'm not getting a very good vibe from Eridan. He seems kind of narcissistic. I'm not sure if that's a seadweller thing or if he's just a douchebag, but either way you don't want to open yourself up like that to a person like him."

"I assume you'll wwant to go wwith Rox here. You're related, right?"

Rose looked up at Eridan (Rose is an inch or two shorter than Roxy) as her face returned to its usual neutral state. "Correct. They taught you about human families down in the sea boonies, yes? We're what you call cousins."

[metaltree]

Roxy huffed a bit as Eridan stepped away and brushed his shirt, raising her eyebrows at him disapprovingly as he did so. She waved a hand at the highblood comment, as if it meant nothing to her - which, it really didn't - and smiled at Rose when he turned to her.

She waved her hand in the air again and wonked at Eridan, replying with a, "Teasing Schmeasing. It's not like I'm bullying him or something." Despite not really regarding her cousin's first few words seriously, she listened to Rose's quiet words with a thoughtful look. At first it was feigned - she could really care less about her 'loving cousin' thing, but when she heard what Rose had to say she looked confused. In what way had she opened herself up? It's not like she had said anything personal about herself to the guy. And she hadn't gotten much of a douchebag air herself, until Rose had stepped up. Before that, he was just a bit nervous and maybe a tad narcissistic - and kind of hot, but whatever.

Roxy took the moment Rose had given her by addressing the troll directly, and used it to check the seadweller out a bit. She leaned back slightly, trying to catch a glimpse of his butt. She ended up stumbling a bit backwards, clearly off-balance from the martinis, but caught herself before she fell. Roxy cleared her throat and took her spot by Rose again, trying not to call attention to her drunken trip, or the fact that she was once again checking out the seadweller's, "Choice ass...".

[orangealley]

Cousins. Eridan filed the word away for future reference, though he was a little lost as to the full meaning.

"A little," he lied, "though I wwasn't payin' much attention. I didn't really see much point." He made sure to make a show of rolling his eyes at Rose's command to Roxy, as if to suggest he didn't consider it teasing at all. (And he didn't, really, but whatever it was, he was still secretly glad he didn't have to deal with it any more - at least for the time being.)

He shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other while the two girls conversed between themselves, eager to see where this conversation was going to end up - and a little apprehensive. The fact was, Eridan suddenly didn't feel like he was making a lot of headway here, and if he couldn't persuade these girls to go with him, well, he'd have to keep trying with everyone else he hadn't blown his chances with yet. These people were dwindling per conversation.

And then, he'd have to go it alone.

Admittedly the thought was not even slightly appealing, but - as Eridan subconsciously tugged at his coat when a small part of him noticed Roxy staring at him - he decided this was his most likely option. And that meant trying tact.

"Look, I can be civvil. I wwasn't brought up by Sharpedo. So here's my offer: tag along wwith me, pull your wweight, and wwe'll all get along just fine. Maybe you'll learn that havvin' a highblooded troll on your side is actually useful. Or fuck off wwith some other group, and I guess, I dunno, get mauled by Ursaring in your sleep."

Flipping the stray end of his scarf over his shoulder, Eridan folded his arms across his chest and suddenly his stance subtly shifted into a more confident, proud one. It was actually hard to tell whether or not it was a conscious movement or not, and for Eridan that probably said something what with all his forced airs and graces. This was more or less the last card he had up his sleeve, but Eridan had never really been aware of just how much of an effective card it was. Probably because the only time he played it was when he wasn't within ten feet of a mirror. The simple fact was, he now carried himself like someone respectable, shoulders back, more certain, and didn't seem to realise to what effect he was doing it.

There were apparently some bonuses to being brought up a highblood. He was just still figuring most of them out.

[Kat]

“Ha ha, okay Rose! Good luck with him, or her, I guess. I’ll see you later, right?” He waved farewell to his friend, flinching a little at the sight of her Tirtouga biting her. Ouch, that had to have hurt. Poor Rose. Hopefully she and the turtle Pokémon would be able to settle their differences and become friends. That was what Pokémon was all about, or so the movies had led him to believe.

With Rose heading off and that clown troll’s greeting seemingly being abandoned half way through (Karkat had some seriously goofy friends, he thought), he scooped Casey up into his arms (she was kind of too big to carry like this, and they looked a bit silly) and wondered whether to go after Vriska. Jeez, she could have just joined in the conversation instead of going off like that. But hey, if he was going to be heading to Viridian with her anyway, he didn’t really have a reason to keep bugging her.

He scoured the crowd, eventually picking out his good bro amongst the others. Hmm, he was still with that guy who looked like him (brother?) but he looked like he was completely zoning out. Laaame. With a shrug, he hopped over towards Dave again, giving him a light nudge. “Hey, dude. It's me again. What’re you even doing, just daydreaming like a doofus? And are you gonna introduce me to this brother of yours? I’m assuming you’re brothers, unless he got an operation so that he could steal your face assume your appearance like John Travolta did in Face/Off when he was trying to infiltrate Nic Cage's terrorist gang. That’s not what’s going on here, right?”

Oh shit, Jake was here too. At least, he was assuming this was Jake. "Oh, hey Jake! I totally didn’t notice you’d got here. How’re you doing, buddy?” Okay, he didn’t know Jake quite as well as he knew a lot of his human friends. But Jake had always seemed super cool to him, they’d had many a great discussion about movies.

[OLDDIRK]

"Look, I can be civvil. I wwasn't brought up by Sharpedo. So here's my offer: tag along wwith me, pull your wweight, and wwe'll all get along just fine. Maybe you'll learn that havvin' a highblooded troll on your side is actually useful. Or fuck off wwith some other group, and I guess, I dunno, get mauled by Ursaring in your sleep."

Rose had to admit, she wasn't expecting an offer for her to join the party that quickly after she tried to break up the flirting. She was visibly thrown off for an awkward minute as she thought about this development.

Perhaps she really was judging this guy too harshly and too quickly. Sure she hated the way he seemed to exude an air of fake confidence - The way half the things he said were at least partially about himself, his posture, even the way he just flipped his scarf - but, really, was that automatically an indicator of his personality as a whole?

Rose decided to go on her Pokemon journey for the experience - the thrill of walking across the Kanto region with just her bag, her friends, and her Pokemon, participating in glamorous contests along the way. However, she was probably not going to become a career coordinator.

The career Rose was most seriously considering at the moment was therapy, but how could she be a good therapist if she immediately judged everyone who came through her office door based on silly things like their tone of voice? Perhaps traveling with Eridan would be a learning experience on this trip.

Rose faced Eridan and looked him in the face but not directly in the eye, a little embarrassed (how many times had she been embarrassed today?) that she had found herself in the wrong. It would take divine intervention to get her to directly admit this to Eridan, though. "...Alright. I guess I'll open up my mind to the fact that being able to breathe in water means something on land."

[coolkidapocalypse]

Wow, look at how fast these conversations are moving!
Aradia was slowly finding out that leaving her predesignated group meant that everything started to get a little more awkward. Kanaya had gone to chat with Jade, so there was that and she didn't want to intrude any more than she had meant to. In the distance, she could see Gamzee being preoccupied with... was that Equius? Gross. And there were humans everywhere. Nearly as many as the group of trolls! And though she had talked to a few of them, she didn't know any of them very well, aside from John. Speaking of John, he was being completely crowded up with people. Mister popular, she suspected. Sollux and Tavros had gotten lost in the crowd; she couldn't see any of them anywhere. Aradia clicked her fingers together, simply watching everyone talk to all of their best friends and becoming friends with others. It looked fun, and maybe she'd like to join in, but now here she was, standing around and looking just a little lonely.
Wendy floated beside her, taking note of this kind of awkward loneliness. Her Pokemon has spent a while with Aradia already, and she's learned that her trainer wasn't the best at conversing and always ended up alone and ignored. It was a sad existence. So, Wendy devised a plan. Oh yes, a plan. A planny plan. But what kind of plan? Hmmm...
Quietly, Wendy floated away, slithering around the groups, deciding on who to draw close. Oh, who was that? A STRONG boy. Interesting! She could barely interpret what had taken place a few moments earlier, but she thought it boring anyway. Boring boring boring! Well, let's see how this boy deals with a Lick attack!
And so, one poor troll was covered in nauseating, paralyzing Gastly spit. Gross.
Despite the disappearance of Wendy, Aradia remained silent, up until someone tapped her shoulder. She jumped and turned around, eyes almost wide, until she realized who it was. "0-0h! gamzee! y0u scared me there..." She smiled quickly and brushed hair away from her face, before looking around again. "i d0nt kn0w where they disappeared t0 unf0rtuntely... we sh0uld pr0bably g0 find them huh?"

[edit because i totes missed gamzee's post]

[Jade Harley]

"Really? I would have just figured Muli was just that affectionate to every Pokemon she met!" Jade said, watching the two Pokemon. Becquerel made a silly face as his nose was tickled by the Contonee's fluffy fur, and sneezed. Jade couldn't help but laugh. "His name is Becquerel, but I usually just call him Bec for short!"

[turntablegod]

Dave looked up to stare at John, blanking for a few seconds. Before giving a slight nod towards his brother at John's remark.
"no way how could you possibly think he was my brother. this guys a class A terrorist and impersonator, and were switching places and shit like Parent Trap except were going to kill hundreds of people because im a secret terrorist too, and well both be work dictators. when we take over you can be a fucking butler or something." He rambled out in a highly sarcastic tone. He tilted his head to the side and let his mouth hang open, giving John the staredown
"of course were brothers. hes my twin, Dirk."

[Kat]

John laughed lightly, playing along with Dave’s sarcasm. “Shit, my best bro was a secret terrorist all along? I feel so betrayed!” He clutched his heart dramatically, taking a few steps back in mock-horror. “I am sorry Dave, I can never be your butler. My training on Butler Island taught me only to use my butler powers for good. I am going to have to ‘take you down’!” He struck a ‘battle pose’, trying to get Casey to do the same. She didn’t seem particularly keen to join in with the silliness, though. Whatever, this would just be another thing they could work on. Enough of that tomfoolery for now.

“It’s nice to meet you then, Dirk,” he grinned, “I didn’t know Dave had a twin brother!” He wondered vaguely if this was the same Dirk that Jake was buddies with. Probably was, since they were both standing together? Huh, small world!

[paranormalships]

she just gives him a small chuckle. ":33 < im purty sure it takes us about the same amount of time to get here. so i not sure how i got here furst.

":33 but either way youre welcome."