&& . living in BLACK and { w h i t e } `` [open]

[Hayden]

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[atrb=background, i56.tinypic.com/23krrc2.jpg] She tried to tell herself she wasn't surprised that they had just let her go like that. She also tried to tell herself she didn't care. But they were both lies, really. Inwardly, she still denied she'd told her mother and grandmother she was leaving just to grasp at some sort of hope that they'd finally put a foot down and stop her, show they cared. But they hadn't. Again, nothing more than a shrug from her mother. Her grandmother's brow had creased slightly, but she'd still nodded and said nothing. Then, as per usual, there were gifts to try and make it better. A pokemon, from each. A useless, moody eevee from her mother. She certainly wasn't surprised about that one. She hadn't expected what her grandmother had given her though; a riolu. In fact, she hadn't even known her grandma had had a riolu. Then again, no one in that house really knew much about each other any more. For all the fighting, her dad had kept them together. A scowl morphed her face as she scuffed the toe of her sneaker against the pavement once, twice, leaning back against the black lamp post, her dratini, Squire, draped around her neck as he often was. For all her anger and disappointment, recent and old, not a single tear rolled down her cheek. It just transformed itself into spiteful bitterness as her hands clenched into fists and her teeth clenched together. Whatever. She didn't need to worry about them anymore. They didn't care. Why should she? Anyway, she had some training to do. She knew she may as well grab the Goldenrod ribbon while she was here. She doubted it would be difficult, but still. Practice could never hurt. One foot raised, sole of her shoe flat against the lamp post before she pushed off, body tipping forward, but not enough to throw her shoulders forward into bad posture. She slipped off through the city, finding a quiet little corner like she always did. She shrugged a shoulder, gently nudging Squire awake and he slithered off her shoulders and dipped into the fountain nearby, splashing around, happy for a moment to be in water before getting a tad more serious and turning to face his trainer with large expectant eyes. Just the usual Squire. Nothing special today. He squeaked a response, dipping under the water, circling around quickly, though more so due to using extremespeed than his actually agility in water. He was mostly more comfortable on land, with Rika, which she considered strange, but ignored for the most part. As he circled, though, mist began to rise. With a strong flick of his tail, he was shooting up, breathing out a thin beam of ice as he rose, spinning to turn the drops of water that formed the mist into little crystals of ice before he sent out a quick shock of thunder wave, a little light show as he finally popped up over the mist for a moment, hanging there a second before gravity took hold and he flipped to fall head first, diving into the water as the warm city air melted the ice and the water rained down into the fountain. Rika smiled; they'd been practicing that one for months before he got it right, just two weeks ago. She was pretty sure it would pull off some high marks, if he kept his proficiency up and kept practicing. Not that he would without her asking him to, but, nonetheless, she had to do something besides stand there and look confident. Her mind flickered back to the present as her dragon squirmed his way up onto the edge of the fountain, looking up at her hopefully, big black eyes almost begging. She crouched down for a moment, gently scratching him behind his left fin before turned and flopping down, left knee up with her arm resting on it, the other arm resting back on the fountain edge after slipping a small treat from her pocket for her pokemon. He ate it up readily, as he always did, but was polite enough to not slid up and around her shoulders while he was still wet. He settled for resting his head on her arm with a soft, garbled, purring sound he had a habit of making when he was happy and his eyes closed again, still "purring" away as Rika sighed, glancing up at the sky for a moment. She was unable to smile at her freedom, she found. She should be happy. No more dresses and frills, no more stupid requests or shopping trips. But she wasn't happy. Because, although it was wonderful to be away from her mother and she was indifferent about her grandmother, the one person she always wanted to be there, to be proud of her and to tell her how great she was, well, he wasn't here. She didn't know where he was, or why he had left her. She knew why he'd left the family, sure, but her? What had she done to make him leave her behind? She shook it off. It was better to not think about it. She knew that. She'd just go prove herself at the contest halls, then the league. And if he showed up, he'd have to deal with a cold shoulder, just like everyone else did. Or, at least, that was the plan. Life would probably through a twist in there somewhere. It always did.

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[willow]

Willow wandered through GoldenRod City holding Eevee in her arms. She planned on taking part of the coordinator contest that was being held there. "This time Eevee we will win a ribbon for sure! Everyone has been training so hard, I know it'll pay off soon." Eevee looked up at her tilting it's head to one side making a small noise it often made whenever Willow spoke to her.

Willow looked down at Eevee and smiled softly."But, even if we loose again it'll be ok. It'll just mean that we weren't good enough yet." Just then Eevee jumped out of her arms and ran off so Willow followed after."Eevee come back here! Where are you going?!"

Eevee continued to run until coming to a fountain where a girl was at with her own pokemon. Willow tied catching Eevee but she dodged her. Eevee went over to the fountain ledge and jumping up looking over at the Dratini. "Eevee what are you doing?" She sighed picking Eevee up keeping a frim hold on her pokemon then turned to the girl.

"Sorry if she caused any damage or trouble." Willow studied the girl, she appeared to be a tomboy with reddish-brown. Though there are streaks of a lighter shade which is a tad more orange. From what Willow could tell the girl was either a trainer, or, a coordinator.

[Hayden]

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[atrb=background, i56.tinypic.com/23krrc2.jpg] The light blue head of the dratini rose up as the eevee popped up in front of it, startled for a moment, wondering when Rika had let Silence out of her pokeball, then realizing it wasn't Silence at all. His purring had cut off as his head tilted to the side, fins propping out, perpendicular to his head. Draaa! The soft voice filtered out of his mouth as he slithered forward, glancing up at his trainer for a moment, then back to the eevee, slightly confused as to where the pokemon had come from. Rika, in turn, was also watching the eevee for a moment, though she was much more easily distracted by the sound of shoes on the pavement and her eyes averted to spot another girl and her gaze hardened. Squire watched the eevee intently for a moment more before wrapping himself around Rika's arm, then sliding his way up a bit so his head peeked up just behind her shoulder, fins flattening against the side of his head again. Perhaps you should keep a closer eye on your pokemon. Rika shot at the girl. It wasn't that she didn't like her, she seemed like a perfectly sweet girl. But she wasn't getting any special treatment just for an apology. Apologies rarely meant anything, they were more of a social premise. They provided the fantasy that, as long as the other could recognize the mistake that was made, then everything was alright and nothing was wrong. That was nothing short of a lie, a world-wide deception. Nothing was ever alright, nothing was ever okay. And it was these people who seemed sweet and oblivious that often didn't see it, so Rika made sure that even they couldn't deny it. She pushed herself up off the ground, brushing the small bits of gravel that stuck to her jeans off quickly before her thumbs were shoved into her jean pockets. She wasn't quite glaring at the girl, but she certainly wasn't friendly and smiling. That was one thing, you could never quite tell if she was actually hostile or just anti-social until you actually made her angry enough to become hostile. Or, rather, more hostile than she always was, because there was always that touch of rebellious, rude, blunt troublemaker in what she did.

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[willow]

Willow blinked slightly caught off by the attitude the girl and given off. It wasn't exactly rude but it wasn't nice either. She shrugged pulling out a pokeball"Eevee return." Eevee went inside the pokeball. "I usually do. This has been the first time in a month that Eevee has done that. Apparently there was something that interested her over here."

Willow sighed stuffing her hand into her pockets"Well since I'm talking anyway might as well introduce myself. I am Willow Matthews, coordinator and breeder" She had no intention of be-friending the girl or anything of the sort. Of course she also had no intentions of becoming enemies either.

[Hayden]

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[atrb=background, i56.tinypic.com/23krrc2.jpg] One eyebrow rose slightly and her arms crossed, avoiding squishing her pokemon as her elbow bent through careful practice. She'd been with the dratini long enough to know exactly how to do everything to avoid hurting the smaller creature. When she spoke, her voice was dry and completely uninterested. Do I look like I care? Her lips down-turned into a slightly annoyed frown as she humphed softly, shaking her head slightly, ignoring the soft, short bursts of purrs from Squire as he nibbled on a loose strand of hair, trying to get her attention, though not for any particular reason. She was about ready to just ditch the scene, despite loving this part of town, if only to avoid this conversation. If you must know, though, I'm Rika. Squire stopped chewing her hair at that point, laying his head on her shoulder, only annoyed for a moment that he was unable to draw Rika's gaze his way, but it didn't last long. It rarely did, he wasn't quite as moody as his trainer.

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[willow]

Willow watched Dratini try to gain her attention and smiled slightly. The only real care she showed was towards pokemon. She then tuned her gaze to Rika."Well I would say it was a pleasure but it's not and now I think I will go train my pokemon now. I'm not very social towards humans. Towards pokemon, well, that's a different story. Anyway I need to get ready for the competition. This time I plan to win"

Willow studied Rika and nodded slightly speaking more to herself then to Rika."In 5 years you'd be the first I've spoken to without it being neccisary." she sighed shrugging."Perhaps my pokemon are trying to make me have human friends." She turned heading towards the direction she had originally planned to go.

From what she had heard there was a really nice park that was big enough to train pokemon. Whether you were a trainer or a coordinator. She paused and turned to Rika."I doubt we shall see each other again and if we do it will either be on stage or by pure luck. And while I don't normally do this I wish you luck in whatever path you have chosen for your pokemon"

[Hayden]

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[atrb=background, i56.tinypic.com/23krrc2.jpg] A confident smirk spread across Rika's features as the girl mentioned winning the competition. Hah! Yeah, right. It would never happen, not with herself in town still. Nonetheless, Rika didn't say a word about it, instead turning on her heel to walk away, the dratini around her arm peering back with an almost sad cry, though it was actually more of a goodbye as he slithered up and around his trainer's shoulders once more, head stretching upward a bit, fins splaying out then flattening against his body repeatedly. It's you who's gonna need the luck, sweetheart. Squire cleans up on stage. She informed the girl, step not faltering, voice nothing but certain she was correct. She wasn't about to stick her two new pokemon in the contest game yet, not when she had just gotten them and hadn't had a chance to try things out with them yet. She doubted Silence would be a decent contest pokemon, anyway. She was moody, far too much so. She'd sooner sulk in a corner than cooperate and practice. Rylee would probably be quite the show-hog, but... she wasn't too sure yet. He might over do things. Squire, she knew, was of a perfect mentality. He wasn't shy, but he wasn't overconfident. He knew the value of practice, but knew when to stop so as to not stress himself. He didn't complain, either. Go figure. The perfect pokemon, from the only person she'd every really loved in her life.

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[willow]

Willow watched her and snorted silently talking to herself. Of course if Rika heard her she didn't really care."An over confident coordinator. Last time I competed I got second place so it's only a matter of time. Besides the only reason I'm doing this coordinating stuff is to finally earn the approval of my parents. I want to prove that girls are just as good as boys"

Since it appeared Rika was leaving Willow drew all three of her pokeballs tossing them into the air. Even if she stayed it didn't matter to Willow. She could care less what Rika did."Ok guys lets get started!" Shinx, Vulpix and Eevee all appeared from out of their pokeballs recognizing the words she had spoken.

They were the words she used for training as well as for the contests, which meant it was time to be serious. Willow studied her three pokemon and nodded mentally. "Ok first we'll do one on one. Lets see...Vulpix you're first." Vulpix stepped closer to Willow while the others stepped back.

"Ok first use Ember." Vulpix did as she was told and used Ember while looking up at the sky. Small bolts of fire shot into the air. "Good now use Fire Spin around Ember." Vulpix did as told creating a spiral of fire around the previous move.

Willow watched smiling slightly. For something like that it had it's own kind of beauty."Ok last one use Quick Attack to hit the flames." She watched as Vulpix used Quick attack against Fire Spin and Ember creating a glow like affect on her fur. However as she landed Vulpix lost her balance and fell.

Worried Willow went over and knelt down."Are you ok? That was a good job you did. Once we stick that landing it'll be perfect." Vulpix gave her owner a reassuring lick to show she was ok.

[Hayden]

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[atrb=background, i56.tinypic.com/23krrc2.jpg] Rika snorted; whatever. She didn't care why the girl did it, and she didn't care what she thought of her. Second place wasn't first; and Rika had always gotten first, except that one time. And it had told her she needed to up the ante some, and Squire had leaped at the chance to prove himself. Now, that probably sounded harsh, like she forced him to train harder and more often. But she didn't. She'd just adjusted his training schedule until she found one that worked better, wouldn't over-exhaust him, and made sure to feed him enough to keep up with the rigorous training. He was rewarded after every practice, too, even the bad ones, for at least trying. You wouldn't expect that of her, not with how she acted to other people, but she did care about her pokemon. After all, they wouldn't leave her. Not like her dad had. So, naturally, she just kept walking, tapping one of the three pokeballs on her waist, releasing Rylee, her riolu. She wasn't about to let Sy out. She was in one of her moods where everything bothered her, and she'd probably just sulk under a bush and refuse to move. Rika didn't feel like dealing with her today. There was really no surprise that the eevee would be difficult, though; her mother had trained it at first, after all. And Rika's mother was ridiculous, not just in Rika's opinion, but in most everyone's opinion. Squire purred a soft greeting to the riolu, who responded, though they didn't converse more than that. Squire wasn't much of a talker, he preferred little noises that didn't essentially mean anything until put in context, and even then, he was only vocal in regards to his trainer, so far, anyway. Rika hopped up on the back of a bench once she deemed she was far enough away from the girl for it to be "tolerable". She lied to herself and decided she was only sticking somewhat close to keep an eye on the competition. Not true at all, but she'd never admit that, if she even realized it consciously at all. Rylee hopped up in front of her, on the part of the bench she was supposed to sit on, distracting Rika for a moment as she tried to think of some sort of trick she could work with for the pokemon. She had to admit, battling would be much easier, but she was never one to opt for "easy". Probably the whole reason she was coordinating, because it was more of a challenge. She'd only even done battling with her father, so she was trying to branch out, in an effort to prove she was better than him, but she was beginning to feel the lure back to the gym, the battle scene. Teeth gently nibbling on her finger distracted her and she nearly jumped, but instead flicked the pokemon on the nose to remind him to be gentle. He may be tiny, but it still hurt, after all.

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[willow]

(sorry 'bout the late reply was busy with college tests. Also would it be alright if I changed Shinx to Luxio)
Willow stood up."Ok Vulpix try one more time." Vulpix looked at her then nodded doing the trick once more and this time she landed it. Willow smiled handing her a treat."That was perfect, you did a really good job."

Vulpix ate the treat happily. "Ok Shinx you're up next." He walked up to her while Vulpix went over to where Eevee was sitting. Willow smiled petting his head softly."Ok Shinx let do a good job ok?" He looked at her and nodded. She pulled out three small objects and tossed them into the air.

"Ok Shinx use Spark!" He used the attack against the three objects. Each one lighted up a different color. "Good job keep it up Shinx. Think you could use your tail to juggle the objects while they're like that?" He blinked trying out the trick she had suggested. It worked for a little while but soon he lost control of one of the objects causing the rest to fall to the ground.

Shinx looked at the objects slightly annoyed swatting them away. Willow chuckled softly"Shinx that was a bit over board don't you think? It's not you're fault you tried your best and it was a new trick" She went over picking them up then putting them back into her bag.