The Cruise of a Lifetime

One by one, Emilia's new acquaintances made their way to the dining table. Ilya was the first- and he had somehow not caught her name among all the commotion earlier. This was somewhat of a relief to her, as it meant it was someone who wasn't immediately aware of her legacy and all that her family stood for. It was almost as if they could be normal friends! "Ah, welcome! So glad you could make it. I'm Emilia Applingdale," she said, giving a winning smile to the young man.

Rei arrived soon after, tea set in tow, just as promised. Emilia smiled and gave a small wave, and wondered vacantly if the tea she served would be awful, or decent-enough. The young woman's outfit was surprisingly stylish, including a set of lace gloves that seemed a bit eccentric, but still fetching. Ah, if only fate were fair... this girl would have been the Applingdale heir rather than me. Cruel fate.

The next arrival came not through a dinner guest making their way through the dining room, but in a fantastic stage display with puffs of marvelous pink and blue. Farah!? Emilia was stunned, her mouth agape as she watched her new friend perform. What well behaved Pokemon! And how beautiful, even for a short display! The girl thought that Farah looked like a sparkling fairy up there with her talented Pokemon.

Once the display was over and glitter lined the tablecloth, Farah made her way back. "O-oh, there's nothing to apologize for. If I was your manager, I'd make you perform, too! Er, I mean, I would ask for you to perform. Not make you." Emilia shut her mouth to prevent more word vomit from spilling out. "You did a good job!"

And then, the final guest. Oh, lordy. Emilia couldn't prevent her face from screwing up like she had just licked a lemon slice. What on EARTH was the bug man wearing? She didn't think she'd be able to pull together such an offensive outfit from her wardrobe if she put an active effort into it. Feeling secondhand embarrassment, she actively looked away, her hand slightly covering her face while she tried to pull herself back into composure.

"Drinks, everyone?" The waiter arrived, and Emilia was grateful for the distraction. "A glass of orange juice and soda water, if you'd please," she requested. She was grateful that she wasn't old enough to order alcohol on this cruise ship- on the occasions she drank it with her family at home for fancy dinners, she always found it atrociously bitter. Worse than tea, even!

"Order what you like," she announced to her table guests. "Let's all enjoy our new companionship and celebrate the first evening on this fine ship!"

-----

Meanwhile, back in Emilia's cabin, underneath a pile of pillows and bedding, something began shifting. Rather, it began shaking violently. A muffled click could be heard in the room. A viscous purple fluid began to creep through the pillows, finally seeming to gain enough purchase on the fabric before dragging a teapot violently out of the pile. A stain lingered on the sheets, complete with an aroma of freshly brewed tea.

A mere pile of blankets could not stop a being such as Oolong. Emilia must have known this. But then again, nothing could really stop Oolong.

The Polteageist smiled.

Talk about making an entrance. Farah's brief performance had stunned the whole table into complete silence. For Ilya, the spell wasn't broken until Clive showed up shortly afterwards. Emilia seemed like she could hardly bear to look at the man, whether that was for her distaste for bugs or his much more... casual style of dress, Ilya wasn't sure. Really what was she expecting though? Clive didn't exactly seem like the type to show up in a tuxedo.

Emilia then invited everyone to order whatever they liked. Ilya opened the menu and immediately regretted getting on such a luxurious ship. Did everyone in high society speak fluent Kalosian? He wasn't even sure how to pronounce most of these. Suddenly, a handful of papers was pushed across the table towards him. "I was surprised when you took an interest in my research Ilya," Clive had said. "It's not so often that I meet another interested in my field."

Now this was a language Ilya could understand, more or less. At the very least, he cared about this more than whatever a "Queueramolos" was. Ordering could wait a few minutes at least. "Absolutely!" Ilya responded. "I tried to get into research work myself, but I found it too tedious for me. I love hearing about the discoveries others have made though."

As he read and discussed the papers with Clive, Ilya found he was much less anxious than he had been just minutes earlier. The panic he had felt at losing Beta was mostly gone, but the uncertainty of his situation still nagged at the back his mind. He hoped Milo had been able to track it down by now.

-----

On the other end of the ship, near the cabins, a small red and blue Pokemon gleefully bounded down the halls. This was not the first time this Pokemon had come this way, nor would it be the last, as its memory was so unstable that it could hardly remember where it had come from or where it had been. This didn't seem to concern it however. It moved from door to door, carefully analyzing each one.

Doors all look the same. Looking is no good. Need to listen. It placed its head against the first door and listened. Quiet. It did the same to the second door. Quiet. It did this to every door, either hearing no noise or nothing that it found particularly interesting. Almost nobody was in their cabin, likely because it was dinnertime, but of course, this Porygon would have no way of knowing that.

Finally it came up to a door that did make an interesting noise. Not quiet. What is that sound? Clinking? Glasses clinking? Why do glasses clink? People like to clink glasses, right? When do people clink glasses? People clink glasses when... when they drink, yes! When they drink, together, at parties! I like parties! I like to meet people!

The Porygon bounced up and jiggled the door handle. It didn't move. Locked. Doors have locks. Locked doors can't open. It examined the lock a bit closer. The door has a slot, for a card? Keycard! Keycards are for electronic locks. I can open these, that's right! I did this before! The room I left before had the same lock! All the doors here have this kind of lock! The digital Pokemon sent a series of electromagnetic pulses into the slot, each one getting closer and closer to matching the keycard's frequency until...

Click! The door slowly came open, and the Porygon scanned the room. No people? No people clinking glasses. What was clinking glasses? It scanned the room again. Something was moving, too small to be a person. What is that? It clinks when it moves, like glasses. Maybe it's... made of glass? But it has a handle. What has handles? Pots have handles. Is this a glass pot? Do glass pots move on their own?"

The glass pot opened up, and a purple substance came out from under the lid. The purple substance had a face. Was it another Pokemon? The purple face looked towards the open door and the curious Pokemon standing in it.

"Hello," said the Porygon to the strange purple face. "My name is Beta. Who are you?" The purple face offered no reply, instead extending a purple arm and beckoning Beta to come closer.

Beta didn't know many things, and the things it did know it wasn't very sure about, but as it made its way into the room, it felt as though it could be sure about one thing: this strange purple face in the glass pot was going to be a very good friend.

Rei smiled and waved back toward Emilia, her face blatantly showing the sheer elation she had for her own craft, as well as the ability to share it with the whole table. Before she could initiate any kind of conversation, her attention was stolen by the grandeur of Farah's opening act. Her eyes dazzled as the entertainer synergised with her Pokemon, although whether or not the shine was Rei's own astoundment or Farah's glittery rain would remain unknown. As the woman re-appeared near her seat at the table, Rei's jaw was figuratively floored.

She took a moment to absorb it before her brain snapped her back into the present moment, in which a waiter was coming around the table and asking for drink orders. "I-I'll just have a water," she remarked to the waiter. Although she didn't doubt her own craft, she was uneasy about the dining hall's menu, plus it was always a good idea in her head to keep a palette cleanser around just in case. Nodding the waiter off to the next patron, she turned her gaze back inward to the table to survey who else was at the table. It's basically everyone I expected: Emilia, Farah the entertainer lady, that Ilya guy, and the bug dude named Clive. I guess we all only came because we got directly involved... plus it was a free meal. Doing a second pass of the table, her eyes latched onto Clive's attire, which simultaneously managed to intrigue and horrify her. She couldn't help but scoff once under her breath in amusement at the sheer dissonance between his outfit and those at the rest of the table.

Returning her attention to the entertainer, she raised her eyebrows and leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. "That was a really amazing opener, Ms. Farah! You managed to do all that on such short notice?" While in the back of her head, Rei knew that Farah probably had some choreographed routines with her Pokemon, it impressed her nonetheless.

~~~~

Meanwhile, back in Rei's cabin, Winston sat atop Rei's bed, staring out at the vast open sea. While Rei had brought along both Checkmate and Mafia Boss in her handbag to go to dinner, she left Winston back at the cabin, with the reasoning of him being "good at guarding things." This wasn't something Winston denied at all, in fact, he quite enjoyed the quiet solitude of the cabin; however, the gentle swaying of the ship and the waves of the ocean would only keep his brooding for so long.

The Absol hopped down from the bed, skirting around Rei's still open luggage that was spread across the floor like the entrails of some dead animal from her constantly rifling through it during her brewing process. While Winston thought it was a bit overkill, he didn't think much of it other than that. He was used to Rei's absolute adamancy on certain tasks, which he found admirable enough to draw him away from the Spear Pillar back when he had first blocked Rei's hike in her home region.

Winston paced around the cabin several times over, surveying every possible facet of the room Rei stayed in. Eventually, this too bored him, which began enticing him to exit the cabin and survey the ship as a whole. I shouldn't, he thought to himself, I need to keep guarding the room. Ultimately, however, Winston succumbed to the urge to exit the room, reasoning that the lock would do a fine enough job on its own. Leaping upwards and almost hitting the ceiling, Winston skewed himself in a way that would catch his horn on the door handle, pulling it down as he landed and unlatching the door, slowly allowing it to open into the room. Winston skirted around it, catching the handle from its underside with his horn on the way out to close the door behind him, waiting for the sound of the electronic latch to go back into place as confirmation before peering down the hallway and beginning to walk in the opposite direction in which he went for the altercation on deck earlier that day.

Name: Kidd (This not their birth name)
Gender: YES They/Them
Age: 8
Occupation: A stowaway
Appearance: Curly brown hair in pigtails. Black shirt, with jean overalls and pants. Probably needs a shower.
History: Is originally from the region of Galar. However, her parents decided moving to Kanto would be better for them. It was a calmer region, in their opinion. Though to their child, the region was so OLD. They want to go back, but the thing is, they don’t have money… So they might have snuck in onto the ship.
List of Pokemon:

Nickname: Ghost
Gender: Female
Species: Wooloo
Appearance: An albino Wooloo
Personality: No thoughts, head empty. She just wants to eat things she shouldn’t probably be eating.

Nickname: Baby
Gender: Female
Species: Nickit
Personality: She will steal anything if she thinks it would value her trainer. Baby always checks on her comrades, making sure they’re all fed, happy, and not lost.

Nickname: Pipit
Gender: Male
Species: Yamper
Personality: Hyper! Has no manners! Will drool on things to claim it! It works often, making him think he is more crafty than he actually is.

Farah couldn’t help but smile at Emilia’s response, if only she was her manager, maybe modeling and coordinating be would be fun again. “Thanks, that means a lot, coming from you. I might have to take you up on that offer.” Perhaps she should invite her to one of her shows? Oh, maybe they could model together? Would Emilia enjoy those kinds of things? Though, maybe someone with her kind of status wouldn’t be in that kind of thing?

Why was she thinking about these things? It’s not she would see Emilia or anyone else on this ship ever again. Why was she thinking about hanging out with her? Oh… Oh no… Could it be? A crush? She barely knew this girl! Stop it, brain. At least let me have one dinner with this girl before I develop a crush, she thought.

Thankfully the waiter came at a great time, asking them for their drinks. She ordered a peach tea, mainly because she really wanted a soggy slice of peach. "That was a really amazing opener, Ms. Farah! You managed to do all that on such short notice?" Farah looked at Rei, who was across the round table.

Another smile, “Aw, thanks! It was actually supposed to be tomorrow’s performance…” She sighed, she would have to think of new performance for the next show. She could call in some of her water Pokemon…. There was a large swimming pool they could use. Maybe they could incorporate the ocean? Did she have enough water Pokemon for that?

She snapped back to reality, hopefully, no one noticed her spacing out. “I’m sure inspiration will hit me.” She glanced at the scientific bug and the other nerd. Perhaps she could use some bug Pokemon in her performance? She did have a strangely marked Butterfree from one of the many islands off of Kanto.

----

Somewhere else on the ship was a sheep, in a room where they were not supposed to be. How did she get there? All she remembered was walking through a small opening in the floor. She then fell onto a fluffy bed. If the wooloo knew anything, she would take in the sight of a lavish hotel room, but all she saw was a curtain that was white as her coat. She wanted to eat that coat.

She ignored the purple ghost and rolled off the bed with a thud. She got up and chomped on the curtain. She chewed and pulled at the fabric, trying to eat it. Out of the corner of her red eyes, she saw a thing that didn’t seem to be part of this world. Phasing, jittering, not a living breathing thing.

She didn’t care, she was eating now and that’s all that mattered to her.

“… and that’s how I figured out what drives Karrablast and Shelmet to fight and evolve. I’ve witnessed it quite a few times myself, with Zipzap’s help. I do dread helping the newly evolved Pokemon remove the Electroweb, though. It’s always a pain getting….”

Clive snapped out of his explanation and realized that the waiter was standing next to him. The poor chap had probably been there for several moments while Clive babbled to Ilya about his adventures in Unova, watching as Clive strayed far from the original topic of discussion. “Your drink order, sir?” the waiter said, letting just a hint of irritation through. Clive thought for a moment, catching another dour glare from the waiter. “I’ll have a glass of tonic water with an extra glass of ice. And a double rum and cola. It’s a special occasion. I can afford to loosen up a bit.”

As the waiter walked away, Clive was glad of two things. First, he was happy with himself. The small amount of freedom he would receive from the drinks would certainly give him the courage to speak to someone other than Ilya. These social functions were never his thing. Clive had seen the looks directed at him as he walked through the dining hall and as he sat down at the table. He somehow would’ve fit in more if he was wearing his lab coat and a pair of examination gloves.
Second, he was elated that he didn’t have to show his ID to the waiter. He was clearly the oldest one at the table. Perhaps that played to his advantage. It was a common occurrence when his lab would celebrate publications that Clive would be IDed at the establishments. Today seemed to gaining traction in his favor.

Returning to reality, Clive took stock of the guests that surrounded him. Ilya was dressed in a suit. One that Clive could tell wasn’t tailored to fit him, but it fit the boy well enough. Emilia and Farah were wearing quite stunning getups, effortlessly outmatching anything Clive owned, current attire certainly included. Rei was definitely the most interesting. A bit more casual than the previous two, but certainly still leagues above what he was wearing. Clive could feel himself becoming more and more self-conscious as time went on.

“So, Ilya. You mentioned that you once had an interest in research. What field were you interested in? Something your Reuniclus can help you out with, no doubt. You two seem quite…” Clive took a moment and remembered the green blob’s free spirit and how it seemed to float away once Ilya had confirmed his attendance at the gathering. “…close.”

Now that everyone was seated, with nothing too eventful to comment on, Emilia wasn't sure what to do. She fiddled around with her silverware a bit, unraveling her napkin and tugging nervously at the corners. Ah, no, no. How unbecoming, she thought to herself, imagining her mother staring down her anxious habits. Usually at these kinds of fancy dinners, her parents did the talking while she sat and looked pretty.

Desperate to keep the conversation going, Emilia looked over the table and took stock of things. Heh. All of us girls are hanging out over here, while the guys talk about science or whatever, she noticed, smirking slightly at her silly observation. However, this didn't really give her any inspiration for talking points. Think, think... how did normal people make friends? Talk about people's hobbies, right?

"I quite agree with Rei, such an impressive act on so little warning! How did you ever get your Pokemon to behave so well? I have a Dragonair that I always thought would perform splendidly in contests, but every time I ask her to do something she just... well... stares blankly at me?" She scowled briefly, frustrated again that Pokemon seemed to have no respect for her. "And you, Rei! Your Absol seemed so obedient earlier. Really, do you have any tips for me?"

-----

Oolong's simple, eerie smile seemed to widen a bit. A Pokemon had come to visit! Another floating Pokemon! A floating Pokemon that seemed to hum on a nearly imperceptible level- how excellent! The Polteageist gave a shrill little cackle, its lid clattering glassily as it chuckled.

"I am Oolong! Thanks to you, I am free. I am forever in your gratitude. Forever!" Oolong cackled once more, then flew out the doorway. It hoped that its new floating companion would follow, but its actions would remain the same regardless.

Grinning, the Polteageist made its way back out onto the main deck. There were decidedly fewer humans to play with now- what a shame! Where could they be? Had they thrown themselves into the sea? Were they beneath the darkening waves, never to be seen again? Certainly, this was the only option.

"Beta! Betabetabetabeta. Beta," Oolong said in a singsong voice. "This ship belongs to us now." Displeased with the amount of human filth left on its new palace, Oolong began to methodically shoot shadow balls at the tables and chairs on deck, trying to launch them off of the ship.

Ilya chuckled to himself at Clive's obliviousness. The waitress had been standing over him for almost a minute now, growing increasingly annoyed as he ignored her and continued to ramble. "Give him a moment," Ilya whispered to the waitress. "I think he's just about done."

After Clive had wrapped up his explanation and sheepishly ordered his drink, Ilya complimented Clive on his work, "Very interesting, I always wondered what the link between those two Pokemon was myself. Besides both being Bug-types from Unova they seemed to have almost nothing in common."

They went back and forth for a bit, until Clive asked Ilya about his partner and past interest in research. "I was a research assistant on a team studying diseases found in Pokemon, specifically Pokerus," Ilya replied. "A discovery was made that the growth of the virus doesn't progress at all if the infected Pokemon is kept in the Pokemon Storage System. They tasked me with monitoring the storage system as they did the same tests over and over, which made me realize that research was boring, and computer systems were much more interesting! Well, at least to me. I eventually started working with the storage system full time, as well as a few other projects of my own..."

Ilya stopped himself. He had probably said too much about that. Time to change the topic. "... as for my Reuniclus, he's been with me since I was a schoolboy and he was a Solosis. He's able to share his thoughts with me telepathically, which is normally something Reuniclus can only do with each other. It takes a lot of trust for them to be able to do it outside their own species, so yeah, we are quite close."

From across the table, he overheard Emilia's complaining about her own Pokemon's obedience issues. Ilya quietly enjoyed a laugh at the poor girl's expense. "I never really trained Milo though," he said to Clive. "We just grew up together and understand each other. I don't really enjoy battling, and I have no other Pokemon besides Milo, so I have no experience with training. What about you? How do you train your Pokemon?"

-----

The floating pot said a lot of things very quickly that Beta barely had time to register, but it was pretty sure the pot said its name was Oolong? That didn't make much sense, pots aren't very long at all, they're round. Maybe it meant something else? Beta decided to ask about it later, and then promptly forgot it had ever made that decision.

Oolong had seemed pretty eager to get out of the room. Beta didn't know why, but figured that Oolong knew the room better than it did, so if there was some reason to leave, Beta should probably follow. On the way out of the room, the Porygon noticed something else moving in the corner. It looks softer than glass, and its face isn't purple, but whatever it is, it's round and white just like Oolong. Is it something similar? Beta didn't know what to call it.

"Are you coming, other-Oolong?" The unfamiliar Pokemon lazily glanced towards Beta, then without a word turned back around and continued... attempting to eat a curtain? Beta didn't think curtains were meant for consumption, but Beta had also never consumed anything and didn't really understand the specifics of it. The Porygon took this other Pokemon's silence as refusal and continued out to the deck.

"Oolong?" It called out. From somewhere outside, it heard Oolong's voice call back to it. Beta floated off towards the voice, and saw Oolong launching furniture off the deck by attacking them with Shadow Balls. Beta tried to muster up some energy to do the same, but it wasn't able to, and the effort involved gave it a headache. Shaking off the dizziness, Beta spotted an umbrella on the far side of the deck. It charged towards it and knocked it over with its body. This was good enough.

"The ship belongs to us now," Oolong declared after the deck had been cleared. Beta's eyes widened. It had never really owned anything, much less something this big. It took a moment to marvel at its giant new toy. Surely it would never get bored of this!

"What should we do first?" Beta wondered out loud. "Ships, they go places, right? We should bring our ship somewhere! We need to find the... the place that makes the ship move! Let's move our new ship!"

A young child and their two Pokemon, a Nickit and a Yamper were wandering through the empty halls of the ship. Everyone that had been on the ship was in the large dining room, allowing the child to take note of the ship's layout.

Sometimes the puppy would bound up to a door and give it a sniff, before running back to their owner’s heels. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he caught up to the pair, “No Ghost there!”

“How did we just lose her?!” The child said, tugging at their pigtails in frustration. Baby was supposed to keep an eye on the wandering Wooloo. When they were at their home in Galar, Ghost would often get lost and found in the oddest of places. One time the albino was found in someone’s shower when they weren’t there. How did the Pokemon open the door? How did she even turn on the shower?

Kidd sighed, resting their hands on the back of their head. They shouldn’t really be surprised, should they? But gosh, if Ghost kept this up they surely would be caught and sent home! A frown formed on their face, they didn’t want to go home though! Kanto wasn’t the place they loved, it was Galar! And gosh dang it, they would get back there somehow!

They bit their lip. Was this ship even going to Galar? No, no, the brochure mentioned a world tour! Surely they would get to Galar, eventually...

Loud bangs jolted the eight-year-old out of their thoughts. “W-what was that?” She then started running towards the sound.

“We shouldn’t be running into danger!” Yipped Baby, the Nickit.

“YAY DANGER!” Pipit barked, gladly joining in running.

They arrived at one of the decks, where they saw a Polteageist and a Porygon causing havoc, ramming into furniture and sending attacks at random, sending some of the furniture into the ocean. “We should be going…” Baby said, pawing at their trainer’s leg, the Nickit quickly glanced at the teapot, who gave Baby the creeps.

The Yamper quickly grew bored of the chaos and began to follow his nose. He smelt a friend! Was this friend, Ghost? The canine ran into the only open room and found the sheep continuously pulling at fine sheets. “Found! I found you!” Sparks jumped from the Yamper’s yellow fluff and he ran up to the sheep. When he reached the Pokemon he jumped to give her a hug but instead shocked her. The sheep didn’t seem to feel it, still trying to eat the curtain.

Ghost let out a bleep as she was scooped up by Kidd, “Good catch, Pipit.” They said, they quickly got out of the room and eyed the troublemakers. “They could be a good distraction..” They said, resting their head on Ghost’s fluff.

“We do not work with trouble makers!” Baby ran in front of them, blocking their path.

“Nah,” Kidd stepped over their Pokemon and started to walk towards the duo. “Hey Teapot, Beepers, do you feel like causing some trouble on purpose?”

-----

How did she get her Pokemon to behave? Oh gosh, how did she? Farah had grown up around Pokemon all her life. Her family not only took care of the Bell Tower for Ho-Oh, but sick and injured Pokemon from the nearby forest. It was their duty in Ecruteak City.

“Do you want the 60-minute version, or the like, 5-minute version?” She said, resting her chin on her left hand, smirking. After a minute, she started talking. “Seriously, though, I’m not too sure.” A disappointing answer, “I mean, all my partners you see are my friends, first, and my Pokemon second. Of course, some of my Pokemon didn’t want to be my friend.” Her mind flashed to the Miltank she had caught that would charge her every time she was sent out. “Those, I just showed them that I was worthy of their respect.” Of course earning a Pokemon, who hated you with every fiber of their being, was hard to earn their respect.

“Tell me, Emem, have you ever done a real battle before? That may help your Dragonair see you as a worthy trainer.”

Rei blinked at Farah's shrugging off of her act, looking slightly bewildered as she leaned into the table. "Just that one little stunt alone was like magic; whatever you come up with next will definitely knock even more socks off than tonight!" Her comment was genuine, although she was completely oblivious to the kind of pressure that could put on people.

Her attention snapped over to Emilia as soon as her name was spoken, taking a moment to try to recall whatever the tea mogul was saying before and after that point. Allowing Farah to answer to finish first since she had been asked first, Rei simply nodded along. "Yeah, the whole 'friend first, Pokemon second' thing is super important. Respect is important, but you want to have a mutual respect instead of it being super one-sided."
She paused her response, thinking about her bond with Winston. His addition to her team was definitely the most unusual, but definitely the strongest out of all of them. "Honestly, Winston was a toughie. I didn't catch him in a battle or whatever, I had to make him trust me enough to voluntarily want to come with me. After that, all I really did was just involve all of my Pokemon in things that I enjoy. Battles are great for trust, but just working on stuff with them builds that sense that they don't have to worry when they're around you, y'know?" Letting her rambling tangent sink in for a moment, she addressed Emilia once again: "Say, what do you enjoy? I might be able to come up with ways for you to bond with them!"

~~~~

The hallways and cabins of the ship all looked nearly identical, at least from what Winston could tell. While it made it a bit hard to make his way around the ship consistently, it also meant he wouldn't have to worry much about location if anything happened, since he already knew the layout of a room.

His stroll opposite of the deck was rather short-lived, as from behind him he heard a loud banging and clattering noise, followed by several more in sequence. Immediately turning on a dime to face the direction of the noise, Winston found himself filled with a sense of impending disaster that his species was known for. Winston bolted down the hallway, vaulting himself against hallway corners to cut down on time turning to get to the deck as fast as he could. Is there another battle happening already, he thought as he skidded around the corner to emerge on the deck.

What he saw was much marginally less worrying than the feeling he was given in the hallway. Winston saw a child with three Pokemon that he didn't much recall... that meant they were most likely from Galar, since that was the only region that Rei hadn't taken him at all. Past them, closer to the center of the deck, he saw a rather enthusiastic Porygon, and... the Polteageist from the battle on deck that morning? Merely glancing at the Ghost-type made that disastrous feeling slowly well inside of him, making the fur around his neck bristle. He stepped past the child and the three Galarian Pokemon, staring down the Polteageist with his piercing green gaze. "You. What are you doing out here again?"

Rei and Farah's answers were both so helpful and wholesome! It seemed basic, and yet... somehow, she had not ever truly embraced gaining her Pokemon's respect. If she was being honest with herself, it was probably because she was afraid of Pokemon on some level. Why should they listen to her if she wasn't confident in herself, anyway? Maybe she could pretend at first.

"Biscuit and I are definitely friends, at least! She's my Furret, we're very close, although she still tends to ignore me if she feels like it... but it's kind of cute when she does it, I guess?" She paused, looking perplexed for a moment. "I'm not sure if any of this advice will apply to my Polteageist, though. Maybe it's kind of bad to say this about your own Pokemon, but I think there's something wrong with that one..."

She decided to shift her focus to Brin. She was a good Pokemon, and she felt like maybe she could make progress there, as the Dragonair didn't entirely hate her. "I haven't really battled much with Brin yet. I mean, I guess I did a few times, and she even won some of them, but it was more because she DIDN'T listen to my commands... haha." She was sure Farah's Pokemon would never blatantly disobey her like that; she pictured Farah fighting beautifully alongside her Pokemon, bringing in a stylish victory, and blushed faintly.

Emilia turned her attention to Rei now. "What do I like to do....?" Another pause. Geez, why was this so hard? She liked Pokegram, and she liked to be on vacation. Her parents brought her up to be proficient at all kinds of instruments and sports, but she couldn't really say she enjoyed them. "Ah, that's, hard to answer, as I'm so very involved in my family's business most of the time. But I do like to explore new places, if that counts?"

The young aristocrat looked between Farah and Rei, beginning to tear up a bit. "Ah, I'm very sorry for such a strong reaction! It's just so kind of you both to help me out with this. A bit embarrassing that I am not as close with my Pokemon as I should be, but still!" She smiled at her new friends, hoping that she had not put them off too much from her sudden display of emotion.

-----

"Moving the ship! You are a genius. We must move the ship. We must. We have to." Oolong gave a little happy shrill, bouncing about a bit in midair. This fellow floating Pokemon would be useful to keep around, it felt. But how were they to make the ship move? Oolong knew that it moved due to the immense, terrifying energy stored within itself. The ship must also have an immense, terrifying energy within itself. They should proceed into the ship.

Just as the Polteageist began floating off towards the main body of the ship again, it ran into a small human and two small, fluffy Pokemon. Momentarily distracted from its goal, it listened to the question the human asked. "We do! We do wish to cause trouble on purpose." Trouble was good, because not-trouble was boring. "We are surprised to see you. We thought all the humans were dead. This ship still belongs to us."

And ah, a new Pokemon on the scene! This time, the fluffy Pokemon with a sharp thing on its head. There were a lot of them earlier, but now just one, staring very angrily at Oolong. It did not enjoy this expression, as that typically meant that others would try to contain Oolong. Containment is the worst! "We are the captain!" the Polteageist shrilled at the Absol before zooming off in the opposite direction, hoping to find the dark energies that powered the ship.

“Training just sort of came naturally alongside fieldwork. Of course, when I was younger, I trained Zipzap as much as any young child interested in taking a League Challenge would. But over time, my interests changed and so did the efforts I put into their training. Shifting from a broad focus, I needed my Pokemon to be strong and fast, able subdue the current object of my study or help me out of a mess because I’ve encroached too far into a wild Pokemon’s territory or otherwise made a colony of Falinks mad.”

The memory made Clive pause. That was one of the closest moments he’d experienced in his fieldwork. Those little bastards certainly looked like a Bug-type when he had been a safe distance away.

“Of course, when I say subdue, I mean restrain. I try to avoid damaging any species I encounter if they get violent. String Shot was a move of choice before my friends evolved. Now I mostly try to set traps using Sticky Webs, using Spider Webs and Electro Webs only when necessary. And that’s just Zipzap! My Frosmoth and my Volcarona both have their own fun ways of dealing with subjects who get a little too combative.”

Realizing that he was diving headfirst into another ramble about his research, Clive stopped himself. Ilya, while certainly interested, likely didn’t want to just hear about Clive’s studies all night. Clive also took note of his immediate environment. He and Ilya were at one end of the table while the other two guests and Emilia were at the other. Taking a moment to listen, Clive heard that the girls were also talking about Pokemon training. What a coincidence! This could be a good opportunity to patch things up.

“Ilya, why don’t we continue this conversation a bit closer to the rest of our acquaintances? We’ve isolated ourselves down here at this end of the table.”

Clive stood, striding a few paces up to a closer seat, one next to the girl called Rei. Taking stock of the situation he had put himself into, Clive realized that Emilia was certainly the focus of this conversation and currently looked as if she was about to cry. This was going to go one of two ways. Clive didn’t like his odds, but he was here and he decided that it would be much too awkward to return to his former seat.

“So, I couldn’t help but overhearing your conversation. You’ve been speaking about training your Pokemon and becoming closer with them, yes? Rei, would you mind terribly if I sat here? I might be able to help.”

NPC
Kidd (they/them)
Pokemon: Baby (Nickit), Ghost (wooloo), Pipit (yamper)
---

Little tears started to build up at the edges of Emilia’s eyes. Farah didn’t have any intention to bring her, or anyone, to cry. Thankfully it seemed like she was just getting overwhelmed? If they weren’t having dinner she might have let her sylveon, Silkie out to calm her down. But she couldn’t, she had to use her words. “Hey, its alright. We all start somewhere.” She flashed her a smile, “I’ve had to deal with a lot of… road bumps myself.”

Her attention went to one of the nerdie guys, who was asking to sit closer. Honestly, she had forgotten they were here, but she wouldn’t let them know that. “You have a lot of experience with the bug types, yes?” She asked the man, recalling that he had a Volcarona. “I would love to have a battle with you sometime.”

Ilya followed Clive over to the other side of the table, quietly taking a seat as he began to discuss bug-type Pokemon with... Farah, was it? It was hard to remember all these names. They had only met earlier that day, but in all the stress over Beta it felt like it'd been a year and a half since they'd spoken last. Then again, Ilya had been talking to Clive for most of the night. Ilya stayed silent as Clive and Farah began chatting, and let his thoughts drift back to Beta. It was nerve-wracking not knowing if it had been found or not. Maybe he'd be able to contrive some excuse to leave the table and check up on them?

No, that's not proper for a dinner like this. All he could do was hope everything was going okay. He turned his attention to Rei. She seemed to have been offering the most advice on training Pokemon, maybe Ilya could gain some insight into how to keep Beta under control in the future. That would put his mind at ease.

Discreetly though. "So, Rei, I couldn't help overhearing your conversation with the others. You sound like a very experienced trainer. If I may ask, how would go about training a... a newly-hatched Pokemon, let's say? One that's... not old enough or strong enough to battle, but still has lots of energy and curiosity. How could a Pokemon like that be kept under control?"

-----

A new Pokemon had shown up. Beta didn't recognize it, but it seemed to recognize Oolong. It also seemed to be very upset to see Oolong. Beta didn't understand why the new Pokemon was upset. Did Oolong do something wrong? That didn't make any sense to the Porygon, Oolong was completely trustworthy, right?

So when Oolong ran away from the angry Pokemon, Beta followed close behind. They sped through the ship together, going further and further down, into the bottom of the ship. Searching for whatever it was that made ships move.


Before the Absol had a chance to chase after them, Milo came around the corner, nearing running straight into him. The Reuniclus paused for a moment, catching his breath, before frantically asking, "Hey, you there. Please, tell me, have you seen any other Pokemon wandering around the ship? Going places they shouldn't be?"