[FIN] Things That Are New

[Gwennythe]

The recently opened trainer center was proving quite the attraction for Henrietta; this was, at least, the third time in a week she'd visited the place...
Somewhere where she could train, battle, pet a billion Growlithes and just hang out in an environment full of trainers and League stuff- it was just awesome.

She avoided, moving around, a couple of other patrons, making sure she wasn't in the way as she browsed, a grin plastered across her face.
The girl was, currently, carrying Gummy toward one of their favourite spots in the place- the shop where one could find pokéballs.
Sylph Co. and Devon Co. ball products were neatly displayed, alongside prices...
Henrietta didn't think she had enough to afford too much, but Quick Balls, and, she found, today, and Ultra Ball, still ate a little chunk from her funds.

While Hen' was clearly excited by her new purchases, Gummy remained un-enthused.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dith hadn't missed the buzz over the new trainer center, that would have been hard, but he'd been too busy to visit it until today. Casually dressed in jeans, trainers, a Zelda t-shirt and a khaki jacket, and armed with a large coffee the large man wandered around the shopping section. Woefully unbalanced as his team was he was pondering getting himself some pokeballs and going out to try to catch some new additions to the posse. The prices were pretty reasonable so far as pokeballs went (he thought?) but he wasn't really sure what sort to get. If he was honest he had to read the descriptions to know what half of them even did, he wasn't the most experienced at catching his own pokemon.

As he stooped to read more about the Net ball Vitkor chirped softly and pawed at his leg.

//Eh?// Dith looked further down to meet the Espeon's golden gaze. //What is it?// he quizzed in his native tongue.

Viktor bobbed his head and then turned to point a paw at somebody who appeared to have just finished their shopping, a familiar somebody no less.

"Oh, Hen, hi!" Dith grinned and made a beeline for the young trainer, totally oblivious to the fact that a couple of teenage lads had to leap quickly out of his way to avoid being flattened. "I wondered if I might see somebody I knew here, how are you?" He didn't know Henrietta well by any means but hey, maybe this would be a chance to get to know her better.  

[Gwennythe]

"Dith!" Hen' grinned, recognising the human-mountain (it would be hard not to, she supposed) as he approached, and placing Gummy on the ground to... socialise.
"I'm awesome! Got new stuff!" She thrust the pokéballs up, apparently for his inspection, then gestured around.
"Isn't this place awesome! There's shops and battle places and all sorts! It's Gummy's favourite place!"
It didn't look like Gummy knew this was his favourite place.
"How are you?! Did you have a good birthday thing? On the New Year? I was kinda in Johto for the holidays- visiting home- but I escaped again!" She blinked, then brightened up even further and started rummaging in a bag.
"Here!" A card, that honestly looked like it had been carried around in a trainer's bag for two months, clearly home-made, with a picture of a smiley Makuhita drawn on, was waved at Dith; it might have had 'Happy Birthday!' scrawled on, but with Hen's writing, it also might have said 'Healthy Burgers!'.  

[TawnyAngel]

Enthusiasm!!

Dith grinned approvingly and nodded along with the stream of words although, in his opinion, Gummy didn't look quite as thrilled as he might. Poor little beast, did Viktor ever feel that way about him? Dith glanced at his long-time friend but the Espeon was looking steadily up at Hen.

"Hey, wah?" Dith's attention was pulled back by the waving card, which he took with his grin getting even bigger. "Oh, thank you Hen!" Awww, home made! And more than a bit scrunched, but that was nothing a warm iron wouldn't fix. The writing inside was more or less illegible, in fact some of it looked a bit like Cyrillic, but he chose to assume that it said 'Happy Birthday'.

"I had a great time thank you," he continued with a nod, "it was a bit more uh... a bit more flashy than I'd usually have but it was nice, you know? Celebrate all of us being in just about once piece, and my birthday, and New Year, and Rosie and Luke's good news! So I think it was fitting. I hope you had a good time too, most of my family descended on the party - well, they ran it - so I sort of did both things, family and big party thing."

Smoothing the card out a little Dith swung his bag off his shoulder, kneeling down to get out the large first aid box. Clicking it open he put the card inside, returned the box to his bag, and stood up again. "It will be safe in there until I get home," he explained with a small nod for emphasis.  

[Gwennythe]

"You're welcome! Oh man, that sounds like loads happened! I bet it was loadsa fun. I was watching fireworks then- they were really cool, but I wasn't on a boat or anything... I heard about the news! It's gonna be awesome but weird! I dun think I ever knew people who got married before!" Never mind that her parents were, in fact, married... they didn't count.
"I dunno if I'll see my family for my birthday... I dun think I'd want them running any of my parties, but I guess it could be cool. I wanna volunteer with the KSO after it though! That's gonna be the best thing!"

She grinned as he put the card in the box.
"Awsome! I just put stuff in my bag, or let Gummy carry it. He's really good at it, but sometimes stuff gets a bit wet."  

[TawnyAngel]

Viktor sighed slightly and gave Gummy a sympathetic look. Humans, much as he loved them they could be such a bother.

"It was great, yeah," Dith agreed easily, neglecting to mention that later in the day of January first had been less enjoyable... as had part of January second. Hangovers hung around longer and longer the more Januarys went by. "My parents are professional party planners," he added as an explanation for why a forty-five- ack, forty-six year old was having their party planned by their parents. Forty-six!

"I'm going to look into that too," he continued, shaking off all age related thoughts. "I mean I can't afford the time to be an officer, but volunteering for them sounds as thought it would suit me." Was there somewhere around here he could find out more? He supposed he might as well while he was here.

Ah! While he was here; he had come here not only to explore but also to buy some supplies. "I should get myself some pokeballs," he mused aloud, "my team is ah... just a bit unbalanced, so I need to catch myself some more. When did they get to be so many kinds though? When I was your age there was only one kind to be had... but that was Russia," he gave a small shrug, "maybe there was already more variety elsewhere?" Red and white ones at least, not utilitarian grey.  

[Gwennythe]

Gummy... stared straight ahead; he hadn't blinked for a few minutes.

Henrietta didn't seem to find it strange, nor find the explanation unusual, to the fact that Dith's parents had planned his party.
It was one of the things parents were pretty good for, right? She hadn't considered the fact that Dith was in his forties, and it wasn't likely to occur to her.
"Yeah! It sounds awesome, so I wanna volunteer too! But, I'm gonna be a pokémon champion one day, so I can't really work for them full time... I can volunteer though! Maybe we'll get to work together!"
She then frowned at the idea of limited pokéballs; how awful sounding... That probably would mean her favourite wasn't available then.
"Oh, man?! Only one kind?! I love there being so many! But most of all I love this one!" She brought out her Quick Ball purchase. "It's so awesome! I love how it looks! Do you have a favourite?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Viktor blinked; the water type's vacant stare was making his eyes water a little.

"I would like that," Dith agreed with a grin - and he would, keeping an eye on kids getting involved with this kind of thing was one of the main reason he'd stayed in Kodo to begin with. They were strong trainers, mainly, plenty of them stronger than he was himself and a slightly alarming number of them wandered around with swords but... well they were still all very young and even if he couldn't protect them per se recent events had shown that his particular skills were very useful to have around.

Dith scratched absently at one of the scars scattered across the right hand side of his face and shrugged. "Ah, I don't know if I have a favourite... Dusk balls maybe? They're very versatile. Mmh, these were the only ones we could get though, I think they're just equivalent to a pokeball." As he spoke Dith took Viktor's plain grey, rather scratched up pokeball from his belt and held it out for inspection. "I would like to get a variety today though I think," he continued with a little shrug, "to be prepared for all manner of situations? I will definitely get myself some Quick Balls though! And Ultra Balls, always a good fall back if you have run out of specialised ones right?"  

[Gwennythe]

Finally, the Totodile lowered one eyelid, and then the other; blinking each eye rather out of sync.

"Yeah! It'll be so cool! I can't wait to take the training and stuff! That's kinda why we're here, too! The more battles and stuff that we have, the better we'll get!" She grinned and then peered forward at the unfamiliar, somewhat plain, pokéball.
"That's still kinda cool! I've never seen a ball like that before! Our normal ones are just all kinda red and white. 'Cuz Sylph makes them. I think that's just the colours they like..."
She nodded enthusiastically.
"Dusk Balls are cool! Especially at night or in a cave or something! I just kinda like the colours on Quick Balls, but I bet a Dusk Ball that was blue and yellow would be totally awesome!" Maybe she should look into seeing if that was possible... The thought, as most of hers, was just a flash across her mind.
"Yeah! That's a good idea! And I got an Ultra Ball today too! I dunno what I'll get with it though; something really tough! Like an Ursaring!" Wouldn't that make a nice friend for her 'Snowlax'...  

[TawnyAngel]

Viktor blinked again and curled his tail around his paws. Right then.

So much enthusiasm. So! Much!... Hum, and she had a good point actually! "Hey, would you like a battle once I've been shopping?" Dith suggested with a wave of his hand to the stairs leading down to the training areas. "I know my team could do with sharpening up. Finding one another's weaknesses is much better than finding them out on a mission, right?" It sounded like a good idea to him and a quick glance down revealed that Viktor looked sort of... restless? Maybe? Well not relaxed anyway, the exercise would do him good no doubt.  

[Gwennythe]

Gummy took one step forward.

"Would I?! Man! I totally would! We gotta battle! It'll be awesome! And you totally gotta meet my newest friend! He might be even bigger than you so we totally gotta do that in a training area! I dunno if getting him out here is a good idea or not!"
Battling was one of Henrietta's favourite things ever; there was no way she'd pass up an opportunity to battle anyone, especially a friend.  

[TawnyAngel]

Gwennythe

Viktor blinked.

Dith grinned and gave a short laugh; "Always pleased to meet people bigger than I am! I won't be long, okay?"

With that Dith ducked into the store and, not really knowing what else to do, bought five of all the specialised balls and ten ultra balls. Having a high paid job and inexpensive tastes (well, other than thinkgeek.com) sometime made life a lot easier. Anyway, if he turned out not to need any of the ones he'd bought he could probably swap them with his friends for ones that he did.

"Alright then!" Dith beamed again as he stepped out of the store. "Shall we make a move? I'm sure Gummy is keen to be getting down to some battling, eh?..." Err... well, it certainly looked like Viktor was ready to leave.  

[Gwennythe]

"Okay! We'll wait here!" Henrietta grinned and rocked on her heels. She didn't mind waiting; there were pokémon to pet and talk to... just about everywhere... and so many different trainers to see going by.
It really didn't feel like any time at all went by, to her.

"Yeah!" She practically shouted as Dith returned, nodding enthusiastically. "Oh, he /totally/ is! Look, look! He's -so- excited!"

Gummy was impassively staring ahead.  

[TawnyAngel]

Was Hen really good at reading the blank looking pokemon, or was she just projecting her own cheer onto him? Oh well, either way it didn't really matter he supposed. "Da, lead the way!" Dith replied with a gesture to the stairs. "How long have you been training by the way, have I asked?" Dith asked as they set off. "Forgive me if I have and have forgotten, blame my age!" He wasn't all that old he supposed but it was a bit hard not to feel it given the ages of most of his friends on the island, at least friends who weren't work friends.  

[Gwennythe]

"What's 'da' mean?" She thought she knew, but it wouldn't hurt to ask; especially if she got to learn a bit of a new language to her; that might be super useful one day.

Gummy waddled along without protest; he seemed to know where they were going.

"Nearly a whole year! I got Gummy for my 15th birthday and we've been training ever since! He's super strong now! How long have you been training, Dith?"