First thread!

[Equius Zahhak]

Wow, this human sure was... excited. He was asking so many questions at once, it was hard to keep track of them. "It is- uh, I specialize- Oh, nice to meet-" It was seemingly impossible to have a conversation with this human... are they all this excited? Just as he was able to get a few words in, the pretentious looking one toppled over as someone colided into into in. Everything was just moving so fast, why was it so excited and fast?
The one who collided into Eridan, was Gamzee. The highblood.
Oh, this could either end really well, or really bad. Gamzee had the purest of blood, so royal and pure and rich and- and- just so... e%uisite. Unfortunately, he chose to polute his wonderful gift with impurities... it was so unsettling...
However, it was probably best to remain pleasant. He wasn't so bad, really, he could just be so obnoxious sometimes... Regardless, he was here, and he was making a mess already.

[orangealley]

Despite the sea dweller's attempt at a facade of cold, dignified irritation, the effect was dampened somewhat by the purple blush that had airbrushed itself onto his face. Apparently he didn't react well to embarrassment, either, judging by the way he scrambled to his feet and immediately arranged himself in the most threatening stance possible - all clenched fists and flared fins. The little ghost Pokemon hovering around his face was flailed at in an admittedly clumsy manner in an attempt to get it to respect his personal space.

"Fuck off," he snapped, seeming to be unimpressed by either apologies by Gamzee or bad puns on John's part. "An' keep your bilge-trap shut if you don't wwant me to shut it for you." The Horsea at his feet, somewhat distraught by its new trainer's sudden heavy landing, immediately latched onto his shoe and made a kind of squeaky noise of irritation at being ignored and then nearly sat on.

Eridan glanced down only briefly at first, deciding this confrontation was far more important, but as some surly bubbles floated up to greet him, he set his teeth for the inevitable blow to his pride and stooped to scoop up the Pokemon in the crook of his arm. The Horsea took on a satisfied look, but despite the duo's best efforts to try and look like a formidable pair, one simply cannot take a guy seriously when he's cradling a seahorse.

"Comin' here wwas such a bad idea." This earned him an indignant pat on the arm from his Pokemon's fin. If he hadn't come here, he would never have met such a great Pokemon! Naturally, Eridan's response was a practised scowl.

[OLDDIRK]

Rose woke up to the sound of feet heading towards the front of the bus.

Oh god, what stop were they at?!

Rose looked out the window and saw that the laboratory was just one block away. The next stop was right at its front door.

She quickly looked in her messenger bag to make sure nothing was stolen and was relieved to find everything - potions, empty pokeballs, snacks, drinks, knitting supplies, book, and especially laptop - there. "Next time you get on a bus tired, bring a caffeinated drink." she said to herself. The walk from her house on Route 25 all the way to the nearest bus station in the suburbs of Cerulean exhausted her into falling asleep.

Rose looked up to find that people were already walking towards the front of the bus to exit at the next stop. She closed her bag, threw it on her shoulder, and made a particularly humiliating scramble from the back of the bus to the front. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed people staring. God, how she hated drawing attention to herself.

---

Rose noticed that most, if not all, of the trolls and other humans were already here. Just what she needed at this moment in time, to be the last one here. She counted the trolls and humans. There should be twenty, including herself. One, two, three, four...

While counting, she noticed a sign on the laboratory door that stated the hours of registration: 6 AM to 11:30 AM. Rose looked at her phone to confirm the current time: 10:42 AM. Better get to the registration booth. She had to register as both a coordinator and a trainer, she had no clue how long the process would take, and she had plenty of time to talk to people she knew afterwords.

---

"Congratulations on completing the registration for a coordinator's and trainer's license, ma'am."

Rose looked back at the male black carapace running the booth with her usual stoic face.

"I trust the idiots who will read my application will find my lengthy answers amusing and confounding."

She had replied to every question she deemed stupid with a sarcastic answer, which was a lot of them. She even wrote several paragraphs of completely unrelated text from her journal into four of the answer boxes. The process was really quite amusing to her. She was used to sitting in one spot and writing for much longer than this, after all.

"Ma'am, do you have a Pokemon to start out with?"

"No, sir. I was planning on grabbing one of the three Pokemon they provide to starting trainers that don't have their own. Hopefully a Squirtle."

She said that in a relaxed tone of voice, but secretly she was really excited to be getting a Squirtle. Squirtles were very cute, and their simple appearance would compliment any costume she knit for one.

"Well, that's just dandy, because we just got a package from your mother! There was a note attached that said there was a Squirtle inside."

Rose blinked back in honest amazement. Really, a package from Mom? Surely this was a joke. Another move in the never ending passive aggressive chess game she played with her mother.

"Here you go!" The carapace sat back down at his seat, and Rose walked out the front door with the package.

Surely there was someone outside she got along with that she could share this surely hilarious moment with. Dave, perhaps. Maybe even Kanaya or John even though trolls didn't get sarcasm or irony and John didn't either. Come to think of it, perhaps no one but herself would be able to decipher the humor in this situation.

[Kat]

John had a few more questions for Equius, (why was he so bad at keeping up with conversation, seriously!) when suddenly he felt a pair of hands grabbing at him. He twitched in alarm and span round, letting out a yelp. Oh shit! It was... Vriska. Ah. Well, this was embarrassing. "Hey Vriska! You uh, startled me?" Okay, he was definitely losing some of his credibility here. He needed to be cool. Though John couldn't really help grinning a little triumphantly at Vriska coming back over to him so quickly, and he was pretty pleased to see her. "Was Kanaya all right, then?"

At least he hadn't fallen over completely like Eridan. He was still saving more face overall, he reasoned. Speaking of Eridan, he was looking reaaaally pissed off. But kind of ridiculous at the same time. Holding that Horsea to his chest and rather purple in the face, oh man. John wasn't sure whether to be amused or terrified. Sadly, his mind already seemed to have settled on the former; he was completely failing to hold in his mirth and laughing openly before he knew it. So much for actually listening to the whole "shutting his bilge-trap" thing.

"No dude, coming here was the greatest idea. Look how much you're achieving!"

[Gamzee Makara]

Gamzee: Take a Shadow Ball to the face

Do what? No, surely that didn't make any sense.

Gamzee disregarded the compelling action bubble in order to stare amusedly at Eridan's flailing. Which was kind of silly. Buddy Rich was both a ghost-type and capable of flying around, so what good would it do to actually swing at it? Gamzee was sure by the way his little friend was buzzing about that he'd never be hit, and instead regarded the people around him. Human. Blue-eyed. Probably the John Karkat was always on about. Another troll, overdressed, nervous looking. Aw, shit, that /had/ to be Equius. He'd been wanting to meet the blueblood after all the chats he'd had. He seemed like a lot of fun, even if he didn't make any motherfucking sense sometimes. Another seadweller. Had to be Feferi, he only knew two. Then- he froze, swallowing a lump in his throat as a chill ran down his spine. Spidergirl.

It wasn't that Gamzee didn't like Vriska, just that she scared the everloving mirth out of him. Which he'd openly stated more than once. He chose to avert his gaze from her for the sake of keeping his knees from knocking, and moved on to the next troll. Kittysis. Nepeta. Right. He regarded her with a slight friendly smile and his gaze turned back to Erida-

THWAP

Despite how clumsy the swings were, the seadweller had managed to hit Buddy Rich and send him flying into Gamzee's chest with a small squeak. Well that was just rude. The small ghost pokemon proceeded to nuzzle Gamzee and give him a teary-eyed look. Aw, poor Buddy Rich. His opinion of Eridan dropped several points and he gave the seadweller an uncharacteristic and slightly...dark... look. The look evaporated into one of curiousity as he watched the seadweller cradle his Horsea, and he sighed, looking back down. Oh shit.

Buddy Rich did not look happy. Nor did he look lucid. The poor thing was probably confused by the hit. A small, high-pitched squeal filled the air for about half a second before a tiny, pathetic ball of what looked like dark energy slammed directly into Gamzee's nose. It was a pathetic Shadow Ball, sure. After all, Buddy Rich was pretty low level and only knew it courtesy of a TM Gamzee'd gotten last wriggling day. Still, Gamzee was a troll, not a pokemon, and the move hurt like hell. He flinched, then swore loudly, a hand instinctively coming up to gingerly cover his nose. Which, while it didn't seem to be broken, was now leaking a small amount of indigo in an almost comical nosebleed. Well, at least the action now made sense.

"Shiiiiiiit," he hissed, taking a step back and looking at the offending shuppet.

"Bro, why you gotta be doing that?" he questioned. The misbehaving pokemon just sniffed in reply while Gamzee dug around his pockets for a pokeball. Gamzee never had been good with obedience. He typically didn't like putting Buddy Rich up, but time-outs were necessar- he left it at home, didn't he.

Well, shit. No point in getting mad over spilt milk- er, blood. Gamzee just grinned through his nosebleed and went through a rapid mood change from pained to cheerful so he could drape an arm around Equius. Gamzee had absolutely no sense of personal space.

"Equius! My man, what is up with you?"

[turntablegod]

Dave looked at his brother after having stared at his pokemon, willing his own back over to him and cradling the Murkrow in his arms. He stroked it's back, staring down at it and becoming affixed onto his bird.
"Mom hauled my ass off to Jubilife after the.... Separation." He frowned at the word he used, fixing his shades to sit on his face the correct way.
His attention was drawn back to be centered around the Murkrow sitting in his arms, comfortably cradled against his chest, turnings head to look at all the commotion going on around them. Seppukrow continued to look at all the trolls and other humans, then simply rested his head against his chest, closing his eyes and ruffling his feathers. Dave held the bird close to him, getting into some kind of weird affixed mood, mostly ignoring all the shit around him to pay attention the his pokemon. He didn't even look back up at Dirk, he was giving so much attention to his bird. He seemed to be spacing out as he stared down at the pokemon in his arms.

[metaltree]

After her arrival and adjoining comment announcing it to the general public in front of the grasses of Pallet Town, Roxy headed over to the registration center. She was definitely late and needed to fill out her papers fast. In her rush, she didn't stop to talk to the trolls and various humans standing around, and they would have probably seen her run by and giggle, sloshing what was remainging of her martini on the ground near them. Jaspers followed quickly, stopping to sample the fallen alcohol for a minute. She ran by Rose at the entrance and only stopped when she slammed into the desk and uttered an "oof!"

After some time and another drink, Roxy finished filling out her papers and stood, Jaspers perched precariously on her shoulder, and headed to the entrance with her new trainer card in one hand and a filled martini glass in the other. She had half-heartedly filled out the papers as fast as possible, her writing most likely illegible and some of the answers incredibly silly - "Sex: yes please ;) | Starting Pokemon: best cat evurrr | Guardian Name: negligent bitch | Other comments: wonkwonkwonkwonkwonk ;;;)"

Roxy walked calmly to the door and opened looking out to find things in much the same state - a group of trolls and a human to once side, two blonde kids elsewhere and other gathered here and there. She looked up ahead and squinted at a blonde head of short hair and wondered where her cousin was. She was supposed to be here too, right?

Shrugging, Roxy took a sip of her martini and took a few steps toward the blonde girl.

[doorlord]

“Startled?” Vriska asked, laughing a bit. She thought John’s reaction was pretty hysterical; she’d only been expecting him to jump a little, or maybe gasp, but she hadn’t been expecting him to make some odd, shrill, girly noise. And why was he smiling like that? She’d never known anyone to grin after she’d scared them. Then again, John was adorably weird. She should have expected it. “More like completely scared the shit out of you! Ha! And as for Kanaya, I dunno. She’s acting weird, but she always is. She says she’s kind of nervous about this adventure. Kind of lame if you ask me!”

She took a moment to glare at Eridan, before she turned back to John and said “So I leave for 5 minutes, and you’re already hanging out with this douche?”

[Equius Zahhak]

Boundaries. Boundaries were very important. In fact, violating one's personal boundaries were likely to get yourself hurt. Or rather, violating Equius's personal boundaries were. It really was unbecoming of people. But really, touching in general made him uncomfortable, and Gamzee hanging all over him was really not okay. But he is the highblood, so maybe it is okay? He turned to look at Gamzee, who really was so unlearned in proper etiquette.
"There is... nothing in particular 'up' with me."
He was careful to anunciate properly, but this really was uncomfortable. Gamzee really was such a bad example of highblood nobility. And, as if matters couldn't get any worse, here's Vriska now too.
Equius wondered if, if he was cunning about it, he could remove himself from the circle and go unnoticed. There were others to see, such as Nepeta. However, if he were to even lightly grasp Gamzee's arm, there was a pretty good chance it would snap. Drat.

[orangealley]

"I ain't achievvin' anythin' yet," Eridan said, his tone maybe a little more level than he expected it to be (he was a little proud of himself for that, at least). "You just wwait 'til I get on my wway. You wwon't knoww wwhat hit you."

It was beginning to dawn on him that all he was really accomplishing here was making a fool of himself in front of those who could soon be his rival trainers or co-ordinators. As such, he came to understand there wasn't much point in sticking around with this lot unless he wanted to become a running joke, and Eridan's pride would never allow that (at least, not on purpose!). Besides, with the sudden appearance of Vriska, he decided he couldn't really stand to humiliate himself any more right now.

"I don't havve time for this. I'll deal wwith you later," he snapped; he was looking at Vriska, but really the threat went out to whoever was listening. With a quick glance around for other potential conversationalists, and a last irritable curl of the lip in Gamzee's direction for knocking him over in the first place, Eridan promptly turned in the other direction and stormed over to the nearest group of people he hadn't met - which, as it turned out, was the pair of blonde human girls lingering outside of the lab.

The sea dweller slowed to a graceful halt in front of them, his Horsea still nestled comfortably in the crook of his arm, and gave a pointed glance behind him at the group he'd just left. "I trust you twwo at least havve some kinda spark of intelligence in you. Not evveryone here can be a total idiot, surely." he sassed, making the effort to try and look aloof. "I saww you both just got here, anywway. You should stick wwith someone wwho knowws wwhat they're doin'." Hopefully they'd get the hint. He was trying a different tack now - act like a leader right from the start, before anyone could insist he was anything but. Maybe he'd even get some respect this time (he hoped so).

[OLDDIRK]

Rose noticed the only other blonde girl in the group heading towards her. It only took half a second for her to recognize the familiar face - Roxy, her cousin. Rose smiled slightly as Roxy came over, happy to see someone she knew.

"Hello Roxy. I trust you've been well?"

That's when Rose noticed the martini glass in her hand.

"Oh lord, don't tell me you've been at the drink again... I'm telling you as a family member, you should really stop that."

Rose heard footsteps approaching her, and turned to face them.

"I trust you twwo at least havve some kinda spark of intelligence in you. Not evveryone here can be a total idiot, surely."

Who's this douchebag? Rose decided to ignore him and turn back to Roxy, as the sea-dweller came off as a self-important creep.

"I saww you both just got here, anywway. You should stick wwith someone wwho knowws wwhat they're doin'."

Rose turned back to the seadweller with a scornful look on her face, eyebrows knitted. Without saying a word, she attempted to grab Roxy by the arm and take her a few steps away.

[ellie [ex-everything]]

"Oh I wouldn't go so far as to say bugged. I mean it would be a rather stupid thing if I actually was irritated with my moirail for attempting to help me get through something even if the effort was really in vain because I'm actually alright. Though I would be lying if I said I didn't appreciate the effort.

[/color]" Kanaya shrugged as she smiled at Aradia in greeting. She had no idea why she was criticizing their relations so, but she was sure it was meant kindly enough. Aradia, after all, had never been one for just inciting conflict without due cause.

But apparently this line of conversation was not suitable for Vriska, who left in what Kanaya might consider a "huff" but it was probably just more of boredom, to be honest. Which was fine, really -- it wasn't as if she hadn't expected it.
Vriska had never been the kind of troll that was able to deal with the attention shifting off of her for more than a second, and Kanaya had no intention of trying to influence her differently. It was one of those annoying habits that somehow turn endearing, or something stupid like that. She couldn't blame her, even. If she felt as if there was no point in sticking around, then who was Kanaya to try and convince her otherwise?

Furthermore, now she would be free to stew in her issues on her own; just as she liked to. Everything worked as it needed to in the end; every action had an important ends to achieve.
Or something of that nature. Maybe you could just nix the pretense out of it. Erm.

Besides, she probably enjoyed the company of her other friends better, anyway. Less to deal with, and it wasn't like she was the one with the problem right then.
Not that Vriska particularly liked talking about her problems either, but hey -- this was why they were the terrible moirail duo and all.
Urrrugh.

But whatever, that was neither here nor now anymore. What mattered was, ah--
Oh, she was already grouped up? And getting set to leave? Wow, okay. Looked like someone had their priorities straight and everything.
Maybe she should just strike the small talk and offer her help or something.

"Well I see you have taken it upon yourself to get things done as it were. Though I hardly think it matters in the long run who is first to leave because we're all heading to the same place anyway and knowing our luck we'll more or less be on the same length the entire time. But I do wish you luck. Do you require assistance looking for them? Perhaps I could lend myself to you.[/color]"
She realized how awkward that sounded just after she had said it.
Oops.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.

As she was talking, Jade finally took her hand and started to shake it, babbling on excitedly about how glad she was to finally meet them. Which was a nice sentiment and everything and Kanaya was frankly flattered, but then again she was also lumped into a group with Equius and Gamzee so perhaps she should not have felt nearly so proud of that small fact, after all.
Well.
Maybe her judgment was just really naive and excitable. Who knew.

Muli was busy making a general fool of herself and Kanaya was almost ready to simply throw in the chalk so to speak and pick her back up from embarrassment, when she caught Jade's smile and her Growlithe's general demeanor, she visibly relaxed. As long as she wasn't proving herself to be a bother, Kanaya wasn't going to go out of her way to draw attention to the fact. Besides, if Jade thought she was cute....
Well, who was Kanaya to deny such a thing? Adorable and terrible. Such was life.
"Oh well as long as you are alright with it I have no complaints. Thank you. And yes, I do think they are both rather cute together as it were. Muli is not usually so affectionate with strangers.[/color]" She smiled and rested a hand on her bag, keeping an eye on her Cottonee (who was still snuggling into the Growlithe's soft fur).
"I'd like to know your pokemon's name if you don't mind me asking it.[/color]"

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Rose coming out of the registration's office, but she was quickly engaged by two others. And besides, she was actually, well, pretty content with her lot at the moment.
Surprise surprise.

[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Kat]

He chucked lightly, always willing to appreciate a joke, and gave her a weak punch in the arm. “Shut up, it was an involuntary reaction! Well played there, though. Guess we can award a few points to your prankster’s gambit?” He mimed jotting a note of this down, mentally vowing to one-up Vriska later. She’d see. John was not called a pranking master for nothing. (Okay, admittedly this was entirely a title he’d awarded himself, and nobody else ever called him that unless they were being sarcastic. Whatever, that was not the point.) “Oh man, that sucks. I mean, I guess there’s a lot to be scared of, but there’s so much to look forward to, as well.” The prospect of all the dangers he might face did scare him a little, in all honesty. And he was definitely going to miss his dad a lot. In a way, John could sympathise with somebody not feeling all that enthusiastic.

John watched Eridan strut away, with a hint of amusement still in his face. He wasn’t taking any of Eridan’s hostility very seriously. “Hey, he’s not all that bad!” John insisted in a hushed voice, not really wanting the sea-dweller to actually hear him. “He’s kind of funny. Besides, Feferi's buddies with him, and she's really nice. I think we’re going to be friends.” John was firmly planning on befriending all the trolls, although this would probably be difficult. Hey, it was worth a shot.

[metaltree]

The moderately buzzed Roxy's face lit up somewhat when she saw her cousin and managed to recognize her. Her face fell when she made a comment about her drinking, but Roxy passed it away with a shrug and a wink, muttering, "Drinking is my thing, cuz. It's totes fun too, you should try it sometime, loosen you up."

She turned her head as the seadweller approached and eyed him - and the adorable sea creature in his arms - for some time, even as she was pulled away slightly. Roxy missed his little speech completely, eyes set fixedly on his jaw. She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips into a seductive smirk and gave one of her signature "wonks".

"What's cookin', good lookin'?" she purred at him, and took another long sip of her martini, - eyes trained on him with the glass turned upwards - draining her third glass this morning. Jaspers was still perched on her shoulder, clinging on for dear life as his owner was pulled to the side, and was now hissing in her ear for some unapparent reason.

[orangealley]

What Eridan hadn't been expecting was more or less exactly what had just happened. The sea-troll watched one girl drag away the other, and his fins flagged for a moment, a kind of subconscious expression of his uneasiness. Had he done something wrong this time? Wasn't he impressive enough? Was it his blood colour, his expression, what, what was he doing wrong?

And then the pickup line hit him. His think pan had been processing it for several long seconds, turning it over and over and trying to work out what exactly to do with it, but in the end it was just thrown into the limelight at full force. Eridan's mouth opened slightly, as if he had some fantastic comeback, but then froze that way for another few moments.

"Oh," he said stupidly. Then, "Er." The way he seemed totally unprepared for this was probably comical to any onlookers, but to him it was pretty much a nightmare. Shit, he was making a fool of himself. Then, quite suddenly, and much to his private relief, his mind caught up with the rest of him again and his face lost its brooding look and geared into a neutral (which, for Eridan, was probably about as close to a smile as one would get). At the very least an attentive glint in his eyes relayed his piqued interest. "Wwell, ain't that charmin'. Wwhat's your name, lady?" He took a step closer, more or less disregarding Rose's attempt to shift them both away.

If he was honest with himself, he probably shouldn't be humouring a land dweller - and a human, at that - but after the trainwreck that had been his last conversation with a human he decided that for now the best he could do was play along.