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.
Hiroto Kaimana & Liv Sheridan are seated at the table.
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!
[attr="class","momoPBody"] Hiro strode confidently into the building, checking the registry up front for which table he'd be seated at first. Fourteen, huh? Sounded lucky~! He grinned and made his way over, plopping down in the seat and waiting for his first date.
The Bass City Gym Leader wore an open flannel shirt, chest bare underneath, with some casual dark blue jeans. He'd forgone his glasses today in favor of his favorite purple contacts, and he wore goggles as an accessory. His hair was pulled up in its signature spiky ponytail.
Soon enough, along came a cute blonde. She seemed pretty average in terms of height and build, but had a nice face and really cute hair. Hiro flashed her a grin. "Hey there. Are you into fishing? Because I'd love to hook up." He gave her finger guns.
Figuring that she didn't need to do anything particularly special for something like speed dating, Liv didn't make the biggest effort on dressing up for it, so catching sight of Hiro's attire was nothing short of a relief when she looked from a distance, trying to size him up like they were going to fight. Approaching kind of carefully, and maybe even a little suspiciously thanks to prior experiences with some people, Liv finally made herself known and gave him a little wave. She wore up her hair as usual—two large pig tails on both sides of her head—but she also kept her pair of sunglasses on. Indoors. She also wore a rather unremarkable black shirt with dark green jeans.
Quickly sitting herself down, she popped her sunglasses down her nose, making a sly grin before replying to literal first words. Normally, she'd probably think it horrible or disgusting. Something she might have been a little used to, if not sick of. But she was kind of nervous because... he definitely wasn't a bad looker at all. Which meant... "You can teach me how to fish?" Maybe that sly grin was more like one of excitement.
[attr="class","momoPBody"] Hiro didn't mind the casual attire at all. It was nice to find people who didn't try too hard to impress. It let their natural qualities shine through more, after all~ The sunglasses were a bit interesting, but he was wearing goggles, even if on his forehead, so there was that. Besides, his mom was an opthalmologist. He was as want to assume she had prescription sunglasses for light sensitivity as anything, really.
He sniffed a laugh at her question. "I mean, I am the Water Gym Leader, not to mention have a doctorate in Ocean Ecology. It'd be pretty embarrassing if I couldn't fish," he pointed out. "But it's not exactly like we're on a boat right now, eh?" He laughed. "If you wanna give me your number I can be sure to schedule you a private lesson some time, though." He winked at her.
"Though you know, they say there's plenty of fish in the sea, but I SEA you with me~" He let that linger for just a moment before laughing. "But really, I'll stop." He probably wouldn't stop. "I just have a quota of water puns per hour I have to meet. It's a medical condition."
It was at this point that Liv took the sunglasses off and placed them gingerly on the table. They had to be cared for, after all. The only pair that she brought with her from Kanto. But the motion was also a show of her being interested in the conversation enough to double down on it, or at least feel less nervous. Especially now that she was beginning to catch on.
"Okay, okay, that makes a lot of sense," she started, nodding along with him even as he winked at her. She let a pause hang in the air while idly tapping her cheek, elbows on the table as she propped her chin up in her hands. "Y'know, I'm tempted to go along with this private lesson of yours if I wasn't getting some wild feeling about a second meaning behind those words of yours." Because fishing was still the thing on the forefront of her admittedly one track brain.
Until he had her outright laughing. It's loud and a little ugly, but his words caught her off-guard now that she'd settled down into the conversation. "See! That's what I mean! Puns aside, those are the corniest pick-up lines I've ever heard!" At least she was having fun. "I don't think this is anything like what I imagined when I spied on you from the other side of the room before coming over."
Wait.
"Saw you. I didn't spy." She totally sized him up earlier. She needed to change the subject though. "Oh look, an icebreaker," she quickly moved onto, reading the supplied card on the table as a statement instead of a question. "If you had three wishes, what would they be."
[attr="class","momoPBody"] Hiro chuckled at the girl. "Oh, no double meaning. Though if you happened to want some other sort of meeting, I can be very accommodating~" He flashed her a smug grin.
He was honestly quite proud to be told he was corny, and didn't at all pick up on the 'spying' bit like that until she called attention to it, but when she did he snickered. "Don't worry, cutie, you're not the first to be nervous about approaching this magnificence~" he teased, striking a bit of a pose in his seat before laughing. Settling back into a more comfortable position, he went on, "But all right, all right. Hmmm..." He considered the question.
"I wish all the pollution in the ocean would magically disappear and the seas would be pure and clean and healthy forever," he decided first. "I wish all my daughter's dreams would come true and that she'd always be happy and healthy too." And, hmmm.... "Uhh... I dunno, I guess I'll cop out and say world peace for my last one." He laughed softly. "What about you?"
Liv only replied with an awfully nervous sounding chuckle to his advances, joking or not. It was less an embarrassment from his words, so much as absolute embarrassment for the kind of self-destructive trash tornado that she had become by admitting to her spying. And the resulting panic setting in thanks to it.
She would have been lost in her thoughts of what-ifs and would-haves of her actions up until now, in front of a good-looking guy who was at least a different enough change of pace from what she was used to back in Celadon, if she hadn't suddenly felt a pang of shock shoot up her spine. As soon as the words 'this magnificence' left his lips, Liv involuntarily wore a face of pure disgust, leaning back slightly as she felt a... familiar vibe virtually smack her in the face. Joking or not, that was exactly the sort of thing someone she knew would say, and boy did she hate that someone. So all she could reply with was a forced, "Haha... Yeah, I bet."
But that was at least short-lived, because his answers to the icebreaker were legitimately interesting. Sure, Liv's face was an open book, wildly different emotions flying by page-by-page as if someone were speed reading her. Like a speed date. But at least she's settled on inquisitive. "I have to dock you a point for the cop out, but those two wishes are so sweet. I almost wouldn't have expected it," she admitted, letting a pause hang. "Well, maybe I could expect the one about the ocean." That was said with a smile, as if she'd settled back into sarcasm and jokes and maybe enjoying the date.
"Oh, wait, me? Uhh... I didn't think about this at all when I asked. First one would be... having absolute freedom to go where ever I wanted to. Nothing keeping me from traveling or just packing up and heading out," she slowly answered, wistful look on her face. "Second is an unlimited supply of designer sunglasses. Third would have to be nature preservation, so not too different from your ocean wish." With another smile, she slammed the table with her right hand. "How's that for three kickbutt wishes?"
[attr="class","momoPBody"] If Hiro noticed her brief disgust, he didn't show it. He was probably too wrapped up in himself to have noticed though.
He chuckled a bit when he was 'docked points'. "Fair enough," he agreed.
Her answers were really nice, but he had to hold in a laugh at the word 'kickbutt'. Oh Arceus, was she a teen trying not to get in trouble in high school? No, even most teens would just say kickass. It was cute, though. "Between you and me, we could really clean up the planet, huh?"
He leaned in, folding his arms on the table and smiling at her. "The first wish is really interesting, though. What's stopping you from traveling all over now? Social obligations, or funds, or?" Before she could answer fully, he added, "I've visited quite a few different regions for school and work in the past, but haven't done a whole lot of just plain exploring. But I've heard from friends it can be surprisingly easy as long as you don't mind camping and relying on Pokemon Center hospitality."
She couldn't help it if she wanted to keep such horrid, awful swears away from the ears of her Pokémon. What if her Chespin had heard her say kickass and then somehow, in some incomprehensible way, emulated it? It would be funny, but probably also sort of weird, and Liv's been around too much weirdness in her life. Her cup is too full of it. Also it was just a preference in mixed company, but at least that was the order of how her brain sorted it.
"We sure could. If we had the wishes, anyway. It'd be really hard to go around cleaning everything up by hand, because what if some jerk is sneaking around behind us and tossing more junk around?" Unless... "But maybe we'd be luring the jerks out of hiding..." She trails off in her own strange train of thought for a moment, perking up as Hiro asked her a question that was much closer to close and personal than talking about cleaning up the world.
Letting out a short, low hum, Liv quieted down for a moment. It was hard to put in words proper, or at least as much as she felt comfortable sharing. "If it wasn't my parents, there was always other people preventing me from going places or where I wanted to go. I mean, that's not really the case now, otherwise I wouldn't be here," she finally started, pausing before laughing. "Not here at this table specifically, but I'm from Kanto, so I mean here in the general kinda sense."
Excitedly, she raps her knuckles on the table instead of slamming it as if trying to kill a spooky bug like before. "So... social obligations, at least before! I'm still getting used to being able to do whatever I wanna, but the tiny bit I've tasted? The wish is to make sure I'm not all tied up by it again. But I'm definitely taking that advice! I'll make sure all the Pokémon Centers know me on a first-name basis from here on out, and be sure to tell them that it's your fault," she says with a a joking wink. She's probably not a nuisance.
[attr="class","momoPBody"] Hiro chuckled softly when she suggested they could lure polluters out of hiding by cleaning up. He was reminded of that old show from when he was really little about the blue superhero who fought pollution. Yeah, that was the stuff!
He listened as she went on, pleased to find she had recently started traveling freely like she wanted. "Well that's great!" he said. "You do that. I'm sure the nurses already hate me for having more fabulous pink hair than they do." He stuck out his tongue briefly before laughing. "Here's hoping you're able to do whatever you want with minimal troubles~"
Curious, he asked, "But hey, what part of Kanto are you from? I actually grew up in Fuchsia myself! Though I've also got family out in Celadon." Looking around, he added, "Or did more than do now, one of 'em's actually here, I think. Uh... There!" He pointed northeast, just past the ice sculpture in the middle of the room. "The kid with the green hair is my baby cousin from Celadon." And it was great to see him out meeting people. Poor kid had had a rough time lately from what Hiro had heard.
Liv decided on starting long (one whole second!) and hard at Hiro's hair at his statement, pondering on whether she preferred his pink hair to the hair of the nurses he was talking about. And in that one second, he earned an honest nod from her. "You're not kidding about your hair. It's definitely got a style to it that I don't think anyone could replicate," she said with a soft smile, before... "Ever thought about trying pigtails?" There it was. Her bias for hairstyles.
Her eyes definitely grew wide, but not with horror or disgust this time. It was a small pang of excitement, smile turning into something of a grin. "I'm from Celadon too! Hey, maybe I know your cousin," she exclaimed, pointing to Hiro with finger guns as if that honestly meant anything. It didn't, but it looked cool. Probably. She followed his gesture, eyes scanning the room before landing upon the person in question. With a bit of a sigh, she shook her head without looking away. "Aw, no, I don't think I've seen him before—"
She suddenly cut herself off when she saw who he was seated across.
And just as suddenly, looked back to Hiro with some unseen mixture of horror, disgust, surprise, and maybe indigestion. "Yeah, definitely haven't met your cousin before." She doesn't want to think about or focus on the person sitting across from and possibly taking selfies with Hiro's cousin when she can focus on something else. Like Hiro. "I haven't really traveled out of Celadon much, even when I was younger, so I haven't spent much time in Fuchsia. It's nice, right? Right?"
[attr="class","momoPBody"] Pfffft. "Pigtails huh?" He flashed a cheesy grin. "I'll have to try it some time." He probably wouldn't, not on his own. But if they wound up hanging out again some time, he might to get a giggle out of her. She seemed like fun, and he didn't mind embarrassing himself for humor's sake.
"Oh yeah, neat!" She seemed a bit older than Keo, so it was no surprise when she came back and said she didn't actually know him. Though... more surprising when she reiterated the fact? Hiro didn't think twice about her potentially knowing the other guy at the same table, so his only thought was, Is Keo a heartbreaker? He didn't seem the type, but Hiro would have to ask some time now.
Before he could think to pry with her, though, she changed the subject, and he decided to go along with it, especially given it was such a nice subject. "Oh yeah, for sure! I practically lived on the beach growing up, for as much as I went down there. The water is gorgeous and Fuchsia's like, big enough there's plenty to do but small enough you don't really get the tourist season or too much beach pollution. It was really great!" He had a lot of pride in it as his home town. "Bass is nice, too, though. More urban and touristy than I'd ideally like, but even more ocean front property. My family's got a nice little beach house on the southwest side of town, and it's pretty great." He neglected to mention that 'my family' meant 'I still live with my moms', but still.
"And you? From what you said you're not staying anywhere longterm right now, right? Just traveling?" he asked. "What kind of place might you like to settle down eventually when you're done?"
Bless Hiro's generous soul for going along with Liv's change of subject, she couldn't feel or look more thankful than she currently did—and certainly couldn't help wearing her heart on her sleeve. She visibly relaxed and leaned on the table, barely resisting the urge to let out a sigh of relief. As long as she avoided looking back in that direction, she could maybe forget what she saw. Not that seeing Hiro's cousin was bad. She could remember that part at least. "I think pigtails might be a good new look for you," she added, not really deciding to push that any more.
But she could picture it in her mind's eye.
"I could see how a place being too touristy could be kind of annoying," she said, tilting her head to the side as she tried to imagine something smaller and less busy than what she was used to. "Celadon's probably way more crowded most of the time if you put it up to those standards. There's just too much to do, too much to see." Then again, it was the only place Liv found sunglasses that fit the frame of her face perfectly. Look at them. They're on the table, but she's looking at them anyway. "Beach houses sound like a pretty good plus though, if you ask me. Maybe it's a little materialistic or something, but you said it yourself, it's pretty great. Not that I've really been to one!"
But she can IMAGINE.
Just like she was trying to imagine an answer to his last question, not that her brain was doing much good in putting forth an answer. Because it wasn't. "Yeah, traveling is the agenda for now and probably for awhile, but when I'm ready to give it up and take a break, I'd probably wanna... hm... I didn't really think that far ahead, now that I think about it," she murmured to herself, pensive expression falling upon her countenance. "Maybe somewhere with a lot of trees and a cool breeze? Oh, but snow is pretty tranquil too. Maybe a mountainous area...?" She was basically going down a list. "I'll stick with a foresty area. For now."
[attr="class","momoPBody"] Hiro nodded. "Yeah, Celadon's definitely bustling." Which was a good and bad thing, really, but Hiro could appreciate the good parts, and wouldn't judge anyone for liking that kind of environment.
"Nah, it ain't materialistic to wanna live on the beach. I mean, it could be, if you want it just as a status symbol. But loving the water and nature is like the opposite of materialistic if you ask me~" he insisted. At the mention that she'd never been to a beach house, he almost offered to take her to his, but thought that might be coming on a little strong. (Besides, he might still meet someone else today he'd rather take home, ha.)
He listened and nodded as she explained her dream residence. "Nice. I hear the forests out on Plum Island are really pretty, though if you like mountains too, you could live somewhere like the outskirts of Ash, right in the mountains and next door to the Weeping Forest." Not his cup of tea, but he could picture her enjoying it.
"But man look at the time. These things sure go fast, huh?" They still had a moment, but best to start wrapping up before the buzzer actually went off, right? "How about I give you my number, and you can give me a call or text whenever you wanna set up a date for those fishing lessons, yeah~?" He pulled out his phone in case she gave her number as well, and waited for her to be ready before rattling his off.
Thinking on it for a moment, Liv began to see what Hiro was saying about beach houses. As the gears visibly turned in her head, she tried to put herself in his shoes. She wouldn't have said the same thing about a nice cabin out in the woods, and that was where she felt most comfortable like he did with the beach, or so she assumed. "I think I see what you mean. I guess I was thinking about big city people trying to chase after a beach house or something, but when you put it like that... it's not too different from what I want!"
Speaking of... "Plum Island. Got it. I hope you know that I'm immediately going there as soon as I can because of you," she started, nodding along. Hiro's already given her ideas about staying at Pokémon Centers, now the lay of the land. Her interests have been piqued for awhile, so she was more than eager for more. "Aaaand... Ash City after that? I was going more along the lines of going where ever my feet took me, but now I've got a solid goal, at least for now. Thanks."
She would absolutely enjoy both.
"Wait, it's already close to over?" She forgot about the speed part of the event. "Aw... okay, yeah! That sounds good, 'cause there's no way I'm letting that stone go unturned. Gotta learn to fish someday, probably." Pulling out her phone, she began to quickly navigate through her menus to get things set-up and started, ideally giving out her own number before he could give his. First to strike, as it were. Which probably meant she would interrupt him, but she couldn't help trying to be as forthcoming as she could.