"No one panic!" Lulu said, holding up her hands. "Everyone continue eating. I'll just...go out...and find her now." The Medicham slid out of her seat and left the room, her body sagging as she dragged her feet out.

"It's just one thing after another," Sidney said quietly. She was so distracted she didn't notice that Taro's head had disappeared under the white broth as he tried to eat all of Sidney's lunch. "I...don't know what to say."

"Ah, finally, I'm starving.", Mike said as the waiter arrived with the immense plate of hot wings, towering over 3 feet tall. And, in anime style, he and his Pokemon, excluding Lighthouse, who was busy enjoying his salad, started to eat the hot wing tower.

((Please don't godmode, Sneasel- controlling someone else's character is against the rules.))

"She's got a right to be a little suspicious" admitted Cassius, sitting back down again cautiously. "I'm really sorry for disturbing your journey with all of this- Pandora and the rest of them should know better than to provoke her." Mind you he added silently, I should know better than to get caught while translucent.

((Sorry, was in a rush and wasn't thinking straight. I'll fix it. I'm really sorry.))

((It's okay, Sneasel.))

"No, no. You're not disturbing our journey," she said quickly, appearing stunned. "This is the most fun I've had in a long time. And aside from Ginger, all our Pokemon seem to get along pretty well."

Abina licked the hot sause from her basket, then removed the paper and ate that too. Gone already? "Suzaku, ol' buddy. Think you could spare a--?"

"No! Don't you dare ask!" he growled, shielding his food from the Flygon's view. "If you're gonna be a pig and inhale your food then you need to learn to sit tight until everyone else is finished."

She didn't argue, but she couldn't help but admire the edible mountain across the table from her.

"Want some of mine?" asked Marionette sarcastically. Gengar poked her with one of his very large elbows, glaring.

"Don't cause trouble" he growled, taking another bite of his rather toxic looking burger. The banette tried to look innocent, despite the fact she'd just offered the flygon part of her very poisonous meal.

The Flygon indeed took Marionette up on her offer, coming around and stretching her neck over the ghost's shoulder, finishing off her meal in one bite.

"Abina!" Sidney gasped, shocked by her Pokemon's actions. It seem like all her Pokemon had turned into rebels overnight. The Flygon burped up a piece of poison lettuce, her wings drooping in guilt. "Come over here quickly. You're lucky I just bought some antidotes."

----------

"Ginger?" The Medicham stepped outside, looking around. "Gin, where are you?" No response. "Hmm." She made her way around the building towards the side, and sure enough there was the missing Absol, drowning in a pool of her own self-pity.

"Leave me alone..." she groaned, trying to hide her face from her friend.

"Ginger, what do you think you're doing?"

Marionette stared, horrified, at her empty plate. She looked over at Cassius, expecting some level of pity for her loss, but her trainer looked to be holding in a laugh. "It serves you right, you know" he told her, "and don't think you're getting any of mine." The other five ghosts seemed to echo that sentiment, leaving the banette to sulk.

"They brought out the food," the Medicham said, using her most cheerful tone of voice. "Hurry and come inside or your chowder will get cold."

"I'm not hungry..."

"Stop it now!" Lulu snapped, finally being short with the Absol. "You're acting like a big baby!"

"So I'm a big baby. So what." Ginger lied down on her stomach, staring straight ahead. "Just go away."

The Absol's friend let out an exasperated sigh, shrugging her arms.

----------

The Flygon was beginning to turn sickly shade of green, which was hard to tell since the Pokemon was already green. Sidney made her slowly turn around, spraying her all over. "There. Now go sit down and don't touch anyone else's food."

She turned Cassius. "I should buy your Banette another burger as an apology."

"Oh no, it's really okay" said Cassius, shaking his head even as Marionette nodded enthusiastically. The banette put on bambi eyes, looking pitifully up at her trainer.

"D-do you want me to s-starve to d-death?" she wimpered. "…again?"

"If you're that hungry, you can have some of the crackers in my bag, but you're not getting another burger out of this- you'd almost finished, anyways" replied Cassius, unamused.

Meanwhile, Maiden was looking worried. She didn't want to disturb her trainer, but Lulu had been gone for awhile, and she wondered if maybe they were in some sort of trouble. "I'll be back soon" she told Godfather, floating off towards the door the other two had used earlier.

Lulu eventually returned, pulling back up to her plate of sushi. "So where is she?" asked the curious Blaziken.

"She's outside...moping," she said, stuffing a roll into her mouth. "Can't get her to come inside. Not even to eat."

"Well, you missed Abina eating the Banette's burger. It was hilarious!"

Lulu didn't really care. She was worried about the Absol.

((Whoops. Didn't see your edit. But I'm leaving now, so I can't change my post until later. -wave-))

((No need to edit, Maiden can find Ginger after Lulu left. See ye soon ))

"It wasn't funny at all- it was the most DREADFUL tragedy in the HISTORY of the UNIVERSE" insisted Marie, digging into Cassius' bag in search of the crackers he'd mentioned. Cassius just shook his head.

"Lulu says that Ginger is outside moping" he translated for Sidney's sake. He was a little worried himself, but that metaphorical devil-horned haunter on his left shoulder said is served her right.

- - - - -

Maiden found Ginger pretty easily, but once she saw her she wasn't quite sure what to do. "I guess asking if you're okay would be kinda stupid" muttered the misdreavus, "would you like me to bring you some food? I dunno if I could bring your chowder, but if you'd like a bread roll, or maybe even one of the wings that electric guy brought…"

"Is that true?" Sidney absentmindedly chewed on the inside of her cheek, concerned about her best friend. "She's probably upset that Suzaku chewed her out. He's kind of the self-appointed leader of my Pokemon, and he has a habit for being, well...a little too honest and practical." She looked down at her soup for the first time in awhile, only to discover that Taro was sprawled out on his back inside an empty bowl, his belly very round and tight.

----------

"I'm not in the mood for food," Ginger replied blearily. "I just want privacy." The white Pokemon sat up once more, glancing over at Maiden. "And why are you, a ghost, so concerned about my well being?"

((How old would you say Cassius looks? Just wondering.))

((Mid twenties or so, possibly as young as twenty given that this is pretty early on in his career as a gymleader/trainer.))

"Gengar gen gengar, gar (Maiden went to look for her, too)" said Godfather, laughing a little at the very full cubone. Cassius nodded- she was the most sensitive of his pokemon, and probably the most likely to not piss Ginger off further.

- - - - -

"I was just worried" said Maiden, backing off a little. "Pandora and the others sometimes forget what it was like to be alive, and they end up hurting people more than they know."

((Ah, okay. 'Cause Sidney is nineteen and I was, like, "Wait. How old is she compared to him?" It just seemed odd to have, say, a fifteen-year-old gym leader hanging out with an older woman. oO;; ))

"Is that so?" Ginger asked, blinking at the Misdreavus. "Peh! Typical." She shook her head. "I feel like everyone's against me though. Not just your buddies." A sigh. "If only I could make it up to Sidney. Maybe everything would be alright."

"We're not against you" said Maiden, "no one is. Mari's just trying to be friendly, and everyone was worried when they realized you were gone. I think Sidney's more upset with that flygon for eating Mari's food right now, anyways."

((It's be weird to have a fifteen year old gymleader period- they're usually pretty old, except for the mildly creepy twins in ru/sa ))

The Absol actually laughed. "Yeah, Abina's a bit of a glutton. She's actually a sweet person when she's not thinking about food." She rose to her feet and walked over to Maiden. "Fine. I guess I could go back inside. Someone's gotta keep an eye on that trainer of yours."

"Maybe the stomach ache she's going to get from eating a plate of deadly nightshade will turn her off food for awhile" said Maiden, "it's a good thing she's so big or she could've gotten really sick from it." She decided that now was not the time to try and convince Ginger that Cassius' bark was much worse than his bite- the absol was not the kind of person you pushed until she snapped.

"Listen, I wanted to ask you something," Sidney said to Cassius. "You're a gym leader, so you must be a superior trainer. Have have this...well, this problem. And it's out of my control. Eh, what I'm trying to say is--"

"And the the Queen of Sheba returns!" Suzaku interrupted, as Ginger strutted into the room.

"Thank you, thank you." She bowed her head to all her 'subjects', probably confusing the other Pokemon with her and Suzaku's strange little inside joke. "It's good to be back."

"You look like you're feeling better." The Blaziken crossed his arms, grinning. "That Misdreavus' consoling must've really worked."

"Yep." She moved up beside the gym leader. "But I had to come back and make sure ghosty here didn't try anything while I was away," she said, brushing herself against Cassius' legs like a giant cat for no reason at all.

Cassius looked suspiciously down at Ginger, rubbing the hand she'd scratched that morning absently. "I don't know if I'd be much help with trainer problems" admitted Cassius, "these six do a good job at training themselves- I just supervise."

"These guys I can handle," the trainer informed him. "But I have this other Pokemon--a Tyranitar. Very powerful. An old man entrusted him to me. He told me he was the most powerful Tyranitar in the world, and that he wanted me to use that power to its full potential." She frowned slightly. "I didn't know that he was trying to get rid of a monster..."

When Ginger was done messing with Cassius, she walked under the table to get to her seat. "This chowder is like ice."

"Well, you were the one who decided to wander off and have a pity party," the Blaziken muttered.

"Play nice, you two." Lulu, of course.

"I might be able to help with that" admitted Cassius, "well, at least I could try taking to him, to see what the problem is. Has he interacted much with your other pokemon?"

Maiden floated back to her seat between Godfather and Pandora, nibbling quietly on the remains of her salad as she listened to the others talk. Well, at least they weren't at each others throats... yet. She sighed, and hoped Cassius had bought enough potions to last them the rest of the trip.

"Once," she confirmed. "And he tried to kill them."

"Iseveryonedonedonedone?" Gonzo asked, flapping his wings restlessly. "BecauseIwannagogogoandflyflyflyintheskyskysky."

The Blaziken yawned. "Why don't you do us all a favor and stay in your ball the rest of the day?"

"Ah." Said Cassius, a little worried by Sidney's account of the pokemon's ferocity. "Probably not a good idea to talk to him without a few precautions, then."

((Tiny post, must eat, 'shall return soon.

Edit: added a touch more between courses. Mmm, I can smell the lamb cooking on the barbeque outside. Back again in a bit!))

((There's a really bad thunderstorm here, so the power might go out.))

"I've keep him in storage for I don't know how long, too scared to let him out."

Ginger dipped her claw into her chowder, then tasted it. "Blech! This place sucks. I want a berry."

"Oh, Ginger," Lulu sighed. "Is that the only thing you'll ever eat?"