Shahinne's Party, past

Roc: -Gulps- <Right, well, this Ditto here is...>

Ditto: -Transforming into a female Staraptor- <I'm your mother, Shahinne.>

Shahinne's Party, past

Roc: -Nods-

Ditto: <And I'm a bit more of a "they", though you can refer to me as "she" in this form.>

Some Route in Hoenn, Today

(not a water route though)

-Sol is lying somewhere under the sun. At some moment, she stretches, wakes up and goes besides Silent to stare at him long. Silent meanwhile is busy working on lappy-

-...-

-..-

-Sol then [pokes] Silent's face-

Silent: "...Yow! Hey, what was that for?"

Sol♀ -shrugs: <I'm just confirming that you exist.>

-She stretches again then returns to her place under the sunlight; Silent just shrugs off the matter and continues working. The Espeon takes a moment to curl into a ball then returns to her species-mandated ten-something hours of napping.-

Route 117-ish, Hoenn

-Sol is napping and purring back to her felinely mandated activity when she is suddenly poked-

Sol♀: <...Mrowwww!> -- stretches, rolls away.

Silent

: "...Hmmm? Oh look, what do we have here." -- notices Puff.

Sol♀: <...What?> -- turns an eye and ear to the Cyndaquil -- <....Rrrrrr. W-what do you want?>

-and listens to Puff's question-

Silent: ...Uh...

Sol♀ -blinks: <If you have to know, little thing...> -- stretches more, sits all regal (because cat) -- <he's not a very active person....>

Maekrite♂ -yawning atop Silent's shoulderpad: <I have to agree...>

Silent: "...What?" -- crosses arms -- "I've been walking all around  Hoenn."

Sol♀ -ignores both Silent and the insistent poking: <...and that means I have to make sure he appears at least every once in a while. What about you?> -- eyes the Cyndaquil and her poking.

-Silent then comes to the realization that the Cyndaquil comes with company as the Pokémon is picked up-

Silent -pretends nothing is happening: "Uhm... hey, that your Pokémon? Seems to have caught an interest in napping under the sun. Don't worry about the poking, it's not bad."

-Sol rolls her eyes-

Silent: "Oh, manners. I'm Silent. The Nido on the hat is Maekrite and the Espeon there is Sol." -- offers for a handshake.

Route 117-ish, Hoenn

-Silent nods, is mildly amused at the little detail that not only does Tori seem to understand Monese but is also not surprised by him apparently understanding Monese as well, notices the earbuds but decides to scrap questions about that for slightly later-

Sol♀ -beams a smile at Tori picking Puff up: <Eh, don't worry, they won't be going anywhere for a while.>

Silent: "Aha, a pleasure. Anyway, I can assure your Pokémon I'm not going anywhere... In a figurative sense at least." - shrugs.

-to the lappy comment-

"Eh..." -looks away slily as Maekrite gives him a murderous leer- "energy is not that hard to come by for recharges..."

Twelve hours ago, same route, offscreen

-Silent is napping under a tree, accompanied by Sol who is also napping on top of his chest-

-Not too far away, a small Nido can be seen exercising running a wheel-

Back to Present Time

"Hmmm, is that Cyndaquil the only Pokémon you have? Are you and your Pokémon heading anywhere in particular?"

Shahinne's Party, past

Roc: -Shakes his head at Harriet-

Ditto: -To Shahinne- <Not like your father's, that's for sure.>

Today or Tomorrow-ish, Sootopolis Gym

-At the entrance of the Gym, Jim Guy is standing guard while checking the cards he uses to welcome challengers-

Jim Guy: "'Are you a boy or a girl?' Really? Aghhh.... who writes this stuff?" -- switches to next card, reads it, falls even more disheartened -- "Maybe I should just improvise. Yeah. That's what I'll do."

-A particular kind of challenger would now enter-

-Meanwhile inside, Juan is tending to some of his accompanying Pokémon in preparation for the matches of the day, if any, when one of the Gym assistants comes to him and notifies him he has an [important] phone call-

Juan: "That sounds like it is something important. Would you mind running the routine of the day for a moment? I'll oversee from next room."

-He turns to a water Pokémon following him around; the Pokémon, just a bit taller than Juan is, is wearing a small tailor-made vest with a design not unlike that of Juan's itself. The Pokémon nods and is about to turn to go to the stand of the Gym Leader when Juan grabs his arm-

Juan: "Wait a moment. Here, have this, it'll make you look better."

-Juan then proceeds to take off the necklace and white tie he usually wears, and very carefully equips them on the Pokémon, making sure it helps him look tidy and distinguished-

Juan: "Here you go. I'll be at the next chamber and if there is any issue, remember this," -- softly pokes the Pokémon in the ear.

-The water Pokémon laughs a bit, then just stands there observing as Juan goes take the phone call, and once the human disappears into the next room, turns tail and goes to smugly stand at the Gym Leader stand, all dressed and everything-

Route 117-ish, Hoenn

Puff:  -Tilts her head curiously-  <Ooooh!  Does he talk like a pirate too?>

-She leans into the petting-

Tori:  -Blinks at the bit about being captured by [wild Ekans-

"Well...  Researching sounds pretty interesting.  Mostly I'm just travelling around with my brother and my boyfriend."

-She pauses-

"Well, more my boyfriend lately.  But he's doing the gym challenge, and we challenged the Mossdeep gym together, so there's that"

Sootopolis Gym, Today

-Jim Guy conveniently notices the Charizard in a coat that has just entered the Gym, carefully activates the hidden "challenger incoming" button near one of the pillars at the entrance-

Jim Guy: "Ahem... Hey hey hey, how's it going...!" -- shifts around trying to get a look past the Charizard -- "Uhm... if you hope you beat this exquisite [Water-type] Gym, hiding behind a Fire-type si sure to get your face washed... dear Arceus is that the best I can come up with..." -- mentally facepalms.

-sighs, looks up to the Charizard then looks around-

"Uhm... well, excuse me, I thought...i-is your Trainer coming? I had a speech prepa-... well... n-not really... " -- sobs in silence.

-Deeper inside the Gym-

-At the stand reserved for the Gym Leader, a small light flashes for a moment. The Pokémon standing there takes notice and takes a moment to preen his [white moustache]. He barks to the other Pokémon in the shallow pool to get ready, stirring up a lot of movement in the water as some Ice-types also make appearance-

-Seeing that the facility is getting ready, the Pokémon then tidies up his vest, making sure it's not torn up by the cheratin plates covering his arms and legs, puffs his chest and stands there at official position. He then carefully touches a small clip in his ear, a bit hard to reach because of his helmet-

-All the while, the various Pokémon in the area start freezing the water in the shallow pond to make a very thin and [delicate] layer of ice.-

Sootopolis Gym

-The gym assistant takes a moment then facepalms more openly-

Jim Guy: "Oooh! So you come here for the [Thematic Coordinators Battle Day]? Huh... I thought no one was interested. Despite all the advertising we tried to do... I guess no one watches the news anymore..."

Yesterday Night, Sootopolis TV

-Already three hours into the debate-

Left-Wing Candidate: "...so our Party still maintains it is the reponsibility of the State to subsidize the repairs for people who followed an urban development plan in, ya know, a city inside a friggin' volcano."

Right-Wing Candidate: "All those subsidizes would do is attract a lot of pariahs and leechers. If we want this city to shine, the citizens should man up and clean the rocky walls with thir very own sweat. Fof ree, of course. The government is already giving them even the right to live here."

-The producer is trying to convince the staff to end the debate already, while at the bottom of a stack of notices and pamphlets for subjects to discuss in the news edition there's a document that reads:-

Back to the Gym

Jim Guy: "Well, the suit looks realistic enough..." -- grabs a notebook from somewhere, strafes giving the Charizard curious looks -- "Lemme write you down for a meeting with the Gym Leader, luckily the queue is basically empty so you could go in right now depending on what kind of artistic performance you want to execute. Is this a cosplay for some TV show or an original character concept? And how did you do for the length of the neck? "

Sootopolis Gym

Jim Guy: "...Ouch, I hope that doesn't get too uncomfortable then." -- takes more notes, motions for the 'Charizard' to go ahead  -- "Please move into the next room, and good luck with your challenge!"

-In the next room awaits a Gym assistant with a small tablet and a League stamp-

Gym Assistant: "Oh, hey, I guess you are in here for the coordinator workshop? Or for an official League challenge?"