Set in the original region of Arciel, Legends Rising is a route-inspired, but not strictly route-based, Pokemon roleplay. Pick a faction, pick a class, and strike out into the wild to take on the League, master Contest coordination, research the mysteries of Pokemon and Arciel, and much, much more. Will you be a classic trainer? A criminal? A farmer? Choose your destiny on Legends Rising.
Three optional icebreaker questions are offered: 1. If you could be granted three wishes, what would they be? 2. What is the cheesiest pickup line you have heard? 3. If your friends compared you to a Pokemon, which Pokemon would it be?
Feel free to discuss any of these or use your own icebreaker!
Marley tapped his fingers on the table, leaning against his other hand. How had his mother convinced him to come to something like this? "You need to find yerself a good girl," she said, "You're a strappin' young man. You shouldn't be alone." she said. Marley honestly was expecting her to ask for grandchildren next, but she at least knew that Marley was NINETEEN!
Still, he may as well endure this. He sat at the table, waiting to see who the first person he was to be paired up with was.
Riley had gone all out for the event, as she often did when it came to opportunities to collect new semi-partners. She strode into the hotel wearing a bright emerald green dress, strapless and shoulders bare, high in front to show off her long legs and long in back to trail beautifully. Her hair was done in more of an updo than usual, mostly in a fancy bun, but a bit was left loose on one side in front to help frame her face, still. Vivid eye makeup and bright red lipstick made her face really pop.
She looked around for any familiar faces, and spotted her current favorite blond across the room looking for his seat. "Oh, Touma!!" she called across the room. "Good luck, gorgeous!" She blew him a kiss and winked before turning to look for her own table. Ooh, 19 out of 19 huh? Did that mean she'd gotten lucky to get in, or was scraping the bottom of the barrel, or was it meaningless coincidence? Well, she'd find out, ha.
She found her date sitting there already, a tall young man with nice hair, albeit a bit of a rough look about him. Interesting. "Afternoon~! I'm Riley, but you knew that." If he read the card anyway. "And you're.. Marley? Nice name~" Glancing over the icebreakers, she couldn't help but grin at the middle one. "Okay I gotta know. What IS the cheesiest pickup line you've ever heard? ...Or better! Can you remember the cheesiest you've ever used?"
Marley looked over as his date approached him. And, well, to be honest, she was quite a looker. Marley would be lying if he didn't say this was a pleasant surprise. And she seemed nice enough, introducing herself as Riley. "Thanks," Marley replied, giving a friendly smile, his Galarian accent all the more obvious, "Yer got a nice name yerself."
Well, the introductions were out of the way, and Marley hadn't made a complete fool of himself yet. That was a plus. Then Riley popped one of the Icebreaker questions they had been given. And it happened to be the one Marley had zero experience in. Marley gave a short laugh. "That implies someone's hit on me, or that I'm dumb enough to try." He looked Riley right in the eyes. "I can do a lot of things, but I know I ain't exactly dating material. I mean, look at me." There wasn't any sense of self pity or anything in Marley's words. Just simply stating a fact he had accepted a long time ago. "Now you on the other hand, I know you've had your share of cheesy pick up lines."
"Why thank you~" Riley was quite proud of her name, after all, seeing as she'd picked it herself. Much better than the one her parents had chosen, even if, technically speaking, that had also been a unisex name and there was no desperate need to change it, hehe.
She pouted a bit at his answer, though. How boring! "Well that's no fun," she huffed. "Besides, I wouldn't say that. You're kinda cute in your own way. Maybe a bit on the scrawny side, but you got that scruffy look." She stuck out her tongue, flashing her tongue ring in the process. "You're right that I've heard plenty, though." She giggled softly. "Let's see..." What were the best and cheesiest ones?
"I'm pretty into yoga," she started. "Wanna see how flexible I can be~?" She grinned. "Do you have a shovel? Because I'm digging dat ass~ Or how about... Are you Flappy Delibird? Because I could tap you all night~" Were all of these going to be terrible dirty puns? Yes, yes they were. "Are you into whales? Because we can go hump back at my place~ Or.. Let's play carpenter. First we get hammered, and then I'll nail you~" Arceus there were so many good ones. "Is your name Winter? Because I heard you'll be coming soon~" They just kept getting worse, including one about a chicken farmer and one about a weatherman. All the while, Riley sat with her face propped on one hand, as casual as if they were discussing the weather.
As Marley predicted, Riley had heard plenty. And she meant it too, starting to go down all the ones she had heard. Seriously, so many dirty puns. Marley couldn't help but laugh at them all. People actually sat around coming up with these? It was all Marley could do to keep himself from roaring with laughter. "Oh man, I don't know if I should be relieved or disappointed that I couldn't come up with some of these." How many of these lines ended with rolling eyes, and how many ended with a slap to the face?
When she asked if any of them were working, a coy smile spread across Marley's face. "Well, let's see. How many of them worked on you?" he joked, giving a small chuckle before sitting back. "But yeah, didn't 'ave much time fer datin'. Too busy workin' the mines, lookin' after me mum, all that jazz." A thought then occurred to him. Didn't she refer to him as 'scrawny' earlier? "And if ya think I'm scrawny, well, have a feel of this." He offered his arm to her. Marley might not be bulky, but he had a good deal of muscle. "I personally prefer the term muscularly compact."
Riley grinned wide as Marley seemed to find the lines amusing. Honestly, with him saying he wasn't used to hearing any, she'd lowkey hoped that he'd get embarrassed at hearing such direct things, but the appreciation was a pleasant enough surprise as well.
Had any of them worked on her? She smirked. "Do I look like the sort of girl to kiss and tell?" she teased. She absolutely was but. She chuckled. "If I were, though, I might tell you I'm terribly weak to bad puns."
Working the mines and looking after his mum, huh. Seemed like he was a hard worker who appreciated his family. A sweet guy. "Aww." She had trouble imagining him mining, though-- and practically on cue, he dared her to change her mind, offering an arm. She gladly took the opportunity to squeeze it, brows raising. "Surprising!" she exclaimed. "I'm a little jealous, honestly. Practically all my strength is in my legs from dancing."
Hmm, so... "Do you still work in the mines, or what do you do now?"
Marley couldn't help but give a small chuckle at her reaction to his arm. Lean as it was, she would find the muscles rock hard. What Marley lacked in bulk, he made up for in strength. Well, that's what you get when you mine at an early age. The Galar mines were always willing to provide work to anyone willing to it, and he became a regular at the place before they came down to Arciel. Thank goodness for Pine Town. "Oh? A dancer are you?" he said with a smile, "Hope I can get a performance sometime." She certainly looked like the type, and with her confidence, he was pretty sure she was good at it too.
"Well, I still work in the mines down in Pine Town now and again. Take up construction jobs here and there when I need some money. But most of the time, I'm dedicatin' meself to bein' a pokemon trainer. Missed the chance to take the Gym Challenge back in Galar, and I ain't missin' the opportunity now." He pulled out one of his pokeballs, twirling it around on a finger. "So far, been doin' pretty well on the catchin' and trainin'. Now I just need to topple a couple of gyms."
He looked Riley right in the eyes. "So, what about you? What do you do for a livin'?"
"Ooh~" A hardcore trainer, huh? Neat! And he said Galar? So THAT was the accent, all right. He didn't sound like the typical Galar accent she thought of, exactly, so it must have been a certain dialect. Kind of like how Riley sounded base Unovan, but folks from Castelia sometimes had a sharper accent.
"Well it's not really a living," she admitted. "But I've been living off my savings and money from odd jobs like some amateur modeling to devote most of my time to training, too. Not for Gyms, in my case, but for coordinating!" She beamed. "Contests are fun, but I'm really looking forward to trying showcases. Being able to perform alongside my partners sounds like the biggest blast~"
She didn't wanna talk all about herself, though, and turned it back around with, "What are some of your strongest or otherwise favorite Pokemon you've trained?"
Marley had a suspicion that Riley was a coordinator. Her skill at dancing, it made her a natural at it. Coordinating wasn't something Marley knew much about, they weren't exactly big in Galar, but it wqas still a fascinating sort of thing. An alternative to training and going through the gyms. After all, some people were fighters, others were artists. And she seemed to be in the same boat as him about work, doing jobs wherever she could.
And then the topic shifted, going from training to the pokemon themselves. His favourite pokemon? Oh man, talk about a hard on to pick. Marley thought for a moment. "Well, me Steelix, Ironton, has always been a big help when it comes to the mines. And it always helps to have a massive pokemon like him around. But in all honestly, pickin' a favourite's just hard to do. I consider all my pokemon awesome. Good, hard workers, each skilled at what they do. Granted, my Rolau Ally will always have a special place in me heart, and that's more because she was my first." That was as honest an answer as anyone was going to get. "So, what about you? Got any favourites?"
Riley laughed softly when Marley said picking a favorite was too hard. "I know what you mean. I love them all~" She did have a tiny problem with favoritism in at least one case, though. "But to answer your question, my partner in crime is an Eevee named Hunter. She's my first, and she's awesome! She knows a bunch of pretty uncommon moves, and is a better dancer than I am. Basically she's the best." She giggled; she could practically feel Hunter puffing with pride inside her PokeBall.
Hmmm, what now...? "So tell me," she started, changing the subject a bit. "What brings you to an event like this if you think you aren't dating material?"
An Evevee eh? Marley had seen plenty of those back in Galar, and yet he never really owned one himself. Curious pokemon they were, able to evolve into different forms. Ok, some pokemon had that too, but not to the extent that eevee could.
And with that topic done, the conversation changed to why Marley was even here. The lanky Galarian gave a small, rueful chuckle. "Me Mum," he replied, "Thought that I should put myself out there. Try to find meself a girl. I've only started pokemon trainin' recently, and she's taken that as a cue that I need to start datin'. Figured I'd humour her. Who knows, I might be pleasantly surprised." He looked over at Riley. "What about you? You honestly seem like the sort that would have no trouble at all findin' someone."
Riley snort-laughed softly at Marley's answer. Between that and the earlier mention of her, he seemed like he might be a real mama's boy, but that could be kind of cute and endearing in its own way. She did wonder if 'find himself a girl' meant he was straight or just that his mom was being heteronormative, but she didn't wanna ask.
She stuck out her tongue as the question was turned back on her. "Maybe I don't exactly wanna 'find someone' in that way," she teased. "If you can keep a secret," because it was obviously such a secret, that basically everyone who knew her was well aware of, ha, "I'm more the friends with benefits type than the dating type. So it's nice to meet new people and potentially expand my options, you know?" she explained. "Plus it's just fun to come out to something like this and flirt with whatever cuties come along. And it is almost Valentine's Day, so potentially finding someone to make plans for the day with is appealing." Her eyes scanned the room then and landed on a cute blond currently chatting up a young brunette. "Granted I might not mind making some with someone I already know..." She looked back to Marley and smiled. "But I like to keep all my doors open, mostly." If she didn't get lucky enough to be matched with Touma, she'd probably approach him after the event was over to see if he had plans. But that didn't mean she couldn't try to get a few phone numbers first, right~?
"Oh actually." She pulled out her phone to check the time. "It looks like we'd better wrap this up sooner than later yeah? Any chance of getting your phone number before we head out?" She turned her phone around and offered it to him to put his number in if he so chose.