Heigh-Ho, Cherry-O! [Starter-Complete]

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

"Take care, my little Cerise!" Roxanne Lysandre was calling after her daughter. That nickname was used almost exclusively by family members, having come from sounding a bit like Sera and being the Kalosian word for "cherry", much like Sera's reddish hair and eyes and favorite bright red cloak.

"I will," the redhead answered half-heartedly. It wasn't as though she couldn't come straight home to show her mom her new Pokemon before she headed out on any kind of real job, but with the big fuss Roxanne was making, Sera figured actually doing so would probably kill the mood of the day. Oh well. Waiting a little longer to show off wouldn't kill her, and having a story to go along with it would make the overall experience more enjoyable anyway.

"Please be safe.." Roxanne mumbled to herself when Sera finally left her sight.

---

Some time later, Sera approached a very familiar sight: Port City's lab. She'd spent so much of her post-Portal childhood here, and would still pop by on occasion even lately to see if there was anything being taught that she didn't already know or could use a refresher course on, so when she was told to head to either the Emissary or here, well... She did very much admire the ambassador, and would not at all mind getting some lessons from her one day on how to rally and unite people so effectively. But the professor might have rarer Pokemon, and Sera at least passingly knew him.

On that note, she gave a sweet smile and light wave to a young man she recognized in the lobby; she'd seen him in quite a few of the 'classes'. No time to stop and chat, though!

Approaching the front desk, she smiled at the attendant and clasped her hands behind her back, bouncing up once on her toes. "Hey Darcy~ I'm here for my appointment with the professor!" she exclaimed in a bubbly tone.

The two exchanged a few pleasant words before Sera headed through the doors toward where Darcy had told her the professor would be. Upon finally spotting him, she gave the first genuine grin of the day. "Professor Oak!" she called, oblivious to the mental image those two words would bring to the mind of everyone reading her adventure a hundred years ago in an alternate universe. In a lightly teasing tone, she greeted him with a "Guess who's about to become a Pokemon Master~"

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

"Give me just one moment Serena," the professor stated, unaware of the name butcher. The man ran around like a headless pidgey, he grabbed a few pokeballs here and abducted a few notebooks there, obviously he was busy - as usual. After Oak finished his scavenger hunt and dumped all of the items in a large hiking backpack, he turned to Sera. A grin appeared on his face as he approached the girl and stuck his hands in the pockets of his lab coat. "It's about we had this meeting, eh?"

Quercus gestured with his head for Sera to follow him. He strolled to the back of his lab space to a wall covered in shelves that held pokeballs. A chuckle rolled from his mouth and then he sighed with a kind of sentiment. "These are the moments that I cherish most, when you kids finally decide to brave the world and do it all." He turned to face Sera. "Well, let's get on with it shall we?" Quercus quickly grabbed five pokeballs and released them from their capsules.

"Alright, so here we go!
First up is Igglybuff. Now I know you're a sweet girl, but you hate when people don't listen to you, this Pokemon's family is known for having that same attribute. Not to mention they're also cute, sweet for the most part, and can sing!
Gothita reminds me a lot of you as well. See, they do this thing where they just stare off into space. Most people think they are just zoning out, but once they evolve you can tell they where learning the whole time. Its evolutions are great with manipulation.
Furfrou is an enormously loyal and adventurous Pokemon. I think that it would suit you well!
Solosis, other than just being Gothita's counterpart, is also very observant and manipulative, but they tend to fall across the more fun side of that realm.
Finally, we have Cherubi. And of course, I don't need to explain this one to you."

Professor Oak smiled and winked at Sera. While she was looking over her choices, he ran to the side to grab a bag of items. He held it to Sera and gestured for her to look inside of it. Inside the bag there was an X-Gear, Data Log, First Aid Kit, Berry Sack, Spile, Canteen, Tool Bag, Mortar & Pestle, Weapon Sheathe, and a Quiver. "You can have two." Quercus smiled and with excitement he directed Sera, "Now go on, choose!"

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Sera never interrupted him really, nor even protested the misnaming (though that name did sound familiar and she couldn't place why), but she did give a little "er-" after a particular word and a nervous, uncomfortable laugh when it came up again. When he was done, she gave one of her less-convincing acts in an attempt to seem confused, hoping her nervous grin came off as more of an almost-amused 'that's so ridiculous' look. "Manipulation? I don't know about all that.." She forced another small laugh. She looked over the Pokemon briefly, then moved on to the items.

Taking a few things to look, she mumbled to herself. "Oh that's nice.. Useful... Seems a little redundant.." This was said of the Berry Sack, since, well, she already had a bag. She got the idea, a separate bag would certainly help in keeping them organized and from getting squished, and this was Mr. Sciencehead so for all she knew it could have some super fancy keeps-the-berries-fresh technology or something, but still. She continued to mumble little commentary until she came to the quiver. "Ooh. You got a bow to go with this?"

...

"..Arrows?"

...

"...Wow. She wasn't kidding." The attendant who'd taken her registration form warned her the professor didn't tend to have very good items on hand but an empty quiver she just... Realizing she was probably coming off as rather rude, she suddenly gave another nervous little laugh. "Oh uh! It's nothing, aha. I think I'd like these please!" she said, shifting to a sweet smile as she took out the X-Gear and First Aid Kit.

With that settled, she moved back to the Pokemon. She didn't want to say how very uninterested she was in the Furfrou; the loyalty of dogs was appealing, as was its being a pretty strong symbol of her ancestral home of Kalos, but wow she did not want to keep up with that thing's grooming while roughing the wilderness. All the others had pretty strong merits, though.

Moving closer to them, she crouched down, wrapping her arms around her knees. For a moment, she glanced over her shoulder at the professor, but then shrugged. He'd probably think she was crazy, but that wasn't really her problem. Sure he was pretty attractive especially for a man of his age, but he seemed pretty unavailable and was a bit scatter-brained for her taste (perhaps ironically). Ignoring that, then, her attention turned fully to the five Pokemon, even the one she'd already pretty well ruled out for appearance's sake.

"So.. Tell me a bit about yourselves?" she asked.

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

Oak gave a breathy laugh, "I think I forgot to tell you that Anit- 'scuse me, Ms. Nguyen sent over you're profile." His eyes closed and grinned even more so as he brushed through his shoulder-length hair. Honestly, he was really out of it today.

Gothita stared off in Oak's general direction. Not that it was completely ignoring Sera, it was just very occupied with - well, whatever it was doing. The gothic Pokemon seemed just as out of it as the professor. So much so in fact, that it didn't even notice the Solosis nibbling at the bows on its body.
When Sera asked her question, the Solosis stopped with its pestering and circled the young trainer. Its eyes were wide and it let out a distorted, "Solos?." It paused for a moment, then let out a series of sounds that seemed to morph into a type of chatter. The Pokemon obviously enjoyed that it was being listened to for once.

To Sera's right the Cherubi was shying away from the others ever so cautiously. As Sera asked her question the Pokemon stopped, its leaf twitched, and it stood dead still as to not be noticed. 
The Igglybuff to the left did notice the berry-like Pokemon, however, she only responded by crossing her tiny stubbs and rolling her huge eyes. Then, as the Solosis began its rant, the pink Pokemon sighed and shook her head. Igglybuff knew both the Cherubi and the Solosis, she found both equally annoying for different reasons, but felt an odd urge to play a sisterly role to them. Solosis continued its one-sided chatter until the Igglybuff finally just walked over to it, reached up, pulled it down to her, and held her hand over its mouth.

Directly in front of Sera, the large, white Furfrou laid on its belly. Its eyes filled with a yearning. Sure, most of its species enjoyed being pampered and inside all the time, but that's not what it wanted. Furfrou made direct eye contact with Sera and let a quiet whine escape. To this, the Gothita swished around and began to pet the Pokemon. It seemed that the Pokemon also shared Igglybuff's sisterly spirit. Gothita tried to comfort the dog, its empathy told it that the poor Furfrou would have to wait for another trainer to take it, and it didn't want the dog Pokemon to feel unloved.

Quercus was on the side, though he seemed to be paying attention, if you analyzed him just a bit you'd be able to tell that he really didn't even know the Pokemon had reacted to Sera yet.

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

At the comment about her profile, Sera had only just resisted a suspicious leer. If some sort of omnipotent being in another universe was writing a description of her, they might call her manipulative, but that was absolutely not a thing she would write on her own registration form, or admit to in general ever for that matter. Like, really, letting anyone know what you were doing was kind of counterintuitive to the entire process, wasn't it? Come to think, she wondered if being more observant than they let on might be something she and the professor had in common...

Sera smirked a bit at the Igglybuff's reaction, only to be quickly distracted by the Solosis. She blinked a bit in surprise at first, but the longer it went on, the more amused she became, at one point letting out a little laugh. When Igglybuff shut it up, she thought, Well, that certainly was a lot of random happenings. It was observant and had a great memory if it was all accurate, she'd grant it that. But she could see that becoming considerably less amusing pretty quickly. It went in the maybe pile.

The Gothita and Cherubi were quickly ruled out however. Both seemed sweet, but the professor wasn't kidding about the spacing out. Even if it was true that it was learning the whole time, she needed partners who were quicker on their feet. Ones who would enhance her strengths or balance her weaknesses, not share her weaknesses, heh. And the Cherubi was just too timid. She was going to be facing crazy terrifying feral Pokemon on a daily basis; she needed a fighter, not a pet. Which was really too bad, because she did like the species a lot for, as the professor had noted, pretty obvious reasons.

Igglybuff though. This Igglybuff was fantastic.

At the Furfrou's pleading, she knitted her brow and tweaked her mouth a bit. "I'm sorry boy.. I'm sure you'll be a great adventuring partner for someone someday, but you deserve someone who can take care of you properly, you know?" She forced a small chuckle. "My idea of that would be just to shave you down, and aside from breaking several pairs of sheers every few weeks and making you look ridiculous, it would make you more physically vulnerable, and that's just not good for anyone." Reaching down, she pet him on the head in a brief gesture of attempted comfort.

Standing and turning to the professor, she told him, "I'd adore the Igglybuff~ If I could get her PokeBall?"

Glancing around then, she inquired, "You keep a few others around here too, don't you? The sort suited to any trainer regardless of their application, those kinds our grandparents used to get when they became Pokemon trainers back in the old world? Could I see a few of those?"

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

Igglybuff was taken aback by Sera's choice. She released Solosis and nodded her head with a confident, "Iggly!" The other Pokemon didn't seem to mind not being picked, save the Furfrou who simply whined and laid his head to the floor. 

Prof. Oak nodded and went to withdraw the Pokemon. He handed the Igglybuff's ball to her and sort of - danced?- to the other side of the wall where he started sweeping pokeballs from the shelf into the bottom of his shirt. Quercus then proceeded to waddle back to Sera's area, bend down, and drop the pokeballs to the floor. The good professor stretched his arms up, just barely revealing a set of toned abs (odd for a man who lives in a laboratory), and then he glanced at the nearby desk and sniffed. Oak dropped his hands and grabbed a piece of paper off the desk, from which he glanced back and forth from it to the pile of pokeballs on the floor.

"Guess I, uh- didn't have to do that," he smacked his lips the handed the paper over to Sera. It was a pamphlet that portrayed 21 different Pokemon, all of the different starters from the different Old World regions, and a few that were probably not recognizable. Oak shook his head and grinned, amused with himself. "Just pick one from there and I'll find it. I know who's in which one."

He began to clean up his empty-minded mess as he awaited Sera's answer.

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Sera cocked an eyebrow throughout the display, then cracked a large catty grin when the professor stretched. After his apology, she cooed in a somewhat deeper, breathier than usual voice, "Oh, no, I think you should do it again in fact." She let her cloak fall off her shoulders, bearing them given the halter top she was wearing, as she sat down with the pamphlet, though her eyes remained locked on the Professor. "Maybe in slow motion this time." She made no effort to hide the fact that she was undressing him with her eyes.

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

The pokeballs he had collected in his shirt fell right back to the ground. "I - I, uh," Oak stammered. He began to awkwardly scratch at his neck as Sera finished her statement. Slowly, he started to back up, only to trip over one of the pokeballs that had rolled away from the rest. The man just barely kept himself from falling arse-first to the hard lab floor. Quercus glanced worriedly to every corner, not another soul was in sight. His voice quivered as he spoke again,

"Sera I'm not entirely sure," he gulped and went to unbutton his shirt, an idea he quickly decided was not the best. His face was turning bright red and it quite obvious that man was feeling a little hot. He used the back of his hand to wipe the sweat that was accumulating on his hairline and breathed in deeply to attempt to finish his statement. "Sera I don't feel that this behavior is," he abruptly stopped as he noticed her stare. This was not good, not good at all. The color in his face was getting richer by the second. Oak was forced to take his coat off, once again, bad decision.

Without the coat, it was very obvious that Quercus didn't spend his spare time eating Corka on the couch. Oh no. He was wearing only a v-neck t-shirt that fit his body ever so perfectly Each individual muscle was outlined, his body was beautifully toned but still not grossly muscular. Everything from his pecs to his abs - bingo. Oak's eyes grew wide and he shook his head at his inability to make good choices on the spot.

"Okay, well um, I'm just going to go use the lavatory," he stated, trying desperately to avoid Sera's gaze. With his head down he scratched his forehead while he gestured with his right hand to the pamphlet. "Why don't you just keep looking at those while I go," he turned around and exhaled loudly, "put on a sweater or two." Oak began to quickly walk to the nearest door with his head down. As he approached it, he glanced at Sera with an awkward look and escaped through the threshold.

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Sera was admittedly a little surprised by his reaction.. but not terribly unpleasantly so. By the time he excused himself, she was fighting the urge very hard, and she only made it about five seconds after he left the room before she burst into a fit of laughter. Worth it.

Once she'd recovered a bit, she looked over the pamphlet. The three choices at the end were very interesting indeed, but none of them quite caught her eye enough to overcome the risk factor involved. She'd be meeting plenty of strange Pokemon on her quest, more than likely, so she would do best to wait for that fun and start out with things she knew more about.

Settling on her favorites, she waited for the professor to return. She debated just going through the PokeBalls herself, but one type of offense was probably enough for one day. Once he stepped back in the room, she asked, "Could I meet the Chikorita, Torchic, Turtwig, Oshawott, and Chespin to see whose personality I might like best, please?"

[background image by Maevrim]

[Olive]

Hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, with a new looser shirt and coat on, Oak reentered the room. He nodded in reply to Sera's question, still trying to awkwardly avoid eye contact. Oak anxiously stepped over to where the pokeballs lay and quickly released the five Pokemon from their balls.

Chikorita, Torchic, Turtwig, Oshawott, and Chespin
As they were released, each Pokemon stretched or yawned. They were not often afforded the opportunity to be out of their cages. "Chika!" the grass Pokemon shouted when it noticed the trainer, the others heard the call a peeked up at Serena, with the exception of the still asleep Turtwig and Chespin. Oshawott elbowed the two in their sides to wake them up, the shelled rodent's reflexes caused its arms to fly out to either side. This resulted in a slap in the Oshawott's face.

Chespin covered its mouth immedietly and began apologizing to the now hot Oshawott. Turtwig snorted and let out a soft, "Turt?" as it finally awoke, still oblivious to the situation escalating to its left. Oshawott was now waving its arms and screaming in the poor Chespin's face, the grass type rubbed its own paw and glanced around uncomfortably.

Torchic and Chikorita were completing ignoring the others. The two sat right up to Sera, analyzing her. The small bird tilted its head to the left, blinked, turned its head to the right, then chirped (though it sounded more or less like a hiccup). Chikorita on the other hand, was studying Sera intensely. Its leaf twitched in a different direction each time it thought it figured something out about the woman. 

Back to the bickerers, Oshawott was still going at it. Chespin's eyes had narrowed by this point out of boredom. It walked up to Sera and nodded. Turtwig was still laying down, but its head was now turned towards Oshawott, just curiously watching the as the otter continued its rant without realizing that its victim had walked off. The green turtle tilted its head and picked itself up. It strolled over to the otter and placed its nose on the Pokemon's shoulder, this oddly enough, seemed to cool the creature down. The Oshawott seemed to melt onto Turtwig's back, the grass turtle carried the exhausted Pokemon over to Sera. 

The entire group stared up at the awaiting trainer, including the Oshawott that was tilting its head over its stomach to see her. They all, almost synchronously, called out in question of the trainer. "Who do you want?"