Non-Weekly Quote: (Updated when the fancy strikes us)
"Strong Pokemon, weak Pokemon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers win with their favorites" - Karen, E4
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An extremely attractive young man made his way down the pier into the wonderful area of Althea New Haven. The man made sure to keep his eyes and ears open for any suspicious figures, for reasons you will soon find out. He was here for one sole purpose, and one purpose only. To find out what was really going on in the Althea tournament and tell the world using his column in the magazine PokeNow! That is if he could progress far enough into this so called "tournament." All he had to help him during this journey was his Squirtle, Seno. Who he just noticed, was now spinning around inside of his shell trying to entertain himself. Seno was always there for him, so he felt like he had to bring his Squirtle with him. He could not have possibly left Seno back at home...trust me. Imagine Grandpa Ortega chasing after Seno with a net, and Grandma Ortega following with a pot and large spoon. Apparently Joel's grandparents never understood why you should not cook and eat Pokémon...Seno would be tortoise soup right about now. And he was not about to lose his Squirtle, even though Squirtle would have probably destroyed his grandparents with ease. Though he felt a little bad, because he was not sure exactly how dangerous this island was yet. He did not want Seno in any form of danger, but he felt as if danger was going to make sure it found him.
Anyway, back to the attractive young man part. The young man's true identity is Zackary Joel Ortega, yet he prefers the name Joel for reasons you will never know. Joel has piercing blue eyes and light brown hair. He's pretty tall, very fit, and muscular. He's also quite the charmer, which tends to put him into a lot of tight spots. And by tight spots I mean coming out parties (DON'T QUESTION ME!!!), since he prefers the term bi-homosexual. Joel likes boys, its that plain and simple. Though he also likes girls as well, but prefers the male gender over the female one. Joel has been chased through houses and down streets, because he'll usually flirt with a girl and end up sleeping with her gay best friend...which never ends well.
--To the actual point!
Joel needed to fit in, and pronto. He had to make it seem like all he wanted to be was the greatest Pokémon trainer in the world and win this so called "tournament." Alright, so maybe fitting in was going to be a lot easier than he had thought. He had already passed through the hardest part in sneaking around, which was getting through the background check. Apparently they were not aware of his current project at PokeNow!...or so he thought. They could have very well been aware, and allowed him to enter to finish him and this path of research off once and for all. But Joel had no idea what was going on, so he was determined to find out!
Joel and Seno looked at each other with a little sigh wondering where they should go and where they should start snooping. They decided that they should play it easy...since it was only the first day. So they eventually decided to walk towards the dormitories...it's not likely that their true purpose will be figured out in a second just by taking a stroll. After walking around for ages and finally finding an open room, which lacked roaches people, they eventually settled in and did not take their time to go and venture out into New Haven. New Haven was different than Celadon City. Well, Althea was completely different than Kanto, so what else could he expect. While Joel and Seno walked through New Haven and it's many interesting areas, he started to ponder. Is this what his contact Rodrick was doing when he first arrived to Althea? Where was Rodrick, and why did he vanish completely? Joel was going to get to the bottom of it, and hopefully find his old friend. Dead or alive, but preferably alive.
Looking down at Seno, he smiled and hoped that Seno was ready to explore the small area and possibly train his ass off. They both knew how hard they were going to have to work to make it to the top of the tournament. He figured that the farther you get in this so called tournament, the deeper he will get into finding out what is really going on. He was going to get this story, and no one was going to stop him. Unless they found out his true agenda, which he still had no idea how the security of Althea did not know. Maybe it was because the story he is working on about Althea was a secret. But it really did not matter anymore, he was here now which is the only thing that mattered.
While they were walking, Joel found himself face planting into the ground. Seno for some odd-possibly stupid reason stopped in mid-walk and caused Joel to trip over him. Joel lifted his head to see Seno's eyes sparkling at another trainer's female Squirtle. Noticing this, Joel started to chuckle to himself and slowly rise from the ground. Brushing off the dirt from his shorts and attempting to fix his hair, he noticed that the other Squirtle's trainer was a man...who was also extremely attractive. The trainer and his Squirtle soon passed by the sparkly-eyed Joel and Seno. They both head nodded to them and continued to walk away. Joel and Seno continued to watch them walk away, mouths agape. Eventually they both snapped out of it, and looked at each other and started to laugh quietly. They both then continued to walk down their selected path, hoping to find something of interest. And maybe some more eye candy.
Althea was freaky. That was the conclusion that John had come to, after spending his first full week on the atypical island. In fact, it was so far from the norm that he had no idea what the hell reason they were sending trainers here for in the first place. He had caught wind yesterday of a rescue mission - a RESCUE MISSION - because someone had stayed out past 'bed time'. It was like living in some sort of crazy alternate version of 1984, and he could only wonder what sort of surveillance they had in place to track the movements of the trainers. While he wasn't by any means paranoid, his normally calm demeanor was put slightly on edge by the sheer other-worldliness of the entire place.
What really got him was just how focused the other trainers were; perhaps it was due to his first and foremost focus on his Pokémon as people rather than weapons that he noticed how it was changing them, too. Altair had been curious ever since John had received him in Goldenrod, the little Eevee poking his innocent nose into anything and everything that could be poked into. Even the Baron could feel it, instead of deigning to pace behind his 'cohorts' as normal, so that they would act as bodyguards, allowing them to intercept any potential danger... Here he was, staying right by his trainer's underling's side. New Haven seemed safe enough, but even that designation - that it was a haven, a refuge from the rest of... whatever was out there - hinted at the malicious nature of the tournament they had all landed themselves in.
He couldn't leave yet. He wouldn't. Even if it was foolish to say that he had something to prove here, he knew that he would never be able to face Whitney again if he failed - turning tail and running would prove her right more than anything. Her words had cut to his soul, unleashing the fierce and stubborn side of him that had yet to truly wane. John's eyes were opening, that was for sure, but at the very least he was aware if not afraid. He was too confident to think, no matter what the situation was or changed to be, that he would be in any real danger. Suspicious as it all was, there was no way the sponsoring company would ever knowingly send trainers into anything they couldn't absolutely handle, right? And no one left - clearly because they were too fascinated, too fixated, having too much FUN to return to any kind of normal training. Things here were stepped up, intense... Hell, there were Regis strollin' down the street like they owned the place, keeping people in line. Those glittering beady red eyes scared the shit out of John in a challenging way - he wanted to beat the hell out of one one day just to prove that he could. It was a goal, anyway.
Regardless of all of this, John was just strolling around. Having been around New Haven for a week, he was starting to grow curious about what lay outside the protected area. He'd heard all manner of rumors from other trainers, including his roommate's nonsensical ramblings about the place CHANGING. Islands don't do that. Cities don't do that. At least, none that he'd ever heard of. Sure, there had been something in the papers about Sunyshore developing some sort of solar panel walkway that went above the city, and the Goldenrod department store had been revamped not that long ago, but still. They didn't change themselves.
Trainers changed, though. In all his years, John had gone from being the gangly little boy that had once lived in Cerulean into a fairly stocky, solidly built teen. His physical training with his Pokémon paid off ten-fold, and so it would be ironic that even though anyone who may have known him once upon a time probably wouldn't recognize him now, he couldn't help but double-take as he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Normally he kept a pretty close eye on both the trouble-seeking Baron (magnet of all things that could go ill) and the typically light-minded Altair - but seeing someone go crashing head-first to the ground over their Pokémon tended to pull ones eyes away from even the most errant normal type. After all, he did pretty much trust them to keep an eye on one another. Eevee's oversized cabbit ears swung up, sensitive to the sound, perking up and focusing on the curious tumble even as the other trainers and their Pokémon in the area cleared the area. God forbid they help someone who fell.
Altair bounded forward, a grin on his tawny face as his ridiculously fluffy tail swung from side to side playfully, counter-balancing his erratic leaps and ...was he skipping? John strolled after the bold fox-rabbit-cat-dog-thing, while the Baron stopped and watched him walk off. "I say," he postulated to the air, reaching with one stubby arm to twirl his impressively manly mustachio. "Are we all just going to hop and skip off without so much as a how-d'you-do? Well I'll just wait right here thankyouverymuch. I don't have any godforsaken desire to dash about, running amok into all manner of danger and speaking with who only knows what manner of uncouth unknown persons! Your attitudes are appalling, I declare, and your foolishness shall be your undoing!" The adorable pips and squeaks almost sounded booming, but mostly fell into the 'fucking cute' category as the Cleffa called out after his trainer and fellow Pokémon. Having satisfied himself with the appearance of his facial accessory's angle and jauntiness, the baby fairy proceeded to wipe his monocle clean, popping it back over his squinting eye with a swift movement before glancing left and right. He was alone. On this island. Suddenly, his expression changed from a stoic disinterest to one of nervousness and anxiety, and in a flash he sprinted forward to catch up with John and Altair, his underlings. "...Bit of a breeze back there. Didn't want to develop any poor humours," he explained boredly, glancing to the side as though fascinated in the facade of a building.
The Eevee wagged his over-sized tail happily, sniffing at the curious blue turtle Pokémon and his trainer without an ounce of shyness, nose poking at the interestingly tough orange and yellow shell. "Hi! I'm Altair! Wanna be friends?!" he asked cheerfully, eyes closed in an open expression of social happiness. Simple though the Pokémon was, he was certainly earnest, which made it all the more amusing when the Baron caught up with him and bopped him over the head with his blue plastic teacup (sadly empty). "You daft bugger, cease this nonsense at once. Who is this fellow? Don't sniff that, you don't know where it's been!" he proclaimed haughtily, managing to seem almost impressive for being only a diminutive twelve inches tall.
"Sorry about them, they get excited," John apologized, reaching down and picking up his overly-inquisitive Eevee. "You alright? Looked like a nasty fall. Your face looks fine, anyway," he remarked, twisting his face away from the sudden assault of tongue that Altair launched on his trainer's face in adoration. "They smell fine!" attested the tan colored Pokémon, as ever frustrated that John never seemed to understand him. Tail dropping slightly, the normal-type cabbit glanced down at the turtle again with a smile. "Your trainer smells nice!" he whispered, nose twitching as the Cleffa attempted to throw his teacup at the troublesome beast. "Silence, you disrespectful fiend! Leave them to their own devices," the Baron scowled, glowering suspiciously up at Joel before squinting levelly at the Squirtle.
"Nice Pokémon. What is it?" the human continued, ignoring his partners' attempts at banter. "I think I've seen one before, in the Pokethalon, but there are just so many competitors... A water type?" He slung Eevee under one arm while he dug out his Pokedex, scanning the creature curiously. Reading the information provided, his eyes flashed back up at the other male with a cool smile. "Awesome."
And eye candy is what he found. Before they knew it a young man and two Pokemon made their way over. It was as if the gods above knew he was looking out for eye candy, yet they decided to have the treat come to him. He was at first a lost for words. It was as if this guy seemed perfectly cool talking to him without being awkward. Joel tended to get those awkward guys who always said the wrong things at the wrong times in front of the wrong people. Let's just say almost all of those meet and greets did not last longer than the name exchange part. Though this guy did not seem awkward at all. Maybe it was his lucky day! Or maybe it was not and this guy was really just a friendly person not curious in the same sex!!! Either or, he had to find out. Yet the other male almost made it easy to have a conversation with him.
As John spoke to Joel, he noticed both of the man's Pokemon. They were both a little...different than most Pokemon. For one, he had an Eevee with a star shaped patch on its eye. And second, his little Cleffa had a monocle, fake mustache, and a plastic blue tea cup. These two were the weirdest pairing of Pokemon he had ever seen. And he was a journalist, so he saw plenty of odd things. Maybe this guy was a little off after all? Maybe he was only so attractive, because he was some form of axe murderer! Or did some form of random rituals!! He got a little scared for a second, then realized he was overreacting. Plus, his Squirtle seemed to get along fine with the other trainer's Eevee. Seno walked up to Altair before john grabbed him and watched him carefully.
Seno looked over to Joel quickly and notified him of what the other Pokemon said to him. Yep, they were overly friendly axe murderers who were going to nab them both while they were not looking and then chop them up into little pieces and eat them slowly!! It was not until a few moments later that Joel realized that he seemed somewhat mentally unstable. Seno had to nudge him a few times to get out of his own little imagination land. They could not have been man eating cannibals...right? The Althea guards would not have allowed them to enter if they were!
"Alright Joel...stop freaking out and being a whiny bitch. Obviously they are normal, yet overly friendly, people! Say something stupid!"
"Haha...it's alright, Seno's usually a really good form of entertainment as well from his excitement. Just remind me to tell you an embarrassing story if he does something bad!" Joel chuckled slightly, but noticed that Seno shot him a quick glare. It was almost one of those "did you really just say that out loud in public? Wait till we get home tonight, you're going to get hurt" faces. It somewhat intimidated him a bit. Obviously Seno wore the pants most of the time within the duo. Though if it weren't for the either of them having each others back all the time, they would have definitely not made it this far. Seno was a beast fighter and an amazing Pokemon. Joel was glad and lucky he had him. He watched as Seno and Altair proceeded to have their random conversation. Seno dutifully notified Joel that he apparently smelt very nice.
Seno then moved his attention to the little Cleffa. Or well, respectively known as "the Baron." This Pokemon was a whole different level of what the fuck is going on here. Since when did baby Pokemon, or Pokemon in general wear mustaches, pretended they were British, and attacked people with plastic tea cups? This trainer must have been really chill for his Pokemon to be so out there and outgoing. Though Seno wasn't sure if Altair's outgoing nature was just a common mistake for lacking intelligence. Anyway, it really did not matter how different these Pokemon were. They both seemed interestingly exciting and fun. So maybe they would all have fun together...well hopefully. Maybe they would get along perfectly fine?
Anyway none of that really mattered. What truly mattered was that there was a fine young man standing in front of Joel, and the only thing he got across was that Seno liked to entertain. He did not even tell the other guy his own name for Christ's sake! As if Joel was awkwardly standing there, staring at the boy...or was he? Oh shit, he was! Joel did not realize how weird he was being right now. He never acted this way, never! Not ever. Never ever!! It was a weird feeling for sure. The feeling of being unable to get out what you want to say exactly. And feeling as if everything you have said previously just sounded like word jambalaya. The young man had to get over this little crush and speak to the man.
Was he speaking about his face? WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIS FACE?! Was something on it? Was it something embarrassing? He was done for. He lost his chance. It was over. The hot guy probably thought Joel was a nutcase, and had random things on his face. Quickly touching his face, he soon realized he was just overreacting. Or well, if he had just listened to the boy, he would have realized that the guy was just referring to his-....he did not see that. He could not have! How embarrassing! This was just the worst! The boy saw Joel face plant and eat dirt. It was as if the gods were not in his favor anymore. They brought this extremely attractive guy into his arms, and then made him look a fool. Or maybe he was just doing that on his own. He should calm down. Yes. Calm down. CALM THE FUCK DOWN JOEL!
Feewwwfffff~
There, all better now. Joel felt relaxed now, and no longer scared the crap out of Seno. Seno slowly looked away from Joel and explained to the other Pokemon that Joel is not normally like this. Not really ever like this. More like just this one time.
It did not take Joel more than a split second to realize that he should probably respond soon, before the other male noticed he just got done being a nutcase. "Ah yeah...haha...don't worry my face is fine!" Eeeep! The hott guy was looking at his face! Wow, Joel needed to stop, he felt a little crazy. Keep with the conversation! Don't let him know you're nervous!"Ah! Seno is a Squirtle, they are somewhat rare. And yeah, I heard that water Pokemon weren't necessarily allowed on the island unless they could walk...but one would think...it's an island, shouldn't water Pokemon be allowed? But oh well. What are your Pokemon's names? They both seem pretty interesting haha!"
Joel felt a little more at ease, and relaxed a bit. Talking to this boy was not as bad as he thought. Hopefully the guy didn't think he was insane, and mentally unstable. These were things Joel was not. Joel was very strong, stable, and intelligent....minus the ADD and his knack for following shiny things. Anyway, Joel had a ton of questions for this guy. For starters, knowing his name would be nice.
"Sup, I'm Joel, and you are?" He then figured he'd just ask away with questions like how old are you? Where are you from, and the like. He wanted to just sit in a room alone with this guy and find out everything possible about him...or maybe just click database and read his profile (cough). None the less, Joel was very interested in this character. Though his issue was hiding it. The guy most likely knew that the brunette had an insane crush on him. Maybe the guy would like him back? Just maybe. Guess we will just have to find out!
John smiled patiently as the other trainer apparently processed what was going on. As eager as his Eevee was, eyes gleaming in excitement as his fluffy tail tried to wag against the human's chest, John was slightly more reserved. He wasn't shy by any means, which was probably a good thing considering how the other young man was looking at him; thankfully, he didn't mind at all. John knew that he had come a long way from being the gangly kid next door in Kanto, and he had gotten used to a certain level of attention that his boyish charm tended to attract. The blond before him clearly was somewhat taken, and he was more flattered than irked; his ego would always take stroking. Not in the dirty way, you pervert. Raising an eyebrow at the pervasive silence, the trainer's grin widened as he noticed that he had apparently stricken the other young man silent. A slightly awkward expression cross his face with the smile, his eyes rolling to the side and back as he chuckled nervously - this is where talking usually happened, right?
"I declare. Most rude of that chap to stare so, don't you think, Altair? That sort of thing is Not Done, harrumph," declared the Cleffa, regarding the water turtle with a cold glance as though accusing the Squirtle of being every bit as bad as his trainer.
"Be nice! They're makin' friends!" defended the Eevee loyally, star-shaped patch following the twist of his head to peer down at the Baron, before turning back to the blond with a broad smile. "Your trainer is nice, I can tell!"
"Undignified. If things were left for you to decide, we'd have cookies three meals a day, and everything would be sparkles, flowers and rainbows," muttered the Baron with disapproval heavy on his tone, turning away to regard the other trainers in the area as they resumed going about their business, no time to dawdle and watch the strange interaction happening in their midst.
Letting out a dreamy sigh, the tan creature's ears drooped somewhat before he responded quietly, "Like that would be so bad?"
"Haha...it's alright, Seno's usually a really good form of entertainment as well from his excitement. Just remind me to tell you an embarrassing story if he does something bad!" the blond announced, increasing John's amusement exponentially. What did that have to do with anything? He had asked about the Squirtle, but his Pokedex had thankfully functioned long enough to tell him about the creature, at least answering all of his own mostly rhetorical questions. Being polite, he decided to share his own embarrassing Pokémon. Well, he planned to, but he lost his train of thought as the skinny blond went back to staring. The look on his face was almost absent, and somewhat unsettling; he wasn't a model or anything! Thankfully, it was the Squirtle's trainer who broke the silence again.
"Ah yeah...haha...don't worry my face is fine! Ah! Seno is a Squirtle, they are somewhat rare. And yeah, I heard that water Pokémon weren't necessarily allowed on the island unless they could walk...but one would think...it's an island, shouldn't water Pokémon be allowed? But oh well. What are your Pokémon's names? They both seem pretty interesting haha!"
"Interesting isn't the half of it," he remarked with a lopsided grin, boyish cheeks rising and giving his face a rounder appeal, one of youthfulness and vigor. It was awkward as hell that the guy was talking about his Pokémon, again, but whatever, right? John was laid back, he wasn't going to make a huge fuss out of things if the blond wanted to be obsessed with his turtle. Goodness knew he spent enough time pandering to the Baron and Altair's own crazy that adding one more player to the mix didn't exactly make a huge amount of difference.
"This is Altair," he introduced, hoisting the normal type slightly, resulting in a struggle for the creature to get back to the ground to play with his new friend. Against his better wisdom he put the little cat dog fox thing down, raising his eyebrows watchfully as his attention was pulled from the other trainer - the last thing he needed was the Eevee starting some sort of fight by being too friendly. "And this is His Lordship, Baron von Woofter," he continued, eyes drifting back up (slowly) to Joel's own with a sort of flat look that tried to non-verbally communicate that there was a very good explanation for this that he would be pleased to tell him - later, when the Baron wasn't attempting a bow slightly to the right of John's legs. It was more of a half-squat due to the Cleffa's lack of a waist, but the gesture was there nonetheless, a proud expression gracing his pink visage at his full title.
"Sup, I'm Joel, and you are?"
"Nice to meet you," he responded, extending his hand as he subtly moved the conversation on without divulging his own name. Granted how distracted the blond seemed to be, he doubted that Joel would really notice or care. "What brings you to the tournament? Besides trying to win, I mean," he chuckled, shrugging off the obvious answer. There was something observant, watching about the other young man's eyes, and it made him wonder. "It was sort of a dare for me, really. Have you heard of Whitney? She's a gym leader, in Goldenrod City? She trains with the normal type, she actually gave me Altair, here. He was my first Pokémon."
He paused, realizing that the background didn't do any good to explain unless he gave it context. Shrugging one shoulder, he went on in a matter of fact tone, cool air showing in his laid back mannerisms, nothing extravagant but just enough to season his speech. "Well, I heard about it and was talking about it with some of my friends from the Pokethalon and she basically told me I'd flop out in ten minutes or less. I've made it a whole week, so I've already won the pool, but... I can't go back. I've got to prove her wrong if she's going to really take me seriously, you know?"
Thinking about that for a moment, John lifted an eyebrow. "Not that I want to take her place or anything, but, anyway, what brings you? I don't mean to talk your ear off..." he chuckled again, running a hand through his hair to push his bangs back smoothly.
"We're gonna win! You hear that, Baron, sir?" declared Eevee loyally, earning himself a teacup to the head.
"Of course we're going to win, you dolt! ..... and look what you did to my cup, it's all over the ground!"