11.22.15 -- We are approaching the holiday season very rapidly. I understand that things get busy around this time of year, just try and make sure that you don't forget about us! And, because winter is coming, things in Rakuen are about to change! Our winter event will be starting on December first so keep your eyes peeled for it and be sure to participate. You won't want to miss out. Enjoy the last little bits of your fall!
Pokemon is a copyrighted concept that belongs to Nintendo. The site plot as well as site related threads belong to the staff team. All of the images as well as posts belongs to the respective owners and or creators. The present theme was created by Noemi and Namazu with the help of Adoxography and their beatiful resources. A special thanks to Cloud for unique ideas within the site. Thank you for respecting this and not stealing from us.
odie was in the middle of one of her mid-morning naps when her pokedex began to ring. The trainer groaned. Her four hours of sleep last night and the three-and-a-half cups of coffee were here to collect their overdue interest in energy and willpower.
The pokedex rocked the table she’d set it on at five that morning. Jodie rolled over. Surely she could squeeze another hour or two out of the day… The pokedex stopped, allowing the room a moment of silence.
“-INSIDE CCRRRYSTAL CITY GYM!” Jodie shot out of her daze and the pokemon center’s bed. The newscaster’s yelling voice, set to full volume, would never fail to wake the trainer up. Especially if it were to be placed placed right next to her ear by a certain gengar.
Jodie snatched the device from the gengar’s hands. The ghost gave her a contented look and floated up to hang with the ceiling fan.
“A challenger is facing off with our local dark gym leader, folks, and right now it looks like-” the newscaster lady (now set to a much more reasonable volume) stopped momentarily as she was forced to grab onto something. The camera shook wildly, only allowing the viewers to catch glimpses of the scene playing out on the gym floor.
The news lady stand up and corrects the large hairpin that had fallen to the tips of her blond hair. Her back faced the camera. “W-What was that?!” She said in surprise. “An earthquake, it looks like.” A quiet voice said behind the camera.
Jodie made the live feed full-screen. “Where did houndoom-” The lady started. “There!” a fellow onlooker in the gym pointed to a back form, now visible in the clearing dust. Jodie caught sight of the other pokemon, the challengers.
“A heracross?” Jodie wondered aloud. It’d been a long while since she’d seen one of those. Not many trainers had them, and they weren't too common in the wilds. On the video, a voice echoed from the gym floor.
“Challenger Ryusuke Ugumi gives his next command.” The newscaster said into her microphone. A burst of fire lit up the battlefield.
Ugumi? Why did that sound familiar? The camera shook wildly again. When the ground settled and the shot was re-aligned, the gym leader was withdrawing her pokemon.
“Ah! No way!” Jodie exclaimed.
“That’s- that’s the battle everyone! The Crystal City Gym Leader has been defeated!” The newscaster yelled.
That Ugami? The camera zoomed in on the challenger and the gym leader, and Jodie got her first look at the trainer. Blond hair, red jacket - she’d never seen him before, never heard the name “Ryusuke”, but were there any other Ugamis?
Jodie jumped to her feet. She was in the Dizhen pokemon center now, not far at all. She could make it to Crystal City in no time.
She threw on her casual black outfit (cargo pants, boots, sleeveless and scarf; she was all ready for the role of a gritty and possibly philosophical action movie hero) and opened the widow’s blinds to let in the… noon sun. But the world seemed oddly clear.
She spent the next ten minutes combing her hair and fishing the contacts she’d slept in out of her eyes. Gengar woke the still-sleeping beldum, and the two followed Jodie down to the lobby where she greeted Nurse Joy.
“She’s all healed up and ready to go!” The lady with bright pink hair said cheerfully. Jodie exchanged her room key for her pokeball.
“Just… go easy on her for a little bit?” Nurse Joy said in parting.
Jodie held the dusk ball in her hand. The meowstic had spent the past number of days in the pokemon center, and only the night previous had gotten the call giving her the okay to pick the psychic-type up again. “This means we’re technically meeting two new people today, right?” Jodie mused happily.
When she arrived in Crystal City, the sun was not yet sending colors into the blue sky, but was certainly considering doing it very soon. Jodie had spent the trip there watching recordings of the battle and bugging the dark gym leader for the challenger’s phone number. To which she got no reply.
That red jacket couldn’t be too hard to spot, right? Even in the swallowing crowds… Jodie returned her two pokemon and wandered the streets with the much more classy white meowstic until she had an idea.
Jodie hired a rickshaw. She told the driver, “go around until you see a blond guy in a long red coat, yes the guy who just beat the gym,” and glued her gaze to the sidewalk. And, as the sun was making up its mind about redecorating the sky, Jodie found who she was looking for. Long blond hair, long red coat, face matching the one she’d
She yelled for the cyclist to make a screeching stop, which the confused diver managed to make without biking over any of the startled pedestrians. Jodie jumped out of the seat, and jogged a couple of steps.
“Ryusuke Ugumi!” She yelled at her target through cupped hands. “I’m -ah,” she turned around and pulled her wallet out of her bag. The rickshaw driver took the money with a forced friendly smile and cycled off.
Jodie and her meowstic companion returned to their quest objective. “I’m Jodie Mercy!” She said as loud as she needed to over the other people.
ooc: Let me know if this doesn't work as a start c: Ryusuke Ugumi
Post by Ryusuke Ugumi on Nov 3, 2015 18:48:51 GMT -5
As I cannot find the answer here
In a sense, it was almost funny. Nearly six years spent away from home, trials faced and overcome, lessons supposedly learned, people met and acquaintances made that he would thought to have changed him a bit, but had he grown as a person at all in that time?
Nope. For all intents and purposes it would seem not, and Ryusuke couldn't help but feel like he'd just made the same mistake he had in initially leaving home for the first time.
When Ryusuke had set out to challenge Rakuen's Gyms, the trainer hadn't assumed anything. He'd reasoned that after four months spent training a team he'd used for three years, he would probably be ready for the difficulty involved. He'd made a relatively flexible time table in advance, figuring it would take a few months between traveling and other unexpected obstacles, even figuring in time for a few fights that might be lost. Good as he was Ryusuke didn't expect to win them all on the first try, and he'd taken that into account. In setting out with a new goal in mind Ryusuke had spent weeks in preparation, taking into account everything he possibly could, from logistics to contingency plans if and when things didn't go as expected. That said, contingency plans only really mattered if you could anticipate said unexpected events and happenings. And, frankly, that was exactly what had tripped him up - as much as he'd learned, Ryusuke had never been good with people, and once again had failed to take them into account.
For most people it would've been a little thing, not even worthy of note, but for Ryusuke it made tolerating the public that much more difficult. Most people didn't care about Gym challengers, but where Ryusuke had just been an anonymous face in the crowd before... well, how was he to know the fight was going to be broadcast? Ryusuke hadn't bothered watching television in years, and it's not like he'd seen any other individuals present within the Gym when he'd fought Senka. Even still, though, Ryusuke had known well in advance that trainers able to collect Gym Badges were a big deal in the trainer/breeder community, and the fact that he was one of the first was bound to get him noticed. Ryusuke, personally, had just been hoping that said spotlight wouldn't find its way to him until far later, preferably as late as the Pokemon League itself when it could no longer be avoided. He liked his quiet time, the days where he was able to choose who he interacted with and when it happened.
In the meantime, though, Ryusuke refused to let it stop him from going about his days as he normally did. Wake up, take care of things at the Pokemon Center, get something to eat and after that leave the city quickly as possible - not for good as Ryusuke would've liked, but at this point just to get some exercise in with his team on one of the routes around the city. Heracross, bluntly, had gone way above and beyond what Ryusuke had expected the Bug to be capable of, even with the strategy they'd come up with in advance, and combine that with the Bagon that the blonde hadn't quite been able to control before.... he needed to get a solid handle on what his team could actually do, and with any luck the new badge in his possession would help bring the boisterous little reptile to heel until it learned a degree of self control, a way to do things that didn't just involve spamming the same attack over and over.
With all of that in mind Ryusuke and Grovyle had been walking side by side along the sidewalk, intending to leave the city's borders, when a voice shouted out behind them. One calling out Ryusuke's name. Specifically, his first and last, giving very little room for doubt as to who the woman was looking for.
Half an hour. It was half an hour from the Pokemon Center to one of the routes by foot. Too much to ask for? Apparently.
Still, rather than bolting for it as his instincts were screaming at Ryusuke to do, the blonde trainer instead stopped in place, Grovyle likewise mirroring his trainer's actions as the pair looked back to the source of the yells. Calling out over the other pedestrians and short enough that Ryusuke almost missed her entirely, the woman was very nearly as short as Ryusuke had been when he'd first left home - not quite there, but enough that virtually everyone else was a full head taller. Another rookie trainer? There'd been Dave at the park a few days back, but since then the squeakers had been coming out of the woodwork ever since the Gym challenge. Honestly, had it not been a keepsake of better, more fondly remembered times Ryusuke would seriously have considered ditching the rather conspicuous red coat he was usually wearing and had on at the moment simply due to how easy it made the job of finding him, but at this point he was at least considering stashing it in his travel case at least until they hit the next city.
"Don't really care who are, first rookie beat you to it a few days ago. Not giving out any more pointers or lessons, you want to beat Senka you figure it out yourself."
ecause the blond trainer stopped, Jodie was able to close the distance between her and Ryusuke. Now with a closer view, she was able to get a better look at the trainer. His coat was stark - without it, it was unlikely she would have ever been able to find him. Besides that, he seemed about her age, and was obviously a good bit taller than her. He certainly looked like a guy who could beat his first gym without problem, as did his grovyle. The plan was to give her hand in a friendly gesture, but she was cut short by the other trainer’s tone.
Rookie trainer…? She had a meowstic beside her. Elan wasn’t nearly as large as Ryusuke’s grovyle, but the meowstic was obviously not a pokemon fresh from her egg. Though, Jodie was going incognito, she guessed, dressed in all black rather than her highly fashionable hoodie. And blazed across all of her promotional material was the name “Rip”, not “Jodie”. And she wasn’t the most stunning of the gym leaders (that award would probably go to Victor). And she was small, often mistakenly younger than she was... But, rookie trainer? Jodie felt like she needed a cut away to her laughing at the camera.
She could clue him in right now, clear up the misconception and get on with this sort-of reunion. It was what she had come here for, after all.
As if. No, this was not an opportunity she was about to let pass. It was just too good. And really, what she wanted was to get to know this person, and that could be accomplished in many ways, couldn’t it?
Like a machine left vacant for ages and now given its first work, Jodie’s mind quickly formulated a plot.
Her hands clasped behind her back and her voice jumping an octave, Jodie put her innocents on. “No, no, I don’t want lessons.” She put on her best puppydog eyes and looked shyly down at her feet. “You see, last week I found these old ruins out on the cliffs. I think there might be rare pokemon inside,” she dropped, hoping that would get his attention, “but… I only became a trainer recently. I don’t think I’m strong enough to go in alone. But then I saw you beat the gym! You’re so strong, Ryusuke! I thought, well, maybe, you’d go in with me.”
Jodie looked up at Ryusuke as if she’d just remembered something. “Ah! But I don’t mean it like you’ll get nothing from it! Like I said, rare pokemon like those kinds of places. I don’t want to catch anything, so I won’t get in your way if we find something! I’ve got to focus on training my new Meowstic, and, well, I just really want to go exploring there.”
The ruins in question did indeed exist - she’d found them perhaps six months ago and nearly broke her leg when one of the carved stone ledges she was climbing on gave way under her. Down through a small cave in the cove area was a small shrine-like area, built out of stone and probably older than the Lost Shrine. Not many people knew about it because the entrance was well hidden, halfway up the cliff and tucked behind a natural ledge. She hadn’t really seen any rare pokemon there (though there had been a really cool ghost haunting the center shrine), but she hadn’t really been looking, and she hadn’t been back in a while.
Really, she just needed something to get his attention. She could come up with something else, or she could offer money, but this game would be no fun if he simply walked away now.
Post by Ryusuke Ugumi on Nov 14, 2015 18:24:28 GMT -5
As I cannot find the answer here
Okay, so, already a pleasant change of pace and with the other trainer's denial of Ryusuke's own rather quick response the trainer found himself relaxing at least a little bit. Enough to notice the Pokemon that hadn't been immediately noticeable in the crowd before - even shorter than the other trainer or even Grovyle, the thing hadn't stood out at all before. It wasn't a species that Ryusuke was familiar with, though, which in and of itself was something of interest. Considering where he'd traveled over the past few years the Pokemon from most regions were ones he could identify on sight - the only real exceptions to that being Sinnoh and Kalos. Ryusuke had never been to the former and had maybe spent a grand total of a single week in the latter, so the Pokemon behind the trainer was likely from one of the two. Unfortunately, the thing's small size made it difficult to tell if it was an evolved Pokemon or still at base form, so that wasn't of much use in gauging the other trainer's experience.
What did get Ryusuke's attention out of the other trainer's reply, though, was one word - "ruins". One that was met with a mix of rather conflicting feelings, particularly given what the other trainer wanted from him. Ryusuke and "abandoned" places went way, way back - far enough that he knew they were almost never what they appeared to be, and that such locations were hardly ever safe, something that this kid seemed to be well aware of herself. To go down the list... arm and leg nearly frozen off as frostbite, deep cold and metal prosthetics don't mix? Check. Kidnapped by a ghost type Ryusuke still had yet to identify after all these years, and nearly made a human sacrifice by some cult living out in the wilderness? Check. Almost killed off by more Ghost types and laboratory rejects in Lavender Town a couple years after that? Check. Nearly drowned in an underwater ruin that he'd been hired to map out in place of the researchers, because they'd known full well how risky it had been? Check-check-check.
In short, Ryusuke's first impulse was to immediately say "no". No to injury, no to hospital visits, no to certain and impending death. And only half a year ago he would've - there wouldn't have been any debate, the blonde would've said the word without thinking about it, turned around and gone off on his merry way. And of all people, it was Grovyle who was made somewhat nervous by the lack of immediate denial on his trainer's part, the Grass type turning to walk only to pause and look back at Ryusuke's lack of movement.
Half a year ago did not equate to now, here, in the present. Ryusuke was not the same person he was back then. Back then he'd been half assing everything, focused more on finding his mother and, when that didn't pan out, avoiding any sort of accountability by tagging along with other people to help with their goals. While the near-drowning incident was a more recent one, fact of the matter was had that happened before Ryusuke had started actually training himself and his team, he wouldn't have made it out of there. Another three months of intense effort since then..... honestly, Ryusuke was feeling pretty good about himself and his team, what they were capable of. It might've just been the recent Gym battle, but compared to how dangerous that mapping job had been... well, it was hard to get any riskier than that was. Plus, to be entirely frank, the whole reason he'd been leaving the city today was to get some practice in with his team.
"Not really interested in catching any wild Pokemon, struck out on that. The whole reason I was leaving the city today was for more or less the same reason you said you're interested in seeing the ruins, though. Sure, I can tag along." Ryusuke responded, finally breaking the several long moments he'd spent considering the pros and cons. And, to be perfectly frank, there was another thing to all of this - at a glance, the first thing Ryusuke was reminded of was his cousin, someone he'd met under similar circumstances. Similar, but not identical - when he'd ran into her, she was already in the ice caves same as he was, and both of them had rushed in relatively unprepared. Thing was, if Ryusuke didn't agree to go he had something of a sneaking suspicion that the kid would find her way to the ruins on her own anyways.
he suspense was broken with what she would consider to be a critical success. Wild pokemon was the one thing about the ruins she couldn’t promise, but experience? The cold hard past was the best teacher one could ask for. “Yes!” Jodie cheered, throwing a fist triumphantly in the air. “This is going to be so much fun. We’re probably some of the first people to go in there in years, or even decades!” Her excitement was evident in her voice.
The cave, though not far from town, was a little far to walk. Thus Jodie summoned upon the power of the rickshaw once again. One fast and inexpensive ride later, the biker dropped them off not far from where Jodie remembered the path up being.
She felt like something was off on the way there - there had been a dense people population, even for the warm beach on a nice day. She had hoped there was just some festival or something along those lines going on, but as she stepped out of the bike carriage, her worst nightmares were realized. What greeted them was a sign and a line.
The sign was a wooden cutout of a cutified rhydon, donning a explorer hat and holding a tall slab with words on it. It read:
“Find of the Century!
Untouched ruins discovered in close proximity of Crystal City! Be one of the first in decades to explore the ruins that hid in plain site!
Come see the historical recreation of a once grand civilization! Enjoy food and guided tours, put on by the great discoverer herself! Or battle our historically accurate trainers and be swept back in time!
£350 for adult
£200 for child
Fyndon Explorers Co.”
The line lead up what had once been a broken stone path, repaved from what was basically a climbing wall into a wooden staircase. It was as busy as the movies on the night of a new blockbuster. Jodie collapsed in front of the sign. This was a travesty, an injustice. A natural ruins taken from the hands of her, and other trainers, and put into the hands -and pockets- of this… Fyndon Explorers Co. And she thought the visions from that halloween candy were scary.
The man in a green hat and brown vest uniform, standing at the sign who was supposed to be answering any questions but was instead looking entirely bored, gazed down at the fallen trainer. “You okay, Miss?”
Jodie shot up, fire in her eyes and in her mouth. “No, I’m not. Do you even have the permits to claim part of the route for profit-”
“Yes, we do.” The man interjected lazily, looking as though he’d been asked this questions many times already and pulling out a folder from a shoulderbag he had stashed on the ground. Jodie snatched the folder from his hands and scanned through the documents. She slammed the folder closed, and handed it back to the man, who was unphased by her glare.
Jodie was defeated. By a stack of papers, no less. She returned to Ryusuke drained of the energy she had been radiating before. “It wasn’t like this earlier, promise.” She said gloomily. Still, she couldn’t leave now. They were already here, and last time she had come, she had nearly seriously injured herself. If this place was a danger to the tourists and trainers -unrightly- paying money to enter, she couldn’t let that stand. She also had to see just how much damage they had caused, less her mind dream nightmares of kiddy playhouses to wake her from her sleep for the next week.
Absently, she pulled out a bit of money to give to the ticket teller. “I’ll buy lunch.”
Maybe food and one of those battles would make her feel better. Probably not.
