[FIN] C+

[BlackFireKitsune]

Bloody insane - yep, that just about summed up how he looked right now. She wasn't sure if she should believe him and go closer or just turn around and leave, but her curiosity got the better of her - plus what fun was there in playing it safe? - so she moved closer, but halted halfway there as the 'mutant Marshtomp' emerged from underneath the water.

The sudden movement of the bucket being picked up made the Wooper curious, and he thrust his head up above the edge of the bucket without warning, just so he could look around. What he saw was the human who had been making so many noises - and was still making noises - but he'd heard other, more familiar noises, and so he waddle-turned in a half-circle until he spotted the girl human. His mouth fell open into an even more joyful expression than before, if such a thing were possible, and he began making happy "wooper, woop!" noises.

The grunt blinked in confusion, wondering just why this pokemon was so excited-- "Wait a minute," she said suddenly, watching it suspiciously. She reached down to the two pokeballs on her belt, though her hand hovered there for a few moments before she remembered which was which and picked one off and opened it in her hand... To find that nothing came out. "You little nuisance!" Ugh! When had he escaped? How had he escaped was the better question though, given how stupid he was - and most importantly, how had she missed it? With these angry thoughts in mind, the grunt stalked forward, reached into the bucket, and pulled the Wooper out by the base of his tail. "When did you get out? And how did you get out, for that matter? ...ugh nevermind," she said frustratedly, once she realized she was talking to a pokemon of all things, before unceremoniously dropping the Wooper onto the floor where he landed with a wet plop. He didn't seem to mind. The girl, however, gave him a very displeased frown before putting her hands on her hips and addressing the trainee instead, "Guess this is my fault then; sorry about that. I didn't even know he got out in the first place, let alone wandered off, obnoxious little..." She trailed off gloomily, giving the Wooper another angry glare. He merely continued his gleeful smile in return.  

[Gwennythe]

"Yeah! You tell the little bugger!" At first, Clancy just assumed he'd found an ally...
Then, the grunt plucked it out of the bucket, and it let her.
"Wha-... This thing is yours?! Uh..." He blinked.
He had been so sure it had been some kind of lab-mutant escapee or... something.
"D'you, uh, work in the labs? Just what the bloody hell is this thing? Some kinda augment-wotsit-Mudkip?"
He watched the thing get dropped on the floor, and... honestly could say he felt sorry for the nuisance.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah, it is," she confirmed with a frustrated sigh, watching the Wooper as it began waddling in circles around her, completely oblivious to the fact it had done anything wrong. "It's a - uh.. A Wooper," that was right, wasn't it? It sounded familiar, so that was probably it. "Not any kind of mutant as far as I know. The labs? Nah. I'm not really in any of the departments yet. What about you? Or.. still just a trainee?" She asked after a brief moment and a tilt of her head. Ugh, she was so glad to be out of that ugly red uniform.  

[Gwennythe]

"This is what it's... /supposed/ to be like?!" Clancy was surprised... The thing had, uh, seemed kind of broken.
"What kinda name is 'Wooper'..?" He shook his head.

"Still a bloody trainee right now. Probably gonna end up in maintenance... How d'ya put up with that thing? Is it... useful? Like, at all? Clerval," He gestured a thumb at the pikachu "couldn't shock 'im..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

His disbelief that this was actually how her pokemon was supposed to be was, frankly, somewhat embarrassing. Why had they assigned her such a dimwitted pokemon? They fully expected her to use it, she knew, but how was the question. "Yeah, it is supposed to be like this, I guess. Or at least, mine is," she said with a frown and gently nudged the Wooper with the tip of her boot. His expression turned gleeful and he flopped over the top of her foot with a delighted 'wooo~'. "I uh.. I dunno. I get mad at it but then it does crap like this and it's just... No, it's not very useful at all, but then again I've never used pokemon before joining up, so I don't exactly know how they can be useful, especially one like this." In gesture, she shifted her boot away and the Wooper flopped off of it and onto his back on the floor, where he beamed up at them and began kicking his small feet around.

"Well, at least being a trainee doesn't last too long, right? Only a couple of months.." Though being a grunt wasn't that much more exciting so far, which was disappointing.  

[Gwennythe]

Bloody hell, it was like some kind of weird, soggy slimy toddler now...

"Well... Great pokémon then, eh?" He frowned at it. "Uh. It doesn't seem like the bloody thing can be shocked by 'leccy, so I bet that might be really ******** useful! Hey! Clerval, show her? Y' might wanna stand back a bit..."

Clerval sighed and straightened up, intending to send a mild thundershock toward the Wooper in demonstration if the humans stood back.

"Yeah, 's the bloody truth. Think my time's near about up, actually; still, be nice to get outta this bloody red; I look like a bloomin' tomahta."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

...''leccy'? What was that..? "Oh, uh, all right," she responded with a mild frown, still somewhat distracted by what ''leccy' was but regardless she moved back as instructed.

Again, as before, the electric attack did absolutely nothing to the Wooper, who remained laying on his back on the otherwise clean floor.

"Oh - electricity," so that's what he'd meant when he'd said 'leccy. Still was an odd way to say it, but whatever. Same for 'tomahta.' "It might be because he's part-- Uh, part.. Uhhh..." What was it again? "Man, I don't know anything about pokemon," she said with a slightly vexed sigh. It took her another moment or two of thinking, but eventually she snapped her gloved fingers and pointed at him, "Earth-type. Is that right? Earth? Not rock.. Maybe it's ground? Anyway, he's something, that's all I know. And that's good; the red looks atrocious on pretty much everyone. Gray is much better. Goes a lot better with more things," she said with a nod. Like colored tights. Colored tights with a bright red uniform was yeugh.  

[Gwennythe]

"Earth type's a damned good guess, but nah, ground's right. Bloody thing's a dual type- like a Swampert- Water and Ground. Bloomin' useful f'r surprising people who ain't used to the thing," like himself, in fact "but, uh," Clancy looked down at the grinning wiggly newt-thing "maybe that's really only after a ruddy-lifetime o' training?" He just... couldn't see this particular one as an effective battler... though, having seen Mudkip evolutions in battle, he suspected there was more potential there.

Clancy pointed at his hair.
"Long as I'm no longer a tomahta, I'll be happy 'nuff."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Kay, I'm just gonna come out right now and say I have no idea what a 'Swampert' is," Candice admitted without hesitation as she put her hands on her hips. Swampert... Well, it had 'swamp' in its name, so maybe it was green and.. kinda swampy? Maybe. Whatever. She glanced down at the Wooper on the floor and sighed, her face falling into a frown. "That sounds like a lot of work that I don't even know how to do. Why d'we have to train these things, anyway?" They seemed so... useless. Or, at least, this one did - useless and defective. At least her other one was responsive, though she didn't have a much better opinion of that one comparatively. They were pokemon, and pokemon were nuisances.

"Red hair, hm? At least you match the red uniforms a little better than I did," she pointed to her light blue hair with a smirk. "Mine kind of clashed really badly."  

[Gwennythe]

Clancy smiled, but didn't seem to find it too odd, or at least didn't say so, that Candice didn't know what a Swampert was.
"Er. D'ya know whatta Squirtle is? Or, uh, y'know how they give pokémon to littl'uns or sprogs or whatever; people startin' out on bashing th'hell out of the League's gyms and the like? Well, a Swampert is what one of them 'starters' from my ol' home- that's Hoenn- happens t' turn into. It's a water type but it's also gotta flipping dual ground type which is confusing as all hell, but damned useful... 'S kinda, uh, bulkier than this little newt-wotsit though... Ah, y' train 'em to make 'em bloody useful instead of..." He looked down to watch the Wooper doing whatever it was doing.
"Yeah, well... Y' mighta got a defective one or summat, there..."

Clancy smirked and tilted his head slightly.
"Can't say I'm too up on m' colour theory and the like, but... red and blue; that does sound like a bit of an awkward match... Not that's much wrong with blue mind. Water's blue; 's a good colour."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

A Squirtle? "Nope," she said with another shake of her head. "I might've seen one sometime, but I wouldn't know it by name or anything. I never cared about pokemon growing up - they were always nuisances, so I didn't ever pay much attention to which was called what or what type or any of that nonsense. I do know that it all seemed like a big waste of time, training them and whatnot." Seriously, why would anyone want to take some colorful creature around and make it fight others and collect things? The adventuring part of it appealed to her, but she had little interest in collecting badges or pokemon.

"Wait, Hoenn?" Now he had her attention. "Where in Hoenn? I'm from Slateport," she offered as she pointed a thumb at herself, expression brightening as the conversation switched to things she actually had an interest in. Defective - just what she was thinking! She was starting to like this guy already.

Oh, yep, he was definitely on her 'cool people' list. "Blue's the best color," she claimed proudly, her hands back on her hips, "and water's the best-- uh, well, it's just the best. I grew up in and around water, being from Slateport and all. It's a pity we're so far from the beach here, but at least we're under a lake, right?" It wasn't as good, but it was still pretty cool in her book.  

[Gwennythe]

"Eh... They look like turtles.. Not important. Bloody weird until they grow real big. Can't say I was ever into the Gym stuff or anything either but I got an appreciation f'r the ones that can do useful stuff. Makes m' life easier," He jabbed a thumb at Clerval "Like 'im. Weird yellow rat thing, but he doubles as a bloody power supply! Damned useful. And m' Carvanha," he tapped his belt "she helps me out with a bit of cleaning."

He raised his eyebrows as Hoenn was seized upon as a topic, but appreciatively.
"Lilycove, m'self. Most o' my life, actually, just never lost the bloody accent from before there. Kinda partial to blue myself cuz the whole bloomin' water connection." He nodded in agreement; it -probably- was the best colour but he wasn't going to outright say it was his favourite or anything, plus, it was a rather hard colour to wear with his bright red hair.
"The lake is pretty cool though I ain't had a lot a time to see much of it yet... Kinda stuck indoors bein' a trainee and all, still, and never got a bloody chance before I came down here... When I'm a grunt, I'm gonna have a good ol' visit; maybe have a bit of a swim or summat."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Really big turtles, huh? "Sounds weird," she quipped brightly. Then again, pretty much any pokemon sounded or looked weird to her. Mention of useful ones, however, brought a very dubious and skeptical look to her face. "I dunno if I've ever really come across any useful ones. This Wooper's never been useful, but then again it might be defective, so what do I know?" She shrugged, not paying any attention to her pokemon as it got up and began waddling in circles around her. Though, the way he put it, having one as a power supply sounded useful if one had a lot of portable electronics - which she did not.

"Oh, really? Where're you from before Lilycove, then?" She asked curiously. That certainly wasn't any accent from Lilycove that she'd ever heard, and she'd had quite a few customers from Lilycove back in Slateport. "Ah, yeah, it sucks being a trainee and not being able to do, like, anything," she said with a huff. That had sucked so bad. "But, hopefully you can get out and go to the beach or something before it gets too cold to go swimming. Don't think it'll be too much longer, unfortunately, if it's even still warm enough." That was the most depressing thing, and why fall and winter were her least favorite seasons.  

[Gwennythe]

"This... 'wooper' does seem kinda," Clancy grimaced a little "a few sandwiches short of a picnic if y' ask me..."
Sure, it wasn't quite as bad as a certain pink windbag pokémon (it hadn't clogged a toilet) but still... He had to admit, aside from the electric resistance, he wasn't entirely sure what the use of the newt-thing could really be...

Ah, the 'where are you from' question... It always brought some fuzzy memories up of a weird grey sort of place that had, apparently, permanently affected him by way of his accent.
"Eh, I was born in Kent- 's in England- but that was kind of a bloody long time ago and I've not been back since I was a kid."
He brightened up at talk of the ocean.
"You ever tried t' swim in October? Ocean retains some of the summer 'eat for the month; it's rather bloody lovely.... Gotta agree that it'll get too bloomin' cold before too long though..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"'A few sandwiches short of a picnic' huh?" She echoed with some amusement, a wry smirk on her face. "Can't say I've heard that one before, but it's a good one." She'd have to think of some instance in which she could say that to someone sometime. "But yeah, you're right. It's been pretty useless ever since they assigned it to me back when I joined." Really, at this point, she didn't have much hope for it to magically stop being useless.

"England, huh? If you were only there when you were a kid, why do you still have the accent then?" That was, what, at least ten years ago, and he was only a kid when he left. It didn't make much sense to her, to be honest. "Yeah, I've swam in October before. It can be pretty nice at times, but if the air gets too cold too fast then it just kinda sucks and saps all the fun out of it," Candice said with a pout as she crossed her arms. "Body suits can help with that though, but only to an extent. I kinda wish I'd joined sooner, cuz then it'd still be summer and the weather would be perfect for surfing or parasailing," she sighed wistfully. She did love parasailing-- actually, she loved pretty much any water-related sport. Parasailing just happened to be the most fun, given how dangerous it could be if you really thought about it.