[PRP] Prizes Galore

[BlackFireKitsune]

Early afternoon found Nicolette stepping happily down the boardwalk, a few pokemon plushie prizes in her arms while Clarisse trotted along beside her, one ribbon wrapped around her trainer's wrist. The Sylveon would've been beaming in delight if not for the bag of cotton candy hanging from her mouth that physically prevented it, and she had to hold her head quite high to make sure the long bag didn't drag across the ground. Cotton candy! Games! The fairy-type was positively enamored with the plethora of things to do or see along the boardwalk. Nicolette was as well, though this wasn't her first time seeing everything like it was for Clarisse. "Isn't this fun? We should come here more often," the trainer decided with a firm nod of her head, then frowned a little in thought for a brief moment before smiling happily again. "Next time we should ask Shoyo to come! I bet he'd like coming over here, don't you think?"

Clarisse made an eager-sounding noise of agreement around the plastic bag still clasped in her mouth.  

[TawnyAngel]

After a pretty terrible trip to the beach Aulus had promised Thanatos a better day out and this was the follow through. Surprisingly enough he, the cute Spinarak on his shoulder, and the Greninja walking along beside him got a pretty wide berth. Couldn't be anything to do with the rather prominent scar on his face and the metal arm that was clearly visible thanks to his black tank top.

They'd watched a little puppet show, he'd won a giant cupcake shaped plushie from a shooting gallery for Thanatos - he was actually quite proud of that - and now it was ice-cream time. Thanatos got a strawberry cone while he got his usual favourite - chocolate - and Paul got occasional nibbles of each. It was when Thanatos proffered out his ice-cream for the third or fourth time that disaster happened.

Splat!

The strawberry flavoured treat - with real chunks of fruit - fell off the cone and landed on the boardwalk.

Thanatos stared at it.

Aulus stared at it and then looked back at Thanatos. "Oh, look, we can get you another one...."

Thanatos wailed.

Paul looked at Thanatos wailing and started to wail too.

Aulus groaned.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The sudden wailing startled Nicolette and Clarisse and the pair stopped to find the source. It wasn't difficult to spot nor did it take long at all, as both trainer and pokemon spotted the distressed Greninja not too far off, and the cause of its upset was plain to see in the lump of pink slowly melting into the boardwalk beneath the empty cone clasped in the pokemon's webbed hand. The poor thing, he'd lost his ice cream! It looked like he still had a lot left, too. Nicolette felt a pang in her chest and almost wanted to cry too. Given Paul's diminutive size, she didn't see him yet. "Oh," she said, "ohh..." The girl passed over the plushies to Clarisse with hardly a thought, and the Sylveon quickly wrapped her feelers around them and hastened after her trainer as Nicolette moved towards the Greninja with hands outstretched, and stopped just short of cupping his face in her hands. "Ohh, you poor thing," she said, her tones sad and somewhat distressed. It was difficult for her to see someone upset and not feel upset, herself. "Ohh, poor dear, did your ice cream fall?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Oh this was just perfect, he tried to do something nice and-

Well okay this was a strange turn up for the books. Quite frankly Aulus was used to being looked at by strangers, so it was a bit strange when one focused on his pokemon and not him. He wasn't quite sure what to do about it and so he found himself just lifting Paul off his shoulder to pet the spider in an attempt to calm him down.

Thanatos wasn't that upset about the ice-cream, he wasn't really sure why he was crying about it. When the stranger approached all he could do was turn to her and nod with a plaintive croak, empty cone held in one hand and giant plush cupcake clasped in the other. Everything felt horrible, and this was just the latest horrible thing to happen.

Aulus, who had managed to quiet Paul by means of scratches and chocolate icecream, stepped over to give Thanatos a pat on the shoulder. "We'll get you another one." Also hello strange lady; he turned to look at her- oh! And pretty Sylveon!  

[BlackFireKitsune]

So focused was she on the upset Greninja that Nicolette barely even registered that its trainer was present except for the voice. "Aww..." She felt her heart break a little more, and she reached forward to dry any tears if he'd let her. "There now, see? You can get a new ice cream cone! Will that make it better?" The girl asked, moving from drying tears to stroking the large frog's head in an attempt to help him feel better.

Clarisse seemed not the least bit surprised or put out by the situation playing out before her, though she was a bit nervous about the other human's appearance... Unwilling to let it show - he did have his own ice cream, after all, so maybe she could have some - she instead used her free ribbon-feeler to remove her little top hat and flip it with a flourish over her chest by way of a greeting, given her mouth was still rather full at the moment.  

[TawnyAngel]

Thanatos croaked an uncertain affirmative but he still looked miserable. Why had he had to drop it? Now they had to queue again, and Aulus had to pay for another one, and though he knew those weren't really a big deal they felt like they were. He croaked again and pressed his head into the woman's petting hand, today was not a fun day after all.

The movement from the Sylveon distracted Aulus at least briefly from Thanatos - though his hand remained on the amphibian's back - and he looked down with a hint of a smile. "Nice trick," he acknowledged; a Sylveon with a tophat? Super cute.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Awww... He still looked so upset. Nicolette continued to stroke the frog's head and dry any further tears, still feeling like crying herself, though she refrained. "Would you like a hug? Would that help?" Ice cream might take a bit to procure, but hugs were quicker and free - she could give as many as he wanted.

With a pleased, albeit muffled noise and another flourish, Clarisse placed the top hat atop her head once more, and looked up at Aulus a little hopefully. Her expression would've been more hopeful, but given his rather intimidating appearance, she didn't have too much hope he'd give her a treat or anything. Still, a girl had to try.  

[TawnyAngel]

Thanatos thought about this for a while and then nodded; a hug sounded nice.

Aulus suddenly found himself holding a giant plush cupcake as Thanatos ate his icecream cone in one bite and pushed the plush at him so that he had his hands free for the offered hug.

Icream in one hand, cupcake in the other Aulus looked down at the Sylveon. "Oh, I know what you're after, but I can't very well give it to you without your trainer's say so," Aulud nodded at the strange but apparently kind woman. "For all I know you're lactose intolerant or allergic to chocolate."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Oh! He seemed very eager for a hug, given how quickly he endeavored to free his hands in preparation for it. Not wanting to make him wait any longer, Nicolette bent down a little and wrapped her arms around the frog, pulling him into a hug and holding him close, and one hand even remained on his head to pet him more.

The Sylveon looked rather dismayed by this, and her ears flicked back, but he at least hadn't said he wouldn't, just that he had to have Nicolette's permission first... Well, she would almost assuredly give it, she just had to wait for the girl to be done with the Greninja first. Settling herself down to wait, the fairy-type daintily sat down on the boardwalk and took a moment to actually look around a bit more, and her large blue eyes finally alighted on the purple spider on the stranger's shoulder. Oh, another pokemon? Clarisse waved her free ribbon at the Spinarak in a friendly greeting.

Aulus's words finally registered and Nicolette turned her head to regard him, though didn't move from the Greninja. She would stay giving him hugs as long as he wanted. "Oh! I'm sorry," she said apologetically, "Clarisse isn't allergic to anything. My name is Nicolette. May I ask yours?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Thanatos croaked and rested his chin on the woman's shoulder as she bent down to him. He stayed like that for some moments, until she spoke again and he realised that she was addressing Aulus, and that they hadn't been introduced. <> he stepped back from the woman and bobbed his head at her. <> He then turned to wave at the Sylveon. <>

<> said Paul with a shy wave of a foreleg. <>

Aulus handed the giant cupcake back to Thanatos, scooped a bit of icecream onto his fingers and crouched to offer it to Clarisse. He was, he decided, kindly disposed towards these two and so there was no need to pull out the spiky dangerous b*****d card. "Name's Kurt," he supplied. "That's Paul on my shoulder, and Thanatos you were just hugging. He's had a bad week."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

As Thanatos pulled away, Nicolette offered him a final pat on the head and an encouraging smile. She remained crouched near the ground though, just in case he wanted another hug, though looked to Kurt when he spoke. "It's nice to meet you Kurt - aw! - Paul, and I'm sorry you've had a bad week Thanatos," the girl said to each in turn with the exclamation, and a matching expression, of how cute Paul was, though it changed to one of apology as she turned back to the Greninja. "You can have as many hugs as you want!" It was the least she could do, the poor thing had looked so sad...

she affirmed with a quick bob of her head, though her attention soon turned to their trainer. As soon as Kurt scooped ice cream onto his fingers Clarisse was ready, ears perked, eyes wide and the Sylveon even went so far as to stand up on her hind legs in preparation for receiving ice cream. When he crouched down she followed his fingers and dropped back down to all fours and eagerly licked the ice cream off, her pink tail waving happily the whole time.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Uh, nice to meet you too," Aulus ventured, nodding at Nicolette and then smiling down at Clarisse. "Good stuff hu?" Once his fingers were licked clean he straightened up and, after a moment of thought, passed his ice cream to Thanatos. "Here, we'll get me another one later." He'd been enjoying it but he hadn't come here today for him, so.

Thanatos accepted the ice cream with a happy croak and took a big lick, nearly half the ice cream vanished into his mouth in one go. <>

<> Paul agreed, still shy but eager to join in the conversation. <>

Well, okay, the pokemon were talking now so that meant his options were either be rude - which didn't feel right given Nicolette had been so nice to Thanatos - or make smalltalk which he was bad at. Oh well, here went. "So... nice fair they have here? You look like you did well at the games," he gestured to the plushes Nicolette was holding. "I think half of them are rigged to be honest but some of them are fun."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Clarisse's tongue poked out of her mouth as she tried to lick any residual ice cream from her fur - there wasn't any - before she swept her tiny tophat off her head and, with a flourish, twirled it to rest over her chest as she offered Aulus a deep bow in thanks.

That done, the Sylveon straightened up, placed her hat back atop her head, and turned to continue conversing with the other pokemon. is good ice cream. I wonder if I can convince Nicolette to get some,> she took a moment to glance to her trainer and consider the possibilities to herself, then focused on Thanatos and Paul again. her bright gaze swept up to Paul,

"It is!" Nicolette agreed eagerly, not paying much mind to her pokemon's grandiose tophat gestures. His comment made her blink down at the plushies she held in her hands. When did those get there? Hadn't Clarisse been holding them? Putting the matter out of her head - obviously the Sylveon had pushed them into her arms when she wasn't paying attention and she just never noticed - she nodded and smiled up at him. "We have! Clarisse was too, there's a few games that pokemon can play, and she won - ah - this one!" A plush Sharpedo waved out among the handful of plushes Nicolette held in her arms. "I don't think they're rigged," she went on with a thoughtful pout frown, "but I do think they're supposed to be difficult to win."