Quiet beginnings [open]

[Nix Night]

*sorry, my eevee has evolved in another RP, and ive traded jark to someone else. Would you be ok with me using the new shadow and not using jark or do you want her kept as a eevee and keep jark in, so it's less confusing?*

Nix paused before looking down at her trio of boys and coughing rather loudly to get their attention towards her and away from their new play mate. "should we walk with them?" she asked and phantom took all of three seconds before nodding and clapping his hands together and jumping up and down. Nix rolled her eyes at him before turning her head to Tain beside her ,"let me try that again, and rephrase it" she said before sniggering a little bit ,"Tain, since your the only sensible and adult one on this team including myself and shadow, do you think we should walk with them?" she said with a grin and tain paused to think.

He could sense the human boy was uneasy around nix and he could also sense that the snivy would rather stay close to her trainer and comfort him than come and play, and if she did that then she wouldn't be playing with them at all on the way to the poke-centre. But on the other hand he could tell the boy wanted his pokemon to socialise and that he was lonely himself but he wouldn't allow himself to open up or be happier at meeting someone new. After a few more moments thoughts he lifted his head and looked at nix and then nodded it and nix smiled before turning back to the boy ,"it seems we have agreed" she said with a smile before waving a hand across the path, "after you" she said with a small laugh to herself

[XAVIER CHEVALIER]

In the comfort of his own darkness

Xavier waited in anticipation as Nix set about to include her pokemon into the decision. Would he be rejected, or would they agree to tag along with him and his Snivy? Personally, Xavier couldn't tell which one he preferred, and so, he simply left it to fate.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long for his answer as the female trainer's pokemon unanimously agreed that they would travel to Straiton City with Xavier. He mirrored Nix's smile. "Okay," he answered. Turning briefly to the grass pokemon in his arms, he said, "Why don't you walk with them?" He inclined his head towards Nix's pokemon. The whole point was to allow Snivy to spend some time with someone other than himself, after all.

He stooped down once more, and with a cheery "Sniv~!", the little green pokemon jumped out of her trainer's protective arms and scurried off to join her new friends. The rookie stood, and with a few pats to his chin, beat the dirt from his pants. Turning to his new travelling companion, Xavier eased a light grin onto his face. Without further ado, the boy turned on his heels and took a single step, and then another, in the direction which he believed their destination to be in.

"Snivy~!"

His partner's concerned call stopped him in his tracks. Momentarily confused by the sudden outburst, he turned to see his pokemon holding her arm out as the attempted to point... in the opposite direction.

The teenager blushed. Had he gotten so unseated that he'd lost track of where he was supposed to go? Apparently, so. "Oh~ right," he said, "it's in that direction." After a short series of bashful chuckles, he said to Snivy, "what WOULD I do without you."

[ooc: Wow, gratz. Go ahead and use your new team.]

[Nix Night]

*answer pwease! I can't really RP with either of them until I know if your ok with my evolving shadow here and not using jark*

Nix found herself watching the little grass type and smiling, she liked the unova starter pokemon lots but in every set of starters she did have a favourite. In kanto it was and always would be squirtle and then next it would have to be cyndaquill because of what it became after it evolved once. Then treecko and oshawott joined at their place and that was about it for starter pokemon she really liked, she liked all of them really aside totadile but the other four were her all time favourites.

She smiled as the boy forgot where to walk and then nodded her head to the snivy in thanks ,"it seems us girls have to watch out for the guys, as per normal for my team" she said and chuckle slightly and she heard shadow laugh behind her and then she waved her hand again ,"pokemon first, then humans" she said with a smile. Her boys nodded and phantom took a few steps towards the snivy before taking her hand and pulling her up the path way a bit as Tain walked up beside them and then nix nodded and phantom let the snivys hand drop before poking her and laughing and then running off , "it seems we'll be playing tag today then" nix said with a grin as she started to walk behind the playful group of pokemon

[XAVIER CHEVALIER]

*but I did answer you. I said go ahead and use your updated set of pokemon. Sorry for the tardy reply, I've been busy trying to get my new site up and running.*

In the comfort of his own darkness

Xavier tried in vain to suppress the warm blush that was forming on his face. It would not be too difficult for those in the clearing to notice his embarrassment, seeing as the rookie did sport light skin. And it had only been worse when Nix's playful jibe registered in his already flustered mind. He flinched visibly, in spite of himself, when his partner gave an annoyingly prideful "Sniv~" in agreement to Nix's comment.

However, he did ease a smile onto his features as he watched his grass pokemon being led off by Nix's ralts. The female pokemon had also blushed when her own hand was taken so casually by the male. Xavier couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. It was clear enough, that although Snivy was a great deal better than he was at making new friends, she was likely still unused to being so close to another pokemon. So, the quietly confident Snivy had a shy side as well. That was what the boy thought.

But when said ralts teased and ran from his surprised partner, Xaiver laughed aloud. But quickly catching himself, the boy bit his lip once more, embarrassed by his sudden outburst of mirth. It was so... unlike him. Shyly, he nodded when Nix suggested the game of tag.

He hesitated, and then...

"Well, in that case," he reached out and tapped the female trainer's shoulder, grinning broadly, "tag, you're it." Without giving her much time to react, Xavier was already running after the pokemon, laughing more heartily than he had ever done in his life.

[Nix Night]

Shadow twitched her dark and ringed ears on the ground beside nix's feet as nix herself as looked up to see phantom run forwards and tap tains tail with his hand before swerving to the right and jumping over xaviers snivy as Tain lowered his head to try and tag him. Phantom laughed loudly as Tain had to pause and then Tain rolled his eyes before tapping the snivy on the head gently and then running away in the other direction with a small smile of ,"sorry but it's your go" on his face.

Nix felt a tap on her shoulder and she blinked in shock at the boys open friendliness and then her face broke in to a grin and she leaned forwards and started to run after him with a chuckle in her voice. "I could have sworn you didn't seem like the sort of kid to play around like this but hey, I've been wrong before" she said as she ran before smirking and bending down to tap phantom on his head and he gave a cry of anger at being re-tagged before starting to run after shadow who now was playing the game as well. It was clear that shadow and nix thought and acted the same so if nix was up for fun and games then her beloved umbreon was good for a few rounds to tag as well. It hit nix very quickly that they must look totally and utterly mad, two trainers of different ages and looks with four pokemon between them all playing tag together, but nix worked well with odd and weird. Odd and Weird just about summed her up in two simple words

[XAVIER CHEVALIER]

In the comfort of his own darkness

Xavier laughed heartily as he moved swiftly away from the red-haired girl, the sound surprising himself more than anything else. Without stopping though, he shook his head. If they were going to do this, he was going to try his best to win at the game.

He looked ahead to see that Snivy had paused to look over at him, the emotion being displayed on her face more-than-obvious. Not surprising, since the pokemon had never heard her trainer's laugh before. In fact, the boy had been so stoic nearly all of the time she had been with him, that she had already begun to accept him for the quite and serious young man that Xavier truly was. The short pause had cost her, as Tain the deerling took advantage of her surprise and tapped her on her head, making her "it" and bringing forth a disgruntled "Sniv~" from the younger pokemon.

Xavier, meanwhile, had slowed his pace although he made sure that he stayed just out of Nix's reach. He pondered slightly on Nix's off-handed comment, agreeing with the first part almost immediately after it registered in his head. He looked over his shoulder and shrugged. He wondered just what it was that had caused him to suddenly cast off his usual persona. Perhaps it was because he had been surprised by the way Snivy had interacted with her new friends, which had made him desire for some form of friendship. Perhaps it was because simply wanted to "fit-in" in the situation. He couldn't be sure, but then, he did find the whole experience surprisingly pleasant.

It was after a few short minutes of running though, that he started to feel the just-barely-noticeable tightening in his chest. Xavier's face ashened subtly as a familiar feeling of fear bubbled to the surface of his consciousness, eating away the joy and excitement that he had garnered just moments ago. It might have been paranoia, but experience told him that it was better safe than sorry. That, and he couldn't risk succumbing to the symptoms he knew would materialize if he kept up with what he was doing- not when there was someone else around, and most certainly not out here in the middle of nowhere.

He cursed silently, knowing that he had committed an err he had sworn he wouldn't. Keeping the grin lightly plastered on his face, he slowed down just a little bit more. It would be fine if Nix caught up with him. Having to play "it" for a bit would give him the opportunity to control the pace of the game while he attempted to recover his breath and his steadily increasing heart rate.

[Nix Night]

Nix saw the other boy slow up but her eyes were drawn to phantom beside him, he was running his eyes over the boy and then he turned his head to nix and pressed his small hands to his head. "he's not telling us something" came the strong voice that nix knew as phantoms telepathic voice, "he's scared of something about himself but I can't tell what" he said and nix merely nodded her own head. Phantom lowered his hands from his head and with one more look at the boy he turned and ran after Tain and nix slowed to a walk and came up to the boys side.

"you alright?" she asked knowing full well he wasn't. "I know he shouldn't have bit tommy was worried about you and so scanned you mentally and told me what he found, thats the thing with physic types" she said in a slightly softer voice than before hand. The boy was younger than her and in fairness, she really did know what it was like to be young and afraid of things with no one to turn to or talk to. That just about summed up her childhood in a few words.

"if you want we can stop and rest, I know there's a fallen tree nearby and a small pond too so we can just stop there" she said, most people didn't know about either of these things on the route but that was because nix and her team had made them. When she'd had an oshawott in her team he had made a pool a little ahead where they had rested one night and due to storm on the same night a tree hand fallen over and nearly crushed where nix had been resting so to save others the group had pushed it over. Nix liked to leave a Mark where she went, It showed she had been there and done important things and most of all, it showed she was important too

[XAVIER CHEVALIER]

In the comfort of his own darkness

Xavier's concentration was broken when Nix spoke up. Momentarily loosing count of the numbers in his head, Xavier released his breath and allowed it to resume normally. Coming to a stop, the boy did not bother to conceal the frown on his face, although in Xavier's case, it was little more than a thinning of his lips.

"I'm fine," he mumbled a little too quickly in response. "Don't worry about it," he added when he noticed that Snivy, too had ceased her frolicking and had turned over to shoot him with a worried look.

The teen felt the heat rise inside his gut. People worried about him, people fussing over him... he hated it. It was why he had insisted coming all the way to Unova. No one here knew him, and more importantly, no one here knew he was sick - not even his Snivy.

But then, it was probably mere wishful thinking that he would be able to hide it forever. The reasoning seemed to diffuse a bit of his anger, although it left a sour sort of feeling in his heart to accept that he had been found out so very quickly. Sigh, this is what he got for allowing himself to interact with others.

As he attempted to recompose himself, the little grass pokemon had come up to him. Staring at her trainer through large eyes, she rested her head against his shin and gently began brushing it; her way of showing affection towards the boy.

Finally able to suppress his mass of negative emotions, he was once again able to speak in his amiable tone. Plucking the young Snivy into his arms, he held her up so that their eyes were leveled. "Really, I'm fine," he said, before replacing her on the ground. "Go on, then. Spend some time with the others," he instructed. His partner fixed him in a lingering stare, as though trying to make out what lay behind the boy's pleasant expression. Unable to see if he was lying, the little pokemon turned and rejoined her group. She had looked over her shoulder once more before offering them a curt, "Sniv~," and walking ahead.

Holding back the urge to sigh, Xavier turned his attention towards his fellow trainer. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "It's nothing I can't handle, and don't worry, I have no intention of keeling over or anything any time soon." Without further explanation, he pocket his hands and went ahead, counting silently as he walked. A few more minutes of controlling the rhythm of his breathing should stabilize his breath. They didn't have to stop, not for him.

[Nix Night]

Nix caught the boys tone in seconds and she nodded her head but said nothing to him. Nix knew the feeling of being a burden to your family or friends and them changing their life to fit you but her experiences had all been them trying to hide her and keep her quiet so no one would know about her. She didn't know what was wrong with the other boy but she knew he didn't want to be burden when other people were around him, she could tell that much.

"ok then, but I have a question for you" she said to him as he tucked his hands in to his trousers and began walking again, "how did you meet or find your snivy? Was she a starter from a lab or did you two meet in some other way?" she asked in a friendly tone, hoping to get a conversation going between the two of them. "I was stalker by tommy, he saw me in sinnoh when I stopped to stock up on supplies ,I had been running away from home you see" she said before running on hand through her messy red hair, "he followed me on to the ferry I was on but he was useless at hiding and found by the boat staff quickly" she said before looking forwards to her pokemon where the game of tag seemed to have restarted. "when the staff asked who he belonged to he ran over and hid behind nine year old me and we have been together ever since" she said with a smile as she saw phantom lean towards snivy and then fall over as she dodged out of the way of his touch

[XAVIER CHEVALIER]

In the comfort of his own darkness

Xavier plodded on for a bit, determined not to talk about his physical condition. However, he didn't get very far before the red-haired trainer spoke again, declaring that she had a question for him. He was just about to protest when she began asking said question. "How did you meed or find your Snivy?"

He paused in mid-stride. Straightening himself, he looked over his shoulder and cast her a lingering glace. Having expected some question related to his state of health, the youth had been caught thoroughly off guard. But before he was truly able to answer, Nix was already off at breakneck pace, relating her own story to him.

Eyes still laced with surprise and perhaps a little bit of curiosity now continued to glance at the girl for a while. "I... see," he said finally. So, Nix was a runaway as well. It wasn't exactly the sort of thing Xavier himself would share. But then, to each his (or in this case, her) own, he supposed.

Turning to face her, as he felt it would be rude to continue the conversation in this posture, he said, "Yes, Snivy's from the lab back at Straiton."He paused, feeling awkward. Sharing was something he was definitely NOT used to. "I met the professor by chance shortly after arriving in Unova. She offered to let me have Snivy as a starter since she's quite a bit smaller than a normal Snivy. The trainer she was intended for decided to take something else."

He started off again, placing his hands into his pockets as he walked. Casually, he added, "I've only had Snivy for a week, so there's not too much I can say about her at this point."

A little ways ahead, said Snivy having heard her trainer's lat remark, gave a disgruntled, "Sniv~," before continuing her trek towards the city of her origin.

[Nix Night]

Nix nodded her head at the boys words and she lowered her eyes to the ground ,"I found the unova starters a bit odd myself, all of then start so small and grow to be huge where as with other starter pokemon the changes are quite so much. But I guess that's down the food and climate and such over here" she said with a small with a private thought to herself of how lucky the boy had been. Of course she could never give any of her team up and she would never has traded phantom for a unova starter herself, but to have the choice would have been nice.

She looked up to see the pokemon group ahead of her begin to stick closer together, the game of tag having clearly worn out both of nixs boys but they were still making an effort to try and keep the game running, for snivys sake. Smiling at her overly helpful boys, she dropped her hands to her belt and pulled off their pokeballs and then pressed the button at their centres and both boys were called back in a flash of red light, shadow gave a mew of greeting to the snivy before pausing in her walking beside nix and laying down on the ground and twitching her ears. Nix couldn't help but laugh at her and then she nodded to snivy ,"she must like you, phantom is never allowed to ride her and nether was jark when we had him" she said with a smile as shadow gave her a small mew to tell her to shut up.

[XAVIER CHEVALIER]

In the comfort of his own darkness

Xavier couldn't help but smile at the female trainer's comment. Honestly speaking, the teen hadn't thought much about his Snivy's evolution when he accepted the tiny creature. What he did know, was that he wanted to get as far away from home as humanly possible. Needless to say, the prospect of being completely defenseless when coming up against wild pokemon didn't really appeal to him. Besides, the professor's little pep talk about how exciting travelling through Unova would be had drawn the boy's interest. Not even knowing when he would die, Xavier believed he had nothing to lose, yet perhaps there was something to gain.

That had happened less than two weeks ago, and so far, the boy had no qualms about his decision, nor was there any regret. Snivy was an endearing little partner, whom he couldn't help but adore. He chuckled outwardly at the thought. "Still, I don't think I'd see Snivy any differently even if her appearance were to change. Itd be nice to see her grow."

The boy's heart melted further at the sight of the tiny female's attempt to clamber onto the Umbreon. She had jumped onto the dark-pokemon's back from the side, grabbing hold with her too-short arms before trying to pull herself up, her legs wriggling in the process. Finally atop her new ride, the youngling cooed a grateful "Sniv~," at Nix's comment before nestling herself against the dark fur. Eyes closed, and within moments, she was comfortably asleep, puckered out from the excitement.

Xavier flashed Nix an apologetic look, "Sorry," he mumbled, unsure whether to be amused or embarrassed by his partner's behavior. Looking at his pokemon though, he was reminded of how young the Snivy was. "Not much more than a hatchling..." he stated under his breath. The statement was directed more to himself than anyone else.

[Nix Night]

*I now have a team of six, I'll keep the new boys out of the RP for a bit if you'd like but I was thinking maybe on of them could battle your snivy as they are all only level five now*

Nix smiled at her new friend and she nodded, "it's the same for me with my boys In a way" she said before her face went a little warm, "but I have to say there are some pokemon who I don't like because they look a bit ugly as they evolve. Even a couple my own boys, blaze and bubbles, I won't them evolve up as I think their older forms look a bit odd" she confessed before lifting a hand and rubbing the back of her neck nervously.

"I mean some pokemon, I get them because of their abilities or because I like how they look, phantom and Tain for an example" she said with a smile down at her belt ,"Tain is here because I like what sawsbuck look like and tommy because I like how gallade look and because they are so powerful" she said with a smile as she looked down at shadow and snivy who seemed to be getting on like a house on fire. Nix found herself smiling at the two girls and then she looked back at snivys trainer and nodded to the girls ,"I think shadow does loves being around girls, the team is all boys aside her and Me so in glad she's found a female freind" she said to him before hearing shadow mew in agreement at her words

[XAVIER CHEVALIER]

**Actually, Snivy's grown to level 6 in my catching thread and I've acquired a poochyena as well. I think I'll be keeping the later out of the thread though. But sure, I'd love a battle**

In the comfort of his own darkness

Xavier matched his pace with his companion's as they walked. Occasionally, he would offer a smile or a nod at certain key points in her speech. Being a rather taciturn fellow, the white-haired rookie stayed mostly silent while Nix spoke, relaying her pokemon preferences to him. It was... so peaceful here, and it felt surprisingly nice to simply listen to what others had to say, he noted.

But as the odd assortment of travelers made their way towards Straiton, Xavier made it a point to keep his partner within his line of sight. It wasn't that he didn't trust the female trainer, or the Umbreon who carried her, rather, he felt obliged to personally watch over the tiny grass pokemon. She was such a young thing, after all. Every now and then, a small twitch from his snoozing partner would bring a faint smile to his face. It was clear, that even without realizing it, he had become attached to his Snivy.

"I'm just really excited to have pokemon at all," he said when Nix had finished. "Although," he admitted, "there are certain pokemon I'd prefer to others. And someday, I'd like to have a Pidgeot, or some other flying pokemon on my team. I want to see the -." He let out a wry chuckle, embarrassed by what he had said. "-never mind," he continued at a more subdued tone, a light shade of red could be seen on his flushed cheeks. "It's just a silly dream," he said, because I don't even know if I'll live long enough to see it happen, he mentally added.

"It is nice to see Snivy getting along so well with other pokemon though," he said in an attempt to change the subject. "She's tiny now, but I'm sure she'll turn into a fine pokemon someday."It wouldn't be long no before they reached their destination. Despite the awkwardness, Xavier found that he was really enjoying himself. Part of him even wished that the walk would last a little longer than it would.

[Nix Night]

Nix turned her head to the boy beside her and smiled a little and then lowered her voice when she spoke ,"everyone has dreams with pokemon, I've always wanted my certain team with 7 years of hard work I now finally have them all. Dreams are just pretty looking goals" she said with a soft smile as she heard shadow mew. She turned her head to see shadows Ears twitching back and forth ,nix rolled her eyes as she spotted the skyline of the city before them and she nodded her head and clicked her tongue and shadows ears suddenly stopped. "I know we're close but how about this, when we get in to the city, we can have a battle" she said and shadow turned her head to look at her trainer and grinned at her before looking forwards again and speeding up just a little, "shadow..." nix said and shadow sniggered and slowed down again.

Nix turned her head back to her new friend and smiled at him ,"I can understand that, she does look like she could be brilliant should someone care for her. And you seem to be doing that very well" she said to her new friend before her face went a little warm, "I don't get on very well with younger pokemon because phantom loves to be babied and any new young pokemon need to come first of course so he gets mad at me for not babying him" she said with a small nod at his words from before. The wind blew over her face again and brushed her hair away from her ears and sent it flying all over her face and she sighed and lifted her hands out from her deep combat pockets and brushed it away With her fingers before she looked at the boy again ,"I never asked, is a battle ok with you?" she asked politely

*you can use the poochyena If you'd like to, that way we can have a 2 and 2 battle or maybe even a double battle*