{S} Land of Confusion

[Spiderc]

After disembarking from the boat that brought him to Pumice Rock via Olivine City and then Graucan Port, Arved was just happy to be on solid land again. The trip from all the way from Johto and then another immediate boat ride to the island had not left him feeling well and he hadn't even had time to rest in the port as he had to run to catch the boat that was going to take him to Pumice Rock. While he'd certainly gone boating on the Lake of Rage when he was younger, the ocean, as it turns out, is a different beast entirely. The constant rocking of the boat as it went across the waves didn't sit quite right with him the entire journey and even though he never actually threw up, he did come close a few times. Luckily, now that he was back on land his stomach immediately calmed down, and after sitting on a bench that was near the quay that his boat had docked at for a while he felt well enough to continue on.

Now that he was feeling better, Arved actually started to look around at his surroundings and see what his discomfort had reaped him. Immediately he noticed that a significant number of the people around him weren't quite... people. Quite a few of them looked like people for the most part, but they also had some attributes of Pokemon. In all of the reading he'd done, people like this were only mentioned in fiction and even then the mutation was extremely uncommon in the literature. While he was reflecting on this, he suddenly remembered that when he bought his boat ticket back in Olivine City, a sailor had made a snide remark to him that the people in Decona were a little crazy. In his previous state of excitement Arved had assumed that the sailor meant they were crazy about Pokemon battles and hadn't actually bothered to do any research on the region.

Somewhat regretting his earlier impulsive decision, Arved sighed and got off of the bench, finally ready to continue. Although he didn't know where the Lab was, Arved decided to just set out and look around the island figuring that he'd find it soon enough. As it turned out, the Lab was the most prominent building on the island so he hadn't need worry about finding it. Having found his quarry, he just started to head to the entrance, having decided that he wasn't all that interested in sightseeing at the moment. Noticing that the front door was open, Arved walked into the lobby and went over to the help desk with someone behind it. Not entirely sure how he should ask for a Pokemon without seeming rude, Arved just said "Um, hi. I heard that you guys give out Pokemon to newly starting trainers. Would it be possible for me to have one?" Although he wasn't quite pleased with how his query came out, Arved decided that sounding awkward was preferable to being rude.

[Nimbostratus]

Sitting at the reception desk was a man of about twenty years. His clothing was rather plain, but his overall appearance was decidedly not - he had a pair of Pikachu ears atop his head, along with the signature red spots on his cheeks. Considering the time of year, one would be forgiven for thinking at first that this was his Halloween costume - but, upon closer inspection, even the man's very skin had a bright yellow tint. He was a Pokemorph.

And a very newly-injected Pokemorph, at that - his first greeting to the new arrival was a rather excited "Pika!"... then, after an awkward pause: "Gah, sorry. Still learning to control that. So you want a Pokemon, huh? Alright..."

"Coming through!" said a labcoat-clad woman, rushing in from one of the many restricted areas. "Got your starters here. Five of 'em, go ahead and pick one." Along with the Pokeballs were a handful of items; a TM case, balls and potions, and a Pokedex. And then she hurriedly returned to the lab from whence she'd come.

The pikachu 'morph rubbed his forehead. "She's always like that. Alright, let's see what your choices are..."

Name: ? Species: Wurmple Gender: ? Ability: Shield Dust Level: 5 Friendship: 5 Moveset: Tackle, String Shot, Poison Sting Nature: ? Met: Lab @ lvl 5	Name: ? Species: Paras Gender: ? Ability: Effect Spore or Dry Skin Level: 5 Friendship: 5 Moveset: Scratch Nature: ? Met: Lab @ lvl 5	Name: ? Species: Kricketot Gender: ? Ability: Shed Skin Level: 5 Friendship: 5 Moveset: Growl, Bide Nature: ? Met: Lab @ lvl 5	Name: ? Species: Mudkip Gender: ? Ability: Torrent Level: 5 Friendship: 5 Moveset: Tackle, Growl Nature: ? Met: Lab @ lvl 5	Name: ? Species: Gible Gender: ? Ability: Sand Veil Level: 5 Friendship: 5 Moveset: Tackle, Sand Attack Nature: ? Met: Lab @ lvl 5

"Hmm, not bad." The man gave a red-cheeked smile. "So which one will it be?"

[Spiderc]

After seeing so many of the mutations outside, Arved wasn't really surprised to see one manning the help desk in the lab, although the man's exclamation of 'Pika' certainly did throw him off. The man's explanation for his outburst also surprised Arved slightly as he didn't know why he would have yet 'learn to control that.' After all, what would have happened recently enough to him to turn him into a mutation? Before he could finish his questioning train of though, he heard a woman's voice say something about starters which immediately grabbed his attention Arved turned towards the sound. As he glanced across the room, he noticed several ads about a 'PokeMorph' injection and he immediately made the obvious connection.

Now that he felt like a complete idiot for wondering about something that there was information right in front of him about, Arved turned his attention to the Pokeballs in front of him after flashing a wry smile at the man for his comment about his coworker. Unfortunately even his choice of starters made Arved feel confused, as he had never heard of a Lab offering Pokemon like these for new trainers. Turns out that sailor was right after all. After a mental shrug he started deliberating about which Pokemon he should pick, immediately ruling out the Mudkip and the Gible. After all, Mudkip were fairly common as far as starter Pokemon go and if he had other options he might as well go with it. As for the Gible, Arved knew that if he told Pryce that his starting Pokemon was extremely weak against Ice, the gym leader would never stop laughing at him.

That just left the Bug types. Paras was out because of a similar weakness to Fire and while he disliked discounting Pokemon purely because of their typing, Arved felt that a starter Pokemon should be fairly well-rounded. After considering the decision for another second, Arved finally stated his final thought on the matter, saying "I'd like the Kricketot please." Then realizing that the woman had also dropped off some other things in addition to the Pokeballs, he added "and are these items for me too?"

[Nimbostratus]

"Kricketot, huh? Not a bad choice. I hope it treats you well!" The Pikachu-featured man smiled warmly, rosy cheeks dimpling. Those strange features, along with his youthful and cheerful demeanor, made him seem almost artificial, if not outright unnatural.

But this young man named Arved probably had other things on his mind; namely, getting started on his journey. "Are these items for me, too?" he asked.

"Oh, yes! Yes, those are for you. Let me just make sure it's all there... yep! Five Pokeballs, two Potions, one TM case, and one Pokedex - you know about the Pokedex, right? It basically records information on every Pokemon you see. Just, uh, be sure to take what it says with a grain of salt. Sometimes people hack into the database and add weird stuff to the entries. 'Can cause an Indian elephant to faint'... pffft... what the hell is an elephant, anyway?"

The man cleared his throat and looked back at Arved. "Oh, erm. Pardon me. Any questions before you go?"

[img]http://www.serebii.net/xy/pokemon/401.png[/img]
[b]Name:[/b] ?
[b]Species:[/b] Kricketot
[b]Gender:[/b] ?
[b]Ability:[/b] Shed Skin
[b]Level:[/b] 5
[b]Friendship:[/b] 5
[b]Moveset:[/b] Growl, Bide
[b]Nature:[/b] ?
[b]Met:[/b] Lab @ lvl 5

[img]http://www.serebii.net/itemdex/sprites/pokeball.png[/img] Pokeball x 5
[img]http://www.serebii.net/itemdex/sprites/potion.png[/img] Potion x 2
[img]http://www.serebii.net/itemdex/sprites/tmcase.png[/img] TM Case
[img]http://www.serebii.net/itemdex/sprites/famechecker.png[/img] Pokedex

[Spiderc]

As he loaded his new possessions into his backpack, Arved just smiled at the comment about elephants. He'd actually read about them before in one of his books, apparently they were an creature that looked a little like a Donphan, but were significantly taller and had tusks more akin to those that a Mamoswine has. However, he didn't feel it was necessary to correct the man who had just been kind enough to help him start out on his new journey. The last thing that Arved grabbed off the desk was the Pokeball that contained his new partner and rather than putting it in his backpack with the rest of his items, it went straight into his pocket for quick access.

When the PokeMorph asked if he had any other questions, Arved hesitated for a moment and then asked "Do you happen to know where most new trainers start out? To be honest, I really don't know much about this region at all." Once again, Arved got slightly annoyed at himself for not doing any research on the Decona region before coming here. He supposed that he could probably have just asked anyone on the street where trainers generally went, but since he was already talking to the aide it made sense to just ask him.

[Nimbostratus]

The pikachu 'morph considered Arved's question with a soft "hmmmm". He wasn't a trainer himself, so he really lacked any first-hand knowledge about where new trainers should begin... but, well, there was the job board... that was as good a starting point as any, right?

"Maybe check these jobs out," he said, offering a smaller copy of the board. "As you can see, they all involve catching wild Pokemon, so you'd have to consider where best to find them... oh! Do you need a map?" He smiled and reached into the reception desk, rifling around a bit before producing a map of Decona. "Here! I bet this will help."

After a moment, he spoke again, thoughtful: "If running errands for the Lab isn't your thing, you could check out the Denton berry fields or the Terren mines... or you could just look for wild Pokemon - there shouldn't be anything too threatening, no matter where you go... so I guess it's not a very helpful answer, but in this region, you can pretty much start out wherever you want." He chuckled. "Can I help you with anything else?"

[Spiderc]

Arved briefly glanced at the map he received and the list of jobs that the Lab currently had available and then turned back to look at the PokeMorph, saying "Nope, that should do it. Thanks for all of your help." He then started to head back out the door to leave the Lab, but then added "Have a good one," right before going out the door. Once he'd walked a while and was a little bit away from the Lab, he sat down on a bench and pulled out the map to consider his options. While he did want to challenge the league, there was no chance that he was nearly ready for a battle and wouldn't be for some time. On the other hand, he still wanted to have some direction, so doing the jobs for the Lab would certainly give him that.

Having decided, Arved then started considering which one of the jobs he should aim to complete. The one that required a Fire and a Ground type seemed especially appealing since it would allow him to grow his team while working on getting a job done for them. He then looked back to the map and immediately saw one of the areas was marked as the "Fire Fields" which certainly sounded like a good place to start. However, it did mean that he'd have to cross the Umbil Lake again, but that wasn't as big of a deal in comparison to his previous crossing of the ocean. He did realize that by doing jobs for the Lab it meant that he'd have to just get used to taking constant boat rides and he hoped that soon enough he'd start to enjoy them.

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