SIGN-UP (RSVP)

CHARACTER RSVPing: VELVET ASCH[break]
ROCKET POSITION: grunt[break]
POKEMON: delcatty[break]
PLUS ONE?: --[break]
WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT?: a crobat-shaped backpack with plenty of hidden pockets. soft and fuzzy for cuddling.[break]
EVENT CONTRIBUTION?: a musical performance by velvet! sans her other band members because they're erm. not rocket.
[break]

the honchkrow and its flock settle in just to watch. velvet admires them from a distance. it might be kind of fun to have a murkrow, given their talent for mimicking human speech... but before she can really think much further on that, she notices what, at first, seems like just a piece of yellow fabric. then it twitches, and she realizes she's looking at the tail end of a pokemon. examining it further, she can tell that it's a scrafty that's been watching them just like the honchkrow.

suddenly, it moves. "hey!" she decides to take shigure's advice, and she hurries after it. it's a dark and fighting type... right? this calls for a specialist. she grabs her rapidash's pokeball and releases it as the scrafty hurries away. the fairy type stomps its hooves, letting out a whinny. "use dazzling gleam!" velvet commands. the horse raises its head, and a flash of bright, pinkish-purple light escapes from its horn, heading directly toward the scrafty. it's a massacre: the 4x super effective move immediately knocks it out, and it sprawls across the pavement, dazed and hurt.

velvet throws a pokeball at the downed beast. why the hell not? she gives shigure a thumbs up. "haha, owned."

[ SHIGURE URUHA ]

catching scrafty!

killakee simply readjusts as well, settling in more comfortably between the two girls. the delcatty vibrates with contentment as velvet scratches her around the ears. "of course there's good food around here," velvet says. "i'd prob'ly have moved away if there wasn't." she considers herself something of an aficionado on the various takeout places in her area, given that she's not much of a cook and she tends to be too busy to do so anyway.

she pulls out her phone and scrolls through it. "what're you feeling like? we got pizza, noodles, burgers, curry, poke..." pretty much anything ivy might want, delivered right to their doorstep. "ooh, there's a place that makes some bangin' sandwiches nearby. the owners are from paldea. i guess sandwiches are pretty big over there for some reason?"

[ ivy ashton ]

PURCHASING/REDEEMING

welcome to the poké mart!

1X type 1 evo (50 PD) (dark type discount) (zorua to zoruark)

TOTAL

do come again!

50 PD

the plushie ivy grabs ahold of is a gengar plushie, squeezably soft and with a poseable mouth and tongue. there's others here; most notably a salandit, a skitty, and a zorua. it looks like even velvet's choice in pokemon are goth. the last time ivy would have met velvet in person, when they were kids, she was... a little more preppy, probably? she reinvented her image around the time she turned 18, something that came as a shock to her family. the moment she'd graduated high school, she'd moved out and become a new person entirely.

velvet plops down on the couch next to ivy. killakee hops up, even though she's not a skitty anymore and takes up a lot of space, stretching out on top of the two girls. "that tired, huh? what about food? i was gonna order takeout."

[ ivy ashton ]

the next pokemon she runs into, she almost doesn't see. the small feline blends into the underbrush perfectly, until it comes out and splays itself across velvet's path. it seems kind of like it's begging for food; maybe it saw velvet feed the oinkologne earlier? the purrloin rolls onto its back with its paws in the air, looking at the woman pleadingly. the whole display is rather captivating, in fact.

velvet hops off her mount. she digs around in her bag and pulls out some cat treats, the ones she gives to killakee sometimes. velvet has a soft spot for felines, and so she offers the treats up to the purrloin. who eats them with the fervor of the starving (despite the fact that it's clearly in good health). velvet watches, entranced, smiling.

"hey, y'know if you came with me, you could have these treats all the time?" she doesn't know if the purrloin understands exactly what she's saying, but it does look up and slow blink at her, purring. she taps a pokeball to it, and it's enclosed, the ball wobbling a few times before settling.

ok! time to get the hell out of here.

she sticks her tongue out and blows a raspberry. he's right, though. there's all sorts in team rocket. they've got people like her, here for power and influence, and then there's plenty of eggheads and other people just out for the money as well. she probably shouldn't judge, but... she's always been more the type to shove a nerd in a locker than to accept them as they are. not because she has such strong feelings, but mostly because it's what expected of her.

her phone goes off. velvet picks it up and takes a brief call, then hangs up. "whoops, i gotta run! just got a delivery at my apartment and i wanna make sure nobody steals it." she pockets her phone. "i'll be sending these kecleon in soon! make sure you tell everyone what an awesome job i did! bye~!" she sets off, walking fast, dialing the number for an air taxi.

[ Kouji Matsubara ]
thread wrap up!

continuing along the path, velvet hears the oinkologne before she sees it. it's snorting and digging at the ground with its hooves, pawing ferociously through the dirt. velvet halts her rapidash so she can stop and watch, fascinated. eventually, the pokemon unearths a black truffle, and slurps it down in the blink of an eye. happy now, it sits on its butt and realizes it's being watched.

velvet and the pig trade glances for a moment. thinking the pokemon might still be hungry, velvet reaches into her bag and unwraps a granola bar, tossing it down. the oinkologne dives on it with reckless abandon and crunches it in its mouth. "there ya go, 'lil guy," velvet says.

they set off again. the oinkologne follows them for a bit, but realizes it's not getting any more food out of them, so after a little bit they go their separate ways.

she's on the prowl again. this time she's looking for dark types, having heard they tend to hang out in this area. since there's a lot of ground to cover, and velvet's admittedly kind of lazy, this time she's mounted up on her rapidash. its cotton candy mane sways in the wind as they progress at a walk (trotting and cantering is SUPER uncomfortable, velvet learned early on). she genuinely has no idea how people manage to live in fortree city... all this nature is a super bummer.

velvet keeps her eyes peeled for any movement. the sun is starting to dip below the horizon, so she doesn't have much time here before she has to call the air taxi.

"this is killakee!" velvet introduces the two of them. the delcatty lets out a little meow, and then ivy asks velvet where she lives. "naww, i have my own apartment," velvet explains. "i gotta live on my own or else i'll go crazyy... need my own space, y'know? money's a little tight since the band is just starting out, but it's worth it." she moved out of her parents' place as soon as she could. she couldn't stand how closely they watched her.

she sets off, killakee following at her heels. it's about a ten minute walk to velvet's place, which is in a three-story building. they make their way up the stairs, and velvet pulls her key out in front of her apartment door, unlocking it.

inside is a sparse one-bedroom apartment without much furniture. there's a couch and a tv, and a tv stand, and some plushies littered here and there, as well as bags of pokemon food leaning against the wall. it's only one step above a 'male living space', really...

[ ivy ashton ]

in the distance, velvet hears something. it sounds like... metal? but why would anyone be playing metal here? she approaches cautiously but curiously, until she comes upon a pink, round puffball sitting on a rock with a phone in its hand. the phone is playing metal; looks like this jigglypuff stole something from the last person to come through her.

to velvet's amazement, the jigglypuff opens its mouth and starts to scream along with the music. though it can't form words, it can still howl along unintelligibly. velvet gets closer, and a twig snaps. the jigglypuff stops singing and turns to face velvet, an angry look in its eye. "wuh-oh."

velvet sends out eisheth to defend herself. the salazzle narrowly dodges a rollout, and while the jigglypuff still has momentum, she vomits up toxic ooze to badly poison the fairy type. the jigglypuff cries out, uncurling. it uses round; well, more like it screams just like a seasoned metal professional at the salazzle, who takes a few steps back. in response, according to velvet's command, she coughs up more poison, using venoshock at full power.

the jigglypuff is down for the count. velvet throws a pokeball. this one could be really useful, actually... it's got talent!

by the time velvet runs into the next pokemon, her legs are starting to get sore. she huffs and puffs along the path, checking her map to figure out when she'll next reach civilization. she's got her phone with her, of course, so she can call an air taxi if she needs to... the closest city is mauville, but she thinks there will be somebody before then, right?

she's so engrossed in reading her map that she doesn't realize she's being followed. when she turns around, there's a cleffa toddling after her a distance away, but just close enough that she can still see it. the baby pokemon catches up with her when velvet stops. "hey there, little one," she says, kneeling down. "you hungry or something?"

the cleffa lets out a cry of affirmation and holds out its tiny hands. velvet reaches into her bag and pulls out a granola bar, breaking off a piece and offering it to the pokemon. the cleffa takes the offering and bites into it, before scurrying away, as if worried that velvet's apparent kindness is a trap of some sort.

velvet stands back up. onto the next one!

despite her griping, it is actually nice to be outside in nature for once. she's not exactly going to stop to smell the flowers, but... this sort of thing is nice every once in a while. maybe she should come out here more often?

her answer comes in the form of an absol, standing where just seconds before nothing was there. velvet blinks, staring at it. the two trade glances, but it seems clear the absol isn't here for a fight. velvet keeps walking, oblivious, and thinks to herself... aren't absol supposed to predict disasters?

her footing slips. she catches herself just in time, before she can tumble down the side of the path into the water. the absol blinks back at her, and then disappears. velvet huffs. in another universe, parallel velvet probably just ate shit... poor parallel velvet. she'll have to be more careful from here on out. there won't always be an absol to warn her that the path is treacherous.